Grinding a small winning session…

Played a smallish session tonight and finished slightly up.

Here are a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1291217

Wow, I was lucky he was shortstacked on this hand. I don’t see how I could get away from this on the river, but maybe alarm bells should have been going off with his smooth call on the flop and then betting out on the turn. By the time it came to the river, I had the top full-house, and could only be beat by quad 7’s, hence my raise….   Villain had very loose pre-flop stats, but he played this hand pretty well!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1292516 

I don’t normally make preflop calls like this OOP, but the villain’s preflop raise stats were like 16% and he was a bit fishy so I knew I could get a lot of chips if the board was favourable. He was very predictable so I knew he didn’t catch any part of the flop when he checked and so when the 10 came on the turn I knew I was ahead but wanted him to bet out, which he did…..

 http://www.pokerhand.org/?1292533

No comment really! Perfect hand and perfect result! Pocket Kings, a 3rd King on a dry flop and a reraise from villain

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1292553

Playing Ax suited is so profitable at these stakes if you are sure you can see a cheap flop. Obv here the flop was perfect and luckily the villain flopped TPGK with no more diamonds on either the turn or river, so he thought he was ahead….

Session stats

Total hands: 209 hands
Winnings: $3.55
Win rate: 8.5 ptBB / 100

Bankroll: $326.60

Nice weekend and winning session!

Had a good weekend – Got back in touch with some old friends that I had lost contact with and invited them for dinner with my gf. They are a really cool couple and we had a nice lazy afternoon eating drinking and chatting. My gf made a great meal, I had done all the shopping and then did all the washing up.

This evening I played some online poker and was starting to get a bit frustrated with the lack of action. After about 270 hands I was just up about a dollar and was about to call it a day when these 2 hands came up and I won a couple of big pots:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1289444

I sometimes get a bit worried with big overpairs, but decided to bet it big on every street and put him all-in on the turn. I was a bit worried he had AK, especially when the Ace came on the river….

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1289470

Villain was a bit unfortunate here. He flopped 2 pair and I had top pair, good kicker and bet out. Villain really should have raised the flop. However as played, if I hadn’t got my 10 on the turn, I could have lost quite a bit on this hand, as it would have been difficult to put him on a hand. Tricky spot…

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1289501

Villain here was a LAG, raising a lot of pots preflop and betting out on the flop, but not a fish, and he was paying attention. I knew he  knew I had been playing pretty tight so this was a perfect opportunity for a semi-bluff raise on the flop. It worked and he told me afterwards he had 77.

Session stats:
Hands played: 291
Amount won: $13.55
Win rate: 23 ptBB / 100

Bankroll: $323

Live game

Live game!

I haven’t played any online poker since my last post. – I had a really crappy day at work on Thursday and then spent a nice evening with my gf, and poker would have been a bad idea. I don’t really want to go into the details about the work probs, but it basically involved a row with my boss and me telling them that if they keep heaping work and pressure on me, then it’s just not going be a good idea….

Anyway the evening with my gf was great. She cooked dinner while I planned everything we need for our up and coming camping holiday.

Anyway, last night (Friday) after work, I was invited to a friend’s flat for a live home game. There were 6 of us and I had played vs 1 of them before in a home tourney. He had finished 1st and me second, but I was confident I was a slightly better player and so I was really motivated for last night’s game.

Out of the other 4, there were 3 guys, 2 of whom had played quite a bit and the other one who had played before but not very much. Finally  one of the 2 guys who had played quite a bit brought his gf, and she had played a few times on the web apparently.

Although it wasn’t at my home, I offered to organise it if the host so wished. He was fine with that, so I provided the chips (Nexgens) and worked out the chip distribution and blind structure using the excellent http://www.homepokertourney.com/ web site for help.

Anyway, we played 2 games, the first one for no money (damn) and the second one for 2 Euros each – First prize – 8 Euros, second prize 4 Euros.  As you can see, these aren’t big money games, and I think that’s great! There’s just enough to make you want to win first prize, but if you lose, it’s the cost of a drink ! That suits me fine for a home game amongst friends. We all had a good evening, ate some pizza, drank some beers, played  5 hours of poker, and I got some valuable live experience

The first game, I started off very tight, and then got dealt pocket 7’s. I raised it up from mp and got 2 callers. Flop came 2 cards lower than 7, plus J I think.  I bet out and got 2 callers. Hmmm, I think I knew I was beat here. One of the callers was my good player friend, and there’s no way I can push 2 players of this (now pretty big) flop. The turn came a Q I think and I checked and folded to the bet. The hand didn’t get to showdown, but my judging by my friend’s face, he had a monster!

Anyway, that left me only about 600 chips (started with 1000) That’s the problem with STT’s – There’s very little room for manouver to really play poker. I used to play hundreds of these SNG’s online for a 10% ROI – And the strategy was to play very tight early and then losen up at end, and not bothering with hands like Suited connectors, small pairs (for set value) cos you’re just not deep enough to make them profitable.

So with the BB at 50 or so, I decided I was going to wait for a monster and grudgingly go all in and hope for a caller. Well that’s exactly what happened! I got dealt QQ and did the Hollywood act moaning about my short-stack and just said “all-in”  That’s when the female at the table started saying “DON’T CALL, he plays really tight” I felt like telling her to STFU, but realised that would be a tell, and decided to keep my mouth shut. Anyway I got 2 callers! My friend with KJo (I think) and another with TT!  Amazingly my ladies held up and I tripled up and eliminated the guy with TT

I now had chips and was feeling pretty confident. Chip leader on one hand started berating me for playing too tight on one hand when I open checked on a flop. He bet out for 300, and I check-raised all-in. He blushed a little bit before folding. He then STFU a bit after that.

A key hand heads up was when I went all-in with Q9s and the villain (berator) called with 58o !!! WTF ?!! I was trying not to laugh when the pot was pushed to me.

Anyway, I won the fun game, and the berator was clearly not too happy especially as he was with his gf and trying to make out he was Gus Hansen !

To cut a long story short for the real money game, I won that one too The table captain berator crashed out in 6th position having lost most of his stack in the first hand donk betting into an obvious Full-house

I was heads-up at the end with my good friend and I think we were both pleased that we were both going to win whatever happened! Final few hands, the blinds were 300/600 and it was basically all-in or fold.

I was in BB with AQs, he raised from the SB and I went all-in obv. He called, already knowing he was beat I think and showed 2 live cards. My hand held up and I won the game.

Overall, it was a good evening, but made me realise how hard it is to follow betting patterns, observe players in a live game, and to make mental notes. This is something I really need to work on! If anyone has any tips on this, I’d be grateful

Winning session!

Quite a rollercoaster session tonight!

I thought overall I played well, but there was a couple of hands against the same villain where I spewed chips. He basically kept reraising me and pushing me out of pots, and when I finally made a stand, he had a set and bet it hard.

So fair play to him, he outplayed me, and I’ve hopefully learned a lesson to not tilt against a particular player at the table. I am here to make money, not have pissing contests and ego battles. I play poker to win money, not pots, and I need to remember that  

The session started off great – I sat down at 2 10NL tables and there was a complete fish at one of them who kindly donated a large chunk of his chips. I had been playin pretty tightly and observing his play. He was basically calling and betting with any 2 cards, so I knew I was way ahead on every street here :

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278566

Another hand, same villain, I had QJs in the BB. He limped in and I checked.  Queen and a couple of low cards on the flop, rainbow. I value bet for 2/3 of the pot and he calls obv. Another Q on the turn and I make a pot bet for value again. He tries to represent the Queen with a min raise (lol) and I re-pop it. He folds!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278560

These 2 hands were against another villain. He was very loose pre-flop (VPIP about 40%) and he was either catching a lot of good flops or bluffing a lot. In any case he seemed to be taking down a lot of pots unchallenged post flop without showing any hands. This made me want to target him and I lost a lot of money against him..

First hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278554

I really should have raised  preflop and charged him to see a flop. Big mistake, but maybe I’m being results-oriented ? comments ?

Second hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278549

I was tilting against him at this point. He had already won money off me in hand above and I had observed him donking off vs other players at the table. I was waiting for a good hand and AQo was good enough against his pre-flop range. Fair play to him, I think he knew I was steaming and he came out betting on the flop…

At this point I was well down on the session. But yet again, I managed to stay pretty calm, won it back to break even and then won a big hand at the end to finish on a winning session.

Couple of hands from the fight back:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278546

The raise on the flop ensured I won a big pot here IMO. Villain put me on top pair, weak kicker I think, and not a flush draw. So when I came out betting on the turn, he thought he was still ahead. Plus he had a shortish stack, so I knew he wasn’t getting away from the hand

Final hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278539

I was really delighted with how I played this hand. Couple of limpers and a weakish raise and callers in front of me. No way I was just going to call, so I repopped it to $1.20, trying to isolate. No luck! Everyone came along for the ride. The flop comes 2 hearts, all low cards, so I had 9 strong outs to the nut flush and 6 weakish outs to my 2 overcards. I reckoned I had ~12 discounted outs which is huge so I decided to go all-in.  The villain who called me actually berated me after the hand, calling me an idiot. What he didn’t realise was that I was a 54% favourite on the flop !

Comments ?
 

Session stats:

ptbb/100: 10.4

Amount won: $8.85

Bankroll:  $310.33

Break-even session

Just finished a 2 hour session of 2 tabling .05/.10 NL cash

I played really well, got my chips in with the best of it, made some great calls and the odd bluff, but only ended up breaking even.

 Despite this, I am very pleased with the session. To be disappointed would be results-oriented.  Let me show you the hand where I got my chips in good and lost my stack due to a suckout:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278577

I limped in late position with Ace and 7 of clubs,  knowing that if I hit my flush, I was going to get paid off (lots of fish at the table). I flopped the nut flush and was delighted to see 3 all-ins ahead of me !! Obviously I call, and then the board pairs on the turn and the guy with 2 pair (wtf ?) made his full house.  Oh well, I was a bit pissed off obv (I would have quadrupled up !), but I just quietly reloaded and didn’t go on tilt which I was very pleased about. I then set about grinding it all back to break even, at which point I called it a day.

Some other hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278576

Blind vs blind. His min-raise from the SB made me think he had high cards and when the flop came all low cards, I was certain my hand was best, hence my raise and strong play to showdown. I don’t often make big calls/moves like this at $10NL because it’s often not a big enough vs donkeys who are going to bet/call with anything, but here I really felt he was weak and decided to go with my read This was great for my table image after that.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1278571

 This hand normally wouldn’t warrant a discussion, but the villain in question was uber tight (24/13/1.5) over a large sample and his min-raise UTG was screaming AA to me, and then when the board paired, I was probably seeing  monsters under the bed and decided to just check behind on the river, reasoning that I’m only going to get called by a better hand.

Any comments ?

Bankroll: $301.50

Beach plus cash grind

Last night after work, I went straight to the beach ( I had my beach stuff all ready in the car). I needed some fresh air and I am way too pale for someone who lives year round in the south of France!

The weather was great even at 6:30pm, and there were even some decent waves which had attracted a large group of surfers. There was also a group of 3 idiots who decided to play football right in the middle of everyone to everyone’s dismay. The beach I was at is huge, but of course these pricks had to play next to everyone. Even when the ball doesn’t actually hit you or get close, you can’t relax and sunbathe with your eyes closed or whatever because you’re forever looking out for the ball every time they pass the ball.

Anyway this hour on the beach was still good. It’s amazing how just a bit of sun and fresh air can make you feel and look better. I then drove a bit further down the coast to a resort town and bought myself a “sandwich americain” which is basically a delicious steak and chips in French bread. Not particularly healthy if you eat that every day, but hey, it’s not like I’m overweight or anything!

I ate the sandwich while walking around the town and observing everyone. It’s quite a tacky town in the Summer months with lots of touristy shops targeting the masses. I walked to the casino, but didn’t go in as I was dressed in shorts, T-shirt etc and I didn’t want to give the security the satisfaction of turning someone away. I actually wanted to see if they had any announcements or adverts stating when they will be offering Texas Holdem poker.

The end of last year, the French authorities ran a trial in 3 pilot casinos – Aix-en-Provence, Deauville and another one I can’t remember close to the Swiss border. The trial was a huge success for everyone concerned and in May of this year, the French government authorized Texas Holdem in all French casinos that wanted to offer it. The minimum cash tables will be 1/2 Euros NL, so I am not yet bankrolled for it, but since I have been playing and beating the mico-limits, I figure I have the ability to beat this game. There is no way I would play live if not bankrolled, but I am keen to go down to the casino and check out the level of play as soon as they start….

Anyway, there were no announcements, so I finished my food and returned home.

I opened up a couple of .05/.10 NL full ring cash tables with the aim of grinding my bankroll up to $300 from $288. The $300 mark seems to be a sticking point for me – Every time I have got my bankroll to or just over this amount, I seem to go on a bit of a losing streak down to $250 or so. It has happened two or three times and this time I really want to stay disciplined and get my bankroll way over the $300 mark.  The plus side of this, is that this experience has taught me discipline and patience. Not once did I re-credit my account to get it back up to $300 (which I could easily afford) – I got it back up by grinding away.

So anyway, last night I achieved my aim and got my bank-roll up to $301.50  I realize this isn’t huge amounts, but I consider this to be my poker training and it is the amount relative to the blinds which is relevant. I checked out my stats at the .05/.10 level – Approx 0.5 ptBB/100 over 14,000 hands. Certainly not crushing, but being a winning player (just) over a reasonable sample is certainly promising.
Why am I playing full-ring and not 6 max I hear you ask ?!  Simple answer – Live poker in the casinos is nearly always full-ring, and thats what I’m preparing myself for

I would love to hear from other players grinding it out and learning the ropes at micro-limits cash games

Good luck at the tables…

First game of poker

I started playing poker back in 2004.

I had signed up at Betfair (a betting exchange) originally to bet on football games. The difference between a betting exchange and a traditional bookmakers site, is that in a betting exchange, it is other “players” and not a bookmaker who are laying you the odds. This means you can “bet” on an outcome not happening by laying the odds yourself. You can also bet and lay bets in-play during the match. 

I had purchased a football betting system on Ebay, which actually worked for me for over a month, netting me about 1500 Euros. I then did a bit of research and mathematical simulations on the “system” and quickly realised that my profits were due in large part to a good run. I worked out that just one or 2 bad decisions could have easily wiped out this profit. I wasn’t interested in taking big risks, and decided to stop the system while I was still ahead.  

I then saw that Betfair also had a poker site. Now I had only ever played draw poker at school and never for money, but I had read a lot of posts on the Betfair forums of people discussing strategy and it was clear that good players could make a lot of money, ie there was an element of luck/randomness, but that it was a game of skill and that over time the luck evens out and good players win. This was exactly what I was looking for. 

I downloaded the client software and played on the play money tables to learn the rules and get used to the software. I then took the plunge and decided to play my first real money game. On the forums, everyone advised to only start playing low buy-in tournaments to ensure you can only lose the buy-in, as a post to cash games where your chips = your money and a beginner can quickly lose money, even at the micro-stakes. 

So I started playing single table tournaments and the occasional multi-table tournaments.  If I remember correctly, I cashed in a few of those early tournaments, and my best result was a 2^nd place in a 400 player MTT, but overall, I was at best breaking even, and a lot of my wins were certainly down to beginners luck.  

At the tables, I saw a lot of players criticizing some of my play, talking about pot odds, implied odds etc. I had absolutely no idea what they talking. But I wanted to learn…..

Taking the plunge

Well, here we go. I never thought I’d move over to the dark side and start a blog! I have always scorned blogging, and in particular bloggers, hating the “Me, me, me, me, I did this, I did that” vanity thing.

So why have I decided to start a blog? Well it’s certainly not for vanity reasons. I don’t care if anyone reads it or not. I see it more as a therapeutic personal diary.

Life is pretty much passing me by and by writing a dailing blog, I have to actually justify what I’m doing with my time and my life. Currently I feel at a bit of a crossroads in my life. No let me correct that – I have often felt at a crossroads and have often taken a turning, reached another crossroads, taken another turning, reached another taken another turning and ended up back where I started.

I get bored quickly. I have dreams and ambitions. I have ability, above average intelligence, but am often too lazy to put things into action. I do not feel in control of my life. Life, and others control me. I would like that to stop. I want to achieve something with my life. Writing this, getting it down on paper the screen is helping me already.

I’ll write more later…..