[Closed] Mike's poker diary

Hi mikeymoo!

Well done! I hope you will climb up the limits. But as far as I can see it you are on the right track. Congratulations!

Keep us up-to-date!

Good luck at the tables!
Puschkin81

Hi mikey,

Very nice start you've made so far. Good to hear that you can coop with the excitement that comes with the wins and losses. Keep going this way and you'll become a good player over time

Good luck!

Okay, so I played 2.5 hours today with 6-10 tables, depending on what was open. First of all, it's very frustrating to play 10 tables on one laptop monitor. I ended up posting blinds in mid position on about 4 of my tables to start.

Then my internet connection died when 8 tables were open. I managed to restore it, but obviously lost my hands and had to wait for bb position to post again.

In short, this semi-tilted me. I started limping from the sb with Ace rag, or limping pocket pairs in late position. This is normally fine, I'm pretty sure, but not with the SSS, as I'm aware of. Hence, semi-tilt.

It feels like I hit 1 out of 5 flops. The problem is, all my cbets with those hits are simply folded around, and every bluff cbet is raised on me.

When I thought it couldn't get worse, I was dealt AA on 3 separate tables at the same time. "Oh boy!" I thought to myself.

Table 1 folds to me on the bb.
Table 2 folds to my CO raise.
Table 3 folds to my UTG raise.

40 cents! Whoopee!

I guess it's better than being sucked out on with an all-in. That might have mega-tilted me.

One table had a bit of a laugh. I went all in with AK 3 diamonds on board, Axx. The guy calls with QQ, and the board flushes. Split pot.

But hey! This is a diary, not a downswing report or a place to vent!

Even with all this going on, I manage to stay even or $1 down for about 2 hours. WHAM! A bunch of huge cbets (pot twice the size, I go all in, they show a set/two pair/TpTk, whatever) get insta-called.

I'm starting to wonder whether Titan players are catching on to SSS. They rarely call a UTG raise, and if they reraise, I've only seen AA/KK/AK. (Ran my QQ, JJ, AK into those).

But there's good news! I'm down to 5 tables (3 of my tables hit 25 bb, so I scram before I can tilt it off), and 4/5 hit good hands! AA, AK, AQs (late) and JJ! I double up from each table, run JJ into AA on the remaining table 10 minutes later, and call it a day.

$2 up or so again, which is better than nothing. Not quitting my day job.

Does anyone have any tips on keeping self control or even preparing it before a quick mini-session?

If so, they'd be appreciated.

Mike

plan poker, dont play minisessions. You want to play some, and your solution is: open 10 tables, my solution is: take your time, dont play if you have to leave soon.

Originally posted by helemaalnicks
plan poker, dont play minisessions. You want to play some, and your solution is: open 10 tables, my solution is: take your time, dont play if you have to leave soon.

It's not that I have to leave soon, it's just that my tilt meter has been haywire lately and I find that my game gets worse after 2 hours.

I guess a better question would be: "Are there any exercises I can do to stop myself from tilting?"

What works for me, is don't look at the money as money, its just chips. Don't get mad at donkeys for sucking you out of a pot. They make you money, dont take your money, but only if you play it right. Think of it as Professional footballplayers playing against amateurs. The amateurs often make crazy fouls, and it looks as if they are trying to injure people. The real professional will respond to this by playing better, not by getting angry/frustrated. Maybe you should read something about stoa ethics (seneca). It's all about, if you stall your bike somewhere, and it's gone when you get back, can you deal with this? Do you care? It's only a bike, screw it. Now that the bike is missing you have a new situation to deal with(getting home without a bike), and being angry doesn't help at that moment. I think that is the attitude you need (to develop) for poker.

And what i also do to prevent a tilt, is chatting. If you get you frustration out somewhere else, it wont you so much in poker. The only thing i really get frustrated about, is problems with my pc. I broke so much stuff because of bill gates. For me, that frustration is on a whole other level then other stuff.

Hi mikeymoo!

Take a look at our psychology articles. That should help: http://www.pokerstrategy.com/strategy/psychology/#bronze

Good luck at the tables!
Puschkin81

It took me a long time to stop tilting, and I haven't tilted for the past month (and I played everyday).

The two facts that I always recall and are stopping me from tilting are:

1) When I remember I gave away $230 at NL50 in a day because I was on tilt;

2) I've got skin illness caused by stress, so I either calm down or my face gets all red and itchy. ♦

One more thing that helps me when I suffer a bad beat is drinking a glass of cold water. But lately I haven't been needing it anyway, I just haven't been tilting.

Well, what works for some might not work for others. Just try to relax someway and worry about playing right, eventually you'll see positive results.

P.S.: Regarding quick mini-session, I don't play quick mini-sessions. If I'm gonna play, it's gotta be at least an hour. Nothing against mini-sessions though.

Thanks for all the advice.

I read all of the Bronze articles in the Psych section a while ago actually. (You know that part with 8 or 9 things to test your anger? All of them applied to me except playing poker drunk. I've been working on those things and I'm down to 3 or 4.)

I guess I wasn't very clear when I said mini-session. For me, a mini-session is 2 hours or so. I would say that 4 hours+ is a "long" session.

I'm taking a quick break from poker to get some other priorities in order. I hope to be back at it on Saturday, though.

Mike

PS: Instead of cold water, I drink tea while I play.

Are u from Great-Britain or do they drink tea elsewhere? ♦

Good luck when u return to the tables!

Originally posted by Zeffke
Are u from Great-Britain or do they drink tea elsewhere? ♦

Good luck when u return to the tables!

I'm Chinese and live in Canada

But I'll mix it up with English Tea now and then.

Thought I'd do a quick update.

I had an hour free, so I promised not to tilt for that time.

I sit down at 3 tables, and waitlist myself for 2. That's all I can find on Titan on a Friday night. Odd, no?

Anyway. One table immediately deals me KK. And I've been watching until the big blind... looks like everyone is drunk and open shoving preflop with 37o, 78s, etc. So I reraise another shortie's all in to all in.

I get called by 36o, 59s, and AKo. AK hits a runner runner straight to bust me.

"It's okay, don't tilt... it's a +EV move, you know it Mike..."

QQ holds up on another table, preflop all in against KJo.
AA gets a caller for 0.70. AJ3 hits, one guy open shoves with what turns out to be 79o. I LOVE FRIDAY NIGHTS!

AK hits AK7, guy checkraises all in with AQo, I'm in the BB.

AK hits K, and all the tables have gone berserk. Everyone is open shoving with nothing.

T2s freeplay, flop a flushdraw. Bet, raise, shove (by me)... and folds all around.

AQ hits KQ8, I check/call. The bet is incredibly weak, and I want to find out whether it is a value bet or a weak bluff. He bets the turn for 1/8th of the pot. I decide that if meet this guy again, I can make a lot of money. I shove. He instafolds.

$6 on the 0.05/0.10 tables in 20 minutes.

UpSWINGGGG batta batta batta!

Mike

PS: This is a true "mini-session". I really don't like it. I was just bored on a Friday, and felt like concentrating on something.

You have some serious hardware problems, huh? Keep up a good work, make your br bigger and bigger and, really, invest in 22"+ monitor.
I had a laptop problems (catching 8 tables at 15.4" screen was just a madness) and now with 1680x1050 resolution things are getting much easier
I wish you all best in your poker work.
Regard

Tried some SNG's today- the 2.40 jackpot ones on titan.

Was chip leader, and bubbled out when my AKs lost to 78s, then my KK lost to 66.

Had QsQh on my second try, flop Jxx, all clubs. The guy shows AJ and hits his J.

Not a very good omen.

That's it for today. Up $10 or so from cash games.

EDIT: Played one more SnG, lost two pair to over two pair...

I'm thinking cooler, but maybe I'll wait for the SnG silver articles to make sure.

Hi mikeymoo,

Nice session on Friday night, maybe I should change to Titan as well ♦ Seems to be +EV.
Instead of waiting for the SnG-section you can post your hand in the SnG+Tourney sample hands board in meanwhile to get them evaluated by our professional judges. It's worth doing it.

Good luck!

Yes, in retrospect, I should have posted those hands. However, I didn't have any capturing software on at the time.

Regarding SnG's, I will probably not play them until i have read the silver articles, as I should be silver with the next update.

EDIT: Okay, I cracked and played another 2.40 Jackpot SnG... I won. So there goes whatever I lost thanks to SnG's. I'm still waiting for silver status though.

What goes up...

must plummet.

I managed to fit 12 tables nicely on my desktop. SSS, 0.05/0.10.

My AKs lost to AKo all-in preflop thanks to his K spade.
AJ raise in cutoff, two callers. J84 comes, I go all-in thanks to my stack size. He calls with 83... hits a 3.
Seemingly all my cbets got raised out.
Countlessly outdrawn.
I managed to get out of the way with QQ though.. took a lot more discipline than I thought I had. I think this is the biggest laydown I have ever made.
My set of 8s got runner-runner flushed.

One hour later, and I'm down $3. Not bad, I guess. Not a complete downswing, but I sure feel bad.

Thankfully I'm really close to clearing the first bonus, so I'll treat this downswing as if I lost a small SnG or something. It's still depressing, as I have been +$8 for these one hour sessions.

BR at $109.

So when I move up (which I probably will), I'm thinking of playing only 4 tables to get a feel for the limit, then go at 12 again.

Thanks for reading. I guess I just needed a place to vent without using the Downswing Report area (I wanted to report good news too).

Originally posted by mikeymoo
One hour later, and I'm down $3. Not bad, I guess. Not a complete downswing, but I sure feel bad.

well, I suggest you start feeling neutral about it, because what you wrote about is a part of everyday fluctations. I played my first 3k hands with the result -20$, after next 3k I was +20$. So things like runner-runners are pretty much common. Your goal here is to learn not to loose more than variance asks during the downswing. in other words become tilt ressistant... on lower limits I found myself twice beeing down 15-20BB after one session. Now, the worst swings I have bring me down to maximum 5-7BB, but it doesn`t happen that often.

Hi mikeymoo,

Sad to hear these badbeats, but you have to think this way....if you have suffered al these beats and are only down 3$... No problem...you'll suffer even bigger swings because of variance but if you still manage to play well, these swings will be minimized and you'll make a decent profit in the long run.

Good luck (hopefully it works again:))