A post I made on HPT ended up being a sort of min blog, so I thought I may as well link to it here.
Really sorry for not posting anything worthwhile, or talking about strat or anything descent in ages. I’ve been stressed, lazy and busy all round into one lol.
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Primarily I only have one goal, that is to crush at 50nl, I don’t yet know what crushing 50nl in terms of wr will mean for me, but I’ve had 2 or 3 months of reasonably solid volume now where my red line has been negative and my WR has been far lower then it has been in the past. So in short, I plan to kick the shit out of this little rut I have found myself in 
Objectives
Targets
Turn any table into a red hot poker arena with the PokerFleece tablecover!
So it has been a swingy month for me lol. I was playing both 50nl fr and 50nl 6m at the start of the month and forgot how to play both anywhere close to correctly. That was the first 11k hands or so. The next few bumps in the road, was moments of good play trashed by horrific spew as I tried to get my game back. All the way up to the last week my win rate has been ridiculously pathetic this entire month, even when I was pulling myself up out of BE, which was really getting to me.
Finally I sort of just said “fuck it”, and tried to un-do any changes I feel I might have made to my game at the start of the month, that may have put me in this position, as I was beating 25nl for 5pt in the first 30k hands, so beating it for ~3pt this month is rather crap.
More recently still I have made a few adjustments, which I believe are improvements, though these are pulling my game back closer to what it was previously, just more refined and better well thought out. I’m hoping September will allow me to cement my game back together and instill some more confidence back in me. Once I’m happy with things I’ll then work on setting up HEM, using a HUD for the first time, 12 tabling and eventually moving back up to 50nl fr.
I normally like to show off my money won at showdown and non showdown graph, but not this month, my red line has been a sore issue for me, so you’ll have to make do with the regular money won graph.
There are some positives from this month though, I have gotten more used to playing short handed, I am now a lot more comfortable playing HU then I was, though there is still a ton more room of improvement to be made. I exceeded my VPP goal and made Platinum Star, and I also completed the full reload bonus, and also sold 12, 500 FPP’s for a decently sized instant cash bonus, so money won and bonuses coupled together put this month has my best ever, in terms of fpp’s, money won, and volume, so that’s good.
Also new this month, is my copy of “Professional Poker”
Been taking a few day’s of from my regular grind, will hopefully getting back to that tomorrow. So I decided to fire up a 180 man sit ‘n go on Poker Stars, as I am rather fond of them and haven’t played one in some time. I was just going to play one at first, but my friend Urban Terror convinced me to multi-table them, something I haven’t done since I was frantically pushing to complete my deposit bonus playing STT’s.
So I fired up 4 and despite only just scraping a profit I really enjoyed it, my bankroll as grown a lot since I last played these, so I feel a lot less pressure to make it in them now and I could just enjoy myself. Playing 4 at once also helps with this as well, as you can still be running in 3 if you get unlucky in one of them.
I was going to get busy with another “set” of 4 yesterday but I was recruited to help a friend move house, which went on to take, all day and into the night lol.
I’m pondering firing up another set now… but some freaking bug happened to sting / bite me just under my eye last night and its really bugging / distracting me at the moment, so I probably should let myself calm down from that a bit first.
Happy Grinding
Hero calls, I’ve ended up thinking about them so much recently that I thought I’ll write a few words about them. This must be a popular point of discussion as a quick Google for “poker hero call” returns numerous listings on it; how do you feel about them, do you love them, hate them? I actually find the whole dynamic quite interesting.
So for the uninitiated, what exactly is a hero call. A hero call is an unconventional call, one that you would hardly ever make, usually in a key situation, where the preceding action and the situation dictates that you are behind and should fold. Instead of folding however, you feel your are ahead of villains range and make the call, effectively beating only a bluff.
There is definitely a tilt factor involved with hero calls, perhaps equally so for the bluffer. Some may berate their own play after they call down on a rough board and end up embarrassed against the top of villains range, others may get tilted when there bluff shove gets called by 3rd pair, etc.
When it comes to making a hero call, I personally am a lot less affected if I make a “hero call” and it turns out to be wrong. In that case I am usually happy to accept that I followed my thought process through and made what I believe to be a correct call. I do much more often find myself dwelling on the hero calls that I do not make, part of it is the curiosity of wondering what villain had, or what villain would take that line with.
Bellow is a media clip from Poker Listings I found interesting, where they asked various pro’s what they preferred, a hero call or a big bluff. I’ve never really given it any thought before; I love both, though I bluff a lot more than I attempt a hero call. Perhaps that means bluffing is easier, I would suspect it is and perhaps more profitable too.
The Pros on Hero Calls or Successful Bluffs from PokerListings.com
Pulling off a hero call feels amazing though, I bluff a lot, so pulling off a big bluff feels routine to me, and is a lot more ” just part of the game” for me then it might be for others, but I might go for a hero call once or twice a week out of 10-15k hands, so getting one right gives me a rush
Here’s a couple of examples of my own hero calls from some of my recent sessions:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4490155
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4490164
EDIT: Here’s a more recent one from the 28th August 2009, villain tried to replicate a monster line from a previous hand that I paid him off on, but his line didn’t add up.
I’ve just hit kind of a milestone, I’ve crossed the 100k hands marker for the first time. Thanks to being off uni for summer it hasn’t taken as long as it otherwise would have done.
I am also now only around 5k hands bellow my 45k hand target I set myself for 25nl. As soon as I hit that target, assuming my bankroll is also on target then I’ll be moving up to 50nl, can’t wait
In other news, I am trying to setup a new venture, to support a few micro stakes coaches called Grind Core Coaching. Its just a place holder at the moment, but I should have some content up soon.
Happy Grinding
Well as I mentioned in my last post, April 2009 has been a really good month for me, comfortably my best ever. Its been a really good confidence boost and i feel I am settling into my own approach to the game nicely.
This months results.
Here’s my graph covering my cash games over the month. I won’t bother flashing my tournament graph as I only played a handful of them.
Maybe I need to give myself a break from the SNG’s now lol, because the frequency of stuff like this is getting to me.
hand 1,
Attack the “tight passive”, guy’s blinds, flop great and hope he pushes Woot!, wait… that wasn’t supposed to happen 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3815758
hand 2,
These long term +EV type spots, just plain suck in tournaments, maybe I haven’t achieved my tourney zen mind set yet.
I’m being a little preemptive with my end of month roundup, as I don’t expect it to change much between now and tomorrow evening.
My cash grind as not gone very well. I’m down a little over 1/2 a buy in at 2c/5c. I think I’ve played mediocre at best, but looking back I think all of my big pot losses, where coolers or bad beats, with what felt like a relatively large percentage of set vs set and full house over full house encounters. Not that I mind much though, being over rolled makes it easier for me to ignore small periods of variance such as this and my tournament results have allowed me to still have a positive score for the month.
I am down relatively though, mostly because I got a little silly with my bankroll and splashed around a bit, tossing buy-in’s around with friends. Added to that my lack of performance at 5nl and it makes me feel like I’ve had a negative month.
I have managed to achieve two targets I set myself though, firstly I have now finished my 2nd read of No Limit Hold ‘em: Theory and Practice
Well after a few days mostly away from play, I expect to be back to some regular sessions from tomorrow. I’ve got rather a lot of catching up to do, but I’ll be happy enough if I can just turn my 5nl recession around before the end of the month.
Welcome to Lucky Straights. A blog about my journey on the road to becoming a professional poker player.
Wanna make sports a little more interesting? Try betting online for your favorite team. There’s plenty of sites where you don’t even have to play with real money, and it still keeps things exciting.
The following table shows my win rate and number of hands played for some of my most recent levels. Only Full Ring NLHE is shown.
| Stakes | ptBB/100 | No. Hands |
|---|---|---|
| 100nl | 3.54 | 7,584 |
| 50nl | 2.98 | 127,219 |
| 25nl | 3.94 | 146,831 |
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Registration code: 276290
