[Closed] Get Under My Skin - A blog to keep my mind on my mindset.

I logged into William Hill today after posting this blog and found I had just enough to play 3 SNG's (BR is on 24h Poker atm). I decided that today i would play with this. It was quite a good coincidence actually because I normally play 4 tables on Will Hill but I was trying out the HEM HUD for the first time, so was going to only play 3.

I watched a video (I think by <3) about the HUD to understand what I should be using it for and am very grateful already. How amazing is it to sit to the right of 2 regs who both fold 70/80% of the time to a steal? Brilliant.

I've set my HUD up like <3;

vpip/pfr/3bet/steal
limp/sb raise(first in to pot)/af/fold vs steal

My first set of 3 standard SNG's went brilliantly, I was up 4 BI after playing them, which was helped by the HUD. I played well and didn't get annoyed when I bombed out of one when I was well ahead pre flop (AIPF). Normally playing Super Turbo's I rack up about 50 a day, but today I only played 9 SNG's over 3 hours, and finished the day 1BI up. It was probably the last set that ruined the day, I should have had a break before playing them but failed to, worrying about time. D'oh.

After the first set I did 100 hands on ICM trainer but then went and threw a few darts just to rest my eyes. I work 8 hours a day on computers and when I get home I try and play, train or study Poker for 5-6 hours, so my eyes get very drowsy and strained!

1 BI up for today will do me just fine. I'm absolutely sick of Super Turbo's. They are just way too sick!

(And on a PS point related note, todays play will guarantee Gold for another month. Sweet!)

Had a bad 2 days!

I switched my bankroll over to William Hill from 24h Poker and so far I'm down $13 over 18 SNG's! Great stuff. I'm down $11 today but EV wise I'm up $1. This is the problem I seem to have, when I am up, I'm up 1 or 2 buy in's, when I'm down but should be up, I'm down plenty of buy ins. I never see a graph that says I should be down but am up. I'd really just prefer to see a graph that has both lines up!!

You get it in good and you will win over the long run they say, but sometimes it is just too hard to believe. I've been marking my odd hands down and I plan to go over them all on Saturday, it's not a very quick process without SNG Wizard! I don't think I've been making too many mistakes, but I pushed AJo UTG into 4 others when 3rd (6.5 x BB) in chips. Got called by the chip lead with AQo. I haven't checked this hand out yet but I know I felt pretty tilted when I did this so I think it probably wasn't the best push. Maybe AQs UTG would've been good? I dunno. I also 4 bet into 2nd in chips 3 way when chip leader after he had folded to every one of my raises. I had A6s. He had AQo. I was in a great position to get heads up but I completely ruined that and busted in 3rd three hands later.

My patience was tested in my first bust out of the night. Picked up AA and 3 others pushed! Couldn't believe my luck until someone flopped trip kings. Always a great tilt-test! I actually recovered pretty well after that, just loaded up another table and cracked on. It's weird how I can shrug off losing when AIPF with AA, but if I'm holding JJ vs 99 and a 9 hits, that actually effects me more! Weird. Maybe it's because losing AA effects you more when you are new to poker, so you remember them more than any other hand so you "get used to it". So all I need to do is lose every possible hand from a winning position over and over again until I completely don't care about it! I'm pretty sure I am doing that now anyway.

I'm not sure whether I'll be putting in any volume tomorrow, but Saturday I'll be on for a full day. No work, no commitments, just poker!

Great weekend! ♦

Up $16 (with $5 bonus)! Played over 12 hours in the last 48 and notched up 42 standard $1 SNG's ♠_cool: I love the weekends.

I started out this weekend by checking over some hands. I realised that even though I was indeed getting the money in good, I was normally getting it in only marginally well, 53%-47% type and I came to the conclusion I needed to be getting all in with better hands, 60%+ hands. Obvious, right?

I also looked through my HEM scores for Multitabling and found an odd occurrence. I had played about 70 sets of SNG's 3 tabling and 4 tabling. When I play 4 tables my win rate was over 3 times as good per hour. Although they were both losing, 4 tables had -15 cents, where as 3 had -53 cents!!

I decided to move up to 4 tables again, I'm fine with the hud now so thought I'd try it out. Amazingly, I have now got my win rate (well, loss rate!) playing 4 tables down to only -8 cents. Overall it's -62 cents, -28 cents EV adjusted.

On to my "mindset". Obviously I had quite a good mindset today to pick up such a win, but here is the very second hand of my session today...

** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ** (IPoker)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, July 24, 09:48:00 ET 2011
Table Toronto 609047631 (Real Money)

Player5 shows [K :diamond:, A ]
Player5 wins $2760.00 USD from main pot

When this happened, I was annoyed but quickly, even before the chips had moved over to the other player I had calmed down, shrugged it off and forgotten about it. I even doubled up 3 times and cashed in this tourney! I was mightily impressed with myself.

That really puts into focus how important a mindset is in poker. Imagine the second hand of a whole day session and you are steaming! I could have been well down after playing such a long session today but because I shrugged it off, it gave me a much better chance to end the day over 12 buy ins up.

I can't wait to get back on the tables tomorrow. Hopefully work will just whizz by and I'll be back on as soon as I know it.

Finished work, worked out, had dinner and am feeling good about grinding away the rest of my Monday! If you're taking a break from grinding to read some blogs, here's 5 of my favourite bands for you to get your listening gear round ♦

Played 16 SNG's tonight (4 sets) over 4 hours. Ended 3.5 BI down, EV was evens though and felt I played well except for 1 set, I made a ridiculous push to end 10th for the first time in a looong time against 2 people who had called half pot bets on the flop and turn against my 2 pair, when the river made a flush. Both players had a flush of course Straight after I 3 bet all in the SB when BB with AQ, his stats were very tight and he turned over AK We had even stacks too and both had a chance of ending ITM. Need to stop doing that!

Did bump into a lot of coolers and flipped against lesser pairs and lost many times. I lost 5 flips where I was over 70% on the flop. One flip stuck in my mind, my JJ against a shortstacked 88. He hit a flush! Also ran KK into AA, standard I think the first time I won a flip was when I had only 2 tourneys left of the whole night. That's what happens though and I'm amazed at how nonchalant I am feeling about it. Writing this blog is really helping I won't ramble anymore about the bad beats tonight though, before someone posts this...

I was even further behind with the last SNG going and there were 4 players left. I was short stack and I so nearly just shoved with rubbish (Finger Tilt for those who have read Elements Of Poker by Tommy Angelo! I would definitely recommend it!). I did restrain myself, kept cool and ended up coming 2nd.

So overall I'm quite pleased with my play, although I wish I had played the 2nd set better. I didn't have a break between them which was a problem as I kept getting distracted near the bubble. A couple of minutes break and that wouldn't have happened I'm sure.

Here's a video of the bassist from one of the bands I posted above (InMe, the top vid on the above post) appearing on Sky Poker! He runs a Poker hall in Essex apparently. If you like heavy, technical or melodic metal (or a lovely mixture of all three) then definitely check out some more InMe, they're so good.

Loving Poker!

Up another 5BI's today. I'm feeling so good about poker right now. When I play I'm so chilled out. I don't know how it's doing it but writing this blog has massively improved my mindset. Maybe it's because I don't want to admit to anyone who might read this that I lost money because I'm a douche bag so it pushes me to chill out! ♠_cool:

My $/Hr is now less than -60 cents! That is my next goal, to chalk up a + $/Hr. Even when it hits $0.01/Hr I'm celebrating ♦

Made a great call today against someone who pushed all in on the SB, he had very tight stats over a medium sample, but his "push when in the small blind and acting first stat" was 69! Called it with 76s and won

Wish I could get away with only sleeping 4 hours a night!

Another 9 buy ins up today!!!

Today I have definitely had a bit of an upswing! I have been playing superbly though, so it is well deserved

I now make 10 cents per hour when I 4 table! Woo ♦ I haven't got any idea of whether I should start introducing a 5th table, or if I should keep playing 4 until I've crushed it for a long time. I'll have to work some sort of plan out I guess.

I'm worried I may start to let my studying side down if this carries on so tomorrow before I start grinding I will play 200 hands on ICM Trainer. I definitely feel I am playing brilliantly though and I really think I can make my way up to $2 SNG's in the near future

It was confirmed today that my monthly live league game is going ahead this Friday which is awesome because we haven't played in the last few months. It's 2 £15 tourney's with between 6-10 players. I play pretty good normally, last year I was brand new to the league and I came top ♠_cool: I normally take along some beers which is great because I never drink when I grind online so it's more like a chilled out more fun game, instead of serious business

Shocking weekend!!

First I was completely card dead for my live game, then when I picked up anything I was beaten after being ahead and since then I have had the exact same thing happen all weekend online. Sucks balls, man.

I haven't really blown my top over it, which is obviously good but it is so frustrating. I had 2 days of running good (first time I've ran good in about a month) and then I'm back to running terrible. I've been 2 outered twice today

What's even worse is I've been put in irresistable situations all weekend when just outside the money too. Does anyone fold QQ or AK ever? The amount of times I have woken up with QQ or AK when 4 or 5 players remain and got it all in to lose is unbearable. Some times they have AA or KK, but the majority of the times they have something terrible..

** Hand History for Game 1111111111 ** (IPoker)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, August 01, 12:06:31 ET 2011
Table Toronto 611744291 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Player4 posts small blind [$300.00 USD].
Hero posts big blind [$600.00 USD].

Player2 wins $7786.00 USD from main pot
Player2 shows [Ah, 2d ]

My BR is straight back down to what it was before I ran good too.

Bleurgh.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can improve my game and find leaks by using the stats in HEM? I would really like to start using it for more than seeing how much I should have won!