An attempt at breaking the funk

I've said this so much in the past month. I just cant seem to win / play well for the duration of a session. Sure I will start out well but then just completely fall apart at some point and erase all the progress I've made. Its been the same for about three weeks, I will be grinding and get up about $200 and then in a matter of seconds will just give it all back and be like wtf was that?

So I've decided a day away from the virtual felt might be in order. So what do I decide to do on my day off ? Golf ? A ballgame ? TV and a chill out ? No of course not, I'm not that smart....

I'm off to Winstar casino, nothing like some live poker to get rid of the run bad / play bad. Sign me up for 30 hands an hour of juicy live action.

Untitled... Off the Cuff

I don't really have a thought that I want to blog about today, I just feel frustrated by the game and my blog is a place that I can use to blast off on a rant and it wont cost me 3-4 buyins. Ive been talking to some friends whose opinion I value a lot about the game lately and have been really interested in what they had to say. I'm not going to go into the specifics of what we spoke about but I will say that I am eager to see the benefits/detriments of what we spoke about. In conversation it seems so simple but its the application that might prove taxing.

Ive spoke about how I need to log a load of hands for both Vegas and my monthly props and it really just proves to me how important it is to maximize your time. Its not that I have anything important to do that is taking me away from the tables, its more just that i waste a lot of time. There is no reason why I cant be playing 8-10 hour days but instead i play 4-5 and feel satisfied. I saw an interview on ESPN last night with Tim Tebow and it made me really question myself. Now I don't for a second claim to have a whole lot in common with Tebow but that in itself is the problem. He comes across as so motivated and determined to succeed. I think that I take the micro limits for granted, sure I win at a nice rate that many would like to emulate but all I am doing is wasting my time. I don't have the desire to move up the limits, I don't do session reviews anymore, in short I've stopped trying to improve. I should be at 200nl and winning, not at 50nl just twiddling my thumbs. I need to pull my fucking finger out of my ass and get moving.

Hopefully Vegas and being around a lot of people I respect will help. It could be the most important month of my poker career, or it could signal that maybe its time to move on to something else. Only time will tell, but I am going out there with a positive attitude and aim to improve 100% as a player in that short period of time.

I wont be posting hands too often in my blog but this one just made me laugh and made me realize what happens when you give a Russian a full stack. He is running 11/7 with a 5% 3bet with otherwise pretty normal, unimaginative stats.

Full Tilt Poker Game #20221123623: Table Node - $0.25/$0.50 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 12:54:32 ET - 2010/04/20

Seat 1: Steffe1991 ($50)

Seat 4: CaptainBekk ($32.25)

Seat 5: tinks797 ($56.55)

Seat 6: El Nino 1 ($50.35)

Seat 7: skimman ($81.90)

Seat 8: Fedorov AI ($50)

Seat 9: daehanminguk ($0), is sitting out

skimman posts the small blind of $0.25

Fedorov AI posts the big blind of $0.50

The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to El Nino 1 [Ks As]

CaptainBekk folds

tinks797 folds

El Nino 1 raises to $1.50

skimman calls $1.25

DURAN MESA18 sits down

Fedorov AI has 15 seconds left to act

Fedorov AI raises to $6

DURAN MESA18 adds $35

All Upinyerpu sits down

daehanminguk adds $35

All Upinyerpu adds $20

El Nino 1 has 15 seconds left to act

daehanminguk has returned

El Nino 1 raises to $18.50

skimman folds

Fedorov AI has 15 seconds left to act

daehanminguk has been disconnected

daehanminguk has reconnected

Fedorov AI raises to $50, and is all in

El Nino 1 calls $31.50

Fedorov AI shows [6s 4s]

El Nino 1 shows [Ks As]

*** FLOP *** [Tc 2s 3s]

*** TURN *** [Tc 2s 3s] [5h]

*** RIVER *** [Tc 2s 3s 5h] [8c]

Now maybe someone can tell me what he is thinking. I certainly cant argue with the 3bet squeeze as my fold to 3bet % is pretty high but when I elect to 4bet to $18, I really cant see where he thinks he is getting his fold equity from. Its like he chooses to compound the stupidity and just dump off $42 for no reason. The play didn't work my little Cossack, just fold and wait for a different spot.

On a brighter note, i played in the Pokersluts.org weekly tournament on Sunday evening and had a blast. They are hosted on Full Tilt, start at 9pm EST and have a $5 buy in. There is only a couple of tables and you will need the password to enter as its a private tournament (pw: imapokerslut) but it was a great laugh. They record a show to go along with each tournament and i certainly enjoyed every minute of it, despite not really knowing how to play some of the 7 game mix. Next Sunday is Razz and I encourage you if your looking for a laugh to take a look.

Cleveland Trip Report

I flew to Cleveland on Monday morning to spend some time watching baseball with NFeugo20. Vizer02 was supposed to be up here too but like all poker players he procrastinated and left it too late to book his flights and the prices became extortionate so he had to miss on the trip. Opening Day and Progressive Field was full, the temperature for the game wasn't bad unless you were in the shade which was pretty cold. As you can guess, I found myself in the shade. We were in the upper deck which made the ballpark hard to appreciate but on the whole it is a very nice park. The Rangers managed to win 4-2 in 10 so I left a happy camper, unlike nearly all the home fans. Game 2 was a game of missed chances for the Tribe and the Rangers ran out comfortable 6-2 winners. That brings us to today's game, a pair of lefties on the mound and it was a gem. The Rangers led 2-0 until the bottom of the 8 when two errors cost them the game. Two routine grounders resulted in fielder errors and instead of none on and 2 out, suddenly there was 2 on and no out and Shin Soo Choo bombs a 3 run dinger over the wall. I left sad but its good to see the tribe win a game, they certainly needed it.

I fly home tomorrow and it will begin a major grind. Ive got prop bets to reach 100k hands for the month and im certainly going to be up against it to get there. I've played about 22k hands which leaves me 78k to make my target in about 15 days. No problem lol, 15 5k days in a row and im there :) Got to get podcasts done, coaching done and also check in on my stakees. Busy, busy, busy but its certainly my mess so i have to get out of it.

Rakeback Doesn't Lie

Fridays are always a mixed day for me, its the day that I receive my weekly rakeback payments from Raketherake and also the day that I dread logging in and starting a session. I know that many of you love to play at the weekends but I absolutely hate it. The variance is so much higher and whilst I manage to get it in good most of the time, its always some random bullshit two pair getting there by the river. That's why I fear Fridays.

However, rakeback provides that silver lining, that shining star in the face of another black day at the tables with the weekend warriors playing bingo poker. Well today the lining really doesn't look silver, it looks more like bismuth or mercury (I cheated here and google'd a list of precious metals because I struggled for 5 minutes trying to figure out a cheaper valued precious metal). My rakeback payment for the week was $145, which is absolutely terrible. An average rakeback payment for a week is $280 and if i'm playing anything that resembles a normal week, its in the $300 - $350 range. So the fact that i only received $145 is telling me that I spent the week slacking at the tables. After looking back at PT3 the most hands I've logged in a day is 3500, which based on my normal volume is lol. I'm at 21k hands for the month in 9 days, I should be at around 35k.

Whats causing the lack of motivation ? I really cant answer that, I'm really enjoying poker at the minute and everything that goes along with it, yet i cant find my usual motivation. I'm hoping its not burnout because with Vegas only six weeks away, I really need to put in the hands so I have the money to play an aggressive tournament schedule. I have a pretty busy weekend with coaching and a live tournament on Saturday and then next week I'm in Cleveland to watch the Rangers with NFeugo and Vizer so there will be no poker. It looks as though it will be a super long end to the month trying to make up for all the lost hands. I can only hope that Cleveland refreshes me and I'm able to come back with some new found motivation.

On a side note, I played in my usual WNPL (Wednesday Night Poker League) event and managed to take down a nice $850 score. The event was a $100 buy in with a splash pot of $1135 resulting in a nice $3800 prize pool with only 27 runners. Each week money is taken from the tournament prize pool and then once a quarter is splashed back into the tournaments so hitting a quarterly score like this is always nice.

Just as I was going to publish this and start a session, my phone rang and a friend invited me to lunch. Finally my chance to say no and log a session to get back on track. Sadly not, I'm off to lunch,

Good luck at the tables to all.

Another Tuesday, Another Podcast

Podcast is recorded on Talkshoe.com and is scheduled to start at 3:30pm EST. If you log into Talkshoe, you can find our show under the name 'Live Poker Show'. Please stop by and say hello, heaven knows that Mal and Gareth cant stay on poker talk that long so the more guests and people saying hi the more likely we stay on poker topics.

Busy Week Ahead

I write this after having the most frustrating 10 minutes of my life. One of my students in Thailand set up a session for 3am EST for a review of some hands he has played since he has made the transition to $50nl. As im still normally awake at this time and the games are usually beginning to die, its a perfect time to do a session. However, third world Thai internet didnt want to cooperate and our calls on Skype would drop every 20 seconds.... beyond frustrating.

Ok rant over... This week should really be a busy one for me on the poker front. Since I am heading up to Cleveland to meet up with Nfeugo and Vizer next Monday, I really need to put in a lot of volume this coming week. As Nfeugo, despite playing for a living, never plays poker anymore I think there is a 5% chance that I log any hands during my time there (four days). As I would normally play about 15k hands in that time, I need to make them up sometime and before I go seems as good as any.

This means I need to be hitting about 5500 hands a day, which would be fine if I wasnt a little busy with other poker related things. On Tuesday, I've got the podcast to record and three hours of coaching to do and on Wednesday, I've got a live poker tournament in which there will be a $1000 splash pot along with 25 players ponying up $100, so thats a no brainer to attend. All these little things add up to me needing to maximize my time. So I thought I would make a post so that when I come and check back on my blog later in the week I will see that I need to be playing and not randomly wasting time on the world wide web.

On a side note, I seem to have conquered my calling station demons, through four days of the month I think I have pushed the demon back into the closet and firmly shut the door, only time will tell for sure.

Good luck at the tables to all.

March Review

Results: -

Online: - $2929
Live: - $0
Rakeback: - $1142
Coaching: - $335

Total: - $4406

All i can say about March is that it was an amazing learning experience. For the first half of the month I was playing well and making good decisions and then midway through the month the wheels fell off. What I have come to realize about playing poker at the micros is that if your a better player you can outlevel yourself. You assume because your capable of 3bet getting in AK for value that your opponents are. Well, sadly thats incorrect, when a weaker opponent 3bets preflop, its normally what he considers a strong hand. Now obviously different villains consider different hands strong and that is where we have to interpret stats etc, but for the most part they have what they are representing. This is also the case for raises postflop. When they are raising they have it, when they are weak they are calling you down. I for the second half of the month forgot this and as a result I broke even for about 30k hands. Now there were some coolers and unavoidable spots in there for sure but for the most part I got away from the things that have let me be so successful at the micros.

As we enter April it is going to be my goal for the month to get back to playing the A game that got me to where I am today and not some fancy hero calling monkey that results in blah results.

April Goals: -
[ ] 100k hands (less bc im in Cleveland with Nfeugo20 and Vizer02 watching the Rangers v Indians)
[ ] Continue with more 100pl if the games are good
[ ] Final Table MTT .... one time
[ ] Focus on playing A game at all times
[ ] More coaching
[ ] Exercise and get mentally ready for 6 weeks in Vegas