anomaly16

Its not been a great month and my bankroll has taken a hit. I'll be grinding 50NL in July until I get my game/confidence back on track... not much more to be said for now.

Discipline went right out the window last night and it turned into gambling well beyond my bankroll requirements (self-analysis underway!). Pretty brutal cooler though :(

$5/$10 Deep No Limit Holdem
8 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

UTG		($1174.50)
Hero (UTG+1)		($1000.00)
MP1		($3897.00)
MP2		($2718.00)
CO		($1000.00)
BTN		($493.50)
SB		($758.00)
BB		($630.50)

Pre-flop: ($27, 8 players) Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero raises to $40, MP1 calls $40, MP2 raises to $135, 4 folds, Hero calls $95, MP1 calls $95

Flop: ($444, 3 players)
Hero checks, MP1 checks, MP2 bets $275, Hero goes all-in $863.50, MP1 folds, MP2 calls $588.50

Turn: ($2,171, 2 players)

River: ($2,171, 2 players)

Final Pot: $2,159
Hero shows:
MP2 shows:

MP2 wins $2,156 ( won +$1,157.50 )
Hero lost -$998.50
MP1 lost -$135

Recognising the tilt monster

I was enjoying playing cash a couple of weeks ago and doing pretty well then something changed... I could feel an urge within myself to not believe people. I found it almost impossible to lay down a hand when I knew I was beat, wanting to make hero calls when I shouldn't. I was able to recognise the feelings without throwing away too much money but it has resulted in a number of short abandonned sessions and almost no cash hands played in the last few days.

Facing the tilt monster

Trying to understand the reasons for feelings of tilt is a tricky business - there are so many factors that tangle themselves around your A-game. Some life/work tilt has definitely affected me recently. I'd love to be able to quit my job and take up poker professionally, but I find myself stuck in a vicious circle - I'm not good enough yet to quit, yet the restrictions a 9-5 job put on your ability to study, get in volume, play at the best times can make it feel impossible. Table /seat selection seemed to become harder at my usual playing times for 100NL. Good 50NL tables were easy to find, but it seems a waste of time when I'm over-rolled for it and am getting good 100NL coaching. I didn't have a great start to the month in my first session, and as stupidily results-orientated as it is there is something for me about that first session and getting off to a good start.

Dealing with the tilt monster

I've been playing a few donkaments when I've not been at the cash tables in the hope that I can shift the feelings of tilt and satisfy my urges to call down light without losing a whole stack. I think its slowly starting to work and I feel a greater clarity coming into my decisions.

Rather than jump straight back into 100NL I think I'm going to play 50NL for the rest of the month. It should allow me to table/seat select well, limit any losses if my tilt is still in evidence, and I hope bring back some confidence that the tilt monster has beaten out of me.

Its been a much better month than april and I've made $1100 in around 15k hands of cash and quite a few MTT&STT running well in both, and this is despite spending almost $400 on coaching.

Coaching with Kush has really helped me work out where I'm weak and what I need to work on. I've not managed as many focused A-game sessions as I'd like so I 'm going to try to improve upon this next month as well as study. A target of 20k-30k hands seems reasonable if I play less tournies. I'm going to try some sweat sessions with other players around the same level too with a focus on hand reading and post-flop play.

Live poker hasn't been so great recently.. its been quite a few trips since I last cashed. The variance of live play takes so long to work itself out so I'm not too bothered and hope to get lucky again soon!

Its now been a year since I started the blog and took poker more seriously, and in that time my game has improved and i've quadrupled my bankroll so I'm really happy. (If I can multiply my bankroll by 4 every year I'll be a millionaire in 2013!)

With WSOP approaching and people heading to Vegas I'm wishing I was there. Maybe next year?!

I managed to satellite into the mini ftops main event for 2750 FTP which saved me the $55 buyin. There were 12,000 entrants and a prizepool of $600,000 with $97,000 for 1st, so its probably the biggest MTT I've ever played in.

I hit a couple of sets early on to double up twice and made good progress through to the bubble with 1350 players left. I had some luck along the way as is needed for donkaments (KJ > AK in particular) but was on the wrong end of it for my final hand. I pushed allin from the button with TT and was called by SB with 77. I was good all the way until a 7 came on the river :(

In the end I finished 261st to win $286 after 7.5 hours of play. I don't think I made any mistakes along the way so pretty pleased with how it went even if I didn't make it into the big money.

In other poker news I went to the office poker event on Saturday but was card dead and went out pretty early as my shove with an open-ender was called and my outs didn't come.

I've also now had 2 lessons from Kush - the 1st was him watching me play 6 100NL FR tables as we discussed any spots that came up and the 2nd was a hand review session. There were a few hands he suggested plays that I would never have made myself. Its left me realising how terrible my hand-reading skills are and my thought process needs a lot of work including adjusting properly for the opponent I'm facing. Its going to take some time to really understand all of Kush's valuable words. I've got the hand review session recorded, but unfortunately the railing session camtasia file won't open :( At least I have the hands we played recorded in HEM. For lesson 3 & 4 I have to record a video of a couple of my sessions which I probably should have done soon after the lessons, but the miniFTOPS main event got in the way - I hope I'll get some time to record one tonight.

Good start to the month with my biggest winning day ever almost wiping out April's losses in one go :) But, much more importantly I feel my game has settled down and I played most spots really well with some great reads.


The last few days I've been reading some old 2+2 hand reviews and its helped me analyze everything so much better. I also gained some inspiration from watching Goldseraph's FR video series after buying a subscription to DC. I played a decent volume today and didn't feel my concentration waivered too much at all playing between 2 and 6 FR tables in a decent 15.7/11.4/3.32 TAG style. Some flopped sets with action definitely helped as well as stacking a nitty reg who is always tricky to play against. It gave me the confidence to really attack his blinds which I usually shy away from and I could feel him back down to me across the 2-3 tables we were both at.

Another change I made was to remove $winnings from my HUD so I can focus on player style/behaviour and to try and not focus on results but I couldn't help myself checking them now and again. I managed not to spew away any big pots for thinking I was running hot and couldn't lose though. To be honest I think it usually affects me more when I'm losing and can call down light in an effort to catch up in too big a pot that I shouldn't have got involved with in the first place.

Its the first month since switching to cash 8 months ago that I've had a losing month, finishing down $600 overall :( There are numerous reasons including mistimed aggression, some bad luck, some tilt, too much results-orientated thinking, lack of discipline, not enough studying etc.. Tournament play has been ok and has made overall results better than they would have been otherwise.

On the positive side I feel I'm past the stage of throwing money away and I'm ready to address the issues in my game and am confident I can come out of it a better player. Not much else to be said for now...