There is no mid way with AK, you either love it, or hate it...
In this case, I'm lovin' it!

Very similar hand happened to me at a $570 buy in live event, flopped two pair with the big slick and villain had JTs, couldn't get him off the hand and completed his backdoor flush. Love it playing preflop and hope to end it there.... doesn't do too well here in no fold Florida

Agreed with the preflop wins with AK, also if I'm going all in with AK, I'm going all-in preflop, not on a 729 board against a possible 72 two pair

And surely, gotta love Florida, no fold or all in preflop

Hi, I just wanted to say...

Really enjoy reading your blog (I do not read many but I recognised your name from a few years ago and thought I knew you!).

You have a really good style of writing that makes it very interesting.

I have no doubt you will succeed in your goal... Best wishes.

Thank you very much KP24!
I really appreciate your comment and support.

This month I've been on a downswing so far, probably due to rushing things and playing tired due to time zone differences. However, after reading your comment I had boost of self confidence, resulting in me winning the first tournament I played after that

So I dedicate this €683 win to you!

In return, I'm planning to go through the whole session and comment on my hands so that I can help others and also spot my mistakes too.

What about me lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey man, GL !

I doubt you will ever retire if you had 1kk-3kk from Poker. More money means a better ability to make even MORE MONEY!!!



Durrr said he would only quit playing poker if had had 100kk in cash...

@Avizura:
I won't retire from poker, but plan to quit from my day job when I make enough $$$

However, the other day I was thinking, why would I retire from my day job if I earned enough from poker? I'd just keep on working the day job, as a nasty wise a$$ employee who would take no **** from internal stakeholders (wooo corporate lingo!).

And I definitely agree, more money helps you make even more money. We have a saying in Turkish "money attracts money".

@jake0518:
lol mate, I got a 6 pack in the fridge for you in Istanbul, for whenever you come here. Provided, I get to tee off first at a golf game in Boca Raton when I retire

As a bonus, I dedicate this €112 win to you. My AQ got beaten by AK calling my preflop all in. Well, it happens



Thank you all for your comments. I bought a new microphone and will make sure I keep my word on that tourney review.

Do you plan on playing any live events?
GL.

Thank you!

I've already attended to the WSOP C-starter event in Paris this month (trip report: on the second page).

I'm traveling to London in December and plan to attend to 2-3 daily tourneys there.

Gee, I crawled to 11th spot in this tourney to min cash.

Still, it was a glorious bubble fight, while I believe I could be more conservative at the bubble and also was surprised to see the lowest chip counts with <1bb still made it to the bubble.

So don't ever lose hope when you have almost nothing remaining, as almost nothing beats nothing by a long shot in the bubble, when 2 big stacks cross horns with AA and KK, this happens more frequently then I want to believe, but it does.

A chip and a chair is all it takes to win!

Paris Trip Report Part 4:
(Read previous parts begginning from this post).

After completing my long walk around Paris, I went back to my hotel, had a quick shower and headed to the poker club. I found myself seated at a €1/2 table. After about 1,5 hour of play, the cash tables were announced to be closed for another tourney. They said the cash tables would re-open about 8pm as the tournament tables broke.

I was happy to hear that as I was a little tired and had already over €500 worth of chips in front of me, on a table I sat down with €200. Yes, math geniuses, I had made about €300 which was the actual buy-in I had paid for the tournament
So I went back to my hotel, and jumped into the bed, setting my alarm clock to 20:30.



After waking up in the evening, I felt like I could use some junk food, so I went to the McDonalds nearby and took down a Big Mac with some fries and chicken McNuggets (yum! feeling hungry yet?). Gulping those down with a Coke Zero (I must watch my calories so no regular coke with my healthy meal ), I then headed down the road to the poker club.

The club was packed and there was a long waiting list for the tables. So I just put my name in through the iPad they use. It was a pretty nifty system, in which you had your card scanned and picked the tables you want to get seated, you can follow how many people are in front of you in the list and you get called when it is your turn to sit. So no need to check in with the pit boss around the clock.

After waiting for about 20 minutes, a new table opened for €2/4 so I sat down. This time I chose to buy-in for €300 (my previous earnings). The table had two older gentleman -I mean grandpa old- 2 other guys, me and the other 5 knew each other, so they were regs -probably the older guys were regs too, with their membership going back to the second world war...

Anyway, it was a fun game to play, the oldest grandpa managed to stack 2 other guys once with KK and once with AA. I felt happy for him whenever he won. As the game progressed, I was winning some, losing some, but at one hand something happened...

I was on the BB with 2 limpers and checked with a trash hand. On the flop, I checked, so did the others. On the turn the last guy bet 1/4 the pot, I raised with air, other guy folds, last guy calls.
The river card was a 2 and not flush nor str8s were made on the board do, I bet 1/2 the pot and the other raised x3.
I had Queen high, so I folded.
The other guy smiled and showed me Ace high air. His friends at the table began laughing, and I smiled my loveliest smile and said "nice hand, you got me there".

Jut a few hands later, I was sitting at the button with Q2 of spades. There were 5 limpers so I didn't mind tagging along. The blinds didn't raise so were there for the picnic.
The board came Q 2 sthg. With 2 of them diamonds. Someone bet ~1/3, one called, others folded but the guy who thought he bluffed me, and I called.
Turn card showed another 2! Everyone checked to me, and I bet just below 1/3 of the pot to get callers. Yep, 2 callers including that guy.
As the dealer burned the last card, I was praying for a diamond to come, which did!
First guy bets, "bluffer" calls, I go all in, both call.

Showdown:
First guy shows:
Table goes "woooo".

Bluffer shows:
Table goes "Hahaaa" and they glance at me with some pity/hello fishy looks.

I showed my full house, and a silence fell on the table, except the grandpa, who started laughing hilariously.
So I was gathering the chips as I looked at the "bluffer" and saw his face turn red, like the color of the diamond nut flush he had.



After another hour of play, I got up with about €200 more profit, and walked back to my hotel with a smile on my face.

So I had the tournament buy-in back in my pocket, as well as hotel and dining expenses covered. I'm sure I could get back the plane tickets as well as the membership fee if I played another day but I had to have a reason to come back, so I went to the airport the next day.

The Star Alliance lounge at the CDG airport is one of the lounges I like, not because of its atmosphere but the fact that it has an open garden in which you can smoke. You can't smoke in the airport other than here so it was a blessing for me, actually it used to be that because I had quit smoking as you may remember

So I sat down and drank my creamed asparagus soup, actually I had 4 cups of it! Yes, I love it and it's hard to comeby in Turkey. But the best time and place to have it is Germany at the end of May and beginning of June.

Then I drank a few cans of Kirin Ichiban, the Japanese beer. Believe me those Japs do know how to brew!



I took a quick nap, and as I was about to get out for my plane, I saw the following quote on the wall by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, "The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences".

I smiled, and thanked god for being this lucky...

November 2016 Goals, Debrief:

[ ] Show a monthly net profit of €1.000 from online tournaments
* Failed. I lost €551 this month. I'm generally happy with the way I played, however I rushed things in more than a few spots, and I also blame my government for changing Turkey's time zone to GMT+3! So I have to play more tournaments when I am tired. I have to come up with a solution to this -wish I could relocate to the civilized world.


[X] Play at a live tournament
* Done it like a boss. The story is in the second page of this blog.

[X] Watch poker tells series by Joe Navarro and take notes
* I did watch it and took notes. It did really help me in my tournament and live play this month.


[ ] Play 5 tournaments calculating exact odds each hand you play
* Failed. Didn't do even one. I should have. I will next month.


[X] Watch and take notes from the first 3 chapters of the WSOP Academy Videos
* I did. Yes it might be too basic, still I feel I'm lacking some fundamental concepts too. So I'll watch and complete this series in the upcoming months.

[\] Exercise -any kind- 3 days a week
Well, I did 2 days of pilates but the 3rd day did not come. I blame being down with the flu.


[ ] Lose 7 kilograms
Failed, miserably. I lost 0,5 kilograms. Still this was the first month of me quitting smoking so at least I didn't gain any weight. That should count for something, right?

[X] Don't start smoking
Yay! I didn't start and I don't want to either. So I'm very happy about this.

All in all, it was an OK month. I didn't profit, but I improved my game. Also I played at a biggish live tournament, which was a new experience for me. I'll study more, learn more, and hopefully profit in the next month.

Seriously good job on this one Sir, WP!!!

Thankx KP24

Let's take a look at our profit-o-matic after 2 months:

++++--------------------------------------------> €1,165 / €12,000

Well it doesn't matter if I'm behind schedule, as long as I am learning and playing better each day, which I think I am.

I'll post this month's goals soon, again with an emphasis on learning.

Gee I love learning new stuff about poker and getting better at it. If someone else told me that, I'd tell them that they will succeed in meeting their goals if they kept learning. The only problem is there are too many resources and I'm not sure which one(s) to follow. So I'm trying to follow and read everything I get my hands on.

December 2016 Goals:

Training First:
[ ] Read the notes you have taken so far from training sessions
[ ] Choose 3 actions from each section (1. Little Green Book, 2. Poker Tells 3. WSOP Academy First 3 Chapters) and apply them to your game from those notes
[ ] Watch 3 more chapters from WSOP Academy and take notes
[ ] Read Negraunu's book and take notes
[ ] Listen to Fitzgerald's oneouter.com podcasts while commuting to work
[ ] Play 2 tournaments calculating exact odds each hand you play

Teaching Second:
[ ] Do a video on opening hand ranges in Turkish

Financials in The Bottomline:
[ ] Show a monthly net profit of €1.000 from online tournaments
[ ] Play at a live tournament
[ ] Finish ITM in the live tournament

Personal Life Goals:
[ ] Exercise -any kind- 3 days a week
[ ] Lose 5 kilograms
[ ] Don't start smoking


Lock'n Load!

OK, first win of the month: €57.

Good job on not going back smoking.

Thnx Jake!
And results keep coming!
Back to back win, this time for €462! Yay!

Enjoyable reading and pics. Turkish airlines will love you.

Thank you, maybe some day I can take them on as my sponsors in the future

I'm back from an excursion to London with losses in the tournaments and more winnings in the cash games. Going to tell the story later...

Ok, here are the top 3 key take aways from Phil Gordon's Little Green Book that I am integrating into my playbook (some I already had but now I am sticking to them for real):

1. "Can't go broke in a poker tournament -badbeatwise- if I am never all in against a bigger stack".
This actually allowed me to cash in, in a tournament today in which I had 4 -yes four- bad beats...

2. Almost never give a free river card if I think I have the best hand on the turn.

3. Raise based on position, not hand strength. (obviously)


These were the top 3, now let's look at some more important points from this aged but still mostly valid book:

a. Less 50/50 chances taken during the -early stages of- the tournament, the better.

b. Try to play in position 70-80% of the time.

c. Big hands big pots, small hands small pots -exercise pot control.

d. Don't slowplay / bluff multiway pots.

e. Watchout getting married to easily dominatable hands like AJ, AT, KQ, QJ.

f. If I have >40bb, call up to 5bb with small pairs to see the flop and catch a set.

g. Don't bet medium strength hands when out of position on the river.

h. Unpaired cards to flop a pair or better ~1/3 of the time. Sets happen in ~1/8 of the time.

Well, I prepared this 50 song grinding playlist for all Victoria's Secret lovers (and haterz) out there...

Happy holidayz!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSMB...24sVVhGbJA87Pg

When I am concentrated and "lucky", there is nothing to stop me to win a tournament
€132 is a good well as my upcoming tournament entry fees.