Busted out ~120th or so. Guy was stealing like mad, 80%+ and I had 3bet him a couple times already, he calls my KQo 3bet this time with QhJh and shoves over my flop bet on AsKh9h. I used some time, figured if this was a strong Ax he would have shoved PF and he wouldn't play weak aces. Turn is 5h and he takes my chips. I was starting to think I might cash this, too.
Sigh. Donkaments.
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008
End of July
I'm playing in the Stars VIP promotion tourney for the end of the month. Would be nice to go from Platinum to Supernova Elite, but only 1 pays and there's 832 registered with 1 hour to go before we start. Top 27 for Supernova is going to be awfully tough to crack, too. I watched the bubble of the one that ran this afternoon and it was crazy. After that it was a free for all 27 way flipament since the next payout was 1st place.
I'll probably just play LAG at the start, get a big stack or bust out early. Survival only gets you so far when the payout is so top heavy. Would hate to just waste my time being card dead and blinding out 3 hours in when I could be grinding tables or making a serious run at this instead. Hopefully there will be a lot of people that are absent/sitting out so I can play 6 max strategy with dead blind money.
Updates to follow...
In other news, 50NL can DIAGF as far as I'm concerned. Trying to move back up and people are so aggro I can't figure out what is going on. Constantly getting coolered and getting my overpairs cracked. I see monsters under the bed, but they are actually there. Sigh. I can't figure out if I'm running bad, playing bad or both. I feel like I'm getting played back at with ATC except I don't have anything to call down with either.
I'm so tired of being floated. Extremely frustrating. In or out of position doesn't matter, they still do it. The times I c/r I get shoved on, too. I can't believe I can't beat this level when I beat 25NL SO easily. I just can't figure out how to adjust. They always have it. Then I go back down to 25NL and crush it again. Get a +4 buyin day at 25NL, move up and lose it back in 1/2 an hour.
I'll probably just play LAG at the start, get a big stack or bust out early. Survival only gets you so far when the payout is so top heavy. Would hate to just waste my time being card dead and blinding out 3 hours in when I could be grinding tables or making a serious run at this instead. Hopefully there will be a lot of people that are absent/sitting out so I can play 6 max strategy with dead blind money.
Updates to follow...
In other news, 50NL can DIAGF as far as I'm concerned. Trying to move back up and people are so aggro I can't figure out what is going on. Constantly getting coolered and getting my overpairs cracked. I see monsters under the bed, but they are actually there. Sigh. I can't figure out if I'm running bad, playing bad or both. I feel like I'm getting played back at with ATC except I don't have anything to call down with either.
I'm so tired of being floated. Extremely frustrating. In or out of position doesn't matter, they still do it. The times I c/r I get shoved on, too. I can't believe I can't beat this level when I beat 25NL SO easily. I just can't figure out how to adjust. They always have it. Then I go back down to 25NL and crush it again. Get a +4 buyin day at 25NL, move up and lose it back in 1/2 an hour.
Thursday, 24 July 2008
New state of mind
I`ve really gotten into a totally different state of mind while playing since I did the session review last Saturday. I don`t check the cashier nearly as often, maybe once an hour. I`m less results oriented and I`m actually not tilting when I get sucked out on. It`s amazing what this does for your game.
I still like to watch big pots to see if my range was correct or not, but the results don`t matter so much to me anymore. Between talking to a bunch of people and reading Your Own Worst Poker Enemy, I`ve started to think about the game very differently.
I`ve been playing 25NL a bit again to really work on just making +EV plays and not worry about the money, which oddly enough is the frame of mind to be in to win more money. I`ve also been able to 18 table really easily for some reason. I`m actually running at 8 ptBB/100 over 10k hands since Saturday playing 12-18 tables.
Decisions seem easier and easier once you look at the game a bit differently. I`m not sure how to describe it yet, but if I focus on ranges and what kinds of flops they hit, it`s like they`re playing their hand face up. I might just be lucky in the past week, but I really feel like I`m nailing the hand reading now that I take more time to think through the hand logically instead of worrying about what`s going on in that all in pot on the other table - what`s going on over there doesn`t matter. It just feels like a totally revamped thought process.
I`m also applying pot control correctly now AFAIK, and I`m not quite such a nit anymore which is nice =) At one point today I was running 30/20 on one table and up 3 buyins there. People just basically tell you what they have by their actions - when you`re paying attention - especially on the turn. It`s also helped that I`m focusing on isoing more and squeezing and thus playing more pots in position as well as positional pots against players that raise light. It`s so obvious when a 15/12 with an attempt to steal of 30% raises on the button against a 30/5 limper. He only wants to see a 3bet something like 2% of the time.
I think when I was getting so tilty, I resorted back to 1st level thinking and thought people were just playing back at me a lot and stacked off with a lot of 2nd best hands - and worse. They`re not, I was just paranoid.
I still like to watch big pots to see if my range was correct or not, but the results don`t matter so much to me anymore. Between talking to a bunch of people and reading Your Own Worst Poker Enemy, I`ve started to think about the game very differently.
I`ve been playing 25NL a bit again to really work on just making +EV plays and not worry about the money, which oddly enough is the frame of mind to be in to win more money. I`ve also been able to 18 table really easily for some reason. I`m actually running at 8 ptBB/100 over 10k hands since Saturday playing 12-18 tables.
Decisions seem easier and easier once you look at the game a bit differently. I`m not sure how to describe it yet, but if I focus on ranges and what kinds of flops they hit, it`s like they`re playing their hand face up. I might just be lucky in the past week, but I really feel like I`m nailing the hand reading now that I take more time to think through the hand logically instead of worrying about what`s going on in that all in pot on the other table - what`s going on over there doesn`t matter. It just feels like a totally revamped thought process.
I`m also applying pot control correctly now AFAIK, and I`m not quite such a nit anymore which is nice =) At one point today I was running 30/20 on one table and up 3 buyins there. People just basically tell you what they have by their actions - when you`re paying attention - especially on the turn. It`s also helped that I`m focusing on isoing more and squeezing and thus playing more pots in position as well as positional pots against players that raise light. It`s so obvious when a 15/12 with an attempt to steal of 30% raises on the button against a 30/5 limper. He only wants to see a 3bet something like 2% of the time.
I think when I was getting so tilty, I resorted back to 1st level thinking and thought people were just playing back at me a lot and stacked off with a lot of 2nd best hands - and worse. They`re not, I was just paranoid.
Monday, 21 July 2008
July = Variance
After my awesome start to July I've basically run breakeven for the 2nd and 3rd week of the month with some pretty big swongs over 30k hands. I thought that was enough of that and I needed some help. Signed up for a session review, but was too late so I did one with Split Suit - I've added his blog to the links on the side -->
He, along with a few other people I've chatted with have really helped me improve in the past couple of weeks, so thanks to all of them! I'm about 75% confident that I can beat 50NL right now even considering the poor results of the past 2 weeks (not based on any stats or anything, of course, just my confidence level). Even if it takes me a while to adjust to it, every time I drop back down to rebuild at 25NL it gets easier.
So to pad the month/next month I'm clearing an FPP cash bonus as well as a redeposit bonus for a total of $525 in bonus cash - thank you Stars - I called that one in my last post =) My goal is to have them both cleared by August 15.
He, along with a few other people I've chatted with have really helped me improve in the past couple of weeks, so thanks to all of them! I'm about 75% confident that I can beat 50NL right now even considering the poor results of the past 2 weeks (not based on any stats or anything, of course, just my confidence level). Even if it takes me a while to adjust to it, every time I drop back down to rebuild at 25NL it gets easier.
So to pad the month/next month I'm clearing an FPP cash bonus as well as a redeposit bonus for a total of $525 in bonus cash - thank you Stars - I called that one in my last post =) My goal is to have them both cleared by August 15.
Friday, 4 July 2008
July: Off to a Good Start
July is going to be good. Stars promos, moving up, (hopefully) running good.
I've put in 10k hands at 50NL already at ~3 ptBB/100 and 3k hands at 25NL for 7 ptBB/100. I have been multitabling 50NL like crazy trying to get the double VPPs in. Probably not the best thing to do regarding my winrate but it's only for a week and I figure this will give me a good start on my next bonus and a chance to catch up a bit to see if I can hit Supernova for the year.
I really hadn't considered it being possible while I was playing 3 months of 25NL, but the move up and subsequent pot sizes really increase the amount of VPPs you can make. At this point, I need to earn about 400 VPPs per day for the rest of the year to get Supernova for next year. It's going to be close if I don't move up to 100NL. That comes out to about 2 hours of playing per day to stay on the safe side of those calcuations with the number of tables I play.
I've put in 10k hands at 50NL already at ~3 ptBB/100 and 3k hands at 25NL for 7 ptBB/100. I have been multitabling 50NL like crazy trying to get the double VPPs in. Probably not the best thing to do regarding my winrate but it's only for a week and I figure this will give me a good start on my next bonus and a chance to catch up a bit to see if I can hit Supernova for the year.
I really hadn't considered it being possible while I was playing 3 months of 25NL, but the move up and subsequent pot sizes really increase the amount of VPPs you can make. At this point, I need to earn about 400 VPPs per day for the rest of the year to get Supernova for next year. It's going to be close if I don't move up to 100NL. That comes out to about 2 hours of playing per day to stay on the safe side of those calcuations with the number of tables I play.
June Results
June turned out alright. I played about 2/3 of my hands at 25NL and put in about 1/3 at 50NL with a little 100NL mixed in to see what it's like. I was decently happy with my results from 50NL, but I got a little tilty/ran bad towards the end but managed to recover again. I plan to play the majority of my hands at 50NL this month, mixing in some 25NL when the tables are slow.
I think playing a mixture of both is really going to help me. My winrate so far at 50NL is less than 1/2 my winrate at 25NL, so my hourly is actually higher at 25NL. Playing both will help though because on days when I feel up to the challenge, which will hopefully be most of them, I will play 50NL and work on my game. Then on days when I don't feel like my A game or feel like just making some money, I can take what I've learned back to 25NL and crush it for an even higher winrate. There are A LOT of regs at 50NL as well.
I really want to stick to 50NL mostly though due to the increase in VPP volume, especially with the huge promotions going on this month. Retaining gold status took me until the 3rd week of June last month, and I've already retained it for next month in the first 4 days of July. I haven't figured out what Stars means by the double your VIP level for the last week of July, but I have a feeling they will bump us up a level from where ever we're at, so my goal is to get to platinum before then and I can at least say I was supernova for 1 week, lol.
They apparently are having a huge part of the promotion in weeks 2 and 3 of July but are not saying what it is. I am really hoping this is the monster reload bonus for the year to give me a nice boost.
I think playing a mixture of both is really going to help me. My winrate so far at 50NL is less than 1/2 my winrate at 25NL, so my hourly is actually higher at 25NL. Playing both will help though because on days when I feel up to the challenge, which will hopefully be most of them, I will play 50NL and work on my game. Then on days when I don't feel like my A game or feel like just making some money, I can take what I've learned back to 25NL and crush it for an even higher winrate. There are A LOT of regs at 50NL as well.
I really want to stick to 50NL mostly though due to the increase in VPP volume, especially with the huge promotions going on this month. Retaining gold status took me until the 3rd week of June last month, and I've already retained it for next month in the first 4 days of July. I haven't figured out what Stars means by the double your VIP level for the last week of July, but I have a feeling they will bump us up a level from where ever we're at, so my goal is to get to platinum before then and I can at least say I was supernova for 1 week, lol.
They apparently are having a huge part of the promotion in weeks 2 and 3 of July but are not saying what it is. I am really hoping this is the monster reload bonus for the year to give me a nice boost.
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