Hey guys,
I haven't updated for over a month. I have been meaning to but haven't really had the time. Spent two weeks of Feb in Perth visiting family and the rest of the month was just really busy. As a result I really didn't get that many hands in again. I keep telling myself at the start of each month that I really want to put in lots of hands and then just end up playing ~8,000 hands everytime. So I won't make any promises to play more hands here but just quietly I'm promising myself I will play more hands. That sounds retarded but meh, I'm tired you'll get over it.

Ok sessions for the month of Feb (includes the first few days of March)...



And the graph for the same period..




There's only a few interesting hands..
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3941442
The villian in this hand is a 30/3/2 type player. Does stuff like calling two streets OOP with bottom pair/no draw and betting the river with showdown value IP when checked too.. He's just retarded.. I think I get value from JT, J8, KJ, AJ, some floats like KQ, AQ, QT, possibly even TT or 88 which puts me on air (which I think he could easily do). Pretty standard imo.. I think I have to value bet a decent part of my range in this spot. ie. I think I'd fire with KQ here most of the time/QT I probably c/f depending on bet sizing etc.. Regardless I expect tpgk to be the nuts here often against this opponent.
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3941449
The villian in this hand is a 55/30/3 type player. Basically my read was that he liked to bluff and slow played/took weired lines with his big hands (checking behind on turns with sets on drawy boards and dumb shit like that). With that in mind I put him on air/weak draw/bottom pair type hand on the flop. Therefore I call the flop planning on c/r any turn that gives me equity (ie. club/J/7(nutted) etc.) and expect to get a fold alot of the time.. Unfortunately it didn't work out but I stand by my reasoning, although I wouldn't fault a flop fold and would probably have just given up the hand if I wasn't getting pumbled at the time. Which in hindsight makes the villian likely to call lighter and perhaps makes the hand a huge misstep. Meh.. Whatever.
Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3941458
The hand that started my 10BI downswing at the end of FEB.. Flop cBet OOP into two opponents is brilliant imo.. Both opponents are passive and likely to payoff light.. Turn is gin.. River is terrible.. I lose the biggest pot I've ever played with 91% equity on the turn.. I actually laughed at the time, which pleased me since I think I have proven to myself that I am beginning to control my tilt. Being very deeply rolled seems to help also, since I am about to move upto 200NL, actually I would have moved up to 200NL if I had of won that hand because I would have been over my 30BI rule. Alas, I have to grind 100NL for a few more weeks.

All in all I'm pleased with my play in February. I improved my hand reading, I was pleased that I was able to call someone down with K2 on a 6624T board after he 3Bet me (I called cause he a monkey and terrible) and know for sure that I had the best hand the whole way. I controlled my tilt during my downswing, I think I could only really put about 1.5 to 2BI down to bad play (only 1BI of which was caused by some mild tilt ie. calling 3bets light OOP against decent opponents). All in all I think I'm developing my range reading skills and gameflow reading ability quite well and am nearly ready to crush 200NL.. Also, I'm running at around 6.5ptbb/100 this year despite suffering a 10BI downswing already..

Keep it real peeps, I'll try and update more regularly this month.

GL @ the tables.

Peace, OnTheLevee.

Hi all,
January turned out to be a really good month. I didn't put in anywhere near the no. of hands I wanted, but my winnings were still not bad..
Here's the month..


NB. There's actually 2 hands missing from the Jan 16th session.. HEM shit itself at the start of the session in which I won a stack with KK and 20BB the very next hand.. So the results are actually out by roughly $120, which slightly tilted me at the time (Mild OCD I suspect).

Here's the Table Ratins Results for the Month.. (Top 20)

Yes I play on Bodog, no I don't feel dirty.

So ending January my bankroll sits at ~$5,200.. Hopefully by the second week of February I will be taking my first shot at 200NL..

Here's my favourite hand from the month..
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3792297
The call preflop is based on the 4-better's maniac status and the SB's crappines. I think MP's range is slanted towards broadways and low pocket pairs here.. I think a maniac like this just 4-bet jams JJ+.. SB's range is probably tighter but not KK+ as I think he would 5-bet jam those against a 4-bet and call.. So against 22-77, AT+, KQ and random crap, aswell as 88-JJ, AK this flop sucks balls.. So I actually just planned on checking it down.. Then when the A hit on the turn I figured that was a massive scare card for both villian's especially SB who I think clearly has showdown value after checking twice. However, I don't think betting here is profitable as SB is definitely willing to call the turn with TT-JJ thinking I'm FOS.. Also, I think MP is capable of bluff/desperation c/r'ing the turn. Which leaves me royally screwed.. The 7 on the river is a complete brick.. SB leads for ~1/3 pot.. This bet made absolutely no sense to me.. He can't have a retarded AA because he jams that pre.. He can't have a set a straight or AK/AQ because he bets the turn 100% of the time if not just open shoving the flop with them (even with AK/AQ).. So that leaves air and thin value.. ie. TT-JJ.. So once MP folds I shove.. Villian folds..
Villian: Nice slowplayed AA
Me: I had 64
Villian: You called for all that money preflop? I don't think so..
Me: GAMBOOL!
Villian: This F'ing site sucks!

Peace, OnTheLevee

My internet connection is balls atm so this might prove too frustrating but meh.. I'll try..

At NL I am currently in the middle of a 3,000 hand break even stretch finished off with a 500 hand 4BI down swing since my last blog entry..
I haven't really played much though.. 3,500 hands of NL, 1,500 hands of PLO.

I won 17BIs at 10PLO (I'm still very fresh to PLO so have decided to start low), then tried 25PLO where I dumped off 5BIs. Woot!

Firstly, NL has been pretty dull. No really interesting hands or big mistakes, just standard coolers (ie. set over set, fullhouse vs quads), QQ v KK/ KK v AA on baby card drawy flops in 3bet pots). Nothing to really get too upset at myself about.. I won't bother posting too many HHs cause my internet is mega slow (Australian download limits suck) and I don't want to bore you with standard retarded coolers..

There is one NL hand I found quite interesting though..

Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3744961
Villian is a reg. and quite capable.. I really thought he had AJ, JJ, KJ, QJ type hand that he was getting stubborn with OOP.. Which is fair enough BvB I guess.. Especially against my image. When he bets the river I assumed he was trying to turn thin value into a bluff on a scary board.. Which he was, but he had AK.. It's just a gross hand, because villian only has 22BB behind after blocker betting the river (I'm assuming that's what he was doing). I don't know if villian folds AK/TT to a shove.. but I feel like he might have.. also it sucks to value town myself the whole way then payoff on the river with the only possible hand that he beats.. ugh. What do you guys think of my play here given my read? If villian is leading the river with AK here is he leading AJ, QJ, KJ, TT aswell? I think of my 3 options, calling is the worst, folding is the best, and shoving is interesting (given he only has 22BB behind) Bear in mind that I don't think villian has many 9s (if any) in his range by the river given the action. Opinions?

So as far as 25PLO hands go these suck.. My biggest losing hand (150BBs) came when I misread the board while holding the nut straight.. standard.

Other than that hand I played about 3 more hands terribly, while reading the board well (or at least as well as I can) to lose stacks and variance wared my way to losing two more BIs at 25PLO..

I'm obviously still adjusting to PLO. So this is a relatively cheap learning curve which I'm actually enjoying going through at the moment. It's a good challenge..

My internet billing cycle begins again on the 25th so I'll post garphs etc. then but for now its too hard basket..

Until next time, OnTheLevee.

Hi again,
Well I only had time for a short session today.. Had to go to the city to buy an air-con and stuff around for a few hours.. Good session, finished up 1.5BIs after being down almost 1BI after the first 35 hands.

Results..


Interesting Hand(s)..
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3685774
Villian is 42/9/5 over 150 hands. I think the turn shove is fine as the villian's psb on the turn is almost always a strong non-flush/non-full house hand that he is less likely to fold versus a shove on the turn than the river.. Also, this is the first hand that villian has raised HU in about 50 hands so the only T in his range is TT. Yeah villian could have KK-AA but I think he would bet less on the turn with the nuts.. I think its standard.

That's me for today. I'm tired and I'm going to bed.

Cheers, OnTheLevee.

Hi again,
Well I took yesterday off because I was buggered after work. Today I was forced to go shopping with the missus to get a naming ceremony dress for our 7 week old daughter. $200 and 4hrs later I got home and was able to put in a couple of hours at the tables..
Ended the session up around 3BIs.. I am running really well at the moment and I feel like I'm playing really well too. I've made a few adjustments since I began playing this year and so far things are going really well.. However, I felt myself going into a little bit of mild tilt today at times and made a couple of bads decisions because of it, so I will have to address that before I sit back down at the tables tomorrow.



Heres some hands..
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680809
Villian is 18/10/4 over 300 hands. AQo is too strong of a hand to fold to a 3bet BvB, but I think 4Bet for value would be a bit thin (even though villian has a 7% 3bet stat). I think stacking off on the turn is standard considering its a 3bet pot and I get basically the perfect flop. I think villian shows up with exactly what he ends up having here alot..
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680826
Villian is 85/21/2 over 50 hands. I'm trying to encourage a spaz out with my flop bet, I think this is fine given the dryness of the board (disregarding the flush draw). Same story with the turn bet, it's just unfortunate for villian that he hits 2 pair and I effectively cooler him. Meh.. don't call 3bets with 86s OOP 100BB deep..
Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680836
Villian is 40/7/3 over 75 hands. This hand is a bit marginal but with so much money in the pot already and at least some fold equity plus at least 27% equity when I get called I think this is fine. Anyway, villian's retarded donk lead and min 3bet gets what it deserves here everytime.. ups.
Hand 4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680861
Villian is 60/12/1 over 250 hands. I have a read on this guy that he turns strong preflop hands into bluffs postflop.. so c/c 3 streets is going to get me the most value here. FWIW I'm calling 3 streets with tpgk in this spot aswell.. I don't like 3betting preflop because villian never folds which means I playing a bloated pot OOP against a calling station with a medium strength hand, which personally I hate. I think 3 betting here discourages villian from betting 3 streets with air IP, also I'm c/r a lot of flops when I miss.. I like this line, you may not.. whatever.
Hand 5: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680901
Villian is 44/15/2 over 50 hands. I think folding an overpair here is completely fine.. I really think villian has a T here almost always. I look super strong and he's committing himself with the turn c/r. I think he flat calls when he picks up a flush draw on the turn.. which is the only possible draw.. Sure every now and again villian has some terribly played JJ/QQ type hand, but that's not going to be often enough to make this a shove..
Hand 6: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3680917
Villian is 0/0/0 over 1 hands. This hand is embarrassing. I thought villian posted UTG, but it turns out that the table lagged a bit and he actually limped UTG (as I found out via the HH). If I realised prior I fold this flop all day long, because its about dry as a nun's.. well you know. But I thought he was one of those maniacs that turns up at a table and trys to win every hand for 5 minutes then bails.. Unfortunately he wasn't and I was made to look very stupid.. Meh whatever.. This hand sucked the big one..

You know I really don't want to end this blog on that hand because it makes me look semi-retarded.. I think I'll write something about two aspects of the game that are not given as much thought as they should. Those two aspects are table image/game flow and table/seat selection..

Table Image:
Table image is something I pay alot of heed to at all times. I think table image is extrememly important at small stakes because your opponents are very quick to make assumptions about the way you play. I have found that people are quick to notice when someone is playing a loose game and slower to notice and less inclined to respect when someone is playing tight. Therefore, I think trying to build a tight image initially is not optimal at small stakes because the amount of fold equity you gain in any hand is not enough to make up for the times you don't get payed off by weaker hands when you have a monster. Anyway, building a loose-image is not as expensive as you may think. As long as you are playing the vast majority of your hands from late position your going to have an advantage.
I think the most important thing to recognise when playing a loose game at low stakes is that people generally won't play back at you without a hand (some people will and it's very important to know who those people are) so don't get into 4bet bluffing wars or 3betting TT9ss boards with air. This is just going to increase your variance and perhaps lead to tilt when it doesn't work. This leads me to the discussion of Game Flow.

Game Flow:
To me game flow is quite similar to table image in that it's a representation of the way that your opponents view you (and how they think you perceive them at a higher level/limit). However, wheras table image may take 2 or 3 orbits to build up, game flow may take 2 or 3 hands. You could even view game flow as a microcosm of table image, or not, whatever, do what you want. Anyway, game flow is important to me at the table because it is the overriding force that governs what I do with any given hand or how I approach any specific situation. Eg. If I have lost 2 hands in the last orbit showing down junk I might fold KQo UTG. However, raising KQo UTG when you've got a terrible image may not be a big mistake, big mistakes involving game flow adjustments come post flop.
Postflop adjustments governed by elements of game flow like deciding whether to 3 barrell bluff or c/r a dry flop are pretty self-explanatory. Tightening up when your getting stomped or Loosening up when your stomping are obvious adjustments. One adjustment that I don't think is so obvious is value-betting extra thin when your getting run over. You may think that this may make matters worse for you since your already leaking money, however, I have found that opponents will not turn thin showdown value into a bluff against someone who appears to be on tilt. Here's why. THEY THINK YOUR BLUFFING. They want you to bluff because, "2nd pair is the nuts against this maniac". No it isn't.. I think everyone recognises that they should tightened up and bluff less when they're getting stomped, but they don't look to maximise the value of their image by getting payed with their medium strength hands. It takes a bit of guts to fire that 3rd barrell with tpgk on the river but you have to do it if you recognise table image and game flow and what it means for your hand.

That went on more than I thought it would.. I'll talk about table/seat selection next time..

Peace, OnTheLevee.

Hi again,
Well after taking yesterday off I got back to it today. I've decided that I'm going to be taking Sundays off as I need a break from work, uni, poker and everything else. Plus there was cricket on the telly. Anyway, I played 1000 hands today and won 1.2BIs.

Results:


Is was a very swingy session today. I was down about 1/2 a BI after the first hour. Then up 2BIs 20min into the second hour. At the end of.. blah heres the graph..


Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3671554
Villian is 35/20/1 over 150 hands. I think villian is b/c flop potting turn OOP with AK, AQ and KQ (sometimes). I was very suprised to see him turn up with JT. I would've thought villian (being sooo passive) would c/c a straight draw on the flop. Meh whatever..
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3671573
Villian is 30/7/1 over 250 hands. I think this may be a bit thin but I tend to like getting very thin value OOP against very passive calling stations. I think Villian is never folding 77, 88 or 99 and a lot of 6x hands.
Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3671590
Villians is 40/6/11 over 75 hands. I butchered this hand. Should have shoved flop everytime.. I play bad against people that make these gay minbets/minraises with draws..
Hand 4: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3671613
Villian is 65/25/1 over 20 hands. I'm never folding AA here against this type of opponent. He turns up with AQ, KQ, QJ, slowplayed KK and a retarded JJ,TT sometimes. Sure there's a few 6x hands in his range, but his range is so wide I think I'm flushing money by playing this hand any other way.
Hand 5: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3671640
Villian is a spastic over 10 hands. Amusing.

Til tomorrow, OnTheLevee.

Hi again,
Another good session today. Made about 2.5BI profit. The kind of session I had today would have ended breakeven a few weeks ago. At the beginning of the session nothing was working and I was basically getting stomped for the first 45 minutes, which would have lead to tilt/spew quite often previously. However, I made a conscious effort to tighten up, avoid bluffing in marginal spots and to extract maximum value with my strong hands. Result...

There was only a couple of interesting hands from the session.
Hand 1: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3663458
Villian (UTG) is 35/12/2 over 35 hands. Villian 2 (BB) is 33/18/1 over 100 hands.
Villian (UTG) had just lost a big pot the previous hand so JJ is crushing his range. I think Villian (BB) has some sort of medium strength hand (88-TT, AJ KQ etc.) due to the time it took him to call preflop. I think the gay small bets on the flop and turn committ villian (BB) to felting almost his entire range. Ace.
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3663473
Not that interesting, until the river, which is mildly interesting. Villian is 55/20/10 over 50 hands. I was planning on c/c the river (upto a ~3/4psb or psb depending on timing) because I thought villian would call a bet with a smaller part of his range than he would bet himself when checked too (I'm referring to the part of his range I beat obviously). Also, I didn't want to have to spew fold if I bet and get shoved on. Opinions?

Hi again,
Well 2009 started about as well as I could have hoped. A quick session for a 4BI win never hurts for the start of the month. It was a pretty standard session really, most of my profit was from value. Only had three interesting spots (The two biggest pots won and the biggest pot lost).



Hand 1: www.pokerhand.org/?3659270
Villian is 30/11/2 over 250 hands. I think the river overshove is pretty standard. I think Villian would pot the turn with anything that beats my 6high straight (ie. 67, 44, 33) most of the time and would call a shove with alot of rivered 5high straights (ie. A5, A4) cause he sucks.
Hand 2: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3659370
Villian is 45/11/1 over 100 hands. I think not getting 3 streets of value here with bottom set against such a calling station is criminal. Of course he turns up with the flush here a bit, but villian turns up with all sorts of crap here so often.
Hand 3: http://www.pokerhand.org/?3659381
Villian is 60/8/2. He takes weird lines and is fairly confusing to play against. Whereas, I think I played Hands 1 and 2 well by getting maximum river value with strongish hands, I think I played this hand poorly.
When villian leads for pot (80BB) on the Ahigh flop I insta-folded putting him on AK. However, after he showed me JJ I think that makes more sense than AK for this opponent. I don't know maybe I'm just being results orientated with this. Opinions?

Anyway, good session today. Will start over again tomorrow.

Peace, OnTheLevee.

Hi,
I am a 23 y.o. grad. student from Australia. As of today I am beginning my second calendar year of playing online poker. I currently play 100NL mildly overrolled (35BI+) around 10hrs a week. I've decided to start a blog for my own benefit as I feel a blog will act as a kind of weekly confession whereby I am forced to honestly analyse my play and admit my poker sins (see: Spew), of which there are quite a few.

My poker career so far (A brief Summary)..
March/April 2008: Began playing at various different sites playing a mixture of freerolls and microSitnGos with no deposit bonuses and no clue.
June 2008: I managed to get a $10 PokerTime Bonus upto $50 and was able to transfer my funds to PS where I took second place in a $500 Freeroll for around $200. Bankroll @$330. Dropped 12 BIs @ 10NL just before a move upto 25NL.. Tilt withdrew remaining $200.
July 2008: Mucked around attempting to Bonus whore a bunch of sites while playing 10NL (stupid idea!). Admitted defeat and transferred 100% of my roll ($250) to Bodog.
August/mid-September: Progressed from 10NL to 50NL and built a bankroll of $1050 by mid September (It still cuts me that I don't have the HHs from this timeframe. See Below)
Late-September: Started to feel like a change and began Bonus whoring my roll around again. I didn't lose money but the idea of grinding was boring so I put my roll ($1000) back on Bodog ready for the beginning of October.
October/mid-November: Settled into 4-tabling 50NL a little more seriously than I had previously and ran my bankroll upto around $3000 by mid-November. Then my laptop shit itself and I lost all of my HHs from before Nov. 13th (I'm downright pisses off that I don't have the HHs from this timeframe)
Mid-November/December 22nd: Moved to 100NL on Nov. 22nd with a roll of $3500 and haven't moved back since. Made 10BIs @ 100NL upto Dec. 22nd when I decided to take the rest of the year off after withdrawing $1000 for xmas presents etc..

So that's it, that's my poker career to date.. For the year ahead I'm aiming to play my best poker, improve, and gain a better control over my emotions at the table. I'll keep you updated along the way.

Wishing you all Peace, Happiness and Run Good for 2009. OnTheLevee.

P.S. I wanted to post some images (garph etc.) but I'm too retarded when it comes to using the interwebs so any help would be appreciated.