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.

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!