First Session

So I had a 4 hour session at NL100 today (which was nowhere near as dull as I would have imagined), a crazy fish in particular who was 4 tabling made it impossible to quit. I was pretty surprised by the amount of bad players, lots of 50/20's on tonight.

I was up 11 buyins pretty quick at one point. I'm not quite sure how to explain it, probably similar to that of jessica alba lying naked on my bed shooting loads of money out of her fandingo. Or maybe the same type of adrenaline rush from getting a virtual hand job of pamela from ipoker live chat support.

Anyway,

Heres some of my favourite hands.

Villian in the hand is the reason I have been playing all night:

note: these are all 100bb max tables.

SB: $82.25
BB: $303.90 75/50/4
Hero (BTN): $197.25

Pre-Flop: 7 K dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $2.50, Observer folds, BB raises to $8, Hero calls $5.50

Flop: ($16.50) K 2 2 (3 Players)
BB bets $8.50, Hero calls $8.50

Turn: ($33.50) 9 (3 Players)
BB bets $33.50, Hero calls $33.50

River: ($100.50) 8 (3 Players)
BB bets $253.90 and is All-In, Hero calls $147.25 and is All-In

Results: $395 Pot
SB showed and LOST (+$0 NET)
BB showed J A and WON $106.65 (-$89.60 NET)
Hero showed 7 K and WON $393 (+$195.75 NET)


BTN: $261.10 75/50/4
Hero (BB): $176.50

Pre-Flop: T T dealt to Hero (BB)
BTN raises to $3, Hero raises to $9, BTN calls $6

Flop: ($18) 4 9 2 (2 Players)
Hero bets $14, BTN calls $14

Turn: ($46) 8 (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $23, Hero raises to $153.50 and is All-In, BTN calls $130.50

River: ($353) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $353 Pot ($1 Rake)
BTN showed 5 4 and LOST (-$176 NET)
Hero showed T T and WON $352 (+$176.50 NET)



BTN: $210.95 75/50/4
Hero (SB): $96.50
BB: $103.25

Pre-Flop: K J dealt to Hero (SB)
BTN raises to $3.50, Hero raises to $11.50, BB folds, BTN calls $8

Flop: ($24) 3 T K (2 Players)
Hero bets $14, BTN calls $14

Turn: ($52) Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $18, BTN calls $18

River: ($88) A (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $167.45 and is All-In, Hero calls $53 and is All-In

Results: $194 Pot
BTN showed T A and WON $114.45 (+$17.95 NET)
Hero showed K J and WON $192 (+$96 NET)


And some of the not so fun hands:

Deep hand vs a reg whom I have a lot of history with (from NL400). He is quite spazzy preflop. I would usually just flat preflop but vs him I figured I could make him call/shove with worse. If villian swapped places with me in this hand, I could definitely see him 4betting a wide range here. Also - I hate my 4bet sizing here, definitely a mistake.

CO: $115.40
Hero (BTN): $178.35
SB: $46.45
BB: $230.90
UTG: $116.65

Pre-Flop: K K dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to $4, CO folds, Hero calls $4, SB folds, BB raises to $16.50, UTG folds, Hero raises to $40, BB raises to $229.90 and is All-In, Hero calls $138.35 and is All-In

Flop: ($361.20) 5 Q 2 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: ($361.20) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($361.20) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $361.20 Pot
Hero showed K K and LOST (-$178.35 NET)
BB showed A A and WON $410.75 (+$233.40 NET)


Heres a hand I really did not want to fold. Vs the 75/50/4 guy from before.

SB: $423.95
BB: $100.70
Hero (BTN): $181.45

Pre-Flop: J A dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $2.50, SB calls $2, BB calls $1.50

Flop: ($7.50) J 3 2 (3 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $5, SB raises to $18, BB folds, Hero calls $13

Turn: ($43.50) J (2 Players)
SB bets $18, Hero calls $18

River: ($79.50) Q (2 Players)
...

Decided to start a blog mainly out of bordeom, but also to help motivate me think about poker more which can only be +EV.

Background:

I am a 23 year old student in the UK and have been playing poker for 3-4 years, primarily 6max NL.

I have been an 2/4 regular for the past half year but due to a very nasty downswing and excessive cashing out I have been forced to drop down to 1/2. Dropping down has a serious impact on my game. I get annoyed, frustrated, tilt more, bored, lose motivation, and mainly just not having as much fun.

This caused me to play very poorly for the last couple of months. I wasn't thinking about poker, just playing a robot auto pilot style with getting back up to 2/4 as fast as possible being the only thing on my mind. This was a pretty bad mindset to have as it made me tilt really bad when things weren't going my way and I would start to spew off a lot of money.


Things have changed though, I have been thinking non stop about poker for the past couple of weeks, learning things I have never realized before which has re-sparked my love for the game again. It is insane how deep the strategies and theories of poker can go, more deep than you would ever imagine.

My goals are to get back upto NL400 soon and be a solid winner at 5/10 NL within the next couple of months. Aslong as I stay focused and work really hard I think it is very achievable within the next 2-3 months. The only restriction will be how much I can play during the next couple of months due to other commitments such as University.

After having a lot of new realizations about poker (mainly from discussions with friends who play a lot higher than me), I have decided to take the rest of the month of from grinding and instead focus really hard on my game. It will let me break my game down completely and nit pick every aspect of it.

This probably means i'll be playing around 20% poker and studying 80% for the rest of the month. I am going to go back down to NL100 and work my way up. I think going back to basics and playing at the lower levels and working my way up again will only do wonders for my confidence and will also be fun in a sense. Kind of like my own little Poker challenge.

10-15k hands at each limit, really focusing on my play, trying to identify spots where I am not balanced and playing nothing but solid poker is my main priority right now.

I will update this blog regularly with my progress and my hopeful journey to NL1K and beyond.