In an effort to make new knowledge permanent by re-writing my notes, the following is a re-cap of what I learned by reading the new book "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Some of these are new discoveries and some are great reinforcements of things I've previously learned, but they are all crucial in using poker to make money.
1. Because poker is a game of variance, the more important metrics to focus instead of money earned is hours/hands played. After that, then focus on hourly rate. You can make a high bb/100 hands, but if you are only playing 100 hands a night you won't be putting the volume in necessary to make consistent income.
2. You have to make yourself accountable for a total number of hours spent on poker. Just like success in wrestling or any endeavor, to be great you have to commit yourself to it. You have to put in the reps and you have to constantly find ways to improve your game.
3. Be proactive about improving your weaknesses. Be honest about where you need work and then study the situations you most commonly struggle with. But don't just focus on the big pots. Focus on the smaller situations that occur more frequently where you may be losing more overall money. After each session, write down the smaller situations that bothered you and then post those in forums, talk to friends, study the $EV, etc. By improving and finding those small edges, you are optimizing your winning and looking at big profits over time.
4. Your hours must be filled with quality time. If you are having a hard day or are distracted, then you need to push yourself to focus and NOT reduce the number of tables you play. If you normally play 8 and are having a hard time, you shouldn't just play 1 or 2 tables. You will improve your overall game if you can learn to play in tough situations. Dedication to becoming great means plowing through each day no matter what comes your way. Tilt, variance, doubt and pressure are all emotions you will feel at some point but you can chose to push through them or let them hold you back.
5. Be realistic about your current abilities (both skill and time you can commit). Focus on making small improvements each time you play instead of trying to be the next Phil Ivey overnight. You must develop mental endurance, not only to build up to longer sessions, but also to have a long-term focus. If you expect too much too soon, it's like trying to run a marathon when you are only comfortable running 5 miles.
6. After learning new tactics, focus on implementing only one or two new ideas when you are playing. Don't try to overhaul your game in a few sessions.
7. When multi-tabling, don't feel like you have to rush your important decisions. Run through a mental check-list and then act confidently. 1. What do my opponents actions mean? 2. What is the best action vs. his range of hands? 3. Consider all options carefully, take a deep breath and go with your initial and most confident gut instinct no matter how big or small the pot might be. Once you have seen the situation over and over, the decision making process becomes quicker.
8. Mistakes are not caused by tilt. Tilt simply reveals them and strips your skill set down to it's core. Tilt reveals you what skills you need to work on so that they can be automated and not effected by emotion in the future.
9. When moving up in stakes, don't consider taking a shot to be a pass or fail scenario. Instead, use the pressure to identify any weaknesses and focus on improving skill instead of the end result of winning or losing a session.
10. Mistakes are opportunities to improve. Improving means more money, confidence & enjoyment. You can choose to get mad at mistakes or you can embrace them.
11. Top psychological mistakes that were identified that I connected with are:
a. Premature realization of skill - skill is only proven when it shows up in tough spots, not the standard ones.
b. Pressure to improve fast
c. High expectations - this becomes a problem because of how you feel when you fall short. Don't expect things to happen, figure out how to get there.
12. Don't look at the cashier - focus on individual situations rather than the total in your account after each session. In that same light, don't focus on your stack size on each table other than to know how it relates to others at the table.
13. Table selection - since this is a poker business, you would want to spend your valuable time with the best possible chance at maximizing your profits. If you are at a table full of regulars, you don't have position on the fish, or there is someone constantly 3-betting you, it simply makes business since to find a new table. You don't have to waste time fighting an ego war or swapping money back and forth with the regulars.
So other than some valuable board texture and hand tips and, these are the main lessons that I learned from the book. If anything, it has given me a renewed sense of motivation and perspective on the game that I have already felt will make a massive difference on my long-term success.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Cash Games vs. Tournaments - Where to focus?
So I've been playing poker almost 6 years now and I probably spend 95% of my time playing tournaments varying from 45 & 90 man turbos to larger MTTs. Based mostly on my ability to commit time to play I generally focus on the turbos. And while I have a good shove-botting game and have had success in these tournaments, I don't actually prefer to play them...especially the 45 man turbos on Stars. There is no real concept of post-flop play and even your pre-flop play is mostly all-in or fold. The 90-mans on Full Tilt have a lot more room to play and I prefer those; but toward the end there still aren't enough chips in play to really "play" poker without committing your stack.
The reason I'm even bringing this up is that I started reading an interesting book yesterday called "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Basically, this book talks about how if you are going to play poker for money (and not just purely recreation), then you need to treat your time and your bankroll as pieces of inventory...or assets that you are investing. I started reading it last night and flew threw about 75 pages in about 1 1/2 hours.
Now up until recently, I was a recreational player who has had some good success and only focused on growing my bankroll so that I could eventually make significant enough cashouts to do fun things with my family, etc. When I started my business, I withdrew everything except $250 on Stars and started back from scratch. I was able to build that back to about $11.5k. I've mentioned in recent blog posts that we have encountered some bills and my wife came up way to tackle it without having to withdraw my bankroll again. For our insurance, which is a little over $700/month, we set it up to auto-draft out of the ING account where I keep my bankroll reserves. This is a great plan! BUT, that also means that I have now shifted from "recreational player" to "semi-professional player".
So that's pretty cool. I get to say I'm a semi-pro poker player. Well guess what? That also means I'm on a timeline to make money. I am now accountable for a certain amount of volume each month and ultimately need to make, at minimum, $700+ each month just to keep my bankroll in tact. Of course right when we make this decision, I start running horribly. It comes with poker, but now I have the added pressure of getting results.
At first I was becoming tilted and last night I was tested again, playing 7 tournaments without a cash. I pushed through the pain and while I was a little annoyed at the end, it prompted me to download the book I mentioned above. After reading through the first 75 pages, I have a renewed sense of perspective on some things (including variance) and I am actually excited to take on the challenge of grinding each month. The question now becomes, do I continue to play tournaments or do I switch to cash games?
I really enjoy tournaments and have gravitated toward them for a reason. However, my priorities have shifted for now and I need to do what is best for my "poker business". I know that I only have a limited amount of time to play each week and I need to maximize my output during the times that I play in order to ensure my bills are being met. My original plan was to look at the ROI at each tournament type and put in the volume required to at least profit $700 each month. I am currently doing that and unfortunately started off going backwards. I don't necessarily want to abandon the plan now because when variance swings back the other way, I want to reap the benefits. But I guess that's not the best way to look at things. Variance doesn't know what games I'm playing and I can easily go through 10 more tournaments without a cash. I could start playing cash games and hit a hot streak too and make it up just as quick.
I feel like I'm rambling now and I need to come to a conclusion. It all goes back to what my goal for playing is. My primary goal right now is to make consistent money each month. Tournament swings are going to be more dramatic on average than cash games, thus I would need to put in more tournament volume than cash games within a fixed period of time. My time is also limited because I can only play at night, so I can only put in a fixed amount of hours each month. Because of the need to make a consistent amount of money in a fixed period of time, it only makes sense to focus on cash games. Either way, I need to pick one so that I can focus my time and attention on the mental muscles it takes to be successful at that game. I can throw in a tournament or two here and there to keep those muscles warm, but my focus needs to be on cash now.
The only thing I'm a little worried about is that the majority of my training and experience has been in tournaments. There are obviously similarities, but there are also big differences as well. I also need to deal with the emotional aspect of playing with "real money". The last time I was experimenting with playing 6-max cash, I had a $700 loss one night and it freaked me out. My heart was beating through my chest. But I really like the idea of playing multi-street poker and honing my reads. I also could just be nervous because I will be going outside of my comfort zone. I will just have to go through a bit of a learning curve and an adjustment in the beginning and deal with any losses that occur because of it.
The reason I'm even bringing this up is that I started reading an interesting book yesterday called "Treat Your Poker Like Your Business". Basically, this book talks about how if you are going to play poker for money (and not just purely recreation), then you need to treat your time and your bankroll as pieces of inventory...or assets that you are investing. I started reading it last night and flew threw about 75 pages in about 1 1/2 hours.
Now up until recently, I was a recreational player who has had some good success and only focused on growing my bankroll so that I could eventually make significant enough cashouts to do fun things with my family, etc. When I started my business, I withdrew everything except $250 on Stars and started back from scratch. I was able to build that back to about $11.5k. I've mentioned in recent blog posts that we have encountered some bills and my wife came up way to tackle it without having to withdraw my bankroll again. For our insurance, which is a little over $700/month, we set it up to auto-draft out of the ING account where I keep my bankroll reserves. This is a great plan! BUT, that also means that I have now shifted from "recreational player" to "semi-professional player".
So that's pretty cool. I get to say I'm a semi-pro poker player. Well guess what? That also means I'm on a timeline to make money. I am now accountable for a certain amount of volume each month and ultimately need to make, at minimum, $700+ each month just to keep my bankroll in tact. Of course right when we make this decision, I start running horribly. It comes with poker, but now I have the added pressure of getting results.
At first I was becoming tilted and last night I was tested again, playing 7 tournaments without a cash. I pushed through the pain and while I was a little annoyed at the end, it prompted me to download the book I mentioned above. After reading through the first 75 pages, I have a renewed sense of perspective on some things (including variance) and I am actually excited to take on the challenge of grinding each month. The question now becomes, do I continue to play tournaments or do I switch to cash games?
I really enjoy tournaments and have gravitated toward them for a reason. However, my priorities have shifted for now and I need to do what is best for my "poker business". I know that I only have a limited amount of time to play each week and I need to maximize my output during the times that I play in order to ensure my bills are being met. My original plan was to look at the ROI at each tournament type and put in the volume required to at least profit $700 each month. I am currently doing that and unfortunately started off going backwards. I don't necessarily want to abandon the plan now because when variance swings back the other way, I want to reap the benefits. But I guess that's not the best way to look at things. Variance doesn't know what games I'm playing and I can easily go through 10 more tournaments without a cash. I could start playing cash games and hit a hot streak too and make it up just as quick.
I feel like I'm rambling now and I need to come to a conclusion. It all goes back to what my goal for playing is. My primary goal right now is to make consistent money each month. Tournament swings are going to be more dramatic on average than cash games, thus I would need to put in more tournament volume than cash games within a fixed period of time. My time is also limited because I can only play at night, so I can only put in a fixed amount of hours each month. Because of the need to make a consistent amount of money in a fixed period of time, it only makes sense to focus on cash games. Either way, I need to pick one so that I can focus my time and attention on the mental muscles it takes to be successful at that game. I can throw in a tournament or two here and there to keep those muscles warm, but my focus needs to be on cash now.
The only thing I'm a little worried about is that the majority of my training and experience has been in tournaments. There are obviously similarities, but there are also big differences as well. I also need to deal with the emotional aspect of playing with "real money". The last time I was experimenting with playing 6-max cash, I had a $700 loss one night and it freaked me out. My heart was beating through my chest. But I really like the idea of playing multi-street poker and honing my reads. I also could just be nervous because I will be going outside of my comfort zone. I will just have to go through a bit of a learning curve and an adjustment in the beginning and deal with any losses that occur because of it.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Staying Patient While Running Bad
I guess I can be running worse (and I have), but it always seems like when you need to win everything is working against you. I guess there is something psychological about it though. It's not that you are running worse, it's just that you put more stock into each individual tournament, coin flip or bad beat. The loss just stings more because you need to win. The trick, of course, is avoiding tilt and staying patient.
I recently set up my ING account (which holds my bankroll that isn't on each site) to be drafted for my monthly insurance. Jenni came up with this idea instead of cashing everything out and paying off bills. I thought it was a great idea so I wasn't dependent on trying to hit a big score in a MTT. It would be different if I could put in the time and volume needed to overcome variance, but my playing time is limited. So instead, I figured out my ROI and determined how much volume I would need to put in playing 45 and 90 man tournaments. So it's kind of cool because I guess I can consider myself a semi-professional player in that part of my monthly income now comes from poker. Of course with that comes a little more pressure to make sure I'm not only putting in the volume, but also producing results.
So I set up the auto-draft about a week ago and I had taken a week off of playing because I was busy with wrestling. I had started running bad before the break, so I figured it would start reversing itself but it hasn't. I've had a few min cashes and I did place 2nd in a smaller buy-in 90 man, but over the last few days I'm definitely running at a loss. It isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's one of those things where I'm losing big coin flips, getting sucked out on when I shove and overall not having great starting hands. It's normal and certainly not the worst run I've had, but I'm getting acclimated to playing with the "need" for money. It's like I'm playing with a time clock running down. As the time gets closer to the draft, I get more and more anxious to hit a score. That is obviously not conducive to good poker and I'm trying to not let it affect my play. It's one of those things where I am going to have to keep a detached perspective and truly play for the long-term. I know that I can't get mad at bad beats and losing flips and I know that I can't force the action. That's the key. I need to work on not putting as much emotional stock in any one tournament. I need to stay confident that I'm going to make good decisions and when I decide a move is right, I need to pull the trigger without fear of consequences. It doesn't mean I need to force bluffs all the time, just well timed spots that I feel confident in.
So the key moving forward is to stay emotionally detached and just put in the volume. Don't worry about when money is going to come out or even worry about being in a current "bad" or "good" run. Just play poker and the luck will even out.
I recently set up my ING account (which holds my bankroll that isn't on each site) to be drafted for my monthly insurance. Jenni came up with this idea instead of cashing everything out and paying off bills. I thought it was a great idea so I wasn't dependent on trying to hit a big score in a MTT. It would be different if I could put in the time and volume needed to overcome variance, but my playing time is limited. So instead, I figured out my ROI and determined how much volume I would need to put in playing 45 and 90 man tournaments. So it's kind of cool because I guess I can consider myself a semi-professional player in that part of my monthly income now comes from poker. Of course with that comes a little more pressure to make sure I'm not only putting in the volume, but also producing results.
So I set up the auto-draft about a week ago and I had taken a week off of playing because I was busy with wrestling. I had started running bad before the break, so I figured it would start reversing itself but it hasn't. I've had a few min cashes and I did place 2nd in a smaller buy-in 90 man, but over the last few days I'm definitely running at a loss. It isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's one of those things where I'm losing big coin flips, getting sucked out on when I shove and overall not having great starting hands. It's normal and certainly not the worst run I've had, but I'm getting acclimated to playing with the "need" for money. It's like I'm playing with a time clock running down. As the time gets closer to the draft, I get more and more anxious to hit a score. That is obviously not conducive to good poker and I'm trying to not let it affect my play. It's one of those things where I am going to have to keep a detached perspective and truly play for the long-term. I know that I can't get mad at bad beats and losing flips and I know that I can't force the action. That's the key. I need to work on not putting as much emotional stock in any one tournament. I need to stay confident that I'm going to make good decisions and when I decide a move is right, I need to pull the trigger without fear of consequences. It doesn't mean I need to force bluffs all the time, just well timed spots that I feel confident in.
So the key moving forward is to stay emotionally detached and just put in the volume. Don't worry about when money is going to come out or even worry about being in a current "bad" or "good" run. Just play poker and the luck will even out.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Stress, money and the affect on poker
So here's the deal. I've been stressing pretty hard about money lately. We have slowly accumulated debt over the last couple of years due to starting the business and not making as much as I used to. In addition, we owe one some loan payments and we are probably going to pay taxes this year (which was unexpected). We will have a big payment coming up on a humidification system and we just found out our insurance is going up $100 a month.
Why am I venting this on a blog no one reads? Because it's been affecting my poker game lately. Is it affecting how I play? Maybe a little. But worse, it is making me feel extremely tense and stressed every time I play. If a pot goes bad, I get pissed. If I get card dead, I stop looking for situations when I don't need cards or I start feeling either impatient or I start getting on myself for being a nit and not opening the pot with any two cards. Either way, it's putting me in a funk. I love to play poker, but the pressure of needing the money has been starting to get to me.
I have the money in my bankroll to at least take a large chunk out of our debt, but then I'll have to go back to grinding micro-stakes. I'm trying to play more MTTs in hope that I'll hit a big cash and can take care of some things. Some days I'm playing fine and I'm not forcing results because of the need for money and some days I'm just completely stressing while I play.
So...what's the solution? As much as I hate to say it, it falls back on the principles of achieving success in any endeavor...especially poker. I have to stay patient. I can't change the cards, I can't force things. I have to completely separate the need for money from the goal of playing poker. I have to play poker for the fun of it and any good result that may occur in the short run will be gravy. But poker IS a game of the long run and it has variance. For me to stress about results would be the equivalent of me flipping a coin and getting pissed that it didn't land the way I picked. I have to find other means of earning money and if it comes to it in the next few months, then I may need to withdraw some of my bankroll. If I'm able to make it bigger by that time, then that's great. But I need to focus on playing poker and not on winning money.
Why am I venting this on a blog no one reads? Because it's been affecting my poker game lately. Is it affecting how I play? Maybe a little. But worse, it is making me feel extremely tense and stressed every time I play. If a pot goes bad, I get pissed. If I get card dead, I stop looking for situations when I don't need cards or I start feeling either impatient or I start getting on myself for being a nit and not opening the pot with any two cards. Either way, it's putting me in a funk. I love to play poker, but the pressure of needing the money has been starting to get to me.
I have the money in my bankroll to at least take a large chunk out of our debt, but then I'll have to go back to grinding micro-stakes. I'm trying to play more MTTs in hope that I'll hit a big cash and can take care of some things. Some days I'm playing fine and I'm not forcing results because of the need for money and some days I'm just completely stressing while I play.
So...what's the solution? As much as I hate to say it, it falls back on the principles of achieving success in any endeavor...especially poker. I have to stay patient. I can't change the cards, I can't force things. I have to completely separate the need for money from the goal of playing poker. I have to play poker for the fun of it and any good result that may occur in the short run will be gravy. But poker IS a game of the long run and it has variance. For me to stress about results would be the equivalent of me flipping a coin and getting pissed that it didn't land the way I picked. I have to find other means of earning money and if it comes to it in the next few months, then I may need to withdraw some of my bankroll. If I'm able to make it bigger by that time, then that's great. But I need to focus on playing poker and not on winning money.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Daily recap 1-24-10 - Deep Run
After waking from a nap cranky, I wasn't going to play tonight even thought I had planned to all day. I didn't feel that I would play my best because of it and so I ate about 1/3 box of ice cream. After some encouragement from Jenni, I decided to play anyway. I'm playing the $30 rebuy on Tilt for the first time and the $20 rebuy on Stars. My play so far has been pretty good, but I haven't really had a lot of hands. Being a bit tired and feeling the effects of the sugar crash, I'm not quite in the zone yet as far as hand reading and pulling the trigger. I'm kinda going on auto pilot. The first real breaks are just ending so my goal right now is to start putting people on hands.
------
Just hit the money in the $30 rebuy and just bubbled the $20 rebuy. I'm feeling good right now. I'm running good and playing good and I'm 7 out of 35 with $71K at the 1k/2k + 250 level. So I've got chips, but it still isn't a ton. I've got MoormanI two to my right as the chip leader and he is definitely using his stack. I've had to play somewhat patient since I haven't been able to really read his play thus far. In order to win this thing I'm going to have to pick good spots and make good reads. I'm not going to nit up because he's aggressive, but I'm also not going to just 3 bet him every chance. I'm gonna have to do my best to put him on a range and trust my gut.
Right now I'm fighting my own emotions of wanting to final table and ultimately win. I told Jenni that any profit I make in the next month or so was going to pay off some bills, so my hope is to obviously just take down one big tournament and not have to worry about it. But it is counterproductive to play that way. So much can happen in a tournament that I just need to stay +EV focused. I mean I get super deep and it's a big jump and a marginal situation I may pass it up, but I am still focused on making the top 3 at least so I need to accumulate chips.
I'm also trying not to be affected by having Moorman to my right. Normally I don't care about who I'm playing against, but he is literally opening every pot so I can't put him on any sort of range. I've never played with anyone this atgressive before. In order to play my best I can't worry about that stuff. All I can do is play each situation to it's fullest and not worry about the results of one tournament. Even though I bubbled the $20R after playing great and building a big stack, I'm going to push those emotions aside and concentrate on this table now.
----
Just won a massive pot with QQ vs. TT and I'm up to 116K at the 1200/2400 level.
----
Moorman just got taken out, so I should be able to open more pots now.
---
Took a big hit a bit ago...ugh...in shove mode now with 16 left.
Full Tilt Poker Game #17890349164: $25,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (134861280), Table 8 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:26:17 ET - 2010/01/25
Seat 1: AKSharky (76,764)
Seat 3: heavyv63 (162,199)
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (24,276), is sitting out
Seat 5: Romario25 (21,821)
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 (41,024)
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD (45,166)
Seat 9: DP388 (120,614)
AKSharky antes 400
heavyv63 antes 400
JOSEKATE antes 400
Romario25 antes 400
ErikTheKing7 antes 400
sMokInMySkIzArD antes 400
DP388 antes 400
heavyv63 posts the small blind of 1,500
JOSEKATE posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DP388 [Ks Kh]
Romario25 has 15 seconds left to act
Romario25 calls 3,000
ErikTheKing7 folds
sMokInMySkIzArD folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 raises to 10,500
AKSharky folds
heavyv63 raises to 18,000
JOSEKATE folds
Romario25 folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 calls 7,500
*** FLOP *** [6h 7d Jc]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 raises to 27,000
heavyv63 has 15 seconds left to act
heavyv63 calls 18,000
*** TURN *** [6h 7d Jc] [As]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** RIVER *** [6h 7d Jc As] [9d]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
heavyv63 shows [Kd Ad] a pair of Aces
DP388 mucks
heavyv63 wins the pot (134,800) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 134,800 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 7d Jc As 9d]
Seat 1: AKSharky (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: heavyv63 (small blind) showed [Kd Ad] and won (134,800) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Romario25 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD folded before the Flop
Seat 9: DP388 mucked [Ks Kh] - a pair of Kings
----
Fck...can't pick a spot to shove...3bb now.
----
Grrr...13th for $325.20. That KK hand killed me and I couldn't pick a good spot to get my chips in until I was so low I had to get called. I'm still happy with the way I played, but I lost another big hand late that really hurt me.
---
Post note: I think I just realized a small leak that's been happening in bigger tournaments. I'm talking myself out of shoving with marginal cards when I'm a little above 10bb or so. I'm assuming I will find a better spot than shoving J9 from the hijack and I'm letting myself blind out. I used to never do this, but I think because of the possibility of higher payouts I'm a little more timid shoving ATC. I need to be conscious of that in the future without overcompensating for it.
------
Just hit the money in the $30 rebuy and just bubbled the $20 rebuy. I'm feeling good right now. I'm running good and playing good and I'm 7 out of 35 with $71K at the 1k/2k + 250 level. So I've got chips, but it still isn't a ton. I've got MoormanI two to my right as the chip leader and he is definitely using his stack. I've had to play somewhat patient since I haven't been able to really read his play thus far. In order to win this thing I'm going to have to pick good spots and make good reads. I'm not going to nit up because he's aggressive, but I'm also not going to just 3 bet him every chance. I'm gonna have to do my best to put him on a range and trust my gut.
Right now I'm fighting my own emotions of wanting to final table and ultimately win. I told Jenni that any profit I make in the next month or so was going to pay off some bills, so my hope is to obviously just take down one big tournament and not have to worry about it. But it is counterproductive to play that way. So much can happen in a tournament that I just need to stay +EV focused. I mean I get super deep and it's a big jump and a marginal situation I may pass it up, but I am still focused on making the top 3 at least so I need to accumulate chips.
I'm also trying not to be affected by having Moorman to my right. Normally I don't care about who I'm playing against, but he is literally opening every pot so I can't put him on any sort of range. I've never played with anyone this atgressive before. In order to play my best I can't worry about that stuff. All I can do is play each situation to it's fullest and not worry about the results of one tournament. Even though I bubbled the $20R after playing great and building a big stack, I'm going to push those emotions aside and concentrate on this table now.
----
Just won a massive pot with QQ vs. TT and I'm up to 116K at the 1200/2400 level.
----
Moorman just got taken out, so I should be able to open more pots now.
---
Took a big hit a bit ago...ugh...in shove mode now with 16 left.
Full Tilt Poker Game #17890349164: $25,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (134861280), Table 8 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:26:17 ET - 2010/01/25
Seat 1: AKSharky (76,764)
Seat 3: heavyv63 (162,199)
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (24,276), is sitting out
Seat 5: Romario25 (21,821)
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 (41,024)
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD (45,166)
Seat 9: DP388 (120,614)
AKSharky antes 400
heavyv63 antes 400
JOSEKATE antes 400
Romario25 antes 400
ErikTheKing7 antes 400
sMokInMySkIzArD antes 400
DP388 antes 400
heavyv63 posts the small blind of 1,500
JOSEKATE posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DP388 [Ks Kh]
Romario25 has 15 seconds left to act
Romario25 calls 3,000
ErikTheKing7 folds
sMokInMySkIzArD folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 raises to 10,500
AKSharky folds
heavyv63 raises to 18,000
JOSEKATE folds
Romario25 folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 calls 7,500
*** FLOP *** [6h 7d Jc]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 raises to 27,000
heavyv63 has 15 seconds left to act
heavyv63 calls 18,000
*** TURN *** [6h 7d Jc] [As]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** RIVER *** [6h 7d Jc As] [9d]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
heavyv63 shows [Kd Ad] a pair of Aces
DP388 mucks
heavyv63 wins the pot (134,800) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 134,800 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 7d Jc As 9d]
Seat 1: AKSharky (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: heavyv63 (small blind) showed [Kd Ad] and won (134,800) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Romario25 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD folded before the Flop
Seat 9: DP388 mucked [Ks Kh] - a pair of Kings
----
Fck...can't pick a spot to shove...3bb now.
----
Grrr...13th for $325.20. That KK hand killed me and I couldn't pick a good spot to get my chips in until I was so low I had to get called. I'm still happy with the way I played, but I lost another big hand late that really hurt me.
---
Post note: I think I just realized a small leak that's been happening in bigger tournaments. I'm talking myself out of shoving with marginal cards when I'm a little above 10bb or so. I'm assuming I will find a better spot than shoving J9 from the hijack and I'm letting myself blind out. I used to never do this, but I think because of the possibility of higher payouts I'm a little more timid shoving ATC. I need to be conscious of that in the future without overcompensating for it.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Earning Pots - Recap 1-20-10
I'm feeling really good about my play so far tonight. After playing with Chris Layton in Biloxi, I've started noticing more spots where I can profitably bluff. I realized that I was nitting up a bit in Biloxi and only taking one stab and check/folding when called. Tonight I am 2 barreling when it makes sense for the board and I'm leading more. I'm not going crazy, but I am definitely making good reads and balancing my play. So far I was pretty card dead in the beginning, but I opened up my game sooner than normal and it helped me stay afloat until I picked up a few hands. I was also 3betting in position as well as from the blinds vs. just calling to set mine, etc.
Well, after taking a few beats and then earning my way back up I had to make a big laydown which I think was correct, but not sure. Shortly after that I doubled back up to 70K with 2000/4000 blinds. The utg shorty shoved and the button min raised. I had KK and shoved and the button thought it would be funny to show up with AA. gg me. 31st in the 50/50.
Gonna keep playing mtts. I am good at grinding the 90 mans, but we need money right now and I'm due for a big cash so I will sacrifice sleep so we can pay some bills.
Well, after taking a few beats and then earning my way back up I had to make a big laydown which I think was correct, but not sure. Shortly after that I doubled back up to 70K with 2000/4000 blinds. The utg shorty shoved and the button min raised. I had KK and shoved and the button thought it would be funny to show up with AA. gg me. 31st in the 50/50.
Gonna keep playing mtts. I am good at grinding the 90 mans, but we need money right now and I'm due for a big cash so I will sacrifice sleep so we can pay some bills.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Biloxi WPT Event - Jan 2010
I'm currently in an RV heading down to Biloxi to play for about 5 days at the WPT Southern Poker Open. I'm looking forward to the trip and I'm ready to get down to business. I'm going into this trip with kind of a grinders mindset. I haven't played much over the last few weeks compared to normal, but when I have played I have played really well. I feel like a lot of the multiple factors that most good players still don't think about are now coming to me at a subconscious level.
So I'm going down to take care of some business and make a profit. Of course there is the phenomenon of constantly seeing 1:11 or 11:11 on the clock for the last few months that gets me excited that the tournament on 1/11 could be a big one. But I really can't put stock or extra emotion into a tournament simply because of a coincidence. Of course, if it was a sign then I'm not going to argue with that.
We played a few tournaments up on a flat screen in the RV using the WiFi, so that was pretty cool. We tag teamed the decision making and it was comforting to hear myself think about hands at a different level than others.
Anyway, I'll try to post any significant hands as the trip goes on.
So I'm going down to take care of some business and make a profit. Of course there is the phenomenon of constantly seeing 1:11 or 11:11 on the clock for the last few months that gets me excited that the tournament on 1/11 could be a big one. But I really can't put stock or extra emotion into a tournament simply because of a coincidence. Of course, if it was a sign then I'm not going to argue with that.
We played a few tournaments up on a flat screen in the RV using the WiFi, so that was pretty cool. We tag teamed the decision making and it was comforting to hear myself think about hands at a different level than others.
Anyway, I'll try to post any significant hands as the trip goes on.
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