Confused as Hell!

My game is broken.



That is my promised 10k hands at 50nl. The landslide at the beginning was the follow on from the losses I was suffering at 100nl. My game was tilted, I was over aggressive and ran into a shitload of bad luck.

The bottom of the graph was where I reigned in the aggression. I became a lot more passive which is not really my game. But the results speak for themselves.

I honestly believe that sites play differently. My days at AP were easy. My style of play must have fit in perfectly. I never had a losing week. At William Hill (ipoker) I am struggling bigtime.

I think I may stay at 50nl until im fixed.

Ive got a few interesting hand histories to talk about for the next post. Apologies for neglecitng this blog but I find it hard to write when my game is so fooked.

Positive state of mind does wonders.
Ryverrat

Stepping down to 50nl

April so far 100nl
16,000 hands -5bb/100 (-$800)

Thats right my game is screwed at the moment. Ive dropped $1500 from my high in the middle of this month. Im not sure what is wrong. I have reviewed hands and not found anything that stands out to how I normally play. I seem to be losing every coinflip and finding myself completed dominated in other hands. QQ vs KK on a low flop etc. AA/KK vs sets against Laggy players. I could post the hands but I dont feel like it woud do any help.

I will be moving down to 50nl for 10k hands. If my game has changed then I need to move to a safer level to fix the problems.

Poker is such an easy game when you are winning but its f*cking tough when you sit on a landslide. This is my first losing month in a very long while.

Step down, regroup and rebuild.

I would like to know if any readers have experienced such downswings and how they fixed it. Anyone ?

shorties!!

Ipoker is littered with those bugs we know as shorties. These players are a curse to the game of poker. These are the players that sit down with the minimum buy in of 20bb and play fold shove poker. They remove the fun and a lot of the strategy involved and only play 2 streets of poker. Preflop and the Flop.

Now most people complain about shorties but I'm not going to. I have been CRUSHING them recently. I have looked at my numbers from Mar 1st and used the criteria

- pot size less than 50bb and

- allin on the flop or before=true.

I believe this captures all my hands against shorties. Im never calling a shorties bet. I am either raising to get them in or folding.

Killing them. The secret ? Read this post on 2p2....

March

Last month was interesting to say the least. I made a profit of $1100 + $500 in rakeback. $1600 and it could have been so much more.

I started off on a great run, with the deck hitting me square in the face. Set after Set, making great calls, picking off bluffs and making great plays agains the regs. Then midway i had the complete opposite. From hero to zero, well not quite. I feel that tilted me a little and I started losing patience and pushing the action too much. Cbetting too much out of position, playing suited connectors too aggressively, calling lighter and refusing to lay down hands in bad spots. Heres my graph.






Ive started to feel a little reluctant to expose my game on my blog. Ive seen this written before on a few a few blogs. If you are playing a lot you feel as though you may be giving a little edge to players that may look you up online. If I post my position stats for example or talk about my 3 bet range an astute player can easily use that against me. Its not as though my identity at the tables is kept a secret, I use the same name (almost) for most sites I have played at. So for now I wont be putting anything up here that I dont feel necessary.


Apologies but if I am to take this seriously then I need to sharpen all edges no matter how small they may seem.


A question.... would you feel better if you lost 10 buyins at the beginng of the month and work back up to even or made 10 buyins and lose them to end even. Same result but i wonder how many of you would feel more pissed you had the money and lost it rather than feeling you dug yourself out of a hole.

School of Aces

With my recent job loss and past success at poker I have decided, with a partner, to set up a poker school in the city of London. Not just any old poker school, this is pretty damn special.

We will be teaching a 'winning style' based on my style of play and also offer a beginners only course.

We have the massive advantage of being able to use one of the city's exclusive members club, Eight club.The classes will take place at the club, within their plush poker rooms and I have written a full 16 hour course which will take place over 8 weeks.

With our members being UK based I have decided to become an affiliate of William Hill (ipoker). This will allow members of the school to access UK promotions and tournaments etc while also earning us referrals in the meantime.

Im really excited about this project and I have all the time in the world to devote to it. We have branded chips, coursebooks, website and great location.

Check out the website. www.schoolofaces.com (and no thats not me on the front page)

Back on track...

I think the players that stay alive in this game are the ones that can ride out the bad times and not lose control. After an 8 buyin downswing I felt sick. I stepped back and reviewed the key hands. There was definately tilt amongst 2 of my buyin losses, the others I would play the same.

With that in mind and a 24 hour break I stepped down to 50nl tables and regrouped. After a good win rate there for an evening it was back to 100nl tables. less than 1000 hands later I am back to where I started.

Hands played this month 19k with a profit of $1600 + $400 in rakeback. Only a few days left until the end of the month and im hoping to squeeze in a few more buyins.

I did play this one hand which I like.

http://weaktight.com/905949

UTG is a reg and im putting him on a strong hand here. Position is key though and there are a ton of scare cards on the river. My raise on the river is the exact amount i would raise if i had a Ten. He cannot call here without a Ten and chances of that in his hand are very slim.

This only works against a thinking player but just another show of how my game now includes playing back at the regs in certain spots

Oh im moving my bankroll to William Hill (ipoker network) for reasons which I will explain in my next post. big news to come..

Newtons Theory...

What goes up must come down.

Its March 23rd and ive played 16k hands. The first 8k hands were on fire, the next 8 hands turned me over and shafted me silly.

Profit for the month so far is now $830 + $360 approx of rakeback.
Running at 5bb/100 at 100nl.

This sucks

Playing a lot of hands means you see more of the good times and more of the bad times. There are also times in your game where you got a LOT of compounded bad times at once and it makes you really question your game. Ive been through it before and once the suckouts stop and the bad plays against you stop being paid off then your mind settles again. This is the bad part of poker. This is the part of the game that doesnt stop when you are on the floor bleeding, that kicks you into tilt.

I refuse to tilt.

For the rest of the month I will be at 50nl.

check out some of these bad boys.

http://weaktight.com/919561

http://weaktight.com/919556

http://weaktight.com/919570

http://weaktight.com/919562

http://weaktight.com/919566

http://weaktight.com/919568

all in a very short time....


Sorry for the note form. maybe I have blog tilt.

Damn its hot in here.

I am still running hotter than the sun at the moment. Im sure its unsustainable but ill be smiling all the way through it. Im beating 100nl for 36bb/100 so far this month over 4000 hands. With a small loss at 200nl im netting a profit of $1200 so far. I am the most comfortable I have ever been at 100nl and I hope this run continues.





Above is this years graph. I noticed 2 key moments which I have noted on the graph. The gradient of the graph since I gave up work and the point where my redline changed.

I am confused as to why my results would be so much better for not working. I can only assume that I am not as sharp after a full days work. Currently I am playing when im very relaxed and alert whereas before I would squeeze in a few hundred hands before I went to bed each night. Damn I dont want to go back to work for a while.

The redline is self explanatory if you read the previous post. CR videos rock. This redline really does make a big difference to your winrate and its all about betting correctly post flop.

As mentioned in previous posts I am in the process of setting up a business which is poker related. This has taken up a lot of my time over the past week and I will spill the beans to all very soon. We may be linked up with William Hill (ipoker) so I am considering moving the bankroll over there. Ill be deciding this over the next few weeks.

Looks like the durrr challenge vs Patrick Antonius has slowed to a halt. Check out the details here.

Feb Recap

I enjoyed February. Its easy to enjoy the game when you are winning. February has been a month of precision and manipulating bad players.


With precision I mean making more correct decisions on the flop. Reading the board well with opponents ranges and laying down or check folding when necessary. This has made my redline flat to slighty positive. I havent included it in the graph but you will just have to believe me. The redline is the amount of $ you win/lose without seeing the showdown. Zaitsev at Cardrunners did a 2 part series which explains this and how to improve it.


Manipulating bad players has been playing to isolate correctly and setting them up to hang themselves + a load of value betting. This has all added up to a very successful month.


I looked at the rake paid. The rake above of $1500 is incorrect as shown on my rakeback page. The rake is $965 where I have got rakeback of $289. Rakeback is invaluable and anyone that hasnt got it please use my link to the right and sign up asap. Its free money.


Its now March. My plan is to try to play a very formulated month as a 'pro'. Atleast 2 hours per day minimum to start. This will hopefully be a lot more but with a 3 week old baby and starting up a sideline business Im starting off on a low volume number to manage expectations.


2 x 100nl and 1 x 200nl will be my normal play.


Lets see if we can make some decent money.