▓▒░~Break out of Micros or GTFO~░▒▓

Good blog good thoughts and discussion with yourself :). I like what you say about life / success / mental game flaws and such. Spent some time this morning reading your blog since i couldn't sleep. So yeah keep it going. But poker doesn't have to be like such a grind really. I player poker for a living and i mix it up with 3 meetings a week, live poker etc etc. Make sure poker doesn't become your life because your winnings are uncontrollable =your life is uncontrollable

Originally posted by M1rCea

Spoiler

Party, $2.70 Buy-in (20/40 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 10 Players

CO: 1,980 (49.5 bb)
MP3: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG: 2,140 (53.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 740 (18.5 bb)
BTN: 1,940 (48.5 bb)
SB: 3,200 (80 bb)
UTG+2: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP1: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG+1: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP2: 2,000 (50 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T 6
2 folds, UTG+2 calls 40, MP1 calls 40, 2 folds, CO calls 40, BTN folds, SB completes, Hero checks

Flop: (200) T T 2 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+2 bets 80, MP1 calls 80, CO folds, SB calls 80, Hero raises to 300, UTG+2 calls 220, MP1 raises to 1,960 and is all-in, SB folds, Hero calls 400 and is all-in, UTG+2 folds

Turn: (1,980) 6 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (1,980) K (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 1,980 pot
Final Board: T T 2 6 K
CO mucked and lost (-40 net)
Hero showed T 6 and won 1,980 (1,240 net)
SB mucked and lost (-120 net)
UTG+2 mucked and lost (-340 net)
MP1 showed J T and lost (-740 net)

I think this hand is very poorly played. I think leading or c/c are the only options, and i prefer leading w/o reads. If raised, just don't reraise, it's suicidal you always see better trips or boat if all the money gets in on this flop. The worst hand i'd consider c/r in this spot is probably KT. Still i think leading is better on average even w/ KT

Edit: Oh didnt see we were only 18,5bb deep. Then i prefer c/c actually. C/r is still bad though

Hi,
I just saw this blog, love it, love the motivaiton, i wish you all the luck to turn things in your favour and begin to reach that golden figure of 433$ pre month, if not now but atleast in the coming months once you fine tune your game. I used to play a lot of sng 2.75$ & 5.50$ short handed turbo poker on everest and coupled with the MTT VIP tourneys and other benefits PS etc i made around 1200$ in 3 months of solid playing. Also made around 350$ on Betfair while living abroad which i had part funded with the initial 1200$ profit. Now unfortunately being back in india ongame is banned and i cant make use of the fish on betfair where i predominately played 3.30$ & 5.50$ turbo's as i remember, i multi-table between 4&6 tables. I would also suggest you to watch this player called GIEV_MANEY on everest. He is a sng master. If you need any help at all point of time, just hit me up and ill be there to help you.

Peace & Luck.

hi matel glad u'r enjoying the blog. Yeah, I just go to spots I'm not sure about in HM, then I put in holdemresources all the data: SB/BB , player stacks, prize structure.

Then I see what my shoving / calling range should be from each position.

That basic calculator only tells you Nash ranges, which is good starting point but very often should be adjusted.
You should use beta feature, which is very valuable. It can do everything sng wiz can, only its better because ranges are not locked (which i presume you saw how important can be in that ATo hand) and it calculates ties and overcalls correctly. It's less user friendly than wiz but little extra time you put in it will pay off.

http://www.holdemresources.net/hr/beta/calculator.html

Yes GIEV_MANEY is very solid player, a little tighter early than he should be but exploiting incorrect ranges in push fold situations with solid success. He is playing $5 6-max sng's on Everest for a very long time, only thing that baffles me is why he don't move up

Hello again, time for another update. Been at the tables and on the hand eval forums, grindin' away. Main news is that I'm GOLD now!!!!

Glad to see more people enjoying this little blog!

Mathh, I agree I played that hand badly. Thank you and valencia for the warm encouragements!

Gerovit I really appreciate your contributions to my blog. The discussion there in my ATo hand was a little too advanced for me to be honest.
So from what I understand, Nash is just unexploitable play, like optimum play. And starting from that, we should observe our opponents and deviate accordingly. Is this right?

So where does one begin learning to deviate? I guess 1st is to learn the nash ranges, then the deviations. Also, I'm guessing the link you provided is a good start.

Here's a post I prepared few days ago, just didn't get to actually post it here.

>=========================================================<

Cashier

My mind is like "how did I do!? how did I do?! I wanna see!" ; when, in fact the cashier is in no way a reflection of how good / bad I played. I feel like that's the case especially at SnG's.
Instead, I should look at how I played the hands, review them in HM / SnGwiz / forumz.

Tables

Played too many tables, 6 was clearly too many, was hard to focus on so many tables in late game. Will keep it @ 5 for a while from now on. Timed out w/ Kings.

Study

Especially now that I'm gold, there's so much material to learn from. Today for example I surprised myself having 3-4 training vids open. This made me realise I should go back to making a structure to my study.

I feel like my study/play ratio is quite off, this has always been an issue of mine, I always felt I played too little, compared to how much I studied.

>=========================================================<

AA - considering it indestructable and pitfalls
Yeah, we all know AA is teh nutz. But sometimes I forget that it CAN be beat, even by thrash. This leads to expecting to win EVERY pot where i have Aces. Losing one pot ocasionally is ok. Having AA at 2 tables at the beginning of a session and busting from both is a little bit "challenging" should I say.
Actually, I handled it quite well. It just reminded me that overvalueing AA's can lead to tilt.

When on 12bb effective vs regs, I can shove looser from BU, since I feel they will call way too tight when being 12BB deep.

Poker as a mentally challenging game
:club:Money factor - it involves real money, leading to more intense emotions.
:club:Variance - playing optimally can not be rewarded for weeks at a time.

These and a few other factors make playing poker a true source of mind strength tests and consolidation. I think that if you learn how to handle some of the swingz poker has to offer, you can handle and accept a lot more sh*t in life than the average person. I guess more experienced poker players can confirm this.

Poker Updates
Gamewise, I played yesterday my longest poker session yet (no breaks) - 3 and a half hours, ~5 tables, 34 games. I ran extremely hot. 7 first places, 3 2nd, 4 3rd.

Chip EV -> -51,7k !!! o_O So I sucked out more than humanly possible.

So this is how it feels to have 3% equity:

Graph for this month after 255games:

Going to play some football w/ friendz so..
To be continued...

Daniel

Originally posted by MathhNes

Originally posted by M1rCea

Spoiler

Party, $2.70 Buy-in (20/40 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 10 Players

CO: 1,980 (49.5 bb)
MP3: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG: 2,140 (53.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 740 (18.5 bb)
BTN: 1,940 (48.5 bb)
SB: 3,200 (80 bb)
UTG+2: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP1: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG+1: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP2: 2,000 (50 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T 6
2 folds, UTG+2 calls 40, MP1 calls 40, 2 folds, CO calls 40, BTN folds, SB completes, Hero checks

Flop: (200) T T 2 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+2 bets 80, MP1 calls 80, CO folds, SB calls 80, Hero raises to 300, UTG+2 calls 220, MP1 raises to 1,960 and is all-in, SB folds, Hero calls 400 and is all-in, UTG+2 folds

Turn: (1,980) 6 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (1,980) K (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 1,980 pot
Final Board: T T 2 6 K
CO mucked and lost (-40 net)
Hero showed T 6 and won 1,980 (1,240 net)
SB mucked and lost (-120 net)
UTG+2 mucked and lost (-340 net)
MP1 showed J T and lost (-740 net)

I think this hand is very poorly played. I think leading or c/c are the only options, and i prefer leading w/o reads. If raised, just don't reraise, it's suicidal you always see better trips or boat if all the money gets in on this flop. The worst hand i'd consider c/r in this spot is probably KT. Still i think leading is better on average even w/ KT

Edit: Oh didnt see we were only 18,5bb deep. Then i prefer c/c actually. C/r is still bad though

Meh i don't mind lead/get it in here. I can see a lot of middle pairs calling on this board even overcards from random donk, there is only one T left and besides Tx (we can chop against lot of them) only 22 beat us, i say a lot more combos that call all in on this level we beat.

So from what I understand, Nash is just unexploitable play, like optimum play. And starting from that, we should observe our opponents and deviate accordingly. Is this right? So where does one begin learning to deviate? I guess 1st is to learn the nash ranges, then the deviations. Also, I'm guessing the link you provided is a good start.

I don't think that learning Nash ranges first necessarily is the best approach, i think you should observe what ranges are villains calling and pushing and go from there, with Nash ranges as some sort of indicator that you are not far off actual ranges.
I suggest making your push fold charts.
You start with some common spots like 7-handed 10 bb's deep even stacks (with stupid blind structure on Party this should be the case in 90% of the games). Then go to 8.5 bb's 7 bb's , 5 bb's for every position. Set calling ranges for villains combining data from HEM and Nash ranges, and see what holdemresources or wiz say what your push ranges should be.
Than observe actual calling ranges compare them with your default ranges and tweak them. This will make solid foundation from which you can go deeper once you move up in limits where , at least in theory, ranges should converge with Nash ranges more.

Originally posted by Gerovit

Originally posted by MathhNes

Originally posted by M1rCea

Spoiler

Party, $2.70 Buy-in (20/40 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 10 Players

CO: 1,980 (49.5 bb)
MP3: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG: 2,140 (53.5 bb)
Hero (BB): 740 (18.5 bb)
BTN: 1,940 (48.5 bb)
SB: 3,200 (80 bb)
UTG+2: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP1: 2,000 (50 bb)
UTG+1: 2,000 (50 bb)
MP2: 2,000 (50 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with T 6
2 folds, UTG+2 calls 40, MP1 calls 40, 2 folds, CO calls 40, BTN folds, SB completes, Hero checks

Flop: (200) T T 2 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG+2 bets 80, MP1 calls 80, CO folds, SB calls 80, Hero raises to 300, UTG+2 calls 220, MP1 raises to 1,960 and is all-in, SB folds, Hero calls 400 and is all-in, UTG+2 folds

Turn: (1,980) 6 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (1,980) K (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 1,980 pot
Final Board: T T 2 6 K
CO mucked and lost (-40 net)
Hero showed T 6 and won 1,980 (1,240 net)
SB mucked and lost (-120 net)
UTG+2 mucked and lost (-340 net)
MP1 showed J T and lost (-740 net)

I think this hand is very poorly played. I think leading or c/c are the only options, and i prefer leading w/o reads. If raised, just don't reraise, it's suicidal you always see better trips or boat if all the money gets in on this flop. The worst hand i'd consider c/r in this spot is probably KT. Still i think leading is better on average even w/ KT

Edit: Oh didnt see we were only 18,5bb deep. Then i prefer c/c actually. C/r is still bad though

Meh i don't mind lead/get it in here. I can see a lot of middle pairs calling on this board even overcards from random donk, there is only one T left and besides Tx (we can chop against lot of them) only 22 beat us, i say a lot more combos that call all in on this level we beat.

I think call when raised > 3bet getting it in > folding

Thanks for your suggestions Gero!

It's officially
1st of the Year!

So, let's get right into today's post - reviewing the past year, past month and plans for the future.

2011 - The Year my Poker story began

I started playing online poker this year, at the end of February, inspired by Athene from youtube.
Started w/ depositing 50$ on stars, making the deal with myself that it will be my shot at poker, if I lose them, I won't play anymore. I have 0 gambling genes, so I didn't take shots at higher buyins.
After spewing few buyins at NL2 with my own fish style, started playing 9 man SnG's. Played for a couple of months. Could only play 1 table at a time.
Then went over to cash games. MSS till summer. Then BSS from beginning of summer till late autumn - beginning of winter. Built my BR up to ~270$.
This december restarted playing SnG's after having a 1-2 month period of breakeven at cash.

The thing that strikes me is I didn't quit the variant I was playing (SnG, Cash) because I was losing.I AM A WINNING POKER PLAYER. I ONLY LACK VOLUME.
Really.
:club:Early feb, when I took up SnG's, I was winning. Quite often! (although playing only 1 table at a time). No volume
:club:At cash I was winning! Overall in 25k hands I have 5,73BB/100, with my last 10k hands being at NL10 w/ 9bb/100. Does something stand out? Hint: 25K HANDZ. No volume.

I always emphasized studying / learning and I really think I spent more time with that than w/ actually playing. Conversely, I had a period where I had no motivation to study the game / review hands.
And I was disappointed in my results! Now that I think about it, I consider 9bb/100 pretty solid. Just put the volume in and print money.

December was when I took on the game more seriously and thought about what it can offer me. I realised I need money, I need to start being able to sustain myself, so this became my main goal and drive.

So main leaks of 2011 are
:spade:Lack of Volume
:spade:Inconsistency (didn't play everyday, for a number of hours)
:spade:Unbalanced study/play ratio
:spade:Unfocused, not dedicating myself to one variant of the game and keeping at it (I even had a short period of PLO)

I consider most of these to have one source only
Lack of MOTIVATION

So these two (inconsistency and no motivation) are my main leaks at the moment.

Pro's
:heart:overall winning player (though on micros)
:heart:good mental capacity
:heart:Learn fast
:heart:Pacient / Calm personality, lacking serious forms of tilt
:heart:Ability to observe and work on mental game
:heart:Rational approach to the Game
:heart:Handsome (in case I appear at live events, pokerstrategy will be thrilled to be represented by me)

Damn it's so easy to digress and keep rambling on and on and on and ooooon. Brevity really is an issue for me. Both in speaking / writing.

What's Next?

December Review
Over the month of December, I started SnG's again, playing 252 SnG's, making a 123$ profit, 310$ less than I set my goal to. I believe it was a quite unrealistic goal and not proper at all. On the other hand I believe I could have put more volume in, playing at an average of 1,23hrs / day. Admittedly though, I also spent a lot of time reviewing / studying which I think is normal since there was / still is a lot of theory to catch up on.

So right now, I've decided to play some more SnG's for the following period. Although I am still not decided whether to dedicate myself to Cash / SnG exclusively. I have done well in both and it's hard to choose. The thing I hate about SnG's is higher variance. And I don't want variance. I want a solid monthly income from poker. Will see if I can achieve that from SnG's.

Titan adventures

Tomorrow will deposit 250$ on Titan, to play 5$ SnG's. The math says I should play 50 games / day for 2months to clear the whole bonus. Never played that much in a single day. Equates to 6hrs of play, everyday. This will be intense as f*ck! My mind doesn't even want to accept this. It keeps coming up with excuses / reasons why I won't be able to do it.

But I believe it's a matter of RAS (Reticular Activation System). In short, whichever direction my mind is focused on, it will look for information / proof to back it up.

Similar to a winning/determined basketball player like Kobe Bryant. Does his mind think of reasons why he can't score? Is he intimidated by his obstacles in his path to scoring another few points? Like "OMG This guy is sooo big!!! I can't do this... I can't just go through all these obstacles and score.."

No. I am guessing he doesn't even see them, or the obstacles. All he sees is the net and himself slamming the sh!t out of it, dominating the game, WINNING.

So I bet his mind is focused on how to win instead of looking for reasons / excuses why he can't do it. Bringing it back, I'm sure he has waaaaay more valid excuses why he could not make it than me on why I can't play 50SnG's/Day.

While we're on the subject of excuses

So main Poker goals for January
:club:See how maintaining a 50SnG's / Day volume works out ==> building the skill of consistency
:club:keep studying / reviewing / posting

2012 will be the Year of the Grind! Even if the world is going to end. But this is a whole other subject.

Good to see you in 2012!
Daniel

Ok so today I deposited on Titan.

Looks like I have the PStrategy bonus going on, not theirs. This means I get my bonus released faster, but in 1month instead of 2.

So.. This means 64 SnG's a day.

I was like Uhmm.. whatevz, let's go! And logged in to play.

Managed to play 7 SnG's in 2 hours. Will check back in the evening though. Already managed to run bad, rocketing to a 15k cEV difference. Considering I play tables w/ 15k chips total. I have a friend who recently started poker who keeps telling me about the bad beats he's been getting. Dunno if it's because he's a beginner or that's really how it is.

Too early to jump to conclusions though. Will just have to put in volume, wait, and see.

Also, a new promotion kept bugging me, about SnG leaderboards. I went there, clicked to opt in, filled out my info, "No longer available".

So not off to a rocketing start right now.

Will keep updating tho'

Daniel

Wow never knew I could ran both bad and awesome the same day!

My 1st day at Titan Summary
:spade:Played 7 hours (twice as much as my previous best, really impressed with myself)
:spade:37 SnG's (traffic kinda sucked, though got better towards the evening)
:spade:+41$ (was at -45$ at one point)
:spade:Ended at -27k cEV diff (after being at 15k) ==> Massive heater

Took some time, will take some more to get used to the stack/blind structure. Caused me to get in some awkward spots where I didn't really know what to do. Marked quite a few hands for review, which I will do tomorrow.

I will mostly play afternoons / evenings. Mornings will be for studying / reviewing / doing other stuff. There are a few regs, I don't mind playing against them tho'.

Due to the traffic, I will probably not be able to release my whole bonus in this one month. I will still try to play as much as possible. For a better living. For cashing out at the end of the month and rubbing on tittiez. And then paying for my own expenses.

Oh how sweet must that feeling be, knowing that you are paying for yourself from the money you earned through your own efforts. Then getting to a point where you can just spend it on whatever you feel like. See a t-shirt you like? Boom, buy it. In the mood for a VIP seat movie? Go! Feel like trying indian food? Why not!? Go and rent an apartment just 4 you? Orgazmiq!

Coming back, Aim for this month is to have enough for 50BI's at 11$'s and cash out the rest. That's cashing out everything I make over 550$. If I get a ROI of at least 8%, it should be pretty sweet! I want at least to pay for my rent and expenses which means ~200$ by ~25th of the month. Hope I run good.

Will not be mad if I get a downswing next session. Heater built a nice buffer of 8BI's.

I so love the girl's laugh in this song.

There are girl / female sounds in some songs that really make me dream and feel so drawn to that special kind of female energy, realizing how many "flavours" are out there. Never thought of it that way but maybe I'll post some more songs with female voices / sounds in the days to come.

Have a nice night,
Daniel

Currently reviewing hands, I bring you an example of my "Genius" play.

I figured he was floating w/ med/small PP, A high so I shoved to make him fold.
Another example enforcing to play straightforward postflop at lower limits.

Played 5h Today

Games Played: 41

Net winnings: -9$

Been awake for 19h.

cEV: 22k, so I just ran bad

Marked hands, posting them tomorrow as usual.

Impressed w/ myself

FIFA La Noche

Daniel

Used to struggle to get to silver status throughout the month.

Now I got to it in 1 day. This makes me satisfied because I consider myself a lazy guy who just isn't motivated to put in the effort.

I don't want to be like that. The guy I was the last couple of days is what I value. Fully going after what I want, putting in whatever effort is necessary.

Planning to increase the number of tables after few more days 6 tabling, helping me reach more of my deposit bonus.

Today's "Genius" hand

Explanation: The previous hand, took half of his stack, like a boss. He seemed like a random player, little bit fishy. So when he open shoves his whole stack, I'm like "Cool, he's on TILT! SNAP CALLL!!!"

I'm guessing he was like

Firing up another session

Daniel

Played ~4hours today, all in one big session (cause I also had PS depositors freeroll running). Busted stealing BVB w/ A5o, what can u do..

Games played - 28 (played mostly regular speeds)
Net won : 60$

cEV: -1,5k (decent run)

7 tables is still a little bit too much. I need more getting used to 6 tables, which is getting more and more comfortable / natural. As I said, I might start pumping up the volume (no. of tables) soon, to release as much from my FDB as possible. At the same time, I don't want it to damage my game / brain.

I am also in SnG Leaderboards promotion for this week, curious to see the place I finish in if I continue to go all-out. Currently 9th.

Also released 30$ of my FDB.

Now it's getting interesting, with moving to these 5$ SnG's. The days where I run well are more meaningful.

If I continue to go all-out and run like this for the rest of the month this may very well be a memorable month, the month where I begin my road towards independence.

Today's Girl voice I LOVE

Around the 2min mark... Damn I love that attitude, just a crazy girl who I can have so much fun with. I get so much attitude, personality from the way she talks whereas most of the girls are so blank and fail to stand out (in a good way at least).

She's a nympho...

I sometimes wonder if I could really enjoy in real life these experiences that I have in my head, they are just surreal and would make my life so much more awesome.
I guess I just want to experience all these types of girls that these songs I love represent. Motivates me to go all-out and just have a super rad life, living to my truest potential... Feels so good to be on my path..

Heh, it's 4am so my mind is always distorted at these hours. Nice

Daniel

very interesting to read. Gl man!

favorited...

mornin'

heh thanks talis, really glad you like it, keeps me motivated to keep going. was really thinking if people r still reading my blog lol. but views just keep going up so maybe they're just shy (or think I'm crazy)

i obviously keep going regardless, but it's nice to get some feedback from time to time.

Curious if I'll be able to put in enough volume today, I'm going away to the country side with my family.

Have a nice day

Daniel

Hey, nice blog sir. Playing similar stake STT's (albeit im on Stars) so makes it all the more interesting to read. Well played on the amount of hands you post in the hand eval forums, I think I read the vast majority just don't post much. Something I should probably change.

Best of luck, will be following ♦

edit- Oh and im called Daniel too, coincidence?!?!?

I've read a bit from your blog.
Don't give up no matter what happens.
"Everyone" has a different idea about the biggest asset in poker but in my opinion it's not motivation, or studying or playing x hours but PERSEVERANCE.
You can make it.

I knew you shy readers would come through!
@ Danny - cool, you're always welcome here we can get discussions going since we are playing similar games. The Daniels storming the low stake STT's, sounds good.

@ sergiu - thanks for your encouragements. I agree, perseverance (or consistency how I call it lately) is key and is one of the most decisive factors.

Got back from the country side, got some work done there, I love spending time in nature, playing a little bit with my dogs.

A tale of Resistance

So I got back and it's time to start my session. Only that I notice I am kinda hesitant about this. Procrastinated starting it. Now I stopped for a while and really / honestly analysed my thoughts, my mind. And I found the answer. Wasn't easy.

So the past 3 days I made 80$, 110$ including the bonus. Since I am new at these stakes, it is A LOT to me. The last session, +60$ was the most I ever made in a day. To top it all off, I told my brother (he also plays poker, we talk a lot about poker) about my recent results, my gf and almost told a friend of mine.

Thus getting attached to my winnings, my short term results. I kept telling myself I don't feel like playing, etc. When in fact I was afraid of losing some BI's.

Until now I understood why it's not good to let your losses affect you. Makes sense in a lot of ways. But didn't quite understand the part of not letting your winnings affect you. I was like "hey, it makes feel good, what's wrong about that?". Yes it makes you feel good. Then, you fear losing that good feeling and want to avoid that. Which is natural.

I know that if I play now, losing/winning $ is out of my control. So I'm afraid of losing.

Now it all makes sense, not letting results affect you. It's natural to feel good after a good session. But over emphasizing it, bragging about it, feeling too good about it makes you attached to that feeling and this is only gonna hurt your game. You'll become results oriented.

Glad I got this thing sorted out. Time to get a session going.

Daniel