Merry Christmas

*Video contains foul language and maybe offensive to some. If that's you don't watch.

The Night I Saw Jesus (No Poker Content)

Hey, been a while. Poker sucks or more specifically I suck at the poker. Not sure why, but maybe that's why? Hmmm...anyway, in an effort to let you know more about me I thought I might do a series of posts on some of the more interesting, entertaining, or just plain messed up shit I've done through the years. Tonight's post centers around the 1st time I ever got really drunk.

I was just 17. Staying over at a buddies house on the Monday before Thanksgiving. I remember so much detail because we watched Monday Night Football (Raider vs. Denver I believe) that night and we didn't have school the next day because in WV schools are out that entire week for deer season (actually they don't get the full week anymore but back then we did). Anyway, we're in my buddy's basement just watching the game when he decides to raid his mom's liqueur cabinet. So for my 1st time really drinking I jumped in with both feet, right into some horrible scotch whiskey and a handful of shots of tequila. By half-time I was done, just completely wrecked and about 10 minutes from throwing up for the 1st time!

The rest of the night is a bit hazy. I remember puking several times. I remember the Raiders lost. I have hazy recollection of my friend's mom getting home and being pissed (our plan had of course been for her not to find out) but also laughing at my completely wasted ass. She made sure that I was helped (dragged) upstairs and put into a real bed. I remember I was never so happy to be in a bed in my life and then I passed out.

Now normally a story like this doesn't continue until you wake up with the world's worst hangover, hating life and cursing the light, but my story picks up several hours later when I rolled over in the bed and opened my eyes just enough to see Jesus staring back at me! He was bathed in light and looked disappointed (presumably in my choice to get drunk). I remember thinking that I must be dead or dying (I sure felt like it), deciding there was nothing I could do about it, and then I passed out again.

Next morning (late) I managed to mostly avoid the terrible hangover although I felt by no means great. As I walked through the hallway at my friends house glad to be alive, I noticed that his Catholic mother (yeah that explains the alcohol) had one of those "His eyes follow you" pictures of Jesus hanging directly across from the door opening to the room I was sleeping in. On either side of the picture were small lamps. Apparently my buddy had left those lights on that night because he thought I might need to make a quick run to the bathroom if I got sick again. What I actually saw was that picture surrounded by those lights reflecting in the wardrobe mirror in my room, but for a few brief moments on the first night I got drunk, I was a believer!

Time For A Change

No, keep reading I promise this entry has nothing to do with today's election. In my October update I said that I was going to move to FR NL100 and I did, for about 260 hands. Over that small sample I lost nearly $1/hand and realized, despite what I thought, I am not rolled to be comfortable playing (more specifically losing) that high. So I decided to move back down to NL50 but not FR. No not 6-max either. That's right I'm officially declaring November my Heads Up Only month.

I dabbled with HU at the end of October with very positive results, so when November started out horribly I turned back to it to try to recoup my losses. I then realized that I really liked playing HU and I think I can make a few $$ playing it (at least at the lowest limits). "What about tilt?" and "How will I handle the swings?", you say? Well actually not sure about the swings yet as I haven't had any huge losses to date but I think that HU may actually be good for my tilt. You see, if I lose a stack and start feeling the warming glow of tilt overtaking me, it just seems easier to get up from the table when playing HU and on a single table. So I'm quitting instead of sticking around to lose even more and since a dollar not lost is the same as a dollar won it should help my bottom line.

There are a couple drawbacks related to playing HU. First I'm only comfortable playing a single table at the moment so getting in a ton of hands is impossible. As a result, I won't be getting a lot of rakeback this month and I'll have to pay for Stox in December (some great HU vids there BTW). The second drawback is that Full Tilt points accrue at a snails pace playing HU (despite the fairly high rake taken) so I'm almost certain to lose my Iron Man status. I'm hoping that my increased winrate will offset both of these items and that I'll be a better player overall as a result of my month of HU play. I definitely think my hand reading abilities are already getting better and HU is nothing if not a lesson in playing position well. Both of those skills should prove very beneficial when (if?) I move back in December.

So wish me luck and maintained sanity. I'll be posting progress at least a couple times a week throughout the month.

I'd also like to thank all of you who expressed your sympathies for the loss of my friend as well as those who just congratulated me on my October (C9 wtf were you drinking?).

End of October Update

When it comes to poker, October was good. I ended up increasing my BR by $1900. I made my 1st withdrawal from Full Tilt (6 days from request to check). I played decently well and didn't tilt too often or too bad. I did have my share of losing sessions and you can tell tilt was still present because my losing sessions were usually quite large 3+ buy-ins on average, so I still have plenty of work to do. My winnings breakdown for the month looks like this:

NL50 FR (18K hands) = $550.00 (3 BB/100)
NL50 HU (493 hands) = $153.50 (31 BB/100)
20K FR + misc. tourneys = $940
Rakeback + Stox sub. = $175
Iron Man Bonus = $80

Obligatory cash graph:


Let's looks back at my goals for the month and see how I fared:

1) Play well - Check
2) Tilt less - Check (still plenty of room for improvement)
3) Recognize when I am losing that I might also be playing well - Never had this opportunity this month as I actually ran OK all month
4) Understand that when I am winning I may also be playing poorly - Same as #3
5) Quit better - Check, I actually managed to stop fairly well both when winning and when losing.

I guess I'm going to start November at NL100 and see how that goes even though I haven't played any FR since my buddy passed. I just haven't had any desire for that sort of grind. The only poker I've played since was some HU and a $1 CC buy-in tourney. I guess it's about time to get back at it.

As far as November goals, I think I'll just stick to the same ones I had this month as they seemed to work out fairly well.

Loss

No poker update here. I haven't been playing for a few days now. A great friend of mine, Kevin, was killed in an automobile accident on the night of the WVU-Auburn game. He decided to leave our tailgate early (pre-game) because his girlfriend got too drunk to be able to go to the game. He decided that he would leave, get a hotel room and spend the night near Morgantown. He left at approximately 6:30 PM and at 7:19 he was declared dead.

Apparently his SUV left the roadway and when he jerked it back on it rolled over. It ended up rolling 60' down an embankment. Kevin was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. He was killed instantly. His girlfriend, Devon, remains in the hospital and her prognosis is uncertain.

Kevin was a great friend. I first met him in HS and we'd been close every since. He has a personality that everyone loved to be around. I've never known anyone who had a single bad word to say about him. Truly one of the best people I've ever known. I'll miss him immensely.

The best thing about Kevin's last day was that he spent it enjoying the little things. He decided to take the afternoon off of work to drive to Morgantown, despite not having a ticket for the game, simply to tailgate with friends and enjoy the big game atmosphere. We drank a few beers (his BAC was under the legal limit), ate some great Del Monaco steaks, played some cornhole, and just enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon. Twice I heard Kevin comment that he was so glad that he decided to come along because there was no where else he wanted to be. His last day was truly great and I was fortunate enough to share it with him.

When Kevin decided he was going to leave to find a room, I helped him to get his car out around the other tailgaters in the lot. When his car was clear he stuck his hand out the window to shake my hand. As he grabbed it he said "Love ya brother" to which I replied "You too man" and he pulled away. Those words were the last I will ever speak to my friend and I'm so grateful for them, yet I wish with all my heart there could be more.

Kevin leaves behind 3 children (ages 2, 4, and 13), 7 brothers and sisters, both parents, and more friends than I could ever enumerate. He will be missed by all but his spirit and love for life will always live on in those of us that remember him. I'll never forget you brother.

I Thought I Had QQ....Woops

Ok, I know I just posted yesterday but I did one of the dumbest things I've ever done today. I misread my hand. I have no idea how, but I honestly thought I had QQ here:



I didn't even notice as the hand played out. I just saw him turn over AK and then I went on to the next table (I cascade so I can only see 1 table at a time). When I came back to this table I saw that I had won by my doubled stack, no biggie. But then the AK guy kept saying how sick it was and I responded by asking why it was sick that the best preflop hand won a coin flip. He then politely mentions that I'm a fucking retard if I think AK v QJ is a coin flip. QJ, I think, maybe he's talking about another hand, but now several people are jumping on the call MrsPauls a stupid POS bandwagon so off I go to look at the HH. Well you can imagine my shock. I actually apologized to the guy. Oh well, at least now I can be know as the suckout idiot who 4bet/pushes QJ soooooooooooted! Unreal.

October's Been Good To Me So Far

(No video)

Well as you may have surmised by my posts thus far this month things are going really well. I've yet to tilt (Sweet)! I'm bluffing much less. I'm not doing all those horribly dumb things that I used to post here so frequently. I know I am running good (1 buy-in over all-in EV) so I'll temper my excitement just a bit until the bad times hit, but for now I'll just enjoy the ride.

I've also been playing a ton more poker this month than usual. I'm at 13,200 hands played and I've only missed playing completely 1 day (WVU game), so I'm earning a good bit of rakeback as well (~$120). My winrate so far is just over 7BB/100 or just north of $1000 total. When you add in the $980 I won in the rakebreak.com free roll, you can see I have nothing to complain about. October sure seems to be trying to make up for how shitty September turned out to be.

Anyway, here the obligatory graph:


Note the NSD winnings are actually just below break even. As I posted earlier I think for me a relatively flat NSD winnings line is the tell that I'm playing my best poker, although having it be slightly positive wouldn't hurt.

Also since I don't post as much as I used to I guess I should throw in a hand here at the end to remind you and myself that I do still do some dumb shit even when I'm winning:



I choose this hand because this should be a auto fold to the BTNs (20/10/1.5) 3bet (6%). Not because his range has me crushed but because it's too hard to play AQ OOP post flop in a 3bet pot. This is the basic stuff that I know I shouldn't do, yet there I go calling his 3bet and donking into him on a nothing flop. Bad play on me.

Today Was A Good Day

Today was my rakeback site's, rakebreak.com, monthly 20K free roll. It's available to all RakeBreak and ThisIsTheNuts users who rake more than 500 points on Full Tilt in the previous month, which is the easiest thing in the world. I've played it several times before, when I remember to play, but have never cashed in my previous attempts. Well today that changed when I took down 5th place for a really nice bankroll boosting $980.

Here's my major suckout that occurred just before the bubble burst:


I really don't think my push was a mistake here as the villain was raising with a WIDE range (42/22/3), but it did take a major suckout to make the $$. It was the only time I won a hand the entire tournament when I wasn't at least a coin flip.

So after I completed the tourney I played a few cash tables and continued to run extremely well, in fact, I never lost a full stack in over 900 hands. Since my cash winning were well over $20, today was my 1st $1K day ever! So despite cashing out $500 on Friday, I'm now rolled to take my shot at NL100. I think I'll stick to NL50 for at least the remainder of the month and will evaluate the state of my game before moving up.

My next update will be my mid month review. Also if anyone is interested in joining RakeBreak contact me for my referral code, if you don't mind.

Back To My Basic Premise

Ok, so in getting back to my mandate to post horrible, stupid, and idiotic plays, I offer you today's most excellent example:



Villain is tight and solid (10/9/3) so unless he has AK we're likely behind from the flop. Probably flatting preflop with AQ was a mistake, but the river call? The absolute worst.

Overall still doing well, but the hand above scares me that I might be getting back to my calling station ways. I hope not but we'll see.

Gonna Be A Showdown!

Love that movie and my topic today just reminded me of that clip. I'm of course talking about showdown (SD) versus non-showdown (NSD) winnings. Now I've always had positive NSD winnings which isn't all that common but it's not really rare either. It means that I bluff a bit, maybe bet a little more often on the river, perhaps make slightly larger bets than some other TAG players. Nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, I'd say on a whole those things are good, if used in maderation.

Here is my PT3 graph from the 1st half of July when I was playing very good poker.

My stats for this period were: 14/11/5 with a WTSD of 24%

Now here is the 2nd half of the same month when I was still winning but not as much.

My stats over this period were: 15/12/3 with a WTSD of 29%

Just for a little more proof, here's my horrible graph from last month.

My stats for last month were: 17/14/3 with a WTSD of 28%

So what can we take away from all these pretty pictures? Basically that becoming a bluffy, calling station is BAD for your (and my) bottom line. So this month this is my focus. I want to keep my WTSD % right around 25% because while winning pots with big bluffs is fun (I mean who doesn't like a good bluff), winning money is even more fun.

So far this month, I've been able to do just that and I'm really playing well. Of course I still get caught bluffing occasionally, but if you don't you're not doing it enough. I'm also still making some mistakes, here is a couple of my worst on the month thus far (note that these occurred on the same table with the same villain all within 15 minutes of each other):



Very 1st hand at the table but we have stats on our villain. He's 52/33/3 with an ATS of 85% over 50 hands. I obviously felt that I was WAY ahead of our villains stealing range and I like to make big raises when I first sit down to keep these pesky blind stealers at bay. Of course this time he has AK and we're down a stack!



Hand replayer is displaying the result of this one incorrectly. I lost another stack to the maniac with AK yet again. Hey, he can't have it every time can he?



This time I'm given good odds to call the shorty's push to see the flop but I was gun shy. I'd see this movie one too many times and of course he's still holding AK. He left the table shortly after this hand, I would assume to go buy lottery tickets. Oh well, sometimes bad players get good cards. Maybe someday I'll let that sink in and not get crazy with my AJ+ hands. Then again maybe not, I mean what's 200 bbs among friends?

Sucking In September

The month started bad at 6-max and ended bad at full ring. In the middle I played some decent poker, some bad poker, I got lucky a few times, and got shafted a ton. Overall September pretty well sucked.
So there it is, I lost ~ $70 at the cash game tables this month in a little over 16,000 hands. I did have the KO tourney win for $230, so the month ends up ever so slightly. With rakeback thrown into the mix my BR increased by ~$320 overall. Pretty disappointing.

My plan for October is to cut down on the number of tables I'm playing slightly to 6 and to try to avoid tilting quite so bad. Oh yeah, winning a few more hands when I get my $$ in good would be nice too.

In an attempt to detach myself from individual session results, I plan to update here only a few times each week and not update any dollars until mid-month. I'm going to attempt to avoid looking at and obsessing over my BR in general so posting those updates here would be counter to that.

Official goals for October:
1) Play well
2) Tilt less
3) Recognize when I am losing that I might also be playing well
4) Understand that when I am winning I may also be playing poorly
5) Quit better

Bring on October!

Well At Least I Earned Like $10 in Rakeback

Nice long session tonight. 1090 hands for a total profit of..... 35.....cents! I really had to work to get back to even, even though I had no idea where I was while I was playing. I shipped 2 stacks with AA and 1 with AKs early and then scratched my way back. Here is my biggest win of the night thanks to a LOT of luck:



Shorty was tight but the original raiser's range was pretty wide here. He actually started giving me shit in the chatbox about shoving with QQ saying how much his opinion of my play had changed (like I care) and how he was "changing my color" in his notes! I told him to make his note say won't fold QQ preflop to a 4 bet from me and that was that.

Since IceMonkey's comment yesterday I figure I should add a hand that I have a question on:



Can we value bet this river? If he has the flush he would have bet the river right? If you're value betting here, how much?

The Downward Spiral

Haven't posted lately because basically poker sucks. In my last 3,331 hands I'm down $321.40 or -9.65BB/100. Sucks. I've essentially given back all of September's ring profits once again. Up and down. Up and down. Never gaining. Just moving ever up and down. I guess it could be worse and just be down and down.

Here are the most horrible hands from the bunch:



Unknown raises from MP and I flat from the worst position at the table. I then proceed to "slowplay" (basically because it's hard to play OOP) and ultimately I play off the big raise on the end. Horrific from start to finish. Don't play like this kids.



Here I make a serious mistake. I try to never call a AI preflop against a tight player (12/8/3) with AK. But a little tilted call now and then slips through. This is invariably the result.



Villain here wasn't very good but on the river what do I really beat? Answer not a whole fucking lot but my calling station ass calls anyway. I just had to "see it"!!!! It's an illness (and an expensive one).



Bluffing is fun. Bad bluffing is expensive. Piss poor play is expensive. Tilting is expensive. Shoving 3rd pair as a check-raise on the river. Priceless, as long as by priceless you mean expensive!

My entire bad run hasn't all been crap like the hands above but these type of hands don't help. I mean having 3 villains in a row hit 3 outers on the river sucks, but then when I give away another 3 stacks due to stupidity it just compounds the issue. Oh and since I see so many using all-in EV to "prove" how bad they're running, I'm $290 below all-in EV over these last 3330 hands and I'm over 8 buy-ins below EV at nl50. I'm sure it'll all even out soon.

Fingers crossed chin up.

Keep Firing A$$holes!

Love that movie and it so perfectly describes today's dumb play.



No idea why I decided to lead out with 2 Kings onboard. Basically I'm turning my hand into a bluff. Oh well at least he was short. Speaking of that, what kind of self-respecting shorty fails to get AK AIPF? Whatever.

Tonight session was actually very good once again. I ran at 18BB/100 for 520 hands for a total profit of $93.10. Still loving playing with FR nits. I really think that my play works best when I am playing as the loosest of the tight players, rather than the tightest of the loose player.

Mid Month Update And A Bad River Call

Just a little quickie update here. FR is going well, probably too well. I'm running at over 11BB/100 over a small sample of 3600 hands. I'm definitely more comfortable at FR than 6-max. I seem to be making mostly good decisions with only a few mistakes. Catching a good run of cards hasn't hurt.

Anyway here's some pretty pics:
nl50 FR only
With the failed 6-max experiment included:


Add in the $220 I'm ahead after winning that bounty tourney and the month is going very well thus far. Had I not started with 6-max it possibly could have been better but I think 6-max taught me a few lessons that I am now figuring out how to apply at FR. So I guess the 6-max time might have been good for something after all, just not my mental health!

Here is a ugly pic:


What could he have on the river here that we beat. Got to stop throwing these bets away.

Anyway, hope your September is going well and I hope mine continues to stay on track.

Inauspicious Beginnings And Flopping Quads

Tonight's session started rough. Really rough. Here are my 1st and 5th hands of the night:



First hand. No prior hands. Not sure if I should be calling his river bet here. I guess with this board I almost have to. Then, moments later, this:



This one sucked. I actually went on to another table and didn't see the suckout. Wasn't till the table came back up that I saw what happened. Oh well.

So after that beginning to the night things could only get better right? Sure did.



It's nice when AA decides not to push preflop, well as long as your QQ flops well. Actually I was certainly stacking against this guy preflop had he pushed. He was 38/9/3 so my QQ was likely good against his range. Just not this time. At least until after the flop.

And then a few hands later the definition of flopping good:


This guy (41/21/3) was loose preflop but generally gave up to aggression postflop so I slowplay my absolute monster and just wait for him to start throwing money at me. Wish he had a bigger stack, then I could have raised the turn and likely still have got it all. Oh well he ended up donating $105 to my cause before I left the table. Nice guy.

All total since my last post (2 sessions) I've won $98.55 over 900 hands (10.9BB/100). Certainly running so much better since switching back to FR. Flopping well helps.

6-Max: It Ain't Me Babe!

My only real goal for September was to play 5K hands at 6-max. I will fail at this goal. 6-max is just a short-hand way of saying tilt-inducing, mindfuck poker. I can't take it any more. It brings out the worst in me. I tilt. I tilt hard. I tilt more often. I tilt to the point that the any 2 carders are justified playing pots with me. I'm done. 6-max totals: $-149 over 3325 hands (mostly NL25 with a 350 NL50 6-max hands thrown in).

Tonight started with me opening 4 NL25 6-max tables. Within 31 hands I was down $22 and I was steaming, so I just shut everything down (literally just held the fucking power button down til the PC shutdown). After taking a few minutes to breathe and calm down I restarted the PC, reopened Full Tilt, and sat down at 8 NL50 FR tables. Ahhhhh, just like home. For whatever fucking mental ass reason my brain was happy again. I just played my normal FR, tight-ass, nitty game and I cruised to an easy and unrealistically good $260 session over 550 hands (48BB/100). Now the deck did run me over quite a bit and I did have one major suckout go my way but even when I got sucked out on it didn't matter. I never felt rushed or confused about my next action despite playing twice the number of tables. I never felt the need to defend my blind with total junk. I never tilted. I never shipped away a stack with Ace high. I never pushed all-in on the river praying for a fold that I knew wasn't coming. I never want to see a 6-max table again.

Having said all that I can see where 6-max could and would be very profitable for those with the mental game to withstand the sick beats. I don't have that yet and I'm fine with that. For me 6-max is definitely -EV and fortunately there is something I can do about it without having to work on my brain; Play FR. So that's where I'll be. Damn and I so wanted to be a cool kid.

Here's a horrible hand just because I haven't posted one for a while:


Just couldn't pull the trigger on the end. He was fairly passive (AF=.7) and may have folded TP here but then again he might have looked me up because I'm not sure my turn bet fits with a flush draw and it would have meant that I raised preflop and didn't have the Ace. On second thought not firing again here was probably the right move. The 2nd barrel was probably pretty bad though.

It's Been Awhile

Not in love with 6-max like so many fellow CCers seem to be. The main problem seems to be that I turn into a giant spewtard (yes, even more so than when I play FR). My aggression goes through the roof (current AF over 8) and I stupidly try to blow my opponents off pots with huge, stupid overbets. These work just fine when my opponents have nothing or small hands. The problem is that when my opponents have big hands, I'm losing BIG pots. So I'm winning small and losing big. Hard to make any $$ doing that. Here's how the NL25 6-max 5K experiment stands thus far; 1900 hands, -$15.85, -.85BB/100.

After last nights 6-max session (-$100) I'd had enough so I did something I haven't done for quite some time, I loaded up a $11 KO tourney on Full Tilt. End result:


Yes, that's right, I ended up winning the thing for a total profit (with KOs) over $235! Nice little pick me up. I had some really nice hands when I needed them (you know won flips, stole blinds, etc.). In the end the defining hand played itself (the 1st hand of HU BTW):


3 hands later and it was all over. I haven't won a MTT in over 3 months, not that I play many, but it was still nice.

Donk v. Donk; Donk Wins!

Crazy ass session tonight. Basically I played break even poker except for 1 hand. That hand happened to be the craziest, stupidest, most stats based thing I've ever done at the poker table. Without further ado I present it to you here (names hidden to protect my future earnings):



Looks bad? Insane perhaps? Well perhaps it was. Villain here is a genuine 95/65/2 nut-job that I followed to this NL50 table after I stacked him at a NL25 table (albeit with a MUCH better hand). The UTG raiser was solid (17/12/3) but had definitely figured out the villain here (he'd taken over $100 from him thus far) and was trying to isolate him every chance he had so I didn't think his raise necessarily meant super strength. When the horrible player min-raised and the UTG raiser called, I thought it was a good spot to 4-bet bluff, but then I remembered the maniac would likely call with any 2. When I hit the 3 on the flop I figured I might as well carry through with the bluff and hope to fold any hands I was behind (obviously this would be impossible). When he called I figured I was done (oh yeah this was a snap-call as well, no thought required with QTos on a King high board!). When his cards were exposed I couldn't believe it. Not only had I 4bet A3 soooooooted, but I had somehow won said 4bet pot with bottom pair! Insanity.

Overall I ended tonight's session up $56 over 550 hands (don't know how to figure BB/100 since the session was mostly NL25 but the bulk of the $$ were won at NL50). Not sure what to think of 6-max thus far. I think I may be getting a little to crazy-aggressive against some opponents (maybe that explains the madness above) and I think that's costing me $$. I do find the number of near 100 VP$IP rather amazing at these 6-max tables. If I could just control my own game I'm sure they'd be very profitable.

6-Max Action At Two Different Levels

Ok, so in my last post I mentioned that my only real quantifiable goal for this month was 5K hands of 6-max poker. So to work toward that end I fired up 4 tables of NL50 6-max Monday night and promptly got my ass handed to me. I dropped $95 in 310 hands (-30.5BB/100). I was really letting myself get pushed around and when I did pick a spot to make a stand I was usually crushed. An example:



The BB here was a total fish (86/64/18 over 60 hands). SB is bad as well at 35/21/.05 over just under 50 hands at the time. The BB had shown several bluffs where he pushed with little to nothing. If the SB hadn't stuck around I would have called the BBs river shove here with TPTK and felt pretty good about it. With the SB still in the hand though, I knew when the flush card hit someone had gotten lucky and it wasn't me. I suppose I should have called the BB here even if I thought the SB got there because I could have won about $4 overall on the hand (a $34 swing) due to the stack differential with the SB, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Here is an earlier big hand with the villain from the previous example to prove my point about his willingness to get it an with not a whole lot:



Anyway after last night's terrible outing I decided that NL50 may not be the best place to start playing 6-max. So tonight I when I fired up Tilt I opened 4 Nl25 6-max tables instead. Let's just say that things couldn't have been anymore different. I ended the session after 515 hands up $120 (46.5BB/100). I did have a great run of cards when I needed them but I also for whatever reason just felt more comfortable. I made some pretty decent reads on my opponents ranges and generally acted accordingly.

Here is a hand where I'm just unsure I played correctly:



I'm OOP with an overpair on a board that nails my LP opponent's (38/3/1, 50 hands) range. Is check-calling my way to SD appropriate here? Can we find a bet on the river to possibly get more value? Just not sure here.

Overall my 6-max experiment is up so far. Not sure I like the way NL50 is going so my plan is to play at least these 5K hands at NL25 and then reevaluate from there.

End Of August Update

Well, I've played zero poker in the last 2 days. I went to opening day for my Mountaineers on Saturday to witness the offensive display put forth by Pat White and the boys. It was a great day of tailgating and football. I love Morgantown in the fall. Then I all day yesterday was spent with fantasy football drafts, 3 of them to be exact. It's the same basic group of core friends in each league but each league is slightly different (keeper, redraft, and auction). Draft day is always a full day of beer drinking, trash talking, football fun and yesterday was no exception. Good times.

Now to sum up poker in August; SHIT.

Graph:




Rackback again added just over 1BB/100 to the total above so August ends up a total of $377.94.

My goals at the beginning of the month now look stupid but here they are:
August Goals

1) 15,000 hands at 50NL - Failed (14,060 total)

2) Withdrawal 1/2 of my August profit (or $500 whichever is less): Hahahaha No!

3) Maintain a win rate of at least 5.5 BB/100: Not even fucking close

4) Grow my bankroll by $500 after withdrawal: Not even without a withdrawal

5) Quit spewing chips pushing with under pairs and crap draws (they're not going to fold): Nope still stupid

6) Tilt less. Uhhhhhhh.....No

7) Post at least 5 hands for analysis on CC: I think I only managed 4

8) Watch a ton of videos over at Stox. : Some but not enough



So now it's time to post some simple goals for September:

1) Stay positive (in every way)

2) At least 5K hands at 6-max because well everyone else is doing it and seemingly having great success.

A Little 6-Max To Get Right

I played 2 sessions tonight. The 1st was my standard 8 table NL50 full-ring session. It sucked. I ended up cutting it short at only 300 hands and while down $58 (-19.5BB/100). I closed Full Tilt and realized that I might not have made the required points for the day to hit gold level Iron Man (I needed 1 more day over 100 FTPs to hit it). So sure enough I logged back in to check and I was 10 points short! Well that meant I HAD to play again but instead on NL50 FR I decided to sit down at 4 NL25 6max tables since I've seen all the cool kids over at CC playing 6max! Anyway I killed. These guys were stacking with any pair it seemed. It's like if you take away 3 seats the collective IQ drops to an average of 60! Anyway I played 300 hands there and finished up $75 (48BB/100). So net profit over 600 hands of $17. Better than if I'd quit after session 1, but I will admit that sitting back down to hit some stupid number may be the dumbest reason ever to play.

Anyway here's a little 6-max stupidity:


Villain (70/13/6) and I here have a bit of history as I've taken his $10 buy-in twice in ~45 hands. I've also 3bet him several times thus far and he's decided he's had enough. So when he min raises me here I decide he's got nothing and I'll try to push him off with nothing. Unfortunately he doesn't want to cooperate and I have to fold with a bit of $$ in the middle. When he makes the 4th min bet he could have anything from JT and the nuts to complete air. I would catch him a bit later for another $20 so I guess I got this money back before I left the table.

I'll give this month's final numbers on Friday night since I won't be playing again til Monday.

Mental Bankroll Barriers

Ok so with my recent ups and downs, I've been looking at my game and I know it's far from perfect but I've also noticed other times when I've hit these type patches. The 1st was as my BR neared $500, then somewhat at $1000, and now $2000 seems to be the sticking point (how I breezed by $1500 is beyond me). Come to think of it, it was exactly the same when I played at Bodog. It's like I hit these invisible barriers that I have to get through before I can get back to playing good winning poker. Is it self-sabotage? Well from some of the hands I post here, it's a definite possibility, but I don't think so. I really think it's the money!

I don't want to think about poker that way, but I do (especially lately). If a pots large and I missed whatever draw I was chasing or I think my opponent outdrew me on the river, I don't do what I should and give up. I either bluff if I missed or I call down light if my opponent bets. It's like I don't want to give up the pot because it's soooo much money. Crazy I know. I also know that if I did play better in these spots, I'd win more money! This month my BR has been fluctuating (just using that word reminds me of this brilliant Tommy Angelo quote) between $1600 (when I was down for the month) and $2200 (those 2 wonderful days when I was way up) and it currently sits just $40 shy of $2000. Here's to a barrier breakthrough coming real soon.

I did play some poker over the past couple of days. Some good, some bad, ending up $80 over 1250 hands (6.35BB/100). I can certainly live with that. Here is the worst:



Villain here is 20/0/.5 over 40 hands. I can't even explain to you why I didn't get the rest of my stack in on the turn. Had I pushed there I would have turned a stupid river call into a bad beat. Basically I needed to take BW's advice on this one. This guy is NEVER betting that river without a hand the beats my kings. Just bad and a prime example of my issue with folding in big pots even with weak hands compared to the board. Maybe one day I'll get it and break on through.

Oh and if you'd like to read more from Tommy Angelo check out his blog, and pick up his book, Elements of Poker for a great read.

Finally A Good Run With Only One Real Mistake

Really good run tonight. 600 hands, $170 profit (28BB/100). I feel I actually played well, although I do think I'm way too results oriented when it comes to my perception of my play. Anyway, I did get a bit lucky to have AA vs KK and I also won a stack with AKs v 88 AIPF. So I do realize, had the cards fallen slightly differently, the end result could have been much different. Either way it feels good to book a solid win and get back in the green for the month (although still just barely).

Here is the one hand I feel I made a serious (read expensive) mistake on:


Wow, that looks really bad! The villain here had decent TAG stats (13/9/3) but I had seen him lose a stack with AK in a very similar spot (he 3 barreled that pot from OOP as well). So when he bet the river I used all my time and decided to make the "hero" call. Let's rename it the sucker call shall we. Whenever a villain turns over a boat and you have to show 2nd pair on a paired board, well let's just say dumb is about the best thing that I felt.

Had a couple of great fantasy football drafts yesterday and managed to stay relatively sober. I have 3 drafts to go and they're all this Sunday! Looks like it's going to be a long day. Good thing Monday's a holiday!

You'll Only Get Called By A Hand That Beats You Or Me

Few sessions since Friday's post with no real BR movement one way or the other. Total profit of $6.75 over 850 hands. Meh, at least I didn't give away too many stacks. I'm really beginning to wonder if I have what it takes to play this game for any kind of real money (not for a living but for some decent fun money). I mean I've been playing so much more than my usual over the last few months and I really felt I was improving and my BR agreed. Now when I look back at some of the horrible mistakes I've made this month, I wonder if I hadn't just been lucky for a few months and this month is closer to my real expectations? I hope not, but I'll admit I have been considering that possibility.

Anyway you know the poker cliche that says that in certain spots you shouldn't bet because you'll only be called by a hand that beats you? Well that obviously doesn't apply when you're playing me:



So we hit our set on an Ace high flop and get a caller to our check-raise, great! Why then do I fail to bet the rest of his stack on the turn? Then when the board gets amazingly scary our villain turns his very strong hand into a bluff but gets lucky because he's playing my dumb ass. This is a hand we beat no where near enough to call when he pushes here. Folding the river should be pretty standard (especially to a loose/passive player like this villain 36/2/1), but I just can't fold my incredibly weak, for this board, hand. Ugly.

Anyway tomorrow marks my first fantasy football drafts of the season. The first is for a keeper league I have been the commissioner in for 4 years (I'm not in that league I just run it) and it will be held at a friend's bar. I'll have my laptop with the software (Fandraft) connected to the big screen and I'll just be running the draft while enjoying a few beers. Then a few hours after that draft ends I'll be participating in the draft for my longest running (7 years) league. It's an online draft but I'll be hanging around the bar and doing it from there (the owner of the bar is in that league as well). I can't wait to get going. I love this time of year. Even better yet it's only 6 days to opening day for my beloved WVU Mountaineers!

Oh No, We Suck Again

August sucks. I haven't posted in days, because well, there just nothing good to say. Since my last post I've dropped $301 in just under 1900 hands (-16BB/100). On the month I'm down $45 before rakeback. In my largest losing session since my last post (-$180) I had not 1 but 2 full houses beat by quads! And then I started tilting and bluffing away stacks. Just really, really ugly.

Worst hand? Hell there all bad right now. Here's a random one for you:


Horrible. This was from the session where I dropped the $180 and was one of those tilty, make no sense bluffs I was talking about.

Well, it's Friday night so I guess I should go see if the fish are biting. Hopefully, I don't get eaten.

3 Good Sessions, 1 Bad Bluff

I've played 1300 hands over 3 sessions in the last 2 days. I ended each session up and won a total of $146 (11.3BB/100) proving once again there's nothing like a weekend to turn things around. I don't know when I last saw so many horrible calls and bad plays, probably last weekend.

Well it seems that www.pokerhandreplays.com (the site I use for the cool hand replayer) is not converting at the moment so it looks like my bad bluff hand will have to wait. Sorry you won't get to see me do anything stupid today.

Running Backwards and Mid Month Update

I've figured out my current problem, I'm running backwards. What the hell does that mean you say? Well it means that when I get my $$ in as a big favorite I'm getting beat and losing stacks
and when I'm getting in with the worst of it, I'm sucking out (sometimes pretty hard)


The 1st hand above is from a session I played late last night. I finished down $77.60 over 570 hands (-13.7BB/100). I never mind getting AI with KK and when he turned over Queens I figured I was good, but then I forgot I was running backwards.

Hand #2 is from tonight's session (up $62.15 over 357 hands) and looks much worse than I thought at the time. The villain here had pushed KK earlier into an Ace high flop and was called but hit a King on the river to win. She's also lost more than she gain with A-rag several times and I thought I had her range crushed with AJ here. When she flipped AA I nearly shed a tear, but then I remembered that I was running backwards. It's hands like these that make me glad I turn off chat when I play.

My mid month update is somehow uglier than hand #2 above! Here's the graph:


My goals are in shambles and I doubt any of them are realistic now other than maybe the number of hands goal. What I really need now is a heater like I had for the 1st 2 days of the month!

Here's to hoping that I at least get turned around and start running forward for the rest of the month.

My Bad Play Gets Rewarded

I had an overall good session tonight with only a few mistakes and some really big hands. I ended up $113 over 500 hands (23.9BB/100). I had some luck (a little bad and a little good) but generally I played good poker overall. I focused on putting my opponents on hands and then bluffing, folding, or value betting accordingly. At micro stakes online poker, that's really all that's necessary to be a winner.

I mentioned a few mistakes and a little good luck. Well today dumbest thing illustrates both:



Calling his 3bet preflop is a real loser. Even if I can count on stacking both players (almost impossible) I'm not getting the odds I'm looking for to set mine. This hand came on the heels of winning a big pot on another table and sometimes when that happens I get a little winner's tilt and go crazy. It's nice to win these but it's horrible to know I made a pretty big mistake to get there.

Anyway, I'll post the ugliest graph you've ever seen tomorrow for my mid month update. Just a little preview, so far this month I'm running at just under 2BB/100! I don't even want to think about my monthly goals.

Couple Of Sessions With Very Little Luck

Well 2 session with a total loss of $39 over a total of 800 hands (-4.9BB/100). I've played decently and actually have won a few stacks but it seems like I'm losing just as many and quite often, at least recently, it when I'm getting my $$ in VERY good. So I'm not going to beat myself up over this loss. I know that if I keep getting my chips in this good things are going to turn sharply upward sooner or later. :)

I had bigger losers today but I think this hand illustrates a real issue I have too often:



Our villain here is pretty laggy (29/23/3) and will likely bluff raise this turn often enough to make my second barrel very -Ev. We likely only get a fold from this villain if he holds a pocket pair under 99 and even then he'll bluff raise sometimes. Check/folding here saves us a bet and occasionally we'll get to SD without putting any more (or at least much more) money in the pot. Bad turn bet.

I also decided to join the Cardschat Tuesday Full Tilt night free roll tonight. Man I hate tourneys any more but it's always nice to play with the great people from CC. It's the only time I even turn on my chat anymore and I really enjoyed it even though I busted out around 50th when I pushed with AQ v AT v AK and AK held. So rigged. :)

Finally...I Luck Into A Winning Session

So early this morning I played a 415 hand session ending UP $76 (18.25BB/100). I played ok, but I probably could have done better. It just feels good to win again.

I did get extremely lucky in one hand:



The villain here is tight (11/10/3) and 3betting preflop probably should be my standard play. I of course decide to just call and then we get all-in when he hits his set (I'm not down on the all-in call because he would have done the same with a SD, FD , QQ, and maybe AJ with the A of clubs). The turn of course saves me $25 and makes the session look $50 more profitable.

Undoubtedly the worst thing I did during this session was this hand:


I have no business flatting the bbs 3bet. I'm not getting any kind of odds to set mine and the cutoff could still 4bet me out of the hand. Plus I'll be in horrible relative position postflop no matter how favorable it may be. It all adds up to being a horrible call.

3 Sessions, Still No Winners!

Well since my last post I've played about 1500 hands for a net loss of $68 (-4.65BB/100) over 3 sessions. I ended each individual session down. I feel though that I actually played better than I had been overall. I've just hit a horrible bad luck streak and I think my opponents can smell the blood in the water. It's just been sick. I'm actually down ~$22 overall for the month despite starting the 1st 2 days up ~$450! I've so far stuck at 50NL but still may move down before BR would dictate.

Here are a few of the worst I've played over the past few days:



This should have been an easy fold when the button 3bet. AQ just doesn't win here enough when called and it's an auto fold to the all-in. Just a poor decision to 4bet light OOP.



Just a bad bluff against a player with a broken fold button (WTSD over 35%). Note to self: Looks at SD stats before doing anything too stupid!



I raise preflop here with ATs to try to steal the blinds because of the extra money in the pot because of the UTG poster. Anyway when the cutoff flats and then raises my cbet, I decide to get cute (again OOP). Just giving it away really.

Anyway, I've decided that today is a poker free day. I'll see what happens when I hit the tables again tomorrow. Can't be much worse than the last week (at least I hope not).

I Officially Suck

Another day, another huge loss. Down $174 in 538 hands (-32BB/100). I haven't won a stack in days. Seems like every time I get my stack in, it gets pushed to my opponent. Whether it be by suckout, cooler, or just a bad play by me, I'm just taking a beating at the moment. It's starting to effect my play (and probably making the losing continue). I'm playing more passively. I'm failing to cbet. I'm still bluffing. I'm just playing horrid poker.

I'm really thinking about dropping back to 25NL for a bit just to get some confidence in my play again. I don't know.

Sorry no horrible hand today as I can't bear to look right now.

Does Playing Bad Lead to Running Bad

Something I've noticed for a while now. When I'm playing bad (I mean at my worst), I end up taking more bad beats than when I am playing well. I think it may have to do with table image. People, even at micro stakes NL, notice when you say call down with an underpair or push on the turn with a OESD with little chance your opponent will fold and they tend to stick around long enough maybe catch those hands that beat you.

I unfortunately noticed this again tonight. I played horribly tonight dropping $157 in just over 600 hands (-26BB/100). Along the way I made terrible plays and bluffed entirely too much. But I also had people calling me down with middle pair and catching their 2nd pair on the river. These are players with decent stat too, not just the calling stations. Basically my horrid image had made it right for them to call me down with little to nothing because well let's just say they had plenty of implied odds :( .



This one's bad. I think I had some major tilt issues by the time this hand rolled around and damn it I was going to keep betting till he folded. Of course that didn't happen. Good thing I didn't have a deeper stack here. I wouldn't have stopped. Please take my $$ sir.

Woops...What A Bad Bet

Tonight session was a roller coaster ride that ended with me being up $19.50 after 550 hands (3.5BB/100). I was fairly fortunate to get back to positive numbers when I took my only stack of the night with my KK beating AJ that flopped a J.

The absolute worst play of the night was also my only lost stack. For your entertainment:



Villain here was 11/8/1 and I knew when he bet the river I was beat but I figured he had a J and might fold it to an AI. I don't know if he would have or not but he's certainly not folding a set. My line here is horrible and he probably calls with KJ or better anyway. Just very poorly played on my part.

Calling 3 Street Against A TP = Dumb = Me

We'll I've played 2 small session since my amazing run on Friday with mixed results. Saturday's session ended with me being up $115 in 500 hands (23.5BB/100), while Sundays session cost me $91.50 in 580 hands (-15.75BB/100). So the month so far is still VERY far above expectations but there has been a bit of a correction. I guess 53BB/100 wasn't sustainable after all!

Anyway here's a hand that I think I misplayed totally postflop:



The villain here is Tight-Passive player (12/4/1 over 150 hands) who's probably never double barreled in his life, yet I decide that calling 3 bets against him is smart. I'm actually a little surprised he bet on all 3 streets with "only" TPTK. I expect to win this hand almost never. Definitely a losing play against this type of player.

I also played for about 5 hours at a friends home game Saturday night. I ended up losing $40 (AK < 75) but the real interesting thing was that I decided to keep track of the number of hands we managed to play, using chips as a makeshift abacus. This is your typical pass-the-deal home game and we managed only 72 hands. Yes, just under 15/hour. I knew it was slow but I never realized how slow until last night. It's no wonder it seems like I only play about 2 hands/hour there, it's because I do!

God, I LOVE Friday nights!!!

First off let me start by saying that this is not going to be my normal blog posting. This post is a celebration. You see I just had my biggest single session ever finishing up $335 over 625 hands (53.75, totally sustainable, BB/100). What a way to start the month.

So anyway what I'm going to do tonight is show you every stack I won. I knew the night was going to be good when this was my very 1st hand of the night:



I know I rail against slow playing your monsters but with so many limpers here I figured at least 1 of them would bet the flop or that maybe someone would make their flush. When we were raised on the turn I knew he had a Queen and wanted to get it all-in before a flush card came out to scare him off. 1 hand, 1 stack! Next!



At the time made the call (well raised by $4 technically) I didn't feel great about this one, but I honestly thought he was on an overpair with a single spade. Needless to say I was thrilled when he turned his cards over.



This hand is a little different. Our villain here is like 6/5/.3 over 125 hands, so I knew going in I likely didn't have the best hand but I also knew that I could probably take the pot away by just showing max aggression on a scary flop. Well then I went and flopped good (that's the secret of poker kids) and he never bet or raised but he did call all the way, including the over the top push on the end. I noted that I couldn't steal pots from him but that he would pay off value bets all day long. :)



Villain here was a total idiot (85/17/4 over 60 hands). I knew he'd call the flop bet with nearly any pair or even a weak draw but even I was surprised how light he called down. Thank you sir. May I have another?



Yeah I know it's not technically a stack job but it's basically a full buy-in so I'm counting it. :) Anyway, out villain here is nitty and normally very aggressive (10/9/5.5 over about 300 hands), so calling with any pair is a no brainer. He checks into 3 callers, I'm sure hoping to Check-Raise, only to have everyone check behind and allows me to get that beautiful turn card. I debated raising the turn but honestly I was scared that if we got our stacks in my boat wouldn't be the winner (yes, I played a FH for pot control!). I was very glad to see him just call on the river. If he had shoved there, I would have shit myself.

So those are the big ones. Yes there were other stacks taken but mostly from horrible short-stackers and I won't bore you with me getting AIPF with AQ vs a horrible (90/25/1) shorty who had AT and taking his $10 for the sixth time in the session.

I think I love August (at least so far)!

July Wrap-Up And August Goals

Ok, all I'll say about the last few days is they sucked hard. I've dropped a total of $70 since my last update and I've been all over the place on a huge rollercoaster ride. Tonight's session for example stared with dropping 2 full BIs in 10 hands! QQ less than JJ when he flopped a set and KK less than AA when I didn't get my set!

Here's how my goals played out:

1) Play 15,000 hands - Passed easily (21,307)

2) Clear my mid-year $100 bonus - Done with ease

3) Maintain a 6BB/100 win rate - Managed all month until my last session (5.9) :(

4) Grow my BR by $450 - Yes. Total BR gain with rakeback and bonus - Stox fee = $909

5) Be ready and rolled to play 50NL by the end of July (BR > $1500) - Started at 50NL on 7/18/08

6) Make finding hands to post here everyday harder for myself - Failed miserably.

So a mixed month all told and the end of the month really put a bit of a damper on things. Here is the graph:


August Goals

1) 15,000 hands at 50NL

2) Withdrawal 1/2 of my August profit (or $500 whichever is less)

3) Maintain a win rate of at least 5.5 BB/100

4) Grow my bankroll by $500 after withdrawal

5) Quit spewing chips pushing with under pairs and crap draws (they're not going to fold)

6) Tilt less.

7) Post at least 5 hands for analysis on CC

8) Watch a ton of videos over at Stox.

Some 6-Max And Fighting My Way Back To Even

As I mentioned yesterday I've decided to play at least 1000 hands of 6-max for c9h13no3's break out of your comfort zone challenge. So last night was my 1st session. I ended up playing 264 hands and winning $25.80 (19.5BB/100) on 4 tables in about 40 minutes. I actually recorded the session and I plan to add commentary and make it available this weekend. My stats over this shortish session were 23/21/4 with 11% 3bet. So still pretty tight but it seemed so loose to me since my usual stats are like 15/12/4. I hit a few big hands and only made one major mistake in my opinion. Here it is:



Calling his river bet here is pretty spewy. I was very surprised to see him play QQ this way. Had he 3bet preflop, we would have flipped for stacks because there is no doubt I would have pushed. Oh well, can't be expected to play them all correctly.

So after that 6-max session, I opened 8 FR NL50 tables and went into extreme freefall. At 300 hands into the session I was down ~$90 but I stuck with it, quit doing everything wrong and managed to turn the session around actually finishing up $6,85 after 553 hand (1.25BB/100). I guess considering the way I started the session I can't really complain about the end result. Here is the worst hand I played (warning this hand should not be viewed by women or children):



What can I say other than dumb. To my opponent in this hand I say you're welcome.

In better news, I did cross the $500 MGR threshold this month which means I'll get an extra $25 from my rakeback site for my monthly Stox Poker membership. I've been doing a ton of studying on there lately and I really think the videos they produce over there will help my bottom line. Maybe there will be a video about not pushing with pocket eights.

What Goes Up....

... must crash back to Earth with a sickening thud! After I posted last night I decided to play a long session to try to earn a bunch of rakeback and maybe get my MGR up to $500 to pay for Stox this month. I ran insane. I finished up $215 over 1000 hands (21.5BB/100) and felt that I played very well throughout the session. I had my month's winnings up over $1000 and I was feeling great. Then today happened. I played 718 hands for a total loss of 186.05 (-26BB/100)!

Yes, some of the losses were standard cooler type hands. Some were suckout losses and some (most) were just bad play. For whatever reason I was back to calling down everything (WTSD over 33%) and I just kept spewing chips all over the place (W$SD under 35%). Here is the worst of it:



When I called the villain's 3bet preflop I said to myself that it was set or fold postflop and then I go a 3 barrel when the board is all unders. Just as I was about to throw the last of my stack away I though to myself that he probably had QQ and that I should just check fold but I didn't. Just couldn't do it. Spewtastic!

So thanks to this post by c9h13no3 on CC, I've decided that for the last couple of days of the month I'm going to try my hand at 6-max (I'm thinking 25NL). We'll see how it goes. I've always heard that 6-max has more horrible stacktastic donks per table than FR so I should fit right in.

Back On Track And Getting Stupid With A Pair Draw

Well I managed to quick;y lose $50 at my buddies live game Friday night. I just never had cards and when I did they were always 2nd best. In the time I was there, about 3 hours, I won only 3 hands and the biggest of those was with 35os in the bb, that flopped trips. Fortunately one of my opponents had decides to limp with AA from EP and he paid me off. Other than that I played rather poorly and was too impatient the whole night.

So when I returned home I managed to get in a session on Full Tilt so I could keep my gold medal dreams alive for the month. I actually managed to win about $58 in 275 hands (21.1BB/100). This was the dumbest play of the session:



The biggest mistake here is of course calling the initial raise from the shorty. We're getting almost no implied odds and we really should just be mucking our hand here.

I also had a winning session this afternoon, finishing up $86 in just over 700 hands (12BB/100). It was a very swingy session which started down $20, then I went up $100, then back to even, and finally working my way back up to where I finished up. The following is what I consider my worst hand of the day:



Our villain here is a very bad 54/22/3 who I thought might fold to my all-in (I figured him for a draw or a weak made hand). I'm not sure why I thought he would fold anything he would bet here and of course just folding and waiting for a better hand to take his stack would have been the better play. Although he did give me action in a later hand (this time he only had TPGK to my set) and I took it all back (with interest) before he left the table.

Running Bad Makes Me Play Even Worse

Well since my last totally up beat post I have yet to book a winning session! All told I am down $125 over 1000 hands (-12.5BB/100). Now some of this loss is certainly due to some variance (twice I've had sets of deuces lose to bigger sets) but a very large part of it has actually been some sick need I've had to make hero calls on the river. Trying to catch your opponent bluffing gets VERY expensive and I'm not sure why but I just can't keep my cursor away from the call button. A particularly bad example:



My God I'm like the biggest calling station on Earth. I have bottom pair on a flop that's all over a button raisers range and end up calling all the way. I beat nothing here but a bluff so I guess I put him on a bluff. Just bad.

I guess some of the cooler type hands had to be expected as I was just running too good for it to last long. Even with this horrible 1000 hands I'm still running at 6.5BB/100 at 50NL, although after paying Stox my BR is just above where it was when I moved up.

Well I'm getting ready to head out to a friends for some cash game poker. He's actually having a tourney tonight that started about 2 hours ago but since I hate his structure I made up an excuse to go late and just play cash with the early losers! Also tomorrow is Mrs. Hillbilly's 15th class reunion so who knows if I'll get a chance to update tomorrow or even play. Maybe I need a day off.

Joining Stox And A Bluff All-In Takes A Big Pot

Ok, so after running hot for the 3rd day straight (up $130 over 465 hands or 28BB/100) I decided to go ahead and join Stoxpoker today. As I mentioned in a previous post my rakeback site, rakebreak.com will cover the monthly fee ($25) for Stox for every month that I have a monthly gross rake of $500 or more. Not sure I'm going to get there this month but since I'm positive I will beginning next month, I went ahead and joined. So the math works like this; I paid $189 to Stox for 6 months. For that fee I pay the sign-up fee ($75)and get 6 months access to all their videos ($150) and 2 books ($30 Theory of Poker and NL Holdem Theory and Practice). I'll get at least $125 back from rakebreak.com, so it seemed like a fair deal. It will only get better each month after 6 when the monthly fee ($25) is an added benefit from rakebreak.com (basically free $$). Hopefully I'll be able to pick up enough advice from Stox to make the time spent watching the videos worthwhile.

So anyway, like I said I ran great once again last night. When I reveiwed my session afterward I really didn't find too many mistakes and certainly no big mistake until I looked at my winners (I normally look at my losing hands first). Then I noticed that my biggest pot of the day was essentially a bluff CRAI on a monotone flop.



Not sure what our villain (43/12/2) was thinking here other than I had a single club and was pushing with a draw. Of course I figured he may be doing the same and that's why I pushed. I was very pleasantly surprised when his cards were turned over. Not sure this play is profitable against most players because I think it generally limits his calling range to hands that have great equity on us.