Busted

So my online bankroll now stands at a fantastic 0, over the past four days I've player I have lost every single large pot where I have faced more than 1 out, it's unbelievable and has me wondering whether I have managed to offend someone and had a curse put on me. Along with this I have played a bit off my game but even when I've got comitted as a small dog in a pot, guess what, I lost them too. It's just ridiculous and although I know I'm a winning player and am still considerably up for the month it is just a painful experience where my confidence and enjoyment has severely depleted.

I've dealt with similar occurances in the past and always bounced back and I'm sure I will from this one too it's just hard to see me winning anything at the moment and it doesn't matter how well I play I am just plain unlucky right now.

Am going to redeposit tomorrow and try to build up, not sure how much I'll deposit will have to see how I feel but I may redeposit $6k and jump straight back into 5-10 as I am beating the game it's just that my results are not currently showing this

Steve

I am so tilted

I feel horrendous, every single pot I enter into I get outdrawn, I flop top set in a raised pot of J73, it goes all in on the flop 3 way for a $3k pot and I lose to a donkey with 456x who connects. I have not felt this bad for sooooo long, it doesn't matter what I do I cannot win a big pot. I think Im about 10k down on expectation now - last time I posted I was up for the evening, since then I have dropped another 4k, this is going oh so badly and it doesn't seem to be stopping. I'd be less bothered if I wasn't soooo tilted by it, it leads to me then dropping more through stupid play with no thought.

Christ I am not enjoying the game right now, have tried to build myself up with the 5-10 game which I shouldn't have been doing and now I am considring dropping to 1-2 until I rebuild. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, this has to end soon right?

Steve

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

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

Can't hit a thing

Last two times I've played I have run so badly. Have been involved in three 2k+ pots this evening with 75% favourite, 50% fave 3 way and 35% three way and hit none of them. If I run to expectation I am at least $3.3k better off. I am currently rather hacked off and am quitting for the evening. I'm also going to spend the next couple of days rebuilding at 2-4 rather than playing 5-10. that is my own fault for not maintaining a large online bankroll but at least it means I don't go off for large amounts.

Ah well, it's all part of the game and I've had worse runs and at least I can justify all of my play over these sessions

Steve

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

Work goes bye bye

I now never have to go back in to work again, have finished handing over my job and so I can now fully concentrate on poker. It's been slightly weird over the last 3 weeks as although I've not been working full time the two days a week I have been in have severely disrupted my schedule. It's hard work going from getting up at midday to having to get up before 9am and has meant that I've not been able to fully focus.

However that is now gone so we should start to see what sort of figures I can theoretically put up each month. November is going to be interesting! I'm not honestly sure what sort of money I expect to make, when I quit my focus was to try to get to about $20k a month on average. Now I've switched to omaha I really don't know what I expect to make, I still haven't moved into the biggest game which I will do soonish I think and that will obviously have an impact on my profits.

Although I've suffered some swings so far none have been severe and I've experienced a very solid upslope. Obviously I have no way of knowing whether my current win rate of somewhere around 20BB per 100 hands is my level or if I am just running hot. So really I'm reduced to guesswork when trying to workout my earning potential. I think I could make $30k plus a month if not more BUT I don't know this, my omaha career is still very much in its infancy and I really am just projecting figures which I'd like to be hitting. In three weeks I've made over $20k and that is with huge numbers of days off and distractions.

I'm tired and am rambling so I shall stop here, I'll try to post something a bit more coherent later

Steve