I have a lot of notes

I'm really pretty good about taking notes.  Between theory notes from stuff I read/watch, detailed notes on videos, thoughts on hands that I screwed up, correspondence with people -- mostly coaches -- about hands and sweat sessions, and other assorted crap, I think I've got 30-50 pages of stuff accumulated over the years.  Oh, and I've got this blog.

The problem is I never really go back and review...with any sort of deep thought...most of it.  I watch so few videos compared to what's out there that I'll probably never go back and concentrate on watching the best ones.

I've got to figure out how to best organize everything so that I can easily access it later.  I'd like to keep things in Word because that works well to port to my iPhone, so I can review without even needing a connection (of course I'm also tempted to get through the next Deuces Cracked video on the phone, too).

Anyway, it's probably good to take a bunch of notes and even write in blogs because the act of doing that forces me to think a bit more about things.  I may not go back and refer to something WiltonTilt said in his math series six months ago, but I still remember some of the content because I went to the trouble of writing down and thinking about some key things.

In other news, I had a big conference to attend this week.  I played for about 90 minutes on Tuesday, and that's all I've had time for.  Next week, I'll be in Disneyland with the family (yeah, Disneyland, go ahead and laugh, but it is fun to be there with the kids).  I'll probably be able to get away with watching an iPhone video here and there, but no way is the computer getting opened for any stretch of time, unless the wife and kids are so exhausted that they fall asleep well before I do.

All told, it will be close to 3 weeks between serious playing, and that's probably fine.  I don't think I've been playing well lately, maybe I'm being results oriented.  I've had an absolutely terrible month, though, and I don't really feel confident at the tables with my decisions.  I think I end up playing OK, but a bit tentative...so I miss some value and probably tend to make too many hero calls.  At least that's the trend when I play without real confidence.  Hopefully, the break will end up erasing whatever lingering doubts remain and I'll have fun playing again.

If you believe in freedom, read this...if you don't believe in freedom please ignore

If you're from the U.S., please fill this out.

This is mainly for poker players, but unless you're fundamentally opposed to Americans' ability to play poker online, there's no reason not to fill this out.  Also, the way that poker players were limited in how easy they could play poker online was a pretty underhanded political trick and I believe exemplifies why there is so much cynicism towards politicians and the political process.  I assume anyone reading this already knows all they care to about UIGEA, so I won't go into any more.

I'm amazed how much the party of "less" government in America tries to dictate what I can and cannot do.  I think both parties have some serious issues, though.

Perhaps I'll write a little something on religion for my next post :).

Thanks.

OK, I'm better

Was going to delete my last blog because I'm a little embarrassed by it...but it is what it is, and I was definitely ticked off last night.  My temper gets the better of me in a lot of competitive situations, and it usually hurts me some.  But that wasn't the case too badly last night for most of the session...really it was two hands right at the end that pushed me over the boiling point.  Up until then, even though I knew things weren't going my way overall, I was making the right decisions.  I had a lot of big hands preflop and on the flop, so it's not like I had to play great...they kind of played themselves.  But I did fine.

I'm still probably taking a break for a couple days, but that might have happened anyway.  One of my liabilities as far as poker is that I don't have a ton of time to devote to it.  I like it and wish I had more time, but I'm in no shape to support my family with poker, so playing full time is not an option.  The flip side is that I am fortunate to not have a bad week or month or whatever affect my life outside of poker.  Yeah, I dipped below the bankroll threshold I need to mix in some 1/2 games, but that just means I drop down to .50/1 and kick some ass there, or maybe head back over to Stars where I have a little cash idling and try and grind that roll up a little bit and hopefully get my confidence back.  Financially, I lost more than my entire poker roll in the stock market this week.

For additional perspective, I read a friend's blog who's going through a shitty ordeal with leukemia...he's been in and out of the hospital for almost a year now, away from home for weeks at a time going through various treatments that completely wreck his body.  He had one operation that was similar to a bone marrow transplant where there was a small, but significant, risk he would die.  A month ago, a week after he finally got clearance from the doctors to return to a 100% normal life, his routine tests showed that the leukemia had returned, and now he's back in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy again.  The good news is that the chemo apparently did its thing to the leukemia.  The bad news is that the side effects this time were absolutely horrible.  As I was reading Tom's blog, I imagined if he were reading mine, what he would think of me being so pissed off about a short bad stretch of poker.  Actually, he would probably understand, but still.

Oh, and the tennis last night went well, too.  I had the shot of the night, and did get a couple short lobs I was joking about in my last post.  But I hit away from the net guy like a gentleman.

To you guys who left some words of commiseration and encouragement to my last post, I really appreciate the support.  Thank you!

FUCK YOU FULL TILT

In case you couldn't guess from the title, I'm venting...there is absolutely nothing constructive in this post!

FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT

432 hands, -$1000+, - 121 BB/100 (mix of .50/1 and 1/2)

FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT

AA < QQ twice all in preflop, once only one out on the river because one queen would have given me a flush

KK < AA once all in preflop

AK < QQ all in preflop, king hit on the flop, queen on the river

FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT

Top set < flopped straight vs a 77/0/2.5 guy in a blind battle (he limp/called T7s for the win)

Middle set < top set

FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT FUCK YOU FULL TILT

OK, I'm off to play tennis. Fun session of poker, got me in the mood. Hope neither Dan nor Scott lob short while their partner's at the net.....

I might just be too stupid to ever be a big winner

OK, not really, but maybe kind of.  Regardless, I really feel like an idiot after Friday.  Took a day off work, plus my wife went out with the girls on Friday night, so I had plenty of time for poker, for once.  After a round of golf in the morning, I headed over to a card room for some live play.  I really like playing live every once in a while, although I think that if I were a live pro, I would grow to hate it.  I am not a big multitabler online, but even for me, the pace of play is maddeningly slow.  Everyone but me and one other guy was a regular.  However, a B&M regular is not the same thing as an online regular...still very loose and pretty passive, especially preflop.  However, the rake structure really encourages passive play...as soon as a raise goes in preflop, the entire drop of $5 in a 2-2-3 blind structure gets taken.  So, there is virtually no late position open raising.  Anyway....

I ran totally cold.  I only picked up strong hands a couple times, and those were a cooler and a lost flip...one set under set, and another 2 pair < OESD that got there.  As I was getting ready to leave, I picked up MP in the BB vs a guy who had to have trips on a paired flop.  I'm OOP, and like a total idiot, I'm value-betting myself out of 30bb or so on a  KK9 suited flop.  For fuck sake, he's never folding better, only rarely calling worse (for more than one bet), will almost definitely let me show down cheap once I put in a small flop bet unless he has me crushed.  Of course, he shows up with K3o, which he limped in 2nd to act 9 handed.  This is typical and exactly why you want to play live, but I am a total total donkey.  After that hand, I played until it got back to me in the BB and left...I was so tilted at myself for making that play, that I figured it would take me too long to calm down and play with confidence.

I stopped by Chipotle for a steak burrito, a nice mood enhancer :).  Then I headed back to the golf club (using their wireless network) to check in quickly with work and maybe play a little session before heading home.

Right now, I'm just above my bankroll threshold for playing 1/2, so what I do is select the best tables I can find across .50/1 and 1/2, rather than sticking with one limit.  I used to not like doing that (mixing limits in a session), but I don't mind it so much now.  So, I'm not sure how many BB I won, but I had a nice session where I focused on playing solid and just about recouped the loss from my live play.  It was one of those sessions where there were no coolers or suckouts either way, and the results were good.  Not to sound too much like Phil Hellmuth, but it was nice that when everything is kind of standard (low variance, I guess), I came out ahead.

After the kids went to sleep, I played another session.  I don't know why...my Friday night record sucks big time.  This time, though, it was a lot my fault.  Once again -- and I've written about this before, but am having a really hard time breaking my bad habits -- I tried pushing a guy off a marginal hand.  My hand reading is getting a lot better...I knew pretty much what he had.  My people reading remains stubbornly shitty...I thought I could make him fold it.  His hand was actually worse than I thought; he was willing to stack off with a middle pocket pair for 175 BB.  Give him credit, though, because I was willing to bluff him off it.  The thing is, he's the wrong guy to bluff...36/24/something aggressive postflop.  This guy is going to gamble.  I called in position on the flop with a gutshot+back door flush draw precisely because my implied odds were so good if I could just hit, and we were deep.  But you can't have it both ways! If you're playing to stack the donkey when you hit your hand, you can't also play to bluff the donkey off his hand when you miss!  Ugh!

Trying Too Hard

I'm getting frustrated trying to crack 200NL.  I think I'm trying too hard to outplay people, especially regulars.  Pretty common theme for my last few sessions is me trying too hard to put people on marginal hands and bluff them out of pots.  I do think even at small stakes if you can hand read, it's fine to attack a likely weak or polarized range.  You can pretty easily force people to give up aggression in the hand.  However, they give up by calling down, not by getting out of the hand.  That means it's possible to get a little extra value by playing your decent made hands more aggressively (people will look you up with marginal made hands).  But you can't have it both ways, and I think that while I'm getting a lot better at hand reading, I'm still making the wrong conclusions about what people will do with their hands.  Where I would be folding (or trying to fold) to pressure with say an underpair to a turn raise, I keep forgetting that not everyone will.

And to be fair, I'm not giving them a reason.  My image gets shot by making some sort of play and then I either end up bet/folding a couple times or else I show down the bluff/semi-bluff, etc.  If I could capitalize on that and change gears well -- and get the cards to go along with that -- it wouldn't be so bad to get caught.  Instead, I keep up the same style, and of course the idiots keep looking me up or playing back.

I would be seriously complaining about Full Tilt coolering me, as well...where even if my hand holds up, the board gets so scary that I cannot get a bet called...not to mention all the good 2nd best hands I've been getting...you know how that goes.  But, like a ray of sunshine through a gloomy sky, Full Tilt actually let me hit a draw after full stacks went in!!! OMFG, world may be ending.  Lately, the only time I'm winning flips is against the shorties; the full stack all-ins are not going my way.

I snuck out for a round of golf yesterday...actually was supposed to go with my boss and one other guy from work.  Boss hurt his back, but said that wasn't our fault, so have a fun round.  Sweet.  Played OK tee to green, but putted lights out.  The only reasonably close putt I missed was on the first hole (about 6 feet for birdie), and I dropped 4 long ones, including on the 17th and 18th holes to seal the victory against my buddy who came out to join us.  There was a girls high school golf team waiting to do their team picture on the 18th green, and they were all standing just off the back of the green as we played out.  They were just in high school, but seriously there was not a single bad looking girl on the team, and a few of them were really cute, especially all made up for their photos.  Not what you expect from a bunch of athletes, but the LPGA and even tennis (the two women's pro sports I watch) has been getting better and better looking over the years.  I digress.

My buddy and I were even on the back going into the hole.  I give him a stroke on the hole, and we were both on the green in 3.  I'm about 20 feet out and he's about half that.  He gives me a hard time in front of the gallery.  But I curl the putt in, do a mock Tiger fist pump, and get a loud ovation from the girls.  So that was nice.

Wild weekend

Poker's a sick game. 

Friday night I had my biggest winning session.  That was in spite of a pretty dubious stack-off a little deep, although based on game flow, it might have been OK.  I had a read that he would play a marginal overpair or AK as the nuts -- he was on tilt, and I was right...but I didn't have near the nuts either and he was just a little ahead of me.  I think we both played the hand spewtastically.  Or he just soul-read the shit out of me and pwned my ass.

Saturday night, I had my biggest losing session, $25 bigger than Friday's win.  So, basically, the weekend was for rakeback :P.  Saturday featured me getting stacked 5 times and losing 90 bb on another hand, while winning more than a half stack (barely) only once over the session.  One of the times I got stacked was absolutely retarded on my part, hitting TP on the river against a total maniac, but I did a terrible job with the hand, and lost way more than I needed.  Then there were the standard losses of getting all the money in once with 95% equity and once with 85% equity, and two middle set < top set hands.

The lessons from all this?  Without some bad play on my part, I'd be up a couple BI over the weekend.  From a results standpoint, that's probably the key thing...because of that and some other hands where I don't think I was good enough getting value, I could have had an overall successful weekend.

I'm also not winning big on a lot of my big hands.  Not when I get sucked out on or coolered, but when I'm ahead, a lot of the times people fold.  However, I think there is the danger of being too results oriented.  Because coolers go both ways, and I am getting sufficient action with a lot of equity; just in the short term it's not working out.  I'm making the +EV play and generating action.

The other thing I noticed looking through some medium hands is that I'm taking similar lines with bluffs as with made hands, and I'm apparently running into either better hands, better bluffs, or in some cases the hands I'm representing, which pretty annoying.  But the good thing is that I'm bluffing well in execution, if not necessarily timing.

Poker's a sick game.

Big leak remembered

I was having a hand discussion with Jared that made a light bulb go on for about the 50 zillionth time probably.  I forget all the specifics, but he raised preflop with 99 and got called by a regular in later position.  Villain is super aggro postflop, like 5+, I think.  Effective stacks were 100bb or maybe a tiny bit deeper.  I don't remember the board 100%, but I think it was T86 rainbow.  He c-bet some reasonable amount, and villain minraised.  Jared asked me what I would do, and what my plan was for the hand.  It's a pretty sick spot, and I don't like any choice, really.  I went into the IM tank and finally decided although I didn't like any option, there was too much chance he's ahead, so I said I would call the minraise, check/call most turns, and re-evaluate on the river.  Probably folding if he 3-barrels big though. 

He asked for villain's range and we talked about that for a while, talked about hypothetical turns, and what if we had AA or a set, etc., etc.  Then we came back to the actual hand and my plan for it.  He gave me credit for some reasonable thinking about the hand and they hypotheticals, and for realizing that all options pretty much suck.  And he did say that, especially with a little history, flat calling the flop  and check/calling the turn is not totally unreasonable, but it's likely going to lead to a lot of tough river decisions, especially against an aggressive player.  So, what he advocated for me was to just fold to the flop minraise.  It might be a small mistake, but it avoids a potentially large mistake.  It's important to note that villain had not yet abused his position; essentially there was no real history.

Basically, out of position + out of a clearly good option should  tend to = out of the hand.  At least for me.

Of course, we're going to play OOP sometimes.  But when we are, we need to make sure that we've either got superior hands or superior skill relative to our opponents.  Obviously, it's always good to have better hands and more skill than our opponents.  My point is that when we're not sure where we stand, we could still justify not folding in position, but if we're not sure where we stand out of position, it's much harder to justify staying in the hand.

Interestingly, I was listening to Tommy Angelo and KRANTZ yesterday, and they both talked about position quite a bit.  Anyone who's read anything by Tommy Angelo knows how important he feels it is to play in position more often than your opponents.  KRANTZ had an interesting take on it as well...he said that if you look at forum strategy posts, the overwhelming number of call vs. fold questions come up when Hero is OOP.  And parenthetically, in that spot, people like to call too much, in general.

Missed just about everything in August

As far as poker goes in August, in all ways except two, it was a bust.  I hardly played, I watched one video the whole month, barely kept up on blogs, read zero forum posts....you get the idea.  I had to choose between a lot of priorities, and this month, poker took a back seat.  For the first time in quite a while, I have something where a lot of things are coming together at work:  interesting, challenging, executive pet project --> get what I need.  Also, the kids started school last week, so for a lot of August we were cramming in the last summer vacation activities we'd promised the kids.

So, what were the couple things that went well?  I believe that they are closely related.  I didn't force my play for the most part, and my results were quite good.  In other months, I'd stubbornly log hours even when I was too tired, distracted, unfocused, etc.  And I'd play too long as well, believing that my game is good enough to at least break even and hopefully learn something.  The problem is, if you're too tired to play well, you're also too tired to learn much from playing, except how to get frustrated maybe!  So, this month, when this big project came up, I committed to myself not to play if I couldn't play well, and the results certainly were better.  Of course, I also probably ran better.  I certainly seemed to cooler guys, and I did run into some really bad stackoffs (bad for them, good for me).

This month, things on the work front will calm down a bit, but not all the way.  I also have one big golf tournament to play and soccer season starts Saturday.  At the end of the month, we're taking a vacation, where the only internet access I'm likely to have is through my phone.  So, it will likely be another low-volume month again.  And life will be full of good/cool/fun stuff, so that part will kick ass.  Hopefully, I'll maintain my discipline to only play when I can play pretty close to my best.  The hardest part is that I miss playing, especially when things are going well.

I was going to post some graphs and stats, but I've got to go.  Later guys.