Diary Of A Fish

Unlike most people on this site, I am a total fish.

I'm a decent poker player, and when I put my mind to it can win MTTs and play very good SnG poker. My ring game needs some work, but I know the basic principles. Unfotunately, my BR management sucks, and I'm heavily prone to tilt. My main problem is that I'm always convinced that I'm just round the corner from a really big pay day.

This attitude causes me to frequently have a great ROI in my standard $5 and $10 SnG games, but still lose my initial deposits. Even worse, when i win a decent amount in an MTT, or run exceptionally well in ring games, I withdraw, meaning my BR inevitably ends up at zero.

So, with all this in mind, I've decided to make a blog, in an effort to try to discipline my poker, and ultimately become a profitable player. I will be brutally honest with my results, and try to include hand histories for analysis. The ultimate goal being that i can look back on this post as the turning point in my poker career.

Now to go and pick my starting game and stakes....

Okay, I've decided the best way to do this is to do it correctly. I'm starting with a BR of $55, and I'm planning on playing the $2.25 short handed turbos on Full Tilt.

I'm hoping that the standard of these should be fairly low compared to my usual $11 turbos, so fingers crossed I should be able to boost my roll fairly quickly. An ROI of 25% would mean I'm doubling my BR after 100 SnGs, which I reckon I can sustain, and make within a week.

As far as actual poker is concerned, I want to try to avoid overbetting pre-flop, and realise that it's pointless trying to make an opponent fold 2nd pair. These are the areas that get me into the most trouble.

Started last night by playing 4 SnGs. I finished 1st in 3 of them, and busted out first hand of the other

I accidentally deleted the 1st hand history, so I don't have any stats from that SnG. I e-mailed full tilt though, and asked them to send it to me.

2 hands - 1st one was the hand I busted out on. Looking back on it, it was an easy fold. 2nd hand was one that I think I made a bad call on, but lucked out.

FullTiltPoker Game #3005652442: $2 + $0.25 Sit & Go (Turbo) (22952268), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:02:52 ET - 2007/07/20
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to elbaroni [Qc Qd]
jbozzzz folds
rivrrat folds
zackie89 raises to 90
mjm966 calls 90
elbaroni has 15 seconds left to act
elbaroni raises to 390
doc1xx has 15 seconds left to act
doc1xx folds
zackie89 raises to 1,500, and is all in
mjm966 folds
elbaroni calls 1,110, and is all in
zackie89 shows [As Ad]
elbaroni shows [Qc Qd]
*** FLOP *** [9s 3s Ah]
*** TURN *** [9s 3s Ah] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [9s 3s Ah 7d] [Kd]
zackie89 shows three of a kind, Aces
elbaroni shows a pair of Queens
zackie89 wins the pot (3,120) with three of a kind, Aces
elbaroni stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,120 | Rake 0
Board: [9s 3s Ah 7d Kd]
Seat 1: elbaroni (small blind) showed [Qc Qd] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 2: doc1xx (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: jbozzzz didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: rivrrat didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: zackie89 showed [As Ad] and won (3,120) with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: mjm966 (button) folded before the Flop

Hand 2
FullTiltPoker Game #3005787425: $2 + $0.25 Sit & Go (Turbo) (22952511), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:19:08 ET - 2007/07/20
Seat 3: gunclaps (2,855)
Seat 4: elbaroni (2,480)
Seat 5: Bourbon Joe (545)
Seat 6: HoganPoker (3,120)
gunclaps posts the small blind of 40
elbaroni posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to elbaroni [9c 8c]
Bourbon Joe folds
HoganPoker folds
gunclaps has 15 seconds left to act
gunclaps calls 40
elbaroni checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 4c 6h]
gunclaps bets 160
elbaroni raises to 480
gunclaps has 15 seconds left to act
gunclaps calls 320
*** TURN *** [9d 4c 6h] [Qc]
gunclaps checks
elbaroni bets 720
gunclaps raises to 2,295, and is all in
elbaroni calls 1,200, and is all in
gunclaps shows [Qd Kd]
elbaroni shows [9c 8c]
Uncalled bet of 375 returned to gunclaps
*** RIVER *** [9d 4c 6h Qc] [Ac]
gunclaps shows a pair of Queens
elbaroni shows a flush, Ace high
elbaroni wins the pot (4,960) with a flush, Ace high
The blinds are now 50/100
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,960 | Rake 0
Board: [9d 4c 6h Qc Ac]
Seat 3: gunclaps (small blind) showed [Qd Kd] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: elbaroni (big blind) showed [9c 8c] and won (4,960) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 5: Bourbon Joe didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: HoganPoker (button) didn't bet (folded)

edit - why can't I get the HH converter to work?

Yea I can't seem to get HH with FTP to work either. I usually tourney trim and just post the hands from there.

I'll comment on ur HH even though what do I know?

Hand 1 - I would Insta call this with QQ in a $2 turbo game. Blinds are 15/30 so its wayyyy too early for you to actually have a good enuff read to fold this. I am sure you have noticed how loose majority of the players are here at this level so the chances of you actually being dominated like that isn't much since the range of hands someone with no reads at this lvl (specially turbo) would push is so high.

Hand 2 - On the Bubble, I wouldn't let small SB just complete like that. Why he didn't raise with KQ from SB folded, who knows (maybe the buyin lvl players?). But in anycase, I would raise in that situation with almost any two cards, unless the hand range for that player is wide. Re-raise on flop was good. Prlly wudda checked the turn since your reraise did get called and its not hurting you to see another card, but would not have called the all in. Short stack has about 500 chips and no point risking all your chips here on a flush draw, unless for some reason u really did think ur 9s were the best hand.