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

Please stop...

.. flopping fucking sets against my overpairs!!! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE.

I am getting crushed. I no longer know whether I was playing any good or was just on a heater because now I am spewing money like a fucking idiot. I am also doing what I thought I had cracked.... tilting.

last night I fired off TWO buyins with A6o and 77. both times 4 bet shoving vs an aggro twat who was driving me mad. He just kept rivereing the shit out of me. I had him bang to rights a few times for decent pots and he hit rivers on me. I couldn;t help it, the head went.

My general bad run/ bad play is just ongoing now. Really starting to doubt myself. can i really beat this cash game????? I genuinely don;t know. It was all going so smoothly, but now.. disaster.

I peaked at around $850ish and then it all went tits up. I started wathcing poker vids again, upp my aggro and my 3-betting and although i think i am getting it right for the most part, I am still making mistakes, or are they??? Considering going down the road of a coach to help me atm.

poker is such a mind-fuck.

As you can see from my graph, it started so well...

Not quite the diagonal line I was hoping for.

In limbo right now. Not quite sure what to do. Maybe I am being too fickle? fuck knows. Feels so horrible to drop cash like that after doing so well.

over and out.

Battling

Having a hard time right now. Been watching numerous training vids and turned up the aggression, but it seems like it wasn;t a good time as I am on a bit of a downswong!! It's only 4k hands and there is plenty of time to turn it around, but its been hard this month. Everytime i get it back, I have a bad session. I have to admit that I have spewed a few times too. it's probably cost me numerous buy-ins. Hopefully that will disapear as I get more into the grinding.

Anyways, my graph backs up what I am saying about running harsh:

Fingers crossed I can turn it around. Ok RNG time to pick on someone else plz.

BM

IT'S BACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

THE BLOGGERMENT IS BACK!!

There is already some banter building, with bounties (not the chocolate ones) being offered and plenty of banter to be had!

you can view a thread here..http://www.raisetheriver.com/discuss/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=9610 or see one of the MANY blogs advertising it.

Please feel free to add it to your blog and let everyone you know...know!

yum yum

could just eat one of these!!!

Life:

going well right now. Little lad is walking about and getting into everything!! he's a little star actually, always has me laughing. Wife's sister has been visiting for a few days, which always feels weird when you no longer have your house to yourself. She leaves today, phew, back to lounging about in me grundies in the evenings!!

We are off to Blackpool this afternoon, to take the little lad over to see the Illuminations, which should be nice. Have a bite to eat out for tea, have a walk through the lights, ride the trams and generally just be cold!

Working overtime Saturday night and then my normal shifts until Wednesday morning, all counts towards the xmas pay packet, so it's gotta be done.

Poker:

Struggling ATM. Having some real swingy sessions. Its gone:

Win $83.

Lose $86

Win $55

Lose $78

Win $5

Win $16

Lose $47

Lose $70

Win $78

overall down like $48.

Not too worried about my play, I know I have leaks, but they are not that exploitable by the players at these levels. Swings are inevitable and I know a couple of mistakes I am making, including minkey tilt..

i.e. One pot. I three bet on the button with AJs vs a fish. He calls, we get it in on a two diamond flop that was cards lower that 10. I miss all my outs and he had A4o and re-raised all in with 3rd pair! LOLOL. Next hand he raises from MP and it folds to me so I just open push AQs... lolol. I know. but if he called the 3-bet with A4o, I figured he would call my shove with all kinds of shit. He did call and had 99 and held.. lol.

So that cost me around $100. Thats just stuff I should be able to control (the AQ hand). I'll keep working on it, but my mental strenght is a lot higher since moving to cash and I intend to build on that and keep moving forward.

Got a target of 10k  hands this month, so let me run goooooooooooot!!!

right, off for a shower

Laters

BM

Bonfire night is coming...

And all the teenage tossers are already out letting off the fireworks all over the shop...wankers. Frustrating thing is their parents always blame someone else when the pissing about goes wrong and one of their kids gets injured... grrrr.

I usually like Bonfire night, but once again the Yoghurt nitting health and safety folks have barred the big local bonfire and fireworks display at Townley Park due to health and safety risks. WTF, soon we won;t be able to wipe our own arse because there is a danger your fingers could go through the toilet paper and touch the shit with your bare skin!

Kids can't play conkers at school without goggles... just read some of these, it beggars belief. These guys are pathetic killjoys.

Oh well, looks like I'll having to see if anywhere else is running a decent fire and attend that. (I am not talking about the kids burning the wheelie bins!) Can;t beat a good firework display and fire, especially on those cold wet November nights.

Poker:

Still going good. Finding some super juicy tables over at microgaming. Just look at this one I found yesterday. 3 of the 6 players player with over 60 VP$IP.. unreal. Like the good old days! Only problem was the mobile broadband disconnected me and I lost my seat!

Still going good though.

Oh and for BH -  drop me and email to mik@raisetheriver.com and I'll let you know about that 55% rakeback deal thingy.

Hope you all have a nice bonfire night.

BM

Changeaments

My poker focus has completely changed. From primarily a SnG player, to a cash player. I just haven't had the urge to fire up those variance riddled SnG's, like a used to. Especially on Pokerstars. I just feel my edge is so small now due to all the regs killing the games, that there is no point using them to try and make money anymore.

I remember when a decent SnG grinder, of the 9 mans, was probably looking at like a 7-10% ROI over a decent sample and maybe a little higher for the 18's. Well I'd bet my ass that only the top players are grinding that sort of ROI out now for those games, with the majority of decent grinders looking at more like 3-6%. That means to make decent dosh you need to be really smashing the volume hard and putting the hours in.

Thats not something I have time to, or want to do. I think from now on I may play them for a bit of fun or for a change of scenery. TBH, I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

The games have just gotten ridiculously rock-like on stars. I mean in the 16's where I played a lot, you either had to play off US times, like midday to early afternoon UK time, to avoid the American and Canadian grinders and even then there were some very good Euro grinders frequenting, but if you play like 6pm UK time until like 11am then the games are just stuffed with very good regs.  What's the point of playing against the better players in SnG's? Reducing your EV is crazy IMO.

TBH now, the only way I think I'd ever move back to grinding sng's on Stars is if the UIGEA was repealed and all the American casual players started returning online, other than that, there is no point.

So, I have withdrawn most of my cash on Stars back to Neteller, till I decide what to do with it next. If you wanna make money in this game, you gotta gotta go where the worst players are IMO.

Speaking of the worst players...

I am back to playing/running hot on the microgaming cash tables. Its simply about the table selection. One good thing about cash games is that you avoid the good regs. Just don;t sit at their table, pretty fucking simple!!

So, after my horrible crack at NL100, I returned to the NL50 tables and its all gone pretty good. I really wish I had never spunked off that money on the roulette or my roll would be back to where it was before the NL100 horror show. I have manage to make about 7 buy-ins over the last couple of days, simply by bum-hunting. Nothing finer that sitting at a table, getting QQ first hand and some fish stacking off to you on the Jack high flop. ofc he can't fold his KJ!

I am starting to enjoy the cash, especially the 6-max. Building up my laggy image by raising loads pre flop and then getting paid when I smash really feels good. Ofc there are bad beats, but I always have the feeling I'll get it back, which is something I could never do in the SnG's. It's pretty weird actually, I just don;t get the tilt the same way. Yes I sometimes leave feeling frustrated, but rarely angry.

On top of all that I love getting my rakeback payments twice per month (55% RB ftw!) and they feel like a bonus to your roll.

I am actually enjoying cash poker right now!! fuck those horrible, soul crushing SnG's!! hehe.

I was looking through my Pokerstars stats on Pokertracker the other day and it turns out over the last year I have paid over $5k in rake and what for? two shitty cash bonuses, a few wank satellites and the odd turbo takedown.  Oh and some earphones! lolololol. I would have much preferred having cash in my account. On my microgaming account that would have been like $2.7k back, thats a lot of money for a casual grinder.

Yes stars has the best CS, the best software and biggest player base, but for anyone who understands rakeback and such it should be avoided like the plague. It just gives low volume players, fuckall for all their rake. It really is piss poor IMO. With rake being so high anyways (especially in SnG's) the games are tough enough to beat. It's the industry standard though, so fuckall we can do about it.

Anyways, I am just hoping my enjoyment of the game continues, as does making the wonga!

ATB

BM