Donkament Saturday

Yesterday was a pretty decent but annoying day at the tournament tables, yet again.

To start of with in the morning i final tabled the 2r on FT for $40 finishing 6th, i’m was really happy with this as i went a bit card dead towards the end but outlasted as the shortstack for a while being a lot more patient than i normaly am.

As always i busted on the bubble of the $10 deepstack, this time with QQ V KK. I open UTG for 1800 (3/6 blinds) with~22k, UTG+1 re-raises me to 5.5k which is pretty sick given how his range here should be AK AA KK exclusively, but w/e, i don’t feel like i can fold queens in that spot so i shoved, it happens.

Busted some other non eventful tourneys as well before playing the $5 6-max again, donked around trying to bust out as i was tired but somehow ended up as chip leader going into the money. Won almost every flip along the way and got down to the last 12(1200 entrants) as the shortstack afteer bricking a massive draw in a BVB situation and eventualy busted 10th for $75. My bustout was a bit meh but it probably had more to do with tiredness than anything else (it was 3am in the morning at the time), i have 15 BBs and raise 3 in the CO with A6o, button and BB call, flop is QT2 two tone, BB checks and i shove 60k into a 50 something pot only to get snapped up by the button with Q8, GG me.

I played more aggro throughout than normal in this but still had problems keep a stack in the later stages. Something i want to work on in the future def.

Just finished for the Sunday, i think i’m 0 for 6 right now after busting 3 4.40s and a few other micro donkaments along the way, i’m up in cash though.

Tommorow i think i’m gonna play some more HU SNGs in FL NL and FL 08, the players are hideous so far.

Update

Haven’t managed to play much $25nl recently, playing hold em at the moment just really bores me and when i’m only playing 2 tables it takes an age for anything to happen, that plus the fact i’m losing at it i guess.

The few hands i have played though i’ve felt i’ve had a much better mindset for playing than before, Mark from FCP put my HH database through poker EV and told me i’m down 4 buy ins in all in equity from my last 2500 hands. This should already be obvious to me, but i think it only hit me a few days ago just how big the gap is between your actions and your results, and just how big a sample size you need to get anywhere close to working out your true winrate in a game.

Knowing and understanding this concept fully makes dealing with loses at the table a hell of a lot easier, the article below is cross-posted from pocket5s and explains what i’m trying to get at a lot better than i ever could-

I’m not here to cry over bad beats or any of that ridiculous stuff. If you can’t stomach it, get out now. I can remember depositing a few hundred dollars on UB and building up a bankroll, only to see a chunk of it evaporate in one sitting. This was one of my favorite games, a pot limit Omaha cash game. The sickest thing about losing that money in that particular sitting was the fact that I was truly exhilarated. I lost $200 on that first huge hand. I remember flopping the nut straight. I remember feeling so excited. He kept re-raising my big raises. It was heaven. Then, when all the money was in the pot and the river came….the board paired. Now everyone knows when you have a straight in Omaha and the board pairs, it can’t be a good thing. The guy called off almost his whole stack with two pair on an extremely dangerous board that screamed to him that I had the straight. Maybe he didn’t realize the board, maybe he liked to gamble. Whatever the case be, he hit his boat and took a big chunk of my money. Now the story of the hand isn’t how he was a moron for staying in the hand, or how I got screwed. The importance of this story is how I felt when I lost the money. Somehow, some way, I felt peaceful. And more than that, I was excited. I was excited about how the hand went down. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to win, and I play to win. But something about losing that money kept the game exciting for me. It proved that even when playing right, you can still lose. I can’t really put it into words, but the hand changed the way I play poker and my mindset during play. Then I thought something that I’ll never forget: “So what? I’ll win the money back.” I remember a feeling of comfort coming over me as I knew I could always win the money back. Not necessarily in that sitting, but over time, I would get that money back. That state of mind kept me calm and playing well, ultimately avoiding tilt. Losses don’t bother you as much when you are confident to a point of cockiness because you trust your ability. The next chapter in my poker life came when I took three weeks off of poker. I was recently hired as a network administrator, and I could finally afford to move into a new apartment and out of my parent’s house. This was a big step in my 22 year old life. The time off made me realize that you don’t need poker. That if you are losing, you can just log off the computer. You have to realize that you can enjoy life away from the tables. You control what you put into the game. Keeping that control is crucial. If you are feeling like no matter what you do, no matter how “properly” you are playing, you still can’t win, take time off. Don’t think about the game for a while. Once you decide to come back, think about ways to adjust your style. Maybe when looking back, you weren’t playing so well after all. Maybe you’ve been bluffing too much. Maybe you weren’t playing patiently. If you don’t like taking bad beats, don’t always try to jam all your money in pre flop. Work on your post flop play. Just play in a way that you are comfortable. Take everything into account. When someone raises and you are sitting in the big blind, do you get heated? Like, you want to rip someone’s head off because you weren’t allowed to see a free flop with your 10 7s? This is the type of state of mind you need to bury. This is how you mature as a poker player. I remember when I used to use the chat box as my ammunition. I would rip into my opponents at any bad beat. Now, I move on. I don’t use the chat box anymore unless I recognize a P5’er at the table. I don’t even throw out the ever so sarcastic but acceptable “good catch” to retarded people. I refuse to say “nice hand.” I just listen to my music and play. If you stay silent, it really helps you relax and stay focused. For me it works that way, considering in real life I can have a temper and be emotional. Until next time, think about your game and figure out what works for you. Try to put things into perspective and study yourself and the game. No more excuses about online poker being rigged. Please just stop. Try to get in an untouched state of mind. Don’t cry to me because I really don’t care. I guess what I’m saying is that it all comes down to…I just want your money.

In other news, i’ve been playing HU HO (omaha 08 and hold em mixed game) a bit on FTP and been doing pretty well so far, i absolutely love o8 and it’s definitely something i want to work on in the future. I also finished 24th from 1200 entrants in a $5 6-max tourney last night for $30, but i was pretty annoyed at the way i busted out.

The blinds are 1.5/3k, the button limps who’s 30/15 through 100 hands and raises pretty liberaly, the SB completes and i’m in the BB with 69ss and 27k, I look at the 10K in the pot and can’t resist shiping it in and losing to the button’s K9o. Spots like this just take experience to deal with, and i’m sure that as i play more and more tourneys this stuff will all become standard and easier to deal with. I think recently i’ve been pushing all-in too lightly and too deep because i’m slightly scared of playing post-flop with awkward stack sizes, my aim for future tournies is to really stick at it even if my stack gets low.

I’m probably gonna play the $10 deepstack again today and hopefully play make it deeper than last time, wish me luck.

Ground Rules

I did something today that i haven’t done for a long time, i tilted.

There, i said it, I tilted, i threw 25 bucks down the drain because i was annoyed. I made a play that i knew was not going to work, all just to have the satisfaction of pressing the ‘max’ button and clicking bet, as if my pent up frustration would magicaly disappear via my aggressive bet sizing.

I was annoyed, i’m still annoyed. I haven’t ‘ran’ bad. I’ve played bad, i’ve played when i knew i was too tired to play and i’ve become angry at stuff that i really shouldn’t be angry at. I even threw a battery at the wall. In short, i’ve let myself down over the past few days, and that’s all it comes down to in the end.

As anyone who’s played poker for any length of time will know, playing when you’re annoyed and getting annoyed while you’re playing is not fun. It turns into a downward spiral, a spiral that makes poker no fun to play in the long run.

I’ve also lost a good chunk of my roll as well, so starting today i’m going to attempt to follow some rules to ensure that this kind of mental slump doesn’t happen again-

•  A maximum limit of 500 hands per day -I play really poorly after i’ve been at the computer for a long time and i’ve definitely got other stuff that should take priority over poker
• Max of 2-tabling for 6-max NL – i used to 4 table but i realised i was pretty bad at it and probably a losing player
• Quit as soon as i start to lose concentration or feel for whatever reason i’m not playing my best
• ONLY play when i feel like playing
• Stop looking at my PT graph and bankroll every second, poker is a game of the long term, i need to stop worrying about short-term results
• Don’t tilt, EVER, EVER EVER EVER, i realise this is probably naive, but it’s probably the most important thing on the list and i really want to work on my A-game being my only game
• No poker after midnight

Apart from this, i feel that to be succesful in both the long and short term, i really need to change my mental approach to the game, both in decision making and tilt/money control. Money is just money, there are many many many people that exchange the size of my bankroll just by raising pre-flop or losing half a buy-in, it’s stupid getting worked up about losing something that doesn’t really affect my standard of living.

And above all, Poker is just a game, granted a game i take fairly seriously (though that’s more of a reflection on my personality rather than poker itself) and want to succeed at, but still just a game, other aspects of my life are far more important than the size of my bankroll and i want what happens at the tables to stay at the tables and not effect the rest of my life.

Peace.

Frustrating day

The last few days have been very frustrating pokerwise (not to mention England’s abysmal batting effort V New Zealand yesterday). My PT database has me up $80 through 1600 hands of 6-max $25nl, running at just under 10PTBB/100 hands, which is OK i guess, but nothing compared to what i would be at if it weren’t for a few hands i played abysmaly last night. I’m also $37 down through 1k hands of FR, which is not good.

I don’t know why, but there’s just times in a poker game that you’re mind flips a switch and you go into self-destruct mode. I realise that i’m probably not the worse when it comes to this, and i think i tilt less than most players, but it’s still one of the most frustrating things ever when you wake up from a mind-blank and see that you just played this hand-

Hand #5568087184 begins at 2008/03/09 21:45:11
john1018 folds
jeffds folds
gkilotas folds
SereGGa raises to $1
DCTP folds
RichardMcBeef90[QhTh] raises to $3.25
SereGGa calls $2.25
Dealing Flop [4d 5d Qs]
RichardMcBeef90 checks
SereGGa bets $4
RichardMcBeef90 calls $4
Dealing Turn [2d]
RichardMcBeef90 bets $7
SereGGa raises to $19
RichardMcBeef90 calls $11.80 and is all-in
Dealing River [2h]

This came at the end of a long session last night and pissed me of no end. PF i’m OK with, i re-raise pretty widely against LP openers from the blinds in general, but this guy was fairly tight(which i would have noticed if i’d been paying attention) and i think calling>>>>3-betting in this spot. Once he calls, i acctualy like checking the flop as i really can’t stand much action here and if i’m being honest i’d prefer that i either flopped a flush or jack-shit so i didn’t have to deal with the rest of the hand. I call because i can’t check fold TP, but i really didn’t like doing it. The turn is the horror show, betting is pretty awful here, but calling when he shoves is even worse. I didn’t even think about it, i looked at the pot size and thought to myself ‘Hey, pot odds call right?” for about a second then clicked the call button. I’m probably overreacting to this, but i think it’s so important to eradicate complete dumpster fires like this because they really fuck up your win-rate at the end of the day.

I played the $10 deepstack on stars which i thought was amazing, having 30 minute levels suits my style sooooo much more than normal tourneys and playing deepstacked is awesome. I got pretty lucky in the first few levels, stacking two people with a turned flush/straight and i stayed in the top 50 in chips throughout pretty much. I was cruising along 4 hours in before this happened -

PokerStars Game #15859910323: Tournament #79860910, $10+$1 Hold’em No Limit – Level VIII (200/400) – 2008/03/09 – 16:06:25 (ET)
Table ’79860910 9′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: SSDAS (29669 in chips)
Seat 2: 82_grobar_82 (28145 in chips)
Seat 3: artiea (20650 in chips)
Seat 4: Baby_Mäx (7135 in chips)
Seat 5: Rubikon81 (14032 in chips)
Seat 6: BOW300 (44031 in chips)
Seat 7: TJ_BUSHEY (21113 in chips)
Seat 8: checkie (5670 in chips)
Seat 9: rjp134 (4610 in chips)
SSDAS: posts the ante 25
82_grobar_82: posts the ante 25
artiea: posts the ante 25
Baby_Mäx: posts the ante 25
Rubikon81: posts the ante 25
BOW300: posts the ante 25
TJ_BUSHEY: posts the ante 25
checkie: posts the ante 25
rjp134: posts the ante 25
Rubikon81: posts small blind 200
BOW300: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SSDAS [Ks Ac]
TJ_BUSHEY: calls 400
checkie: raises 5245 to 5645 and is all-in
rjp134: folds
SSDAS: raises 11855 to 17500
82_grobar_82: folds
artiea: folds
Baby_Mäx: folds
Rubikon81: folds
BOW300: raises 26506 to 44006 and is all-in
TJ_BUSHEY: folds
SSDAS: calls 12144 and is all-in

I really think i should have flat called the inital push given that i’m so deepstacked and the player bumped it up enough to make it hard for anyone to come over the top without JJ+ AK+ , i’ve busted out with AK in my last 180000 tourneys it seems and i think i’m going to start looking at how i play it in future.

God dam that was long, next entry will be shorter, i promise.

Poker re-cap

Being as this is the first post concerning poker, i think i might as well start at the begining and explain my poker ‘career’ so far.

I have a tendency to write too much about stuff people don’t care about(IE.this website being here in the first place) so i’ll give the cliff notes notes version.

• Started on a bus 2 years ago, lost £5 thinking a 4-card straight was worth something
• Followed a friend onto Pacific Poker play money tables, which at the time seemed like great fun
• Didn’t play at all for a while
• Installed pokerstars for some reason, finished 30th in some freeroll for $3.50, somehow managed to run that up to $160 playing SNGS(feeling king of the world at the time), then lost $100 in 2 days. At that point i decided to bar myself from the account for 180 days so i didn’t lose the measley $60 i had left.
• Somewhere in all this i joined FCP and started getting slightly better
• Got staked in a 4.40 by a friend, finished 4th and took $30, ran that up to somethin i can’t remember, then after 180 days i finaly got my account back.
• A month later i had $300, which i transfered to a FTP rakeback account
• Somehow won some more monies to make $500

And that’s where i’m at today, grinding $25nl and $10 tourneys, how interesting was that?

England Down and Out

After following English rugby over the past 5 years, it should come as no suprise to anyone when all the excitement and hype surrounding England’s future after the France game is immediately morphed into crushing disapointment and mystifying inadequacy just two weeks later. It has become a depressingly rountine cycle since the WC triumph 5 years ago, a cycle that shows no signs of abating anytime soon.

England were downright awful from start to finish. There was no control, no discipline,leadership or ambition, no spark, no flow, no creativity; Whichever way you put it, England were sorely lacking in every single department that is neccesary to win a rugby match, plain and simple. Watching England’s disjointed and abysmaly abject performance was a perfect example of how rugby is a true team sport. There’s no way on this earth that Scotland possess better caliber players than England, so how did Scotland come away with the win?

In truth, it was more down to English errors and directionless play rather that Scottish brilliance. Time and time again England needlessly kicked away possesion, meaning they were never able to put any attacking moves together as after the 3rd phase someone kicked the god damn ball away, it was a dull as a rugby league match.

I feel sad to even think about it, but Wilkinson is no where near the player he was before his injuries, and however much i admire him, i don’t think he can keep his place for much longer on the back on recent performances. England really needed their few experienced players to step up today, yet Wilkinson was one of the worse culprits for pointless kicking and aimless midfield passing.

We can only hope that there is pride to be salvaged against Ireland next week.

Intro

So aftet seeing how popular this blogging thing has gotten in recent years, and after a few failed ones myself, i’ve decided to start a new web-blog in an attempt to catalogue my thoughts and generaly organise my life better. Those may sound like lofty ideals, but the over-riding factor here is that i’m bored and starting a blog seemed like a good idea to waste some time. I have no idea how long i will continue to update this, anyone who’s ever attempted to write one of these has probably also neglected to continue updating at one point or another. I doubt i’ll be any different.

I write about lots of things, primarily poker, sports, and music, but depending on how bored i am updates will probably range from everything and anything. Politics, film, literature, philosophy (Ok that’s just there to make me sound clever), irate ranting about things out of my control, TV, the weather, you name it, i’ll probably write about it at one point or another.

For those of you who don’t know me personaly(which is probably everyone), i’m a 16 year old student living in Liverpool England. My e-mail addres is nra_forever_620@hotmail.com and AIM is Bowman90, if for whatever reason you want to contact me, feel free.

Peace.