Booked in another one and half buyin at NL400 in 4 hours of play. Things seem to go well.

Also played on my other account, at Prima, where I have a little over $6k roll, and made half of buyin at NL200. According to the BR management chart (30 buyins up / 25 buyins down) I have to also make another $6K to reach $12K to make the jump at NL400.

Have to go to sleep as tomorrow I have an intense 2-hour tennis lesson!

ZZZZzzzzZZzzzzz

I am very tired. Today I did a lot of things, started with 2 hour tennis lesson which was so great! I love playing! Then I played a 2 hour session of NL400, and yes, I did make a comback, made 2 buyins, after readjusting my preflop game. Yesterday I had played like 27/22, which was trying to hard, today I played 21/18.

In the evening I saw something great. A new vid from sbrugby, and guess what? 2/4 NL. I was so excited, can't wait while it downloaded, it took 30 minutes, slow connection. The vid was very good, it gave me a lot of confidence, as most of the things he said and done I already do.

The summary is:

1. dealing with preflop aggression - it is a significant difference from NL200, start 3 betting and 4 betting more;

2. tilt control - engage in daily physical activities, play shorter sessions, focus

3. start studying more - I will soon start analyzing the regs at 2/4 (need some more hands), disecting their game on PT.

I am still excited. This is the beginning of a great year! I know this!

Over & Out!

Verneer wrote on his blog about the fact that because he played HU lately, his 6max game kinda changed and he needed to readjust getting back to his old 6max style. This got me thinking.

Most of the great players of the big games online, when interviewed, adviced players who wanted to improve their games and move up the limits to learn HU play, as this will enhance their game. A close friend of mine - NL400-NL1000, 10tabler - asked me why I wanted to learn HU. His opinion was that you don't need it to beat midstakes shorthanded game. He has a lot of experience and he also made me wandering on the subject...

It is normal to assume that playing HU on a regular basis tends to loosen up your 6 handed game. If this may be good at nosbleed games, where games can become 3 or 4 handed... I still don't have enough data / experience / information to say for sure if it can help your MSNL 6handed game. I'll come back to this in the future, after some more thinking.

The housecleaning service left my apartment after 6pm. I gave them a tip for the extra time put in; they were sort of expecting it, so I'm glad I didn't think otherwise. I anxiously loaded up 6 table candidates and joined the waitlists. I needed $75 more for me to reach my bankroll management goal of 30 buyins for the next level, NL400, and make my first official jump (had played like 3000 hands in the past) with 5 buyins as a buffer. Lose the buffer, then step back to NL200 and grind it again for the second shot.

The first table I sat down, after waiting for the big blind, all folded to me, giving me back the blind. Then I was dealt KK on the SB, all folded to me, I put in a raise. The BB had half of a buyin and pushed it all in, I called, he had 24o, I won. I got what I needed. I waited for the BB to reach me, sat out, closed the tables, took a 10 minute break, then opened up 4 tables of NL400 and joined the waitlists.

I was very excited. I remember I felt the same way last year when I made the jump to NL200. I love the feeling. It's probably like having a regular job and being promoted. You are very glad, but you are also nervous because of the new responsability. There is not much to say about what happened. I played for 2 hours, 2 tables, no break, and ended down one buyin. I lost that buyin in a 3barrel bluff - he donkbet on the flop, I raised, he called, and stuck to my read. I was wrong. He had 2 pair. The lesson was this: Don't Try So Hard! I overestimated the difficulty of the level so I was overaggro. Which reminds me of the song with the same name from Queen. I haven't listend to it for a long time. Will do this before going to bed.

ZzzzzZZzzzzzz

As I write this my house is being housecleanend. It's been a while since last 'intervention', so they will stay a little more than usual until the job's done. The downside in this is that I can't play poker in the meantime. In fact I can, but I won't, there are to many perturbing factors. At least my house gets cleaned and I'll go to the gym today.

I had a very good start this month.I need another half of a buyin for my roll to reach $12K, so I will move up to NL400. Hopefully I will make that $100 today so I will start $2/$4 NL tomorrow. I am pretty anxious, to say the least!

Yesterday I went to a party along with some of my friends, and we ended up playing a 10-seat SNG. We agreed to multiple rebuys in the first 3 levels. I made 4 rebuys and the addon and ended up on the bubble. :)

It's time to go to the gym!

Over & Out!

I am now back at my place. Will resume normal life.

Tomorrow morning at 10am I am scheduled for my first tennis lesson of 2008. Today I took my racket from the rack, rearranged the strings, and put a new grip. This is she:

Babolat Pure Drive Roddick

Head Size: 100 sq. in.
Length: 27 in.
Weight: 11 oz.
Stiffness: 72
Balance: 7 pts. head light
Composition: graphite/kevlar
Power: low-medium
Idea Swing: moderate-fast

Today played 3 hours of 6max of NL200 and one hour of NL50 HU vs JimmyRare. I have little to no experience playing headsup, but I want to learn. The hour went very fast, I barely noticed. I reloaded once and ended up losing half a buyin to him. We reviewed our session just after the game. We concluded that I played slighly more aggresive preflop 3 betting lighter than him, and that he outplayed me postflop. It can be seen from the stats. My aggresion was much lower an all streets. A proof that aggression pays off.

JimmyRare's stats:

My stats:

We'll probably play some more against eachother so things will change.

Today is the first checkpoint of the month as far as the number of hours put in playing poker is concerned.

Hours needed: 20

Hours put in: 19

Nap time! ZzzzzZZzzzzzz

This is the last day at my parents' house. I have stayed here for 3 weeks, enjoying winter Hollidays and breathing a different air. Will stay for 2 more hours. As expected, I felt very good, spent some quality time with my folks, but now I have to go back to work, to resume my normal life. Although I had a lot to do today, managed to fit in an hour of poker in the morning. Tomorrow is also a very busy day, as I have to 'reconnect' with the life and duties I had 3 weeks ago. Starting Monday, I will resume tennis lessons and on Tuesday I will hit the gym. I must pack my things now.

Over & Out!

I have discovered the recipe for playing the best game I am capable of while enjoying it as much I can. It's taking breaks. That simple. Taking short 5min-like breaks in session every one hour, and playing 2 hour sessions. By doing so I keep myself focused and alert.

The focus during play varies like in the graph below. If a 5 minute break is applied after the first hour, the overall average of focus increases.

Another thing that I though about today was the fact that a lot of players, especially in the early stages of their 'career', have the ideea that there is a certain golden number as far as vpip/pfr combo is concerned and try to keep that ratio at their tables. Which should not be the case. I sometimes play 30/25 over periods of 50+ hands if the table allows me, and sometimes drop down to something like 16/14. So the perfect combination is table dependent.

Over & Out!

... must come down? If I look at todays graph... it feels like it. Up almost 5 buyins, at the climax.

I ended the session after doubling up some player who hit set on my TPTK for 1/2 of a buyin. Just couldn't concentrate anymore and feeling not too great after not winning a single important pot in the last hour.

This losing drained a lot of energy from my body... I feel very tired. I will go to sleep now, in order to wake up even earlier tomorrow, so I can play more in the morning and afternoon. I feel that those are the hours I play my best game.

ZZZZzzzzZZZ....

I am glad I had a good start. I played 4 hours, no distrations, as I should play. I focused on winning the small pots nobody fights for. I also called down lighter than I usually do. I played good poker. I am satisfied with myself (given the fact that I demand a lot from myself, it is a rare opportunity I enjoy).

The stats for my first session (great W$WSF and higher than normal WTSD%):

This morning I was reading a few recently updated blogs. In the last entry of guiltyhere's CR blog, he posted about those who use foul language on chat at the pokertables. He said he is very irritated by them. So this reminded me of a story I once heard, a story that showed me a wonderful approach to things. I'll reproduce it here.

A man once approached Buddha and began to call him ugly names. Buddha listened quietly, relaxed, unaffected, until the man ran out of insults and had to pause for breath.
Then Buddha calmly said: "May I ask you a question?"
"What??!"
"If you offer to give something to a person, but that person refuses it, to whom does it belong then?" asked Buddha.
"It belongs, I suppose, to the one who offered it," the man said.
Then Buddha said, "The abuse and vile names you offer me, I refuse to accept."
The man stared at him for a few moments, then turned and walked away.

Over & out!

A few thoughts of the future and my decisions.

- play 120 hours of NLH (6max)

- learn HU play (exclusively on PokerStars) - at least 15 hours

- create checkpoints (6th, 13th, 20th, 27th) to ensure putting in the hours

- tennis lessons (3 times a week) and gym (4 times a week)

As for the whole year, will follow the chart on bankroll management (described in the first 2 blog entries) and I should reach NL1000 within the last trimester of 2008. Will continue taking tennis lessons and going to gym for the rest of the year. Also, will open an account at a brokerage firm and start diversifying my portfolio and slowly enter the market in the first quarter of the year.

So an ordinary day in January will look like this:

Not very much time for social activities, but this is one of the sacrifices I have to make.

Happy New Year 2008!