I’m back !

… in fact I never went away, but just stopped posting while working hard on my game, moving down limits to get my confidence and “A game” back !

As a recap to my poker history – I started this blog with a bankroll of about $270 and I was playing $10 NL. With a lot of grinding/discipline/patience, I built it up slowly and eventually moved up to $25NL where I really dominated and quickly moved up to $50NL when my bankroll hit $1000. Unfortunately on moving up, I took a few bad beats and then tilted a bit which resulted in me losing confidence, playing badly, tilting even more etc…. This all resulted in my bankroll taking quite a hit (down to $500 at one point) and me feeling really frustrated. I needed a break and took a few weeks off.

After the break, I went through my PT database and tried to analyse what went wrong. I realised that there had been initially nothing wrong with my game!! I had just that I had hit a downswing at a bad time and then tilt did the rest of the damage. Wow, tilt is such a monster and I now realise this is something that has to be overcome to be a true winner at poker. Those who have been following my blog from the start will know that I am a solid winning player, with plenty of discipline. I now know that if I can avoid tilting and can accept the variance, I can really beat this game.

So what have I been doing since my last post ?! Well when I started to rebuild, my bankroll was at $500 and I decided to move down to $10NL and nit it up playing good, solid ABC poker, making few moves, and grinding it out like I had done at the beginning. I also went back to 2-tabling and taking extensive notes on my opponents. This seemed to work, and I (eventually) started winning again, and most importantly enjoying my poker again.

When my bankroll hit $550 (+ 5 buyins), I moved back up to $25NL and carried on grinding. I took a few bad beats, but this time they didn’t seem to affect my play as each and every time I had got my money in good. I stopped playing if lost more than 2 buyins in a session and if I was starting to feel frustration/anger etc ! I broke even for a while at $25NL, but didn’t change anything in my game and just recently, it has been paying off and my bankroll is again moving up slowly and surely.

One of my strengths in my early days of success was my ability also to know when to stop playing a session and book a win, even a small win and not get too greedy, particularly if feeling tired. I used to do this so as to ensure I finish the session on a positive note. Some would say this is -EV if the tables are juicey, but I feel it can also be +EV because it means the next session will be played with a feeling of confidence and we all know how important that is Well I have been doing this again, and it seems to be working and my confidence is growing all the time.

Something else I have been doing too is practicing good table selection. I have no ego. I have no desire to be the best player in the world. I want to play vs fish with full stacks, so that is what I have been doing

So, to cut a long story short, my bankroll is now standing at $690, I am enjoying my poker again and have big plans to keep grinding and take another shot at $50NL and then take things from there. I am not going to give myself monetary goals, because that is out of my control. I will simply be trying to play regulary and making good decisions and I’m sure the money will take care of itself.

Finally, I would just like to say I am pleased to say I never once had to redeposit my account, I never went broke and am now looking forward to keep moving on up through the limits

Here are a few hands from my last few sessions (good and bad):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2378880

Villain was a complete maniac running at 83/65/2.8

He was open-raising all-in a lot and generally overbetting all the pots. I insta-called this and was 80% favourite when the money went in…..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2378910

Meh, I like my flat call here preflop. I’m keeping weaker Aces in and keeping the pot small OOP. I was sure he was going to cbet so checked to him on the flop and check raised him on the turn. Can’t believe he called the turn, what does he think he’s beating ? However I could/should have found a fold on the river…

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2378945

lol this guy was such a fish. No way I was folding to a minraise preflop, knowing my implied odds were HUGE vs this sort of player if I hit the flop. When I saw the flop, I decided straight away I was going to commit and the only problem was how to get the money asap. Luckily villain obliged !

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2378968

These 3 villains were all maniacs and had all been locking horns against each other which is why I reraised it hard preflop. I couldn’t believe they all called though. Aces vs 3 villains isn’t good, but they had shortish stacks so I was committed on any flop. JSLYCORD paused for ages when I put him all-in on the turn so I knew I had him crushed. I really wanted him to call to win a big sidepot in case BOJICUBS already had me beat. I am sure he would have called if it hadn’t had been for ShooterrrNJ telling him he was crushed. Idiot, if it had been a live game, I would have called the floor (after the hand) to complain. (He had KT btw)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2379027

Ship it !

GL to all of you