My Month

I had a pretty crappy month.

For some reason I have just under 1k hands that poker tracker didn't import and I'm actually "only" down $6k. I know that I have run bad this month and I haven't played that many hands really so part of it is variance. But also I found a player who initially beat me HU on crypto and he took me for about $6k before I figured out his game and got some money back before he ran stupidly hot against me and I decided to stop playing him - I certainly plan on playing him in the future though when I am more confident. The self examination attached to downswings revealed that I was tilting a little due to the beats and I lost some confidence (which is so important to my game) so I went into lockdown mode i.e. played boring TAG for the last 4k hands to get some winning sessions under my belt and get some confidence back. I'm not really worried since I know that I the majority of my loss is due to variance and hopefully next month will go a lot better for me.

Grinding

Things haven't gone that well over the last few days regarding luck but I think I've made some good decisions both on and off the tables. Firstly I have halved my BR by withdrawing $42k and putting it into a savings account ready to pay my masters fees and temporary accomodation for the next few weeks while I try to find some people to share a house with. This was because I started to realise that I really couldn't afford to lose that money and no matter how small the risk of it happening was, it was just stupid not to keep it secure i.e. free from getting tilted off at $5knl HU or something similar. The remaining money I can just about afford to lose but I must admit I feel that I have suddenly become sensitive to the figures involved, probably because the money is now directly related to something very tangible as opposed to just being a random figure used to "keep the score".

Anyways... having halved my BR I was left with ~$45k to play with which was plenty for $1knl, unfortunately for me I then had a nasty downswing which involved both tilt and bad cards which I have blogged about before I think. Anyway basically what happened was I went down to about $35k but then had a $9k day and a couple more decent days to get back to $49k about 10 days or so ago. Since that time I dropped to $32k partly due to me playing a huge fish at $2knl HU and losing 4 buyins of which 3 were suckouts and one was a flip: AK(me) vs 99. Since then I have just had a terrible run of cards and unavoidable situations ie I reraise HU with AKs and hit TP+FD on the flop and end up getting allin against a set. AK seems to be a horrible hand for me at the moment, I seem to lose every pot I play with it but twice this week AK has beaten my AA allin preflop. I must admit its good to vent occasionally but I prefer to do it in relative privacy since peoples reactions tend to be predictably harsh if someone has done well then had a bad streak.

Right now I am at just under $37k with around $900 in rakeback to come in at the end of the month. Obviously I won't be playing any more $2knl for a long time because I just dont like the variance and my BR is too low anyway. Recently I have tightened up quite a bit and I have started to play some $500nl again as well as the $1knl, this is because I want to regain some confidence but also because I have a bigger edge in those games there is less variance and at the moment I just want to get back to more than $40k and stop the bleeding. My game is very confidence based and relies a lot on concentration which is just so hard to do when you get sucked out on every time. So basically I don't feel confident to pull the trigger sometimes which is taking the edge off my game, I am not that good at "ABC" poker and a lot of what I do is based on me predicting how people adjusting to my style and using that against them, but of course when I'm not being crazy that doesn't work. So at the moment I'm just grinding things out playing a bit of HU and 6max and trying to get some confidence back. Normally the money wouldn't bother me at all but halving your BR then having a 17 buyin downswing can be pretty shit, once I have built up a bit of a "buffer" then I know things will be fine again but for now I just need to ride the storm.

Finally I've decided to play the WCOOP HU event on stars since its only a $320 buyin and atleast it will be some good fun. Thats all for now, I'll keep things posted.

Its been a while

I haven't blogged for some time so here is a quick summary of what has happened recently: ARGGGGG. Yea basically I've been running horrible and this month is not looking good, after having my 2 most profitable months ever in June and July I think august will be my worst month ever in terms of missed EV and close to my worse month ever in terms of $ lost depending on how the final few days go. Things really haven't been going well but in all honesty its just a standard downswing in that I have had some horrible luck; multiple 2 outers, overpairs getting owned etc etc, but also I've tilted a bit and I have made some mistakes. I haven't had a downswing like this for months and months but in some ways it is a good thing because it has made me re-evaluate my game and hopefully I will come out of this as a stronger player, both technically and mentally.

I just finished an hour session HU and played really well, obviously had a suckout which involved runner runner gutshot but I was happy with how I played which is very refreshing given that I haven't played "great" for somet time. I was going to post the hands but its almost time for the weekend drunks to come out and I want a break away from the PC before coming back to play again so no hands this time. I plan on updating this blog reguarly over the next 2 weeks so hopefully there will be some decent content for you guys in the future.

Back from Summer School

I got back from London yesturday and I must admit that I am quite happy to get away for a bit, the course was very intense but also quite boring plus we had a terrible lecturer. But anyway enough of that, I recently had a pretty big downswing playing hu and 6max while I was at summer school which included losing 11 buyins straight HU and then another few in 6max. The result was that I took a few days off and I played my first session today for around 5 days, I still had some pretty sick beats but I actually ended up 4 buyins despite losing 5 to a guy HU who I out played but he kept sucking out on me (as he did before!), hopefully he will keep coming back to play me so I get a chance for luck to even out a bit. I certainly made some bad decisions and tilted slightly but I also played quite well and I was good to get a winning session under my belt.

Hand time: I played 6 tables today, 4 6max and 2 HU against the same guy.

First HU table:

Standard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362782

An early sign that he gives my 3bets no respect.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362790

For some reason every time I had KK an A flopped today.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362799

First big hand of the match, this is a pretty standard situation IMO. I didnt get 3bet so a higher pair is unlikely and we basically have a 6/J or nothing situation.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362807

Really standard.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362817

I think that I should have two barrelled here, not just because of what he had but I do have a gutshot and hopefully one or even 2 overs plus its likely that he could be floating me.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362821

Standard but I suckout here!!! But 52s wtf?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362830

This hand happened 1 hand after the previous one, I guess it makes up for my suckout.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362839

This river card confuses things a bit, I only have a PSB left and I don't know if I can bet for value. I think checking then calling a shove is spew so I can either shove, make a small bet then fold to a shove, or check/fold. I took the later option and I think its ok.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362849

I was quite pleased with this fold, I think he hits the backdoor flush, the 5 or the 9 a lot here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362868

SPEW TIME! I like the move since he had been 3betting me a lot and I think he could easily be double barrelling but also I feel he has to fold his medium pairs and mostly when he calls I have atleast 1 if not 2 overs. Its a pity that he had the 2nd nuts. Drawing dead rocks.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362876


Second HU table:

Standard against short stacks.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362892

This river call is slightly questionable but given the previous hand and the fact he could be doing it with worse two pairs or a retarded AK I dont mind it.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362899
This guy had pushed allin before and he didn't seem very solid in general, the fact he hadn't left when he won the previous hand told me he would probably stick around even if I lost so I think A9s is a solid hand to gamble with even though its at the bottom of my calling range there.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362901

----Guy at other table sits down----

Move doesn't work, in retrospect I don't know if I like the turn bet since he could easily have the 7.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362917

Pretty standard but his shove stuck out in my mind a bit because it didnt make much sense, perhaps I should have called here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362921

Value town.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362929

Suck town.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362932

Cooler town.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362942

This hand is one of those hands where you either look like a genius or an idiot. I was the idiot this time. On the turn I can see him betting some legitimate hands but also bluffs - hence my call, but on the river I don't think he bets a Queen and he might not even bet weak aces since the 8 means that he is can't get much value. So it was a nuts or nothing hand again and I ran into the nuts.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362946

I made a pretty big mistake here, the hand is fine until the river but my opponent just isn't capable of such an elaborate bluff. I think this is a prime example of tilt. I need to work on that.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362957

This was the icing on the cake really. The flop float is pretty strange and the 77 hand comes back to mind so I made what turned out to be a good call but again he hit his card.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1362968

I quit playing HU after that hand and just kept to 6max, which I was owning. :)
Those HH don't really show exactly how badly I was running but basically I wasn't hitting any flops when I called or 3bet and obviously I had some coolers and some suckouts. I'm a bit too tired to go through the 6max hands so I'm afraid you only get to see the HU stuff.

On a final happy note I played at some of the same tables are TillerMan! Those of you who have a gaming background will know of him but he is basically a gaming god turned poker god. He is a professional who hade made over a million £ from poker so it was cool to play with him, we didn't tangle though.