Blog has now moved to www.warrenhennessy.com

Thanks!

Hi everyone, how are you? I'm well thanks.

Just finished up for the day and I think I played really well. I feel in control and my confidence levels are very high right now. I haven't been running extremely hot or anything like that, just grinding it out and it is working well.

I was going to create another video today (the last one didn't turn out) but I was happy just playing by myself.

I won't post any hands today but altogether I won just under 2 buy-ins. I also know two hands that were incorrectly played. One was a spew for $10 that I could have saved myself and the other was a lay down I ALMOST made on the turn. I am no good enough just yet but he hit the perfect card giving me aces up and filling his straight. It was a pretty obvious straight so perhaps I could have called his turn raise and see if he makes the mistake of missing value, saving me a little money.

Here is today's session. A little tight due some of the table dynamics but standard steal% and high aggression. Recipie for success I think.

Take Care.

I am very excited right now.

I know I am supposed to be a Zen like budda who is an emotionless grinding robot but I have to say, I am excited.

It's like Charlie and the Chocolate factory; I'm a kid who just discovered a new world unbeknownst to my previous self. I mean, I like chocolate, but not that much. I much prefer poker!

What I mean to say that the last few days I have been subject to a completely new world. This new world has allowed me to discover new ways to play and think about all kinds of hands. It's really amazing because it's just one of those *click* moments. To be honest, I haven't really plucked and experienced the fruits of my new found tools to success, but I know it will come in due time.

I recorded a video today but unfortunately there were problems involved with rendering and I ended up losing the whole lot. It's not a problem; I'll create another one tomorrow.

Here are some hands from the short session I played this morning.

Winning Pots:

AA - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666208
Villain is 63/3.6/1.5. I do not put him on 2 in this situation because most fish will check/call the flop and show more aggression on the turn. I know that he will felt with a Jack and he might even be getting funky with an under pair to a J such as TT.

AK - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666209
Villain is 43.13/15/1.55 and my plan on the flop is to go the entire way on an A or K flop. I have no idea what he can hold to be willing to call a flop bet and then fold when committed on the turn.

22 - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666211
Standard TAG open raises and I call with my PP. When the donkey leads for 50cents I call to try and induce a bet from the initial raisers compact range (I put him on AK/AQ pocket pairs only). The good news is a lot of these hands will want to felt but unfortunately he does not accommodate me with a raise. By the river, the board is disgustingly drawy and there is very little that will call a river bet. Therefore, instead of value betting (since there is very little), I go ahead and check behind. Perhaps his holding is one of the only one that would call a small value bet.

Losing Pots:

KK - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666213
I am obviously committed either way against the short stack. We get it in good and he gets there.

AK - http://www.pokerhand.org/?1666214
Villain is 15.17/12.39/4.59 and I think I played this well. I float his flop raise and see if he shuts down on the turn. He continues betting so I give him credit for 55/KQ. I am a little bent here to decide what else he might hold because he is a very competent and winning player that crushes this limit. What do you think?

In other news, I went out and had a fantastic dinner with some of my closest friends last night. It was fabulous. I basically starved myself throughout the day so I could splurge on a multitude of courses. I was pretty bloated afterward, but it was definitely the satisfying kind of bloating. The toilet will probably be pretty unforgiving later this afternoon though...

Okay a little too much detail so I better bail now.

Thanks everyone and stay happy.

Hi everyone,

Today was not very fruitful but I think I played fine. There were a lot of interesting spots that I will tackle in just a moment. My stats were pretty nitty today only because most of the tables I sat at had fish to my left so I couldn't profitably open up my game. In the morning here in Australia the games are at their best but I had a little snooze in this morning so had to play a different kind of table instead.

Here are the biggest hands in the session:

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1661823 (Villains stats: 16.63/12.02/3.96)
Here I am dealt KK and three players call to see the flop. The short stack donks out which doesn't have to be a lot of strength because we don't have to give him much respect. I am more concerned when the BB flat calls the bet in a multiway pot. I think this is a made hand or some kind of draw. This player is pretty competent so I don't think he is fooling around with random two pair hands. I decide to raise it up and then I stack off. Unfortunetly he has a lot of equity against my hand and gets there on the turn.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1661826 (villains stats: 48.75/7.81/1.71)
Here I go with my TPTK hand against a fish and get coolered on the river when he hits his 3-outer.

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1661827 (villains stats: 56.71/19.75/5.33)
I think I really hate my player here and have been thinking a lot about this hand. Villain donk leads when I hit TPTK and re-raises me after I raise his weak lead. I think at this point I should have given up on the hand. It was annoying because his aggression factor is pretty high so I think the draws are heavily a part of his range. I also didn't think he would play a set so aggressively. Before the turn came I said I was going to shove over his bet but when he bets so small I should have bailed.

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1661834 (villains stats: 34.78/8.70/1.4)
Here I attempt a second barrel. I think he folds out a large percentage of the hands he calls on the flop with. QJ, maybe a flush draw, A7s/AJ. I represent a lot of strength firing again OOP and he comes over the top so I give him credit for a hand this time. I'm not sure how much I like this play but I think it's not the worst. It is something I am experimenting with.

5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1661839 (villains stats: 22.39/15.15/3.65)
Here I get max value from AK when he connects. I slow play my hand because I know I can get his stack in the middle and I think he might be good enough to fold if I show too much strength. I think in the re-raised pot I can't worry so much about the heart draw, especially in a heads up pot.

o all together I lost just under half a buy-in. I can't complain too much, I got sucked out pretty brutal on one and I misplayed one hand for sure, so it could have been worse.

As far as my goals where I think I accomplished them. I definitely thought through each situation more carefully.

I will update more tomorrow.

Take care and best of luck.

Greetings ladies and gents,

I thought it was time to tune into my CR blog because I've been pretty lazy lately. What better way to kick off my second post with an assignment/challenge? I know, it's exciting isn't it?

My play has been pretty miserable the last few days and I'm disappointed because I know I am better then the efforts I've been putting in. Due to this, it's time to unveil my master plan - Project: Leaky Boat. I like to think when we start to play poker we wake up after a nasty dream in a boat in the middle of the ocean. We're tired and thirsty, but the only way we can satisfy these needs is to grind out little behinds back to shore. That sounds all well and good except one thing - our boat is leaking profusely. Here is where it gets exciting/philosophical. You can spend your entire life bailing water out of the tin piece of crap for months on end and starve yourself to death in the process. You can do that and breakeven for you entirety, or you can try one more thing. Patch the leaks with seaweed and lather it over with fish guts (read: these fish are adhesives), make yourself a sail and float to the holy land while you sleep. I like this little story because I'm bored but most importantly because I've been a culprit of what I like to call - "Bailing-water-out-of-boat-syndrome".

It's time to patch my leaks ladies and gentlemen and quit talking about it (how ironic).

Firstly, I think my 3 biggest leaks are as follows:

1/ Pre-flop. I used to have a solid strategy but it wasn't the most profitable or optimal. I have began opening up a lot and I am proud with how it's going. This focuses more on stealing and following up a lot of steals with some good old fashioned flop aggression.

2/ Post-flop. It's a disaster. I have failed to consciously put people on hand ranges and maximise according to my perception of their range. There should be no crying calls, period. If I get into a tricky situation that might ordinarily look like a crying call then it can only be justified if I am confident in villains range and it is profitable to proceed. If villain flips over something much different ot what I assume I have to take solace to the fact that I went with me read. I won't go ahead and

3/ Mindset baby. When you're stuck out in that boat your eyes are so burnt from the sun you can hardly see the stained faeces on your pants let alone the beautiful coast line of the holy land (or what I like to call "nose-bleed-stakes-island"). You really have to get your grind on and this means a solid mindset first and foremost. I fluctuate in out of this mood, so at least I know what it is like to experience it. My aim is to maintain it.

Okay, so you may be asking, "Warren, this is all well and good, but shed some light on what you actually plan to do with your so called 'Project: Leaky Boat?".

And I would answer, "Good question".

Project: Leaky Boat is going to be a 20 day project. Every day that I play I will be conscious of my leaks and be proactive about fixing them. Not mumbling under my breath when I go to sleep after a terrible session or subtly whinging to my poker buddies about running bad. After each day I will update with my thoughts, hands and any else that happened like the time my cat climbed over my keyboard and folded my set of Queens. She said the guy had pocket Kings and I believed her...

Okay everyone, enough from me. Enjoy yourselves and maybe you should look into the boat construction industry. Get out there and patch your fucked boat up, sail to the holy land and pick the fruits that you so deserve!

- - Warren

Hi there,

If you're reading this, congratulations!

You're either bored or know who I am. Either way, my name's Warren and I figured it was time to switch my blog from blogspot to CardRunners. At the moment I play nl50 and have been running breakeven over the last few weeks. This is after success in nl25 so I'm not too worried. Just riding it out and grinding so everything will fall in place if I continue to work hard on my game.

I'll use this to post all of my interesting hands after each session with my thought process attached.

Unfortunately nothing exciting today but hopefully I'll have some interesting things to post in the near future.

Take it easy!