2000 hands, $170 profit. Think I'm going to have a short post here, but I think I'll have a lengthy sit-down with myself to seriously think and write about tilt and how it's affecting me in the next few days. It'll be mostly for myself, but I'm sure it could help some others who have tilt problems too. For what it's worth, Taylor/Hilger's The Poker Mindset that I'm currently reading is definitely sparking this self-reflection if you will. From what I've read so far it's mostly dealing with concepts that can be found in other poker books and resources, but it's definitely a well-written book and it's helping me figure some stuff out.
So poker's going ok, I suppose. I don't like using EV programs since I'm trying to ignore results and how I'm running as much as possible, and although I'm sure I'm way below expectation, it could be worse.
A few weeks ago I was running like a god and actually looked back at my brutal March downswing and was basically thinking "how will I deal with my next downswing?" knowing it was probably on the horizon (and here it is!). It's a lot easier said than done, but the ideal way to do so would be not to tilt and to just grind out the hands until the long-run 'got there'. The reason why downswings generally last so long is that tilt is involved and that obviously elongates them, often making you play exponentially worse.
Stosh of stoxpoker has basically accepted me for his coaching, and he's just waiting on me to confirm or bail on it. My recent swings have made me even more hesitant to do it and tbh I still haven't decided. I think if I had 6k instead of my 4.5 I'd do it in an instant. I'm thinking now that I probably will bail. The $800 is just too much. Basically I think unless I start running well again by the end of the week and make like $500+, I'm bailing.
It's just not worth it
I've gotten to the point with the whole bike vs car door incident that I've had to threaten to go to court with the guy, but it's basically a bluff. My grandfather's a very good lawyer, but I don't think we have enough to go on to make it worth our while. Basically this guy has fucked me out of half the cost of my bike as he's only willing to pay the cost of one of the wheels that broke. In retrospect I should have just called the cops at the actual crash (and I will if I ever do get into another accident), but as it played out I'm fucked. The guy won, and there's nothing I can do about it but just accept the half-assed payment, that is if he's even still willing to pay it considering I just spouted some bs about taking him to court for the full amount. *@#($&*(
I guess it was thursday night; I came home after a day of heavy drinking and decided I wanted to play some 6-max. Dropped down to 25nl (you know me and my 6-max history...) and went nuts. I actually tried to make a video of it, but the commentary was just incomprehensible. Not the funny 'omg he's so drunk lol!' commentary; more like "ok so I'm just raising any two on the button....oh I'll 3bet this guy light because....steal that too...because umm wait ok this is a spot I don't want to c-bet...wait what was I saying about this guy over here?". Just scattered.
I did play well though - and very aggro. I only played 200 hands 4-tabling but maintained a 35/32 style and ran at a completely sustainable 48ptbb/100.
So that was a nice way to end the night. Go get drunk, come home and play poker, make up for all your night's booze costs.
Setting records!
Brag: set a new record yesterday Beat: it was for most money lost in a day :( Variance: It doesn't hurt (anymore)
Long story short, I ran into some ridiculous beats, then tilted pretty badly for a few more buyins lost. I've been making it a habit of not keeping track of results as closely, but yesterday was a ~-$650 day which was no fun. I definitely ran bad, but I was very very rusty too, especially with my tilt control. I didn't take nearly enough time to think my decisions through and that resulted in a big chunk of my losses.
The hands:
Villain was statless at the time but I recognized him as a regular which meant he probably was tight enough either have 44/22/55 or a bigger flush. Regs just don't ever do this with a deuce, nor do they do it with 99 and other pairs. I guess if he had AA with the Ad or something it could make sense, but the majority of the time I'm seeing a monster here, and although I didn't manage to fold the hand that time, you could see my hesitation in just calling down.
Villain was very aggro and I have no qualms about getting AKs AIPF there, but I don't like my postflop play/bet sizing. Any other options?
EL OH EL. Villain was one of those 80/30s or something, and the cold caller was Coordi, a tight reg. Coordi can't really trap there with a big pair since I won't be 4betting often enough to make it a legit play, so I basically put him on a sloppy set mine hoping I would call behind him. I think pf I could have just shoved, although that's being a little results-oriented. meh.
Shortly thereafter against the same guy. People sometimes get too carried away with pot control and such, but the main factor in how big or small you want a pot to be is how strong your hand is relative to your opponent's calling range. This guy was calling basically any pair/any draw there, so my hand is basically a monster here; I was more than happy to get my whole stack in barring some bad turn/river cards.
Against a reg who loves to 3bet light; I think this is pretty strong here. I don't remember the exact numbers, but a stox coach was talking about how much less likely your opponent is to hold an ace in his hand when you have one in your hand vs when you don't, and it was surprisingly significant enough to make me start 4bet bluffing with small aces like this confidently. Of course villain having an ace in his hand doesn't mean all that much, but since bigger, more dominating aces will (or would normally) be a big part of his 3betting range, it makes 4bet bluffing pretty enticing in those spots.
Let the fun begin. I think this is when tilt starts setting in a little bit.
lol, against a fish. I still don't know what to think of this guy. 3betting KTo, then shutting down with a backdoored two pair? I don't like how I played the flop either. I think I'm getting a little FPS in there, but I figured if I bet, the only real hands that stick around are bigger pairs. If I check, I induce action from a much bigger portion of his range (AK/AJ/smaller pairs) and can then come over the top to end the hand right there. Would like thoughts on this one too.
Against a loose-passive pf player who's slightly aggro postflop. Just sloppy. Remember the $50 bet.
A little thin, but this guy was aggro enough to make it fine iyam. I was far more worried about the cold-caller in between.
Against a 12.5/12.5 shortstacking reg. I have yet to sit down and solve these situations and really should take the time to do it. The decision of whether or not to 3bet (and/or call a shove) is a function of his opening range, his stack size, and the range he'll call a 3bet with (or push over the top, w/e it's all the same when you're that short). If you're a member of stox, you'll recognize the StoxEV program, and I think it's absolutely perfect for these situations. I'll be looking into this situation and maybe others in the next few days and will probably make posts on my findings.
Just brutal. Obviously I'm not going any farther than the turn if he double barrels (he was tag and basically a pf/cbet type player), but the 9 helps. As does the ace, for him. Noted his inability to let go of AA without the spade there vs an obvious beluga.
Well at least these dipshits aren't getting ANY value for their hands. Starting to get pissed regardless at this point.
Remember that $50 bet? Same guy. Pretty terrible call-down and I think I should have double barreled the turn. He'll have 99/88/Tx/gutshots a lot of the time and I think that calls for putting out another bet. It turned out this guy was a lot worse than I'd initially thought - he would peel KT out of position on J8x flops for example. Awesome.
BSB against a somewhat aggressive reg; similar to my style. I think we have a little bit of 3betting history, but regardless I think this is standard.
Checking my HEM, this guy was 43/24 over a small sample size. I don't think there's anything to do other than shove on him.
Thin-ish valuebet against the guy who peeled KJ on the AT7 flop. Shows up with the top-ish of his range again, meh.
Against a 59/20...a little thin but I don't think this was that spewy either.
Now this was spewy. A7 guy was trash and I'm more than happy to get it in against him, but the other guy was a pretty tight reg. I was basically hoping for another big ace in there but really should have slowed down on the turn and check-called or something.
Cue the spew! This is against a very tight reg. PF is spew, calling 3bets without implied odds is something I do often when I'm tilting. I use the excuse "I can steal the pot from him enough of the time postflop to make it worthwhile", but as you can see I suck postflop. Villain's range is basically either AK/KK/AA/99 or QQ-TT, and off the top of my head I think the underpairs are more likely, so basically here I was betting to push them off. I mean QQ can't call a double barrel on that board. Unfortunately it looks like he was either slowplaying a monster or turned his pair into a really weird bluff.
This one against a fish. Really not sure what to think about this, but I'm pretty sure it's just spew. Maybe flat the flop and give up to a double barrel? I dunno.
Probably the only highlight of the night. The guy was aggro, but this was way out there. He instantly pushed the flop, just hilarious.
Just spew pf. (tilt)
And that's it. I went from borderline apeshit yesterday soon after the losses to being a little melancholy later on. Thankfully I had a good friend call me up for a friend-of-a-friend's birthday party. We hit up a bar downtown, had a few beers, then we all went pool hopping for like half an hour before getting kicked out. I hadn't been all summer and it was really refreshing, in a physical sense and a mental one.
I recently bought a $650 bonus with FPPs, so that's coming along nicely and should help me heal my wounds from yesterday. No longer pissed about the losses though which is great. I mean this was literally the single worst day for me in terms of money lost, but I'm already ok with it, and that means I'm progressing in my tilt-control. So believe it or not, I'm content.
Off to eat some (really) late breakfast and I'm gonna get to grinding later on. It's sunday, so I expect to see some sunday mil results out there guys, gl to whoever's playing in the big ones today.
Stosh of stoxpoker has made an announcement that he's going to be accepting up to two students to be coached by him. I've said for a while that I've been wanting to make the move to 6-max, and although I have no doubt in my mind that he would help, I'm already starting to rethink buying up a spot after putting in an application last night. The first thing that's detracting me is his price: 200/hr for a minimum of 4 hours. That's reasonable in the coaching world, but for someone who's playing 100nl, that's eight buyins for the first 4 sessions. Like I said, I have no doubt in my mind that it will help my game, but to what degree, I'm not sure.
As I mentioned before, I live completely off my bankroll. Taking that new leap down 6-max lane is going to be a swingy one to say the least, and I'm not sure I'm prepared to take those swings after finding such a good, consistent niche in full ring. I mean taking his lessons would knock me back for nearly 1/5th of my bankroll :O
Anyways, definitely something to consider, and I'm filling out his 'official' application form right now.
Session analysis
Tygran of cardschat sent me some hand histories and I made a video out of it, unfortunately as usual my commentary is a little scattered.
Risk
Don't ask me what sparked it, but I got a massive craving for the board game Risk. Bought it last night for a hefty $30, and my brother and I had a quick game before passing out. The basis of how it works is essentially you try to take over the world in a series of wars and battles decided in part by strategy, in part by luck. Each battle sees a maximum of 3 attackers and 2 defenders go at it, rolling dice to determine who lives and who dies. The geeky poker player in me noticed the fact that you could actually look at it in it's entirety as a game of EV. Each potential attack you make has a certain EV depending on how many pieces you and your opponent has. Obviously the fewer you have and the more he has, the more likely it is you come out with a loss, and vice versa.
Unfortunately I have yet to solve the EV game and my brother whooped my ass.
Really fun game though, and now that we've figured out most of the game (it gets pretty complicated), next game will be even more fun.
In terms of my poker progress, well I've been lazy again, only 1000 hands as the post title suggests. Fortunately I just cracked 50k fpps and bought a $650 bonus, so that will provide enough motivation for me to play in the next while. I plan on playing a bit today, maybe I'll update with a post later on.
Icemonkey commented in my last post that I should treat poker like a job, and he's absolutely right. I don't think I can stick to a schedule due to my scattered life atm, but putting in more hands is just as good.
Especially when they're good. Aside from being pretty busy and not really having much time to play, I've been slacking with the grinding for another reason: because I'm running so good I don't need to 'worry' about logging hands. It's a retarded, worthless reason, but I think it shows a big hole in my game; I keep tab of my results way too closely. I know, it's a good problem to have running so good, but it'll catch up to me. Later this month/next month when I start grinding hard again, I'll be rusty, and barring more luck on my side, I'll probably see some pretty poor results.
I dunno, I don't hate myself completely for this. It's summer, there's a party going on like every other day and I'd much rather be out there having fun than in here in front my my PC on a friday night. I do have most of the day to play, but it seems like every time I sit down, something else pops up to detract me from the tables. Like my dog starts whining, so I have to take him out. Or my stomach starts grumbling, then I go cook & eat something, only to find that I have a ton of shit to do around the house. Then by the time all that's done, I get a call from a friend saying there's a party, so I hit the shower, grab some beer and I'm out the door.
Not to mention this guy who car doored me and my bike is being a really big pain in the ass right now. He's being semi-reasonable with his arguments, but is basically doing everything in his power to delay or avoid paying me for the repairs. There's basically one more straw (proving that the wheels he twisted up are indeed the same price as the ones I replaced them with), and if that doesn't go well then I'm basically taking him to court. I have a family member who's a lawyer, so he can either scare him into paying for my bike, or tear him a new asshole in court. Getting sick of his shit.
So I don't know if you guys remember, but my dad and I were supposed to get an apartment ages ago. That was basically on hiatus until the current tenant found a house to buy/move into, but as it stands now they still haven't moved out and my dad basically withdrew our names from consideration. I'm really not too disappointed to be honest. a) I plan on traveling soon and obviously don't want to get locked down for a one-year lease, b) my dad is extremely unreliable and I'm not sure it would even be a good idea, and c) he's now going to pay back the $950 in first & last rent that I put down, so that'll add a nice pad to my roll.
My good friend (maybe one of the few people I actually could live with) also asked me about getting a place together. I'm not %100 concrete on if or where I'm traveling, but it sounds like he'd want a place at the same time that I'd want to go travel, so I think that's a flop too.
So, on the agenda for the rest of the summer: grind more, save more, party more, go skydiving, go swimming more, grind more. As it stands right now though, my brother left food on my desk, ants are absolutely flooding all over the place, and I'll be hungry after I clean this shit up...
First off I just crossed the 10k mark in profits since starting rings in December. The landmark doesn't really mean anything, like in comparison to making a successful move to 200nl or something like that for example, but I think afit kind of signifies my semi-long-term succes thus far in the rings. Had I stuck to tournies and never joined stox back in Dec, I would probably still be stuck at the $16 STTs right now pulling my hair out from the bubbles and overall variance. Rings have been good to me to say the least.
Today was quite nice too. Hopped on the tables and 12 tabled for about two and a half hours for 1800+ hands and raked in a fat $562. At certain points in my session I was just picking up ridiculous cards. Like once I had 5 of the 12 tables with QQ or better dealt to me which would have made a nice screenshot. I played pretty well and obviously ran great, so I'm pretty happy right now.
Hands of the day:
Pretty 'standard' 3 barrel bluff. Either he's slowplaying the hell out of me with a set or straight, a (much more likely) marginal made hand like 68, A8 or 99, or a busted draw like 9T or a gutshot. Not something I do every time someone checks to me, but I think this was a pretty ideal spot.
Both opponents are fishy; I just wanted to see a raise on the flop so I could get it in. Pretty shitty spot. My flop erection turned into a 4th street softie.
Villain is lag and very spewy. PF is a little dubious, but I think it's ok since we'll occasionally take it away from him postflop. I won't argue if you say it's a bad call though. Just a set-up, but at this point this guy had taken a few small-medium sized pots from me and then this full-stacked one. Not happy, but I know if he sits there as long as I will, then his money is mine.
I was admittedly tilting here, but I don't see any other way to play this hand. PF is obviously loose and I should probably be folding since I'm steaming and will probably spew a little bit postflop without a draw like this, but as it played out I think it's just another setup. Pair+FD vs OESD+FD and I'm a 2:1 dog. Steaming a little at this point.
Against the KK vs my 77 guy. Finally set him up, and I think a river shove is a good option too. A lot of the time he'll have the Qs-As and won't let go. I think I played it fine, but unfortunately the guy ran away after this hand so I just forgot about him and stuck it to the other couple of 40/30s at the table with some small pots.
This is exactly the type of pot that probably costs me the most, and I'm glad I folded at least the river. I think maybe the turn should even be a fold. The guy was loose-passive-ish and is basically saying "HAY LOL I TARPED YOU WITH A SET" with his turn beluga, but I couldn't let go. Usually I can't let the river go either, so I patted myself on the back for pitching this one.
Call down against a lag. Not sure about this one - I of course had the best hand this time, but I think most of the time I end up seeing an overpair, set, or rivered straight here. Noted how oddly he played his AK with the small bets...
Check stack sizes next time, mmmkay?
Villain is a half-sane lag. Preflop is actually a little spewy since he makes so many postflop plays at the pot, but after his flop bet I seriously laughed out loud. He's just like never doing this with any made hand. The only thing that makes my raise possibly 'bad' is that he could have a draw that he's ready to get it in with, but I think most of his range is smallish pocket pairs that are turning their hand into a bluff, and outright bluffs with missed connectors etc.
Wasn't %100 sure about this one, but I think the best line is to just shove over the top of his raise. Sub in a full stack for his $60 pile and I think it becomes a lot tougher of a decision. As it is now with the flush draw out there I think it's a pretty clear jam and I think his fold meant he probably was either running a complete bluff or was turning some UI pocket pair into a bluff.
Blegh. Thank god he was a weak-tight player and didn't test me on the turn or something. Any thoughts on betting river to bluff out the 3h3x type hands?
Weeee, told you I ran good. Shoving AQ into a cold 4bet isn't standard for me btw, this guy was a maniac ;)
An *almost* blind call-down which makes this look more like the bad play that it really was rather than some genius soul read. Guy was really really floaty and I think there are enough naked tens/outright bluffs to call this, although I again won't argue if you disagree.
Both fish. 83h, sigh.
lol...another bluffy player, hence the calldown. I had him on 9x or a busted straight draw :/
Really random bluff against another semi-lag. Not all that much thought put into this one, but after I just basically gave up on the turn, I decided to bluff the river. Pretty sloppy bluff and I'm not surprised he looked me up with the 8.
I think this is really the only way to play this one too. We've got to 3bet pf, especially with the fishy limpers, but after he 4bets without us having much history and with our stack sizes, I don't see anything but folding being good here...
When in doubt in a big pot and not much showdown value, shove. Well that's what I say anyways, not sure if it's remotely correct, but I didn't like any other option on the turn. Maybe play the flop differently?
Almost done guys, bear with me...
Another setup vs a lag, this time it goes in my favour. I think this is about when the buyins just start rolling in...
Great river, but what do you make of the turn?
Against a seemingly tag player with a small sample size. These ones are a little tough for me and I'm not sure I played this well. This was like the most perfect result I could have hoped for, but most of the time I think we're seeing either JJ for the set, an overpair, or AK which should be folding. So I think either fold pf/call pf and call flop, give up on non-Q turn/call pf and fold postflop are the best options (?).
Top of a fish's range shows up. It think it's a thin valuetown anyways considering he'll have two pair a lot of the time, but I don't hate it considering he was like 75/0.
Yeah, AQo is good against a cold 4bet /END SARCASM
I liked my line here against a semi-light 3bettor. 4betting just doesn't accomplish much as it folds out the smaller pairs and possibly AK and other big cards. It's riskier calling, but we get a lot more value for when he's 3bet with 76s or something and has to cbet. I think I like the ch-r rather than the ch-c because of the flush draw and because I think we have greatly underrepped our hand and can maybe get calls from JJ/TT. Ch-raising a small amount is another option too though...
And that's that. Good session, some weird spots in there. Drop me some input if you actually got through all that. Peace out, hope July's going well for you guys.
Song of the day, always liked these guys. Unfortunately youtube is being gay, and this song can't be embedded, so I'll just link you: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9nz6Rq1Pvh0
The word of the month is slow. Getting car doored + spending more time with friends + trying more 6max and HU = less poker. I've only played 8k hands so far this month and although my results have been pretty good so far, I'm not really happy with the time I've put into the grind. Apologies for the lack of posts too. Fewer hands = fewer interesting things to write about.
Early on I was just grinding my usual 100nl FR, but I soon got the itch for something different and played a few different games; 50nl-200nl HU, 6max and FR. The first third of the graph is 100nlFR, the next few hundred hands are 200nlFR and 100nl, and then the rest is a mix of HU, 6max and FR again.
Had a nice talk with vanquish about HU and some other stuff. I've been thinking about what comes next in my poker career and he gave me some good advice: basically stick to FR until your bankroll is big enough to take the 'learning swings' of 6m and HU. I think realistically I won't be able to keep myself off the HU and 6max tables, but I'll be playing a lot more FR to pad my bankroll for the swings of the shorter-handed games.
Some random hands for you from the first half July:
Just a terrible call-down. Happened early in my first shot at 200nl, and is a perfect example of what I do when I move up: give way less respect for hands expecting to see everyone bluff me every single hand. Don't ask why, cause I don't know.
...I also tend to run more bluffs.
4bet bluffing an aggro reg.
Pretty standard, and a lovely river.
Standard I guess against a couple of fish.
Blegh.
Blegh.
Then some HU:
That was against that really weird random player I posted about in the forums.
I think I'll actually be posting full sessions at CC and stox which will put all these hands in perspective, so watch for that.
Anyways off to drink more. I've been just shit-faced the last few days and it doesn't stop tonight. Bust out the tanqueray.
Seriously. I ran and played well in 6max. And lost in FR. Go figure, must be bizarro day or something.
Well really I haven't played much. This was but today's results. Also tried recording some of the sessions for videos, but my commentary sounded like sloth from the goonies or something. 6max does a number on my brain. I managed 6 tables fine, but doing the commentary on top just wouldn't work. I think eventually playing like 9 would be ideal, but for now 6 at 6max seems like the equivalent of 12 at full ring.
I first played 50nl, then split it with 50nl and 100nl, and ran pretty well. I definitely have things to work on, including when it's ok to stack with hands like this one below. The guy was aggro (28/22 or something), we had a little bit of history and I feel like this is standard at 6max. In full ring this would be much closer to spewy than standard.
Not many other interesting hands I can find atm except this one from the FR session. I was definitely tilting at that time, but I don't think it's that terrible. The guy is an aggressive reg who's very stealy and against whom I have lots of history, let me know what you think.
In other news I got what I've recently found out is called 'door-prized', ie having someone in a parked car open their door into your bike lane and getting royally fucked. The guy was nice enough and made sure I was alright, but I've been pretty beat up for the last few days, my bike got mashed, and now it sounds like it's going to be about $150 in repairs which the driver is getting hesitant about paying. It'll all work out though, I have connections with the bike shop and they'll both give me a deal on the bike, plus they'll let me know what I can do about the guy if he doesn't pay. Still, my knuckles, which got crushed right into the corner of the door, and my shoulders are still bruised up and cut, and I hurt like fuck.
So life has been kind of busy, even on top of having to run these bike errands and playing phone tag with the guy who doored me. An old high school friend had his birthday the other day, we had a small get-together at a bar and got nice and pie-faced. We were already drunk on the way down, then got pitchers there and decided to play quarters. I swear to god, about %75 of the quarters landed in my glass. Don't remember (apparently) going to eat food after, don't remember getting home, didn't remember where I was or what I did the night before in the morning, and it basically took all day to gather my thoughts. Good times.
Shit's been getting pretty expensive (bike, broken speed bag platform, more new clothes, beer and drugs, whatever I can't remember spending when I'm drunk or high, etc) and I might have to get another withdrawal soon which sucks. I think 200nl will have to hold. 6max has a hold of me anyways.
Not sure what sparked it, but I've been thinking a lot more about what I'm doing now and what I'll be doing in the coming months and years.
For now, poker is more than good enough for a job in terms of $/hr and the hours I have to put into it. Long-term, poker (especially online) will probably change, and my future there is a little hazy. If poker were to stay in a static state, I'd guess that I could probably make it through 200nl without a coach, and would probably need one past there, but I think I could beat 400nl in a year or so. Past that and I really have no idea.
Poker is changing though - online poker might someday get banned in Canada. The players are getting increasingly better because of more readily available online resources like coaching sites. I mean there will always be fish, but who knows exactly how profitable it will be in 5 or 10 years. In other words, I don't want to depend on poker for a long-term career.
I think for short-term career moves I'll be at least going back to college for more electrical and construction courses, maybe even business school or university. Who knows. I really try to avoid thinking about it, but the more I do, the more I realize I'm one of those people who never wants to 'work'. I remember when I was younger and more naive, I often said I'd be rich by the end of my life whether or not it was by legal means. lol. Maybe I'll rob a bank and flee to the carribeans or something, who knows.
This is kind of personal stuff, but whatever. My family is kind of in ruins right now. We're in massive debt, our house is so broken down now that it'll probably have to be sold for 'scraps' in the near future, and we might have to settle for an apartment for the first time ever. My mom just got a 5 year lease on her new business place, so the idea of her retiring to our cottage, us selling our house, and my brother and I moving out on our own is now out the window. I really don't know what we're going to do.
I dunno where I'm going with this, but basically I'm at a turning point in my life. I'll literally soon have to make the decision between doing something with my life, or becoming a bum.
This life-changing air has given me some pretty crazy ideas. For one, I've decided I'm going sky-diving by the end of the summer with a friend. It's actually pretty cheap at like $250 or so, plus you can actually go solo for your first run as opposed to strapped to some guy a la giant baby carrier style. So that should be fun. Another thing I'm considering, for the millionth time, is going traveling. I think this would be the time to do it if ever there was one - I'm not tied down to a job, I have money to spend (ie my bankroll :( ), and I'm still young and healthy. We'll see.
Taking shots
So taking a huge step back from traveling, college and becoming a homeless man, I've been thinking about poker too. In the spur of the moment, I decided last night to take some shots at 200nl, and at first it seemed like a really bad idea. Yet again, just as with my (first) move from 50nl to 100nl, I played way too aggressively, called down too light, and just played like a fish in general. I give players way too little respect for hands, and way too much respect for their move-making abilities. I 4bet bluff my first orbit. I called down AJ for TP in an obvious set-mining spot. I sucked.
So within the first 250 hands or so I was down like $550. Funny how losing that amount doesn't even tilt me anymore though. I mean I wasn't happy with losing it, but I didn't get that rage I used to. Inhale, exhale. Play better.
I ended up down only like $100 on the session after some more solid play, and after some more hands today have basically broke even.
Even with what I presume is an effect of the double VPP week (nits, regs, nits, regs), I think I can easily profit at 200nl. Now it's just a matter of getting my bankroll up to at least 5k before I make the move.
Another thing I've been considering, as always, is a full-on move to 6max. It's just so much more profitable, and requires so much more skill, that obviously it has a magnetic affect on me. If I do decide to make the move, I'll be doing a lot more sweats with Jay and whoever else wants to study, and I may hire a small-time coach as well. We'll see, I'll be on it in the coming weeks.
Double VPP week was a fail for me. I've been busy with random stuff like roaming the city during the day and the house being too loud and active to multitable properly, so I haven't managed even 4k hands this month yet. I'll be playing a lot more in the near future and of course will let you guys know how it's been going. Hope you're all running well.
