They Call Me the $600 Mountain Climber!

o man this week hit me hard. It was going fine, a little struggle here and there but had a nice 2k profit then BAM. Enter Thursday: OH HI, -7 buy ins. Friday: OH HI, -10 buy ins. I got ownnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnned bad in 2 days.



I def. tilted a bit while swinging down. I could've saved at least 2-3 buy ins imo. at least.

I felt so shitty after my morning session on Friday. I had never lost 10k before and it really hurt my confidence. I had just lost 6k in one morning session and so I decided it was time to pull out my anti-tilt secret, nap time! :D Woke up a few hours later, played some video games for an hour or two, popped up some more tables, ran bad, and quit.

I've hit 2 or 3 4 of a kinds, 1 royal flush, 1 straight flush, and I'm still losing money, wtf?! You can imagine the kind of hit this would take to your confidence. I really felt awful, that I had all these leaks that I wasn't spotting and that I had gotten too cocky and it's all my fault that I lost all this money, wah wah wah.

Well. Saturday started out really nicely. I woke up at 8am for a few mins, then went back to sleep and woke up 2hours later lol. Got some milk n cereal, woke up the roommate, and proceeded to work. Morning hours imo are some of the fishiest. Session goes by in a blur, I seal the deal w/a 3 buy in profit. I'm still feeling really bad though. All i can think about is how i'm down 9.2k and how many hours of work it's going to take to get that back.

Break time! I msg my friend who is an insanely good pianist/turned poker pro and we go get lunch. If you live in Irvine, CA, you have to go to Koba Tofu on Culver. It's so damn good. My fav. Soon Doo Boo place ever (korean food). We talked about minbetting and man do I feel confident about my LHE game. I've never really tested myself at high stakes but I'm very very confident in my HU to 6handed game at midstakes. Now that I think about it, the lunch really helped my confidence. It reminded me of how much faith I have in my lhe game and before I knew it, I was itching to go back home and log in some hands!

4pm - I'm home! Alright...let's play some DoTA! I suddenly lost the urge to play so I killed 2 or so hours with my roommate. I have a love/hate relationship with DoTA. I love the phantom lancer and clinkz but I hate how long it takes for the game to progress. It just seems like half the game, if not all of it, is just moving your hero up and down, up and down, up a little further, and down again. ZZZzzz

8pm roommate leaves...I somehow doddle.

Then randomly at 10:06pm I decided to play some poker! I slowly open more and more tables and soon enough i have 9 going. I couldn't believe it! These tables were so juicy! I was like the only regular. There were at least 2 if not 3 fish on every table! And then the pots just came in. Pot after pot after pot. It was great. My favorite form of poker! I rarely got 3bet and rarely did I bother to even 3bet someone with trash. I got to play the way I wanted to. As much as I love pushing people around, I love seeing flops and playing the board. That minbet side of me still exists : ) For once I was in total control. There were only a few times someone gave me resistance but for the most part, I just ran the tables over. But the best thing is, the fish. They were so bad. Thank you so much for playing! You should see some of the hands I won.

http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-forum/index.php?showtopic=88531&st=14520

KK vs KQ top pair on a flush draw flop for like 150-200bbs? lol! Boat vs trips in which villain just coulnd't lay it down :D And how many times did I stack KK on an ace high flop? That was the best part, I did it at least twice. That never happens because the players I go against aren't bad like that!

You know the whole time I was playing, I was too afraid to look at my cashier. I just didn't want to look at the money. I was raking in pots and playing well, there was no reason to look. I did look at the clock though and before I knew it, I had put in 4 straight hours! The action was that good and that crazy. There was no time to eat or play. haha, it got to the point where I tried to take a really fast piss break in between hands. Surely you guys have done that right? As soon as you notice u have no action, u click the "fold" buttons and run like hell and hope u don't miss AA.


Woof. After I was done, I checked the clock, 4.5 hours! And then my cashier...*drum roll*.... +10k! : ) Oh boy was I excited. I told my friends and then while I was looking at my cashier I realized oh shit, what if my friend paid me 5k back? I look at the history, FUCK! SO I DIDN'T JUST EARN 10K AND SHIT MY PANTS FOR NOTHING?

Nope cause I forgot to look at the date :D That xfer was the one I made to him. So I did in fact make 10k : ) It was a very good day/night. Oh and Djokovic won the Aussie Open! WhoooO!!

here's what a 16-17 buy in upswing looks like:



what does pEV say?


gnight and good luck : )

-Mikey

First Week of 2008

Technically it's not as I put in like 1k hands before last week but that doesn't really count :P

the graph does look kind of disappointing no?

Obviously stop at the 10k mark :p

Last week was my official week back to poker. I had taken a pretty big break (3 weeks?) from poker. Wow, my spelling has gotten worse. I pride myself on being able to spell a good amount of words but lately I've been spelling red meat: red meet and just now weak instead of week.

Anyhow, it's my first week and I've been granted a blessing by variance! :D





Not too shabby. Almost $1 a hand :p I used to think it was very silly to think about making money in terms of $ per hand instead of BB's but that was just silly irrational thinking. My goal at 3/6 is to get to 50 cents a hand. I see about 500-800 hands an hour so a $250/hr deal isn't too bad :P The most desirable right now is 5bb/100 at 5/10nl. That = $1 per hand. Even if you 4table that's $360 an hour! Mmmmmmmm!

Anyhow, I'm working on putting in 2.5k hands a day. I'm not going to fulfill that today as I'm going out to eat soon and then play some basketball. But I'd like to get in another 500-1k hands before the day is over. I have 1k hands so far and up 1.2k for the day : )

It's weird. In general I'm just more focused about playing than before. I just want to build a big bankroll and have a good time at the wsop as well as summer w/my friends who are graduating. I also haven't paid off my car completely and I'm very very disappointed in myself for not doing so. I made a stupid purchase that was out of my roll last year and I've been paying the price. This must get paid in 2 months. Not for any real reason except that I owe it to myself to work that hard. 30k months are my goal. If I don't make 10k this month, lol especially after last week, I'm going to be pretty bummed. 10k months should now be easy. 20k months should take a little work but will soon become the standard imo. 30k is where it's at and in due time 50k months. That's my monetary plan for the year :D

I'm continuing to work on my game and tweak out as much as I can. I'm progressing nicely but can and will improve even more with the help of a coach.

Speaking of which, I am thinking of coaching 2 nl and lhe'rs for a month. Haven't set it in stone yet but I am strongly considering this. There will be a flat fee as nothing in this world comes free. I think it'll be a really good experience for me and the students if I go ahead with this.

Best of luck,
mike

Sad Rush

It's a sad rush because I was almost up 8 buy ins : (



I always forget how to embed full images. oh well.

I'll take the 5 buy in day :D

Most interesting hand of the day imo can be found here:
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-forum/index.php?showtopic=116050

Remember that spiel about 4tabling and then 9tabling in feb? Well I started 9tabling now lol. I seem to be pretty rusty when i start up but then after 5-10 mins, I get into my groove and can play pretty well. Never as well as I 4table though.

Oh, I did goof up a hand. I'm pretty annoyed with that one.

I think a lagtard 3bets me so I call in position w/4s6s

flop: 5c 3c 10s

he bets and I call - I should be shoving here imo

turn: 7c - i think he bets halfpot - i should really shove here

river: As - he checks, i shove and he folds.

Shoving flop is the best play. I called his 3bet w/46s because I thought he was raising me light. That means u shove flop because a good amt of his range can't call a shove.

Turn def. shove because if he has a hand like KcQx or what not, he may make a desperate call.


wow, this hand now makes me feel like I suck at poker. Great, my 5 buy in session sucks balls.

Oh and notice at the beginning of the graph, the first 700 hands I'm up 2.5 buy ins and then I break even? I haven't been that tilted in awhile. I couldn't sleep for a bit after that : / Here's why. I was getting tired towards the end of my session and noticed I wasn't thinking straight so I started to close my tables. But then I had 4tables w/some fish and one guy who probably thought I was a retard, so perfect! So I decided to stay because I'm pretty confident about my game when I 4table. Well, 2 big hands come up where I folded the river in both hands and lost 2/3s buy in. LIFE TILT.

So now I'm actually really happy that I had a 5 buy in session. Blog mood swings ftw.

i need to sleep. later : )

-mike

Monies Monies!

Whooo I'm making money!

3/6NL is going well. I am playing a pretty good game for the most part, but am still making mistakes. I will never be satisfied with being a 3bb winner at these stakes. Actually, probably in general I won't. I am competitive and I want to be a 5bb winner at all stakes. It's probably impossible at 10/20+ but damnit, I want that winrate. 5bb/100 means..YOURE A BEAST! And so until I reach that over a good sample size, I won't be content.

Here's a hand I misplayed today imo:

Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
5 players

Stack sizes:
Mikey: $621.90
CO: $666
Button: $600.25
SB: $394.35
BB: $102

Pre-flop: (5 players) Mikey is UTG with 5h 5s
Mikey raises to $21, CO folds, Button raises to $72, 2 folds, Mikey calls.

Flop: 7s 2c 5c ($153, 2 players)
Mikey checks, Button checks.

Turn: 9d ($153, 2 players)
Mikey bets $102, Button folds.
Uncalled bets: $102 returned to Mikey.

Results:
Final pot: $153


Villain had been 3betting me a lot and when he checks behind flop, I should pin his range more towards air than anything. Flush draw bets, overpairs bet, and air either bets or gives up. Rarely do you see an overpair check behind here, which imo is a pretty bad move.

Therefore, I should've check-raised the turn and if that whiffed, gone for a check-raise on the river seeing as how air isn't calling any bet.

That said, it actually might be close because in some cases, 8s-TT might check behind flop for pot control. However, i didn't really have that kind of read on villain and should've went for his most likely holding, air.

nothign else to say, gl : )

mike

Slowly I Get Back to Work

I'm here in San Diego until Sunday. That's when all my friends leave town I believe.

I just put in a session this morning and I feel I played pretty well. There was a mistake or two that I'm not happy about but I'm getting back into my groove. I might stick to only 4tables for now until I really get comfortable. I can play my A game for sure on 4tables but anything more than that and I probably start slipping some. I eventually do want to get back to 9tabling but for now I want to review situations and make sure I'm thinking things through correctly.

Guh, I'm pretty sluggish right now. An hour and a half ago (6am) I couldn't sleep and could only think about poker. See! Even though I'm not playing, I'm still studying a teeny bit :D So anyways, I couldn't sleeep and thought this would be a great time to put in a session. I feel good about it and my confidence is there. However I had to quit a little less than an hour in as my concentration started to dropppppppppppp. You know that nice little fuzzy feeling u get when you're tired? Yeah, I felt that creeping in and I couldn't put people on hand ranges anymore. You know you really have to quit when PREFLOP becomes a hard decision.

Here's a "mistake" that I think I made. Actually I butchered the whole hand now that I think about it.

Villain is a lagtard. he is 46/38.

I'm not happy about preflop because even though his stats say he's off the wall, I don't know if he's 3betting ME lightly. I actually don't think calling here is bad at all and it's probably the correct call versus his range. However lately I've been thinking about playing a bit smarter and this would be one of those moments where folding is better imo because I have no sense of how villain plays. It's really close between folding and calling and for now I'd like to get myself into the rhythm of making smart moves based on information rather than assumption. you can always 4bet but I'm just not into that whole style.



No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $3/$6
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $373.50
UTG+1: $634
CO: $486
Mikey: $900
SB: $744
BB: $600

Pre-flop: (6 players) Mikey is Button with 8h 5h
3 folds, Mikey raises to $21, SB raises to $60, BB folds, Mikey calls.

Flop: js ac 5c ($126, 2 players)
SB checks, Mikey checks.

Turn: 3s ($126, 2 players)
SB checks, Mikey checks.

River: 6d ($126, 2 players)
SB checks, Mikey checks.

Results:
Final pot: $126


I'm going to write my thoughts below this but as an exercise I think you should think about how the hand is played and whether I should've bet on flop turn or river and think about WHY I should.



analysis:

I knew I really had to quit my tables after this hand. On the turn, it's just obvious he doesn't have an ace. I checked the flop because I was afraid of getting cr'd off my hand. On the turn, he's not checking an ace or a set or really anything strong as well as flush draws. So given that, he's most likely holding a pocket pair. Betting turn and river would be sexy here.

Alright, I'm really tired. I just can't sleep though. Have a good day everyone : )

Mikey

Vacation!!!!!!! Sort of

I haven't played a hand of poker yet in 2008. There were several times where I meant to but in the end, I bailed out. I got my ps3 yesterday so I finally got to play some Guitar Hero III :D I was really happy to see that they have Knights of Cydonia by Muse. Problem is, it's really hard! It's the first one that gave me a lot of trouble, that and the 2nd boss...grr..

i do intend to play some poker today. Mainly some NL. I won't touch limit til next week and I don't think I will be in full force til I go back to my apartment in Irvine. For now, friends have priority unless there's an extremely juicy game running...but let's be honest, this is 3/6nl, not 100/200nl. When am I going to find someone so juicy that I just have to sit? Although in LHE, I can think of a few players to do that with, heh.

I got into a little e-fight with someone from fcp. It was pretty silly and I don't know why I decided to call him out but oh well. Mtdesmoines gives bad advice and I really think people should not take his posts seriously in the nl strat forum. There've been some ridiculous folds he recommends post and pre. Moreso about postflop though. Anyhow, I thought it was funny that the hand we argued about, he later said he misplayed until the original poster wrote the results. Alright, well if he hit a 6 outer, obviously my advice was wrong eh? :p

It's funny but NL is complicated in its own way. While people say LHE is a harder game, and it probably is once you get to high stakes, there are also a lot of little things in NL that can determine whether you are a loser or a winner. I think one of the harder rhythms to grasp is value betting. When I picked up the game, that's what I saw first, the rhythm my roommate went at. TP goes bet, check, bet on flop, turn, and river respectively while in lhe it's bet/3bet bet bet bet bet lol. But there are times when tp or overpair can go for 3 bets and I really do think when you can determine that, your edge over people rises considerably. Just think about it, not only are you getting 3 streets of value, but your 2nd bet makes the pot even bigger allowing you for more value on the river! Not necessarily a full stack but perhaps 2/3. Not too bad!

-Mikey