Ups and downs and downs and downs...

Hi guys!

My last update was a long time ago… Since then I played my best day ever, had a beautiful streak then something happened and now I’m sitting in the middle of my worst downswing ever.

Here it is









Looks like I just couldn’t win a hand, whatever what do I have. I’ve already learn that how to fold my TPTK or monster PPs against good opponents. But I still double up maniacs day after day with these type of hands. In this “streak” I’m in red with straights, sets, pairs etc.

I tried to play my positions, cBets when it’s possible (maybe a little bit less then before), double barrels too. Just didn’t worked, they always 3 or 4beted me, so I folded a lot without SD, I think that’s why my wsf is so ridiculous.

And a little extra: my best starting hands

AA: 11 times, win: 100%, amount won: $10.93
KK: 11, 73%, -$24.08
QQ: 20, 75%, -$2.93
JJ: 14, 64%, $0.30
TT: 22, 45%, -$28.75
99: 28, 46%, -$9.41
88: 20, 45%, -$6.66
...
AKs: 11 times, win: 55%, amount won: -$18.67
AKo: 36, 64%, $8.24
KQs: 12, 75%, $17.28
KQo: 34, 56%, -$9.75
QJs: 9, 44%, -$28.27
QJo: 53, 26%, -$37.61
JTs: 15, 60%, $2.75
...
AQs: 11, 55%, $0.18
AQo: 34, 59%, -$1.18


Four hands from today (I played 656 hands) – these are typical in this downswing

1st: QJs two pairs vs a regular's KK



2nd: KK vs maniac's AA



3rd: another KK vs maniac's AA (two in one day - little bit unreal)



4th: after this you will understand how do I feel myself

Another session – same way :-)

I played a session today too. The start was “brilliant”: in the 20th hand I went all in pre flop with my Aces and last my whole stack against Queens. But the EV was beautiful... LOL

Anyway I felt that I can come back if I’m playing my A game (I mean what I call "A") and I was right. I didn’t care too much about the result, just looked for fishy opponents and tried to win their money.





I know, it’s just another short term, but I’m happy with my play and that feels really good.

Maybe I started to play the way I need to...

After my horrific day I reviewed my game again and tried to learn from my faults and more about TAG style. Actually (at this time) I don’t worry too much about results ‘cause dollars should be secondary ‘till I can’t play the correct way.





I had only one huge (buy in) SD loss which was a KK vs AA pre flop ai (about the 2500th hand).

I started to play less from oop and more from late positions. I fold more KQ, AQ etc type of hand when somebody re-raises me from position. I realized that this one is saving me a lot.

If I can play this way in the next couple of weeks then I’ll be ready for the next coaching session I think and (if Steve says yes) maybe for the next level (NL50) too. We’ll see...

I still have a lot of leaks so need to working on them.

What a day!

EV is +$2, result is -$95! All in luck: expected +$38, actual: -$65

I try to be not so result oriented :-)

I know I need to learn and learn and learn much much more…

Now I’m angry

Today is different. I played 415 hands and lost 2,5 bi. I played okay except one hand I think.

First of all I lost a huge pot pre flop ai with my Aces vs Queens. Then (20 minutes later) I made a very big (130 BB) mistake.

Two pair vs …



After the BB just called pre flop in a 3way pot then called again on the flop I thought that he has just a pair or a draw – worst case a str with Q9s and I didn’t care too much about the short SB because we played for the side pot at least. But I was wrong and after he 4bet shoved me I should fold my bottom two pair – especially because we were both deep. I have no ideai why did I call him. There is no excuse :-(


And here is another beauty from the end of this session



I was ready to go all in on the flop but I didn’t want to scare him off. That’s why I just minraised him and waited for his shove to call. Actually he surprised me with that bet/call move...

What do you think about this hand? I was almost 80-20 favorite on the turn...


I will play another (half) session tonight and I hope that that one will be better

Cheers

Donkey’s day

I’m sure you all know how is the day when nothing goes your way and fishes hits their few outs hands after hands or calls your double barreled draws with bottom pair (trash kicker) all the way down…

Today was THE day for me. I didn’t play bad at all I think just couldn’t beat these guys. I played aggressively my hands (especially my draws) then saw how fish can call me with 2nd or 3rd pair (with 64o for example) on a draw heavy - high cards board. I’m not angry or anything like that. I know this is good for me on a long term. These guys will pay my bills, my cars, my new home and my children’s school so I still love them.

Here are the graph and the stats of this day





I think I need to win some showdown hands in the future :-) My wsf and w$sd are too low but have the reason

I forgot to upload hands expect this one. I’m working now so I have no chance to show you more…

KK vs A3o




I wasn’t happy with that ace on the flop so I tried to control the pot with my half pot bets and it worked, but he had that ace of course. He is one of those guys (86/39/1.3) who call you with almost everything if have a pair at least. This time he had me. That’s all.


“Stop being so focused on short term results”

Here I am!

“Losing a session should not make you feel so bad because you will lose almost half of your sessions as standard!”

Yeah man, that’s what I’m talking about. I feel fine at this time, really! And I’m going to play some ice hockey tonight. So if I have any hidden frustration then there will be some hard shots. Did you ever imagine that the hockey puck can be a face of a fish? Just kidding :-) I’m happy with my plays and don’t care the results too much.

Stats, graph and three huge (?) mistakes (?)

Since I start to work harder on my play - here are my stats, graph and other interesting pics

Stats





The last few sessions



And the graph



The first fault – you can see this on the graph above (this is about the 2900th hand)




The short story is simple: this guy sat down just a few hands before this. I wasn’t happy with him at all on my left ‘cause he is an aggro bully – I decided to leave this table in the next round. Actually he was silent ‘til this one and I was the active player who won the last couple of pots with raises and check/raises.

I raised from SB after the short stack fish limped from the BTN and he reraised me from the BB. After the history of this table he can do this with a lot of hands so I put him on 88+, ATs+, AQ+, KQs. The flop wasn’t bad at all, I decided to ch/r him (and normally fold if he shoved). His weak bet on the flop confused me a little bit but I still ch/r him and of course he shoved. Here I thought that his range is TT+, ATs+ (if he has 88 or 99 why does he go ai here?). Maybe I was wrong with this… He called me bluffer in the chat and I was as stupid as he liked it and called his shove.


The next one - 72o vs 33 – I’m angry a little bit (this is about the 3740th hand)



Normally I never played a hand like this, but I was BB and the flop was perfect for me. He is so passive pre flop and just limps all the time (almost never raises pre flop), so I put him on PP (33-JJ) or high cards. When he min4bets me on the flop I thought for a sec that maybe he has that 3s (or A2)… I think I played badly this hand. With an overpair he just calls my 3bet - maybe… Any thoughts?


Another bad play vs a maniac – he bluffed me out with T7o



I was very weak here in every street. I missed a 3bet pre flop (‘cause whatever his position he is a maniac), I missed an open bet (or the check/raise) on the flop and my bet on the turn was weak too. On the river I tried to control the pot, but this is weak vs a guy like this. He smelled my weakness and bluffed me out when I was the nuts… (He had T7o)

Opened my eyes - again!

If you remember I wrote my first post after the coaching intro session about Steve’s job, I mean how he opened my eyes and showed me my weaknesses etc.

I played thousand hands just after that session and I played the style what he asked me for. And that was so cool. I really loved that type of play.

But after that I started to change to my old weak style and I didn’t know why. Session after session - step by step - I went back to my full of fear and passive game and start to lose again. So I closed my eyes...

And when I felt “that’s enough I’m weaker then every before”, I wrote a mail to Steve again to asked another coaching session. Then he answered to me this:

“I really think you need to stop being so focused on short term results. Losing a session should not make you feel so bad because you will lose almost half of your sessions as standard!”

You know what, he is right again! I’m still too result oriented but there is something else which he has no chance to see. Honestly I did a bad job, after that first 1k hand I felt that, “oh this is easy, I already know how to play in this way” and didn’t work enough hard on my play. I didn’t reviewed my whole sessions just the huge losses.

After his mail I thought that I need to make a huge step. If I don’t then poker will be just a hobby for me and nothing else...

So I reviewed my first session and realized that how different I played when I remembered Steve’s advices. So I made some notes about that and tried to use it. And it works! Okay, I know it’s just another short term (2,5 k hands) but I don’t let it go away - again.

One more thing: I’m reading Schoonmaker’s Your Best Poker Friend (thanks for pocketfish007)! It’s simply awesome! I hope that this book will be a huge help for me, because I don’t want to be my worst enemy anymore.

Cheers guys!

ps: stats and hands are coming soon

Weakness and… weakness

Since my first coaching session I played 6,486 hands. Not too much. You can say that it’s just short term. Yes, it really is. But I show you what my problem is.

My stats are relatively better then were before we talked with Steve



One of my exercises was: open up a little bit more from late positions and I did it. And the main challenge was: be aggressive, not passive, cbets much-much more. I try to do that.

- VPIP/PFR is 20.94/16.88 now and was 17.59/13.86 before. The gap between VPIP and PFR is still huge I know.

- cBetF is 67.01 (was 49.65 before) cBetT is 55.29 (42.40 before) - big changes I think

- Att to steal is 35.99 (was 29.66)

- AF is 4.35 (2.90), AFq is 46.66 (41.10), 3Bet is 4.63 (4.52)

I know these are not the optimal numbers but I’m still working on them.

Actually there are numbers which didn’t change and that makes me sad. Especially my WSF which is almost the same then was before. I thought that if my aggression is rising then my WSF should do the same thing but it doesn’t.

- WSF is 37.49 (36.93 before), wtsd is 18.08 (22.47 before), W$SD is 53.16 (58.53 before)


Other changes are in my position play – good and bad too



My range is wider from any position (actually utg, mp and bb are too wide maybe, co and btn can be wider) but the result changed to worse - except from SB


My wosd play is horrible




In the first half of these hands, I didn’t have any problem with it but after that… I don’t know what happened. Looks like I’m weaker then ever before.

And I still have problems with over pairs and TPTK hands. So my (miss)understanding is the same I think.


Now I need to talk about these with Steve then maybe we’ll do another coaching session where I’ll play and he can catch my (new and old) leaks. Anyway he is the coach so he’ll choose what to do and I’ll try to do that.

Emptiness

I have a streak but not a good one. Today I lost again, another -2 bi day. I’m not angry. What I’m feeling right now is a huge emptiness. Looks like I’m playing my worst poker ever. When I’m cbeting the opponent calling or raising almost every time, so my aggro style doesn’t works yet.

By the way my stats are not that bad but the result is horrible.

Today's stats



Positions



Graph



Anyway we are visiting my wife’s relatives at the weekend so I’ll be back at Sunday night. Then I’ll try to talk with my coach about another session. Maybe he can find my brand new leaks

Another 'perfect' session…

I don’t get it. I’ve tried my best. The fist part of the session I've played against tight, nit guys, where I’ve tried to be aggressive. That’s not worked for me. Then I changed and started to play vs fishes. I'm still loosing. Lay down when I’m ahead, call or raise when I’m not.

I think I’m missing something. Or I’m just not enough for this whole game.

Very sad feeling…

Stats and graph



Today's last hand - just like my whole day

Very bad call on the river... especially after that raise on the turn :-(

Without the 2nd 7 on the river the call can be reasonable I think. But now I only beat K3, K5, K6, middle pairs or dead flush draws. So this one is a horrible call...

Same mistakes...

I really want to kick my ass before Steve does it. I'm making the same mistakes over and over again.

I think I can play the way what I need vs nits, cr types and passive fishes, but I always try to play against aggro maniacs... I can't handle them, I'm just not ready to play against this type of guys. When I have AK, AQ or middle pair type of hands I put a lot of money in the pot then play like a calling station and fold on the river when this 92/19 guys goes all in. So my typical passive line. But you know it seems to be so easy money... then I lose my profit again and again.

I'm very angry with myself because of this. Steve has no chance to teach me if I'm an idiot.

My first aim is to learn the TAG style. I think I need to choose table where are no aggressive players just nits and passive tours. I can exercise the agro positions plays and cbets there.

Maybe I need a DONTPLAYvsAGGROGSTREAKOMETER

Here are my 'post coaching sessions' stats and graph



I'll show you a lot of loosing hands later

Since the coaching session

Finally I’m here!

I played some sessions since my last (stats) update but I don’t want to talk about my pre Steve hands. Forget those times! Today I’ll give you some details about the eye opener coaching session and my play since then.

First of all Steve found my biggest leak: the aggression - which I didn’t have. My pre flop play was OK, but after that? Oh God, hard to talk about it… If I had nothing, I ch/folded, I played so passively post flop - you’ll see my AFq and the other stats immediately. And when I had something I bet and the opponents folded, except when they had me, in those cases I loose my whole stack.

And that was the reason of my frustration. With my 17-18% VPIP I’ve played good hands (usually better then my opponents) and wanted to win as expected, which is great but I couldn’t fold them when it was reasonably. Then I felt myself really unlucky and start to hunt the enemies which means I made more and more mistakes.

So I need to go back to the basics, learn the TAG style, especially with the “AG” part of it. But I need to take the control on it and not going to be an aggro monkey. Anyway, “an aggressive fault is always better then the passive one!”

Let’s see the old stats!



(Interesting - there are some differences between the PT3’s and the HEM’s stats… and I don’t know why)

As you can see, these are not the optimal stats, especially the steal, af, wsf and cbets. All of them are too low. The AFq is interesting, that was less then 30% in HEM if I remember correctly.

My old graphs



This is a typical break even player’s graph. I hate it…

And my old positions play



I played too tight from late positions and so bad from the blinds.

That's enough. I don’t want to see them anymore! The stats already told you everything.


The old rotyi has gone. Welcome the new one!

Stats



Actually I had only one and half sessions since then, so it’s a very small sample size. That means exactly 999 hands. But you can see some changes. I still have many-many faults of course, but I’m trying to focus on Steve’s advices. Just step by step.

Positions



1st: cbets every flop from positions!

2nd: steal the blinds more often!

3rd: don’t make fancy plays!

I think if I’m using my table and seat selection method which is not that bad and working on these 3 points I’ll be the guy who nobody likes at the table on this level.

Graphs



By the way I had only one huge SD loss ($27.12 = 108.48BB) with KK from the BB vs AA (BTN) and A2o (SB) pre flop ai…


New sessions, observations and hands will come later today or tomorrow – I hope so! :-)

Cheers guys

The weather made my day…

Sorry guys, I know I said that update is coming today but I worked all day long and this idiot weather messed up everything. I had a lot to do, so didn’t have enough time to blogging.

By the way I’ve played a satellite for the 80K GTD MTT on Full Tilt, but wasn’t so lucky. I had only 17 opponents, first 2 got an entry, and I finished on the 3rd place, Actually I won $34 with that (that means $19 profit).

Last hand was 77, my M was somewhere about 6 or so, I went all in from the BTN, BB called with KK, flop comes 7xK… C'est la vie

After the coaching intro session

Just a few thoughts ‘cause I’m working!

You know my English is very bad so I’m not sure to find the correct word, but that was f*n good! I mean that 2,5 hours inspired me and opened my eyes very well. Steve’s explanation was so clear. He is a good teacher, a perfect educator. I think he knows what the student needs.

I’ve got what I looked for, so I’m very happy.

Oh and my first short session just after our talk went really well. And I’m not talking about results, I’m talking about style, stats, details – especially my post flop aggression. There were guys who left two of my tables because of me, and that’s the feeling what everybody needs I think, the positive feedback. I know that 350 hands is nothing of course, but you can got the feeling in that anyway…

I’ll post details about my last few sessions, especially about this one and the coaching intro later today or tomorrow.

Be aggro but not a monkey! Aggressive fault is so much better then the passive one, so cbets every flop in position and regulars will hate you, others will pay you (off) :-) And that’s good..

Cheers guys!

Here I am!

Wow, the pokertableratings is tracking low limits too! They found me at this April, so they don’t have my whole DB but they’ve got the essence of my play.

Let me introduce Mr Rollercoaster!



And an interesting report card!

Thanks for pocketfish007 who found me on this!

Eh, where are my cBets?

My last session was quiet. There were no big pots or all in moves. But I had some interesting hands and I think I made some bad plays.

My stats are here

.AF and 3bets are not that bad
.WSF is too low
.cBets are terrible

Horrible lines



What do you think about these hands?



After 10 hands he was 90/10/2.0. Actually this one was my biggest loss yesterday.


99 vs AJs



I called his 3bet pre flop because we were both deep, I was in position and I had setvalue too. I missed the double barrel maybe, but I think he couldn’t fold his hand if I bet that turn.


Anyway, I lost too many middle pots (between 1 and 4 dollars), so my post flop play was terrible.

Two days off and an acceptable comeback

We had two days off and we travelled a lot with my wife. That was a great time - have fun and 'notthinkingaboutpoker' or everything else. I think that was necessary for me after the last few sessions when I messed up everything.

Anyway, I came back with fresh mind and I feel that I’m re-energized.

I played last night again and after several 23/19 type of sessions (with a lot of random aggressions which I couldn’t handle) finally I played tighter and calmer again. I tried to focus on myself and find my game again. Something maybe happened on our weekend ‘cause I was well relaxed and satisfied – thanks for the beautiful places and for my lovely wife. No, she is not behind my back… :-)


Here are my general stats from this session.

I’m not happy with all of them and I know this is not the way how I need to play in the future if I’d like to make my dreams, but I need the coach to build my game up. I’ll write a mail to him tonight, right after this post.

Actually my vpip and pfr are too low, just as my steal attempts (this one was 40+ in the last 2 or 3 weeks) – but I can say that: this is just short term :-P

I think the aggression and the 3bet were both enough.


And here are the graphs


Honestly I don’t like them too much. There is no consistency, it’s just another rollercoaster, but I didn’t lose at the end. There were losses and wins where my move were correct and others where weren’t. I’ll show them immediately.


AJs vs ATo



Bad move pre flop – he bets from MP not from UTG. I was too passive on that street. This is a ‘must to raise’ hand. On the flop, when he called my raise I realized that he has some kind of hand, actually I put him on AT+ or TT+ and 88 (remember, I didn’t 3bet pre flop). On that turn I didn’t want to let this hand go, that’s why I’ve bet again. Maybe the 2/3 pot was too much. I don’t know. I’m not so proud of this hand.


AKo vs AA



I think I didn’t have too much choice here. He was 60/20 (okay, I had only 10 hands from him at this point). After his light 4bet (not an all in) with that stack I was sure that he has JJ+, AQs+ or AK. And I think that after I already invested $3.25 in this hand this call was mandatory.


My lucky one - AKo vs QQ



PokerStove says everything: he was the favorite 69-31… By the way I’ve made some notes about that pre flop call with QQ from SB…


And I’d like to introduce yesterday’s weirdest board



He was a 93/21 drunker and I was just 4/4 (because of him on my left) at this table.


One more thing!

I stole a couple of ‘meters’ from pocketfish007 and Mr Fickle… So my 4TABLESMAXOMETER is 1 just as my NOLOOKSTREAKOMETER. I’m very happy with these results right now.

Two pairs vs...

Last time I folded now I was curious

Let’s talk about weaknesses!

I’ve got a lot, so maybe this blog is not enough for all of them. I try to gather some of them in a group.

1. Tilt control - I think this is my biggest problem, because I don’t have it. When I’m loosing two huge pots in a row - maybe a 2 or 3 outer beats me once - I’m going to be cynic, arrogant and just couldn’t handle the whole situation. It seems to me I’m starting to hunt a pot where I can loose more and I can say it: “he has 2 outs, I’m sure one of them is coming!” And it works! Voala, one of those cards hits at the river. So I’m stupid. I know I need to quit, but sometimes I’ve got a feeling that I can handle this, because I’m playing good at the time. But usually it doesn’t works for me and I’m loosing more and more and more. Actually I just disable the player chat, because I couldn’t shut up when things goes wrong. Yes, yes, I am an emotionally overheated person, I know. And it doesn’t make my life easier. By the way it can be awesome when it comes out in positive ways…

2. This is a newfound thing: I couldn’t build in my game what I’m learning from videos or articles. I don’t know why but I’m messing my whole style up.

3. I need to stop looking my stats when I’m playing - it frustrates me.

4. I’m loosing a lot with my overpairs (QQ+ usually) and TPTK hands when I didn’t believe in my feelings or the stats. I must to learn that: “one pair can be folded”!

5. I can't win enough with my monsters when I’m the favorite.

etc.

Strengths: after the 2nd weakness it is very hard to find something. If somebody guides me, maybe I’ll find these qualities too. I’m motivated, I can work like a dog, so this is not a problem.