Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Good session

+3 buyins in about 700 hands at 50NL, 5 tables of full ring and 1 of 6-max tonight. I think I played really well for the most part and was happy to have some good results after this bad weekend. I know that I just need to keep working on my game and that when I have time to put in more hours I will crush the 100NL full ring game this January.

My big hands held tonight which was nice and I consistently got it in ahead. Only one big pot that I lost went something like this:

Full ring, one MP limp, I raise AA from MP and SB and limper call. Flop comes K85r. Limper donks $2 into like a $9 pot, I raise to $8, SB folds, limper reraises to $14 and I shove for his stack of $35ish.

Am I EVER ahead of a hand that has this line with the weak lead out and then min reraise? I was mad at myself for not folding (he obv had 55) but I cooled down and came back really strong after that.

Pete

Meh...

I feel confident and comfortable at the 100NL full ring games but the results are not there yet. I've run really badly which seems to happen after you run well and have a good month, doesn't it? I have also played a few key hands very badly, one where I lost set-over-set and knew I was beat but couldn't let my set go because hey it's a set and you can't fold that, and the other where I had an overpair on a dangerous board where the guy got there on the turn and again I couldn't fold. I feel worse about that hand because at least the other is set over set but each hand I played badly and have nobody to blame but myself.

I also haven't had the chance to play a lot of hands this month, with the semester coming to a close or at least getting to its busy part. So after 10 days I was up a little over four buyins for the month which is pretty good considering how I've run and played at times. But then this weekend I took two more set over sets, lost some big draw vs big made hand type hands, and dropped 2 more buyins at 100NL. Then I played HU and lost another big draw vs overpair hand for another buyin, then tilted off 2 more buyins before stopping. So my month is back to where we started, about even after 12 days.

I need to make some money and get my head right again so I'm going to play 50NL full ring again the rest of this month and in December. I then plan on playing 100NL again in January when I will be able to play a LOT more hands. I know I can beat the level and feel okay at it now, but I also want to win some money this month because poker is my third job so I'm just going to play it safe until next semester and then play 100NL again. The good thing is that I was winning this month and that includes SIX set over set hands where I lost over full buyins, and that's in less than 10,000 hands. (to be fair I had one set over set hand go my way this month, so that nets me at -5) So I know the cards will get better, but I need to play better and not tilt, also, because letting a beat get to you and then tilting off a few more buyins because of it really adds up, as happened to me this weekend.

Anyways, it's the struggles we all go through, and YOU will go through it too, if you already haven't!

Good luck at the tables...and work on not tilting!

Pete

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Good mindset

I've been proud of myself so far in my move up to 100NL that I'm not letting bad beats and coolers get to me. Yesterday I ran awful and in the course of 1000 hands of 100NL full ring I:

-lost with second set to top set twice for 120BBs each time
-ran AK into shortish stack's (30-40 BBs) AA twice where we were getting it AIPF no matter what
-Lost a big pot with flush over flush
-Lost AK to A9o AIPF
-Lost KK to QJ all in on a jack high flop

And despite of all that I never let any of these beats get to me, I kept my cool, kept playing my game, and ended up $78 at the end of the session despite all that. I know I didn't play the flush over flush hand perfectly on the river but I was mad about how I played it, not that "I was coolered, life's no fair, etc etc".

Face it...the most of us are able to consistently make money playing a silly game with some cards that we love to play. We'll all win in the long run if we keep a good mindset and don't go on terrible tilt sessions. But it happens to the best of us, just read Brian Townsend's latest blog posts.

Keep your cool, relax, and just play hands the best you can. The money will come!

Pete

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Moving up

I have moved up to 100NL full ring on Full Tilt after my biggest month ever playing full ring 50NL last month. I think I might have found my niche, and I don't care what people say about boring full ring nitty poker or whatever, if it's profitable that's what I want to play!

I've been three days so far at 100NL and found the play very managable. I won 2.5 buyins the first two days, and lost a little under a buyin yesterday. I played some hands badly, but the good thing is that I am understanding where I mess up in hands more often now, and am correcting those errors. I feel very comfortable at the next level up and so far the play has still been pretty easy to play against, just a bit more aggressive at times. Really, though, the 50NL 6-max games at Full Tilt are more aggressive and tougher than the 100NL full ring games, no joke.

My goal for the month is 5 ptBB/100 winrate, which would equal $2000-3000 playing 20k-30k hands. We'll see what happens. I'll keep you updated!

Pete