So my online bankroll now stands at a fantastic 0, over the past four days I've player I have lost every single large pot where I have faced more than 1 out, it's unbelievable and has me wondering whether I have managed to offend someone and had a curse put on me. Along with this I have played a bit off my game but even when I've got comitted as a small dog in a pot, guess what, I lost them too. It's just ridiculous and although I know I'm a winning player and am still considerably up for the month it is just a painful experience where my confidence and enjoyment has severely depleted.
I've dealt with similar occurances in the past and always bounced back and I'm sure I will from this one too it's just hard to see me winning anything at the moment and it doesn't matter how well I play I am just plain unlucky right now.
Am going to redeposit tomorrow and try to build up, not sure how much I'll deposit will have to see how I feel but I may redeposit $6k and jump straight back into 5-10 as I am beating the game it's just that my results are not currently showing this
Steve
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Tuesday 30 October 2007
I am so tilted
I feel horrendous, every single pot I enter into I get outdrawn, I flop top set in a raised pot of J73, it goes all in on the flop 3 way for a $3k pot and I lose to a donkey with 456x who connects. I have not felt this bad for sooooo long, it doesn't matter what I do I cannot win a big pot. I think Im about 10k down on expectation now - last time I posted I was up for the evening, since then I have dropped another 4k, this is going oh so badly and it doesn't seem to be stopping. I'd be less bothered if I wasn't soooo tilted by it, it leads to me then dropping more through stupid play with no thought.
Christ I am not enjoying the game right now, have tried to build myself up with the 5-10 game which I shouldn't have been doing and now I am considring dropping to 1-2 until I rebuild. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, this has to end soon right?
Steve
Christ I am not enjoying the game right now, have tried to build myself up with the 5-10 game which I shouldn't have been doing and now I am considring dropping to 1-2 until I rebuild. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, this has to end soon right?
Steve
Monday 29 October 2007
Playing the 2nd Nuts in omaha
The second nut flush or straight has to be one of the hardest hands in PL omaha to play well as it is so difficult to find out cheaply whether you are ahead or not. Often (especially with the flush) people will strongly bet the blockers.
The best example of this is when you hit the K high flush and someone else at the table has the Ace but no flush. A strong player can bluff this situation extremely effectively leaving you with a decision for all your chips knowing that you may well be drawing dead. If you bet he pot with the K flush and then are raised how do you decide what to do? It's a huge decision as if they have what they are representing you lose your whole stack, however they may just have the Ace and be representing the nut flush.
So how do you know which it is? Simple answer is that you don't, you have an idea based on the situation and player but they may well play both hands in the same fashion giving you no information.
I never know how to play these as although you do have a fantastic hand if any strong resistance is shown it is quite likely to be beaten - I usually play these hands extremely passively as to be honest they scare me as I don't know how to play them. By doing this however you allow aggressive players to steal and draws to the boat to hit. Obviously the ideal is somewhere in the middle of these two approaches - lets call it cautious aggression. You will reraise but be ready to stop betting if they stay in the pot.
Situations like A high flush vs K high flush can be extremely expensive and a misread cost you your entire stack. The second nuts is the one hand in omaha which I feel I struggle with - I manage to play it profitably BUT I often feel that I have minimised my winning on many pots because I can't fully commit.
I'd be interested in any advice anyone has on hands like this as it's an area I can definitely improve upon.
Steve
The best example of this is when you hit the K high flush and someone else at the table has the Ace but no flush. A strong player can bluff this situation extremely effectively leaving you with a decision for all your chips knowing that you may well be drawing dead. If you bet he pot with the K flush and then are raised how do you decide what to do? It's a huge decision as if they have what they are representing you lose your whole stack, however they may just have the Ace and be representing the nut flush.
So how do you know which it is? Simple answer is that you don't, you have an idea based on the situation and player but they may well play both hands in the same fashion giving you no information.
I never know how to play these as although you do have a fantastic hand if any strong resistance is shown it is quite likely to be beaten - I usually play these hands extremely passively as to be honest they scare me as I don't know how to play them. By doing this however you allow aggressive players to steal and draws to the boat to hit. Obviously the ideal is somewhere in the middle of these two approaches - lets call it cautious aggression. You will reraise but be ready to stop betting if they stay in the pot.
Situations like A high flush vs K high flush can be extremely expensive and a misread cost you your entire stack. The second nuts is the one hand in omaha which I feel I struggle with - I manage to play it profitably BUT I often feel that I have minimised my winning on many pots because I can't fully commit.
I'd be interested in any advice anyone has on hands like this as it's an area I can definitely improve upon.
Steve
And the fine run continues
I've had another awesome day, where in every big pot where the money goes in on the flop or turn I get sucked out on. Luckily I'm managing to take this in my stride but I reckon I'm about 7-8k down on expectation across the last two days. It's quite a hole to deal with really.
However it may have bottomed out (hope so) and this hand is so weird to me, I like my play in it although I could certainly have bet the turn but I decided against it as I didn't think I'd get any action so I was willing to go for a delayed bet on the river should I still hold the nuts. Anyway take a look and if anyone can justify my opponents reshove over my raise considering pot size and my remaining stack I should be very interested to hear it. All I can conclude is that somehow I had cultivated a stealing image, I had raised a fair few but this was a 9 way pot on the flop surely the outright steal is not running through his head. Best I can offer is that he put me (optomistically) on a busted flush, even with this I'd only expect a call. Anyway take a look below.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1642924
Weird one really isn't it, I think the best explanation is that he's on tilt from another table or something.
Right I'm going to put in a short session and see if I can resurrect my bankroll somewhat. I feel a lot more positive than I did earlier today and hopefully that will lead to my hands holding up a bit more
Steve
However it may have bottomed out (hope so) and this hand is so weird to me, I like my play in it although I could certainly have bet the turn but I decided against it as I didn't think I'd get any action so I was willing to go for a delayed bet on the river should I still hold the nuts. Anyway take a look and if anyone can justify my opponents reshove over my raise considering pot size and my remaining stack I should be very interested to hear it. All I can conclude is that somehow I had cultivated a stealing image, I had raised a fair few but this was a 9 way pot on the flop surely the outright steal is not running through his head. Best I can offer is that he put me (optomistically) on a busted flush, even with this I'd only expect a call. Anyway take a look below.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1642924
Weird one really isn't it, I think the best explanation is that he's on tilt from another table or something.
Right I'm going to put in a short session and see if I can resurrect my bankroll somewhat. I feel a lot more positive than I did earlier today and hopefully that will lead to my hands holding up a bit more
Steve
Sunday 28 October 2007
Can't hit a thing
Last two times I've played I have run so badly. Have been involved in three 2k+ pots this evening with 75% favourite, 50% fave 3 way and 35% three way and hit none of them. If I run to expectation I am at least $3.3k better off. I am currently rather hacked off and am quitting for the evening. I'm also going to spend the next couple of days rebuilding at 2-4 rather than playing 5-10. that is my own fault for not maintaining a large online bankroll but at least it means I don't go off for large amounts.
Ah well, it's all part of the game and I've had worse runs and at least I can justify all of my play over these sessions
Steve
Ah well, it's all part of the game and I've had worse runs and at least I can justify all of my play over these sessions
Steve
Speed of descent
Playing poker for a living, it can be very easy to get distracted and play on autopilot for long periods during a day's play. Normally this is not a major issue and you get away with it, as dependent on your playing style, many hands/situations kind of play themselves and limited thought is required. In fact you can play whilst tired/distracted and make a tidy sum if the hands hit you right.
However playing on these occasions will come back to bite you on the arse and it is something which I try very hard to eliminate from my game. Sadly this has not been fully achieved by any means.
Sadly when your mentality is wrong or you are not paying full attention you are far more likely to be affected by bad beats and create worse situations for yourself on future hands. I am usually ok at avoiding this but on Friday I was playing 4 tables, talking to a friend on messenger and browsing the internet. Oh yeah watching TV as well. This is not to be recommended and it led to me through some bad play and some bad luck dropping $3000 in about 25 minutes.
During this period I got sucked out of one $2300 pot where I was a 64% favourite and had split chances too, because of how things were going and cos I was tired this bothered me far more than it would otherwise do. Usually I call the fortunate person some choice words by talking to my laptop where he must be able to hear me! But this time I proceeded to make lose calls pre and post flop hoping to get lucky in a big multiway pot. Didn't happen and I went to bed annoyed with myself.
The point I am driving at is this. Regardless of whether you pay poker for fun, or as a profession you need to focus on the games you are playing. If you want to do something else then do that instead. Take 5 to browse the net, have a break to watch some TV just don't try to multitask in a way which will ultimately have a negative impact on your play.
Now I just need to practise this myself. Typically when I play I am multi-tasking, I watch TV, listen to the radio, talk on messenger and browse the internet, sometimes all at once. These are bad habits and although I can cope with TV or radio (not on the laptop you see) the others do lead to me losing my focus and playing a less profitable game than I otherwise would.
Right Baseball and Poker this evening - come on the Rockies as I really could do with another few nights with games being played
Steve
However playing on these occasions will come back to bite you on the arse and it is something which I try very hard to eliminate from my game. Sadly this has not been fully achieved by any means.
Sadly when your mentality is wrong or you are not paying full attention you are far more likely to be affected by bad beats and create worse situations for yourself on future hands. I am usually ok at avoiding this but on Friday I was playing 4 tables, talking to a friend on messenger and browsing the internet. Oh yeah watching TV as well. This is not to be recommended and it led to me through some bad play and some bad luck dropping $3000 in about 25 minutes.
During this period I got sucked out of one $2300 pot where I was a 64% favourite and had split chances too, because of how things were going and cos I was tired this bothered me far more than it would otherwise do. Usually I call the fortunate person some choice words by talking to my laptop where he must be able to hear me! But this time I proceeded to make lose calls pre and post flop hoping to get lucky in a big multiway pot. Didn't happen and I went to bed annoyed with myself.
The point I am driving at is this. Regardless of whether you pay poker for fun, or as a profession you need to focus on the games you are playing. If you want to do something else then do that instead. Take 5 to browse the net, have a break to watch some TV just don't try to multitask in a way which will ultimately have a negative impact on your play.
Now I just need to practise this myself. Typically when I play I am multi-tasking, I watch TV, listen to the radio, talk on messenger and browse the internet, sometimes all at once. These are bad habits and although I can cope with TV or radio (not on the laptop you see) the others do lead to me losing my focus and playing a less profitable game than I otherwise would.
Right Baseball and Poker this evening - come on the Rockies as I really could do with another few nights with games being played
Steve
Friday 26 October 2007
Work goes bye bye
I now never have to go back in to work again, have finished handing over my job and so I can now fully concentrate on poker. It's been slightly weird over the last 3 weeks as although I've not been working full time the two days a week I have been in have severely disrupted my schedule. It's hard work going from getting up at midday to having to get up before 9am and has meant that I've not been able to fully focus.
However that is now gone so we should start to see what sort of figures I can theoretically put up each month. November is going to be interesting! I'm not honestly sure what sort of money I expect to make, when I quit my focus was to try to get to about $20k a month on average. Now I've switched to omaha I really don't know what I expect to make, I still haven't moved into the biggest game which I will do soonish I think and that will obviously have an impact on my profits.
Although I've suffered some swings so far none have been severe and I've experienced a very solid upslope. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether my current win rate of somewhere around 20BB per 100 hands is my level or if I am just running hot. So really I'm reduced to guesswork when trying to workout my earning potential. I think I could make $30k plus a month if not more BUT I don't know this, my omaha career is still very much in its infancy and I really am just projecting figures which I'd like to be hitting. In three weeks I've made over $20k and that is with huge numbers of days off and distractions.
I'm tired and am rambling so I shall stop here, I'll try to post something a bit more coherent later
Steve
However that is now gone so we should start to see what sort of figures I can theoretically put up each month. November is going to be interesting! I'm not honestly sure what sort of money I expect to make, when I quit my focus was to try to get to about $20k a month on average. Now I've switched to omaha I really don't know what I expect to make, I still haven't moved into the biggest game which I will do soonish I think and that will obviously have an impact on my profits.
Although I've suffered some swings so far none have been severe and I've experienced a very solid upslope. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether my current win rate of somewhere around 20BB per 100 hands is my level or if I am just running hot. So really I'm reduced to guesswork when trying to workout my earning potential. I think I could make $30k plus a month if not more BUT I don't know this, my omaha career is still very much in its infancy and I really am just projecting figures which I'd like to be hitting. In three weeks I've made over $20k and that is with huge numbers of days off and distractions.
I'm tired and am rambling so I shall stop here, I'll try to post something a bit more coherent later
Steve
Thursday 25 October 2007
Some Hand Histories
As I've not been posting as many hands as I probably should I thought I'd post a few interesting ones from the last few days and discuss them. I've also used a site to display them in a better format. Let me know if you prefer them like this or the hand history posted in full within the blog! Hand histories posted above analysis
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627592
Having been away for a couple of days I got back this afternoon and this was the first big hand of the day, quite weird as I make a fairly standard play as I flop 2 pair, straight and nut flush draw and decide to be aggressive and lead out, am called on the flop and then raised on the turn. No way I can drop to the big reraise as I have huge outs and am possibly still ahead so I went all in. This cost the guy $30 more to call in a $2300 pot and he (much to my delight) folded and then left. Really weird and he must have been bluffing with 0 outs, however how can you drop this, if I have gone a bit crazy and gone all in with nothing but a nut flush draw he could win by pairing - so bizzare and it wasn't like he got disconnected.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627614
Next up is a standard(ish) play against a mid stack, he raises pre and gets 2 callers so I raise pot with AAxx to hopefully get rid of the other 2, if they call this is not a good situation as I will probably have to lay the hand down if it's not a good flop. Desired result happens and by this stage I am not going to get shoved off this hand regardless of what flops. He shoves I call and win a big pot which without the preflop reraise I almost certainly fold on the flop! It is noticeable that in these situations when the opponent pushes rather than letting you bet it is very likely that the AA is ahead as otherwise they tend to make sure that you bet and get committed to the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627623
Last one I'm posting for now is just to show the value of rundown hands, I call preflop with 789T single suited and get a fine flop giving me a wrap, rather than raising I decided to just call while it was cheap and flopped the 9 for a straight on the turn. The other fella has hit two pair and foolishly decides that I don't have the straight and calls my all in. These sort of hands can pay off extremely well against certain opponents as they fail to realise quite how vulnerable the two pair which they hold is.
That's it for now, do let me know if this is a better format for viewing as I will change things depending on comments if somone has improvements which could be made.
cheers
Steve
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627592
Having been away for a couple of days I got back this afternoon and this was the first big hand of the day, quite weird as I make a fairly standard play as I flop 2 pair, straight and nut flush draw and decide to be aggressive and lead out, am called on the flop and then raised on the turn. No way I can drop to the big reraise as I have huge outs and am possibly still ahead so I went all in. This cost the guy $30 more to call in a $2300 pot and he (much to my delight) folded and then left. Really weird and he must have been bluffing with 0 outs, however how can you drop this, if I have gone a bit crazy and gone all in with nothing but a nut flush draw he could win by pairing - so bizzare and it wasn't like he got disconnected.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627614
Next up is a standard(ish) play against a mid stack, he raises pre and gets 2 callers so I raise pot with AAxx to hopefully get rid of the other 2, if they call this is not a good situation as I will probably have to lay the hand down if it's not a good flop. Desired result happens and by this stage I am not going to get shoved off this hand regardless of what flops. He shoves I call and win a big pot which without the preflop reraise I almost certainly fold on the flop! It is noticeable that in these situations when the opponent pushes rather than letting you bet it is very likely that the AA is ahead as otherwise they tend to make sure that you bet and get committed to the pot.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1627623
Last one I'm posting for now is just to show the value of rundown hands, I call preflop with 789T single suited and get a fine flop giving me a wrap, rather than raising I decided to just call while it was cheap and flopped the 9 for a straight on the turn. The other fella has hit two pair and foolishly decides that I don't have the straight and calls my all in. These sort of hands can pay off extremely well against certain opponents as they fail to realise quite how vulnerable the two pair which they hold is.
That's it for now, do let me know if this is a better format for viewing as I will change things depending on comments if somone has improvements which could be made.
cheers
Steve
Monday 22 October 2007
Long Sucky Session and Late Night Trash TV
Still not got around to writing the second part of my previous article as I've not really been in the mood to blog. Don't really know why but I've felt fairly distracted so haven't yet taken the time to think through what I want to put.
I've had a really weird day where I don't think I've played at my best for a large part of it. Playing a little looser than I'd like and then I found myself stuck $3.2k which was not really what I'd envisaged when I got up this morning. Because of being stuck this much I've definitely over-played and probably put in 10+ hours today.
I always have this when I get stuck as I hate leaving the tables and certainly don't want to finish the day with that result. Anyway I did a pretty good job of getting unstuck and ended up about $650 down for the day which all in all is quite good. In many ways it is more satisfying getting unstuck than it is winning in the first place as it takes a great deal of resolve and tilt avoidance so I'm pleased with how I've handled that today.
It's now 2am and I've just got out of bed as I'm not having much success at dropping off, wouldn't normally matter but I've got to be up before 9am so it's by no means ideal. I feel a bit jaded because of the time I've put in today, not done anything else which is not part of how I'm meant to be conducting myself but I shan't be playing till Friday now so I can kind of justify it to myself.
I've got the TV on in the background and something called "street cred sudoku" has just come on. What on earth is the world coming to and how in god's name is something like that meant to be entertaining? I'm almost tempted to watch just to see how bad this is. I do wonder how shows like this come into fruition, perhaps the conversations go like this
"Oooh look there's a bandwagon, shall we leap on to it?"
"Hmmmm yes, seems like a good idea, maybe we can make a crap panel show out of it."
"But do you not suppose that people will pick up on the fact that the show has bugger all to do with Sudoku and is in fact a crass attempt to piggyback onto a strangely popular example of the modern zeitgeist"
"No, we'll put it on late and anyway people are stupid, ha ha ha ha ha"
I don't think that's too far wide of the mark and has got me wondering what other horrendous examples of modern culture I'll be exposed to through late night tv - have already encountered live roulette and I still don't understand the appeal of that one.
Right I need sleep and am probably waffling so best to finish here I think
Steve
I've had a really weird day where I don't think I've played at my best for a large part of it. Playing a little looser than I'd like and then I found myself stuck $3.2k which was not really what I'd envisaged when I got up this morning. Because of being stuck this much I've definitely over-played and probably put in 10+ hours today.
I always have this when I get stuck as I hate leaving the tables and certainly don't want to finish the day with that result. Anyway I did a pretty good job of getting unstuck and ended up about $650 down for the day which all in all is quite good. In many ways it is more satisfying getting unstuck than it is winning in the first place as it takes a great deal of resolve and tilt avoidance so I'm pleased with how I've handled that today.
It's now 2am and I've just got out of bed as I'm not having much success at dropping off, wouldn't normally matter but I've got to be up before 9am so it's by no means ideal. I feel a bit jaded because of the time I've put in today, not done anything else which is not part of how I'm meant to be conducting myself but I shan't be playing till Friday now so I can kind of justify it to myself.
I've got the TV on in the background and something called "street cred sudoku" has just come on. What on earth is the world coming to and how in god's name is something like that meant to be entertaining? I'm almost tempted to watch just to see how bad this is. I do wonder how shows like this come into fruition, perhaps the conversations go like this
"Oooh look there's a bandwagon, shall we leap on to it?"
"Hmmmm yes, seems like a good idea, maybe we can make a crap panel show out of it."
"But do you not suppose that people will pick up on the fact that the show has bugger all to do with Sudoku and is in fact a crass attempt to piggyback onto a strangely popular example of the modern zeitgeist"
"No, we'll put it on late and anyway people are stupid, ha ha ha ha ha"
I don't think that's too far wide of the mark and has got me wondering what other horrendous examples of modern culture I'll be exposed to through late night tv - have already encountered live roulette and I still don't understand the appeal of that one.
Right I need sleep and am probably waffling so best to finish here I think
Steve
Saturday 20 October 2007
Rugby and Alcohol
OK, so I played a bit today despite the majority of the time being spent in the pub. Coming off a loss I always like to bounce back with a victory of some sort and I was playing 2-4 and 1-2 pl omaha. The main reason for this was because these were the highest games going at the time I logged on. So obviously I crushed them - Hmmm not quite true, I quickly dropped $1k through some tough beats and also soem horribly loose play from me.
Having lost a bit more I obviously decided that some short handed 5-10 was the answer. Now I am by no means expert at this form of the game but I like to think I hold my own and can exploit the overaggression of others during this format. So I played fairly passive alongside the aggressive player to my right and quickly dropped $300. Despite this I was confident I could take him out and would come out ahead, I proceeded to make a couple of all inbluffs with marginal hands to build up to $1300 and then continued my solid play to more thn double up from my original $1K, So despite the earlier losses I ended up $1.2k up for the day, almost irradicating my losses from friday and making me feel very confident again.
Anyway, sucky loss for England but lets face it we'd have taken this as a result from the world cup so I'm not really complaining. The boys did us proud and South Africa were worthy winners. I'm very drunk right now so I apologise for any typing errors and so on. Bed is calling as poker seems like a terribly negative idea rght now.
I have just been reminded by my delightful 'friend' Caroline that I have come from this evening with a minor injury. She decided that it would be wise to bite my shoulder as this is clearly an appropriate act during a world cup final. Thanks Caroline, obviously I am delighted to offer you a bed for this evening and will not be elbow dropping you during the night!
I have a huge bite mark on my shoulder and I am being told that it is "barely a bite mark" (Caroline Short 2007) She is wrong and is semi retarted although I am being kind right now. She is now promising to bite me more often, I think she wants me, she wants me hard and she wants me fast, oooh yeah.
Caroline is now laughing but I'm not sure whether it is because she finds this amusing or because she knows her boyfriend reads my blog and will get beaten up when he tries to kick my arse.
Steve
Having lost a bit more I obviously decided that some short handed 5-10 was the answer. Now I am by no means expert at this form of the game but I like to think I hold my own and can exploit the overaggression of others during this format. So I played fairly passive alongside the aggressive player to my right and quickly dropped $300. Despite this I was confident I could take him out and would come out ahead, I proceeded to make a couple of all inbluffs with marginal hands to build up to $1300 and then continued my solid play to more thn double up from my original $1K, So despite the earlier losses I ended up $1.2k up for the day, almost irradicating my losses from friday and making me feel very confident again.
Anyway, sucky loss for England but lets face it we'd have taken this as a result from the world cup so I'm not really complaining. The boys did us proud and South Africa were worthy winners. I'm very drunk right now so I apologise for any typing errors and so on. Bed is calling as poker seems like a terribly negative idea rght now.
I have just been reminded by my delightful 'friend' Caroline that I have come from this evening with a minor injury. She decided that it would be wise to bite my shoulder as this is clearly an appropriate act during a world cup final. Thanks Caroline, obviously I am delighted to offer you a bed for this evening and will not be elbow dropping you during the night!
I have a huge bite mark on my shoulder and I am being told that it is "barely a bite mark" (Caroline Short 2007) She is wrong and is semi retarted although I am being kind right now. She is now promising to bite me more often, I think she wants me, she wants me hard and she wants me fast, oooh yeah.
Caroline is now laughing but I'm not sure whether it is because she finds this amusing or because she knows her boyfriend reads my blog and will get beaten up when he tries to kick my arse.
Steve
Winning Streak Ends
My 4 day win streak came to an abrubt end yesterday as I dropped about $2k. However I'm still feeling very positive about my play as I simply ran badly yesterday and my expectation on the hands I played would have been to be slightly ahead.
I'm going to spend the majority of the day in the pub ensuring I'm in the right state to watch the rugby world cup final - not full of confidence but England may surprise me and come through. because of this I won't be playing much today and will write the second part of my article tomorrow when I have time to give it some thought
COME ON ENGLAND
Steve
I'm going to spend the majority of the day in the pub ensuring I'm in the right state to watch the rugby world cup final - not full of confidence but England may surprise me and come through. because of this I won't be playing much today and will write the second part of my article tomorrow when I have time to give it some thought
COME ON ENGLAND
Steve
Friday 19 October 2007
The evolution of a poker pro (part 1)
One of the things which I find myself thinking about is exactly how I got to the point I am now at, where I can make a comfortable living (so far) from playing poker professionally. So I am going to attempt, across maybe two posts, to analyse how I reached this point. The posts will be about different issues, one on the play and evolution from a poker perspective (where I started and how I moved up the ladder) and the other about family, upbringing and why my general personality and stuff suits my chosen profession.
This one is going to be focussed on the climb up the ladder from low-high stakes as it's something which my friend Euan is currently trying to do (see pittance game poker link), setting out from .02-.04 nl holdem and hopefully it will give an idea about timescale and how to build knowledge and bankroll to the stage where high stakes are possible.
So where did I start? I started at £10 buy in cash games on Sun Poker (cryptologic network) about three years ago so blinds of 0.05-0.10. I had grown up playing cards and watched stuff like Late Night Poker on Ch4 and quickly developed a reasonable feel for the games. My tactics in these early days was to try to double up and leave, nothing very subtle about how I did this either. I played a very patient game (nothing changed there) and waited till I connected hard with the flop or had a big starting hand like AA, KK. I then played these hands ectremely fast in an effort to get all my opponents money in. The thing about poker at lower stakes is that players don't want to believe you when you bet hard, often people slow play to the point of winning the absolute minimum whereas I took the opposite approach and this worked out quite well for me and I built a reaonable bankroll of maybe £200 quite quickly.
At this stage I decided to start playing for larger sums and moved into the £0.50- £1 game and because I was scared of losing I played as a short stacked played buying in for £25 and leaving once it doubled. I maintained a similar style to previously and had moderate success. I also started playing £10 sit & go tournaments (I'm really not a fan of these now) and mixed my game up between the two areas. Again I did ok, built a small bankroll then went down overall by about £200 so went back to cash games and concentrated on them.
I really didn't maintain an online bankroll or have any specific goals at this stage, I also had done absolutely no reading on the subject at all (not smart) and was playing mainly for fun. I was up and down playing like this but at it's peak I managed to get about £600 ahead which was a huge amount for me at that time.
It was around then where I went to Vegas for the first time. I'd always fancied a trip and was treating it as a one off where I was prepared to lose about £1k, not that I wanted to lose and I certainly didn't try to but it's best to set limits and expectations before going to play with experienced gamblers. Anyway we went off to vegas and I sat down at the table (mirage) shaking like a leaf to play $1-$2 NL holdem, I bought in for $100 as I didn't want to lose a full buy in and in about my third hand flopped a flush and more than doubled up to $240. I stayed for another hour or so and left feeling pretty damn pleased with myself.
During the entirety of my two week trip to Vegas I never got felted, left every table bar one with more than I started with and came home with about $1600 profit from the trip. Fantastic as this was it utterly screwed my online game as I went from £600 profit to £600 behind, hmm not ideal and time to focus as I knew that I could beat this game.
I continued shortstacking online and retrieved my money and then I had a month off between jobs moving from Lancaster - Aston and decided to properly concentrate on poker for this month. I got rather good at it quite quickly and made over £2k in that month.
It was after this month and the vegas trip that I started seriously thinking that I could do this for a living one day. I had earnt more than my monthly salary at the time and enjoyed it far more than working. However I'm realistic and put these thoughts to the back of my mind. I started reading up on poker (super system, pocket fives etc) and my game improved dramatically as I now had a far better understanding of every aspect of my own and other's games.
Over my first year in Birmingham I made about £10k from poker as a nice sideline to my job, started playing a full stack towards the end of the year as my game had developed enough to be comfortable with this. During this period I had many swings but it was an overall up curve although I did get quite stressed by losses and over-analyse my game and question my play. Sadly I am still prone to do this but I am much better at dealing with losses.
I set myself a target for this year of £20k ($40k) profit and anticipated adding onto this each year and then turning pro at 30 where I hopefully shoudl be earning £50k a year. That was the aim, realistic yet ambitious at the same time. I returned to Vegas and crushed the 1-2nl games to the tune of $2.8k in 6 days and I was a hugely improved player with a lot more confidence in my ability.
My attentions in the online poker world had now moved and I was playing at Party full time, abandoning the cryptologic network, there had been a few months where I played at both but overall I find Party really good, easy graphics and a larger spread of games and players. I was playing $1-$2nl holdem and buying in for $200.
I should also point out that ever since I started I have multi-tabled, I started with one and then within a few days moved to 2 and so on up to 4 tables which I believe to be the optimum for me. I have 10 tabled before and it hurts my head!
I had a reasonable start to the year and was hitting my £2k a month targets but after the vegas trip I decided I wanted to play higher, I'd been at my limits for ages and it was time to move up, so I started playing 2-4 then 3-6 although on party there are rarely enough tables running full ring at these stakes. I did this for about a month and then decided to have a shot at 5-10. I did this with money already made and was fully prepared to lose my buy in and go back to 2-4. This is how I tend to move up, because I don't keep a big bankroll online (I cash winnings) I take shots rather than having a bankroll target. This is optimum for me but will nto be for everybody.
First time I sat at the table I was prepared to lose 200-300 before I quit, basically I was playing scared money and obviously lost that and dropped back down. However I kept trying over a couple of weeks until I started winning. I made about $8k in June and then July was the defining month for me as I made $17k all at 5-10. I'd got over being scared, was willing to drop back down when needed and wanted to play with the big boys.
Quit my job in July as I now knew that I could do this professionally, I'd won consistently for 2 years and felt that my knowledge and earning potential were great enough for me to do this. Also if I stayed at work I'd be moving into a management position in the next year and I really have very limited enthusiasm for that so it was an easy choice.
I had a few ropey months before quitting, winning but not the amounts I wanted but this was largely due to nerves and feeling that I have to win rather than having it as a sideline. Because I wasn;t running great I decided about a month ago to try omaha - read up on it, bought a book or two (see how I've learned) and jumped straight into 1-2pl omaha. Quickly realised that a lot of players give up a lot of edge in this game and started playing 2-4 and shortstacking 5-10 and 10-20. Hugely successful as a shortstack in 10-20 and I am still doing this now, however my game has very quickly developed to the stage where I am doing pretty well at 5-10 ($14k in the last 4 days) and omaha has become my game of choice and I really don't see this changing.
What I hope this article shows is the importance of laying the foundations for your play, I improved hugely when I started reading on the subject, I read every article ever on pocket fives, I read all the discussion topics and quickly got to the stage where there wan;t anything new to me. This added to my confidence and I backed myself to move up. Without the experience playing over the last three years my progression at omaha wouldn't have happened so rapidly, nothing matters as much as table experience, you learn so much about readin opponent and possibly most importantly what you are comfortable with in terms of stakes and playing style.
I'd appreciate any comments on this or questions which anyone may have, I shall write part two in the next day or two which will go into all the other aspects which affect poker.
Steve
This one is going to be focussed on the climb up the ladder from low-high stakes as it's something which my friend Euan is currently trying to do (see pittance game poker link), setting out from .02-.04 nl holdem and hopefully it will give an idea about timescale and how to build knowledge and bankroll to the stage where high stakes are possible.
So where did I start? I started at £10 buy in cash games on Sun Poker (cryptologic network) about three years ago so blinds of 0.05-0.10. I had grown up playing cards and watched stuff like Late Night Poker on Ch4 and quickly developed a reasonable feel for the games. My tactics in these early days was to try to double up and leave, nothing very subtle about how I did this either. I played a very patient game (nothing changed there) and waited till I connected hard with the flop or had a big starting hand like AA, KK. I then played these hands ectremely fast in an effort to get all my opponents money in. The thing about poker at lower stakes is that players don't want to believe you when you bet hard, often people slow play to the point of winning the absolute minimum whereas I took the opposite approach and this worked out quite well for me and I built a reaonable bankroll of maybe £200 quite quickly.
At this stage I decided to start playing for larger sums and moved into the £0.50- £1 game and because I was scared of losing I played as a short stacked played buying in for £25 and leaving once it doubled. I maintained a similar style to previously and had moderate success. I also started playing £10 sit & go tournaments (I'm really not a fan of these now) and mixed my game up between the two areas. Again I did ok, built a small bankroll then went down overall by about £200 so went back to cash games and concentrated on them.
I really didn't maintain an online bankroll or have any specific goals at this stage, I also had done absolutely no reading on the subject at all (not smart) and was playing mainly for fun. I was up and down playing like this but at it's peak I managed to get about £600 ahead which was a huge amount for me at that time.
It was around then where I went to Vegas for the first time. I'd always fancied a trip and was treating it as a one off where I was prepared to lose about £1k, not that I wanted to lose and I certainly didn't try to but it's best to set limits and expectations before going to play with experienced gamblers. Anyway we went off to vegas and I sat down at the table (mirage) shaking like a leaf to play $1-$2 NL holdem, I bought in for $100 as I didn't want to lose a full buy in and in about my third hand flopped a flush and more than doubled up to $240. I stayed for another hour or so and left feeling pretty damn pleased with myself.
During the entirety of my two week trip to Vegas I never got felted, left every table bar one with more than I started with and came home with about $1600 profit from the trip. Fantastic as this was it utterly screwed my online game as I went from £600 profit to £600 behind, hmm not ideal and time to focus as I knew that I could beat this game.
I continued shortstacking online and retrieved my money and then I had a month off between jobs moving from Lancaster - Aston and decided to properly concentrate on poker for this month. I got rather good at it quite quickly and made over £2k in that month.
It was after this month and the vegas trip that I started seriously thinking that I could do this for a living one day. I had earnt more than my monthly salary at the time and enjoyed it far more than working. However I'm realistic and put these thoughts to the back of my mind. I started reading up on poker (super system, pocket fives etc) and my game improved dramatically as I now had a far better understanding of every aspect of my own and other's games.
Over my first year in Birmingham I made about £10k from poker as a nice sideline to my job, started playing a full stack towards the end of the year as my game had developed enough to be comfortable with this. During this period I had many swings but it was an overall up curve although I did get quite stressed by losses and over-analyse my game and question my play. Sadly I am still prone to do this but I am much better at dealing with losses.
I set myself a target for this year of £20k ($40k) profit and anticipated adding onto this each year and then turning pro at 30 where I hopefully shoudl be earning £50k a year. That was the aim, realistic yet ambitious at the same time. I returned to Vegas and crushed the 1-2nl games to the tune of $2.8k in 6 days and I was a hugely improved player with a lot more confidence in my ability.
My attentions in the online poker world had now moved and I was playing at Party full time, abandoning the cryptologic network, there had been a few months where I played at both but overall I find Party really good, easy graphics and a larger spread of games and players. I was playing $1-$2nl holdem and buying in for $200.
I should also point out that ever since I started I have multi-tabled, I started with one and then within a few days moved to 2 and so on up to 4 tables which I believe to be the optimum for me. I have 10 tabled before and it hurts my head!
I had a reasonable start to the year and was hitting my £2k a month targets but after the vegas trip I decided I wanted to play higher, I'd been at my limits for ages and it was time to move up, so I started playing 2-4 then 3-6 although on party there are rarely enough tables running full ring at these stakes. I did this for about a month and then decided to have a shot at 5-10. I did this with money already made and was fully prepared to lose my buy in and go back to 2-4. This is how I tend to move up, because I don't keep a big bankroll online (I cash winnings) I take shots rather than having a bankroll target. This is optimum for me but will nto be for everybody.
First time I sat at the table I was prepared to lose 200-300 before I quit, basically I was playing scared money and obviously lost that and dropped back down. However I kept trying over a couple of weeks until I started winning. I made about $8k in June and then July was the defining month for me as I made $17k all at 5-10. I'd got over being scared, was willing to drop back down when needed and wanted to play with the big boys.
Quit my job in July as I now knew that I could do this professionally, I'd won consistently for 2 years and felt that my knowledge and earning potential were great enough for me to do this. Also if I stayed at work I'd be moving into a management position in the next year and I really have very limited enthusiasm for that so it was an easy choice.
I had a few ropey months before quitting, winning but not the amounts I wanted but this was largely due to nerves and feeling that I have to win rather than having it as a sideline. Because I wasn;t running great I decided about a month ago to try omaha - read up on it, bought a book or two (see how I've learned) and jumped straight into 1-2pl omaha. Quickly realised that a lot of players give up a lot of edge in this game and started playing 2-4 and shortstacking 5-10 and 10-20. Hugely successful as a shortstack in 10-20 and I am still doing this now, however my game has very quickly developed to the stage where I am doing pretty well at 5-10 ($14k in the last 4 days) and omaha has become my game of choice and I really don't see this changing.
What I hope this article shows is the importance of laying the foundations for your play, I improved hugely when I started reading on the subject, I read every article ever on pocket fives, I read all the discussion topics and quickly got to the stage where there wan;t anything new to me. This added to my confidence and I backed myself to move up. Without the experience playing over the last three years my progression at omaha wouldn't have happened so rapidly, nothing matters as much as table experience, you learn so much about readin opponent and possibly most importantly what you are comfortable with in terms of stakes and playing style.
I'd appreciate any comments on this or questions which anyone may have, I shall write part two in the next day or two which will go into all the other aspects which affect poker.
Steve
Thursday 18 October 2007
Exploting Edges
It's been a very up and down day for me as I got up a buyin early and then proceeded to drop about 2.5k through some excellent play which was not rewarded on each occasion. I'm going to post a couple of hands further down one of which is a key example of getting money in where you are not favourite to win the pot but it is still the correct play and +EV (worth money) over the long term.
There are very often circumstances in omaha where you have little choice but to commit to the pot with a marginal/non favourite hand purely because of pot odds. Regular occasions for this is where 1 player has a set and others have wraps and flush draws, often the set is favourite but this can be extremely marginak and a strong wrap will in fact be ahead.
Other occasions occur largely due to short stacked players, you raise your strong draw and are called by one player who you suspect for a set and then a short stack goes all in opening the pot up for reraising by the player with a set. Obviously you cannot simply drop your hand as th epot odds you are getting are very favourable even though you KNOW you are behind it is still correct to call the all in from the big stack. This is because of all the money already in and you actually make money on this sort of play (compared to folding)
This should help to explain why you very often get two or more players all in on the flop or turn in omaha even when playing stacks of 100BB or more. The below hand is a prime example, I lose but made the correct play. I called with nut flush, AA and inside straight draw figuring I had maybe 12 outs depending on other hands. The short stacks both had straight draws and the big stack had top set which held to take the pot.
***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.
However since that pot things have improved and I am back to being about $2k up for the day, principally due to the below pot where we got it all in pre with 4 players, me and one other player had the AA but I flopped QQ4 to hit a boat and take the pot. Lucky but I had lost a very similar hand earlier when all in pre with AA, so overall I think it's just about worked out fairly! Well I'm happy at least
***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.
So another positive day and although I have spent much of it feeling irritated not to be more up (ideas above my station) and cursing my luck on draws (again this resolved itself) I've got to be pleased, I'll take $1k a day it's not a bad win rate after all
Steve
There are very often circumstances in omaha where you have little choice but to commit to the pot with a marginal/non favourite hand purely because of pot odds. Regular occasions for this is where 1 player has a set and others have wraps and flush draws, often the set is favourite but this can be extremely marginak and a strong wrap will in fact be ahead.
Other occasions occur largely due to short stacked players, you raise your strong draw and are called by one player who you suspect for a set and then a short stack goes all in opening the pot up for reraising by the player with a set. Obviously you cannot simply drop your hand as th epot odds you are getting are very favourable even though you KNOW you are behind it is still correct to call the all in from the big stack. This is because of all the money already in and you actually make money on this sort of play (compared to folding)
This should help to explain why you very often get two or more players all in on the flop or turn in omaha even when playing stacks of 100BB or more. The below hand is a prime example, I lose but made the correct play. I called with nut flush, AA and inside straight draw figuring I had maybe 12 outs depending on other hands. The short stacks both had straight draws and the big stack had top set which held to take the pot.
***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.
However since that pot things have improved and I am back to being about $2k up for the day, principally due to the below pot where we got it all in pre with 4 players, me and one other player had the AA but I flopped QQ4 to hit a boat and take the pot. Lucky but I had lost a very similar hand earlier when all in pre with AA, so overall I think it's just about worked out fairly! Well I'm happy at least
***** Hand History for Game 6423986569 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Thursday, October 18, 14:42:49 ET 2007
Table Table 128288 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: HittiLitti ( $1,194.75 USD )
Seat 2: ksenya ( $230.32 USD )
Seat 3: Ciquitta ( $500 USD )
Seat 4: abyvs77 ( $638.75 USD )
Seat 5: bastet200470 ( $1,494.25 USD )
Seat 6: jelezo888 ( $800.86 USD )
Seat 7: pochtallion ( $1,690 USD )
Seat 9: xhouseofpain ( $190 USD )
Seat 10: biggio69 ( $2,299 USD )
Seat 8: TiltyMonkey ( $980 USD )
ksenya posts small blind [$5 USD].
Ciquitta posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Jd As Tc Ad ]
abyvs77 folds
bastet200470 calls [$10 USD]
jelezo888 folds
pochtallion calls [$10 USD]
TiltyMonkey raises [$30 USD]
xhouseofpain folds
biggio69 folds
HittiLitti folds
ksenya calls [$25 USD]
Ciquitta calls [$20 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
bastet200470 calls [$20 USD]
pochtallion calls [$20 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, Td, 2d ]
ksenya checks
Ciquitta checks
bastet200470 checks
pochtallion bets [$147 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$147 USD]
ksenya calls [$147 USD]
>You have options at Table 125470 (No DP) Table!.
Ciquitta is all-In [$470 USD]
bastet200470 folds
pochtallion is all-In [$1,513 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$803 USD]
ksenya is all-In [$53.32 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
pochtallion shows [ Th, 3c, Qd, Qh ]three of a kind, Queens.
TiltyMonkey doesn't show [ Jd, As, Tc, Ad ]a pair of Aces.
ksenya doesn't show [ Js, 9h, Jh, Ts ]a pair of Jacks.
Ciquitta doesn't show [ 8d, Jc, 9c, Qs ]a pair of Queens.
pochtallion wins $710 USD from side pot #3 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $960 USD from side pot #2 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $809.04 USD from side pot #1 with three of a kind, Queens.
pochtallion wins $948.28 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Queens.
So another positive day and although I have spent much of it feeling irritated not to be more up (ideas above my station) and cursing my luck on draws (again this resolved itself) I've got to be pleased, I'll take $1k a day it's not a bad win rate after all
Steve
Middle/Bottom Set in Omaha
In my last post I mentioned how good I've been getting my money in with top set as quite regularly I've been getting action from people who have also hit a set on the flop and therefore often have only 1 out.
Now a set is always a good hand to have hit on the flop but if it is not the top set it does need to be played with some caution especially in the face of excessive action on a non-drawing board. For example let's say it's a 5 way pot where you hold TT98 and the flop comes KT3 rainbow. All players are deep stacked and you decide to go for the check raise option from early position. Someone kindy raises and you repop for the full amount of the pot. Nothing wrong with this play at all although you have given the strength of your hand away very early with this reraise. Now imagine that the original better reraises you again, what can he realistically have asssuming he's not hyper aggressive. You have indicated that you have probably got a set (although a wrap is a possibility) and shown extreme strength, he is a solid player and has re-potted - most players seem to see this as a easy call or reraise all in. In my view this is a flawed play as it is entirely possible, even probable given the action on the flop that he has KKxx and if so you probably have 1 out.
This is an awful situation to get 150+ BB in but so many players seem to do this, it is a major source of my success and long may it continue.
I am not saying not to play any set other than top as I make a lot from middle and even bottom set but they are hands which you need to play cautiously and be aware that someone might well have limped K's or even A's and actuallly take the time to think through before comitting your money when you may be practically drawing dead.
It is crucial in pot limit omaha to always consider your opponents likely holdings as this should affect your play in deciding to call raise or fold as although your hand may look good it could be counterfeitted by your opponent. Failing to do this is likely to make you a losing player as you'll over commit on marginal holdings.
Right that's my morning musing over so I'm going to head back to the tables
Steve
Now a set is always a good hand to have hit on the flop but if it is not the top set it does need to be played with some caution especially in the face of excessive action on a non-drawing board. For example let's say it's a 5 way pot where you hold TT98 and the flop comes KT3 rainbow. All players are deep stacked and you decide to go for the check raise option from early position. Someone kindy raises and you repop for the full amount of the pot. Nothing wrong with this play at all although you have given the strength of your hand away very early with this reraise. Now imagine that the original better reraises you again, what can he realistically have asssuming he's not hyper aggressive. You have indicated that you have probably got a set (although a wrap is a possibility) and shown extreme strength, he is a solid player and has re-potted - most players seem to see this as a easy call or reraise all in. In my view this is a flawed play as it is entirely possible, even probable given the action on the flop that he has KKxx and if so you probably have 1 out.
This is an awful situation to get 150+ BB in but so many players seem to do this, it is a major source of my success and long may it continue.
I am not saying not to play any set other than top as I make a lot from middle and even bottom set but they are hands which you need to play cautiously and be aware that someone might well have limped K's or even A's and actuallly take the time to think through before comitting your money when you may be practically drawing dead.
It is crucial in pot limit omaha to always consider your opponents likely holdings as this should affect your play in deciding to call raise or fold as although your hand may look good it could be counterfeitted by your opponent. Failing to do this is likely to make you a losing player as you'll over commit on marginal holdings.
Right that's my morning musing over so I'm going to head back to the tables
Steve
Wednesday 17 October 2007
Record Day
Previously when I was playing no limit holdem my best day of poker was a profit of around 4k - pretty good really and obviously not something to be sniffed at. However in my fledgling omaha career I have already surpassed this total with what can only be described as a flourishing disregard for how pathetic that previous record total was.
Rather than just exceed it by a few hundred dollars, I have gone for the rather more extreme option and tried my hardest to double it. The thing is I've played for maybe 8-9 hours today and although it's gone well I don;t feel like I've run exceptionally, the vast majority of the time I've got my money in with very few outs often with people drawing dead. I've lost a couple of large pots where I was favourite but it seems like I'm running maybe a little above expectation on the hands I've played.
The money has just sort of happened. Whereas in holdem it is far more noticeable to me when I am winning or losing it just flows much better in omaha and I can get 2-3k up without really realising quite how fantastically well it's going. Today has been very much like that, I won $3.6k yesterday which was my best day of omaha and I have nearly doubled that today as I'm $6,600 ahead for today - WHICH IS RIDICULOUS. Over $10k up in the last two days.
I've won a lot of big big pots by playing AAXX slowly and then connecting with top set on the flop and letting others bet their way into trouble. Biggest pot today has been $2.4k which was with a set of A's against top two pair. Another example where in a huge pot I had my opponent drawing dead! This just shouldn't be happening in omaha.
I've pulled off some nice bluffs and managed to get value from almost all of my hands. All of this has been done at 5-10 playing a full $1000 stack. I've only really played at this limit on 3 seperate occasions now with a full stack but I think I may have adjusted well and am playing a lot better than someone who has played this game for a month has any right too.
It's really weird how well I've transfered across to omaha and I enjoy the game a lot more than holdem as there is so much more too it and a number of players seem to be especially bad, sadly my poker tracker database has thrown a strop for the second time in a week and I don't have precise stats on how much I'm up this month. However I'm pretty sure it's in the region of $20k which would mean that I am (unsurprisingly) having my best ever month.
I'm getting tired now and have just been screwed on the river for a mid sized pot so I'm going to bed rather happy with my day's work - the fact that I've made about 2 months take home salary is quite disturbing when I actually think about it, so I'm not gonna. Maybe my dreams of a huge new house within a year aren't as unrealistic as I thought they may be, who knows, I could have a disasterous run at some point, however there are limits to how bad it can be as I'v ebeen cashing my winnings to ensure I don't manage to donk the lot off through bad run.
Steve
Rather than just exceed it by a few hundred dollars, I have gone for the rather more extreme option and tried my hardest to double it. The thing is I've played for maybe 8-9 hours today and although it's gone well I don;t feel like I've run exceptionally, the vast majority of the time I've got my money in with very few outs often with people drawing dead. I've lost a couple of large pots where I was favourite but it seems like I'm running maybe a little above expectation on the hands I've played.
The money has just sort of happened. Whereas in holdem it is far more noticeable to me when I am winning or losing it just flows much better in omaha and I can get 2-3k up without really realising quite how fantastically well it's going. Today has been very much like that, I won $3.6k yesterday which was my best day of omaha and I have nearly doubled that today as I'm $6,600 ahead for today - WHICH IS RIDICULOUS. Over $10k up in the last two days.
I've won a lot of big big pots by playing AAXX slowly and then connecting with top set on the flop and letting others bet their way into trouble. Biggest pot today has been $2.4k which was with a set of A's against top two pair. Another example where in a huge pot I had my opponent drawing dead! This just shouldn't be happening in omaha.
I've pulled off some nice bluffs and managed to get value from almost all of my hands. All of this has been done at 5-10 playing a full $1000 stack. I've only really played at this limit on 3 seperate occasions now with a full stack but I think I may have adjusted well and am playing a lot better than someone who has played this game for a month has any right too.
It's really weird how well I've transfered across to omaha and I enjoy the game a lot more than holdem as there is so much more too it and a number of players seem to be especially bad, sadly my poker tracker database has thrown a strop for the second time in a week and I don't have precise stats on how much I'm up this month. However I'm pretty sure it's in the region of $20k which would mean that I am (unsurprisingly) having my best ever month.
I'm getting tired now and have just been screwed on the river for a mid sized pot so I'm going to bed rather happy with my day's work - the fact that I've made about 2 months take home salary is quite disturbing when I actually think about it, so I'm not gonna. Maybe my dreams of a huge new house within a year aren't as unrealistic as I thought they may be, who knows, I could have a disasterous run at some point, however there are limits to how bad it can be as I'v ebeen cashing my winnings to ensure I don't manage to donk the lot off through bad run.
Steve
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Work & Comedy
It's been a busy day for me today as I was in work (yawn) and then out to see Milton Jones at the Glee Club in the evening. Twas an awesome gig, we've seen 4 comedians in the past week and although Nat will definitely disagree with me, I think tonight's may have been the best. Well maybe a 3 way tie but it was fantastic. Not for everyone and the best comparisson I can give is that he is like tim vine but smarter and more varied. I've not laughed out loud so often for quite a while, mostly at stupid gags but I like surreal or silly comedy when it is done in a smart fashion.
Poker has been fitted in around this as I won $1k in an hour when I came home so went out in a fine mood. The evening has gone less well as my very first hand at 5-10 I got AAXX single suited and it got all in between 4 people pre flop - as long as i beat the other big stack i get my money back, but nooooooo donkey boy has got 1k in preflop to two reraises in front with KQT0 single suited - now fuck me that is horrid play, surely he cannot think that is +ev. However after that opening I got a bit loose preflop and got down to $230 on the table from another 1k so it was not going well. Some well timed aggression got me up to 1k +and then this lovely hand occurred
***** Hand History for Game 6419233353 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Tuesday, October 16, 20:56:00 ET 2007
Table Table 125470 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: DerPauker ( $1,423.91 USD )
Seat 3: TiltyMonkey ( $1,172.74 USD )
Seat 5: Mejse70 ( $866.25 USD )
Seat 8: pochtallion ( $1,772.32 USD )
Seat 1: bajawa ( $1,784.98 USD )
Seat 7: onckeldoctor ( $195.75 USD )
Seat 10: superman9912 ( $361 USD )
Seat 9: OMG22EASY ( $678.75 USD )
Seat 6: quickbetting ( $326.80 USD )
Seat 4: bravo177 ( $250 USD )
pochtallion posts small blind [$5 USD].
OMG22EASY posts big blind [$10 USD].
bravo177 posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Js As Ad 3s ]
superman9912 folds
bajawa raises [$45 USD]
DerPauker folds
TiltyMonkey calls [$45 USD]
bravo177 folds
Mejse70 calls [$45 USD]
quickbetting folds
onckeldoctor folds
pochtallion folds
OMG22EASY folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ah, Qc, 4s ]
bajawa bets [$157 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$157 USD]
Mejse70 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
bajawa bets [$471 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$970.74 USD]
bajawa calls [$499.74 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
bajawa shows [ Qh, Ac, 9c, 8h ]two pairs, Aces and Queens.
TiltyMonkey shows [ Js, As, Ad, 3s ]three of a kind, Aces.
TiltyMonkey wins $2,412.48 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Aces.
Lot of value slowplaying AA at times and this was one. This put me back to around where I started the evening and I am just deciding whether I should go to bed or play a bit more. Tough decision as although I'm tired I am playing solidly again and there has been some horrible play at the tables so I think i am more likely to be profitable than not!
Anyway full day of play tomorrow and hopefully more of the same positive results
Steve
Poker has been fitted in around this as I won $1k in an hour when I came home so went out in a fine mood. The evening has gone less well as my very first hand at 5-10 I got AAXX single suited and it got all in between 4 people pre flop - as long as i beat the other big stack i get my money back, but nooooooo donkey boy has got 1k in preflop to two reraises in front with KQT0 single suited - now fuck me that is horrid play, surely he cannot think that is +ev. However after that opening I got a bit loose preflop and got down to $230 on the table from another 1k so it was not going well. Some well timed aggression got me up to 1k +and then this lovely hand occurred
***** Hand History for Game 6419233353 *****
$1,000 USD PL Omaha - Tuesday, October 16, 20:56:00 ET 2007
Table Table 125470 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: DerPauker ( $1,423.91 USD )
Seat 3: TiltyMonkey ( $1,172.74 USD )
Seat 5: Mejse70 ( $866.25 USD )
Seat 8: pochtallion ( $1,772.32 USD )
Seat 1: bajawa ( $1,784.98 USD )
Seat 7: onckeldoctor ( $195.75 USD )
Seat 10: superman9912 ( $361 USD )
Seat 9: OMG22EASY ( $678.75 USD )
Seat 6: quickbetting ( $326.80 USD )
Seat 4: bravo177 ( $250 USD )
pochtallion posts small blind [$5 USD].
OMG22EASY posts big blind [$10 USD].
bravo177 posts big blind [$10 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Js As Ad 3s ]
superman9912 folds
bajawa raises [$45 USD]
DerPauker folds
TiltyMonkey calls [$45 USD]
bravo177 folds
Mejse70 calls [$45 USD]
quickbetting folds
onckeldoctor folds
pochtallion folds
OMG22EASY folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ah, Qc, 4s ]
bajawa bets [$157 USD]
TiltyMonkey calls [$157 USD]
Mejse70 folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
bajawa bets [$471 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In [$970.74 USD]
bajawa calls [$499.74 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9d ]
bajawa shows [ Qh, Ac, 9c, 8h ]two pairs, Aces and Queens.
TiltyMonkey shows [ Js, As, Ad, 3s ]three of a kind, Aces.
TiltyMonkey wins $2,412.48 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Aces.
Lot of value slowplaying AA at times and this was one. This put me back to around where I started the evening and I am just deciding whether I should go to bed or play a bit more. Tough decision as although I'm tired I am playing solidly again and there has been some horrible play at the tables so I think i am more likely to be profitable than not!
Anyway full day of play tomorrow and hopefully more of the same positive results
Steve
Monday 15 October 2007
And that's how it is done
I have just had a cracking rush to end my evening winning a huge pot on 10-20 from starting with $400 I built up to $900 and was on my last hand on the table before cashing when I picked up KKXX and called the raise.. see below for how well this went
***** Hand History for Game 6416006605 *****
$2,000 USD PL Omaha - Monday, October 15, 19:16:41 ET 2007
Table Table 126466 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: SIVING ( $2,932 USD )
Seat 2: LUCKYCAII ( $1,802 USD )
Seat 3: Gaahhhh ( $5,346 USD )
Seat 5: Cid_Hw ( $2,294 USD )
Seat 7: Mejse70 ( $4,018 USD )
Seat 8: pochtallion ( $2,000 USD )
Seat 9: HittiLitti ( $1,580.50 USD )
Seat 10: sigminator11 ( $1,570.50 USD )
Seat 6: TiltyMonkey ( $966 USD )
Seat 4: Shrewder ( $1,974 USD )
LUCKYCAII posts small blind [$10 USD].
Gaahhhh posts big blind [$20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Kc Kh 5d 3h ]
Shrewder folds.
Cid_Hw folds.
TiltyMonkey calls [$20 USD]
Mejse70 folds.
pochtallion raises [$60 USD]
HittiLitti folds.
sigminator11 folds.
SIVING calls [$60 USD]
LUCKYCAII folds.
Gaahhhh folds.
TiltyMonkey calls [$40 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 5h, Kd ]
TiltyMonkey checks.
pochtallion bets [$180 USD]
SIVING raises [$747 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In.
pochtallion folds.
SIVING calls [$159 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
SIVING shows [ Tc, Qh, Th, 6d ]a full house, Tens full of Fives.
TiltyMonkey shows [ Kc, Kh, 5d, 3h ]a full house, Kings full of Fives.
TiltyMonkey wins $2,199 USD from the main pot with a full house, Kings full of Fives.
So basically when all the money went in I was facing 1 out or runner runner so was over 90% favourite for the hand. Great way to end the evening and means I've won about $3.6k today and am going to cash out for another 2k before going to bed - $6k cashed since turning pro 7 days ago, get in. This is the start I wanted and I'm really pleased with how it has begun.
This pot also more than made up for the fact that my shortstacking had been losing all day as I couldn't catch a break. Lovely how quickly it can turn around. I've won 2k in an hour which ain't bad going.
Work tomorrow which bites but it'll be a nice break in a way as I've played a lot today, must have put in a good 8 hours but at nearly $500 an hour today I think it may just about have been worth it.
One of the things I've noticed since playing omaha is that my concentration wavers less, and I think this is because my stack is likely to be ll in far more often and so the prospect of winning or losing large chunks in a short space of time is very much at the forefront of my mind at most times. Right I'm exhausted now I've stopped so shall be going for some well earned rest
Steve
***** Hand History for Game 6416006605 *****
$2,000 USD PL Omaha - Monday, October 15, 19:16:41 ET 2007
Table Table 126466 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: SIVING ( $2,932 USD )
Seat 2: LUCKYCAII ( $1,802 USD )
Seat 3: Gaahhhh ( $5,346 USD )
Seat 5: Cid_Hw ( $2,294 USD )
Seat 7: Mejse70 ( $4,018 USD )
Seat 8: pochtallion ( $2,000 USD )
Seat 9: HittiLitti ( $1,580.50 USD )
Seat 10: sigminator11 ( $1,570.50 USD )
Seat 6: TiltyMonkey ( $966 USD )
Seat 4: Shrewder ( $1,974 USD )
LUCKYCAII posts small blind [$10 USD].
Gaahhhh posts big blind [$20 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to TiltyMonkey [ Kc Kh 5d 3h ]
Shrewder folds.
Cid_Hw folds.
TiltyMonkey calls [$20 USD]
Mejse70 folds.
pochtallion raises [$60 USD]
HittiLitti folds.
sigminator11 folds.
SIVING calls [$60 USD]
LUCKYCAII folds.
Gaahhhh folds.
TiltyMonkey calls [$40 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 5h, Kd ]
TiltyMonkey checks.
pochtallion bets [$180 USD]
SIVING raises [$747 USD]
TiltyMonkey is all-In.
pochtallion folds.
SIVING calls [$159 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5c ]
SIVING shows [ Tc, Qh, Th, 6d ]a full house, Tens full of Fives.
TiltyMonkey shows [ Kc, Kh, 5d, 3h ]a full house, Kings full of Fives.
TiltyMonkey wins $2,199 USD from the main pot with a full house, Kings full of Fives.
So basically when all the money went in I was facing 1 out or runner runner so was over 90% favourite for the hand. Great way to end the evening and means I've won about $3.6k today and am going to cash out for another 2k before going to bed - $6k cashed since turning pro 7 days ago, get in. This is the start I wanted and I'm really pleased with how it has begun.
This pot also more than made up for the fact that my shortstacking had been losing all day as I couldn't catch a break. Lovely how quickly it can turn around. I've won 2k in an hour which ain't bad going.
Work tomorrow which bites but it'll be a nice break in a way as I've played a lot today, must have put in a good 8 hours but at nearly $500 an hour today I think it may just about have been worth it.
One of the things I've noticed since playing omaha is that my concentration wavers less, and I think this is because my stack is likely to be ll in far more often and so the prospect of winning or losing large chunks in a short space of time is very much at the forefront of my mind at most times. Right I'm exhausted now I've stopped so shall be going for some well earned rest
Steve
Update
Right I'm aware that I've failed miserably to update over the last week but I have been busy adapting to my new lifestyle. Sadly in the first week I;ve had 2 days of what I would call proper poker as I was in work for 2 and at the black country museum with Nat's class on thursday which has all involved early nights and stupid early mornings. I did not quit my job to get up at 7am goddammit!
However it has been a good week with a wedding on Saturday and lots of sociable drinking and stuff. It doesn;t really feel like I've been a pro poker player and it's been a very slow start in terms of time to play and finding some sort of routine.
Despite the lack of much play I have won about $6k in 8 days where I've had 3 days of play so it is going extremely well.I have cashed out twice for $2k so regardless of how the rest of the month goes I am going ot be no worse off than if I was still in my job so that's really pleasing. Therefore I have averted the first major panic I may have had by getting off to a losing start.
I've been focussing on omaha and have barely played nl holdem at all so all my profits have come from that and looking over my stats I've played omaha for 3 weeks and won nearly $13k so I can't be too bad at it! My game seems to hold up pretty well as both a short and big stack and I've ventured into the 5-10 game as a full stack a few times and done ok. My shortstack game is still the best and most profitable but I think my game overall is improving and I tend to get my money in good and also pull off some fine bluffs.
I shall try to update more each day and start posting hands from omaha for analysis.
Steve
However it has been a good week with a wedding on Saturday and lots of sociable drinking and stuff. It doesn;t really feel like I've been a pro poker player and it's been a very slow start in terms of time to play and finding some sort of routine.
Despite the lack of much play I have won about $6k in 8 days where I've had 3 days of play so it is going extremely well.I have cashed out twice for $2k so regardless of how the rest of the month goes I am going ot be no worse off than if I was still in my job so that's really pleasing. Therefore I have averted the first major panic I may have had by getting off to a losing start.
I've been focussing on omaha and have barely played nl holdem at all so all my profits have come from that and looking over my stats I've played omaha for 3 weeks and won nearly $13k so I can't be too bad at it! My game seems to hold up pretty well as both a short and big stack and I've ventured into the 5-10 game as a full stack a few times and done ok. My shortstack game is still the best and most profitable but I think my game overall is improving and I tend to get my money in good and also pull off some fine bluffs.
I shall try to update more each day and start posting hands from omaha for analysis.
Steve
Wednesday 10 October 2007
Full time play (well nearly)
As of Monday I am now a full time poker pro and so far it is extremely enjoyable. I've been rising around 12pm and then spending the day doing crucial activities such as reading, exercising and generally lazing about!
Along with this I've also managed to fit in some poker too. Been playing mainly omaha and doing pretty well. Am up $2.2k over the first 2 days which is more than acceptable, have been playing feeling pretty stress free and enjoying my success at this game. I have also played some holdem and to be honest that has gone less well, not really lost much but I could do with a good couple of days at this just to rebuild my sadly fragile confidence.
I think my routine will be to play omaha during the day and then holdem after midnight if I'm in the right frame of mind.
I won't have much opportunity to play for the rest of the week as I'm in work today and Friday, off to the black country mueseum tomorrow and then am at a wedding on saturday, also at comedy gigs for the next two evenings. - so much for playing full time eh!
I'm full of cold at the moment and am suffering with it - probably not been assisted by the vast amounts of drinking and weird unsociable hours I'm keeping but it'll disappear in it's own time.
Anyway, overall a solid start which I'm quite happy with, as long as it continues to move upwards all will be well. I'm going to keep cashing for $2k a week when I can and that way my finances should remain fairly solid
Steve
Along with this I've also managed to fit in some poker too. Been playing mainly omaha and doing pretty well. Am up $2.2k over the first 2 days which is more than acceptable, have been playing feeling pretty stress free and enjoying my success at this game. I have also played some holdem and to be honest that has gone less well, not really lost much but I could do with a good couple of days at this just to rebuild my sadly fragile confidence.
I think my routine will be to play omaha during the day and then holdem after midnight if I'm in the right frame of mind.
I won't have much opportunity to play for the rest of the week as I'm in work today and Friday, off to the black country mueseum tomorrow and then am at a wedding on saturday, also at comedy gigs for the next two evenings. - so much for playing full time eh!
I'm full of cold at the moment and am suffering with it - probably not been assisted by the vast amounts of drinking and weird unsociable hours I'm keeping but it'll disappear in it's own time.
Anyway, overall a solid start which I'm quite happy with, as long as it continues to move upwards all will be well. I'm going to keep cashing for $2k a week when I can and that way my finances should remain fairly solid
Steve
Friday 5 October 2007
Last Day
I struggled to drop off last night as I'm definitely nervous about my new career, won't be playing till monday as I'm away for the weekend so that's when it shall all start. Exciting stuff and I hope I get off to a good start and ease myself in gently - I just need to treat it all as a long term proposition and everything will be fine. No getting caught up with short term results and letting it affect me negatively. Brilliant idea in theory, hard to do in practice. Stil discipline will be vital and I'll have to ensure I do lots of stuff besides poker to avoid burnout.
Just got to remember that this really isn't all about money, it's about being able to make time for important things and not be tired cos of working a 9-5 job. So making lots of time for nat, exercise, reading etc will be just as important as everything else. I plan to build my bankroll a bit with omaha and then head back to the no limit holdem tables with a refreshed attitude ready to dominate.
4 hours 36 minutes of salaried work left supposing I don't leave early!
Steve
Just got to remember that this really isn't all about money, it's about being able to make time for important things and not be tired cos of working a 9-5 job. So making lots of time for nat, exercise, reading etc will be just as important as everything else. I plan to build my bankroll a bit with omaha and then head back to the no limit holdem tables with a refreshed attitude ready to dominate.
4 hours 36 minutes of salaried work left supposing I don't leave early!
Steve
Thursday 4 October 2007
Turn Pro Tomorrow
Well tomorrow is my last day of full time work, it's been a long time since I resigned and I am looking forward to the freedom and chance to dedicate myself to poker.
I'm going to be honest I am quite nervous about it, I know I am a proven winning player and know that many of my errors at no limit holdem have been due to playing when I shouldn't be but my confidence at my main game is low and until I have a solid winning month or two under my belt I'm going to be questionning whether I can make this work. I'm not handling downswings particularly well when they happen at the moment and I think this is because I've got most of my finances tied up in the flat I'm buying - I need to win about £10k by January/February to clear that and so I am potentialy going to have cash flow issues.
This shouldn't happen but it is still a possibility and it makes me nervous. There is no way to get over this feeling apart from relaxing into playing and taking results as they come. I'm sure everyone who has made this leap through quitting a well paid full time job has had similar feelings and to be honest I'd be more worried if I wasn't slightly anxious.
I played some holdem yesterday and sucked, wasn't concentrating on it properly and it showed as I dropped $900 through some ill advised plays. I just need to convince myself that my game as I play it is successful and ride the swings and not let it effect me. Ah well it'll all come together I've had plenty of swings in the past and I'll have loads in the future too, it's part of the game but sadly it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.
My plans for the next few weeks include setting myself some kind of schedule and placing rules on my play which should hopefully benefit my game
- Exercise on the rowing machine at least 3-4 times a week
- Play sessions lasting no longer than 2 hours and having a break of at least 30mins between these
- No mixing sites/games/levels as I don't think this benefits my play at all and it is so easy to concentrate on omaha rather than holdem or vice versa to the detriment of some tables
- Play different forms of poker each week and each day - so mixing the omaha and no limit sessions up as I feel like it to avoid boredom/complacency
- NOT PLAYING WHEN TIRED (no excuse for this any more and I shall be mad if I start doing it again)
- Only playing when I WANT to, not because it seems like I should or cos I have nothing better to do
Those will do to be getting on with and hopefully my results will shine like they did in June. One really good month $20k + would be all it takes to ease all worries - it sounds a lot but if I'm playing 5-10 full time it is only 20 buy ins which is more than achievable.
Wish me luck
Steve
I'm going to be honest I am quite nervous about it, I know I am a proven winning player and know that many of my errors at no limit holdem have been due to playing when I shouldn't be but my confidence at my main game is low and until I have a solid winning month or two under my belt I'm going to be questionning whether I can make this work. I'm not handling downswings particularly well when they happen at the moment and I think this is because I've got most of my finances tied up in the flat I'm buying - I need to win about £10k by January/February to clear that and so I am potentialy going to have cash flow issues.
This shouldn't happen but it is still a possibility and it makes me nervous. There is no way to get over this feeling apart from relaxing into playing and taking results as they come. I'm sure everyone who has made this leap through quitting a well paid full time job has had similar feelings and to be honest I'd be more worried if I wasn't slightly anxious.
I played some holdem yesterday and sucked, wasn't concentrating on it properly and it showed as I dropped $900 through some ill advised plays. I just need to convince myself that my game as I play it is successful and ride the swings and not let it effect me. Ah well it'll all come together I've had plenty of swings in the past and I'll have loads in the future too, it's part of the game but sadly it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.
My plans for the next few weeks include setting myself some kind of schedule and placing rules on my play which should hopefully benefit my game
- Exercise on the rowing machine at least 3-4 times a week
- Play sessions lasting no longer than 2 hours and having a break of at least 30mins between these
- No mixing sites/games/levels as I don't think this benefits my play at all and it is so easy to concentrate on omaha rather than holdem or vice versa to the detriment of some tables
- Play different forms of poker each week and each day - so mixing the omaha and no limit sessions up as I feel like it to avoid boredom/complacency
- NOT PLAYING WHEN TIRED (no excuse for this any more and I shall be mad if I start doing it again)
- Only playing when I WANT to, not because it seems like I should or cos I have nothing better to do
Those will do to be getting on with and hopefully my results will shine like they did in June. One really good month $20k + would be all it takes to ease all worries - it sounds a lot but if I'm playing 5-10 full time it is only 20 buy ins which is more than achievable.
Wish me luck
Steve
Wednesday 3 October 2007
Low Stakes Looseness
Last night went reaonably well, made about $400 although it could have been a lot more as I suffered a nasty beat for $1100 at omaha, however the most entertainment was had from dropping down to the high paced world of 0.02-0.04 low stakes to play with Euan.
It truly is a different world and as I couldn't care less about a $5 buy in I can just enjoy myself and literally play every hand. Doing this and then betting pot on every flop which was checked to me is not exactly an optimal strategy but it sure is fun. And people are so goddam stupid at that level, you have a player seeing every hand bluffing every flop and they decide to leave the table - crazy, I'm there to give my money away and they don't want to play with me. With a mentality like that where they can't see a golden opportunity none of the players who left the table are ever going to progress, if you get a muppet at your table you bleed him dry, you don't leave because he keeps betting with no regard for position, cards etc.
I just don't understand it, I'd love someone to play 5-10nl like this as you wait for a hand and then double through them, it's really not rocket science. Anyway I had lots of fun and it's amazing how often people throw hands away which is always interesting as it goes against my regular style in every way.
Some more omaha tonight I think and I may even give 5-10nl another go and see how my mentality is at those stakes. Played a bit last night and felt good so hopefully it'll be more like that. However I'm not feeling the most healthy at the moment and am somewhat lacking in concentration so I will see how I feel later.
2.5 days of work to go, professional poker awaits.
Steve
It truly is a different world and as I couldn't care less about a $5 buy in I can just enjoy myself and literally play every hand. Doing this and then betting pot on every flop which was checked to me is not exactly an optimal strategy but it sure is fun. And people are so goddam stupid at that level, you have a player seeing every hand bluffing every flop and they decide to leave the table - crazy, I'm there to give my money away and they don't want to play with me. With a mentality like that where they can't see a golden opportunity none of the players who left the table are ever going to progress, if you get a muppet at your table you bleed him dry, you don't leave because he keeps betting with no regard for position, cards etc.
I just don't understand it, I'd love someone to play 5-10nl like this as you wait for a hand and then double through them, it's really not rocket science. Anyway I had lots of fun and it's amazing how often people throw hands away which is always interesting as it goes against my regular style in every way.
Some more omaha tonight I think and I may even give 5-10nl another go and see how my mentality is at those stakes. Played a bit last night and felt good so hopefully it'll be more like that. However I'm not feeling the most healthy at the moment and am somewhat lacking in concentration so I will see how I feel later.
2.5 days of work to go, professional poker awaits.
Steve
Tuesday 2 October 2007
Short Stack Star
My new philosophy has started fantastically well as in 128 hands of 10-20 pot limit holdem I have won $3000, not bad really. This has been done by buying in for the minimum and playing a check raise all in strategy as I try to get all my money in either before or on the flop where I'm relatively certain I have the best hand. So far I've run extremely positively doing this but am very well aware that only a few beats will have my profits way down. Twice yesterday I got it all in on the flop with top set against 1 out - literally 1 out which is virtually impossible to have and it failed to hold up on one of these.
The aim is simple and it has numerous advantages as although 3 people may come with you on the flop it is likely that two of them will get bet out on later streets often by someone with a strong draw which can lead to me winning a large pot which I wouldn't otherwise have done as they fail to connect. This protection makes the value of playing like this really worthwhile and it'll be interesting to see how I run over the next month.
In statue watch I have now got $1600 which has been withdrawn to purchase various artwork - I could withdraw another $1300 but have decided to leave that in my account and not go too mad with buying stuff. this has worked out quite well and since last monday when I went to playing omaha I've made $5200 - very nice this is too!
I'm thinking that I may teach myself 7 card stud and become a winning player at that too just so I have more options in game selection and can broaden my skills and give me alternative games for when I run bad and lose confidence in one form of poker. Realistically I know that my best game is going to be holdem and I just need to get my confidence back and accept the bad runs which I'm prone to having and minimise my tilt as this can cost me huge amounts.
Next week I turn pro and with my new versatility across holdem and omaha I should probably think about splitting my time across them to increase my interest and ensure that I don't become predictable and stale at either game.
I really hope I can turn October into a big month as this would do wonders for my confidence in the decisions I've taken and would leave me feeling good about life. I don't really have an amount I'm aiming for although when I play full time I would hope to make $500 a day on average which would equate to $10k-15k a month depending on the amount of time I spend playing. I think this should be a realistic goal and one which I would hope to surpass but until I'm playing when not tired and without comitments I guess I won't really know what to expect. My previously best month was +$17k in June and I really feel that I should be improving on that but I guess it's a case of watch this space to see how it goes.
Steve
The aim is simple and it has numerous advantages as although 3 people may come with you on the flop it is likely that two of them will get bet out on later streets often by someone with a strong draw which can lead to me winning a large pot which I wouldn't otherwise have done as they fail to connect. This protection makes the value of playing like this really worthwhile and it'll be interesting to see how I run over the next month.
In statue watch I have now got $1600 which has been withdrawn to purchase various artwork - I could withdraw another $1300 but have decided to leave that in my account and not go too mad with buying stuff. this has worked out quite well and since last monday when I went to playing omaha I've made $5200 - very nice this is too!
I'm thinking that I may teach myself 7 card stud and become a winning player at that too just so I have more options in game selection and can broaden my skills and give me alternative games for when I run bad and lose confidence in one form of poker. Realistically I know that my best game is going to be holdem and I just need to get my confidence back and accept the bad runs which I'm prone to having and minimise my tilt as this can cost me huge amounts.
Next week I turn pro and with my new versatility across holdem and omaha I should probably think about splitting my time across them to increase my interest and ensure that I don't become predictable and stale at either game.
I really hope I can turn October into a big month as this would do wonders for my confidence in the decisions I've taken and would leave me feeling good about life. I don't really have an amount I'm aiming for although when I play full time I would hope to make $500 a day on average which would equate to $10k-15k a month depending on the amount of time I spend playing. I think this should be a realistic goal and one which I would hope to surpass but until I'm playing when not tired and without comitments I guess I won't really know what to expect. My previously best month was +$17k in June and I really feel that I should be improving on that but I guess it's a case of watch this space to see how it goes.
Steve
Monday 1 October 2007
Late Night, Early Morning
Hmmm, for some reason I'm inordinately tired today, could it be because I chose to go to bed at 5am. I'm beginning to think that has played a small factor. I hadn't intended to do this as I went to bed at 1.30am but I couldn't sleep and so I went and watched the baseball and played a bit more Omaha. Won another $400 so it was quite useful. Luckily as of next week it won't matter that I have days like this as I won't need to get up at 8.30am which is just ridiculous - it is no wonder I have massive highs and lows as I treat my body and sleeping patterns with absolutely 0 respect.
However I usually cope quite well with 1-2 nights of poor sleep so I'm sure it'll all be ok. Have got to ensure I'm well rested before Friday/Saturday as I'm out both nights - one for retirement and one for Mikey's 30th. Really looking forward to Mikes birthday as it's a huge fancy dress effort and I'll post some pictures on here of what people are going as. I won't mention who I'm going as in case Mike is reading but if you found out that the isotopes were moving to alberquerque then you too would consider 'what would jesus do'.
Think that's just about vague enough for Mike not to get the reference although a few people certainly would. Anyway it'll be a great night and I just hope I'm not too destroyed from the night before!
I'm going to try playing short stacked at omaha for a few days and see how results go - the only exception to this is at 1-2 as the play is terrible at this level and it is well worth playing with a full stack as people do call off their chips extremely light. My stats at 2-4 have dived by $1500 which is why I'm going to experiment with short stacked play, it started well last night but I may avoid 10-20 for a while until I have a slightly larger bankroll.
I have also opened an account with Full Tilt which has a huge array of games although they are almost all played at 6 max at higher stakes which is a shame for me as I like full ring. Don't know why this is the case but there are huge numbers of full ring 2-4 nl holdem games so I need to build my bankroll on there and try busting some yanks!!
Tired now, 45 minutes till home where I can sleep for a few hours
Steve
However I usually cope quite well with 1-2 nights of poor sleep so I'm sure it'll all be ok. Have got to ensure I'm well rested before Friday/Saturday as I'm out both nights - one for retirement and one for Mikey's 30th. Really looking forward to Mikes birthday as it's a huge fancy dress effort and I'll post some pictures on here of what people are going as. I won't mention who I'm going as in case Mike is reading but if you found out that the isotopes were moving to alberquerque then you too would consider 'what would jesus do'.
Think that's just about vague enough for Mike not to get the reference although a few people certainly would. Anyway it'll be a great night and I just hope I'm not too destroyed from the night before!
I'm going to try playing short stacked at omaha for a few days and see how results go - the only exception to this is at 1-2 as the play is terrible at this level and it is well worth playing with a full stack as people do call off their chips extremely light. My stats at 2-4 have dived by $1500 which is why I'm going to experiment with short stacked play, it started well last night but I may avoid 10-20 for a while until I have a slightly larger bankroll.
I have also opened an account with Full Tilt which has a huge array of games although they are almost all played at 6 max at higher stakes which is a shame for me as I like full ring. Don't know why this is the case but there are huge numbers of full ring 2-4 nl holdem games so I need to build my bankroll on there and try busting some yanks!!
Tired now, 45 minutes till home where I can sleep for a few hours
Steve
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