Surprise surprise!

Woke up this morning and, still half in my sleep induced fog, stumbled upon this :

Ottawa targets gaming

WTF?!?!?

Are you kidding me? I guess this had to be expected from the Harper administration. It's not, after all, the first thing that they try to copy from the "oh so purrty Land of the Free/home of the brave". I have to say that I'm quite pissed right now (isn't anger the second stage of grief? I guess my "denial" phase was pretty short uh?).

Ok first, if this comes to pass it will be ugly. I don't think it will prevent people from playing poker online, after all there's still lots of americans playing on pokerstars and FullTilt. It will just make it harder and complicated to deposit and withdraw money from these sites (I don't buy that the ISPs will block traffic to gambling sites). This in turns, will make the pond dryer.

The idea that they are doing this to "protect people from bad fraudulous offshore and indian companies" is ridiculous. Making online gambling illegal will not stop degenerates from throwing money around. Actually I would even argue that online gamgling sites and the micro-stakes they allow you to play are a good thing for degenerates! You can get your "fix" while risking quite less than in traditional Brick & Mortar establishments. Anyway I disgress.

I will definitly follow this quite closely and hope for the best. Right now, my main hope lies in the fact that a lot of the targeted sites are administered on Amerindians reserves. Since the Oka crisis (quite a while ago... I feel old suddendly), the Canadian govt has always been reluctant to mess with the natives. I hope this helps tips the scale in our favor....

See, I guess I'm already at stage 3 of grief : bargaining

On to step 3!

Just managed to win a step 2 WSOP thingy on stars. Again in step 3 I have to finish 5th to stay in step 3, or 2nd to move on to step 4.

Will most likely tackle that tomorrow.

Got through Step 1

Not much to say about tonight. Played a bit of NL10, winning sessions to finally break my break even stretch. Then played a bit of Omaha8 with pretty mediocre results.

Finally decided to give the WSOP step 1 another and managed to get through. Guess I might attack step 2 tomorrow.

Challenge is off...

Well I'm sitting at about 1800 hands with about 2 hours to go. Would have been possible to do it but I have a few unexpected things to take care of.

Conclusions? Well, since I have to call this off it's hard to come to any conclusions but I'll still try. I think spending a lot of time playing online poker (like maybe 5/6 hours a day) would definitely be possible. That said, this little experiment helped me identify things about myself that I would need to take care of. Mostly, I need to schedule breaks for myself. I tend to push it a bit too far before realizing I need even a short break.

This was by no mean a "huge extraordinary" challenge, but still fun. I definitely will try something similar at some point. Maybe even tomorrow?

Friday night tally

Well I finish the night with 967 hands. A little short of the 1000 goal but still, getting to 2500 tomorrow is definitly still possible. I have overestimated the pace of the week end game a bit though, so it's not going as fast as planned.

Tonight ended up pretty well. It started ugly when I came back from work, but then I took a break and when I came back to the tables it went really well. If not for fatigue I would have pulled a few more hours, but right now my focus is starting to falter and I'm not playing my best. Figured it'd be better to get some rest and attack the week end fishies tomorrow.

2500

Somewhat inspired by the law school dropout blog, I decided to give myself some sort of challenge.

Before supper time tomorrow, I want to play 2500 hands of online poker. Figuring that's approximatly 10 hours of play on 4 tables. If I add more tables or realise that I'm crushing the required pace for the 2500 hands I might up that figure (and add it to this blog).

So there, you have it. Dear imaginary friends, I plan on playing 2500 hands of online poker before supper time tomorrow.

Trent, you fscking made my day!

nuff said

Casinos! (finally)

Finally I got some casino experience under my belt! About a week ago I went to the Montreal casino on a friday night. Despite finishing the night stuck about 100$, I had a great time and I definitly feel that the week end night games are beatable there. I played 1/2 NLHE and even though I was a bit short and felt a bit pressured by having only 1 bullet and the bigger stakes, I ended up being pretty comfortable. The 2 biggest pots I lost in the night are a suck out I ended up being on the wrong side of and a play I attempted at the wrong time.

First I limp in a pot that has a few limpers before me with pocket 8s. Flop comes and 8 and 2 heart rages. I bet and an asian dude who seems to be a decent player flat calls. Turn is a rag, I bet again and get called again. River was a heart and I made a smallish bet and got called. He flipped over 10-5 of hearts for a rivered flush. He was fully aware that he was playing a trash hand but I guess he was in a gambling mood. Oh well... not much that can be done about this.

Then later on in the evening I pick up pocket 10s in the big blind. A guy who was playing somewhat tight and mostly playing fit or fold on the flop raises from mid position. It's folded to me and I decide that he's the perfect type of players to 3 bet light so I re-raise it. A crazy spew gambler to my left calls my 3 bet and the initial raiser calls. Flop comes Q-Q-5. I figure there's a pretty big chance he was on a hand like A-K or a medium pocket pair. I decide to fire a continuation bet. Crazy-spew-gambler folds and the pre-flop raiser min-raises me. So far I'm completely good with the way I played the hand, but here I should have folded. The guy played strong before the flop and is not scared by my close to pot sized bet here. So I have to give him credit for something like AQ. Instead I ended up calling the min-raise and check fold on the turn when an A came.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, but I can't wait to go back on a friday night and play with these spewtards again! Makes for a high variance game but in the long run I think I can be a big winner in there.

Then last saturday being in Gatineau I went to the casino there. Ended up with a bit of profit again playing 1/2. Not really any interesting hands that comes to my mind though. The one big thing for me though about this sessions is that I was focusing a lot on trying to spot tells on a few players and I ended up having really good reads on 3 players at my table and ended up exploiting these. One guy in particular I always knew when I would be able to push him out of a pot and I managed to win quite a few small pots against him thanks to that.

All in all I loved my casino experiences and definitly feel like I can make good profits there. So you can be sure I will be going back asoften as possible.

February 2008 online results

Well I finally took a shot at NL25. Sadly, this afflicted me with a severe case of Fancy play syndrome combined with a getting cold cards for quite a while. As you can see from the graph, results were pretty bad. Stepped down at NL10, returned to basics, and I am almost ready to move up to NL25 again.

Missed the 10,000 hands mark again, goal in march is to hit it. Also as a goal in march I want to move up to NL25 but for good this time.

Mid-month thoughts

February is going very well so far. I will need to up the pace a bit if I want to reach the 10,000 hands goal that I set myself though.

I've finally settled at NL25 and I don't foresee any reasons to move back down to NL10. My learning of Pot Limit Omaha is also going pretty well. I have decent, if a bit irregular, results.

Next week I plan to make my first field trip to the Montreal casino to try out their electronic tables. Can't wait to see how that will go!

The ongoing heads up match

Alex and me finally got to go on with our ongoing heads up match we had started about 6 months ago. We upped the stakes a bit (we both added 5$ to our stack and kept going from where we were) and changed the formula a bit. Instead of playing pure No Limit Hold'Em we now play a rotation of games. Basically it's HORS... kinda like HORSE but without the E and the H and O are different lol.

- H : No Limit Hold'Em 0.02/0.05
- O : Pot Limit Omaha 0.02/0.05
- R : Fixed Limit Razz 0.05/0.10
- S : Fixed Limit Stud 0.05/0.10

I started out playing a pretty loose aggressive style with the intent of tightening up later on and it worked pretty well. I was mostly spewy in stud games and made most of my profit in PLO. I ended up ahead for the night, but still behind overall. Next time I'll close that gap! You hear that Alex? :p

On the online side of things, I have finally moved up to NL25 and PLO10. Things are going pretty well so far and I've been winning over my first 1500 hands at NL25. I definitly notice a small change in the strength of the field, but it's nothing too big. It will only force me to keep progressing and learning as a player.

The elusive NL25 and a goal recap.

Turns out NL25 is a tough bird to catch for me. Everytime I get close to my goal, I hit a small downswing that delays the inevitable. That said I have to be pretty happy about it because I'm almost there, 4 months ahead of my goal.

As for my other goals, well I've started playing quite a bit of Pot Limit Omaha. I really enjoy learning the subtleties of this game (the fact that the fields are so soft at micro-stakes probably helps making it fun for me.). Playing more Omaha makes even more obvious to me how simple No Limit Hold'Em is.

I wanted to play more live games in 2008 and I have to say I am pretty disappointed in myself so far. The casino opened it's poker room a month ago and I still have not set foot there. I am dealing a few tourneys soon though so that should help finance my first visit to the casino. I also have a day planned at the Gatineau casino the first week end of March.

Overall January was pretty decent. It was really swingy but the overall results were fine. February started even better so far, so I hope to keep it on the right track... and finally move up to that darn elusive NL25!

January 2008 online results

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!