Downswing

I'm officially on my biggest downswing ever, 9 buy-ins at 2/4. Im supposed to head down to Atlantic City this afternoon, but I really should just take a big break from poker right now.

I have no excuses. I'm playing badly, flat out.

All great things have to end eventually

Last Friday was a particularly interesting day. My friend Chris from high school, who plays 50NL and 100NL, came over to my house and we planned to grind together. I got stuck $1700 and decided to go sit at 5/10 NL heads up on Full Tilt. A complete idiot sat with $400 against me and built his stack up to 2K at one point. While I should have never sat at these stakes in the first place, I felt it was the right decision to continue playing because he was so bad. I came back and stacked him, but I am still a little upset at myself for playing higher stacks in the wrong frame of mind. I usually have much better self-control than that.

I'm currently on a mini-downswing, particularly at 2/4 NL on Absolute. Im specifically down $2,250 over my last 1K hands there. Ive run into some tough coolers, but I've also made a couple bad decisions in big pots. I'm going to post some of the hands that I'm questioning my play in. You guys can feel free to comment on any of them... the more feedback, the better. I actually need to begin posting hands on forums again.


Hand 1: Learn to fold hands, dude

This is the most obviously butchered hand of any, in my opinion. Villain is roughly 20/15 at this point in the session, which are very solid numbers for the crazy players at Absolute. I think that the turn is an incredibly obvious check/fold spot. He won't have AA/KK often at all here, but at the same time TT is the only hand I can beat... and I feel that TT will check behind here a lot here. I lost $300 here that was completely unnecessary.

Hand 2: Freaking overpairs again

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Villain is unknown at this point. I think it looks fine, but comments on all streets would be appreciated. I mix up 4 betting and just calling preflop in this spot, and was in the air about what to do on the flop. I also wonder what I should have done if he lead out on the turn. I had planned to probably fold if he made any sizable bet on the turn. Agree or disagree with this plan versus an unknown?

Hand 3: Villain seems strong, should I still jam?

Semi-bluffing is always a big part of my arsenal, but it gets questionable when you feel like your opponent has a strong made hand. When the hand was happening, I didn't have stats on the villain, but his small 3 bet and healthy-sized flop bet seemed very strong to me at the time. Do you guys ever just call in spots like this when you feel like JJ+ makes up a very large portion of your opponent's range? I should probably pokerstove this hand, but I feel like it's very marginal whether to call or raise, especially when we were slightly deep.

Hand 4: When to give up versus someone you have history against

This is what poker is all about. Villain is a pain-in-the-ass regular, running about 25/21 over a couple hundred hands. We have been 3 betting each other preflop, and I can sense that he doesn't want to give me much credit in any pots we're involved. The board texture makes a call-down more complicated because I feel like he could be semi-bluffing OR putting me on a draw. I feel like he can put me on a queen by the time I call the turn, but does that mean I have to fold the river? I don't know. I guess I have to tip my hat to him once he bets $340 on the river? Does anyone jam the turn?



By the way: Happy holidays, everyone.

So far, so good

2/4 NL on Absolute is going really well so far. Variance has been a good friend to me, as I have run my initial 2K on the site up to 7K already.

I'll show you the most interesting hand I've played on Absolute so far: This is going to surprise you. You may argue that it looks like I'm squeezing here (and thus someone might 4 bet me without a complete monster), but with an UTG raise I feel like the big blind is SCREAMING strength. I had him running at 20/13, he really wasn't getting out of line. With us sitting deep-stacked, this was a really shitty spot where I felt like I had to shove. If I shove, I feel like only aces are calling. This is a really rare fold for me, but I honestly feel good about this decision.

I will only log roughly 15K hands in for December because of finals earlier and the fact that I spend days straight with my girlfriend. However... as long as I don't run bad to end the month, I should have really good results. Let's keep our fingers crossed that good things keep happening.

I'm going to finally play some live poker again after Christmas. My friend Mike has a beach house 10 minutes from the casinos in Atlantic City. It looks like my friend Pete (famousanus) and his friend Jared are also gonna head down, so it should be fun to have us wreck some of the live games at Borgata. I'll probably just play 2/5 NL to start, but if Im feeling comfortable in the live setting I'll probably jump to 5/10 NL. For a lot of online poker pros, live poker is just a hobby that they often donk around in. I want to actually win at live poker, though, just to prove to myself that I can beat any poker game I choose to sit down in.

I run good at life

To put it simply: My life has been awesome lately. I got a 3.8 GPA for this past semester, which is a huge leap over any previous semester and helps out my cumulative GPA greatly. I've also fallen in love with my girlfriend. We have awesome chemistry and meeting each other's parents last week went really well.

I'm running well and playing well on Absolute. I've taught myself to stop bluffing the unbluffable players on Absolute. Patience is a big virtue versus these guys. I had a big score tonight, winning 7 buy-ins. I now feel like it's time to move up to 2/4 NL on the site. Even if 2/4 NL is only moderately more difficult than 1/2, I will still make a killing in these games.

One way that I'm actually motivating myself to work in poker is by setting goals of things to purchase. Specifically, I want to get an Infiniti G35 at the end of spring semester. I have decided that if I make a certain amount in the first 4 months of 2008, I will get one. This goal has really gotten me excited about poker overall.

Finally trying out new sites

It has been over a year since I played cash games on any site besides Full Tilt (PartyPoker being the last, lol). I love Full Tilt's software, but the games are so tough that I am basically burning money to not play on smaller sites. I moved 2K onto Absolute this week. I'm currently playing 200NL on there to get comfortable with the software and build my account up a bit. After that, Ill start grinding 2/4 NL on there and see how it goes. So far, the games seem good.

In non-poker news, I'm already done with my final exams and it's only December 10th, so that feels great. I had a relatively easy semester, and should get a higher GPA than I have any previous semester. The truth is that I'll be content with just having a 3.0 GPA when I graduate. It is basically a pride thing since I probably won't use my degree directly anyway. Anyway, now that I'm done school, I have over 3 weeks to focus on poker. I'm expecting big things from myself.

First real heads-up battle

Yesterday, I played my longest HU match against someone. Though I have played a lot of heads-up the past month or two, I typically have short sessions against weak players. If a session lasts longer than 200-300 hands, it is abnormally long. This system has produced great results for me, but I also want to find ways to improve my HU game against better players.

My session yesterday was against someone I believed I had an edge against. He seemed competent, but was playing too tight preflop and seemed to have exploitable leaks postflop. I asked him if he wanted to start up a 2nd table (which I don't normally ask opponents), and he said yes. We proceeded to log a 820 hand session, which is pretty long for HU.

I can honestly say this was the most fun I've had playing poker in a while. As the session progressed, I realized he was a smart player and adjusting to my style. It became a grueling mental battle. I don't have much experience playing more than 1 HU table, but I realized that there are even more head games when you're playing multiple tables versus the same opponent.

When all was said and done, we played for stacks several times, took bad beats on both ends, and had a mutual respect for each other. I lost roughly $600. I talked to him on MSN messenger after the session, and learned that he normally plays 5/10 NL 6 max. I doubt we'll have a rematch because my edge is either microscopic or non-existent. I just hope to have learned from the experience. Here are a few hands from the session:

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Hand 1: Having an image helps Heads-up

I had been taking stabs at pots on the river versus him early on, and he had been looking me up. That helped greatly to get paid off in this spot. I remember when Phil Ivey said that it is never that bad to get caught bluffing - and he couldn't be more right.


Hand 2: See, I can mix it up too!

By this point in the match, there has been a lot of 3 betting by both parties preflop. I began floating his 3 bets in position with marginally good hands, so I thought this was a good spot to mix it up and just call his 3 bet with a monster. I just called on the flop to disguise the strength of my hand, because I felt like it would smell like a bluff when I go to bet the turn. The plan followed through greatly and I managed to get my money in with 75% equity.

Hand 3: Meta-game sure makes you stack lightly

This was at the tail end of our session. We had crazy meta-game going on. Since I had been C/Ring his continuation bets a lot, I figured it may actually be smart to do it here with TP no kicker. I expected there to be a chance of him floating me with nothing. When the turn came, I realized I had to stack off with my hand. I actually love his cold call of my C/R since I have air so often there. I believe the hand played itself when the way the board was on the turn.

November = Bad work ethic, good results

November is over, and it brings mixed feelings for me:



I should be happy with my results for little amount of time I played, but only playing for 36 hours over the entire month is pretty pathetic. I should be able to play at least double the hours and not feel like it is a "grind". I need a better work ethic even if I am going to accomplish my goals in poker. That also includes being able to balance poker with academics, my social life, my girlfriend, and some exercise too.

I think I made a lot of strides in my heads-up game the past 2 months. I have run VERY hot heads-up over a 15-20K sample since August, but I feel like I am playing well also. My hand reading skills and my overall fundamentals in NL hold em continue to improve, in spite of not putting the hours in. The problem is I haven't had the desire to play 6 max lately, but I'm sure the desire will come back soon.

I filled out an application to be the protégé of Cardrunners owner Taylor Caby. He is going to select one regular CR member to take under his wing next year. I spent a decent amount of time making sure I answered the interview questions well. It would be awesome to become Taylor's student. He is an amazing NL player that I could learn a lot from, and I know I would make the most of it. Unfortunately, I will be competing with about 1,000 other applicants for the spot. If one of my friends gets selected, I will be just as excited for them (albeit jealous, as well).