Blog of a Dutch university student

Back from France

2010-02-02T10:57:00.003+01:00

Well, I came back from France yesterday and I've just got soo much stuff to do now that I'm home! I have to unpack, meet people that I haven't seen in a while, wrapping up my final points for my Thesis so that I can present it and graduate, working on a song that I've written on vacation and in the meantime also meeting my goal of grinding hands for at least 4 hours a day. Yesterday I did 5, yay! ;)

I really wish I had more time to make a more elaborate blog entry about the stuff I'm doing right now, but I just don't have the time. My days just seem to be packed with stuff I have to do and appointments that are clustered right next to eachother :/ It's fun to stay busy, but I hope that after this week I'll have more spare time...

I'm planning on putting a schedule in place for next week, so that I can really plan my day and be a bit more organized. Lately I've noticed that I'm doing things so randomly that it just drives me crazy and a little more structure in my life would really give me some order. I'll work on that during this week. Right now I'll just continue doing stuff randomly ;)

Travelling back home

2010-01-10T04:52:00.008+01:00

Going home
Well, this is my last night in Orlando. I'm really going to miss the great weather, even though it's been extremely cold here for the past couple of days... It was only 7 degrees celsius out tonight!! I was literally freezing and shaking as I was walking outside to get into the car. Funny, because the weather in Holland is generally a LOT colder. I guess you adjust to a warmer climate after being here for a month ;)

On the one hand, I'm going to miss the States, as I always do when I leave: the friendly people, the warm climate, seeing my family, the beautiful view from my room. However, I feel great about going back home as well, as I can see all of my friends, and also make music again, which I love to do! =)

The future of my blog
Ever since I started blogging again at the end of November, I've been thinking about what I want my blog to be like. Ater careful consideration, I decided that I wanted to change the title a bit, since I feel it's kind of limiting. Ofcoarse poker is a big part of my life, but having "Pokerblog" in the title has always kind of forced me to blog about it. In the past, I've written some blog posts about other aspects of my life, but I've always felt the need to keep most of the stuff poker related.

Now that I have changed the title, I feel that I can be free to write whatever is on my mind. I realize ofcoarse that this wasn't my original intention when starting this blog, but it's the direction that it has been heading towards for the past years, and to be honest, I feel pretty great about it! :) I never would've expected when starting this blog, that it would give me so much fulfillment in writing down my thoughts. For me, it's always been a great place to really organize my ideas and be free to write about things that are difficult to talk about.

For the poker lovers out there who really liked the poker stuff that I was blogging about, the hand discussions, strategy topics etc, don't be alarmed... :) Ofcoarse poker is still an important part of my life and I will surely continue to use this blog to keep tabs on my progress and discuss poker strategy. I just wanted to be more free in the topics that I choose to talk about and also discuss other things that interest me, such as a very important one, music.

I'm not sure how much of the content of my future posts will really change because of this, but changing the title and making the blog more about my life in general, as opposed to just poker related material is in my mind a step in the right direction. I hope you guys feel the same way. If you have any comments or ideas about it, leave me a remark cause I am always open to feedback! :)

Music
Now that the title of this blog has changed, I feel that I can share something about music as well. Everytime I go to the States, I hear some great new music that I don't hear in the Netherlands. I ended up with a couple of great bands and artists and have downloaded their albums to put on my iPhone:
- Shinedown
- Keith Urban
- Boys Like Girls
- Theory of a Deadman

I'll post two songs that I found to be REALLY awesome:

While being in the States and not really having much opportunity to actually play, apart from the ocassional piano that I found in some restaurant that I would sneak behind and play on ;) I've come up with some great ideas for writing a few new songs here and I can't wait to work them out.

During this past year, I have been buying all kinds of music equipmant and built myself a really nice "home studio", with the following:
- an electric stage piano (a Yamaha P-250)
- an external music production firewire soundcard (Saffire FocusRite LE)
- a Samson condenser microphone
- a T-Bone SC450 with pop killer
- two studio monitors (KRK RP5 ROKIT G2)
- official license of Cubase 5

I still wanna get a Behringer BCF 2000 to quickly alter the volume of the different tracks. The cool thing about it is that the faders on it are motorized. This means that whenever I open a project in Cubase 5, it will alter its settings and update the faders to their saved positions for each track! :) It's a E 180,- which isn't all that expensive. For a picture, see below:

When I come home on Monday, the first thing I'll do is probably start working out some songs on my PC =) I can't wait!! :D

Well, I guess that's it for now. It's already 1AM and I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Luckily my plane leaves at 2PM, so I can sleep in until like 10 'o clock, but I'm guessing tomorrow will be pretty tiring no matter what. My next post will be from the Netherlands again! Until than take care and good luck! :)

Working hard

2010-01-08T08:04:00.007+01:00

I'd like to start by wishing everyone a happy and succesful 2010! I hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays :)

For the past few weeks I had been grinding a ton of hands, but unfortunately I have been running pretty horrible and my results just haven't been good. I played about 30k hands at 0.5/1 and only 2k hands at 1/2. Overall I'm down 1.6k, which isn't horrible, but it's really annoying since I'm working on rebuilding my roll to comfortably grind 1/2 again.

Starting a couple of days ago, I quit playing and started working really hard at reviewing my game. I'm working up a document that contains every big pot that I have lost in the 30k hand stretch and analyzing leaks that I can find in my game. There are a lot of colddecks and coolers obviously, but I was glad to find that there are plenty of mistakes and things to work on as well. I was feeling pretty down about my results at the beginning of this week, but now that I'm working really hard on my game, I've been feeling a lot better! :)

Last night I also started another really exciting project. When analyzing my hands, I've been discussing a few with Barewire and we came across a really interesting situation:

Full Tilt Poker $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 463188
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $101.00
Hero (BTN/SB): $165.40

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN/SB with 9 T
Hero raises to $3, BB raises to $10, Hero calls $7

Flop: ($20.00) 6 7 9 (2 players)
BB bets $14, Hero calls $14

Turn: ($48.00) Q (2 players)
BB bets $22, Hero calls $22

River: ($92.00) T (2 players)
BB bets $55 all in, Hero calls $55

Final Pot: $202.00
BB shows A 8 (a straight, Ten high)
Hero mucks 9 T

BB wins $201.50

We started discussing this hand and came to the conclusion that the most optimal play would be to call turn and call or fold the river based on what card comes. After thinking about it together, we found that calling turn with the intention of folding any river spade, 5/T/J/K/A is optimal. This accounts to 11 spades, 3 times 5/J/K/A and 2 times T (since we hold two in our hand) = 11+12+2 = 25 river cards. Of the 46 unseen cards, we are folding 25/46=54.3% rivers.

This got me to thinking... how can we calculate the equity needed on the turn to make the river profitable? Together we started working out a mathematical scenario:
EV=(CT*f) + (CT+CR*(1-f)*(1-e)) + (P*(1-f)*e)

CT = price of turn call
CR = price of river call
P = pot size on river
e = showdown equity on the turn
f = % of times we fold river

The first term is the EV of calling turn and folding the river.

The second term is our investment for calling turn+river, multiplied by the times that we are actually calling river as well, multiplied by % of times we call the river and aren’t good, where e is % we have the best hand once we call his river bet.

The third term is the EV of calling turn and river and ending up having the best hand.

When calculating the EV=0 break-even point on this play, the conclusion was that we would need to be good 37% of the time on the river for our turn+river play to be good.

After working this out, I really found this math stuff to be really exciting. That's when I decided to work up a document called "Math in Poker", where I document al lot of situations that we can solve using basic math. As an example, how often semi-bluffs need to be profitable on the turn, based on several river scenario's. I came up with a LOT of cool stuff and it's already 12 pages long ;) When it's finished, I might post some of it on my blog, but I'm not yet sure about that.

Well, I'm gonna continue with my document on Math and hope to finish it in a day or so. When it's done, I'll consider either posting it here or maybe sharing it on 2p2.

Grinding during the holidays

2009-12-29T06:42:00.024+01:00

First of all, I wanna wish everyone a happy holidays and a happy new year!! :D Now that I've finished my thesis work and basically have to wait till it gets reviewed by my supervisors, I have had plenty of time to grind. I'm still in Orlando, Florida to spend the holidays here and will be flying back to the Netherlands on January 11th. It's really awesome to be here and I have a great workplace to grind. I have included a picture of my desk/room below:

When starting 2 weeks ago my roll was 6k. I've cashed out some money for living expenses and stuff and I feel that 60 buyins for 0.5/1 is plenty to start off with. My idea is to expand it to 8k and then start playing 1/2 again with a roll of 40 buyins. I'll be dropping down when I lose 2k again and just keep moving up and down until my roll is sufficient to stay at 1/2. After that I wanna try taking shots at 2/4 when I have 18k online and use the same 10 buyin stop-loss strategy.

I started grinding on December 14th and have played a decent amount of hands (20k) in the past 2 weeks, even though I've been busy with holidays and stuff. I'm sitting with everyone at NL100 who'll 2-4 table me and am playing 4 tables at once, which usually comes down to 2 regs on 2 tables each, since there aren't many people who are willing to 4-table. I suck playing like 4 different villains since I get confused in reads etc, but I really like multi-tabling more tables to get more hands in. I feel that I can exploit my edge in adjusting faster that way and also get a more fluid game dynamic going.

Unfortunately my results haven't been that great yet. I haven't been running well, which obviously shows in me running break-even for the past 20k hands. It's fine though and short-term results don't really phase me that much, although it can get a little frustrating playing these complete monkeys at 0.5/1 and not getting anything going. I feel I'm playing well though and have been working REALLY hard in analyzing my game, discussing hands with friends from 2p2 etc.

I've also been studying a lot. A poker friend of mine from 2p2 sent me some really cool poker study material that I've been reading/listening to. They really outline a lot of awesome lines and ways to adjust ranges based on villain's tendencies and such. There was also a really awesome concept in there called "randomization based on equity", which described barreling turns and randomizing your range and balancing by the times you pick up more equity etc.

Well, to sum up this blog post... I believe I promised to post some interesting hands once I started grinding, so I'll post 2 below. I'm not gonna be posting the really standard ones but will try and focus on the ones that really have some nice strategic conent to think about and discuss.

This one hand is really interesting, in which I make a pretty bad river mistake. I've discussed it extensively with a couple of friends of mine. Flop and turn are obv standard, but I should be bet/folding river, since villain's range is really polarized between flushes and air.. and he doesn't really ever have air on the river. The only thing he can be doing is turn 76 into a bluff, but this is VERY creative and not something I expect from a 1/2 donk. A pretty gross hand, but a clear river bet/fold nonetheless.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 446018
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $465.10
Hero (BTN/SB): $244.50

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BTN/SB with T K
Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4

Flop: ($12.00) 3 J 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8, BB calls $8

Turn: ($28.00) 9 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $22, BB calls $22

River: ($72.00) Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $56, BB requests TIME, BB raises to $429.10 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls $152.50 all in

Final Pot: $489.00
BB shows 8 A (a flush, Ace high)
Hero mucks T K (a straight, King high)

BB wins $488.50

This hand is pretty cool. I 3bet 65s, a hand that I have in my 3betting range fairly regularly since it's not really good enough to defend with but plays great in a 3bet pot and can flop a lot of strong draws etc. Flop comes A87 2-tone, which is an obvious cbet with my open ender and backdoor flush draw. The Jd gives me a flush draw on the turn along with my open ender so I have an easy barrel spot. I bet here with the intention of shoving most rivers, since this particular villain was peeling flop REALLY light and wasn't folding to many turn barrels either. The Jd adds a lot of gutshots to his weaker pair range and I think a lot of hands that he gets to the river with can't stand a shove. I river my straight and I think I can safely valueshove here since I don't expect villain to show up with Tx more then 50% of the time when he calls. Unfortunately he turned a straight and obviously slowplayed it until the river.

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 446027
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN/SB: $218.50
Hero (BB): $395.60

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is BB with 6 5
BTN/SB raises to $4, Hero raises to $14, BTN/SB calls $10

Flop: ($28.00) 7 8 A (2 players)
Hero bets $21, BTN/SB calls $21

Turn: ($70.00) J (2 players)
Hero bets $42, BTN/SB calls $42

River: ($154.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $318.60 all in, BTN/SB calls $141.50 all in

Final Pot: $437.00
BTN/SB shows T 9 (a straight, Jack high)
Hero shows 6 5 (a straight, Nine high)

BTN/SB wins $436.50

Below is a graph of the hands I played in the past 2 weeks. As you can see, the results haven't been that great but I feel I'm playing better each day. Obviously a 2-month break is tough and it took me a little while to get back into playing my A-game etc and I do feel I've obv been making some mistakes and stuff.

It's also clear that I started off losing WAAAY too much money in non-showdown pots. I think this is due to me having to adjust to playing again and I might've played a bit too passively and weak when I started out. It looks like I've since corrected this though and my red-line looks a lot beter for the last 10k hands.

I will continue to grind the following 2 weeks and will try and make a new blogpost within the next week. Until then, good luck at the tables!

Plans after graduation

2009-12-01T01:04:00.004+01:00

I've arrived in Orlando, Florida a week ago and we've made a road trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It's really nice out here, but the weather could be better. Tomorrow we're going to drive back to Orlando. In the following days I'm going to grind a bit and really try to put in my first few serious long-hour sessions of poker :) As I did when I took a break 2 months ago, I'll only be playing NLHE HU cash. It's the game I have specialized in for the past 1.5 years and it's what I love to play (and obviously my best game).

I also have some cool news about my plans after I graduate in the beginning of January. About 2 weeks ago a poker friends of mine whom I know from the 2p2 NL HU forum contacted me on AIM. He told me that he was planning to make a poker trip with a few 2p2-ers and asked me if I had any interest in coming along. The idea is to rent a house for like 2-3 months somewhere in the world with a few fellow online HU poker players and play a lot. The location isn't yet clear, but he was thinking about New Zealand, Buenos Aeros, Argentina etc.

I think that it would be awesome for my game to travel and play poker with a bunch of really good players and I think it's an awesome opportunity! There's still a lot to think about though and I'm still on the fence, but I am heavily considering going. It would mean that I'd leave my family and friends for a while, but I think it's worth it.

If I decide to play a few long sessions in the upcoming days, I'll try to make time and post a few hands and keep you guys updated on my progress :) until next time!

Finishing my Master's Thesis

2009-11-25T00:14:00.007+01:00

Hi everyone! I realize that it has been a REALLY long time since I last updated my blog. At the moment I'm working really hard and have almost finished my Master's Thesis, so that I can graduate. Since my goal is to play poker full-time for at least 6 months after that, I felt compelled to make an update about my activities in the past few months, so I can start fresh when I begin my poker career.

My last post was dated June 16th, so I guess I'll start there. At that time I was really focussed on passing the exam of my last course. It was a course about deterministic models in operation research. I had the exam for it 6 days later and a few weeks after that I got the good news that I passed!! :D This meant that I never had to do another exam at the University IN MY LIFE!!! Obviously I was extremely thrilled that I was forever done with the reading of boring scientific papers, books and studying for some stupid exam!

Now that I had finished all my courses, the only thing left for me to complete was my research project and thesis, so I could graduate. After this exam, the summer vacation started for everyone at the university. While everyone on campus was chilling out, relaxing, going to the pool and stuff, I was trying to do some work on my Master's Thesis. As I'm sure you can imagine, trying to work on something that you don't really have a planning or deadline for, in an environment where it's 25 degrees Celsius and everyone around you is enjoying vacation, didn't work too well. I ended up going to the pool waaaay too often, going out drinking with friends, slacking off from doing any real thesis work and played a decent bit of poker to get money...

This lasted for about 2 months, until at the end of August the new school year started. During those hot summer months, I did manage to do some work on my project, but not as much as I had hoped. The good thing was that the campus was kind of back to normal and people were going to classes again. This made it a lot easier for me to get my mind straight and getting back to doing some real work. By that point, I had decided that it's better for me to quit poker for a while. That way I can really focus on finishing this damn thesis, ship the Master of Science diploma and move on with my life ;)

Well, I can tell you that things have really been going better since then. It's still hard to stay focussed, since there's just so much more fun stuff to do around me, like hang out with friends, exercise sports like soccer and fitness, play piano and guitar, write music, read poker stuff etc. The great thing was though that the decision for me to give poker a break really gave me some peace of mind. I wasn't really "forced" in a way to keep up-to-date with the stuff that was going on at 2+2, I didn't feel the "need" to read poker articles and keep myself sharp in that way. Even though I obviously did still read a lot about it, there wasn't so much a driving "need" to actually do it.

Well, this brings me all the way up to where I am now, at the brink of completing my thesis report. There's still a bunch of work to be done in the next 2 weeks, but I'm optimistic that I'll be able to finish it at the start of December. That's the deadline that I have set for myself, since I'll be flying off to Orlando, Florida, to stay there for a month and spent Christmas and New Years with my family. If I manage to hand in my report by then and get it approved, I won't have to work on it anymore while I'm there and I can really ENJOY my well-deserved vacation! :)

During my stay there, I really plan to get back on track and play a bunch of hands again and get right back in the thick of things. I'm sure I'll be fine, since I have been coaching a bunch and watching a good friend of mine play. At the moment I really feel that my game is still very sharp, even though I've only logged maybe around 25k hands of NLHE HU in the past 3 months.

I probably won't be making another post until I'm done with my thesis, which will hopefully be in 2 weeks. After that it's time for me to fly to the States and play A LOT of online poker while I'm there :D When that happens, I will definately be posting a lot about my progress and my blog will be revived for me to talk about the things that are going on in my life ;)

See ya in 2 or 3 weeks! :)

Studying

2009-06-16T17:39:00.001+02:00

I just wanted to make a short post saying that I won't be playing at all this week. I'm studying for my last exam that I have to pass on the 22nd of June. After that I'll be playing a lot of poker again and updating my blog again sometime that week :)

Stunning

2009-06-10T00:26:00.003+02:00

Look, I realize a lot of people at 0.5/1 and 1/2 are bad at poker, but THIS guy.... he just blows my mind!!! I'm not at all tilted and I hate bad beat stories, but I was just so shocked about his horrific play that I felt I had to share this:

SICK

Swingy first week and coaching

2009-06-07T23:41:00.006+02:00

Swing swong
We're a week into June and I thought I'dd look back at how this month has been going so far. I can describe it in one word, SWINGY... I started off with a pretty bad -1k session but I quickly recovered and made 1.4k in a session the day after that. There have been some tough spots and naturally a few coolers, but I'm playing pretty well. Ever since my last move to 1/2 I feel that my game there is more solid then ever. It just comes down to grinding hands at 0.5/1 and 1/2 and hopefully get on some kind of heater in the next couple of days :D

It would be great to grind out another 6k this month so that I can start taking a few shots at 2/4 next week when my roll consists of 50 buyins at that level, which is my new bankroll management rule :)

Coaching
As I posted a few times before, I've been considering going into coaching, primarily NLHE HU at 0.5/1 and below. I want to get some more hands in at 1/2 and have a winning sample of like 70k hands, as opposed to my 25k hands atm, before I would feel comfortable coaching it (even though I could probably do it now).

I have been coaching a good friend of mine (Noppey) for about 2,5 months now at 0.25/0.5 and I feel that I'm well versed in a lot of the game theoretical stuff. Also I just find it a lot of FUN to watch someone get better and really improve because of the stuff that I've been teaching. It's just such a rewarding job and as a "side job" to just grinding out hands it is really cool. Also the variance is 0, which is a good thing since as we know poker itself has their well-known ups and downs.

What I want to start out with is get like 2 of 3 students and maybe do like 1 sessions a week with each of them. That would come down to 3 hours/week of coaching, so 12 hours a month. I think that's a fine number. My hourly rate will start at $100/hour, which I find a very reasonable rate for heads-up cash, since it comes down to 1 buyin an hour.

I'll make a NLHE HU coaching thread on 2+2 probably around next week, as I'm still kind of busy working on my last course EVER :D I really need to pass this course and then all that's left is finishing my Master's thesis. So I might just decide to wait until I really get into coaching after the 22nd of June, since by then I will have had the exam.

Playing with Scorpy vs a funny fish
Last night I actually had a pretty fun session. A good rl friend of mine (Scorpy) who also plays poker online was playing last night with me. What we did was we ran teamviewer of eachother's screen on our 2nd monitor and grinded it out on the 30" LCD (he has one also) while talking on Skype. It was really cool, since we could help eachother out in obvious spots, even though most of it is just affirming the other guy's read and saying "go with it" or "you are right, do it" :)

It was fun to see that we think about most of the spots in poker in a very similar way, but also complement eachother in other areas. There was one hand that I was watching as he played where we both kindda figured out the best line:

Hand 1

He was playing this guy who was pretty agressive overall and we 3bet 65o. We flop middle pair on 952r and obviously cbet for value. We get called and the turn comes a Jd, putting a 2flush out there and another overcard to our pair. He asked me what I thought about this spot and I said that he was never going to be valuebetting a 9 when we check to him. He's also not gonna show up with Jx a lot, unless he turned 2 pair with a hand like J9 (which is really the only possibility in his 3bet calling range). The turn is a great bluffing card for him though if we check.

Given that argument, I just told him check/push the turn. I wasn't really paying that close attention since I was playing 3 tables myself. Scorpy however said that check/raising wouldn't be the best play if he's bluffing a lot, since C/C turn and C/C river would yield the most profit given his range of mostly air. So he did and villain turned over A-high for a pretty horrible bluff.

After that hand though something funny happened, he started talking trash in chat and was saying how bad Scorpy was and stuff. Then he challenged him to play 2/4, so we decided to split action on it and play him for $200 each basically. The cool thing was that he found our play to be extremely fishy, since we called his 3 barrels with 3rd pair essentially. While on the other hand we found him to be terrible since he just doesn't think on a high enough level and just says to himself, I can bluff here, let's do it.

So after like 25 uneventful hands, we get 77 and flop a set on J74ss:

Hand 2

We were both VERY surprised that he folded after 4betting the flop, since we both thought he must have like a Jx or a FD type hand that just can't EVER fold. However after thinking for 20 seconds he ended up laying it down. We felt kindda sad now, since we might've been better off calling flop and pushing turn, but his line was just so obvious to be a hand that was going to stack off that we didn't realize it at that point.

After that hand though, he was sitting with a lousy $200 at 2/4 and we asked in chat if he was planning on rebuying. His response: "haven't decided yet", whatever the hell that means. We continued playing since we wanted to stack him ofcoarse when 15 hands later we find AA:

Hand 3

We had control over the whole match and we knew that if he was gonna make a top pair type hand, he's gonna donate all his money to us. That what happened here as he checkraised our cbet on Q62ss. We elect to call since he's probably going to bet/call most turns and we want to give him the opportunity to bluff the turn. He bets pot ($111 on $112) with only $46 behind, so it was an easy shove for us since there is no way he can ever fold now. He calls and shows up with Q9o and he instaleaves haha! It took him literally 9 minutes to lose his $400 stack to us and Scorpy and I were happy to win =)

At the end of the session I booked a nice solid $720 win before heading out to a friend's party. Well, that's about all I had for tonight. I'm at my parent's place atm since my mom celebrated her birthday today. Tomorrow I will be going home so I'm going to bed early so that I can leave on time. Gnight all!

Mixing it up

2009-06-05T03:15:00.003+02:00

Since my last post, I've played a couple of sessions HU at 0.5/1 and was really having motivational issues. After playing 1/2, I found it really tough to put up with me playing complete idiots again at a limit that I rather just not play. This past weekend I won a couple hundred at 0.5/1 but really didn't feel happy about my results since I just don't enjoy myself playing anymore.

On Tuesday I had a coaching session with Jared again and I told him about this problem I was having. What he suggested was that I don't think of myself as a 0.5/1 player, or a 1/2 player, but merely as a poker player. I shouldn't get caught up in what limit I was playing, but simply play in games that were +EV for me to play in. To put this into a more practical context, he suggested I sit at 2 tables of 0.5/1 and 2 tables of 1/2, waiting for action both on Stars and Full Tilt. That means that I have 8 tables open, which helps me get action faster and allows me to play the two limits simultaneously. He also said that it would probably help with my motivation, since I can now play in games I want to play in while still grind away at 0.5/1.

Past Wednesday I gave this a shot and played a terrific session. I was focussed, made right decisions, my game was sharp and I loved that I could now play at both limits and mix it up. After 4 hours though I was down like 1k and decided to quit, ven though I was incredibly happy about the way that I had played. Naturally I was a little dissapointed about the results, but I was very content with the fact that I was better able to seperate results from my game and just focus on playing well.

The next day I went over the big hands I lost and came to the conclusion that I indeed was running bad, as I knew was the case. It wasn't great for my roll, but since I am well bankrolled even for 1/2, it didn't mean that I would have to stop playing both levels anymore.

Last night I played another long session and did the same thing. I sat and waited on 8 tables and played most people that would sit with me (the regulars avoid me anyways so players that are willing to play me are usually ignorant morons). I did well and this time also ran pretty good, so after 4 hours I ran up a nice 2k profit. By this time it was getting pretty late though and after losing a 450bb pot at 0.5/1 for $450 as a 67% favourite and losing a few buyins due to some coolers, I decided to call it a night. I ended up about 1.3k which is a pretty nice profit and I was very happy that my bad session of the other day was now counterfeitted :D

The upcoming days I will be putting in a lot of mixed sessions as I have been doing and am really focussed and motivated. I'm also posting on 2+2 very actively lately and been watching some high stakes video's by Krantz on Deuces Cracked. That guy is just so good and has some terrific insights to share about the game and general HU strategy.

This week I will also be looking through some of my played hands in Holdem Manager over the past few months. Jared gave me a tip a while ago about filtering through hands in certain situations to look for nice spots to bluff. I asked him what good barrel cards were in 3bet pots to bluff at and he suggested that I simply go through my own database, filter on 3bet pots in which I bet the turn (be it for value or as a bluff) and see what turn card yield a lot of folds.

I also want to do the same for flop checkraises. I'm looking into the possibility of adding more checkraising into my game, since I really think that it adds a lot of deception and provides more opportunities to profitably bluff. This obviously needs to be balanced well though, which is why I want to look into it more.

I'm happy that I'm sticking to my goal so far of posting a blog update at least once a week. Next post I will try to post some interesting hands that I have played and include some reads and my thought process, which leads me to the actions that I end up taking. Until then, take care!

p.s. I came across a really cool line just now on some other guy's blog which might seem standard, but I feel is great to always keep in mind while playing:
"if you are going to bet, but don't know how you're going to react to a raise, then you probably shouldn't be betting in the first place"

Small bump in the road

2009-05-25T19:58:00.009+02:00

Birthday
This weekend I spent a weekend at my parents' place. My sister had her 23th birthday yesterday, so we had a BBQ with a few family members, which was really nice. From my parents she got a huge mirror thingy that she asked for, to hang up in her room (I guess it's a girls thing haha!). We spent the evening playing Wii-tennis and Wii-fit which was really cool.

As for my gift, I thought of something cool. She has been using this crappy Philips mp3 player for like a year now, which had the poorest sound quality ever! The interface was horrible and it kept shutting down. Basically, it was a piece of junk :P We were always laughing at her and her "schmi-pod", as she called it. I know that she's very careful about spending money and is always saying that the old mp3 player still works, even though she would love to have a new one. That's why I decided to get her an iPod Nano for her birthday, with a nice laser inscription on the back that says: "For my Doctor Sis, love from Big Bro!" (she studies Medicine). She was really happy with the gift and I'm sure she'll be using it a lot, since she loves to listen to music :)

Bad 1/2 session
As for poker, I had a pretty bad session this weekend. I felt that I played great and really didn't do too much wrong, but obviously the cards didn't go my way at all. This is my second shot at 1/2 and I feel pretty good about it! The swings are a lot bigger, but I made fewer mistakes and am really confident about my game there, as opposed to the last time. The money means less to me and I really don't care anymore about losing a $400 pot.

Naturally I analyzed the big pots that I lose at 1/2 and reviewed my play in all of them. For sure I made a few mistakes, but they are pretty small I think. I ended up being about 1.6k down, which is fine since I am very well bankrolled for the stakes that I'm playing. I'll be grinding most of it back on 0.5/1 the next 2 weeks and then go back to 1/2 again :)

How to win $1350 in 1 minute

2009-05-22T00:51:00.007+02:00

I met with a good friend of mine (Richard) to play a session of poker together. He played 0.05/0.10 no limit 6max on Ultimate Bet and I grinded out the 1/2 at Stars and FTP. I just had a great session, in which at the end this guy called DaGrifter went on total MONKEYtilt after losing a BIG pot.

Sorry for this brag post, but it was just SOOOO cool to watch this guy go totally crazy. He ended up dropping 2 more buyins in 1 minute after losing a $550 pot and then left, probably mad and hitting everything yelling and screaming at his PC, I LOVE IT =)

I made a screenshot of the hands and me sitting at an empty table, at which I totally destroyed this guy :)

Pretty cool that Tableratings has already updated our session tonight and I am now in the list of his best friends :D

This month has been going so great. I really feel that the last couple of weeks my game has improved so much. A lot of this is thanks to the coaching I received from Jared (jk3a on Deuces Cracked). It's so cool that this is showing in the results so far this month. Below is a graph of how my month has been going. I can't WAIT to get started full time this summer!! :D

Building my roll

2009-05-20T05:25:00.003+02:00

Here's just a short post with a few thoughts of mine after a late-night cash game session at $0.50/$1 HU. The last couple week have just been going amazing for me! Ever since I decided to drop down and grind a few buyins at 0.50/1.00 I have been cruising. Everyone I play just seems to have NO clue about poker and every session I play I'm just clicking away a couple hundred bucks.

Tonight I made an easy $450 in a few hours and last weekend when playing with a friend of mine I clicked away 1k easily. It's almost getting boring to beat these guys without any competition and I can't wait to see what the competition is like at 1/2. Sunday a good friend of mine came by and we split action at that limit, but even at 1/2 the guys are just complete morons. The only difference seems to be that they're more agressive, but other then that they just have no clue what they are doing.

This month I'm up about 5k with not really playing a lot of hands. I primarily play in the weekends and in the evenings and other then that I just relax and spend my free time on hanging out with friends etc.

I've set a goal for myself that at the end of the summer (when hopefully I will have graduated from the University) I want to be taking shots at 2/4 and possibly steadily grind that limit. I think it's a realistic goal. Especially with my coach jk3a (whom I've had a great session with tonight again), I feel that my game is really improving tons. Just by talking with him once a week and discussing hands and strategy, my basic knowledge of the game has increased a ton!

I'm going to bed now. It's already 5:30 AM and I'm beat. I actually wanted to go to bed at an earlier hour, but I was just clicking away some money at 100nl that it felt like a waste to not continue for another 1.5 hours :) Next post I'll try and post some hands.

p.s. I promised to post the results of my HU event... it went pretty horrible and I got knocked out in the first round. I won't be playing those HU tournaments, since I am just a horrible player when it comes to sit and go's with increasing blinds. I guess I'll just stay with HU cash =)

Coaching and the FTOPS

2009-05-10T15:17:00.003+02:00

Coaching
Hey all! Last night I've spend a couple of hours with two friends of mine, Tomas and Norbert (or Noppey as we call him haha). Tomas plays 10nl and 25nl NLHE 6max and I agreed to give him some coaching and help him work on his game a little bit (in return he would bring me some Corona's haha). We decided that it was useful to record the whole session so that he could later replay and review all the stuff I said. It ended up being a 2.5 hour video of me discussing mostly ways to analyze hand ranges and reasons for cbetting flops and ways to interpret villain's actions. All pretty fundemantal stuff that is still lacking in his game.

I gave him the assignment of looking at 3 types of boards and analyze the range of a standard TAG and a LAP on each of them, when they C/C your bet. We discussed what ranges he thought they had and what my thoughts were on them, which took about 1.5 hours.

After that Noppey joined us (he had a BBQ before) and the three of us took a look at Tomas' play and we commented on what he should consider when playing. I showed him that everyone, especially at the lower stakes, just gives their hand away by the lines that they take. If you look closely and pay a bit of attention, you can pretty much put most villains on precisely the type of hand they have. This was actually pretty cool and I think Tomas really started to grasp these concepts.

I actually find coaching to be a lot of fun to do and I feel that it enforces my understanding of the basic concepts and strategy stuff as well. That's why I'm considering coaching a few people at 2+2 who play lower stakes (like 50nl and 100nl 6max), because I think I can explain a lot of ideas about the game pretty well. I was happy to hear that Tomas and Noppey found my thought process and explanations to be very clear and easy to follow and that I would definitely be a good coach. It's just loads of fun to do and why not make a few extra bucks teaching these newer players some fundamentals about Hold'em.

FTOPS event #9, $500+$35 NLHE HU
As you probably know, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series is running this week. There have been many different kinds of events with a lot of dead money, since a bunch of people sattelite their way into events that are too high for them to buyin to directly.

Tonight I will be playing the FTOPS event #9, which is the $535 NLHE HU event. At the moment there are 238 entries, but I expect there to be about 600 tonight (the limit is 1024). I've agreed to split action 50/50 with a good friend of mine and he'll be watching me play here tonight. We figured it would definitly be fun to have a few beers and who knows, maybe we run good and get a little deep in it.

I'll let you guys know how I did in my next post!

Playing well + running well = profit

2009-05-06T12:53:00.005+02:00

Last night I played an amazing session at 0.5/1. As I have said last time, I've dropped down a limit to rebuild my bankroll so I can take another serious shot at 1/2 (and hoping to this time stick there). I ended up taking 16 buyins in 3k hands, which was great =)

Pretty much the opposite of my previous session in which I ran bad, but also made a few mistakes. In this session, everything pretty much went my way! Naturally I ran pretty good, but I feel that I also got so many things right. In a lot of spots I made the right reads, chose the correct play etc.

I wanted to share 4 VERY sick pots that I won, all with at least 140 big blinds deep. I've posted them in pokerhand and will share them along with my motivations behind my play...

Hand 1

This hand kind of played itself. We were only about 40 hands and he seemed pretty agressive preflop, 3betting 42% of the times and 4betting me once already. I had 3bet him twice and both of the times he called. At that point I had already adjusted my 3betting range to include more value hands and a lot fewer bluffs.

In this spot he makes his second 4bet of the match to $32. I see myself having 4 options here:
1. Fold
This is naturally out of the question since we have JJ against an agressive player and for 140bb I am pretty much always stacking off JJ unless I have some sort of mega read
2. Call
This is not possible either, since we are so deep and there aren't that many flops that I can happily continue on.
3. 5bet small
This is certainly reasonable. Since we are pretty deep, villain still has $109 behind after making it $32 to go. I can definetly 5bet small to say $72, which would allow him to come over the top. The problem with this play though is that I thought that he might perceive that play to be extremely strong, which is true, since it doesn't look like I want much fold equity.
4. 5bet-shove
I figured this to be the best option. If I shove here, he is getting 1.6:1 on a call and my play looks pretty spazzy. He knows that he's been playing agressively and he knows that I am going to adjust at some point. Making a bluffshove here knowing that his range isn't that strong is certainly possible. That's why I decide to stick it in and he calls after timing down a bit with 88.

Hand 2

Villain had been 3betting me about 15% of the time. I generally don't like flatcalling 3bets with Axs type hands, simply because they don't play that well in 3bet pots. If we flop an ace, it's not like we are going to win a lot of money against KK and we never know if our kicker is any good.

In this spot though, we were 140 big blinds deep and I thought that it was reason enough to merit a call. I flop the nut flush, which is perfect (duh!), so now I want to think about how to extract maximum value from his range. He continuation bets $14 in to an $18 pot. I don't think I can ever flatcall here, because I want to build a pot. If I raise here, my hand looks like Ax of spades a lot, which is why I don't think villain will be folding the flop often with a hand like TT, 9x, 88 or whatever. My coach also taught me is that players generally don't want to fold on the flop, but they prefer to do it on the turn. That's why raising the flop to build the pot and disguise my hand is the best play here.

So what I do here is think about what stack size I want to leave behind so I can easily get it in on the turn. I figured a bet of $50 would be perfect. If he calls the flop bet, the pot will be $118 and I will have $85 behind, which is a perfect 2/3 pot bet. He calls and the turn is a 9, which pairs the board. In my eyes, this doesn't change anything in terms of my hand strenght, since it's unlikely he has a full house given the drawy board texture (he would just bet/3bet on the flop). I shove the turn and he ends up calling with trip AJ (top pair top kicker).

Hand 3

Preflop is pretty standard, we 4bet QQ and he calls, 180 big blind deep (OUCH!). I think I might have misplayed this hand a little bit. On the flop the pot is $54 and I didn't really consider board texture and the amount of money that would be left behind on the turn. I bet $37, which I think is a bit too small. It leaves him with $117 in a $128, which I think is a bit too much. If I had bet a little more on the flop, I would have had a nicer 2/3 pot bet left, which is usually my goal in these spots. The turn is a pretty nice blank and since I don't want to give any more free cards, I shove for a pot sized bet. He times down and ends up stacking off with 77, third pair (LOL!! nice 4bet-call and C/C on T9xx board).

Hand 4

This hand was the sickest one of all (yeah, I saved the best for last haha). We were 190 big blinds deep (sick!) and I open 97s on the button. He flatcalls and the flop comes 862r, giving me an open ender. I ofcoarse cbet and he checkraise to 4x my bet. Since we are SOOO sick deep, I am absolutely forced to call here given implied odds that I'm getting.

On the turn I get the nuts, the 5 of hearts, giving me both the straight and a redraw to the straight flush. He bets $27 into a $38 pot, wich $147 behind. I make a no-brainer raise, given how much money we have left behind. Again I want to think about how much is left on the river once he calls. I felt that making it 3x his bet would be great, since he will have $100 left on the river in a $188 pot, which give him an unresistable 3:1 pot odds if I shove.

The river comes a pretty fun card, the 6h giving me the straight flush (WOOOW!). He thinks for a bit and then shoves himself (HUH?). Obviously I snapcall and he shows 86 for a rivered full house. OUCH! Coooleeer for him, $387 pot for me ;)

Well, that was it for my last session. Pretty cool to win 16 buyins in 1 session. I don't think I ever won this much in HU. I've had better winning sessions at 1/2, but never so many buyins. Hopefully my streak will continue and I'll be back up at 1/2 in about 2 weeks. Until next time! :D

Grinding out the dry spill

2009-05-04T01:43:00.013+02:00

I'm over at my parent's house at the moment. Just played a session today of 3.5 hours, in which I ended up playing about 1.5k hands. Overall I think I played pretty well, but my bad run of the past 3 weeks still continues and I'm getting just a bit bored and frustrated with it. I don't believe I'm making any big mistakes, but every just seems to be going the wrong way.

As I said in my last post, I've decided to drop down a limit to 0.5/1 again until I get my roll back up to like 60 buyins for 1/2. That's when I want to take another shot at that level. Today I lost about 4.5 buyins on 0.5/1 so I guess the start of May has been going in an opposite direction.

I figured I'dd post the 6 allin pots I lost today along with a short summary of my thought process...

Hand 1

I think preflop and flop are standard. His range on the flop is mostly weighted towards draws and I'm ahead of those. My plan is to raise/get it in on a safe turn. It comes another A giving me trips and he checks, so I obviously bet big to protect my hand on this iffy board. He suddenly check/pushes. At this point I think I could've folded, since I would expect him to just B/C or C/C his FD. Still a colddeck though I think.

Hand 2

I get QQ and 4bet him. Villain was pretty agressive and in this instance decided to flat, which I find kind of unusual. The flop comes A64ss and I decide to check behind. I don't think he can EVER have an ace here (AK reraises pre, AQ is kind of discounted and I'm sure he folds AJ). I did expect him to bet his entire range on the turn so I figured I'dd let him.

Turn adds a flush draw and villain bets 3/4 pot. I kind of felt that his range was SOOO incredibly weak here that I was better off flatting and snapping his river bluff. I did that but unfortunately he turned a FD and got there on the river. Good read, but should've maybe pushed the turn given that the board was so drawy :/

Hand 3

This hand kind of played itself and is just a total cooler. I obviously barrel 2 streets with my HUGE FD+gutshot draw and naturally shove my 2nd nuts on the river. The sad thing was that he thought for like 10 seconds before calling me with the stone called nuts (except for obviously a straight flush)... NIIIIICE...

Hand 4

Another nice setup hand. I had just won a big pot off him the previous hand and figured he might be steaming a bit, which obviously factored into the way I played this hand. I flop top pair and a flush draw and I just want to get the moniez in on the flop. He bets, I C/R and he shoves, which I snap. Naturally I never EVER put him on THAT big a hand, but hey, I had 9 outs ;)

Hand 5

I flop top pair aces in a 3bet pot, so I'm committed to going with the hand for 100bb. I bet flop and naturally bet/call turn, only to find that he hits his 2 outer against me. The only thing I was considering during the hand was to check/push the turn, which I think might've been a little better since I think I do better vs his range that way. Oh well...

Hand 6

This complete moron decides to for some reason minraise/call a 3bet with J6o. He flops a pair+FD and I have 2 overs+2nd NFD in a 3bet pot, so the money is going in as a coinflip obviously and he comes out on top...

Hand 7

Last hand of the night, I call his min3bet and flop TPTK+gutshot. I wanna get the money in, especially since we're only 77bb deep and villain was a moron. He cbets 1/2 pot (weird), I raise and he ships it to which I snap. I'm up against kings though (DUH!) and fail to hit one of my 5 outs. Meh.

Well, that was it for today. If I look back and review these hands, I don't think there was too much I could've done. Too end the hand on a high note, here's a funny ship by a guy who thinks his aces are the nuts when the board just gets worse on the turn.

My guess on villain's thought process in the hand: "Wow, AA! Let's 3bet! Ah great! A rainbow flop, I'll cbet 11 pot since he can't have a flush draw. Ah crap, that ten on the turn is a really crappy card, let's just jam allin for twice pot and hope he calls, or folds, or.... eeehm.... ??? Am I actually valuebetting or bluffing here? Well, you can always only tell after the hand is over right?" LOL!!! =)

AA is the nuts on wet board

As for other things are concerned. I'm still working on my heads-up article about 3bet pots, inspired by the last coaching session I had with Jared (aka jk3a). It's actually becoming quite a nice piece of work with some cool thoughts on what to consider when playing these big pots. Since most of the money is won and lost in 3bet pots, I think it's an essential part of the HU game.

I hope to finish it by the end of the week, so I can send it to Jared. He told me today that he'dd be willing to review it and we can possibly discuss its content in our next session. I can't wait!

Also it'dd be really cool if I can play full-time this summer. That way I can really dive into the game and focus on just playing well, working out strategic concepts, figuring out new ways to play etc. Also when I'm able to play like 5 hours a day I can really get a nice volume of hands in. The break-even stretches will still be the same length as in amount of hands, but it won't feel as long since I'm able to play a lot more hours then I possibly can at the moment thanks to my work on my Master's Thesis.

Tomorrow I'm going to Amsterdam to watch a concert of Ingrid Michaelson, which is pretty cool. Below are two songs of here so you get some idea of her style. After that I'm going back to Enschede tomorrow and hope to get a few more sessions in before the end of the week :)

Four figure swings

2009-05-02T15:27:00.002+02:00

It’s been a while and I figured it’s a good time to post an update about my results in heads-up poker over the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I haven’t had a lot of time to work on updating my forum. I’m busy working on my Master’s Thesis and what little time I have left to spend on poker, I’ve been working on my game, discussing strategy with my poker coach and playing at 1/2 on Stars and FullTilt.

Let me go back to the start of April. I started taking shots at 1/2 and as you can see from my last posts, I had some great starting results. I was up 2.5k in my first session and took about 1k more in a few follow-up sessions. After that though, my results kind of took a nosedive and ended up losing about 3k. At the end of April, it ended up being a break-even month, with me being up about 2 buyins at 1/2 and losing like 4 on 0.5/1. It’s a little disappointing, but it has for sure been a positive experience for me. Because of my good starting run, I was able to take a serious shot at 1/2 and see how the game plays on a level higher.

At the end of the month I had won and lost like 18 buyins, which was great. I’ve taken up all the big hands and discussed them with my new coach (jk3a from Deuces Cracked). There was a lot of fundamental strategy that I ended up asking him and I’ve really learned a lot. What I did was make a 2 page summary of tough hands, situations that had me puzzled and general strategic concepts (most of them in 3bet pots) that lead me to tough spots. According to my coach, I’ve been structurally misplaying hands in certain spots and need to change the way I think about the game a little bit. I have worked out all the concepts that we discussed and ended up with a nice strategy article of about 15 pages for myself that I can now work into my general game.

I had the idea of posting that here, but I decided against it since I think it gives away a lot about my game. Since heads-up is just so read dependant, I won’t be posting such detailed information about my game anymore. If anyone is interested in that stuff you can just ask me and we can talk about it.

For the month May, I have decided to take a step down to 0.5/1 for a while. I definitely feel a lot more comfortable at 1/2 after the shot I took last month and I feel that I’m better than most of the player there. At the moment my bankroll is like a 100 buyins for 100nl which is fine, but I don’t feel great about taking 50 buyins for 200nl. My goal for May is to make 40 buyins at 100nl so I can get my roll back up to 14k and then take another serious shot at 1/2. Hopefully this time I’ll stick and can look forward at building a roll for 2/4, which my coach says is a bigger step then the one from 100nl to 200nl.

I hope that I will have more time to update this blog during the course of May, but I can’t really make any promises since I am just too swamped with stuff that I have to do. I also want to focus on my game a lot and grind a lot of hands at 0.5/1 this month so my “poker time” will be pretty busy. Look below for a graph of my April month. I’m especially content with the non-showdown line that stays above or around 0. In the past I was losing a lot of money in non-showdown and it looks like I have finally been able to fix this leak. Now it’s time to not run like I have been the past few weeks and actually WIN some pots in showdown =) See you at the tables!

2.5k session

2009-04-11T07:22:00.008+02:00

Wooohooo :D Just played an amazing session last night playing 1/2 HU where I won about 12 buyins. I've really been trying to get my non-showdown winnings up, instead of this VERY negative number. That's what I'm most proud of in this session =)

I'm obviously very tired after playing for like 6 hours straight so I'm off to bed, but just wanted to post this happy news ;) I want to post another large update about my results in March and April and I got some coaching news etc. My birthday is next week (April 16th), so I hope to get it done and posted before then since I will be pretty busy.

Here is a graph of my last 2 months. As you can see, I've been going through a bit of a breakeven stretch, but it looks like things are going up now again :) I think that's partly due to the non-showdown that's no longer taking a nosedive down :P My goal is to work on this and at least get a break-even line in that, so that it won't affect my total winnings as much.

I don't want you guys to miss out on the one hand of the night that made me laugh so hard, so here it is (btw, he snapcalled river, probably because he missed the flush? LOL!!!):

February results

2009-03-10T02:48:00.007+01:00

As promised I was going to make a post about my results in February. Here's my graph of all the HU hands I have played. It's unfortunate that I wasn't able to play more hands, but obviously my vacation to the States got in the way of that ;) In total I put in 40 hours over the whole month, which comes down to a nice hourly of $89.

It's incredibly exciting that I've finally given up 6max completely. I feel that I have the time now to completely work on my HU game. Lately I have been posting A LOT in the 2+2 HU forums, responding to pretty much every question regarding HU cash games. I'm also reviewing big hands that I had trouble with, asking for help and feedback and working more on tilt control etc. I've really managed to play my A-game a lot this past month, which shows in my results.

Whenever I see a little frustration come up or I get bothered by a meaningless thing as getting a bad beat, I simply quit no matter how fishy my opponent is. My mindset is, there's always another fish to take down, but my winrate will be lower when I'm not on my A-game. It's pretty great to be able to actually laugh at the bad beats and swingy sessions that comes with HU. I know that it has taken me some time to get adjusted, but I think I'm getting the hang of it pretty well.

Apart from playing and reviewing hands, I have been looking to find a good HU coach who will help me improve my winrate and move up to 1/2 and 2/4. I responded in the coaching forum to a thread from a Bluefirepoker instructor who was looking to take on 3 or 4 students. I prepared a long mail to him explaining my goals, my enthusiasm and work ethic for the game and told him that I would really like to have him as my coach. A few days later he told me that out of all the PMs that he got (about 30) he picked 3 or 4, and I am one of them :D

His name is Don (also known as SoCalQuest online) and you can find him amongst the Bluefirepoker coaches page (link) at the bottom. He is actually being coached in HU right now by no other then Phil Galfond, also known as OMGClayAiken, who plays the highest nosebleed stakes around against players like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. I know that it'll cost some money, but I'm sure that it will be a good investment if he's really as good as I think he is :)

I had a nice chat with him today and I sent him some graphs and stats about my play. He said that I had a pretty good winrate and that he could see that I definetly had some good experience in HU. I have been losing money though in non-showdown pots and he said that we were going to fix that, which sounded pretty cool! :D

We set up a scheduled time for our coaching sessions, which is going to be Mondaynight at 9pm my time (he lives in the States), and we're going to meet once a week to discuss strategy. I've already taped a session for him to watch and we will review it next week, so that he can comment on hands and help me change the way I think about them. According to him, that's the most important part about the whole coaching thing. I can't wait to get started and will definetly post updates about it here!!

The first part of March hasn't been that great though. I've been running pretty bad, seen a lot of coolers (me making straight and flushes against full houses etc), but overall I'm pretty happy about my results. I'm up about 1k for now, which is fine. I'm VERY proud of the fact that I am really noticing when I'm playing bad due to some beats or coolers that I get. Now that I'm running a bit worse this month, you can see that my sessions have really shortened during this period. I have managed to quit each time, being down only like $150 or so for the session, when this happened.

I've also signed up on a new site, Betsafe Poker. It's a site that offers me 30% rakeback, but the client is pretty horrible. Along with that site, I still have a couple grand on both Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars, so I have 3 sites on which I can play. I'm usually switching it up a bit, but have noticed that I play on FTP the most lately. I guess it's mainly because I just started on there and my tableratings stats there are only of my HU play. The graph there just looks so cool that I want to try and run it up a bit even though I know it makes no sense, lol (link).

I'm still working on finishing my strategy post so I hope to post that later this week. To finish off my post I figured I'dd put 3 of my biggest pots up that I've won in the last month. They're all at 1/2 obviously, since that's the highest that I've played ;) I think they illustrate how incredibly bad a lot of players are at heads-up, which really goes to show how much money can be made here. Leaving 6max was the best decision of my life!! :D

Holiday and heads-up poker

2009-02-24T06:31:00.004+01:00

Hi! I've been on holiday for the past week in Florida. Since I haven't posted here in a while because of this, I wanted to make a quick and short update. In the past week I haven't really been playing much due to travelling and relaxing. I'm staying with my sister and parents at their condo in Orlando and have a pretty nice room with a desk, 20" LCD monitor etc that I can use to grind some hands :) (see setup below)

Overall, February has been a pretty decent month for me. I'm sad to say that my development in 6-max hasn't been that progressing, but I'm VERY confident in my heads-up game, which is where I'm making most of my money lately.

This week alone I'm up about 2.5k playing 1/2 HU at Stars, by playing only 2 or 3 sessions. I'm happy that I finally decided to make the permanent move there. My bankroll allows it, I feel great about my game and felt that moving up to 1/2 was the right thing for me. The biggest difference so far that I've seen is that the opponents are much more happy to throw money around and play VERY agressively. At first this kind of scared me, but the biggest leak that I see in a lot of these players is that they're not thinking about what their hand looks like. This makes their game pretty exploitable and I've been able to make pretty light calldowns against total maniacs, simply because of this fact.

I'm still on the fence about continuing my 6max journey, since I think that I'm just so much further with my heads-up game. Along with making more money there, I also find it a LOT more enjoyable and much less of a grind then the boring 6max format. To be honest, I don't see any reason whatsoever to be playing 6max.

This week I have contacted a HU coach that I met through 2+2 and I will be doing some sweat sessions at 1/2 next week when I get home. I'm hoping to increase my bankroll some more to about 16k and then take some shots at 2/4, with the help of my coach. It's hard though since I'm spending some poker money here in the states buying all sorts of stuff, which is fine since I think I'm allowed to enjoy myself ;)

In the last 2 months though I think that my HU game has improved tremendously and I'm getting so much better at hand reading, inducing bluffs, making the right valuebet sizes etc. A lot of the time I can call out their hand pretty close when it comes to showdown and I turn out to be right quite a lot :D I find this VERY exciting and would love to share some of the stuff that I've learned.

I'll make a big February results post next week when I return to the Netherlands (March the 2nd). I have also been working on a big HU strategy post that I wrote mostly on the plane and airport on my way here. It's currently on my laptop and I still want to perfect it before posting. In my next post I am also planning on discussing some heads-up hands that I've played along with my thought process and reasoning behind them.

Until then I'll be enjoying my holiday here. Tomorrow I'm going to Disney World and I will be going to Universal Studios on Wednesday and Thursday. I've also bought a lot of cool clothes here with my poker winnings, since expensive brand names and stuff are just so incredibly cheap here =) So make sure to check out my upcoming strategy post next week and until then, good luck at the tables!

January results

2009-02-03T03:32:00.002+01:00

Lately it's been going extremely well with my poker results. It's amazing what a little coaching can do to improve your game. I've only had a few sweat sessions at 1/2 and already I feel like my game is SOOO much better then it was before.

I have played about 6k hands so far on 1/2 and am up 13 buyins, which is obviously a great result. I've been running pretty hot, but I also made a lot of improvements in my postflop game and have been doing a lot better at controlling the size of the pot.

All in all, January has been a great month! I have gained a lot more confidence and really feel that I've taken my game to the next level! I ended up making almost 4k, so moneywise the results have also been good.

In the past week I have been going to Holland Casino a lot as well. I've cashed out a little less then 1k on Pokerstars (600 euros) 1.5 months ago and have made that my live poker bankroll. My goal was to expand that and see if I can try and grind some money at the 2/2 games during the weekends. There are just SOO many idiotic tourists and gamblers over there just giving away their money that I didn't want to miss out on all the action.

This past weekend I went on Saturday and Sunday I went to the casino with two friends of mine and ended up winning 4 buyins. Thanks to these good results I now have a live bankroll of 7 buyins which gives me a nice cushion for the obvious swings that come with playing complete morons. Obviously the live game is A LOT slower then playing 4 to 6 tables online and the game dynamic is a lot different. Still I feel that your edge is so much greater and even though my winrate online is probably better then live, the friendly people, nice dealers and brushes and the cool environment really makes up for a lot. It's just a bunch of fun making money while ordering a nice club sandwich, talking to some friendly people (who can't play a lick of poker but are nice nonetheless) and laughing it up with my friends.

We also met a nice guy at the casino who also comes there regularly. I've seen him there a few times before. At first he seemd a little unfriendly to me and a bit too serious for my taste, while we were just laughing it up and stuff. It looked like he didn't feel we were very competent players (we certainly didn't look like it). However after a while he began to see that besides our happy attitude we were also pretty good players. He started giving us more respect and we got to talking about poker strategy and stuff. I found out that he also plays 1/2 online at Everest Poker and that he's been coming to the casino often in the weekends to just make some money against the idiots.

Tonight I also went to the casino with a friend of mine. I ended up losing 70 euros, which was a great result considering I got rivered for a 350+ euro pot twice and ended up making a great laydown on the river. I'll go through one of these hands, in which I'm really happy about the way I played it. I had JJ in middle position. To my left was an older guy who was an incredible calling station. There were a few limpers and I made it 18 to go. The old guy on the button called as expected and one more limper came along. Flop came 983ss. I made a bet of 32 on the flop. The old guy called and the limper folded. Turn came a 7 and I bet about 64. He called again with about 220 behind. The river came a 6 and I checked, after which the old guy pushed allin. I knew a lot about his hand at this point. He didn't have 2 pair for sure, since he was raising that on the flop or turn. When he called turn I put him on a hand like T9 in my mind, a top pair type hand with a draw. After he shoved the river he felt so comfortable that I was SURE that he had hit his 6 outer against me (two jacks and four sixes). I studied for about 2 minutes and then open-mucked my cards and told him his T was good. He told me nice fold and flipped over TT for the straight. That was a pretty great feeling, knowing that I was right and also that my read on his hand was close to perfect. I was DEFINETLY going to valuebet any river, which was pretty strong considering the board wasn't really developing all that great for my hand (9873ss) and my JJ isn't really the nuts there haha. At the end of the evening the brush sat next to me and asked me about that hand (he was watching as it happened). I told him my thought process during the hand and he told me he really liked the way I played it and was impressed with my read all the way through.

I'm definetly going to go to Holland Casino a lot more, especially during the weekends. It's just a lot of fun and the money I can make there is also pretty good. I will definetly post some updates about my play there and also my game at 1/2. This month I hope to 4-table about 20k hands at 1/2 and grind out a decent winrate. Let's go for a 5 figure month for a change! =)

Great session + poker video

2009-01-22T18:07:00.005+01:00

Last exam
Today I hopefully had my last exam EVER! :) All that's left for me now is working on my master's thesis and finishing my education at the University. After studying for about 1,5 weeks for this important test, I had decided that tonight I had deserved to finally play a long session of poker again. I invited Rolf, a good friend of mine, to play some online poker together and split the action, like we always do when we play together.

Online poker session review
We started playing some Pot Limit Omaha. It's not really my best game and I'm still learning it, but he has a lot more experience with the game compared to me. We played some hands of $50 PLO 6max, but after losing $120 we kindda had enough of it. I suggested we try to play some HU No-Limit Hold-em, which is the game that I am most confident in playing lately (I think it's safe to say that HU NLHE is my best game right now). On the side we had a few 6max tables open to get some action while we waited for opponents.

In about 2 hours playing 100nl HU mixed with some 6max, we were up $430, which was pretty good :) A hand that I personally was very happy with was the following:

I had been playing with villain grega88 for a while and had been betting my flush draw VERY agressively in an earlier hand. In that instance I bet close to pot twice. The hand got to showdown so I know that he picked up on this. In this hand, I flop a monster, but obviously I wanted to make it look like I had a weaker hand. I ended up betting my hand like I knew he saw me do with a flush draw, hoping he would commit with a weaker holding. Watch the results below...

After winning about $130 each (the NLHE winnings minus the PLO losses) we decided to give it a shot at 200nl HU. We sat at a few tables and ended up playing a guy who, according to pokertableratings.com was a pretty big loser. We were also fortunate enough that he sat down at two tables with us!!

After about 1.5 hours of playing him, we were up $200 against him (plus another $100 versus some moron who decided that for 50bb he could shove his A9 vs our AK lol). Since it was already 7:00 am Rolf (my friend) decided that it was time to call it a night :) After both having made $200 in a couple of hours, clearly we were very happy with the result haha. It certainly paid for the beers that we had together =)

Obviously, since the guy I was playing 2 tables against was SOOO bad, I decided to keep playing him until he left. I was deep against him on both tables as well, with about 170bb in front of us ($350). About 10 minutes after Rolf left, I finally stacked him for his $345 stack in the following hand:

I have QQ in the BB. After running so raises, I'm obviously going to 3bet with such a strong hand. He opts to call and the flop comes QT9ss. Since it's such a scary board and so many draws are out there, I decided to bet pretty big, $35 into $40. The turn was probably the worst card in the deck for me, the 8 that completes both the 4-straight and flush on the board. Since I know that my opponents is not prone to bluffing at all, I decide to check. If he bets, I know he has either a straight or a flush and I can call for my outs to a full house, or if he checks behind I could bet/fold the river for value.

My opponent checks and the river is the most beautiful card in the deck, a T of diamonds, which gives me a full house and the second nuts (apart from quad tens). Now, I could bet small here, but I know that my opponent is not calling with a lot of hands here given his weakness on the turn. He doesn't have a straight or flush since he would definetly bet those, so the only hand that I was hoping to get value from is a rivered T. That's why I decide to just shove allin for a 3 times potbet, HOPING that he has a big hand. My opponent thinks for a while and clicks on timebank, which got me even more excited!! I KNEW he had something BIG, at least the ten! After about 15 seconds of thought he calls the $300 more and shows his T9 for a rivered lower full house. SHIP THE MONEY! =)

Well, after this beautiful hand, my Holdem Manager now shows a session of +$1065, which I gotta admit felt good after 5 hours of work ;) I wanna thank Rolf for a great time and a nice winning session together :D We should definetly do this again soon haha!

Poker video
As promised I would post the video I made of me 4-tabling 100nl 6max on stars. I posted the link below. If you have any feedback, comments, questions, feel free to drop a reply on my blog. I'm happy to hear your thoughts!

Link

Tough times and a new attitude

2009-01-22T18:02:00.003+01:00

Poker ain't easy
A lot of people I know think that making money in poker is easy and that I just get money while doing very little work. Well, this is far from the truth and everyone who doesn't believe me should try giving poker a try for a year and come back to me afterwards. There is so much mental hardship involved. You have to withstand the downswings, the bad runs, the stretches in which you have no clue whether you are even any good at poker etc.

Over the past few months, I've realized actually how tough the game can actually be. In this post, I would like to make a summary of my experiences since my last post about poker in October. It's going to be a long read, so hopefully it's interesting enough for you guys to read… If not, tough, since this is my blog and I get to decide what gets posted and what not ;)

I realize that my last post was kind of negative and pessimistic, but I am working on addressing some things, not just with poker but also my life in general. My results haven't been very good lately and obviously the fact that I'm running bad is part of the reason for this. However, I was also convinced that there are several things in my game that I needed to address. It's too easy to write off the last 50k hands due to bad luck, bad beats or coolers. If I'm completely honest with myself though, I haven't really been playing real poker anymore during the last 2 months. To explain all this, I have to jump back to October, when I made my last post about poker and go from there.

Flashback
Alright… jumping back to 2 months ago, poker was really going very easy for me. I was crushing 100nl 6max at Pokerstars for an easy 10bb/100 hands and everything was going great. In fact, it was getting too easy. In retrospect, I think that this was where my problems started. I was making easy money beating these idiots, so I decided to try and increase the number of tables that I was playing concurrently. It used to be about 4 to 6, but I started increasing this number to 9 to 12. My thought process at the time was that the leaks that my opponents had were so apparent and easy to capitalize on, that I figured playing more tables would increase my hourly winrate.

While this logic was pretty sound, I forgot to realize one important thing. That the more tables you play, your game starts to transform into a sort of auto-pilot. You don't have time to really think through your decision, which means that you end up making not necessarily the wrong one, but definitely not the one that maximizes your winnings. Because of my previous results, the confidence in my game was so high that I felt that it didn't really matter what I did while playing. As long as I grinded out as many tables as I could handle and played my A-game, I would beat those suckers and fish.

Unfortunately, as you can expect, this was not the case anymore. I went from a 10bb/100 winner in the 100nl games to a break-even player. I started throwing out one of my most valuable skills at the poker table, my ability to get inside an opponent's head and make reads based on their previous plays and the way that they approach the game. A large part of my winrate came from completely destroying other players, not simply because they were bad, but because they had leaks that I could see and capitalize on.

When playing about 4-6 tables against these guys, I had an enormous edge over them, since they had no clue how I was playing and I had every confidence in my abilities to read their hands. Because I was adding all these tables and started playing like an idiotic robot, I was no longer correctly thinking about the game or my decisions. I was just "grinding" out thousands of hands, with a winrate of virtually 0.

After about a month, I started to notice that my results were dropping I started analyzing my big hands to see if I was doing anything wrong and was making more and more posts on 2+2. During this period, I was primarily focusing on the big pots that I lost. Most responses that I received though about these hands were that they were pretty standard coolers and there wasn't really much wrong with it. This led me to conclude that I was still playing fine and that my results would eventually come back when the cards would stop spiting in my face.

What I failed to realize though, is that most of my play was starting to become part of my "standard game" so to speak. I had unconsciously developed a couple of standard lines that I was constantly taking on all these simultaneous tables. My game has transformed from a creative and intuitive and adaptive way to play, to a simple abc-game that you see most multi-tabling regs play on Pokerstars. My VPIP and PFR started dropping as I was playing fewer hands and the hands that I did play were played in such a straightforward way, that all the creativity had gone.

Apart from my results not being well, I wasn't really enjoying playing poker anymore either. There was no more challenge to it all, partly because I was just doing the same old boring thing all the time. I stopped to think about my game, my opponents, what they were thinking, how they would react to my bets, how they perceive me, in what way they approach the game and so on. All I was doing was using the same standard boring lines across 12 tables and clicking my way through a session with little or no thought.

New start
It took me a while to realize all this, but during the beginning of December I felt that I needed to change some things up. I had to approach the game in a different way and start enjoying myself again, while obviously also increasing my results. I was coming on the longest break-even stretch that I had encountered in my poker career so far and I didn't really know how to handle it. That's when I decided to find a poker coach.

After browsing the 2+2 forums I found a guy by the name of Mike that made a post in the coaching thread about starting to take up coaching. Because he was new to it all, he was looking for 2 enthusiastic students that he would offer a month of free service in order to get some experience with it. There were a lot of replies to his thread and I made a long post introducing myself and stating my intentions, goals, past experiences etc. After a day I got a PM from him saying that he was impressed with my post and my previous results and would really like to work with me on my game. Obviously I was thrilled!

We spoke a couple of times on Skype and I was immediately convinced that he was going to be a great coach. He really seems to know his stuff and has been around poker a lot longer than I have. Currently he plays 400nl 6max and I really feel that I can learn a lot from him. Together we set up sort of a game plan on how we were going to get my game back on the right track. In the first talk, he said right away that I shouldn't be trying to change up my game right away and that I needed to give myself time to let my results come back at some point. Another thing he said which I really liked was him saying: "Look… the last couple of months have been bad, we know this and there's nothing we can do about it anymore. Let's just forget that period and start from scratch right now. We'll work on your game and from now on, we are going to make a change!"

What I found out that really made me worry was the huge amount of money I was dumping in non-showdown pots. I was a BIG loser in these, which I found odd since I used to be able to capitalize on weak plays and take down a lot of pots when I sensed weakness in my opponents. During the past month I've been playing about 30k hands with a low winrate, but I don't mind that at all. I've been experimenting with different things and primarily focused on increasing my non-showdown winnings. I started bluffing more spots in which I felt that they were EV+ and started to look for things I was doing wrong.

The last couple of days though I had some kind of an epiphany! I talked with a friend of mine that I knew from online poker and talked with him about my poor results and wanted to know if he had some suggestions that might help me out. He pointed me to a few interesting strategy articles and said that those really helped his game out a lot. I immediately proceeded to read them and they were just amazing! They talked about the common mistakes that people at small stakes 6max make and ways to improve them. When I compared them to my own game, I realized that I had incorporated things into my game as being "standard", while the article showed very convincing points that suggest doing things completely different.

I got really excited about the interesting concepts that were addressed and I began to write out several scenarios to compare the different results. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had been doing a lot of "standard" things in my game for the wrong reasons, which ended up hurting my results in a BIG way. Another thing I realized was that during the last couple of weeks, I had been focusing on the wrong thing! Here is my big "aha" moment: "If I wanted to win more in non-showdown pots, it didn't mean I had to be bluffing more, 2^nd barreling more and showing more aggression in general. I would first have to stop putting myself in bad situations in which I am going to have to give up the pot a lot."

Preflop leaks in my game
With this new understanding of the game and the things that I needed to change, I wrote some key concepts down. These were the things that I want to address during the following weeks. In order for me to structure and organize them, I've decided to list them here on my blog so that I have them stored somewhere and maybe to help you guys improve and fix some stuff in your own game.

3betting when in position
The first things that I need to address are my 3betting tendencies. Since my general strategy is to be aggressive and the openraising range of most TAGs and LAGs at 100nl is pretty wide, you can profitably 3bet a lot of hands. What I failed to realize though is that just because you can get them to fold often, it doesn't mean that 3betting is necessarily the best play.

One of the things I did wrong was that I was 3betting with hands that had a lot more value in calling, especially while being in position. Reraises are generally not getting called light, especially out of position. This means that if I am 3betting certain hands, while they may be ahead of villain's openraising range, they are not doing very well against their 3bet-calling range. As an example, let's take AJ. This hand is obviously ahead of a TAG's range when he opens in middle position for 4 big blinds. When I 3bet though, he will pretty much fold all the hands that I'm a favorite against, such as A5-AT, KJ/QJ etc. If I want to keep these hands in his range, I'm better off just calling his raise, especially when I'm in position on the BTN. This gives me the opportunity to win a bigger pot off him when we both flop top pair and I have him outkicked.

Another spot in which you would prefer a flatcall is if you can expect a multi-way pot. In these pots, position plays less of a role since players will make less use of aggression. It's a lot harder for the original raiser to cbet into 2 players out of position. Say for instance that someone in the hijack raises to 4bb. We are on the CO with 87s and the BTN is an extremely loose player. We might be better off to just call, since it will be harder for the original raiser to continue with the hand if he doesn't flop anything. Another advantage in this play is that you are inviting other weak players to enter the pot, since they believe that they are getting better odds. While this is true, they forget that the chance that they will win the pot also decreases.

3betting pocket pairs
On another note, flatting low pocket pairs have a lot less value. You are calling a raise with the intention of flopping a set here. However in today's games, the raising range of even tight TAG's include a lot of suited connectors, broadway hands and a mix of speculative hands that simply want to take down the blinds. This decreases your implied odds in the event that you do hit your set. Therefore you are better of reraising these hands OOP, given that you create some fold equity with your hand and when you get called, you can expect them to have some sort of decent hand. In this scenario, when we do flop our set we can expect to win a much bigger pot and we can get our stack in a lot faster in a bloated pot.

3betting when out of position
A situation like this comes up often. Consider the following example: a player limps and someone makes an isolation raise from late position (BTN or CO). We know that his range for doing this is very wide here, especially if he's a decent player. That means that you don't need a real big hand to play a pot against a weak limp/caller and iso-raiser. Say we have AJ in the SB in this situation, we could naturally squeeze knowing that we're probably ahead of both ranges. The problem is that this eliminates our edge and doesn't allow us to play a pot against two weak holdings postflop. What our squeeze does is allow them to play perfectly against the semi-good hand that we represent in this spot. They can fold their marginal holdings (or perhaps even 4bet-bluff with them, although at small stakes that's not really a consideration) and they can call in position with their stronger holdings. Versus this calling range we really don't do well and we've created an ackward spot, playing AJo OOP in a 3bet pot. A better option for our hand in this spot is to call and play a single-raised pot against two wide ranges. If we miss, we have a chance to donk the flop, checkraise/bluff the flop or C/C when we hit our hand.

Coincidentally, say we have a hand like T8o in this spot, naturally the same arguments apply for squeezing here. Since our hand does not have that much postflop value when played OOP in a single-raised multi-way pot, there is A LOT more value in squeezing and either taking down the pot preflop, OR playing a hand that might flop huge against a stronger holding postflop in which I can win a big pot.

Apart from the things I mentioned here about 3betting, there was one more thing that I was doing wrong a large percentage of the time, which was 3betting from the blinds against a LP open. While this can be a profitable strategy, doing it too often will make the BTN start defending more against your 3bets by flatcalling more. This forces you to play your 86s OOP on a board that you don't hit very often, but do want to cbet. It's alright to 3bet these hands once in a while for image purposes, so that your big hands get paid off more. However I was doing it so much that I noticed that I was getting involved in a lot of these bad postflop spots.

In relation to this, I've lately found myself flatcalling broadway hands a lot more in the blinds. For the same reasons stated earlier, a hand like KJo or AJ plays pretty well in a single-raised pot versus an openraising range on the CO or BTN. You'll have a decent change of dominating hands like JT, KT, QJ etc. The times that you are dominated yourself though, you're pretty safe to play your hand since you don't have the intention of playing a big pot once you do hit.

4betting
Since most 4bet pots are played allin or fold, it's alright to have a polarized range in this spot. Hands like 99-JJ, AQ etc play pretty well in a 3bet pot. You are ahead of most aggressive players their 3betting range. If we 4bet these however, it should be with the intention of stacking off, and in these spots hands like that are suddenly not looking so great anymore (excluding the possibility that you're playing a maniac with a lot of metagame ofcoarse).

Coaching
My plan for the next couple of weeks is going to be to mainly focus on moving my game to a new level. I have already set a few appointments with 2 different coaches. On Saturday I will be coached during one of my 100nl sessions to fix a few small leaks that I might still have and on Sunday I will work with another coach who is going to help me make the move up to 200nl. I've set a few personal goals that I intend to meet and I am primarily going to be focusing on improving my game. As I stated earlier, I'm getting too burned out about grinding 100nl and not getting better or moving up. Right now I am finally taking action to make this thought a reality and my intention is to work REALLY hard the following few months to realize my goals.

Sometime during March, I want to be playing 200nl 6 tables and have that be my main game. I will accomplish this with the help of a poker coach. He currently plays 2/4 and has had numerous students who have all moved up a limit thanks to his advice and help. I'll put in a lot of hours during January, February and March to work on my game, fix leaks, do several sweat sessions with him and post a lot of tough spots on 2+2.

My eventual goal will be to play 2/4 around April and try to make this my main game. I'll need a roll of about 16k, which is pretty do-able if I expand my roll during the time that I will be playing 1/2. I hope that I will be able to reach these goals and I am definitely going to work VERY hard to do as much as possible to keep going in the right direction. Obviously there can't be much said about my chances in making these goals. I'm confident though that I have the skills to beat 1/2, especially with a little guidance. From there on, I'll just continue to work on my game and see if I can eventually beat 2/4.

I'll probably record my coaching session using Camtasia Studio and Skype so that I can review it later. I've also made a poker video of me playing 4 tables of 100nl on Pokerstars. At the moment my PC is still working hard to compress it into a shareable format so I will be posting this later tonight. Once I've had my sweat sessions I'll post some results and new ideas next week.

To sum up this VERY long post (definately one of the longer ones I have written), I am feeling pretty good lately. I'm confident, I'm playing well lately, I am feeling good, but most importantly I have found a lot of joy in both playing poker, but also in other stuff that I have been spending a lot of time on lately (music, sports, hanging out with friends etc). Obviously I realize that the past few months haven't been the best in my life, but I can see past that now and really feel happy about the path that I have chosen for myself. So until next time!

Search for the seed of good in every adversity...

2008-12-09T05:00:00.026+01:00

I know that it's been like 2 months since I decided to make a blog post. There's been some stuff occupying my mind for a while now. In the past two months some things have happened that have opened up my eyes and made me start thinking over some things about me, my life and the way that I'm heading.

To be completely honest, I haven't been in that great of a place as of late and have not been as happy as I normally am. People who know me mostly see me as a very outgoing and happy person. I like to laugh, have fun with people, go out and socialize a lot. Many people who hang out with me probably haven't noticed anything different, since my way of dealing with this is to meet friends, have fun and simply try to take my mind off it.

However I feel that this is becoming increasingly difficult lately and my thoughts just keep wandering. I'm not a negative person at all and I definetly don't want to complain a lot about something. That's just not who I am at all. My life is overall pretty great and I don't feel I have the right to say otherwise, seeing how there are sooo many people who don't have it nearly as good as me. However there is this great quote by Tolstoy that I really love and have taken to heart a long time ago, "Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them".

Within our own small little worlds, we all try to find some way of being happy. If you ask people, what for them constitutes happiness... you will probably get tons of different answers. People assume that the way we see things is the way they really are (or the way they should be). With that in mind, our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.

Personally, I always try to see things in a positive light and try to learn something from each bad experience that I've had, or coincidently each bad decision that I have made. Instead of it bringing me down, I'm trying to look at how I can take something positive from it, knowing that from that point on I'm a better person for it. A quote by Elbert Hubbard that I'm fond of repeating to myself at times is; "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one".

If you try to take the aforementioned approach to things that happen in life, it turns each bad experience or mistake into a valuable and useful life lesson that you can take with you. You start to grow as a person and are actively working on improving yourself. "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." I truly believe this to be true in every respect.

On the other hand, when always looking at things from a pessimistic perspective, it creates this negative energy that really isn't doing anybody any good, least of all yourself. If you really think about this though, having this perception on things is equivalent to "the easy road". It's so simple to always critize other people's views, beliefs, or opinions. Everyone can look for bad stuff that happens in their lives and then blame those for even more bad things happening. When people start to do this, they start rationalizing their bad attitude, by telling everyone how unlucky or unfortunate they have been in the past. By that, they try to justify doing certain things that are in no way helping you get to the root of your problems and acccepting your current situation. These people are caught in a negative self-sustaining spiral.

With realizing all this, I can't help the way that I'm feeling lately. That's why I felt that me posting some of my thoughts here might help me put some things together and set some stuff straight in my head. Just by writing my views here feels like a good way to let some emotions out. I'm sure everything will be fine. When life gets a bit tough in the future, I'll probably come back to this post and re-read it just to set myself straight again. "Depression loses its power when fresh vision pierces the darkness".

It was never my intention to make this blog so personal, but I really needed some place to share my thoughts. If anyone has any comments or thoughts they would like to share about all this, feel free to post them. When I feel up to it, I might make a large update soon about my progress in poker and the goals that I have set with my new poker coach. I'm sure that with the right mindset and attitude, everything will work itself out and I'll go back to being the carefree happy person that I normally am.

Common leaks of HU players at 100nl

2008-10-12T02:55:00.013+02:00

As I have said at the start of this month, I quit playing NLHE 6max. So far, I have only been playing 100nl HU, mostly at Pokerstars, but also a little on Full Tilt. This month I'm up about 13 buyins over a 6k hand sample which is pretty good I think (22 big blinds/100 hands). My goal for this month is to play about 30k hands headsup and see where I'm at. If I'm happy about my game and my winrate, I will take some shots at 200nl and see how it goes there.

What I wanted to do in this post is discuss some of the big leaks I've noticed with most players at 100nl. If you guys have any comments or questions I'm happy to hear them. Later this week I'll make a more extensive post about some interesting hands that I've played including my thought process. I'm also planning on making a nice video of me playing a session of 2 tables 100nl HU.

Image and gameflow is everything
In headsup NLHE, the image that you project during the match is the most important thing. Naturally this only works against a thinking opponent, but about 95% of the 100nl players are so we can easily make this assumption. By creating a loose agressive image, your opponent will tend to respect your bets and raises less and less and will adjust his range accordingly. That's why you always need to be wary about the state of mind of the person you are playing against. By being one step ahead in adjusting your strategy to most efficiently match theirs, you will always have an edge during the whole match.

For instance, at the start of a match against an agressive opponent, I like to 3bet him pretty light. It's even better when my marginal 76s hand comes to showdown early in the match. This will plant a seed in his head that I'm reraising him with very weak holdings and it will make him adjust his game accordingly. By doing this say the first 30 hands, I can pretty much go into total 3bet nit mode for the rest of the match and only 3bet my big hands. He will still assume I'm weak and call or even better, stick it in with his A6s against my pocket kings preflop. In the example below, I was playing extremely agressive against him the first 5 hands. This was hand number 6 and my second 3bet:

Hand 1

Inducing HUGE mistakes
By playing well postflop, you can really induce some incredibly large mistakes by your opponents. An example would be a hand where you flop something good like 2 pair or trips. In 6max, overbetting the pot even sleightly is usually not done. In headsup, making a 1.5x or even 2x or bigger pot bet can be fine and will easily be called by stubborn opponents or calling stations who don't believe you.

By putting in huge amounts of money in a situation where they're drawing nearly dead, you can really axtract a huge amount of money in one single hand, in which villain doesn't even need to have a big hand himself. I've posted a few real live examples below of hands I played in the past 2 weeks:

Hand 2

Hand 3

Failure to disguise hand strength
What I see a lot of bad players do is fail to properly get value out of their hand. That's mostly because they play their good hands sooo poorly that I pretty much know what they have. That clearly allows me to play perfect poker against them. If I have a good draw or outs to a hand and I know I can stack him, I can easily just call. On the opposite side, they are never getting value out of any worse holdings by me.

Inability to asses their hand strength
The nice thing about headsup poker is that you are forced to play a lot more hands. Since the big blind doesn't come around every 6 hands, you have to make due with the cards you are dealt and start raising up more marginal preflop holdings. This means that both players will have to deal with tougher postflop decisions, in which they have to asses whether their bottom pair is good.

I often see opponents that are horrible at this (pretty much everyone at 100nl that I play). It's probably a combination of their lack of poker skill and knowledge and my ability to disguise my hand and balance my ranges better then they can. The problem that this creates for them is that by the turn or river they don't really have much of a clue whether their hand is good.

Not valuebetting marginal hands enough
Another big leak I see is that most players don't know when and how to valuebet their hand properly. When I have a weak middle pair hand that called a turn bet, they decide to check behind the river with top pair and no kicker, simply because they are afraid to valuebet such a weak holding. Since I would have called a decent half pot sized bet on the river, they are missing out on a ton of value.

They also often make the wrong bet sizing, which either lets me know that they're valuebetting a made hand, or in another situation that they're bluffing their missed draws on the river. In most cases, I can just check/snapcall those with my bottom pair since I know they are going to make that stupid river bluff after the flush didn't come in.

Other times they have a huge hand, like a straight or flush that came in on the river when they're out of position. Instead of just valuebetting their hand, they decide to check in the hope that I'm going to bluff at it or bet my made hand. What these opponents don't realize is that I put them on a draw from the start and know that they've completed it. I check behind my top pair and they turn over their flush. They've paid two pot bets on the flop and turn with their draw, but don't get value once they make it.

Making bets/raises that only get called when they're beat
Probably one of the most costly mistakes that I see people make is that they put in a bet or raise, without really thinking about what can call them. Say they have 97 on a 744 board and they make a HUGE checkraise. This raise is never going to be called by a hand that you have beat. On the other side, you are overcommitting yourself to the pot without a really strong hand to back it up.

Another example would be shoving the river for a pot bet with top pair on a very dangerous board. The only thing that is going to make the call there is something like a straight or 2 pair. It's not like I'm stacking off there on the river with middle pair or something.

Playing too predictable
I don't know how many times I've seen someone play and after about 25 hands, I can pretty much tell by gameflow and their mental state what they are going to do. For instance, I've raised a hand and the board texture comes a certain way, I sometimes just know that they are going to donkbet 2/3 pot into me at thst point. Simply because I know how he thinks and doesn't believe I connected with that board.

Other times you just feel that they're sick of you winning 3 pots in a row and are going to make a stand by checkraising THIS particular board. Obviously when I get that feeling, I'm not cbetting my air or draw hands and only bet my made hands that can withstand a checkraise and inevitable future betting.

6max NLHE video

2008-09-30T11:16:00.003+02:00

A month ago I was talking about a video that I had made about my play on 6 tables NLHE 100nl at Pokerstars. It dates from August 8th 2008 and is a total of 1 hour long. What I did was I taped about 2 hours of me playing a session and I added my thought process and commentary later. This allowed me to pause the video and show some interesting spots.

There are some things that I could've done better, like add a good mouse pointer so you can see what tables I am talking about. I'll definetly do this next time, though I'm planning on only playing heads-up. What I will do is make a video of me 2-tabling that, including my thought process etc. Since I'm fairly new to this game I welcome all comments and criticisms to my game!

Here's the link to my video.

Heads-up cash games

2008-09-29T12:58:00.002+02:00

Well, after taking a break from poker for a while, I decided to pick it up again. Lately I've been wondering about what to do with my game, I can easily grind the 100nl 6-max games for a decent winrate at 9 tables, but never really been able to get things going on 200nl for some reason. I've tried to incorporate some changes in my game, but so far that hasn't really worked out that well.

At the moment I just feel kindda bored playing the same games over and over again. I'm not getting any better at 100nl, the opponents are just too stupid and mind-numbingly boring and the only reason I would have for doing it is to make money. This is all well and good, but I want to have fun while I play and not have it feel like a job where you have to grind out the same old thing all the time.

That's why I decided to just quit 6-max for a while and concentrate on playing headsup. At Pokerstars (where I have about half of my bankroll) there are a lot of NLHE HU games going, so last night I gave it my first REAL shot. I played a session of 7 hours and ended up winning about 1k (10 buyins on 100nl).

The first nice thing I noticed about headsup is that you'll have complete idiots sitting in front of you with $100, they play a couple of hands and in no time they give away their general playing style. After about 10 minutes I pretty much know what kind of hand range they have and it's very easy for me to adjust my play. Some guys sit down, they play 15 hands against me, go broke and then leave. There was one dude who sat down, went broke in 6 hands, rebought and went broke the very next hand by just shoving the turn with a flush draw.

In my first session I focussed primarily on 2 tables at once, since I'm new to the game and didn't feel like I had all the tricks down yet. After a couple of hours thoug, I've really increased my playing tempo and knew what to do in certain spots as sort of a "standard line". Ofcoarse you make deviations to it, but I felt more comfortable overall since I had a better feeling that I actually knew what I was doing.

Another great thing about headsup is that you notice that these bad 100nl opponents do adjust to your game. Problem is that they do it wrong, which means that I make more money. At the start of a match I try to create a certain image that I want, generally a very agressive one. After 3betting him a couple of times as a bluff in which he mostly folds, they usually adjust their game by just instacalling your 3bets in position. Naturally by then I've already replaced all my bluffraises by valueraises and he still thinks I'm full of shit. This causes them to stack off with a lame middle pair hand against my TPGK or something.

The upcoming weeks I think I'll only be playing headsup to really work on my game. I'll try to play 3 tables at 100nl and see where I stand in a few weeks. After that I'm going to give 200nl HU a shot. I doubt that the level of play there is a lot better, but we'll have to see.

Busted

2008-09-18T04:55:00.002+02:00

Well, I just busted out of the $320 NLHE 6max event (WCOOP event #26). Played a horrible tournament in my eyes where I made A LOT of stupid mistakes. Just sucks when you know you can't bring your A-game to the tournament.

I ended up becoming 358th out of a field of 3273 and cashed $511, but I'm just very dissapointed in the way I played certain hands. Cashing without paying for the buyin does make up for something, but right now I'm just pissed about the way I played :(

Later this week I'll review the hands in this tournament and I'll be making a report about a few hands that I misplayed in my eyes... There is one more event that I might play tomorrow, which is the $530 triple shootout. I'm going to bed now with a bad feeling. Hopefully tomorrow I can look back on 3 events that were good for a total profit of 1.67k (discounting the buyins I paid for the first 2 events).

WCOOP event #26 qualifier

2008-09-16T14:32:00.002+02:00

Well, I just played a 500FPP turbo rebuy qualifier to the WCOOP event #26, the one I was planning to play. It's the $320 NL Holdem 6max event. It took me about an hour and I had to beat a field of 69 players to reach the top 5 and claim a seat. It ended up costing me 1500FPP's (the buyin+rebuy at the start and 1 addon), which is obviously the minimal buyin :)

I was pretty happy with the result and even though I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to play this event tomorrownight, now that I won my ticket it takes away some of the pressure. Even though I'm not yet focussed that much, I will be using my free ticket to hopefully go deep into this event. Ofcoarse there will definetly be an update about my results in this event later this week.

WCOOP event #9

2008-09-10T14:18:00.016+02:00

As I said in my last post, I've played the WCOOP $215 NLHE 4max event last night. Here's a summary of the tournament how I experienced it.

Having no real experience with this type of game, I was a bit nervous going in. Because the tournament had a late registration, half the tables started out playing only 3 max. I checked the tournament structure beforehand and the blinds in these WCOOP events go REALLY slow! They're increased every half hour, which means there is a lot more postflop play and you have a much longer time to make moves and play with a big 100 big blind stack.

The first few hands I played a bit cautiously but when I started stealing a few blinds and making a few succesful cbets I became a bit more confident. Like 10 minutes into the tournament I really had a good feel for how the players at my table were playing. To my right was BEN BLACK, a bad player who played half his hands, cbets everything and also folds to every cbet I make. To my left was GHoonit, who liked 3betting from the blinds a lot, but then played horribly postflop. This meant that I could easily call his 3bet on the BTN and float him on most boards or sometimes even bet out after he checks to take the pot. The guy across from me was called Dennis28976, a tight nit who only raised 7% of his hands. For 6max, that is VERY tight, but for 4max it's just horrible!

About 20 minutes into the tournament I had added about 300 in chips to my stack and that's where I got a big hand which I posted below. I got A9s on the CO and opened for my standard 3 big blinds. GHoonit flatcalled and so did BEN in the big blind. The flop came T92 with two spades and BEN checks to me. I decide to check here, because GHoonit is pretty agressive on the flop and I feel that by check/calling I induce more bluffs with the likely best hand (middle pair with top kicker). GHoonit indeed does lead out 140 into 190, I call and BEN folds.

The turn brings a J, and I again check here since it's kind of a scary card and I would like to see what GHoonit does here. He checks behind here, which is interesting because the J is a great card to double barrel-bluff on. In my mind I felt that he would either check behind a draw here to take a free card, or he had a weak made hand that he thought had showdown value, like 88 or something. He could ofcoarse have made a straight, but I think he would be more inclined to bet the turn with that hand to protect it against a flush draw.

The river is a 9, which is a great card obviously for me. The pot is 470 and I lead out 300 to get value from a J, T or maybe a worse pocket pair. GHoonit thinks for a little bit and shoves his 1435 allin. I did think about this call for a while, since the board IS relatively scary and he could have been slowplaying 78 here for a straight on the turn. However I think I'm committed to call here since he might also shove a lot of worse made hands like KJ, QJ etc and also a lot of bluffs. I end up calling and he shows Q9 for trips with a worse kicker (a hand I never expected).

After that hand I was pretty much cruising with my 2x average stack. I continued building my stack, bluffing small pots, making bluffraises and floating other people's cbets and stuff. 20 minutes after the last big hand, I found another good hand against BEN, 99 in the small blind. BEN, who has been stealing a lot, opened for 90, which is a standard raise to 3 times the big blind. I reraised him to 270 and he called.

The flop came perfect, 963 with two clubs giving me the nuts with top set. Since BEN is pretty agressive, I decide to go for a checkraise here. He bets 420 and I make it 1111 to go, at which point he shoves allin and I obviously snapcall. He shows KK for an overpair that he tried to get tricky with preflop. That put my stack up to 8250!

The next few hands were standard, picked up aces and got 2 callers, cbet a low board and they both fold. Another hand where I open A8o and the SB calls. Flop comes J84 with two clubs and he checks and I check behind. Turn comes a 2 and he bets out and I call. River brings the 5 of clubs putting a 3flush out there and he bets 300 into a pot of 500 which I think about for a while but end up calling. He was bluffing a pair of fives on the river.

An hour into the tournament, I had a 9k stack, which was pretty good seeing how the rest of my table was sitting with 5k. The CO raises and I 3bet him with AQs. The flop comes A32 with two spades. I decide to check this flop, partly because I have been 3betting pretty light and was trying to make this one look like a resteal that didn't connect. CO bets 330 into a 570 pot and I quickly call.

Turn comes a 2, which is a fine card. I believe that betting is pretty pointless since he will only call me with an A. He will however bluff a lot of worse hands, so I went for a checkraise and was pretty confident that villain would bet again. I check and villain bets 810 into a 1230 pot. After my fake thinking tell I raise it up to 2222 and villain goes into the tank for about 45 seconds, at which point he folds his hand. That 4260 pot puts me up to 10k and I was cruising!

Half an hour later I have dropped about 2k in chips, which is fine since I still had a great stack. This guy across from me named TheC@T was opening a lot of hands and I was 3betting him a lot. A few times for value and ofcoarse also a couple of times as a bluff. He started shouting in chat after I 3bet him for like the fourth time... saying that the next time he would go allin blabla!

A couple of hands later I get AQo in the SB and C@T raises on the CO. I obviously 3bet him again hoping that he would be sick of it and after thinking for like 3 seconds he shoves and I INSTACALL. He turns over AJo and gives me his whole 5k stack putting me up to 13k haha :) Thanks and goodbye!

Like a half an hour goes by in which I basically lost about 3k in chips, simply because I was just not getting any hands at all to play with. That's when I lost a pretty big pot to an ugly suckout. The worst player at the table who was also the shortstack with 5k (I had 10k at that point) has been getting pretty nervous about his stack and was pushing a lot of hands. I find 88 on the BB and he opens on the button for 3 big blinds. I think for a while, because I could either call or raise. Reraising here though would pretty much mean I'm committed to call his shove. I decide that I'm doing fairly well against his shoving range, simply because he shoves a lot of high cards and lower pairs as well because he's getting desperate. I raise, he shoves and I INSTACALL ofcoarse. He turns over 77 and rivers the 7 for a set beating my 88.

That hit really sucked a lot, since it put me down to being the shortstack with 7.7k in chips, when I should be having 18k (which was about average again). I was getting pretty pissed at that point, but these things happen I guess. It was time for me to start making a few more moves then I normally would have.

Like 15 hands later I get KJ on the CO, which is ofcoarse a great hand. I open and the BB, a guy named Trip N Up who has about 20k as opposed to my 8k, calls my raise. The flop comes Q74 rainbow and villain checks to me. I decide to check here, because I can keep the pot small for a bluff on later streets and since I'm in position I have a lot more options. Also a check here is pretty deceptive, since I would do this with my entire range too on this non-drawy board (any Q, any pair, and any draw which would be 56).

The turn comes a 3, which is a complete blank. Villain makes a VERY weak 500 bet into a pot of 2050. I was 95% sure that he was doing this simply because he thinks I cannot continue with my hand because I almost never have a Q here. He is ofcoarse right, but he doesn't realize that I know that he also has nothing in these spots VERY often. That's why I decide to make a committing bluffraise to 1300. If he calls that, the pot will be 4.6k and I will have about 6k left. This raise allows me to make another BIG bet on the river, or maybe even shove. He thinks about his hand for a while and then lays it down and I pick up a nice 4k pot.

About 20 hands after the last encounter with Trip he's down about 3k losing a few pots. I get KJo in the BB and it's folded around to Trip who limps the SB (first time I've seen him do this by the way). It's pretty hard for me to put him on any kind of hand here, could be a big hand hoping I raise, could also be a small suited connector wanting to see a flop. Since I'm not quite sure what to do here and KJ plays pretty well postflop in a headsup pot, I check.

The flop comes perfect for me, J92 with two hearts. In my mind I just flopped the nuts and am 90% sure I have the best hand here. He checks and I naturally make a valuebet of 500 into a pot of 700. Trip however decides to get tricky and checkraises me to 1500. This in my eyes is a pretty weird bet. I'm pretty sure that he doesn't have a big made hand here, simply because he would bet out a good hand on this drawheavy board. A checkraise with a good hand like that is waaay too risky, since there's straightdraws and flushdraws that I would all check behind for a free card. He also can't be too sure that I will bet if he checks since it's a limped pot, which makes it even less likely that he checkraises a big hand here.

My conclusion is that he either has some kind of draw, a weaker pair like a 9 or air here. In that case, I can raise or call. If I raise here, I fold out all his air hands and probably also his 9 hands. He might stack off with a straight flush draw or maybe even just a bare flush draw, but the range of hands that I want to see him continue-ing with will fold. That's why I elect to call here, hoping for a favorable turn and letting him bet again.

I call and the turn comes a 2 of spades, putting 2 flush draws out there. The pot is now already 3.7k and I have 7k behind (which are the effective stacks since he has me covered). Trip bets out again, this time 2.2k into a 3.7k pot. I'm still pretty sure I am way ahead here and a good choice might be to just shove this pot. However, I think that the only REAL scare cards that can come for me on this board is the heart. I'm also fairly convinced that he could have air in this spot as well, since he puts me on a draw very often after I call his checkraise. That's why I again call in the hopes of a good river that he bets out a 3rd time.

River is somewhat scary, the 7 of spades. It completes the straight draw with T8 and also puts a backdoor flush out there. Still, I'm almost convinced that he does not have either hand and that my top pair with 2nd kicker is the nuts. He thinks for a while and bets out 3k into a 8.1k pot, which is a somewhat suspicious bet since I only have 4.7k left. He could have just put me allin, but he decides to bet less. I think for a while but come to the conclusion I just mentioned and go allin for 1.7k more. He thinks for like 10 second and then FOLDS!?! There's no way he's folding ANY pair here, since he only has to call 1.7k to win a pot of almost 16k. This means that he indeed did have either air or a missed flush draw and I extracted maximum value from his range :) That felt pretty good and gave me a healthy 16k stack again! ;)

10 hands later I pick up Q8s on the BTN. I open and the SB calls. The flop comes J33 with two clubs and SB checks, as do I ofcoarse for reasons stated in the last KJ hand on Q74 rainbow. I have position and can easily cbet this on the turn. On the turn comes an 8 of diamonds putting two flush draws out there and villain bets half pot (1100 into 2200). I'm pretty sure that I have the best hand here, since the only likely holding that villain could have that beats me is a J. Since he doesn't have a J here very often, but much more often some sort of semibluff draw, I can call or raise here. Raising however doesn't appeal to me that much though since I'm building a big pot that I might be a huge dog in against a J (or almost never a 3). Calling gives me the option to keep the pot small and also call a decent sized river bet on a favourable card. That's why I call.

River is a 7 of hearts, which is a very safe river for me. Villain bets a weakly 1k into 4.4k and I quickly call, since I can't really get much value from anything worse if I raise here and would just be value-towning myself. I call and he shows 97 of diamonds for a missed backdoor flush draw that rivered a pair.

The next hand is pretty ugly. The idiot fish who doubled through me with his lame 77 against my 88 has about 10k in chips on the BTN. I am doing VERY well and am dominating the table with a chip stack of 20k (everyone else has about 10k). Fish on the BTN raises to 2.5x big blinds and I have KQo on the BB. I flatcall his raise, because a 3bet would commit me more to the hand and would basically turn my good hand into a bluff. I can't call a shove and am hard-pressed to continue on any non-K or non-Q board, which is about 2 out of 3 times. That's why I think a call is better in this case, since hands that I beat will stay in the hand instead of just fold to my 3bet.

The flop comes Q85 with 3 diamonds, which is a semi-good flop for me. It probably gives me the best hand, but ofcoarse any diamond will kill me completely. I check and the fish bets 900 into a 1750 pot. I elect to call here, because I'm planning on stacking off on any non-diamond turn. That way I have a lot more equity against his draws on the turn and I can cheaply get away from the hand if the turn does make a flush.

The turn blanks with a 6 of hearts and I can either check or bet here. I decided to do the latter for two reasons, I'm way to afraid that if I check the fish will also check his flush draw and I give away a free card. Also a bet might make him go crazy here with his draw or pair by raising and I'm definetly stacking off on this board against villain now that I invest so much into the pot. That's why I bet out 2.5k into 3.5k and villain thinks for a long time. After about 15 seconds he shoves allin and I INSTACALL since that's what I had already planned on doing if he shoves :) He shows Q9 without a diamond and I'm a 85% favourite to take a monsterpot worth 22k and effectively adding 1/3 to my stack. The river comes a 7 though, which makes him his magical inside straight and he scoops MY pot AGAIN (!!) while being a 15% dog!! I was the table leader with 20k and now he has 22k and I'm the shortstack with 8.6k. That just sucks!

That last beat really put me down in chips and at this point I had to start making a move. Everyone at my table had about 40k and I was down big! The blinds were already 200/400 with 50 ante, so I was playing with about 20 big blinds. Within about 20 hands I increased my stack a bit to 10k by picking up some small pots and then I added 2.8k to my stack by calling a shove by a shortstack with 44 after I openraised.

A few hands later I pick up K6s in the SB and the guy to my right had been shoving 3 hands in a row. That obviously made K6s a clear call, so I did for his 8.6k (I had 12.3k). He ended up having 98 which put me on a 40% dog. Unfortunately his 9 on the flop held up and I dropped down BIG to 3.7k.

The next hand I clearly had to shove A2o on the BTN and I ended up sucking out against QQ by winning as a 30% dog against the guy who sucked out on my as a 20% dog twice!! A small piece of justice I say haha.

5 hands later I have another flip with my 88 against AKo and my 88 holds up. That gave me a 14.6k stack again.

In the next half hour I went a bit up and down until I find 77 on the BTN. This hand was kind of interesting and I posted the replay below. With blinds of 300/600 I openraise to 1800 (3 times the big blind). The BB calls and the flop comes 953 rainbow. He checks and I obviously fire out a cbet of 2666. The BB thinks for a bit and checkraises me to 6k. There are hardly any draws on this board, which kindda comes down to the Yeti theorem (something I learned on the 2+2 forums). A checkraise on a dry board is almost always a bluff.

He hardly ever has a 9 here and even if he did, he would probably not checkraise it in this spot. The only real draw out there is 64 or 42, which I doubt he flatcalls the BB with. That leaves big cards like QJ, KJ etc that he would be making this move with. If that's the case, then I could ofcoarse call, but since I only have 15k total I figured to just shove allin. He's getting great odds to call and might call with 2 overcards or possibly a weaker pair. I shove and he thinks for a bit, after which he folds. I was pretty happy about the way I played that hand, and it earned me an extra 8k to my stack.

10 hands later I have a stack of 24k. I find KTo on the BTN and openraise to the standard of 3 big blinds again. The big blind calls and the flop comes perfect, T75 rainbow. I'm obviously always stacking off on this board. The small blind (same person as before in the 77 hand) checks and I bet 3333 into a 4100 pot. He checkraises allin for 13k more and I instantly call. He shows JTo and my hand holds up. Another one bites the dust! ;)

The next couple of hands were pretty uneventful, stealing blinds, picking up some pots, folding to a few 3bets preflop. Then this hand came up that I think I might have misplayed a bit. I have A9o on the BTn and I raise to 3 big blinds. The big blind calls and the flop comes Q33 with two clubs. He checks and I check. Turn brings a 6 of spades and the big blind bets out 2750 into 5500. I really felt that this was a bluff with total air and I decide to call with A9-high. The river completes the club flush and he bets 5.5k into 11k. I now made middle two pair and elect to call him there, since I was getting such great pot odds. He ends up turning over a slowplayed pair of aces :/ (yawn haha). I think I could've folded on the turn, but after that call I obviously have to call the river half pot bet.

Like 25 hands later I with blinds 400/800 I find AQ on the BTN. I openraise and the SB who has been 3betting VERY actively 3bets me again. I obviously stick it allin with my 23k stack and he calls with 66. I hit an A on the flop and double up with a stack of 47k now :)

This next hand that came about 20 hands later was pretty interesting as well. Blinds are 500/1000 at this point and I have A9s in the SB. The BTN, who steals the blinds A LOT, opens for 2.5x the big blind and I elect to reraise from the SB. He calls and I flop the nut flush draw on QT4 with two diamonds. I bet out 11k on a 15k pot and villain calls. The player on the BTN didn't really fold to a large amount of cbet (only 36% of the time). My thought process was that he could have a wide variety of hands here. He could have some sort of straight draw, like J9 or KJ. He could also have a weaker pair like a T, maybe 99 or 88, or even complete air hoping that he can bluff the turn.

The turn comes a 2 of spades, which is obviously a complete blank. I only have a 2/3 pot bet behind and I now have two options, go allin or check/fold. The problem is that I can't really check/call, because he would probably turn his weak made hand like 55 or 66 into a bluff and shove allin. At that point I would be hard pressed to call, since I can't even beat his bluff. I'dd basically be calling off my whole stack hoping for an ace or diamond. If I shove allin however, the only real hand he can call me with is a Q and he pretty much has to fold the rest. Against a Q I still have some equity given the flush draw + overcard, and a 2/3 pot sized bet is still large enough for him to fold to. I shove allin and after some thought villain mucks his hand :)

10 minutes later I get another interesting hand. I have A9s in the CO and I raise to 3x the big blind. The BTN folds and both the blinds call. The flop comes wonderful, giving me the nut flush on Q85 with three hearts. It's checked around to me and I elect to check behind, simply because I would only be getting action from a Q or possibly the K of hearts here. The rest would surely fold. Obviously it also disguises my hand, and if someone did have a Q I'm pretty sure that he would be going allin on a non-heart turn.

The turn brings a complete blank, the 2 of clubs. The SB bets out 4.7k into a 9.4k pot. The big blind folds and I obviously raise for value here to 11.1k (almost 3 times his bet). Villain thinks for about 20 seconds and then shoves allin, to which I naturally INSTACALL. He shows QQ for top set, which is a pretty big cooler for him. The river blanks and I double up and pick up a pot worth 123k in chips. That gives me a healthy stack again!

That was pretty much the last big hand that I got. I had a few low pockets that I tried to hit a set with but missed, but other then that I was pretty much card dead. This lasted for about an hour and I was really bleeding away chips on a stack of about 91k, when the two other guys at my table both had 210k en 350k.

Here comes the last hand of the tournament, which I found to be a kind of sad ending. I found 88 in the BB. The BTN raises and I elect to 3bet him. The BTN calls (as I expected, cause I've seen him rarely fold to 3bets since he's the big stack at the table). The flop comes T76 rainbow, which is a pretty good flop for 88. I figure that I'm good here a decent amount of the time, so I fire a cbet of 16k into a 22k pot. Villain calls, which he does quite often to cbets.

The turn brings another T, which I found to be a great card! This makes it less likely that the BTN has a T in his hand. The only real hand he could have here is pretty much a weaker pair, like a 7 or 6 or complete air, thinking I didn't connect with this board and he could take over initiative on later streets. If he does have this kind of hand, the perfect line for me would be to check, since a 2nd barrel will probably fold out a lot of hands that I beat. However the hands that I do beat almost definetly will bet out on the turn after I check. So I check and villain bets 19k into 54k, after which I checkraise/shove 66k allin. He quickly calls and turns over AT for trips and I'm drawing to 14%. Obviously I'm not so lucky to win being a 14% dog and I'm eliminated in 60th place.

Well, I realize that this post has been pretty long, but I really wanted to make a nice summary of how I played this tournament and what kind of plays I made and encountered. That night when I got eliminated, I was VERY pissed that I came this far, but not really as far as I could have. I ended up cashing 1.35k, which is obviously a good result... but I was ofcoarse hoping for more.

If I look back at the tournament a few days later though, I'm actually pretty proud of myself. I played in a 4max event, a setting that I had never played before. I managed to adjust to my opponents, play my own agressive loose style, induce mistakes in their play as I have shown over the course of this post and ended up 60th out of a field of 3290, beating 3240 players.

At this point I've played in two WCOOP events and cashed in both. In the first one I ended up 814th out of 7217 entries. In the second one I became 60th out of a field of 3290. This is naturally a real confidence booster for me. I'm also pretty confident that I'm always going to cash in these events, simply because the level of play is so horrible in my eyes. The guys that I encountered in both events had NO CLUE whatsoever about poker, which made it pretty easy for me to put pressure on the table and play my own game.

I had initially planned to play three more events, the $530 Pot-Limit Holdem 6max event this Saturday at 20:30, the $320 NL Holdem 6max event on Wednesday and the $530 NL Holdem 6max with rebuys on Friday. I'm pretty sure that I can cash in at least the first two events and maybe even get into some of the higher payours.

However, I might decide not to play in any of the events, since something's come up that's really messing up my concentration in a BAD way. I've already noticed that it affects my play a lot in cash games and I'm sure that it will definetly be noticable in these big events. I feel that if I can't play my A-game, then I don't even wanna bother entering and playing these events. If I do decide to play, I'll definetly post my results here, but otherwise I might just take a few weeks off from poker until I can re-establish my focus and get some personal things sorted. This thing is just making me feel like I can't play poker anymore, because I'm just losing buyins in heads-up due to lack of focus. I truly hope it all works out. Until next time...

New school year

2008-09-09T16:30:00.004+02:00

Well, the new school year has started and I figured it's time to make an update about my last month of summer :) A lot's happened since then, so I guess I'll just start at the beginning.

Moving up
I've basically been grinding 9 tables of 100nl at Pokerstars since my last post, which went pretty well. During the past summer I've had a decent enough sample size to know that I can fairly easily beat those stakes and make a solid income on it. I guess I could be doing that from here on out, but that's not really why I play poker. That's why I decided to start playing 200nl for the past few weeks and see what adjustments I have to make to beat those stakes.

Unfortunately I've not been doing that great, being down a couple of buyins over a 25k hand sample, which is fine. It wasn't my intention to make money there right away. Right now I'm working on my game and try to change some stuff that used to work VERY well at 100nl that don't seem to work anymore here. I do feel that the fish are as horrible as they were on 100nl, but the regulars are a bit better. That's not a big problem though since I still feel that I have an edge on them.

At the moment I've switched most of my roll to another site, Betfair. I've left some on Pokerstars, but the players are so much fishier that it's just too profitable to keep playing on stars. Add to that the rakeback deal of 30% that I have with them and everything's great! The problem is that the good games are only there during the evenings and are BEST on weekends. That's why I decided to grind 9 tables 100nl during the day at Stars and 200nl 6 tables on weekends and in evenings on Betfair.

Holland Casino
I've also been going to Holland Casino a few times in the past month. That's something that I plan on doing more often, since it's a nice change of pace and there are A LOT of bad players AND bad regulars over there. The hands go a lot slower though, but I see it more as an oppurtunity to go out, have fun, chat with other people, have a few drinks and laughs and make some money doing it haha!

Heads-up
The past week I've also been focussing on headsup poker. Along with my intentions to improve my Hold-em game, I have bought a subscription to Deuces Cracked. It only costs about $30/month and they have a lot of content on both heads-up and 6max cash games.

Right now I've downloaded about 14 heads-up video's of about an hour each that I intend on watching this week. I expect to really be focussing on that game in the upcoming weeks, just because I think it's a lot more profitable then 6max AND it can really improve my 6max game. Heads-up is much more about reads, ranges, equity and feel and those aspects are obviously all important when being a winning 6max player.

WCOOP
To conclude this post, I will also be playing in a few World Champions of Online Poker events that is going on at Pokerstars right now. I played in event #1, which was a $215 buyin 6max NLHE tournament with 7200 players. After about 3.5 hours of play I ended up being 814th (last 1080 ITM) for cash of $346, which isn't really what I was going for obviously but it's nice to get my buyin back plus some pocketchange for the effort.

The level of play at that event was truly horrendous and I easily grinded my way to 2x average early on and just kept building on from that, without ever really getting any good hands or winning any allins. Add to that the bad luck of losing AK vs his AQ on an Axx board where all the money went in on the flop, a set that I had to dump on the river when BOTH the straight and flush hit (and I KNEW the fish had a draw after his flop check behind and turn instacall) and never seeing an AA or KK over about 350 hands and that pretty much sums up my luck in the tourney. I ended up losing my AT allin vs the KQ of the same fish who stacked me with his AQ :P

I will be playing event #9 tonight, which will be a $215 NLHE 4max event. Right now there are about 950 entries and I suspect that about 2000 people will be playing it. Hopefully I'll have a little more luck in that event! Next to that one I will enter in the $320 NLHE 6max tourney that will take place on September 17th. Ofcoarse I will post my results of those 2 events on my blog here later on.

Well, that's about all that I wanted to share. I will be posting a bit more regularly now since my vacation is over and I'll have a more strict schedule that I live by ;)

Funny donk

2008-08-02T00:14:00.002+02:00

Hahaha, today during a session I had a really funny hand against a complete donkey. Afterwards he started yelling and whining to me in the chat about what a moron I was and stuff. Usually I'm pretty nice against donks, because they donate me money. This guy however was sooo annoying that he was just asking to be messed around with, hahaha!

Here is the chat log about what he typed after the hand. It made me laugh so hard that I just felt like sharing it here hahaha!

azsnow said, "nh"
Aero1441 said, "thx"
iceonice said, "nice call preflop ashole"
iceonice said, "pisser"
iceonice said, "****in netherlaands donk"
Aero1441 said, "hahahaha"
Aero1441 said, "sorry mate, that was standard"
iceonice said, "yep idiot donky call"
iceonice said, "i prefer to play poker idiot"
Aero1441 said, "eeeh, ice, I raised mate"
funplayer5 said, "who you talking about?"
Aero1441 said, "I did not call ice, you called with your 77"
Aero1441 said, "I merely raised my monster, T9 ;)"
iceonice said, "u called a preflop raise with crap"
Aero1441 said, "no, I raised mate, LISTEN"
Aero1441 said, "check the hand history"
iceonice said, "u didnt donk"
iceonice said, "i raised preflop"
Aero1441 said, "check it!!"
iceonice said, "piss off"
Aero1441 said, "sorry mate, everyone knows I'm right :)"
Aero1441 said, "you're making a fool of yourself ;)"
iceonice said, "yes u are donk"
Aero1441 said, "hahaha, yep :) a donk with your money, thanks :)"
iceonice said, "welcome"
Aero1441 said, "I'm done with you, good luck"
iceonice said, "piss off ok"

*** 5 minutes later, ice still with his remaining $30 ***
Aero1441 said, "yo ice, can you please rebuy? I wanna buy something nice tomorrow and need some cash"
iceonice said, "kiss ur queens ***"

First 1000nl session, biggest pot ever and new pokersite

2008-07-30T16:27:00.006+02:00

Time management
I made a commitment to myself to make a poker playing schedule for the summer, so that I can better manage the hours that I'll be playing and to get some motivation to get hands in. It's hot outside, sun is shining, the swimming pool is only 500m away, tennis courts are another 500m, so the distraction are very present ;)

Last week (starting on monday the 21st) I had planned to play about 4 hours a day minimum. I've also kept records on paper about the hours I played, so that I could accurately measure if I met my goal. I'm sorry to say that the first week didn't work out that great. I ended up playing 15 hours, out of the 35 hours planned.

This week, I'm doing a lot better. I set my goal a bit higher and want to just make a full 40 hour work week. The first 2 days started out great. On monday I made 11 hours and yesterday I played for 11.5 hours. If I can keep up this rate, I should definetly fill up the 40 hours that I had planned :)

Betfair 1000nl
Let's start at the beginning of the week. On mondaynight I played a good session on PartyPoker at 200nl. At the end of the session, I decided to have a look at the action on Betfair to see if there was any game going on there. Since the games are sooo incredibly soft over there, I try to take on every opportunity to take part in it.

The only game that was going on was a 5/10 game ($1000 max buyin). I watched a few hands there and immediately realized how bad the players were. A total of 5 random guys were continuously limping and minraising, making horribly plays with hands like J8o and such. My roommate and I looked at the game and were just astonished at the level of play at a table with these stakes.

Without hesitation I decided to sit down. I bought in for the full $1000 and gave it a go, with the thought in mind that I didn't want to lose more then $500. Anything below that and I would quit. The cool thing was that I kept getting great hands. I started with AA which gave me a nice 3bet pot and kept picking up hands like AK/AQ/KK and alike. Obviously this made it very easy for me to play.

After about 2.5 hours I was up 1.7k in the game. There was one guy at the table who played 38/8/1.9 and another who played 25/10/4.8. This made it VERY profitable for me to keep playing, so I did. I also won the biggest pot of my life in this game, worth $1573. I'll post that hand below along with my thought process during the hand.

AyoAyo, villain in this case, was playing 40/19/1.6 and played HORRIBLY postflop. I knew on the flop that I was good, knowing that he calls with waay to many marginal hands preflop. When he decided to donkbet the flop, I immediatly put him on a draw like I do with most bad players. The only obvious draw was a flush, which made it easy for me to play. Ofcoarse I could raise here, but calling gave him a chance to bluff a brick turn. The turn card didn't really change my hand at all, and he bet out big again. If he did have a flush draw, his equity is only 16% (I have a heart) and I felt like he might 3-barrel-bluff a brick river. I call again and the river LUCKILY bricks. He thinks for a bit and shoves, to which I SNAPcalled him (auw, my wrist still hurts from clicking the call button so fast haha). He turned over 8h6h for a nice bluff.

Pokerstars
For a while now I've not been that happy with Partypoker. Sure, the client is good and the playerbase is bad (which is also good haha)... but the problem is that it doesn't offer rakeback. This wouldn't be a big deal, if they had a good program for collecting points that you can use to buy stuff like tournament entries, but their loyalty system is just crap. I've been playing there for like 4 months and only got about $170 worth of points. That's nothing! So, what site to go to?

A friend of mine plays on Pokerstars and he said that their loyalty system is one of the best in the scene. Also, my favourite famous poker player, Daniel Negreanu, is one of the promotors of Pokerstars. That's why I decided to move there and give it a shot.

Their loyalty system works like this. You earn points called VPP. When you start out, for every VPP that you get, you get an FPP. FPP's can be used in their store to buy stuff, like ipods, television sets, clothing and tournament buyins and alike. The VPP's cannot be spent, but instead they allow you to move up in rank.

The first level you can reach is BronzeStar. After a certain amount of VPP's you can work your way up to Silver, Gold, Platinum (the last takes about 10k VPP). Eventually you'll become Supernova (takes 100k). What these ranks do is they multiply your incoming FPP's by a certain factor. So the higher your rank, the faster you collect FPP's, which essentially comes down to cold hard cash. It's comparable to a rakeback system. At the moment, I'm a SilverStar (only took me about 2 days of playing 9 tables). I need another 4k points for Gold and 10k for Platinum. I'm guessing that'll take me about a week, maybe two. Supernova however takes a lot longer. Hopefully I'll reach that in about 3 months.

I've been playing at Stars for a couple of days now and I gotta say, the players are even worse then on Party. My cbets don't get bluffraised, they fold a LOT of hands on the flop or turn to checkraises and bluffraises and the overall level of play is poor (at least at 100nl). Unfortunately I've been running a couple buyins under expectation, such as shoving my nut straight on the turn against a set 2 times for 150bb and getting a boardpair on the river (80% equity).

Still, I like the client a lot, and last couple of sessions I've even been 9-tabling instead of my usual 4. The playerbase and the interface are just THAT good, that it allows me to play 9 tables profitably. I've still left about 5k on Party just in case, but I think I'm gonna move that to Stars too in a while. That way my whole bankroll is there, with a couple thousand on Betfair so that I can play the weak 500nl and 1000nl games whenever they're around.

Holland Casino
Last night, I FINALLY decided to drop by Holland Casino to play in the 200nl cash games with a friend of mine. It's full ring, which I have never played before, but I heard that the level of play is horrible. Well, the rumors turned out to be an understatement and we had a lot of fun. My friend ended up winning E450,- and I unfortunately lost E400,- due to some tough breaks.

I'll make a full blog post about my experiences there tomorrow. Right now, I wanna get some hands in at Stars to see if I can get up to Goldstar today (only 4000 VPP to go!). Until next time!

3 hour session

2008-07-24T18:07:00.005+02:00

Gearing up again
After my not so great session on tuesday, I chose to take a day off yesterday. I played tennis with some friends and we went drinking and had a little BBQ ;) It was a good way to clear my head for a day and do something else then poker.

Today I decided to sleep in and woke up at around 13:00. Had a good breakfast and started my session an hour later. As planned I checked the activity on Betfair looking for any juicy 500nl or lower game. Unfortunately the only game going was a 6-handed 100nl game, in which I sat down. Besides that table I opened 4 tables on PartyPoker 100nl and started cracking.

Image building
I started kindda slow, as I usually do. I want to get a feel for the table, before I really start opening my game up and making 3bets, resteals and stabs at cbets in which they can't really have much. After a while I started raising a little more (I ended up playing a 28/21/3.7 style) and got less and less respect in which people were playing back at me.

This is the situation that I really love to create, for 3 reasons:
1. it allows me to push the action whenever I choose
2. I decide when the pot is gonna get bigger
3. my monsters are getting a huge payoff when I make ANOTHER big raise, this time with the nuts against their top pair or whatever

Combine this table image and style with the complete and utter stupidity of a few morons who knew kinda of what I was doing, but totally went about it the wrong way in countering it, and you have yourself a pretty profitable session ;)

Some hands with motivation
I'll post some hands below to give you an idea of wha/t I'm talking about.

In this hand I had a pretty agressive image and was 3-betting Nosey_Joe a couple of times when he was BTN and I was SB/BB. He folded his hands up until this one. My feeling after his 3bet was that he thought I was full of it again and raising with crap. That's why I decided to make a pretty big 4bet with the plan of instacalling his shove. He shoved and I obviously called. When he turned up his hand I was pretty stunned, although my read was indeed correct:

Here I had another AK in position and I make a standard raise. Rostov74 calls me and I hit TPTK on the flop. I cbet and he calls. Turn puts 2 flush draws no the board and he checks. I decide to make a pretty weak looking bet. He types in the chat "flash draw?", which made me laugh. Then he calls. With his stupid comment and after him thinking a while before calling I knew that he had a weak K. The river pairs the board and he checks again. Given my read that he MUST have a K here, I wasn't afraid of the 8 or the backdoor flush hitting the board, so I choose to shove here. If villain indeed puts me on a flush draw, he now knows that I missed. He also knows that I'm agressive and perfectly capable of making a big bluff here on the river. Therefor I shove allin, which is a bit more than the pot, essentially an overbet. I hoped that he would perceive this as a weak bet since the flush missed. He did and made a horrendous call with K9s due to his misread of my hand:

This last hand that I wanted to show was kind of lucky for me on the river, but the hand was kind of interesting since I had quite some history with IDontTilt55. He's a 100nl regular of whom I have about 350 hands. He's pretty tight with stats of 13/9/2.7 and a 3bet percentage of 3.4, which means he plays VERY basic ABC TAG poker, only playing good hands and not really capable of anything creative. For this reason, I'm pretty confident playing him and have taken some big pots off him in the past by either bluffing or him having a 2nd best hand.

In this hand he 3bets my MP raise. I know that he's not creative so his range is VERY strong here, most likely a good pocket pair 99+ or AK. I doubt AQ is even in his range here. I have position and am confident that I can either make a set which is probably going to be paid off, or I can outplay him on the flop if a scary board hits. That's why I decide to call.

The flop comes pretty dry, A65 with 2 spades. Villain cbets 17 in a 27 pot, which I believe he does with his whole range here. Because the A is out, a big part of his range has missed and is afraid of the board. There's also a flush draw that I KNOW he doesn't have that I see as bluff outs on the turn. That's why I call his cbet.

The turn brings another A, which is kind of a bad card for me. I can no longer bluff the A, since his whole range of KK/QQ/JJ/TT/99 etc are definetly calling a turn bet now. He checks and since I can't represent a whole lot I obviously check behind since I'm done with the hand.

On the river I hit a 2-outer and he decides to make a BIG committing bet of 42 in a 61 pot. I know that he has an A at this point, but his bet makes no sense in my eyes. If he puts me on a pair I'm never calling such a big bet on the river versus his obvious A. Naturally I shove and he calls after being committed. I definetly think he played his hand badly in this spot and is almost never getting value on the river against anything worse except MAYBE like AQ/AJ. I guess I can't blame a 13/9/2.7 for being bad though haha ;)

I played a 3 hour session today and ended up being up 10 buyins. Tonight I'm probably going to play another one of about the same length. Hopefully it goes as good as this one :)

First 3 sessions, not that great...

2008-07-22T15:28:00.005+02:00

Session 100nl party
Well, after my last post I followed through on the promises I made to myself. I guess the hours that I chose to work weren't really realizable, since I obviously overslept on monday and woke up at around 12. However, as long as I would be doing at least 2 sessions of at least 2 hours, I would be okay.

So, after a good brunch I started playing 4 tables 100nl. How did it go? Unfortunately not so great. I lost 7.5 buyins on 100nl, with an all-in EV of -5 buyins. I just could NOT win a race and my all-in semibluffs just would never get there... Also playing TT, hitting T55 and being up against 55 didn't help much ;)

Just a few examples below to let you know what I mean haha.

This hand is self-explanatory I guess:

This one was against a PURE lame-ass bluff and spewmonkey who I've seen shoving A or K-high on multiple occassions. Clearly I don't stack off on top pair unless I have this kind of read. Guess he had it for once:

Standard hand for both me and villain, coinflip. Ofcoarse my hand doesn't hold up ;)

These beats don't bother me that much, but after taking so many of them I have to admit that it did hurt my play (as it would anyone I guess). I decided to quit for the day and try another session at night. I had 1.4k on Betfair and another 1k on Moneybookers that I was going to deposit there, because as I said last time, the games there are SOOOO soft.

Session 200nl betfair
So, after depositing my money on Betfair, I had a roll of 2.4k there to try and beat up on the 200nl tables over there. Unfortunately, there was only 1 table going at the time. The action is aparantly very slow during the week, and the only time you can you 4-table there is in the weekends. I finished a nice cup of coffee and started my session at 1 AM.

After the first couple of hands, you could immediately notice that the level of play is OUTRAGEOUSLY BAD! It's not uncommon to see 3 limpers, 1 raiser that makes it $8 to go... and then 3 limp/calls. This creates a 4way pot of $32! :/

If you look around at the table after a couple of hands, you see stats of 50/5/2.8, 39/20/2.7 and 31/20/5.8. The problem is that you can't play your normale game here and you have to makes moves that you normally would never make on partypoker 100 or 200 no limit. Because their style of play is so absurd, you're constantly forced to make moves that you're not used to. This makes it kind of tough to play, although VERY profitable if you find the right way to adjust.

Here is an example of a horrendous play that 1 of those guys made against me 140bb deep (I cannot use handhistory replayer because Betfair isn't supported):
Hand 1

Or an example of senseless bluffing in which I can NEVER fold anything, yet he still thinks he has fold equity:
Hand 2

What about this one, calldowns with COMPLETE crap. He must be thinking: "Hey, he could be bluffing... and I have a pair!"
Hand 3

This kindda shows the level of play at these tables on Betfair. However, because of some bad breaks and unlucky setups, I'm still down 4 buyins there. It just sucks that you see a donk push his money in with pure crap, and against me he's at the top of his range and I valuebet against his whole range with my made hand. Examples include my KQ vs his AQ on QT788r, my 7-high flush against his A-high flush on the river (he had no pair and I kept pushing the action lol), or hitting TP /w KTs on K962r against a COMPLETE donk. He calls flop, raises turn BIG (and he's been doing that with trash all day and I KNEW I was good). I call his raise with a 1/2 a pot bet behind OOP planning to check/call ANY river since he has trash and bluffs the rest on the river while having at most 5 outs. He shoves $119 in $214 pot on a 6 river and I instacall my $91 and he shows 76. YAWN!!!

Even though I'm down $750 on 200nl and $580 on 100nl, I'm feeling good about my game. I for sure feel that I want to put more hands in, since I know my game is solid and I will beat these guys in the long run. I'm definetly playing any 200nl game on Betfair if there's one going, combined with a couple of 100nl partypoker tables to fill up my screen :)

I don't mind a 1.3k downswing and I'm still up 2.4k for the month. However I do feel bad that I haven't been putting in more time the last few weeks. That's what bothers me the most. It's a good thing that I made this schedule now, so for the next 2 weeks I'll be working 5 hours a day. I've also picked up Professional No Limit Hold-em again and plan to actually finish reading it now! I'm down for the week, but feeling GOOD and motivated! Off to play tennis now and get some exercise in hehe. I'll be playing another session tonight. Ofcoarse I'll be updating my blog a lot now that I'm playing so much. Until next time! =)

"Working" hours

2008-07-20T23:02:00.002+02:00

Alright, for the last few weeks I've been pretty content with my play. At the moment I'm still crushing 100nl playing 4 tables. Without running extremely good or bad I've raked in a nice profit.

However I'm not happy about the schedules that I keep. My poker playing times have just been out there, playing whenever I feel like it etc. Doing other stuff for a couple of days and some days not getting any hands in at all. I've come to realize that if I want to threat this as my summer job, like I said I would before summer break started, I need to make some sort of schedule that I can stick to.

Ofcoarse this is a bit hard, seeing how it's summer break and most of my evenings are packed with doing all kinds of other stuff. Still, during the day, I feel that I should be working on my game, getting hands in and just grinding my way up.

As a personal goal, I've now decided that by the end of August, I want to be playing 4 tables 200nl as my regular limit, much the same as 100nl is right now. Obviously the only way to accomplish this, is to have the discipline to put the time in. For this, I've created a working schedule that starts tomorrow morning.

Every day, I'll be playing AT LEAST 2 sessions of 2 hours minimum. In between these, I'm going to go out, get some fresh air, clear my head and get ready to play my A-game again for session number 2. I'm going to start my day at 11:00 till 13:00, have an hour break for lunch and then play another session from 14:00 till 16:00 or 17:00 depending on how I feel. This way, my poker game should be a bit more regulated and hopefully won't just be randomly putting in hands.

With this new schedule, I plan to put AT LEAST 14 days times 4 hours is 56 hours of playing time in. If you estimate about 4 tables of 100 hands per table, this comes down to about 22.4k hands. Hopefully a little more, say 26k or something.

I'll try to put an update of my daily sessions on my blog every couple of days during the following 2 weeks. We'll see how it goes.

Vacation and the long-awaited update (tl;dr)...

2008-07-13T00:41:00.003+02:00

Introduction
Hi friends, readers, accidental viewers and everyone else who might come along to read this... I have the feeling that I need to make up for 3 months of silence on my blog. That makes it kind of hard to actually start my blog post, so I guess I'll just start with the stuff that's important to me.

I realize that from one day to the next, my blog went kind of dead. In my opinion, I owe you guys an explanation for this, so here it is. On my last post, dated 11th of April, I was ready to leave 50nl and start playing 100nl again. I know this blog has mainly been about my poker life. I feel however that there are some things that I need to get straight for myself, in order to continue doing this blog. You may not find this interesting at all, in which case you can skip this part. It's of no real concern to me, but I just feel that I need to note this somewhere. It's also a prelude to why I skipped poker for 2 months.

Personal history
After finishing my Bachelor of Science at another school in Amersfoort, I felt that I could really expand my knowledge of databases and computer systems by doing a master's course at the University. I was still young (only 21) and felt that it was too early for me to go to work.

With a lot of enthusiasm, I started my master's course in September of 2005. In order to be allowed entry into the University, I had to take a pre-master course which consisted of a VERY hard mathematics class that was initially WAY beyond my level of intelligence. It took me 7 months to finish the course and after a retake exam, I FINALLY passed.

Now that I was accepted into the University, I could finally start following some interesting and useful classes that were interesting for my area of expertise, which is online database applications. My hope before coming here, was that I would learn about new and challenging techniques that would help me program better, faster and more efficient websites. After taking courses for about 2 years, I realized that this perception was far from the truth.

The classes that I took were mainly focussed on ways of thinking about new theories that would never be used. I had hoped to learn more about the practical solution-creation that I loved so much during my Bachelor's course. It's not that the courses were hard for me to pass, but it was all so mind-numbingly boring and theoretical that I lost motivation with every passing grade.

In the summer of 2006, after I had completed my pre-master and a few first classes, I discovered poker. I received a free $50 from PartyPoker and that's how I got started. I've always been a great fan of strategy games, and obviously this game fit right in. It started out as a hobby, which started consuming more and more of my time.

During my 2nd year at the University in 2007, I spent about 2 hours a day playing poker for fun. I started building a bankroll and by the summer of 2007, I had about 3.5k that I played with. At this time, I started realizing that there's a lot of money to be made in poker if you get good at it.

During 2008, I was following classes and started combining a poker career, which consisted of reading A LOT of books (I have about 25 poker books and read almost all of them). It was funny to see that I had to struggle to get through this boring IT management book, which took me 3 weeks, and in the meantime I read Hold-em Poker for Advanced Players by David Slansky in 3 days ;)

At this time in my poker career, I started making a lot of money. Combine that with the challenge of playing for higher and higher stakes, it sure made my poker studies a lot more interesting then my master.

In April of 2008, I had just finished my exam week, of which I had skipped 2 of the 3 exams I was planning to take. During the 8 week period of following classes, I was mainly reading 2+2, studying poker books and made money playing poker online. All the motivation with which I started my master's course was gone, and with the money I was raking in playing poker, it made me care even less.

With 25 points shy of being able to do my Master's Thesis (the total is 90 points), I considered dropping out of the University and go play poker for while, after which I could get plenty of jobs with my Bachelor's degree. I had a long discussion with my parents and for the first time let them know that I couldn't take these boring pointless classes anymore.

They told me that it was my own decision, but after all the work I put into it, it would be a BIG waste to drop out with about 3/4th of the Master Course complete. After a LOT of thinking, I decised that they were right. However, I knew that it would be impossible for me to combine studying for these 5 last classes with playing and studying poker. That's why I made the decision to quit poker entirely for the following 2 months, and focus on completing 2 re-take exams and 1 new course, in order to be 2 classes shy of graduation.

With this thought in mind, on April 13th, the new classes started and I dropped poker alltogether. I decided that I didn't care about the money, the lure of getting better and improving my game... and started studying for 3 of the last 5 courses that I had to pass. Without giving it another thought, I stopped my blog, didn't log into any of my poker accounts anymore and hit the books.

After 9 weeks of studying, reading papers and finishing exercised... I finished my last exam on June 19th and finally had time to start playing poker again. The summer holiday was here and I could finally focus on doing what I love. I didn't feel like updating my blog at this point, because I wanted to get started playing again and found it a bit futile making a post saying I hadn't played for 2 months, without any long form of explanation.

Starting playing after a 2-month break
During the month of June, I started out playing 50nl to get back into the game. I really noticed that my focus and concentration was gone. I could not make the same well-thought-out decisions that I used to and really struggled with getting back. It's amazing how bad your game can go to hell after not playing for 2 months.

After the first 2 weeks, I played some 100nl at PartyPoker, winning about 6 buyins. I regained some confidence and decided to start playing 200nl again. That was the game I was used to and the stakes that made me the most money overall in my poker career.

200nl shot at PartyPoker
On July 2nd, I decided to take the shot of 200nl again. I opened 4 tables and immediately noticed that the 200nl game on PartyPoker was A LOT different from the 200nl Cake Poker that I was used to in November of 2007. The problem was that I had learned to play 200nl, playing against COMPLETE morons that had no idea what they were doing. CakePoker was filled with incredible idiots who had no idea how to play. This ofcoarse was good for my poker bankroll, but horrible for my development as a poker player.

I learned to beat donkeys who played stakes that were way too high. However I never learned to beat the 200nl stakes at a regular site, which had people who knew how to play a little. When starting playing 200nl at Party, I noticed that the games were incredibly agressive. People were 3betting my openraises, which made it difficult for me to play my game.

During this first session of 200nl, I had the best time of my life. FINALLY I was playing poker on another level, playing against players who actually knew what the hell they were doing. They were crazy agressive preflop, followed by a solid post-flop game that at that point I didn't have an answer to.

After about 300 hands of sweating and not knowing what to do, I started adjusting and got a feel for this "new" game that I was playing. This was the most excilerating session I have ever had. On some unconcious level, I could see what was going on and started playing on a level I didn't know I had. I threw in 4-bet bluffs to the agressive 4betters, which resulted in SOOO many folds that I can't even count. On the less agressive players I started calling 3bets in position and outplayed them on the flop, by making moves like calling their cbet and betting their checked turn for instance.

After 7 hours and 2k hands later, I made $1800 in 1 night. At 6:00 AM I went to bed, with the feeling that I could take on the world. Somehow I had the skills to adjust my game to my opponents and pick the right spots to either bluff them out of the pot, or induce their bluffs by acting a certain way.

Things going badly
Obviously, like so many things in poker, things took a wrong turn. In the nights after my incredible session, I kept losing buyins left and right. Sometimes due to bad beats, otherwise due to bad plays on my part. I started making mistakes, which I would not allow myself to make, which would lead to me going on tilt, and making more mistakes. I'm VERY perfectionistic by nature and when it comes to poker, I won't allow myself any room for error.

This is probably why I had such a hard time in the following sessions. I wanted to play perfect poker, while everyone knows that this is impossible. Whenever I would make an inevitable mistake, I would be mad at myself for making it.

One session, I was playing with my roommate, and one of my best friends. He saw me playing, but I ended up getting a few coolers against complete morons. I convinced myself that I had maken an unforgivable mistake, with which he disagreed. He told me that I set the bar too high for myself, and that I needed to stop demanding perfection from my own game. Bad things happen, just deal with it and keep playing to the best of your abilities, that's all you can do.

After 3 losing sessions, the 1.8k that I made at 200nl in the week before was all gone and I was back at break-even on 200nl. I decided that I'dd had enough and went back to grinding 100nl. Without completely destroying 100nl, I vowed to not go back to 200nl in the following weeks.

Grinding 100nl
After a week of relaxing, drinking beer, hanging out by the pool and taking a short break, I decided to start playing 100nl again. In the 2nd week of July, I was playing 4 tables of 100nl. This was COMPLETELY different from the time I started getting back in the beginning of June. After my experience of 200nl, I had completely changed the way I thought about poker.

I realized that there were A LOT of fundemantal mistakes that were being made at 100nl and I used my new-found skills at 200nl to exploit these to the maximum. My game has changed and I started using pre-flop agression a lot better. Because I had seen the agresiveness at 200nl, I was willing to 4-bet bluff and call 3bets in position against agressive preflop players.

It was here that I realized that at 100nl, players were HORRIBLE at playing 3bet pots. Some players would have a 3bet percentage of 13% (which is A LOT). This made it very easy for me to adjust. I knew that their 3betting range was so wide, that they rarely had a hand that could stand a 4bet. Making an adjustment to this is very easy, start 4-bet/bluffing against these morons and see them fold 70% of the time and shove the top of their range (which makes it an easy fold).

Another thing that worked VERY well was calling their 3bets in position. I had noticed that these idiots had no idea how to play a 3bet pot, simply because the stakes would get so high and there was little room to manouver in. I've seen SOOO many players 3bet my BTN raise from the blinds, while following it up with a 3/4 pot sized cbet on an A74 board. Then on any turn, they would simply check/fold and have no idea what I had.

With this knowledge, I started crushing the 100nl tables at PartyPoker. I'dd play 4 tables simultaniously (as opposed to the 6 tables I played when starting to play again in June) and just follow my read on my opponents. From July 6th (when I started grinding 100nl again) and today, I have made 2.2k at 100nl in 6k hands. In the last 31 days I played 17k hands there winning 3.1k. I'm crushing 100nl now for 18 big blinds/100 hands, which is pretty good I think :)

Goals for July
Now that I'm beating 100nl this hard, I want to grind a couple-thousand hands at this limit. My goal is to start playing 200nl in about a week, while playing poker for 5 hours a day minimum. I have summer break, so I've got plenty of time. I had planned to focus this summer on getting ahead in poker, and that's what I plan to do. From now on, I'll be updating my blog at least once a week to write down my progress. If I have time, I'll make some more short updates in between, but once a week should be the minimum in my eyes.

I realize now how long this update has been. Hopefully you guys enjoyed reading it. For me, it was a great way to get some stuff together in my mind and know where I am at right now when it comes to poker. Right now, a friend of mine is at my appartment and we're playing some poker online. I guess I'll leave it at this and continue with a nice 4-table session of 100nl. Until my next post, which should be coming in a couple of days! :)

Done with 50nl

2008-04-11T21:56:00.009+02:00

Monitor issues resolved
Well, after 2 weeks of having problems with my videocard, it has finally been resolved. A friend of mine who knows a lot about computers and stuff managed to get it all working, so now I can FINALLY work using all my 3 monitors =) I've made a picture below of the setup I now use. On the left screen I have my Pokertracker stats, in the middle I play 9 tables on PartyPoker and on the right I got a nice episode of High Stakes Poker running, it's AWESOME :)

50nl challenge
From the start of April I have been exclusively been playing 50nl 6-max combined with some HU at Full Tilt. One of the goals I set was to play another 12k hands at this level to work on my game and also to give 9-tabling on my new monitor a try. It's been going pretty good and here are the results:

Number of hands: 13,684
Profit: $935
BB/100 hands: 6.84

If you look at the graph, the "downswing" between 3k and 5k hands was due to some drunken poker I played with a roommate of mine on 50nl haha. As I know from experience, it never helps to play while being intoxicated ;) This probably did kill my bb/100 hands a bit, but oh well... we had fun haha =)

The winrate wasn't as high as my ambitious goal, but I think especially considering I've been 9-tabling it (and the drunken session in between), the result is pretty nice. Because I've been having exams, playing some 50nl was pretty cool since it doesn't require much attention and thought. Like I said in a previous post, I play a pretty loose agressive game and my opponents almost never put me to a real tough decision. This makes playing pretty easy.

A neat hand that I wanna show to finish off my 50nl challenge was a 400bb pot ($200 on 50nl) that I won. It was a pretty cool hand, and villains call on the river with a flush was just absolutely horrible on a paired board. I ofcoarse got lucky that he got there, but me checking twice to hope villain makes something did work out beautifully:

Over my BE stretch
On another positive note, I'm finally over my break-even stretch that started January 1st. 2008 hasn't been the best year for me so far. My decision to play down at 50nl for a short period of time had something to do with that ofcoarse haha. It feels good to rake in some pots again and see that you do have "some" skill ;) Playing break-even for a while at 200nl definetly hurts your confidence. That's why I think my decision to go play on a new site for a while and start out at some lower limit has definetly been a good one.

If you look below, you can see the graph from January 1st up until now. I started playing 50nl at Party around the 60k mark:

100nl 6-max multi-tabling
The upcoming week I will be focussing on 100nl. I'll start out playing 6 tables at Partypoker and maybe expand this number if things go well. My goal was to beat it for at least 5 bb/100 hands, so we'll see how that turns out. I think I want to play about 25k hands there, which will pretty much be the rest of April, depending on how much time I have. After that I want to move back up to 200nl.

I'm pretty happy about the way I'm playing and feeling lately. I've become more active on the 2+2 forums and have been trying out some exciting new things to improve my game. Especially what I've thought about lately is reasons why to bet or check in some situations. This goes for c-betting flops mostly, since that comes up more often, but also comes into play at later streets. I will post my ideas on this topic next week.

Fees book has also been giving me a lot of new inspirations about ways to play and adapt to my opponents. I haven't quite finished yet but I expect to be done in a few more days. Next week I'll try to make an exciting strategy post that will entail some of the things I've learned and incorporated into my game. Right now I have a going away party of a good friend of mine to get to, so I won't be doing that tonight. See ya all next blog post :)

Studying...

2008-04-08T11:26:00.005+02:00

At the moment we're having exams this week, which means I don't have a lot of time to actually play a lot of hands. Tomorrow and thursday I got 2 exams and after that I have a week off :)

In between breaks I have been playing some 50nl just to relax. Didn't feel like playing anything bigger since that would require more concentration and I really just wanted to play a bit and not think ;) Been thinking enough while studying hahaha.

It's just basically ABC LAG style poker that I play, in which I raise any hand that has potential and outplay them on the flop. They fold to a lot of cbets, or call when they have made something. The only hands they raise postflop are monsters, so it's pretty easy to tell :P (obv. they never heard of balancing their range at all) I'm raking in the money pretty easy and the stupidity of my opponents just makes me laugh a a lot haha! I posted 2 lame hands for your viewing pleasure :p

This hand, my opponent plays his big hand REALLY weird by limp/calling preflop (no clue if he was slowplaying or just plain stupid). On the river he figured his straight on a 4-straight board was good enough to raise/shove me on the river :P

Also this other hand below shows that AA is the nuts! Preflop they will min-3bet the hand and postflop they will stack off for 150 bb with it. Even after my CRAI on the turn, where they obviously beat nothing!

Since I didn't play much in April and just been relaxing and chilling at 50nl a bit, I'm only up $530 after about 9k hands, which is fine. In a week I'll have more time and start testing out the 100nl and 200nl tables on PartyPoker and FullTilt :)

Pokerblog of the month

2008-04-01T13:10:00.007+02:00

I've got some good news! The people from pokerweblogs.com pronounced my blog as Pokerblog of the month :) Obviously this was a fun surprise to say the least. Look for the screenshot below:

It's nice to see that people seem to appreciate the work I put into my blog. Even though I mostly write to give myself a realistic view of how and what I'm doing, but it's cool that other people seem to enjoy reading the stuff I write :)

Maybe this nomination will get a few more readers to find their way to my blog. We'll soon see haha. I've posted one of their banners below to credit them with a bit of promotion and hopefully you guys will continue to read and enjoy my blog. Thanks! :)

March stats

2008-04-01T00:22:00.017+02:00

Introduction
Well, here's my end of the month blog post. I'm going to do these more structured from now on, so I can also work on setting some goals for myself and get some more direction and focus on what and how I'm doing. My "... stats" post will include a winnings graph, stats at each limit, biggest pot won and lost, status of goals set in the previous month and goals for the upcoming month.

As you probably already have read, March wasn't a very good month for me. I did however start to run a little bit more towards normal at the end and made a little profit playing a short session of 50nl the past weekend. I know I posted the April goals already in the previous thread, but I'll just put them down in short as sort of a checklist for next month.

March graph and stats

March winnings
Number of hands: 22,074
Profit: $1260
Rakeback: $646
Total: $1906

Bankroll: $9250

Biggest pot won

Biggest pot lost

Status of March goals
- Play 25k hands this month
Almost passed, reached 22k
- Move back up to 200nl
Passed without great results and running COOLD
- Get my 30" Samsung LCD monitor to FINALLY arrive
Passed (playing has been soooo great the past week)
- Use it to comfortably play at least 6 tables when I'm playing (instead of the usual 4 tables on my 2 19" LCD monitors)
Passed
- Do some sweat sessions at 100nl/200nl
Passed, did 2 with PanicNL
- Play at CakePoker until I have enough points to get the Sony digital camera (7.2 megapixel)
Passed, I ordered it a week ago for 750 Gold Chips. See the screenshot:

- Play the rest of my hands at Ultimate Bet, where I can use Holdem Manager and have stats on my opponents
Failed, actually decided not to play a lot at UB because I didn't like the software etc.
- Deposit $2500 at Everest Poker and use that to play during the day against European donks (Cake and UB don't have a large player base during the day)
Failed, same reason as UB
- STOP THE COOLER/COLD DECK MADNESS ;-)
Failed, until like maybe the past week a bit
- As a result.. make March a +$3000 month, like November and December!! =)
Failed, it has been a 2k month though including rakeback which is fine :)

April goals
- Play 12k more hands at 50nl to improve my game
- Play about 5k HU at 50nl and see if I'm ready to move up in April to 100nl HU
- After my 50nl stretch move over to 100nl and 200nl again
- Beat 50nl over March + April at least for 16bb/100
- Beat 100nl for at least 5bb/100
- Beat 200nl for at least 3bb/100
- Do at least 1 sweat session with a friend of mine
- Finish reading Fee's book on 2+2
- Read some of the headsup cash game stuff that I printed out
- Save up 325 more Gold Chips for the next CakePoker gift, a George Foreman 4-Burger Grill Platinum :p (see pic below)

PartyPoker rocks!

2008-03-31T01:58:00.019+02:00

Drunken poker
Last Fridaynight I played some poker with a roommate of mine on party poker. He usually plays $22 and $33 sit and go's, and doesn't play seriously. It's all in good fun for him, which is cool. We had a couple of beers and decided to play some 200nl with his bankroll. Obviously we were terribly underrolled for it, but we didn't care and just wanted to have some fun.

I was just astonished by the level of play on Party in the weekends. All the players there were SOOO weak and we saw people stacking off with 1 pair hands left and right. After a while being up about a 100, we decided to kick it up and went to a 400nl table. Here, the players weren't a whole lot better and we had a ton of fun. Thanks to Edmuntus his blog, I got a hold of a really neat hand history replayer. I'm going to be using this one from now on to post hands on my blog.

Here's the biggest hand of the night we won. After going allin on the turn with our set against a turned straight, the river board pair made us a happy winner of a $566 pot =)

Here is another post of a REALLY retarted bluff by this guy. This was on 200nl haha. Gotta love PartyPoker donks.

When we quit playing, at about 6am, we turned his $220 bankroll in close to 1k :) Obviously after seeing that, I wanted some of the PartyPoker donkey action myself. I immediately cashed all my money out on the sites I didn't use, but the problem was that it took a long time to process. Luckily for me I had $270 still left in my Neteller account for some reason, so I just deposited that on Party and started playing.

My own shot at PartyPoker 50nl
Because I didn't have a lot of cash, I couldn't realistically play 100nl, so I decided to play 4 tables of 50nl. That way I had about $70 left to rebuy at those tables and steadily grind my way up. I was again amazed at how soft the 50nl games were. They just kept on folding to my preflop raises or my standard cbets that I ALWAYS made. That helped me to keep picking up small pots. When they started calling, I either had a better hand, I hit a good draw or I pushed them off their mediocre holding when scare cards hit etc. Because they were all so passive, I was the one always deciding the action. The whole night I think I haven't been reraised preflop unless they had the goods (AA/KK/QQ whatever). Postflop was the same way, the only time they raised or check-raised me was with a good hand. At that point I could simply evaluate if I had good outs etc or otherwise simply lay my hand down. The funny thing also was that when they did have their aces, kings or whatever, they were stacking me off everytime I hit 2 pair or a set. To them, an overpair is the holy grail of poker and it needs to be shoved allin no matter how dangerous the board!! Hahahaha! This one guy stacked me off with KK on a QT9 board, where I had QT and since he reraised me preflop, I knew he had a big overpair.

At this one table, at the end of the session, I was sitting there with $350 on a $50 buyin no limit table!! Hahahaa! :) That's 7 buyins, which doesn't happen to me often at 1 table. Finally when I decided to go to bed, I was up nearly 13 buyins playing only 50nl and I turned my $270 into just shy of $900. It was a pretty fun night where I played a pretty solid and good game. Look below for the stats and a picture of me at the 4 tables being up pretty big:

Reorganize my bankroll
Today I decided to reorganize all my money on my different sites. The past 2 months I've been depositing money on sites left and right to see if I could find a better client. So far I haven't really found one with rakeback that offers me what CakePoker does (which is a great interface, a bad playerbase, 33% rakeback and a nice cakeshop to save for neat stuff).

To get rid of the clutter of having all these sites, I took it all off (withdrew from Everest Poker and Ultimate Bet) and thought about what I wanna do with it. I definetly want to stay on CakePoker, where I have close to 4k now. This is plenty to grind 100nl and 200nl until things go REALLY bad :) The new site is going to be PartyPoker, so I deposited 2k on that. Including the 1k I made over there, I have 3k total on it.

Headsup cash games
Now another thing that I had set my mind on doing was learning and improving my headsup cash game. At the moment I'm horrible at it, simply because I have little to no experience playing it. A lot of poker friends have been telling me that learning to master HU is INCREDIBLE for your post-flop game on 6-max. Since you play virtually every hand, you really have to get a good read on your opponent and adapt your play to his style in order to win. While in 6-max reading opponents and changing up your play is important, in headsup it is crucial in order for you to win.

A good friend of mine recently started playing headsup, and I asked him where he played. He said that the best site to do it on was Full Tilt Poker. It has a nice rakeback deal of 27% and according to him has the largest player base out there for headsup. CakePoker also offers HU, but there are at max like 6 or 7 tables going. So I downloaded FullTilt and took a look for myself. I was SHOCKED! At the lowest stakes (which is 50nl) there were like 30 games going! That's awesome. Also I've always wanted to return to FullTilt at some point. It's where my passion for poker actually started, playing for play money over there and competing against my roommate to see who could get the most. This was like 2 years ago and I haven't really played there since, but I remember the interface being really terrific and colorful. When I think of FTP, happy memories always come to mind :)

So, on FTP I figured 2k would be enough. I'm going to start at the lowest HU tables which is 50nl, so 40 buyins will start me off nicely (people recommend about 30 buyins for headsup). The stupid thing though, is that when I tried to deposit 2k, it said I couldn't. For some reason, you can only deposit 1k every 24 hours :/ If you wanted more, you would have to request a special limit increase!! How lame is that!? They are actually making it harder for me to come and play on their site! I immediately sent an E-mail to support telling them that I wanted to deposit 2k NOW and told them that this rule wasn't very inviting for new players who wanna settle there.

Current poker sites
Okay, to sum it all up, I now have my entire bankroll divided over 3 main sites. CakePoker, PartyPoker and FullTiltPoker. This also gave me a good idea of what my total bankroll was at, because at the moment I had no clue what it was. Look below for the 3 sites I play at now and the respective cash status on each:

CakePoker: $3550
CakePoker RakeBack for March: $650

PartyPoker: $3050

FullTiltPoker: $2000
(well... 1k pending ofcoarse still sitting in Neteller haha)

Total bankroll: $9250

April goals
That's a nice bankroll with 92 buyins for 100nl and 46 for 200nl. Hopefully playing on PartyPoker will put an end to the way I've been running lately and boost me up to 400nl around May. That's the goal that I've set for myself. For April, I have set the following goals:

- Play some more 50nl (about 12k hands) to really improve my game and get more agressive postflop. I really feel that I can still pick up a lot more pots by pushing some more on the turn and especially the river. At the moment I'm really losing some value there by going to showdowns with worse hands, where I could've bluffed villain of his sleightly better hand.

- Beat 50nl by at least 16bb/100. I have no clue what I can realistically sustain at the moment, since the last time I played there I was a LOT worse then I am now. Currently I'm beating it for 30bb/100 over a small sample of 3k hands.

- Beat 100nl for at least 5bb/100. If I work on my game there and really make some big adjustments, I hope to increase this number even more. I'm still going to play a lot of 100nl this month, to fix some major leaks in my game and hope to have a more solid game. This should help me to beat 200nl more consistently and later move up to 400nl.

- Do at least 1 sweat session with a friend of mine to see where I can improve my game more.

- Finish reading Fee's book that he posted on 2+2 and read some stuff on Headsup cash game play that I printed out.

A new hope

2008-03-28T19:15:00.003+01:00

Well, I thought I'dd give you guys another update. To start it off, I'm still running VERY below expectation, getting 4-outered and coolered left and right. Nothing I can do about it though, so no point in complaining about it. I feel great and am really on my A-game lately. On a high note, I've got some great news... after 2 months of waiting I FINALLY have my 30" TFT monitor (Samsung 305T). See the picture below to see my new setup:

This month I'm up about 1k including rakeback, which is starting to become more then my normal earnings in poker. It's really frustrating to contantly have to rely on your rakeback to make it a normal +1k month. However I haven't lost confidence in my play and I'm doing very well. It really helps to constantly get allin and see that you're an 80% favourite, before you get rivered by some miracle card (happened to me 3 times tonight already in about 2.5 hours play for a full buyin or more). What doesn't help is the fact that you're working and playing all night, doing well... but still are down 3 buyins because you lose 3 allin pots where you're a huge favourite going allin.

Hopefully with my new 30" screen I can get some more hands in at once though. At the moment I can REALLY comfortably play 6 tables at once, and hopefully be able to turn my huge bad luck streak around soon by just putting in more hands. My lame downswing has to end some time, and when it does I feel confident I can easily make a normal 4k month. By the looks of how I'm running, I'm even amazed that I even make a profit playing!

I'll give you some big hands that I won and mostly lost soon to show you guys how I play. Along with those I will add some commentary on what my thought process is during the hands. If you see anything that's wrong or bad, please let me know. I am always open to some feedback! :)

Active weekend

2008-03-17T20:04:00.006+01:00

It's been 2 weeks since my last blog post. The reason I haven't posted much is because I've been kindda busy with my studies. This weekend has been pretty active though, playing about 7k hands and going from being up 1.2k to losing about 1k the following night to big coolers/cold decks. That is kindda making March a swingy month for me (see graph below):

At the moment I feel like I'm beating 100nl pretty big. I've been running at 4.6 bb/100 hands, which is pretty good considering the cold decks and bad beats of this month. Whenever I sit anywhere at 100nl I'm the big agressor at the table from the first minute and pick up a LOT of small pots. When they finally DO make a stand against me, obviously I have a hand and get them allin... and then they suck out haha, j/k ;)

So far I'm up about $800, which isn't a whole lot, but I feel that I'm confident again to crush the 100nl on 6 tables and play pretty solid at 200nl on 4 tables. For March I think I can get a 3k+ month again like I'm supposed to =)

I've decided to no longer post my hands by pasting the hand history on Blogger, but instead use Pokerhand.org to post them. Thanks to the CakePoker hand history converter, I can just look the big hands op in Pokertracker en upload them. See below for a big hand that I lost and my motivation behind the way I played it:

This hand I openraise 44 on from UTG+1 and get 1 caller out of the big blind. Flop comes great for my hand, giving me a set and putting a straight draw out on the board. I make a big bet of about the size of the pot, since there are so many draws out there, and villain calls fairly quickly.

The turn is a great card, if villain had top pair he now has trips and is never getting away. I bet out 3/4 of the pot and villain calls. He could be slowplaying his trips, but I doubt that since he'd wanna get more money in on the turn, especially seeing how we're 150bb deep. He would also probably fold a 7 here, now that the board has paired. Villain could have some weird A5s hand, but I don't think he calls a raise from the blinds with that hand. That's why I was fairly sure villain had an overpair and flatcalled cause he's afraid I might have a 6 or a straight.

On the river, a 9 comes off. Villain studies for a bit and then suddenly wakes up, betting $37 in a pot of $53. There is no way this can ever be bluff, seeing how he C/C 2 streets and I kept firing pretty big. The way he played the hand made me put him on an overpair from the start or possibly slowplayed trips. It's a really weird bet to make with JJ or TT though. After thinking the hand through, I figured I'm still ahead of his range. The only hands that beat me are 66/99 and a slowplayed 65/64, which I don't think he calls a raise from the BB with. I shove and villain quickly calls, showing me 99 for a rivered 4-outer. I was worried a little bit on that river and his sudden bet, but I don't think I can ever fold this since a lot of stupid villains stack off with a lot of crap here (trips, a straight, an overpair etc).

FINALLY playing 200nl again

2008-03-03T19:23:00.009+01:00

Well, like I said in my last post, I was going to play 200nl again. I played a bit this weekend and started out pretty good, with some small wins. Last night though I played a long session starting at 23:00 till 4:00. At the end of the session I was up 5 buyins ($1200) =) I lost a KK v AA preflop allin cooler and donked another buyin on top pair and a flush draw against a set right before the end, so it could've been $1600 :p Oh well... variance... haha.

It really feels great playing 200nl again! I immediately noticed that my bets and raises get a little more respect, which is something that I like a lot because of my agressive LAGGY style :) Also the opponents think a bit more about the hands that they play and some actually try to put ME on a hand hahaha. That's something that you rarely see on 100nl and it practically bored the crap out of me :P

In my session last night I played 2k hands on 200nl playing 4 tables and I had a winrate of 12.9 bb/100 hands. Obviously this is not sustainable, but over
all the hands I have played at 200nl (11k hands) I had a winrate of 7.3 bb/100 hands. Even after the 6 buyin downswing that I had there I'm still up 3.2k. This month I hope to play about 20k more hands at 200nl to see where my winrate will even out to.

Below are some of the big hands that I played accompanied by my thought process during the hand:

MP ($342.85)
Button ($226.30)
Hero ($200.00)
BB ($200.00)
UTG ($177.45)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, J.
UTG raises to $7, MP calls $7, Button calls $7, Hero raises to $40, 1 fold, UTG folds, MP folds, Button raises to $226.3, Hero calls $160 (All-In).

Flop: ($416) 6, 7, 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($416) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($416) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $416

Hero shows J, J, 2 pair Jacks and Sevens
Button shows 9 9, 2 pair Nines and Sevens
Hero wins $416

UTG raises and gets 2 callers behind him. I find JJ on the SB and make a standard squeeze hoping to isolate 1 player. UTG and UTG+1 fold and BTN suddenly wakes up and shoves allin. The only hands I am worried about are obviously QQ/KK/AA, but I don't expect him to ever overcall with any of those hands cause these play horrible in a 3-way pot (maybe even more since the blinds can also call with a wide range of hands given the odds).

He also can't slowplay his hand, because he can never know or expect that either the SB or BB are going to raise (highly unlikely). Considering this, I KNEW that he could not have a bigger pair and so I put him on either AK/AQ or a lower pocket pair. I called pretty quickly and he showed 99 :)

==============================

Button ($234.30)
SB ($201.00)
BB ($184.80)
UTG ($106.50)
MP ($112.60)
Hero ($202.80)

Preflop: Hero is CO with J, J.
UTG calls $2, 1 fold, Hero raises to $9, 3 folds, UTG calls $7.

Flop: ($21) T, Q, A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($21) K (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $17, UTG calls $17.

River: ($55) A (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $176.8 (All-In), UTG calls $80.50 (All-In).

Final Pot: $216

Hero shows J, J, Royal Flush
UTG shows A Q, Full House, Aces full of Queens
Hero wins $416

I raise an UTG limper with JJ from CO and he calls. Flop comes pretty horrible for me and he checks it to me. There is no point in betting, since only hands that beat me are going to call/raise, so I check. Turn is a dreamcard, giving me a broadway straight and the 2nd nut flush. Villain checks and I bet $17 in a $21 pot. He quickly calls. I put him on either a flush draw or some paired/2pair hand.

River comes a dreamcard, giving me a Royal Flush (!!!) and villain checks again. Given his calling range on the turn, I found it pretty likely that he's going to call an overshove with a flush or possibly a Full House. I go allin and he quickly calls showing AQ =)

==============================

UTG ($231.30)
MP ($167.00)
CO ($200.00)
Button ($266.00)
SB ($150.05)
Hero ($319.80)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K.
UTG raises to $7, 1 fold, CO calls $7, 1 fold, SB calls $6, Hero raises to $38, UTG calls $31, CO folds, SB folds.

Flop: ($90) 9, 2, 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $68, UTG raises to $193.3, Hero calls $125.30.

Turn: ($476.60) K (2 players)

River: ($476.60) Q (2 players)

Final Pot: $476.60

Hero shows K, K, Three of a kind Kings
UTG shows 7 6, K-high
Hero wins $476.60

UTG raises and gets a caller from the CO. I have been very active and agressive at this table, squeezing a couple of times with mediocre hands that didn't get called. This time I find kings on the BB and obviously squeeze again, hoping someone might play back at me this time. Villain quickly calls me.

Flop comes perfect, pretty unconnected and 3 undercards to my kings. I bet a standard cbet, making it $68 in a pot of $90. Villain thinks for 2 seconds and reraises me allin. I snapcall and he shows 76 for a PURE bluff.

==============================

UTG ($260.45)
MP ($182.35)
CO ($195.00)
Hero ($334.00)
SB ($188.40)
BB ($200.00)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, K.
1 fold, MP raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero raises to $14, 2 folds, MP calls $10.

Flop: ($31) A, K, 8 (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $24, MP calls $24.

Turn: ($79) T (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $68, MP raises to $144.35, Hero calls $76.35.

River: ($367.70) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: $367.70

Hero shows A, K, 2 pair Aces and Kings
MP shows A 3, 1 pair Aces
Hero wins $367.70

In this hand I'm playing against a thinking villain. I've seen him play hands against other people and he does think pretty logically about hands and tries to adjust his actions accordingly. He minraises preflop and I reraise him with AK on the button.

Flop comes AK8 giving me top 2 and villain quickly checks. I decide to bet BIG on a relatively safe board, making it $24 in a $31 pot. Villain calls and the turn is a T. I put villain on either an A or a flush draw and figured a big bet might have more chance getting called then a 2/3 value bet, since it looks bluffier.

I bet $68 in a pot of $79 (pretty much a pot bet) and villain shoves allin, which is practically a minraise. Obviously I snapcall and he shows top pair with a 3 kicker, making a nice misread based on my bet sizing as he later tells me :)

==============================

Hero ($200.00)
UTG ($154.95)
Button ($253.00)
SB ($554.79)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q, Q.
UTG raises to $7, 2 folds, Hero raises to $24, UTG raises to $41, Hero calls $17.

Flop: ($83) 6, 3, K (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $113.95 (All-In), Hero calls $113.95.

Turn: ($0) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($0) Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $310.90

Hero shows Q, Q, Full house, Queens over Sixes
UTG shows Q 6, Full house, Sixes over Queens
Hero wins $310.90

This villain was a complete spewdonkey. In an earlier hand he donked pot on flop and turn on a 742 board where I had an overpair and he had a pair of fours. He gets way to agressive with mediocre hands and goes to showdown with them.

Here I find queens in the BB and the moron raises UTG. As usualy I've been actively raising at this table and I doubt villain gives a 3bet from me much respect, so I make it a standard $24. The idiot MINraises (!!) to $41. Ofcoarse he could have me beat, but given history with him I'm VERY likely ahead here. Reraising though will let him easily fold bluffs or weak hands and those are the ones that might give me value if he decides to continue his bluff on the flop.

The flop comes pretty good, giving only a K as an overcard. I checked and already decided that I was going to allin on this board. If he has a K, so be it, but the chance of him betting worse is A LOT better. I check and he shoves allin, which is a bit more then pot and I instacall. As you can see, the turn was horrible giving him his 2-outer, but luckily for me on the river I hit my 1-outer and the best hand still won ;) hahaha!

==============================

BB ($237.20)
UTG ($311.70)
MP ($92.05)
Hero ($496.00)
SB ($187.20)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 7.
UTG raises to $7, 1 fold, Hero calls $7, SB calls $6, BB calls $5.

Flop: ($28) 8, 5, A (4 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($28) Q (4 players)
SB bets $8, BB folds, UTG folds, Hero calls $8.

River: ($44) 9 (2 players)
SB bets $40, Hero raises to $481, SB calls $132.20 (All-In).

Final Pot: $388.40
Hero shows 6, 7, 9-high straight
SB shows Q 9, 2 pair, Queens and Nines
Hero wins $388.40

UTG raises and I have a nice connector on the button. I call this time hoping one or both blinds will follow suit and I could see a flop in a multi-way pot. The flop gives me an OESD and everyone checks. I decide that someone might be slowplaying an A and taking a free card is a lot more profitable then betting out, so I check. TUrn is a Q and SB bets $8 in a pot of $28. Obviously I call, since villain has 86bb behind and I have plenty of implied odds if I hit.

River is a 9, giving me the nut straight and villain bets pot (!!!). This obviously put alarm bells in my head and I KNEW that he must've hit big. Either 99 or a hand like A9, Q9, 98 or something for 2 pair or a set. I was pretty confident that he's going to call any raise, so I just shove it allin and he calls after thinking a bit :) SHIP IT

Good times ahead

2008-03-02T19:39:00.004+01:00

Well, February is finally over! I'm very happy that it wasn't as horrible as January, where I lost about 1.5k. It's too bad though that I am still running below expectation, at about 1.5 bb/100 hands on 100nl and running near break-even over 19k hands. My confidence has recovered quite a bit though and I feel pretty good about my game. I've been working on actively thinking "out loud" so to speak, going through every phase of my thought process before deciding what action to take. This really improved my play a lot and works a lot better then just clicking away.

Last night I planned a sweat session with Jop (s/n PanicNL), a friend of mine who plays 200nl and is taking shots at 400nl. We used skype to talk and Teamviewer to let him see my desktop and we started by reviewing my Pokertracker stats for the past 2 months. He showed me the importance of some things like WTSD (went to showdown) and $WSF ($ won when saw flop). Jop explained to me that the first statistic can really tell you A LOT about a certain player and he gave me some percentages that were good and some that were totally off. The WTSD needs to be looked at together with the VPIP, but say you have someone who has a VPIP of 70% and a WTSD of 40%, then this guy is a complete showdown muppet. On the other hand, a VPIP of 14% and a WTSD of 40% might make more sense, since this player only plays great hands preflop and obviously wants to see more of those hands to showdown because they are good enough to do so.

The other statistic is $WSF, which basically tells you how good your postflop play is. Basically, everyone hits the flop about 33% of the time. So if this number is higher then that, that means that you take away pots that aren't supposed to be yours due to agression. If you make your opponent fold bottom pair for example while you have Ace high, then you "stole" the pot that was legitimately his. My $WSF was about 37%, which Jop explained to me is on the low side. A good value would be between 37% and 42%. The great players can even achieve a higher rating, but this is a pretty good range. Basically, I either give up hands too often, or I don't bluff people off the best hand enough.

After some Pokertracker stat reviews, we reviewed pretty much all the big pots I lost over the past 2 months. This was VERY helpful for me and besides a lot of coolers and beats, it showed me some of the mistakes that I made. I also noticed a few "NO NOT AGAIN-plays" and some pretty lame calldowns where in retrospect I don't really beat anything at all.

Jop and I ended up talking about poker strategy and playing some hands while chatting on Skype and it turned out to be a really fun and useful poker evening. Yesterday I finally felt great about my play again in a long time and really got some of that confidence back that I had 1.5 months ago. Ofcoarse I did get coolered a lot again and ended up being down 3 buyins at 100nl, while 7-tabling Cake, but I felt my play was pretty solid. That should always be the most important thing and eventually the results will come.

We didn't really get any sweating done though, but Jop promised me that he'dd do a 100nl sweat session with me some time in the near future. I'm hoping that this will reveal some of the leaks in my game that I can work on, cause I have pretty much had it at 100nl. The level of play there is so low that it just starts getting annoying and boring. This month I'm going to play some hands at 200nl again. My bankroll at the moment is about 8.5k, which is sufficient to play there and I definetly have some buffer in case I run bad. 6k is definetly my stop loss for 200nl and if I reach that amount I am definetly going back to 100nl. I'll probably be moving back down at 7k though but we'll have to see how it goes. Hopefully this won't be an issue and I'll make March a 5k month, who knows ;-)

I've written down a few interesting and new strategic concepts that I am incorporating into my game:
- Call more raises IP instead of 3betting (obviously 3bet against someone who calls down light for value). Say you have AQ on the BTN and the CO raises, it might be a good idea to simply call, because a raise will make villain fold out hands like AJ/AT/A9, which are the type of hands you want to play a raised pot against.

- Don't 3bet AK/AQ/AJ type hands from the blinds, but simply call. You want to keep the pot small and play these hands for value against weaker aces or small pairs. If you blow up the pot by 3betting OOP and you get called, you have to turn your 2 high cards into a bluff 66% of the time when you don't hit. You still have the option of donkbetting or C/R a missed flop depending on your read of villain. This way you play a smaller pot OOP.

- Be more inclined to take a B3B line with made hands on a very drawy board for 3 reasons:
1. villain might be shoving a draw because he feels committed and thinks he has enough equity against your hand.
2. villain might put you on a draw and shove with a wider range.
3. villain might have a good hand, but by simply calling his bet he will usually put you on a draw. especially on a very drawy board, there are a lot of turn scare cards that probably didn't hit your opponent, but it will slow down the action with your monster against his 2nd best hand.

- Make more thin value bets on the river. Morons on 100nl and 200nl play so bad that you get called down by middle pair and sometimes even bottom pair because they will put you on a bluff. Ofcoarse this is dependent on their WTSD stats, but especially when checked to, be more inclined to bet at least 1/2 pot for value. Obviously a C/R on river usually means a fold, but that should tell you enough, again depending on villain and his stats/tendencies.

- Don't try to induce bluffs against passive opponents who only bet a better hand and check down a worse hand. Ever since I incorporated the C/C line on the river against agressive opponents, I've caught myself trying the same move on lame passive donks with an aggression factor of 1.5 or something. This is never going to work, and if he does decide to bet then you are probably beat and calling won't be profitable. Against these types of opponents you're better off just betting for value, especially since these passive donks are usually pretty stationy and call you down with A LOT of crap...

February stats
Number of hands: 18.729
Winst: $349
Rakeback: $400
Bankroll: $7.968

March goals
- Play 25k hands this month
- Move back up to 200nl
- Get my 30" Samsung LCD monitor to FINALLY arrive
- Use it to comfortably play at least 6 tables when I'm playing (instead of the usual 4 tables on my 2 19" LCD monitors)
- Do some sweat sessions at 100nl/200nl
- Play at CakePoker until I have enough points to get the Sony digital camera (7.2 megapixel)
- Play the rest of my hands at Ultimate Bet, where I can use Holdem Manager and have stats on my opponents
- Deposit $2500 at Everest Poker and use that to play during the day against European donks (Cake and UB don't have a large player base during the day)
- STOP THE COOLER/COLD DECK MADNESS ;-)
- As a result.. make March a +$3000 month, like November and December!! =)

Studying...

2008-02-25T09:41:00.002+01:00

Hi guys. Just wanted to make a small update post. I've been very busy lately with my studies. I only have 6 courses to finish before I can start to graduate and write my masters thesis. This means that I haven't really played a lot of poker, just some evenings when I had time for it.

At the start of the month I ordered my new 30" screen and was planning on playing a whole lot more, but since my screen STILL has not arrived yet... this really wet down the drain. The upcoming weeks I really want to focus on my studies, because I have 4 exams coming up that I really want to pass in order to not delay the start of my graduate work.

At the end of the month I'll give a summary of February, which hasn't been great but definetly is a lot better then my January downswing month :) Hopefully in March I'll be able to start 200nl again with a 9k roll again =) I'm feeling great :D

UltimateBet... my new home!

2008-02-13T17:04:00.006+01:00

Well, things are still not going very well for me. This month I played about 12k hands already, but I'm only up a lousy $100... at the start of the month I tried 1 session of 200nl and lost $300 and I won about $400 on 100nl and some drunken 50nl ;) I guess I'm kindda happy that I'm not losing, so I won't complain :)

Today I have looked at my winnings for the last few months. December was a +3k month, January was -$1.3k and this month I'm just about breakeven (this is all without taking rakeback into account, which is an additional $500 a month). If you put it in perspective like that, I'm not even doing that bad. It's been lasting for about 30k hands, so I'm confident I'll soon be going up again and find myself playing 200nl again in March! =)

I have decided to leave Cake for real this time. I've kindda had it with my run there and for some reason me switching sites will give me some hope that it'll change the tides. This is ofcoarse ridiculous, but I also have noticed that the games at Cake have been filled with more and more regulars. Obviously this is a lot better reason to leave. Last week I watched a friend of mine play at Ultimate Bet and that site showed A LOT of promise!

A few days ago I made the move and transferred about 2.7k to Ultimate Bet and I noticed that the games there are indeed incredibly soft. I see people stack off with AT (top pair tens) against QQ so I have great hopes that this month will finally be the end of my downswing.

I had my first session at UB today, playing about 750 hands. I'm down 3 buyins, but I noticed that I still have to get used to the different styles of the players. Also got coolered in 1 hand, which I think was pretty standard, especially since I was the most agressive player at the table and had a very bluffy image:

Hero ($104.43)
Button ($150.40)
SB ($99)
BB ($129.50)
UTG ($126.45)

Preflop: Hero is MP with A, A.
UTG raises to $3.5, Hero raises to $12, Button calls $12, 2 folds, UTG folds.

Flop: ($29) K, 7, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $24, Button calls $24.

Turn: ($77) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $68.43 (All-In), Button calls $68.43.

River: ($214) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $213.86

Hero shows A, A, 2 pair Aces and Eights
MP shows K K, A full house Kings full of Eights
MP wins $213.86

Variance and poker mindset

2008-02-09T04:00:00.001+01:00

I've just had a pretty bad session, down 3 buyins. I played pretty well I think, but getting outdrawn 3 times for all the money kindda makes your winings drop ;) I'm happy with the way I handled myself though and stayed pretty cool. My stop loss of 3 buyins was actually pretty good, cause I did notice that I lost focus and got a little annoyed after the 3rd allin I lost.

Only played for about 1,5 hours (1k hands) and after having a drink and cooling down a bit I reviewed my hands in Pokertracker. See results below for the big pots I lost. Just colddecks, but they still suck :p

MP ($133.00)
CO ($84.25)
Button ($428.80)
Hero ($100.00)
BB ($180.25)
UTG ($101.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, 5.
2 folds, CO calls $1, Button raises to $5, Hero calls $4.50, 1 fold, CO calls $4.

Flop: ($16) 4, 7, 5 (3 players)
Hero bets $11, CO folds, Button raises to $38, Hero raises to $95, Button calls $57.

Turn: ($206) 3 (2 players)

River: ($206) 8 (2 players)

Final Pot: $206

Hero shows 5 5, Three of a kind Fives
BTN shows K 6, 8-high straight
BTN wins $206

==============================

CO ($96.60)
Hero ($104.10)
SB ($114.45)
BB ($102.40)
UTG ($86.05)
MP ($95.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 4, 4.
1 fold, MP raises to $4, 1 fold, Hero calls $4, 1 fold, BB calls $3.

Flop: ($12.50) A, 4, Q (3 players)
BB checks, MP bets $10, Hero raises to $32, BB folds, MP raises to $91.5, Hero calls $59.50.

Turn: ($195.50) K (2 players)

River: ($195.50) A (2 players)

Final Pot: $195.50

Hero shows 4 4, Full House, Fours full of Aces
BTN shows A Q, Full House, Aces full of Queens
BTN wins $195.50

I'm still waiting for my 30" screen to arrive. I ordered it like 2 weeks ago, but the guys at the store are telling me they are having problems with their supplier. So at the moment I'm still 8-tabling on my 2 19" screens which isn't ideal, because there's an annoying overlap on them.

This afternoon I met with a good friend of mine and we reviewed some hands together and analyzed the way he plays. He's multi-tabling 100nl at UltimateBet and we decided to watch a session of him, where I'm making comments about the way he plays. It was pretty interesting and we had a few nice discussions about certain hands in which we disagreed on the strategy behind it. By making a logical argument and thinking of every aspect of a certain hand, you can really get better in your analytical thinking process while playing. I've noticed that the more I think about tough hands, the more standard my thought process is while playing them. This ultimately puts you in a lot less tough spots, because you already planned your hand and know what might be a good play in that specific situation.

Some things we could not agree on though, so I suggested we post these hands on 2+2 to see what the regulars there think. In my opinion, 2+2 is the most valuable source of poker information anywhere and it certainly beats any book that has been written. There are so many incredibly good players posting there, from whom you can learn a lot from. After posting 2 hands, we got some feedback from them and it really made us understand the reasoning for why that specific play was optimal.

Next time we might let me play a session and let him comment on hands that I play and mistakes that I'm making. I'm sure I have plenty of leaks in my game that need fixing and hopefully he can help me with some of them.

I've also been posting a lot more on 2+2. Not just posting tough hands, but getting involved in discussions about other people's hands etc. I think that's a great way to learn and get better. By making suggestions about what I would do in the posted situations, you also get a lot of feedback from others who might think my ideas are flawed or wrong in some way.

There are 2 ways of viewing these replies from others. Some might feel too proud or arrogant to admit that their own views are wrong. In my opinion, this is a completely wrong mindset and if you want to succeed at poker, this should be dropped immediately. There is no room for pride in poker, especially when it comes to getting a better understanding of the game. If someone is telling you, you're plain WRONG, try to honestly ask yourself if there is logic to his or her reasoning. Don't let pride get in the way of learning something.

I completely understand that it might make you feel bad if someone is telling you that the thing you thought was "standard" for months, is completely incorrect in every sense. Instead of ignoring his explanations, try and see if you might agree with that person. You might come to the conclusion that you were right, but please think about all ideas objectively, let go of any pride you might have and honestly assess who is right. There is so much to learn from others, but you have to be open to it. Even someone who you might view as the worse player in the world, you can still learn something from him.

This reminds me of a poker seminar I watched of Howard Lederer (the professor). After thinking about the stuff I just wrote down, I decided to look up the part and quote that part here:
"Don't ignore the losing players in the game. Very often, they do things that you can learn from. I think it comes down to respect. If you don't respect players, you won't be open to the idea that they may have something to offer you. Let's say in poker there are a 1000 things that you can do well. Let's also say hypothetically that you're a pretty good player and you do 900 of those things well. And you're a nice consistent winner at whatever game that you're playing. And now, there's a player in the game who does 800 of those things well. You're a better player then that guy, and you're gonna beat him over the long run, but I assure you, that that player who does 800 things well, will do some things well, that you don't do well. So just because you're better then a player, there will be things that that player does better then you. If you completely disrespect his game, you aren't gonna learn from him. So you kindda need to look at a guy, you need to look at the things that he does, or that annoy you, or you don't like to face, and maybe think about how you can use that to your advantage in your own game."

I can suggest his whole seminar to everyone who is interested in improving his mindset at poker. It certainly opened up my mind to a lot of new ideas and I can honestly say that I've really improved a lot, partly because he made me more flexible to accepting new ideas.

8-tabling 100nl

2008-02-06T15:26:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I played a very good session at 100nl (8 tables) :) I gotta say, this 8 tabling as opposed to 4 really makes me feel great! You get a lot more hands in, it's much less boring and you are much more involved in the action. In about 4 hours I got 3k hands in which is pretty nice. My bb/100 hands was 9.14.

I've also been focussing a little more on table selection, leaving the table when it gets nitty and looking for tables who have a players-per-flop percentage of above 30%. Those are the most profitable and really fit my style well.

Also the stats I posted last time didn't really make sense. That's because the first 30k hands I played pretty poorly, partly because my opposition was so weak tight. In the last 100nl hands I am 25.7 VPIP, PFR of 19 and AF of 4.93. My graph actually looks pretty nice. Here is my total graph on Cakepoker for all limits and below it for just 100nl:

All limits graph

100nl graph

There are 2 interesting hands I wanted to share with you guys from yesterday. Both were relatively deep. I'll be posting my hands in the 2+2 format from now on. I think it's pretty easy to read and it looks nice and neat :)

In this hand I really liked my b3b line on the flop, because we are deep and he's an ultra donk. When he minraised me on the flop I was 95% sure he had AJ for top pair top kicker. Because of my flop 3bet, I was able to get all my 240bb in by the river which was obviously my plan when the flop came down.

SB: $95.00
Hero (BB): $237.20
UTG: $31.50
UTG+1: $132.20
CO: $15.20
BTN: $278.70

Pre-Flop: 4 5 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, CO folds, BTN raises to $3.50, SB calls, BB calls

Flop: ($10.50) J 5 4 (3 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7.00, BTN raises to $14.00, SB folds, Hero raises to $45.00, BTN calls

Turn: ($100.50) K (2 Players)
Hero bets $80.00, BTN calls

River: ($260.50) 3 (2 Players)
Hero goes allin for $108.70, BTN calls $108.70

Hero shows 4 5, 2 pair Fives and Fours
BTN shows A J, 1 pair Jacks
Hero wins $474.90

One funny hand I wanted to share was against a 100nl regular. I've played a lot of hands with him in the past and have a pretty good feel for how he plays. He also knows I'm an agressive regular and plays me accordingly :) We were pretty deep, effective stacks of 160bb. Obviously he misplays his flopped nuts terribly. On the river I luckily hit the nuts and figured if I shove here he might call me with a Q, or perhaps playing the board thinking we split.

SB: $64.70
Hero (BB): $222.75
UTG: $39.10
UTG+1: $100.00
CO: $91.25
BTN: $164.55

Pre-Flop: Q K dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, CO folds, BTN raises to $4.50, SB folds, BB calls, UTG+1 folds

Flop: ($10.00) 9 8 J (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $4.00, Hero calls

Turn: ($18.00) 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $8.00, Hero calls

River: ($34.00) T (2 Players)
Hero goes allin for $206.25, BTN calls $148.05

Final Pot: $327.60

Hero shows Q K, King High Straight
BTN shows Q T, Queen High Straight
Hero wins $327.60

Won $20 buyin tournament

2008-02-04T03:54:00.000+01:00

Hey guys! Just now we were playing poker with some roommates of mine and drinking heavily while doing it obviously :p Usually after drinking, me and a roommate of mine go tilting and donking off at the lower stakes just having fun :P We saw a nice weak-ass $20 buyin tournament so we decided to enter. I always suck at tournaments, because I play way too agressive and obviously without the ability to rebuy I usually donk myself out of tournaments quite quickly :P

For some reason though, we did pretty well for a while and after 45 minutes we were 5th in chips with like 18 people left. One sick hand, we reraised allin with JJ and got called by 3 other players (OUCH!). They turned up AK, AQ and 78s and without a bad beat against us, we tripled up to take the chiplead. From there we got to shorthand play at the final table and we pretty much used our stack to bully the others. Eventually I got headsup against some guy who was pretty good and actually knew kindda what he was doing. We had 76o and called his raise on the BTN. The flop came 583 with 2 clubs and he checked, so ofcoarse I bet. He checkraised me big and after a while I decided to shove (I had about 60k and he had 40k). He quickly called and turned over 22. The turn was a brick and the river came a beautiful 9 giving me the nuts and finishing the tournament.

This might sound crazy, but it's actually the first time I win a poker tournament online and even though the stakes weren't that high, I'm pretty damn happy about it!! :) It netted me about $210, which isn't all that much, but usually when I'm drunk and do some donkaments online, I'm happy just breaking even. Netting a nice $210 made me pretty happy =) See the picture below:

I also fixed my Pokertracker, so I can now import all my Cakepoker hands into it. I've made a graph of my history at Cake the last few months and put it in a graph. This is mostly 100nl and 200nl. The problem is obvious, I don't play enough hands every month. In 50k hands at 100nl and 200nl I made about 5k. I should be able to play 50k hands every month, especially when 9-tabling with my new screen ;) I think a winrate of 4.38 bb/100 hands at 100nl isn't that great, and it was up at about 6bb/100 hands before my huge downswing. However it's only 46k hands and I really believe that over a larger sample I should definetly be able to maintain 6 or 7. See below for the graph and stats:

New month, new goals and some changes

2008-02-02T18:54:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody. From now on, I will be doing my blog in English. I've wanted to change this up for a while now, but didn't for some reason. So from now on, all my posts and the stuff on my blog will be in English. I hope you don't mind.

For january, here are the final stats. Kindda funny how rakeback has saved me from a -$1k month to a -$500 month ;)

Number of hands: 18.657
Profit: -$1.066
Rakeback: $562
Bankroll: $8.061

This is my first losing month ever, and obviously I'm not happy about it. I've been down 1k a week ago, but managed to grind my way back up playing 100nl to breaking even. Then a few days ago, like I posted here, I had a 5buyin downswing on 200nl and then a few more on 100nl. This brought me right back to the low point of this month, which ended at -1k.

Personally I don't mind it much, and I know this is just short term variance (I mean, how much is 19k hands really). Still I think that I need to incorporate some changes from now on to cope and deal with poker in a more professional way. The first thing I'm going to change is my my poker schedule and the way I'm going about things. I feel like I'm playing well, making good reads and some hero calls against people who like C/R AI on the turn on a flush draw. Problem is that lately they've been hitting that miracle river on me every time, which makes me sick.

As I have promised to myself I wouldn't be playing 200nl anymore until my bankroll is up to about 10k again. Thursdaynight I've been grinding the 100nl hard, playing 8 tables (4 on each 19" TFT screen). Unfortunately things didn't really go my way at all, leaving me with 10 buyins down in my 1st session of february (my biggest losing session in buyin amount up to now). However I did play very well, got my money in good most of the time or with a 50/50 draw against someone with a questionable hand who looked weak. This was probably the most bizarre hand I've played ever on 200nl:
I openraise BTN with 6 7 to 3.5bb, SB (who had 100bb) minraises to 6bb. I call ofcoarse and the flop comes 8 6 9 giving me bottom pair and an OESD. He bets out 6bb and I raise to 18bb. He minraises again to 30bb and I shove for a total of 96bb. He thinks for like 25 seconds and right before the timer goes out he calls and shows 8 2 for middle pair no kicker :/ (LOOL!) No idea why he could ever call and I correctly put him on a lame weak hand. However we were a coinflip and obviously 2 bricks gave him a $400 pot.

I've just noticed that the level of play on 200nl (like this idiot minraising with 82s from the BB and shoving a 9-high flop with middle pair no redraws) is just horrendous. Still lately I'm just getting slapped in the face by the deck that I can't seem to make a profit out of it. I can't wait to come back there with a 10k roll and totally own those guys up, but due to my 2k downswing and the 1.2k I cashed out to get my 30" Samsung TFT monitor I can't.

Luckily I've played a shorter session today, which won me back 3.5 buyins playing 100nl on 6 tables. Played pretty much the same way, except the hands I should win actually went my way ;) I feel pretty confident that after grinding the 100nl hard this month, I should be able to pick my bankroll up where it left off in december :)

Also I have been considering leaving CakePoker to go to another site (Carlos Poker on the iPoker network looked appealing). One of the main reasons was not being able to import my hands into PokerTracker, which is a very useful tool to analyze my play. However I've just gotten so used to the playerbase at Cake and the client and all, that it's really a big inconvenience for me to get used to something new. Also, I've recently come across a hand history convertor that someone on 2+2 made, which allows me to convert CakePoker HHs to Pokerstars. This allows me to import them into my database and have the benefits of accurately seeing my bb/100 hands at each limit. I still need to fix a small problem with the regional settings, as some of my hand histories are in dutch with "," as a decimal seperator. I've contacted the creator of the HH convertor and I hope that he'll soon fix it. Once that's fixed, I'll be able to show you guys a graph of my last 3 months and my ptbb/100 hands for each limit.

Now that I'm able to use PT to analyze my play, there really isn't a big benefit in switching sites. There is an overwhelming amount of complete and utter morons playing at Cake and I've created a pretty solid game in attacking the specific mistakes that these guys make. That means that it'dd actually cost me money to adjust to a new site and its players. I've put about 2.7k on CarlosPoker with a RB and deposit bonus, but I'll be playing with my 5.2k bankroll on Cake. Maybe in the future I'll give CarlosPoker a try, but not right now.

So, the following month I have set some new goals to get back on track. My roll at the moment is a healthy 7.9k which is plenty to grind 100nl (79 buyins). With my new 30" arriving monday, I can really grind the 100nl tables with 8 tables at once, which means I can play twice as many hands a month as I used to with the same time investment. Here are my new february goals:

- Play 50k hands this month
- Play 8 tables 100nl on my new 30"
- Every day, I have to play 1670 hands to meet my goal, which is about 2.5 hours at 8 tables
- Don't play any 200nl this month
- Post at least 3 hands a day on 2+2
- Update my blog at least once a week, possibly twice a week
- Try to play the same hours of poker every day (preferably in the evening or at night)
- Don't let the results of my play affect me at or away from the tables

At the end of the month, I will re-evaluate my bankroll and switch 4 tables to 200nl and stay on 4 tables 100nl. Monday when my new screen arrives, I'll be taking a picture of my new poker grinding layout :) Thanks for reading this, and if you guys have any suggestions or tips, please leave a reply here. I'm always happy to accept ideas from others :)

Stop the colddecks PLEASE!!!

2008-01-30T05:39:00.000+01:00

Oh my god, ik word echt helemaal gek op de 200nl. Mijn spel is voor mijn gevoel solid en die lui begrijpen er echt geen reet van, maar als je de kaarten tegen blijft hebben dan kun je natuurlijk niks goed doen. Gisteren was ik $470 up op 100nl door gewoon steady te grinden. Vandaag na een sessie van 4 uur gewoon een lelijke 4,5 buyin down op de 200nl en daarna nog eentje op 100nl om het af te leren :/

Ik word gewoon zo moe van lui die met hun 82s minre-raisen preflop, top pair achten hitten en dan toch mijn allin op de flop callen (waar ik middle pair en een OESD heb en hij natuurlijk tegen mijn range vrijwel geen equity heeft). Ik zal morgen even wat handjes posten, dan zie je wat ik bedoel. Heb er nu echt even geen zin in.

Voor deze maand was ik uitindelijk toch nog quitte gaan draaien na mijn 1k downswing, maar helaas heb ik nu weer na 1 sessie mijn -1k bereikt voor deze maand. Voorlopig denk ik dat ik maar wegblijf van de 200nl, waar de swings toch redelijk hoog zijn en ik op dit moment toch verschrikkelijk waardeloos run. De komende tijd maar ff de 100nl grinden, ook al is dat ongelooflijk saaaai :( Het niveau wat daar gespeeld word is dermate laag dat je gewoon op de automatische piloot aan het spelen bent, wat ik persoonlijk geen flikker aan vindt.

Vanmiddag heb ik mijn 30" Samsung breedbeeldmonitor besteld (de 305T), zie plaatje hieronder. Hiervoor heb ik dus 1.2k moeten uitcashen, wat mijn bankroll wat liet dalen. De monitor zou vrijdag of volgende week maandag aankomen. Dan kan ik eindelijk de 100nl gewoon ff 9-tafelen om ff 2k ofzo bij elkaar te grinden en dan gewoon weer lekker relaxed de 200nl te spelen. Met mijn verlaagde BR voel ik zo'n 5 buyin downswing wel. Mijn totale bankroll is op dit moment precies 8k (ik stond dus op 10.2k, maar na 1k down te staan en 1.2k voor monitor uitgegeven te hebben is dat dus nu 8k). Dit is dus 80 buyins op 100nl en 40 buyins op 200nl, wat nog steeds ruim is. Toch wil ik eigenlijk geen 200nl spelen als ik onder de 9k grens kom. Ik merk gewoon dat ik me dan slechter voel en dat is niet de bedoeling.

Hier ook een foto van mijn huidige setup. Ben benieuwd hoe het eruit ziet als er een 30" Samsung tussen mijn twee 19" Philips schermen staat:

Ik ga nu maar slapen, ben echt ziek van de lelijke beats die ik gezien heb. Morgen post ik wat handjes en ga ik de hele dag maar de 100nl 4-tafelen en hopen dat mijn scherm snel binnenkomt. Tot later!

Gaining confidence

2008-01-27T23:18:00.000+01:00

Eindelijk begin ik weer wat beter te runnen. De laatste week heb ik eigenlijk alleen maar uitsluitend een niveau-tje lager gespeeld (100nl). Ik las ergens dat er op Full Tilt een keer een richtlijn was gezet, waarin je je range van limieten die je mag spelen vast stelt. Binnen deze range is het criterium om een limiet omhoog te gaan als je 3 winnende sessies hebt, en een limiet omlaag bij 3 verliezende sessies. Mijn range is nu 50nl - 200nl (waarbij ik 50nl eigenlijk al heeel lang niet meer gespeeld heb). Aangezien ik erg slecht runde en mijn zelfvertrouwen ook wat gedaald was, ben ik 100nl gaan spelen en dit gaat best ok.

Gisteravond heb ik een sessie gedraaid van $250 winst en vanavond eentje van $240. Ik heb ook gemerkt dat ik meer handen ben gaan spelen en wat meer handen raise vanuit early position. Op deze manier probeer ik mijn spel een beetje meer open te gooien en mijn ranges wat minder leesbaar te maken. Dit maakt op 100nl en waarschijnlijk 200nl ook niet heel veel uit, maar naar mate je hoger speelt zal dit toch belangrijker worden. Ook ben ik postflop agressiever geworden en soms met een goeie read mijn geld er op de turn in te flikkeren met een ISD, als ik weet dat villain toch niet kan callen.

Als ik januari bekijk is dit denk ik mijn grootste downswing in mijn carriere geweest. Op een gegeven moment was ik 1k stuck. Gelukkig heb ik dit om kunnen vormen tot nog maar $180 stuck... en hopelijk eind van de maand kom ik uiteindelijk nog op wat winst. Quitte spelen vind ik echter al fijn :)

Na nog een paar winnende 100nl sessies wil ik weer 200nl gaan spelen. Ik ben voor beide eigenlijk ontzettend overrolled, met 106 buyins op 100nl en 53 buyins op 200nl. Als het op 200nl goed gaat wil ik in februari ook wat shots nemen op 400nl. Dit heb ik al 1 keer geprobeerd, waar ik 1 buyin down ben. Dit wil ik graag voortzetten.

Ik heb net 4k uitgecashed op CakePoker. Op dit moment ben ik op zoek naar een andere client, aangezien RealtimeHUD op een of andere manier niet meer werkt bij mij. Ook wil ik graag eens ergens anders gaan spelen, zodat ik wat meer mogelijkheden heb wat betreft game slection. Op dit moment lijkt Carlos Poker (een iPoker client) mij een goeie optie. Ze hebben er rakeback en een vriend van mij zegt dat ze daar ERG slecht zijn.

Hier even 2 leuke handjes die ik gespeeld heb:
SB: $91.60
BB: $22.00
UTG: $139.55
Hero (UTG+1): $192.45
CO: $38.10
BTN: $96.75

Pre-Flop: 7 8 dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $11.00, CO folds, BTN folds, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls
UTG raised, relatief diepe stack (140bb). Ik besluit met 87o te reraisen, aangezien ik positie heb en hem met mijn raise waarschijnlijk isoleer. Zo kan ik hem op de flop goed bespelen.

Flop: ($23.50) 9 7 6 (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $15.00, UTG raises to $55.00, Hero raises all-in to $166.45, UTG calls
Flop komt perfect voor mijn hand, ik flop middle pair een een OESD. Villain checked en ik maak een standaard cbet van $15 in een pot van $23.50. Villain besluit te checkraisen naar $55. Ik zet hem hier op een pocket pair, 99 t/m QQ ofzo. Na even denken besluit ik te shoven, aangezien ik een coinflip ben tegen zijn range en hij op zo'n gevaarlijk board zijn overpair misschien nog mucked ook. Hij instacalled. Gelukkig run ik niet slecht en hit ik mijn straat op de river ;) Volgens mij was mijn shove redelijk standaard tegen zijn range.

Turn: ($141.05) 4 (2 Players)

River: ($141.05) T (2 Players)

UTG shows 9 9, 3 of a Kind Nines
Hero shows 7 8, Straight, Ten High

=============================

SB: $72.60
Hero (BB): $304.90
UTG: $18.10
CO: $135.85
BTN: $90.15

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, CO raises to $4.00, BTN folds, SB folds, Hero raises to $14.00, CO calls
Villain openraised naar 4bb vanuit CO. Ik heb pocket kings, dus logische 3bet naar $14. Villain called.

Flop: ($28.50) 8 3 7 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $15.00, Hero raises to $44.00, CO calls
Er komt een mooie rainbow flop met weinig draws. Ik besluit te checken omdat villain redelijk agressief is en ik hem hier probeer te trappen. Hij bet uit en ik C/R naar $44. Hij denkt kort na en called. Ik zet hem hier op een paartje, of met het board gemaakt, of een pocket pair tussen 99-QQ. Straight draw leek me onwaarschijnlijk, omdat hij niet het type is die met 65s een 3bet called.

Turn: ($116.50) T (2 Players)
De turn is een redelijke blank in mijn ogen. Alleen villain zijn TT zou zuur zijn. Hij heeft nog $78 behind en aangezien de pot zo groot is besluit ik te shoven. Ik verwacht hier gecalled te worden door sets en elke overpair.

River: ($271.50) 8 (2 Players)

Hero shows K K, Two Pair, Kings and Eights
CO shows J J, Two Pair, Jacks and Eights

Short break

2008-01-16T14:18:00.000+01:00

2 weken geleden had ik mijn laatste post gemaakt om december even samen te vatten. Samen met mijn vakantie in Amerika was het een mooie 3k maand. Ik ben vooral tevreden met de controle die ik over mijn spel heb de laatste tijd, mede dankzij het boek The Poker Mindset die ik gekocht heb daar.

Januari verloopt helaas wat slecht. Na wat verlies op 200nl ben ik even kort terug gegaan naar 100nl. Een paar buyins op 200nl verliezen kan me weinig meer boeien, dus als ik eens $650 verlies zit ik daar niet zo mee. Toch merk ik wel dat het me iets meer boeit als op 100nl, wat natuurlijk logisch is. Dat is gewoon een kwestie van wennen.

Mijn doelen voor de komende periode zijn eigenlijk de 16k bankroll mark halen en dan gaan knallen op 400nl. Wat ik in de tussentijd wil doen is even 1.2k bij elkaar grinden op 200nl en daarvan een 30" Samsung widescreen TFT monitor kopen. Op die manier kan ik tenminste lekker 9 tafels gaan grinden op 100nl/200nl en gaat het hopelijk wat sneller. Ik merk nu nog vaak dat ik de actie op 4 tafels gewoon te traag vind gaan. Als mijn bankroll dus 11.2k is dan cash ik meteen dat geld uit zodat ik terugval op 10k. Een veilige marge voor 200nl (50 buyins).

Maar om even terug te komen op januari, ik sta nu 1k in de min. Dit is helemaal niet erg en is deels te wijten aan variance. Daarnaast heb ik met een vriend van mij 2 toernooitjes van $150 gespeeld en ook 2 steps toernooien van $30 ieder. Dit verklaart al $360 van mijn verlies.

Mijn slechte resultaten hebben echter niet alleen met variance te maken, maar ook met wat persoonlijke problemen waar ik de laatste weken last van heb. Ik merk gewoon dat ik me niet kan concentreren tijdens het spelen en erg snel afdwaal. Dit heeft als resultaat dat ik dingen mis en dure fouten ga maken. Mijn idee was dan ook om de rest van januari gewoon even niet meer te spelen, tot ik hier een beetje overheen ben. Mijn roll is op dit moment 10k, dus dat is 50 buyins op de 200nl. Ruim zat dus om daar lekker door te grinden. 6 buyins erbij en ik bestel mijn scherm, ik kan niet wachten om daarop te spelen.

December stats

2008-01-02T07:51:00.001+01:00

Het nieuwe jaar is begonnen en tis weer tijd om mijn afgelopen maand te evalueren :) Zoals je misschien al gemerkt hebt in mijn lage aantal posts op mijn blog heb ik weinig tijd gehad om te pokeren. In de eerste 3 weken van de maand heb ik niet heel veel gespeeld en ook maar iets van $450 verdient.

De laatste 3 dagen in Amerika heb ik echter 3 lange nachtelijke sessies kunnen doen op 200nl, nadat ik definitief ben overgestapt. Dit leverde me respectievelijk $780, $360 en $890 op, wat natuurlijk erg mooi is! Dit heeft mijn totale maandwinst van december opgeschroeft naar $2.374, waar nog $440 aan rakeback bijkomt. Vergeleken met november heb ik 4k minder handen gespeeld. Het scheelt echter wel dat ik nu op 200nl speel en dat je duidelijk merkt dat je sneller geld verdient.

Zie hieronder de winstgrafiek waarin duidelijk te zien is dat ik voornamelijk de laatste paar dagen veel gespeeld heb:

Aantal handen: 13.916
Winst: $2.374
Rakeback: $438
Bankroll: $10.117

Ik zal binnenkort even een korte evaluatie maken van 2007. In mei ben ik mijn blog begonnen en als ik zo terugkijk ben ik een heel eind gekomen sinds januari 2007, toen ik volgens mij nog een droevige 10nl speler was :p

Daarnaast wil ik wat doelen gaan opstellen voor 2008. Dat zal ik ook in mijn volgende 2007 evaluatie post gaan doen. Als ik eens kijk naar Raszi zijn bankrollmanagement chart dan ben ik goed op weg naar de 400nl.

Zoals je ziet heb ik hier 16k voor nodig, dus ik heb nog 5.5k te gaan. Als alles goed gaat zou ik begin februari shots moeten kunnen nemen op deze limiet. Ik ben benieuwd =)

Paar handjes op 200nl

2007-12-31T04:53:00.000+01:00

Het gaat erg goed in de eerste paar dagen sinds mijn move naar 200nl. Ik heb eergister en vandaag 2 goede sessies gespeeld en ben in totaal 6 buyins up. Een aantal interessante hand histories heb ik bewaard en die wou ik hierbij even posten. Bij elke hand heb ik mijn motivatie en gedachtengang toegevoegd. De eerste twee zijn nog op 100nl, de rest op 200nl:

Hand #1359012215000969: Chelsea (6-Max) 12215
Seat 1: bahtp ($95.00 in chips)
Seat 2: PokerChessDK ($134.55 in chips)
Seat 3: bear8686 ($218.45 in chips)
Seat 8: AppalachianU ($97.88 in chips)
Seat 9: Aero1441 ($112.20 in chips)
Seat 10: grinderRDC ($101.40 in chips)
grinderRDC: posts small blind $0.50
bahtp: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ K A ]
PokerChessDK: raises to $3.50
bear8686: folds
AppalachianU: calls
Aero1441: raises to $16
grinderRDC: folds
bahtp: folds
PokerChessDK: calls
AppalachianU: folds
UTG maakt een 3.5bb raise and de CO called. Ik vind AK op de BTN en besluit een squeeze te doen naar $16. Mede omdat er al iemand gecalled heeft en ik met AK (een drawing hand) liever HU speel. De originele raiser called en de limper fold.
*** FLOP *** [ 3 5 A ]
PokerChessDK: checks
Aero1441: bets $25
PokerChessDK: raises to $50
Aero1441: is all in
PokerChessDK: calls
De flop komt perfect voor mijn hand. Ik maak TPTK en heb zo goed als de nuts in deze hand. Enige logische hand die hij kan hebben gezien de actie is heel misschien 55/33, maar natuurlijk ga ik hier niet van uit. Villain checked en ik maak zoals altijd een cbet nadat ik preflop sterkte heb getoond. De pot is $35.50 en ik besluit $25 te betten. Het is een droog bord die niet erg drawgevoelig is, dus een PSB om mijn hand te beschermen leek me hier niet nodig. Het enige wat mij hier called or raised zijn sets, Azen en flush draws.

Villain minraised mij hier naar $50.00. Enige handen die hij hier in mijn ogen kan hebben is natuurlijk een onwaarschijnlijke set (55/33) of AK/AQ en heel misschien AJ (vanwege mijn loose image en hij weet dat ik elk bord ga cbetten). Ik zie hem dit niet met een flush draw doen. Villain heeft nog maar $72 behind dus dit is logische push. Als hij een set heeft, jammer. Hier ben ik committed en mijn geld ging er sowieso in. Gelukkig heeft hij AQ en mijn AK blijft goed op de river. Redelijk standaard gespeeld door beide denk ik, mijn loose image helpt hierbij wel en na zijn flop C/R waren we natuurlijk allebei commited.
*** TURN *** [ J ]
*** RIVER *** [ J ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ K A ] (Two Pairs, Aces and Jacks with King kicker)
PokerChessDK: shows [ Q A ] (Two Pairs, Aces and Jacks with Queen kicker)
Aero1441 wins $226.40 with Two Pairs, Aces and Jacks with King kicker

Hand #1359012215001000: Chelsea (6-Max) 12215
Seat 1: bahtp ($114.53 in chips)
Seat 2: PokerChessDK ($113.00 in chips)
Seat 3: bear8686 ($183.15 in chips)
Seat 8: AppalachianU ($103.75 in chips)
Seat 9: Aero1441 ($230.55 in chips)
Seat 10: grinderRDC ($174.25 in chips)
PokerChessDK: posts small blind $0.50
bear8686: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ Q K ]
AppalachianU: calls
Aero1441: raises to $4.50
grinderRDC: folds
bahtp: folds
PokerChessDK: folds
bear8686: folds
AppalachianU: calls
Zwakke speler UTG openlimped en ik vind KQo op UTG+1. Natuurlijk openraise ik hier om de limper te isoleren en mijn positie uit te buiten. Ik maak het 4.5bb, blinds folden en UTG called.
*** FLOP *** [ T 3 K ]
AppalachianU: bets $8
Aero1441: calls
Ik hit de flop prima en maak TP 2nd kicker. Villain besluit echter te donkbetten op dit redelijk ongevaarlijke bord. Hij limp/called natuurlijk nooit AK of TT, dus de enige range die mij beat heeft is KT en misschien 33. Echter verwacht ik geen donkbet met dergelijke monsters, omdat hij weet hoe agressief ik ben en ik elke flop die ik pfr op de flop uitbet. Ik zet hem hier op een straight draw, laag pairtje (tienen/lagere pp) of K-laag. In mijn ogen is er echter geen value in raisen hier, dus ik flatcall.
*** TURN *** [ 3 ]
AppalachianU: bets $12.50
Aero1441: raises to $30
AppalachianU: calls
De turn is perfect natuurlijk. Hij heeft hier nooit een 3 en mijn pair koningen is hoogstwaarschijnlijk nog steeds de beste hand. Villain bet op de turn wat zwakker, $12.50 in een pot van $26.50. Met een koning had hij sterker gebet, dus ik zet hem hier op hooguit een T of misschien een hand als 77. QJ is natuurlijk ook nog mogelijk. Ik besluit een kleine value raise te maken, zodat ik op de river een grotere bet kan plaatsen. Achteraf gezien had deze raise misschien beter iets van $37 kunnen zijn, maar goed.
*** RIVER *** [ 9 ]
De river maakt de enige OESD compleet en villain bet voor de 3e keer uit, ondanks mijn raise op de turn. Dit toont in mijn ogen toch redelijk wat kracht. Zijn bet is echter zo zwak ($35 bet in pot van $86.50) dat ik hier natuurlijk nooit kan folden. Als hij gepushed had dan was mijn beslissing mogelijk moeilijker geweest. Raisen lijkt mij hier niet +EV aangezien ik hier best vaak beat kan zijn door K9 of QJ oid, dus ik call. Villain laat een ERG matige bluf zien en ik win de pot.
AppalachianU: bets $35
Aero1441: calls
*** SHOW DOWN ***
AppalachianU: shows [ 5 6 ] (Pair of Threes)
Aero1441: shows [ Q K ] (Two Pairs, Kings and Threes)
Aero1441 wins $153.50 with Two Pairs, Kings and Threes

Hand #1362012066001085: Seville (6-Max) 12066
Seat 1: maccow ($69.20 in chips)
Seat 2: BIGPIMP23 ($69.60 in chips)
Seat 3: Aero1441 ($308.55 in chips)
Seat 8: jigar82 ($76.95 in chips)
Seat 9: NJGNJG ($69.00 in chips)
Seat 10: thoue77 ($223.65 in chips)
NJGNJG: posts small blind $1
thoue77: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ T T ]
maccow: calls
BIGPIMP23: folds
Aero1441: raises to $9
jigar82: folds
NJGNJG: folds
thoue77: calls
maccow: calls
Een droeftoeter UTG openlimped en ik vind TT op de CO. Uiteraard raise ik hier 4.5bb en de BB en UTG callen.
*** FLOP *** [ K 6 T ]
thoue77: checks
maccow: checks
Aero1441: bets $19
thoue77: calls
maccow: folds
Ik flop middle set op een redelijk veilig bord. Beide spelers checken naar mij en ik maak mijn standaard cbet van $19 in een pot van $28. Alleen BB called.
*** TURN *** [ A ]
thoue77: checks
Aero1441: bets $50
thoue77: raises to $100
Aero1441: is all in
thoue77: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $84.90
De turn is een A en BB checked weer. Nu word het bord toch iets gevaarlijker en zou een mogelijke QJ op de flop mij nu beat hebben. Ik bet hier wat groter en zet $50, waarna villain minraised naar $100. Naturlijk kan hij hier een straat hebben, maar hij is een slechte speler en zijn range is hier vaak genoeg 2 pair handen als KT/AT/A6 etc waar hij mee called in de BB. Ik besluit hier te pushen, aangezien hij blijkbaar een redelijke hand heeft en met zijn C/R zegt dat hij hiermee allin wil gaan.
*** RIVER *** [ Q ]
Villain laat een heel wazige bluf zien met zijn backdoor flushdraw en inside straight draw. Gelukkig hit hij de river niet en pak ik een mooie pot van $455.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
thoue77: shows [ Q 9 ] (One Pair, Queens)
Aero1441: shows [ T T ] (Three of a Kind, Tens)
Aero1441 wins $454.30 with Three of a Kind, Tens

Hand #1362012093000889: Seville (6-Max) 11486
Seat 1: isles23 ($48.20 in chips)
Seat 3: docbird ($91.65 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($311.30 in chips)
Seat 9: lexus6868 ($88.29 in chips)
isles23: posts small blind $1
docbird: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ K Q ]
Aero1441: raises to $7
lexus6868: calls
isles23: folds
docbird: folds
Ik vind KQo UTG en openraise naar 3.5bb. UTG+1 called.
*** FLOP *** [ Q K 6 ]
Aero1441: bets $15
lexus6868: calls
Flop komt goed voor mij en ik flop top 2 pair in een ontzettend gevaarlijk bord. Villain flatcalled mijn bet. Hij kan hier natuurlijk een flush slowplayen, maar het is ook mogelijk dat hij een pair heeft of een draw naar de flush/straat.
*** TURN *** [ T ]
Aero1441: is all in
lexus6868: is all in
De turn is een blank en ik besluit te openshoven om veel logische draws op de flop te laten betalen om de river te zien. Villain called mij af met een pair vrouwen en de nut flush draw. Helaas hit hij de river en wint hij de pot.
*** RIVER *** [ 5 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ K Q ] (Two Pairs, Kings and Queens)
lexus6868: shows [ A Q ] (Flush, Ace High)
lexus6868 wins $177.58 with a Flush, Ace High

Hand #1362012093000889: Seville (6-Max) 11486
Seat 1: CGalley ($195 in chips)
Seat 3: Aero1441 ($229.16 in chips)
Seat 8: Adderdance ($199.50 in chips)
Seat 9: lexus6868 ($74.43 in chips)
CGalley: posts small blind $1
Aero1441: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A A ]
Adderdance: raises to $7
lexus6868: calls
CGalley: folds
Aero1441: raises to $30
Adderdance: folds
lexus6868: calls
UTG raised en UTG+1 called. Ik reraise natuurlijk vanuit de BB met azen en UTG+1 called mij.
*** FLOP *** [ 7 3 8 ]
Aero1441: bets $24
lexus6868: calls
De flop komt perfect voor mijn overpair en ik heb hier hoogstwaarschijnlijk de beste hand. Aangezien villain een shortstack is besluit ik een kleine cbet te maken in de hoop dat hij called met een matige pair. Natuurlijk betekent dit dat ik op de turn committed ben om allin te pushen.
*** TURN *** [ 8 ]
Aero1441: bets $21
lexus6868: is all in
De 8 is natuurlijk een matige kaart voor mij, maar zoals eerder gezegd ben ik committed dus ik gooi villain allin voor zijn laatste 10 big blinds. Hij called.
*** RIVER *** [ T ]
Villain laat K7o zien waarmee hij preflop een 3bet called. Op de flop had hij een pair gehit en op de turn kreeg hij er een flush draw bij. Helaas krijgt hij op de river zijn flush en wint hij de pot.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ A A ] (Two Pairs, Aces and Eights)
lexus6868: shows [ K 7 ] (Flush, King High)
lexus6868 wins $154.86 with a Flush, King High

Hand #1362012093000941: Seville (6-Max) 12093
Seat 1: CGalley ($194.60 in chips)
Seat 2: Aero1441 ($346.06 in chips)
Seat 8: movee ($64.90 in chips)
Seat 9: La Onda ($203.80 in chips)
Seat 10: williep ($42.90 in chips)
La Onda: posts small blind $1
williep: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A K ]
CGalley: folds
Aero1441: raises to $7
movee: folds
La Onda: calls
williep: calls
Er wordt naar mij toegefold op de CO met AKo en ik maak een standaard 3.5bb raise. Beide blinds callen.
*** FLOP *** [ Q 3 3 ]
La Onda: bets $10
williep: folds
Aero1441: calls
Er komt een erg droge paired flop zonder flush draws en de SB besluit te donkbetten. Dit vind ik erg zwak, omdat hij weet dat ik altijd cbet. Een C/R met een goede Q of een 3 had ik logischer gevonden. Ik besluit te callen, omdat ik hem hier vaker op 44 t/m TT zet en niet zo snel op een Q. Raisen lijkt me hier niet nodig, want dat straalt in mijn ogen zwakte uit. Als ik hier een Q of een 3 hebt is een flatcall veel logischer. Vaak genoeg na mijn call checked de better en kan ik de pot oppakken door uit te betten en bijvoorbeeld AQ/KQ/QJ te representeren.
*** TURN *** [ 6 ]
La Onda: checks
Aero1441: bets $25
La Onda: calls
Turn komt een brick en villain remt wat af en checked. Ik besluit $25 te betten en de pot hier op te pakken zoals ik op de flop van plan was. Een redelijk sterke bet van iets minder dan 3/4 pot. Tot mijn verbazing called hij.
*** RIVER *** [ A ]
La Onda: checks
Aero1441: bets $50
La Onda: calls
Na de call van villain zet ik hem hier toch wel op Q-laag. Ik mazzel echter en hit de A op de river. Villain checked weer en ik besluit hem mee te nemen naar value-town en maak een redelijke bet van $50 die hij met Q7 of iets dergelijks nog wel called. Hij doet fijn mee en laat Q4s zien. Erg matig gespeeld natuurlijk door hem, maar natuurlijk mazzel ik hem er wel uit. In feite beatte hij na mijn turn bet natuurlijk weinig meer, behalve een 2nd barrel die ik hier maak.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ A K ] (Two Pairs, Aces and Threes)
La Onda: shows [ 4 Q ] (Two Pairs, Queens and Threes)
Aero1441 wins $189 with Two Pairs, Aces and Threes

Hand #1362012222001465: Seville (6-Max) 12222
Seat 1: Golovastik ($211.65 in chips)
Seat 2: AHSKEETSKEET ($384.71 in chips)
Seat 3: invno1 ($150.15 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($197.00 in chips)
Seat 9: BRWSFO ($190.65 in chips)
Seat 10: NoActionHERE ($225.90 in chips)
NoActionHERE: posts small blind $1
Golovastik: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 8 7 ]
AHSKEETSKEET: folds
invno1: calls
Aero1441: raises to $9
BRWSFO: folds
NoActionHERE: folds
Golovastik: folds
invno1: calls
De zoveelste openlimper stumperd (het zijn er veel op 200nl tot mijn grote verbazing), dit keer op UTG+1. Ik openraise natuurlijk fijn om de sukkel te isoleren met 87o en hij gaat mee.
*** FLOP *** [ 9 T 6 ]
invno1: checks
Aero1441: bets $14
invno1: calls
Flop komt natuurlijk zo mooi als je maar kan wensen en ik flop de nut straight. Villain checked en ik maak een standaard cbet. Slowplayen heb ik een hekel aan en slaat natuurlijk nergens op met mijn strategie. Ik bet elke flop uit, dus waarom deze niet? Als ik ineens ga checken nadat ik de vorige 5 handen ge-cbet heb, dan ziet zelfs de grootste stumperd dat er iets aan de hand is. Villain besluit te callen met waarschijnlijk een pairtje negens/tienen of een flush draw.
*** TURN *** [ 5 ]
invno1: checks
Aero1441: bets $42
invno1: calls
Turn complete gelukkig geen flush en mijn straat is nog steeds de nuts. Villain checked weer en ik bet $42 in een pot van $49. Dit natuurlijk om mijn hand te beschermen tegen een flush draw (er liggen er nu 2) en value te halen uit handen als AT/KT of evt 2 pair. Villain called weer.
*** RIVER *** [ 3 ]
invno1: is all in
Aero1441: calls
River is een blank en ineens besluit villain te openpushen voor zijn laatste $85. Aangezien ik nog steeds de nuts heb wist ik niet hoe snel ik de CALL knop kon vinden en ik ben er natuurlijk bij. Tot mijn grootste verbazing laat hij J9o zien voor middle pair. Erg goed gespeeld weer van Mr Stumperd.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
invno1: shows [ 9 J ] (One Pair, Nines)
Aero1441: shows [ 8 7 ] (Straight, Ten high)
Aero1441 wins $300.30 with Straight, Ten high

Hand #1364011475000854: Seville (6-Max) 11475
Seat 1: Kash1 ($177.40 in chips)
Seat 3: Aero1441 ($205.55 in chips)
Seat 8: wannagame ($156.70 in chips)
Seat 9: GenaBukin888 ($153.50 in chips)
Seat 10: Ebenezer ($170.10 in chips)
Kash1: posts small blind $1
Aero1441: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A A ]
wannagame: calls
GenaBukin888: folds
Ebenezer: folds
Kash1: raises to $8
Aero1441: raises to $23
wannagame: folds
Kash1: calls
Weer een openlimp van UTG en SB raised naar 4bb. Ik heb AA in de BB en maak hier natuurlijk een reraise. UTG fold en SB instacalled ongelooflijk snel (hij hoefde niet eens na te denken). Dit is een erg sterke tell dat hij niet een heel goede hand heeft. Als hij hier JJ/QQ/KK oid had dan zou hij nadenken of hij nog een keer wil reraisen of misschien wil callen. Een instacall zegt mij eerder dat hij iets veel zwakkers heeft, zoals QJ of KT oid.
*** FLOP *** [ 6 J Q ]
Kash1: is all in
Aero1441: calls
De flop komt niet perfect voor mijn azen. Er liggen veel draws (FD, SD) en QJ heeft mij nu beat. Ineens openpushed villain voor $154 in een $48 pot. Deze bet slaat natuurlijk helemaal nergens op en in mijn ogen doet hij dit nooit met sets of 2 pair handen. Ik beat hier volgens mij alles wat in zijn range zit, wat straight drwas/flush draws en one pair handen bevat, dus ik call. De droeftoeter laat AJs zien voor middle pair top kicker. Mijn preflop read was dus redelijk goed na zijn instacall op mijn 3bet en hij drawed vrijwel dood naar 2 outs.
*** TURN *** [ 5 ]
*** RIVER *** [ 2 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Kash1: shows [ A J ] (One Pair, Jacks)
Aero1441: shows [ A A ] (One Pair, Aces)
Aero1441 wins $354.80 with Pair of Aces

Hand #1364011465000607: Seville (6-Max) 11465
Seat 1: BURRO ($142.90 in chips)
Seat 2: hunghoe ($40.00 in chips)
Seat 3: dmart ($200.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($226.95 in chips)
Seat 9: MDK ($326.60 in chips)
Seat 10: Ebenezer ($245.00 in chips)
Ebenezer: posts small blind $1
BURRO: posts big blind $2
dmart: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ T T ]
dmart: raises to $4
Aero1441: raises to $13
MDK: folds
Ebenezer: folds
BURRO: folds
dmart: calls
UTG+1 post en besluit direct te open-minraisen. Dit is natuurlijk erg zwak en met TT op de CO raise ik hem hier altijd. UTG+1 called.
*** FLOP *** [ 9 3 5 ]
dmart: checks
Aero1441: bets $23
dmart: calls
Flop komt hier vrijwel perfect voor TT en ik heb een overpair op dit bord. Villain checked, ik maak mijn standaard cbet van 3/4 pot en villain called.
*** TURN *** [ 4 ]
dmart: checks
Aero1441: bets $45
dmart: calls
Turn is een redelijk ongevaarlijke kaart die alleen een onwaarschijnlijke straight draw complete. Villain checked weer. Ik denk zogenaamd een tijdje na en laat de timer een beetje lopen, waarna ik $45 bet. Ik bet wat meer om value te halen uit bijvoorbeeld een 9. Villain called weer en ik zet hem hier op een hand als A9/K9 oid.
*** RIVER *** [ 4 ]
dmart: checks
Aero1441: bets $63
dmart: calls
River paired de 4 en villain checked voor de 3e keer. Als ik hier shove verwacht ik niet dat hij meegaat, dus ik moet wat minder value betten. Ik denk zogenaamd weer na alsof ik niet weet of ik hier nog een 3e bluf wil maken en bet uiteindelijk $63. Villain denkt lang na en called uiteindelijk met 77. Mijn fake timing tells op de flop en de turn werkten blijkbaar erg goed, want hij beat hier natuurlijk nooit meer iets behalve een bluf met AK oid.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ T T ] (Two Pairs, Tens and Fours)
dmart: shows [ 7 7 ] (Two Pairs, Sevens and Fours)
Aero1441 wins $289 with Two Pairs, Tens and Fours

Hand #1364011486000420: Seville (6-Max) 11486
Seat 1: clams ($160.35 in chips)
Seat 2: lucky988 ($237.45 in chips)
Seat 3: Aero1441 ($196.00 in chips)
Seat 8: BrokenDreams ($181.20 in chips)
Seat 9: weed711 ($183.25 in chips)
Seat 10: Silky4726 ($207.45 in chips)
BrokenDreams: posts small blind $1
weed711: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A J ]
Silky4726: calls
clams: folds
lucky988: folds
Aero1441: raises to $9
BrokenDreams: calls
weed711: folds
Silky4726: calls
UTG idioot openlimped en ik vind AJo op de BTN. Deze openraise ik natuurlijk en zowel de SB als UTG callen.
*** FLOP *** [ 9 8 J ]
BrokenDreams: checks
Silky4726: checks
Aero1441: bets $23
BrokenDreams: calls
Silky4726: calls
Ik flop redelijk goed en hit TPTK boeren. Het is echter een zeer gevaarlijk en gecoordineerd bord. Ik maak een standaard cbet en beide villains callen.
*** TURN *** [ 6 ]
BrokenDreams: checks
Silky4726: bets $49
Aero1441: folds
BrokenDreams: folds
Silky4726: returns uncalled bet $49
De turn is een brick en SB checked. UTG besluit echter ineens $49 te betten in een pot van $98. Dit toont natuurlijk ontzettend veel kracht, want ineens neemt hij het initiatief over in een grote pot tegen 2 andere spelers. Ik zet hem hier toch op een geflopte monster. Hij limpcalled preflop, wat hij niet doet met 88/99/JJ. J9 is een optie, maar deze zou hij op zo'n drawgevoelig bord toch zeker checkraisen.

Volgens mij zit villain hier een straight te slowplayen en is hij bereid op de flop risico te nemen door alleen te callen in de hoop dat de turn geen flush complete. In mijn ogen bluffed hij hier nooit en zit hij met QT voor de nuts. Natuurlijk weet ik dit niet zeker, maar elk commentaar is welkom. Ik heb in mijn ogen niet heel veel geinvesteerd in deze pot en ga zeker niet een grote bet op de turn en river afcallen met een matige one pair hand.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Silky4726: mucks
Silky4726 wins $95

Hand #1364011465000662: Seville (6-Max) 11465
Seat 1: HACKATTACKS ($198.60 in chips)
Seat 2: hunghoe ($179.70 in chips)
Seat 3: dmart ($86.30 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($297.95 in chips)
Seat 9: MDK ($342.35 in chips)
Seat 10: Ebenezer ($262.60 in chips)
HACKATTACKS: posts small blind $1
hunghoe: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 5 7 ]
dmart: calls
Aero1441: raises to $9
MDK: folds
Ebenezer: folds
HACKATTACKS: calls
hunghoe: folds
dmart: calls
Zoveelste openlimp UTG van stumperd en ik openraise met 75s vanuit UTG+1 om te isoleren. SB en UTG gaan mee.
*** FLOP *** [ 4 8 6 ]
HACKATTACKS: checks
dmart: bets $10
Aero1441: raises to $25
HACKATTACKS: calls
dmart: calls
Flop komt perfect en ik flop de nut straight. UTG besluit $10 te donkbetten, wat ik heel vaag vind. Ik ga hier natuurlijk niet slowplayen en iemand goedkoop naar een flush laten drawen, dus ik raise naar $25. SB gaat mee met een waarschijnlijke flush draw en UTG called ook.
*** TURN *** [ A ]
HACKATTACKS: checks
dmart: checks
Aero1441: is all in
HACKATTACKS: folds
dmart: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $211.65
Gelukkig valt er geen klaveren op de turn en beide villains checken naar mij toe. De pot is inmiddels $104 en ik ga hier natuurlijk geen risico's nemen, dus ik shove. Een draw ga ik hier maximaal laten betalen en hopelijk gaat een sterke 2 pair hand, een Ax of een ge-slowplayde set mij hier afbetalen. De SB fold zijn flush draw en UTG called. Hij laat 96s zien voor een paartje zessen en een geturnde flushdraw. Erg matig gespeeld natuurlijk door hem. Gelukkig is de river een blank en win ik een pot van $205.
*** RIVER *** [ J ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ 5 7 ] (Straight, Eight high)
dmart: shows [ 6 9 ] (One Pair, Sixes)
Aero1441 wins $205.60 with Straight, Eight high

Hand #1364011465000674: Seville (6-Max) 11465
Seat 1: HACKATTACKS ($154.00 in chips)
Seat 2: DRUNKAZFUK ($206.05 in chips)
Seat 3: OMEGA4 ($41.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($424.25 in chips)
Seat 10: Ebenezer ($262.60 in chips)
Aero1441: posts small blind $1
Ebenezer: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ T J ]
HACKATTACKS: calls
DRUNKAZFUK: folds
OMEGA4: folds
Aero1441: calls
Ebenezer: checks
Een sukkel UTG openlimped en ik heb JTo in de SB. Ik had hier kunnen raisen om initiatief te nemen, maar uit positie raisen met een marginale hand vind ik niet heel fijn. Ik besluit dus fijn mee te limpen.
*** FLOP *** [ 2 Q T ]
Aero1441: bets $4
Ebenezer: folds
HACKATTACKS: calls
Ik flop niet slecht en krijg middle pair op een zeer drawgevoelig bord. In een unraised pot bet ik altijd elk redelijke pair uit, dus ik zet $4 in een pot van $6. De preflop limper called.
*** TURN *** [ J ]
Aero1441: checks
HACKATTACKS: bets $12
Aero1441: calls
De turn geeft mij 2 pair, maar complete een flush. Betten lijkt me hier niet slim, omdat ik dan waarschijnlijk geraised wordt door een flush. C/C leek me beter, in de hoop dat ik goedkoop een showdown kan zien. Villain bet pot uit en ik zet hem hier op een flush. Hij heeft echter nog $136 behind en als ik mijn 4-outer river kan ik hem stacken. Daarom besluit ik te callen.
*** RIVER *** [ T ]
Aero1441: checks
HACKATTACKS: bets $38
Aero1441: is all in
HACKATTACKS: folds
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $368.25
Ik mazzel op de river en besluit weer te checken. Villain gaat zijn flush hier zeker uitbetten en dat maakt hem hopelijk committed voor een shove van mij. Dit gebeurt ook en ik check/shove hem allin. Hij denkt erg lang na en uiteindelijk timed hij uit en fold hij. Helaas was hij niet zo slecht als de meeste 200nl spelers en stacked hij me hier niet met zijn flush.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: mucks
Aero1441 wins $112

Hand #1364011486000459: Seville (6-Max) 11486
Seat 1: clams ($172.70 in chips)
Seat 3: Aero1441 ($200.00 in chips)
Seat 8: sweety_pie ($663.10 in chips)
Seat 9: KsuKleo ($204.55 in chips)
Seat 10: Silky4726 ($210.20 in chips)
sweety_pie: posts small blind $1
KsuKleo: posts big blind $2
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A A ]
Silky4726: raises to $7
clams: folds
Aero1441: raises to $21
sweety_pie: folds
KsuKleo: folds
Silky4726: calls
UTG raised naar 3.5bb en ik vind azen op de BTN. Ik 3bet natuurlijk en villain called.
*** FLOP *** [ Q T K ]
Silky4726: checks
Aero1441: checks
De flop komt ongelooflijk beroerd voor azen. Elke J geeft een OESD, elke hoge pair heeft nu een set gehit en er zijn genoeg 2 pair handen te maken op dit bord. Villain checked en ik besluit voor pot control te gaan en de flop te checken. Op dit bord vind ik mijn azen niet zo geweldig meer als dat ze preflop waren.
*** TURN *** [ 8 ]
Silky4726: checks
Aero1441: bets $30
Silky4726: calls
Villain checked de turn weer en nu lijkt het me wel tijd om het water eens te testen. Ik maak een 3/4 pot bet van $30 in een pot van $45. Villain denkt even na en called.
*** RIVER *** [ 3 ]
Silky4726: bets $52.50
Aero1441: calls
River komt een schoppen 3 die een backdoor flush complete en villain bet ineens $53 uit in een pot van $105. In mijn ogen slaat deze bet helemaal nergens op. Hij kan hier een flush hebben, een geslowplayde 2 pair of misschien een geflopte straat. Het gekke is dat hij de hele hand checked en zwakte toont. Als hij een monster geflopt had dan zou ik toch echt verwachten dat hij de turn uitbet voor value. Dit sluit dus volgens mij 2 pair/set/straat uit. Wat er overblijft is een flush of een matige 1 pair hand die een bluf wordt op de river. Hij bet zo weinig dat ik natuurlijk hele goede odds krijg om te callen, dus na lang denken besluit ik dit toch te doen. Hij draait inderdaad een matige pair zien die hij besloot op de river om te zetten in een bluf en ik win een leuke pot dankzij een goede call.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Silky4726: shows [ 2 2 ] (Pair of Deuces)
Aero1441: shows [ A A ] (Pair of Aces)
Aero1441 wins $208 with Pair of Aces

Holiday in Orlando

2007-12-29T05:37:00.000+01:00

Iets later dan ikzelf geplanned had, hier dan eindelijk een blog-update. Een week geleden is mijn kerstvakantie in Orlando begonnen. Ik zit nu een week hier in Amerika en logischerwijs heb ik weinig tijd gehad om me met pokerzaken bezig te houden (waaronder ook helaas mijn blog). Mijn plan was eigenlijk om voor mijn vakantie nog een update te schrijven, maar dat is er in alle drukte niet meer van gekomen. Vandaar dat ik dat nu maar doe.

Ondanks mijn goede resultaten in november heb ik in december een stuk minder gespeeld. Niet dat ik er geen zin in had, maar simpelweg omdat ik het nogal druk had met mijn studie en andere bestuursfuncties. Natuurlijk heb ik wel enkele avonden kunnen spelen, maar vergeleken met november heb ik ongeveer de helft minder handen gespeeld. Hieronder even een kort verslag van de maand november.

De eerste week van de maand begon erg slecht, die meteen uitdraaide op een downswing van 5 buyins op de 100nl. In totaal denk ik dat ik soms ook wat getilt heb. Niet dat ik lukraak dom begon te spelen, maar ik merkte wel dat mijn spel niet scherp was en dat ik meer fouten maakte dan normaal. Deels komt dit natuurlijk door de slechte resultaten, wat eigenlijk niet mag.

Een week later begon het gelukkig beter te gaan en aan het eind van de 2e week stond ik quite voor de maand. Vanaf dat moment had ik wat beter sessies met zo nu en dan een kleine downswing tussendoor. Over het algemeen speelde ik in deze periode erg goed en ging het me ook erg makkelijk af. Ik merkte ook dat als ik scherp speel, de beslissingen op een of andere manier een stuk simpeler lijken dan wanneer ik stuck ben of down ben voor de maand. Hier heb ik echter een grote verbetering in doorgemaakt, maar hierover straks meer.

De week voor mijn vakantie heb ik weinig meer gespeeld. Eenmaal hier in Amerika aangekomen ben ik erg druk geweest met het inrichten van mijn nieuwe kamer. Mijn ouders hebben hier een condo (lees appartement) gekocht en ik was vooral bezig met het bouwen van een bed/bureau/stoel/nachtkastje etc. Hierbij heb ik ook meteen een Samsung 206BW 22 inch LCD monitor gekocht die ik op mijn laptop kan aansluiten. Op deze manier kon ik hier perfect 4 tafels zonder overlap spelen op CakePoker. Zie hieronder een plaatje van mijn nieuwe pokersetup en check het fantastische uitzicht vanaf mijn kamer =)

Daarnaast heb ik sinds eergisteren de definitieve move gemaakt naar 200nl. Op dat moment was mijn bankroll 8.3k inclusief rakeback van de maand. Ik had mezelf voorgenomen om pas bij 9k de stap te maken, maar het gaat mij de laatste 2 maanden ongelooflijk goed af op 100nl. Volgens Raszi's bankroll management kun je vanaf 9k 200nl spelen en moet je bij 6k terug gaan naar 100nl. Aangezien in mijn ogen de tegenstand op CakePoker zo laag is, leek mij dit ruim genoeg. Dit zijn toch 42 buyins op 200nl en dat vind ik best ruim.

Mijn bankroll is op het moment van schrijven 8.6k inclusief nog 300 in rakeback. Dit is dus in totaal 8.9k, wat mijn doelstelling was voordat ik naar 200nl zou overgaan. Vanavond heb ik een goede 3-tafel sessie op 200nl gedraaid met een winst van $520. Dat begint dus lekker :)

Hier in Amerika heb ik naast dingen voor mijn kamer ook een hoop boeken gekocht. Voordat ik hierheen kwam heb ik op amazon.com een hele lijst boeken besteld. Zie hier de lijst:
- Super System II by Doyle Brunson
- Phil Gordon's Little Green Book by Phil Gordon
- Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker by Stewart Reuben & Bob Ciaffone
- The Psychology of Poker by Alan Schoonmaker
- The Theory of Poker by David Slansky
- Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller, David Slansky & Mason Malmuth
- The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor
- Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha by Rolf Slotboom
- Professional Poker, The essential guide to playing for a living by Mark Blade

Ik ben begonnen met het lezen van The Poker Mindset en dit was zo'n goed boek dat ik deze in 2 avonden uit heb gelezen! Dit is echt een fantastisch boek die ik elke pokerspeler kan aanraden!! Het gaat vooral over de psychologische impact van poker op jezelf en jouw manier van spelen. Wat is tilt, hoe definieer je downswings, op welke manier kun je ervoor zorgen dat je korte-termijn resultaten geen invloed hebben op je spel etc... Veel dingen die erin staan weet je deels wel, maar in dit boek wordt uitgelegd WAAROM bepaalde zaken gebeuren en hoe je er het beste mee om kunt gaan. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan het verliezen van 3 grote potten achter elkaar waarin je een 80% favourite was.

Na het lezen van dit boek merkte ik zelf meteen dat ik rustiger aan een pokertafel zat en ik gecontroleerder aan het spelen was. Het verliezen van grote handen of potten met veel geld deed me minder en ik merkte meteen dat ik toch gefocussed door kon gaan. Het boek heeft echt een nieuwe wereld van concentratie, focus, scherpte en emotionele controle voor mij geopend! Daarom wil ik ook iedereen die serieus met poker bezig wil gaan, aanraden om dit boek te lezen!

Met deze noot wil ik graag ook mijn post afsluiten. Ik denk dat ik de afgelopen maand redelijk goed heb samengevat. De komende periode zal ik hier in Orlando regelmatig 's avonds wat sessies pokeren op mijn nieuwe breedbeeld monitor. Dit zal uitsluitend 200nl zijn, dus hopelijk kan ik de komende paar dagen wat meer winst maken en hopelijk januari mijn nieuwe beste maand maken die november te boven gaat! :)

Korte update

2007-12-17T19:16:00.001+01:00

Het is alweer een tijdje geleden dat ik een update heb geschreven. Morgen zal ik hier even wat tijd in investeren om te doen. Begin van de maand heb ik weinig gespeeld, maar de laatste paar dagen ben ik weer een beetje begonnen op 200nl. De tegenstanders zijn daar net zo slecht dan op 100nl, alleen wat tighter preflop. Rechtsboven zijn mijn ge-update stats weer :)

November stats

2007-12-01T06:17:00.000+01:00

De maand november is voorbij en ik ben ontzettend trots dat dit mijn beste maand tot nu toe is :) Mijn verschrikkelijke pech-streak lijkt gelukkig voorbij te zijn. Sinds 27 november stond ik 7 buyins negatief, maar heb net een sessie van 3,5 buyin winst afgesloten. Hieronder heb ik de winstgrafiek van November 2007 gepost:

Aantal handen: 17.727
Winst: $3.928
Rakeback: $484
Bankroll: $7.791

Totale maandwinst is precies 17 buyins op 100nl en 8 buyins op 200nl. Daar komt nog een leuke $500 in rakeback bij =) Mijn bankroll zit nu op ongeveer 7.7k, dus de 9k ben ik nog net niet aan. Zoals voorgenomen blijf ik dus gewoon de 100nl grinden tot ik de 45 buyins heb voor 200nl.

Ik kan nu eindelijk mijn stats zien op CakePoker! Een vriend van mij wees op een programma zoals PokerTracker, maar dan minder uitgebreid. Deze laat stats zien van de spelers net als tracker dat doet! Vandaag dus een eerste sessie daarmee gespeeld en wat gaat dat makkelijk zeg! Het is ook leuk om nu te zien wat voor stats ik heb etc, zie screenshot:

25 big bets per 100 handen is wel een erg hoge winrate. Ik wist dat ik veel verdiende, maar dat mijn winrate zo hoog lag had ik niet verwacht :) Laten we hopen dat dit zo blijft. Commentaar op mijn stats is natuurlijk gewenst! Ik hoor het graag :)

Doel voor december lijkt me duidelijk, zo snel mogelijk naar 9k grinden en 200nl gaan spelen. Eens zien hoeveel BB/100 ik daar kan halen en hopelijk wordt december weer een 4k maand =)

Running horrible!!

2007-11-28T15:58:00.000+01:00

Gisteravond heb ik de ergste bad-beat sessie gehad in een lange tijd. Ik zat met een stel ongelooflijke stumperds aan tafel, maar op een of andere manier beloonde CakePoker ze elke hand voor hun waardeloze moves. Elke hand werd ge-openlimped op de button, geminraised op de CO, limp/call UTG etc. Toch kregen ze het elke keer voor elkaar om met een 20% favourite allin te gaan en wel de pot te pakken.

Ik ben wel blij dat ik toch ondanks al deze beats mijn eigen spel kon blijven spelen. Toevallig speelde ik samen met een vriend van mij online en ik heb geen enkele keer op tilt geld er onnodig ingeknald. Gisteren wel $30 rakeback verdient, dus das al iets :P

Wat betreft het posten van handen heb ik nu een mooie format gevonden (zie hieronder). Ik post nu de plaatjes van de suit erbij wat er een stuk duidelijker uitziet. Hieronder even de handhistories die ik net bij elkaar heb gezocht en mijn commentaar van mijn sessie gisternacht, alles op 100nl CakePoker:

Hand #1331011457000437: Chelsea (6-Max) 11457
Seat 1: FrankDizzle ($28.30 in chips)
Seat 3: Floor Guy ($43.15 in chips)
Seat 5: Aero1441 ($109.35 in chips)
Seat 6: ROC7421 ($51.40 in chips)
Seat 9: rodski ($117.15 in chips)
rodski: posts small blind $0.50
FrankDizzle: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ T K ]
Floor Guy: calls
Aero1441: raises to $4.50
ROC7421: folds
rodski: folds
FrankDizzle: folds
Floor Guy: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 4 2 J ]
Floor Guy: bets $10.50
Aero1441: is all in
Floor Guy: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $66.20
*** TURN *** [ J ]
*** RIVER *** [ 7 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ T , K ] (High Card, King)
Floor Guy: shows [ J , 6 ] (Three of a Kind, Jacks)
Floor Guy wins $85.80 with Three of a Kind, Jacks

Ik raise preflop en Floor Guy (een ongelooflijke stumperd) maakt een pot donkbet. Hier verwacht ik dat hij dat doet met elke pocket pair lager dan een J of Jx. Ik heb een overcard en een goede draw, zeker tegen een shortstack is dit easy push. Dat hij called met J6 TP kutkicker snap ik niet haha.

Hand #1331011457000444: Chelsea (6-Max) 11457
Seat 1: FrankDizzle ($35.10 in chips)
Seat 3: Floor Guy ($84.55 in chips)
Seat 5: Aero1441 ($102.30 in chips)
Seat 6: ROC7421 ($39.90 in chips)
Seat 8: KIKIPINGA ($108.00 in chips)
Seat 9: rodski ($114.65 in chips)
Floor Guy: posts small blind $0.50
Aero1441: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 4 8 ]
ROC7421: calls
KIKIPINGA: calls
rodski: folds
FrankDizzle: raises to $2
Floor Guy: calls
Aero1441: calls
ROC7421: calls
KIKIPINGA: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 8 8 4 ]
Floor Guy: checks
Aero1441: checks
ROC7421: checks
KIKIPINGA: checks
FrankDizzle: bets $4
Floor Guy: folds
Aero1441: calls
ROC7421: raises to $26
KIKIPINGA: folds
FrankDizzle: folds
Aero1441: raises to $48
ROC7421: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $10.10
*** TURN *** [ 4 ]
*** RIVER *** [ 3 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ 4 , 8 ] (Full House, Eights full of Fours)
ROC7421: shows [ 9 , 8 ] (Full House, Eights full of Fours)
Aero1441 wins $43.40 with Full House, Eights full of Fours
ROC7421 wins $43.40 with Full House, Eights full of Fours

Ik call een minraise op de button in een multi-way pot, logisch natuurlijk. Flop de full house, original raiser cbet 1/2 pot ofzo, ik ga lekker callen hopen dat een flush draw ofzo meegaat of iemand raised. ROC raised en natuurlijk push ik hem hier aangezien hij toch zo committed als wat is. Hij draait 3 of a kind om en de turn brengt een split, ZUCHT!

Hand #1331012294000833: Chelsea (6-Max) 12294
Seat 1: sccrrich ($74.70 in chips)
Seat 4: darkriver222 ($60.00 in chips)
Seat 5: GBALL ($37.75 in chips)
Seat 6: Aero1441 ($132.45 in chips)
GBALL: posts small blind $0.50
Aero1441: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 4 3 ]
sccrrich: folds
GBALL: calls
Aero1441: checks
*** FLOP *** [ 8 3 3 ]
GBALL: bets $3
Aero1441: calls
*** TURN *** [ 9 ]
GBALL: bets $4
Aero1441: calls
*** RIVER *** [ 6 ]
GBALL: bets $16
Aero1441: calls
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GBALL: shows [ 7 , T ] (Straight, Ten high)
Aero1441: shows [ 4 , 3 ] (Three of a Kind, Threes)
GBALL wins $47 with Straight, Ten high

Deze speel ik best dubieus, maar GBALL is zo'n verschrikkelijk sukkel die constant met air aan het betten is. Sowieso raise ik hem hier niet, omdat hij dan toch fold en hij op de flop 90% van de keren niks heeft. Turn had ik eigenlijk wel moeten raisen toen de 3flush viel, das wel slecht. River hit hij zijn inside straight en pakt de pot :/

Hand #1331012294000835: Chelsea (6-Max) 12294
Seat 1: sccrrich ($74.70 in chips)
Seat 4: darkriver222 ($52.50 in chips)
Seat 5: GBALL ($59.75 in chips)
Seat 6: Aero1441 ($117.10 in chips)
Seat 10: chaching93 ($23.30 in chips)
chaching93: posts small blind $0.50
sccrrich: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ A Q ]
darkriver222: calls
GBALL: folds
Aero1441: raises to $4.50
chaching93: folds
sccrrich: folds
darkriver222: calls
*** FLOP *** [ Q J 4 ]
darkriver222: bets $10.50
Aero1441: raises to $21
darkriver222: is all in
Aero1441: calls
*** TURN *** [ K ]
*** RIVER *** [ 9 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ A , Q ] (One Pair, Queens)
darkriver222: shows [ A , K ] (One Pair, Kings)
darkriver222 wins $104.50 with Pair of Kings

Ik heb AQs en raise, een stumperd called en ik flop TP met nut FD. Hij donkbet (zoals wel vaker op deze donkeylimieten) en ik minraise hier voor value. Ik wil best een gratis kaart geven want ik lig ZO VER voor aangezien ik een redraw heb naar de flush. Hij pushed en ik snapcall. Blijkbaar hoopte hij dat ik blufte of wist hij dat de K ging vallen op de turn en er geen flush zou komen :/

Hand #1331012295000865: Chelsea (6-Max) 12295
Seat 1: EncoreEnt ($113.91 in chips)
Seat 4: Roy78 ($97.80 in chips)
Seat 5: kmutz ($97.55 in chips)
Seat 6: Slave pwner ($100.85 in chips)
Seat 8: Aero1441 ($172.45 in chips)
Seat 10: monavie ($102.95 in chips)
Aero1441: posts small blind $0.50
monavie: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 9 9 ]
EncoreEnt: calls
Roy78: folds
kmutz: calls
Slave pwner: calls
Aero1441: raises to $8
monavie: folds
EncoreEnt: calls
kmutz: folds
Slave pwner: folds
*** FLOP *** [ 5 6 2 ]
Aero1441: bets $16
EncoreEnt: is all in
Aero1441: calls
*** TURN *** [ A ]
*** RIVER *** [ Q ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ 9 , 9 ] (One Pair, Nines)
EncoreEnt: shows [ Q , J ] (One Pair, Queens)
EncoreEnt wins $227.82 with Pair of Queens

EncoreEnt is de zoveelste idioot aan mijn tafel die nogal wat spewlines laat zien. Hier bijvoorbeeld limped ie UTG, 2 andere callen mee en ik raise keihard naar 8bb vanuit de SB. Hij called en flop komt perfect voor 99, 562 rainbow. Ik bet 4/5 pot (erg veel) om te laten lijken als ik overcards heb die dit bord natuurlijk gemist hebben. Encore instapushed allin, METEEN nadat ik mijn bet plaats. Ik denk 2 seconden na en snapcall. Een hogere pocket pair dan 99 limp/called ie niet mee vanuit UTG, een set gaat hij niet zo hard knallen en als hij 65 of 43 heeft, jammer dan. Hij laat QJ-high zien en natuurlijk valt er een leuke river :/

Hand #1331011457000567: Chelsea (6-Max) 11457
Seat 1: meeshka16 ($100.25 in chips)
Seat 3: torr99 ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 5: Aero1441 ($235.95 in chips)
Seat 7: Brevital ($97.00 in chips)
Seat 8: KIKIPINGA ($92.85 in chips)
Seat 10: dobert4ever ($148.70 in chips)
dobert4ever: posts small blind $0.50
meeshka16: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ Q A ]
torr99: folds
Aero1441: raises to $3.50
Brevital: folds
KIKIPINGA: calls
dobert4ever: folds
meeshka16: raises to $13.50
Aero1441: calls
KIKIPINGA: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 3 5 A ]
meeshka16: checks
Aero1441: bets $22
KIKIPINGA: calls
meeshka16: is all in
Aero1441: raises to $151.50
KIKIPINGA: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $64.75
*** TURN *** [ 2 ]
*** RIVER *** [ 8 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
meeshka16 wins $7.35 with Pair of Aces
Aero1441 wins $7.30 with Pair of Aces
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ Q , A ] (One Pair, Aces)
meeshka16: shows [ Q , A ] (One Pair, Aces)
KIKIPINGA: shows [ 5 , 2 ] (Two Pair, Fives and Deuces)
KIKIPINGA wins $276.20 with Two Pairs, Fives and Deuces

Ik openraise zoals vrijwel elke pot, 1 caller gaat mee en BB 3bet, wat niet vaak gebeurt. Meeshka kan wel een beetje pokeren en ik verwacht dat hij dit niet met troep doet. Aangezien ik positie heb call ik om een flop te zien en de caller gaat ook mee (HUH??). Flop komt 35A met 2 klaver en ik maak een 1/2 pot bet om te zien waar ik sta in de hand. De speler die mijn raise en een R/R vanuit de BB called gaat op deze flop ook gewoon mee (??), en BB pushed. Ik ben hier bang voor alleen AK en de rest van zijn range (lagere pp's of FD) beat ik hier, dus is dit een call. De stumperd na mij called ook en ik denk, kut. Hij laat 52s zien en op de turn hit hij 2pair :/

Hand #1331012294000842: Chelsea (6-Max) 12294
Seat 1: sccrrich ($69.50 in chips)
Seat 3: rapid524 ($45.75 in chips)
Seat 4: darkriver222 ($102.30 in chips)
Seat 5: GBALL ($52.75 in chips)
Seat 6: Aero1441 ($100.00 in chips)
Seat 10: chaching93 ($48.90 in chips)
rapid524: posts small blind $0.50
darkriver222: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ K J ]
GBALL: calls
Aero1441: raises to $4.50
chaching93: folds
sccrrich: calls
rapid524: folds
darkriver222: folds
GBALL: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 9 K Q ]
GBALL: checks
Aero1441: bets $10
sccrrich: folds
GBALL: calls
*** TURN *** [ 6 ]
GBALL: checks
Aero1441: bets $50
GBALL: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $11.75
*** RIVER *** [ A ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ K , J ] (One Pair, Kings)
GBALL: shows [ A , 2 ] (Flush, Ace high)
GBALL wins $108.50 with Flush, Ace high

Redelijk standaard hand, ik heb 2nd nut flush draw, ISD en TPGK tegen spewmonkey. Turn is geen ruiten en ik verwacht hem hier beat te hebben dus push ik. Blijkbaar slowplayde hij dit keer een goeie hand.

Hand #1331012294000958: Chelsea (6-Max) 12294
Seat 1: sccrrich ($40.10 in chips)
Seat 3: ISayuPay ($206.90 in chips)
Seat 4: darkriver222 ($169.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Aero1441 ($106.55 in chips)
Seat 7: Dirty Taco ($100.25 in chips)
Seat 10: Mcmatto ($99.50 in chips)
sccrrich: posts small blind $0.50
ISayuPay: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 8 9 ]
darkriver222: calls
Aero1441: calls
Dirty Taco: raises to $4.50
Mcmatto: folds
sccrrich: folds
ISayuPay: folds
darkriver222: calls
Aero1441: calls
*** FLOP *** [ 8 K 9 ]
darkriver222: checks
Aero1441: checks
Dirty Taco: bets $11
darkriver222: folds
Aero1441: raises to $33
Dirty Taco: is all in
Aero1441: calls
*** TURN *** [ K ]
*** RIVER *** [ 9 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ 8 , 9 ] (Full House, Nines Full of Kings)
Dirty Taco: shows [ K , J ] (Full House, Kings Full of Nines)
Dirty Taco wins $203.50 with Full House, Kings Full of Nines

Ik flop 2 pair tegen donkey en ik C/R heb hard op de flop. Hij pushed allin en ik snapcall. Hij laat TP koningen met J kicker zien (waardeloos natuurlijk want hij beat hier niks meer). Turn red hem echter en pakt mijn stack :/

Hand #1331012216000876: Chelsea (6-Max) 12216
Seat 1: dobert4ever ($158.40 in chips)
Seat 3: veljko ($418.79 in chips)
Seat 5: Aero1441 ($113.70 in chips)
Seat 7: djjonsalon ($48.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Sgt. Peppa ($18.25 in chips)
Seat 9: Roblo34 ($102.05 in chips)
Roblo34: posts big blind $1
Dealt to Aero1441 [ 5 A ]
dobert4ever: folds
veljko: raises to $3
Aero1441: calls
djjonsalon: calls
Roblo34: calls
*** FLOP *** [ A Q 8 ]
Roblo34: checks
veljko: checks
Aero1441: bets $8
djjonsalon: raises to $16
Roblo34: folds
veljko: folds
Aero1441: is all in
djjonsalon: is all in
Aero1441: returns uncalled bet $65.70
*** TURN *** [ 5 ]
*** RIVER *** [ 2 ]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Aero1441: shows [ A , 5 ] (One Pair, Aces)
djjonsalon: shows [ A , Q ] (Two Pair, Aces and Queens)
djjonsalon wins $100 with Two Pairs, Aces and Queens

Weer standaard, ik flop top pair en nut flush draw en originele raiser toont geen agressie. Flop word ik geminraised en tegen een shortstack is dit gewoon allin. Blijkbaar coldcalled hij AQo op de BTN voor een raise in een multi-way pot, wat een stumperd!

Bijna 9k grens

2007-11-25T16:38:00.000+01:00

Afgelopen week heb ik iets van 3 echte sessies gespeeld van ongeveer 3 a 4 uur. Ik zit nu inclusief rakeback op 8k. Gisternacht heb ik een sessie gespeeld op 100nl wat best prima ging. Na een paar uur stond ik 2,5 buyin in de plus. Toen dacht ik, kom, laat ik eens 200nl gaan proberen. Binnen een half uur stond ik weer quitte voor de avond :/

Ik merkte toch dat ik wat banger speelde, deels omdat ik altijd in mijn achterhoofd had dat ik de 9k nog niet heb bereikt en dit eigenlijk niet kan. Na weer op $0 winst te staan ik maar weer de 100nl gaan 4-tablen voor de rest van de sessie, wat resulteerde in uiteindelijk 3 buyins up voor de nacht.

Met nog 1k te gaan (wat neerkomt op ongeveer 2 a 3 avondjes) hoop ik snel over te gaan naar 200nl. Mijn planning was eigenlijk deze week daar al op te zitten, maar ik heb te weinig gespeeld om dit te halen. In ieder geval bij het eind van november heb ik zeker wel de bankroll voor 200nl. Daarnaast heb ik voorgenomen tot dan geen shots meer op 200nl te nemen. Gewoon lekker zorgeloos de 100nl doorgrinden en straks serieus aan een hoger leveltje beginnen :)

Het maken van een pokervideo is er helaas ook nog niet van gekomen. Hopelijk kom ik daar deze week aan toe. Omdat ik zo weinig heb gespeeld wilde ik mijn speeltijd toch graag besteden aan lekker 4 tafels grinden, ipv 2 tafels met commentaar gaan spelen. In mijn volgende post zal ik weer wat hand histories posten van wat interessante handen van de afgelopen week. Dat kost nogal wat uitzoekwerk dus dat zal ik nog even doen binnenkort.