here I am all down about taking a beating recently, and within 3 hands of sitting down in my next session I win back a full buy-in lol
This was my very first hand after posting on one table :
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688217
and at the same time I found this on another loose table :
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2688209
Not all disasters are accidents... Buy the Sole Survivors Club, by Zoe E. Whitten
I’m in the back end of a 660+ hand session and its more of the same from the previous couple of days. The 2 outers though have been replaced with me making some mistakes I usually wouldn’t, I have faced a lot of nasty stuff at the tables over the past couple of days, and added to some out of game stress I think its causing tilt to creep in. Its perhaps good timing then that I’ll be away from the internet for the weekend, and will therefore be forced to take a short break.
Here’s the key hands. I’ll highlight the mistakes I believe I made, most are obvious, but feel free to comment on any that I don’t highlight :
I took a risk only raising to 30c here and it cost me. I should have bet more on the flop, sometimes I find it hard to strike the right balance between denying my opponent correct implied odds and not costing myself action, in this my less the pot size flop bet was clearly wrong. Where I really went wrong though was the river, my bet size really didn’t make much sense. If I’m stacking off with my 2nd nut flush I should have bet more, I think the bet was fine if I’m folding to a re-raise, but I didn’t, which was the next mistake.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2687530
This is a prime example of how unlucky I’ve been running over these last few days. Against a short stack, I think it was fine to call his push on this river, I think the way the hand played out I should fold if he had more behind, but for only 50c more, I think folding here would be a mistake, how do you feel about it?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2687568
This hand was sick. A mistake on the flop cost me big here. I lead out for 2c instead of my intended bet, likely because of another table popping up as I entered my bet amount. Theres a clear argument for folding this river, but it felt like a bluff / steel given how the hand played out, and I’ve got good bluff catching potential so I call.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2687587
If any hand from the session stands out as me playing really bad this would be it. I rarely call raises with these type of holdings, but because we are so deep here at $5 NL I think it can be fine, so on this occasion I decided to make the call. My mistake was making a play for the pot facing so many opponents, the bigger mistake though was of course putting villain all-in on the turn after he called without improvement.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2687599
I’ve noticed that whilst my BB/100 has been dropping, my pre-flop raising rate has decreased and I seem to be loosing most of my money when I connect in un-raised pots, even after limping in MP or LP with a quality drawing hand, and hit something instead of what I was looking for, or from the blinds. I also seem to be paying people off more by calling post flop raises, where I would otherwise fold without hesitation.
Here is my nomination for my most frustrating hand of my session :
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2677990
This hand just plain sucked. how do you feel about the turn bet? I felt that if villain re-raised here I was looking at aces up, probably top 2, but she didn’t, I didn’t expect just a call at this point. I was half tempted to push the river, but decided against.
NB : I expected to be a favorite on the flop, ran the numbers and its almost a dead heat, but I’m the slight underdog. I’m not used to semi-bluffing big pots in the cash games, I was half tempted to simply push this flop, but decided I’d be laying too big a price, especially with the Kc live. With that in mind I probably should have checked this turn, and folded to a strong enough bet.
Looks like I need to do some revision on the odds of the game.
Home Poker Tourney thread on the above hand
PS : Anything I write after an “NB:” is what I’m thinking after I’ve looked into the hand more, such as ran Poker Stove, etc
I’ve only just finished my first decent session for the day as my eyes where causing me trouble earlier and I needed to rest them. Afterwards I’m not pleased to report my BB/100 will need to be marked down again, after being knocked down a buy-in when kings improve on 5th against my aces.
Oh, and then there is this guy, if I hadn’t lost so much recently, I might have laughed at this one :
I’ve been reading the recent posts on Bet Sizing on Card Chats online Poker Blog and I’m beginning to wonder if during this particular hand http://www.pokerhand.org/?2666690 I created a situation where I committed myself on the flop.
I’ve worked on increasing my aggression a lot recently, especially post flop, maybe I should to work on the fine line between protecting my bankroll and maintaining an appropriate level of aggression.
NB : After eventually finding the hand in question and going through it, it looks like I could have handled it better. I remember thinking that any c-bet I make is committing myself, so I pushed. Maybe I was wrong, would a 90c continuation bet have any merit here, a push is a clear sign I should fold to that, how about if villain simply calls and a king pops on the turn, I’ve got to push then anyway?
Another thing that stands out now that I’m looking at the hand is that with two potential draws out there, and the possibility I’m drawing dead already, for instance 98, TT AdTd, was this a clear check-fold. The pot was big enough that I didn’t want to give up after my strong show of strength pre-flop, should I have? My opponent felt weak with his calls pre-flop, but with calling my re-raise, should I have realized he aint’ dropping if he hits or he’s got Jacks to that flop, especially at these stakes.
I’m still in shock, and not looking forward to updating my database, my beautiful BB/100 is going to be decimated for sure. I’m clear off my focus, after reading that 10k in a month challenge on Blind Tilt’s blog, I was likely thinking too much about what others are doing, instead of what I should be doing.
2 1/2 buy-in’s down the drain within only a few hundred hands. One by a 2 outer, too much by not getting out instead of defending with TPTK, and yet more when I make a play and find out my opponent flopped quads.
I’ve been loving how I’ve been playing recently and really enjoying myself, but this session serves as a strong lesson that I shouldn’t let my guard down. I’m not beating myself up too much though, I got darn unlucky, I smelt weakness and went for the pot after showing consistent strength. 2 out of 4 times, I was right and got very unlucky once, the other two times, perhaps I missed some signs and it cost me more then it should, but thats life.
Been playing rather a lot recently, getting around 700 hands in per day, which isn’t as much as I’m aiming for but its substantially more then I have achieved in the past. I’m now 6 tabling regularly which makes getting in the hands that much easier.
My last session was a little dull, most tables where full of short stack who would constantly leave or sit out for orbit after orbit, but all other sessions have been rewarding and entertaining. I think I’m due for a freeroll or maybe a sit ‘n go as a change though, to keep me interested and excited about another day of the cash games.
I finished early yesterday, and haven’t got back to play today yet due to being out celebrating a friends birthday, and with plans tomorrow it may be Monday before I get any more play in, I’m sure I’ll be eagerly awaiting the action by then.
Here’s a few hands from the last few days :
Wished I made a standard re-raise here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657553
My image was looser then usual here, and despite this being my first big re-raise, it didn’t stop someone stacking off with a marginal hand for me.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657576
No reason not to push this river right, he’s going to call or isn’t, pots big enough for a push, I’ve checked here in the past and regretted it, a check might look like a big diamond missed, might get a bluff from Ad maybe?
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657587
Can’t remember why, shits and giggles maybe, here I played TPTK more like a flush draw. Looking back looks like villain put me on the nut flush on the end with my pre-flop raise, maybe folder a rag flush.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657608
Do you think putting villain all-in on the flop here was a mistake OOP, I likely could have got to the river cheaper, and reassessed if I didn’t fill up.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657852
At the same time of this hand, I was involved in another big pot facing a river push. I ended up calling that and lost to a villain who chased his back door flush, this made up for that 
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657873
Maybe its time I took a leaf out of others books and started to write more then my thought process on the few hands I am showing… hmmm, worth some thought I suppose.
As always thanks for stopping by xxx
Just finished my first session of the day, and managed to stay in the game(s) for 488 hands, just about half way towards my target of 1k hands per day, which ain’t bad. Financially, it wasn’t a great success, I made a couple of plays, that left me behind and the remainder of the session simply recouped those earlier losses. I always feel better if by the end of my session I have avoided a loss, but the unfortunate thing about tracking your BB/100 is that, you can avoid a loosing session and still loose.
Overall besides two overtly stupid lines, I think I played well throughout, but I keep finding myself insinuations where I feel I could pick a pot up, or where I feel I could play such and such, but can’t commit or don’t know the line to take. Perhaps its convenient that I have just finished reading NL Hold’em Theory and Practice, so that now I can re-read it again, and hopefully improve in some of these areas.
Here’s a few hands from the session :
Here I had a little something with J9 from the BB, but when I didn’t take it down on the flop, I opted to get out without investing anymore into the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2638343
I was certain I was beat on this showdown, but my aces held up.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2638497
Hit TP with AQ, but decided to give up on the turn.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2638511
This hand was just a pain, I raise enough to build a nice sized pot and to ideally isolate one caller, but nope, I get 3 callers. I was actually hoping the guy on the end would re-raise, so I could get it all in pre-flop. Initial thoughts on the flop is that I’m likely ahead, until first to act makes a large bet out of position.
During the hand, I felt a straight was unlikely, looking back QT is an obvious candidate. In the hand though I felt I was up against maybe aces, but more likely a set, either way I was very likely beat, and reluctantly let it go.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2638561
This was my 2nd stupid blunder of the session. Now and again when I sit at a table, I have preconceived notions about how the table plays, and regrettably now and again it affects my own play, this is one of those cases. Clearly I should have given up on the turn on such a dry board.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2638588
This was a little frustrating, but nothing to tilt over. I face a push from a short stack with AKs and elect to call. I actually hoped he had queens when I called, thats poker lol
So as you’ve all realized, I haven’t been playing too much poker recently. With any lucky that’s all behind me now, I’m excited about putting some time in finally, and kicked things off with two short sessions yesterday. Nothing spectacular, the “lay down” hand was really the highlight. My morning session netted me just short of $4, close to a full buy-in, and my evening session ended in a loss of around 80c.
I enjoyed both sessions, the first session I was playing the waiting game, not getting out of line, just waiting for some spots to get involved in, I noticed a few pots I could have stolen, but opted not too. My money came from TP, backdoor draw, where two people where happy to call pot sized flop and turn bets. Its a strange thing, I always seem to face a bigger pot with TP, then two pair or anything else, something I need to work on. Anyways, one ducks out on the turn, other guy pays me off with 2nd pair, and a gut shot.
The evening session was more frustrating, but enjoyable still. I was likely a little less patient then I should have been though which could have made matters worse. The session was a mix of randoms stacking off frequently on 2 or 3 of my tables, with moments of craziness on an otherwise calm table. A typical situation was me raising for the first time with ATs in MP, and then getting insta shoved. That particular case was a bad raise,though, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking to achieve.
I then find the more interesting hand of both the sessions:
I limp in with a suited ace, and flop trips, Its check to me, so I give a free card. Looking back the turn is the crucial point of the hand, I would usually re-raise here, but I would usually bet this flop, so I call. I’ve played the hand really passive up to the river, and expect to either make a value bet, or call a bet, in this case I probably wouldn’t re-raise here. Then villain pushes, if he could have done something I wasn’t expecting this was it, although to be fair I was a little distracted and was watching a movie whilst playing lol.
So, immediate thought is call, 2nd thought is, wait I could be out kicked…, I pause. This smells like a bluff, I’ve seen it before, I’ve called it before, then for once I think about what he can put me on where a bluff like this would work, what do I get, nothing, there is no way this is a bluff, I’m looking at a full house, I fold. OK, probably not a great lay down after all, but it was a good moment, I end up loosing the minimum, where I could have easily lost a full buy-in, that felt rather good to me.
Yikes!, my keyboards been sat idle for way two long, sorry about the lack of updates. That’s kinda the problem, with a site dedicated to your own poker play, if your not playing poker, there isn’t much you can write about, but lack of updates suck, so guess I’m going to have to pull my finger out and play some poker then.
I’ve just finished my first session in a while, only a 45 minute refresh really, but it paid okay, with nearly a full buy added to my bankroll. I’m hoping to get back to work on my 1k hands per day challenge I set myself, it could take me sometime to reach that target, as I suck at putting in the hours, but I’ll do my best.
Many Thanks to everyone who kept stopping by, I appreciate it xxx
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