Hi all,

You don't need a coach to beat a $4 table. That's why one pays CR $30 a month to have experts teach one how to play this game.

And if the best minds and education vids don't educate one enough a couch won't do any better.

Coaching comes in when you are a winner at $50 or $100 and need to fine tune your skills to take down $400 level.

Any half intelligent person with the education back ground i've received at CR can easily beat $4.

And I used to beat it for 5BB/100, but im going through a very bad batch right now, with mega relationship problems, and stress, which is undoubtedly fucking up my game.

Around last September i ran $400 up to $2000+ playing 18 tables at once of $10 double or nothing.

But i haven't won a penny since, as the trouble in my relationship is most probably the biggest factor in me having a variable and not up to the required std skill set.

And maybe when my head clear up things will start to go right for me again, but of late they haven't.

Sorry for being pissy, but on 4th July two days after my birthday i had another mega arguement with my girlfriend, and since most of you are guys, im sure you can relate to how that gets under your skin.

Tony

Hi all,

I don't know why so many people keep reading my blog.

All ive accomplished is to prove to myself and everyone else that im currently a losing cash game player.

I lost on pokerstars, playersonly, absolute poker, and now on carbon poker.

Well that doesn't really matter on some level. You go out for a couple of good meals, with
your wife or girl friend, and get through $80. So thats about $1000/year, which its about my overall losing rate. It's basically the cost of my entertainment. Most people spend at least $80/month on entertainment.

I am more focused now and ultra more carefull, but still like yesterday, things run aggainst me when
my 33 found TT and a T 3 X flop, a 1% occurance, but it just shuts the day down and i usually quit shortly after a mega cooler.

It was my 65th birthday yesterday, i was winning a few bucks, and bang in comes the cooler, and its all over again. Some birthday present. I just won't play anymore after i get stacked, as its too dangerous. Best to come back another day and try again.

My BR is down about 10%, so ive got 90 buyins left. and if i don't turn it around, then when all the money is gone I will just quit poker as im not ever going to deposit any more.

So im trying to be ultra carefull.

There's this micro player on stars called world153, he plays a sesnsible tight TAG range, mega multitables, and kills the game. On PTR he's one of the top winners.

Well ive adopted his ranges, and im trying to be very very careful. As long as i can fold. to reraises and shoves, i just might make a buck or two.

T

Hi all,

Currently my BR is down 5.4% or about 6 buyins, over 19K of hands since i with withdrew funds and left 100 Buyin BR to start from the bottom again.

Needless to say things have been up and down of late with some bad play thrown in for good measure.

I'm trying to refocus and get my impatience under control.

Yesterday i played only 4 tables like i should and only a couple of short sessions, as mistakes were evident and im still not totally stable, in part affected by relationship breakup problems, which are obviously detrimental to playing poker. Anger is never a good back drop to playing ones A game.

So it was just 260 hands.

I needed to remind myself of what position hands are actually winners over the last 50K of hands, so my ranger, a very tight TAG style were set up along those guide lines. For the moment as of yesterday i played. 11.6/93/ 9.5, and ended up a penny at $1.49.

I need to focus more on why im losing and try and seal the leaks. But im still irritated by badbeats, so im not at my best as of the moment.

There were only 6 hands that went to showdown, and the one loss is my ultimate classic all time leak, which over the years has lost me thousands.

3 limpers to my SB hand of AQs. I could raise here, but im out of position and would have been called by and aggro monkey on the button, so i just called as did the small blind.

AQ v A3 and of course the flop was 3 Q J rainbow. Top pair top kicker feels like a vey strong position, and there's only a 2 % change of an individual player having TP, so i guess that like 6% and one of then should have found a pocket pair most of the time. I bet just in excess of pot, so if any player had a weak QX they'd have to pay a preminum to see it. Well the BB raised my bet, and being off my A game and since this is my biggest leak i got irritated and shoved on him, as it was likely the he could have had some QX hand and wanted to play back.

More often that not, when i get reraised im owned, and just donk call with big hands. For instance in this position, had i done something stupid like limping with KK or AA, there is no way i'd be folding. And therein lies the leak. It's like I've got a premium hand and im not laying this down till hell freezes over. Something like that is the most common sentiment. And even had i raised the flop with KK, and got reraised, i would have felt irritated. And thats the worse hand to have out of position, KK on an X A X flop. Cbet and get called and what do you do. Check, bet, and what do you do.

Anyway, i donk off a small about of profit.

All told, and i keep telling myself over and over. if ones out of position and get reraised one needs to fold most of the time regardless of the hand if its no bigger than a pair to the flop, and especially when it comes from the blinds and goes, check, bet, reraise.

That had came late in the session and i just quite as i knew irritation led to bad play. So that's my nemasis leak #1, of which im only too well aware, and yet still call a fair % of the time, which is basically gambling, as the % of time players bluff in probably less than 20%, so im always wrong 80% of the time which is a chronic EV- bleed.

And i was forwarned early on that i wasn't in a good mood, which incidently I actually knew about.

So QQ v unknow in the SB, i raise 4X to a limper, he calls and the flop is J K J, with a flush draw on the flop. He bets 2/3 pot and i call. He bets again and i fold, but still leak profit.

Reactions to flops like this need to be an ingrained reactions, nammelly a fold, but once again i feel irritation, so call.

However after the event analysis would provided the following possible thought process

What had could he have in his range to bet the flop, well AJ, AJs, KJ, KJs, QJs, JTs, J9s, KQ, KQs, KTs, easy lead bets. Sometime a player might trap with JX, or lead weak with KX. He might have led with and AXs to the flush draw, but thats 40 hands, assuming no AKs, AJs. His range hands are 36+28=64 hands to name some most likely, so 40% of the time has has the nut flush draw, but how often does he bet. And a pretty small % of the time he bluffs. All told, its suck it up and fold. And once again, i personally often get testy, when i have to fold premium hands in position.

So again another leak, calling bets with premium hands to over pairs on the flop, let along the 1% trips.

And the minute after the hand i knew it was just a donk bleed call.

Then one more but std fold, one short stack imper calls my KQ button 4X raise, and flops 5 2 5 flush draw. He checks, and i bet, he shoves just $0.3 more, but i put him on an overpair at the least, although a flush draws was possible, but if that was Axs, im still donk calling, so i did the correct thing and fold.

Also $1 was lost to my 4X raises when i missed the flop and gave up.

All told i bled off $1.68 of profit, which is over 50% of my gain.

Well therein lies one source of my continuous losing momentum.

And maybe we all do that some of the time,

So one reaction is to drop to playing just 3 tables, and see if time pressure is involved.

Still i posted a small gain, but it does highlight how vigilant and focused one needs to be to play better.

And poker has never been about winning, it all about losing what one has won, which im mindfull of when i fold may hands that could put a big dent in the days small gains.

What irritates me the most is when i get to build up a buyin, at high bb/100, and in a few hands find a flush chaser who hits the river, to my overbets, and yet still calls with no pot odds.

All i can say is ive got great admiration for the winners out there, as you are obviously better at folding marginal situations.

Another difficult situation that so often arises, is to bet from early position with QQ, or AK, and get 3bet by premiums AA, or KK. It's not easy to fold such hands, but if the guy has a bigger preminum and you 4 bet is all over. If you call and the flop come small 2 8 T, the QQ is getting it all in most of the time, and the classic AA v AK with an X K X or X A X is another dead end.

I try and instill the idea that big hands are just that, and 3x bbs, so laying them down loses nothing even to a donk 3bet with something like TT to the QQ or AQs to the AK.

If i were to fold all 3bets other than AA or KK, id' save myself a lot of grief.

BUT how often do you call a 3-bet with AK. AKs out of position, with the expectation of hitting the flop 28 % of the time. It's not a hand one wants to fold. as we assume that hitting will compensate for the miss, but does it.

Tony

Hi all,

We'll good old ABC still sucks big time.

1K of hands.

QQ v AA no brainer i lose.

AJ v 58 flop 5 7 K A 5

QQ v JT flop 9 Q K go figure

AK v A3 flop 3 5 A what's new

QQ v A4 flop 9 2 5 3 std right

AQ v AK flop 6 A 2 another duck

So it same shit, just another day, ans im supposed to crush this stuff.

Give me a break.

Tony

Hi all,

Well today went about the same way as yesterday, a bad beat, a cooler, some bad play and after 249 hands i shut it down, off a little over a buyin down.

So Gambler2k4, that you should take time to scream at me IS MUCH APPRECIATED.

Why stats, that are meaningless, i guess because i'm a scientist, and fascinated by numbers. But apart from that i wanted to know if my losing was connected to just bad play. Well in regard to showdowns, that doesn't appear to be totally the case.

I think right now, regardless of the stakes my main goal is to stop losing, and i don't play well all of the time.

I'm impatient which doesn't help me play 4 tables, let alone two, where i can pay some attention to my hud.

Losing does lead to some bizarre behavior as far a poker is concerned on occasions. It unnerves even the best. Even Tillttt had to have a rant recently because the fish/moronic players where just too hot to handle.

And remember IversonXX3, well Jared used to just go bonko ballistic when the fish ripped him to sheds, and he spewed thousands.

I'm trying that's all i can say. And things are starting to get a bit better.

And your right, the players im up against are mostly limp retards. which one should be able to crush.

It's hard to be even bothered with taking notes on players who literally don't know there ass from there elbow. If anything the problem lies in trying to beat them, as apposed to letting them beat themselves.

Oh well on we go, and ill try and pay less attention to stats and more to ABC grinding.

Tony

Hi all,

We as i planned i started off yesterday on just 4 tables, and watching a vitalMyth vid, but it didn't take long before i was down half a buyin. So i dropped to two tables, and after a while it seemed to be getting better, and i moved back to four, then the badbeats rolled in again, and so after 268 hands and just over a buyin down i shut it down.

Most of the loss came from aggresive play in the SB, with AK, which failed to hit.

Also some tilt is still around as raising from the small blind with QJ, i got shoved on by a 40 bb short stacker holding TT, i have 44.2% equity but lost the flip, like the AK's not hitting bu the river.

But it was KK v 88 early on when the flop came 8 5 5, and i double bsrrelled, that set the ball rolling.

And that's poker, when one hits one tends to win more than when one misses and loses.

It will ruin is course then things will turn around.

I'll cut down on the hero 8X when im losing to.

Adjustments need to be made along the lines, of less tables and no 8X when im running bad, and more tables and maybe a much wider btn range when im winning.

Currently the BR is still up $1 with rakeback, but ive run bad for 4 sessions out of 5, and admittedly $40 of which was lost to the $110 table shot.

I won't do that again either.

All told when i is running bad, and its the same for everyone, even the likes of VitalMyth, we inevitably don't bring our A game to the table because human nature is to try and over compensate for the loss, until one recognizes the pattern and check it.

Hopefully today will see a change. I might even just take a day off of riding, and rest up for the 22-24 ride on saturday, or even try the 24-26 and see how far i get, which will depend mostlly on the wind.

So i'll play a lot of poker today, but be very careful in the blinds.

I've made some adjustments to the variance starts i follow. Now i determine how many hands win or loss at showdown are 50bbs or better. Work our the running average, and sum the difference between the daily plays and the overall average.

The losses are running at and average of 8.71% over 3.65 K of showdown hands, and the wins at 8.93%, which has resulted in $173 gain,



tony

Hi all,

This is not about poker, so read no further if you don't want to.

I decided to take an extra long ride into town this morning, the 78F 97 % humidiity didn't feel at all bad, and i kept my HR under 110 bpm for the most part, and put in 19 miles.

Thursdays is the beach ride, but since an elite rider is injured who used to lead a nice comfortable 18-20 pace, the mad ass ego trippers generally take off around where i live. So when it got to 26 mph, i said enough. Not that it knocks me out, but i just don't need that shit.

I eventually waited for some slower people to come along, there were three of them of whom i knew two.

They were pace line riding, which means they rotate the lead every half minute, which was there game plan.

i'm not much for joining in unless i do so right from the beginning, and so i told them to just ignore me and do there own thing. When we got to the tunraround, and headed back north i pretty much kept it in the 89-90% max heart rate range for me, so 158-163. Respiration at 160 HR was shallow, in the heat and my legs didn't hurt unlike yesterday, so i just kept pushing all the way back towards town, then slowed down to let my body cool down.

Compared to yesterday i felt remarkably good, and especially leading or soloing into the wind. I was impressed to say the least. I seem to be recovering. And believe me unless your used to these conditions in the sun, so its 90F plus with high humidity you'd die. I pretty much got through just over one of my gateraid bottles, and drank the rest while relaxing down town, while waiting for the beach riders to return.

Then i did my longer loop back about 9 mile, compared to straight which is about 5. Stopping at the car park water station to fill up my drinking bottle. In this kind of heat, and im riding around 3 hours, one needs to consume around 700 ml/hr or so.

All told i did around 46 miles, which bought my two days total up to 79.

Now having just pigged out on rice, greens, tomato, salmon and wine its of to sleepy times, then some poker when i wake up.

I didn't really fell tired at all today which is nice, and my legs didn't hurt for the first time in ages.


tony

Hi all,

Thanks skinny for your PM.

I was probably tired after the mornings ride. On sunday i added a 3 hours 41 mile virtually nonstop slow ride to boost my weekly, which came in at 189 miles, or around 13 hours.

I took Mon. and Tue. off, as my road bike was getting serviced. Yesterday my legs felt tired, and i just road straight home after the downtown coffee hang out and did 33 miles. After eating and sleeping, which is my norm when im biking, i awoke feel less focussed I guess. It felt strange playing, my brain was functioning at around 80% i'd guess.

The tilt is really incidental as ive got that out of my game quite a while ago, but we all do that some of the time. I think ive only seen a few in the last 8k of hands.

I did learn one thing though. Days tend to start of either good or bad. So in future, when they start off bad i will play less tables, and when they are good i will play more.

I've been on a normal variance downswing for the last few days, but im still in the Black with rakeback in there.

AND yes one needs not to worry about the money which is why i play with 100 buyin BR.

Thanks for your insights and reminders.

Well it's back to putting in the miles today. Florida has found July weather right from the beginning of June. It's been pretty high humidiy in the mornings most days. Even today 78F and 98 % humidity. Another bear to deal with. I will be tired again after my 40+ miles, done in three stages.

And when i play later on i'll start with fewer tables, and if i feel strange or its not going well, i'll just drop down to TWO and watch a vid at the same time.

tony

Hi all,

It was obvious from the beginning that today was not going well. With bad beats still doing there damage i was down 1.5 buyins after my first session player mid afternoon. I never really felt focused properly. so i went down the beach downtown around 4:20 pm and read for a while.

When i returned, things just got worse. I got it in with 99 v TT and hit a 9 on the turn only to see a ten come on the river. Well that was the beginning of then end, as i felt irritated. I wasn't long therafter that i exploded, when 3-betting the button, from the blinds with TT, a earlier limper 4bet back. Instant annoyance flaired up and i shoved into KK and AK, after which i ended my donkest 4 buyins down for thr day.

I'm still getting stalked by bad, but that's poker.

tony

Hi all,

Well the paradise bit was kind of up and then cooler/badbeat, up again and repeat ad infinitum.

So after 2.26K of hands i decided to quite up just over a buyin.

3-bet were mixed today because of insecant suckouts, but that's poker, still a wins a win, plus rakeback.

If one tries too hard, mistakes inevitable appear, so shortly after the last stack sucko i decided to chill, before in screwed up. And since i got some of the beasties out of the way tomorrow may be better.

SB hands cost $-8.3 and i ended UP, $1.39, and BB hands cost $-18 and i ended up $-5.4, so all told that was pretty good.

Over all after 9.5K of 8X hands and 3.8 K in the blinds at a cost of $-114, i was down only 12% or $-13.6, which is pretty good still. Undoubtedly 8X in helping the bottom line by reducing the blind losses a lot.

Tony