Recovery After A Bad Start

I played just over 700 hands yesterday at a VPIP of 15.08, its getting there slowly. I had a bad start but after that played ok and recovered my initial losses by the time I finished playing.

This 1st hand is the main culprit in my bad start, I basically don't think there is much that I could have done to get away from this but I am open to any comments where I may have been able to prevent this. I'd forgotten to reload to the max which turned out to be a good thing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1357726

I guess this next hand is what you call a Big Blind Special. However from my opponents point of view if you don't raise at any point in the hand you deserve everything you get. He was playing at 39.6/5.7. I fold to any pre flop raise. Looking back, I put a Value Bet in on the River, should I have pushed or is that an easy conclusion to draw knowing what he had. I put him on a suited Ace in view of his passivity.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1357736

This final hand, I think I got the maximum I could out of it. I checked on the river because with Potential Flush and Straight Draws on Board I thought that he would only call with a worse hand and I knew he was drawing to something as he had been showing a number of Drawing Hands prior to this. He was playing at 36.61/11.18 over 450 hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1357747

I've got the next week off so will hopefully have more time to play and would like to get about 1,000 hands a day in and see where that takes me. Mind you with the start of the Football Season today, that may reduce my playing time a bit. If my team Leicester City have as bad a season as they have in the past few , tilting may be an option because I'm not a good loser.

08th August 2007

After having a couple of days break, played for a couple of hours this evening. Ended up with $7 profit over 350 hands playing 13.07/12.5.

There were a couple of interesting situations that cropped up and these are shown in the Hand Histories below: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1348275

The other player in this hand was at 74.25/4.04. I probably should have bet out on the flop but but with no flush and an unlikely Straight Draw I thought I was way ahead and wanted to lure hin in. I considered the possible Straight on the River and thought it was an unlikely holding so I made the call. Was this a correct play or should I have folded on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1348297

Having hit top pair, top kicker on the flop and betting out and being reraised , I decided to fold to the Reraise putting him on a 9. Can any one advise whether or not this was the correct play

Play this Weekend

Plqyed just over 1,000 this weekend at 14.61/13.42 showing a very small profit of $6.74. I thought I played ok and didn't really get the results from how I played although hopefully that will come if I carry on playing like this . A few interesting situations cropped up which I have shown below:-

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1337558

I only have 10 hands with my opponent in this hand so had no read. What he was doing in the hand in the 1st place I don't know. I think I should have raised more preflop. My question is this, should I have got away from this hand on the turn or was I just destined to lose a buy in here?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1337581

On this hand, I definately should have bet more than half the pot on the flop. There is a bet half pot button where I played this hand which is too convenient and I have to get away from using it. He was at 31.25/10.80 over 176 hands but I felt he was playing looser than that. Again the same question as the previous hand, should I have folded to the check raise on the turn with a draw heavy board

These were the two hands that were my main losing hands, here's 1 more hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1337617

This final hand was against the same player as in hand two and also shows me hitting the half pot button again. The question I have with this hand is should I have put a value bet in on the River.

I made a decision after the session I played where the first hand occurred that at the moment, I just can't make Stars work for me especially in Cash Games and I am losing so much money because of hands like the 1st one on there. I know alot of people are winning there but its just not happening for me. I have therefore moved what money I had left before I lost it all to Gutshot Poker which is on the Prima/Microgaming network. I have moved it there because I can get 30% Rakeback and also they have regular Deposit/reload bonuses neither of which is available at Stars. I also had a deposit bonus from a few weeks ago that I need to clear by the end of August.

I am also going to move the money I have at Inter Poker to Sun Poker another Cryptologic Account so that I can again get Rake back which I don't have at Inter.

I don't think I'm going to be able to play much over the next couple of days for one reason and another but will check out some of the blogs if I can.

Good luck

Early Results For August

I've played 875 hands so far this month at 15.09/13.26 which is closer to where I want to be from a VPIP point of view. I lost over a buy in on Wednesday night mainly due to one hand where I had an over pair to the board and got sucked in. Apart from that there's not been too much of interest going on. This is the hand where I lost the money. I should have considered the action pre flop and folded on the flop. I didn't believe him as he had been constantly re raising me whenever I'd raised and I thought he was trying it on.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1330269

Any way I'm off work the week after next and there should be nothing to stop me getting a few more hands in this month apart from the start of the Football Season next week and the English Summer - if we ever get one!!!!

Chris

August Goals

Its a bit late but here are my goals for the month: -

Play a minimum of 15,000 hands in the month
Have a VPIP for the Month of 15 at the very least
Take my time before making key decisions
Stop calling bets on the River when I know I'm behind
Watch at least 3 Card Runners Video's A Week
Read and Understand at least 2 Poker Books - The Theory of Poker and 1 other
Increase my level of Thinking which should come with the previous 2 Goals
Post 2/3 hands after every session and be more active in the other blogs

I could go on but I think that's enough for know.

Results For July

As promised, these are my July results. I was reasonably happy up until this weekend but things have gone slightly wrong since then as I have documented elsewhere: -

Hands Played 12,717
VPIP 11.92
PFR 10.69
Loss Fo Month $148.01
BB/100 Hands (2.88)
Total Aggression 2.27


VPIP By Position

Button 18.63
Cut Off 12.97
Mid Pos 11.28
UTG 8.80
BB 5.51
SB 12.77

Still way too low, should the small blind be as high as the Cut Off?

Return Per Level Played

NL50 $190.32 Loss 2,889 Hands
NL25 $128.99 Profit 5,876 Hands
NL10 86.88 Loss 3,952 Hands

I'll be sticking to NL 25 for a while - probably for most of August most definately.

I hope other people have better results than I've had.

Chris

Play From 31st July

Played 375 hands last night not alot happenned had one of those sessions where I was pretty much card dead and couldn't seem to hit a flop. These seem to be the sessions where I lose a fair amount of money. How can you make these sessions work without losing too much. I ended up being down $37.50.

Most of the losses were due to having to fold after C-Bet's were reraised having raised pre flop. I must pick my spots better.

There was only one hand of note which I have posted below. Not sure if there was much I could have done to avoid this. I only have 21 hands with this player and he was 42.86/28.57 and he left immediately after this hand. I thought he may be drawing to the straight which he probably was: -

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1321481