Back in the green.

Yesterday I had a good prime time monster session of 3300 hands. I won $3000 but still went home disappointed. I was about to claim a 600NL record of almost 6k when I dropped 3k in just the last hour and a half due to a few suckouts and general unspecified bad running. I can't seem to shake those annoying 5 buy-in downswings this month, they seem to hit me randomly and frequently.

But nothing can ruin the happy feeling of being in the green for the month again (about $2700), and more importantly, that I felt things were really coming together for me yesterday. Now, you will frequently hear poker players say they have days of playing well, and days of playing bad, usually hinting that their results depend on their 'daily form'. For the most part, I don't buy that. I frequently have that feeling as well, but in my opinion it is mostly a function of the cards more or less subtly falling right for you. Yesterday however, was an exception for me. I felt like I was having sharper reads on opponents than usual for some reason, perhaps because it was prime time, and the level of play was generally lower than usual.

However, I was also having a lot of success in big pots against the regulars. During a long session, it is very usual to have a running battle of blind steals and 3-bets preflop against the other regulars running on many tables. Maybe it really was an instance of the cards falling right, but especially one guy, a solidly winning regular, I was really hauling his ass around the tables, forcing him into positions in which he was obviously uncomfortable. One consequence of an increased 3-betting range is that you get to play a lot of pots 3-bet preflop and then c-bet and called on the flop. That usually yields a pot of about 60BBs, and playing those well can be really tough with holdings that are often not super hands. In those hands I got far the best of it yesterday.

Also, I was more or less consciously implementing some stuff I learned from watching Stoxtrader play, and it seemed to be working. There are two things I have taken away from those videos that I am trying to use more than I already did. Those are taking initiative preflop, and controlling my bet sizes better postflop.

Taking initiative preflop:
I am trying to 3-bet a little more frequently in position with hands I might otherwise just call with. If you 3-bet a lot, you don't need to make your 3-bets as big, because you need not worry so much about giving the other guy odds to call. The logic is that since you are 3-betting a lot, you will not be holding monster hands as often, and thus he can't count on stacking you if he does hit his monster hand (a set being the classic example). And even if you have only bet 2.5 times his initial raise, he will still be very tentative about playing a huge pot out of position against what could be a great hand. I am still experimenting with this, so we will see how it turns out.

Controlling bet sizes postflop:
I am trying to be more aware of not overbetting flops. There really is no reason to bet 3/4 of the pot, when a half pot bet will accomplish the same thing. Of course, when there are draws on the board you need to price those out, but I think I have grown enough as a player at this point, to get away from more hands when draws are completed than earlier in my NL cash career. This allows me to bet smaller and still make a profit from draws, while losing less against hands that already have me beat.

These techniques are not new to me, nor should they be to any experienced player, but improving your game is all about focusing on and improving in different areas that you previously haven't given enough thought. Being able to locate the areas in your game that most needs improving is the vital part of becoming a good player.

Finally, here is an example of what I was talking about the other day: Laying down overpairs. What made this laydown tough is that I was up against a relatively unknown, but non-solid player, playing too many hands. I think it is a good fold regardless, but I do still find it painful to lay down those.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($403)
MP ($570)
Hero ($600)
Button ($706)
SB ($636)
BB ($1122.93)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Qh, Qc.
2 folds, Hero raises to $24, Button calls $24, 1 fold, BB calls $18.

Flop: ($75) 4d, 2c, 4c (3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $50, Button calls $50, BB folds.

Turn: ($175) Jc (2 players)
Hero bets $120, Button calls $120.

River: ($415) 8h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button calls $512 (All-In), Hero folds.
Final Pot: $927
Outcome: Button wins $927.

This is also poker.

Wow, I am really running bad. Today, before dinner during a two hour session, I had the following interesting experiences, all in pots 3-bet preflop or raised and called on flop (in case you don't know, this means big pots, $200+ even before the turn)). I had a set of queens on a KQx board, I slowplayed turn out of position, and lost to an ace high straight as turn came Jack, Ten. I had AQ on an Axx flop, and lost to KQ when turn and river came running kings. I had aces cracked by AQ on a Queen high flop, when the second queen hit the turn. I had a nut flush redraw, and wouldn't it have been sweet to hit that and tell him to put his trip queens somewhere dark and moist. Obviously, that remained a fantasy. Also during the session I had two versions of TPTK or overpair destroyed by sets. I enjoyed only a single suckout as I made a straight on the turn, only to get a resuck when he made his boat on the river. The whole thing set me back about $3000.

Now when we add this all up and throw in an extended period of running bad, we have material for a bit of an emotional challenge. This I intend to meet, reconsider my game slightly, and regain the momentum. When all is said and done, I am only slightly down for the month, adding in rakeback and bonuses probably about break even, so the end is not coming anytime soon. However my active bank roll has taken quite a hit since last cash out, so I can probably only lose so many extra buy-ins before moving down. No worries about that though.

On a strategic note, as I mentioned in my last posts, I have been watching some videos by Stoxtrader, and there are some major differences between his style, and that which is mostly advocated on twoplustwo and elsewhere and also played by myself. Stox is a much more passive player. Not exactly passive in the sense that many bad players are passive, but in the sense that he needs just a little bit more edge than is standard to commit himself. This strikes a chord with me as lately I am getting a whole lot of wonderful experience having good or great hands against even better ones.

The classic example of that would be an overpair of QQ-AA against a post-flop aggressor with standard 100BB stacks. What kind of information do you need to lay that down? I think a case can probably be made for never laying it down against a single opponent, unless you know him as a solid unaggressive player, and there are no draws on the board. If he plays back at you aggressively even then, chances are pretty good he has a set. If the board is very coordinated, I am able to lay overpairs of KK-AA down very rarely (read: never) against a single opponent, I usually get it in on the flop to charge the max from any good draws playing back at me.

Stoxtrader, on the other hand, I have seen him lay down KK overpair twice in just a few hours of video, once on the flop(!) on a QT9 board with a flush draw, and once on the river of a QQ958 board (boards loosely remembered, probably somewhat wrong). This has really surprised me, but it is certainly worth taking note of, considering he is one of the top online players. I am obviously not going to start laying down overpairs in droves, but maaaybe, I could avoid getting stacked with them just a little bit more often than I am doing at the moment. However, one thing you have to keep in mind if you want to adapt his style, is that he usually also bets less money preflop and when c-betting, leaving him with more space to get away from hands, but also giving his opponents better odds to hit their hands. I like to charge big early, so even though I do get stacked more often than a passive player, I also make more money when they don't hit their hands. You have to make sure there is a good consistency in your strategy.

Now, let me see what I can do about that downswing.

Still kicking.

I am working hard on the thesis these days, so not too much happening on the poker front. I have played a few brief sessions, and I am up about $1000 for those, so I am not quite dead yet.

Also I have been checking out some poker videos on the Internet, and also some recording software. While I haven't really used this option in the past, I think watching someone else play is a valuable alternative to reading books or participating in forums. Especially if you feel like you are reading the same stuff over and over again, another take on the game can't hurt. Stay tuned, as I may share a video of me playing some time in the near future. Given thesis work, maybe not so near.

In the mean time check out stoxpoker, there is a free video of Stoxtrader playing NL cash games (free registration required). A full membership will set you back $50 plus $20 a month, you probably don't want to go there unless you are already making some money off poker, or really want to make an investment in your poker career. Most players I talk to (all 200NL players or higher) agree that it has been a good investment for them. So far, I am not sure watching them has improved my game much, but I will agree that Stoxtrader is extremely good at explaining his thought process as he plays, so that will probably help a lot of players.

What a crappy month.

After my 'worst session ever' record was broken Thursday as briefly mentioned, I played a decent session yesterday but won just $500 after being up $2500 an hour before quitting. In today's session I was up $2000 half an hour ago when the doom switch went on and I lost a horrendous series of hands and ended up -$1800. When I lose 2 stacks quickly, I feel a bit down, something like 'wow, that was really unlucky'. Then bam bam, two more stacks go sailing just like that, and I think something along the lines of 'I can't believe it happened AGAIN'. THEN I lose two MORE stacks on top of the others and I simply don't have words to describe the pain of it. I just sit there stunned that all those hours of concentration went out the window so fast, and I hate everything for about a minute. Sometimes poker really really sucks, that's all.

Now I am precisely break even for the month and fuming. Time for a break.

Here is my plan of action for next time I want to think about poker:

First, I am going to go through tonight's session, critically analyzing that last fateful half hour. Then I will take the opportunity to look through 5 of the players I have the most hands on, and study how their game differs from mine. It is something I have been wanting to do, but kept putting off for too long, and now it is time. I don't expect to find any grave revelations, but I have enough doubts about my game right now, that a couple of analysis sessions is needed to confirm I am still on top of it.

Have better luck than me.

Wait there's more.

In yesterdays rant (or rather this mornings rant, since the blog is on American time and I am not) I forgot a few vital points that you simply cannot live without. During the first 12 minutes of play I lost $2000, which is a world record. Day before yesterday, I also played some poker, and pulled out with $1500. At one point during that session, Loke went ape shit on me I went from +$2000 to -$1500 in one hour. Thats six buy ins, equivalent to a normal monthly pay check, in one hour, also a world record.

Finally I would just like to direct your attention to this ground breaking piece of poker theory: The aejones theorem. Apparently it is revolutionizing the poker world as we speak, illustrated by the following item:

My 'donkey of the month' competition has been keeping a low profile, but sees a return to grace with this sweet value call:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (4 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($567.10)
Button ($789)
Hero ($672.65)
BB ($679.30)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ad, As.
UTG calls $6, 1 fold, Hero raises to $35, 1 fold, UTG calls $29.

Flop: ($76) 7h, Qh, Th (2 players)
Hero bets $65, UTG raises to $130, Hero calls $572.65 (All-In), UTG calls $402.10 (All-In).

Turn: ($1245.75) 5c (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($1245.75) Kh (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $1245.75

Hero has Ad As (one pair, aces).
UTG has 8s 7s (one pair, sevens).

Outcome: Hero wins $1245.75.

That's it for now, see you around.


Late edit: So I just lost $4000 tonight. Worst session ever. Puke.

Poker marathon.

This is going to be a long rant about some poker I played. Should be pretty boring.

Anyway, I just finished an almost 8 hour poker session, the last 5 hours uninterrupted. I made a modest $760 from 3600 hands. This is my longest session ever. At one table I played 530 hands in a row. Wow me.

I had to earn those monies too. I think party owes me $4000 on river suckouts for tonight. Here is the best one:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

UTG ($604)
MP ($114)
CO ($2064.75)
Button ($1204)
Hero ($560)
BB ($1394.80)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Kh, Kc.
3 folds, Button raises to $21, Hero raises to $75, 1 fold, Button calls $54.

Flop: ($156) 4s, Qd, 9h (2 players)
Hero bets $110, Button calls $110.

Turn: ($376) 5d (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $414, Hero calls $375 (All-In).

River: ($1165) Tc (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1165

Hero has Kh Kc (one pair, kings).
Button has 8h Jh (straight, queen high).
Outcome: Button wins $1165.

Wow, I was totally outplaying him, and he hit one of his 4 ridiculous outs. He was so ashamed of himself he immediately left the table. He was probably moving up.

Getting constantly sucked out on when I was about to finish with a decent result, I could never seem to get above zero. Since the tables were good and the significant other out nursing, I played some more FTW. Just when I was about to finally call it a night I had another one:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

MP ($989.15)
Button ($595)
SB ($1548.25)
Hero ($812)
UTG ($893)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9h, Ac.
3 folds, SB raises to $30, Hero calls $24.

Flop: ($60) As, 9c, 2s (2 players)
SB bets $30, Hero raises to $100, SB calls $70.

Turn: ($260) 8d (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $180, SB calls $1418.25 (All-In), Hero calls $502 (All-In).

River: ($2360.25) 4s (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $2360.25

SB has Js 6s (flush, ace high).
Hero has 9h Ac (two pair, aces and nines).
Outcome: SB wins $2360.25.

Wow. Just wow. J6s. Jack six. Jack. Six. Sooted. By a raving idiot from my own country who said oops whenever someone called a bet then tried to guess their hand, and said 'ty' when he won a pot. That guy should just go somewhere and die quietly.

Anyway, I had AA 24 times tonight, and I won every single time. At a little over $100 pr clip I might add. That's what you get for playing every other hand like a lunatic: They pay you off when you get AA.

One thing I need to get better at is check/raising the river. One might ask, is there anything sweeter than a well timed river check/raise? The answer is clearly 'no' or 'no, there is not'. If you disagree you are wrong, as this hand clearly illustrates:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

Hero ($572)
CO ($534)
Button ($781.95)
SB ($608.10)
BB ($843.58)
UTG ($225.20)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Kh, Ah.
1 fold, Hero raises to $24, 1 fold, Button calls $24, 2 folds.

Flop: ($57) 4c, Td, 5s (2 players)
Hero bets $45, Button calls $45.

Turn: ($147) Qd (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

River: ($147) Jd (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $85, Hero raises to $250, Button calls $627.95 (All-In), Hero calls 253 (All-In).

Final Pot: $1362.95

Hero has Kh Ah (straight, ace high).
Button has Ts Js (two pair, jacks and tens).

Outcome: Hero wins $1153.

As a matter of fact, this hand shows how not only is it very hard to fold when you are check/raised on the river, but that the river check/raise is so sweet that some villains will choose to just donate all their monies out of pure awe. They simply realize that when I am able to pull such a totally sweet move, I should simply have all their money right away. When such an epiphany occurs at the table, who am I to disagree?

Now, sleep.

Guns.

Surprisingly, I played some poker yesterday. I trebled my monthly result by winning $2200 over a thousand hands. This also brought me above 10k hands for the month. A pathetic output, but I am not worried about it at all, since I am focusing on thesis work this month. I also have other excuses such as socializing and some software problems. Any money I win is fine, but it is not my main priority this month.

I am sitting here with the spring sun shining brightly over the relatively peaceful city of Copenhagen, reading about the shooting of 32 college students in Virginia, USA. That is exactly 32 more fatalities than when the whole frickin' city of Copenhagen was ravaged by riots for three days in March.

Then I stumbled across some forum discussion on the subject, and I was shocked to find that this was not widely considered another blow to the liberal gun laws of the US. Some people are saying that if only MORE people had guns, they would have been able to kill the gun man early, probably reducing the number of dead. The mind numbing stupidity of this statement leaves me speechless. Almost. I hope I don't have to explain to the intelligent readers of this blog the logic failings of advocating free carrying of guns around school areas.

It occurred to me that the standard argument for gun carrying revolves around the logic that if 'they' (the bad guys) carry guns, 'we' (the good guys) should have the right to defend ourselves, also by carrying and using guns. It is a central part of American culture to defend yourself individually against adverse circumstances. Whether it be wild indians, an untamed country or a hostile social system, the idea is that each man fends for himself, and if he is skilled, smart and strong enough he will become president probably. At least this is my understanding. As it happens, it is a trade mark of pro gun advocates to discuss their own competence at gun handling.

What should be obvious is that everyone has the potential of being a 'bad guy' at some point under certain circumstances. If you don't want a society where everyone has to defend themselves from the destructive potential of everyone else, you must limit the destructive power of individuals. Guns kill people. The more guns you take off the street, the less people will be killed. It really shouldn't be very hard to understand.

Consider the dark side. Compulsive Gambling.

This post is about some issues that have been on my mind for quite a while. I am sure most of you have heard stories of sick, desperate people stuck in a never ending spiral of gambling, losing, lying and gambling more to cover the losses and return to daylight. The consequences for these people and their families can be devastating, basically and sometimes literally life destroying.

While anyone involved with gambling of any kind should carefully scrutinize their souls for signs of compulsive gambling, or problem gambling, as is a more correct term for the psychological disorder, this post is not really about that aspect of it. Rather, I am considering the problem from a viewpoint of someone who has no problems controlling his urge to gamble, but instead chooses to take advantage of those who do.

...

That was a harsh thing to write about yourself, but let's not sugar coat things here. I have played a lot of poker during the last couple of years, and it is an undeniable fact that during this time I have happily taken money off people with severe gambling problems, even though I am not aware of it when it happens. This is not something I am proud of, and it weighs down on this activity/hobby/job that I am pursuing, that ultimately, it is only about taking advantage of other peoples weaknesses and shortcomings. For those few who pursue poker purely for the intellectual challenge, good for you, your hands are clean. The rest of us who are also in it for the money to some degree, not so much.

The last thing I want is to be responsible for other peoples misery. Luckily, my opinion is that as a professional poker player I am not directly responsible for this particular type of misery. If I chose to stop playing poker, and somehow could convince every other professional player to also stop taking advantage of these people, what would be left would be casual gamblers, problem gamblers, and the casinos, who would still do very well. All surveys indicate that problem gamblers seek out whichever game is available, so putting an end to poker completely, would not even help the issue. But still, given that I choose to take bets from people who are unable to control their addiction, I must accept some responsibility, even if I am not directly to blame.

Since I am not willing to take full responsibility, where then, shall we look to find the villains here? The closest thing to bad guys we can find here, are probably the casinos and those who advertise for casinos. In my opinion, any operating casino is directly responsible for problem gamblers using their facilities. By heavily marketing their gambling offers, they help induce impossible dreams in the heads of problem gamblers. By being present everywhere in the media, along with the rich successful people we all want to become, the weakest minds are tempted beyond self control. I accept some responsibility here as well. By blogging and discussing poker, including bragging about my positive results, I am part of the massive gambling promotion taking place. However, I am currently debating myself whether or not to accept casino adds on this blog. I think I won't, but it's a pretty easy decision right now, since the amount of traffic here would not generate any significant revenue. The only affiliate business I currently want to involve myself with directly, is with friends I have reason to believe are either winning players, or completely in control of their gambling urges.

However, this is not meant to be a rant on the inherent evil of casinos. It seems society condones gambling in general, and that a majority prefer to have gambling opportunities available. Even the government sanctioned gambling company in Denmark Danske Spil is advertising its games on national TV. When the Danish government is directly responsible for prime time gambling commercials, how can I object to honest businessmen running profitable casinos to the best of their ability? Quite frankly, I am not sure that I can. It appears everyone wants to gamble, so what is the problem?

Maybe there is no problem. Only somewhere, deep down I have this nagging feeling that my hands are just a little bit dirty. Hopefully, after a few more 5 figure months, the feeling will go away.

Please drop me a comment and give me your thoughts on the moral aspects of playing poker for a living.

Downswing over for now.

I made $1600 on 1600 hands yesterday, so I guess I plugged the hole for the time being. I am working very well on my thesis these days, and I don't really have much time for blogging. For your entertainment, I will share with you this absolutely horrible hand:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

CO ($755)
Hero ($686)
SB ($1069.15)
BB ($861.55)
UTG ($843.85)
MP ($933.65)

Preflop: Hero is Button with As, Kh.
2 folds, CO raises to $22, Hero raises to $75, 1 fold, BB calls $69, CO calls $53.

Flop: ($228) Ah, 5c, 6s (3 players)
BB checks, CO bets $122, Hero calls $122, BB calls $122.

Turn: ($594) Kd (3 players)
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $250, BB folds, CO calls $250.

River: ($1094) 9h (2 players)
CO calls $308 (All-In), Hero calls $239 (All-In).

CO has 7c 8h (straight, nine high).
Hero has As Kh (two pair, aces and kings).
Outcome: CO wins $1641.

It was just so unlikely for anyone to be on a draw, so that's why I didn't charge him properly. I was just trying to get a crying call from AQ or something. Probably a piss poor play by me, regardless. Anyway, the river screwed me to the tune of $1300.

Also, a simple but brilliant Dilbert.

Officially downswinging.

Had another ugly day yesterday, so I am now down 11 buy-ins at 600NL. I am not in a state of panic just yet, as I am only down $500 for April. I just need to keep cool, play good and stop hitting sets when someone else hits a bigger set. I have a meeting with a wise actuary concerning my thesis on Monday, so this week I will have to do a bit of work on that, probably preventing me from getting in a lot of hands. I am glad I had such an amazing month in March, so there is now absolutely no pressure on me to make a lot of money this month.

In other news, today is the day FC Copenhagen clinches the Danish soccer championship in all but name as they will destroy FC Midtjylland who is currently in second place. After today, we will be ahead 9 points and the rest will be clear sailing. This will be the last exciting SAS-liga match of the season. You heard it here first.

I am currently brewing a post with some content in it, so you will just have to look forward to that, while I spew these brief boring results posts.

A dose of reality.

Reality showed up today with a bang, -$3400 for 2600 hands. Fairly unpleasant. Lost three hands with sets among other horrible setups.

So, this means my unprecedented winning streak ends at 19. Pretty unreal streak IMO, but even though you KNOW you are on a super heater, there is a small voice in the back of your head saying "what if I really am just that good". Will be nice to get rid of that, and get my sanity back. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true when you are getting your butt kicked around. Even though you feel unlucky, the nagging doubt that you may be doing it all wrong can be hard to ignore.

Anyway, I wonder if anyone will continue to read my blog and love me after the streak is dead. Only time will tell.

Result update, and some thoughts on AA.

April continues doing good by me. I played a few hours yesterday, and I was close to breaking my single session record, but finished up dropping $1700 in the final half hour. Still ended up with a +$3500 session for 1300 hands which is still up in the top 5, pretty sweet. Most of the session everyone was going all-in whenever I held monster hands.

Here are my AA hands for the session:


Sometimes, poker is fun.

In order to get some perspective on how to play AA, here is a hand also involving the rockets:

***** Hand History for Game 5841503804 *****
$ 600 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, April 04, 20:56:32 ET 2007
Table Jackpot #1304637 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: hianoo ( $ 285.80 USD )
Seat 3: howmuchdidulose ( $ 474 USD )
Seat 4: KajserSoze ( $ 1,923.70 USD )
Seat 5: Baldnbroke ( $ 809.50 USD )
Seat 6: WS1260 ( $ 1,443.92 USD )
Baldnbroke posts small blind [$ 3 USD].
WS1260 posts big blind [$ 6 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Baldnbroke [ 9h Jh ]
hianoo folds.
howmuchdidulose folds.
KajserSoze raises [$ 21 USD]
Baldnbroke raises [$ 75 USD]
WS1260 calls [$ 72 USD]
KajserSoze folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 5d, 8h ] (pot: $171)
Baldnbroke bets [$ 125 USD]
WS1260 calls [$ 125 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ] (pot: $421)
Baldnbroke checks.
WS1260 checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ] (pot: $421)
Baldnbroke is all-In.
WS1260 calls [$ 606.50 USD]
Baldnbroke shows [ 9h, Jh ]three of a kind, Nines.
WS1260 shows [ Ac, Ad ]two pairs, Aces and Nines.
Baldnbroke wins $ 1,637.50 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Nines.

Clearly, our villain is concerned with not overplaying his monster hand here, he wants to extract as much value from it as possible. He is not equally concerned that his great hand loses a bit of value each time another card falls on the board. He is forgetting that while his hand is good looking, it is not immortal, and he ends up paying a steep price for his mistake. For the record, while I would not recommend it, his preflop and flop calls are still debatable. His turn check behind is abolutely atrocious.

A really important thing to remember with AA as well as any poker hand, is to get some money in the middle when you are ahead. With AA, this happens to be preflop certainly, and on the flop very often. But by each street it becomes a little more likely that you are outdrawn. Therefore, any attempts to disguise your hand by playing it slow comes with a risk that you often don't want to take with a hand that is, after all, just one pair.

The best way to disguise a monster hand like AA, is with all your other hands. When you play aggressively, often make plays for the pot pre- and postflop, even bad players will take notice of your aggression. When you do hit your monster you will get paid off much more frequently, even when you play it like a monster: Fast and strong. Always try to take control of the pot, get to decide when the money goes in, and force your opponent to make mistakes by folding a better hand or calling with a worse one.

One last thing. The exercise we have just gone through is one I really recommend. Look at a hand played by a weaker player, and consider which mistakes are made in the hand. Try to understand why the mistakes were made, and why they are mistakes. While it is often more challenging to discuss optimal plays made by great players in tough games, we must remember that what we are doing is optimizing ways to win money from bad players. Not only do we need to avoid making the same mistakes they do, we also need to understand how to exploit their weaknesses. It is not a noble business, granted, but it is what brings home the money.

Winning and knowing yourself.

I surprised myself in one of my sessions last week by being really pissed off at a few early losses. I think I lost in the neighbourhood of $800 during the first 10 minutes when i had to fold in a 3-bet and c-betted pot, and also lost a big KK hand or something similar. This should be no big deal, I hadn't made any mistakes, and the fluctuation of money was completely within reason. But I realized that my recent series of never losing had induced in me an expectation of winning. Subconsciously I was simply considering winning to be my right, and when it didn't happen right away, I got angry. Unchecked emotions like that is not what you want to bring to the poker table. Luckily I was able to realize what was happening psychologically, put a lid on it and continue to play well. Also, I am huge luckbox, stacking someone with a set of aces will definitely help you in these situations.

I think two lessons are readily available from this experience. One is about winning. I've realized a fact about winning: You get used to it. When that happens, you have to watch yourself, because you are in danger of something fairly terrible: You assume you have the right to win. That way lies damnation, I am fairly certain. Once you assume you have the right to win, you open yourself up to all kinds of negative thoughts. For instance you might start blaming external circumstances you can't control when things don't go as expected, causing you to lose focus on the things that you actually do have control over. In poker as in general, staying humble can only help you put things in perspective.

The other lesson is about knowing yourself. It is a big help if you are able to realize what motivates you, what makes you tick, and especially what affects you negatively. I am a big believer in making logical decisions, and anything that will diminish your powers of logical deduction is to be handled with care. If I had not given my mental state any thought at all in this session, there is a good chance it could have developed into bad play, more frustration, and finally a bad case of tilt. For future reference, if I experience severe emotions one way or the other while playing, I will just briefly ask myself if there is a reason not immediately obvious for these emotions. I advice that you do the same.

Aaron at plusevpoker.com wrote a nice article on the subject on self control: Check it out.

Dammit!

I forgot to do an Aprils fool on the blog, WTF?!?!?!? Now my hordes of readers will vanish like Redskins cap space, what can be more disappointing than faithfully following a news medium and NOT be subjected to the annual Aprils fool as expected? Well, now I will have to rebuild from scratch, go on writing for another year and come up with a really sweet one next year.

Last night was a crappy poker night most of the time, I hovered around break even for a long time, Party disconnected me 3 times while the rest of the Internet worked just fine, and my wireless keyboard also failed on me a couple of times. I gotta get rid of the useless piece of crap, but you know it just looks so nice, all black no cords sticking out or anything. So what if you have to desperately use the mouse to punch in a minbet with the nuts right before time expires once in a while, it's only money!

Given hardware issues, only one sensible thing to do: Quit session. But I realized something horrible has happened. I have become a slave of my winning streak! I simply can't bring myself to quit when I am behind just a few hundred, at least not when it is still early, and donks crowd the tables.

Anyway, I managed to play four tables with an unstable keyboard (I use only keyboard to play, no carpal tunnel inducing mouse for me) and the threat of a party blackout hanging over my head with disconnection protection spent for the day, I just needed $37, six measly big blinds, to bring the session home. Then I look down at KK, brew a big pot preflop, I am already planning the daily blog brag, when a crappy ace hits the flop. I c-bet of course, he calls, and I have visions of myself playing through the night denied sleep and the sweet sight of green numbers. But Loke came through yet again, and served me a K on the river after the turn was checked through. I dutifully obeyed his call and stacked the poor bastard with AQ.

+$600 for 1100 hands, April off to a good start, and streak extended to 17!

Motivation for blogging

I have briefly discussed my motivation for writing this blog before, but I think now is a good time to get into it a little bit more. I predict this post will be a bit more rambling than usual, since I don't really have a clear idea of where it's going to begin with. You have been warned.

I think the first reason to blog that crosses my mind, is to bring attention to something that I am good at. Whatever you may be good at, it usually brings you some recognition and attention from peers and friends. Of course, being a professional athlete is a bit more heavy in the attention department than being a skilled database programmer, but most skills will bring you confirmation from other people, that what you are doing has some value. Online poker is an exception. It is possible to live an entire life as a professional poker player without anyone ever knowing anything about it (unless you count the Partypoker software as a sentient being). In other words, if you want some feedback and discussion of what you are doing, you have to tell someone. Poker discussion forums will help you here, great for discussions of specific subjects. For gaining admiration and recognition of genius from the masses, not so much.

Now, with the low hit counts and general shortage of comments on my ramblings, it would appear that what I am doing is not really helping me much towards my primary motivation. But, I am not so horny for attention that I lose sight of the fact that admiration and recognition of genius by the masses will probably not secure ultimate happiness for me. Like K says in Men in Black: "Individuals can be smart, but people are dumb, panicky animals". MIB is a great movie for acquiring some real wisdom I think. While continued shortage of attention to the blog may speed up the demise of this blog, the positive feedback I have received so far, rare in quantity but rich in quality, is enough to keep me motivated to write, and also, there are other reasons to go on which I will get back to.

Also I am sure I will simply get better at it by each post. Apparently you need to play a few hundred thousand hands of poker before you get the gist of it, and I am sure something similar applies to writing articles of quality. English is only my second language after all, and while I have read a LOT of crap literature in English, I am sure I can improve my writing a lot. This could help me in other areas than blogging as well. In fact, I am sure I have gotten better at writing during these first couple of months alone, if nothing else my spelling has improved.

The last reason I can come up with off the top of my head, is that writing allows you to read your own opinions! Sounds pretty stupid I know, but as this post is good example of, I frequently only have a vague idea which direction I want a post to go. As I plug along, and my thoughts are tied to paper they are turned and twisted, what comes out is often news to me. It can be pretty interesting, and I am sure this process teaches me something about myself, or at least warns me of stupidity, arrogance or ignorance lurking in my head.

Finishing up here: I know I rarely encourage discussion and comments directly, but have no doubt: I will be very happy to hear your thoughts on anything you read here, criticism and encouragement is equally appreciated.