In other news, I’ve acquired a few things to make my poker grind a little easier, and hopefully more profitable.
The first is a DX Net Pro, a platform and mouse pad combination that attaches to the chair arm, so I can be a little more comfier when I’m playing online poker, this is especially important with me still suffering with my eyes when at the screen.
I’ve also know got set up some stats software that will allow me to keep track of my BB/100 easier.
Finally I am now also able to video my online sessions, which may help with any post session reviews. I can also send these videos off to have my play analyzed.
The last few days have been a bit of pain, I start off well, then loose all of the previous sessions profits in the next session, then I’ll regain it all in the next session or the next day, and before the day’s over I’ll be back down again. I’ve also gotten sick of the morning routine, starting to play at 12pm or 2am ET. I’m going to try and get some more full buy-in sessions done in the afternoon for a change. I may even sit in one or two Sit ‘n Go’s to give me a break.
Not all disasters are accidents... Buy the Sole Survivors Club, by Zoe E. Whitten
March 30th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
Sit N' Go's, cash games |
2 comments
My recent sessions have had me going up and down rather a lot recently, here’s a few hands worth mentioning :
I can’t recall why I didn’t raise pre-flop here, but I flopped the nut flush and lead out, I get called and make a very weak bet on the turn, loosing me value, I should have assumed he had a decent hand and bet stronger to get more value out of my hand. On the river I’m hoping he’s made a high flush with a K or Q and make a stronger bet.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2353604
Here I make it 10c to go with AQ. I hit TP and lead out on the flop. I should have bet more on the flop here, but I’ve become paranoid about not giving away I don’t want the flush to come, to avoid being bluffed. I make aces up on the turn and decide to push all-in.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2353609
Got lucky here after making a stupid mistake by pushing on the river when I filled up, with little full.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2353611
Here, I decided to do something different for a change. I re-raised on the flop with my flush draw, rather then call. I lead out when I hit TP along with my draw on the turn and take down the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2353613
Here villain chases her gut shot, and I pay her off on the river. In hindsight, if she’s willing to chase like this, then she’s willing to bet a set on the end or maybe even AQ, before seeing the hand play out though I’m not sure if I should have called here.
On another note, I think playing these sort of hands in EP, maybe even MP is too loose.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2353350
March 30th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
no comments
Here’s a bunch of hands I deemed note worthy, during the”black out”. The last one occurred earlier this evening.
Typical raise with aces, get re-raised by a short stack. Silly of me to push here, I really wanted the other guy still in the pot in this case, as I don’t stand to win much from the short stack.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2304019
I limp in EP with AJs. I hit top pair on the flop and lead out, to face a min-raise. I’ve been min-raised in a similar spot by A7, so I re-raise to define my opponents hand a little more. When he comes over the top again, I know he’s got something. At some point in the hand I begin to think he’s got top 2, but times passed so I don’t know if I felt that on the flop or the turn. The turns a blank, and heres where I do something I hate, I just call, I hate just calling here.
With the river completing two obvious draws, I elect to lead out and to try and get two pair, or maybe a set to lay it down. My opponent thinks for some time, but eventually calls with AK.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2304082
I raise with AQ in LP and get a call from the SB. I felt this guy to be a little tricky, so I elected to check behind on the flop. I feel this was too weak here, I should have lead out. The turn pairs the board, but doesn’t help any draws, so I lead out to see where I’m at, a call suggests he’s hit something, so I check behind on the river.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2304770
This was a stinker. I flop bottom set and get raised by aces up. We end up with all the money in on the flop, and I go from a huge favorite to drawing dead in the flip of a card.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2304965
This would have been a great pot for me, but with that action I had to fold my aces here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2306942
Here I flop bottom set with against a possible flush draw. I lead out and get min-raised, it surprised me, but I was confident in my hand so I come over the top, villain calls. On the turn the flush as come, and I elect to put my opponent all-in, I felt he was 50/50 to have the flush here, this was likely a mistake, but the raise on the flop threw me. When he min-raised me on the flop, I would normally just push all-in, which may have ended the pot there, but I’m trying to move beyond over kill moves like that. I’m not sure if I raised enough to deny him the correct odds or not.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2307024
Pocket jacks have been good to me recently, with me flopping top set several times.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2307095
Here I flop top set again, this time with kings and could have got more value from it. I judge my opponent to be a little tricky and is very willing to force people to fold or to pay him off big by pushing all-in and making aggressive raises.
I elect to check the flop this time, as I didn’t want to be bluffed from a large pot if a flush comes on the turn. The turns doesn’t complete the obvious flush draw and I lead out, if the turn completed the flush, I’m sure “as_warrior2″ would bluff re-raise me. I fill up on the river, and decide to check, villain thinks for awhile, but eventually decides not to bluff at the pot. I’m not sure if a check here was the best play, a nervous looking bet might have been more likely to induce a bluff re-raise, is a check here too suspicious?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2308595
I check the turn here with my small over pair, but fire on the turn when I make my set. I get one caller. The river looks a blank to me, but I get re-raised all-in, I call and find he hit the straight, I did not expect this, maybe I should have.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2309664
I’m lucky enough to flop a full house here with my pocket sevens, and decide to play it aggressively hoping to get looked up, as It looks like I’ve just been bullying the table recently. My large bet on the river may have been too strong, what do you think?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2309667
This hand was another one of those hands, where you want to kick something. I find pocket queens and make a standard raise to 10, a player on my left makes a large re-raise, which I may have otherwise called, but I’ve seen him make this play with AK, so I push all-in, after an opponent between us calls his re-raise.
Now here’s the kick in the teeth, the player between us calls my push with 55 and goes on to make a straight, WTF! Always stings to loose a big pot, but what on earth was this guy thinking, I have no idea.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2330196
March 26th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
2 comments
Sorry about the site being down over these last few days. Apparently my site was generating excessive traffic that was causing the servers problems, and needed looking in to. Hopefully things will be back to normal now.
Got plenty of hands to share, that I could do with some feed back on, I’ll try and get them posted later on today.
Thanks
March 25th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
Uncategorized |
3 comments
Just picked up my biggest pot so far in $5 NL. Small by most peoples standards, but this was a great hand for me 
I’m surprised the original raiser was so weak, I expected aces or kings, and actually that’s what I wanted. His raise was about as close to the maximum that I could call that I was comfortable with. I think I could call a raise up to 60c to hit a set with our stack sizes.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2302033
March 20th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
5 comments
Well, I’m happy to report today has been a much better day. Didn’t make much money, but recovered from yesterday’s losses and I feel I played far better then I did the day before, which always makes me sleep easier.
The next step is to see if I can tighten up a little more to save some bets I may be loosing, and to start playing 5 tables instead of my usual 4. I’m also going to try and improve my play with made hands with dangerous draws against me, such as flopping a straight with two to a flush as I feel I’m forcing people off of their hands too readily fearing the flush instead of letting them draw, whilst still making a long term error.
Haven’t played much 6 max today, last time I played I ended up down 3 full buy-ins, so I’ve left it alone for awhile. I’m pleased to report a friend of mine had a good evening though, turning $20 into $100.
March 20th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
no comments
Last night, was a bit of a nightmare for me. I was paying off people and making moves and c-bets in silly spots on Poker Stars which lost me a little over two full buy-ins, and then after quickly getting my new Sun account up to just over $70, I threw away $20 of that, by allowing myself to be dominated and firing 3 barrels against people who weren’t folding even if I moved in on the flop.
I played fucking appalling on Poker Stars yesterday. My discipline was gone, and so was my control. Later on, I let myself get influenced and distracted by friends and sat in more games, for more money then I wouldn’t normally instead of ending even across both sites, and I got punished for it.
It hurts, not only the loss of money, but the sick feeling of playing badly, it eats away at me and I hate it. I’m totally disgusted with myself, I can only hope that this awful episode well force me back on track.
So with all that behind me here’s my steps to getting back to it.
1. Firstly, re-read the following articles after some sleep.
2. Start to re-read ‘Zen and The Art of Poker’, as I have obviously forgotten the many lessons it taught me
3. Really concentrate on narrowing my game down to the very, very basic levels. No c-bets, no 2nd barrels, etc, whilst I’m multi-tabling the $5 games.
4. If I’m on a table full of regulars and grinders whilst I’m multi-tabling, leave and find a softer game. I’m here for money, I don’t need to prove anything, not yet anyways :p
5. If all the tables seem full of grinders and regular ‘players’ take a break or play on another site or sit in a Sit ‘n Go.
6. Now and then, I’ll play a single table, and I’ll focus on improving my game. I’ll do my best to exploit my opponents and try and throw a bit of deception at the regulars I usually multi-table with to keep me focused and to stop me getting bored whilst I’m playing ‘super tight’ all the time.
How To Avoid Tilt
How To Stay Off Tilt
Dwarfman’s Avoiding Tilt
March 19th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
no comments
So, I’ve been grinding the $5 NL cash games rather a lot, playing 4 tables at a time, and doing my best to only play premium hands and situations. Its been going well, I’ve made a small steady climb towards my first target of $220, but I have begun to get a little bored, especially recently with very few tables running, and all seemingly full of grinders with the same MO.
I needed a change, so took an opportunity to sell on my decimated remnants of my bankroll on Full Tilt, a mere $10.48 and deposit $20 on Sun Poker. A few of my friends have now deposited there, and one managed to double is deposit within the first day, so I was keen to get stuck into the 6 max, 3c/6c games on offer.
Anyways, long story short, I’ve been very blessed with the positive side of variance and have turned my $20 deposit into a little over $60 since yesterday. I’m not comfortable at all with 6 max yet, most of my money came from getting all the money in with solid hands against very aggressive opponents and staying ahead or sucking out where I needed to, but I really have enjoyed it and its a very welcome change from the slow paced grind I’m doing on Poker Stars at the moment.
March 19th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
2 comments
As I’ve said, I’ve been having a good time in the $5 NL cash games, well until this particular hand. I don’t know if it strictly is a bad beat, though it probably is, it sure did sting and resulted in me ending the session earlier then I would have liked. I’m not as able to laugh it off as I once was, so I did the next best thing and left the table.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2277739
Well, after Poker Stove analysis looks like it was, 90% favorite on the flop with all the money in, and I was still a 70% favorite on the turn. Ah well, these things happen as my friend says. I’ve been finishing ahead in most of my sessions recently, so it reminds me that not every session will be a winning one.
March 16th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
2 comments
This is almost always a guaranteed push from me in a tournament, but here I didn’t want to race with a full buy-in, I have done and will do over and over, I just didn’t feel like it. Added to that the possibility the re-raiser held kings and I felt good about the fold.
I felt smooth calling the re-raise would be the worst play, if I’m racing I want all the money on the line in case I do hit, and I’m really hoping to get this heads-up against the re-raiser, and a push gives me the best shot at achieving that.
When The initial raiser just called the re-raise I put him on jacks, and the re-raiser on queens, I wasn’t far out, and would have been racing after all, I just didn’t feel like it this time around.
Just wanted to share my thoughts on the hand. Do you agree that this was a push or fold here?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2275763
March 16th, 2008
Posted by
LuckyStraights |
cash games |
no comments
