So- I was watching the US Open last weekend. I am not a huge tennis fan, but I do enjoy the big ones...Wimbledon, French, and US Opens. I used to love to watch Sampros. Federer is pretty amazing too.

So watching this match got to thinkiing about my poker game ;) Knew there was a point right? My biggest weakness in poker is unforced errors. You know the times that I double fault, or hit into the net, or out of the line. Yeah I take my beats when I get out played or sucked out on. But mostly it's not the other guy beating me... it's me beating me. I spaz out and take tptk too far, or I make a big bluff, or don't fold those 99's on a K85r board. Stuff like that.

Last night I made the mistake of playing when I was really tired. I knew it when I sat down, but wanted to log some hands in... I dropped a quick $50 playing poorly. Unforced errors. I logged off before I dug my hole any deeper. I got some sleep... came back this morning and I've made back $40 of what I lost last night.

So- unforced errors. That is my leak to fix this week.

Ok... so I ended up down last month. But I am doing well so far this month. It's pretty cool to see improvement in my game reflected in my BB/100 rate.

May -6.63 June -1.67 July -0.96 August +.01 and so far in Sept +10.60!!

I am down a total of a whopping -$820 in 25NLH 6max over 67,000 hands. My goal is get that number positive and to play until I hit 100,000 and build my bankroll. It just feels so good to be winning.

So last night I played in a live $1/$2 game. I was out until 4am and now have to turn around and work at 9 ughh. I played well overall but ended up down $45 for the night. I lost two buy ins when at 100bb's went all in pre flop with AA and KK and had both cracked. My AA lost to 99 with a set on the turn and my KK lost to A4o!! I definitely tilted after that one. I had to walk outside and get my head straight. I made a couple of mistakes. I had a good read on a couple of players but did not play my read and folded to big bets like a scared whus on two ocassons and I made two cbets that are probably long term marginal plays. And I bluffed a river with a busted draw that was successfull but I don't think is positive in the long run. Otherwise I did ok. To have lost two bi's and still only lose $45 I think is a good thing. I saw one of the crazies hands ever that shows why LAG is so profitable. The host of the game is a very solid LAG player. He is probably one of the better players I know. He has a "rock" for the pot which is a bundle of 4 $1 chips which passes around to the winner of a pot in which it is played then it becomes a forced straddle either from the big blind or the button which ever comes 1st into play. It really induces action in his game which works in his favor for a rake. So anyway there's one guy who has just been grinding all night. He's up $400 and is sitting with around $650 the host is the only person who has him covered. So the are sitting deep with about 325bb. It's a rock pot and there are 3 limpers and the grinder raises it to just 16. There are only 7 people at the table. Lag guy calls in position. One limper calls from hijack. Flop is 886r. Limper checks, Grinder raises, Lag rr. Limper folds grinder min 3bets. Turn is a 5 and its still rainbow. Grinider bets. LAG rr again. Grinder thinks about it and says f-it. I'm ai. Grinder thinks for a second and calls. Grinider has KK and Lag has A8s. It amazes me how players think he is bluffing every single pot once his image is established. It really had me thinking about metagame and how it works to his adavantage. Why go AI with KK and that action on that board when that deep?

It's crazy how a live $1/$2 game is played so similar to $10NL online.

I thought maybe I would write about somethings I've over come and am working on as a n00b and mistakes that still get me in trouble.

1) Over playing a strong starting hand post flop. Especially building big pots with AK or AQ with air. Learning to cbet is somethiing that I am still working on but it has been a critical learning phase to my game. Looking at board textures, knowing when to fire a second barrel, checking behind and check raising all are things I'm working on. I think of it as over extending myself when I barrel with AK/AQ. Or making the read on a player knowing when they will not fold 99/1010/JJ or worse. Same with bluffing. Playing in big and creating big pots with weak/small hands.

2) What I call taking my foot off the gas. Learning how to drop my aggression in post flop and work on my timing. Just because I raise with 88 doesn't mean my opponent is going to give me credit for AA post flop :). So just learning how to play better post flop.

3) Draws and drawing hands. I had a review session with Citizenwind a couple of nights ago where we went through my PT3 hands won/lost for the past week. Consistantly I was losing with suited connectors oop. Like clockwork.

4) Recognizing tilt. Learning to get up and walk away or step outside to clear my head.

5) Really trying to work through the logic of the streets and assigning hand ranges. My hand reading is getting much better. I just need to constantly work on this one.

Anyway... I'll write more later.

Good luck at the tables.

Ok.. so I'm new to this... but I thought it would be interesting to post my thoughts here a couple times a week. If for no other reason than to view my own progression over time.

A lttile about my poker. I started playing poker about 2 1/2 years ago now. It started with some buddies and I playing with beer can tabs instead of chips, with the classic nudie girl cards, pizza, and oh yeah beer. I got hooked. I next found a couple of very low limit tournaments around town. I started playinig tournies for buy ins of around $5 to $25. I remember the first one I played in and got knocked out wth QJ vs AQ on a Q high board. I can also remember my first big win for about $500 in a $50 tourney when I ran super hot.

I am an overall losing player. I decided to take this game seriously or quit this past spring. You've heard the quote that to do somethng the same way repeatedly and expect different results is the definition of an idiot. Well I don't like to lose money. I don't like to lose. And not to be cocky... but I'm not an idiot. So I wanted to change somethiing in the equation.. my skill. I bought myself a membership to CR. Loaded $500 on two sites and made myself a commitment to play for 1 year. If I can't beat this game in that amount of time then I will cold turkey quit or play very low limits on occasion for recreation... maybe go back to beer tabs, pizza, and most definitely beer.

I have managed to log 65,700 hands since mid May. I am losing at -0.98 BB/100 at mostly 25NLH.

So far some of the biggest leaks I have overcome are misplaying AK, top pair, and oesd/fd's. I think my pf game has improved leaps and bounds. At 30,000 hands I was losing around -3.64 BB/100.

I have yet to have a winning month of poker... but I am very close this month. As long as I don't have a run of bad variance and or bad play I should hopefully come close to breakeven poker for August.

I'll try to post more when I have time. It would be cool to look back at this and see an improvement in my game in the next 9 months. I would love to be playing winning poker 200NLH by next may. My first near term goal is to improve my game to where I do not have to reload my bank roll. I plan to be a NIT about bankroll management. I plan to focus on working on folding more often and playing premium hands. I plan to focus more on playiing with posiition and not putting myself in marginal situations.

Good luck. If someone actually reads this... let me know. I love the community feel of CardRunners and would like to get to know more people.

Jake