Being officially out of the downswing, I decided to take a few shots at the 1000NL cash game Friday and Saturday night. It would have been a better decision with a month worth of solid income just hanging around to lose, but I did some data mining and found some good tables, so I thought it was time to gamble a bit.
Overall it was a good experience. I played only 4-6 tables of 1000NL, whereas I am used to 7-8 600NL tables, so I felt I was better able to focus on the game. I also played a bit less aggresively than I am used to, since I didn't really want to get involved in the 3- and 4-betting arms race for that much money. I can't wait to have enough money to really let them have it at 1000NL though.
The net result of both days was a $3500 loss, but I am not down about it much since I am now quite convinced I can beat this game, at least in prime time. My plan is to grind it up at 600NL, and continue taking shots at 1000NL when games are good. When my bankroll has enough padding to absorb the swings of the bigger game, I will consider myself a 1000NL player.
For now, it seems I have some grinding to do.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
A week gone by...
...and no blog updates. I am embarrassed by leaving you all out to dry, but I have had a rough week in my poker life. The rest of my life has been good as usual, so no need to worry.
Anyway, since last post, I had several losing days in a row, culminating Monday with a minus 10 buy-in session bringing me in the red for September. Having a losing month is not something I am used to, so it wore on me a little, and I couldn't really motivate myself to write about it. Yesterday morning I was at the buttom of a 20 buy-in downswing, so thats $12k down the drain.
The last couple of days have been good though, so I am now more than half way up again and feeling better about the whole thing. Like I've mentioned before, how you handle the tough days is really what defines your ability to become a professional poker player. I try to not let it affect my mood. That is not really possible, but at least I try to put it all in perspective and remind myself how little it means, in the long run financially, as well as in terms of what really matters in life. That said, I don't feel like discussing it much when I am in the middle of a bad period. I usually prefer to work on it myself in my own head, and that can be a bit dangerous for my social life. At least it is something I need to be aware of, so people around me don't get the idea I'm pissed off or not caring about them.
Anyway, enough about that. Poker has no memory. All you have to think about is how to play the hand you've been dealt.
Anyway, since last post, I had several losing days in a row, culminating Monday with a minus 10 buy-in session bringing me in the red for September. Having a losing month is not something I am used to, so it wore on me a little, and I couldn't really motivate myself to write about it. Yesterday morning I was at the buttom of a 20 buy-in downswing, so thats $12k down the drain.
The last couple of days have been good though, so I am now more than half way up again and feeling better about the whole thing. Like I've mentioned before, how you handle the tough days is really what defines your ability to become a professional poker player. I try to not let it affect my mood. That is not really possible, but at least I try to put it all in perspective and remind myself how little it means, in the long run financially, as well as in terms of what really matters in life. That said, I don't feel like discussing it much when I am in the middle of a bad period. I usually prefer to work on it myself in my own head, and that can be a bit dangerous for my social life. At least it is something I need to be aware of, so people around me don't get the idea I'm pissed off or not caring about them.
Anyway, enough about that. Poker has no memory. All you have to think about is how to play the hand you've been dealt.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Interesting day
Today I proudly put in 10 hours of pro poker, so I am quite satisfied with myself. I had symptoms of being a bit burnt out yesterday and ended up watching Monday Night Football instead. More like Tuesday Morning Football in Denmark actually. I think the tournament experience along with the bad running left me not really paying attention to the marginal situations that are so vital. Instead I made too many loose calls looking for the jackpot hands.
Not so today. I started out on a new 'hobby', Pot Limit Omaha. I lost a bit, but learned a lot, so all is well with that. I guess I should start lower, but I can't really bring myself to care about the 100PLO games. The crazy thing is that while I make a ton of beginners mistakes, there are enough donks that a rudimentary understanding of poker prevents me from being a big loser at the 200PLO games if I am a loser there at all. It is my hope that I will become at least reasonably competitive in the Omaha disciplines within a few months.
After fooling around with Omahahaha, it was time for bringing in some real money. I played almost 4000 hands at 600NL and won $5k. Niiiice. Extra nice since the winnings almost bring me back to the level I was at before disaster Thursday. I had a few very interesting hands that I would like to share with you:
In the first one I am super deep stacked against a tight preflop player with donkish tendencies. I end up making a huge fold whish I am still not sure was good. However, I take some pride in the fact that I chose the safe route in a high pressure situation, given my recent tendencies to lag a little too much. I simply would have hated myself too much for losing 4 stacks here.
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
SB ($2312)
BB ($615)
UTG ($11357)
MP ($1245)
Hero ($2384)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 4c, 4h.
2 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB raises to $44, 1 fold, Hero calls $23.
Flop: ($94) Kd, 4d, 9c (2 players)
SB bets $96, Hero raises to $300, SB raises to $600, Hero calls $300.
Turn: ($1294) Kc (2 players)
SB raises to $1668 (All-in), Hero folds.
Final Pot: $1294
His stats were about 25/8 for only 50 hands, so along with the preflop miniraise I suspect some donkiness on his part, making the fold extra interesting. I honestly can't say that he is not on AK or AA, in which case I just cost myself $3k in one click of a button. His min-raise suggests KK or AA, but of course quads are extremely unlikely, and wouldn't he have played quads slower? It is a close decision, but I stand by it. Had villain been a solid regular, I would have had no doubt the fold was good. Now I must admit some doubt remains. Feel free to share your opinion.
The second hand is an example of how some players get tilted out of control by constant 3-betting preflop. This is not a bad player, very aggressive, and not easy to play against, but he definitely doesn't handle the arms race around the blinds too well, as this hands shows nicely. Earlier in the evening he called my preflop 4-bet shove with AJo (I had 55 which held up).
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players
Converter
Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with 2s 2d
4 folds, SB raises to $24, Hero raises to $85, SB calls.
Flop: 2h jc kc ($170, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $130, SB raises to $395, Hero raises to $660, SB raises all-in $2725.85, Hero calls all-in $933.6.
Uncalled bets: $1527.25 returned to SB.
Turn: jd ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
River: jh ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
Results:
Final pot: $3357.2
Hero shows 2s 2d
SB shows As 9h
Hero WINS!!!
This was my biggest pot ever, and I will leave you with that for now.
Not so today. I started out on a new 'hobby', Pot Limit Omaha. I lost a bit, but learned a lot, so all is well with that. I guess I should start lower, but I can't really bring myself to care about the 100PLO games. The crazy thing is that while I make a ton of beginners mistakes, there are enough donks that a rudimentary understanding of poker prevents me from being a big loser at the 200PLO games if I am a loser there at all. It is my hope that I will become at least reasonably competitive in the Omaha disciplines within a few months.
After fooling around with Omahahaha, it was time for bringing in some real money. I played almost 4000 hands at 600NL and won $5k. Niiiice. Extra nice since the winnings almost bring me back to the level I was at before disaster Thursday. I had a few very interesting hands that I would like to share with you:
In the first one I am super deep stacked against a tight preflop player with donkish tendencies. I end up making a huge fold whish I am still not sure was good. However, I take some pride in the fact that I chose the safe route in a high pressure situation, given my recent tendencies to lag a little too much. I simply would have hated myself too much for losing 4 stacks here.
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
SB ($2312)
BB ($615)
UTG ($11357)
MP ($1245)
Hero ($2384)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 4c, 4h.
2 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB raises to $44, 1 fold, Hero calls $23.
Flop: ($94) Kd, 4d, 9c (2 players)
SB bets $96, Hero raises to $300, SB raises to $600, Hero calls $300.
Turn: ($1294) Kc (2 players)
SB raises to $1668 (All-in), Hero folds.
Final Pot: $1294
His stats were about 25/8 for only 50 hands, so along with the preflop miniraise I suspect some donkiness on his part, making the fold extra interesting. I honestly can't say that he is not on AK or AA, in which case I just cost myself $3k in one click of a button. His min-raise suggests KK or AA, but of course quads are extremely unlikely, and wouldn't he have played quads slower? It is a close decision, but I stand by it. Had villain been a solid regular, I would have had no doubt the fold was good. Now I must admit some doubt remains. Feel free to share your opinion.
The second hand is an example of how some players get tilted out of control by constant 3-betting preflop. This is not a bad player, very aggressive, and not easy to play against, but he definitely doesn't handle the arms race around the blinds too well, as this hands shows nicely. Earlier in the evening he called my preflop 4-bet shove with AJo (I had 55 which held up).
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players
Converter
Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with 2s 2d
4 folds, SB raises to $24, Hero raises to $85, SB calls.
Flop: 2h jc kc ($170, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $130, SB raises to $395, Hero raises to $660, SB raises all-in $2725.85, Hero calls all-in $933.6.
Uncalled bets: $1527.25 returned to SB.
Turn: jd ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
River: jh ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
Results:
Final pot: $3357.2
Hero shows 2s 2d
SB shows As 9h
Hero WINS!!!
This was my biggest pot ever, and I will leave you with that for now.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Deep run in WCOOP
Sunday 8 days ago I had a nice run in Partypokers sunday tournament, but finished #93, so still a ways from the real money. Playing Sunday tournaments on the laptop coincides nicely with watching NFL. Since I am an avid NFL Fantasy player, I don't appreciate missing any available NFL games, costing me countless hours of good poker time. By the way, thank you Patriots for bottling up LT, I just need a couple of points from Kevin Curtis or David Akers now FTW.
Anyways, yesterday (and today as well actually) I played World Championship of Online Poker Event 5, a $530 NL tournament at Pokerstars with over 6000 players.
After about 8 hours of play, I was in 4th place with about 250 players to go. At that point my stack was worth about $30k I think. But after that nothing went right, and after 10 hours I took 134th place after losing with AK to KQ all-in preflop. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining about winning $3600, but DAMN that was dissapointing. Going that deep in such a huge tournament is an awesome experience nonetheless, too bad it happens so rarely, and almost always ends up with a frustrating beat. I would quickly go insane if I had to make a living from multi player tournaments alone. This experience has left me wanting more however, so I may play another WCOOP event or two in the coming weeks.
They are finishing up the final table as I write, after 18 hours, it is still undecided. You need stamina to go far in a tournament like this that starts late in the evening European time, and then drags on for 20 hours. I am now cheering for AB_illusive who I chatted with on Pokernet (danish poker forum) 10 hours ago when I was high rolling like him. He is currently in last place at the final table with 8 players to go. Go Asger!
Update: He is now 2nd in chips by a wide margin both ways. 7 to go.
Update: Chip leader with four players to go after hitting a sick 2-outer. This is his day.
Final update: Asger took it down, and I guess he will be famous now :). This was the longest tournament ever on stars (Almost 21 hours) and the 3rd largest prize pool after the WCOOP 2005 and 2006 main events. The heads up battle was a totally sick back and forth battle btw, I don't recall seeing anything like that before.
Anyways, yesterday (and today as well actually) I played World Championship of Online Poker Event 5, a $530 NL tournament at Pokerstars with over 6000 players.
After about 8 hours of play, I was in 4th place with about 250 players to go. At that point my stack was worth about $30k I think. But after that nothing went right, and after 10 hours I took 134th place after losing with AK to KQ all-in preflop. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining about winning $3600, but DAMN that was dissapointing. Going that deep in such a huge tournament is an awesome experience nonetheless, too bad it happens so rarely, and almost always ends up with a frustrating beat. I would quickly go insane if I had to make a living from multi player tournaments alone. This experience has left me wanting more however, so I may play another WCOOP event or two in the coming weeks.
They are finishing up the final table as I write, after 18 hours, it is still undecided. You need stamina to go far in a tournament like this that starts late in the evening European time, and then drags on for 20 hours. I am now cheering for AB_illusive who I chatted with on Pokernet (danish poker forum) 10 hours ago when I was high rolling like him. He is currently in last place at the final table with 8 players to go. Go Asger!
Update: He is now 2nd in chips by a wide margin both ways. 7 to go.
Update: Chip leader with four players to go after hitting a sick 2-outer. This is his day.
Final update: Asger took it down, and I guess he will be famous now :). This was the longest tournament ever on stars (Almost 21 hours) and the 3rd largest prize pool after the WCOOP 2005 and 2006 main events. The heads up battle was a totally sick back and forth battle btw, I don't recall seeing anything like that before.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
This just in: Tournaments also rigged.
According to recent observations, the riggedness of online poker has now spread to the Pokerstars tournament games. I played a $1000 EPT sattelite, a $100 rebuy (cost me 6 buy-ins) and a few smaller tourneys this evening, and tanked early in all of them. Among the highlights were an AK vs AJ loss, and a KK vs AA, both large stack losses.
Like a dog I returned to my regular cash games and was promptly punished by a 2-outer for $1600 when I finally got my money in with a set vs. overpair. I can't believe how rigged it all is. I did manage to make a modest $1000 profit on the cash games, so all is not lost just yet. Things will turn around.
Like a dog I returned to my regular cash games and was promptly punished by a 2-outer for $1600 when I finally got my money in with a set vs. overpair. I can't believe how rigged it all is. I did manage to make a modest $1000 profit on the cash games, so all is not lost just yet. Things will turn around.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Well that was fun...
I am really excited about a new record of mine which I set tonight: I just lost $6,988. It was just an incredible amount of bad beats, coolers and expensive laydowns that combined to give me a gruesome session. I think I stacked myself about 3 times in which I should have made a good laydown, but I honestly think the rest was pure bred bad luck. I lost about $2000 with the hands QQ, KK, AA, AKo, AKs combined. As you know, I am not the type to slowplay these hands, so this is a testament to the amount of great hands I ran into whenever I had the goods. I also lost $3000 with two pairs being my final hand. Pretty disgusting.
Well, tonight put me in the red for the month, and there are some tough days ahead grinding it back up.
Well, tonight put me in the red for the month, and there are some tough days ahead grinding it back up.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Bad luck
Today was not my day. Considering how many coinflips and ugly setups I lost, I am very satisfied that I am only down $1200 for the day. I was down $3000 actually, when I got a crazy hot streak of about half an hour in which I got back to break even. But of course I had to lose a set over set and a flush over flush in the last 10 minutes to put me back down.
Here is the craziest bad beat I've taken in a while:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
UTG ($849.25)
MP ($125.84)
CO ($144.86)
Button ($558)
Hero ($850.25)
BB ($823)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 9c, 9h. MP posts a blind of $6.
1 fold, MP (poster) checks, CO raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $15, BB calls $12, MP folds.
Flop: ($63) 9d, Ah, Jc (3 players)
Hero bets $35, BB raises to $70, CO folds, Hero calls $35.
Turn: ($203) Qc (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $102, Hero raises to $350, BB raises to $735 (All-In), Hero calls $385.
River: ($1673) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $1673
Hero has 9c 9h (three of a kind, nines).
BB has 8d Jd (straight, queen high).
Outcome: BB wins $1673.
Here is the craziest bad beat I've taken in a while:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
UTG ($849.25)
MP ($125.84)
CO ($144.86)
Button ($558)
Hero ($850.25)
BB ($823)
Preflop: Hero is SB with 9c, 9h. MP posts a blind of $6.
1 fold, MP (poster) checks, CO raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $15, BB calls $12, MP folds.
Flop: ($63) 9d, Ah, Jc (3 players)
Hero bets $35, BB raises to $70, CO folds, Hero calls $35.
Turn: ($203) Qc (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $102, Hero raises to $350, BB raises to $735 (All-In), Hero calls $385.
River: ($1673) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $1673
Hero has 9c 9h (three of a kind, nines).
BB has 8d Jd (straight, queen high).
Outcome: BB wins $1673.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Grinding again.
I am way overdue for an update, so here is a nice one, with results graph and everything.
I have now been a 'full time' poker player for about a month, but spent quite a bit of that month doing other stuff, such as hiking in Iceland. It rains all the time in Iceland. But now I am returning to the grind, and doing very well.
I have not been playing nearly as many hours as I would like, but I hope to change that in the weeks to come. At the moment I am enjoying just playing and not doing much else poker wise. I should get around to trying new games or analyzing my NL game some, but right now I prefer just grinding. When results are this good, there is no point in doing anything else I guess.
I am playing in an office away from home, which is a nice way to get out of the house a little bit. I also have a battle station at home, but my computer exploded a month ago, and the new one is not quite up and running yet.
This graph shows my results at the office from the beginning of summer until now, all at 600NL:
I have played some at home during this time as well, but those hands are not included. I think I am about break even for 10k hands at home. As you can see, there have been a few 10 buy-in downswings, and also the ugly day I mentioned here is not included, so even though it looks like a walk in the park, it hasn't been all happy days and noodle salat.
I have played over 10k hands at Partypoker over the last few days, and I am cautiously optimistic about the level of profitability in online poker. I may have been a bit lucky, and that will always screw up your perspective, but I think the number of donkeys willing to donate for the cause is reassuring, and overall there are plenty of players around. There may be an ever increasing number of poker pros, and the level of play may also be steadily improving, but it seems there are plenty of fish to go around at the moment.
Here is a hand that clearly demonstrates why poker will remain profitable some time yet:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Button ($558.90)
Hero ($571.90)
BB ($600)
UTG ($604)
MP ($101)
CO ($641.94)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Kc, Ac.
1 fold, MP raises to $24, 1 fold, Button calls $24, Hero raises to $100, 1 fold, MP folds, Button calls 76.
Flop: ($230) Th, Qh, 8h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.
Turn: ($230) Ad (2 players)
Hero bets $200, Button calls $200.
River: ($630) 5s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button shoves, Hero calls $258.90.
Final Pot: $1144.80
Hero has Kc Ac (one pair, aces).
Button has 3h 4d (high card, ace).
Outcome: Hero wins $1144.80.
I have now been a 'full time' poker player for about a month, but spent quite a bit of that month doing other stuff, such as hiking in Iceland. It rains all the time in Iceland. But now I am returning to the grind, and doing very well.
I have not been playing nearly as many hours as I would like, but I hope to change that in the weeks to come. At the moment I am enjoying just playing and not doing much else poker wise. I should get around to trying new games or analyzing my NL game some, but right now I prefer just grinding. When results are this good, there is no point in doing anything else I guess.
I am playing in an office away from home, which is a nice way to get out of the house a little bit. I also have a battle station at home, but my computer exploded a month ago, and the new one is not quite up and running yet.
This graph shows my results at the office from the beginning of summer until now, all at 600NL:
I have played some at home during this time as well, but those hands are not included. I think I am about break even for 10k hands at home. As you can see, there have been a few 10 buy-in downswings, and also the ugly day I mentioned here is not included, so even though it looks like a walk in the park, it hasn't been all happy days and noodle salat.
I have played over 10k hands at Partypoker over the last few days, and I am cautiously optimistic about the level of profitability in online poker. I may have been a bit lucky, and that will always screw up your perspective, but I think the number of donkeys willing to donate for the cause is reassuring, and overall there are plenty of players around. There may be an ever increasing number of poker pros, and the level of play may also be steadily improving, but it seems there are plenty of fish to go around at the moment.
Here is a hand that clearly demonstrates why poker will remain profitable some time yet:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Button ($558.90)
Hero ($571.90)
BB ($600)
UTG ($604)
MP ($101)
CO ($641.94)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Kc, Ac.
1 fold, MP raises to $24, 1 fold, Button calls $24, Hero raises to $100, 1 fold, MP folds, Button calls 76.
Flop: ($230) Th, Qh, 8h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.
Turn: ($230) Ad (2 players)
Hero bets $200, Button calls $200.
River: ($630) 5s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button shoves, Hero calls $258.90.
Final Pot: $1144.80
Hero has Kc Ac (one pair, aces).
Button has 3h 4d (high card, ace).
Outcome: Hero wins $1144.80.
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