At some point you will run worse than you ever thought possible

I hope that I have just experienced that phase and it will never happen again. Maybe never playing again could prevent it. I dropped $1K over 12K hands at 50 and 100nl combined in 3 days. It hurt my feelings. It might have been the tilting, it might have been the 12 tabling, all I know is my bankroll has diminished.

Here is my 198 hand battle with a slightly laggy pro at 50nl. Here is a screen shot 65 hands after he sat down.

Man he is good, winning at 1120bb/100. This is how to do it:



Ahwell, get him next time.



Stupid A high board. Should have raised PF to $10 he woulda called.



This idiot trys to bluff him despite the fact he as called down with 8 high a couple hands ago. He calls his bluff.



Very next hand he gets there again.



I'm calling the flop because overs are sooo good here. I hit hard enough to call a nice river bet when I'm crushed.

Managed to even the stacks and I was looking to take his last 400bb. That would have been sweet. Alas



Again I should have made it massive PF. Thank fuck he checked the river or else I was lossing 350bb right there.

Anyway I sucked balls and got rivered all the time and called ever raise just because I felt entitled to at least one pot a session. Time to work on my 94/29 game.

Post Earthquake Hands

Been putting in some serious volume (serious compared with none) of late at 50 and 100nl since Feb 22 because I've got a broken leg and can't do fuck all else. Been smack on break even since the earthquake over 10k hands which is a little disappointing. I haven't been playing particularly well, calling too much OOP and making stupid moves. I always seem to treat any stake thats not the highest I play as play money which is really detrimental to my winrate. There are definitely still a huge amount of tards at 100nl so I think I can make it at a good clip there if I can keep to an A-ish game most of the time.

Some hands:

First off a bit of a cooler. Dude had a 3bet of 10% out of the SB so I think the call IP is good. Cound't think of many hands he could call two barrels with so I checked behind on the turn. Hand played itself.


Next is one I played badly. I flatted behind pre to keep the fish in. When he donks I'm thinking weak top pair or 2nd pair type hand. I think the turn and river cards improve his range too much so its a river fold. Raising the flop seems the obvious move in hindsight.



Prior to the next hand I had been folding tons of small pots to the fish to my left. I had seen him doing stupid stuff trying to take down 3bet pots so I flatted his 3bet and let him spazz out. It all went to plan until:



An then there are a fuck load of missplayed hands from 50nl which aren't getting posted.

Hopefully I can keep my inner donk under control and make some good plays. Want to put in a bit more volume over the next few days because I'm a rake back pro and thats how I make my money.

Shotz

I took Chris's advice and decided it was time to take some shots. The 100nl games were looking good on Saturday so I had a crack, mixed in two 100 tables with my 50's. I tried pretty hard to not think all the players were geniuses and to keep my play the same as what has been working for me.

Ran a full house into a better (rivered) full house about 3rd hand in. Good start, I was quickly in for a couple hundy. As if to prove there are idiots at all stakes someone kindly donated me a $300 pot and I finished up 2 BI after 500 hands.

Nice to have some run good when you move up, even if it is only for 500 hands. Stay tuned for the down swing...

2011 Goals

Time to set some goals for the year which will eventually be forgotten about or become irrelevant.

First some poker goals:

1 - Clock 50nl. Win another 3000BB to have 50 buy ins @ 100nl [ ]
2 - Beat 100nl 6max over some kinda sample [ ]
3 - Take some shots at 200nl [ ]
4 - Play more live pokers: 1 x casino and 1 x home game per month [ ]
5 - Balance 75% playing and 25% learning. Review more hands

I'm enjoying playing overrolled for 50nl (72 BI), makes loosing a few stacks a minor inconvenience rather than a disaster. I will try and keep to 40-50BI minimum for all stakes up from here. One area I really need to improve is adjusting to and beating up the regs at the stakes I play. At the moment I pretty much avoid them and try to play big pots v fish. As the fish thin out, beating regs obviously become more important.

Life goals are:

1 - Exercise at least 3 times a week (low so I do it)
2 - Get out of Christchurch once a month for a weekend trip etc
3 - Become more pro-active and procrastinate less

That'll do it for now.

Stats

Because Deftona asked for them here are my positional stats from the last 2months play:




My turn play is lacking all together and as a result my turn c-betting it too low. Thats all I have to say about that.

Donking around live

Had a cassy night last night. Went in about 8.45 and got a seat with Brad at opposite sides of the same 1/2 table, in for $140. Pretty standard 7 way limping live table to start with which sucks balls when you run as card dead as I did for the first 2.5 hrs. Fold or limp/fold flop were my only lines. Pick up KJcc in the CO and call Brads EP 2 $12 raise after a call in between. Flop KQx no spades. Flat Brads $30 C-bet, now heads up. Brad fires again on a blank turn and I tank fold the best hand so far. He later tells me he flopped a set of Kings. Top up another $40 to max.

An asian guy (Kelvin) sat down to my right which seemed to upset the rest of the table. He immediately starts raising about 40% of hands and 3betting a bit. This was great as it shook up the table a bit and made the live "regs" spew more by calling shit oop. I pick up AK,KK,KK,xx,AK in 5 consecutive hands. Win two small pots with cbets in the first two v Kelvin then loose two bigger ones on terrible boards 679J5sss etc with river folds. Kelvin chips up to about $800 by hitting the nuts every hand. Top up another $60 (in for $240). Must win a two barrelled pot with top pair to get to around $220 before I call an $8 raise with 69cc OTB after its called 6 way or so. Flop A92cc and checked to me. I stab at the pot and get called by the giant Greek whale in the SB and probably a couple others. Turn Ah, checks round. River some club and bet close to pot. The Greek guy raises AI over the top which I snap off. He happily flips over the 8 high flush. LOL.

Sit on a $400 stack for a while and whittle it back to $320 ish. Brad leaves and I get KJ in the BU which I raise a few limpers. Flop AJJr, asian friend of Kelvin who has me just about covered donks out close to pot. A bit confusing here, its hard to think of a non nuttish hand to do this with. I call. Turn x, 2nd pot barrel, I tank call. River x, Fires all in for close to $200. Fuck it I'm calling. He flips over AQ and I scoop a $650 pot. I'm not 100% on his logic for the line he took but its the easiest 300bb pot I've won. Next hand raise KQo and flop KKx v passive Maori lady and get one street. Lame.

Down to 5 handed at this stage and Kelvin straddles to $6 and I have A7o in the CU. I raise to $20 as I have for any half decent hands v his straddle as he never folds pre-flop. Ever. Flop comes 552r and I check in behind as we are 350bb effective stacks with a relatively inflated pot. Turn is a 7 and I bet $25 into $40 which gets check raised to $65. Kelvin is pretty aggressive but has generally turned up with the goods at show down. I donkishly cant give up TPTK and call. He fires $140 on a K river. At this stage I only beat bluffs with 22, 5x and almost ATC being in his range. Hero folds and leaves. Cash out $500 for about $260 profit. Was a pretty fun table to play at, so much better than the limpathons that you normally get live. The greek guy must have been in for over 1k, jamming preflop with such hands as 87o and 9To twice an orbit. Getting together a better live game but I'm still a nitty tell box. I can't remember the last bluff I pulled at the cass.

Ups and Downs

Been putting in some pretty good volume @ 50nl 6max over the Xmas break with mostly positive results. Since The start of November I have been running at 4.5bb/100 over 15k hands which is ok but it has been so swingy. Pretty much all my sessions finish +/- $200 so its hard to get a feel as to whether I am winning or just running good. Today was terrible, got bullied around by a guy with 14% 3bet and he just folded everytime I had a hand. I need to learn how to combat aggression if I want to move up past 50.

So I was pretty tilty and due to a few hands like this:



I didn't want to play for 160BB stacks against the SB and didn't think I was ever good against a bet and call on flop and turn. The results tilted me.

The next hand added to my tilt issues. I should have 4bet or folded in hind sight as I am only ever playing fit or fold post flop.



I couldn't see him firing 3 here without AA, KK or AK. I don't fare well against that range. I had folded in my mind on the turn. I should have hit the right button.

I quickly stacked myself with KK v AA on a dry flop where the guy flatted my 4bet in the SB. Gay. Then Gayer:



9 times out of 10 I can fold this without a second thought but I searched throuh his stats and found a river agg of 4 and went for the hero call. Quickly shut down my session and had a cry.

Just so you don't think I'm a donk who loses all the time, here is how you get value with quads: