Power session.
Date: Fri, Dec 7, 2007
Since my last post, poker results have been going steadily downwards. I am now at the bottom of an $18k downswing, and the last couple of sessions have been about break even.
In an effort to get out of the downswing, I put in a huge session today. After 8 hours of 8-10 tabling 600NL, I think I can hold my head up high for today. If I am not mistaken, this must have been my longest session ever in terms of number of hands (6650). Thanks to a last minute heater I ended up ahead, but it was by no means a smooth ride.
That's all there is to it when things are not working out I guess, keep pluggin'. I will climb out of this hole, it is just a matter of playing enough hands. I hope to put in another good one tomorrow.
2000NL is no fun.
Date: Mon, Dec 3, 2007
This is a graph of my last session at 2000NL. Those of you who know what it means are probably reaching for the puke bucket or just throwing up in your mouths. While you guys sort that out, I will explain for the rest.
The red line is my equity in all-in situations during the session. The blue line represents the actual results of the hands. So, if I am all in with aces against kings preflop with full stacks, my equity is about 82% of the pot, and the red line will increase by my expected winnings: $4000 * 82% - $2000 = $1280. If I win his stack, I will have registered a positive difference between the red and the blue line of $2000 - $1280 = $720. If I lose, the difference will be -$3280.
While there are many other ways to be lucky or unlucky in poker, the difference between the two lines is the purest form of luck measurable. You will never see a systematic deviance between the two, only chaotic variance. So, if you haven't reached the conclusion yourself, let me spell it out: Friday, the cards screwed me over to the tune of $11.000. It was just an unbelievable series of lost coin flips, missed draws and nasty suckouts never going my way. Total result of the session was -$13.500, since I also got a bit unlucky in other ways than this.
This means that my short stint as a weekend high roller at the 2000NL games is over for now. It will take a bit of grinding at mid stakes to get back to where I was, so thats the plan for now.
2000NL is fun.
Date: Sat, Dec 1, 2007
Apparently, rich people also suck at poker.
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $10/$20
6 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: $2210
UTG+1: $2708
CO: $2739.79
Hero: $3374.34
SB: $7940.37
BB: $2107
Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with As Ac
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to $60, CO calls, Hero raises to $260, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls, CO calls.
Flop: 5s 9s Ks ($810, 3 players)
UTG+1 bets $450, CO folds, Hero calls.
Turn: Jc ($1710, 2 players)
UTG+1 raises all-in $1998, Hero calls.
River: Qh ($5706, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $5706)
Results:
Final pot: $5706
UTG+1 shows 8h Kc (a pair of kings)
Hero shows As Ac (a pair of aces)
Doing well, but not blogging too much.
Date: Thu, Nov 29, 2007
It is time I face facts: I will no longer be blogging several times a week. From now on I will just post when I want to, so I won't have to apologize to you for not posting more often. Ironically, I am getting pretty close to the same amount of visitors (not many) now, as I did when I posted frequently.
There has been an unfortunate development in my poker career. I bought the RTS game Company of Heroes. Since then I have been busy conquoring France, not leaving much time for poker.
The last time I played was pretty crazy though. I have been playing almost exclusively 1000NL lately, and that's what I started out with this Friday night. I lost 6 buy-ins in an hour, which ate up over half my profits for the month which was at about $10k. Needless to say I was not happy at all with this development. Anyway, I dug in and played through it. After mentally having come to terms with my reduced bank roll, I then struck a huge heater and
went back up to a 2 buy-in result for the day. This was after about 4 hours of play. Something got into me, and I decided to take a shot at 2000NL with my newfound wealth. An hour later I was suddenly up 12k for the day, by far my best cash game result for a single session. On top of that $18k upswing in about 4 hours I just can't be bothered to play poker for pathetic $1000-bills anymore :). Once I finish off the Krauts, hopefully that will change.
I, Robot.
Date: Wed, Nov 7, 2007
I have taken another step in my quest towards multi-tabling pwnage. 10 tables of 600NL. I rule.
I recommend playing 10 tables if you are tired of thinking about anything except poker decisions or just tired of being sane. I think I still played profitable poker, but I guess there has to be an increase of mistakes every time I add a table. Also I got the nice feeling that my brain was being slowly toasted.
The screen captcha that I sometimes get is particularly annoying playing ten tables, because first I have to finish all table actions, THEN turn the 'force active table to front' option in MTH off, THEN type the captcha text, THEN turn the option back on, and THEN take care of all the actions waiting in queue without timing out the last ones. This may sound like a walk in the park, but the MTH option makes the mouse unresponsive when clicking other windows than the active table, so it is quite a pain to navigate the menus. It is possible, but not very relaxing. I think my increased difficulty in passing the captcha test is a sure sign that I am slowly developing towards becoming a robot.
I've also played some 1000NL lately, since my results were so good last month. Results have NOT been good my last couple of sessions though, so I think I may need a small break from the grinding. The 10 tabling experiment was partly caused by being bored with the same old grinding I must admit, so I think I should spend some time doing something else for a couple of days now. This may or may not result in me posting a blog entry with some actual content! Don't say I didn't warn you.
Still here.
Date: Wed, Oct 31, 2007
Once again I must apologize for my infrequent blog entries. It seems that when I run into a cold streak at the tables I can't muster the energi to write about it. After a sensational first half of the month, things slowed down considerably the last couple of weeks. But still, the end result is a great month, enough so to make up for September which was downright bad.
I have combined all my game data for the last two months on one computer for scientific purposes, and here are the results.
400NL
Total: $4,743
Hands: 14,381
PTBB/100: 4.12
600NL
Total: $27,198
Hands: 87,503
PTBB/100: 2.59
1000NL
Total: -$1,345
Hands: 2,310
PTBB/100: -2.51
Total
Total: $30,597
Hands: 104,194
Hours: 145.87
PTBB/100: 2.69
Multitabling ratio: 6.91
Hourly rate: $209.76
Single session record.
Date: Wed, Oct 17, 2007
As I continued my pursuit of the Partypoker Bad Beat Jackpot, I turned in a nice 4 hour session playing 8 tables at 600NL. Result: $8,529 in the bag, for 20.73 BB/100 over 3,429 hands. WUHU!
Here are a couple of hands. I didn't run hot in all of them.
First hand:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
4 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: $836.40
Button: $1035.50
Hero: $1531.90
BB: $525.10
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is SB with :ah :ad
UTG folds, Button raises to $24, Hero raises to $80, BB folds, Button calls.
Flop: :3d :qh :5c ($166, 2 players)
Hero bets $130, Button calls.
Turn: :6d ($426, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $388, Hero raises all-in $1321.9, Button calls all-in $437.5.
Uncalled bets: $496.4 returned to Hero.
River: :5d ($2077, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $2077)
Results:
Final pot: $2077
Button shows Td 7d (flush)
Hero shows Ah Ad (two pairs, aces and fives)
I know the other guy well, and played him perfectly, and still lost a thousand dollars.
Second hand:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
5 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: $600
CO: $588
Hero: $637
SB: $655
BB: $2239.15
Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is Button with :8s :9s
UTG folds, CO raises to $21, Hero raises to $70, 2 folds, CO calls.
Flop: :9d :3c :4h ($149, 2 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $110, CO raises to $330, Hero raises all-in $457, CO calls all-in $188.
Uncalled bets: $49 returned to Hero.
Turn: :8d ($1185, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $1185)
River: :6d ($1185, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $1185)
Results:
Final pot: $1185
CO shows 5c 4c (pair of fours)
Hero shows 8s 9s (two pairs, nines and eights)
This one is debatable. I knew even before I bet the flop that I was in for a tough spot if he raised me. Of course this shove is never even worth considering without some serious history.
Third hand:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
5 players
Converter
Stack sizes:
UTG: $150
CO: $718.65
Button: $591
SB: $2091.45
Hero: $1358.25
Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is BB with :ad :ks
2 folds, Button raises to $24, SB folds, Hero raises to $80, Button raises all-in $567, Hero calls.
Flop: :5d :qd :3h ($1185, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1185)
Turn: :9s ($1185, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1185)
River: :7c ($1185, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1185)
Results:
Final pot: $1185
Hero shows Ad Ks (Ace high, King kicker)
Button doesn't show 8s Ah (Ace high, eight kicker)
People get crazy sometimes. Especially when they are 3-bet a lot preflop. The trick is to know if you are dealing with an aggressive guy gone over the edge, or a patient guy who hit his monster. Experience and stats are needed to make that decision correct as often as possible.
Wanna see a bad beat?
Date: Tue, Oct 16, 2007
OK, here it is:
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
BB ($400)
UTG ($406)
MP ($523.40)
CO ($459.50)
Hero ($934.90)
SB ($495.70)
Preflop: Hero is Button with Kd, Kh. UTG posts a blind of $4.
1 fold, CO raises to $14, Hero raises to $50, 2 folds, CO calls $36.
Flop: ($106) 8d, Kc, 4d (3 players)
CO checks, Hero bets $75, CO calls $75.
Turn: ($256) Ah (3 players)
CO checks, Hero checks.
River: ($256) 8s (3 players)
CO calls $459.50 (All-In), Hero calls $334.50.
Final Pot: $1050
CO has 8h 8c (four of a kind, eights).
Hero has Kd Kh (full house, kings full of eights).
Outcome: CO wins $925. Hero wins $125.
I played 400NL instead of my normal 600NL because I wanted to try 10-tabling while the Partypoker jackpot was huge. Its still huge btw (I didn't win it yet). The playing went well except for the results, so I may try it again. Ran horribly bad though and lost 8 buy-ins, my first losing session in almost two weeks.
PS. Don't play at Absolute Poker. They cheat.
Much better.
Date: Sat, Oct 13, 2007
What a difference a week makes. Pretty much everything has gone right since my last blog entry. Here is the same graph I posted then, with action since then:
Sometimes poker is much more fun than other times.
Another week.
Date: Sun, Oct 7, 2007
I am still alive and still grinding.
Results wise I am doing ok, slowly padding the good old roll. Right now is not a very inspiring time from a blogging stand point. I am doing what I have been doing for a while until I feel I have enough money to move up and have fun.
When I come up with some exceptional new insight I will let you know. Until then, here is a bit of insight into what I have been dealing with the past month. Since I am playing in two different places, this is only half my play during the last month, but you get the idea. There are 34k hands with red numbers at the end. Also a 20 buy-in downswing. Poker is not always exactly wonderful.
Shots taken.
Date: Sun, Sep 30, 2007
Being officially out of the downswing, I decided to take a few shots at the 1000NL cash game Friday and Saturday night. It would have been a better decision with a month worth of solid income just hanging around to lose, but I did some data mining and found some good tables, so I thought it was time to gamble a bit.
Overall it was a good experience. I played only 4-6 tables of 1000NL, whereas I am used to 7-8 600NL tables, so I felt I was better able to focus on the game. I also played a bit less aggresively than I am used to, since I didn't really want to get involved in the 3- and 4-betting arms race for that much money. I can't wait to have enough money to really let them have it at 1000NL though.
The net result of both days was a $3500 loss, but I am not down about it much since I am now quite convinced I can beat this game, at least in prime time. My plan is to grind it up at 600NL, and continue taking shots at 1000NL when games are good. When my bankroll has enough padding to absorb the swings of the bigger game, I will consider myself a 1000NL player.
For now, it seems I have some grinding to do.
A week gone by...
Date: Thu, Sep 27, 2007
...and no blog updates. I am embarrassed by leaving you all out to dry, but I have had a rough week in my poker life. The rest of my life has been good as usual, so no need to worry.
Anyway, since last post, I had several losing days in a row, culminating Monday with a minus 10 buy-in session bringing me in the red for September. Having a losing month is not something I am used to, so it wore on me a little, and I couldn't really motivate myself to write about it. Yesterday morning I was at the buttom of a 20 buy-in downswing, so thats $12k down the drain.
The last couple of days have been good though, so I am now more than half way up again and feeling better about the whole thing. Like I've mentioned before, how you handle the tough days is really what defines your ability to become a professional poker player. I try to not let it affect my mood. That is not really possible, but at least I try to put it all in perspective and remind myself how little it means, in the long run financially, as well as in terms of what really matters in life. That said, I don't feel like discussing it much when I am in the middle of a bad period. I usually prefer to work on it myself in my own head, and that can be a bit dangerous for my social life. At least it is something I need to be aware of, so people around me don't get the idea I'm pissed off or not caring about them.
Anyway, enough about that. Poker has no memory. All you have to think about is how to play the hand you've been dealt.
Interesting day
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2007
Today I proudly put in 10 hours of pro poker, so I am quite satisfied with myself. I had symptoms of being a bit burnt out yesterday and ended up watching Monday Night Football instead. More like Tuesday Morning Football in Denmark actually. I think the tournament experience along with the bad running left me not really paying attention to the marginal situations that are so vital. Instead I made too many loose calls looking for the jackpot hands.
Not so today. I started out on a new 'hobby', Pot Limit Omaha. I lost a bit, but learned a lot, so all is well with that. I guess I should start lower, but I can't really bring myself to care about the 100PLO games. The crazy thing is that while I make a ton of beginners mistakes, there are enough donks that a rudimentary understanding of poker prevents me from being a big loser at the 200PLO games if I am a loser there at all. It is my hope that I will become at least reasonably competitive in the Omaha disciplines within a few months.
After fooling around with Omahahaha, it was time for bringing in some real money. I played almost 4000 hands at 600NL and won $5k. Niiiice. Extra nice since the winnings almost bring me back to the level I was at before disaster Thursday. I had a few very interesting hands that I would like to share with you:
In the first one I am super deep stacked against a tight preflop player with donkish tendencies. I end up making a huge fold whish I am still not sure was good. However, I take some pride in the fact that I chose the safe route in a high pressure situation, given my recent tendencies to lag a little too much. I simply would have hated myself too much for losing 4 stacks here.
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
SB ($2312)
BB ($615)
UTG ($11357)
MP ($1245)
Hero ($2384)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 4c, 4h.
2 folds, Hero raises to $21, SB raises to $44, 1 fold, Hero calls $23.
Flop: ($94) Kd, 4d, 9c (2 players)
SB bets $96, Hero raises to $300, SB raises to $600, Hero calls $300.
Turn: ($1294) Kc (2 players)
SB raises to $1668 (All-in), Hero folds.
Final Pot: $1294
His stats were about 25/8 for only 50 hands, so along with the preflop miniraise I suspect some donkiness on his part, making the fold extra interesting. I honestly can't say that he is not on AK or AA, in which case I just cost myself $3k in one click of a button. His min-raise suggests KK or AA, but of course quads are extremely unlikely, and wouldn't he have played quads slower? It is a close decision, but I stand by it. Had villain been a solid regular, I would have had no doubt the fold was good. Now I must admit some doubt remains. Feel free to share your opinion.
The second hand is an example of how some players get tilted out of control by constant 3-betting preflop. This is not a bad player, very aggressive, and not easy to play against, but he definitely doesn't handle the arms race around the blinds too well, as this hands shows nicely. Earlier in the evening he called my preflop 4-bet shove with AJo (I had 55 which held up).
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players
Converter
Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is BB with 2s 2d
4 folds, SB raises to $24, Hero raises to $85, SB calls.
Flop: 2h jc kc ($170, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $130, SB raises to $395, Hero raises to $660, SB raises all-in $2725.85, Hero calls all-in $933.6.
Uncalled bets: $1527.25 returned to SB.
Turn: jd ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
River: jh ($3357.2, 2 all-in - Main pot: $3357.2)
Results:
Final pot: $3357.2
Hero shows 2s 2d
SB shows As 9h
Hero WINS!!!
This was my biggest pot ever, and I will leave you with that for now.
Deep run in WCOOP
Date: Mon, Sep 17, 2007
Sunday 8 days ago I had a nice run in Partypokers sunday tournament, but finished #93, so still a ways from the real money. Playing Sunday tournaments on the laptop coincides nicely with watching NFL. Since I am an avid NFL Fantasy player, I don't appreciate missing any available NFL games, costing me countless hours of good poker time. By the way, thank you Patriots for bottling up LT, I just need a couple of points from Kevin Curtis or David Akers now FTW.
Anyways, yesterday (and today as well actually) I played World Championship of Online Poker Event 5, a $530 NL tournament at Pokerstars with over 6000 players.
After about 8 hours of play, I was in 4th place with about 250 players to go. At that point my stack was worth about $30k I think. But after that nothing went right, and after 10 hours I took 134th place after losing with AK to KQ all-in preflop. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining about winning $3600, but DAMN that was dissapointing. Going that deep in such a huge tournament is an awesome experience nonetheless, too bad it happens so rarely, and almost always ends up with a frustrating beat. I would quickly go insane if I had to make a living from multi player tournaments alone. This experience has left me wanting more however, so I may play another WCOOP event or two in the coming weeks.
They are finishing up the final table as I write, after 18 hours, it is still undecided. You need stamina to go far in a tournament like this that starts late in the evening European time, and then drags on for 20 hours. I am now cheering for AB_illusive who I chatted with on Pokernet (danish poker forum) 10 hours ago when I was high rolling like him. He is currently in last place at the final table with 8 players to go. Go Asger!
Update: He is now 2nd in chips by a wide margin both ways. 7 to go.
Update: Chip leader with four players to go after hitting a sick 2-outer. This is his day.
Final update: Asger took it down, and I guess he will be famous now :). This was the longest tournament ever on stars (Almost 21 hours) and the 3rd largest prize pool after the WCOOP 2005 and 2006 main events. The heads up battle was a totally sick back and forth battle btw, I don't recall seeing anything like that before.
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