[Closed] gaz's SnG journey

best session so far to date, played 596 hands and finished $51.24 up 42.99BB/100 for the session, if only every day could be like this. Very good for 3 hours work ♦

This is a very small session for me but my neck is hurting so i'm going to call it a day i think, unless it settles down then i will be going back on.

Current BR
Bonuses=$40
BR=$218.82
Total BR=$258.82
MCP's=2663

I am going to start setting some goals too from now, rather than just playing 1k-2k hands a night and hoping i do well, i want to improve my game by education too so i will start to go through all of the articles again to improve my gameplay.

December goals

Post all hands which have lost me more than $3 in forum to be judged
Reply to all judged hands
Post in this blog after every session
Read all of basic, bronze and silver articles again
Play tilt free poker

January Goal

Get Gold status here
Get the required points to unlock all of my bonus at mansion (26k) by Jan 27th

Long term Goal

Reach Nl25 BSS

Although i would like to see profit all of the time this is not as important to me as long as i feel i am playing well and not making mistakes, then i feel the money will come

hey there gaz : )

I was curious to peek at your blog since we have met last night at the IRC channel and had so much fun...really enjoyed meeting you and your girlfriend -- you guys are very nice people to be around

Ive read all the posts , and what struck me the most, because I was doing so myself in the past , is that you talk and think a lot about money.In my opinion its not that great, because your mind is really focused on that. As you will go through the startegy articles in the near future, hopefully a declick will happen in your mind/ what is really important is the game itself and your state of mind. If you play your A game - money will come overtime - if your state of mind is at its best - you will play a better game- therefore money will flow in. These 2 things are really important to not push yourself when you feel that youre tired or starting to tilt.You should work at these 2 instead on focusing on money and Im sure youll be surprised at your results

Best of luck to you gaz, Im sure you will succeed if you keep putting your mind at it as you have lately

Christine

thanks gambit, it was a lot of fun talking the other night. I realised how money orientated i was and i am going to try to stop thinking like that now, i need to focus more on the learning side at this stage. I really need to understand about implied odds and apply that to my game, at the minute i'm just thinking like that bet isn't much ill call that or am not calling that much, i'm not calculating if i can actually call the bet. Once again thanks gambit for you're post

Originally posted by gaz639
gonna wait until our daughters in bed i think so i can concentrate without i want this i want that and tantrum lol

wow, you just summed up my playing style.... i want this pot, i want that blind and tantrum folding poket 8's only to see an 88x flop rofl ♦

You know me, I'm only joking, but would be great to be a child again where your only real concern is never missing an episode of Pingu (or the clangers as it was in my day, sigh, showing my age again).

Loving the blog Gaz, good luck with the goals buddy, I'm liking your discipline & just know that you will suceed.

The boy Bart

thanks Bart, it would be great to not have a care in the world and just watch you're favourite programs all day, well i do that anyway lol now i like most of the cartoons brooke likes but there's the excuse lol.

Thanks eaglestar i will make sure i stick to my goals and be more disciplined if anything, i really want to see this succeed.

I haven't played poker for almost 2 weeks now, last night was the first night for a while so had to get back into it. We had our gorgeos baby girl on the 11th December so poker took a huge back foot and never even crossed my mind, then last night i remembered i still have $360 to clear.

Had a good night last night, played 3 hours, around 1.5k hands i think (stats on other pc) and made around $25, but more importantly i felt more confident about my game and didn't really make any mistakes, also i had time to look through some more articles and implement them into my game.

One thing i found is that it's good to have a notebook next to me when i read them to write key information down either that i struggle with or just something new to get my head round.

I know it sounds like i am still being money orientated but i am more on the learning side now, i just don't want to waste the $360 bonus i have left if possible. So far so good anyway and BR=$265

I always have the BSS SHC and a notebook near me. But I write down session info like date, time played, limit, results, etc mostly.

Edit: and of course the hands that Im not sure if I played well so that I can post them from Elephant onto the forum later.

thanks brood, i look at those thanks but in pokertracker 3 so i have no need to write them down, i usually post problem hands but haven't posted any from last night yet, will do this later. I always have the SHC next to me but i hardly look at it now, just look for low suited Aces and suited and off suited face cards really, sometimes forget what to do in mid position etc but i'd say i only look at the chart once per 2 hours now

i took a day or 2 off poker after losing around 7 stacks, 1 of which was a mistake and the other 6 just down to variance, but i didn't have time to play poker much after that as me n kayleigh were 2 busy with sophie so i just took a couple of days off and freshened up on articles and videos. I watched around 6 BSS video's including SH then decided while i was taking a theory break it would be worthwhile learning about the switch to shorthand. I spent about 15 hours studying this and watching and re-watching videos and i have just had my first session at NL10 SH.

I feel a lot more confident at this, although i haven't had a great session so far, i feel like i'm picking it up quick and learning the plays a little more. Played around 1200 hands and im around break even but lost around 3 stacks to variance and loose play so that was an experience, and i found a few fish.

Lost hands like AA vs 56s, QQ vs A7, AA vs K3 so although break even i'm not concerned that i made any mistakes so far.

I have got a good shc from the articles and would just like to know how my stats look so far, i know its only a small hand sample but it would still be a good marker.

Hands 1155
BB/100 -0.60
VP$IP 15.24
PFR 10.56
W$WSF 43.31
WTSD 29.94
W$SD 55.32
AF 2.26
AFq 45.13
3bet 3.18
fold 3bet 70.59
ATS 22.33
Fold BB to steal 84.31
Fold SB to steal 91.53

Thanks in advance for you're help, when i have more time i will post my problem hands in the forum

BR=$209.14

spending a couple of hours going through some of the sample hands in the forum now and re-reading some articles, then will do a session later today when the kids are in bed. also gonna enter the pokerstrategy freeroll on mansion

Hi gaz,

I've just read through your blog and I can only say nice attitude man, keep it up.

About the stats I think your went-to-showdown value is a bit too high, I like to keep it below 24 or even around 20. on the other hand you win quite a bit of those showdowns so maybe it doesn't make so much difference.

thanks radyan, i thought that my wtsd stat was slightly high but struggle to get it lower both on 6max and on the larger sample size FR. I am sure though once i iron out a few mistakes this will bring it down also

done 3k hands now on SH and i am currently running at $3.78 down, i would say that despite this though i was playing very well and i only made i think 2 mistake hands which i had posted and had comments on, i think i shoved my stack last night in a 1.5k hand session like 20 times at least, i was getting very good cards all of the time and most of the time getting lots of action off it, unfortunatly i would win 3-4 stacks then lose 5 which were mostly due to suckouts then i would win a few more then lose a couple etc, a few examples was AAvs22, TT with T on flop against AA, A on turn, 2 pair then river brings straight card, flush vs straight flush etc.

Vp$IP 16.51
PFR 12.48
W$WSF 43.35
WTSD 29.80
W$SD 52.89
AF 3.07
AFq 49.50
3bet 5.34
Call 3Bet 68.75
Fold 3bet 68.75
ATS 24.26
fold BB to steal 82.31
Fold SB to steal 90.28

How are these looking so far?

just finished a 2 hour session, played 1.2k hands ending with a profit of $23.08 and 9.67BB/100. In total now for BSS SH i am in profit of $19.30. In total for FR and SH i am down $30.18 but i am not concerned about this as i am treating this as a fresh start with SH so i will ignore the FR balance for now.

After yesterday's session i posted 11 hands i wasn't to sure about, and found out that i played 7-8 of them correctly and the other one's i mostly new i had made a mistake in the first place as soon as i pressed push or call. I feel i am playing better now even after posting just 11 hands. I don't feel i need to post any hands from this session, i lost one or 2 big pots but most of these were suckouts, the other i had 2 pair on the flop and bet, got raised so i pushed and opponent called and got straight on the river, but all in all i think i played close to my A game, maybe i just need to tighten up on the button a little, they started re-raising me from the blinds, only when i had suited connectors though, if i raised a strong preflop hand they folded, typical.

Anyway time to set some goals for now so here they are

Short Term Goals

Get gold status on pokerstrategy [ ]
Clear as much of the mansion bonus as possible ($310 to go) [ ]
Post problem hands after each and every session this week [ ]
Read other BSS blogs and related articles in forum [ ]
Post my opinion on hands in hand sample forum [ ]
Read all Basic - Bronze BSS and related articles in January [ ]

Mid Term Goals

Read all silver and gold articles until gain good understanding [ ]
Grind NL10 until $500-600 [ ]
Get 8k points in 1 month for i think its pro status on mansion [ ]

Long Term Goals

Move upto Nl25 [ ]
Move upto NL50 [ ]
Get platinum status [ ]
Read all Platinum articles [ ]

Continuous Goals

Continue to have fun playing poker and continue to improve my mentality to the game
Continue being active in the forums
Keep updating this blog

Nice session Gaz, attaboy, keep it going.

Great posting, liking your goals, both realistic & achievable. Good discipline.

Bart.

cheers bart, motivated for the next session now, which will be in a couple of hours i think, hope all goes well

just played 1.3k hands and left the tables feeling gutted. I had AA 8 times and lost 5 of them by suckouts, won 1 and got blinds for the other 2, KK 10 times and lost 7, managed to get some back between each loss but then more and more suckouts, i understand this is just variance but was gutted about how many times i saw those premium hands and how many times i lost with them. Lost usual sets to straights, straights to flushes, full house to higher full house and so on. All in all i lost $35.98 for the session and am now $16.68 down overall for SH. I realised to that my opponents saw how badly i was hitting my cards and in the end everytime i raised AK, AQ and so on, i missed the flop but was in a position to win it on the flop or i hit and they hit better and i have to make a unfortunate fold. In the end everytime i raised either pre-flop or on the flop they re-raised as they new how often i was missing etc and when i didnt miss they hit sets and so on. Last hand of the day involved slight tilt so i closed all the tables down before i lost more, will play in better spirits tomorrow.

I had TT on the BU and the SB raised every raise or bet by everyone on the table and raised his high card etc against flushes and so on, so when AKx came on the flop he bet oop and i raised, he then minraised me so for some stupid reason i pushed and he flipped over AQ and lost just over 1 stack

All in all learnt a lot from tonight i think

Hi gaz,

It's good that you quit playing when you start feeling you're going on tilt, that can save you a lot of money.

Sometimes when I have a situation like you described, I mean my opponents are either extremely loose or just figure out that I make a cbet every time heads up after raising and start to float or even reraise me with air or weak pair, I'm getting cautious. That doesn't mean I stop playing my good hands, I might just fold AJo in middle position with two limpers already in the hand. Sometimes when my raise pf is called and I miss the flop completely and it looks like I missed it (e.g. the flop comes 8-high or something) I just give up c-betting and watch what my opponent's gonna do. Sometimes I can win with a delayed c-bet on the turn. On the other hand, if you know your opponent is playing with you, raising or calling your bets very light, I'm sometimes willing to go broke against him with top pair good kicker on the flop. Yesterday I flopped a nutflash draw with a TPTK with A6s against such an opponent in 3 way unraised pot, lead on the flop, he raises, I 3bet and he folds. I would play it the same even without a top pair I guess because I was giving up lot of my hands after he floated and once I showed him real strength he got scared and gave it up. Maybe the move is worth using sometimes.

GL at the tables

Re:
Pete

thanks pete, i've just reviewed last night's session and i realised another big mistake i am making, when i played FR i played 8 tables, but when i switched onto SH i played 1 then slowly upto 4, then again slowly upto 8 and thought i was playing well at the time. When i had the $23 session i was playing 4 tables, when i had the $35.98 session i played 8. I have just realised that although in short hand i can play suited connectors and such from late position on PASSIVE tables, i was raising in late every time when i was first to act whilst 8 tabling, i was playing so many tables i did not know if they were passive or aggressive so often i got re-raised and i had to fold, but i also think i called the odd time or re-raised to mix up my play.

So back to 4 tables for a while now, i will just have pokerstrategy and pokertracker on my 2nd monitor so it isn't a waste of £200.

I will post some hands from last night now, i counted that there were 68 hands where i lost 0.30c or more, i bet 20 of these were raising passive hands in late on aggressive tables, hence maybe $6 before we get to the flop. I won't post these as i have assessed and corrected the issue by looking at my session and will only post hands i am unsure of.

I will also start to look at hands i win, i never bothered with this, i just looked at losses, but i could be luckily winning hands i shouldn't be pushing and so on.

just looked through my hands and with bad LP raises and bad calls/pushes that i can see this adds up to £32.29.

So with these out i would have finished about $3 so big lesson learnt and deffinatly will play 4 tables now and concentrate more