Red Rock - Sunday July 14th, $1/$2 NL Hold 'Em
Went back the next day and was ready to play. My wife stayed home and my goal was just to get about 3 hours of play in.
Overall the session did not go well. I didn't run especially well, but as I said in the last blog, I think I'm playing too passive as well. Falling into the trap that you see all old guy falling into. Playing too safe, under the guise of "I want to keep my variance down" or "I'm trapping everyone" or whatever it might be. I'm going to change that in the next session and play the WPT Boot Camp style again for sure. Win or lose it's better than what I did this weekend.
Hand 1 : I limp in with 3-3 in early position. Late position guy with a mountain of chips makes it $10. I call, and we see the flop 4 ways. Flop is Q-9-5 and it checks around. Turn is a 5, check around again. River, 3. Boom. I bet out $30, everyone folds.
Probably should have bet less. I was hoping (as I often do) to bet bigger and make it look like a bluff. But I don't know how well that's going to work in a situation where nobody has shown any interest in winning this pot. Probably should have just bet $15. Or even $8, hoping to induce a bluff raise or something. But $30 was just too much especially when nobody showed any interest in the pot, and nothing interesting hit on the river.
Hand 2 : Raise A-10 of clubs in early position (probably should just fold). Button makes it $40, I fold.
Hand 3 : I raise to $10 with 9-9 in early position. (Lot of early position hands, I'm noticing.) The big stack from hand 1 calls me. Flop comes 8-8-6. I bet out $15, he calls. Turn is a 7, giving me an open end straight draw and bringing backdoor spades. I bet $25. He raises me $40 more. I call. River is an ace. I check, he bets $65, I fold.
Overall I think I played this one OK. On the turn when he raises me, I'm getting 3.5 to 1 on my call. If I think all of my outs are good (8 straight outs, 2 full house outs) then I think I can definitely call. I also thought he could have had a draw or something, although he insta-raised me on the turn which seemed strong. Like there was nothing to think about - raise. The ace on the river really changed nothing, but I thought about it for a while and just figured it was much more likely that he had a strong hand than a bluff, and I folded. He didn't look particularly scared, and his actions suggested strength for sure.
Hand 4 : Guy raises to $11 in early position. 3 people call. I look down at Q-5 offsuit in the blind. I decide, thats a lot of dead money out there if I can get through the initial raiser. Unfortunately, that's where my thought process ended. I hadn't really seen this guy play that many hands. I raise to $50. He reraises all-in for $150 more, I fold. Yes, this one was pretty sketchy.
Hand 5 : New old guy at the table raises to $10. I reraise to $25 with J-J. He reraises again, just grabs a stack and puts it out there, probably $65+ more to call. I fold face up.
Hand 6 : VERY next hand I have Q-Q and raise to $15 after a couple limpers. Get 4 callers. Flop is A-J-x. 3 checks to me, and I bet $45. The blind calls. Turn is a king and we both check, and I give up on the blank river. A-2 offsuit takes it down.
Hand 7 : I raise with A-Q to $10 in middle position and a guy in position calls me. Flop is 9-8-5 with 2 clubs. Not the best flop. I bet $12, he calls. Turn is a 7, I give up, he bets $30 and takes it down.
Hand 8 : At this point I'm frustrated and planning on leaving when the blind hits me. I limp with 7-7 in early position. Couple others call, and this guy goes all-in out of the blind for $47. He had done this a ton of times before, like a bunch of hands in a row. However, he had not done it in quite a while, maybe an hour, and I neglected to acknowledge that fact. So out of frustration for whatever reason, I call. Everyone else folds. Flop is Q-J-x. Turn 7. Boom. Flip up the 7-7. River blank. He flips up pocket kings and walks away from the table. Haha. But it really just made me feel even worse about how I played. I got out of that one, but it was another bad call. And I should NOT be putting that much in preflop with 7-7 like that.
Overall, I think I ran pretty bad and didn't get much going with the hands I did have. However, my wife pointed out that on the Q-Q hand if I was playing the WPT Boot Camp style I would have just checked the flop and saved that money. And the Q-5 raise was not a good play. If I knew the guy was really loose, like if the big stack raised, maybe it would have been a great idea. But this tight guy raises and I reraise out of the blind, that's not a good idea. And then the 7-7 hand was a disaster. So overall I was not happy with how I played.
As I said in the last blog, I'm going back to the WPT Boot Camp style for my next session. Wish me luck! Oh, and I lost $250 this time. Not going well for my first couple sessions back, but I'll get it going.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
First session back
Red Rock, Saturday, July 13th - $1/$2 NL Hold'em
Went up to the Rock tonight and played for a little over 3 hours. This was my first NL session in a long time.
Overall it was pretty slow. The table was fine, nothing special though. Lot of regulars, although I don't think they are particularly good. I played super tight the whole time. A little passive in a couple hands too. Maybe it was a mistake, although I thought I had valid reasons for both hands where I played a little too passive. But it's up for debate.
Hand 1 : I limp with 6-5 of clubs in the cutoff. My wife raises on the button to 7. 3 people call and I call. Flop comes A-10-3 with 3 clubs. Boom, I flop a flush. Checks to me and I check. I'm thinking I'll let her bet and I'll trap some additional people in there, and put in a big raise. Unfortunately she checks.
Turn is another ace. The blind bets out $10. One guy calls, and I call. I definitely could raise, but I figure this guy has an ace. And the other guy either has an ace or something like the king of clubs. So I'll see a river, and I can figure out what to do next since I'm in position. If it's a club I can just fold. Otherwise maybe I can raise the river and get value from an ace. I've under-repped my hand for sure.
River is a king. The blind bets out $10 again. Now the next guy raises to $55.
I thought about it for a bit and called. The blind folded. This guy has A-10. Flopped top two, turned a boat. I feel like this one is just a cooler, although maybe I could get away from it. Not sure. I think I pretty much just have to call since I under-represented my hand so much. But at the same time, what is this guy raising with? Maybe an ace, especially since the guy bet so small. So I guess it's OK. But I don't know if most people are raising the river just with A-J or A-9 there.
Hand 2: Limped J8s on the button after 4 limpers. Flop 10-9-4. Guy bets out 10 in early position, I call. Turn is an ace. He checks, I check. River I miss, he checks and I check. He had 9-8.
This one was pretty weak. I could have raised the flop, but I was OK with just calling. On the turn though, after the guy checks, I think I really have to bet. I was trying to just lose as little as possible, but a bet of $17-$20 on the turn would likely take it down. And if he calls, I can still hit. Seems really unlikely he would be check-raising. So that was not good.
Hand 3 : I get pocket jacks on the button. My wife raises to $10 to my left. I decide to just call. I would raise pretty much everyone else, so that is a mistake already. 3 others call. Flop comes Q-9-x, it checks to me, and I check. Turn is a jack. Boom. One guy checks, lady bets $20. Folds to me. I decide to just call. River is a king. First guy leads for $50, lady calls, I fold. They have 9-10 and Q-10 respectively.
In retrospect, there's really no good reason to not raise that turn. At the time I was thinking I'll just slowplay a bit, and hopefully trap her for another bet on the river. The board wasn't super scary. And if she checks to me on the river, I can bet big and maybe get her to call. I had seen her snap off a bluff with a really weak hand earlier (snap off - more like make a terrible call and get lucky) so I figured she might do that with me too. But I don't even know if I thought that at the time or not.
Overall, at the time I thought I played this session fine. However, in retrospect I can see I'm just playing really passive even with my big hands, which is not great. In this situation I probably saved money, but that doesn't mean I played them right.
Talking to my wife about it this weekend, I think I'm going to go back to the WPT Boot Camp style of play that I was using for a while. There are some minor modifications I think I'd like to make to it, but overall I WAS winning playing that style. Even though I had some big downswings, I also had some huge sessions.
Lost $75 this session. I'll report about the next one soon!
I'm going to try to go back to my Tuesday/Thursday blog schedule while I'm playing a lot. I'm definitely going to get some more sessions in next weekend, and I have another blog lined up for Thursday already. Enjoy!
Went up to the Rock tonight and played for a little over 3 hours. This was my first NL session in a long time.
Overall it was pretty slow. The table was fine, nothing special though. Lot of regulars, although I don't think they are particularly good. I played super tight the whole time. A little passive in a couple hands too. Maybe it was a mistake, although I thought I had valid reasons for both hands where I played a little too passive. But it's up for debate.
Hand 1 : I limp with 6-5 of clubs in the cutoff. My wife raises on the button to 7. 3 people call and I call. Flop comes A-10-3 with 3 clubs. Boom, I flop a flush. Checks to me and I check. I'm thinking I'll let her bet and I'll trap some additional people in there, and put in a big raise. Unfortunately she checks.
Turn is another ace. The blind bets out $10. One guy calls, and I call. I definitely could raise, but I figure this guy has an ace. And the other guy either has an ace or something like the king of clubs. So I'll see a river, and I can figure out what to do next since I'm in position. If it's a club I can just fold. Otherwise maybe I can raise the river and get value from an ace. I've under-repped my hand for sure.
River is a king. The blind bets out $10 again. Now the next guy raises to $55.
I thought about it for a bit and called. The blind folded. This guy has A-10. Flopped top two, turned a boat. I feel like this one is just a cooler, although maybe I could get away from it. Not sure. I think I pretty much just have to call since I under-represented my hand so much. But at the same time, what is this guy raising with? Maybe an ace, especially since the guy bet so small. So I guess it's OK. But I don't know if most people are raising the river just with A-J or A-9 there.
Hand 2: Limped J8s on the button after 4 limpers. Flop 10-9-4. Guy bets out 10 in early position, I call. Turn is an ace. He checks, I check. River I miss, he checks and I check. He had 9-8.
This one was pretty weak. I could have raised the flop, but I was OK with just calling. On the turn though, after the guy checks, I think I really have to bet. I was trying to just lose as little as possible, but a bet of $17-$20 on the turn would likely take it down. And if he calls, I can still hit. Seems really unlikely he would be check-raising. So that was not good.
Hand 3 : I get pocket jacks on the button. My wife raises to $10 to my left. I decide to just call. I would raise pretty much everyone else, so that is a mistake already. 3 others call. Flop comes Q-9-x, it checks to me, and I check. Turn is a jack. Boom. One guy checks, lady bets $20. Folds to me. I decide to just call. River is a king. First guy leads for $50, lady calls, I fold. They have 9-10 and Q-10 respectively.
In retrospect, there's really no good reason to not raise that turn. At the time I was thinking I'll just slowplay a bit, and hopefully trap her for another bet on the river. The board wasn't super scary. And if she checks to me on the river, I can bet big and maybe get her to call. I had seen her snap off a bluff with a really weak hand earlier (snap off - more like make a terrible call and get lucky) so I figured she might do that with me too. But I don't even know if I thought that at the time or not.
Overall, at the time I thought I played this session fine. However, in retrospect I can see I'm just playing really passive even with my big hands, which is not great. In this situation I probably saved money, but that doesn't mean I played them right.
Talking to my wife about it this weekend, I think I'm going to go back to the WPT Boot Camp style of play that I was using for a while. There are some minor modifications I think I'd like to make to it, but overall I WAS winning playing that style. Even though I had some big downswings, I also had some huge sessions.
Lost $75 this session. I'll report about the next one soon!
I'm going to try to go back to my Tuesday/Thursday blog schedule while I'm playing a lot. I'm definitely going to get some more sessions in next weekend, and I have another blog lined up for Thursday already. Enjoy!
Saturday, July 13, 2013
What I'm thinking before I get back into it
Things going through my head before I get back into poker this time around:
Play SUPER tight
It's going to suck and be boring, but I need to really lock it down preflop. I have just been getting into too many dicey situations post-flop and making mistakes, and those mistakes put me on tilt. So I need to just play as few hands as possible and hope I can hit something over the course of the session.
AND, when I do play hands, I need to make sure I can get away from them after the flop or on the turn if it gets bad. I know that's always a big problem for people when they play super tight. You play tight for hours, get A-K, and just lose a monster pot because you don't see the warning signs.
Try to stay cool, have no monetary expectations, and let the game come to me
It's very possible I'll lose. That happens all the time. And I might sit down and go down a bunch right away. You never know. I just need to deal with it and not let it affect me. When the session is over that's the only time the money in front of you counts. I guess even then it really doesn't matter if you are thinking about it all as one long session. So I just need to stay cool.
Treat everyone else as robots or trees or a video poker machine
Other people are going to crush, even if they don't deserve the winnings. And other people are going to get hit with the deck CONSTANTLY. I might see someone go on the sickest run ever today. They will be laughing it up, thinking they are the shit, and so on. I need to just ignore that. Everyone else at the table isn't even a real person. When I sit down, I'm immersed in this crazy game where things happen outside of my control. The only thing I can do is try to play my hands well.
Low variance
Back to the playing super tight angle, I'm going to try to take lines that reduce my variance. I think that might not overall be the most profitable (although it might be for me). The one thing it should do is cut down on my tilt when I lose a bunch of hands.
Post-session analysis
I am going to rate myself either an A, C, or F on three factors for each session:
- How well I ran (luck factor - am I hitting flushes? Am I hitting flops in general? Am I getting drawn out on?)
- How good my cards were preflop in general (did I get a lot of big pocket pairs / AK?)
- How well I think I played overall (did I make good decisions?)
I'm hoping the dollar value of my session correlates mostly to how well I ran and how good my cards were, and in each session I can honestly say I played well. Of course, it's going to take some additional analysis to determine if I'm actually playing well or not. And I need to try to be as objective as possible.
Wish me luck! I think we are going to play 1/2 at Red Rock tonight (although we might go elsewhere). My mission is to play as well as I can and really think about my decisions, and ignore how much I'm up or down during the session. Easier said than done, but I will try my best. I'm not drinking, I have had a long break, and I feel focused and capable of doing this. Let's do it.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
2 months later...
July 11th, 2013 - 11:30 PM
I've been trapped in a drunken haze and have just recently awaken from it. I am getting ready to play some serious poker again.
Poker was going great this year. Played 1/2 and 1/3, won, moved up to 2/5. Got crushed a little bit. Started drinking (unrelated to my poker losses of course). Kept playing, played fucking stupid, got crushed some more. Lose lose lose, and stopped playing serious poker.
The last couple months, the only poker I've played has been blackout drunk 2/4 limit poker at Suncoast. Pretty close to our house so the cab ride + tip was only about $20. Won some, lost some. Didn't really care. I was starting to think (yet again) that the poker career was over.
Recently though, my wife started talking us both out of drinking. We need to quit forever, again. So we have made that commitment and I haven't drank anything in about a week. Not a long time, but I'm feeling good about it. Mind you, if we hadn't quit I probably would have drank about 5 days (at least), maybe all 7. And each day, 10+ drinks. 10 is SUPER low on our really hard partying days.
Anyway, forget that. I'm back. I've been listening to a ton of poker podcasts and getting my mind right. I know I need to put hours in. And furthermore, I think I need to respect the dollars more this time around. Play premium hands. Sometimes I won't get paid. That's fine. A lot of the time, I won't hit the board and I'll have to give up. That's fine too. I'll still play aggressive when I'm in. But I bet I could cut down to 25% of the hands I was playing before, or even less. And I think it's pretty fair to limp (or not play at all) a lot of the hands I would have come in for a raise with before.
For example, 87s in the cutoff when nobody is in yet. There is $3 or $4 in the pot. Does it really makes sense for me to put in $10-$12 to win that, and start playing a pot I'm not going to be comfortable in? Heads up pot, miss the flop, c-bet, get called, and then what? Furthermore, I think doing stuff like that just puts me on tilt.
The WPT boot camp strategy was pretty good. However, I think I can cut out some things. Calling raises for up to 5% of my stack with suited gappers - why. Maybe limp after limpers. But is 7-4 suited really worth calling $6 even when we are both $300 behind? What happens, I flop a flush draw, he bets, I make it $40? Why not just fold and wait for a better spot preflop? And also, raising so much even in position. 30% or more of my hands in the cutoff or on the button? I could trim that WAY down and not lose much, I don't think.
Just tight tight tight. Wait for great hands and capitalize. Protect the stack otherwise. I had been playing super aggressive, and in some cases decent poker. But I think playing so loose blinded me and also put me on super tilt when I wasn't winning. Making it $150 preflop with A-Q in some spots - why? Fold. Why be a hero, at a fucking 1/2 game?
Yeah you feel stupid playing that tight, like all of these old guys. But they are making mistakes too. They are playing somewhat tight, and definitely passive, but they are limping in out of position. They are making mistakes. Maybe they are protecting their stack pretty well, but I can protect mine better. It's slow money, but it's money. Let's collect it and level up past 1/2 to 2/5.
Or as my wife suggested, set aside some winnings each month for a big tournament fund. Like every month if I win over $1000, put $1000 into a WSOP Main Event fund. And then when I get $10,000, even if it takes me 2, 3, 10 years - when that sucker comes around, register and roll the dice. Win that mother fucker.
Off to bed. Expect to see some more poker posts from me soon. And if all goes according to plan, expect to see a smarter, tighter player show up at the tables in the coming months.
I've been trapped in a drunken haze and have just recently awaken from it. I am getting ready to play some serious poker again.
Poker was going great this year. Played 1/2 and 1/3, won, moved up to 2/5. Got crushed a little bit. Started drinking (unrelated to my poker losses of course). Kept playing, played fucking stupid, got crushed some more. Lose lose lose, and stopped playing serious poker.
The last couple months, the only poker I've played has been blackout drunk 2/4 limit poker at Suncoast. Pretty close to our house so the cab ride + tip was only about $20. Won some, lost some. Didn't really care. I was starting to think (yet again) that the poker career was over.
Recently though, my wife started talking us both out of drinking. We need to quit forever, again. So we have made that commitment and I haven't drank anything in about a week. Not a long time, but I'm feeling good about it. Mind you, if we hadn't quit I probably would have drank about 5 days (at least), maybe all 7. And each day, 10+ drinks. 10 is SUPER low on our really hard partying days.
Anyway, forget that. I'm back. I've been listening to a ton of poker podcasts and getting my mind right. I know I need to put hours in. And furthermore, I think I need to respect the dollars more this time around. Play premium hands. Sometimes I won't get paid. That's fine. A lot of the time, I won't hit the board and I'll have to give up. That's fine too. I'll still play aggressive when I'm in. But I bet I could cut down to 25% of the hands I was playing before, or even less. And I think it's pretty fair to limp (or not play at all) a lot of the hands I would have come in for a raise with before.
For example, 87s in the cutoff when nobody is in yet. There is $3 or $4 in the pot. Does it really makes sense for me to put in $10-$12 to win that, and start playing a pot I'm not going to be comfortable in? Heads up pot, miss the flop, c-bet, get called, and then what? Furthermore, I think doing stuff like that just puts me on tilt.
The WPT boot camp strategy was pretty good. However, I think I can cut out some things. Calling raises for up to 5% of my stack with suited gappers - why. Maybe limp after limpers. But is 7-4 suited really worth calling $6 even when we are both $300 behind? What happens, I flop a flush draw, he bets, I make it $40? Why not just fold and wait for a better spot preflop? And also, raising so much even in position. 30% or more of my hands in the cutoff or on the button? I could trim that WAY down and not lose much, I don't think.
Just tight tight tight. Wait for great hands and capitalize. Protect the stack otherwise. I had been playing super aggressive, and in some cases decent poker. But I think playing so loose blinded me and also put me on super tilt when I wasn't winning. Making it $150 preflop with A-Q in some spots - why? Fold. Why be a hero, at a fucking 1/2 game?
Yeah you feel stupid playing that tight, like all of these old guys. But they are making mistakes too. They are playing somewhat tight, and definitely passive, but they are limping in out of position. They are making mistakes. Maybe they are protecting their stack pretty well, but I can protect mine better. It's slow money, but it's money. Let's collect it and level up past 1/2 to 2/5.
Or as my wife suggested, set aside some winnings each month for a big tournament fund. Like every month if I win over $1000, put $1000 into a WSOP Main Event fund. And then when I get $10,000, even if it takes me 2, 3, 10 years - when that sucker comes around, register and roll the dice. Win that mother fucker.
Off to bed. Expect to see some more poker posts from me soon. And if all goes according to plan, expect to see a smarter, tighter player show up at the tables in the coming months.
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