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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.

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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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This just in: Tournaments also rigged.

Date: Sat, Sep 15, 2007

According to recent observations, the riggedness of online poker has now spread to the Pokerstars tournament games. I played a $1000 EPT sattelite, a $100 rebuy (cost me 6 buy-ins) and a few smaller tourneys this evening, and tanked early in all of them. Among the highlights were an AK vs AJ loss, and a KK vs AA, both large stack losses.

Like a dog I returned to my regular cash games and was promptly punished by a 2-outer for $1600 when I finally got my money in with a set vs. overpair. I can't believe how rigged it all is. I did manage to make a modest $1000 profit on the cash games, so all is not lost just yet. Things will turn around.

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Well that was fun...

Date: Thu, Sep 13, 2007

I am really excited about a new record of mine which I set tonight: I just lost $6,988. It was just an incredible amount of bad beats, coolers and expensive laydowns that combined to give me a gruesome session. I think I stacked myself about 3 times in which I should have made a good laydown, but I honestly think the rest was pure bred bad luck. I lost about $2000 with the hands QQ, KK, AA, AKo, AKs combined. As you know, I am not the type to slowplay these hands, so this is a testament to the amount of great hands I ran into whenever I had the goods. I also lost $3000 with two pairs being my final hand. Pretty disgusting.

Well, tonight put me in the red for the month, and there are some tough days ahead grinding it back up.

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Bad luck

Date: Wed, Sep 12, 2007

Today was not my day. Considering how many coinflips and ugly setups I lost, I am very satisfied that I am only down $1200 for the day. I was down $3000 actually, when I got a crazy hot streak of about half an hour in which I got back to break even. But of course I had to lose a set over set and a flush over flush in the last 10 minutes to put me back down.

Here is the craziest bad beat I've taken in a while:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($849.25)
MP ($125.84)
CO ($144.86)
Button ($558)
Hero ($850.25)
BB ($823)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9c, 9h. MP posts a blind of $6.
1 fold, MP (poster) checks, CO raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $15, BB calls $12, MP folds.

Flop: ($63) 9d, Ah, Jc (3 players)
Hero bets $35, BB raises to $70, CO folds, Hero calls $35.

Turn: ($203) Qc (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $102, Hero raises to $350, BB raises to $735 (All-In), Hero calls $385.

River: ($1673) Td (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $1673

Hero has 9c 9h (three of a kind, nines).
BB has 8d Jd (straight, queen high).
Outcome: BB wins $1673.

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Grinding again.

Date: Mon, Sep 10, 2007

I am way overdue for an update, so here is a nice one, with results graph and everything.

I have now been a 'full time' poker player for about a month, but spent quite a bit of that month doing other stuff, such as hiking in Iceland. It rains all the time in Iceland. But now I am returning to the grind, and doing very well.

I have not been playing nearly as many hours as I would like, but I hope to change that in the weeks to come. At the moment I am enjoying just playing and not doing much else poker wise. I should get around to trying new games or analyzing my NL game some, but right now I prefer just grinding. When results are this good, there is no point in doing anything else I guess.

I am playing in an office away from home, which is a nice way to get out of the house a little bit. I also have a battle station at home, but my computer exploded a month ago, and the new one is not quite up and running yet.

This graph shows my results at the office from the beginning of summer until now, all at 600NL:


I have played some at home during this time as well, but those hands are not included. I think I am about break even for 10k hands at home. As you can see, there have been a few 10 buy-in downswings, and also the ugly day I mentioned here is not included, so even though it looks like a walk in the park, it hasn't been all happy days and noodle salat.

I have played over 10k hands at Partypoker over the last few days, and I am cautiously optimistic about the level of profitability in online poker. I may have been a bit lucky, and that will always screw up your perspective, but I think the number of donkeys willing to donate for the cause is reassuring, and overall there are plenty of players around. There may be an ever increasing number of poker pros, and the level of play may also be steadily improving, but it seems there are plenty of fish to go around at the moment.

Here is a hand that clearly demonstrates why poker will remain profitable some time yet:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button ($558.90)
Hero ($571.90)
BB ($600)
UTG ($604)
MP ($101)
CO ($641.94)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Kc, Ac.
1 fold, MP raises to $24, 1 fold, Button calls $24, Hero raises to $100, 1 fold, MP folds, Button calls 76.

Flop: ($230) Th, Qh, 8h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

Turn: ($230) Ad (2 players)
Hero bets $200, Button calls $200.

River: ($630) 5s (2 players)
Hero checks, Button shoves, Hero calls $258.90.

Final Pot: $1144.80

Hero has Kc Ac (one pair, aces).
Button has 3h 4d (high card, ace).

Outcome: Hero wins $1144.80.

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Rollercoasting.

Date: Thu, Aug 23, 2007

Yesterday I had 3 hours to spare late at night, so I wanted to build on my succesfull session Sunday. Things went well early, I made about $1200 after the first hour, largely thanks to a genuine one outer, where I hit quads on the river to save me from a set over set situation.

That was the end of luck for me though, as the doomswitch turned on for yours truly. I proceeded to lose $5000 in about one and a half hour, quite a feat on 600NL, even playing 7 tables, and certainly an unpleasant record for me. Every large pot went the wrong way, and nothing held up. It was a pretty depressing experience, and I went home down $4k. I guess it sort of felt like the mental equivalent of getting hit by a sledge hammer in the belly, and then dragging it out for a couple of hours. There are a lot of perks to this being an online poker pro thing, but sometimes there is a price to be paid.

I was not quite sure I wanted to play today, but I had it scheduled, and I am not normally likely to tilt, so I went ahead and started another session. Now I sit here $6500 up again, so I can record a nice net win of $1500 for the last couple of days. I am wondering how unusual/unlikely large fast swings such as these are, somehow it doesn't feel normal. The net result is completely normal, I guess the wins and losses just got bunched together oddly. I hope with every experience like this I get a little bit tougher, mentally.

I had a few hands where I felt really clever, and I've picked a few interesting thin river value bets for you. Here is a post I wrote some time ago about merging your range, and I think I managed to do just that successfully here. The key to these plays is that the other guy thinks you are full of shit.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

SB ($511.85)
BB ($628)
UTG ($518.24)
MP ($597)
Hero ($783.35)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ad, Th.
2 folds, Button raises to $21, SB calls $18, 1 fold.

Flop: ($48) 4s, 4h, Tc (2 players)
SB checks, Button bets $30, SB calls $30.

Turn: ($108) 8h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks.

River: ($108) Js (2 players)
SB checks, Button bets $80, SB calls $80.

Final Pot: $268
SB has 5s 5c (two pair, fives and fours).
Hero has Ad Th (two pair, tens and fours).
Outcome: Hero wins $268.


Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

SB ($612)
BB ($619.80)
Hero ($957.65)
MP ($808)
CO ($1)
Button ($878)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Th, Tc.
Hero raises to $24, MP calls $24, 4 folds.

Flop: ($57) Js, 4s, 3c (2 players)
Hero bets $45, MP calls $45.

Turn: ($147) 2c (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks.

River: ($147) 7h (2 players)
Hero bets $90, MP calls $90.

Final Pot: $327
Hero has Th Tc (one pair, tens).
MP has 9s 7s (one pair, sevens).
Outcome: Hero wins $327.


This is another feel good hand, but with no strategic content. This hand is posted to celebrate the existence of happy donks who love to donate $836 with a straight on a paired board, almost all of it on the river.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (5 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($883)
Hero ($1,583.06)
Button ($621.90)
SB ($836.50)
BB ($807.50)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 4s, 4h.
UTG raises to $24, Hero calls $24, 1 fold, SB calls $21, 1 fold.

Flop: ($78) 4d, 4c, Jh (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks.

Turn: ($78) 9s (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets $50, SB folds, UTG calls $50.

River: ($178) Td (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $120, UTG raises to $282, Hero shoves, UTG calls $490 (All-In).

UTG has Qc Kd (straight, king high).
Hero has 4s 4h (four of a kind, fours).
Outcome: Hero cleans house.

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Am I getting schooled here?

Date: Sun, Aug 19, 2007

This hand is pretty sick. Please tell me if you think I am dealing with a huge tool here, or if he is just reading my soul. We have both been actively 3-betting preflop.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Hero ($1460.90)
BB ($653.50)
UTG ($601.60)
MP ($660.95)
CO ($1089)
Button ($736.53)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9h, Ah.
4 folds, Hero raises to $24, BB raises to $72, Hero calls $51.

Flop: ($150) 7s, 4h, Jd (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

Turn: ($150) 5s (2 players)
Hero bets $100, BB calls $100.

River: ($350) 8s (2 players)
Hero bets $250, BB calls $250.

Final Pot: $850

Hero has 9h Ah (high card, ace).
BB has 5c 3c (one pair, fives).
Outcome: BB wins $850.


But don't you worry about me, I am fine for the day, booking $2700 for 3 hours of 'work'. I even got 2 outered for $1700 more. Looks like Baldie is back in business.

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Professional poker player!

Date: Fri, Aug 17, 2007

I return to you envigourated by several vacations, the World Series of Poker, conclusion of my education as an actuary and love, no less, as I am now a married man.

In other words: I am pumped ladies and gentlemen, and ready to play some poker. Since I am no longer a student and I certainly don't plan to do any real work anytime soon, the only think left to call myself is...

Professional Poker Player!

I am already a few days into my career as a pro, but so far it's pretty much the same as before. I don't have that nagging feeling that I should be doing some home work or thesis work instead of doing whatever else it is that I do, but otherwise life as a pro is exactly the same as life as a semi pro/student.

But that will not do. It is not enough for me to make a comfortable living on a 20 hour work week, and then just hang around the rest of the time. I need to do more. I am not quite decided yet on what that should be, but I promise myself, you, God and my parents that I will produce at least a 40 hour week of either playing or learning.

The beautiful thing is that I get to choose from a wide range of possibilities. I could learn some new poker variants. Stud or Omaha comes to mind. I could sharpen my tournament game. I could take more shots at higher levels of NL Hold'em cash games and spend some time properly analyzing my game. I could try to commercialize this blog in one way or another. Or I could learn a proper programming language and try to produce a poker application or two that I have in mind.

For now, I am just enjoying my freedom and grinding a bit of poker. Vacations, WSOP and the wedding have taken it's toll on all the bankrolls, those for poker as well as those for spending, so grinding and rebuilding is on the schedule for now. Hopefully I will soon get it back to a level I am more comfortable with, and then I will consider that list above.

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One day, I shall return!

Date: Wed, Aug 8, 2007

...probably Monday if I had to hazard a guess.

I have been home from Canada for about a week, and still haven't gotten around to blogging yet on account of some marriage business. That will blow over soon, and I'll be back where I left off. Don't worry, I still love you, have patience!

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Poker activities discontinued

Date: Fri, Jul 13, 2007

Discontinued... What a stupid word.

But once again I pull the plug and abandon you guys to your grinding misery. This time I am going to Vancouver, Canada for 2½ weeks with the significant other. Site seeing, mountain hiking, nature appreciating and around hanging will be among the chosen activities. NO POKER WHATSOEVER, will be involved. To make matters worse, when we come home, it will be to finish detail planning of our wedding, no less, so don't expect too frequent updates even then. By the middle of August, things should be pretty much back to normal, and then I promise I will resume pwning poker.

Until later...

Signing out...

Bald!

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Luckboxing continues

Date: Sun, Jul 8, 2007

I had a really crappy evening at the tables, I only made $4.4k today, so considerably worse than the last couple of days. I have no idea what is going on really, except that I am running at 17BB/100 over the last 7.5k hands. This is about a cool thousand dollars an hour. I can live with that I think.

Interesting/boring statistic of the day: I won with 42 pairs of pocket aces in a row now. One split pot among those.

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Zizzling hot!

Date: Sat, Jul 7, 2007

Tonight I turned in another 3k hand $5k session. Pretty unreal to to have back to back sessions like that. I even had a few nasty suckouts go against me tonight, but somehow still managed to maintain a growing balance throughout. Obviously I am on an enormous heater, but I'll take it. The Vegas trip is completely paid for now, with some to spare, so I am very happy with that.

After securing a good result for the night, I played 3 different multi table tournaments with no success. Apparently tournaments are just not my thing anymore. I like to think I am saving my luck for that one huge score. Anyway, MTT's for me will always be sort of a hobby with positive expected value. I could never play them for a living and remain sane, and I have the utmost respect for those who can. To have your bank roll depleted continually, only rarely boosted by infrequent big wins, is a great recipe for a stressful life in my opinion. There is nothing quite like winning a big tournament though, I hope to try that again some time. Anyway, I quickly went back to the cash games after those few tournaments and commenced pwning.

Right now I am channeling all mental energy and luckboxness to my friend Per Ravn who is playing day 1B of the main event as I write. I have a piece of his action you see, otherwise I wouldn't have cared one way or the other. Good luck Per, make me rich!

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Back

Date: Thu, Jul 5, 2007

I have been back from Vegas for a few days now, and I am still trying to get used to having roughly the same temperature outside as inside. In Vegas the difference is about 20 degrees minimum.

I feel great about the trip, despite miserable results. It was an interesting experience, and very inspiring from a poker stand point. I think I saw every famous poker player I know, except two. I also felt I realized some things about the live tourney game which will hopefully help me in the future. For now, getting back to the cash game has the highest priority, but I will attempt to write a post or two about what I think I learned playing so much live poker. Hopefully I will get to that soon.

In the mean time I had an absolutely excellent session tonight, winning $5k in about 3k hands of 600NL. A nice welcome back from the party fish to me. Some time during the session I put a bad beat on someone so bad it tilted two tables at once!!! Someone was at both and couldn't help telling the story. Pretty funny actually. Basically I shoved with a pair of 4's when I didn't believe the preflop aggressor had an overpair. He did, and I rivered a set. That should teach him... something.

Also, you know you've played too much live poker when you do something like this:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $6 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

Button ($682.10)
SB ($612.30)
BB ($1)
UTG ($190)
Hero ($609)
CO ($305.90)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5d, 5c.
UTG raises to $12, Hero calls $12, CO calls $12, Button raises to $55, 2 folds, UTG calls $43, Hero calls $43, CO folds.

Flop: ($186) 2c, Ac, Qh (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, Button bets $92, UTG folds, Hero raises to $250, Button folds.

Final Pot: $528

I obviously flashed my junk hand and tilted that table too. When you play live, you must let your reads adjust your game considerably more than you do online in my opinion, and I guess my read here was that he didn't like that ace on the table at all. I certainly would never have made this play before Vegas, we will see if it was a case of momentary insanity, or if I am actually going to put more faith in my reads from now on. Of course playing 6 tables will prevent me from going overboard with this concept (hopefully).

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