Ramble's Ramblings

(witty subject line eh?)

This is turning out to be a crappy month all around on several fronts. A couple of major upsets on the real life scene at home that are definitely -$EV for the foreseeable future...

...and speaking of -$EV, this month is killing me poker-wise... just losing session after losing session. I'm down just shy of 30 buy-ins for the month. I have worked on my bubble play again since my last post and feel that it is much improved so that is good. Unfortunately though it seems like I keep running into the top of opponents ranges or they keep catching their outs.

My hand reviews don't seem to be turning any major issues up that I'm not actively working on already, so I am looking forward to my next coaching to see if that points me in another direction.

Wow!!!

I am having my best night of poker ever right now!

Played 24 games
ITM 62.5% (75% adjusted to include bounties) (9-1st, 2-2nd, 4-3rd, 1-4th, 8-rest)
ROI 93.5%

I am playing well by making good folds, adjusting for bubble, stealing blinds, defending blinds, hitting flops well, not getting outdrawn, and of course sucking out when I need to.

In one night I almost made up for my whole month's losses... dare I tempt fate and get 8 more games in before bed... hmmm I think so!

So here it is the end of the month and it is time for a report. Overall, the month was a rough one poker-wise - it just seemed like every session was a losing one until the last couple of days when things really turned around for me and I went on a very nice mini-heater. This allowed me to come back to almost break-even for the month.

Some things I improved on this month are:
:diamond:My appreciation for the ICM Tax as we approach the bubble - I think when I switched to Knock-Out Tourney's in March, I over-adjusted and was calling coin-flips too lightly to try and collect bounties.
:diamond:Blind-stealing (including limp-stabbing) - still working on, but made some great strides here.
:diamond:Mental Toughness - Not letting short-term results affect me negatively.
:diamond:Making better stats based decisions versus my opponents

These were my Goals for May:

[Fail] Volume: 600 games - I knew this was really aggressive for me but I wanted to push myself. In the end I managed 318 which isn't great but better than I had been doing.

[Fail] Study Group: 2 Sessions - This didn't happen at all - my work and family routines are just too dynamic and unpredictable. As a result, my poker time tends to fall in the late evening for me (which is middle of the night for my European-filled study group). For now I think I am going to stop worrying about this and just focus on my coachings and volume.

[Pass] Improve Limp-stabs and blind steals - This is still being worked on, but I think I've made some good progress. I am developing a better sense of how to blind steal versus different opponents and what ranges work, where to open and where to limp-stab.

Games Played: 318
ROI: -1.82%
ITM: 36.6% (46.5% adjusted to include bounties) - (42-1st / 37 - 2nd / 37 - 3rd / 55 4-th / 146 - rest)

Spoiler

June Goals will come soon...

I don't blame you for not putting in much volume this month. How can I? With the beautiful weather we've been getting here in Canada ♠_cool: ♠_cool: ♠_cool: =). It's been really nice weather here in Toronto the past few weeks!

I'm taking some adult courses and got back into skateboarding so that's why I haven't been online lately. I really want to balance everything because I want to play poker, but every time I tel myself that I'll wake up at 5 A.M. to play before I head out, I wake up only to put the alarm on silent

I played a small session today and it's good to see that I still got it ♦ ♦.
It's good to see you're still keeping the fire going and here's to a good june month!

Originally posted by maythany
I don't blame you for not putting in much volume this month. How can I? With the beautiful weather we've been getting here in Canada ♠_cool: ♠_cool: ♠_cool: =). It's been really nice weather here in Toronto the past few weeks!

I'm taking some adult courses and got back into skateboarding so that's why I haven't been online lately. I really want to balance everything because I want to play poker, but every time I tel myself that I'll wake up at 5 A.M. to play before I head out, I wake up only to put the alarm on silent

I played a small session today and it's good to see that I still got it ♦ ♦.
It's good to see you're still keeping the fire going and here's to a good june month!

Maythany's back!!!!

Hey bud, Glad you finally blew some of that nice weather east, it's been really cold here up until this weekend. So cold, we are a few weeks late planting the garden, and I was still scraping frost off the windshield a few mornings this week!!!

Balance is key my friend and it looks like you are doing a fine job at improving the mind and body through courses and boarding... (Mind & Body eh? maybe you should take over this blog as I have improved neither lately and my bankroll is stagnant this month )

Hope you enjoy your ease back into the games!

Well it looks like the mini-heater is officially over. I just played 16 tables and finished 10.7 buy-ins below EV...

Anyways moving on to my June Goals:
:diamond:Volume Goal: 500 games (this is what I need each month to hit my original 2014 volume goal of 5000 games)

Study & Review Session Focus #1 - Bubble Play - I think I still have lots of room for improvement here. I've bubbled 16% of tourneys in past 3 months and I feel that this is way too high. I'll consider my efforts this month successful if I can get this down to 12% or below.

:diamond:Study & Review Session Focus #2 - ITM Play - My distribution of first / second / third finishes over past 3 months seems too flat - 35% / 31%/ 34% respectively. I'm going to focus on converting more 3rd place finishes to 2nd place to scoop that extra 10+% of prize pool more often.

hey I heard about the shooting in Moncton NB on the news today.

Is everything alright over there?

Originally posted by maythany
hey I heard about the shooting in Moncton NB on the news today.

Is everything alright over there?

I don't want to sound dramatic, but it has shaken us up quite bad.

Moncton is an EXTREMELY peaceful and friendly community where everybody still smiles and says hello to each other. To have three police officers shot dead and 2 more in hospital is just unheard of for us.

One of the officers was gunned down in the street right in front of my sister's home - they heard the gunshots and when they looked out the window they saw the body lying in the street. They have 2 young children and have been worried sick about their safety - so today they packed up and went to stay with family out of province until the shooter can be caught.

The city is on lock-down and everything is just eerily quiet. Many businesses are closed and everyone is being asked to stay in their houses behind locked doors. Police officers are everywhere. Geographically the area they suspect he is hiding in is not that big, but it is very difficult to contain or search without completely exposing yourself to further harm should the gunman decide to continue killing.

Latest details: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-shooting-manhunt-enters-2nd-night-1.2665707

I'm glad they caught the man!

Yes they caught him and no one else was hurt - much to everyone's relief.

My sister's family is still quite shakin up with everything happening so close to them and seeing things unfold first-hand. Hopefully a bit of time and things will return to normal for them. As I said before, violence of this nature is so rare in Moncton, so the whole community has been quite affected by this. I can't imagine what it is like in the many parts of the world where violence of this nature is more common or even a fact of life...

I've always been thankful to live where I do for many reasons, this event just reinforces how fortunate I am all the more.

I haven't played poker since it started on Wednesday, but I think I will get my grind on again today. Wish me luck.

Got my first 100 games in for the month - with a small positive ROI despite running slightly under $EV.

I've continued on with studying the bubble by looking at the Nash pushing and calling ranges for the 16 combinations of a big stack, big-middle stack, short-middle stack, and short stack. Then thinking about why the ranges change depending on the sequence of the stacks and how this compares with how I have been playing. Of course I realize I have to adjust those ranges depending on my opponents, etc... but I think it is very useful to spend time examining and understanding these dynamics better.

So here's an example of how the bubble is messin with me... I'm pretty sure I played it ok and it is just a cooler, but I think maybe I should have folded to villain's re-raise on the turn to try and make it ITM...?

Poker Stars, $3.20 Buy-in (100/200 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 4 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: 1,355 (6.8 bb)
BB: 6,400 (32 bb) (56/14 stats over smallish sample - we've been tussling back and forth with me coming out on top 3/4 showdowns)
Hero (CO): 3,775 (18.9 bb)
BTN: 1,970 (9.9 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K A
Hero raises to 400, 2 folds, BB calls 200

Flop: (900) 5 9 Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 400, BB calls 400

Turn: (1,700) A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets 800, BB raises to 2,200, Hero raises to 2,975 and is all-in, BB calls 775

River: (7,650) A (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

looks very close IMO. If you folded, you would have had 10bb-11BB left and be hovering around the other two shorties.

I think I fold to the CR.

With history it's so easy to level yourself into calling I suppose.

Originally posted by maythany
looks very close IMO. If you folded, you would have had 10bb-11BB left and be hovering around the other two shorties.

Originally posted by zachrina
I think I fold to the CR.
With history it's so easy to level yourself into calling I suppose.

Yup, should have folded on turn. Really, I should have just jammed it pre-flop... but live and learn...

Had a coaching with Alex tonight and we looked at some bubble spots I had marked and he reminded me of some of the bubble considerations we had discussed before... (I'm a bit slow and need to be told things a few times - good thing he is patient ♦...).

So after the coaching, I went out to mow the lawn and thought about what he said and tried to let it sink in. Then I sat down at the tables and had a great night.

I played 18 games with an ROI of 108% --- that's up 19.5 buy-ins!!!

What makes me even happier though is the distribution I had: 6-1st, 4-2nd, 3-3rd, and only 2-4th!!!! ♠_biggrin:

(I'm a bit slow and need to be told things a few times - good thing he is patient grin ...).

I used to think this when working with Tim. I can't tell you the amount of times I've been embarrassed. I knew he'd told me but couldn't remember, so uncomfortable but the only way!

Very nice run by the way. Keep it up

Been having a great run since last coaching. I feel that I am making better decisions as I close in on the bubble and once ITM.

I also went back to reviewing my marked hands immediately after the session, instead of once or twice a week. It is usually less than 10 hands anyways, so why wait... only takes a few minutes and let's me correct things more quickly.

So after 208 games this month this is where I stand:

ROI: 9.16%
ITM: 39% (48% adjusted for bounties)
Distribution: 33-1st, 24-2nd, 24-3rd, 30-4th, 97 rest...

I still expect to make my volume goal by the end of the month and hope my green line continues to climb. I find that getting the volume in is helping me reinforce what I am learning so I hope it can continue.

Great News - I've had quite a good run the past couple of weeks so decided to check the SnG Leaderboards and discovered that last week I finished 24th on the Battle of the Planets Leaderboard!!!

I'd be happy to sign autographs and pose for pictures... just form a line please! ♦

Welcome to the club man!!!!

Free money is always good money