Missed Value....

I'm playing much better these days although I still suffer frequently from meltdowns. As a result of those meltdowns, my variance is all over the place. However, I think I have it under control now.

Now i am concentrating on getting value out of every hand I'm in. Take this hand:



Villian was a solid TAG player, when he flats second barrell, I put him on KJ for some reason. When 6 comes on river and he comes out firing, I flat for safety. Thinking his KJ had me beat.

Uhm...Dubs...you moron. Paird 6s means you both have two pair. YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE FOR VALUE IF YOUR READ WAS INDEED KJ!!!! I definitely missed some value on that hand.

Of course, it's easy to get value when your hands play out like this:

My best day yet....

About 692BB or a whopping 42BB/100 split evenly at 10NL (.05/.10) and 25NL (.1/.25). Ran well but bigger success was just tilting the piss out of a few people by using position and aggression with relatively marginal starting hands. As you can see from the graph, I was willing to give up a little without showdown in order to gain a lot when it did go to showdown.

Unfortunately, I don't have time for a more detailed post (closing on new home next Tuesday, packing to move the following Friday plus up for promotion at work so having to do all sorts of fun stuff for that). I will eventually get into some details and hands.

But for now I'll squeeze in hands when I can. I am now more or less properly rolled for 25NL with 29 buy-ins. I will continue to mainly play on PokerStars. I believe that if I can build the bankroll to be efficient for 50NL, the FPPs will be a better value than even rakeback at FullTilt...especially since the games appear to be softer. Comments? Suggestions?

Take care,

DubsPoke

The Light Bulb Went Off

Been afraid to post this as I don't want to jinx myself but....



Over the last 5500 hands, I had a light bulb moment.

I'm now playing an effective LAG game with focus on knowing where my money will be coming from. More at a later time, but for now I'm getting back to the tables.

EDIT: I've also purchased Holdem Mgr; I was growing tired of PT3 Hud stats disappearing at the worst times. Hold'em Mgr HUD is performing much better. Just gotta play with the settings to get it just the way I want it to.

I've also started taking shots at 25NL with some success. I'm excited to see my bankroll grow by over 20 buy-ins in just a couple days after struggling for so long. I plan on continuing to play 3 tables of 10NL and 1 table of 25NL until I am fully bankrolled for 25NL (30 buy-ins)

Miracles Do Happen

Interesting SNG

So after getting bad beat on the bubble in two $1 SNGs, I decided to donk it up on my final game of the night.

Actually, it's more like after I loaded the game, I decided the All-Star game and bed sounded more interesting than a $1 SNG.

So I became aggro-donk. Raised any suited, any one-gapper, any ace, any broadway from any position.

And I dominated.

Crushed.

Eliminated all my opponents as they had no idea what to do with me.

My post flop play was ridiculously good for once. I was cbetting the correct dry boards. Passing at the right times. My bet sizes constantly confused my opponents. When I did happen to get played back at, it seemed like I always had a decent hand and would bust my opponent for his foolishnes of messing with me.

The chat box was getting lit up like well....like I was playing with Waffles.

I was that donk that I hate so much.

And I won.

Interesting...very very interesting.

My plan for the rest of the month...

Going to be an incredibly busy last half of the month. Work has a two-day training seminar near the end of month that will mess up my standard east coast working hours (I live in AZ, so I'm at work by 5:30 and out at 2:30 am AZ time; for those two training days, I'll be doing the standard 8-5 which really screws up your sleep schedule).

On the 31st, my fiance and I close on are first house. We move on the 1st.

At the end of next month, we get married. Which means taking care of some minor details this month.

So as you can see, I have a lot going on, the last thing I need to do is stress myself about bad results at the tables. Therefore, I'm going back to my strict bankroll rules.

Here's what that entails:

I will no longer being playing cash games on FullTilt for a bit. I haven't been properly rolled there for a long time. As a result, when I do take the inevitable bad beats there it frustrates me two-fold as I also stress about going busto there.

Rather than play with this scared money or get frustrated when funds get low, I am instead going to do a SNG challenge for myself. Quite simply, I want to see how many $1 SNGs I can get in before the end of month and what type of ROI%/profit I can put up at that micro level. This allows me to continue to play, doesn't put my bankroll at risk, and I can get that sense of accomplishment that I seek. Good way to practice hand-reading as well.

I will continue to play 10NL on PokerStars as I am properly rolled there for that level. Plus if I do have a bad downswing, I can drop down a level as per my bankroll rules. It will not be my focus but I do plan on getting in quite a few hands.

So that is my plan. I'll continue to try to NOT post bad beats unless they are entertaining like the AA in my previous post.

So be checking back often to see how my SNG challenge is going and see if I'm learning anything.

Good luck at the virtual felt.

DubsPoke

Visions of a big score....

Under 1k left in a $10 30k guarantee. Have a slightly below avg stack, and get dealt AA.



Ow.

Thanks for the Inspiration

Some excellent posts by other bloggers last night/this morning that have provided me with some inspiration and restored some excitement about playing this game:

Change100 - The Barometer

The Vegas Year - A-10 is Whack The prevailing undertones of non-results focused play are awesome.

and the guy that laid off...can't find the link. I'll get it up soon.

another 2.5 buy-ins gone...

lost 7 pots over $1. Hands I lost with:

AQ, AT, AK, JJ, KJ, TT, and 44.

Just flopped a set on a 3bet pot and doubled up. Only my second pot won above $1 in this second session of the night.

Forgot to include in my earlier post (part of the reason for my frustration) that I had to withdraw a bunch from my accounts so only playing on a $100 BR on FT (now down to $65). The reason for withdrawal is good, help cover costs for the purchase of a home for my fiance and I. We close at the end of the month.

I'm very much looking forward to this weekend so I can really examine my hand histories and see where I'm screwing myself over. Based on the sample of hands above, I'm guessing I'm overplaying Ace-Faces a bit. Too many cbets perhaps?

It seems I'm losing a lot to the 70/30, 50/25 type of players as well. Counter-strategies?

EDIT: Sweetness. All-in for half a buy-in after the turn. Flip up my TT up against 44. River 4. Another half buy-in gone. Tell me if I misplayed this:



Update #2: and just got stacked when my TPTK (AJ) ran into a 90/45 players KK. happy happy joy joy. Guy is raising ATC for 60+ hands and the one time I give him action...

My main problem, I'm losing plenty of big hands but winning none. Even if I am ahead.

Completely dissapointed in myself...

45k hands at 10nl and I'm a slightly losing player. I'm astounded at my own incompetency.

I've always been above-average to good at most everything I've set my mind to. I've set my mind to being a profitable poker player.

yet I'm not.

Everyone says that 10NL is full of fish and is ridiculousy easy to beat.

Have they played 10NL? Do they know what they are talking about?

I have to be missing something.

I have a long weekend while fiance is out of town. Time to figure what is going wrong.

Hand Analysis - AJo from the BB

Villian is 19/12/2.8.



I'll get more into my hand read a little later, for now, let's assume that you believe you are ahead of most of his range based on how the hand played out. The dilemna is, against a short stack, what do you do on the river? My reasoning at the time was that I could still get away if he shoves but I would still be getting value from weaker aces and pocket pairs. Bad idea? Good idea? Too big? Too small?

AJ and AQ have been giving me fits from the blinds facing a preflop raise so any input is greatly appreciated.

DubsPoke

F U FT! (aka running like the Waffles of Old)

I can't win a big pot on FullTilt. It's getting f'in ridiculous:



Let's count his outs....it's simple. 4. 4 FIN OUTS! Pokerstove at time all money got in: 95.455% Hero, 4.545% Villian

and



His number of outs: 10! 10 FIN OUTS! Pokerstove Equity at time of all in: 77.273% Hero, 22.727% Villian

and

for good measure:



Preflop equity: 71.127% Hero vs 28.873% Villian
Flop Equity: 72.525% Hero vs 27.475% Villian
Turn Equity: 90.909% Hero vs 9.091% Villian; his number of outs: 4.

Then I tilted off QQ vs 22 (yes, the infamous 80/20 preflop is not good) on a 828 flop against a 90/42/8 asswipe when I should have easily gotten away from the hand.

Down 4 buy-ins in 50 MINUTES (yes, all of the above happened in less than 1 hour of playing while 4 tabling). despite being SIGNIFICANTLY as in WAY WAY WAY WAY WAY AHEAD on every big pot played. F U FullTilt.

Pokerstars vs Full Tilt today...

PS does this for me:



FT does this:



So I 10-tabled today. 6 on PokerStars and 4 on FullTilt (dual monitor setup using my laptop). Won just shy of 4 buy-ins on PokerStars. Lost 1 on FullTilt (mainly because of the hand above is a 2 buy-in swing). Very happy with how I played. Very focused and, as a result, had very good reads for the most part despite the high number of tables (high for me at least).

Will have to continue to experiment with this.

DubsPoke

Bored at work because systems are down.

Fun stuff. Been here for 3 hours (5:30am) now and haven't done a darn thing. Wish I could play some poker.

Very happy with my play the past few days, just some unfortunate luck. Looking forward to playing some more tonight.

Waffles - I got a mage going now as well. His firey-arse will melt your pansy ice-wuss. Be prepared.

And that is all.

You didn't think I would just stop playing?

After those two crushing hands, took a short break. Came back and won a buy-in back and called it a night. Always nice to end on a positive note.