So yesterday I went to my first live tournament (I'd been to pub games/home games, but nothing with a proper structure/dealer/in a card room etc.)
The event was the International's Team Event. 10 players per team, 11 (I think) teams entered for about 110 runners. Buy in was £30 + £5 for 8k chips and 2k bonus chips for £3. The structure was the top 18 got points, 1 for 18th, 2 for 17th etc etc and the team with the highest points at the end took 75% of the prize pool, with the other 25% being awarded to the top 11 runners. This meant that even if you took points, you weren't guaranteed a prize. Soft play towards team mates was allowed, and actually part of the strategy. Chip dumping was common, and was what won it for the team last year. Slow rolling was also encouraged by the TD. Needless to say, it was loud and raucous, but that was part of the fun. I was playing for the Hendon Mob forum team, who won the tournament last year. This year's team was:
myself
stowjon
Allen (Bogus)
darrensprengers
Dave (Dcsw7)
Dave (Dwh103)
Vinny (Dave's friend)
Ian (Doudeau)
Michelle (Ian's friend)
Paddy1969
As you can see, we had 3 Daves on our team, conversations got confusing.
Jon (stowjon) set off to London during this thing called the morning. With Jon being such a worry wart, we arrived at the venue a cool 2 hours early (although I reckon if he wasn't working Friday night, we would have set off then!). We looked around N1 for somewhere to drink, but of the 2ish pubs we found, all looked like if we ordered our drinks wrong we'd get a smack. We opted for waiting outside the club for 30 minutes since it was opening early. We eventually got inside, got talking to 2 members of Team Blapo and had a pint or two before everyone arrived.
Shortly after 2 we all sat down to play, everyone seemed to take the add-on (for less than a pint, why not?), so we all started with a 10k stack. Blinds started at 25-50 but rapidly increased. I was seated at seat 3, which for my first live tourney is probably the best place I could be placed.
I was certainly less nervous than I expected, I fell right into the game and was very comfortable. Partly because I'm confident I'm a good player and partly because matey to my left (captain of "Team Titty", I kid you not) was talking so loudly, I was barely noticed. After pay my blind, I was dealt my first hand, rags. Being the big blind, I had plenty of time to watch how the game went. It seemed that limping or raising 5x pre was the way this was played. This hand was mucked quickly.
My SB and I get dealt 10-7o, my table were all regs, talking to each other on first name terms, since I was new here, no one had an image of me (something I exploited later in the day). With just a couple of limpers, I raise up and get called in one place. Flop comes 10-8-blank, seeing the few hands that were mucked last hand, people where playing anything, I figured my pair was good, and I have runner runner outs. I bet into the flop and get called. Flop comes a nine. I bet, I get called. River comes Q (I think) and I bet out once more, he calls. I flip my pair and he mucks. I pick up 1-1.5k chips and any slight nerves that were there had vanished. I pile up my chips and the button is thrown around to me.
A few orbits later, I pick up AA from late position. 1 or 2 limpers and I min-raise. Matey who paid my 10-7 called. Flop comes king high, and his body changes. I'll stick a note in here, I seemed to be able to read people very easily yesterday (maybe because they were mainly bad players), nothing explicit however. I couldn't sit down and write a book saying person did x so he's got y. It was something subconscious but it worked. I have a feeling he's hit, maybe the king. He checks to me and I bet pretty hard. He can't put me on aces here, after our last pot. He gladly calls. Turn bricks, check bet call. River check bet, he thinks and calls. I flip my aces, I get an ooh from the table and he complains at me "You didn't play that like aces" and mucks. I'm up to 13-14k here. Then I go card dead.
Levels were 20 minutes, break after 4 levels. As noted, the blinds increased rapidly. If I remember, the first few levels were about 25-50, 50-100, 150-300 a25, 200-400 a25. My table broke in level 2, and I was moved onto a really quiet table, with a pro and some other decent players. I took blinds here and there, but without hitting any flop. I lost a few chips. I reached the break with around 8k chips.
I walk over to the rest of the team to here a few fell before the break, with stowjon knocking out bogus! A couple are doing well, a couple are straggling. To be expected. Break finishes and I sit back down. Card dead still. I eventually have 3 seats around me either get knocked out or moved table. I'm sat in a corner by myself, pretty innocuous. That's until I get 2 teams mates directly to my right and a reg to my left. Leftie and 2 to my right have a last longer, so I'm in a bad place. I'm losing my BB every orbit, and I'm not getting the cards. I eventually wake up with AK around the button, early position raises up for about 3x and I'm under 20 here so I ship over. He calls. I show, and he turns over KK. Knocked out my first tournament, to make it worse, 5 or 6? of my team are out now, and most are railing me. They all say unlucky Dave, I stay seated, I might as well see if I don't spike quad aces. Flop comes x-J-Q, straight draw, more outs. Turn is a 10, every one cheers, river is an ace...Split pot. I slump in my chair, and restack my chips.
Around this time, the Championship Play-off was playing, I cheer every time West Ham miss, much to the displeasure of a few of the table. One person asks if I'm a Seasider, I tell him no, I just don't want a London club to go up, I'd rather it be a Northern team. He gets really pretty angry and throws a few choice my way (as well as reminding me I was in London), deciding to now refer to me as "Northern Monkey", which scares me slightly due to my proximity to Hartlepool. I just laugh at him and must have put him tilt. A few hands later he's out, I tell him well played, he walks off muttering "Fucking Northern Monkey" under his breath. Unfortunately West Ham won, but they were the better team in fairness.
Blinds hit around 300-600 and I'm at about 6k chips now. 2 to my right is still betting erratically and being very loud. Every time the blinds are around me, Jon keeps saying to me, you need to wake up with something here. I'm easily bullied here, and I DID need to find something. 2 to my right is a reg called Sam, for those that have been to the Int, you'll know him. If not, he's a good sized fellow from Cameroon (I guess from the flag he was wearing around his neck). He's loud, excitable and an a really nice bloke, but he certainly doesn't take this kind of thing seriously. He bets out a ludicrous about in the cut off and I've got A-Qo in the SB. One fold then it's me, I insta ship and he starts chatting about the hand to parts of his team. He keeps shouting he wants to call and, shows his hand to his team (that was allowed in the team game) and they all laugh hysterically. He puts me an AQ and again there is more laughter and screaming. Inside I was laughing, but I just looked at the cards nonchalantly. His card protector is a huge coin, with an American Indian on it. Before he even flips it, his mate states, "you've already made your mind up this time, this is just for show". It comes down heads either way and he calls. I turn over my cards and he starts slow rolling. He's either got my crushed or I'm way ahead. He peels over 5-7o! Dealer deals the flop and it comes down blank blank 5. I sit silently as the turn bricks and the river is a 7 just for the rub down. I tap the table for nice hand I go and rejoin the team. pretty sick beat. But it happens.
I spent the next few hours railing sprengers, doudeuo and Vinny until registration opened for a £30 tournament, called the Behemoth. Starting stack was 15k with an available add-on of 3k for $3. Everyone seemed to be taking the add-on so I also opted to. Because of when we registered, I was sat to the left of Jon, however, he was absent for quite some time railing the final table of the team event. The whole table here knew each other, so I was a bit of a foreigner to them (not to mention my accent). During play, however, me and matey to my left got quite chatty and we had a laugh all through the tournament. Play here was really loose, basically everyone limping preflop, or calling any raises. One person, open folded 6-3 after betting on the turn with a pair of 3s on a Q high board. It was all a bit of a laugh, but the poker got more serious as the levels increased.
The major hand I remember was before 1st break. It was my button and it folds to me. The BB was defending his blind furiously every time someone went for it. I had about 24 blinds or so (another fast blind structure) and he had me covered. I look down at A-6o, I raise up 2.5x and he calls this time (he's usually raising or shoving over), looks like he wants to play. Flop comes x-x-A (two low cards). He checks to me. He's got an ace here, I decided to see how much he liked it. I bet over half the pot and he calls. I'm not putting him on A-J+ here, probably a high Ace and he's got me crushed. Dealers then turns a 6, I'm winning. He checks over and I bet hard again, leaving myself a small stack, but one that will be great to shove. He readily calls. River comes high, a picture card I think. He checks and after some play tanking (I knew I was shoving here, but I wanted to give him something to think about), I put my last few chips all in. He tanks for a while, I look him straight in the eyes. I think he puts me on a bluff here and eventually calls. I show my 2 pair and he shows A-9, I count my chips for a healthy double up, and I get a nice hand from everyone around the table.
The Champs League final was well into full swing by now, and penalties where looming. Being in London, I was surrounded by Chelsea fans, Chelsea haters, Tottenham fans, Tottenham haters and even some Germans. There were equal cheers for Chelsea's misses and goals. The tournament was basically unplayable, due to the noise and people not paying attention. I was seated facing the projector screen so I could do both. I took this opportunity to take a few chips no one wanted.
My first experience of a ruling occurred during this period. Player in seat 10 was very drunk and being pretty obnoxious. He had a fair few notes on the game, and didn't really care about the poker. He calls pre, and proceeds to watch the penalties. He's first to act on the flop, the dealer asks for his play, and everyone at the table took his gesture to be a check. 2 more checks and preflop raiser bets into it and it's passed back to him. He checks, and the dealer tells him that he has to fold, bet or call. He argues he didn't check before so the dealer calls over the director. He's told all the information and after brief deliberation, gives seat 10 a word and says the bet still stands an he must act on that. He unwillingly folds and the game continues. (I am putting this on the forum to see what you all think.)
I sit at around 40k until we get down to 10 men. The TD decides to take a break while we move to FT and they chip up and get a count. Before the tournament, 5 of the team had already left, but the other 5 of us decided to play the Behemoth. Of the 5 of us, 2 of us made the final table, Dave and Dave, myself and Dcsw7, Dave being 2 to my right. Between us was Sean Foley (I kid you not). Blinds were now 800-1600, the majority of the table were about around 40k, myself at 39. Average was 45k, Dave had 49k. The leader had 160k! Sean had a couple of thousand, short stack.
We sat down after break. Play had nitted up, everyone trying to ladder to the money. I had the choice of joining them, or trying to make some moves. I chose for the latter. 2nd or 3rd hand in, I'm in early position with A-8hearts, a lot of players would probably tell you lay this down, but my time playing SnGs has taught me to love these kind of hands, mid-suited aces. I find them very easy to play, but I suppose every has their own game. Most of the table is around 20 BB here, I raise up to about 2.5-3x. Matey to my direct left thinks a while then ships over, I have him JUST covered. Folds back to me, I go into the tank. It's not aces, he would have called me and trapped. I'm not putting him on kings here, it's a decent pocket pair. Maybe two other nines, but probably 10-10/J-J. Feel free to discuss my decision here, but I'm raising here to 4 bet all-in or call any shove that I rule out KK-AA and A-K. After a few moments, I call him. He turns over queens (unfortunately with the queen of hearts) and I show my A-8. Dave shouts over "good luck". Flop bricks for me, except for one heart. Turn is nothing and a blank river means I'm down to 2200 hundred chips, one and a quarter blinds. Dave remarks it's time for an epic come back, I state I've won SnGs coming back from an ante. Next hand I'm UTG with nothing, I muck. Next hand is my BB, hopefully I'll pick something up. I pay my blind and look at my 4 blue chips. Cards come around and I have KJ, nice fold I told myself. Someone in early raises, who is promptly 3 bet. Folds to me, I have no choice to call, but I'm shipping over here regardless of my stack. Initial raiser folds. Matey turns over aces, I grab my coat.
I go see how Jon is doing on the cash table, he's up about tree fiddy so far. He asks if we want to leave, but I told him I'll go rail Dave since Jon is crushing the table. I got knocked out shortly before midnight, come past 1 and Dave gets out of his seat, he's slowly blinding out. In that time, he's seen but 1 picture card (let alone an ace) and that came with a three. 10 minutes before matey from my first table whispers to me, "Is that guy Hendon Mob?", I nod, "He hasn't played a hand in nearly an hour, if he goes all in, I'm running." Seems like a few people have noticed. Dave has around 5/6 BB, I tell him now to start shipping any picture card, and most connectors. Everyone knows he's waiting for a monster, so he should be able to steal blinds, and even get called by hands he can beat. Dave sits back down around the BB, and it folds to matey, he raises up. Dave ships and gets called. Dave shows 10s and matey has A-K. Dave's first hand in over an hour and he's flipping. Dave grabs his coat and turns around, I shout unlucky as the flop shows an ace, apparently this was the first he knew of it. Flop nothing and the river is another ace for the rub down. We both walk off to start railing Jon.
Jon is playing basically every single hand here, and winning them all. He asks if I'm ready to go, I told him to have a few more orbits since he's got the table sussed. Short time later, Jon tips the dealer and goes and cashes in. A healthy stack of £50s in his wallet and we leave the club. We say goodbye to the forumites left and head back to the van. After the most convoluted drive around Hackney courtesy of the sat-nav, we land on the M11 and drive back to Cambridge. Exhausted after 6 hours kid in the past 48 hours, and my stomach growling after no (substantial) food for 30; I opt for a bottle of Ribena and a couple pints of water, sticking some pro gaming on the projector, I climb into bed, and sleep until 5pm today. Absolutely great day.
To sum up, I'm going to mention a few things I've learned.
Yesterday's tournaments played much more like online cash than online MTTs. Limping pre seems to be a profitable strategy with most holdings, extracting the most value on the turn. Whether this is the case in all tournaments is something I'm to learn.
Aggressive preflop play that is common place online is much rarer live, a style I take online. Aggressive players stick out a sore thumb and seem much easier to beat and get chips from. Slowing my game down and floating works wonders.
I adapted to live play immediately, and even adjusted my play on the fly, taking full advantage of my opponents.
Confirmed my beliefs that gapped connectors are great hands to play early.
Every prick and his dog have Beats by Dre.
Sunday 20 May 2012
Monday 16 April 2012
Late re-entry
So after a massive break from blog writing, I've decided to start up again. The plan is to have a combination of poker and other musings, and hopefully update regularly!
Poker wise, I'm in a good position. I've put up a $150 roll on Stars to play some MTTs, with 50% of that backed, and I have a small roll on Genting (48 quid that I've grinded up from 20 so far) that I'm just casually playing. There's a lot of potential for me to be playing and I'm hoping this blog will help motivate me further.
As far as the MTT backing is going; I'm slipping behind on volume played, and I'm behind on ROI, however, I've been playing well. I hope it's just a matter of time before that big score!
I'm not using any sort of bank roll management on Genting, just playing what and when I feel like. The traffic on there is dismal at best, and the software is appalling, however the play is fishy. It's more aimed at a spin up, than a grind. If I spin up a decent enough amount, the plan is to play a SnG organised on the Hendon Mob Forum for the Edinburgh leg of the GPS.
I feel like I'm having a rough time in life, though. It's not affecting my game, luckily. I find when I open up a table or two and start to play, I can get focused on the game and forget my worries, therapeutic if you will. It's the times that I'm alone with my thoughts that get to me, I may elaborate more on this in the future.
I think I'll wrap up there, and end the night playing some PLO cash on Genting.
Poker wise, I'm in a good position. I've put up a $150 roll on Stars to play some MTTs, with 50% of that backed, and I have a small roll on Genting (48 quid that I've grinded up from 20 so far) that I'm just casually playing. There's a lot of potential for me to be playing and I'm hoping this blog will help motivate me further.
As far as the MTT backing is going; I'm slipping behind on volume played, and I'm behind on ROI, however, I've been playing well. I hope it's just a matter of time before that big score!
I'm not using any sort of bank roll management on Genting, just playing what and when I feel like. The traffic on there is dismal at best, and the software is appalling, however the play is fishy. It's more aimed at a spin up, than a grind. If I spin up a decent enough amount, the plan is to play a SnG organised on the Hendon Mob Forum for the Edinburgh leg of the GPS.
I feel like I'm having a rough time in life, though. It's not affecting my game, luckily. I find when I open up a table or two and start to play, I can get focused on the game and forget my worries, therapeutic if you will. It's the times that I'm alone with my thoughts that get to me, I may elaborate more on this in the future.
I think I'll wrap up there, and end the night playing some PLO cash on Genting.
Tuesday 6 September 2011
Day ?: Lost in the bubble
Slow posting means slow poker.
I haven't played a hand now in over a week. I don't know why, but I just haven't felt like it. I'm on a losing streak, there's some bad play involved and I still need to think what I'm doing wrong, but I think I'm losing motivation. I wanted to treat this like a job, but I can't treat it like a job when I'm not making money, or when I'm making 20c per hour. I earn about $10/h at work and I hate that! The problem is, the SnGs are losing me money, but grinding the Omaha tables is just slow. I make profit, but at the 0.01/0.02$ tables, it's minimal.
I'm planning on sticking to my 5% buy-in rule, but now I'm going to buy-in for 100BB, not the 250BB I have been. This means I'll be playing at the 0.02/0.05$ tables, and hopefully I'll see a faster profit. I'll slow down on the SnGs, or maybe just play $1 ones, but I won't be spending the few hours a day I promised myself.
I think I'm just having a hard time at the minute, my moods fluctuating worse than a woman's and I'm just not feeling committed to anything. I'm finding myself just playing a lot of online games with friends as it seems to calm me best, and I don't want my mood to be affecting my poker.
Sunday 28 August 2011
Day 3: Fold Preflop
Yesterday was a disappointment. A small downswing, partly my own fault and partly to being outdrawn.
I started a couple of SnGs after yesterday's post. Lost them both. I started off playing my usual LAG style while the stacks were still deep. (I know there are good arguments for playing loose or tight in the open stages, both of them have their merits and are both effective if done correctly, feel free to discuss this in the comments or on THM forum!) I know, however, I started to get a little too loose. I played a few marginal hands badly and started to loose too many chips. I immediately realised this and started to tighten up, not only to stop losing chips pointlessly, but to extract more value when I get a bigger hand. (This is reliant on the table still seeing me as LAG player). My style switch was to be profitable, managing to get Kx hands to call my A10+ all in, knocking out players and increasing my chip stack considerably. With my stack growing, I tighten up a little bit more, no need to throw away the lead, but continue to be highly aggressive around the blinds/button. (I remember sat to the right of a complete nit, so I was happy to steal his blinds with ATC.) The fun began however when the tables became short handed and we were getting close to the money.
Short handed, I'm happy to get aggressive with A8+ hands. 4 or 5 handed, you are very often ahead, so trying to force an opponent all-in is generally a profitable approach. This is where I see my edge in SnGs, I feel confident playing short stacked, my shoving range is wide enough to get called, but also to be profitable. However, TWICE I got A9 in against A6. TWICE a 6 came on the flop. I ran KK into 88 to see an 8 on the turn. And lost an AK versus 1010 (yes, I'm behind but it's still a flip). My later stage play, I feel, was good. I didn't play silly like I did early on, I just feel I got unlucky with the cards that came out. Now while the defeats didn't tilt me, I felt a bit disheartened. I don't believe in luck, but subconsciously, I was telling myself it was one of those days where you just weren't going to win the coin flips, as though I had no luck. I could toss a coin 10 times, and guess everyone incorrect. With that in mind, I decided to stop the SnGs. I agree I was playing too fast, too aggressive. Maybe the F1 had gotten into me? I was pretty happy that Vettel managed to pip pole position in the final second. Qualifying was exciting, and Spa is my favourite race of the season, and after a 4 week break, I was glad to see it back. Either way, I was playing to fast, so I decided to open up a few HE ring games. A game I play MUCH slower, where I don't see massive wins/losses. It's contained, it's slower and it's steady. I managed to pick up some weaker tables, not ones that were willing to invest a lot into every pot, but when where you could show aggression and be able to take pots down. I'm aware I'm playing the lower stakes, the starting place for most players. I don't claim to be massively better than the people I play against, that would be absurd, but the vast majority I'll have a slight edge over, maybe it's knowing they'll fold to a 3-bet, knowing that with the weaker players, checking the flop generally means they missed, where a bet means they hit. Small edges that let me pick up small 10c pots here and there. I'm not winning much, but I'm winning bits. Half an hour or so later, and I've scraped back a dollar here and there, I decide to take a break. I wasn't on tilt, I wasn't playing badly, I didn't drop below my buy ins on both tables and I was building a steady, but small profit, I was playing good poker for the table I was on, however I decided to take a break. The losses in the SnGs had left a bad taste in my mouth and I wasn't enjoying playing the cash games. I jumped into some League of Legends with some friends and forgot the poker for the time being.
A few hours later, I still wanted to hit my VPP target for the day. I load up Stars and attempt some SnGs again. I played tighter to start, still loose, but not as loose. I had my usual swings in chip stack. Loose a hundred or two chips to start, get a reckless image, and then win some big pots with the big hands. Get to 4/5 handed and I'm sat in 1st/2nd place as always, but like earlier, I run bad and lose the flips, and the massively dominating hands. I fall down to 3BB in game, and manage to pull it back for a min-cash. I'd had enough for the day.
Now you may be think I'm in denial, that maybe I was playing badly, and it's my own fault for losing, however, I wasn't. I was playing good poker, at least for the level I'm at. I close Stars and play some more League of Legends before bed. As always, I fall into restless (my knee injury keeps me awake and prevents me from getting a decent night's sleep) sleep watching pro Starcraft 2 streaming and wake up around 6 hours later for work. I don't enjoy working at ASDA, it's mostly bearable, however some days it's just stressing. Today I had a 10 hour shift, I was shattered, I was in excruciating pain due to my knee and most importantly, I was missing the Belgian Grand Prix. With all of this in mind, I didn't want to play poker this evening. The 10 hours of mind numbing work gives you plenty of time to think, and I find myself thinking mainly about poker and this blog. I'm going to try treat poker like a job. I want this to be something serious, so let's treat it serious. With this is mind, I would admit I'm in state to be working. I'm in pain, I'm tired and I want to have a few drinks. I'll play some games, write up this blog and grind the tables tomorrow, at least until I go to work and providing I don't sleep in too late.
Tomorrow will be a good day, I'm sticking to cash only, see how I go with that and I'm going to revisit some albums I haven't heard in a while.
Hope everyone has had/is having a good bank holiday weekend!
I started a couple of SnGs after yesterday's post. Lost them both. I started off playing my usual LAG style while the stacks were still deep. (I know there are good arguments for playing loose or tight in the open stages, both of them have their merits and are both effective if done correctly, feel free to discuss this in the comments or on THM forum!) I know, however, I started to get a little too loose. I played a few marginal hands badly and started to loose too many chips. I immediately realised this and started to tighten up, not only to stop losing chips pointlessly, but to extract more value when I get a bigger hand. (This is reliant on the table still seeing me as LAG player). My style switch was to be profitable, managing to get Kx hands to call my A10+ all in, knocking out players and increasing my chip stack considerably. With my stack growing, I tighten up a little bit more, no need to throw away the lead, but continue to be highly aggressive around the blinds/button. (I remember sat to the right of a complete nit, so I was happy to steal his blinds with ATC.) The fun began however when the tables became short handed and we were getting close to the money.
Short handed, I'm happy to get aggressive with A8+ hands. 4 or 5 handed, you are very often ahead, so trying to force an opponent all-in is generally a profitable approach. This is where I see my edge in SnGs, I feel confident playing short stacked, my shoving range is wide enough to get called, but also to be profitable. However, TWICE I got A9 in against A6. TWICE a 6 came on the flop. I ran KK into 88 to see an 8 on the turn. And lost an AK versus 1010 (yes, I'm behind but it's still a flip). My later stage play, I feel, was good. I didn't play silly like I did early on, I just feel I got unlucky with the cards that came out. Now while the defeats didn't tilt me, I felt a bit disheartened. I don't believe in luck, but subconsciously, I was telling myself it was one of those days where you just weren't going to win the coin flips, as though I had no luck. I could toss a coin 10 times, and guess everyone incorrect. With that in mind, I decided to stop the SnGs. I agree I was playing too fast, too aggressive. Maybe the F1 had gotten into me? I was pretty happy that Vettel managed to pip pole position in the final second. Qualifying was exciting, and Spa is my favourite race of the season, and after a 4 week break, I was glad to see it back. Either way, I was playing to fast, so I decided to open up a few HE ring games. A game I play MUCH slower, where I don't see massive wins/losses. It's contained, it's slower and it's steady. I managed to pick up some weaker tables, not ones that were willing to invest a lot into every pot, but when where you could show aggression and be able to take pots down. I'm aware I'm playing the lower stakes, the starting place for most players. I don't claim to be massively better than the people I play against, that would be absurd, but the vast majority I'll have a slight edge over, maybe it's knowing they'll fold to a 3-bet, knowing that with the weaker players, checking the flop generally means they missed, where a bet means they hit. Small edges that let me pick up small 10c pots here and there. I'm not winning much, but I'm winning bits. Half an hour or so later, and I've scraped back a dollar here and there, I decide to take a break. I wasn't on tilt, I wasn't playing badly, I didn't drop below my buy ins on both tables and I was building a steady, but small profit, I was playing good poker for the table I was on, however I decided to take a break. The losses in the SnGs had left a bad taste in my mouth and I wasn't enjoying playing the cash games. I jumped into some League of Legends with some friends and forgot the poker for the time being.
A few hours later, I still wanted to hit my VPP target for the day. I load up Stars and attempt some SnGs again. I played tighter to start, still loose, but not as loose. I had my usual swings in chip stack. Loose a hundred or two chips to start, get a reckless image, and then win some big pots with the big hands. Get to 4/5 handed and I'm sat in 1st/2nd place as always, but like earlier, I run bad and lose the flips, and the massively dominating hands. I fall down to 3BB in game, and manage to pull it back for a min-cash. I'd had enough for the day.
Now you may be think I'm in denial, that maybe I was playing badly, and it's my own fault for losing, however, I wasn't. I was playing good poker, at least for the level I'm at. I close Stars and play some more League of Legends before bed. As always, I fall into restless (my knee injury keeps me awake and prevents me from getting a decent night's sleep) sleep watching pro Starcraft 2 streaming and wake up around 6 hours later for work. I don't enjoy working at ASDA, it's mostly bearable, however some days it's just stressing. Today I had a 10 hour shift, I was shattered, I was in excruciating pain due to my knee and most importantly, I was missing the Belgian Grand Prix. With all of this in mind, I didn't want to play poker this evening. The 10 hours of mind numbing work gives you plenty of time to think, and I find myself thinking mainly about poker and this blog. I'm going to try treat poker like a job. I want this to be something serious, so let's treat it serious. With this is mind, I would admit I'm in state to be working. I'm in pain, I'm tired and I want to have a few drinks. I'll play some games, write up this blog and grind the tables tomorrow, at least until I go to work and providing I don't sleep in too late.
Tomorrow will be a good day, I'm sticking to cash only, see how I go with that and I'm going to revisit some albums I haven't heard in a while.
Hope everyone has had/is having a good bank holiday weekend!
Saturday 27 August 2011
Day 2: Early Chip Lead
After depositing $100 onto Stars, I opened up my first table. A 9-handed turbo SnG for $3.50. My main game on Full Tilt when that was running. Despite losing a large portion of my stack, I knocked out the 4th place finisher to put myself into the money with a similar size stack to 3rd place. After 2 quick double ups, I knock out 2nd place and go heads up with a commanding chip lead. I few aggressive hands later, I get villain all in with rags against A7. An ace on the flop ends my first game on Stars and my first win. An immediate 10% roll increase!
The question has been brought up on the THM forum about how I'm managing my bankroll and what games I'll play, so I'll take a few minutes while watching the Formula 1 to explain. I'm going by a 5% buy-in limit in ring games, and 3% for sit 'n gos. I may occasionally play a MTT, however I don't consider myself a good tournament player, so don't expect many reports about taking any down! For ring games, I'll leave when I get to 10% of my roll, unless I know I have a massive edge on the table and can make more money. On the flip side, if I lose more than one buy-in on a table, I'll leave if I feel like I have no edge, I'll leave the table. As for games, I'll generally play HE and PLO8, PLO8 in ring games and HE for the SnGs mainly, however I'll probably play some HE cash and vice versa. Yesterday, I found myself with 4 tables open and I coped very well. With the purchase of a new monitor, I may move up to more tables, but we'll worry about that when we get there.
After a few hours play yesterday, I lost a few SnGs, but won more playing PLO8 ring. In about 2 hours play, I was up $13 playing .01/.02 games. Playing 4 tables at one time (which fills my screen full), along with my headphones on and some music, I found myself being fully focused on the game, not flicking about browsing the web.
If you are not aware, Stars have lowered their VPP requirement for VIP status down to 10% for the month of August. To reach Silver, I merely need to clear 75 points before 31st August. Yesterday, in my short session, I cleared 18 points. Putting a few more hours in, and I will reach it and claim 15% rakeback for September. To reach Silver in a normal month, I'd need to hit 750VPP per month, 25 per day. At the stakes I'm playing, I think this is a reasonable goal (until I go back to university), so besides expanding my bankroll, my main goal for September is to achieve Silver status. Not only that, but I need to clear 1700 points to fully release my 100% deposit bonus. Going by my 750 points per month goal, I can have it cleared in around 3 months. Which, if all goes to plan, will mean my bankroll will be over $250, meaning I can jump up table stakes.
Sat here thinking about it, I always had this idea that grinding up a bankroll would be a long and tedious process. Indeed I'll have losing sessions, but even with a small win of $10 like yesterday, in 15 days, I'll have moved up stakes. This puts an aim of gaining about 2 buy ins per day, and I can move up stakes every 2 weeks.
Qualifying 3 is about to start up, so I'll end here, watch the cars and then start playing. Thank you all for the positive response to my blog, and I hope I can continue to write up enjoyable posts.
Qualifying 2 is drawing to a close now, so in about 15 minutes, I can start today's grind
Friday 26 August 2011
Day 0: Registration
I've decided to start a blog to track my progress playing poker online (and maybe even live in the future). I'm looking post regularly, every other day if not daily, granted I have something worthwhile to say. Not only will I post my progress, I'll occasionally post up some big/interesting hands, not only so I can analyse my own play, but I can hopefully get some critical feedback from other people. Chances are, I'll also post up the same hands on The Hendon Mob forum. Firstly, a bit about myself.
I'm a 20 year old student, reading Mathematics at Girton College, University of Cambridge. I live nn the wonderfully wet North East coast, stacking shelves when I'm not studying. I've always found myself most comfortable and happy playing cards (and doing maths, of course), whether it was playing Jacks, Twos and Eights or New Market with my grandma, or playing game after game of (Klondike)Solitaire on the computer, cards always kept me occupied. I remember a very old laptop my grandparents had loaded with a large card game package, two games jump out in the memory, Blackjack and 5-Card draw. I was terrible at draw, I didn't really understand folding, I felt every hand could be won and considering I was merely playing a CPU, the odds were massively against me. Blackjack, however, I could win. Was it beginners luck? Did my maths prowess give me an edge? Either way, when I finally finished off a game, I'd generally be in profit. It may have only been a minute gain, but it was there.
Roll on the years. Forgetting about the fun of playing Blackjack on the laptop, learning the rules to bigger and better card games: Freecell, Canasta, Bridge, Texas Hold'em....Playing very casual games with friends and family, I'd always lose, yet in hindsight, I know why I lost. I played scared. I knew the rules but I didn't understand the game. Always playing Ax hands, regardless of the second card, playing picture cards out of position, making obvious betting patterns and I didn't understand stack sizing. Everyone starts off like this, but looking back, it embarrasses how bad I would play, and how easy it would actually be to win those games.
Roll on university and poker started to surround me, although I didn't realise it. In our house we'd have regular sit 'n gos, a fellow maths student played a lot and always asked me to join in, and not to mention the bad influence of the college bar man. In March of this year, I made the decision to postpone my study for a year due to suffering with depression. Besides getting a job, I knew I'd need something else to do during the break, due to a knee injury, sport wasn't an option. That's when I thought about poker. On paper, I have everything you need. I'm a quick learner, strong mental maths abilities, a knack for reading people and most importantly a love of playing cards and gambling. The weeks before leaving university, I started reading up on poker. Learning the basics, position, ranges, bet sizing. 4am, couldn't sleep one evening and I found a five pound free offer on William Hill. I lose it all in about 5 minutes, managed to run AJ into 1010. Great start.
From there, I just read around more. Lurked around the Hendon Mob forum. I regularly played on FTP, swinging widly. (I didn't use BRM). Just before Black Friday, I lost my last $10 on FT trying to spin it up quickly. Since then, I had no way of playing poker. I had no money and nothing on other sites. I made a plan then, as soon as I got a job, I'd deposit a decent sum of money ($100ish) and try and grind up from there. Using good BRM and playing a decent volume. In the mean time, I was stuck doing nothing. Betfair, however, were kind enough to give me a $10 starter roll. I played with this for a few weeks, maybe playing a sit 'n go once every other day. I felt maybe my skill was slipping, if I was winning more often I'd play more. Or is it if I played more, I'd win more?
One Saturday, I come home lightly pissed from an afternoon drinking, had some food and decided I wanted to play a MTT (not my strong point, but at least you get value). I sat down and saw a $3,500 turbo guarantee starting shortly. 1200 runners at $3 made the guarantee, top 180 got paid. Good enough odds for at least a cash, especially since I feel I have an edge with turbo games. After a slow first 2 levels, I find myself winning coinflip after coinflip and I'm leader by a considerable margin. Around 2 hours later, we're down to the final table, myself with a chip lead of double 2nd place, sat directly to my left. The $500 first prize actually looks winnable! First hand of the final table, and I find my A2c running into 2nd place's KhJs, flop comes Axx with 2 spades. Villain has out, but needs runner-runner cards. I'm looking good to have nearly half the chips in play, with massively high blinds, I can just bully my way to the win. Turn card is a spade.
River...spade. Of course. With my stack crippled, I'm down in 2nd place. Luckily, I'd be on a table with each of the larger stacks during the tournament, so I felt I knew how to beat them.
Down to 5 handed, and I'm still in 2nd, villain to my left is still 1st. 3rd stack gets it all in with the 2 short stacks, and wins. He shoots to chip leader and we're sat 3 handed. I'm guaranteed $282 now, definitely not a small amount of money, but it doesn't seem enough. I should be winning the $500 prize. Better get those chips back. Chip leader has suddenly become very aggressive. He has a large chip stack, so is shoving and limping, but from how I've seen him play, he'll limp very loose. I'm now down to about 10BB and have yet to see a hand worth getting it all in with. Chip lead limps, and I see Q9o in the SB. I think I'm ahead of his range, and I know he's capable of folding. If he folds, I'll have enough chips to fold a few more hands until I get a monster, if he calls, I'm sure I'm ahead most of the time for this to be the right play. BB folds and I get a call. He flips Q10o. $282, my biggest win ever and yet my heart failed to skip a beat. I just closed the table as though I did that every day. Went downstairs and told my parents, still no emotion about it. I grab a drink, cash out the money and go to bed for work the next day. Why did I feel nothing? Was it because I knew I could have won it? Was it because I knew I couldn't enjoy that money and that I was going to use it for getting to work and paying off some thing? No. It's because I knew it was such a small amount compared to what I could win. Call me arrogant, but I know if I put the time in, I can win more.
So this leads us up to today. It's payday, and as I promised myself, I've deposited $100 on Stars. I should be returning to uni on the 1st of October, this gives me 5 weeks of almost uninterrupted play time. I work 3 days a week: Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Sunday is all day, however Monday/Wednesday I merely work 7-12 on the morning. With this in mind, I can easily get several hours of play time during the day. The plan now is to grind up as much of a roll as I can before uni, and grind away during term time to give myself a bit more money to enjoy myself when I'm there [read getting drunk in the bar discussing poker]. Whether I go upwards and onwards from there, that's another matter.
Let's shuffle up and deal!
I'm a 20 year old student, reading Mathematics at Girton College, University of Cambridge. I live nn the wonderfully wet North East coast, stacking shelves when I'm not studying. I've always found myself most comfortable and happy playing cards (and doing maths, of course), whether it was playing Jacks, Twos and Eights or New Market with my grandma, or playing game after game of (Klondike)Solitaire on the computer, cards always kept me occupied. I remember a very old laptop my grandparents had loaded with a large card game package, two games jump out in the memory, Blackjack and 5-Card draw. I was terrible at draw, I didn't really understand folding, I felt every hand could be won and considering I was merely playing a CPU, the odds were massively against me. Blackjack, however, I could win. Was it beginners luck? Did my maths prowess give me an edge? Either way, when I finally finished off a game, I'd generally be in profit. It may have only been a minute gain, but it was there.
Roll on the years. Forgetting about the fun of playing Blackjack on the laptop, learning the rules to bigger and better card games: Freecell, Canasta, Bridge, Texas Hold'em....Playing very casual games with friends and family, I'd always lose, yet in hindsight, I know why I lost. I played scared. I knew the rules but I didn't understand the game. Always playing Ax hands, regardless of the second card, playing picture cards out of position, making obvious betting patterns and I didn't understand stack sizing. Everyone starts off like this, but looking back, it embarrasses how bad I would play, and how easy it would actually be to win those games.
Roll on university and poker started to surround me, although I didn't realise it. In our house we'd have regular sit 'n gos, a fellow maths student played a lot and always asked me to join in, and not to mention the bad influence of the college bar man. In March of this year, I made the decision to postpone my study for a year due to suffering with depression. Besides getting a job, I knew I'd need something else to do during the break, due to a knee injury, sport wasn't an option. That's when I thought about poker. On paper, I have everything you need. I'm a quick learner, strong mental maths abilities, a knack for reading people and most importantly a love of playing cards and gambling. The weeks before leaving university, I started reading up on poker. Learning the basics, position, ranges, bet sizing. 4am, couldn't sleep one evening and I found a five pound free offer on William Hill. I lose it all in about 5 minutes, managed to run AJ into 1010. Great start.
From there, I just read around more. Lurked around the Hendon Mob forum. I regularly played on FTP, swinging widly. (I didn't use BRM). Just before Black Friday, I lost my last $10 on FT trying to spin it up quickly. Since then, I had no way of playing poker. I had no money and nothing on other sites. I made a plan then, as soon as I got a job, I'd deposit a decent sum of money ($100ish) and try and grind up from there. Using good BRM and playing a decent volume. In the mean time, I was stuck doing nothing. Betfair, however, were kind enough to give me a $10 starter roll. I played with this for a few weeks, maybe playing a sit 'n go once every other day. I felt maybe my skill was slipping, if I was winning more often I'd play more. Or is it if I played more, I'd win more?
One Saturday, I come home lightly pissed from an afternoon drinking, had some food and decided I wanted to play a MTT (not my strong point, but at least you get value). I sat down and saw a $3,500 turbo guarantee starting shortly. 1200 runners at $3 made the guarantee, top 180 got paid. Good enough odds for at least a cash, especially since I feel I have an edge with turbo games. After a slow first 2 levels, I find myself winning coinflip after coinflip and I'm leader by a considerable margin. Around 2 hours later, we're down to the final table, myself with a chip lead of double 2nd place, sat directly to my left. The $500 first prize actually looks winnable! First hand of the final table, and I find my A2c running into 2nd place's KhJs, flop comes Axx with 2 spades. Villain has out, but needs runner-runner cards. I'm looking good to have nearly half the chips in play, with massively high blinds, I can just bully my way to the win. Turn card is a spade.
River...spade. Of course. With my stack crippled, I'm down in 2nd place. Luckily, I'd be on a table with each of the larger stacks during the tournament, so I felt I knew how to beat them.
Down to 5 handed, and I'm still in 2nd, villain to my left is still 1st. 3rd stack gets it all in with the 2 short stacks, and wins. He shoots to chip leader and we're sat 3 handed. I'm guaranteed $282 now, definitely not a small amount of money, but it doesn't seem enough. I should be winning the $500 prize. Better get those chips back. Chip leader has suddenly become very aggressive. He has a large chip stack, so is shoving and limping, but from how I've seen him play, he'll limp very loose. I'm now down to about 10BB and have yet to see a hand worth getting it all in with. Chip lead limps, and I see Q9o in the SB. I think I'm ahead of his range, and I know he's capable of folding. If he folds, I'll have enough chips to fold a few more hands until I get a monster, if he calls, I'm sure I'm ahead most of the time for this to be the right play. BB folds and I get a call. He flips Q10o. $282, my biggest win ever and yet my heart failed to skip a beat. I just closed the table as though I did that every day. Went downstairs and told my parents, still no emotion about it. I grab a drink, cash out the money and go to bed for work the next day. Why did I feel nothing? Was it because I knew I could have won it? Was it because I knew I couldn't enjoy that money and that I was going to use it for getting to work and paying off some thing? No. It's because I knew it was such a small amount compared to what I could win. Call me arrogant, but I know if I put the time in, I can win more.
So this leads us up to today. It's payday, and as I promised myself, I've deposited $100 on Stars. I should be returning to uni on the 1st of October, this gives me 5 weeks of almost uninterrupted play time. I work 3 days a week: Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. Sunday is all day, however Monday/Wednesday I merely work 7-12 on the morning. With this in mind, I can easily get several hours of play time during the day. The plan now is to grind up as much of a roll as I can before uni, and grind away during term time to give myself a bit more money to enjoy myself when I'm there [read getting drunk in the bar discussing poker]. Whether I go upwards and onwards from there, that's another matter.
Let's shuffle up and deal!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)