Finally Back Playing

After pretty much taking June & July off from Poker mainly through Work Committments etc, I am finally back playing poker and have got a fair few hands in this month so far.

I'm kind of easing myself back into the habit of playing and working at the game this month with a view to having a serious go at things in September.

I have this week off so am planning to work at lots of different things if I can tear myself from the Olympics and the awesome performance of the GB Team so far, we're even winning Track & Field medals now which weren't in the script.

One of the main area's I want to look at is my lack of Non Showdown Winnings because its currently a progressive line the wrong way, although whether thats something that I can do anything about because of my playing style I'm not sure - 19/17 this month and its probably easier to flatten this line out if I was playing a looser style.

Willie tells me I have been in a video he's seen so will have to check that out and hopefully take a few things from it. Don't know which site its on yet though.

Going to also get back in the habit of blogging and got some serious catching up to do.

Still Here

Believe it or not I'm still here.

As I thought it would, work has gone absolutely crazy throughout most of June for various reasons and Poker has very much been on the back burner as a result I have hardly played.

I'm away on a golfing weekend for the next 4 days but then I'm off all next week and things should hopefully calm down a bit after that giving me chance to play some poker and also Study.

The few times I have played I've just played some MTT's in the main because I would rather play cash when I can have a sustained run of playing instead of 1 day here and 1 day there.

Good luck all

Live Game Report & May Results

As I mentioned in my last post, I played my first ever live game last week as part of the UKFF Forum I belong to. I know its took a while to update but I've been that busy with work and other things that I've not really been online that much.

One thing for sure is that it won't be my last live game because I had a great time although how much that was due to the people and the common theme we had I don't know. It was good to put names to faces.

There were 36 of us who played in a double chance freezeout 6000 chips total with half an hour levels. The tournament lasted over 12 hours. Not sure how with only 36 players but there you go. I ended up finishing 12th when down to 8/9 BB's, I lost in an AJ v 2's Race where I didn't improve. I did have one major piece of luck alot earlier when down to about 4/5 BB's when I rivered a 3 for my A3 to get the better of AK.

On to May, the results I've shown are those since I was back playing after around 20th of MAy almost exclusively ay 25nl other than 1 session where I automatically joined a 50NL table without thinking: -




I've not really had too much of an opportunity to play of late which is probably going to be the case for June as well so this is too small a sample size. One area I've been looking at is my play from the BB in particular my Fold to Steal %. Before I had a review session with Pete, this was running at over 90% over the few hands I've played of late, this is now down to 84% which is kind of where I want to be. I was also losing far too much from the blinds which should hopefully improve over time: -



Nothing really stands out that I can see positionally, probably too small a sample size to look at, we'll see at the end of June how things are.

I've also played a bit of HU which I'm going to continue to do but nothing really to report there as only played a few hands.

June Goals

I'm really not sure how much I'll be able to play in June due to a number of various factor's so not going to set any goals in regards to hands etc. I want to look more at a couple of area's I need to work on which are as follows: -

Continue with what I am doing on the BB
Revisit C-betting and get that worked into my game correctly
Look at Non Showdown pots because this is where I lose alot of money - connected to c-betting
Hand/Table analysis which is where the HU will come in.
Get back posting hands in here and on the forums
Get back into the habit of reading and commenting on other blogs which has suffered alot of late as well as my updating due to lack of time.

Poker and Live Poker Debut

Since my last post, I took a break from the cash games for over a week. I have been back playing this week but is has been a bit stop start for one reason or another. Champions League Final, Golf, work etc. Any way I've made a few changes although not as many as I'd like at this stage but don't want to try and change everything at once as it won't all sink in. I'm going to add things in gradually. Here's what I'm doing at the moment: -

• I had a very useful and eye opening PT review with Pete and there were a couple of things that he pointed out that were pretty easy fixes namely Table Selection and Folding to Steal Attempts from the Blinds. I wasn't playing back enough even with good hands. My fold to steal from the BB was about 92% for example. I've started playing back at people a bit more and it seems to be having a positive affect at the moment although I don't have enough of a sample size as yet to make a proper judgement.
• I've dropped back down to 25Nl whilst I get my game in a better shape particularly post flop.
• Table Selection is an ongoing process and I'm not there yet although I am getting better. My big problem is staying at tables too long if the dynamics change and a good table becomes bad.
• Another area where I am starting to do some work is in the area of C-betting as I'm doing this too much from the wrong spots and causing myself problems.
• I've started playing some HU cash as well on I Poker as FT doesn't have any HU tables below 50NL that I've found and thats too high a level for me. The reason for doing this is two fold in that I want to use it to help with my hand reading etc which is very weak and also as a change from 6 max,

I have been playing a few more MTT'S/STT's of late as well and I'm doing ok in them. No big MTT cashes but haven't been far away on a couple of them from going deep.

I'm a member of a UK Football Fans Poker Forum (link is on the right) and they are having a live game today up in a Casino in the Stoke Area - about 70 miles from here. I luckily managed to win a seat via a satellite although I would have paid the entry fee in any case. This will be the first time I will have played live and I'm looking forward to it not to mention the beer afterwards. Updates in next post.

Finally, Dodgy has posted a couple of posts lately about how he analyses his game etc which are well worth a read.

Don't Think Much To May

Some how so far this month, I've contrived to lose 10 buy ins through various means mainly my poor play and my inability to hit anything.

I've not tilted at all, but am not even thinking about playing a cash table for the next week or so.

Going to watch as many video's as is possible and review pretty much every hand I've played this month.

I'm also going to come up with a strategy for the future i.e. play/study timetable type of plan

April Results - Sort of

Robert/Willie I replied to your comments on my last post in the comments section of that post.

Here's the graph for April booked a small profit and it shows the normal consistently inconsistent trend. Just shows I have a long way to go I guess.



I thought I played quite well in April although need to understand why I have so many downward trends because its more than just variance.

At this moment in time, I can't post the PT Stats because I'm getting whenever I try and open it up I am getting the message "Are you sure you want to completely remove Poker Tracker and all its components." I'll post them if I can get this issue fixed although not too sure at the moment how to do so. The data's there somewhere otherwise I wouldn't be able to upload the graph!

May Goals

Start using PT3 especially as they have now added IPoker in there latest release which means both my main sites are now covered. (At the moment I have an error importing FT observed hands so I want to get that sorted before using it properly.

Make a concerted effort on following the action and reading players probably dropping down a table or 2 for the short term. This is the no1 aim for the month

Do a better job at studying and self analysis as I've let this slip of late.

Continue the work I'm doing on Top Pair type hands and letting them go.

Start focussing on the Turn/River

Football

Following on from my previous post, we lost and are in deep trouble with one game left and have by far the hardest match of any team who can still get relegated. Even worse Sky are showing the game live and we're useless (more than usual) whenever we're live.

Poker, Football & Other Assorted Ramblings

Poker

That's the last time I comment about any results mid month because for about a week after that I barely won a hand. Variance at work at its best I guess plus I played really badly at times and got a bit complacent. This week has been better mainly because I've played more like the standard required.

As a bit of a change and because I enjoy them, I've been playing a few MTT's this week. Had a few cashes not to any great extent but I think I'll continue for a few more days yet because I'm getting a bit stale with cash at the moment and I've got a few things I want to look at away from the tables.

The area's of my game which I need to work on in my opinion currently are: -

• Overplaying hands where I have 1 pair
• Sort out what I am doing on the Turn/River because the turn is a big leak for me
  
• Stop calling people down when I am probably beaten and know it
• Unsuited Connector's - do I stop playing them altogether. Since the start of the year this has been a big losing set of hands for me and I'm starting to think there just not worth it - I'm currently putting something together for these involving the Replayer so will have a detailed post shortly
  
• Hand reading, Table analysis and following the action better. I've never been any good at these and its an area I need to focus on quite drastically if I want to take my game to the next level.
• Playing multi player pots
• 3/4 bet hands

That pretty much covers it!!!!

Football

I've mentioned this in the past but I am a massive Leicester City fan. In the late 90's/ early 2000's we spent a few seasons in the Premier League doing ok competing for the most part with the likes of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, usually finishing mid table and winning the League Cup twice in 4 years and being runner's up in another year. This success was due mainly to the Manager we had at the time - Martin O'Neill and the way he was able to get a team without the talent of clubs with more resources to play above themselves and build up an incredible team spirit. Since he left to go onto Celtic and now Aston Villa the club has fallen apart. We are now in the 2nd tier of English football and have been fighting relegation from that league for the past few years. We have never played in a league lower than the one we're in at the moment but it was looking bleak at one point nutil recently. Today we have the biggest game we have had in a long time and its a 32,000 total sell out. We play Sheffield Wednesday who are below us in the League. If we win we're safe and can build for next season. If we draw and results go our way we're also safe. If the unthinkable happens and we lose then we are in desperate trouble.

Other Stuff

Fuel prices in the UK and the rest of the World are going crazy at the minute. In the UK, we are paying £1.10 for a litre of unleaded petrol and most of that is in taxes. In addition to that, a major refinerty in Scotland has been shut down due to industrial action reducing the available supply and probably resulting in prices going up even more and this will probably mean in time if things continue that people won't be able to afford to travel anywhere as the Public Transport system in this country is an absolute joke. For instance if I wanted to get a train to work which is about 25 miles away, I have to get 3 trains which are not frequent and I live in a city which is on a mainline to London. With the profits the oil companies are making and the money that the Government are making, from us, then something needs to be done and quickly. In addition food prices are substantially higher than a year ago and people are going to start panic buying for alot of things.

Ok that's it moan over.

April So Far and a Situation I'm Trying to Avoid

I'm not going to say too much about April at this stage but it seems to be going ok so far. Hopefully I've not ruined that but here's the graph to date: -



One important correction I have made, is that I noticed a serious flaw in my game and I know I'm not alone in this in that I have spells when I call hands down when I know I'm behind.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've tried toeliminate this from my game although there are occasions where I still find myself doing this. From analysing some key hands, I have found that I am doing this with Top Pair for the most part. Basically I am being a lot more cautious with this type of hand particularly if a c-bet is called or re raised and more often than not am currently folding these hands more often than not.

There's a quote that Dodgy made on my blog a few months ago which I'd lost site of to a certain extent where he stated that "A Raise on the Turn Usually Means That Top Pair is Beaten". Considering the progress he has made over the past 8/9 months this is important advice to bear in mind.

Here's a few hands from the past few weeks which illustrate what I was doing that I feel was incorrect/poor play whatever you want to call it: -

http://weaktight.com/160903

http://weaktight.com/160908

http://weaktight.com/160912

These hands kind of show what I'm trying to demonstrate although I probably do have better examples but my significant downswings usually occur because I play hands like these not only calling hands down but also if I am involved in the hands then playing them too passively.

That's one correction to my game I'm trying to make only another 999 to go!

March Results

March was very much a stop start month and I never really got anything going for reasons which I have documentated in previous posts. Any way here's March's results. Obviously not a great month again but I have noticed a major leak which I am eliminating from by game which is greatly affecting what I am doing so hopefully that should help. Unfortunately I only discovered this leak recently so am expecting good things from this month.

In addition to the tables below, there is one day's play not recorded as I had my settings wrong after converting my PT Database to Postgres. This day not recorded I was up about $70.



The bulk of the losses between hands 500 and 1784 when I made the mistake of playing when I was ill which is a mistake I won't be making again and the dip around the 11k mark was when I worked out what this leak was so a positive has come out of a negative.

This leak I discovered and it should have been obvious to me is that I am overplaying when I flop hands like TP or TPTK and losing significant pots when I shouldn't be in the hands. I'll make a separate and more detailed post about this in the next few days.



The stats look pretty reasonable to me other than the Agression Factor's look a bit low which I 'm a bit surprised about. Although it may be due to a lower than normal number of hands.

Considering where I was 6/7 months ago and was playing 11/9 to now be playing 18.75/16.29 without any trouble I am happy with what I'm doing Pre Flop. I have an ongoing battle with Post Flop play and have had for some time which I need to address as I'm losing that badly at the moment.



These don't look too bad other than there is too much of a gap in the blinds between my VPIP and PFR percentages which is unusual for me particularly the BB. I need to look at that it may just be variance but should be an easy fix.

April Targets

I don't have any specific goals or targets this month with regards to hands played or anything like that I just want to put some serious work in at my game particularly post flop because that's slipped a bit over the past few weeks. Work commitments are probably going to limit my time to a certain extent as well.

Another area I need to look at is to get back in the habit of posting hands in the various forums etc and start utilising the resources available to me more effectively.

I hope to make a video and also get some Sweat Sessions in but not sure my PC can cope at the moment.

Any way off to put the kiss of death on a couple of nags in this afternoon's Grand National, the only Horse Race I will bet on.

CR MTT Tournament Final

I've managed to get some sort of Internet Connection over the weekend. Its not great but will do for now I guess. It will have to.

Any way I'm playing in the CR MTT Final tonight all being well so hopefully will be able to take it down.

I'll update later.

I finished fourth, technically third because the person who finished third wasn't qualified and shouldn't have been playing.

Gets me into the CR MTT Series Main Event for free and some Amazon Vouchers.

No Internet Connection

Other than for 20 mins this morning before work, I have not been able to get an Internet Connection all week.

I spent Wednesday night on the phone to Virgin Media Customer Service Dept!!!! and there only solution was to use an Ethernet Cable instead of USB to connect to my modem.

I've basically had enough of them as I have been getting a bad connection for some time and am looking to change ISP as soon as I can but that probably won't happen for a couple of weeks.

I can access a few things at work but obviously won't be able to play and can't access the group site at all unfortunately.

I'll up date when and where I can but not expecting to be able to be back on line until I'm back at work next week.

Give me time to review my game I guess.

Good luck all.

Surely Not an Update..........

Ok I admit it my blogging has been absolutely atrocious of late. No excuses I just haven't really felt like updating it because there hasn't been too much going on. I have been reading the other blogs but haven't really made any comments of late either which is going to change.

I was ill for a week or so and made the mistake of putting a couple of sessions in which cost me some money but nothing too much to worry about. Just another important lesson learnt. Apart from those sessions, I'm probably running at about Break even for the month.

Away from Poker, two of my other hobbies are Football and Golf. I'll leave the football for the time being because the team I support Leicester City are looking like there going to be relegated to the third tier of Englishj Football for the first time in there history and after watching there latest embarrassing performance yesterday any serious comment will put me on tilt for days. Any way the four biggest teams in England are playing eachother today Man Utd V Liverpool from 1.30pm GMT and followed by Arsenal V Chelsea both potentially key games in the battle for the title with about 10 games left. An afternoon in front of the TV is looming.

As for the Golf, with Easter being early this year, Good Friday is traditionally our 1st game of the year. I'm not a member of a club or anything like that I don't play often enough to make that viable. I just try and play 10/15 times a year after work or at the weekends, weather/work committments permitting. There's four of us who go away for a Glofing weekend in the summer and try and play 3/4 rounds. We're trying to sort out this year's trip at the moment hopefully at some links courses if there not too expensive. We got a quote for Royal Lytham which was way out of our price range at £132 each. Any way I played on Friday in what can only be described as a howling gale (good practice for links courses). I didn't play too badly considering it was my first game for 6 months other than I had something like 38 putts which is not good at all and played the Par 5's like an idiot. I've got some new clubs on order so hopefully they will help my game. Could do with some lessons as well.

Thats it for now I'll have a Poker Update next time because there's a couple of big leaks I've spotted in my game which I need to sort out. Just want to do a bit more analysis first.

February Results

This is going to be a bit painful but here's February's results. It was basically a poor month for the most part and from my point of view has to be the Turning Point.

As I've already blogged about, I lost focus in the middle of the month and as a result started playing badly and making some bad decisions. I've not played any Cash at all for the best part of a week now and will start afresh on ~Tuesday/Wednesday of next week. I want to Review alot of my hands from the start of this year before I do start playing again to see if I've got any serious leaks I haven't realised I have.





The second line on the above is when I played a bit of Heads Up. No idea why its showing as 6 Max. I want to play more Heads Up if I can but seeing as I'm the World's Worst HU Player i'm not sure if it will be a good idea. Need to check out some video's etc. before I do



I don't think anything looks significantly out of line but if any one can see something I've missed then please let me know and I will take it on board.

I'm not going to set any targets as such for March just want to start playing some solid ABC Poker and hopefully turn things around.

There are a couple of things I want to work on which are as follows: -

Table Selection
Hand Reading and Table Analysis and putting people on Ranges.
Review more of my play and

One more important thing I need to get back in the habit of doing in a big way is Posting on Forums and replying to more posts on the Group Site and also Blogs of the other people in the group and also watching the video's that have been made which I resolve to have watched and commented on as necessary by Wednesday of this week. I will also be looking to take part in more Sweat Sessions if I can

Good luck for this month

Quick Update

Thanks for the comments on my last post. I'll take them on board

I've not played too much of late for a number of reasons mainly due to losing a lot of my enthusiasm and focus which hasn't happened for a while. I've played alot this year up until the last week or so and am going to take a break for a few days probably call it a month and start again next weekend with renewed determination and focus all being well.

I'll spend the next few days doing alot of analysis of my game and also my opponents in particular concentrating on putting people on hand ranges etc. Also posting a lot of hands on the forums because I haven't done much of that of late either.

I also plan on catching up on the Group blogs and video's etc which I've not been too good at of late and I apologise for but also spending a few days not even thinking about the game at all.

Will this Ever Stop!!!!

WARNING SERIOUS MOANING POST

For the most part this month had been going ok I was down slightly which was not a big issue as my stats were pretty reasonable and had a sweat session with Vili the other day when we went through my Poker Tracker and that looked ok. However, the last two says have been horrible and I am so fed up that I really am starting to seriously think that I'm not cut out for this.

I've only played 700 hands yet managed to lose nearly 5 buy ins. I know this is being results orientated but I am totally fed up with putting the hours in studying the game and not seeing any returns. This has been going on for too long now and I really don't know what to do. May be I need to change the way I study I don't know. What's even more annoying is that I could probably have got away with these losses but me being me decided to carry on with hands when I was probably behind. Any way here's the carnage in more detail: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2094046

The other player in this hand was playing 81/4/1.18 his Agression Factor increased from the flop to the River, which is not really the issue here, my concern is with my Turn Play. Why the hell did I not just fold to his bet. People keep telling me that I want to be playing against player's with these kinds of stats and I am looking for player's playing like this but most of my losing hands are with this type of player because I never give them any credit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2094069

On this hand why did I decide to push the flop the board is too dangerous. I should either have just called or folded. He's playing 33.89/13.27.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2094116

This is against the same player as hand 1 and the worrying thing here is that I never even saw the flush coming I thought we may be splitting the pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2094097

This is just standard and I'd do the same here every time.

OK moan over for know no doubt it will continue soon but hopefully not.

If any one sees me at a table tonight please give me as much abuse as you like because I don't plan on going any where near a poker site for a couple of days.

Sorry for the negativity.

January Report Card & February Goals

Here's my graph for January, and as you can see, I had a horrible start and end to the month which I have posted about previously but the rest of the month I was reasonably happy with what I did. Unfortunately, the bad finish to the month has made it a losing month from my play but with Rake back and Bonuses, and a bit of profit from the few tournaments I've played, I'm in profit overall.



The bulk of the losses came over a couple of sessions last weekend at Sun Poker but on Full Tilt where I've been playing most of this month, I am in profit overall although 50NL has taken a bit of a hit lately there.



My VPIP is a bit tighter than I would have liked whilst adjusting to 50NL but I've opened up a bit at the new level lately and should see that over 18 this month although I am going to have to be careful at 50NL and if I take too much of a hit (3/4 buy ins) which I don't plan on happening then I will move back down again.

There are a couple of things that I think I need to look at which are: -

Am I too tight out of the blinds when someone is attempting to steal from me?

My won $ at Showdown stats are good, but I don't got to Showdown that often, is this a consequence of my playing style?

I've alluded to this in a previous post, but Agression Factor is an area I want to look at this month, I think my Flop Agression in comparison to the other streets is way to high. I want to get these closer together which I think is a consequence of c-betting and shutting down if I meet with resistance. Maybe I should be double barrelling a bit more or delaying the c-bet until the Turn on occasions. Obviously this will be situational.

Position Stats



The reducing VPIP from the Button downwards is ok although I think I need to increase by a couple of percent on the Button, C/Off and UTG+1. I also need to sort out what is happening on the Cut Off as that has been a bit of a disaster.

February Goals

• Start out the month playing exclusively 50NL but with a strict stop loss limit of 4 buy ins before moving down
• Continue the ongoing Studying I am doing there's so many resources available to me I need to utilise them more than I am doing.
  
• Participate in a t least 1 Sweat/group session a week
• Try and watch and learn from 3 video's a week
• Focus when playing i.e. don't get distracted by the Internet etc.
• Read Elements of Poker & The Poker MindSet
  

Area's of The Game To Work On

• Table selection and analysis of tables when playing
• Post Flop Play in particular improve my Turn Play because half the time I don't know what to do if c-bet doesn't go through
• Have a plan for each hand not just react to what is happening on the time
• Hand Reading
  
• Stop making stupid calls when I know I'm behind
• Take my Time

Ok that will do it for now, good luck every one for February

Slipping Back Into Bad Habits

Things have took a bit of a downward turn over the past few days, and I have started doing things that I thought I had irradicated from my game i.e. Making Stupid Calls when I know I'm behind and also playing tired.

Up until Christmas I was mainly playing on Sun Poker which is a Crypto Site and was struggling. Since then, I've been playing on Full Tilt with a fair amount of success. However, the Rake Back and Bonuses on Sun are pretty good so I decided to play there over the weekend and managed to lose 3 buy ins through 1 loose call when I was behind and another couple of poor plays which I shouldn't have made. As a result of this I have withdrawn my money from there and am not going back for a while. I'm annoyed at myself for even going back to play there.

Work's a bit chaotic at the moment it always is at month end - an occupational hazard for Accounting jobs, made the mistake this evening of playing when tired. Something else I thought I stopped doing.

Not sure if I'll be able to play for the rest of the month, it might be a good idea to take a break for a few days any way and read Elements of Poker which arrived yesterday and recharge the batteries.

Video Link

I made my first video earlier this week, which was at 50NL. Its not the slickest production in the world and I can only improve with practice but I found it beneficial to discuss hands out loud.

The link is on the Right under the video links section. If any one wants to watch it and make any comments there more than welcome.

Having seen nothing but good reviews about it I've got Elements of Poker on order hopefully it will turn up soon.

I'll have a proper update over the weekend.

Moving Up Permanently

Since the start of this year, I have been gradually adding in 50NL tables to my play at the same time cutting down on the number of tables I play from 4 to 3 so that I can follow the games better until I feel comfortable at this level.

After a poor start to the month which seems to have happened to alot of people, and I considered moving back to 25NL and scrapping the 50NL tables, I've managed to turn things round in the last 10 days or so.

Over the weekend, I've decided to concentrate on the 50NL tables for the time being and not play any 25NL tables. I am working to a strict 5buy in loss level before moving back down to 25nl which I hope I don't have to use because I don't plan on having to. I'm also going to give myself a 2 buy in stop loss limit for any session as this is when tilt sets in with me.

Things I Need to Work On

There are a few area's of the game I need to work on which are as follows: -

• Interpretation of Agression Factor Stats and using these to my advantage - Ryan Daut touched on this in his video last week where he said people will c-bet and then shut down if called which leads to high Flop Agression and lower Turn/River AF's. This is definitely true with me and was something I 've been thinking about so want to look into further.
• Putting people on hand ranges and following the games better.
• Table Selection

Poker Books

After seeing some decent reviews of the book by various people, I am planning on getting Elements of Poker. Other books I want to read are Psychology of Poker andThe Poker MindSet. Also, Dan Harrington's cash game books are due to be published next month which are two books Ialso want to get as his MTT book's are supposed to be some of the best around.

Marc (Disconnected) has made a couple of posts lately that because of the increase in resources available to us, we need to dedicate enough time to each element at the same time not forgetting to play. This is so true and one thing I need to address is that I'm not commenting on blogs too much lately which I am going to change particularly Group Blogs even if what I write is rubbish most of the time.

A Couple of Useful Links

I've found these blog posts over the past couple of days both of which I think are useful and helpful.

This first post is from Sir Neb and is a post about putting people on hand ranges. This is an area where I know I'm weak so any pieces of advice on this topic are always welcome

http://sirnebsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/hand-ranges.html

The next post is from Verneer's blog earlier today and is in connection with classifying the level of coaching you require to improve: -

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/index.php?option=com_mamblog&Itemid=29&task=show&action=view&id=8666&Itemid=29

I am seriously thinking about getting some form of coaching next month using this month's Rake Back to pay for it. Hopefully I will get about $100 for the month which may get me 2 lessons but definitely 1.

I would class myself as a level B player at the moment, as the Turn and River are definitely where I lose most of my money.

I've been playing break even poker over the past week or so. Got myself a solid base to build on for the rest of the month. Hopefully avoiding the stupid few days I seem to have every month.

I'm a bit behind on commenting on other people's blog particularly group one's so need to catch up on those over the next couple of days.

Every Monday night for the next 3 months, I should be doing a Sports Quiz which is run on a League basis. Each team sets the quiz once during the period the quiz runs for. We set our's last week which was a bonus as we got it out the way. Unfortunately the team that should have set the quiz tonight didn't turn up for some reason.

Update & a Couple of Hands

As with most of the other members of the Study Group I had a pretty awful start to the year although I have to a certain extent managed to turn it round.

I've cut down on the number of tables I play from 4 to 3 but have added a 50NL Table to what I'm playing alongside 2 25NL tables.

The 25NL has been going well but I'm down about 3.5 buy ins at the higher level. To be honest I'm not overly happy about that because I am 99% certain I can beat the 50NL game but have made a few bad plays which have cost me. I'm going to take a bit of a break for a week or so at 50NL but will come back to it shortly.

Here's my graph for 2008 so far and a PT table. I'm a bit tighter than I have been of late which is mainly due to tightening up a bit after the indifferent start and being a bit more cautious at the higher level but that will change once I have made the necessary adjustments.




Here's a couple of hands I played this evening at 50NL which to be honest were badly paid by me: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1913279

The other player in this hand was playing 55.79/30.53 and I thought initially he was reraising with nothing much. However, I should have got the message after the raise to $18.75 and folded at this point.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1913304

On this hand I got a bit suspicious and becane very oassive post flop. The problems with this hand were caused by raising when UTG. I shouldn't have even got involved in the hand.

We've added some additional people to the group to give us more options due to Time Differences etc and hopefully we will push eachother and make us all become better playerd.

A Comment That Made A Crucial Point To Me

There was some useful comments on my last post which I am definitely going to bear in mind. Something Martin (DodgyKen) said struck a chord with me and what he says is true. Thinking back alot of my money is lost calling raises on the turn/river when I don't have a strong enough hand to do so. The comment he made was as follows: -

Turn raises almost always have one pair beaten at the lower levels

This got me thinking there are undoubtedly other 1 line comments that are made in the Forums/Blogs etc which seem insignificant but is actually a very important piece of advice that I think I'll remember but when I'm caught up in the middle of a hand get so engrossed in it that I forget these snippets of imformation and revert to my old foolish ways. I'm going to start making a list of these and review them before the start of every session until they become automatic features of my play.

Here's a couple of hands I played this evening neither of which need any comment but the 1st 1 kind of illustrates DodgyKen's point accept its a Flop bet I' respond to but this could quite easily apply here. The 2nd one I just like for obvious reasons. More of that one and less of the first please!!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1891020

He's playing at 24.87/14.81. Maybe checking behind here for pot control would have been a better play but I felt I had to bet out to try and protect my hand. The size of my bet compared to his remaining stack when he came over the top of me kind of gave me no option but to call.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1891052

Flopping Quads is always +ev. I'm actually amazed that the short stack folded to the River bet which I tried to set at an amount to get the BB to come over the top of me and the shortstack to go all in. I got the rest of BB's stack a couple of hands later.

After yesterday's moaning session I am alot happier today and was actually quite pleased with how I got on other than the 1st hand above. I'm in a better frame of mind than I was but the kind of sessions I've had lately is probably where we learn more about ourselves and the game.

Good luck.

When Will It End?

The end of 2007 and the start of 2008 have been pretty disastrous from a poker point of view. I feel as though I'm on a permanent downswing which is never going to end. I guess I'm doing something fundamentally wrong because all I seem to be doing is winning small pots and lose big one's. Back to the drawing board I guess. At some point pretty soon I'd like to see some return on the work I've been doing lately. Any way here's a few hands. I'll post some more tomorrow: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1885938

The other player here is playing at 38.89/6.94/2.90.

I guess the fact that he called my c-bet on the flop should have set the alarm bells ringing here. I am kind of thinking now that I should have check call/folded the Turn and certainly under no circumstances should I have called the all in reraise.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1886001

This player is 36.84/15.79/1.54

I never saw the straight coming here. I'm fine with what I did up to the River. Maybe I can get away from this then on a draw heavy board but in view of his Stack Size I'm not sure.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1886032

This hand is actually quite funny. There is no way I am ever laying this down on the flop and will do the same thing every time unless someone tells me I 'm being a bit stupid. I ran this through Poker Stove and I'm only a 53% favourite against 2 players here on the flop. On the Turn this had increased to 69% but the money was already in on the flop. I thought both of them were drawing which is what I wanted but Rivered again.

BB is playing 38.5/22 and UTG+1 is at 55.56/2.22.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1886068

This hand is similar to the 1st one. I've posted this on the forum. The other player is a Card Runners member and is playing at 17.71/14.17/5.10.

This is a horrible flop for my hand but I'm still going to bet out here which is what I did. The call should have told me everything I needed to know. As if there weren't another draws on the board, the Turn decided to add another straight and flush draw to the mix. I think the bet here is probably questionable I now favour a check call/fold depending on what he does. There's no way I'm ever going to call his Turn Bet.

That will do for know I'll post some more tomorrow.

Hopefully that's the end of the negativity for a while.

2007 Review and 2008 Aims

For me from a Poker point of view, 2007 has been a disaster from a results point of view. I feel as though I have been running bad all year apart from a couple of months. Now this is what I would have said last year. However, having found Card Runners and changing my game drastically I know that aside from Variance, there are reasons why we run poorly and it is mainly due to poor decision making. For me this is most flop and is a continuing battle for me to get this right as I am losing far to much money Post Flop and this has to change or I will seriously have to consider whether to carry on.

I'm not particulary Results orientated other than I'd like to see an improvement in my results over time. My game has improved so much and I changed it dramatically over the course of 2007 and I would like to see some benefits from that because I'm not right now and there is no comparison between the player I was at the start of 2007 from where I am now.

My bank roll at the start of 2008 is the same as it was at the start of 2007 mainly through Rake back and bonuses fortunately. At the start of 2007, I was playing Full Ring 50NL mainly on I-Poker. In the early part of the year, I lost about half of my bank roll because I didn't really understand what I was doing. I understood the basics but I think people sussed me out because I was so tight and new when to play back at me or when to pass if I was strong. At this point I decided to find a Coaching Site and discovered Card Runners and the Low Limit Grinders Community which was set up and ultimately the Study Group that has come from that. CR has changed my game for the better in that I have switched to 6-max and totally changed how I play for the better. For instance in July my VPIP was 11.92, and PFR 10.69 over 12K hands whereas in December, I played 11K hands and my VPIP was 18.31 and PFR 16.88. I didn't find it difficult playing at 18/17 in December either and can't believe I was that tight looking back. I am happy with my play pre flop at the moment and know where my weaknesses are which is Post Flop and I am prepared to put so much work in in order to make 2008 a successful year for me.

Reading the blogs of the DodgyKen, Dice, LuckySob and Sir Neb just shows where we can get to if we put the effort in and want to succeed which I do.

Thats the negativity over with here's what I want to achieve in 2008: -

1. I'm currently playing at 25NL and trying to build some 50NL tables into what I am playing by the end of the year ideally I'd like to be a good 200NL player.
2. In the 1st couple of months of this year I want my Post Flop Game sorted out once and for all. I am going to work so hard at doing this so if I fail it won't be for the lack of trying.
3. Use and learn from the resources available to me - Watching Video's, Contributing to the Forums through Posting hands and reading other peoples posts. The same with the Blog ensure that I post here regularly and also read the Group and other blogs on a regular basis and learn from what I am doing.
4. Contribute fully to the SSNL Group we have going.
   
5. Add some Heads Up and other types of Poker to my game.
6. Try and Average 20K hands a month if I can. This will depend on work committments if I have to put in as many hours at work as I did last year then this won't be possible.
7. Have at least 1 day a week when I don't play.
8. Look into getting some coaching. This is something I want to do but my bankroll is not at a level at the moment where I can consider paying for a coach. I learnt so much in a group session with Verneer that I can see the benefits of doing this but need the bankroll to do so.

I think that's it no doubt there's other's but I'll review them as time goes on.

I'm not going to make any specific goals for January at the moment as its going to be another month of studying the game for the most part.

Year End Bank Roll $1,457

Finally good luck to everyone at the Poker tables in 2008.

Chris