Lean, green, mean, spewing machine!

With the new year rolling in, I decided to keep a blog/operation to help me keep track. I am mostly going to be posting hands which I did not like how I played at all or was complete spewage. This way I can have something to come back to and remember on how not to play, which hopefully will make me a better player.

As for goals for 2009, I am going to shoot high. It's two simple goals really:

1) 100k+ profit
2) 50k+ hands at 5/10 with 1.5pt/BB+ winrate

To achieve these goals is the hard part. It will require a lot of time and effort.

January - -$3047.65 Month Recap: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...14.html#829995
February - +$4537.90 Month Recap: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...14.html#845284
March - +$757.78 Month Recap: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...14.html#862341
April - +$461.7 Month Recap: http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...14.html#881172
May -
June -
July -
August -
September -
October -
November -
December -

Going to start off with one of my last hands of 2008. Villain is a fairly aggressive reg. His range for raising the flop is so wide that an 8 is just a small part of it. On the flop I think I should only be calling if my plan is to raise/shove over a turn bet. On the turn I think shove > fold > call. C/C three barrels here like that was not a good play.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) -

Button ($328.25)
SB ($233.65)
BB ($281.50)
UTG ($153.05)
Hero (MP) ($211.95)

Preflop: Hero is MP with ,
1 fold, Hero raises to $8, Button calls $8, 2 folds

Flop: ($19) , , (2 players)
Hero bets $13, Button raises to $32, Hero calls $19

Turn: ($83) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $58, Hero calls $58

River: ($199) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $60, Hero calls $60

Total pot: $319 | Rake: $2

Results:
Button had 5, 6 (full house, fives over eights).
Hero mucked A, A (two pair, Aces and eights).
Outcome: Button won $317

Played 3095 hands today, first time playing in 09. Down -$736. Today was a day of coolers and there were a lot, too many to name. I don't know why I didn't 3bet so much today, only about 5%. Serious problem. I need to stop flatting and trying to outplay postflop and just make my life easier and 3B more PF IP and try to take it down. I think I need to get much better postflop to be able to call wide IP and outplay postflop the 200NL regs.

One of my major problems is inconsistency. Not just in poker but every aspect of life. I was aware of this before I ever even knew what a straight was. Whatever I am doing, my skill is not consistent and in poker than other things in life, it is much more important. I'm not quite sure how I can work on this. Any suggestions are welcome.

My shortterm playing goal is to 3B more and fold to 3bets more. Get a better fundamental 3B game going. Currently TT/JJ and AQ are giving me problems in 3B pots, especially OOP.

Even though I was down today, I am happy that I got 3000+ hands in on one day. I usually do 1000 hands or so on weekdays so to get in 3000 was a very good thing.

glglgl!

Originally Posted by ATOTHEC101

glglgl!

Thanks! Gonna be a long way lol.

Last night I did something really dumb. I played 1/2 HU. I haven't played any HU in a long time and I did it really outta boredom. I end up playing against a calling station that would not miss. He could not fold preflop, calling 3bets with 34s etc, and out flopping/turning me. I lost something like -$850 to him. HU not being my main game and playing at not my optimal mind setting was not the smartest idea. Even though I ran really bad that HU match, I felt there were some hands I played poorly due to not enough experience at HU and tiredness. I will try to be more disciplined and focus on 6max only.

I lost a like -$600 at 6max as well. I get it, that stretches of shitty runs happen, im not mad at that. I'm mad at my ability to handle it at 200NL and how much it effects me. The fact that it bothers me so much makes me more angry than the coolers/suckouts happening to me. I've got to learn how to deal with them better. Speaking of suck outs, lol look at this hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) -

UTG ($238.60)
MP ($130.45)
CO ($325.20)
Button ($101.30)
Hero (SB) ($200)
BB ($217.50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with ,
1 fold, MP calls $2, 2 folds, Hero calls $1, BB raises to $10, MP calls $8, Hero calls $8

Flop: ($30) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $21, MP calls $21, Hero raises to $190 (All-In), 1 fold, MP calls $99.45 (All-In)

Turn: ($291.90) (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($291.90) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $291.90 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had 6, 5 (flush, King high).
MP mucked 9, 10 (straight, Jack high).
Outcome: Hero won $288.90

Wow, only way I could win or chop was a runner runner. Original PFR range leans heavyyyyy towards overpair/TPTK kinda hand and his only calling with a set. The caller in between and is a complete fish so I am not sure how much fold equity I have with him. This play obviously happened when I was tilting which I should have under better control by now! I was relying heavily on fold equity there and figured I would have 30% chance or so even if I do get called. lol epic fail.

I am gonna go down to 100NL from Monday-Friday this week. Maybe Friday night go back to 200NL when there is more traffic and more fishes. 100NL is much softer than 200NL and the regs that I will play throughout the week should not be too tough. I'm gonna do this to get confidence back up before going to 200NL. I don't know if that is a smart idea or not. I am rolled for 200NL and a winning player there but I still moving down till I am more comfortable. Hopefully it is.

So far I am down -$1525 for the month.

So I am down -$3000ish for the month. I would say $1200 is my fault and rest is coolers/bad beats. Got to learn to quit a loser instead of trying to be unstuck and playing when I am not at my optimal state.

This was a bad time for me because I had to withdraw a few thousand for car payment/tuition/insurance/books, etc. My roll is down to a mere $2500. Sigh. I'm gonna jump straight to 100NL and if I get below 2k mark, go to .25/.50 and grind there till 3k. I haven't played 50NL in a long time. Played some (about 500 hands) 100NL yesterday but it was a weekend day and filled with fishes so doesn't really count. I am hoping since I have gotten better at the game from when I was playing 50NL/100NL, that I can beat it at a good winrate and get back up to 200NL asap. I will give 200NL another shot once I get to the 8k mark. Gonna try to get in a lot of hands before the semester starts again but work/social life is getting in the way of whats really important, grinding! (lol). Damn, it hurts looking at cashier and seeing a $2500 roll.

Villain was a pretty bad player, but really, just HOWWWWW bad does he have to be here for me to be ahead lol. Total spewage, calls 3bet raises cbet and i still 3bet shove over.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) -

UTG ($52.80)
MP ($20.70)
CO ($50)
Button ($63.65)
SB ($24.20)
Hero (BB) ($64.50)

Preflop: Hero is BB with ,
3 folds, Button raises to $1.50, SB calls $1.25, Hero raises to $6.25, Button calls $4.75, SB calls $4.75

Flop: ($18.75) , , (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12, Button raises to $31, 1 fold, Hero raises to $58.25 (All-In), Button calls $26.40 (All-In)

Turn: ($133.55) (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($133.55) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $133.55 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and twos).
Hero had 8, A (two pair, eights and twos).
Outcome: Button won $130.55

Hey GL man! Hope you get to move back up soon!

gl man, hope you reach your goal!

I think of all 8 high boards in the A8 hand, this is the one that we should definitely be folding. I'd fold this in a single raised pot and a 3-bet pot.

I'm looking forward to watching your Operation and hoping to learn from it. Good luck and don't let the spewmonkeys get ya!

Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. Will have to work hard to get there. -_-

Ahh January was a month of "soul searching" you could say. Not just in poker but since this is a poker blog lol, I will only mention the poker related stuffs. Let's start of with some good news! I bought a car!! Woot woot. No more having to take bus/train to where I wanna go, no more having to ask parents to take their car, no more relying on others for a ride! Very excited. Now how does this relate to poker? Simple. This car was paid for 100% by ::drum rolls::: online poker! Yep. When I say 100%, I am counting in DMV fees, insurance, mechanic, and any other costs that came with it. I really needed my own car so I had to make a sacrifice and cut into my roll and drop down. Here is a pic:





Now on to the bad stuff. This month was absolutely horrible for me. I was running like shit which led me to play even shittier. After that I tried out different things. I tried mass tabling 24 tables. 24 tabling is easy, its playing good while at it is the hard part. I can 24 table (thanks to years of RTS gaming experience) good with not missing or wasiting too much time. The fact that I don't have much FR experience or the correct strategy to follow when I am playing so many tables (ex. nittier, folding more marginal spots, etc.) led to that being a failure. I tried heads up which I didn't like too much. The biggest disappointment of all was how I played the game this month. It was pretty much autopilot entire month without thinking too much about my game. I need to study more and be fully focused while playing. I am taking measures to have better self discipline, not only in poker but every aspect of life, which will hopefully make me a better player. Here is my graph and summary for the month:



The number of hands I did was ridiculous. 30k hands and a lot of it came from mass tabling which means I didn't put in much time at the table this month. Considering I had off from college this month, it's horrible. Also, the -3k came at the worse possible time, right when I had to withdraw so much of my roll to buy a car. This brought me down to .25/.50 now and have to grind my way back up.

This was my first losing month and boy did it hurt. The lesson I want to take away from this month is self discipline. Within that are more specific areas I am going to work on. The major ones are studying the game more, stop playing when I realize I am playing on auto pilot, and stop immediately when I realize I am tilting. If those things were in check, January would've been a different month for me.

bah.. You probably played fine.. Just doomswitched due to the withdraw ldo.

Just kidding.. You probably sucked and need to come visit me in irc so we can do some studying together.

Today was a really good day. Gotta love weekend donks. Plus it doesnt hurt running like God This is my 2nd 1k+ day ever, but first time at 100NL. 11 buyins+ in one day, good day good day

I am going to try and hang out less during weeeknds (as lame as that sounds) just because the game selection is soooo good. Saturdays maybe hang out but Sunday I am definitely going to dedicate it as poker day.

Also, World of Warcraft is -EV....but I can't give it up lol. I could've done way more hands if I didn't spend half the day playing WoW.

All it takes is one fish, one hand, to make your night...or at least that one session. Just taking my first shot at 200NL again but only on weekends and 4 tabling. Weekdays I am gonna do the normal 6 tabling 100NL until i have around 10k BR then I am going to switch back to 200NL full time.

Pretty much all month I have been pretty satisfied with my play (helps running so good). Ofcourse when I get to 200NL, I make the fishiest play of the month so far. I was still up this session (thanks to a certain fish ) but I could've been up more if I did not play this hand so bad.

Basically the only thing I was beating and would get paid from this player on the turn is a set. Flop mighta been a fold but if a 7 landed my hand was very well disguised. When the board paired, that should've been the end of the hand. Terrible terrible terrible. Usually I take a few seconds before making big decisions but I made this one so quickly it was disgusting. Lesson learned.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) -

SB ($40)
BB ($383.60)
UTG ($122.45)
MP ($271.65)
CO ($207)
Hero (Button) ($200)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
3 folds, Hero raises to $6, 1 fold, BB calls $4

Flop: ($13) , , (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $9, BB raises to $26, Hero calls $17

Turn: ($65) (2 players)
BB bets $45, Hero calls $45

River: ($155) (2 players)
BB bets $306.60 (All-In), Hero calls $123 (All-In)

Total pot: $401 | Rake: $3

Did 3967 hands today, +507. <3 Sundays. There were some coolers/bad beats which are happening at a frequency I am used to, cuz all month I havent really been seeing em as much as they are suppose to happen.

This one hand made me actually laff out loud. How I am a winning player at ANY stake is beyond me.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (6 handed) -

CO ($200)
Button ($203)
SB ($126.40)
Hero (BB) ($200)
UTG ($440.20)
MP ($488.20)

Preflop: Hero is BB with ,
UTG raises to $6, 2 folds, Button calls $6, 1 fold, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($19) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $14, 1 fold, Hero raises to $34, UTG calls $20

Turn: ($87) (2 players)
Hero bets $75, UTG raises to $400.20 (All-In), Hero calls $85 (All-In)

River: ($407) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $407 | Rake: $3

Results:
Hero had 5, 8 (full house, fives over eights).
UTG mucked 7, 7 (straight, nine high).
Outcome: Hero won $404

^^^ NH sir. I bet there were a few things said in the chat box after that one!!

How has your inconsistency been these days? Any improvements there?

Originally Posted by BankItDrew

How has your inconsistency been these days? Any improvements there?

Ahhh, thanks for reminding me what this Op was made for in the first place. Running like god sorta made me forget the root of my problems.

What I have been doing to deal with the inconsistency is playing no more than 1hr-1hr15min each session unless the tables are really good, then I'll stay till the fish goes busto. What I also began to do is, if I feel like im not playing above 90%+ of my skill but let's say 2 tables are really good, I'll close other tables and just play those 2 tables until fishes leave and then I'll end my session.

The first hour is when I'm most focused and after that it goes down. I want to be able to play like 2-3 hours like many regs here but am not sure how I can learn to do that. I'm not sure if it's something that can be learned through practice or is everyone's threshold for how long they can focus 100% is different? These 1hr sessions helps me be more consistent in the fact that I'm only playing when I am focused rather than trying to learn to be focused for longer periods of time.

This was a good month for me pokerwise and boy did I need it. I'm getting better at the non poker aspects of being a poker player, like playing when not tilting, etc. End of the month I lost some mainly due to tilt from bad beats. Besides that hiccup the rest of the month was okay in regards to me controlling myself better and having more self-discipline.

This month I had to pretty much go "pro". Currently I am having to live off my roll due to severe budget cuts at work and my hours being reduced to pretty much nothing. I am not gonna look for a part time job anymore and just hopefully live off this until I find a full time job after I graduate this spring (or before if I get lucky). I play pretty much only 100NL with 50+ buyins minimum. I need about $1500 to live comfy, and $1000 to just make it through. Luckily I live with parents and have minimal costs. Withdrawing from rolls sucks because I really want to move up and try to beat 200NL+ but due to circumstances, I can't afford to move up and learn to beat a new stake without a lotta cushioning on the bankroll. I have some bills I want to pay off so the next few months I doubt I will move from 100NL, maybe some 200NL on Sundays if the games are good. Once I get a 10K BR, which will take sometime due to withdrawing, or I get a full time job, I will move up to 200NL fully and strive to beat that and move on up.

+4537.90 total (250 Reload Bonus, 650 FPP Bonus)
Heres graph and summary from this month:

Glad your run good came when it did, gl for next month and well done.

[x] I am a bot doing 5700+ hands in one day
[x] I run like shit
[x] I cried in the corner

Originally Posted by L_Clan_Sup3rMaN

[x] I am a bot doing 5700+ hands in one day
[x] I run like shit
[x] I cried in the corner

Sorry man this stinks, better luck tomorrow. Keep your chin up !!!

This car was paid for 100% by ::drum rolls::: online poker! Yep. When I say 100%, I am counting in DMV fees, insurance, mechanic, and any other costs that came with it.

This is pretty awesome. I did this too a couple years ago and it feels great. Sucks I actually paid 4x what my car cost (05 kia rio) on my leg when I broke it which hammered my roll down hardcore, but at least I had it I guess. May we both use our rolls to buy our next cars too and hopefully they are like Porsches or Ferraris lol

This month, I took a full 360 spin...in more than one way. I have been playing 6max since I started cash game and that is how I developed my game. I started off in a bad run this month and just could not get back up. I started messing around with 24 tabling again, refining my strategy and getting used to doing so many tables. 24 Tables means playing against a lot more fish. I noticed that FR people are, in general, worse players than 6max, especially post flop. Atleast that is the case with 100NL FR.
Here is the graph and summary from March;

-$100 from the FTR HU (lol most -EV tournament to play)





I pretty much lost playing 6 max but made it all back playing 24 tables of FR. The amount of FPP you earn is quite good too. I am going to continue to play 24 tables of FR and see how I do with this.

For April, my goal is 100k hands.

well i dont want one of those graphs but if i did where would i get ?
plus i'm waiting on stacks offer to come and study her .... -

Hmmm. I haven't been updating this operation at all. It became more of a means of keeping track of my monetary progress from online poker rather than an actual operation.

I slacked off a bit too much in April. I only played for 42.25 hours. Running bad really discouraged me from playing. That led me to hanging out more and playing less, which is really -EV.

I played from 50NL to 200NL during April, some 6m but mostly 24 tabling FR. I am going to stay away from 200NL altogether now and just focus mainly on 100NL and some 50NL, doesn't matter what I am rolled for.

There are many spots I could think of I could have played better but overall I am happy with how I played during April. I am unhappy with the non-poker aspects but at the table I didn't make too many mistakes.

Went to Atlantic City for a weekend, made $1200 there and a few hundred from home games. That is really what saved me this month and did not require me to withdraw anything from my roll since I do live off this.

+$461.7 Total for the month after bonuses

+$650 Bonus
+$120 Reload Bonus




Sucks that my EV difference is around $1800 =\

I am making this post kind of late, already 5 days into May. May has been going pretty alright so far. I plan on putting in a lot of hours (unlike April) during this month. I am graduating from college this month! Psyched about that, even so with finals and projects due, I plan on putting in many hrs.

Ahhh my fav hand of the month so far.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (6 handed) -

MP ($94.30)
CO ($102.15)
Hero (Button) ($284.05)
SB ($232.95)
BB ($129.55)
UTG ($101.50)

Preflop: Hero is Button with ,
2 folds, CO bets $3, Hero calls $3, SB raises to $14, 1 fold, CO calls $11, Hero calls $11

Flop: ($43) , , (3 players)
SB bets $23, 1 fold, Hero calls $23

Turn: ($89) (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $50, SB calls $50

River: ($189) (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $120, SB calls $120

Total pot: $429 | Rake: $3

Not sure if my river bet was bad, just incase he would fold to a shove I bet $120. Also, not sure if I should have raised flop?

May was a rough month. Car problems and other things led me to withdraw more than I normally do a month, bringing my BR below the 50 buyin at 100NL I like to have. This is the most amount of hands I have put in a month and I plan to increase this. Here are my graphs/summary for May:

-$315.40 total for the month

+$650 Bonus
+$184 Bonus



I'm not sure how helpful the EV line is or if I should just ignore it all together. Right of the bat, I no longer will be playing 200NL, at all. Whenever I play 200NL I do 4 tables but now I will not even be taking a shot for a long time. I can think of tons of mistakes I made throughout the month and I am going to try to improve it. Will spend more time studying than I was before. Here is my EV Graph for the past two months:


That huge gap makes me wanna throw up. Their is nothing I can do about that now and whining won't get me newhere. I am doing a lotta things different off the tables now that I feel are really helping my game. I am reading NL TAP and going over HEM more often through my hands and updating notes on the regulars whom I have many hands against. Also thinking about my game more, in and out of the table.

Non online poker wise, May was a busy month. Graduated from college! Woot that was a big step. Took care of finals and all that and got grades I am more than happy with. Now comes the job search, which I should be putting more effort into but ehh. I went to Vegas (for the first time) with some buddies to celebrate and boy is Vegas nothing like Atlantic City. We had a blast but didn't hit the tables much cuz we were parting or doing other stuffs. Still I was able to win $1400 playing 200NL (the games were really really soft) even getting sucked out a few times, so overall was a great trip

June, planning on putting in a lot of studying time and a moderate amount of playing time as well, something like 70-80 hrs of playing.

My mom passed away on June 11th at the age of 45 =( Havent played that much after that (nor visit FTR) and have been outta the country entire summer to visit families in different counties. I had to take a huge chunk of my roll to fund that trip. Got back a few days ago. Finally feeling a little better about all this and have been going back to playing. Planning on coming back harder and putting a lot more hrs playing/studying.

;__; sorry to hear that

I'm at a loss for words, but I would like to wish you strength to deal with life's hardships, and good luck man.

Thanks guys. The avatars/sig are slightly helpin as well ;P......jack who is that?