I'm writing this from a really low point....
04-22-2017
, 12:02 AM
I'm writing this from a really low point....
I knew the schadenfreude and bitterness (got ya) which every single poker player feels to an extent would draw ya'll in - however its true. This is as low as I've every felt in relation to the game we all love to hate.
At risk of making this initial post TL;DR I'm going to summarise, however I'm gonna give some insight into my past - whats going off in the present - and my plans for the future. I'm going extremely open both in the sense of the truth, and emotionally - so everybody can get the true picture of how things really are.
Background...
25 years old. Male. Played for 6 years. Professionally for 5 (2.5years MTTs / 2.5years cash games). Profit in those 5 years is somewhere around £500k. (Shots taken).
However... first of all, let me take you back in time to the 6th August 2015... A Life previously lived at 100mph was about to get shocked into the real world...
'I'm pregnant'... I remember feeling sick to my stomach as my girlfriend of 4 years spluttered those words.... Fastfoward 9 months.... A baby girl... Small.. Beautiful.. I'll never forget the day I became a dad. It still seems surreal.
Punter...
I'll be the first to admit I'm a punter. Early on in my poker playing days I've had my entire net worth on a poker table (multiple times!). The older and more experienced I've got hasn't made me any less of a punter, my punts have just become more calculated... and one after the other have all crashed and burned....
I'm Broke...
OK. this isn't entirely true. I'm not broke. I have 1 year worth of living expenses saved, which will get me through. But a guy whose made £1/2 a MILLION in profits in 5 years. Thats a pretty poor showing...... TBC...
I'm Staked...
This is entirely true. I'm staked to play on multiple sites as well as live cash games. My backer is my very good friend. He's much better at poker than me, and has (deservedly) ran much better than me. He's a similar age and I would say nearing being financially secure.
(My friend WILL NOT know about this blog. He doesn't read 2+2 and I intend to remain anonymous for the time being.)
I'm Sad...
Because I'm Downswinging... Again, not entirely the full truth. The past 6 months I've just been; NET BREAKING EVEN / EV WINNING roughly £50K....
Where / What I Play...
A range of sites online... almost exclusively 6 max cash games. A few locations live. Stakes vary between £0.50/£1 as high as £10/£20 Shots online and similar (rarely) live. THE BULK OF MY VOLUME COMES BETWEEN £200nl - £500nl ON A SITE WITH NO THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE ALLOWED.. HOWEVER SINCE I REFORMATTED MY PC ~3 WEEKS AGO - MY HEM GRAPH ON TRACKED SITES CAN BE FOUND BELOW:
The Present...
"I'm low on confidence... I'm constantly second guessing myself... Easy decisions become harder... It's a negative spiral, going ever downwards... Or at least it seems... I review my HH's on my own and with my friends. I'm not playing badly... When will it stop??? I watch vids... I run sims... I make vids... I'm not playing badly.. When will it stop???"
The Above is basically my subconscious.
A few months ago I win a sat to a £5k live event, which I played 3 days ago. I bust the £5k within 2 hours. I get a set in vs a flush draw for 300bbs and lose. I grind my stack back to starting stack and get QQ in vs JJ for 180bbs and lose.
I take a shot in a live £5/£10/£20 game the following day of the festival. I get £2.7k in pre with KK vs QQ... I ask the guy to run it twice. He declines. He turns a Queen. This was the biggest LIVE poker pot I've ever played. I've also lost the biggest online pot I've ever played @ £10/£20 in the not too distant past. I got AKs in vs 22 preflop for just under 250bbs each vs the spot (just shy of £10k). I had my worst ever online losing day, the day which started the 'break even downswing'. 1st December 2016... -£10,000.
The (Near) Future...
I'm going to set some goals. Someone somewhere said 'goals are limitations one places on ones self'. Tough ****. They seem to be perfect for my situation.
Goals...
- Play 50k hands per month - This shouldn't be challanging to someone who claims to be a full time poker player - however the last few months I've been so unmotivated to grind and get whacked daily. This WILL change.
- Enjoy the game again - I've lost my passion for the game the last few months. I need to get this back.
- Study - Maintain current rate of study and do more when possible.
- Learn to utilise HUD more.
- Work on mental game.
I'm gonna leave this first post here. Hopefully somebody somewhere takes an interest in this but no worries if not, this blog will be a useful learning tool for me down the line.
THANKS FOR READING. ENJOY MY JOURNEY.
I knew the schadenfreude and bitterness (got ya) which every single poker player feels to an extent would draw ya'll in - however its true. This is as low as I've every felt in relation to the game we all love to hate.
At risk of making this initial post TL;DR I'm going to summarise, however I'm gonna give some insight into my past - whats going off in the present - and my plans for the future. I'm going extremely open both in the sense of the truth, and emotionally - so everybody can get the true picture of how things really are.
Background...
25 years old. Male. Played for 6 years. Professionally for 5 (2.5years MTTs / 2.5years cash games). Profit in those 5 years is somewhere around £500k. (Shots taken).
However... first of all, let me take you back in time to the 6th August 2015... A Life previously lived at 100mph was about to get shocked into the real world...
'I'm pregnant'... I remember feeling sick to my stomach as my girlfriend of 4 years spluttered those words.... Fastfoward 9 months.... A baby girl... Small.. Beautiful.. I'll never forget the day I became a dad. It still seems surreal.
Punter...
I'll be the first to admit I'm a punter. Early on in my poker playing days I've had my entire net worth on a poker table (multiple times!). The older and more experienced I've got hasn't made me any less of a punter, my punts have just become more calculated... and one after the other have all crashed and burned....
I'm Broke...
OK. this isn't entirely true. I'm not broke. I have 1 year worth of living expenses saved, which will get me through. But a guy whose made £1/2 a MILLION in profits in 5 years. Thats a pretty poor showing...... TBC...
I'm Staked...
This is entirely true. I'm staked to play on multiple sites as well as live cash games. My backer is my very good friend. He's much better at poker than me, and has (deservedly) ran much better than me. He's a similar age and I would say nearing being financially secure.
(My friend WILL NOT know about this blog. He doesn't read 2+2 and I intend to remain anonymous for the time being.)
I'm Sad...
Because I'm Downswinging... Again, not entirely the full truth. The past 6 months I've just been; NET BREAKING EVEN / EV WINNING roughly £50K....
Where / What I Play...
A range of sites online... almost exclusively 6 max cash games. A few locations live. Stakes vary between £0.50/£1 as high as £10/£20 Shots online and similar (rarely) live. THE BULK OF MY VOLUME COMES BETWEEN £200nl - £500nl ON A SITE WITH NO THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE ALLOWED.. HOWEVER SINCE I REFORMATTED MY PC ~3 WEEKS AGO - MY HEM GRAPH ON TRACKED SITES CAN BE FOUND BELOW:
The Present...
"I'm low on confidence... I'm constantly second guessing myself... Easy decisions become harder... It's a negative spiral, going ever downwards... Or at least it seems... I review my HH's on my own and with my friends. I'm not playing badly... When will it stop??? I watch vids... I run sims... I make vids... I'm not playing badly.. When will it stop???"
The Above is basically my subconscious.
A few months ago I win a sat to a £5k live event, which I played 3 days ago. I bust the £5k within 2 hours. I get a set in vs a flush draw for 300bbs and lose. I grind my stack back to starting stack and get QQ in vs JJ for 180bbs and lose.
I take a shot in a live £5/£10/£20 game the following day of the festival. I get £2.7k in pre with KK vs QQ... I ask the guy to run it twice. He declines. He turns a Queen. This was the biggest LIVE poker pot I've ever played. I've also lost the biggest online pot I've ever played @ £10/£20 in the not too distant past. I got AKs in vs 22 preflop for just under 250bbs each vs the spot (just shy of £10k). I had my worst ever online losing day, the day which started the 'break even downswing'. 1st December 2016... -£10,000.
The (Near) Future...
I'm going to set some goals. Someone somewhere said 'goals are limitations one places on ones self'. Tough ****. They seem to be perfect for my situation.
Goals...
- Play 50k hands per month - This shouldn't be challanging to someone who claims to be a full time poker player - however the last few months I've been so unmotivated to grind and get whacked daily. This WILL change.
- Enjoy the game again - I've lost my passion for the game the last few months. I need to get this back.
- Study - Maintain current rate of study and do more when possible.
- Learn to utilise HUD more.
- Work on mental game.
I'm gonna leave this first post here. Hopefully somebody somewhere takes an interest in this but no worries if not, this blog will be a useful learning tool for me down the line.
THANKS FOR READING. ENJOY MY JOURNEY.
04-22-2017
, 12:49 AM
Good luck mate. 
04-22-2017
, 12:20 PM
04-22-2017
, 05:39 PM
04-23-2017
, 07:01 PM
Hi guys...
I'd just like to thank those of you who commented for your well wishes, it actually means a lot, knowing there are strangers out there who have actually taken time out of there day to help a random guy on the internet through a tough time. Hopefully I can repay ya'll by making this blog interesting and hopefully stuff will come up that you guys can take for youselfs!
@mchares - thanks for the advice, this is actually something I was planning to do. I had my best month playing cash games in November 2016: +£35,000... This got me out of the £20,000 makeup I found myself in at the time and enabled me to do a decent sized profit chop. However whilst I was making the decision to do this, the dreaded DECEMBER 1st
rolled around and I found myself in an online £10/£20 game with someone who fell slap bang in the middle of my WHALE category. It was one of those games you find yourself in once in a blue moon. I had direct position. Of course we all know what happened.... -£10,000.... The whale himself lost over £45,000 on the 6 max table (I was the only other loser). I've not been able to claw my way out of makeup with my backer since (been as deep as £25,000 in makeup - which now stands at £10,000 again, having been only £3k at the start of this week... Not had much fun...). I've also had some relatively large life expenses in the meantime, therefore not had the chance to go on my own. If I can salvage this year and get somewhere near towards winning what I have previous years then I intend to go on my own though!
Oh also I realise my graph before didn't post for some reason.. so here it is:
Had some pretty bad PC troubles which I could have done without recently so I lost the entire of my database... I'll be backing up from now on thats for sure.
I'd just like to thank those of you who commented for your well wishes, it actually means a lot, knowing there are strangers out there who have actually taken time out of there day to help a random guy on the internet through a tough time. Hopefully I can repay ya'll by making this blog interesting and hopefully stuff will come up that you guys can take for youselfs!
@mchares - thanks for the advice, this is actually something I was planning to do. I had my best month playing cash games in November 2016: +£35,000... This got me out of the £20,000 makeup I found myself in at the time and enabled me to do a decent sized profit chop. However whilst I was making the decision to do this, the dreaded DECEMBER 1st
rolled around and I found myself in an online £10/£20 game with someone who fell slap bang in the middle of my WHALE category. It was one of those games you find yourself in once in a blue moon. I had direct position. Of course we all know what happened.... -£10,000.... The whale himself lost over £45,000 on the 6 max table (I was the only other loser). I've not been able to claw my way out of makeup with my backer since (been as deep as £25,000 in makeup - which now stands at £10,000 again, having been only £3k at the start of this week... Not had much fun...). I've also had some relatively large life expenses in the meantime, therefore not had the chance to go on my own. If I can salvage this year and get somewhere near towards winning what I have previous years then I intend to go on my own though!Oh also I realise my graph before didn't post for some reason.. so here it is:
Had some pretty bad PC troubles which I could have done without recently so I lost the entire of my database... I'll be backing up from now on thats for sure.
Last edited by differentdimension; 04-23-2017 at 07:24 PM.
04-23-2017
, 07:20 PM
I take COLD SHOWERS...
This is something I do every morning without fail. You should all do it too. Give it a whirl. They're proven to reduce stress (something every single poker player - other than the absolute pure lucky bastards - need) and increase alertness. Google it. Try it. Give it a week or two. I bet you carry on.
Also anyone else do this?
Moving on.....
Played a session today (1500 tracked hands / ~500 hands on untracked sites so far). Currently enjoying a little break to post for you fine folks! Graph for session can be found below:
Have ran quite bad hence the small break. Also well under EV. Have also had a couple of KK < AA hands to put the icing on the cake. Meh I'll live. Am currently winning around +£450 on untracked sites so todays session is currently break even.
Throughout this blog, after every single session I play, as well as results I'm gonna grade myself using the standard A+ to F- system on; how well I played, how focused I was, mental game and an overall grading.
Oh also forgot to add improving mental game to my list of goals.. At present its a solid D-
With no futher ado....
Results: BREAK EVEN
How I played: C+
Focus: A-
Mental Game: B
Overall: B- (MUST DO BETTER).
Notes...
Was feeling pretty motivated being the first session after starting this blog. Tried to start with a bang and was playing up to 15 tables over 2 sites at peak. This was stupid and deffo hindered my decision making capabilities. I'm would say 12 tables over 2 sites should be my maximum for now.
This is something I do every morning without fail. You should all do it too. Give it a whirl. They're proven to reduce stress (something every single poker player - other than the absolute pure lucky bastards - need) and increase alertness. Google it. Try it. Give it a week or two. I bet you carry on.
Also anyone else do this?
Moving on.....
Played a session today (1500 tracked hands / ~500 hands on untracked sites so far). Currently enjoying a little break to post for you fine folks! Graph for session can be found below:
Spoiler:
Have ran quite bad hence the small break. Also well under EV. Have also had a couple of KK < AA hands to put the icing on the cake. Meh I'll live. Am currently winning around +£450 on untracked sites so todays session is currently break even.
Throughout this blog, after every single session I play, as well as results I'm gonna grade myself using the standard A+ to F- system on; how well I played, how focused I was, mental game and an overall grading.
Oh also forgot to add improving mental game to my list of goals.. At present its a solid D-
With no futher ado....
Results: BREAK EVEN
How I played: C+
Focus: A-
Mental Game: B
Overall: B- (MUST DO BETTER).
Notes...
Was feeling pretty motivated being the first session after starting this blog. Tried to start with a bang and was playing up to 15 tables over 2 sites at peak. This was stupid and deffo hindered my decision making capabilities. I'm would say 12 tables over 2 sites should be my maximum for now.
04-23-2017
, 09:55 PM
NEWSFLASH...
Actually managed to book a win for the day.. played a small session on the untracked site. (I sit HU tables up to £5/£10 everyday - I don't reg battle above £2/£5 tho and only rarely then... I'm a shameful bumhunter above these stakes...). However I got sat by a fish @ 2/5 who immediately HnR me for £600... turns out he hadn't had enough as he came back 30 mins later to play me at £5/10 where he dumped £2k back to me!!!!
Therefore...
Daily Results: +£1400!!!
04-23-2017
, 11:42 PM
Quote:
I take COLD SHOWERS...
This is something I do every morning without fail. You should all do it too. Give it a whirl. They're proven to reduce stress (something every single poker player - other than the absolute pure lucky bastards - need) and increase alertness. Google it. Try it. Give it a week or two. I bet you carry on.
Also anyone else do this?
This is something I do every morning without fail. You should all do it too. Give it a whirl. They're proven to reduce stress (something every single poker player - other than the absolute pure lucky bastards - need) and increase alertness. Google it. Try it. Give it a week or two. I bet you carry on.
Also anyone else do this?
I don't play NL but I'm subbing for some reason, goodluck.
Last edited by bustobrah; 04-24-2017 at 12:06 AM.
04-24-2017
, 07:52 PM
Thanks guys, and hey bustobrah... you make some interesting point... I literally never set myself goals as I always thought of them as an absolute end rather than steps, I'll deffo be taking that on board.
As for the cold showers, I've done some reading on it in the past, just recycled the info I read in a few places about the stress thing but who knows anyway... at least they make me feel good!
Mondays...
For ages I've been saying I'm gonna start taking Mondays off playing online poker. It's the day I not only go to the gym but play 6 a side football in the evening... therefore I'm always ****ed when it comes to the night grind...
Brag Alert...
Poker...
As I touched on... my online poker career and Mondays don't agree... Todays session and evaluations can be found below...
Results: -$200
How I played: C
Focus: D+
Mental Game: C
Overall: C- (Sh*te).
Notes...
Made the same mistake again... Too many tables, especially as I could feel I wasn't entirely focused from the start... Lets see if I stop doing this or I truly am going insane...
Made the second best hand a lot today, as well as getting set over set once and losing AK < AA all in pre... all standard stuff... However I did curse at my PC a few times throughout the session hence the low mental game grade... I may even have been generous with myself... probably in fact.
GONNA LEARN HOW TO POST SOME HHs ON HERE TOMORROW AND POST A FEW HANDS FROM RECENT SESSIONS.. STAY TUNED!
As for the cold showers, I've done some reading on it in the past, just recycled the info I read in a few places about the stress thing but who knows anyway... at least they make me feel good!
Mondays...
For ages I've been saying I'm gonna start taking Mondays off playing online poker. It's the day I not only go to the gym but play 6 a side football in the evening... therefore I'm always ****ed when it comes to the night grind...
Brag Alert...
Spoiler:
Poker...
As I touched on... my online poker career and Mondays don't agree... Todays session and evaluations can be found below...
Results: -$200
How I played: C
Focus: D+
Mental Game: C
Overall: C- (Sh*te).
Notes...
Made the same mistake again... Too many tables, especially as I could feel I wasn't entirely focused from the start... Lets see if I stop doing this or I truly am going insane...
Made the second best hand a lot today, as well as getting set over set once and losing AK < AA all in pre... all standard stuff... However I did curse at my PC a few times throughout the session hence the low mental game grade... I may even have been generous with myself... probably in fact.
GONNA LEARN HOW TO POST SOME HHs ON HERE TOMORROW AND POST A FEW HANDS FROM RECENT SESSIONS.. STAY TUNED!
Last edited by differentdimension; 04-24-2017 at 08:00 PM.
04-25-2017
, 09:26 PM
Half the point of this blog is to vent and be emotionally open, therefore let me open this entry with a big...
...F*CKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK ...
B*LLOCKS B*STARD W*NK GAME :@ :@ :@
Right so, I'm winding down a frustrating session... graph for which can be found below...
Really fun peaking 1/5th of the way into your session and then running horrific... At least my orange line is winning and thats even after the obligatory couple of coolers I suffered, not even joking since starting this blog I've ran garbage... Yeah yeah sample I know... but hardly the flying start I was hoping for...
Anyway...
Yeah thats not even why I'm p*ssed. So like I said winding down a frustrating session... Hear game sounds alert at £10/£20 on my untracked site (bumhunter yeah I know). Get a seat. 3rd hand in:
***Edit***
Whilst I remember:
Results: -£2050
How I played: B
Focus: B+
Mental Game: C
Overall: B- (Pretty happy with this).
Notes...
Kept tables to under 12 at all times and under 10 for the majority of the session. Have found a really useful report to keep an eye on in my, so far, very limited database. This report basically breaks down your winrate / HUD stats for every different number of tables you play at the same time... Over my relatively small sample my RFI / 3B% really does seem to be getting lower with every table I add. Will look into the true numbers / effects of this when my sample gets more towards the 100k hands mark.
...F*CKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK ...
B*LLOCKS B*STARD W*NK GAME :@ :@ :@
Right so, I'm winding down a frustrating session... graph for which can be found below...
Really fun peaking 1/5th of the way into your session and then running horrific... At least my orange line is winning and thats even after the obligatory couple of coolers I suffered, not even joking since starting this blog I've ran garbage... Yeah yeah sample I know... but hardly the flying start I was hoping for...
Anyway...
Yeah thats not even why I'm p*ssed. So like I said winding down a frustrating session... Hear game sounds alert at £10/£20 on my untracked site (bumhunter yeah I know). Get a seat. 3rd hand in:
Spoiler:
***Edit***
Whilst I remember:
Results: -£2050
How I played: B
Focus: B+
Mental Game: C
Overall: B- (Pretty happy with this).
Notes...
Kept tables to under 12 at all times and under 10 for the majority of the session. Have found a really useful report to keep an eye on in my, so far, very limited database. This report basically breaks down your winrate / HUD stats for every different number of tables you play at the same time... Over my relatively small sample my RFI / 3B% really does seem to be getting lower with every table I add. Will look into the true numbers / effects of this when my sample gets more towards the 100k hands mark.
Last edited by differentdimension; 04-25-2017 at 09:36 PM.
04-27-2017
, 02:10 PM
Crazy live games...
Ok, so I've been involved in a fair few pretty big lives games. Last night was one of the 'smaller' big live games I've ever played but christ it was mental...
I live in a city called Sheffield in England. Over the last week and a bit its been hosting the World Snooker Championship which is set to conclude this coming Monday. For some reason or another I found myself in the city centre yesterday evening so I decided I'd pop in to the Casino to play some live poker and take a day off the online grind. The games here are usually pretty small - £1/£2 with average stacks of £300-£500 on average I'd say... Yesterday was a bit different...
One of the Chinese Snooker players - Liang Wenbo - was in the game and it got made into a £2/£5. The game took off. There we're also a couple of older Chinese gents in the game who seemed to think slowrolling was mandatory... Anyway obviously it was a great game so I sat for £2,000 (to cover everyone)...
Results...
Started with £2k. Peaked at £6k and Cashed out £4200 for a net profit of around +£2,200... However it was a hell of a swingy session. I played 3 pots of £3k and above and a couple over £2k... Won some lost some... Will pot a few hands below...
Hand 1...
Been sat at the table like 15 mins, not that much had kicked off so far but I'd heard some rumours about how crazy the villain was so had pretty simple decisions.
I open UTG to £15 @ £2/£5 with red AA. The villain (just happened to be the snooker player) makes it £30 from BTN playing (£1600). I 4b to £130 he calls.
Flop... Qx 10x 3s... I cbet £155, he snap jams £1,500. I'm smiling inside and obviously call quickly. He has J9ss. We run it once (yolo and all that)...
Turn... 7s... That smile inside is quickly becoming a grimace of pain...
River...
Hand 2...
£10 straddle is on. I'm SB. The villain (the snooker player) limps MP for £10 playing £2,000. 2 more limpers. I Raise SB to £75 with Kh Jd. Only villain calls.
Flop... Kc Qx 5x... (Hes been randomly barrelling off loads no equity and making crazy peels pre - one which comes to mind is £150 pre cold calling a 3b with 37o - so it seemed to me it'd be a good idea to let him have a crack) and opt to check. He checks back.
Turn... 6c... (Same idea, let him have a crack)... He obliges and bets £105... Now this seemed like a good turn to put some money in... I raise to £305... He the 3bets turn to £675... Whatever... Call.
River 3x... I Check... He Jams £1,200... Draws bricked... Whatever... Call...
Hand 3...
Different villain this time... Guy is an older Chinese gent... lovely fella and a guy who I would guess is pretty wealthy. I would be lying if I said he wasn't one of the bigger spots in the game though. THIS IS ONE OF THE GUYS WHO LOVES SLOWROLLING.
I open 66black to £15 and he 3bets CO to £65 playing £2,000. Now this 3b range is pretty strong but its deffo one of those spots where the implied odds of flopping a set are very very high, particularly vs this guy.
Flop... Js 6d 4d... I check. He bets £110 and I raise to £345... He calls.
Turn... As... I bet £650... He TAAAAAAAANK calls. This is one of two things. He either has a VERY marginal hand (he doesn't seem to mind putting in lots of money with these) or a VERY strong hand.
River... 3h... To quote one of my favourite things I've ever heard anyone say in poker... 'Well I'm not folding so I might aswell go all in and see what he does'... I go all in for £1k effective... He calls... Cant wait to get slowrolled... I turn my hand over... He looks at his cards... He holds them for atleast 20 seconds...
Hand 4...
Villain in this hand is SB and the best other reg on the table. He's £2k deep. The snooker player is in the £10 straddle. The older Chinese gent is in the £5 bb.
CO opens to £25... I call £25 from BTN with Kc Kd... SB reg squeezes to £150... CO folds I call...
Flop... 10h 9h 10d... He bets £195... I honestly thought about mucking here... combination of live reads / sizing / the fact that he bet here... pretty sure he should check quite a lot... I flat 100% of my range vs CO open and don't have a 4b backraise range in this spot either... pretty sure he should and would know this... Whatever I called.
Turn... 5s... He bets £515... I should deffo fold here... I took way too long on the turn to make this decision... Everything about the hand is wrong to me... However... The PUNTER in me called the turn bet...
River Qd.... He checks... What???... Whatever check back...
I'm gonna run a sim on this hand...
Summary...
Results: +£2200
How I played: A (except the KK turn call).
Focus: B+
Mental Game: A (lost a few big pots and was totally fine with it... The only thing which bothered me was my KK turn call).
Overall: A- (Good).
Ok, so I've been involved in a fair few pretty big lives games. Last night was one of the 'smaller' big live games I've ever played but christ it was mental...
I live in a city called Sheffield in England. Over the last week and a bit its been hosting the World Snooker Championship which is set to conclude this coming Monday. For some reason or another I found myself in the city centre yesterday evening so I decided I'd pop in to the Casino to play some live poker and take a day off the online grind. The games here are usually pretty small - £1/£2 with average stacks of £300-£500 on average I'd say... Yesterday was a bit different...
One of the Chinese Snooker players - Liang Wenbo - was in the game and it got made into a £2/£5. The game took off. There we're also a couple of older Chinese gents in the game who seemed to think slowrolling was mandatory... Anyway obviously it was a great game so I sat for £2,000 (to cover everyone)...
Results...
Started with £2k. Peaked at £6k and Cashed out £4200 for a net profit of around +£2,200... However it was a hell of a swingy session. I played 3 pots of £3k and above and a couple over £2k... Won some lost some... Will pot a few hands below...
Hand 1...
Been sat at the table like 15 mins, not that much had kicked off so far but I'd heard some rumours about how crazy the villain was so had pretty simple decisions.
I open UTG to £15 @ £2/£5 with red AA. The villain (just happened to be the snooker player) makes it £30 from BTN playing (£1600). I 4b to £130 he calls.
Flop... Qx 10x 3s... I cbet £155, he snap jams £1,500. I'm smiling inside and obviously call quickly. He has J9ss. We run it once (yolo and all that)...
Turn... 7s... That smile inside is quickly becoming a grimace of pain...
River...
Spoiler:
Hand 2...
£10 straddle is on. I'm SB. The villain (the snooker player) limps MP for £10 playing £2,000. 2 more limpers. I Raise SB to £75 with Kh Jd. Only villain calls.
Flop... Kc Qx 5x... (Hes been randomly barrelling off loads no equity and making crazy peels pre - one which comes to mind is £150 pre cold calling a 3b with 37o - so it seemed to me it'd be a good idea to let him have a crack) and opt to check. He checks back.
Turn... 6c... (Same idea, let him have a crack)... He obliges and bets £105... Now this seemed like a good turn to put some money in... I raise to £305... He the 3bets turn to £675... Whatever... Call.
River 3x... I Check... He Jams £1,200... Draws bricked... Whatever... Call...
Spoiler:
Hand 3...
Different villain this time... Guy is an older Chinese gent... lovely fella and a guy who I would guess is pretty wealthy. I would be lying if I said he wasn't one of the bigger spots in the game though. THIS IS ONE OF THE GUYS WHO LOVES SLOWROLLING.
I open 66black to £15 and he 3bets CO to £65 playing £2,000. Now this 3b range is pretty strong but its deffo one of those spots where the implied odds of flopping a set are very very high, particularly vs this guy.
Flop... Js 6d 4d... I check. He bets £110 and I raise to £345... He calls.
Turn... As... I bet £650... He TAAAAAAAANK calls. This is one of two things. He either has a VERY marginal hand (he doesn't seem to mind putting in lots of money with these) or a VERY strong hand.
River... 3h... To quote one of my favourite things I've ever heard anyone say in poker... 'Well I'm not folding so I might aswell go all in and see what he does'... I go all in for £1k effective... He calls... Cant wait to get slowrolled... I turn my hand over... He looks at his cards... He holds them for atleast 20 seconds...
Spoiler:
Hand 4...
Villain in this hand is SB and the best other reg on the table. He's £2k deep. The snooker player is in the £10 straddle. The older Chinese gent is in the £5 bb.
CO opens to £25... I call £25 from BTN with Kc Kd... SB reg squeezes to £150... CO folds I call...
Flop... 10h 9h 10d... He bets £195... I honestly thought about mucking here... combination of live reads / sizing / the fact that he bet here... pretty sure he should check quite a lot... I flat 100% of my range vs CO open and don't have a 4b backraise range in this spot either... pretty sure he should and would know this... Whatever I called.
Turn... 5s... He bets £515... I should deffo fold here... I took way too long on the turn to make this decision... Everything about the hand is wrong to me... However... The PUNTER in me called the turn bet...
River Qd.... He checks... What???... Whatever check back...
Spoiler:
I'm gonna run a sim on this hand...
Summary...
Results: +£2200
How I played: A (except the KK turn call).
Focus: B+
Mental Game: A (lost a few big pots and was totally fine with it... The only thing which bothered me was my KK turn call).
Overall: A- (Good).
04-27-2017
, 08:32 PM
Hey man, thanks for the kind words I'll do my best to keep you entertained
As for the hand in question... I'm gonna flat 100% of my range from BTN instead of 3betting as the BB / Straddle really we're that bad... The EV of playing post flop with them multiway with my premium hands would far outweigh the EV of 3betting the CO reg. (CO reg also only plays 1/2 usually and is pretty nitty / money scared playing this deep so not expecting much action from him anyway - but that was info I had and didn't include in post).
As for 4bet backraise its deffo an option, just a personal choice of mine to play no 4bet backraise in this spot. The other guy was capable of being light here and deffo the best other player on the table by a way so vs this guy specifically I feel its pretty important to protect my range which calls the initial open then cold calls the 3bet as I would have expanded my initial flatting range a fair bit being in position with two 'whales' in the blinds.
Thursday...
Didn't play much at all today. Got in from the live game at 7am so I was really tired, however in order to keep and maintain the sleeping schedule I've got as well as being able to spend some time with my family, I set my alarm for 1pm meaning I got 6 hours sleep at most, chilled for most of the day and watched the Man United vs Man City game...
I did try and log a few hands after that but got to 50 tracked hands on my HUD and sacked it off... Too tired to play well. Decided to study a bit instead, so ran a few sims on PIO and reviewed some HHs. Kept the untracked site up on the side incase any decent sized games got going and actually managed to book a £520 win in a random £2/£5 game which ran very briefly.
Summary...
Results: +£520
How I played: n/a... everything standard.
Focus: n/a... too brief.
Mental Game: n/a... too brief.
Overall: n/a... too brief.
As for the hand in question... I'm gonna flat 100% of my range from BTN instead of 3betting as the BB / Straddle really we're that bad... The EV of playing post flop with them multiway with my premium hands would far outweigh the EV of 3betting the CO reg. (CO reg also only plays 1/2 usually and is pretty nitty / money scared playing this deep so not expecting much action from him anyway - but that was info I had and didn't include in post).
As for 4bet backraise its deffo an option, just a personal choice of mine to play no 4bet backraise in this spot. The other guy was capable of being light here and deffo the best other player on the table by a way so vs this guy specifically I feel its pretty important to protect my range which calls the initial open then cold calls the 3bet as I would have expanded my initial flatting range a fair bit being in position with two 'whales' in the blinds.
Thursday...
Didn't play much at all today. Got in from the live game at 7am so I was really tired, however in order to keep and maintain the sleeping schedule I've got as well as being able to spend some time with my family, I set my alarm for 1pm meaning I got 6 hours sleep at most, chilled for most of the day and watched the Man United vs Man City game...
I did try and log a few hands after that but got to 50 tracked hands on my HUD and sacked it off... Too tired to play well. Decided to study a bit instead, so ran a few sims on PIO and reviewed some HHs. Kept the untracked site up on the side incase any decent sized games got going and actually managed to book a £520 win in a random £2/£5 game which ran very briefly.
Summary...
Results: +£520
How I played: n/a... everything standard.
Focus: n/a... too brief.
Mental Game: n/a... too brief.
Overall: n/a... too brief.
04-28-2017
, 11:27 PM
Today has been one of the most bizzare days I've ever had playing online poker....
...And one of the most frustrating...
Gonna go straight in with the graph for the day (played in 3 mini sessions, have placed a red line on graph for where each starts/ends).
Session 1... (Mid afternoon - 60 mins - 683 hands). Net won +$1015. Ran really well. Played well. Happy days.
Session 2... (Evening - 120 mins - 1,242 hands). Net won +$492. Weird swings here. Was losing $800 after 200 hands or so but made a pretty good comeback to end the session a winner. Really good mental game throughout, even after running real cold for the first 30 mins. Really happy with this and also with how I played.
Session 3... (Night - 75 mins - 828 hands). Net loss -$1,403. A really bad combination of events... Had the second best hand for 90% of the hands I played and didn't play particularly well either. Mental game held until the 700 hand mark where I just started to win a couple of pots in a row then immediately got KK into AA. Obviously I accept I'm going to get coolers both for and against me but in the situation I found this one, it hurt!
Tracked Site Summary...
(255 mins - 2,753 hands).
Overall Results: +$103
How I played: B (If not for the last session this would have been A/A+).
Focus: A
Mental Game: B+
Overall: B (Happy).
Untracked Site...
Played a little on untracked site... Probably 500 hands total of £200nl and £400nl. Nothing particularly interesting went off here. I 3bet/5bet jammed 100bbs SB v BTN with 33 and lost vs AKdd @ £400nl. Had another spot where I bet / bet / jammed a good spot with a bluff. Didn't work. However I guess broke even in these games overall.
We then had a little highstakes action when a whale jumped up to £10/£20. I actually stacked him for 50bbs here (£2k pot) with KK vs his 1010... he quit after this. +£1000.
A different fish jumped into a £5/£10 game so we followed suit. Only hand of note was one which I lost.
100bb (£1,000) Deep.
SB (good reg??). Opens to £33.
BB (me) 3bets to £105 with KQdd. SB calls.
Pot: £210.
Flop:
Ks 7c 5h. SB Checks. I Bet £63. SB calls.
Pot: £336.
Turn:
(Ks 7c 5h) 7d. SB Checks. I check BB.
Pot: £336.
River:
(Ks 7c 5h 7d) (2s). SB Jams £832. I call. SB shows 107cc for a questionable peel pre.
No particularly disappointed with this hand. Diamonds the nut suit to call with its just a whatever and move on.
Lost £400 more in this game in small pots, therefore for this table: -£1400.
Won't bother doing a summary for untracked site as it was a pretty standard and relatively small session. Games don't tend to last long on here and break as soon as fish leave.
Overall results: -£320
...And one of the most frustrating...
Gonna go straight in with the graph for the day (played in 3 mini sessions, have placed a red line on graph for where each starts/ends).
Session 1... (Mid afternoon - 60 mins - 683 hands). Net won +$1015. Ran really well. Played well. Happy days.
Session 2... (Evening - 120 mins - 1,242 hands). Net won +$492. Weird swings here. Was losing $800 after 200 hands or so but made a pretty good comeback to end the session a winner. Really good mental game throughout, even after running real cold for the first 30 mins. Really happy with this and also with how I played.
Session 3...
(Night - 75 mins - 828 hands). Net loss -$1,403. A really bad combination of events... Had the second best hand for 90% of the hands I played and didn't play particularly well either. Mental game held until the 700 hand mark where I just started to win a couple of pots in a row then immediately got KK into AA. Obviously I accept I'm going to get coolers both for and against me but in the situation I found this one, it hurt! Tracked Site Summary...
(255 mins - 2,753 hands).
Overall Results: +$103
How I played: B (If not for the last session this would have been A/A+).
Focus: A
Mental Game: B+
Overall: B (Happy).
Untracked Site...
Played a little on untracked site... Probably 500 hands total of £200nl and £400nl. Nothing particularly interesting went off here. I 3bet/5bet jammed 100bbs SB v BTN with 33 and lost vs AKdd @ £400nl. Had another spot where I bet / bet / jammed a good spot with a bluff. Didn't work. However I guess broke even in these games overall.
We then had a little highstakes action when a whale jumped up to £10/£20. I actually stacked him for 50bbs here (£2k pot) with KK vs his 1010... he quit after this. +£1000.
A different fish jumped into a £5/£10 game so we followed suit. Only hand of note was one which I lost.
100bb (£1,000) Deep.
SB (good reg??). Opens to £33.
BB (me) 3bets to £105 with KQdd. SB calls.
Pot: £210.
Flop:
Ks 7c 5h. SB Checks. I Bet £63. SB calls.
Pot: £336.
Turn:
(Ks 7c 5h) 7d. SB Checks. I check BB.
Pot: £336.
River:
(Ks 7c 5h 7d) (2s). SB Jams £832. I call. SB shows 107cc for a questionable peel pre.
No particularly disappointed with this hand. Diamonds the nut suit to call with its just a whatever and move on.
Lost £400 more in this game in small pots, therefore for this table: -£1400.
Won't bother doing a summary for untracked site as it was a pretty standard and relatively small session. Games don't tend to last long on here and break as soon as fish leave.
Overall results: -£320
05-01-2017
, 11:31 PM
April Summary...
Weird month... All the games at £300/400/500/600nl (strange stakes I know), seem to have dried up on the sites I play, therefore I found myself playing a crazy mix of stakes this past month. The bulk of my volume has been lower down obviously, as thats just how things are when not reg battling nowadays, however the amount of action higher up has been pretty mad too. One minute I'm sat there 10tabling £200nl, next minute I'm playing £2knl with a whale. Obviously winning at one stake getting whacked at the other... I'll let you figure out which has been which.
Breakdown...
Tracked sites... Small winner, graph for which can be found below:
Live cash... The -£3k day I had kinda messed me up a little, however I also had a +£2.2k day to leave me only a small loser overall in live cash games this month.
Untracked site... Very small winner here (with some huge swings in the process).
Net profit + RB... £2,150
EV winnings... Lost the £5.4k live pot with KK v QQ all in pre which would have been huge for my month... Also ran pretty bad in the highstakes games online and under on the tracked sites. I'm deffo gonna be somewhere between £5k-£10k under EV this month, but whatever... those swings are normal in some of the games I've been playing and since I'm in a privileged enough position to take shots in games like these, I've gotta accept its not always gonna go great.
Moving on...
One good thing which has coincided with the ending of April, however, is that I feel I'm turning a corner with the confidence issues I was having. I'm much more assured now when playing, something which was fading rapidly in the months previous. I actually feel like things are turning around a little, and can say with confidence that MAY IS MY MONTH...
...Stay tuned!
Weird month... All the games at £300/400/500/600nl (strange stakes I know), seem to have dried up on the sites I play, therefore I found myself playing a crazy mix of stakes this past month. The bulk of my volume has been lower down obviously, as thats just how things are when not reg battling nowadays, however the amount of action higher up has been pretty mad too. One minute I'm sat there 10tabling £200nl, next minute I'm playing £2knl with a whale. Obviously winning at one stake getting whacked at the other... I'll let you figure out which has been which.
Breakdown...
Tracked sites... Small winner, graph for which can be found below:
Live cash... The -£3k day I had kinda messed me up a little, however I also had a +£2.2k day to leave me only a small loser overall in live cash games this month.
Untracked site... Very small winner here (with some huge swings in the process).
Net profit + RB... £2,150
EV winnings... Lost the £5.4k live pot with KK v QQ all in pre which would have been huge for my month... Also ran pretty bad in the highstakes games online and under on the tracked sites. I'm deffo gonna be somewhere between £5k-£10k under EV this month, but whatever... those swings are normal in some of the games I've been playing and since I'm in a privileged enough position to take shots in games like these, I've gotta accept its not always gonna go great.
Moving on...
One good thing which has coincided with the ending of April, however, is that I feel I'm turning a corner with the confidence issues I was having. I'm much more assured now when playing, something which was fading rapidly in the months previous. I actually feel like things are turning around a little, and can say with confidence that MAY IS MY MONTH...
...Stay tuned!
05-25-2017
, 08:03 PM
Hey guys, I realise its been a while, but instead of doing the daily updates I thought I'd have more to talk about if I just did them every few weeks or so.
MAY IS NOT MY MONTH...
I'm getting absolutely trashed everywhere I play. Well kinda. The same pattern keeps reoccurring. Sites are dead, play some lower stakes. Win. Games have a flurry higher stakes. GET SMASHED. I actually keep getting coolered by the whale. On the untracked site my 2 biggest pots of the week we're me getting AQ v 1010 of the whale on Q1023Qr and AK v 1010 of the whale on K3610Kr. I've lost my 10 biggest pots in the past 7 days on that site.
Tracked site has been going great as well. Not. See graph below:
I'm even above EV! Seemed to have the worst hand loads recently. It really gets into your head when you feel your running ****.
Gonna move down stakes for a few days and just play some low/med games. Try and get a bit of confidence back. Its really torn to pieces at the minute and my mental game is about as bad as its ever been. I can actually feel myself slipping into a really bad way mentally both in and out of poker. I'm really considering quitting at the minute. I feel like i'm close to breaking point. Does anybody have any tips to help my mental game? Books / vids....etc? Would really appreciate it!
MAY IS NOT MY MONTH...
I'm getting absolutely trashed everywhere I play. Well kinda. The same pattern keeps reoccurring. Sites are dead, play some lower stakes. Win. Games have a flurry higher stakes. GET SMASHED. I actually keep getting coolered by the whale. On the untracked site my 2 biggest pots of the week we're me getting AQ v 1010 of the whale on Q1023Qr and AK v 1010 of the whale on K3610Kr. I've lost my 10 biggest pots in the past 7 days on that site.
Tracked site has been going great as well. Not. See graph below:
I'm even above EV! Seemed to have the worst hand loads recently. It really gets into your head when you feel your running ****.
Gonna move down stakes for a few days and just play some low/med games. Try and get a bit of confidence back. Its really torn to pieces at the minute and my mental game is about as bad as its ever been. I can actually feel myself slipping into a really bad way mentally both in and out of poker. I'm really considering quitting at the minute. I feel like i'm close to breaking point. Does anybody have any tips to help my mental game? Books / vids....etc? Would really appreciate it!