Went to the Venetian last night. The Venetian is typically the busiest place for 2/5 NL in Vegas. They will often have 4-5+ games going even during the week.
Long story short, I got beat down. Here are some of the hands:
While waiting at 1/2 NL, a short stacked guy in early position raised to 7. He had about 40 more. I look down at pocket 7s. Can't call to flop a set, not deep enough. I didn't want to fold, so I just pushed him all in. He snap calls with 88 and lose.
First hand at 2/5 I have 44 in late position. I raise to 20 and the button calls. Flop is A-6-4 with 2 diamonds. I bet out 30, he calls. Turn is the 10 of diamonds. I bet out 65, he calls. I'm worried he has the flush at this point. River is a blank, offsuit 7. Well, he could have made a straight here too potentially. I bet out $85 trying to get a call from a hand like A6 or AT. He raises to 200, I fold. Not much I can beat. I think there is no way he is raising me with 2 pair after the flush hit and I bet it twice. Any set beats me. There's just nothing I can beat there. Plus this guy doesn't look like a super crazy player so I don't have any reason to believe he's bluffing me.
We were playing 3 handed for a little while at the must move game. I don't love that, but I do feel like I should get some practice playing shorthanded. I'll be dealing with that at the bigger games.
While 3 handed I raise the button with 76o. Personally I think I'm probably playing way too loose when we are that short, but I have to learn. Big blind calls. He has maybe $200 total. Flop is 5-4-2 with 2 diamonds. I have the 7 of diamonds. He checks. I bet $20. He check-raises to $45. With 2 overs and a straight draw I put him all in. He SNAP calls with 7-4 and I don't get there. It was a flip (I had like 43% equity) but the real problem here was raising. After he check raises me, there is really no chance of him folding his hand with $100 more behind. I had outs against most everything, but overall I'm losing money by doing this.
I raise AQdd to 20 and the big blind calls. Flop comes out Q98 with 2 hearts. He leads for $30. I raise to $90. He reraises to $200 and has $200 more behind. I just don't think I beat much of anything at this point - I'm up against made hands (sets, 2 pair, straight) and big draws. So I fold.
You get the point. Just getting my ass handed to me over and over. OK one more hand of a slightly different variety:
A guy with a full stack ($1000) limps and I limp with 85dd. The big blind checks and we see the flop 3 ways. Flop is KQJ with 2 diamonds. Checks to me and I bet $15. Full stack guy raises to $35. Call. Turn is the 3 of diamonds. He bets out $60. I call again. He could have a bigger flush, but I'll find out more on the river. River pairs the king. Terrible card for me since he appeared strong on the flop and all 2 pair combinations are in his range. Sets maybe, although it seems likely he would raise preflop with JJ+. He bets out $75. At this point I tank, and it's not thinking about folding. Just whether I should raise or not. I couldn't think of much he could have that could call a raise and lose. AT I guess. And T9s now that I'm thinking about it. AK although I don't think he had AK. There aren't many other hands. No lower flushes really. So I just call. He had QJ. Flopped two pair, river counterfeited him. I think I played that one pretty well. Could raise the turn but overall I'm happy with it and I don't know that raising the turn would be the best play.
So I ended up losing $730. It was a bummer and during the session it made me question myself. Am I cut out for this? Can I win? Are these guys just so much better than me? I'll never be able to just crush these games. Why am I even trying. All of this stuff goes through your head when you start getting beat down.
I left, did my cool down routine, and felt OK. I have reacted so much worse to big losses in the past. I'm not happy about it but I also know that this WILL happen. There is nothing I can do to avoid losses periodically. In the grand scheme of things this wasn't even that big of a loss. If I'm playing 2/5, 5/10, and up, I'm setting myself up for much bigger losses in the future.
I just have to take it in stride and keep putting hours in. The beatings will happen but the good times will happen too. I'll pair the river with my set against the guy who turned a flush. The river won't pair the top card, giving me confidence to raise and get max value with my flush. I'll hit my straight when I'm all in against a lower pair. These things WILL happen.
So even though I took my biggest loss since April last night, I'm feeling OK. I know it's not the people I was playing against. It wasn't my severe lack of skill. It wasn't the Venetian. It was just one of those nights. If I want to be the real deal, I need to let it roll off my back, accept it as the cost of doing business and move on.
Looking forward to my next session. Not tonight, probably tomorrow night though.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Range calculation
I'm starting to see how creating someone's range is soooo important. It's not an exact science and it will really take a lot of practice for me to understand what players' ranges might be.
At a game like 1/2 and 2/5, I think starting with a narrower range is better. People typically play pretty tight and don't bluff a ton, so it's good to give them credit for good hands until you see otherwise. And even then, you probably don't want to adjust the range too much. Just slight adjustments over time.
This is probably why playing with the same people over and over is way more advantageous if you are paying attention. I started a note in Evernote where I'm going to take notes on individuals. Right now it's mostly for social reasons (remembering names, etc) but I could also put notes on ranges in there. Then over time as I play more with these people, it could really help.
Definitely tricky though. If someone reraises you preflop, what is their range? Like in a $1/2 game, you raise to $10 and someone makes it $30. Is it QQ+/AK+? Or is TT+/AQ+ a better range? The first has 34 combinations of hands (16 for AK, 6/6/6 combos of QQ/KK/AA). The second has almost double the hands. It adds an additional 28 combinations. Those ranges seem pretty similar but one is almost DOUBLE the other one.
And if you pick the tighter range, you might feel safer. I'll fold more because I'm putting them on a stronger range. But if the board comes out JT732 and you have 77, thoughts like "this guy only has AK+/QQ+, I have to have the winner" can screw you pretty hard if his actual range was TT+/AQ+ and he has JJ/TT in his range for bigger sets.
I guess at the end of the day there's no way to do this perfectly and that's why poker is such a beautiful game. Using ranges to determine what people have seems flawed when you walk through it like I just did, and it makes you think why should I bother? But if you don't do that, it's just worse. On the river in the example above you might just look at the board and think "what beats me? JJ, TT, 98, and I might beat JT, T7, 33, QQ+". But if it makes zero sense for JT, 98, T7, 33 to be in his range, that is not good. Even if you get the edges of the range wrong (the hands like JJ, TT), you are still better off constructing a range and going with it.
Poker is complicated. I'm loving digging into the details. Although I know there is so much I don't know, I think I'm on the path to understanding it all.
At a game like 1/2 and 2/5, I think starting with a narrower range is better. People typically play pretty tight and don't bluff a ton, so it's good to give them credit for good hands until you see otherwise. And even then, you probably don't want to adjust the range too much. Just slight adjustments over time.
This is probably why playing with the same people over and over is way more advantageous if you are paying attention. I started a note in Evernote where I'm going to take notes on individuals. Right now it's mostly for social reasons (remembering names, etc) but I could also put notes on ranges in there. Then over time as I play more with these people, it could really help.
Definitely tricky though. If someone reraises you preflop, what is their range? Like in a $1/2 game, you raise to $10 and someone makes it $30. Is it QQ+/AK+? Or is TT+/AQ+ a better range? The first has 34 combinations of hands (16 for AK, 6/6/6 combos of QQ/KK/AA). The second has almost double the hands. It adds an additional 28 combinations. Those ranges seem pretty similar but one is almost DOUBLE the other one.
And if you pick the tighter range, you might feel safer. I'll fold more because I'm putting them on a stronger range. But if the board comes out JT732 and you have 77, thoughts like "this guy only has AK+/QQ+, I have to have the winner" can screw you pretty hard if his actual range was TT+/AQ+ and he has JJ/TT in his range for bigger sets.
I guess at the end of the day there's no way to do this perfectly and that's why poker is such a beautiful game. Using ranges to determine what people have seems flawed when you walk through it like I just did, and it makes you think why should I bother? But if you don't do that, it's just worse. On the river in the example above you might just look at the board and think "what beats me? JJ, TT, 98, and I might beat JT, T7, 33, QQ+". But if it makes zero sense for JT, 98, T7, 33 to be in his range, that is not good. Even if you get the edges of the range wrong (the hands like JJ, TT), you are still better off constructing a range and going with it.
Poker is complicated. I'm loving digging into the details. Although I know there is so much I don't know, I think I'm on the path to understanding it all.
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Nug Tuesday
Played a little at the Nugget last night. Didn't have much happening as far as good hands, but I ended up squeaking out a small win ($42).
Biggest hand I played was this one. I was in late position with AK and raised to $15. I had about $1000 in front of me (bought in deep, wasn't up at all). A guy across the table in the big blind raises to $50. He had a monster stack as well so we had about the same effective stacks. I call.
Flop is J-8-7 with 2 hearts (I have the ace of hearts). He checks and I check. Turn is a king. He checks and I check again. River is an offsuit 5. He checks a third time. At this point I figure I have to have the best hand and I decided to overbet it. I bet $125 (5 green chips). He calls and has pocket aces. :P
This hand pissed me off at the time. I was just super annoyed. However, when I thought about it later I think it was OK. His range preflop for reraising is pretty tight which makes this one tough. Probably TT+ (maybe even JJ+ or QQ+), and AK. Maybe AQ, the widest range I can really give the guy is AQ+/TT+. I felt like when he checked it THREE freaking times though, he had to have a pretty weak hand.
My problem was in the sizing though, I think. The only hand I realistically beat is QQ. AA beats me, KK beats me. I tie with AK. I beat TT and AQ too if they are in his range I guess (and lose to JJ). I think that all of the hands that beat/tie me would have bet at some point (JJ, KK, AA, AK). However, the hands that are left are really weak. I'm not getting a call from AQ probably. QQ and TT might call but it would have to be a really small bet. So in retrospect I should have went with a $35 bet or something on the end, maybe $25, to try to get a crying call from QQ/TT and maybe AQ. Not a huge deal though, a lot of those hands might call the overbet as well (especially QQ which seemed very likely).
One thing that was pretty funny was my interaction with the other big stack at the table. He had about 1000, won the AA hand, and I immediately put another 500 on the table. A seat to his left opened up. He was in the 8 seat (10 handed) and I was in the 3 seat. I said "I'll take that seat" and moved over. I had all green chips, with a stack of red and some bills so it was really easy for me to pick up. As soon as I got there he said "I'm taking that seat" and pointed to my old seat. So we were just going to flip flop. He had a ton of chips and started to load them up. My positional advantage was gone though, so I just said "You know what bro you don't have to move, I'll just move back". So I moved back. It was pretty funny. He didn't acknowledge it at the time but we talked about it later. I told him that was the first time anyone had moved when I moved to their left. He said it was the first time he had someone move back when he moved away! So it was pretty funny and the guy seemed cool enough. Older guy named David.
My focus at the table hasn't been great, but I'm starting to see some improvements. I'm starting to put people on ranges during hands and narrow them down. Definitely not every hand, and I wish it was more than 1 hand a round, but I bet it's less. It's SOOOO easy for me to lose focus and forget what I need to work on. My goals at this point are to always count the pot, and always pick one player (when I'm out of the hand) to assign a range to and narrow it down as the action unfolds. Yesterday I was doing this more frequently and although I can't do it perfectly in realtime, I can see it's improving dramatically just from me putting the mental effort in.
One thing I started telling myself yesterday (acknowledging the focus issues) is that at this point, my hand really needs to begin after I fold my hand. It sounds crazy but with my poker goals as it stands now, most of them are based around focus when I'm out of the hand. So as long as I'm playing solid preflop, who cares what I do in the hand. I care more about what I'm doing when I'm out of the hand. Here are my current poker goals (which I review every day before the session, on each break every 2 hours, and after each session):
I probably should change my "count the pot" one to say I should count the pot every hand. But you get the point - the most important one IMO is the last one and that takes place when I'm out of the hand. I can do that when I'm in the hand too, but I'm not practiced up on it so I really need to work on it when I'm out of the hand. And I'm out of most hands, so that's the majority of the work I'm doing in the session.
One hand where this paid off and I was SUPER confident in my read is this hand. I call $1 more in the small blind with A9o. Flop is AK9 rainbow. There are 5 people in and I bet out $10. Girl in late position calls me. At this point I'm putting her on Ax, Kx, K9, or a set of 9s. AK/AA/KK are also possible but I think less likely because she didn't raise preflop. Turn was a 6. I bet out $30 and she called again. At this point I was really heavily weighing her range as Ax and K9. AA/KK/99 seemed way less likely since I haven't gotten raised. River was a 3. At this point I was 100% confident I had the best hand. Yes, I did have a big hand but less experienced people might still be worried about AK, 99, or even more ridiculous possibilities like 66 and check. I bet out $50 and got called. She didn't show but I'm still super confident she had Ax or K9. Narrowing down her range in realtime really helped me nail exactly what she had. It also helped me tailor the bet size to one that I thought ace rag could call.
My confidence is soaring when I see myself do things like this. I have NEVER done that before even though I've heard of things like ranges, etc for years now. The information is out there but I haven't practiced it and applied it at the table. Now that I am, it's very exciting for me.
Interesting acknowledgement in my dreams of becoming a poker pro as well. I'm going to shoot for a money goal. If I hit that amount, I can just straight up quit and play for a living (if I want to do that). Right now I'm thinking that goal is $50,000 more than I currently had in my bankroll at the time. In my personal blog (which most of my readers aka Johnny and Mike have access to) I dig more into it. It's something like $63,000 total. I go into it in more detail in that blog, but I think this is a great number and works just as well if not better than something like $100k or $200k. $60k or so would give me a good bankroll to play 1/2 - 5/10 NL comfortably and endure some tough times while siphoning off $4k or so per month at first to support the family. If it starts going downhill (get down to $20k or so), I'll have to seriously start looking for a job but I'll still have enough money to get by for months in the meantime.
If I started with $100k or $200k obviously the comfort level would be higher. However, my contention is that I'm either going to make it or not. I personally think with 60k, an excellent work ethic, and continuing to improve my game via studying, I would be OK and hopefully it would take off. In that case, the additional $40k or $140k really isn't doing much besides delaying me from giving the dream another shot. And if $60k won't work for me, neither will $100k or $200k. I'll just be delaying the envitable failure and re-entry into the workforce. If that is going to happen, I should make it happen sooner than later in order to reduce the amount I'm screwing my life over by trying this out.
That's it for me today. Hopefully I'm getting out tonight to play some 2/5, possibly at Wynn. With the big boys. :-)
Biggest hand I played was this one. I was in late position with AK and raised to $15. I had about $1000 in front of me (bought in deep, wasn't up at all). A guy across the table in the big blind raises to $50. He had a monster stack as well so we had about the same effective stacks. I call.
Flop is J-8-7 with 2 hearts (I have the ace of hearts). He checks and I check. Turn is a king. He checks and I check again. River is an offsuit 5. He checks a third time. At this point I figure I have to have the best hand and I decided to overbet it. I bet $125 (5 green chips). He calls and has pocket aces. :P
This hand pissed me off at the time. I was just super annoyed. However, when I thought about it later I think it was OK. His range preflop for reraising is pretty tight which makes this one tough. Probably TT+ (maybe even JJ+ or QQ+), and AK. Maybe AQ, the widest range I can really give the guy is AQ+/TT+. I felt like when he checked it THREE freaking times though, he had to have a pretty weak hand.
My problem was in the sizing though, I think. The only hand I realistically beat is QQ. AA beats me, KK beats me. I tie with AK. I beat TT and AQ too if they are in his range I guess (and lose to JJ). I think that all of the hands that beat/tie me would have bet at some point (JJ, KK, AA, AK). However, the hands that are left are really weak. I'm not getting a call from AQ probably. QQ and TT might call but it would have to be a really small bet. So in retrospect I should have went with a $35 bet or something on the end, maybe $25, to try to get a crying call from QQ/TT and maybe AQ. Not a huge deal though, a lot of those hands might call the overbet as well (especially QQ which seemed very likely).
One thing that was pretty funny was my interaction with the other big stack at the table. He had about 1000, won the AA hand, and I immediately put another 500 on the table. A seat to his left opened up. He was in the 8 seat (10 handed) and I was in the 3 seat. I said "I'll take that seat" and moved over. I had all green chips, with a stack of red and some bills so it was really easy for me to pick up. As soon as I got there he said "I'm taking that seat" and pointed to my old seat. So we were just going to flip flop. He had a ton of chips and started to load them up. My positional advantage was gone though, so I just said "You know what bro you don't have to move, I'll just move back". So I moved back. It was pretty funny. He didn't acknowledge it at the time but we talked about it later. I told him that was the first time anyone had moved when I moved to their left. He said it was the first time he had someone move back when he moved away! So it was pretty funny and the guy seemed cool enough. Older guy named David.
My focus at the table hasn't been great, but I'm starting to see some improvements. I'm starting to put people on ranges during hands and narrow them down. Definitely not every hand, and I wish it was more than 1 hand a round, but I bet it's less. It's SOOOO easy for me to lose focus and forget what I need to work on. My goals at this point are to always count the pot, and always pick one player (when I'm out of the hand) to assign a range to and narrow it down as the action unfolds. Yesterday I was doing this more frequently and although I can't do it perfectly in realtime, I can see it's improving dramatically just from me putting the mental effort in.
One thing I started telling myself yesterday (acknowledging the focus issues) is that at this point, my hand really needs to begin after I fold my hand. It sounds crazy but with my poker goals as it stands now, most of them are based around focus when I'm out of the hand. So as long as I'm playing solid preflop, who cares what I do in the hand. I care more about what I'm doing when I'm out of the hand. Here are my current poker goals (which I review every day before the session, on each break every 2 hours, and after each session):
- Count the pot before acting after the flop.
- Ignore all physical tells and other non-betting information.
- Make consistent physical movements.
- Play solid preflop.
- Pay attention to one player during each hand when out of the hand (focus on narrowing ranges from preflop on, not physical tells).
I probably should change my "count the pot" one to say I should count the pot every hand. But you get the point - the most important one IMO is the last one and that takes place when I'm out of the hand. I can do that when I'm in the hand too, but I'm not practiced up on it so I really need to work on it when I'm out of the hand. And I'm out of most hands, so that's the majority of the work I'm doing in the session.
One hand where this paid off and I was SUPER confident in my read is this hand. I call $1 more in the small blind with A9o. Flop is AK9 rainbow. There are 5 people in and I bet out $10. Girl in late position calls me. At this point I'm putting her on Ax, Kx, K9, or a set of 9s. AK/AA/KK are also possible but I think less likely because she didn't raise preflop. Turn was a 6. I bet out $30 and she called again. At this point I was really heavily weighing her range as Ax and K9. AA/KK/99 seemed way less likely since I haven't gotten raised. River was a 3. At this point I was 100% confident I had the best hand. Yes, I did have a big hand but less experienced people might still be worried about AK, 99, or even more ridiculous possibilities like 66 and check. I bet out $50 and got called. She didn't show but I'm still super confident she had Ax or K9. Narrowing down her range in realtime really helped me nail exactly what she had. It also helped me tailor the bet size to one that I thought ace rag could call.
My confidence is soaring when I see myself do things like this. I have NEVER done that before even though I've heard of things like ranges, etc for years now. The information is out there but I haven't practiced it and applied it at the table. Now that I am, it's very exciting for me.
Interesting acknowledgement in my dreams of becoming a poker pro as well. I'm going to shoot for a money goal. If I hit that amount, I can just straight up quit and play for a living (if I want to do that). Right now I'm thinking that goal is $50,000 more than I currently had in my bankroll at the time. In my personal blog (which most of my readers aka Johnny and Mike have access to) I dig more into it. It's something like $63,000 total. I go into it in more detail in that blog, but I think this is a great number and works just as well if not better than something like $100k or $200k. $60k or so would give me a good bankroll to play 1/2 - 5/10 NL comfortably and endure some tough times while siphoning off $4k or so per month at first to support the family. If it starts going downhill (get down to $20k or so), I'll have to seriously start looking for a job but I'll still have enough money to get by for months in the meantime.
If I started with $100k or $200k obviously the comfort level would be higher. However, my contention is that I'm either going to make it or not. I personally think with 60k, an excellent work ethic, and continuing to improve my game via studying, I would be OK and hopefully it would take off. In that case, the additional $40k or $140k really isn't doing much besides delaying me from giving the dream another shot. And if $60k won't work for me, neither will $100k or $200k. I'll just be delaying the envitable failure and re-entry into the workforce. If that is going to happen, I should make it happen sooner than later in order to reduce the amount I'm screwing my life over by trying this out.
That's it for me today. Hopefully I'm getting out tonight to play some 2/5, possibly at Wynn. With the big boys. :-)
Friday, August 15, 2014
Some work I'm doing
So I figured it made sense to do some work on paper to just study and improve things like narrowing down ranges, working on combinatorics, and so on. I decided to write down a couple hands that I can work with later, and some questions related to the hands. Here's my first hand and some of the questions I wrote down for it. I just thought of a common situation (AK utg) and generated an interesting random flop with PokerCruncher.
I have AcKd under the gun and raise to $20. 1 caller in middle position and the button calls. Flop comes As8s8h. I bet out $45 and the button calls.
Turn is the 5 of diamonds. I bet out $110.
- Range for button? What range am I representing?
- How much was in the pot? What pot odds am I giving my opponent? What am I trying to accomplish with this bet? What range am I representing here?
- If my opponent calls, what range am I putting him on? What is my plan on the river if these cards hit: 4s, Jh, 5h, Kc?
- If my opponent min-raises the turn, what range am I putting him on? What do I do, and what is my plan on the river?
I started working on this, and it's really complicated. Here is the start of my thought process:
Range for button - the button could call preflop with any suited ace, two cards 10+, any suited connector, any pair, 1 gap suited connectors. AA is unlikely (probably would reraise) but I think you can’t take it out of his range. On the flop he could be calling with sets/quads, trips, an ace, a boat with A8s, any flush draw.
- Sub-question: what percentage of his preflop range is he continuing with?
Preflop range has how many hands?
- All suited aces do not have a flush draw. 12 combos of Axcc and Axdd. 11 combos of Axhh.
- Two cards 10+ (still working on this)
Even just that first question : "what is his range?" is so complex. Also my initial analysis of the suited aces combos is incorrect. I forgot to factor in the Ac and Kd I'm holding.
Sometimes things like this can seem overwhelming. These appear (on the surface) to be simple questions and when I wrote them down, I thought I could probably plow through them pretty fast and the limiting factor would be the number of questions and situations I have to analyze. However, that is not the case. Even a supposedly simple situation is very complicated when you dig in.
Is it worth it? I'd love to see any thoughts posted as a comment.
Personally I think this is beneficial. I'm honestly not sure what effect this type of practice / analysis will have on my poker game. Today, I feel somewhat helpless and overwhelmed by the potential of going through these exercises. They take a long time. It's hard work thinking through everything. I know that there is not a time in the foreseeable future where I could apply this in realtime at the table. So it's easy to want to give up. This is also a reason that I think it's easy for people (myself included) to simply say, forget practice and training. I'll just play and get my training in at the table. If I play a ton and try to play well, good things will happen.
I think this type of training/practice is something you simply can not get at the table. You don't have time to dig deep. You don't have time to come up with an answer to a tough poker question and dig all the way in and analyze it. This is stuff that simply does have to be done off the table. And someday, if I do enough of these, it will come back as a sharper poker mind at the table.
I just need to hang in there. The road is long. But I can do it. Consistent progress, not only with time at the table but also off the table. I recognized this as one of my big weaknesses and I read it a couple times per session in my warmup routine and on breaks. I wrote : "I used to study poker a lot early in my career, and I don’t study anywhere near as much anymore." This is absolutely true. I can not let this happen to me again. I need to put the hours in and study, as difficult as it may seem. Also, as low of a payoff as it seems to provide in the short term. These are things that will make me the sick poker player I need to be in a year. Fuck this week and next week, and next month. Fuck the money I'm making or losing right now. I need to play. I need to study.
I need to be the best poker player I can be and take the quickest route there. Mentally it's tough to deal with, because the quickest route there is deceptive. The apparently quickest route is a straight line, taking the highway there. Playing 2/5, win money, play 5/10, win more money, play 10/20, and so on. However, that is a classic poker mistake. It's one I've made in the past and I can not repeat it. I have time and time again put playing (and making money) above all other things. This has lead to burnout and tilt, and overall losing WAY more money than I could have made if I took the more systematic, slower approach.
I believe in my ability and natural talents. I can do it. I just need to be diligent and never give up.
Nug last night
Played 1/2 for a few hours at the Nugget last night. Lost about $400. I'm cool with it though. Didn't have much going on, and I lost pretty much every big pot I played. I didn't play perfect, one of the worse sessions for me lately. At the same time I don't think my mistakes cost me that much. I was just running into bigger hands, missing draws and missing flops.
Huge opportunities too. I sat down with $1000. There were 2 other people with that much and I sat directly to their left. They were playing pretty tight so another guy sits down with $1k, and I sit directly to his left. Then this guy sits down with like $5k, he's talking shit about playing 25/50 NL, etc. I put the rest of my money on the table so I'm sitting there with $1700 waiting for the big hit. It never materialized.
Few hands (some interesting, some I'm just venting or showing you why I didn't win):
I look at the guy to my right (who has about $900). He looks at his cards and plain as day, I can see he has two black fives. He limps. I have 86o and limp behind. We are in middle position. I think the synergy between 55 and 86o is so huge. If you flop 579, 457, you get his stack. Period. I can just overbet it and there's no way he's getting away. Or if I flop 57x, I can call down knowing exactly where I am and knowing what I can get away with.
Unfortunately the button raised to 12 and we all call. Flop is 877. Checks to Mr. 55 and he bets $30. I know 100% I have him beat at this point, and I raise to $85. Maybe could just call, but I wanted to get other people out. In retrospect raising to $60 would have been the perfect play, but oh well. Now it folds around to this other lady with over $1000 and she is like "all in". Fine, I fold. I got screwed on that though. She said she flopped 8s full.
I go to the bathroom and come back. I have to wait a hand for my big blind, or I can just come in for $4 on the straddle. I straddle. Folds around to the button (same lady as in the last hand) and she makes it $12. I look down at AQ. I reraise to $40. She asks what I have (about $1400 or so, she has about $1200), tanks for a while, and calls.
Flop comes JcTcx. I have the ace of clubs too. I bet out $65, she calls. Alright. Turn, brick. I check, she bets $100. I fold. She shows AA. She is like "what did you have? You didn't have anything right? You were just raising me because I raised your straddle?" I told her sorry I can't tell you what I had. Overall it's a good thing if people think I'm raising them light. I'm playing SUPER fucking solid so anything I can do to look bad or crazy is a good thing.
Just other hands that were annoying - I raise TT preflop and am against AK and 99, ace on the flop and 9 on the river. If the flop was T9x I double through for the full $1700 because I was against the big stack. Limp with 63hh, flop is Th5h4c, I call relatively small bets on the flop and turn and miss everything. I didn't hit anything all night long.
Overall I ended up losing $400 but like I said, I'm not worried about it. Although I could have played better (I was under the influence a bit), I didn't play terrible and looking back at my hands, I played decent. I definitely was lacking focus in some of the areas I'm trying to improve on, like watching other people when I'm out of the hand.
No biggie. Tonight I'm not playing, and tomorrow I'm going on an all day hike. Maybe Sunday. Honestly I think I was poised for a giant win if some of the hands went differently. Next time!
Huge opportunities too. I sat down with $1000. There were 2 other people with that much and I sat directly to their left. They were playing pretty tight so another guy sits down with $1k, and I sit directly to his left. Then this guy sits down with like $5k, he's talking shit about playing 25/50 NL, etc. I put the rest of my money on the table so I'm sitting there with $1700 waiting for the big hit. It never materialized.
Few hands (some interesting, some I'm just venting or showing you why I didn't win):
I look at the guy to my right (who has about $900). He looks at his cards and plain as day, I can see he has two black fives. He limps. I have 86o and limp behind. We are in middle position. I think the synergy between 55 and 86o is so huge. If you flop 579, 457, you get his stack. Period. I can just overbet it and there's no way he's getting away. Or if I flop 57x, I can call down knowing exactly where I am and knowing what I can get away with.
Unfortunately the button raised to 12 and we all call. Flop is 877. Checks to Mr. 55 and he bets $30. I know 100% I have him beat at this point, and I raise to $85. Maybe could just call, but I wanted to get other people out. In retrospect raising to $60 would have been the perfect play, but oh well. Now it folds around to this other lady with over $1000 and she is like "all in". Fine, I fold. I got screwed on that though. She said she flopped 8s full.
I go to the bathroom and come back. I have to wait a hand for my big blind, or I can just come in for $4 on the straddle. I straddle. Folds around to the button (same lady as in the last hand) and she makes it $12. I look down at AQ. I reraise to $40. She asks what I have (about $1400 or so, she has about $1200), tanks for a while, and calls.
Flop comes JcTcx. I have the ace of clubs too. I bet out $65, she calls. Alright. Turn, brick. I check, she bets $100. I fold. She shows AA. She is like "what did you have? You didn't have anything right? You were just raising me because I raised your straddle?" I told her sorry I can't tell you what I had. Overall it's a good thing if people think I'm raising them light. I'm playing SUPER fucking solid so anything I can do to look bad or crazy is a good thing.
Just other hands that were annoying - I raise TT preflop and am against AK and 99, ace on the flop and 9 on the river. If the flop was T9x I double through for the full $1700 because I was against the big stack. Limp with 63hh, flop is Th5h4c, I call relatively small bets on the flop and turn and miss everything. I didn't hit anything all night long.
Overall I ended up losing $400 but like I said, I'm not worried about it. Although I could have played better (I was under the influence a bit), I didn't play terrible and looking back at my hands, I played decent. I definitely was lacking focus in some of the areas I'm trying to improve on, like watching other people when I'm out of the hand.
No biggie. Tonight I'm not playing, and tomorrow I'm going on an all day hike. Maybe Sunday. Honestly I think I was poised for a giant win if some of the hands went differently. Next time!
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
I'm a professional player too
Last night I went to Red Rock to play. Red Rock typically has one of the best 2/5 games in town and I was super successful at it earlier this year. I called ahead and got my name on the list, and worked my way up from $4/$8 limit to $1/$2 limit as I waited for the $2/$5 game.
Major bummer, the bad beat is gone! :( Station Casinos always had the huge bad beat jackpot in Vegas. When I first came to Vegas it was at its peak, and the dollar amounts eventually went down over time, but the last time I was at the Rock if you lost the jackpot hand you'd get $40k, if you win you'd get $30k, and the remaining money was split between all players. Now it's gone. If they weren't taking the jackpot drop that's one thing, but they still are. Now they just have this progressive royal promotion so if you get a royal flush with the ace in your hand, you can get $1k, $3k, it goes up to $50k as the highest. Total ripoff if you ask me, because they were running the EXACT same royal promotion for like a year alongside the bad beat. Now they remove the bad beat altogether and are still taking the same jackpot rake. Shady.
I scooped up a quick $35 or so at 1/2 before moving to $2/$5. I bought another $1000 in green and went over there with around $1335. As it turns out, the max buy-in is only $1000 and I had to take some off. I could have sworn it was $1500.
Right away I started getting beat up. First hand I play I have AdKd under the gun. I raise to $25. 2 people call and the guy in the big blind makes it $150. He has me covered. I decided to just fold. He showed KK when everyone else folded.
I got a ton of decent starting hands and was raising a LOT when I sat down, but I wasn't playing crazy. Just had a lot of hands. This guy next to me is like "Be careful - I'm a professional player too." And something like "I'm only going to tell you once" or something about a fair warning or something. What a joke! I remember this guy. I had seen him at the Golden Nugget recently and he played AWFUL. I basically didn't say anything. The guy was so annoying and he wouldn't shut up, but I luckily had some headphones and put them on to block him out. That guy ended up making some TERRIBLE plays, like he went all in on a JTx flop with KJ for like $800 (and maybe $200 in the pot) when this other guy that had him covered was still in the hand. Whatever.
So back to getting beat up. I raise to $20 with AJ in the cutoff. This annoying guy insta raises to $60. At the Nugget I had seen him do this before with nothing, to try to be cool and prove a point. However, I figured fuck it, I'll let this go right now. I fold and he shows KK. Then later I reraise preflop to $45 with AQ, same guy calls along with another guy. Flop is 987, I check, annoying guy bets out 120, we both fold, he shows 99.
Couple hours in and I'm down, but I'm playing solid and feeling fine. The breaks are really helping me out, and the warm up routine is really great. It helps me remember what I'm trying to do and focus.
Then it started to turn around. Some new old guy in early position makes it $15. The annoying guy calls. I reraise to $50 with AQ. They both call. Flop comes out 764. Not the best flop. They both check. I bet the minimum I thought I could get away with, $65. They both fold. Yes.
I raise with AQ again to $25 after 1 limper. 2 calls including this old lady on my left. Flop is Q92 rainbow. Decent flop. Checks to me, I bet $50, the lady calls. I figure she could have a set, JT for the straight draw, or a queen. Not much else. Heavily weighted towards the queens for sure just based on combinatorics, although I didn't actually do the math at the time. There are 6 combos of sets, 16 combos of JT, and if she could have AQ, KQ, JQ, QT, that's 30 combos of queens.
Turn is a queen. Now I'm feeling pretty good. I bet out 5 green chips - $125. She goes all in for maybe $150 more. I call. River is a king. She eventually shows QT and I win a decent pot. Sweet, I'm back in black for the session.
Later an old guy raises in early position. I look down at two red aces. I raise to $50. Kind of a big raise but why not? People will call anyway if they have a big hand, so there's no good reason to make it less. Now the button makes it $125! YES!!!
The old guy folds. The reraiser has about $900 more. I reraise to $300 total. He calls. Obviously he has a big hand, but I figured no matter what happens after the flop, I'm doing OK overall because I got so much in preflop.
Flop is K-x-x with three diamonds. I have the red aces so I also have the flush draw. I don't love the king. I'm not going to check fold though especially with the flush draw. So I bet out smaller hoping that he would come along with AK or QQ or whatever (although realistically I didn't think he would have AK). I bet $300, he goes all in, I call. It was about $700 in on the flop. River is the diamond and I flip up my hand. He flips up his KK in disgust and walks out. MONSTER pot!!!!
Not much else happened from there. I had a great session and luck was on my side. That's a great feeling. Won about $1100, but better yet I think I played great and stayed in control. Can't wait for the next session!
Major bummer, the bad beat is gone! :( Station Casinos always had the huge bad beat jackpot in Vegas. When I first came to Vegas it was at its peak, and the dollar amounts eventually went down over time, but the last time I was at the Rock if you lost the jackpot hand you'd get $40k, if you win you'd get $30k, and the remaining money was split between all players. Now it's gone. If they weren't taking the jackpot drop that's one thing, but they still are. Now they just have this progressive royal promotion so if you get a royal flush with the ace in your hand, you can get $1k, $3k, it goes up to $50k as the highest. Total ripoff if you ask me, because they were running the EXACT same royal promotion for like a year alongside the bad beat. Now they remove the bad beat altogether and are still taking the same jackpot rake. Shady.
I scooped up a quick $35 or so at 1/2 before moving to $2/$5. I bought another $1000 in green and went over there with around $1335. As it turns out, the max buy-in is only $1000 and I had to take some off. I could have sworn it was $1500.
Right away I started getting beat up. First hand I play I have AdKd under the gun. I raise to $25. 2 people call and the guy in the big blind makes it $150. He has me covered. I decided to just fold. He showed KK when everyone else folded.
I got a ton of decent starting hands and was raising a LOT when I sat down, but I wasn't playing crazy. Just had a lot of hands. This guy next to me is like "Be careful - I'm a professional player too." And something like "I'm only going to tell you once" or something about a fair warning or something. What a joke! I remember this guy. I had seen him at the Golden Nugget recently and he played AWFUL. I basically didn't say anything. The guy was so annoying and he wouldn't shut up, but I luckily had some headphones and put them on to block him out. That guy ended up making some TERRIBLE plays, like he went all in on a JTx flop with KJ for like $800 (and maybe $200 in the pot) when this other guy that had him covered was still in the hand. Whatever.
So back to getting beat up. I raise to $20 with AJ in the cutoff. This annoying guy insta raises to $60. At the Nugget I had seen him do this before with nothing, to try to be cool and prove a point. However, I figured fuck it, I'll let this go right now. I fold and he shows KK. Then later I reraise preflop to $45 with AQ, same guy calls along with another guy. Flop is 987, I check, annoying guy bets out 120, we both fold, he shows 99.
Couple hours in and I'm down, but I'm playing solid and feeling fine. The breaks are really helping me out, and the warm up routine is really great. It helps me remember what I'm trying to do and focus.
Then it started to turn around. Some new old guy in early position makes it $15. The annoying guy calls. I reraise to $50 with AQ. They both call. Flop comes out 764. Not the best flop. They both check. I bet the minimum I thought I could get away with, $65. They both fold. Yes.
I raise with AQ again to $25 after 1 limper. 2 calls including this old lady on my left. Flop is Q92 rainbow. Decent flop. Checks to me, I bet $50, the lady calls. I figure she could have a set, JT for the straight draw, or a queen. Not much else. Heavily weighted towards the queens for sure just based on combinatorics, although I didn't actually do the math at the time. There are 6 combos of sets, 16 combos of JT, and if she could have AQ, KQ, JQ, QT, that's 30 combos of queens.
Turn is a queen. Now I'm feeling pretty good. I bet out 5 green chips - $125. She goes all in for maybe $150 more. I call. River is a king. She eventually shows QT and I win a decent pot. Sweet, I'm back in black for the session.
Later an old guy raises in early position. I look down at two red aces. I raise to $50. Kind of a big raise but why not? People will call anyway if they have a big hand, so there's no good reason to make it less. Now the button makes it $125! YES!!!
The old guy folds. The reraiser has about $900 more. I reraise to $300 total. He calls. Obviously he has a big hand, but I figured no matter what happens after the flop, I'm doing OK overall because I got so much in preflop.
Flop is K-x-x with three diamonds. I have the red aces so I also have the flush draw. I don't love the king. I'm not going to check fold though especially with the flush draw. So I bet out smaller hoping that he would come along with AK or QQ or whatever (although realistically I didn't think he would have AK). I bet $300, he goes all in, I call. It was about $700 in on the flop. River is the diamond and I flip up my hand. He flips up his KK in disgust and walks out. MONSTER pot!!!!
Not much else happened from there. I had a great session and luck was on my side. That's a great feeling. Won about $1100, but better yet I think I played great and stayed in control. Can't wait for the next session!
Monday, August 11, 2014
Playing bad and winning
This weekend I played a decent amount of poker. About 10 hours total. On Friday at the Wynn I think I played pretty well. I was frustrated because the table wasn't great and there were some people playing pretty good and aggressive. On Saturday I played pretty bad but ended up winning.
Quick note, I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite poker podcast episode ever. I listen to a ton of poker podcasts (2+2 podcast, Tournament Poker Edge podcast, Thinking Poker, etc), but my very favorite episodes are the Limon episodes on the Deuce Plays podcasts. You can still get them on iTunes for free and it looks like you can download them here as well : Deuce Plays Podcasts. Episode 37 is an episode I've listened to a ton of times, and I love all of the interviews with that guy. Just a live poker grinder and I love his perspective on things. It's a must listen episode. :)
On Saturday we got super drunk and played some at the Nugget. I bought in really deep and I was playing against others that had a ton of money as well. There were maybe 3 others at the table with over $1000 in the 1/2 game.
Right away I played a big hand. I raised in early position to $10 with two red nines. 4 callers. Flop comes 8d7d2x. I check. I think I was just confused and didn't really know what to do. Not a bad board for me, but there are a lot of people in and I want to see what's going to happen. A guy bets $30 and he only has about $100 more. Another guy calls $30. I thought he was also somewhat short, but it turns out he had about $200 total. It folds back to me and I went all-in. I had a decent hand and didn't have a good reason to think these other guys have monster hands. Reraising less wouldn't do much... there's already about $100 in there and these guys don't have that much more. So I go all in, they both call. :P The guy who bet $30 has pocket aces. The other guy has pocket 7s for a set. So I lose a big pot right away.
I misread my hand in a pretty big pot too. First time I've done that in an extremely long time. I've played a lot drunk but never misread my hand. I had 7d5d and either limped or called a raise. Flop had a 5 on it, I bet out. Flop was 8-5-2. Turn was a 7, so I make two pair. I bet out $80, guy calls. River is a 4. Makes a 1 card straight, but I went for value and bet $100. He calls. I flip up my hand and my 7d5d has turned into 5d3d. I was shocked and couldn't believe I misread my hand. As it turns out, the other guy had 6-4 and turned a straight so even if I had 2 pair I would have lost, but still. Pretty bad mistake.
Later this cowboy guy is playing insane and I got into a monster pot with him. Leading up to the hand, he realized there was no max buy-in and put his entire roll on the table - something like 4-5 thousand. I had everything I brought with me on the table as well. At that point it was probably around $1400. I had AA and raised to $20. Few people call. Flop comes T-9-2 (can't remember if there was a flush draw). Cowboy bets out $80. I thought about slowplaying it, but I decided to raise and threw in two $100 bills. Folds back to him and he immediately grabs his stack of bills, counts out 11, and throws them in.
At this point I took some time to think about it. I knew this guy was capable of bluffing. He had been doing it constantly. However, would he bluff this much? It was a huge bet and anyone is capable of waking up with a hand. For better or worse, I went all-in for my remaining few hundred dollars and he calls. We got around $1400 EACH in on the flop. Such a huge pot in a 1/2 game, it was crazy.
I flip up my A-A. The cards run out, and he says he missed. He had J-8. To be honest I can't remember if the flop was T-9 or something else like T-7 or T-6. I don't think he had an open ended draw, I thought he went all in with more or less nothing. Maybe he had a gutshot. With the alcohol and the overall excitement of the situation it's hard to remember. All I know is that I won probably my biggest 1/2 NL pot ever.
Overall I don't think it was a very good play. I got lucky and I know I was stubborn to get all in there. One pair for $1400. I'm happy I won and it was my biggest win in a while, but it doesn't mean it was a good play. That type of move should be reserved for when you flop a monster hand - a set, straight, maybe 2 pair, etc. I was just flipping a coin that this guy didn't flop a big hand. Yes, he was bluffing a lot, but I hadn't seen him bluff exactly like that for a huge portion of his stack.
Oh well, sometimes you just run good. :) I ended up winning $870 on Saturday.
I went through and reconciled my bankroll so I know exactly how much I have at this point. We spent some gambling this summer and I wasn't recording everything so I knew my records were a bit off. At this point I have almost $13k. I'll be playing some 2/5 but I think I can start playing some 5/10 again soon too if there is a good looking table. I'm looking forward to getting some hours in this week.
Quick note, I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite poker podcast episode ever. I listen to a ton of poker podcasts (2+2 podcast, Tournament Poker Edge podcast, Thinking Poker, etc), but my very favorite episodes are the Limon episodes on the Deuce Plays podcasts. You can still get them on iTunes for free and it looks like you can download them here as well : Deuce Plays Podcasts. Episode 37 is an episode I've listened to a ton of times, and I love all of the interviews with that guy. Just a live poker grinder and I love his perspective on things. It's a must listen episode. :)
On Saturday we got super drunk and played some at the Nugget. I bought in really deep and I was playing against others that had a ton of money as well. There were maybe 3 others at the table with over $1000 in the 1/2 game.
Right away I played a big hand. I raised in early position to $10 with two red nines. 4 callers. Flop comes 8d7d2x. I check. I think I was just confused and didn't really know what to do. Not a bad board for me, but there are a lot of people in and I want to see what's going to happen. A guy bets $30 and he only has about $100 more. Another guy calls $30. I thought he was also somewhat short, but it turns out he had about $200 total. It folds back to me and I went all-in. I had a decent hand and didn't have a good reason to think these other guys have monster hands. Reraising less wouldn't do much... there's already about $100 in there and these guys don't have that much more. So I go all in, they both call. :P The guy who bet $30 has pocket aces. The other guy has pocket 7s for a set. So I lose a big pot right away.
I misread my hand in a pretty big pot too. First time I've done that in an extremely long time. I've played a lot drunk but never misread my hand. I had 7d5d and either limped or called a raise. Flop had a 5 on it, I bet out. Flop was 8-5-2. Turn was a 7, so I make two pair. I bet out $80, guy calls. River is a 4. Makes a 1 card straight, but I went for value and bet $100. He calls. I flip up my hand and my 7d5d has turned into 5d3d. I was shocked and couldn't believe I misread my hand. As it turns out, the other guy had 6-4 and turned a straight so even if I had 2 pair I would have lost, but still. Pretty bad mistake.
Later this cowboy guy is playing insane and I got into a monster pot with him. Leading up to the hand, he realized there was no max buy-in and put his entire roll on the table - something like 4-5 thousand. I had everything I brought with me on the table as well. At that point it was probably around $1400. I had AA and raised to $20. Few people call. Flop comes T-9-2 (can't remember if there was a flush draw). Cowboy bets out $80. I thought about slowplaying it, but I decided to raise and threw in two $100 bills. Folds back to him and he immediately grabs his stack of bills, counts out 11, and throws them in.
At this point I took some time to think about it. I knew this guy was capable of bluffing. He had been doing it constantly. However, would he bluff this much? It was a huge bet and anyone is capable of waking up with a hand. For better or worse, I went all-in for my remaining few hundred dollars and he calls. We got around $1400 EACH in on the flop. Such a huge pot in a 1/2 game, it was crazy.
I flip up my A-A. The cards run out, and he says he missed. He had J-8. To be honest I can't remember if the flop was T-9 or something else like T-7 or T-6. I don't think he had an open ended draw, I thought he went all in with more or less nothing. Maybe he had a gutshot. With the alcohol and the overall excitement of the situation it's hard to remember. All I know is that I won probably my biggest 1/2 NL pot ever.
Overall I don't think it was a very good play. I got lucky and I know I was stubborn to get all in there. One pair for $1400. I'm happy I won and it was my biggest win in a while, but it doesn't mean it was a good play. That type of move should be reserved for when you flop a monster hand - a set, straight, maybe 2 pair, etc. I was just flipping a coin that this guy didn't flop a big hand. Yes, he was bluffing a lot, but I hadn't seen him bluff exactly like that for a huge portion of his stack.
Oh well, sometimes you just run good. :) I ended up winning $870 on Saturday.
I went through and reconciled my bankroll so I know exactly how much I have at this point. We spent some gambling this summer and I wasn't recording everything so I knew my records were a bit off. At this point I have almost $13k. I'll be playing some 2/5 but I think I can start playing some 5/10 again soon too if there is a good looking table. I'm looking forward to getting some hours in this week.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Wynn last night
Played a short session at Wynn last night. 2/5 NL. It was a blast!
I'm buying in for the full stack now, $1500. That feels good. I feel confident that I'll be able to make the right decisions and stay out of the way of better people at the table. What I've seen the last couple days too is that the "good" people at 2/5 just play ridiculously tight. So that makes it easy to stay out of their way.
I only had one hand that was somewhat interesting yesterday. SUPER tight guy under the gun raises to 20. He has me covered. This old guy with a billion dollars calls. I have about $2000 and call with A8ss. Flop comes K77 with 2 spades. They both check to me. I thought about checking, but I also thought it was unlikely the first guy had anything or he would have just bet, so I bet $45. The original raiser calls. Turn is a brick, offsuit 5. We both check. River is an 8. He checks. I try to go for some pretty thin value and bet out $75. I thought he might talk himself into calling with some ace high hand thinking I missed spades. He calls with KQ.
In retrospect this wasn't that great. I think it's very likely he could also have 99-QQ and call. I didn't expect a king was in his range because I would have figured he would bet the river. Overall this guy is so tight that maybe it was overly ambitious to expect he would call me with worse. Live and learn though.
In another hand I raised very small ($15) with 4-4 in early position. Guy with about $260 calls me. Flop is Q-4-5 with the 4 and 5 of hearts. Checks to me. I bet $20. Now this guy check raises to $40. He has two hundred dollar bills left. I thought about reraising but I also thought that it might look way too strong, and since I was in position I could let him bet again. So I call. Turn is a 7, he bets 100. I casually toss in two black chips. He insta calls. He is drawing dead with KQ. Sweet.
My buy-in was fun too. I had $200 in red chips, a stack of green ($500), and 8 black chips. I think it's a good idea to keep the number of chips I need to move on any given hand low. So even if I'm betting several hundred dollars, I can just grab a small number of chips to make it happen.
I ended up winning $411. Not half bad for 2.5 hours of play. I'm not getting a ton of hours in but I'm having fun and playing well with the hours I do get in. That's a good thing. Slow and steady but if I keep making progress I'm happy.
I'm buying in for the full stack now, $1500. That feels good. I feel confident that I'll be able to make the right decisions and stay out of the way of better people at the table. What I've seen the last couple days too is that the "good" people at 2/5 just play ridiculously tight. So that makes it easy to stay out of their way.
I only had one hand that was somewhat interesting yesterday. SUPER tight guy under the gun raises to 20. He has me covered. This old guy with a billion dollars calls. I have about $2000 and call with A8ss. Flop comes K77 with 2 spades. They both check to me. I thought about checking, but I also thought it was unlikely the first guy had anything or he would have just bet, so I bet $45. The original raiser calls. Turn is a brick, offsuit 5. We both check. River is an 8. He checks. I try to go for some pretty thin value and bet out $75. I thought he might talk himself into calling with some ace high hand thinking I missed spades. He calls with KQ.
In retrospect this wasn't that great. I think it's very likely he could also have 99-QQ and call. I didn't expect a king was in his range because I would have figured he would bet the river. Overall this guy is so tight that maybe it was overly ambitious to expect he would call me with worse. Live and learn though.
In another hand I raised very small ($15) with 4-4 in early position. Guy with about $260 calls me. Flop is Q-4-5 with the 4 and 5 of hearts. Checks to me. I bet $20. Now this guy check raises to $40. He has two hundred dollar bills left. I thought about reraising but I also thought that it might look way too strong, and since I was in position I could let him bet again. So I call. Turn is a 7, he bets 100. I casually toss in two black chips. He insta calls. He is drawing dead with KQ. Sweet.
My buy-in was fun too. I had $200 in red chips, a stack of green ($500), and 8 black chips. I think it's a good idea to keep the number of chips I need to move on any given hand low. So even if I'm betting several hundred dollars, I can just grab a small number of chips to make it happen.
I ended up winning $411. Not half bad for 2.5 hours of play. I'm not getting a ton of hours in but I'm having fun and playing well with the hours I do get in. That's a good thing. Slow and steady but if I keep making progress I'm happy.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Mental Hand History - Wynn last night
I don't have a ton of time, need to get to work. However, I played some at the Wynn last night. Some 1/3 NL for a little while, then some 2/5 NL. Played about 2 hours total.
I think I played really well. I did identify some situations where I could feel myself going on tilt. In The Mental Game of Poker, they have a way to dig deeper into a "mental hand history". I wrote down a situation where this came up. Here's how the hand went down:
I was in the blind with 7d5d. I call $3 more, and the big blind checks. 5 people are in. Flop comes 6-4-2 rainbow. Great board for me, straight draw and no flush draw possible. I check, 3 more checks, and the last guy bets out $20. This is an inexperienced player that just doubled through by getting all in preflop with A-Q. I have about $1500 in front of me because I bought in for the max, so I have his $500 or so covered. I call. One other guy calls, and this lady that sat down recently with $300 (lame) check raises to $100.
I was thinking about calling if the button called. She had about $150 more behind and obviously had a big hand. $20 preflop + $80 + $80 (her raise) + $80 (if the button called) = $260 in the pot, $80 to me to call and it was very likely that if I hit, I'd get the other $150. I have 8 clean outs. I think that would have been reasonable. The button folded though, so I had to call $80 to win $180 (plus possibly the other $150). I folded. I think it's close, I need to actually go through that one and figure out the exact math. I also thought it was likely she had a set, so even if I hit the turn, she had some outs going to the river.
This hand pissed me off because first off, I hate short stacks. If you are buying into a 2/5 game with $300, just go play 1/3!!! It's not even a full buy-in at 1/3. Get off of my table. However, that is not a productive way of thinking. I could feel my face getting hot and I knew I was getting tilted by this strange play. So I wrote it down and went through the mental hand history process. The questions and my answers are below. Hopefully this helps me learn to not get too frustrated by these weird plays and short stacks.
BTW I ended up winning about $50 last night. Not too many exciting hands. The most exciting thing was that I bought in for a full stack, $1500 in the 2/5 game. I have never done that before. But I figure, I'm playing solid and making good decisions. Why not buy in for the max, play my best, and try to win some massive pots. I want to be the guy that buys in for the max in the games I'm in. It makes me feel like the great player I want to be. No, the great player I AM! :-)
1. Describe the problem. To begin, write down what you would say if you were describing the problem in your mental game to me. It may be something such as, “I go on tilt when a fish sucks out on me in a big pot” or “I play too loose when I’m winning big”.
I hate when someone pulls a weird play off on me. This is especially true if that person is short stacked or I think they are a fish. Yesterday there was a 5 way pot limped preflop and I had 7d5d. The flop came 6-4-2 rainbow. Checked to the button and he bet $20. I called. Now this lady with about $300 total (in a 2/5 game) makes it $100. I thought about calling if the button called, but he folded and I folded. I could feel my face getting hot and I knew I was getting frustrated. In my head I’m saying “what a dumbass” because who would let 3 people check and try to check-raise the button in that spot? Seems stupid because there is no reason to expect him to raise, so it’s just a ridiculous play in my mind. And I hate getting beat by a move that I think is ridiculous and makes no sense.
2. Why does it make logical sense that you would react, think, or feel that way? This question may be counterintuitive if the problem in step 1 seems completely irrational or illogical. It’s not. If you identify more than one reason while completing this step, follow the next 3 steps for each reason.
I think that I’m a good player and my plays through that point in the hand with the information I had were correct. I hate when a person pulls off a ridiculous, low percentage move and ends up thinking they are a genius, as well as winning my money. I also hate making what I think was the right move, only to find out that someone else tried something crazy and ended up winning, even if their approach will not work as often as a more optimal approach. I also hate losing to people that I think are bad players. All short stacked players fall into this bucket for me.
3. Why is that logic flawed? Avoid using stock answers for why the logic or reason you found in step 2 is flawed, unless you’re sure it’s correct. Accuracy is critical. Plus, since there are often multiple reasons why your logic is flawed, don’t assume that you know all of them.
This logic is flawed for a few reasons.
First, I want other people to make bad decisions or non-optimal plays. The money I gain in poker will come from playing with people that make wrong decisions. When this lady wins the pot, her bad decision is reinforced by winning. This means that she will continue to do things like this in the future even if they are a bad idea. Other people might also see this and try the same thing, causing a butterfly effect of non-optimal play that is nothing but good for me.
Second, even when I think these plays are bad, they aren’t all necessarily bad. Maybe this lady saw the next guy reaching for chips, so she decided to check-raise instead of bet out with her set (or whatever she had). In this particular case I don’t know that the play was that good, but I also immediately jump to the conclusion that because a short stacked (or otherwise bad player as I see it) beat me using a somewhat strange play, that play is bad. That may not always be the case and I may be able to learn something from these non-standard plays. In fact, plays outside of the common knowledge, normal way to play poker could potentially be some of the biggest money making things I could leverage. If other people don’t understand a play and I have thought of a way to play a hand in an non-standard way that is better than the standard, I could win a lot of money AND have other people thinking that I’m an idiot, which is a fantastic situation.
4. What is the correct way to handle the situation? Be sure to use affirmative language in at least some part of your answer. Possibly add a statement that corrects the illusion of control, like “I can’t control the cards, I can only control how well I play and react”
When I am beaten by a non-standard play, I should think deeper into the reasoning behind that play. What was this person thinking? Although I may not agree with it, what was the logic that lead them to this decision? Is there a situation where a play like that could be profitable, and should I integrate that into my game? Is there a way I can anticipate a player doing something like this in the future? I can use these situations as learning opportunities to find out more about my opponents and potentially even think about poker in a way I haven’t before.
5. Why is that correction correct?
This correction allows me to think more critically about the game in general. This will improve my game. The more I think about what other people are thinking about, the more I can get into their head and anticipate non-standard plays. Anticipating that one of these plays can happen will make me less surprised when they do happen. That will allow my head to be clearer when I’m thinking about how to react to that play. Thinking about these plays after the fact and not dismissing them as stupid will help me grow as a player.
I think I played really well. I did identify some situations where I could feel myself going on tilt. In The Mental Game of Poker, they have a way to dig deeper into a "mental hand history". I wrote down a situation where this came up. Here's how the hand went down:
I was in the blind with 7d5d. I call $3 more, and the big blind checks. 5 people are in. Flop comes 6-4-2 rainbow. Great board for me, straight draw and no flush draw possible. I check, 3 more checks, and the last guy bets out $20. This is an inexperienced player that just doubled through by getting all in preflop with A-Q. I have about $1500 in front of me because I bought in for the max, so I have his $500 or so covered. I call. One other guy calls, and this lady that sat down recently with $300 (lame) check raises to $100.
I was thinking about calling if the button called. She had about $150 more behind and obviously had a big hand. $20 preflop + $80 + $80 (her raise) + $80 (if the button called) = $260 in the pot, $80 to me to call and it was very likely that if I hit, I'd get the other $150. I have 8 clean outs. I think that would have been reasonable. The button folded though, so I had to call $80 to win $180 (plus possibly the other $150). I folded. I think it's close, I need to actually go through that one and figure out the exact math. I also thought it was likely she had a set, so even if I hit the turn, she had some outs going to the river.
This hand pissed me off because first off, I hate short stacks. If you are buying into a 2/5 game with $300, just go play 1/3!!! It's not even a full buy-in at 1/3. Get off of my table. However, that is not a productive way of thinking. I could feel my face getting hot and I knew I was getting tilted by this strange play. So I wrote it down and went through the mental hand history process. The questions and my answers are below. Hopefully this helps me learn to not get too frustrated by these weird plays and short stacks.
BTW I ended up winning about $50 last night. Not too many exciting hands. The most exciting thing was that I bought in for a full stack, $1500 in the 2/5 game. I have never done that before. But I figure, I'm playing solid and making good decisions. Why not buy in for the max, play my best, and try to win some massive pots. I want to be the guy that buys in for the max in the games I'm in. It makes me feel like the great player I want to be. No, the great player I AM! :-)
1. Describe the problem. To begin, write down what you would say if you were describing the problem in your mental game to me. It may be something such as, “I go on tilt when a fish sucks out on me in a big pot” or “I play too loose when I’m winning big”.
I hate when someone pulls a weird play off on me. This is especially true if that person is short stacked or I think they are a fish. Yesterday there was a 5 way pot limped preflop and I had 7d5d. The flop came 6-4-2 rainbow. Checked to the button and he bet $20. I called. Now this lady with about $300 total (in a 2/5 game) makes it $100. I thought about calling if the button called, but he folded and I folded. I could feel my face getting hot and I knew I was getting frustrated. In my head I’m saying “what a dumbass” because who would let 3 people check and try to check-raise the button in that spot? Seems stupid because there is no reason to expect him to raise, so it’s just a ridiculous play in my mind. And I hate getting beat by a move that I think is ridiculous and makes no sense.
2. Why does it make logical sense that you would react, think, or feel that way? This question may be counterintuitive if the problem in step 1 seems completely irrational or illogical. It’s not. If you identify more than one reason while completing this step, follow the next 3 steps for each reason.
I think that I’m a good player and my plays through that point in the hand with the information I had were correct. I hate when a person pulls off a ridiculous, low percentage move and ends up thinking they are a genius, as well as winning my money. I also hate making what I think was the right move, only to find out that someone else tried something crazy and ended up winning, even if their approach will not work as often as a more optimal approach. I also hate losing to people that I think are bad players. All short stacked players fall into this bucket for me.
3. Why is that logic flawed? Avoid using stock answers for why the logic or reason you found in step 2 is flawed, unless you’re sure it’s correct. Accuracy is critical. Plus, since there are often multiple reasons why your logic is flawed, don’t assume that you know all of them.
This logic is flawed for a few reasons.
First, I want other people to make bad decisions or non-optimal plays. The money I gain in poker will come from playing with people that make wrong decisions. When this lady wins the pot, her bad decision is reinforced by winning. This means that she will continue to do things like this in the future even if they are a bad idea. Other people might also see this and try the same thing, causing a butterfly effect of non-optimal play that is nothing but good for me.
Second, even when I think these plays are bad, they aren’t all necessarily bad. Maybe this lady saw the next guy reaching for chips, so she decided to check-raise instead of bet out with her set (or whatever she had). In this particular case I don’t know that the play was that good, but I also immediately jump to the conclusion that because a short stacked (or otherwise bad player as I see it) beat me using a somewhat strange play, that play is bad. That may not always be the case and I may be able to learn something from these non-standard plays. In fact, plays outside of the common knowledge, normal way to play poker could potentially be some of the biggest money making things I could leverage. If other people don’t understand a play and I have thought of a way to play a hand in an non-standard way that is better than the standard, I could win a lot of money AND have other people thinking that I’m an idiot, which is a fantastic situation.
4. What is the correct way to handle the situation? Be sure to use affirmative language in at least some part of your answer. Possibly add a statement that corrects the illusion of control, like “I can’t control the cards, I can only control how well I play and react”
When I am beaten by a non-standard play, I should think deeper into the reasoning behind that play. What was this person thinking? Although I may not agree with it, what was the logic that lead them to this decision? Is there a situation where a play like that could be profitable, and should I integrate that into my game? Is there a way I can anticipate a player doing something like this in the future? I can use these situations as learning opportunities to find out more about my opponents and potentially even think about poker in a way I haven’t before.
5. Why is that correction correct?
This correction allows me to think more critically about the game in general. This will improve my game. The more I think about what other people are thinking about, the more I can get into their head and anticipate non-standard plays. Anticipating that one of these plays can happen will make me less surprised when they do happen. That will allow my head to be clearer when I’m thinking about how to react to that play. Thinking about these plays after the fact and not dismissing them as stupid will help me grow as a player.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Mental Game of Poker - Client Questionnaire
Below is a LOT of text. If you actually read it, that's awesome. :)
One of the steps the book has you take is filling out this Client Questionnaire. I think that when the actual guy who does this for a living (Jared Tendler) starts with his clients, he makes them fill out these same questions. The process is as follows:
First do the questions that come easy to you. If something is difficult or not relevant, skip it. Mark these answers with 1st.
Next, go back and do the ones you skipped. Mark those answers with 2nd.
Finally, 3 to 5 days after completing the questionnaire, read through each of your answers and only add anything new that comes to mind. Begin these answers with the notation 3rd.
One of the steps the book has you take is filling out this Client Questionnaire. I think that when the actual guy who does this for a living (Jared Tendler) starts with his clients, he makes them fill out these same questions. The process is as follows:
First do the questions that come easy to you. If something is difficult or not relevant, skip it. Mark these answers with 1st.
Next, go back and do the ones you skipped. Mark those answers with 2nd.
Finally, 3 to 5 days after completing the questionnaire, read through each of your answers and only add anything new that comes to mind. Begin these answers with the notation 3rd.
That's it. So I went through, copied down all of the questions into Evernote, and over the next week eventually got through them all. I have to come back 5 days later and do the 3rd section.
It was actually really good and enlightening. It's great to have these questions asked to yourself and take some time to think about them and fill out honest answers. I came up with some good stuff and I think it's going to help guide my game progression. In the book, there is some additional analysis you do on the answers after the 5 day thing is complete, so I'm looking forward to that.
Below are the questions and my answers. Enjoy.
1. First share a bit about yourself (education, interests, family, etc).
1st - I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I have one sister and my family all lives in Detroit. I’m not super close with my family, but we get along. As far as interests, I’m interested in poker (obviously) and it varies pretty wildly from there depending on the day. Lately I’m mostly interested in just going out and partying and drinking. But some other interests would be computer programming, foosball, video games, and music (DJing / playing keyboard). I have a hard time devoting the time to those things though.
2. Briefly describe your poker history. How would you characterize your progress? What games/limits do you play?
1st - I started playing back around 2003. I got into it because my friends from foosball were playing, some live and some online. I got really into it and played a lot online (although I wasn’t super successful). We eventually decided to try to move out to Las Vegas to play poker professionally, but after about 9 months we had to bail and get real jobs.
As far as progress, I think I made a lot more progress early in my poker “career”. I read a lot of books and really cared about getting better. I would go to lunch every day and read and really try to take it to heart and work on my game. After we quit playing for a living, my progress has been pretty slow or non-existent. I have ups and downs but eventually end up at the same place usually. Nowadays I am playing primarily 1/2 NL and 2/5 NL.
3. What are your goals in poker? Short and long term.
1st - Right now, my short term goal is to just try to work on my game, play well, and get hours in. Hopefully if I can do all 3 of those things I will be able to really start making progress. I don’t have any set goals as far as hours or anything, but I want to set them.
Long term I have more dreams than goals and they are not well defined. Sometimes I think I want to give professional poker a shot. I also have goals of moving up stakes to 5/10 NL and 10/20 NL eventually.
4. What personal goals does poker support?
2nd - Right now I’d say poker doesn’t support any of my personal goals, or I’m not doing a good enough job at poker to let it support my personal goals. However, if I play serious and start making progress, I absolutely have some goals poker could support. First is independence / freedom. I want to be able to live my life in any way I see fit. I want to have adventures. I want to be able to change course whenever I want. If I get good enough at poker to where I could sustain my family solely on poker income if needed, that opens a lot of doors for me. I could quit my job if needed. If we wanted to move to a new city (assuming it had poker there, like LA) we could potentially just pick up and move without having jobs lined up.
I also have had the dream to go back to playing professionally. I basically have two dreams that are similar. One, be confident that I could support myself 100% using poker as my primary income. Second, actually take the plunge, quit my job, and give poker another shot. That is a very exciting dream for me. I haven’t done a good job of pursuing that dream over the last 8 years, and for a large portion of that time, it was not my dream. But I have been thinking about it a lot more lately.
5. List and describe the problems in your mental game. List them in order of importance to you or by severity. Give as much information as you can including the triggers, signs, and what you think are the causes.
1st - Lack of focus is another problem. It’s hard for me to focus 100% when I’m at the table. I know I should be doing things like paying attention intently even when I’m not in the hand, but I rarely do it. Triggers here would be games that I think are “below me” like if I’m playing 2/4 or 3/6 limit, or 1/2 NL. Another big trigger is if the game is “boring” meaning that there haven’t been a ton of big pots lately, or if I’m not getting any hands. A sign that I’m not focusing is that I’ll keep going back to my phone over and over to play games or read email, even if I’m not that interested in it. The cause is probably that I’m not playing with the right things in mind. I should be playing poker at any limit as well as I can, paying attention, trying to learn and get better. But if I’m playing a game that in my mind should be easy, I can just sit down and expect to win without having to put any effort in. So I won’t focus or pay attention. This can lead to worse things too like playing too loose or some of my other mental problems like being jealous, feeling like I’m entitled to win, etc.
Jealousy is a problem. I get jealous of others at the table and it can put me on tilt when others are winning. A trigger is that if I’m not winning and I see someone else raking it in, especially if they win over and over and don’t deserve it in my mind. Or if my wife or a friend is winning a lot, it can set me off. It’s definitely a 2 part trigger - first is either I’m losing or just not winning enough, and second is some idiot winning a lot or my wife/friend winning a lot. The signs are a little hard to tell - I might start playing looser in spots where I would fold earlier in the session. I might say something about one of the winning players - “This fucking guy hitting more hands, unreal, he is getting hit with the deck” or “That guy is getting so lucky tonight”. I might also physically feel hot, like my face can get hot if I start going on tilt. As far as the cause, I think it’s from a sense of pride. I feel like I should be the best player at the table and that I should be winning. When someone else is winning a lot, I feel like I’m inadequate or that I’m not good enough and that makes me upset. If my wife is winning a lot and I’m not, I can feel embarrassed and want to prove to her that I’m a good poker player. So I guess the cause is a mix of pride and wanting to prove that I’m a good player.
Entitlement is somewhat tied to jealousy. Even if I don’t say it, I think that if I play a lot, I expect that I’m going to win and if I don’t make progress as quickly as I’d like, I get frustrated. This can cause me to go on tilt and play bad (or play aggressive trying to make things happen). It can cause me to change my strategy - for example if I’m not winning much I might think “I just need to play more aggressive” and I’ll start playing more reckless and aggressive even if it’s not necessarily the right thing to do. As far as triggers, it can be playing a long session (or not even THAT long) and getting to a point where I think I should be winning more. Or if I see others winning and get jealous, I think I should be winning too. The signs of this are the same as the jealousy signs - I will play looser, make looser calls, call more with draws, play more aggressive without it necessarily being the best approach for the situation, etc. I might also get grumpy and complain about how I’m not winning or how someone else is winning, or how the game sucks, stuff like that. As far as what causes this, I probably think that poker should come easy to me and that if I play a lot, I should just win. I don’t take into consideration the variance that will of course affect how much you win/lose over the course of a week or month (or longer). I also don’t take into consideration that if I want to be a solid winner, I really need to put more effort into the game. Everyone is trying to win even if I think they don’t deserve it, and other people are studying and putting effort into the game too. If I’m not constantly trying to improve my game, I’m either not going to win or I’m going to win less.
Lack of motivation off of the table (studying, etc) is another problem. Even if I know I should be studying the game and no matter how much I think, talk, blog about how badly I want to be a hugely successful poker player, I still won’t put the time in. I don’t know if this is a triggered thing or if it’s just a general problem. I think lack of success causes this to go into a downward spiral though. If I’m not winning a lot, it makes me frustrated and less motivated to even want to think about poker, so any studying/reading I might do just goes out of the window. The signs are that I might start to read a poker book but won’t finish it. Or I’ll think about analyzing a hand I played live, but won’t follow through. Or I’ll start reading a book and just give up and start playing games on my phone or whatever. The cause is probably just a general lack of focus and laziness. Why study when you can just hang out or party? Also if I think I’m just good enough to win, maybe I feel like I don’t have to study and that I just need to play more and I’ll just win. Probably I need a reality check because obviously, people are playing a lot of poker and a lot of them are probably working really hard and studying the game to get better. Even people that I hate at the poker table that seem like jackasses are probably working on their game a lot. I need to realize that and stay a step ahead of them by studying a lot myself.
6. What have you tried to do to fix any of these issues? What level of success have you had?
2nd - I haven’t done a lot to address these. As far as the entitlement/jealousy aspects, I have done nothing. I did start reading The Mental Game of Poker a while back, and I remember it helping a lot with the jealousy part. However, I did not follow through and eventually lost any skills I temporarily gained. Lack of focus at the table - I haven’t tried to address that at all besides the work I’m doing recently, including this stuff I’m typing right now. As far as lack of motivation off of the table, it comes and goes but I haven’t tried to specifically address it and get myself motivated. So overall, until very recently I have done almost nothing.
7. Do factors outside of poker ever affect your play? If yes, how? Does poker ever negatively impact your life? If so, how?
2nd - Factors outside of poker do affect my play. I think they can affect my focus. My job affects my focus because I will check emails and reply to emails while I’m playing. Also I might take poker less seriously than I can simply because I know I don’t need it to support me. So although I want to be this great player, I haven’t been forced into making that happen. I can keep playing decent or terrible and it makes no difference in my life overall.
I think poker does negatively impact my life sometimes. I can put a lot of emphasis on poker and drown out other good things that I could be putting effort into. I have other interests and when poker gets started, it can overwhelm those interests. However, I don’t know if this is a bad thing or not. Poker does give me focus and can make me very happy when I’m totally into it and playing well. It gives me something to focus on that can make me happy and positive. I think overall if I’m putting effort in and trying to improve and play my best, it can be a positive influence. If I’m just playing drunk and not improving, it can make me feel sad and have a negative influence.
8. Why do you play poker? What motivates you to play, why do you love it, what do you get out of it?
1st - I play poker because I love competition, and I also love the prospect of being able to win a ton of money. I’m very money driven when it comes to poker. I love the feeling of beating other people, and I love being able to win a giant amount of money at the casino. It makes me feel like a total baller if I’m sitting there with stacks and stacks of chips. It just makes me feel good about myself and successful. I also love poker because when I’m running good, it can be a ton of fun. Some of my most fun nights have been at the poker table, drinking and running super hot and winning a ton of money.
9. List your three to five biggest distractions while playing. Describe why these are a problem.
1st -
Drinking. I tend to go out and gamble with my wife, and we’ll go play poker and get super drunk. It makes it impossible to pay attention and I can end up losing a lot of money and just playing really bad.
My phone. It’s a problem because instead of paying attention to the game, I’m playing a game or reading Facebook or emails. It distracts me and I’m unable to focus, so often times I don’t really know how others at the table are playing. I just have to guess instead of knowing from paying attention.
My wife or friends. If I’m at the table with my wife, I will talk to her or be on my phone. Same problems as above. It’s just hard to focus when I know she isn’t focused 100% on the game and we are just talking and hanging out. It can be fun but it’s also distracting from the game.
10. How do you decide when to play? Do you have a set schedule or is it flexible or random?
1st - This is very flexible and random based on what else I have going on. If we are drinking a lot, I won’t play much poker at all and when I do, I’m drunk. If I’m doing good on a diet, I won’t drink much which typically gives me more free time to play. I basically just play when I have free time and don’t have other things I want to do with my wife. So I might play after work during the week as well as on the weekend depending on what is going on. The time I play the most is when we are not drinking, because I have a lot more free time and it’s easy to devote a lot of time to poker.
11. Describe what you do before you play. How do you warm up, if you do?
1st - Before, I would do next to nothing. I might give myself a short pep talk in the car if I was by myself, talk through a couple things or just say “Let’s play really good today”, that type of thing. Now I’m trying to work on a more structured warm up routine as described earlier in the book. I go over my weaknesses and how to combat them, think about how long I’m going to play, set a schedule for breaks, set some goals for the session (or reuse goals for some period of time - they probably don’t need to change daily). Now it’s a 3 minute or so process to go over that.
12. What is your average session length? How many sessions do you play per day? How many hours do you play per month on average? Are any of these shorter than your goal? If so, in what ways are the questions in #5 related?
1st - I’d say my average session length is about 4 hours. Maybe shorter. A lot of my sessions are after work, so I don’t have a ton of time to play. My spreadsheet says the average is 2.3 hours, but it is going to be a little longer because I’ll have multiple “sessions” for one night of poker - like I start at the 1/2 table, move to 2/5, that’s two sessions recorded but in my mind it’s really only one. I play 1 session per day max (that question probably makes more sense to online players). Per month it varies wildly. Lately the numbers have been pretty low. Maybe 20 hours / month? No way more than 30. In the past when I was playing a lot (but for a short duration, like a couple months) the average was more like 80 hours/month.
Overall it’s definitely less than my goal, although I don’t have a hard and fast goal set. I think several of the items in #5 are related. If I feel entitled to win and I’m not winning, it makes me want to play less. My lack of focus / motivation definitely makes it harder for me to put the hours in even when I want to do other things, or do nothing at all and just hang out.
13. What are the reasons you would quit a session prematurely? Are the problems listed in #5 related?
1st - If I’m losing a lot (especially if I’m drinking) I might quit a session early. I won’t usually quit if the game is too tough, even though that’s something I probably should consider. Even if I’m not playing well I will typically keep going as long as I thought I was going to play when I started.
I don’t think the things in #5 are related, although I don’t quit prematurely very often either.
14. Describe your work ethic. Is procrastination or burnout ever a problem?
1st - Procrastination and burnout are definitely problems. Burnout is the bigger problem. Typically if I get in the swing of playing a lot of poker and I’m winning, all I want to do is play and I will fit in a ton of hours doing it. If I start breaking even and losing, I will tend to get upset and play a lot less poker. I might take weeks or months off and basically set poker aside for that time. Procrastination can be a factor as well but it’s smaller. I might do things like say I’m going to play, but decide I’d rather hang out at home or just delay going to play because I’m watching TV or something.
15. Describe what you do away from the table to improve technically as a player.
1st - I have been writing a blog for quite a while. It helps me think back to hands I played recently and analyze them deeper if I choose. I have read books periodically but I haven’t spent anywhere near enough time on it and I usually give up before finishing a book. I also don’t try to really work hard on things I read and put them into practical use or go through concrete examples on paper or whatever. I have a new ambition to study though, so I’m working on that now. I’m loosely tracking hours of studying in case I want to create some solid goals for it.
16. Do you ever act without thinking in a way that's negative? If yes, why? What is the typical situation when that happens?
1st - Absolutely. I think that if I’m on tilt and especially if I have lost some pots, I’ll quickly call a big bet with a draw or keep firing buffs even if I haven’t thought about what the other guy’s motivation is, what his range is, do I think this has a good chance of working, etc. I think this is due to my lack of focus. If I was 100% focused, I would probably be thinking through decisions before making them quickly.
17. Describe your mindset when you are playing your best.
1st - I am fully engaged in all hands I’m playing. I think about what other people have and I take my time making decisions. I have a rough idea of how much is in the pot and I apply that information to my decision. I am excited about the game and am really focused on playing my best and putting full effort in.
18. Do you ever get down about your ability as a player? If so can it happen after one bad session?
1st - Yes and yes it can happen after one bad session. If I play a huge pot and lose (where I didn’t get in as a huge favorite), I will often question that decision. It can lead to me wonder - why am I even playing, I’ll never be good enough to crush these games, and so on. Although the latter probably doesn’t happen after a single bad session.
19. How well do you typically handle pressure situations in poker or elsewhere (if different than poker)? Describe.
1st - This depends. I think I handled competition pressure better when I was very focused on foosball tournaments. Lately I tend to get more frustrated and can lose focus. At work I tend to handle pressure OK, but I can definitely lose it sometimes which manifests itself by me saying things I shouldn’t. I think sometimes in poker when the pot gets really big and I’m facing bets, I might tend to continue with a hand when I shouldn’t if I have put a lot of money in. I’ve seen myself do that in 2/5 games when I first move up from 1/2. I think lately I am better about this.
20. Do you have any specific memories in poker that you still think about or that pop into your head randomly? (Bad hands, tournament bust outs, etc.)
1st - Yes, a ton of them. The biggest hand I ever won was with K9s, flop was K9x, I was against a guy I had been waiting all night to try to bust, ace hits the turn and I check raise, we get all in for a lot (maybe 1k each), river is an ace, he had a draw and I win with a king, no kicker. That hand happened literally 9 years ago. There are lots of other hands too that I’ll periodically think about. Not all bad beats though, some are tough beats, some are great hands where I won a lot and I was excited about it.
21. Does thinking about poker ever keep you up at night, or prevent you from enjoying your life? If so, what are you thinking about? Do you ever get stuck thinking about mistakes?
1st - This doesn’t happen often but I can stay up at night thinking about poker. Mostly it’s dreaming about playing for a living and thinking about all of the possibilities that come along with that. That happened a few weeks ago. I don’t think poker is preventing me from enjoying my life at this point. It hasn’t played a super substantial role in my life over the last 7 years. Every once in a while I’ll have 1-3 months where I play a TON, but other than that poker is always present but in the background. I will sometimes think about mistakes, but I don’t think I obsess too much about them. Maybe sometimes a little too much, but nothing crazy.
22. Hypothetical question : you have the ability to make any of the issues in question 5 disappear. Which one would you choose? Why? What do you think your game would be like without it?
2nd - I’m glad I put this off to answer later because I have been thinking about it. I think the best thing would be getting rid of any motivation problems off of the table. While I could be more focused at the table, I don’t think that’s my biggest problem and that could improve. The jealousy/entitlement things are lesser issues that could be pretty easily dealt with. Putting hours of studying in off the table, figuring out what my weaknesses are and improving them, and improving my best and making it even better is a lot of work. I think that if I could gain motivation there, I could truly become a great player.
What makes me really happy to say that is that I think I am taking steps to make that happen as we speak. Over the last few weeks is the most I have studied in a long time. I also am taking the right approach to it by doing things like filling out the questions in this book. I am excited for the future of poker for me right now.
23. List and/or describe your mental strengths.
2nd - I think that at my best, I am very driven and persistent. I tend to lock onto things and have an addictive personality, but I think that can be a strength when talking about improving your poker game and pushing to be your best.
I think that I’m smart. This means that I am capable of intelligently analyzing situations and applying the right factors to make the right decision. I think that given my background (college educated, Computer Science degree, worked in that field for years) I can be very analytical and I have good problem solving skills. That will absolutely help me analyze the games I’m in if I work hard enough and figure out how to win.
24. Do you take notes on your game after a session? If yes, describe.
1st - I take notes during a session, but rarely after. I’ll write in my blog but directly after a session I usually don’t write much, unless I had one or two hands to record before I go home.
25. How much is your evaluation of your ability as a player influenced by results? Describe.
1st - I think it has a lot to do with results. If I’m winning a lot, I tend to think I’m playing great (even if I also know I’m running hot) and I’m really happy. If I am losing, I can stick with it for a while but eventually I wonder if I’m not playing good enough, which makes me wonder if I can ever really improve to the point where I can beat the games at my level and higher levels.
26. Do you exercise? If yes on average how often and generally what do you do?
1st - I periodically do and it is typically running. Earlier in the year I was running 4x / week. Now I’m down to 1 or 2 times per week on average max.
27. How much do you sleep on average per night? Is sleep ever an issue? If so, describe. What, if anything, do you notice about your play on days where you don't sleep well or long enough?
1st - It depends but I think I get around 6-7 hours per night. Sometimes more. I don’t think sleep is an issue for me. I don’t typically play if I’m really tired either, because there is no motivation for me to do so - I don’t need to make money from poker so I can just play again another day. I think if I do play tired, I tend to be irritable and won’t play my best game. That is a situation where entitlement comes in.
28. Do you eat or drink anything while playing? If so, describe what is typical.
1st - Yes, I will tend to drink sometimes when I’m playing on the weekend with my wife. We will get really drunk. Shots and hard alcohol.
29. Do you smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or use any other drugs while playing? If yes, what and how much on average? What effect, positive or negative, do you think it has on your game?
1st - Yes, I will drink while I play sometimes. Usually when I’m “not in serious poker mode”. A lot, like as many drinks as we can handle. It clearly has a negative effect on my game. When we are playing tournaments I’ve been able to play somewhat effectively but I know it’s an overall negative effect. In cash games it’s much worse. I’ll play super aggressive and loose and not very smart.
30. Do you have any medical illnesses at this time? If yes, how does it affect any of the issues in question 5?
1st - No.
31. Do you have any current psychological issues that have been diagnosed by a doctor or someone in the psychological field? If yes, what, if anything, is your current treatment and how do you think it affects the issues in question 5?
1st - No.
32. Estimate the amount lost per month as a result of the problems you want to address. Also estimate the percentage of the time you play your A game.
1st - I think the biggest loss is the opportunity cost of not playing at all. When I’m fully into poker and playing a lot, I will put a ton of hours in. If I pair that up with playing serious poker, I can definitely be a winning player. For that reason I’m losing money. I’d estimate it at around $1000-$2000 a month in lost money at this point.
Drinking is another huge factor that has cost me a ton of money in cash games. I think that on average, I’m probably losing $30/hour or more playing cash when I’m drunk. I’ve just had some huge losses that I don’t think I would have had when I’m playing sober. Per month it’s hard to say, but I could easily lose $500/month by just drinking while playing.
As far as my A game, I think this breaks down into two categories. When I’m drinking, I am basically never playing my A game. Maybe in some tournaments. So I’d say when I’m drinking, it’s 5% my A game. When I’m not drinking and trying to play serious, I might be playing my A game 70% of the time. I can get started OK, but beats or other things can tilt me and make me play less optimally. It might even be less than 70%, I don’t know.
1. First share a bit about yourself (education, interests, family, etc).
1st - I graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I have one sister and my family all lives in Detroit. I’m not super close with my family, but we get along. As far as interests, I’m interested in poker (obviously) and it varies pretty wildly from there depending on the day. Lately I’m mostly interested in just going out and partying and drinking. But some other interests would be computer programming, foosball, video games, and music (DJing / playing keyboard). I have a hard time devoting the time to those things though.
2. Briefly describe your poker history. How would you characterize your progress? What games/limits do you play?
1st - I started playing back around 2003. I got into it because my friends from foosball were playing, some live and some online. I got really into it and played a lot online (although I wasn’t super successful). We eventually decided to try to move out to Las Vegas to play poker professionally, but after about 9 months we had to bail and get real jobs.
As far as progress, I think I made a lot more progress early in my poker “career”. I read a lot of books and really cared about getting better. I would go to lunch every day and read and really try to take it to heart and work on my game. After we quit playing for a living, my progress has been pretty slow or non-existent. I have ups and downs but eventually end up at the same place usually. Nowadays I am playing primarily 1/2 NL and 2/5 NL.
3. What are your goals in poker? Short and long term.
1st - Right now, my short term goal is to just try to work on my game, play well, and get hours in. Hopefully if I can do all 3 of those things I will be able to really start making progress. I don’t have any set goals as far as hours or anything, but I want to set them.
Long term I have more dreams than goals and they are not well defined. Sometimes I think I want to give professional poker a shot. I also have goals of moving up stakes to 5/10 NL and 10/20 NL eventually.
4. What personal goals does poker support?
2nd - Right now I’d say poker doesn’t support any of my personal goals, or I’m not doing a good enough job at poker to let it support my personal goals. However, if I play serious and start making progress, I absolutely have some goals poker could support. First is independence / freedom. I want to be able to live my life in any way I see fit. I want to have adventures. I want to be able to change course whenever I want. If I get good enough at poker to where I could sustain my family solely on poker income if needed, that opens a lot of doors for me. I could quit my job if needed. If we wanted to move to a new city (assuming it had poker there, like LA) we could potentially just pick up and move without having jobs lined up.
I also have had the dream to go back to playing professionally. I basically have two dreams that are similar. One, be confident that I could support myself 100% using poker as my primary income. Second, actually take the plunge, quit my job, and give poker another shot. That is a very exciting dream for me. I haven’t done a good job of pursuing that dream over the last 8 years, and for a large portion of that time, it was not my dream. But I have been thinking about it a lot more lately.
5. List and describe the problems in your mental game. List them in order of importance to you or by severity. Give as much information as you can including the triggers, signs, and what you think are the causes.
1st - Lack of focus is another problem. It’s hard for me to focus 100% when I’m at the table. I know I should be doing things like paying attention intently even when I’m not in the hand, but I rarely do it. Triggers here would be games that I think are “below me” like if I’m playing 2/4 or 3/6 limit, or 1/2 NL. Another big trigger is if the game is “boring” meaning that there haven’t been a ton of big pots lately, or if I’m not getting any hands. A sign that I’m not focusing is that I’ll keep going back to my phone over and over to play games or read email, even if I’m not that interested in it. The cause is probably that I’m not playing with the right things in mind. I should be playing poker at any limit as well as I can, paying attention, trying to learn and get better. But if I’m playing a game that in my mind should be easy, I can just sit down and expect to win without having to put any effort in. So I won’t focus or pay attention. This can lead to worse things too like playing too loose or some of my other mental problems like being jealous, feeling like I’m entitled to win, etc.
Jealousy is a problem. I get jealous of others at the table and it can put me on tilt when others are winning. A trigger is that if I’m not winning and I see someone else raking it in, especially if they win over and over and don’t deserve it in my mind. Or if my wife or a friend is winning a lot, it can set me off. It’s definitely a 2 part trigger - first is either I’m losing or just not winning enough, and second is some idiot winning a lot or my wife/friend winning a lot. The signs are a little hard to tell - I might start playing looser in spots where I would fold earlier in the session. I might say something about one of the winning players - “This fucking guy hitting more hands, unreal, he is getting hit with the deck” or “That guy is getting so lucky tonight”. I might also physically feel hot, like my face can get hot if I start going on tilt. As far as the cause, I think it’s from a sense of pride. I feel like I should be the best player at the table and that I should be winning. When someone else is winning a lot, I feel like I’m inadequate or that I’m not good enough and that makes me upset. If my wife is winning a lot and I’m not, I can feel embarrassed and want to prove to her that I’m a good poker player. So I guess the cause is a mix of pride and wanting to prove that I’m a good player.
Entitlement is somewhat tied to jealousy. Even if I don’t say it, I think that if I play a lot, I expect that I’m going to win and if I don’t make progress as quickly as I’d like, I get frustrated. This can cause me to go on tilt and play bad (or play aggressive trying to make things happen). It can cause me to change my strategy - for example if I’m not winning much I might think “I just need to play more aggressive” and I’ll start playing more reckless and aggressive even if it’s not necessarily the right thing to do. As far as triggers, it can be playing a long session (or not even THAT long) and getting to a point where I think I should be winning more. Or if I see others winning and get jealous, I think I should be winning too. The signs of this are the same as the jealousy signs - I will play looser, make looser calls, call more with draws, play more aggressive without it necessarily being the best approach for the situation, etc. I might also get grumpy and complain about how I’m not winning or how someone else is winning, or how the game sucks, stuff like that. As far as what causes this, I probably think that poker should come easy to me and that if I play a lot, I should just win. I don’t take into consideration the variance that will of course affect how much you win/lose over the course of a week or month (or longer). I also don’t take into consideration that if I want to be a solid winner, I really need to put more effort into the game. Everyone is trying to win even if I think they don’t deserve it, and other people are studying and putting effort into the game too. If I’m not constantly trying to improve my game, I’m either not going to win or I’m going to win less.
Lack of motivation off of the table (studying, etc) is another problem. Even if I know I should be studying the game and no matter how much I think, talk, blog about how badly I want to be a hugely successful poker player, I still won’t put the time in. I don’t know if this is a triggered thing or if it’s just a general problem. I think lack of success causes this to go into a downward spiral though. If I’m not winning a lot, it makes me frustrated and less motivated to even want to think about poker, so any studying/reading I might do just goes out of the window. The signs are that I might start to read a poker book but won’t finish it. Or I’ll think about analyzing a hand I played live, but won’t follow through. Or I’ll start reading a book and just give up and start playing games on my phone or whatever. The cause is probably just a general lack of focus and laziness. Why study when you can just hang out or party? Also if I think I’m just good enough to win, maybe I feel like I don’t have to study and that I just need to play more and I’ll just win. Probably I need a reality check because obviously, people are playing a lot of poker and a lot of them are probably working really hard and studying the game to get better. Even people that I hate at the poker table that seem like jackasses are probably working on their game a lot. I need to realize that and stay a step ahead of them by studying a lot myself.
6. What have you tried to do to fix any of these issues? What level of success have you had?
2nd - I haven’t done a lot to address these. As far as the entitlement/jealousy aspects, I have done nothing. I did start reading The Mental Game of Poker a while back, and I remember it helping a lot with the jealousy part. However, I did not follow through and eventually lost any skills I temporarily gained. Lack of focus at the table - I haven’t tried to address that at all besides the work I’m doing recently, including this stuff I’m typing right now. As far as lack of motivation off of the table, it comes and goes but I haven’t tried to specifically address it and get myself motivated. So overall, until very recently I have done almost nothing.
7. Do factors outside of poker ever affect your play? If yes, how? Does poker ever negatively impact your life? If so, how?
2nd - Factors outside of poker do affect my play. I think they can affect my focus. My job affects my focus because I will check emails and reply to emails while I’m playing. Also I might take poker less seriously than I can simply because I know I don’t need it to support me. So although I want to be this great player, I haven’t been forced into making that happen. I can keep playing decent or terrible and it makes no difference in my life overall.
I think poker does negatively impact my life sometimes. I can put a lot of emphasis on poker and drown out other good things that I could be putting effort into. I have other interests and when poker gets started, it can overwhelm those interests. However, I don’t know if this is a bad thing or not. Poker does give me focus and can make me very happy when I’m totally into it and playing well. It gives me something to focus on that can make me happy and positive. I think overall if I’m putting effort in and trying to improve and play my best, it can be a positive influence. If I’m just playing drunk and not improving, it can make me feel sad and have a negative influence.
8. Why do you play poker? What motivates you to play, why do you love it, what do you get out of it?
1st - I play poker because I love competition, and I also love the prospect of being able to win a ton of money. I’m very money driven when it comes to poker. I love the feeling of beating other people, and I love being able to win a giant amount of money at the casino. It makes me feel like a total baller if I’m sitting there with stacks and stacks of chips. It just makes me feel good about myself and successful. I also love poker because when I’m running good, it can be a ton of fun. Some of my most fun nights have been at the poker table, drinking and running super hot and winning a ton of money.
9. List your three to five biggest distractions while playing. Describe why these are a problem.
1st -
Drinking. I tend to go out and gamble with my wife, and we’ll go play poker and get super drunk. It makes it impossible to pay attention and I can end up losing a lot of money and just playing really bad.
My phone. It’s a problem because instead of paying attention to the game, I’m playing a game or reading Facebook or emails. It distracts me and I’m unable to focus, so often times I don’t really know how others at the table are playing. I just have to guess instead of knowing from paying attention.
My wife or friends. If I’m at the table with my wife, I will talk to her or be on my phone. Same problems as above. It’s just hard to focus when I know she isn’t focused 100% on the game and we are just talking and hanging out. It can be fun but it’s also distracting from the game.
10. How do you decide when to play? Do you have a set schedule or is it flexible or random?
1st - This is very flexible and random based on what else I have going on. If we are drinking a lot, I won’t play much poker at all and when I do, I’m drunk. If I’m doing good on a diet, I won’t drink much which typically gives me more free time to play. I basically just play when I have free time and don’t have other things I want to do with my wife. So I might play after work during the week as well as on the weekend depending on what is going on. The time I play the most is when we are not drinking, because I have a lot more free time and it’s easy to devote a lot of time to poker.
11. Describe what you do before you play. How do you warm up, if you do?
1st - Before, I would do next to nothing. I might give myself a short pep talk in the car if I was by myself, talk through a couple things or just say “Let’s play really good today”, that type of thing. Now I’m trying to work on a more structured warm up routine as described earlier in the book. I go over my weaknesses and how to combat them, think about how long I’m going to play, set a schedule for breaks, set some goals for the session (or reuse goals for some period of time - they probably don’t need to change daily). Now it’s a 3 minute or so process to go over that.
12. What is your average session length? How many sessions do you play per day? How many hours do you play per month on average? Are any of these shorter than your goal? If so, in what ways are the questions in #5 related?
1st - I’d say my average session length is about 4 hours. Maybe shorter. A lot of my sessions are after work, so I don’t have a ton of time to play. My spreadsheet says the average is 2.3 hours, but it is going to be a little longer because I’ll have multiple “sessions” for one night of poker - like I start at the 1/2 table, move to 2/5, that’s two sessions recorded but in my mind it’s really only one. I play 1 session per day max (that question probably makes more sense to online players). Per month it varies wildly. Lately the numbers have been pretty low. Maybe 20 hours / month? No way more than 30. In the past when I was playing a lot (but for a short duration, like a couple months) the average was more like 80 hours/month.
Overall it’s definitely less than my goal, although I don’t have a hard and fast goal set. I think several of the items in #5 are related. If I feel entitled to win and I’m not winning, it makes me want to play less. My lack of focus / motivation definitely makes it harder for me to put the hours in even when I want to do other things, or do nothing at all and just hang out.
13. What are the reasons you would quit a session prematurely? Are the problems listed in #5 related?
1st - If I’m losing a lot (especially if I’m drinking) I might quit a session early. I won’t usually quit if the game is too tough, even though that’s something I probably should consider. Even if I’m not playing well I will typically keep going as long as I thought I was going to play when I started.
I don’t think the things in #5 are related, although I don’t quit prematurely very often either.
14. Describe your work ethic. Is procrastination or burnout ever a problem?
1st - Procrastination and burnout are definitely problems. Burnout is the bigger problem. Typically if I get in the swing of playing a lot of poker and I’m winning, all I want to do is play and I will fit in a ton of hours doing it. If I start breaking even and losing, I will tend to get upset and play a lot less poker. I might take weeks or months off and basically set poker aside for that time. Procrastination can be a factor as well but it’s smaller. I might do things like say I’m going to play, but decide I’d rather hang out at home or just delay going to play because I’m watching TV or something.
15. Describe what you do away from the table to improve technically as a player.
1st - I have been writing a blog for quite a while. It helps me think back to hands I played recently and analyze them deeper if I choose. I have read books periodically but I haven’t spent anywhere near enough time on it and I usually give up before finishing a book. I also don’t try to really work hard on things I read and put them into practical use or go through concrete examples on paper or whatever. I have a new ambition to study though, so I’m working on that now. I’m loosely tracking hours of studying in case I want to create some solid goals for it.
16. Do you ever act without thinking in a way that's negative? If yes, why? What is the typical situation when that happens?
1st - Absolutely. I think that if I’m on tilt and especially if I have lost some pots, I’ll quickly call a big bet with a draw or keep firing buffs even if I haven’t thought about what the other guy’s motivation is, what his range is, do I think this has a good chance of working, etc. I think this is due to my lack of focus. If I was 100% focused, I would probably be thinking through decisions before making them quickly.
17. Describe your mindset when you are playing your best.
1st - I am fully engaged in all hands I’m playing. I think about what other people have and I take my time making decisions. I have a rough idea of how much is in the pot and I apply that information to my decision. I am excited about the game and am really focused on playing my best and putting full effort in.
18. Do you ever get down about your ability as a player? If so can it happen after one bad session?
1st - Yes and yes it can happen after one bad session. If I play a huge pot and lose (where I didn’t get in as a huge favorite), I will often question that decision. It can lead to me wonder - why am I even playing, I’ll never be good enough to crush these games, and so on. Although the latter probably doesn’t happen after a single bad session.
19. How well do you typically handle pressure situations in poker or elsewhere (if different than poker)? Describe.
1st - This depends. I think I handled competition pressure better when I was very focused on foosball tournaments. Lately I tend to get more frustrated and can lose focus. At work I tend to handle pressure OK, but I can definitely lose it sometimes which manifests itself by me saying things I shouldn’t. I think sometimes in poker when the pot gets really big and I’m facing bets, I might tend to continue with a hand when I shouldn’t if I have put a lot of money in. I’ve seen myself do that in 2/5 games when I first move up from 1/2. I think lately I am better about this.
20. Do you have any specific memories in poker that you still think about or that pop into your head randomly? (Bad hands, tournament bust outs, etc.)
1st - Yes, a ton of them. The biggest hand I ever won was with K9s, flop was K9x, I was against a guy I had been waiting all night to try to bust, ace hits the turn and I check raise, we get all in for a lot (maybe 1k each), river is an ace, he had a draw and I win with a king, no kicker. That hand happened literally 9 years ago. There are lots of other hands too that I’ll periodically think about. Not all bad beats though, some are tough beats, some are great hands where I won a lot and I was excited about it.
21. Does thinking about poker ever keep you up at night, or prevent you from enjoying your life? If so, what are you thinking about? Do you ever get stuck thinking about mistakes?
1st - This doesn’t happen often but I can stay up at night thinking about poker. Mostly it’s dreaming about playing for a living and thinking about all of the possibilities that come along with that. That happened a few weeks ago. I don’t think poker is preventing me from enjoying my life at this point. It hasn’t played a super substantial role in my life over the last 7 years. Every once in a while I’ll have 1-3 months where I play a TON, but other than that poker is always present but in the background. I will sometimes think about mistakes, but I don’t think I obsess too much about them. Maybe sometimes a little too much, but nothing crazy.
22. Hypothetical question : you have the ability to make any of the issues in question 5 disappear. Which one would you choose? Why? What do you think your game would be like without it?
2nd - I’m glad I put this off to answer later because I have been thinking about it. I think the best thing would be getting rid of any motivation problems off of the table. While I could be more focused at the table, I don’t think that’s my biggest problem and that could improve. The jealousy/entitlement things are lesser issues that could be pretty easily dealt with. Putting hours of studying in off the table, figuring out what my weaknesses are and improving them, and improving my best and making it even better is a lot of work. I think that if I could gain motivation there, I could truly become a great player.
What makes me really happy to say that is that I think I am taking steps to make that happen as we speak. Over the last few weeks is the most I have studied in a long time. I also am taking the right approach to it by doing things like filling out the questions in this book. I am excited for the future of poker for me right now.
23. List and/or describe your mental strengths.
2nd - I think that at my best, I am very driven and persistent. I tend to lock onto things and have an addictive personality, but I think that can be a strength when talking about improving your poker game and pushing to be your best.
I think that I’m smart. This means that I am capable of intelligently analyzing situations and applying the right factors to make the right decision. I think that given my background (college educated, Computer Science degree, worked in that field for years) I can be very analytical and I have good problem solving skills. That will absolutely help me analyze the games I’m in if I work hard enough and figure out how to win.
24. Do you take notes on your game after a session? If yes, describe.
1st - I take notes during a session, but rarely after. I’ll write in my blog but directly after a session I usually don’t write much, unless I had one or two hands to record before I go home.
25. How much is your evaluation of your ability as a player influenced by results? Describe.
1st - I think it has a lot to do with results. If I’m winning a lot, I tend to think I’m playing great (even if I also know I’m running hot) and I’m really happy. If I am losing, I can stick with it for a while but eventually I wonder if I’m not playing good enough, which makes me wonder if I can ever really improve to the point where I can beat the games at my level and higher levels.
26. Do you exercise? If yes on average how often and generally what do you do?
1st - I periodically do and it is typically running. Earlier in the year I was running 4x / week. Now I’m down to 1 or 2 times per week on average max.
27. How much do you sleep on average per night? Is sleep ever an issue? If so, describe. What, if anything, do you notice about your play on days where you don't sleep well or long enough?
1st - It depends but I think I get around 6-7 hours per night. Sometimes more. I don’t think sleep is an issue for me. I don’t typically play if I’m really tired either, because there is no motivation for me to do so - I don’t need to make money from poker so I can just play again another day. I think if I do play tired, I tend to be irritable and won’t play my best game. That is a situation where entitlement comes in.
28. Do you eat or drink anything while playing? If so, describe what is typical.
1st - Yes, I will tend to drink sometimes when I’m playing on the weekend with my wife. We will get really drunk. Shots and hard alcohol.
29. Do you smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or use any other drugs while playing? If yes, what and how much on average? What effect, positive or negative, do you think it has on your game?
1st - Yes, I will drink while I play sometimes. Usually when I’m “not in serious poker mode”. A lot, like as many drinks as we can handle. It clearly has a negative effect on my game. When we are playing tournaments I’ve been able to play somewhat effectively but I know it’s an overall negative effect. In cash games it’s much worse. I’ll play super aggressive and loose and not very smart.
30. Do you have any medical illnesses at this time? If yes, how does it affect any of the issues in question 5?
1st - No.
31. Do you have any current psychological issues that have been diagnosed by a doctor or someone in the psychological field? If yes, what, if anything, is your current treatment and how do you think it affects the issues in question 5?
1st - No.
32. Estimate the amount lost per month as a result of the problems you want to address. Also estimate the percentage of the time you play your A game.
1st - I think the biggest loss is the opportunity cost of not playing at all. When I’m fully into poker and playing a lot, I will put a ton of hours in. If I pair that up with playing serious poker, I can definitely be a winning player. For that reason I’m losing money. I’d estimate it at around $1000-$2000 a month in lost money at this point.
Drinking is another huge factor that has cost me a ton of money in cash games. I think that on average, I’m probably losing $30/hour or more playing cash when I’m drunk. I’ve just had some huge losses that I don’t think I would have had when I’m playing sober. Per month it’s hard to say, but I could easily lose $500/month by just drinking while playing.
As far as my A game, I think this breaks down into two categories. When I’m drinking, I am basically never playing my A game. Maybe in some tournaments. So I’d say when I’m drinking, it’s 5% my A game. When I’m not drinking and trying to play serious, I might be playing my A game 70% of the time. I can get started OK, but beats or other things can tilt me and make me play less optimally. It might even be less than 70%, I don’t know.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)