A Quiet Week

So this past week, I didn't play too much as I got sick over the weekend and felt like crap for most of the week. The good news is the little bit I did play was quite profitable. The avatar change appeared to be just what I needed as I had my first really good session at .50/$1 (gotta love the online poker superstitions). I ran well above EV in the 1300 hands I played and it feels good to finally have things start going my way. I don't wanna be too premature however, as this was just a couple of sessions and poker is really a long-term grind. So I just need to continue to play my A-game and let the results happen.

On the tournament front, I ended up final tabling the 4k guarantee last week, but couldn't ship the win. It really sucked too because at one point I was chip leader with four people left but missed a flush draw to become huge chip lead, so I ended up finishing in 4th place. I've made some tweaks to my tourney game and they seem to be paying off as I also final tabled a small tournament yesterday, good for a 3rd place finish.

Well since not much happened last week, I'm going to keep this short. Next post will be an end of month wrap up, along with future plans for November. With FTOPS coming onto the horizon, the anticipation is mounting for the day I ship the elusive gold jersey :-). Shipshape.

Another Week Down

Another week, many dollars made right? Nope! I started off down, and I ended down. I have yet to figure out the conundrum that is .50/1. The first session I put in had me losing almost $300, and as usual I was running bad. So I dropped down to .25/.50 for about a 1000 hands and built it back up. I then decided that I'm too good for .25/.50 and I'm gonna crack this .50/1 beast. I had some up and down sessions, but finally on Tuesday, I booked my first winning day. I thought finally, things are about to start turning around. WRONG! Wednesday and Thursday were the worst two days of the week. And the sick part was I played the best on those two days. Before I talk about the graph though, let me give a little setup of the past 3 days.

On Monday night after I had finished playing, I was reviewing my sessions trying to see if there was anything I could change and found a couple of holes in my games (well one was definitely a leak; the other one, meh, could go either way). I'll talk about the definite leak. At .25/.50 alot of the time when I get reraised on a c-bet and I have just a dry pair or gut shot, I would fold instantly and wouldn't even think about it. But at .50/1, it's as if I think everyone is trying to bluff me, so I'm calling off knowing I'm probably beat and 99% of the time I was. I dont know if this happens consciously or subconsciously, but I found out I was calling off way too often with marginal holdings at .50/1. So Tuesday, I made a conscious effort to fold hands when I thought I was beat and to not get too married to dry flush draws (simple concept I know, but you'll be surprised how hard it is).

OK so back to the graph. Tuesdays session is represented from hands 3155 to about 3653. It was a modest gain, but at least it was going in the right direction. I was thinking finally I've got it, but then all hell broke loose on Wednesday. It's as if Full Tilt was punishing me for playing so damn good. My EV line kept going up, while my actual kept going down. It was pretty sick. I think I played my best game these past two days, but couldn't hold to save my life. I mean come on, if I would've just broke even in my all-in situations, I wouldve made $450. Instead, I post a $114 loss. So this week, I'm gonna change the avatar, change the background, and start the week off at .25/.50 for a few hands and hopefully it will jump start the run good. So until next week, Shipshape.

Oh and on a side note. I played 3 tournaments this week and I lost all 3 of them on the very first hand I chose to play. It was awesome...

Run Good?/Run Bad?

The first week of October has gone by and I had mixed results. Last post I said I was getting back into cash games and even though I didn't get off to a good start, I was gonna drop down to .25/.50 and build up. Well .25/.50 started off phenomenal. I was owning the people at this level. It was quite ridiculous how bad people were getting it in with and just giving me money. I also tweaked my starting hand selection which seemed to help alot. I wasn't getting myself into the marginal situations I used to find myself in. So after close to 1k hands, I decided to move up. Well .50/1 was a completely different animal. The first thing I noticed was that the players were a bit more aggressive at this level. They also had no problem getting it in with dry gut draws and single pairs for stacks which is just ridiculous. The funny thing is, most of them played worst then the .25/.50 players but FTP kept letting them suckout time and time again. As you can see from the graph, you can probably guess which part of it is the move up to .50/$1. It's as if I was in the middle of a lie detector test and I just told a lie. The swings were just ridiculous. For the non-poker people that may read this and want to make sense of the graph. The yellow/gold line is the amount of money I should've made adjusted for the expected value of when I put my money in and was all-in, while the green line is how much I actually made. In other words, when the yellow line is above the green line, I'm running bad and when its below the green line, I'm running good. So currently, I'm running bad and it has all been at the .50/1 level. It is very frustrating that right when I move up, I can't get a session of running good. I haven't played a ton of hands yet, so I shouldnt let it get to me but I hate losing money when I'm playing good and constantly getting my money in as a favorite. But seeing the graph is a bit comforting to know I'm playing pretty good and just need my luck to turn around.

I was a bit shocked to see I've only played 2200 hands in a week. I'm gonna try and step that up in the upcoming weeks. Of course, playing at my best at all times is the main importance so I'm not gonna force myself to play just to reach a certain amount of hands a week but definitely would like to step up the volume. Well I'm gonna end this with the largest pot I played this week. A straight cooler that didn't go my way and just shows how unfortunate I've been at this level. Shipshape.

September Wrap Up

Well I thought I would have a breakthrough month last month but it was far from it. It was my second losing month in a row and I hate losing. I played in three WCOOP events and didn't cash in any of them. I actually started off good in the events doubling up my starting stack quite early but during the ridiculously long middle stages never really got any momentum. I got real close in the last one I played which was a $215 PLO/8 but ran like shit as we approached the bubbled and bowed out about 80 spots from the money. That seemed to be a constant theme to all my tourneys I played. I guess the day I hit my first five-figure online win will have to wait a bit longer.

The MiniFTOPS was a poor showing as well as I only cashed in one event (that event being the 9-handed shootout event in which i got 3rd in a couple series back). I got robbed too as I made it heads up on the 2nd table only to lose QQ v AT and then AK v 22. I did almost cash in another event but got coolered blind vs blind, once again right as we were approaching the bubble. Got knocked out about 40 spots from the money. It's quite frustrating because I know I'm playing pretty good but seem to constantly keep coming up short. Not getting the key holds/suckouts when I need them. Poker can be a cruel game.

This month I'm gonna get back into cash games, so that should be an interesting ride. I really want to work on my poise and tilt factor, as it's something I need to develop and make sure I constantly have it under control. I was going to take an aggressive approach (at least I think its aggressive) and play once I have 20 BIs for a certain level, move up, but it has back fired as I've played a couple days now and I've lost almost 1/3rd of my roll. So I'm gonna regroup, refocus, and start the month off at .25/.50 (a level I'm super comfortable with), and make sure I can beat it over say 5k hands (not that big of a sample I know, but I think its big enough since I believe I'm already a winning player.) and then move up. And when I say beat, I'm talkin an 8-10BB/100 winrate which I believe is very achievable at this level. We'll see how it goes, so prepare for the weekly graph updates. Shipshape.