Ahead Of The Curve. Itsnevereasy. (Shots at NL1K)

Gl with the blog! Would like to see you post more than once a month though

Hey Itsnevereasy,

Nice blog, and a very impressive graph!

Originally posted by dannywratten
Gl with the blog! Would like to see you post more than once a month though

+1

Would absolutely love to see updates more than once a month!

Kind regards,
Tino

Wow nice. Subbed!!

Looking back at the 4 years of playing poker there have been very important milestones which boosted my progress in poker significantly. I decided to reflect and post them in chronological order. Some may surprise you.

- Finding out I can sell play money on stars. Hell I would probably never even try real money poker if it wasn't for this strange offer. In fact, when i played for virtual money, I swore to myself that I would never risk real money in poker! So much for that promise....

- Finding out about freerolls (pokerstrategy included) which significantly boosted my bankroll at the time.

- Finding about Skrill which made depositing/ withdrawing 10 times simpler!

- Getting HEM. The most important milestone and its not even close.

- Finding out about rakeback and I don't mean 30%...

- Finding about poker training sites and watching videos from great players/coaches like: Phil Galfond, Foxwoods Fiend, KRANTZ, 1nternet, Stosh McConnell etc...

- Finding out about other poker software.

- Buying a 24" monitor. Nearly as important as HEM.

- Joining a group coaching group.

- Reading Baluga Whale's "Easy Game".

- Switching from 6-max to HU playing for 50,000 hands than switching back. Reccomend doing this to anyone who is serious about poker.

- reading Phil Galfond's well on 2p2, especially where he describes how he was going up in stakes (with quite an aggressive bankroll management). This motivated me to start taking shots at NL100+

- Buying a 27" monitor. Was able to increase my play from 6 tables to 12 virtually in 1 week, drastically increasing my winrate/learnrate.

- Finding out about Skrill Cashback.

- Bought a second 27" monitor today! Lets see how that goes, I believe it was a good investment!

Hi, very interesting post.

I plan to take up HU as well, playing micro stakes 6-max atm.

Can you recommend any good way to get started?

HU SNGs?
HU cash somewhere?
Videos?

I am hesitant to getting started for two (3) reasons:

1) No good knowledge about HU.
2) Afraid to get a bad start and lose confidence which might hurt my play on long term.
3) Bank roll considerations.

Keep up the good work!

Sounds like a great plan!

Good luck and the second 27" will help a ton especially with movie on the second screen...

Can someone explain this hand to me? NL600.

$600.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

SB: $156.00
BB: $595.50
UTG: $600.00
MP: $754.15
CO: $609.00
Hero (BTN): $1004.49

Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is BTN with K♣ J♠
1 fold, MP raises to $18, 1 fold, Hero raises to $54, 2 folds, MP calls $36

Flop: ($117.00) 9♥ T♥ Q♦ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $64.00, MP calls $64

Turn: ($245.00) 2♠ (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $148.00, MP raises to $324.50, Hero raises to $886.49, MP folds

Final Pot: $894.00
Hero wins $891.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Will post an update soon with august results, since I am taking the last week of august off from poker. Here's a funny hand that happened a couple of days ago:

BB: $1441.90
UTG: $656.78
Hero (CO): $670.50
BTN: $600.00
SB: $600.00

Pre Flop: ($12.00) Hero is CO with J♣ 9♣
1 fold, Hero raises to $18, BTN raises to $54, 2 folds, Hero calls $36

Flop: ($120.00) Q♦ Q♠ 4♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($120.00) 7♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($120.00) 4♦ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

I guess we both felt that the other has a showdown hand he is calling with

He shows J :diamond:9

And these are truly the two craziest hands of the month!

SB: $397.78
BB: $393.20
UTG: $202.70
Hero (CO): $549.68
BTN: $274.52

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is CO with J♦ A♠
1 fold, Hero raises to $6, 2 folds, BB raises to $22, Hero calls $16

Flop: ($45.00) 8♣ 4♦ 3♥ (2 players)
BB bets $18.00, Hero raises to $62, BB calls $44

Turn: ($169.00) J♠ (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $89.00, BB raises to $308.80, Hero calls $219.80

River: ($786.60) 9♣ (2 players)

Final Pot: $786.60
BB shows 2♦ 3♦
Hero wins $785.60
(Rake: $1.00)

My thought process on the flop is that I can't call because this guy will barrel too often but at the same time I can maybe get him off his hand if he has air, I also have two decent overcards which I can hit. When he calls and the Jack comes, I'm really quite confused if I should value bet - finally deciding to do so , since he has been playing very aggressively (30% 3bet over 17 hands).

BTN: $433.60
SB: $178.80
BB: $411.90
Hero (UTG): $410.00
CO: $471.30

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is UTG with Q♥ Q♦
Hero raises to $12, 1 fold, BTN raises to $36, 2 folds, Hero calls $24

Flop: ($78.00) 9♦ 2♠ 5♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $42.00, Hero raises to $96, BTN calls $54

Turn: ($270.00) 6♣ (2 players)
Hero bets $123.00, BTN raises to $296, Hero calls $155 all in

River: ($826.00) 4♣ (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $826.00
BTN shows K♠ T♣
Hero wins $823.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Aggressive reg on the button. Figured I can squeeze out more value from him by flatting pre. God knows what I did to induce this madness from him!

I call it donation time

Hand #1,
are you 4b bluffing AJo if he has a smaller 3bet % ?

Hand #2
vs this aggro reg do you play AA/KK same as you did with QQ?
Is he that aggro to be profitably 4b/call AK?

Hand #1,
are you 4b bluffing AJo if he has a smaller 3bet % ?

Certainly not. AJ is a solid hand to play in position and he would not fold anything half decent - I have a strong suspicion he would call my 4bet with his 32s, so it might be a 4bet for value. However I believe I get more value by flatting.

Hand #2
vs this aggro reg do you play AA/KK same as you did with QQ?
Is he that aggro to be profitably 4b/call AK?

AA/KK even more so! lol Im pretty much always happy to 4bet/call AK. Vs this particular reg I might have called AK OOP and hope I have him dominated. Its close between a 4bet and a call with AK.

Are you playng pokerstars? It seems like you play very good tables when you get action like that. Can you tell me little bit about your stats: vpip/pfr/3bet/raise flop cbet% stats

Wow sick impressive story dude.

Lol funny that people actually buy play money chips, cant understand why.

Will follow ur blog so we can discuss hands.

Good luck

Good Luck dude!

Really funny hands imo and looks like super donation.

Wow sick impressive story dude.

Good Luck dude!

Thanks guys!

Are you playng pokerstars? It seems like you play very good tables when you get action like that. Can you tell me little bit about your stats: vpip/pfr/3bet/raise flop cbet% stats

Already talked to you in PM. My stats are around 27/22/3b:10/ raise flop cbet:20%.

I was pretty dissapointed with my August results. I did pretty well on my USD account but not so well on my euro account. For some reason my results really depressed me and I ended up not playing for 2 weeks, which is fine since I was on a long needed vacation anyway. Counting all the rb and bonuses I won aroung tree fiddy (3.5K) ...Micros reference.

Volume was low as usual. I really hope that I will be able to start playing full time starting in October.

Sorry for late update.

Time for an update.

I haven't been spending too much time on the blog, but hey i'm a poker player and not a writer.

Ok so first of all, I would like to share one of the worst bad beats I have ever experienced! I think I played more than 500k hands by now, but never had i seen something like this:

IPoker Network $400.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2390111
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

UTG: $400.00
MP: $857.20
CO: $696.33
BTN: $1625.01
SB: $400.00
Hero (BB): $406.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BB with Q A
3 folds, BTN raises to $16, SB calls $14, Hero raises to $56, BTN calls $40, SB calls $40

Flop: ($168.00) Q A 6 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $85.00, BTN raises to $320, SB folds, Hero raises to $350, BTN calls $30

Turn: ($868.00) T (2 players)

River: ($868.00) J (2 players)

Final Pot: $868.00
BTN shows 8 9
BTN wins $865.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I was quite surprised when I saw his hand on the flop. I was shocked when he won. And I was happy I have a cheap $20 Nokia phone and not an expensive Iphone. I think you know what I mean. If you are a microstakes player reading this blog, here's one thing you should take away - don't break your mouse, when you are tilted because it will tilt you more when it starts glitching.

In other news, I am participating in the pokerstrategy Santas promotion, where experienced players give free classes to lower stakes students. So far I think its been an interesting experience - meeting new people is always fun! Will post update when I get some coaching done, have a session scheduled today.

Poker wise, I am happy with how things are going. I am playing fulltime now and am improving a lot everyday - that's the most important thing! One thing I have realised about playing fulltime is that you can't just switch on your computer and play whenever you want. Well I guess you can, but it wouldn't be very productive. If you want to play NL400+, you have to know the peak hours etc. Which means that some parts of the day are pretty much empty. I guess this is one way in which good players can justify coaching. If your win rate is x, then you will still settle for x-y during offpeak hours.

As for me, I don't want to become a coach just yet - at least not as a major pursuit. I would rather spend the offpeak hours on improving my game. So I plan to watch videos/ talk to friends and construct new strategies during this time. I am also thinking of playing HU vs regulars.

Challenge to Anyone Who is Interested!

I would like to play 1-2 tables HU at NL100 but its not that easy to find action. Each match should be at least 1000 hands. If we both feel like it, we will continue. If this is something you would be interested in, my dear reader, contact me on the community tool. If NL100 is too low, we can play NL200, but it has to be on ipoker.