Big withdrawal!

I have decided to withdraw a large amount of my roll ($500) to pay for a good chunk of my trip to Thailand and other assorted expenses. This will bring me back down to $367.30 and mean more NL10. Personally i don't mind too much because i get to use the fruits of my labour to actually pay for stuff that is important to me in real life. However i was getting pretty comfortable at NL25 but hopefully im back there soon!

My options remain open though. In the past i've had some interest in forming staking deals with people and this could be a definite option. At the moment though im well rolled for NL10 so i might go log a session there!

Swingy but heading north

Played a few small sessions yesterday and just then. Managed to win a bit over a buy in bringing the roll to $867. I think the goal for the rest of December is to just get to $900. If i can achieve that i would be very happy. This would also bring my total winnings in December to over $600 which with the exchange rate equates to ~$900 AUD. Considering that i've only played half the volume i planned to play (60k hands) this is acceptable.

Anyway enough of this end of month banter, there's still 2.5 big days to go which have the potential to make or break me. Plzzzzzzzz run good!

Taking it easy

As the title suggests im gonna take it easy for a few days. Tried to log a session just before and i found myself quickly tilting after a few disgusting hands. The players seems to be sooooo bad (someone suggests that this time of the year brings them out) however i just can't hit shit against them and even when i do have something they seem to be drawing out on me. Forcing myself to go nowhere near poker tomorrow and just do a bunch of other stuff that needs doing. I'll return when i have a clear head and can handle the bad beats a bit better. One key thing i have learnt with poker is that tilt can be a very secretive and cunning bastard. You may feel fine and seem to be playing ok but even when your slightly tilted your game changes dramatically. You start making bad decisions in lots of small situations which eventually add up to a lot.

Roll is $838

swongfest 2008

Yeh last nights session really did drain me mentally. I think it was just a culmination of a swongy week where i just haven't seemed able to play steady poker. As is evident with my previous 50k or so hands of poker, i play quite a minimal variance style. This, i believe, is achieved by generally avoiding marginal situations. In the long run this strategy may cost me money but it greatly reduces my swongs & thus helps to alleviate tilting from big downswings etc.

Unfortunately this style seems to have been underfire this week. Reviewing my hands i really just had a number of gross situations where i considered folding & may have done it in the past but just really found it difficult. In the end with each of these hands i feel i made the right decision but alas i was punished.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3633316 --> A blind battle with my AA<33

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3633319 --> a much more marginal situation. I had previous established that villain was a big donk so i just couldn't fold here given strongish 10's made up a solid part of his range. Even QJ can't be out of the equation.

There were lots more hands but these were the most recent and fresh in my mind. Here's the graph for the week:

Another interesting find i made was this: My pocket Kings have really been underperforming badly relative to my other big pairs. It seriously seems like every time i have them somebody has AA or an Ace flops and villain chk raises or plays strong enough for me to fold. When this doesn't happen villain flops an underset/two pair etc. I really think 242 times is almost a large enough sample size that for KK to start getting into the solid green but i guess not.

Quite a faggy post but it feels good to discuss these variance aspects of poker. 7k hands really isn't a massive sample so i should probably stop whinging and just keep playing.

FUCK poker

absolutely fucking hating poker at the moment. Running like completely shit. Definitely the worse run in my entire 55k span of hands. The players at NL25 are absolutely fucking atrocious yet they just keep sucking out/coolering me. I've been playing really good through it and probably would have come off much worse if i hadn't have been playing so well. I guess its just standard variance but the last 8k or so hands really have been fucking shit house. Sorry for all the swearing but its the only thing i can use to aptly describe how im feeling. It's 1:38am on christmas night and i just feel rock bottom. Im not tilting or anything so im gonna continue grinding. Try to win back some fucking money. Sigh.

Roll is somewhere around the $740 mark. If it drops to $700 i'll call it a night. FUCK!

Merry Christmas!

Well its that time of year once again when the big bearded fat man comes and gives us some sweet sweet presents. Apparently some guy was also born on this day a few thousand years ago and may have died for our sins. Im personally more concerned about getting stuck into the abundance of ham & turkey & alcohol. Woot Christmas!

Anyway on the poker front the last few days have been quite a swongfest. Mixing play up between NL25 & NL10 just to help build the confidence. Im well rolled for NL25 but im still slightly cautious of loading up like 6tables of NL25 and facing standard 5 buy in upswings/downswings. Im sure my comfort will grow as time goes on.

My brother has started a bit of a grind quest (obviously inspired by my success LOL). He even went ahead and bought holdem manager so i have managed to load all my hands into that. Its a truely awesome piece of software that shows ev, showdown & non-showdown winnings etc. Definitely will consider purchasing it soon.



As this graph shows im actually up $1117.23 and running slightly above expectation! Looks like i need to work on my non-showdown winnings though.

Bankroll is now $823. I need 150 more FPP's for Silverstar as well.

F$^D$^%I&

God dammit! haha i just wrote out a massive post and then sure enough when i click "post" it fails and gives me some faggoty message about html code being wrong. Great.

Just played a yuk yuk session. Roll went from $810 to like $720. But i managed to recover a bit and ended up at $775. This graph includes last nights session. (the heater at the start)

Some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3622108 --> villain really didn't have odds both preflop and on the flop with this hand. Naturally manages to bink the gutshot on the turn. My turn shove is probably a bit spewy but based on his play, villain often has something like JJ or QQ here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3622098 --> yuk hand. villain was an uber donk and i probably tilt called the turn min raise, hopnig he was bluffing or would check the river. Guess not.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3622104--> only a few hands later. Same villain. In the time between our hands he had managed to give a decent chunk of my money to another player. I figured QQ was definitely ahead of his shoving range plus he might be a bit tilted, but naturally he has the goods.

Overall a shite session but i'll be back tonight or maybe tomorrow. Got a christmas party this evening so i might just leave poker and hit that.

Update: just played another swongfest which finished on a good note. I pulled in a $75 pot with a boat which got me back to like even for the day. LOL!

800

Played a nice little session today and won some coin bringing the roll to $806! NL25 really seems like a weak level. Im sure its worse than NL10. Im running good at the moment so i probably have that to thank for a lot of the profit. A mighty doomswitch must be coming soon. Anyway here are the garfs:




NL25: 12 of the finest buy ins.




Overall:


Hopefully this good run continues for a while. Very optimistic thinking (and i'll probably doomswitch myself just for mentioning it) but if i can get the roll to around $1100 i might take a very cautious shot at NL50.

Quiet

Haven't played much at all recently. Far too busy enjoying the festive season, getting drunk etc. Currently very hung over but i has a plan. Roll is currently $740 so i might give the 10k hands thing a go at nl10. The good thing about having a decent roll is that you start changing your appreciation of money slightly. When my roll was like $200 if i had a 5 buy in downswing at nl10 i would almost start crying (lol jks) but if it happens now its not too bad.

700!

Bankroll has now reached $700, giving me total winnings of $1000 USD since my $25 deposit in October. Woot! Its taken 47k hands and a total time of 75.33 hrs.



Definitely on a mad nl25 heater atm. After


Garf

i run goot.

Just had a small but awesome session. I hopped on with my roll at $613 and quickly dropped below $600 from a few small hands. Not to be discouraged i continued battling and was given this glorious gift:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3589258

--> A ridiculous cooler for the other guy who must have thought he was golden when the turn and river fell.

I also stacked a shorter stack donk with a set of 8's against her AA. This now brings the roll to $664. Unfortunately my pokertracker 3 trial has expired so its back to pokertracker 2. This version has a knack of missing hands etc & cannot provide info on specific sessions etc. Anywho here's the current graph (missing like $50-$70)

Goal for next week.

So far in December i have played 14,591 hands. The goal for next week is to play 15k hands. Im up $302.40 for the month so far which is good but i really gotta get my grind on if i want to get near my $1k milestone. NL25 is going good: up almost 4 buy ins after 1224 hands. Feeling a bit hungover today so i might give poker a miss until tomorrow.

steady

Haven't played a great deal over the past few days but when i have its been ok. At the moment im playing 4 - 6 tables, with usually 1 of these being nl25. When the roll hits $600 i will add another nl25 table. Overall the roll is $544.25

running goot.

As the title suggests im running goot at the moment. December has been a cracking good month so far. Up about $346 AUD after 9 days of poker. Roll now stands at a robusto $510 so i might start taking some cautious shots at nl25. I will give myself like 2 buy ins, so if the roll drops back to like $450 i'll resume at nl10.

December: (notice the very nice upswong right at the end of the graph)

Overall:

**EDIT: Took my firts shots at nl25. Verdict: its swongy :(

Stats: Had KK 4 times: down $22.

Had AA 3 times: up $24 (thanks to my final hand of the day). http://www.pokerhand.org/?3564950

lol: fail

Well todays efforts were absolutely shit lol. i played an initial session this morning of like 640 hands then got called by my mate to go have lunch. I did this with the intention of returning to the grind as soon as i got home. Unfortunately another mate from far away decided to pop over to my house and stay for the rest of the day. I kept him entertained for the whole day and have only just returned from the pub. So the net outcome of the day was 640 hands for a total of $11 profit. This brings the roll to $436. It's 11:30pm now, so if i sober up some more i might hit tables. Definitely keeping the dream of 5k hands alive though. might do it tomorrow.

**EDIT: just played a sneaky little 300 hands session. Managed to win about $13 increasing todays winnings.

Today

LOL hand of the day: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3555624

- with appropriate words from Mr Wonka for the villain.

Roll is $450.

Game plan for today

Inspired by a fellow blogger (stacktown - link is on the right) i have decided to set myself a challenge today. Im going to try play 5k hands. This will probably be around 7-8 hours of total play if i 10 table. I will break it up into chunks and will report my success/failure this evening. Roll is currently $426.

going nuts????

These swongs are driving me mad!!! >:(

Just finished another retarded session where i went from like even to 2 buy ins down, back to even then down then up a few dollars.! I think i need to take a small break from actually playing poker and just watch some vids etc. Try see what im doing thats creating the madness. Its probably just standard variance but i can't help feel that im getting my stack in too light at the moment. Hands like these just seem to keep happening:



http://www.pokerhand.org/?3547588 --> like wtf!! limping with AKss utg. Obviously i flop bottom two on a AK2 board and face his raises. I really believe a whole load of aces are his dominant range here. Should i be folding to his final shove? I can't really see why.



http://www.pokerhand.org/?3547593 Once again the villain's play just leaves me thinking wtf. I suppose it isn't the firts time a donk has limped with AA/KK but i just can't find a fold.



http://www.pokerhand.org/?3547600 villain just milks me i guess. Should i playing this different? Maybe rr preflop?



http://www.pokerhand.org/?3547611 blergh. Atleast we didn't get it in on the flop.



I guess i've just been having some messy sessions.

December:

swongy but heading north

My sessions recently have been plagued by swonginess. Frequently i find myself down 3 or 4 buy ins early in the session and needing my A game to kick in so i can win them back. This evenings session was no different with my set of 7's losing to a set of aces of a 27A flop. This was quickly followed when i opened from the button with AQ. Big blind opted to flat call and we saw a flop of A75 rainbow. He bet, i raised, he reraised, i shoved and we get it all in with his ak proving superior. I started my session at around 4:20am just before (its now almost 5am wtf!!) so maybe im just tired. :S

Anyway long story short i ended up pulling in around a buy in and the roll current stands at $404. Happy days. In the opening 6 days of December i have played 6.6k hands for a $117.30 profit @ just over $20 AUD an hour. If im going to achieve my goals (60k hands, 1k profit) i really need to get my grind on.

December thus far:

Overall

Going to play in the WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 298628

absolute battle

well im glad yesterday was fun, because today has been shite thus far. I do have to blame myself for about 1/4 of it though. The rest have been faggoty suckouts and coolers imo. here are my stats from the sesh:

AA: Had it 12 times. Ended down $13.50 overall. FML!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3536480: meant to put him all in on the turn but whatever. Atleast he got a nice memory of the hand with a royal flush.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3536492 why these stakes are still profitable. 43>AA aipf.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3536503 as above. K8>AA

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3536519 the FML hand of the day. Im still not sure if i hate it or not. Me and villain are fairly deep. up to the flop is pretty standard but im trying to decide whether my turn call of his reraise is bad. I have an open ended straight flush draw and at this point i put him on something like a set/ two pair. My river call of his reraise is questionable as well. Would love some feedback from people.

Anyway gonna take a break now and hit it later on. Really wanna hit $400 before the weekend.

quick little up date of my day

Finished a fairly decent day of grinding. Played 2414 hands in total and won $56.45. ship it!

grinding

just played a nice 1.6k hand session. Was up 1.5 buy ins initially, then down a buy in, but finished strong to win ~4 buy ins. This bring the roll to $339 :)

Gonna try play another 1.5k or so hands this evening. Let's hope i can contnue the run good.

and thats November.

Thought i'd do a wrap up of my month. Wasn't the greatest month volume wise because of exams but hopefully December is big. Overall i won about $480 AUD at $18.40/hour. Pretty much equivalent to what id be making in a normal job for my age but with poker i get to eat fruit loops, listen to music & sit in my underwear while i play, so i prefer it.

After starting on like the 6th of November with $25 i grinded NL2 for a while:




Then when the roll hit ~$50 i stepped up to NL5




Then NL10






Month Stats & graph




Goals for December

• Minimum of 60k hands.
• Win a minimum of $1000
• 3 buy in stop loss
• Move up to NL25