I promised I'd blog some hands, or at least one in particular so here are a couple of interesting ones from the past couple of days. Both are against massively overaggressive opponents who do tend to experience massive swings in their chips stacks.
Heart in Mouth Decision Making - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1826815
I have KK in early position in this hand and flat call the raise preflop from an aggressive player looking to capitalise on his aggression later on. 358 flop which is pretty much ideal as he is selectively aggressive but very little in his range is beating me here so I elect to flat call again, probably getting him to put me on a flush draw. 6 on turn and I check again looking to raise his next bet. He bets about the full pot putting me in a very awkward position - if I am to play this remotely properly I have to raise if I continue and will be committed for the rest of my chips.
His bet is very very strong and if I'm wrong I will be in a very bad situation. I think about his play and go with my thoughts pre and post flop and raise to $510 thereby taking away the decision if he raises as I have only $330 or so left. I am definitely looking for a fold at this point as anything else will usually signify I'm behind. Sadly he raises and I have to call as I know he can do this with a lot of weaker hands than mine. River comes a Q which was ok (not a flush) and pleasingly I saw him flip JJ to rake a big pot.
This was a hand which got my pulse racing a lot as it is way outside my comfort zone and explains why players like this can win a lot as it is so hard to put them accurately on a hand an you need to be willing to commit to decisions rather than bailing out when they bet every street. Rectified my evening and I was pretty happy with my play as I had a plan and followed it through in the face of some strong discouragement.
Right no pictures as I am an idiot and copied down the wrong HH and am not about to trawl through to find it. Anyway, 4 way pot for $30 preflop and I have 66 and will be second to act of the four players after the flop. A beauty of 26Q comes down with two spades and preflop raiser puts $100 in, I flat call with aggressive player behind to disguise and hopefully drag the flush draw in too. Aggro boy raises to $250 which means very little as he rarely has anything near what he represents, strangely last player to act calls this and raiser drops. Me to act and I have to push here as anything else is weak and I will get called by a lot behind me. Both call and I am praying for no spade as I am certain one of them at least has the flush draw. Both called creating a massive $3k pot (these hurt to lose, they really hurt) Turn a 2 - get in as I have the fh and river another 2 which momentarily worried me. They flipped and aggressive player had AQ???????????????????????????????????????? and the other guy had AT spades.
I really hate both sets of play for a variety of reasons. My play is fine theirs is genuinely horrid and here is why. The guy with AQ - knows he is likely ahead of preflop raiser and raises to define position vs me - ok so far, however when player behind calls and I raise all in an easier fol could not be had, it isn't even a decision but NO, he pushs all his chips in when 95% he is behind. Awful, just awful.
Player with the flush draw - on the flop facing a big bet, call, raise he has two options depending on his reading the best of which is fold, an acceptable one is all in if he reads the players as capable of getting off hands like AQ or two pair - I wouldn't like it but it is a viable option. His call is terrible. Two players still to act and either may be on a biggie. Even if we just call the next bet will commit all his chips and make a call terrible if he has not hit on the turn. He is effectively paying $250 to see one card with a maximum 9 outs - 20% chance of hitting, as I have the set he has less outs and makes his call look even worse. His call of two people being all in after doing this is fine, expensive but ok I guess that is justifiable.
Honestly with play like this how am I not a millionaire, I just do not understand either of them in this hand and it was like christmas had come early
Good day today as a result although I am tired so may not play any more, I've put a solid 2 hours in which is pathetic but maybe I need more sleep.
Steve
Showing posts with label poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poker. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
Some Hands, Some Analysis, Some Waffle
I've not posted that many hands recently so I thought I'd put a few in to one post for analysis. They are a range of different hands which have created interesting pots.
Opponent Based Play - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800126
Yesterday I was saying that I had been up against some overtly aggressive players and failed miserably with hitting anything where I could take them down. In this hand I succeeded and my play was based purely upon the opponent. Let me take you through the hand. I'm dealt QQ and my opponent has made a standard raise to $35 from mid-late position which he does a lot. I flat call in the hope of picking up a fairly sizeable pot later on. Flop comes 842 two diamonds and he bet near pot size at me. I have two options here but whereas I would usually raise this to discover how good my hand is, I decide flat calling is far preferable here as he is likely to either fold or repop and I don't want him to do either as my hand although strong could conceivably be in for a world of hurt.
Turn comes a 6h which felt very safe and to my surprise he bet $175, I would consider dropping here to many opponents on the basis that they are representing a fair amount of strength and I'm going to have to commit a lot to the pot as I HAVE to raise if I play on - a call is just horrible in my opinion. I decided that my opponent's raise was very very wide here and I was 75%+ sure that I was ahead and he was trying to run over me. Therefore I min raised, leaving myself enough to get away from it if needs be. I expected him to fold but he repopped all in. Did not like this at all and again against many opponents this would be going straight in the muck. However he is more than capable of doing this with diamonds/hearts/straight draw/weaker pair and after much thought I decided to go with my initial feelings and make the call. River a K and he flips TT so I was bang on in my decisions.
During this hand I truly did not specificly know where I was at, usually that is enough to get me to fold as I don't like taking guesses but because of the history with this opponent I was able to make good decisions throughout against some extremely well executed pressure. I still am unsure as to whether I think he's good or not, I've seen a lot of poor hands winning massive pots for and against him and he will make massive calls with mid pair etc. On the whole I like him being at the table as it loosens everyone up a bit but as he succeeds in making me uncomfortable a lot I suppose I should give him a lot of credit for being a pretty good maniac.
For a lot of unthinking players my play in the hand may seem obvious and simple as I had an overpair and went with it - trust me 75%+ of the time where the betting makes you feel like you're beat you are and being able to lay down the big hands is a key element in becoming a winning player long term.
Poor/unlucky for my opponent - you decide - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800174
I like my play here and dislike my opponents as he checks the likely winner and gives up a free card in silly fashion. I have KK early pos and call a raise from the button. Flop comes T high and I suspect I am ahead here and decide to check raise what looks to be a good flop. My opponent who has a set of 5's checks behind. Turn comes a K giving me the current nuts, again assuming my opponent has nothing I go for a check raise and pump it to $170. Again my opponent flat calls. Turn comes a 9 leaving me thinking that the only possible hand I've lost to is JQ hearts but let's face it I cannot drop this to his river push ever as I'm way too committed and despite being a touch worried I bet the river strongly and called the raise. Huge pot and you may think I got lucky but lets look at my opponent's play.
First of all he has raised with 55 and hit when in position - his check on the flop is ghastly as now if he shows strength later I'm gonna be suspicious also if I have AK he is missing out on the reraise I would undoubtably throw out to any bet. I will not have him on a set during the hand if he bets and the check guarantees minimum value from my hand if I fail to connect further. I could have lost a big pot if he'd played this better and I hadn't hit IF he bets the flop - a healthy amount of suspicion to the preflop raiser who checks the flop then shows a lot of strength is almost always a good idea.
He bets the turn and I reraise - he has got to reraise here, he must think he is ahead and I could be raising with a variety of draws and will be tempted to call in these cases. The flat call asks for trouble if really does, many draws available and he is giving me every opportunity. River leaves a straight possibility which he must at least realise I could have so when I bet 3/4 pot his raise is not good given how the hand has played as If I had AK I could easily drop it (also wouldn't have got in this situation but still...) Basically he has raised when he no longer has any idea where he is and is only getting called by hands which have him crushed.
This opponent is one of my current favourites to see as I don't think much of his game, he bluffs too much and then misplays his big hands.
How to play a set of 5's (sharp contrast to above) - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800214
Having called preflop I hit a wonderful flop of KQ5 two hearts and am first to act. I decide the bet helps disguise my hand best and stick in $30, I am reraised to $90 and as I will do in these cases I flat call looking for a good turn card where I will commit. Turn comes a 2 and I felt that my opponent had something like AK or a flush draw so I put in a weakish bet to define where I was. I exepcted to be raised here and it duly happened as he banged it to $222. This is a no brainer for me as a call asks for trouble, if I raise I am committed no matter what comes on the river so I go for one of my favourite moves the big all in reraise (works well with the nuts or without if you know your opponents) and he calls it. He had KQ so I can understand that he couldn't get away, or at least felt that he couldn't - I'd have dropped personally unless I had a good read on my opponent.
Anyway this is somewhat different to how my opponent played his 5's in the hand previously and on the whole I rather prefer my more thought out play to his donkey antics.
Hero Call - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800233
I'm not in this last one but my god what was he thinking, anybody? No... I don't have a clue either. Splash is one of the aggressive players I failed to connected against and he is very capable of moving the chips about with air BUT - you just don't call with the 3 here, there is no way that can ever be a winning play, almost everything beats him, even if he had a draw on the flop - he has hit. Oh I hate this call so much - you need such a good read to do this and with Splash's range you just cannot call this.
For all those who like making the big calls, please try making the big raises instead as at least that way you'll get paid off more when you have the goods and give your opponent the option of a fold. Splash's play is quality purely because he would have done the exact same thing with the nuts which can make him damn hard to play. Patience is the key in picking off the big bluffs, just don't get involved until you have something you are willing to put your whole stack in with.
I still cannot put splash on a single hand which the caller could beat, not one and I will die long before I figure out what on earth his opponent was thinking.
Right that's it for now, hopefully some interesting stuff for you and I'm going to try to sleep again
Steve
Opponent Based Play - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800126
Yesterday I was saying that I had been up against some overtly aggressive players and failed miserably with hitting anything where I could take them down. In this hand I succeeded and my play was based purely upon the opponent. Let me take you through the hand. I'm dealt QQ and my opponent has made a standard raise to $35 from mid-late position which he does a lot. I flat call in the hope of picking up a fairly sizeable pot later on. Flop comes 842 two diamonds and he bet near pot size at me. I have two options here but whereas I would usually raise this to discover how good my hand is, I decide flat calling is far preferable here as he is likely to either fold or repop and I don't want him to do either as my hand although strong could conceivably be in for a world of hurt.
Turn comes a 6h which felt very safe and to my surprise he bet $175, I would consider dropping here to many opponents on the basis that they are representing a fair amount of strength and I'm going to have to commit a lot to the pot as I HAVE to raise if I play on - a call is just horrible in my opinion. I decided that my opponent's raise was very very wide here and I was 75%+ sure that I was ahead and he was trying to run over me. Therefore I min raised, leaving myself enough to get away from it if needs be. I expected him to fold but he repopped all in. Did not like this at all and again against many opponents this would be going straight in the muck. However he is more than capable of doing this with diamonds/hearts/straight draw/weaker pair and after much thought I decided to go with my initial feelings and make the call. River a K and he flips TT so I was bang on in my decisions.
During this hand I truly did not specificly know where I was at, usually that is enough to get me to fold as I don't like taking guesses but because of the history with this opponent I was able to make good decisions throughout against some extremely well executed pressure. I still am unsure as to whether I think he's good or not, I've seen a lot of poor hands winning massive pots for and against him and he will make massive calls with mid pair etc. On the whole I like him being at the table as it loosens everyone up a bit but as he succeeds in making me uncomfortable a lot I suppose I should give him a lot of credit for being a pretty good maniac.
For a lot of unthinking players my play in the hand may seem obvious and simple as I had an overpair and went with it - trust me 75%+ of the time where the betting makes you feel like you're beat you are and being able to lay down the big hands is a key element in becoming a winning player long term.
Poor/unlucky for my opponent - you decide - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800174
I like my play here and dislike my opponents as he checks the likely winner and gives up a free card in silly fashion. I have KK early pos and call a raise from the button. Flop comes T high and I suspect I am ahead here and decide to check raise what looks to be a good flop. My opponent who has a set of 5's checks behind. Turn comes a K giving me the current nuts, again assuming my opponent has nothing I go for a check raise and pump it to $170. Again my opponent flat calls. Turn comes a 9 leaving me thinking that the only possible hand I've lost to is JQ hearts but let's face it I cannot drop this to his river push ever as I'm way too committed and despite being a touch worried I bet the river strongly and called the raise. Huge pot and you may think I got lucky but lets look at my opponent's play.
First of all he has raised with 55 and hit when in position - his check on the flop is ghastly as now if he shows strength later I'm gonna be suspicious also if I have AK he is missing out on the reraise I would undoubtably throw out to any bet. I will not have him on a set during the hand if he bets and the check guarantees minimum value from my hand if I fail to connect further. I could have lost a big pot if he'd played this better and I hadn't hit IF he bets the flop - a healthy amount of suspicion to the preflop raiser who checks the flop then shows a lot of strength is almost always a good idea.
He bets the turn and I reraise - he has got to reraise here, he must think he is ahead and I could be raising with a variety of draws and will be tempted to call in these cases. The flat call asks for trouble if really does, many draws available and he is giving me every opportunity. River leaves a straight possibility which he must at least realise I could have so when I bet 3/4 pot his raise is not good given how the hand has played as If I had AK I could easily drop it (also wouldn't have got in this situation but still...) Basically he has raised when he no longer has any idea where he is and is only getting called by hands which have him crushed.
This opponent is one of my current favourites to see as I don't think much of his game, he bluffs too much and then misplays his big hands.
How to play a set of 5's (sharp contrast to above) - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800214
Having called preflop I hit a wonderful flop of KQ5 two hearts and am first to act. I decide the bet helps disguise my hand best and stick in $30, I am reraised to $90 and as I will do in these cases I flat call looking for a good turn card where I will commit. Turn comes a 2 and I felt that my opponent had something like AK or a flush draw so I put in a weakish bet to define where I was. I exepcted to be raised here and it duly happened as he banged it to $222. This is a no brainer for me as a call asks for trouble, if I raise I am committed no matter what comes on the river so I go for one of my favourite moves the big all in reraise (works well with the nuts or without if you know your opponents) and he calls it. He had KQ so I can understand that he couldn't get away, or at least felt that he couldn't - I'd have dropped personally unless I had a good read on my opponent.
Anyway this is somewhat different to how my opponent played his 5's in the hand previously and on the whole I rather prefer my more thought out play to his donkey antics.
Hero Call - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1800233
I'm not in this last one but my god what was he thinking, anybody? No... I don't have a clue either. Splash is one of the aggressive players I failed to connected against and he is very capable of moving the chips about with air BUT - you just don't call with the 3 here, there is no way that can ever be a winning play, almost everything beats him, even if he had a draw on the flop - he has hit. Oh I hate this call so much - you need such a good read to do this and with Splash's range you just cannot call this.
For all those who like making the big calls, please try making the big raises instead as at least that way you'll get paid off more when you have the goods and give your opponent the option of a fold. Splash's play is quality purely because he would have done the exact same thing with the nuts which can make him damn hard to play. Patience is the key in picking off the big bluffs, just don't get involved until you have something you are willing to put your whole stack in with.
I still cannot put splash on a single hand which the caller could beat, not one and I will die long before I figure out what on earth his opponent was thinking.
Right that's it for now, hopefully some interesting stuff for you and I'm going to try to sleep again
Steve
Friday, 7 December 2007
Reflections on the first month as a pro
This post is going to be looking over how my first month of full time play has gone. Lessons which I've learnt, mistakes I've made and how it all differs from my expectations.
First and most important thing to acknowledge is that I'm unlikely to struggle to make a comfortable living playing poker as my only source of income. Regular readers will know that I have suffered some massive swings and some poor discipline during this time. However despite this I am still making a decent amount and have been able to build up after bad swings by dropping stakes and forcing better discipline upon myself.
I think this is a very important realisation for me. It hasn't by any means gone how I'd hoped and I've had to play lower than I would wish to but it's abundantly clear that I am (financially) at least a successful player.
What I have also realised is that my expectations and aspirations are extremely high and I demand a lot from myself. It is not going to be enough for me to make a comfortable living - I want a lot more and will not be happy unless I am making somewhere around $4k a week on average. This is more than attainable and is ultimately the minimum level which I wish to aim for when I return full time to 5-10nl.
What I have found a major problem is the lack of routine. This has surprised me with how difficult it is to impose when I have virtually no requirements upon my time or energies other than to focus on my game. I had assumed that I would fall into a routine of going to bed around 4am, rising by 1pm and then playing poker from around 10.30pm - 3.30am. This ain't happened, not even slightly.
I have taken to staying up all night on occasion, finding it difficult to bother going to bed - what this has resulted in is an ever varying schedule where I don't give myself the time during daylight hours to do other things. When I get up at 4pm Nat is home within an hour or so and my opportunity to do anything productive for myself disappears as I spend the evening with her and then when she goes to bed I play poker. It also means that I don't excercise as I'm lazy and need to do it when I'm in by myself during the afternoon.
I have found that when I keep to a more sensible routine I am happier, more productive and because of this I become more motivated with my game. My goal for the next month is to get into a proper routine which will involve getting up at a reasonable hour and not staying up through the night for no apparant reason other than because I can.
I have such a fantastic opportunity to be this relaxed, cheerful, carefree person with very few things to worry about and I've not been. I put this down to my lack of routine leaving me tired, my body confused and then I compound it by doing stupid things at poker. I need to refocus on why I am doing this for my job. I'm not going to say that it's not about the money because it so blatently is (at least in part). The money is a necessary and nice byproduct of doing something which I love, this will happen anyway so what I need to concentrate on is living my life to the full, making the effort with things and generally enjoying my time.
I didn't anticipate this being a problem, I don't struggle with boredom, I am happy with my own company for long periods but it has become one because ultimately I'm lazy. Because there is little which I have to do - I do nothing and that is not healthy or enjoyable. I've snapped out of my bad mood and lethargy now and I am going to make this work in a way I enjoy and am happy with. Step 1 in this is going to be imposing that routine on myself and the sooner I successfully do that the sooner everything else will fall into place.
It's not an easy life and I can see why people struggle with it, this way of being would not suit the majority of people I know. For me it is all about willpower and belief at the table coupled with discipline away from it. I manage ok with the first of these and have been woefully inadequate at the second - that must and will change over the next few weeks.
I'll keep you all updated on how it goes
Steve
First and most important thing to acknowledge is that I'm unlikely to struggle to make a comfortable living playing poker as my only source of income. Regular readers will know that I have suffered some massive swings and some poor discipline during this time. However despite this I am still making a decent amount and have been able to build up after bad swings by dropping stakes and forcing better discipline upon myself.
I think this is a very important realisation for me. It hasn't by any means gone how I'd hoped and I've had to play lower than I would wish to but it's abundantly clear that I am (financially) at least a successful player.
What I have also realised is that my expectations and aspirations are extremely high and I demand a lot from myself. It is not going to be enough for me to make a comfortable living - I want a lot more and will not be happy unless I am making somewhere around $4k a week on average. This is more than attainable and is ultimately the minimum level which I wish to aim for when I return full time to 5-10nl.
What I have found a major problem is the lack of routine. This has surprised me with how difficult it is to impose when I have virtually no requirements upon my time or energies other than to focus on my game. I had assumed that I would fall into a routine of going to bed around 4am, rising by 1pm and then playing poker from around 10.30pm - 3.30am. This ain't happened, not even slightly.
I have taken to staying up all night on occasion, finding it difficult to bother going to bed - what this has resulted in is an ever varying schedule where I don't give myself the time during daylight hours to do other things. When I get up at 4pm Nat is home within an hour or so and my opportunity to do anything productive for myself disappears as I spend the evening with her and then when she goes to bed I play poker. It also means that I don't excercise as I'm lazy and need to do it when I'm in by myself during the afternoon.
I have found that when I keep to a more sensible routine I am happier, more productive and because of this I become more motivated with my game. My goal for the next month is to get into a proper routine which will involve getting up at a reasonable hour and not staying up through the night for no apparant reason other than because I can.
I have such a fantastic opportunity to be this relaxed, cheerful, carefree person with very few things to worry about and I've not been. I put this down to my lack of routine leaving me tired, my body confused and then I compound it by doing stupid things at poker. I need to refocus on why I am doing this for my job. I'm not going to say that it's not about the money because it so blatently is (at least in part). The money is a necessary and nice byproduct of doing something which I love, this will happen anyway so what I need to concentrate on is living my life to the full, making the effort with things and generally enjoying my time.
I didn't anticipate this being a problem, I don't struggle with boredom, I am happy with my own company for long periods but it has become one because ultimately I'm lazy. Because there is little which I have to do - I do nothing and that is not healthy or enjoyable. I've snapped out of my bad mood and lethargy now and I am going to make this work in a way I enjoy and am happy with. Step 1 in this is going to be imposing that routine on myself and the sooner I successfully do that the sooner everything else will fall into place.
It's not an easy life and I can see why people struggle with it, this way of being would not suit the majority of people I know. For me it is all about willpower and belief at the table coupled with discipline away from it. I manage ok with the first of these and have been woefully inadequate at the second - that must and will change over the next few weeks.
I'll keep you all updated on how it goes
Steve
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Not whinging now!!
Right I have definitely been runnign bad in the big pots recently however that has just changed somewhat with one absolute monster on 3-6nl. I'd already got up to $1500 through a nicely played full house on the flop when the below hand came up
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1735766
I have been playing short handed a bit recently and quite enjoying it as it is more aggressive and some people really overplay their holdings. I have a more conservative style with well timed river bluffs and playing my big hands hard. Anyway I had AA pre flop with $1500 in front of me, the guy to my left raised but he also had $1500 so I didn't fancy reraising out of position and revealing some strength and setting myself up to be bluffed later in the hand.
Flop came AT6 with 2 clubs, obviously this is magnificent for me but I want to extract value. I check raised and then very unexpectedly got reraised to $300. Now this is a very interesting situation because of the stack sizes. I KNOW I am very unlikely to get away from this hand if a scare card comes. I also know that most likely he has either a straight flush draw, 2 pair or a set. To be honest I expected the set. Generally he would be unlikly to re-re-raise me in this situation without a BIG hand mainly due to stack sizes.
Anyway having realised this I also thought that IF he had the set he would most likely call any bet as AA was unlikely due to my pre-flop flat call. SO I decided that it was a good situation for me to shove - takes the decision out of it and if he wants to make a bad call with a draw then so be it. Anyway he thought for a LONG time before calling with TT for mid-set. the river brough a 7 which scared me a little as the 89clubs was a possible holding but the $3k pot came to me and turned a bad day into a very very good one.
I have been running bad but this hand makes up for a lot, an awful lot. I am now $5100 up since returning to hold'em and life just feels a touch sweeter right now.
Sadly as I've been playing 2-4 only $1k of this is from 2-4, the other $4k is from 3-6 and a short session of $5-10. I just do better at higher stakes, my game fits them better which is as it should be because that is where I played since April and have logged many hours at 5-10.
In fairness I feel really sorry for my opponent here, I would have thought about dropping the TT but I doubt I could have, it's just too strong in that situation so it was a real cooler for him. Shame!
All my friends and Nat have been telling me it'd turn around and I have been playing with a really positive attitude (and whinging away from the tables) and it's just so nice to have a really good day and win a monster pot.
WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO
Run well when it really matters - that is the key
Steve
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1735766
I have been playing short handed a bit recently and quite enjoying it as it is more aggressive and some people really overplay their holdings. I have a more conservative style with well timed river bluffs and playing my big hands hard. Anyway I had AA pre flop with $1500 in front of me, the guy to my left raised but he also had $1500 so I didn't fancy reraising out of position and revealing some strength and setting myself up to be bluffed later in the hand.
Flop came AT6 with 2 clubs, obviously this is magnificent for me but I want to extract value. I check raised and then very unexpectedly got reraised to $300. Now this is a very interesting situation because of the stack sizes. I KNOW I am very unlikely to get away from this hand if a scare card comes. I also know that most likely he has either a straight flush draw, 2 pair or a set. To be honest I expected the set. Generally he would be unlikly to re-re-raise me in this situation without a BIG hand mainly due to stack sizes.
Anyway having realised this I also thought that IF he had the set he would most likely call any bet as AA was unlikely due to my pre-flop flat call. SO I decided that it was a good situation for me to shove - takes the decision out of it and if he wants to make a bad call with a draw then so be it. Anyway he thought for a LONG time before calling with TT for mid-set. the river brough a 7 which scared me a little as the 89clubs was a possible holding but the $3k pot came to me and turned a bad day into a very very good one.
I have been running bad but this hand makes up for a lot, an awful lot. I am now $5100 up since returning to hold'em and life just feels a touch sweeter right now.
Sadly as I've been playing 2-4 only $1k of this is from 2-4, the other $4k is from 3-6 and a short session of $5-10. I just do better at higher stakes, my game fits them better which is as it should be because that is where I played since April and have logged many hours at 5-10.
In fairness I feel really sorry for my opponent here, I would have thought about dropping the TT but I doubt I could have, it's just too strong in that situation so it was a real cooler for him. Shame!
All my friends and Nat have been telling me it'd turn around and I have been playing with a really positive attitude (and whinging away from the tables) and it's just so nice to have a really good day and win a monster pot.
WOOOOO HOOOOOOOO
Run well when it really matters - that is the key
Steve
Tuesday, 20 November 2007
Progress
I've actually had a reasonable day, hoorrah!! After ending up even yesterday I've made about $800 today and played pretty well really. It's been a very consistent day with small gains at regular intervals and one or two big pots. I've been betting my hands for value extremely well and working out with some decent accuracy whether the scare card on the river has me beaten or not.
I'm now $2700 up since switching back to holdem last week along with about $400 in party points and deposit bonuses alongside this. It's not a bad win rate and has been achieved with minimal stress which had accompanied the previous weeks at omaha. I'm still not happy with my overall win rate as it is currently at 2 ptbb/100 hands which is alright but I'm really looking for around 4-5. Still it is nice to be making some progress and it will hopefully mean that by the start of december I feel in a position to move back up to my 5-10 games and make some real money.
What I need to remember is the omaha experience as I went against all of my principles regarding redepositing money which I had taken out. Yes, I was unlucky and didn't deserve to be losing - far from it, however I created my own hole and lost far more than should be possible given my bankroll requirements and level at which I drop back down.
However I feel that the experience I have had should stand me in good stead in the future as I WILL remember dropping $12k in a week and not want a repeat. I will remember watching my bank account drop down which should never ever happen. And most importantly I will remember how stressed this all made me and sapped my enthusiasm for everything for a relatively long period.
One of the main reasons I have chosen this lifestyle is the quality of life which I can expect, it gives me he opportunity to read, excercise and sleep properly. It means that I can spend more quality time with Nat and these are the benefits which I need to remember when things go badly.
I'm trying to get myself into something of a routine now and have started setting an alarm for 2pm and going to bed some time in the early hours - 7.30am yesterday and it is currently 5am as I write this so it's likely to be a similar time today. If I can get myself back into the routine of excercising when I get up then it will be extremely beneficial as it sets me up for the day and I am able to concentrate better on my game.
If I managed to achieve a similar winrate at 5-10 when I move back up then I'd be looking at over $20k a month and that is without any spectacular success. This is something which I need to remember and keep my focus on the long game and not get obsessed with short term results.
I'm waffling now so I'm going to watch a bit of Red Dwarf and have a look over the day's play
Steve
I'm now $2700 up since switching back to holdem last week along with about $400 in party points and deposit bonuses alongside this. It's not a bad win rate and has been achieved with minimal stress which had accompanied the previous weeks at omaha. I'm still not happy with my overall win rate as it is currently at 2 ptbb/100 hands which is alright but I'm really looking for around 4-5. Still it is nice to be making some progress and it will hopefully mean that by the start of december I feel in a position to move back up to my 5-10 games and make some real money.
What I need to remember is the omaha experience as I went against all of my principles regarding redepositing money which I had taken out. Yes, I was unlucky and didn't deserve to be losing - far from it, however I created my own hole and lost far more than should be possible given my bankroll requirements and level at which I drop back down.
However I feel that the experience I have had should stand me in good stead in the future as I WILL remember dropping $12k in a week and not want a repeat. I will remember watching my bank account drop down which should never ever happen. And most importantly I will remember how stressed this all made me and sapped my enthusiasm for everything for a relatively long period.
One of the main reasons I have chosen this lifestyle is the quality of life which I can expect, it gives me he opportunity to read, excercise and sleep properly. It means that I can spend more quality time with Nat and these are the benefits which I need to remember when things go badly.
I'm trying to get myself into something of a routine now and have started setting an alarm for 2pm and going to bed some time in the early hours - 7.30am yesterday and it is currently 5am as I write this so it's likely to be a similar time today. If I can get myself back into the routine of excercising when I get up then it will be extremely beneficial as it sets me up for the day and I am able to concentrate better on my game.
If I managed to achieve a similar winrate at 5-10 when I move back up then I'd be looking at over $20k a month and that is without any spectacular success. This is something which I need to remember and keep my focus on the long game and not get obsessed with short term results.
I'm waffling now so I'm going to watch a bit of Red Dwarf and have a look over the day's play
Steve
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Another Day Another Dollar - This is almost my current win rate
I'm not sure how much better I can play. Have been involved in 2 pots which were all in affairs, one the guy was drawing dead and the other I was a 4-1 favourite for a $1000 pot, guess what I lost it. So instead of being $1200 up I am about $200 up. It is so disappointing to play so well, be so keyed up and then continue with the run of my big hands losing more than they mathamatically should.
I'm quitting whinging now, I'm playing fantastically well and deserve a lot more success at 2-4nl than I am currently getting. However despite the fact I swear I have run horrifically this week I am still $2k up - I can live with that, it pays the bills and the rest but it just feels like a massive disappointment because I feel it should be double if not treble that figure for the number of hands I've played. My win rate currently sucks and I am due a big BIG day where my hands all hold and I get dealt into a number of coolers where I am on the right side of it!
Overall I am feeling a lot more positive although my luck is not there I am still winning, I am still avoiding tilt and I am building my bankroll up (albeit less quickly than I would like). I have set targets and when I achieve them I move back to where I belong - 5-10nl. The only reason I'm not playing there is that I couldn't handle losing at those stakes right now so I shall win some more and then move back up. Once that happens we may start to see some proper wins and some good weeks/months. I expect to be able to make $15K plus a month and that has been done by me before so my genuine realistic wish is to have a $50k month at some point by early next year. This will happen as I'm bound to run well at some point and when it happens if my game is as solid as it is right now the big wins will follow.
Anyway enough talk of big cash, I'm playing much lower right now without massive success so keeping my head straight and ignoring the higher games etc is essential to my continued rebuilding programme.
Steve
I'm quitting whinging now, I'm playing fantastically well and deserve a lot more success at 2-4nl than I am currently getting. However despite the fact I swear I have run horrifically this week I am still $2k up - I can live with that, it pays the bills and the rest but it just feels like a massive disappointment because I feel it should be double if not treble that figure for the number of hands I've played. My win rate currently sucks and I am due a big BIG day where my hands all hold and I get dealt into a number of coolers where I am on the right side of it!
Overall I am feeling a lot more positive although my luck is not there I am still winning, I am still avoiding tilt and I am building my bankroll up (albeit less quickly than I would like). I have set targets and when I achieve them I move back to where I belong - 5-10nl. The only reason I'm not playing there is that I couldn't handle losing at those stakes right now so I shall win some more and then move back up. Once that happens we may start to see some proper wins and some good weeks/months. I expect to be able to make $15K plus a month and that has been done by me before so my genuine realistic wish is to have a $50k month at some point by early next year. This will happen as I'm bound to run well at some point and when it happens if my game is as solid as it is right now the big wins will follow.
Anyway enough talk of big cash, I'm playing much lower right now without massive success so keeping my head straight and ignoring the higher games etc is essential to my continued rebuilding programme.
Steve
Tuesday, 13 November 2007
Hold'em day 2
Second full day of holdem and it has not gone as well as the first. I feel that I've played reasonably well with one obvious exception where I over committed to a flush draw and blew $300. The cards were not with me during today and I was down for virtually the whole day eventually ending up by about $60.
So in money terms it was a poor day but because I managed to retain composure and not panic when I was a couple of buy-ins down it feels reasonably good. Obviously I don't normally worry about the win/loss too much but at the moment I am very results oriented and just need to continue winning so I can completely forget the past few weeks.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1694024
This is the hand which caused my moment of tilt and I think it is fairly understandable as this is as brutal a hand as you can get in holdem. I would absolutely never ever drop this even if I had a huge stack and faced multiway action from other huge stacks. I don't think it is possible to lay this down and I genuinely never even considered it. I assumed he had a full house below mine. Still if I accept that I cannot get away from this it's not such a bad day overall.
I played a lot, over 2000 hands and my winrate overall has understandably suffered due to my lack of progress. Probably a more accurate winrate now and I'd be quite satisfied to maintain it around this level.
Hands - 3923
Profit - $1498.75
PTBB/100 - 4.78
Steve
So in money terms it was a poor day but because I managed to retain composure and not panic when I was a couple of buy-ins down it feels reasonably good. Obviously I don't normally worry about the win/loss too much but at the moment I am very results oriented and just need to continue winning so I can completely forget the past few weeks.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1694024
This is the hand which caused my moment of tilt and I think it is fairly understandable as this is as brutal a hand as you can get in holdem. I would absolutely never ever drop this even if I had a huge stack and faced multiway action from other huge stacks. I don't think it is possible to lay this down and I genuinely never even considered it. I assumed he had a full house below mine. Still if I accept that I cannot get away from this it's not such a bad day overall.
I played a lot, over 2000 hands and my winrate overall has understandably suffered due to my lack of progress. Probably a more accurate winrate now and I'd be quite satisfied to maintain it around this level.
Hands - 3923
Profit - $1498.75
PTBB/100 - 4.78
Steve
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Return to Hold'em
And would you look at that, a successful day, a very successful day. There has been a multitude of fist pumping and general expressions of excitement, enthusiasm and less of the ennui which I have at times associated with this fine game.
I haven't played hold'em for about a month and you know what, it's good to be back. The break seems to have refreshed my attitude towards the game and my omaha experiences have probably made me a stronger player. I am very smartly playing below my usual level and am at the 2-4nl game which means a $400 buy in. This has a number of advantages, the main one being that I am not at all scared to lose and am willing to back myself stronger than when playing higher stakes. I make a decision and I live or die by it at these stakes so I am probably a more dangerous player for others to come up against.
Anyway I've won 3.5 buy ins today or $1400ish which feels gooooooooooooooooood. I am not a hugely swingy player at holdem, never have been, never will be. 3-4 buyins is an excellent day and I tend to slowly build with my tight aggressive style. This somewhat less stressful form of poker is very useful for me given recent history in omaha and I have maintained my patience and good humour throughout the three sessions I have played today.
Patience is always key to my success as I win a low percentage of pots but tend to make them count for a lot so if I allow frustration to sink in my gameplan suffers accordingly. I've enjoyed my play today, made a few well calculated bluffs along with some less well calculated ones. Have managed to extract huge value from my big hands and the worst hand in terms of profitability today has been AA where I've lost $250. Usually AA is my biggest winner, in fact long term it is by a massive amount and I play it well. Sadly I've been a bit unlucky with it today whereas QQ has been marvellous. Thank you ladies!
I needed today. I really really did, although I know that I now have to continue where I have left off it feels good to have not only played well but been rewarded for it too. I'm gonna post two hands from today (ones where I win) and discuss to some degree.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688770
This first one is hugely, hugely significant as for the first time in a long time I flopped top set and it won.Let me repeat that IT WON. It was not the nuts when I bet or went all in as he could have had a straight however there is zero chance I am putting that hand down on the scant possibility of 9T being my opponent's holding. I always feel that aggressive play rewards itself when done in a controlled fashion and this hand my aim was to calculate bet size to ensure my opponent committed his whole stack should he have a big hand. He did andsadly for him I had a higher set. This is a really tough beat in hold'em and I would probably have gone down in similar fashion with his hand. BUT I won with top set lalalallalalalala, can you tell that this is a significant weight off my previously overburdened shoulders.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688734
I reraised a fair amount preflop today with AK and many others but decided to play it slower in this one and the AK7 flop seemed to be a bit of a gift. I checked to the preflop raiser adn was quite sad that nobody else called to juice the pot a bit. Anyway as I was out of position I raised to $100 (had I been behind him in the play I would have flat called most times) and for some reason which I truly can't explain he pushed all in for $300 with AQ. Idiot! What can I have which I check raise with which he is beating. So unlikely that he isn't drawing very very light and a call or fold were the only real options in my opinion. Multiway pot where I check raise when I must suspect he has an A should send warning signals but apparantly and luckily not.
The only other hand I'd like to mention is one where I faced an overbet flop from the raiser with A87 showing and two clubs. I like the overbet as a sign of weakness where you really have a monster and fell hook, line and sinker for it on this occasion as I didn't think my opponent was that smart. I pushed all in over the top with my AQ only to be quickly called (never good) by his AK. I spiked a Q on the turn to take down a $500 pot and boy did a suckout feel good. This sort of thing just hasn't happened for me over the past 2 weeks, in fact it has happened always against me on every occasion so this turn of fortune managed to give me some spark back and I would say that today I have actually run well and a bit above expectation. Maybe I'm due eh!
Anyway I'm going to sign off by giving my stats for the day, and I may be doing this a bit more regularly
Hands - 1786
Profit - $1424.72
PTBB (per 100) 9.97
Good win rate, great win rate in fact. For those of you who do not understand the PTBB it stands for Poker Tracker Big Blinds per 100 hands. Poker tracker big blinds are for some reason calculated differently to what makes sense to me but if you double it then you have the real rate. So I've won nearly 20 BB per 100 hands today or $80 per 100 hands. I'll take it, considering I can get in around 300 hands an hour that is a useful rate and one which I would like to see continued.
It's not a loss, get in, get in, get in, maybe I can play after all
Steve
I haven't played hold'em for about a month and you know what, it's good to be back. The break seems to have refreshed my attitude towards the game and my omaha experiences have probably made me a stronger player. I am very smartly playing below my usual level and am at the 2-4nl game which means a $400 buy in. This has a number of advantages, the main one being that I am not at all scared to lose and am willing to back myself stronger than when playing higher stakes. I make a decision and I live or die by it at these stakes so I am probably a more dangerous player for others to come up against.
Anyway I've won 3.5 buy ins today or $1400ish which feels gooooooooooooooooood. I am not a hugely swingy player at holdem, never have been, never will be. 3-4 buyins is an excellent day and I tend to slowly build with my tight aggressive style. This somewhat less stressful form of poker is very useful for me given recent history in omaha and I have maintained my patience and good humour throughout the three sessions I have played today.
Patience is always key to my success as I win a low percentage of pots but tend to make them count for a lot so if I allow frustration to sink in my gameplan suffers accordingly. I've enjoyed my play today, made a few well calculated bluffs along with some less well calculated ones. Have managed to extract huge value from my big hands and the worst hand in terms of profitability today has been AA where I've lost $250. Usually AA is my biggest winner, in fact long term it is by a massive amount and I play it well. Sadly I've been a bit unlucky with it today whereas QQ has been marvellous. Thank you ladies!
I needed today. I really really did, although I know that I now have to continue where I have left off it feels good to have not only played well but been rewarded for it too. I'm gonna post two hands from today (ones where I win) and discuss to some degree.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688770
This first one is hugely, hugely significant as for the first time in a long time I flopped top set and it won.Let me repeat that IT WON. It was not the nuts when I bet or went all in as he could have had a straight however there is zero chance I am putting that hand down on the scant possibility of 9T being my opponent's holding. I always feel that aggressive play rewards itself when done in a controlled fashion and this hand my aim was to calculate bet size to ensure my opponent committed his whole stack should he have a big hand. He did andsadly for him I had a higher set. This is a really tough beat in hold'em and I would probably have gone down in similar fashion with his hand. BUT I won with top set lalalallalalalala, can you tell that this is a significant weight off my previously overburdened shoulders.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1688734
I reraised a fair amount preflop today with AK and many others but decided to play it slower in this one and the AK7 flop seemed to be a bit of a gift. I checked to the preflop raiser adn was quite sad that nobody else called to juice the pot a bit. Anyway as I was out of position I raised to $100 (had I been behind him in the play I would have flat called most times) and for some reason which I truly can't explain he pushed all in for $300 with AQ. Idiot! What can I have which I check raise with which he is beating. So unlikely that he isn't drawing very very light and a call or fold were the only real options in my opinion. Multiway pot where I check raise when I must suspect he has an A should send warning signals but apparantly and luckily not.
The only other hand I'd like to mention is one where I faced an overbet flop from the raiser with A87 showing and two clubs. I like the overbet as a sign of weakness where you really have a monster and fell hook, line and sinker for it on this occasion as I didn't think my opponent was that smart. I pushed all in over the top with my AQ only to be quickly called (never good) by his AK. I spiked a Q on the turn to take down a $500 pot and boy did a suckout feel good. This sort of thing just hasn't happened for me over the past 2 weeks, in fact it has happened always against me on every occasion so this turn of fortune managed to give me some spark back and I would say that today I have actually run well and a bit above expectation. Maybe I'm due eh!
Anyway I'm going to sign off by giving my stats for the day, and I may be doing this a bit more regularly
Hands - 1786
Profit - $1424.72
PTBB (per 100) 9.97
Good win rate, great win rate in fact. For those of you who do not understand the PTBB it stands for Poker Tracker Big Blinds per 100 hands. Poker tracker big blinds are for some reason calculated differently to what makes sense to me but if you double it then you have the real rate. So I've won nearly 20 BB per 100 hands today or $80 per 100 hands. I'll take it, considering I can get in around 300 hands an hour that is a useful rate and one which I would like to see continued.
It's not a loss, get in, get in, get in, maybe I can play after all
Steve
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Return to the tables
and nothing has changed... before I was consistently getting my money in good 65% favourite + and losing. Sadly that has continued and my fragile confidence has been shattered into a million tiny pieces leaving me doubting whether I can actually do this successfully as a full time career. I know that in terms of expectation I am now running around $20k below expectation on these hands.
I know what some of you may be thinking - I am doing the classic poker player thing of remembering only the bad beats and forgetting all the times where they held up. Sadly I am a realist and am very aware of exactly what is going on and I have plain and simple been a victim of extremely awful luck.
To be honest I have dealt with this appallingly badly in its latter stages as my whole demeanour has been affected, I am moody, stressed, snappy and generally a pain in the arse to be around. I don't want to see or speak to anybody as to be entirely frank I am embarrassed by this current run.
That may seem like a stupid or immature reaction but it sums up how I feel at the moment. I have played nearly 3000 hands since my return and have lost $1500, this in itself is not a huge amount but durin that time on 5 occasions all the money has gone in on the flop or turn where I hold top set and am a minimum of a 60% favourite, I've won 1 of these. ONE, and that is me running extremely well on recent form. On the rare occasions I have got in behind I have failed on every occasion to hit as well.
I know omaha is a swingy game, I'm not stupid or unrealistic BUT I have expectations of at least achieving 50% of my expectation over long periods of running bad but I'm getting nearer 5% on all the big hands. It has been hard to cope with, although I think I've dropped around $12-14k during this period it is NOT to do with the money. In many ways the money is unimportant, I'm up over the last month despite this, I'm secure in how I play and KNOW it is a winning style over the long run. However every bit of joy has been sapped from my being and I am genuinely quite miserable at the moment.
I'm not someone who gets too badly affected by poker usually, I accept bad runs with good humour, I understand that I can't always win and I tend not to tilt too much. I've managed the last one of these well despite the run I;ve had. The others sadly have got to me to such an extent that I feel close to tears after yet another bad beat, I feel physically sick, I have lost interest in many of the more important things in my life and am generally feeling about as low as I ever have in my life.
It is hard to take a week off come back and have it continue. It is difficult to continuously lose where you should lose and also lose where you should win. I've started to wonder if I have been cursed or done something to offend a supreme being who I don't even believe in. The hardest thing is to gain no reward for solid disciplined play and in fact be punished financially for it.
I did something I very very rarely do and told someone at my table to f**k off yesterday. This was after the all too familiar top set by me was cracked by another donkey call. T75 rainbow flop and I got called after my all in pot raise by a hand which consisted of 46XX with a backdoor flush out and I proceeded to get heartily f**ked.
Not only was this a godawful call, seriously awful in every way as he was obviously behind literally every possible hand I could have but he proceeded to inform me that he was 38% for the hand and had odds to call. I would have gladly punched him in his stupid ignorant face. He had 8 definite outs and even if he hit I could redraw to my full house. I was comfortably over a 70% favourite in this hand. I usually take this stuff in my stride and ignore it but it's just unbelievable. People are so stupid at times and seemingly stupidity is the key to beating me. Just wait until I look like I must have a big hand and stick all your money in. I guarantee that you will beat me!
I'm not trying to say that I am a flawless player, I'm not saying that I have a right to win above anyone else. I play poker largely by mathematics and I am currently on a statistically unlikely run of bad fortune. Sadly I do not have the heart to ride this out as it must surely end at some point. I am not willing to finance my play at the stakes I wish to play at to an extent where I may start losing overall. And most importantly I'm not prepared to be the person I have been for the last two weeks, I'm meant to be relaxed, happy and gradually winning enough to live very comfortably on... and I'm not right now, far from it.
SOOOOO what am I going to do you may ask. Good question and sadly one which keeps flitting through my brain and is failing to be answered to a satisfactory level. Well here is what I have come up with as a plan. God knows whether I will stick to it but I believe I will.
I'm quitting omaha for the time being as it is making me miserable. I don't really want to do this as I think my long term win rate is far better in this than it is in holdem but just for now I cannot handle the game. Therefore I will be returning to the game I have consistently beaten for the last 3 years although playing 2-4 rather than 5-10 for the moment as I just couldn't cope with losing 3-4 buy ins at 5-10.
I currently have $3k in my poker account and will play 2-4 until I build up to $5k then I may allow myself to play some 5-10 but we shall see. Don't know how this will go, also don't know what the hell I'm going to do if I start this by going on a losing streak (god I hope not) however that has to be the plan for the time being.
I can only apologise for not posting much recently, I do tend to do this, last time I went on a bad run my posting became less frequent as I go into my shell a bit and am less willing to share my mental state with people. I hope I've managed to give a very honest account of how I've been feeling and show that although life as a poker pro may be a fun and exciting career when it is going well it can be soul destroying if it goes really badly.
I shall try to get back to posting more regularly and may put in a progress counter to show how well or badly it is really going. Stupid thing is that I am actually relatively satisfied with where I am financially through the last 6 weeks - it's not brilliant earnings but it pays the bills. It's just how it has occurred and the heart wrenching downturn I have had.
Ah well, start over and refocus back on holdem
Steve
I know what some of you may be thinking - I am doing the classic poker player thing of remembering only the bad beats and forgetting all the times where they held up. Sadly I am a realist and am very aware of exactly what is going on and I have plain and simple been a victim of extremely awful luck.
To be honest I have dealt with this appallingly badly in its latter stages as my whole demeanour has been affected, I am moody, stressed, snappy and generally a pain in the arse to be around. I don't want to see or speak to anybody as to be entirely frank I am embarrassed by this current run.
That may seem like a stupid or immature reaction but it sums up how I feel at the moment. I have played nearly 3000 hands since my return and have lost $1500, this in itself is not a huge amount but durin that time on 5 occasions all the money has gone in on the flop or turn where I hold top set and am a minimum of a 60% favourite, I've won 1 of these. ONE, and that is me running extremely well on recent form. On the rare occasions I have got in behind I have failed on every occasion to hit as well.
I know omaha is a swingy game, I'm not stupid or unrealistic BUT I have expectations of at least achieving 50% of my expectation over long periods of running bad but I'm getting nearer 5% on all the big hands. It has been hard to cope with, although I think I've dropped around $12-14k during this period it is NOT to do with the money. In many ways the money is unimportant, I'm up over the last month despite this, I'm secure in how I play and KNOW it is a winning style over the long run. However every bit of joy has been sapped from my being and I am genuinely quite miserable at the moment.
I'm not someone who gets too badly affected by poker usually, I accept bad runs with good humour, I understand that I can't always win and I tend not to tilt too much. I've managed the last one of these well despite the run I;ve had. The others sadly have got to me to such an extent that I feel close to tears after yet another bad beat, I feel physically sick, I have lost interest in many of the more important things in my life and am generally feeling about as low as I ever have in my life.
It is hard to take a week off come back and have it continue. It is difficult to continuously lose where you should lose and also lose where you should win. I've started to wonder if I have been cursed or done something to offend a supreme being who I don't even believe in. The hardest thing is to gain no reward for solid disciplined play and in fact be punished financially for it.
I did something I very very rarely do and told someone at my table to f**k off yesterday. This was after the all too familiar top set by me was cracked by another donkey call. T75 rainbow flop and I got called after my all in pot raise by a hand which consisted of 46XX with a backdoor flush out and I proceeded to get heartily f**ked.
Not only was this a godawful call, seriously awful in every way as he was obviously behind literally every possible hand I could have but he proceeded to inform me that he was 38% for the hand and had odds to call. I would have gladly punched him in his stupid ignorant face. He had 8 definite outs and even if he hit I could redraw to my full house. I was comfortably over a 70% favourite in this hand. I usually take this stuff in my stride and ignore it but it's just unbelievable. People are so stupid at times and seemingly stupidity is the key to beating me. Just wait until I look like I must have a big hand and stick all your money in. I guarantee that you will beat me!
I'm not trying to say that I am a flawless player, I'm not saying that I have a right to win above anyone else. I play poker largely by mathematics and I am currently on a statistically unlikely run of bad fortune. Sadly I do not have the heart to ride this out as it must surely end at some point. I am not willing to finance my play at the stakes I wish to play at to an extent where I may start losing overall. And most importantly I'm not prepared to be the person I have been for the last two weeks, I'm meant to be relaxed, happy and gradually winning enough to live very comfortably on... and I'm not right now, far from it.
SOOOOO what am I going to do you may ask. Good question and sadly one which keeps flitting through my brain and is failing to be answered to a satisfactory level. Well here is what I have come up with as a plan. God knows whether I will stick to it but I believe I will.
I'm quitting omaha for the time being as it is making me miserable. I don't really want to do this as I think my long term win rate is far better in this than it is in holdem but just for now I cannot handle the game. Therefore I will be returning to the game I have consistently beaten for the last 3 years although playing 2-4 rather than 5-10 for the moment as I just couldn't cope with losing 3-4 buy ins at 5-10.
I currently have $3k in my poker account and will play 2-4 until I build up to $5k then I may allow myself to play some 5-10 but we shall see. Don't know how this will go, also don't know what the hell I'm going to do if I start this by going on a losing streak (god I hope not) however that has to be the plan for the time being.
I can only apologise for not posting much recently, I do tend to do this, last time I went on a bad run my posting became less frequent as I go into my shell a bit and am less willing to share my mental state with people. I hope I've managed to give a very honest account of how I've been feeling and show that although life as a poker pro may be a fun and exciting career when it is going well it can be soul destroying if it goes really badly.
I shall try to get back to posting more regularly and may put in a progress counter to show how well or badly it is really going. Stupid thing is that I am actually relatively satisfied with where I am financially through the last 6 weeks - it's not brilliant earnings but it pays the bills. It's just how it has occurred and the heart wrenching downturn I have had.
Ah well, start over and refocus back on holdem
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
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
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
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
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