Thursday, January 24, 2008

Feeling good about a bad session.

I've been on a brutal downswing lately. Pretty sure part of it is the way I play, but also I've been running bad. Anyway, because of that swing it had been quite a while since I felt good about my play. Well that all changed last night.

I played on an off all night long and overall I lost money. That said, I finally feel like I've settled back into my game and that I am back to where I was at the beginning of January. I think the slow pace to which I've switched after my prop bet with Alex made me play with less focus. I was getting used to playing A LOT, and playing less made me impatient and wanting results NOW. Well last night I think I played really well. Minimizing errors and maximizing return on my good hands. Actually, if not for 2 brutal bad beats (will post more about them when I get back home tonight) it would have been an awesome session.

On a side note, I've decided to dip back in Pot Limit Omaha a bit. Well that is not going so well. Think I'll wait a bit for that. There is a really good PLO book out I want to buy, I'll wait to read it before I step back at an Omaha table.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Note to self

Next time you make a prop bet with Alex, add an humiliation bet to it... ESPECIALLY if you offer him to buy out of the bet :)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Patching leaks...

Nothing like sleep to give perspective to your problems.

I woke up with an epiphany : I overplay overpairs.

That has to be the biggest factor in my downswing. I think I was playing them fine until a few days ago, but being so close to my goal of NL25, I got greedy and tried too hard to get lots of value when I get a big hand (like AA, KK and QQ).

Glad I figured that out and now I can't wait to play, armed with that realization.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Cooler

After the insane results I was having lately I guess a downswing was predictable at some point. Anyway, here's the biggest cooler of the night.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed)

BB ($18.15)
UTG ($9.35)
Nic ($10.45)
MP1 ($8.40)
MP2 ($2.25)
MP3 ($9.55)
CO ($5.75)
Button ($4.95)
SB ($9.10)

Preflop: Nic is UTG+1 with Qh, Qc.
1 fold, Nic raises to $0.4, 3 folds, CO calls $0.40, 2 folds, BB raises to $1, Nic calls $0.60, CO calls $0.60.

Flop: ($3.05) Ad, Qs, Th (3 players)
BB bets $1.5, Nic calls $1.50, CO folds.

Turn: ($6.05) 6c (2 players)
BB bets $2, Nic raises to $7.95, BB calls $5.95.

River: ($21.95) Ks (2 players)

Final Pot: $21.95

BB has Ah As (three of a kind, aces).
Nic has Qh Qc (three of a kind, queens).
Outcome: BB wins $21.95.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Week End recap

I played quite a bit this week end and ended up with a nice gain breaking for the first time $200 in my bankroll. At some point on sunday I was on a sick tear and was up to about $230, but then I got distracted by the NFL playoffs and lost quite a few pots to bad plays and a pretty nasty misclick. Still, the week end as a whole is really positive. I have not heard from Alex in a few days, but I'm pretty sure I've pulled ahead by some bit in our bet this week end.

I've been playing at a madman's pace so far in January. At that pace I should easily break the 10,000 hands in the month which would be by far my biggest month. Being back to 4 tabling helps a lot on that side of things. I feel pretty comfortable on 4 tables at NL10 right now. I don't know if I'll manage to get to $250 in January and move up to NL25 though, and when I'll move up in stakes I will most likely reduce the number of tables I play on for a while.

That's about it for today, going back to work now. God this week will be a long one. First full week after the holidays is always rough.

Friday, January 04, 2008

2008 goals

I'm a firm believer that you will go further if you identify your goals clearly and keep them in mind. I had set myself the goal to make poker some sort of "sideline" job in 2007. Well I've made about 40$ in December, so even though I'm not quite there yet I feel I can say that this goal has more or less been reached.

Now what's the next step for 2008? A few things. Here's the list :

Move to NL25 before this summer and to NL50 before the end of 2008

Things are going good at NL10 and I am very confident about moving up to NL25 before this summer. That said, the aggressive bankroll management guidelines I gave myself tend to put myself in an uncomfortable spot when I move up. For that reason I think I will change them to move to real "proper" bankroll management starting with moving up to NL50. Not 100% sure and I will post more about this pretty soon.

Play live games on a more regular basis

And I'm not talking about just out homegame (even though I still enjoy it very much). I want to start to go to the various Montreal poker rooms (and maybe even the casino depending on their rake/structure) regularly. Live play is a big leak for me and I feel like I lack the observational skills/habits that helps so much in live play. Oh and I'm a fscking tellbox too... need to work on that.

Develop a game studying routine

So far I've been putting a lot of time into playing the game. I feel to speed up my progress I also need to start studying more my game and the game in general. I've already started doing stuff like posting hands for reviews on 2+2 and signing up for session reviews. All this kind of stuff will help me improve my game at a faster pace and I need to seriously get into it.

Put more serious time in another game than NL Hold'Em

Not sure which game it will be yet. The more I read about Limit Hold'Em the more it intrigues me, although I am not sure Fixed Limit play is a good match for me. Might be Pot Limit Omaha, seven card stud... who knows. I have not decided yet and most likely won't really bother with this until I have the bankroll for NL25. While in the learning process I will most likely play this (or these?) other games one stake lower than I play NL Hold'Em.


Now that these goals have been listed and stated, time for me to go work on them. Hopefully at the same date next year I will be as happy about the past year as I am now, and as focused on the next.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

December 2007 online results

Well here is my monthly graph for December 2007. As you can probably see, I've switched stakes (around hand # 1600) and with that bigger swings came. Still I'm an overall winner which is always good.

On a bad note though, I'm now lagging quite a bit in the prop bet with Alex. I will have to work pretty hard to catch up to him. That said, last night I finished the year playing poker with a few friends in Gatineau. And what a session to finish the year! I more than doubled up what I bought in for, and I am pretty sure I was the last person to win a poker hand in Gatineau in 2007! I started raking the pot while the clock started to ring midnight :)

The biggest hand of the night though came when I flopped quads 7 and managed to double up by just slow playing against a guy who was playing super aggressive and had been bluffing at a lot of pots. I also managed to pull out a few plays at him once I figured he was just trying to bully people out of pots with his then biggest stack.

Anyway, 2007 was a lot of ups and down for poker, but finally I managed to be a constant winner and that is huge for me. Hopefully 2008 is even better!