Just For NoCash

Re the comments "post your fucking graphs"!

Ok mate? :o)

2009

I'twas a good year for me and poker. I remember coming into 2009 very bored with poker. I was almost exclusively a SnG player. Mainly on Pokerstars, but alos bits and bobs at other sites. I was profitable and made steady cash, but nothing decent.

I liked to play the odd MTT, but tbh the feilds on Stars were just so big, that you needed an incredible amount of luck to make that big score and for me, it didn't happen.

I concentrated on the $10 45's on Full tilt for a short while and then moved onto the iPoker SnG's, but the lack of ability to multi0table really frustrated me. I was Making ok money in both, but once again not really enjoying them that much. So, I tried again at stars, but realised the SnG's (1 and 2 table) so were stuffed with multi-tabling regs that any decent ROI was pretty much non-existent. To actually make a bit of cash you had to play massive volumes, something I just didnt have the time or inclination for and so I made a choice....

For quite a while I have wanted to make some big improvements to my post flop game, as TBH in SnG's, it's simply about making +EV shoves at the right times, pre flop, and not much else. I decided to give cash games a go.

I spent quite a bit of time watching training vids and looking at hand histories posted, trying to get myself into a decent line of thinking through hands.

I then started playing. I started at NL20 on iPoker and then NL50 (6-max) on Microgaming. Pretty much breaking even TBH and not getting far. I started off just plying 3-tables and it was a struggle. I had seen so much about this "LAG" style of poker being the most profitable way to play, so I went for it. Jesus the swings were pretty rough I couldn;t seem to get it going. It was great when I was hitting flops, but when I was missin, I was losing way too much bluffing and trying to push people off hands. I realised it was a very hard style to adapt to and I would have to build upto it my own way.. and so the journey for me began!

I predominatntly played on Everest (due to softness) and Purple Lounge (due to rakeback), I dipped and dabbed in others, but nothing of any volume.

It's a been a long learning curve and I still have quite a way to go, but I am getting there slowly.Hopefully 2010 will see me stepping upto at least NL100!

Anyways, here are the cash results:

MicroGaming: 27,760 Hands = $531.94 Profit. + $969.61 Rakeback. = $1501.85

Everest: 19,686 Hands = $1552,09 Profit.

So for 2009 my cash game was:

47,446 hands = $3053.94 Profit

Obviously I wasn;t playing cash all year, so the volume wasn;t huge. I was averaging between 8k-12k hands per month, less on the months where I worked nights.

Overall I have to admit, i enjoyed it. It can be tough at times, but I am determined to stick at it and move forward!

SnG Results:

Pokerstars: 1068 Games played =  $264 loss

Full Tilt: 289 Games played = $438 Profit.

iPoker: 159 games played = $456 Profit.

Everest: 16 Games Played = $106 Profit

Overall SnG Results:

Total Games Played = 1532 for $736 Profit.

MTT's

I am struggling a bit to find the exact results here, apart from what I can get from OPR. They no longer track exact results, but tbh I am pretty sure I am a losing player in MTT's this year. I wouldn't say by huge amounts because I don;t play enough of them, but I haven;t had any big scores.

This is actually something I need to work harder to track as I am a bit pissed off I can;t find actual figures.

So overall 2009 has been ok, not brilliant, but still profitable.

lets hope 2010 is a $5k + year.

Hope you all have a very happy new year and see you in 2010!

BurnleyMik

Bloggerment tonight!!!

Don;t forget!!

I'll add a few boutnies - see the forum.

Xmas was superb, more about it later, but for now.. see you at the bloggerment:

ITS CHRRRRRRRRIIIIIIISTMASSSSSSSSSSSS

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE




I hope it makes it this year, heard rumours his last night out was in Brighton:

I hope you all have a fantastic xmas and I wish you and yours all the very best.

Snow and ice...

..Is great when you are at home and you can enjopy the picturesque views, but when you gotta get to work..... grrrrrrr.

Start the car up and sit there freezing my nuts off until the heater finally warms up. The windscreen finally clears, but you can't use the window wipers cos they are frozen frigging solid. Finally set off doing a cracking wheelspin over the snow that's turned to ice and crawl to the end of the street. Creeping along the sidestreets until you hit the main road, which thank fuck is clear of snow and ice. Finally get going and then BAM. You hit some prick who decides it is safest to do 10 miles an hour, even though the road is obviously facking clear!!!! argghhhhh (because snow is somewhere in their vision it's safer to go slow and piss everyone else off>??). Stuck behind the same pillock for tem mins until I could finally over take. The silly old bastard! He might as well have just walked, it would have been faster for him.

So then I get onto the motorway and it's quite dry, but all that grit and shit flicks up at the windscreen... so I fire up the window washer... no such luck, still frozen bastard solid, but now my windiow wipers proceed to smear the grit and shit all over the window and now I can see sweet FA.

So I am travelling down the motorway, peeping through the smallest slit in the window I can actually see through. Just trying to follow the tailights of the car in front. I pull off the motorway at my junction, stop the car and luckily I had a bottle of water with me so I chucked it on the window and used the wipers to actually have some visibility again.

On my way down the bypass it starts snowing again, so once again the drivers all decide its safer to do 10 mph.. ON A 50 MPH ROAD!!!! waaaaaaankers! I felt like screaming and to top it off I hit every single red light, bar one. ( I pass through 11 sets to get to work). I finally arrive 10 mins late.

I used to love snow, now its a major pain in the arse. Global Warming? MY ARSE!

Short Stacking Ratholers...

FACK OFF.

Getting sick of these SOB's. Land at your table, double through (normally takinmg money off a fish) and insta leave. Just draining money out of the tables left right and centre. They can;t play post flop poker these arseholes. They ruin your raising ranges if they get on your left and they are generally just exploiting the bad players and ruining the game.

Seen a sudden influx on Microgaming that are starting to piss me off. Land - hit - double and leave. Cowardly wankers. Cash tables are for playing poker, not push/fold. Play Sng's if you want that.

Getting nowhere...fast

arggh this fucking game.

Month started out really well, then it went a little tits up and now I just keep getting nowhere.

So I started out winning buy-in after buy-in and was up around $500. Then came the downswing on Purple with me dropping $300 of that back. A lot of coolers didn't help. I then had a fantastic saturday night, where I fired the tables up at like 2am and the guys were just giving their money away. Managed to win about $177 in a very short period of time.

Sunday afternoon, $120 of that goes straight back with me losing 3 races with AK. Starting to question whether or not to keep 4-bet shoving this fucking hand as it never hits when I have it over the last few days. Lost to QQ twice and JJ (once to AA..meh).

So, with it running so badly I fired up everest for a few games and same shit. I drop another $100 there. On the Everest session I genuinely felt I didn;t make any mistakes and never lost any pots for stacks, it just seemed to wither away. I know I got outdrawn quite a few times and had to lay down hands and basically thats how I lost the majority.

The last couple of nights I have tried again at Purple and same shit. I have a winning session and then follow it up with a losing session.

I am about $180 up so far for the month over about 9k hands. How can it all start so well and then go so cold like this. I feel like kicking someone in the bollocks and saying "thats exactly how I feel right now"

There is no worse feeling than going to bed after a losing session. It plays on my mind a bit trying to figure out where I went wrong. As you can tell I am not a fan of losing :-)

So in conclusion each time it goes well, I can be sure to follow it up with a total arsehole of a session that will see me back where I started. I am finding it quite difficult to motivate myself again right now as when the cash isn;t flowing it's a tiresome game.

Oh and for a laugh yesterday I fired up 20 tables of 18 player SnG's ranging from $3-$16 and as usual ran like a one legged donkey on stars. Saw so many beats I just ended up laughing. Worst was in a $16 where with 8 left I called a shove with my AA vs his 44 for CL and board ends up running 5673x. I knew as soon as I saw the flop it was going to screw me and good ol' stars didn;t dissapoint. Ended up with only one cash and dropping another $90 or so. FML. Oh and 3 way all in one off bubble. I have KK vs 22 and ATs.... 22 flops a set. ATs rivers the low str8. hahahahahahah only only pokerstars.

Makes me glad I play cash tbh!

Hope you all run good.

BM

No Cash

..and I am not talking about fellow RTR member and blogger!

last night i just played a few MTT's and the bloggerment.

APAT WCOAP -

I started off being fairly active, willing to play and gamble a bit as the structure was frankly excellent at the beginning allowing plenty of play. A flopped set vs an overpair helped me greatly as did a flopped set vs a top pair monkey. So at the second break I was sitting near the top and playing fairly well. I have to be honest that I was pretty card dead throughout the whole tourney. Only getting AK once and never seeing AA/KK/QQ/JJ once. Most of the time I was just having to work hard and try and choose my spots carefully.

as the blinds increased though so did the need to play shove/fold poker and when you have absolutely nothing its quite difficult. I ended up shoving 45s over a raiser and taking it down and making the steals with all kinds of utter shit just to stay alive.

Finally on the cutoff, with the blinds at 2k/4k and I had 22k. I pushed A6s. Only for the BB to wake up with AK. Did I get a suckout?? Did I fuck! I ended up finishing 15th, with top 20 paid. Was pretty gutted TBH, as I felt I had a decent chance, but at the end of the day there is only so much you can do without a single hand. I ended up with $105 for about 5 hours work..lol. (buy-in was 75+7.50). a masssssssssssive profit of $22.50. sick.

Bloggerment -

Stack was up and down like a postitute's knickers, but never really going far. 15 entered and I ended up in a husband and wife big-stack sandwich! Hammer on my left with a huge stack and mair on my right with a fucking god-damned enormous stack. I ended up all in with JJ vs Mair's KT and stars being stars by the turn she had two pair and it was GG me in 3rd. BTW, Mair went on to crush Stan HU and I believe he has to clean the toilet twice a day now....with his tongue!

Everest 10k GTD -

Piss take. Played well for about 2 hours, then got it in with AQs vs AJ. of course there was going to be a jack on the river. gtfo. didnt even make the money. That game was a very similar standard to the 100k $10 thingy on stars on Sunday nights. People calling off with Ace high just in case you were bluffing..lol.


Purple Lounge €2.5k GTD -

Never really got going in this. when I got to 10 BB's I pushed AK from UTG, only for big stack to insta call with ..... guess what.... Ace fucking Jack. The flop seals my fate with his 3 outer. FML.

So not a very productive night overall, but it was a nice change from the cash grinding.

Will be back at it tonight!

Gl all

BM

bloggerment

will be playing the APAT WCOAP tonight and the bloggerment. See you there if you are in any of em!

Horsehoe - LOL

Last night I played about 800 hands on PL. Started out on fire flopping a str8 flush draw on the very first hand and hetting it all in vs top pair  (A9..wtf.lol). Only for river to bring my beloved flush. I progressed on nicely from there upto a peak of about $120.  About an hour in I was going to quit to take a shower and go to bed, but decided I'd just have another half hour... well fuck me backwards with a bent blow torch!

Mr variance raised his ugly bastard head. lost a stack to a donk with old faithful - QQ. I 3-bet him (again :o) and he 4-bet me. I thought he was just tilting because I kept three betting him, so I shoved. he had KK. Fair play. *Note to self even donks get hands sometimes*. 

Not long after I lost another stack, after flatting an UTG raise (from a donk) and another donk calls on the button. I had AQ and flat called. Flop was Q9Q two clubs. I check, initial raiser leads for a small amount, button flats, so I check raise. Initial raiser folds, button calls.turn is a King and he suddenly leads out for like $23 into a $22 pot - wtf? He was pretty passive so it was eitehr a bluff or the nuts. If I call I am pot committed, so i figure he has quite a few hands I beat, so I blast. He insta calls with TJcc. Again fair enough, but maybe he should be getting that in on the flop IMO. Either way I can;t fold this to a bad player and such is life. Hand basically played itself from the turn.

Last hand is anotehr standard cooler. UTG raises, I 3-bet with JJ on button. Flop is JQx. He checks, I lead, he re-raises. I move all in (had about $70 in my stack at the time) and he insta calls. he had me covered. He flips QQ for a bigger set. Meh. Really fucking sucked balls.

I ended the session about $60 down. if only I had quit when I first thought about it!! That last half hour fucked me up.

At least on reflection I felt I didn;t do much wrong and I wasn't bad beated at all. it was just standard coolers. At least I generated quite a bit of rake..haha.

Gonna play another session tonight and just see how it goes.

So BH, that horshoe did fuckall mate, so if I were you I wouldn;t bother posting it!

Almost scared to post this...

...as I am sure it will go tits up if I do!!!

Been running/playing (possibly??) good last few days and have increased the BR by just over $500 for December so far.  It actually feels really good, but I now have the mindset where I am reluctant to play a long session, just incase it all goes bad and I lose it back! I know thats scared money and thats a really bad thing, but I can't help it right now.

Been back playing at purple and tbh my game has improved since I was last there, especially my picking spots for 3-bets.

 Another thing I now do VERY often is to re-raise donk leaders (people who call your raise out of position then bet out at the flop before it's your turn to act) I mean when you think about it, why are they donk leading?? Well, my theory goes that if you have a good hand OOP in a raised pot, you tend to go for the check-raise or allow a free card to give your opponent chance to catch up, so by donk-leading you are basically unsure about your own hand, hence when you put pressure on these guys they fold a huge percentage of the time and it's basically free money. The only time I advise against it is on a really draw heavy board, in which case they may be trying to defend against a flush/str8 and won't fold if you re-raise. In general though, on dry boards if someone donk leads, they are unsure of their hand. Punish them for it :o)

The big draw for going back was the RB. It's just too good to miss. So my plan is to play purple in the evenings and play everest in the afternoons (when I am off work). There are more donks on everest in general so when there are fewer games in the afternoons Everest seems a sensible choice, but in the evenings, when everyone is playing, Purple is definately my best option as the donks are usually in force and I get handsomely rewarded :-)

Poker is always nice when you are winning and shit when you are losing, so right now all is sweet!

So poker gods (amen) please don't smash the life out of me with bad beats and let me run good forever. ty.

Oh it came!

Well the inevitable downswing hit! I ran pretty badly for the two days after my last post (fucking jinxed myself!) with me getting coolered no less than 4 times for stacks with QQ. One of those times was in pre vs a donk. He had AQ and you know the rest. I also got it in on a low flop vs JJ, only for a J to hit the river and then twice I ran it into KK on lower flops. What will be will be, but from now on I fold those biatches!

I moved some back off everest and gonna return it to purple as the 55% RB is just too much to pass up. I'd have had another $340 ish to add to my BR is I had played on PL. I love how soft the games are at Everest and I like there is always at least like 20 tables going, but the rewards system is shit. I cant decide if the softness makes up for it.

Anyways on the plus side, I have recovered from the downswing again and I am back running steadily.

I am questioning one thing after reviewing everything on PT3 for last month. I am not sure, but i am thinking I shouldn;t be losing as much money in non-showdown hands. I am posting on the forum for advice and would apreciate any feedback. Take a look at my graph and see what you think. Cheers.

Played the bloggerment again last night, but played like a tit. I was the second one out...on the plus side I had a last longer bet with nocash, who was first out!!!! It's good to have a regular game with the guys you know. it puts the fun back into poker and stops it being that regular grind. Unfortunately I am doing totally shit in the league, without a single fackin point in 4 games!

Onwards and upwards!

9pm - You wanna be there

Shot my bolt?

LOL. This month has started hot. 3 sessions. 3 winning sessions :-)

Made just over $200 in three nights, usually playing for about 1-2 hours tops. It's really difficult to say whether I am still playing well or just running good. I think it's a bit of both. My strong draws are getting there when villains hold big hands and my strong hands are holding vs the draws and tbh thats the difference.

For now though I'll just smile and try and keep making money as fast as my button clicking mouse finger allows!! (oh and spare time)

Please please please don;t throw a fucking downswing at me yet!

ONE TIMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Monthly round-up

Tough month at the tables this month. Had quite a few moments where I really started questioning myself. I started off on purple lounge, there were plenty of donks, but I was just dropping buy-in after buy-in, in what I now realise was a mixture of spewing and cold decks. It' just the variance of the game. With the poor mindset on PL, I moved to Everest and once again proceeded to spew like a loonatic. this when I seriously started to take stock of my game.

I had a few sweat sessions with snake, which helped me open my eyes and made me focus harder on villains ranges. I watched numerous vids, which if i am honest don;t think helped me.

It was only towards the end of the month where I got a hold on my frustrations and stopped making as many hero calls :-)

So here are the dreaded stats:

Purple Lounge: 5,194 Hands = $371.82 - loss ($185 in rakeback) = 186.82 loss.
Everest: 9,992 Hands = $212.72 Profit
Total: 15,186 Hands for $25.90 Profit

Purple Graph:

Purple All In EV Graph

You can see quite clearly from the EV graph that I was getting it fairly rough at PL, about 5 buy-ins down on EV, which is fairly harsh IMO, but standard for cash I guess.

Everest Graph:

Everest All in EV Graph:

You can see it's only really towards the end of the month where my graph takes a dramatic upswing. I genuinely blame that on being more patient and not letting the frustration get to me when i keep missing despite my pre flop aggression. The LAG style is really going to take some getting used to, to be fully effective for me.


Throughout the month I have also played some MTT's without any real success so I am probably down on those overall too. Not my greatest month financially, but I think I might have turned a corner on my cash game, which has been the whole point for me the last couple of months. I sort of feel I have had that lightbulb moment, where I finally feel good about my game again.

I wanna say a big thanks to Snake_Eyes because I am pretty sure it's those sweat  sessions that have made that difference.

Roll on December, a good profit would be awesome!

HAHAHA - Bullmeist you lucky...

.. BASTARD!!!!!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 5.5 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
saw flop | saw showdown

BB (t2760)
UTG (t1497)
UTG+1 (t1607)
MP1 (t1120)
Hero (MP2) (t1235)
CO (t1280)
Button (t3581)
SB (t2385)
Hero's M: 16.47

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with A, A
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t50, 1 fold, Hero bets t174, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t124
Flop: (t423) 3, K, 3 (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks
Turn: (t423) Q (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t100, Hero raises to t355, UTG+1 calls t255
River: (t1133) Q (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks
Total pot: t1133
Results:

UTG+1 had A, 3 (full house, threes over Queens).
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and Queens).
Outcome: UTG+1 won t1133


Very next hand in a FML type shove-monkey type moment, he wakes up with TT hahaha. Jammy bastard!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 5.5 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

SB (t2710)

BB (t1497)

UTG (t2211)

UTG+1 (t1120)

Hero (MP1) (t706)

MP2 (t1280)

CO (t3581)

Button (t2360)

Hero's M: 9.41

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with 8, A

UTG calls t50, 1 fold, Hero bets t706 (All-In), 5 folds, UTG calls t656

Flop: (t1487) K, 5, Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t1487) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1487) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t1487

Results:

UTG had 10, 10 (flush, King high).

Hero had 8, A (one pair, fives).

Outcome: UTG won t1487



HAHAHA!! next week Bully, your ass is mine!! It was obv his night as he sucked out another 123848327484984203948142094342352354 times to go on and win it!

Honestly he could land in a barrel of shit and come out smelling of roses!

Bloggerment Tonight

see ya there.

Honesty is the best policy.

Played about 500 hands last night and it was a bit crazy! Started off getting lots of big hands, but getting into sticky situations all the time. Got 4-bet off JJ by a reg (pretty sure he only ever has AA/KK when he 4-bets me). Got KK about 3-4 times, but an Ace flopped every single time and I found resistance so had to let it go. Had QQ a few times, but once again, over-cards spoiled my party, until one hand where tilting because of the king on the flop, that I called him down and of course he had flopped two pair with K8, when he called my raise from the BB. Standard spew by me. I also got AK numerous times and missed everything.

At the end of the first hour I was definately steaming. I was down $180 and ended up getting it all in with AT vs a mid stacks KK. I sucked out an ace and seemed to calm down a bit from there.

Slowly but surely my hands started to hit and I started getting paid. It was slow and tedious and I had to get tricky as fuck in a few spots to get paid by the regs, but it worked out for me.

I got to one point where I was $22 up and I almost quit just to book the win (bad I know), but I had two tables that were really juicy, so I just closed the other two and had the last 20 mins on them.

Unfortunately I lost a buy in on a 9d Td X flop, when I re-raised with AKdd against a bit of a mug, playing 31/4, and he just shoved. Obv I had to call as getting it on this flop is what I wanted. He had JQcc. Turned a Jack and I lost the buy-in.

Finished the session about $26 down in the end. Was a little gutted TBH, but at least for the final hour I wasn;t spewing. Ofc I regret the spewy play earlier because but for that it would have been a profitable session.

I definately recognise that frustration is a huge leak in my game right now. When things are not happening, I am trying too hard. Doing things like going wayyyyyy too strong with my reads and pushing the wrong types of players too hard. All silly bits of shit that tbh, can easily be cut out.

At this moment in time I am trying my best to be ciritcal about my game. I don;t want to be dillusional and think I never do fuckall wrong because I know I do. The only way to get better is to work hard on your weaknesses and right now I think I know my own.

I think my overall game is ok. I even think I have got this LAG style pretty well for the levels I play. I have seen regs that leave the table if I sit down and have position on them ( I like to 3-bet the shit out of some of the more predicatble ones!). So from an overall perspective there are lots of positives right now. I know you only see the shit, but trust me my post flop game has come on leaps and bounds and this makes a huge difference.

For a long time I was a winning SnG player, where in all honesty, it's 90% about making the correct +EV moves pre flop. You don;t really get into many post flop spots, so the switch to cash was a big step. IMO its a totally different animal and I can definately understand why they say cash poker is an All-rounders game.

So my advice to everyone reading is stop looking at villains for their bad play and donk moves and be super critical of your own game. It's the only way you are going to improve. Just be honest with yourself.

Here is a good quote:

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack in will. - Vince Lombardi




Right, bring on tonight's sweat session with the Snake, whilst we destroy the regs and fish!

HAGW

 BM

The Ups and Downs

I have been sticking to the 6-max cash now and this month has really been a mixed bag. It started well, then went really poor and finally it has started to pick up again (fingrs crossed).

I went through session after session where at the start I would take a cooler and spend the rest of the session just looking to recover. I know thats the wrong attitude, but when you are on that downswing anything that can relieve it is a bonus, including booking a win, no matter how small.

Over the weekend, I had a few pretty bad sessions, that really knocked me and although I played bad in places, I just felt I was getting into inevitable spots where it's so hard to get away. Looking back through PT3, I was right there were a lot of spots, that TBH I couldn;t have played all that much differently. That said, there were definately hands where I spewed and hands where I gave up too easily to floaters (and I don;t mean turds!).

So my last few sessions have all been winners and pretty decent at that too. I only 4 table ATM, so my volume isn't huge, but I am really hoping I am through the worst of the downswing and I can start making a move from here to try and make this month profitable.

Just gotta keep working and pushing on through, no matter how shitty it feels sometimes.

Poker is a fickle bitch, but it's not a bitch that is going to get the better of me. Longterm I am going to beat it.

BM

Don't Forget!

BE THERE

Sweating...

Had a short sweat session on Skype with Snake eYes last night and really enjoyed it. I like how he has his HUD setup and I will prolly change mine to suit as its just so much easier to get positional stats and stuff.

Think I can learn a lot from him as he has a really solid game. I think I might be able to add a bit to his game too. so all round beneficial to us both.

So the roll has took a bit of a beating recently and I am hoping to get that back on track very soon. I have a bit tied up in staking a couple of peeps and tbh I feel its pretty safe with them. Both good and honest players. The rest is split between everest, purple, stars, full tilt and iPoker.

TBH its just a case of work, work, work and more work on my game. I'll get there, I know it.

looking forward to the mirror prop bet abd the bloggerment tomorrow night.

see ya soon

BM

gtfo!

Not played too much cash, but the two sessions I have had have both been losers. I am still spewing too much when i play and missing everything. I *think* the harsh variance has to end soon. Really hard when you have an aggro image and EVERY big pair you get flops an ovecard! meh, w/e, fuck it.

As for the evenings, well i have been playing MTT's instead, just for a change of pace and because I am off work for a week.

I have enjoyed them TBH and had some deep runs. Was unlucky the other night when I finished 12th in the $30, 6k gtd on iPoker. I also had deep runs in the $10 rebuy (25k GTD), the $10 10k GTD, an $8 MTT I played on full tilt and some other min cashes. Still feels brutal to play really well for like 4 hours and then lose a 70/30 for top 5 in chips.

I have been trying to get a bit of practice for the challenge amatay threw out on the forum. I'll be playing it Sunday, but I know how much that stars RNG fucking hates my guts!

TBH, I still really miss the days of the Cryptologic tourneys. They always had like 100-300 runners and soft fields. I loved em!! Shame they completely binned that software, would be awesome to see it return.

Gonna play some more MTT's tonight because I really wanna get a spot on Amatay's RTR Binkage Thread!!!!!

Laters

BM

Good advice

So I posted on the forum with my predicament of playing LAG and not tilting when you are on a dry run and tbh I got some very good advice.

This was one of those peices of advice:

"Playing too laggy can be counterproductive at 50nl. The point of playing LAG is i) win more in non-showdown pots, ii) developing an image that gets you paid. The problem with this at 50nl is that people go to showdown a ton, so a style based on winning non-showdown pots isn't great. And image doesn't really matter at 50nl - people are always going to pay you off, no matter how much of a nit you are







The other thing is, playing a more aggro style is going to increase your variance. More variance = bigger swings, so it's easy to second guess yourself and tilt when you play this way. If you're prone to tilt, a more solid style might be best, especially if you're on a downswing." - Gorvacofin
 
It really got me thinking. For the last few weeks I have been watching numerous training vids on LeggoPoker, in regards to 6-max. Most of the vids I have watched have been around the 50NL, 100NL and 200NL, all have advocated a Loose Aggressive style of play and this is what I have adjusted my game to suit, but when I read the above comment I started thinking....
 
Playing those styles on Full Tilt and Stars is probably a good idea because of the amount of tight regs and grinders and the LAG style is good for exploiting those guys, but the Euro sites where I play is particularly full of fish and the LAG style just doesn't work too well against people who are going to call you to the river everytime with 2nd pair etc.
 
I guess in real terms, that I haven;t adjusted properly to the games I am playing. I have just seen this loose style on the vids and tried to adopt it.
 
So the plan is to simply drop back to playing a simple TAG game. I'll still 3-bet liberally on the button to CO and Hijack raisers, as mentioned in the advice given by Snake (below), but overall, just tone my game down a bit. Tighten my opening ranges up and basically just play the goods.
 
ABC is the way forward right now.
 
Some more of the advice:
 
"Here's my advice for what it is worth.



I watched the Krantz/FoxwoodFiend vids and decided about 8 months ago to play a LAG style. I was 3 betting anyone and everyone from all positions, C-betting every flop, getting it in vs a nit with TPTK. This new style of play just so happened to coincide with my worst month at 50NL.


I had a few weeks off when I withdrew my roll so I couldn't play. I used this time wisely and went through PT3 analysing big pots where I had either won or lost.


I discovered that I was leaking money in 3 bet pots OOP, so I have nitted up from the blinds, only chucking in the odd 3bet with with SC to balance my range.


An important point that I have learnt is to utilise the button to its maximum, 3 betting alot more from it vs CO/HJ openers. TAG style FTW at these stakes mate" - Snake_eyes
 
I wanna thank these guys for opening my eyes, as so often, unless you really try, it's facking hard to see the wood for the trees.
 
On a seperate note, the return of the Bloggerment kicked off last night. I was working unfortunately, but figured I would register, just to add to the prize pool for all those who made the effort.
 
Sounds like it was a lot of fun and there is an awesome comedy write up by Rubbish on this blog . The thread of events are here and here.
 
Can't wait for next week when I can actually play. Remember if you are a blog reader or write a blog, or are a member at RTR then you are more than welcome to play. It's every Sunday night at 9pm GMT on Pokerstars. Password is donkament.
 
ATB
 
BM

Taking stock...

Spent a bit of time today reflecting on my recent poker. I am definately making mistakes, thats something I have to work on, but also found I was losing quite a bit of cash in the small-middle sized pots, where I am simply using aggression and then giving up when played back at hard. I sort of guess this comes as part of the territory when playing a LAG style of play. I mean I upped my game to where I was roughly playing a 27/24/6 game with a 3-bet percentage of between 7-12.

As anyone who understands these stats knows thats fairly aggro. My c-bet percentage is usually around 70-80%. Now this style, when you are hitting is absolutely shit hot because you get paid on all your monsters and it's hard even for decent villains to adapt to, nevermind the donks who just think you are bluffing all the time. The flip side of this is that when you are not hitting anything and people start playing back aty you hard, the money soon starts to spew away and for me that brings about frustration and even more spewing.

"Eat like a bird, shit like an elephant" - Doyle Brunson.

Sums me up ATM. If only I could control the frustration when things aren't going my way and stop trying to make things happen, I am pretty sure I wouldn;t have lost a number of buy-ins. I have to accept that a loose aggro style is going to bring bigger swings than a TAG, but if you get it right can be extremely profitable.

Another thing I HAVE to do is spend some time reviewing the hand histories of the multi-tabling regs. I need to start looking for ways I can exploit them and their play. Look at their betting patterns and what hands they have been showing down. Assigning these guys ranges is going to help me make money long term.

I am not too worried about the fish as my style of play often forces them into daft mistakes, but it's the regs who I need to start working harder on.

For now though I am going to spend a bit more time reviewing vids and PT3.

Weird how its so fucking easy when you are on an upswing and then a downswing smashes you back to reality. I guess in the long run, although i hate it, it will be good for my overall game.

ATB

BM