It's been almost 3 weeks since I'm on a downswing, and I could swear I've not been playing worse than before. i might have tilted away 1 or 2 buyins, but it's been mostly coolers, bad beats and generally unfavourable flops. It's like 4 out of 5 times I play a big pot I get bad beat on the river. In the latest couple of sessions, I have hit a set once or maybe twice in more than 1K hands (had PPs almost a hundred times in this span), I have to resort to bluffing with small PPs almost all the time. Amazingly, my bankroll is still around the same amount as before the downswing due to bonuses I cleared in this period. Feels like a rakeback grind

I am taking a 2-week break and hoping that will turn off the doomswitch.

After the break I will also create an account at fulltiltpoker.FR with rakeback and try to take advantage of their 200% sign-up bonus of up to 1000 euros, although it will be difficult to clear it all in 4 months unless I exclusively play stakes higher than 10NL.

Played a little 200 hand session of 10nl this morning and a $1 45man sng. Made abt $3.50 from 10nl and another $3 in the sng. We were down to 6 ppl and I had a 7k stack (600-1.2k blinds) and shoved 44 from utg1 and got called by the BB (big stack) who had AJ and he out flopped me.

It's a little hard to play both FR and sng's at once, but it actually helps me relax and not be so stressed out about every hand in a cash game.

I was looking for some threads on sng strat, but all I see is line checks and diff HH's pretty much. If anyone knows of any strat threads from stt's up to 180s post a link or guide me towards it some how. Thanks

67 total $61.80 20.68% roi

Having to fake out the knockout headers for PT2 so maybe a little more. 184 FPP

mtt anthology
sttf
shaundeeb 180 guide

On a major downswing at 2NL now, getting sucked out on at every occation that it just gets funny.

Poker Stars $2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP2: $2.23
CO: $3.97
Hero (BTN): $1.97
SB: $1.33
BB: $1.89
UTG: $6.85
UTG+1: $5.05
MP1: $2.95

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is BTN with K K
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to $0.04, MP1 calls $0.04, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.16, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls $0.12, MP1 calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.51) 3 9 8 (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets $0.36, UTG+1 folds, MP1 raises to $2.79, Hero calls $1.45 all in

Turn: ($4.13) J (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.13) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.13
Hero shows K K
MP1 shows 9 Q
MP1 wins $3.93
(Rake: $0.20)

-10$

Time since last post: 36 hours
Hands of 5NL played: 2300
BI won: 10
BR: $208



Hottest I've ever run.

I took a few days off from Stars. I'd decided on my return i'd go back to PLO10 as I have the roll for it and i'm not going to progress just playing PLO5. I donked around a bit on party, did ok at PLO then went to HU NL50 and lost getting it all in pre-flop with 77 vs JJ for about 50bb I lost a bit in ring too so i've almost busted my party money - I think i'll just play some tourneys and see if I can hit something. Tried Stars today, not many PLO10 tables going so I went to PLO5 to see how i'm running. I made quite a bit with AAxx hands but lost with others, but I booked a 1 buy-in win which is a nice change after my recent form. I'm going to practise a bit of tighter hand selection and see how I fare.

I found a fish that I know of playing, i'm down quite a bit to him but I got involved early on in a hand when I had QQ45 and got it all in on a 3 6 7 flop with 2 spades on board and I had no re-draws. He had nutflush draw + a gutshot and hit against me putting me down a buy-in within the first 50 hands

I played this awfully really. I almost considered folding on the river as I wasn't beating any value betting hands, but I saw how much was in the pot & figured I had to call just on the small chance he was bluffing.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $5.00
UTG: $18.57
MP: $18.19
CO: $6.45
BTN: $11.16
SB: $3.53

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with 4 A A 8
UTG raises to $0.15, 3 folds, SB calls $0.13, Hero raises to $0.40, UTG calls $0.25, SB calls $0.25

Flop: ($1.20) T 2 6 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.85, UTG calls $0.85, SB folds

Turn: ($2.90) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $2.76, Hero calls $2.76

River: ($8.42) J (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1, Hero calls $0.99 all in

Final Pot: $10.40
Hero shows 4 A A 8 (a pair of Aces)
UTG shows 9 T 4 9 (a pair of Tens)
Hero wins $9.91
(Rake: $0.49)

OK update. I built roll back past $500! Then I've moved to HU SNGs to try them instead since cash games got boring and annoying and I couldn't pick a buy in level for 10NL. Still testing the waters at $2+0.2 and will move up when I feel confident enough to do so since BR is not limiting at all when at micro SNG. Favourite hand of recent times played just now, perfect example of Zeebos Theorem:

Poker Stars $2.00+$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): t1431 71.55 BBs
BTN/SB: t1569 78.45 BBs

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BB with K 5
BTN/SB calls t10, Hero checks

Flop: (t40) 5 5 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets t20, Hero calls t20

Turn: (t80) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t60, BTN/SB raises to t120, Hero raises to t180, BTN/SB raises to t1529 all in, Hero calls t1211 all in

River: (t2862) A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t2862
Hero shows K 5 (four of a kind, Fives)
BTN/SB shows 4 9 (a full house, Fives full of Fours)
Hero wins t2862

Min raise is sub optimal I know, but fishy villians spazz out I've noticed.

Still breakeven after all these years - seems like I forgot how to play MT SNGs... the short stab I took at 5NL went ok, hit a set for a medium sized pot, tiny sample size tho. $200 til breakeven at that level gogogo.

w00t! I'm running a bit better now, nothing major but it's nice to have a change and i've tightened up a bit which i'm sure has helped in some cases though I probably need to revise how much i'm willing to put in with big pairs as i've mucked QQxx pre-flop to a 4bb raise and they hit sets. I ran quite hot and coolered some people, up a few buy-ins in that session.

I didn't have the heart to fire the river, just was being a nit and didn't feel like paying off a boat if they hit.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP: $20.54
Hero (CO): $5.29
BTN: $18.96
SB: $7.72
BB: $4.00
UTG: $6.13

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with K A 3 A
1 fold, MP calls $0.05, Hero raises to $0.15, 1 fold, SB calls $0.13, BB calls $0.10, MP calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.60) 4 6 J (4 players)
SB bets $0.40, BB folds, MP folds, Hero raises to $1.30, SB calls $0.90

Turn: ($3.20) T (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.05, SB calls $3.05

River: ($9.30) 6 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Final Pot: $9.30
Hero shows K A 3 A (a flush, Ace high)
SB shows 7 A T 8 (a flush, Jack high)
Hero wins $8.85
(Rake: $0.45)

A cooler for villain, great setup for me - i'm not going to complain!

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (MP): $5.00
CO: $18.54
BTN: $12.85
SB: $12.67
BB: $21.39
UTG: $6.18

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is MP with 5 Q Q 8
1 fold, Hero calls $0.05, 1 fold, BTN raises to $0.15, SB calls $0.13, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.50) 4 Q 4 (3 players)
SB bets $0.48, Hero raises to $1.20, BTN folds, SB calls $0.72

Turn: ($2.90) 2 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $2.54, SB raises to $5.08, Hero calls $1.11 all in

River: ($10.20) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $10.20
Hero shows 5 Q Q 8 (a full house, Queens full of Fours)
SB shows T A Q 4 (a full house, Fours full of Queens)
Hero wins $9.70
(Rake: $0.50)

Same table, hand straight after. I decided to play flop a bit slow. Then I trapped on turn rather than stacking off as I was also being a bit of a nit due to stack sizes. Then I wimped out on the river as there was some sick possibility I went behind as I couldn't really see which hands would take that line for value that i'm beating apart from 9x. I thought there was a faint possibility they could have quads or even QQ but it didn't make much sense to me so I opted for cautious call I probably lost out a lot of turn value, but i'm happy to book a win for the session.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $9.70
UTG: $18.54
CO: $12.70
BTN: $7.67
SB: $21.34

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with Q 5 9 2
UTG calls $0.05, CO calls $0.05, BTN calls $0.05, SB calls $0.03, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.25) 9 8 Q (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($0.25) 9 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.15, UTG raises to $0.69, CO folds, BTN folds, SB folds, Hero calls $0.54

River: ($1.63) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1.55, Hero calls $1.55

Final Pot: $4.73
Hero shows Q 5 9 2 (a full house, Nines full of Queens)
UTG shows 9 5 7 3 (three of a kind, Nines)
Hero wins $4.50
(Rake: $0.23)

I don't even know what to do anymore. I don't honestly think I'm this bad of a 10NL player, but apparently I am, because not only can I not win anymore, I can't even avoid gushing money.

10NL can be a case of bad game selection imo. It's a weird go between limit to begin with and the new buy-in changes made it even stranger.

This may be slightly OTT but I feel compelled to do a mini-TR to decide I want to write up a whole one for B+M.

I'm feeling the itch to grind online. Live play the other night went super well as it could since it was 4 AM and I was drunk and card dead. I had no hands for most of the night. Folded TPGK on A83r v a guy who I didn't know was in the midst of donking off 1300 bucks 100 dollars at a time. I had a guy to my right 3betting trash vs the limpers and a 800 dollar stack. He seemed solid but seemed more distracted by my g/f. Tittays are +ev at poker table. 2nd hand I fold 88 after calling pre on AK3 flop where it goes donk ,raise, call, in front of me. 3rd hand

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/2180896

Ez game. Game broke shortly after once solid guy booked his win and the guy giving away money went bust.

I'm so tilted right now. I started off my session tonight doing quite well, I was up 2 buy-ins and up about 4 overall for the day. I decided to keep playing as I was happy with the way I was playing and the games seemed good. Then variance decided to come and kick me right in the nuts. I'm not exaggerating but I must be down over 5 buy-ins below EV the way i've been running. I've been 2 outered, 1 outered, got it in with top 2 vs over-pair on turn only to have board pair on river, runner runner and so on. I got in spots where I 3bet AAxx and flop came AKT, someone bets, I raise and then someone came over the top and i'm holding a blocker to my boat and it's pretty obvious i'm behind and haven't got odds to call so I have to make the lay down. Bottom line is i'm now down 2 buy-ins for the day some how after being up over 4.

I don't even feel bad about it because I got the money in ahead as huge favourites almost every time and I played great pretty much the whole time, but for some reason or another I found a way to lose be it the runner runner/1 outer/2 outer etc. God knows how i'm going to win lately if I can't win as a 95% favourite. I don't know how people win at this game when they run like I am

[x] Beat - Will be playing SC2 more than poker this month.

I've played like 6 SnG's over the last 6 days.

Poker Stars $2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $2.38
BB: $2.42
UTG: $1.68
UTG+1: $2.41
MP: $0.92
CO: $1.49
BTN: $2.01

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with A A
UTG calls $0.02, 1 fold, MP calls $0.02, 2 folds, Hero raises to $0.12, 1 fold, UTG raises to $0.26, MP calls $0.24, Hero raises to $0.80, UTG raises to $1.68, MP calls $0.66 all in, Hero calls $0.88

Flop: ($4.30) K J K (3 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($4.30) 3 (3 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($4.30) 4 (3 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $4.30
Hero shows A A
UTG shows K J
MP shows 6 7
UTG wins $2.65
(Rake: $0.21)

sums up this session of 3k hands haha
-8$

Decided to play a bit more last night. Won about 2 buy-ins back pretty quickly to put me about even on the day after all that. At the end I flopped big hands such as top set but had to lay them down on river as the draws had got there on turn and board hadn't paired on river.

Just uploaded my hands from yesterday to see how much i'd be up if I ran semi-normally & then I realised PT3 omaha doesn't have all-in EV so I guess i'll be buying HEM at some point. As I took the troublle to upload i'll just post a few of my best hands.

Nice play villain....I actually got it right too & still lost.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $7.43
BB: $11.90
UTG: $5.00
MP: $10.12
CO: $6.38
Hero (BTN): $5.13

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BTN with 8 A 6 A
1 fold, MP raises to $0.17, 1 fold, Hero raises to $0.58, 2 folds, MP calls $0.41

Flop: ($1.23) 6 4 J (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $0.90, MP raises to $3.87, Hero raises to $4.55 all in, MP calls $0.68

Turn: ($10.33) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($10.33) 7 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $10.33
MP shows Q Q T 3 (three of a kind, Queens)
Hero shows 8 A 6 A (a pair of Aces)
MP wins $9.82
(Rake: $0.51)

Standard 1 outer....he's even holding a blocker to the full house. Apparently he's got 11% equity against my hand . I guess he's got backdoor flush draw, backdoor straight draws, backdoor quad draw and he only needs one more 3 and he has quads. It's clearly a monster!

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BB): $6.29
UTG: $5.86
MP: $1.88
CO: $5.16
BTN: $7.20
SB: $4.08

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is BB with 2 9 T T
UTG raises to $0.17, 1 fold, CO calls $0.17, BTN calls $0.17, SB calls $0.15, Hero calls $0.12

Flop: ($0.85) 4 T 3 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.70, UTG folds, CO raises to $2.91, BTN folds, SB folds, Hero raises to $6.12 all in, CO calls $2.08 all in

Turn: ($10.83) 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($10.83) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $10.83
Hero shows 2 9 T T (a full house, Tens full of Threes)
CO shows 3 7 4 3 (four of a kind, Threes)
CO wins $10.30
(Rake: $0.53)

Sums it up really, just as well it was a short stack.

Poker Stars $0.02/$0.05 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

MP: $1.67
Hero (CO): $5.91
BTN: $10.48
SB: $5.12
BB: $4.00
UTG: $8.99

Pre Flop: ($0.07) Hero is CO with K A Q K
1 fold, MP raises to $0.15, Hero calls $0.15, 3 folds

Flop: ($0.37) 3 K 9 (2 players)
MP bets $0.20, Hero raises to $0.80, MP raises to $1.52 all in, Hero calls $0.72

Turn: ($3.41) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($3.41) Q (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $3.41
MP shows J 9 7 8 (a straight, Nine to King)
Hero shows K A Q K (three of a kind, Kings)
MP wins $3.24
(Rake: $0.17)

HEM>PT3 for PLO. Can't beat PLO5 when I run like utter crap, and I know it's variance blah blah, but I never get as lucky as villains because i'm never getting it in drawing to 1 out and in super-thin spots like some of the above.

Can I play this guy a couple hundred times??

Poker Stars $2.00+$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t10/t20 Blinds - 2 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (BTN/SB): t1500 75 BBs
BB: t1500 75 BBs

Pre Flop: (t30) Hero is BTN/SB with J K
Hero raises to t60, BB raises to t1500 all in, Hero calls t1440 all in

Flop: (t3000) 6 9 A (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: (t3000) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: (t3000) K (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t3000
Hero shows J K (two pair, Kings and Nines)
BB shows T 3 (a pair of Nines)
Hero wins t3000

BR: $183

10NL shot went piss-poor. Played 800 hands today, went up 2 BI at first, then lost 4.5 BI without much recovery (half bad beats, half not being able to fold AQ pre or overpairs on the flop), and now I'm not rolled for it anymore :fail:

Played a shortish session. Couldn't get on any PLO5 tables so I played a few PLO10 and mixed in some PLO5. Nothing too dramatic, no really sick beats for once, I made a few hands and got paid off in one or two spots and I made just under a buy-in at PLO10 and a few at PLO5 so hopefully I can keep this up if I can dodge the -ve variance after my recent encounter with it.

Question for the starcraft nerds in here: i've now been asked twice if i'm some guy called "Masq" who's well known on SC. What's the story about him & what can I do to level people?

Currently play at nl5(9 max) on full tilt
played 6868 hands and winning at 11.92bb/100 since i started playing again
my br is at 150
just wondering how long people would think i have to play nl5 at before going to nl10 .. and what bankroll i would need ?

Depending on how conservative your BRM is, between $200 and $300. Also, I like to play at least 20k hands at a level before I move up

I'd go for a comfortable 30 buy-ins minimum for NLH. Depends on what you're comfortable with and how much you're willing to risk before dropping down. I don't see much point in taking a 3 buy-in shot or something small like that.

77 $104.20 30.56% roi

these are sweet may try playing a lot more at once over the weekend.

Geez it looks like all the volume from July put me and enprinte on the bench for a while. I've played like 1.5k hands all month, and 2 sngs (Won 1, cashed other) I couldn't stand poker after that big downswing at 10nl, so I'll start adding mtt's and sng's soon.

I also purchased a new laptop from BestBuy and I love it. Btw, windows7 is awesome!

It makes interesting reading catching up on how you guys are doing.

An update (for those of you who remember me from my brief stint before):

Basically around March this year I stopped playing Poker completely. I noticed my game was off and I wasn't focusing, but the truth was that was the same for every aspect in my life. I was diagnosed with depression and subscribed anti-depressants. During this time I also split up with my long-term girlfriend, just to add to the misery.

Anyway, Poker took a complete back-burner whilst I focued on recovery. I'm pleased to say that I'm now feeling back to my normal self and I'm looking forward to playing Poker again. My intention is to deposit a roll of $150 and work up from 5nl. Depending on how I start, I may drop down to 2nl.

I feel that the time is right now. I'll be able to focus properly. But above all, please, please please remember that Poker counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things. There are much more important things in life.