Sunday, August 31, 2008

August results and september goals.

Hey,

My August goals were:

- 120k hands of 200NL
- $16k total profit
- 200k VPP milestone bonus.
- Be ready to move to 400NL by the end of the month.

Played about 127k hands total, with 7k being 100nl and the other 120k being 200NL. Had a total profit of $12020 (8400 from cash, 1600 from the freeroll and 2000 from the bonus). Bought and cleared the milestone bonus.

Now, I have the BR but I dont feel very confident about moving up. Will take my first 2/4 session tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.

Graph:




Really disappointed with myself. Feel like overall I played way below my A game, thus displaying a shitty graph and shitty 2ptbb winrate (the average 24 tabler winrate) Something will have to change.


September goals:

50k hands of 400NL
Total profit of $16k
Cut down the number of tables to 12-16 to focus on improving.
Be mentally prepared to make $400 my regular game in October and take shots at 600 and 1000NL.
Blog once every 3 days, the minimum.
Decide once and for all what I'm going to do about college.


Will also start using HEM because I tried it today and instantly fell in love with it. I don't like PT3 and HEM seems to do a pretty good job of keeping up with the evolving trend of poker.



That is all.

Friday, August 29, 2008

lol

Worst day ever.



Lost $1.3k playing 200NL and $400 playing 100NL.

Not much to do, just beat after beat, cooler after cooler and me playing bad in easy spots because of some tilt.

I kinda expected this, though... I'm clearing a bonus so the doomswitch has to appear sometime... maybe I'll just play 100NL the remainder of the month so I don't risk as much since I'm doomswitched while I'm clearing it.

Clearing the $4k bonus is out of the question and since I lost $1.7k today I will not meet my $16k goal for the month.

I refuse to believe it's due to my play btw, even though I'm spewing in some spots where my style of play does not allow me to do otherwise (idk, I feel like if I change these little aspects I have to change my entire style and my current style sounds profitable enough at these limits) The moment I start having doubts about my game it will only get worst so... screw that, I'm not going down.

I also decided that I will most likely quit 24 tabling once I move up to midstakes (probably will 12-16 table) so I might think about switching to a more profitable site given that Stars's midstakes FR games have a couple of months left before they become total wastelands. Maybe one of the european networks, idk yet.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

blargh

Played about 6k hands today. All 100NL cause the 200NL tables seemed horrible beyond belief.




Some hands:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3115638 -> Unknown at the time. We were 200BBs deep so I was kinda reluctant to 3bet a UTG raiser. Flop TPTK with a BDFD and he cbets. I raise because he's a 100NL unknown so probably bad and he min 3 bets... when he does this I think he either has exactly AA or something he totally spazzed out with so I just call and let him do the betting for me. Turn a backdoor flush draw and he bets around half pot... I don't like a shove here because i'm only folding out worst that will probably shove river. I river awesome and he spazzed out with middle pair. Nice to win a 400BB pot for a change.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3115644 -> Hand plays itself out but it was nice because this is my 4th str8 flush in my career lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3115649 -> This guy was a multitabling reg. I just destroyed him this session, can't remember of the last time I pounded on a reg the way that I did and how badly he reacted. Always nice to have people calling your 3 bets with A9o OOP

That's it for today. Hopefully I'll play a ton tomorrow (if the 200nl tables don't suck)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Short session.

Played a short session today, ran hot (mostly PF stuff like AA vs JJ and 77 when 2 overaggro regs who give me no credit called my 5bet shove)



Quit the session relatively early because people were check/minraising me on every flop (no exception, every single flop I cbet was getting minraised) and it was starting to induce tilt so I opted to just quit since the effect of marijuana the RNG had been on was probably wearing off.


Favorite hand of the session:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3110819 -> Guy here is a very aggro reg who doesn't give me any credit. Not a very tough hand for me to play, he c/raises when I flop the 2nd nuts so I opt to just call the flop because I will have position and that's the best way to maximize value out of his whole range. Bad spot to bluff son :(

The $2k bonus has been credited into my account today (it's 10k VPPs to clear it) and I've cleared 1.3k of those with this session today.

gl

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

asodasdasoodas

Played 10k hands today to finish in the red.



Played horribly in some big pots and ran like crap the whole time (6 KK vs AA and 4 set over sets lol.....)

Im really getting tired of this nitty environment so if 400NL plays like 200NL does I'll probably switch to 6 max. Tired of worrying about set over set when I flop one or worrying if I'm going to get coolered with KK PF instead of looking for the best way to get stacks in. No more of this from these fcking nits.

Some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3106159 -> Biggest pot I ever lost. Was playing HUDless and I had no reads at the time and he was at a couple of tables so I assumed he was the standard 200NL reg (aka nitty) so I wanted to see a flop seeing as we're deep and his raise came from UTG, sounding very strong. Flop huge with an OESD + FD so the price of poker has got to go up.. turn is a K. I think the K won't be a scare card to most of his range (I doubt i'm folding stuff im behind of by betting here) so I just check behind. River a flush and he bets close to pot... he's strong here ALWAYS but I just hoped he had KKK or AA and shoved (made a huge blunder here, acted by instinct when I shoved and failed to realize I was shoving more than a buyin into the pot) He snapped off with the nuts (obv, why would people stack off with anything other than that?) so I lost my biggest pot ever.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3106192 -> Had been battling with this guy and he seemed prone to tilt given the frequency I was 3 and 4 betting him. Standard preflop 3 bet (this is actually for value because he calls me with worst often) Cbet the flop because he misses most times and I want to take it down right there and he just calls... when he calls I doubt he has draws here because most draws will have overs and he'll shove that vs me because he hates my guts, so I think his range here is often 1 pair hands. Turn is the A which pretty much means that I have the best hand here ALWAYS so I c/c because by checking I allow him to turn some of his hands into a bluff. River puts trips on the board so I rather shove because my line looks rather weak and people never fold full houses (especially with our history) He snapped me off btw.


I'm at 195k VPPs and I've ordered the $2k bonus, will try to clear it tomorrow. 104k hands for the month so I think tomorrow I'll reach my hand # goal.




;) ;) ;)

Friday, August 22, 2008

;)

Haven't played much the last few days.... tables are awful all the time so I have the lack of will to play. Maybe tomorrow I'll play some 10k hands because its saturday and donks are out lolollo

Played around 2k hands of 100NL today (200NL tables REALLY sucked and I wanted to get my fix lololol) It was a different session because LearningCurve from 2p2 railed me and it was a fine experience to learn and teach at the same time while I was playing. Also played 2k hands of 200NL on Thursday but quickly was disencouraged because of how quickly the tables switched from decent to bad.

Here's a graph of the last 3 days (includes 100 and 200NL)



Hopefully tomorrow I have a huge, HUGE session so I can brag instead of whine :D




Represent homies.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Nice little session.

Hey,

Played 8k hands today for a nice profit of $1.9k. Played OK, I guess but I'm still not happy with some spots I got myself into (vs the same guy actually, I think he has me under control... I will have to examine his play on PT) Finished up around 2 buyins in AIE which is nice (mostly against ratholers which is even nicer). Only 18 or something to go to recover from last week lololol




Some hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3072213 -> This one is proof of how retarded I am. Tried to get cute by betting $17.9 (please note the point) but forgot about actually typing it and when i noticed it was too late lolololol Anyway I can't fold for 7 bucks more pal, SPIKE ME A K DEALER ONE TIME... yeah right


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3072222 -> Guy here was getting pissed with me, I'd regularly raise his SB limp and he always called and c/f the flop. When he limp/min3bets I think his hand is face up as KK+ so I opted to call such a weak hand like T2o (prob mediocre at best but I felt so confident as to what his hand was that I chose to grab the opportunity in position) Flop comes J high with a BD str8 draw which is still mediocre. He checks it to me and this has c/mr written all over it and since I have T high just check it back and try to spike a BD. I spike the 8 so now I'm openended with 8 outs and he bets $20. Raising here is bad because I have no fold equity but I feel so confident that I will stack his hand on a river that improves me (I will ABSOLUTELY need to accomplish that to make this play acceptable at best) River makes my str8 he bets $20 again which at the time felt like KK asking to go to showdown cheap but.. no can do sir, stick it in. He obliged and mucked. Questionable preflop call but postflop I think it's standard (taking into account I'll stack him 100% of the times I hit, which I think I will vs this guy) Not sure about the math here but you can comment it if I'm making a huge blunder. Thanks.


I'm at about 190k VPPs after this sess so I'm really close to the milestone. Also at 200k FPPs so also close to the $4k bonus. Will try to put in 10k hands tomorrow.




Thanks for reading.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

lol

Final tabled the 100FPP saturday donkament today, took 2nd place for $1.6k I think.

I'm not a very good heads up player (especially with 15BB stacks) but I had the chiplead and got it in a couple of times, once he sucks out on the turn with bottom pair vs my mid pair, another time I get it in with KQ vs his KJ and the board pairs, and the final hand was my K5s vs his A7o... flop came A high with my flush draw but the turn and river bricked, so not much to do.

Kinda happy with my performance in this donkament (I have to thank Chargers for railing me the middle stages) because I really didn't think I'd make this far given that the last donkament (not counting SNGs) I played was like 3 or 4 months ago. This was also my first final table in a donkament since like 1 year back when I used to play freerolls (well this is a freeroll too, but it pays better)




Doubt I'll be playing any ring games tonight, took 5 hours to play this so I'm already tired.



Bye.

Friday, August 15, 2008

No comments.

Skill will only take you so far in this game, your luck has to define the rest.... and when my luck is based on the premise that 2 outers are the best hand, not much for me to do...

This past week:





It hurts my game, it hurts my results, it hurts my will to play, idk wtf to do anymore... I refuse to believe that I'm a breakeven player. Just isn't possible, I know what I see day in and day out and each passing day I become more and more aware how bad people truly are.

Whatever, sorry to bitch but I had to let it out.



Peace.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Siiiiiiiiiiiigh....

Played about 8.2k hands today.

Very disappointed with the way I played today, acted like a total spewmonkey preflop, my 3bet% this session must have been like 20 and I failed to notice that same fact so I think people exploited me easily today :(



Very frustrating. First of all, I'm only winning at 2ptbb and I want to win at 3, the very minimum. There's still much work to be done.


Only had one hand that's worth discussing:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3043960 - Villain here is unknown, seems bad. Good flop for my hand, flop a good hand with a good chance that I'll get action. I cbet and he flats... now, when he just calls I think most times he's gonna have either a weakish K (like KT/KJ), a strong Q like AQ/QJ, draws (FDs and str8s) and a small percentage of the times he's gonna be slowplaying a big hand, like top 2 or a set of 8s.

Turn is a perfect card because it bricks completely BUT adds a backdoor FD to my hand which basically means I have a boner by this time. I bet fairly close to the pot because I'd expect his hand to be defined after his reaction to the bet. He just calls again which basically means that he wasn't slowplaying on the flop (most times people act on the turn in case they slowplay the flop) so he's either on a draw (my money is on this at the time), a strong K and a very small percentage of the times AQ. River is a very good card for me because it pairs the board and every possible thing missed. I don't think I'm going to get 3 streets of value out of 1 pair hands that he has (even though he looks very showdown bound) and the best way to extract value from the rest of his range (i.e. missed draws) is by checking it to him here.

His river bet is hilarious because it makes me think he decided to turn something like KJ/AQ into a bluff here (most times I think missed draws just bet like $80 or something into that pot) so I shove the extra 11 bucks into the pot. He calls and mucks quickly. I was kinda surprised to see QJo but whatever, people are tools and I collect my biggest pot ever.


Broke the 60k hand mark for the month today so there's that. I'm at 177k VPPs atm.

Overall it was a shitty session. I also ran about 3 buyins below AIE so that's good because it shows that people need to suckout on me in order to win stacks (had my first AA < AK in 2 months)


Just to close this post, here's one of the most hilarious vids I've seen in a while (20 minutes or so lolol)



Word.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Damn

Played 10k hands today.





Overall I'm very happy with how I've been playing lately but the RNG simply does not give me a break. It happens though, everyone's supposed to go through this crap otherwise the fish would be playing chess or something by now lololol

Don't really want to share any hands today because most of the big hands I lost were just coolers/suckouts spots, and since I dont really want this blog to be a bad beat central I'll just spare you of that... ;)

Found a way to get around some of my preflop leaks so I'm happy about that too, been playing solid all around lately so I'm really proud of the way my game's evolving.

Might put in another 10k hand session tomorrow, not really sure yet but it's almost the mid of the month and I need to have 60k hands put in by the 15th to be on pace for my 120k hand goal.

I'm at 175k VPPs after this session, so I'm guessing I'll reach the 200k VPP milestone sometime around the 28th or something so that's cool because I'm pretty sure I'll put in $6k in bonuses this month ($4k from the 250k FPP bonus and $2k from the milestone)

Just to close this post, here's a song from a group I'm really into:



Peace.

Monday, August 11, 2008

:(

Haven't played much at all the last few days, with the exception of some random HU sng's (prob up about 1 buy aka 20 bucks) because I don't really have the will because of how the games constantly look... every table has at least 5 regs during week time so that kinda drains a bit of my willingness to play.

Kinda far from my goal for this month (120k hands with $16k total profit)... here's how the month looks so far:


Not very sexy but not horrific either taking into account that it's my first "serious" month playing at this limit. Hopefully it will keep going up as I keep playing and, subsequently, improving.

I think I need to work mainly on my preflop game because I feel so comfortable postflop given how people play their holdings that there's no immediate need to rectify anything. My main preflop flaw is that I give people no credit whatsoever in obvious steal/resteal spots when these guy's ranges (except for a couple of players) are always a lot tighter than I give them credit for, so that gets me into some shitty spots all the time and costs me a bunch of money.

On life related news, I'm going to sign myself up for the drivers license course tomorrow (in my country you have to be at least 18 years old and you have to pay something around 600 euros for it lol) so I can stop being one of the few people of my age that can't drive around here. I'm only just now going for it because I chose to pay for this myself (instead of having my parents pay for it like it's standard around here) because both my parents paid their drivers license for themselves and I actually like to be able to say that I worked hard to have something I enjoy (not sure if that makes much sense but whatever)

On a more hilarious note:



Peace out homies.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

August 9th

This limit pisses me off.

It's like, one day I have a fantastic session and the next day I lose basically everything I worked for.

Played about 2k hands today, quit the session because I didn't feel like I was playing good poker anymore and might as well quit and prevent any more damage.

Dont think I played bad or anything, just lost a couple of stacks in cooler/suckout spots.

3 big hands from today:


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3023276 -> guy here was LAG, not very good... I had 3 bet him earlier in the session and I noticed he was starting getting frustrated with me.

Standard PF raise to get this HU if possible and I get his call. Flop comes like that, VERY drawy and I have TPTK with the nut BDFD (and efectively a blocker to the FD). I make my standard cbet and he just insta shoves... when he insta shoves I don't think he ever shows up with hands like 88 77 (QQ is unlikely) so the hands I'm going to see here more often are going to be something like KcQx or a flush draw so I pretty much snap called his shove. He happened to have a better hand than I assumed (gutter + FD) but I was a favorite nevertheless... I lost so that's no big of a deal.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3023292 -> guy here is a sLAG, decent reg... I have a peculiar history with this guy, which involves some light 3 and 4 betting (he rarely calls my 3 bets, only folds or 4 bets) so I chose to just call here given that I have position and I think I will be able to profitably play this hand like this.

Flop comes a monotone which is kinda scary but nevertheless, I have top 2 pair. He cbets and I raise because, you know, I have top 2 on a drawy board and I want to get this in. He pretty much snap shoves which instantly lead me to believe he has EXACTLY a set of 3's here (AAA or QQQ is unlikely) but his range is made up by so many stuff like AxKs, KsJx that I pretty much felt like I was obligated to call. My instinct was correct and more and more I feel like I have to trust it at this limit because regulars always have what they rep (even moreso than at micro stakes, as dumb as that sounds)


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3023318 -> guy here is unknown.

Standard PF raise and the flop comes rather drawy but I have an overpair so I want to bet and get the money in ASAP. I make a cbet and he calls... now, when he calls he pretty much always has top pairs, flush draws, big hands like sets slowplaying and weaker overpairs "kinda" slowplaying... turn is a trojan horse in this particular spot because it improves my hand but it completes the flush. Nevertheless I'm still happy to get it in against his range because he can still have hands like AsTx, slowplaying sets and even if he has a flush I still have a bunch of outs to improve on the river. He happened to have a flush in this spot but I think I still like my bet/call line on the turn.


That's it for today.

Let's do this.

Hey what's up everyone,

My name is Mário, I'm 19 and I'm from Portugal.

I've been playing poker for about a year and a half now. Played freerolls for about 6 months gathering any cash I could make (never deposited) and started playing cash games around September of last year.

My main game is 200NL full ring and I play mainly on Pokerstars. My nickname is speedle.

This blog's goal is to map with detail my progress both as a player and person as I move throughout the stakes. It will also be the place where I share all my brags, beats and variances, not only poker related but also life related.

Let's make some history.