so i played some today, all was going well apart from me getting owned a bit by a fish. then in the space of 1 minute i make a pretty damn terrible call, as well as getting it in w JJ versus an aggro fish's AK and losing as well as another beat by a fish at the same time. now this wouldnt be a problem each on their own, but i have a bad problem of losing my temper when a few things happen at the same time. and its worse when one of them is a pretty clear mistake by me.

the one positive is that i managed to quit straight after knowing that there was no way i was going to be close to my A game anymore. however i tend to have a problem getting back into playing after doing something stupid. i think i might try dropping down briefly to lower stakes the next time i play whenever it happens just to be able to play confidently and be less worried about doing something dumb.

this is the first hand that im posting that im genuinely embarassed about. the villain is a lame 21/15 tagfish. as if hes eeeeever bluffing here. my preflop and flop calls are questionable at best, and my turn call is a joke. seriously, sometimes i think i must hate money (my brain>>"duuuhhhhh...i wanna get even coz im down to a bunch of fish, and now i have da straight draw. ill put him on AK and make the call...duuuhhhhhh):

Party Poker, $5/$10 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (MP): $1,112
CO: $1,060
BTN: $393.50
SB: $865.25
BB: $1,098
UTG: $2,064

Pre-Flop: 9 9 dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $35, 3 folds, BB raises to $120, Hero calls $85

Flop: ($245) 6 Q 8 (2 Players)
BB bets $200, Hero calls $200

Turn: ($645) 7 (2 Players)
BB bets $778 and is All-In, Hero calls $778

River: ($2,201) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $2,201 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 9 9 and LOST (-$1,098 NET)
BB showed A A and WON $2,198 (+$1,100 NET)

now that ive bared my stupidity to those who bother reading this hopefully i can make a strong effort to cut right down on ridiculous calls like this one.

overall tho im pretty happy with my improvements. my non showdown winnings have managed to stay positive which is cool and my w$wsf has stayed at 47% over my first 2.5k hands. a silver lining to the cloud that is poker for me atm.



gonna play computer games for a while then try to hit the tables fresh and ready to play well again...

1.5k hands total for the day. booked a small win which was cool, especially considering my W$SD was a measly 47%. however the main focus for me today was playing well and making the changes that i knew i needed to make. whilst i did get a bit fancy at times and made a few spewy plays at bad times, overall i think i really made some positive changes to my game. i was constantly on the lookout for profitable situations that i would normally give up on, and i made some pretty sweet plays that i would never normally make and ended with a W$WSF of 47% which is a massive change from my usual wussy 39%.

my housemates have been quite adamant in telling me i should play less tables if i want to get better so im going to drop down to 4 tables at a time so i can really focus on what im doing. im a bit too tired to post anymore hands from today so ill wait til next time to air some of my dirty laundry...

so today was the first day of me trying to reinvent my strategy. i have known for a while that i was playing too weak and straightforward to really crush the games i play. it became even more obvious when i went through my HEM stats and compared them to other winning players. essentially i have been a variance avoiding little ***** and i dont play nearly creatively enough, so i have dropped back down to 1/2 and 2/4nl with a view to really getting my game up to scratch.

my first session was pretty promising. ran bad but mananged to nearly break even which was cool. i was pretty stoked to see my red line moving in the right direction as well asi know i have been giving up waaay too much in non-showdown pots.




here are the two hands i got stacked on:

1) this hand actually made me pretty happy. it kinda was testament to the image i had managed to cultivate. shame about the result tho

Party Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $200
Hero (BTN): $245.60
SB: $470.10
BB: $226.15
UTG: $412.25
MP: $200

Pre-Flop: A K dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, SB raises to $21, BB folds, Hero raises to $62, SB raises to $469.10 and is All-In, Hero calls $183.60 and is All-In

Flop: ($493.20) J Q 3 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($493.20) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($493.20) 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $493.20 Pot ($227.50 Rake)
Hero showed A K and LOST (-$245.60 NET)
SB showed A 8 and WON $265.70 (+$20.10 NET)

2) this one i think is pretty unavoidable. the pfr is a pretty meh TAG type. i think he can have an overpair, AQ or a random draw/bluff enough to make this shove profitable

Party Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $230.65
SB: $223
BB: $416
UTG: $200
CO: $216.05

Pre-Flop: Q T dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to $7, CO folds, Hero calls $7, SB folds, BB calls $5

Flop: ($22) 8 T 2 (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG bets $15, Hero calls $15, BB folds

Turn: ($52) Q (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $38, UTG raises to $86, Hero raises to $208.65 and is All-In, UTG calls $92 and is All-In

River: ($408) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $408 Pot ($2.50 Rake)
Hero showed Q T and LOST (-$200 NET)
UTG showed 8 8 and WON $405.50 (+$205.50 NET)

going to play some more tonight and tomorrow. im going to try and stick to less than 6 tables so i can keep up the increased aggression and be able to put more thought into my game.

So ive finally got my motivation back to play poker over the last month and did very well over july. i have just moved into an apartment in a really nice area with two poker friends. we have a 6 month lease and all plan on using the time to put in a lot of hands and time studying and improving. i know i ran really well last month and i have a bunch of leaks to plug. but i think im pretty on top of where im going wrong and with some serious critiquing of my play through hand reviews and HEM i can get to where i want to be.

i just finished reading cts's old blog and thought it seemed like a good idea and a great way to keep myself in line so im going to do the same sort of thing, although i doubt itll be quite as spectacular. ive started pretty badly so far at this new place but ill leave that in the past and focus on the future.


anyways, goals for the rest of August:
- minimum 35k hands at 3/6 and below
- 1 hour review/study/blogging for every 3 hours of play
- 15k
- get a much stronger handle on my tilt control ie. stop playing if im on bad tilt, but also really try to shake off bad beats and coolers much faster.
- put in at least 3 proper blog enries a week

im going to post all the large hands i feel that were interesting and/or i played badly. im hoping that by putting all my really bad errors out there ill stop making them.

wish me luck!