Saturday 6 December 2008

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Sunday 27 July 2008

New Coach and First Session

So last night...Sat i had my first lesson with my new coach tubasteve off deauces cracked

It was a really interesting session , First off i played 2 tables for a while , whilst steve
sort of watched , trying to analyse my play without interfering , hope that wasnt too difficult
for him

There were a few interesting spots , but i think one of the most important things , if not the
most important thing was during the discussion we had at the end of the session , Steve was just
commenting about how 2 guys with ironman markers had just played a hand pretty standardly ,
i mentioned to him that i would rarely 4 bet AK and i think he said that was a BIG leak or maybe
he said HUGE whatever the comment was that sounded the alarm bells

He kindly did me the favour of explaining exactly how it was a HUGE leak , We pokerstoved AK versus a
pretty tight range , only 6% of hands for the relevant 3 bet from villain AK turned out to be A
very slight favourite about 52 48 , assuming the 4 bet had taken place we were able to fold out over
50% of the villains 3 bet range , we did however lose 10% equity and our hand was now a 60 40
underdog , but it was at the expense of 50% of his hand range !!

So that was the HUGE leak explained . Later in the evening i was in the cutoff with AK obviously raising
the 16/12 button 3 bet me , so after the session with Steve i waited a little and 4 bet
the button went all in , i called and was up against KK , luckily an ace came on the flop and
i won , im not sure if that was how it was meant to be and ill post the hand to my coach later
but that was how the hand turned out .
We touched on a couple of other things and i realized i am a book buyer but not a book reader as i had all
the books recommended but had only really glanced at them , anyway i am straying from the subject a little

The point of the post was really to illustrate how important it is to have somone able to pont out
things such as the AK situation . I mean i just would nt of ever 4 bet unless Steve had picked up on it

Not sure if this is exactly how i should have played it

www.pokerhand.org/?2953265

Anyway later all

Sunday 20 July 2008

Update

so its been a short while since my last post so ill try and update everyone on whats going on

the repair to my pc is taking a little longer than expected so i have to use my laptop

this means i can only play realistically for me just the 2 tables so i have only played around 3500 hands although its at 3bb for about $100 so thats not too bad

on the studying side of things i have read the first 5 chapters of poker mindset
and its pretty cool to say the least , i really am developing the habit of trying to
make the right decision , and am less aware of the results

i also have been revisiting my pre flop play and have hopefully got the right mix
my post flop is improving too so more good news

and i have a new coach , yet to start my first lesson but thats too come

anyway , trying to keep up with all the blogs , will post some hands soon

later all

Friday 11 July 2008

Just Posting

Ok so its been a little quiet the last couple of days

Worked out that i can read a book whilst cycling at the gym. Awesome !!

It wasnt that i was allowed , just that the bike i was on had a suitable
handlebar rest , So i can study whilst at the gym now , and it was the poker mindset i was reading , so after reading the chapter 2 i immediately re read the part about studying , my weak spot . Sadly after getting back to the office i went on Lost Book Tilt !!! No kidding !!!

However although i lost about a buyin during the evening , i was very conscious of the fact that i was having a bad run of cards and that most of my decisions were ok
i think , tilt had ended by then

The following day , i found the book so i was well pleased ,
When i got home in the evening my computer had stopped , so i had to take it to the computer repairman

Thnakfully the laptop is ok so i can play a little , although there is no hud

Anyway , trying to keep the momentum going with the posting on my blog , and have even made some comments on others

Feeling good at the moment , about the game

Later

Monday 7 July 2008

Help Wanted and Needed !!!

I have recently been trying to open up from the cutoff and button, the problem is I am a little unsure of my preflop range from these positions

Here’s a few things that I am not sure of

Suited hands in the cutoff or button . What is the range here , would I raise a hand like Q7 in the cutoff or do I do it on the button or at all ?

I know it is player dependant but if I am going to open up I will have to raise more regardless of the players

How about J2 suited on the button , I would raise k7 suited from the cutoff and the button , but is that correct ?

The next area is when I have these hands and I am going to raise but get raised first , for example K10 suited I would normally raise from the cutoff and the button and depending on the table utg+1 but what if I am on the button and get a utg+1 or cutoff raiser ?
do I fold ? do I call ? What do I do ?

As well as the suited hands what about 1 gappers or 2 gappers and how far down do I go , currently I will raise 56off and up from the button in an unraised pot , is that correct ?

Then what about the higher cards when in a raised pot ? how about A10 or KQ do I fold raise or call , it is these marginal hands that I stuggle with

On the C betting side of things , what sort of percentages do you C bet against , I used to C bet all the time , but now I try for somone who folds over 70 percent, is that too high ? , should I go lower whats the right percentage

Sorry about the length and number of questions but I need answers

Later All

Graham

Sunday 6 July 2008

Question ?

www.pokerhand.org/?2852869
www.pokerhand.org/?2852926

just confirm that i shouldnt be doing this sort of thing ?
i mean ive been playing long enough , i think !!

Poker Thoughts and Reflection

So at the end of May the plan was to Reflect and comment on the year before . In true style that didn,t materialise So a little later than originally planned and more a reflection on my learnings and shortfallings and some general ramblings here is something

During June I got to realize that I call too much , particularly large turn bets when I am on a draw , looking back through June I can see this is a big leak !! Hopefully someone can confirm this

Another thing that I felt happened apart from the usual bad beats was I got involved with short stacks to much and my play against them was pretty much to feel they were committed and just get it all in at some stage , again I fell this is a leak

Whilst reading the blogs I came across an entry from Greg all about results and being results
Orientated , as with most things I sort of don’t get them straight away , they sort of slowly filter into me , and at some stage during June it finally all filtered through

So now the important things for me whilst playing are the decisions , I am less worried about the results or the variance to a degree and far more concerned with the decisions I am making
So that is a good point

I will high light some week points in my poker life and hopefully this will stimulate my brain a little . Firstly I don’t really study , I play , don’t ask me why but I just do , id much rather play than pick up a book or watch a video , I have and I do both , but not as part of any plan , and maybe theres a thing there , NO PLAN !!

Wow I just realized another really important thing , I seldomly review hands !! how can I have forgotten that !! that’s a nother thng I need to work on !!

“And One More Thing “ !! in the words of Jackie Chan’s Uncle ( you have to watch the cartoon !! )

I don’t sweat or blog enough !!

So at some stage of the month I intend to formulate a plan or timetable for my poker playing
And studying and try to work it into my lifestyle

Although the above doesn’t run in a particular order within this entry it should be way way at the top . This is a big leak , Lack of Discipline , like I said I play more than I study

Please comment with ideas on the above !! and how you do these things

Edit …man I need to make a plan…a proper plan…

PS… any tips on hand reading

Ok .. This entry probably reflects my poker life , Unorganised… that’s probably the best word to use

July Goal - ORGANISATION

Saturday 5 July 2008

June

Ok ...A couple of things ... At the end of May i had been playing 50NL
for a year... The plan was to reflect and see what i had an hadn,t learnt
and where i feel i am at present regarding this game...

First the results ...





Saturday 31 May 2008

12 months at 50 nl

Yep thats how long ive been playing 50nl now

Im going to take the weekend off and try to make some sense of what ive learnt
over the last year !!

Whilst i appreciate that i could probably do this at any time , it does seem like a suitable time to do this

I will try and evaluate my strengths and weakneses and work out a strategy
for the coming year

One thing i am sure is that i lack discipline in my poker life and this is one area that is a leak for sure and one area i really need to work on

Later all

May - And 12 months at 50nl Cash Games

Still a long long way to go !!!

Ok I have finished for May , I am on a downswing so although my results seem good i feel like shit !! Honestly !! Feel like losing when i am winning !!

Here is the evidence !!





Thursday 8 May 2008

May Goals - Of Sorts

This month i want to try and consolidate from my April performance
One thing that stands out in May already is that i focus better when playing only 2 tables .

I find it easier to pick out the weaker players ( although my hud stats indicate this anyway , its good that i can pick them out from ther play too )

I also find it easier to pick spots to isolate them and am prepared to make riskier decisions against them.

It obviously also gives me more time to put players on ranges too

So that sort of the first goal

The next goal is to try and get more sweats conversations in with players
This is one of my weak spots but i had a short conversation recently and it gave me a couple of hints / ideas

One was , whilst reviewing top winning , losing , tricky hands , to try and put yourself in your opponents position , so play his hand as opposed to yours , this was a new idea for me so i was quite pleased

Another little pointer was about limpers who limp after a raise and a limp
ie i raise 4x say the sb calls and the bb calls , obviously if the bb has a premium hand then he should be squeezing , so if he doesnt squeeze maybe we can give him a more defined range ( maybe )

So thats the second goal

Later

Monday 5 May 2008

April In Words - of sorts !!

Well after the results the previous month i was alittle worried about April
and as has been pretty much been standard i started off with a losing run

I could not really put my finger on anything in particular although i know for sure that early in April my small blind completion was horrific easily beating my button play

I continued to study my excel spreadsheet desperately trying to find the leaks and then thought the only answer was a session with my coach. After a few days of trying to arrange a lesson he sent me an email suggesting that i was a little anal about my spreadsheet ( my words not his ) and that it may be distracting me form the real task which was playing poker and focusing on the hands more .

After a few minutes deliberation , i had to come to the conclusion that he was right
It pretty much coincided with my upswing and therefore felt his theory had strength
around this time i also reduced the number of tables to 2 or 3 and tried to focus on playing against the weaker players more if possible .The combined results seemed good
and i went on a 10 buyin run which for me is quite good ( unheard of actually !! )

Then a small downswing when i got it all in deepsatcked with the Ace high flush only to run into a royal !! . The remaining 3k hands i think was spent watching people fold as i was dealt AA after AA and KK after KK many any times , i am surprised i didnt tilt on lots of ocasions but just concentrated on the hands . I did in fact quit on a few occasions when i had been dealt AA twice And KK twice and people just kept folding . I couldnt bear it . I finally managed to grind it out to $500 dollars and stopped as i was feeling pleased

Wednesday 30 April 2008

Well That was April !!

Comments on the month to follow !! But as i have had a better month i feel like posting . None of this " you only sing when youre winning " mularky here !!



Monday 14 April 2008

Comments Please

http://weaktight.com/161616
http://weaktight.com/161617

Ok heres another 2 hands i feel i misplayed

How should i have played the trips

With the kings , the guy was 18/16 , i felt the 10 was in his range
and by the time i realized he wasnt slow playing it was too late

When should i have realized his hand was weak ?

Comments Please

Ok , quick description of play ,
In hand 1 im utg with JJ raise the villain and get an all in bet , i have been at the table for about 2 hands

http://weaktight.com/160790

So after a few more hands the stats come up , he is 68 20 i have seen him do this min raise about 4 or 5 times
so i pretty much know hes hasnt a huge hand

I have also seen him c bet too , the question is , does anyone not call this all in bet ?
from what i have seen of him and also his stats , i must call

http://weaktight.com/160796

I suppose my final question is , would anyone call his all in bet with JJ ?

Later guys

Thursday 10 April 2008

SIGNS OF SUCK !!

I think Greg has a lot of insight into this game


Calling flop bets OOP
Calling three bets with the wrong hands
Calling with offsuit broadways
Excessive Aggression with weak made hands
Excessive blind play
Excessive c-bets
Not betting the best hand

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Where To Start !!


















Ok Where To Start !!

March was probably one of the worst months i have had since i started playing cash games last June ans it has taken me this long to recover in order to post to my blog

I had high expectations of myself and they certainly did not materialise

The first problem i had was losing my poker tracker records which sort of tilted me
for a few days .

Then i had 2 weeks where i lost al the time at 50nl , lots of tilt play which stemmed from a bad beat that i could not cope with. Forunately for me i won a few hands at 100nl and one big hand at 200nl where i probably only played 15 hands AA held up against QQ

My major problems are calling down hands that i really should not be in to start with and also my small blind play is very poor and i am playing way too many hands
from this position.

On thing i have noticed though was that my big wins and big losses sort of netted themselves out so i am confused as to where i lost the money , thinking back probably in calling turn bets too much then folding on the river ,

This month tarted off a little better but i am still a couple of buy ins down at 50nl and sadly i have turned into a nit playing 17 15 or 16 14 i know thats no way to play for sure .

Anyway hopefully i can recover and post a better month this month

Apologies for the lack of updates but i just didnt have it in me

Anyway Good luck at the tables

Graham

Saturday 15 March 2008

Hand Ranges Additions



Hi These are hands ranges of an unknown person !!! lol !!!

Im sure it doesnt matter at the stakes i play at present

Does anyone have any additions or would anyone replace any hands
The yellow represents the utg ranges and the blue represents the late pos range

i thnk this is your standard 20 /18 type player

Hand Ranges Additions

Saturday 8 March 2008

Dissapointed !!

Well this week has been a bit of a dissapointment to be honest and i just need to get this off my chest !!

Although its not really the week but , mainly this morning , Saturday am , that has me feeling like this

I try to play FT early in the mornings and late at night if i can and this mornings session went pretty crappy , i ran KK into AA early in the session.

Now i will nevere ever ever fold KK preflop NEVER !!! but i just resigned myself to losing , i was on the button the guy play 11/8 in the bb had 3 bet my $2 dollar raise , i 4 bet him to $17 he went all in ! AA for sure so i had too call

This must have tilted me as i made to poor calls afterwards whilst trying to regain my money ( thats an obvious sign of tilt !! )

One was to a guy playing 74 / 40 on a K7Q9 board rainbow ish he went all in with
his $285 stack after my double barrel bet of about $8 , i was convinced he had nothing....mmmmmm trip 9s are not nothing . I had K7

Strange as i very rarely make thes donkish type calls

The second one was a sb raise when i was holding AQs , i re raised to $6 and he went allin , His AK held up !!

Hopefully ive gotten these stupid calls out of my system , hence the need to write about them

Earlier in the week i deleted my pokertracker database but luckiilly i had recored the daily play in my spreadsheet . Here are the results so far , im am dissapointed !!

















So all in all a pretty donkish week . Im just going to go outside and scream really loudly !!

Donk Hand 1
www.pokerhand.org/?2232852

Donk Hand2
www.pokerhand.org/?2232850

Sunday 2 March 2008

Random Story - Relevant Though

I come from a Rugby town . Gloucetser ! I think at one stage in recent history , Gloucestershire had more Rugby teams per square foot and per poplation than anywhere else in the world , I think that may still apply.

However my love was football so as a pretty talented footballer it was difficult getting any sort of recognition . As a teenager who loved the game i probably spent as much time playing rugby as i did football !!

As i grew older , late teens early twentys , i was fortunate to play with a group of
pretty talent players , one in particular shone !! sadly he was a little small at around 16 17 18 when most pros would be picked . As a gruop of friends we all had varying levels of succes at semi pro footbal .

It sounds really strange but seemingly weeks after his 21st birthday our talented friend suudenly shot up from around 5ft 5 to a massive 6ft 1 , outrageous !!

Anyway this could do nothing but improve his chances of making it to the dizzy heights of proffesional football , we had all heard of Kevin Keegan back then
started playing pro football at 23 !! so we still had a chance

Finally despite a series of unfortunate events i.e postponemnet of a trial , acceptance of a trial and then the sacking of the manager who was about to employ him , he finally made it ( thats a story about determination , maybe another time )

After about 8 to 9 months we were wondering when he was going to play his first game . The season in which he was signed had almost finished , he said he didnt know and that it may be the following season . When we enquired as to what he had been doing his Frustrated cry was " Theyve stuck me in the F&$+ing GYM " They said im to weak

Jsesus !! was our answer , man this guy in our eyes was nt weak no way , but anyway that was what they had done to him nearly a whole season in the gym developing his physique . We could nt believe it, but hey who are we to question professionals !!

So in our wisdom off we went to the gym and incorporated it into our schedules

The relevance !! for goodness sake i here you cry !!

WELL !! weightlifting at the gym is all about pumping iron !! right !! WRONG

Weightlifting , Bodybuilding is not just about pumping iron , in factsome people would argue its only about 50% the other half !! well thats down to dieting and discipline too

If we took my time available to play poker in my current climate , man would i be pumping some iron , and seeing the results right !! Wrong again

Im pumping iron all right but there is not much dicipline and im on a poor poor diet .

So one of my goals this month is to review my hands and study nearly as much as
i play or at least 25%of the time . Poker is as we all know not just about playing
which i have been guilty of in the past but hopefully not in the future

Man that was a long story for a short point !!

Saturday 1 March 2008

February....Results & Progress

Well February is over and here are the obligatory figures !! Sadly the presentation is not the greatest , however the content is there

Firstly i want to apologise for the lack of updates and blogs and for my poor participation within my group , Hoever i hope ill be forgiven as i have been concentrating on a shed load of hands this month ( for me that is !! )






















Since i started playing NL back in June / July one of my biggest challenges has been to reduce the difference between VPIP and PFR , i have tried everything , at least i thought i had !!

Towards the end of January i had sort of had enough , not of poker !! but of not being able to work this out . I was convinced there was no need for any coaching whatsoever until i had sorted this out !! And i was also convinced that the comment that misanthorpic got on one of his posts in January about how a coach could sort out a few problems etc etc was completely wrong .

How wrong i was !!

Late in January i arranged to sessions with a coach to see if he could help
I have had coaching on a few occasions previoulsy but they sort of took a cut and played your hands for you , that sort of thing .It never really worked for me .

Anyway this was different !! within a session i had already been set upon my path
to reducing the difference between my VPIP & PFR although it was through changing my style a little . Im not sure what went on but it really changed my understanding of the game .

I had a great start to Feb and reached a high of 7 buyins only to experience a 10 buyin downswing from my peak until the second coaching session when he re corrected some of my mistakes which i had been slowly falling back into and the rest of Feb was pretty comfortable , at least thats how i feel

I feel a little enlightened and cannot wait for March and although i have said this many times i am hoping March will be the real deal

I intend to get in more sweats take part in my forum more too anyway that the update for now

Heres to March everyone and Good Luck !!

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Gis A Job... I can do that !!

"I was a great tilter. I knew all the different kinds. I could do steaming-tilt, simmering tilt, too loose tilt, too agressive tilt, too passive tilt, playing too high tilt, playing too long tilt, playing too tired tilt, annoyed tilt, injustice tilt, frustration tilt, sloppy tilt, revenge tilt, underfunded tilt, shame tilt, distracted tilt, scared tilt, envy tilt, this-is-the-worst-pizza -ive-ever-had tilt, i-just-got-showed-a-bluff-tilt and of course the classics: i-gotta-get-even-tilt and i-only-have-so-much-time-to-lose-this-money-tilt, also known as demolition-tilt."

The Enlightened Tommy Angelo !!

Saturday 9 February 2008

VP$pip PFR Catagorization

Hey Check out Inspirions recent post on player categorization
Looks good

Short Piece

Im going to do research and write a small piece about emotions and how they relate to poker , and how we can sometimes feel like were losing when really were are winning , obvioulsy the reverse can apply and we can be winning when really we are losing

It will hopefully be a lot about state of mind and how we can make efforts to control it and maybe even change it and there maybe a few other ideas in there to

I have been motivated a little by reading a few blogs and realizing how useful they can be , Whiskey Chasers is always informative and fun to read , but its also a record !! A record of things that have happend . I used to keep a diary of all the
good things that happend during the week and then review them at the end of the week . So if my Friday was a bad day it would not mean i had had a bad week as i had all these other good things going on throughout the week that i had forgotten

Anyway this is just jabber so ill leave it for my piece

Later

Thursday 7 February 2008

Just a Couple of things

As i am sure we are all doing , i have been working on my game recently , one area ,
although its difficult to work on , more like waiting for the opportunity , is the sueeze play .

I have introduced this recently into my game and came accross these 2 examples
although on the 2nd hand i didnt actually make the play

www.pokerhand.org/?2060858

www.pokerhand.org/?2060864

The major reason for this is that there was a shorty who had called the raise and
it was my feeling that if i did raise he would just go all in with the remainder of his stack , and i didnt fancy my chances in a coin flip with 3s . Im not sure if that was the right play , but thats what i did .

This brings me on to another point and maybe an example of how my game is improving . I remember reading the Justin Bonomo piece about how people learn and i sort of though...if this situation i.e. the 3s had happened to me earlier in my developement AND the result had been that i had lost my hand...i would have learnt INCORRECTLY that the squeeze doesnt work

Obviously i would have needed a couple more failures to reinforce this. But i just
goes to show how easily we can learn the wrong things and it was just sort of pleasing that i was aware of this at the time .



Obviously checked out Dodgy,s blog as per normal and loved the question . I have never thought to myself "what do i find difficult when playing opponents and then
decided to try it out against my opponents" so thanks very much for the thought
Martin , much obliged

Anyway Good Luck at the tables !!

Monday 4 February 2008

February Focus Points

My Main Focus Points

W$WSF

BUTTON PLAY
CUTOFF PLAY
NOT COMPLETING SB LIGHT




Do You Know Who i Am MoFo !!

TABLE IMAGE


My Guns !!

3 BETTING
DOUBLE BARRELLING
FLOATING
SQUEEZE PLAY
VALUE BETS

Saturday 2 February 2008

Whoops !!

February has started off ok so far , i had a little bit of luck too !

Man check out my pair of Tens and the squeeze play that didnt work !
What pair of Tens i hear you ask !


http://www.pokerhand.org/?2037850

By the time i had realized it was too late !!

Off to the Opticians !!

Results - Looking Ugly




















Well that went well then !!

Obviously not , As usual there are positives

1 i played over 11,000 hands , which for me is quite a lot , so thats good
2.........hang on.........there must be another

MMMM nothing springs too mind

Anyway , to be honest i felt like i was playing ok for most of the time
there was a really bad start , which i sort of recovered from and then went on a 14 buyin downswing ,and the a semi recovery

Part of the downswing was due to 2 session of 8 tabling madness where i was convinced that i could recover as i was playing ok !!! yep... i honestly thought that

My aim in Januaty was to reduce the difference between my PFR and VPIP
as well as continuing on from December , However i think the problem in my game is i am too tight from the Cutoff and the Button .

I think if i had aimed to open up more from these positions more and maybe called a little less that would have solved my problem .Any way thats what i will be working on over the next few weeks.

During the month i became an analytical madman and started analysing everything
possible . Check out my daily Excel figures !!

Also did a couple of sweats with Baz which were cool .

Anyway despite my poor results i think this has been a learning month and like
Rasputin i am learning the hard way ( its good for the soul , you know )
and i am becoming more comfortable with my play . i hope..

On a lighter note my wife is back from Cyprus and i think the news is positive . Her Father,s cancer whilst progressive is treatable and they are starting straight away
They think the results will be noticable immediately and could extend his life by 2 or more years . Which for an 82 year old is i suppose is good

Anyway Good luck at the tables for Feb

Tuesday 29 January 2008

Blogging

Hi I should be able to blog a little later on with an update on the month
just been really busy though , ooking after my son this week

Later

Graham

Sunday 20 January 2008

Weekly Update

Well another week finished and i am sitting here once again looking back on the week and reflecting...

Poker wise my week is definately split into two parts Mon - Thur and then the weekend . This weekend i think has been pretty succesful . I have spent a lot of time digesting information from blogs . Marcs time management piece and Gregs downswing control have been pretty interesting this week. I also read some of the guys blogs and realized that i am too results orientated , and have managed to not worry too much about this

The Mini forum that Pete has created is pretty awesome really , whilst we may not have a massive audience , it certainly provides immediate and constant replies , occasionally on the cr forum you may not have always got an opinion or replies to posts whereas with ours you pretty much get replies from everyone which is cool to be honest

Obviously not suggesting that this is replacing anything but its nice to have a tight nit group forming that you can rely on to give answers and provide questions

Also been checkng out a few other blogs , I can honestly say poker wise its been a pretty relaxing weekend . Easily met my target of 2.5k per week so far and whilst the resilts have not gone my way , i am certainly feeling comfortable with my game

Finally got the floating bit as well , im not sure on which blog i read it but it was written so simply that after i tried it out a few times with success i just got it , really pleased

Life wise there has been a bit of variance . Im not sure how my wife is coping with
the news about her father , the major problem is that she is so far away and whilst
they are a huge family its very difficult for them all to co-ordinate movements back and forth to Cyprus . The other problem they have is that the information that keeps
coming from the doctors is sometimes contradictory and / or confusing for them , so there are ups and downs every couple of days , one thing for sure is that he is very ill

I dont want to get all emotional about stuff as this happens to people all the time but
death cerainly changes your view on things and puts things into perspective or maybe not , but hey thats just life

Spent a lot of time on and off throughout out the weekend with my boy , playing here and there in between poker relaxing so all in all its been a pretty cool week , i think . Ahh thats sure to get the doomswitch going for sure anyway

later

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Hands to analyse - Feel free

youre welcome to look....these are hands for me to reviewbut youre welcome to comment...i feel i have definately lost money on these hands...more than i should have...but ill do a summary underneath each one

www.pokerhand.org/?1946923
i think this is the hand i am msot dissapointed with as its preety player dependant...i have history with this player and should have realised something was up when his re raise came...whilst i am not sure if i would have got away i now think the call of his minraise was a mistake...i feel that if i re raised him i certainly would have got the message...he is a very passive player

www.pokerhand.org/?1946925
so i have QQ i re raise the 2 limpers in the hope of either isolating one or making them both fold....i get 2 callers...the flop i dont know about...is this a good flop for me...should i have checked...i dont know...am i being over aggressive with this hand...what would i have been called with that i can beat 1010 ? JJ ? i think thats about it...but if someone bets whats my play 3 handed is always tricky...the pots big is someone going to take a stab at it ? i am unsure on this hand ...think its variance

www.pokerhand.org/?1946931
so the guy flops a set...i have TPTK and lead out...i get the min raise...i have no stats and cant remeber if ihad any...anyway i dont think the re-raise is bad...but he minraises again...i am thinking i could have called the original min raise and possibly checked the turn...and waited to see what he did

www.pokerhand.org/?1946934
whilst i feel i played this hand nice and aggressive to the river ...i really think it is obvious that he has the 3rd ten...there would be no way he would bet all in without the goods...i think...i could have saved myself $22 probably

www.pokerhand.org/?1946936
Standard unless somone tells me otherwise

www.pokerhand.org/?1946939
ok another hand where i feel i could have had some sort of pot control.Imo im not sure of AK is strong enough for an all in bet . I certainly think that i could have called and maybe check folded...but i dont know...opinions please.personally i think i gace money away here

www.pokerhand.org/?1946944
cooler... f me i hate these !!

www.pokerhand.org/?1951881
another cooler wtf

www.pokerhand.org/?1951891
K10 versus trips

www.pokerhand.org/?1951896
ok i think this is an interesting hand...i raise on the button and get called by the bb..this is a standard call i feel as i could easily be making a play...the c bet is pretty standard again but the raise...what does it mean ?...looking back i think its a i have a big hand raise !!!...and it looks like im going all the way !!!...i think a fold would have been acceptable under the cicumstances...

www.pokerhand.org/?1951899
another cooler i think...i think i may try raising these $1 raises a little higher
i mean what the fuck is he doig calling with 10J ?...and then again calling the turn bet f me...i have him on a flush draw and want hin to pay was igutted when he turned ovev the 10J

www.pokerhand.org/?1951900
although this is not a cooler as such its definately variance of some kind...standard raise and cbet...iagain i think the min raise here is a sign of
strength. i should have spotted it and maybe checked called of check folded
the all in bet was a poor decision

weaktight.com/83256
this is a poorly played hand...i must have been tilted here ...i cant see why onearth i am calling thses bets...the guy is short stacked and for this reason i think his range tightens so a Q is definately there...really should not have called the all in bet DONK !!!

www.pokerhand.org/?1951908
cooler...at least its not all bad play !!

www.pokerhand.org/?1951910
well this is bad play i am sure...for starters i should not have called this stupid $1 raise from now on its raise or fold these...i have TPTK the guy leads out and i call...he bets the turn and i call that too..DONK...then he makes abig bat on the river and i fold...really poor play...there was plenty of opportunity too make a play to find out where i was...i needed a plan but didnt have one

www.pokerhand.org/?1951911
another cooler...i knew he had a weak ace and the river bet confirmed it...anyone fold the river here ?

Sunday 13 January 2008

Video

omg i made a video

just in case there is anyone out there who wants to see how i play , and sound !!

i had a few problems , firstly the hud didnt appear on the vid but i can assure you
that i can see stats , also it crashed towards the end when i was trying to go through my pokertracker stats

grinders is the password

please any advice welcome in a nice way , until i get a grip of these things


later

Video Upload Pending

Saturday 12 January 2008

Poorly Played Hands

Ok here are 3 hands that i pretty much masacered last night . I think i need to know how i should have played them correctly


Hand1 Villain is very new to the table

I standard raise the flop and get re raised...I thought that as he was new to the table he may be making a play...I decided to re raise my ak...

The first question i need an answer to is... is AK stong enough to 4 bet with
im thinking its pretty much player dependant ? Is that correct ?

Anyway its a long time before he calls...The flop has hit no-one...i think my only chance here is to bet out...the fact that he tought so long before calling me on the 4 bet means he must put me on a premium hand

Sadly he called and showed KK

How was my play by street ?

www.pokerhand.org/?1928666


Hand 2 Villan is 17 /14

I pretty much messed this hand up i tried a min bet raise and then just had to call

How should i have played this one and when should i have know i was beaten

www.pokerhand.org/?1928670



Hand 3 villain was quite loose 33/14

I flopped 2 pair . I know i am way ahead but how do i win the pot ? Does anyone ever overbet a $1 dollar pot ?

Hes called the turn bet which has helped him and i just have to call the river
I just didnt have the guy on A3

The thing is with this hand is that i am way ahead until the river . How and Where should i have won this pot . This one sucked i know !!


www.pokerhand.org/?1928676


Apart from thhes hands i think i am good with my game . I have had a great respons from the group so far to my posts . I think petes idea on expansion was awesome

Im also going to keep regular posts on my blog and make sure i am hitting everyone elses

Any thoughts on improving fell free to add

Good Luck All

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Ok , i have some history with this guy , he is pretty passive and i have bluffed him out of a couple of pots with pot sized bets .

I was nt really focusong at the time and when he min raise me i thought it was a little odd

I thought about the possibility of AJ when he bet the turn but i just didnt want to believe it , a rush of blood and its all over .

Really dissapointed with this hand . I certainly should have lead out !! but i had him on a weaker hand AQ AT or AJ !! i should have listened

Does anyone else play like this sometimes , i mean FFS whats going on here ?

Later All


www.pokerhand.org/?1916772

January Update

As with pretty much everyone i seemed to have started off with a pretty big
downswing that sort of got re versed and then i went on another downswing

I dont want to say that the downswing is down to variance as that is just an excuse ( i think )and i want to take responsibility for my play . I was going over my big wins and losses , i am not sure if that is a good way to look at things but i have 10 big wins to 9 big losses . The problem is that the losses have been bigger than the wins ( Typical )

One of the other problems i have been having apart from the coolers is that i seem to be getting played back at an awful lot .

I have been trying to work out the strategy for dealing with this sort of situation
if there is one . EG I have KQ s on the button , i get 1 caller , the flop comes rainbow something like 47J . As i always do i c bet this flop . But then here is the problem . I get minraised !! what do i do now ? Sometimes i call and then i get no help on the turn and feel like i have to check . Villain then makes a pot sized bet and i have to fold .

This is a situation that i seem to come across frequently and would like some advice on what is a good line to take

Ill post a couple of hands that i was really disappointed with , my biggest loser for definate , but i just wanted to get a post up to keep the momentum going .

I am currently on a 5 buyin downswing over 3k hands
The frustrating thing is , is that fell i am playing ok or at least comfortable with my play . How can this be ? I 5 buyins down for christ's sake , Madness !!

Anyway later all

Sunday 6 January 2008

2008 Goals and Progress

Ive been thinking for a while now about my goals for 2008
Obviously i want to move up and stuff like that...but probably due to the
fact that i play part time i need to be more realistic about them

December was probably more than likely my best month so far in this Poker
Eperiment / Obsession / Battle / Relationship... that i have going on !

I want Poker to provide a secondary income if possible , i mean thats the reason i
play , If i re examine my December results i was running at about 10ptbbs over 5500k hands . $500 personally i want to make it around $1500 . Now i think that 10ptbbs is a little unrealistic therefore i have decided that 7.5 is a better figure @50nl

So i have set my goal @ $1500 per month . Now @ 50 nl and 7.5 ptbbs i would need to play 20k hands . Realistically i can mangage 10k hands per month although i need some adjustments . However that is only going to net me $750 per month and my goal is $1500 !! So i need more adjustments

15000 hands @ 100 nl @ 5ptbb = $1500 i think please correct me if i am wrong


So here are the adjustments and changes i need to make to my game over the next few months

1. I need to play more hands ? In order to do so i am going to start 4 tabling again maybe go over Verneers 6 table video again and while my roll is comfortable try a couple of 6 table sessions Maybe

2 I need to step up in levels . To be honest... i cant honestly say i have ever had a lot of success at 100nl so this is a subject that needs to be broached . I will look into getting coached over a period of a month once i hit 7.5ptbbs @50nl over 10k hands .I think it is important that i hit those 2 targets first... but i will do some investigating regarding coaches...in the meantime i will concentrate on planning properly and structuring my playing sessions

3 Finally ths study group seems to have sprung back into life and hopefully we will embark on another chapter in our developement


On poker this year to be honest i startde the first session 4 tabling i ran KK into something and felt like every cbet was re raised and that every raise was re raised too . I ended my first session down over 3 buyins . On a couple of occasiins i nerly got back to even but have hit some sick coolers.

Anyway i still feel like my play is good and so il put it down to variance

Update Soon