Back in the saddle

I was 5-tabling and not catching any hands. I think the best hand I had was KK and it was folded to me. I ended up catching a few hands late to end up in the positive for the night. Couple that with the solid session from earlier and i won back about 3 buy ins tonight from my melt down last night. I still played a little loose today, but I was on some really bad tables and wanted to see action. I justified in that way, but I could not justify it the other night.

Had a great hand to finish up my set. Folded to me on the button and i raise with A2o. I get reraised and decide to play. He has about 35 and I have him well covered. Flop comes A26 with 2 spades and he pushes...I call and he shows 88...how funny.

First session after my son's arrival...

really getting coolered. Hit a set on the river only to lose to the dude that hit the higher set on the turn. I hit runner runner full house only to lose to the flopped FH.

Playing well though.

Playing like crap and running into some coolers...lots of sets being hit on me and i miss all my pocket pairs. I need to slow down and play tighter...

Ok, I SUCK!!

I need to play more disciplined or not play at all. I am getting too arrogant and letting it go to my game. I am forcing things post flop and getting out of my game. I need to concentrate and start letting more hands go...play the game I am comfortable playing because that is the one I was profitable with.

Saturday

No baby yet, so i thought i would log some table time. PLAYING HORRIBLY. I think I am tyring to play a game that I am just not used to...I am going to start playing my game!

Taking some nasty beats to finish up my set...Penny's water just broke...time to roll!!!

Interesting start...

Very interesting start to my session...people are hitting big hands against me, but I had AA a few times and was able to double once with it...got it cracked for $20 once too. Luckily against a shorty...

Crazy night so far...lots of tough hands and I am missing a lot of flops which forces me to make more continuation bets and bluff...starting to get some traction, but a rough start.
Was up until i stacked off AQs v A5o...so sick!

I need to be very disciplined when I start my sets. I find that I am not being disciplined and play far too loosely. I need to play tight and slowly loosen up my game as I feel out the tables. With these crazy players making insane bets and pushes, I need to play in position and watch my continuation bets and bluffs.

My next session I want to start evaluating my stats and what that means. How to configure poker tracker to understand my game better, what I should be doing and how others view me. what is the proper 3bet %age and with what range is calling a 3-bet appropriate?

Going to upload my hands...

1430 hands tonight...up a little.

FT went down!!

I had a session going and started off a bit rocky. Mostly some aggressive higher variance plays not going my way and I was working my way back as the site went down. Ended up getting in 331 hands. I need to upload them to see how i ended up.

I guess I am up a little bit...awesome! I thought I was down for sure. The unfortunate part of FT going down is that I was just starting to get into my comfort zone. I knew which players to look out for, which ones I wanted to get involved with, and my decisions were starting to get to where I like them to be. Often I will play too loosely when I first sit down and I start to dial it back a bit. I still havent had a situation where I play loosely at the start of the session and hit a nice upswing, so I look forward to that. However, the key for me is to find that sweet spot as quickly as possible. Usually, I lose about 20% of a buy in at one or two tables before i make the proper adjustment. I was there when FT went down, but luckily I was able to log enough hands to pull myself out of the red and make a small profit for the day.

Back in the winning way...

5-tabled for a short time tonight. Logged about 415 hands. Up almost a buy in. I think I know what I was doing wrong in my last session. I was not raising preflop like I should have, as often as I should have and I was getting too involved post flop and putting myself in tough situations. Tonight, I think I raised a bit more often preflop and laid down some hands that I might have called the other night.

I got a late start tonight, but I hope to log some more hands tomorrow and this weekend...feeling a little better about my game now!

Saturday...

I made a bad call and got stacked early...going to try to dig out of it.

Weekends are high variance and I am taking a hefty dose. I need to relax and just continue to play. I am getting a little spewy, so i might just quit and call it a night soon.

getting frustrated with all the river beats...

I was down a lot more than I thought...Hit a few hands and got a little lucky, i am looking to win back a little more before I call it a night. Been a crazy one.

Pretty bad night in terms of play and results. I had a few lucky hands and some very unlucky ones...overall i think my luck evened out so my results were more bad play than anything. I need to control myself a bit better than I did tonight. Lets upload the hands and see what the story is. It is my first losing night in probably a week...so it was bound to happen.

1527 hands tonight...too bad it was a losing session...seems like when I play marathon sessions for me they are losing. I think thats more because I quit when I am winning...I need to rethink that! :)

Weekend...

Time to start my first session of the weekend. My goal has always been to log an extra session or two on the weekends to make up for missed sessions during the week, but it hasn't worked out that way in the past. I have some great results from my limited play during the week and am excited to really buckle down and try to log some hands. I am close, well another 4-6 weeks, away from moving up. If I can get an extra session in here or there it will help my cause. I also have to balance not pushing things too much or I tend to get a bit impatient. Hoping to log 500+ hands tonight...

Just finished up a quick set. A little up and down...but my AA hands are not holding up and I am playing them well. I am getting people to call raises preflop and even post flop dominated, but my hands arent holding up. Once they start to, I have a feeling I am going to have a huge session. Overall, super happy with my play and my PTBB/100 winrate continues to climb! I will try to log another session later, but will be happy if I just turn in and try to get in 1000 hands tomorrow.

Another Solid Session...

Things at my current stakes look really promising. I had another solid session with good results. up almost 1.75 buy ins. I was sitting nicely early...stacked a dude when my QQ got in on the flop against A10 on a 10 high board. Later, it was folded around to a guy with about 35 in front of him...i am in the BB with AA and the SB limps, I pot it and he calls. Flop comes and we end up getting it all in on the river and he fills up with his 96o...sicko! Overcame that to have a great session...made some nice calls today with 2nd pair and the like. One was for a very nice sized pot, $72. The river bet was 24.50 and I snap called because I knew the longer I waited the more likely I would have been to fold.

Let's take a look at the session stats....

679 hands 12.62PTBB/100...yay!

Awesome, I am well over 5PTBB/100 now for my entire sample.

I am finally feeling confident enough to sit down and expect to win. I know I should...but I build my confidence through building a hand history and that just comes with time. I had a feeling after my first coaching session that I would be just fine and it is true. I just need to continue playing and building my bankroll. I am going to do my best during my week off when my son arrives to log hands provided it does no upset my wife. I am sure she will be tired - I just hope the internet at the hospital allows access to poker sites :)

Well on my way to moving up...stay tuned!

Off last night...

I fell asleep last night and didn't play. And, I do not feel bad about it. Part of my issue is that after I finish up my session I am still a bit wired so I mess around online until my mind stops racing and I can relax. Often, I end up messing around until 1 in the morning. I need to stop doing that because I just start to get tired later in the week and it can cost me a session here and there.

I hope to log 500 hands tonight...

Playing great and was up a bunch, then got coolered 2 hands in a row. top set at the turn, but dude had A10 and hit his straight for 41 against me...then next hand i had 99 and lost about 25 when i had an overpair and dude had AA...got away cheap.

still ok...lets see how it shapes up...

Played some great poker and had some really good hands. Hit quad aces on the turn after there was a 3 way all in on the flop. I had a feeling I was behind, but I had AA on an AKQ board. I had it pegged correctly, up against 2 pr and a made straight. The straight was drawing to the royal flush though, but I was able to dodge the Q of spades and busted two people. So, odd session. It was a short one, 435 hands and was up almost 2 buy ins, then dropped them with a massive cooler on consecutive hands. But, another nice rush and I am up over 2 buy ins.

I have successfully built my bankroll to where I can start dabbling in 100NL. This is exciting because I have proven to myself that I can win at my current level. I do need to start moving up if I want to continue playing because I need to make more per hour. I have a few bankroll management rules that I set for myself. They are quite a bit more conservative than most and I believe it may hold back my progress, but I also believe it will allow me to move up and never move back down. I like to have 30 buy ins before I move up. That way I can drop a few and still stick around instead of dropping back down to win it back at half the rate I lost it. I never understood that. I believe I could take some shots at 100NL as I used to dabble in some 200NL, but right now I am content with racking up solid sessions and building a bankroll.

These sorts of decisions are what makes me love poker in a romanticized way. I could move up, essentially giving myself a raise. But, have I earned it? I look at my 9-5, more like 8-6, job and often ask myself the same question. At work, I would almost always say yes, but with poker I say no. By moving up, you are essentially giving yourself a raise. If you can remain profitable, you can earn at twice the rate you were previously. How awesome is that? If you 4-table, add 2 more and give yourself a raise. I would like to start 6-tabling, but my playing set up is not cutting it. My goal is to make my jump to 100NL and win $1,000 for myself to properly set up a workstation. Then, I will add 2-4 tables and really start to log some serious hands...

Anyway, I just wanted to add some thoughts regarding my bankroll management and my short term goals. If I can double my bankroll over the next few months, I should be due a pretty substantial raise! Track my progress and see if I can make it happen!

New goals...

As the month approaches the halfway point, I wanted to reassess my goals. While I think they are attainable, I think I am going to pull back on how many hands I play per month and focus more on quality of play and shoot for acceptable minimums. I think 15k hands per month is doable for sure and should shoot for playing at least 15k hands, not 25-30k as I had originally set as my goal. I am doing this for a few reasons.

First off, I have a full time job and playing an average of 1k hands per day means at least 2 hours a night. If I miss, that means making that up. I found that was just too much time for me because I have a family and a new arrival on the way. I just was not able to get the quality time I needed with the family and the quality time on the tables. I would not let poker distract me from my family, so there were times I would sit down at 10 and try to play. It just wore me down too much and after a few weeks I felt like my wife was a stranger. So, I do not want to do that and would like to set more reasonable goals. I can log 500 hands per day in just over an hour and I can make up some time on weekends, so I am very happy with that.

Also, when I had such aggressive goals, I would sit down and try to make things happen. If the goal is more attainable, there is no feeling of urgency when I sit down. I sit down in a zen-like state which is definitely +EV!

Happy Easter!

Played a solid session tonight. The results-oriented side of me didn't like it, but I like the way I played. Only a few hands to note. I got it all in with 2 pr, Qs and 10s, flush draw against a dude with A4. He hit is 4 on the flop and with a board of 4QK10 he pushed A4 and hit the river A. That would have been a nice $60 pot there, but I was lucky he was short. I took advantage of a dude on tilt when he pushed 80 into a dude with 60 with AK on an 8 high board, he gets called by AA. Next hand I get 1010 against him and the flop comes all unders, he bets and I push, he calls with K5, my hand holds and he leaves :)

I am going to upload the hands and see where I stand.

WOW, that was a solid 560 hand session. up about 12 bucks :)

The reason I liked my play tonight is because I think I avoided those meltdown situations. I got away from KK on the turn, folded QQ on the flop once, and even got away from 1010 preflop only to see JJ and AQ get tabled and a Q high flop. I picked my spots well, got in good and played very controlled. I feel awesome about my game right now and hope I can continue to log hands and play well.

Second Coaching Session In The Books

I finished up my second coaching session and am happy with some of the concepts I have learned. I will have to wait a bit to apply them as today will be spent cleaning the house and getting settled. I should be able to log a session later tonight.

I have just under 16k hands since my first session and I am happy to report I can confidently say I am now a winning player. I know I need more hands to more accurately determine my winrate, but I believe if I continue to grind and make the necessary adjustments that seem to come natural for me, I should be a long term winner. And, that does wonders for my confidence. As I was logging hands and trying to determine how competent I was, I found that to be incredibly stressful in some respects. You obsess too much over a bad beat or some negative variance because it has a significant effect on your winrate. You almost feel as though those bad beats could cause you to be a losing player, and that just is not the case. I can move forward with more confidence that I am going to be a winning player and I just need to determine at what rate. That realization is a load off of my mind and puts me in a more relaxed mindset going forward.

Friday...

I am heading out for happy hour and a quick business discussion with a coworker. Should be fun and enlightening.

Tomorrow morning I have my second session with my coach. for starters, I felt my first session was an excellent one and knew pretty much immediately that it had transformed me enough that I would be a winning player. what I hope to get out of my second session is how to maximize the value of each hand and also how to pick off bluffs a little better. I know I am leaving value on the table and I want to learn how to get out of the way at the right time and how to put pressure on in marginal situations.

I am SUPER happy with my progress to date. I have been playing more than ever and not feeling the smallest amount of burn out. I believe I can continue to grind and move up and enjoy playing. So far, this has been a great month and I hope to continue to build my bankroll. I believe my next session will be when I make the leap to the next level....100NL! :)

Time to play

My meeting got postponed and I am going to try to log a few hundred hands tonight. I really liked the way I played last night and am looking for a repeat performance. I was not trying to make things happen and just took what was given to me...going to be disciplined preflop and put myself in good situations.

Played a quick session. Felt so in control. I do my best to get into a relaxed mindset and try not to feel rushed. I think part of my issue over the weekend was I was too focused on my goals of playing a lot of hands and pushed things too hard. Tonight, I made a few nice calls and had one big hand where i flopped 2 pr, Ks and Qs. I got a dude all in when he called top pair all the way down with K2. :)

355 hands and up over a buy in...nice night!

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I am taking tomorrow night off, at least I am planning on it and that leaves little time for me to get in another session before my next lesson. I wanted to provide a brief synopsis of where I stand. I started dabbling not even a month ago. I had a few hundred in my account and my goal was to grind the 50NL 6max games. I have done so successfully and am improving my game. I never felt this confident playing sngs. I am enjoying playing NL and my roll has gone up almost $1k in the past month. I havent played as many hands as I would have liked, but I also believe setting too ambitious goals leads to trying to push the action and playing too aggressively. I need to look at my poker experience as one long session. If I do not log enough hands this week, month, or even year, if I continue to plug away and remain profitable I will reach my goal eventually. I am very, very happy with my progress and I am going to cut a deal with my coach to hold off on any more sessions until I jump to the next buy in. The session are valuable, but I believe I will not need a lot of mentoring anymore until I reach at least 200NL. However, my next session I hope to learn how to maximize the value of each hand and maybe how to read marginal situations better. I also know that I need to be a bit more aggressive postflop and am beginning to feel when it is appropriate.

A Few Days Off...

I had a few unplanned days off. i just took off Monday because I was a bit tired, but Tuesday we had our place painted and were away from home. So, I didn't play at all. That's fine. My April goals are something I knew would be completely a shot in the dark. I may still make them, but once Penny goes into labor, I do not know when I will get a chance to play. The end of March and first few days of April went very well though...

I logged a few hands tonight, 155 to be exact, because I did not play Monday or Tuesday and will not be able to play Thursday night. I wanted to at least play a little to keep the rust off and go through the motions.

Won almost half a buy in...looking forward to increasing my play this weekend.

Sunday Session

I played a quick 1 hour session and had some nice success. I finally hit a flush and avoided a few as well when I flopped 2 pr. Overall, a nice session of 410 hands and +1.4 buy ins.

More to come later I hope.

Started out with a few coolers on my second set...KK v AA and AK v QQ.

I am looking to make a little comeback and starting to play well again...lets see if i can dig out of the hole!

Had a nice lucky hand...AJ v A5 and he hit aces up on the flop, but the river paired the board and I outkicked him! :)

digging out of my hole...got it in with AK on a flop with 2 aces against A3 and we ended up chopping...river paired the board :(

Tonight, I made 3 calls I regretted. There is my profit. I need to be more disciplined and stop trying to make the miracle call...i broke about even on the night, but overall I just played kinda donkish...had some good luck and bad...but overall just a few moments of weakness!

Logged another 1727 hands, but not with the results I wanted.

Weekend

I know weekends are high variance times. I had a little bit of that. I remember some nastiness on the tables today, but overall I feel good. I was a little out of sync playing with some of the completely aggro players on the weekends...pushing their stacks preflop when there is not even a raise ahead of them. Lots of overplaying hands and I was up against quite a few of these people. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to double up against them as they twice beat me on the river...runner runner is lots of fun :) I just keep reminding myself that without these players the game wouldnt be worth playing!

I had a stretch today where I had pocket pairs a TON! Mostly smallish pairs that i was able to play for set value and I hit a few. One of the hands I got in against a donk that hit top pair, a 9, and played it like the nuts. I hit a set of 3s and he hit a 9 on the turn and the board paired on the river...bad news for me. I had AA on one of the 4 tables about 3 times in 10 mins and never got any action. I did get a few sets and even flopped quads, but couldnt get much value out of many of my hands.

So far today, down a little about $15-20...I hope to get another session in later.

Played 600 hands so far today...hope to get in another 600-1000 tonight.

Taking tonight off...

I am taking tonight off to get a good night's sleep and be ready for work tomorrow. I am pretty tired and two long sessions this week kinda did me in. I plan on playing quite a bit tomorrow and also logging some hands on Saturday. My second lesson is saturday afternoon and I would like to put in some time before, after, and on sunday.

April goals...

Well, I just realized a new month is upon me. I think it would be appropriate to lay out some goals for myself. The following are my goals for the month:

25,000 hands - yes this is modest for many players, but this is a lot of time for me as I 4-table and have a full time job.

$1,500 profit, including rakeback. If I can accomplish this, I should be ready to move up to .50/1.00, so this is also a very important goal for me. I need to move up to continue improving my $$/hr. My time is very valuable and I need to make the most of it. I really hope to be close to being rolled for moving up at the end of the month...that is my focus.

April could be tough as my wife and I are expecting our second son. So, I will have a week off of work and will be taking some additional time off from work as I am able. I am sure I will be busy, but hopefully I can find some time to log an extra session or two. Then again, I might not be able to log any time. So, my goals for April are very fluid at this point.

Reading hands...

I am pretty decent about getting away from hands when I have 1010-QQ and the board gets a little scary. I am ok with that. Where I get a little lost and believe I am giving up significant value is when I have a good hand on a drawy board and the river is scary. For instance, say I have QQ and the board is 456J with 2 to the flush. There are straight and flush draws all over. The river brings an A completing the flush draw. If I am OOP, how do you proceed? I have been playing it weak and checking which usually leads to someone making a big bet at me. I fold and often end up dropping half a buy in as I try to bet them off the pot on the flop and turn. I guess by them calling they are either telling me they hit a set or are drawing and their river bet should tell me they got there...maybe that will be a good line for me if playing OOP. If i hit a big hand bet, bet, check because it almost always seems to induce a large river bet...

I am expecting to play some more tonight...Need to focus on playing only good starting hands in the right position and be patient...

Getting started...going to 3-table while I focus on hand selection and discipline.

Had AA cracked by a very short stack, so in a way got lucky. I am up over a buyin by getting a nice rush of cards and never getting it all in...Just steady with a few big hands here and there...the way it's supposed to be! :)

I was shutting down tables and was almost done and ran KK into a gutshot draw and he hit of course...gonna play a little more. I should have let it go...

just had KK cracked again in like 5 hands by QJ. time to win it back.

what an up and down ride tonight. I ended up right about where I was when I was going to quit the first time, it just took me about 2 hours longer. :)

Poker is such a rollercoaster, but I am 4-tabling profitably so far and had a much more disciplined approach tonight. Up over a buy in.

1218 hands tonight.