With the month of November knocking on the door, I'd say that I've kick-started my business satisfactorily into action and that I'm limbering up nicely for Vegas on the 25th. October has been ok so far. I've not exactly smashed my monthly-nut but feel confident enough in taking things forward. This last week, I've been chugging along snugly and earnt £700 at the cash-game tables. This may only put my monthly earnings for October at little more than £1k (£2k for September and October combined) but I've put in enough volume to have learned some vital lessons; lessons which will stand me in good stead for Vegas and the new year.
The first, major lesson is to be extremely wary of card-dead phases that start creeping up and going beyond the three-hour mark. There definitely seems to be a point where receiving shitty cards for three hours or more activates a trigger whereby I'm hit with entitlement-tilt. This invariably involves "finally" looking down at premium hands (QQ, KK or AA) or hitting a good flop - and then refusing to believe that my opponent has it for the simple reason that I believe I'm due. This happened twice in quick succession last week: (1) QQ losing to trip 8s on an 8 8 x board and (2) hitting a set of 4s on the flop then failing to hand-read properly and refusing to believe my opponent hit his nut-flush on the river when the third heart came in. Result? Villains being handed over £800 which should really still be part of my bankroll.
What I tell myself is that if I can manage to keep my discipline (up and leave after a three hour card-dead session) then I should be able to protect myself from that particular variety of tilting. In effect, had I heeded the warnings that were ringing in my head during those two hands, I would be merrily writing about a £2k monthly-wage this month and not merely a £1k one. Let's face it: £2k can pay all the bills and enable me to live a comfy lifestyle, £1k cannot.
The other lesson is that as the games get tougher, I need to be raising more often and getting money into the pot early in the hand so that I get paid big rather than medium or small. As I review hands at the table, this seems to be a common theme and a mistake that I definitely intend to put right as we get to the new month.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll write up a full October review as we get to Friday.
Monday, 27 October 2014
Sunday, 19 October 2014
Week 3: Review
They say that in poker, you learn your biggest lessons when you lose and I feel this has never been more true than during this last week. On Monday I was sitting pretty with a £1k balance for the month and on cruise control; seven days later and although I haven't exactly crashed completely I've certainly been badly burned - and once again, I'm back wondering how on earth I can make this a viable business. Well, I do know... it's having the focus to implement disciplined control at all times - that's the difficult part. Still, determination and the urge to succeed is a powerful thing and I still think I can make this at least a year-long thing if I can avoid those darn pitfalls.
The first blip occurred on Thursday night with two massive fish at the table and after being card-dead for three and a half hours. I then "finally" looked down at a premium hand (QQ). The word "finally" is in inverted commas because there should be no feeling of finality in poker at all. Anyway, I call down three streets against the table donk who flips over 8 10 on an 8 8 4 x x board and I part with around £500 on that hand alone. The real annoying thing about this one is that I told myself that he must have had the 8 after the flop when his betting tell indicated that was the case.
When card-dead I should have done what has always worked for me in the past; just leave.
Anyway, on Friday I manage to claw back £400 after a successful spin at a £2/£5 game at The Hippodrome, only to fall back into the same routine later on a £1/£2 table at The Empire. i.e. I become card-dead for five and a half hours (yes, I kid you not, five and a half hours) and then "finally" flop a decent hand of a set of 4s, only to refuse to believe that my villian has hit his flush when the third heart falls on the river. Result? Another £300 goes south.
When card-dead I should have done what has always worked for me in the past; just leave.
Now, as we enter the fourth week of October, I'm looking at a £300 return on my investment of 90 hours at the table. With a lot more decent players coming in (from the online game it seems), I can see that I need to be a lot more aggressive and definitely need to start raising with much more frequency on the flop and the turn. Neglecting to do this has been my main leak. This will be what I'll be working on over the next seven days; that's if I manage to be alert enough after my jury service stint which begins tomorrow.
As always, I'll let ya know how I get on...
The first blip occurred on Thursday night with two massive fish at the table and after being card-dead for three and a half hours. I then "finally" looked down at a premium hand (QQ). The word "finally" is in inverted commas because there should be no feeling of finality in poker at all. Anyway, I call down three streets against the table donk who flips over 8 10 on an 8 8 4 x x board and I part with around £500 on that hand alone. The real annoying thing about this one is that I told myself that he must have had the 8 after the flop when his betting tell indicated that was the case.
When card-dead I should have done what has always worked for me in the past; just leave.
Anyway, on Friday I manage to claw back £400 after a successful spin at a £2/£5 game at The Hippodrome, only to fall back into the same routine later on a £1/£2 table at The Empire. i.e. I become card-dead for five and a half hours (yes, I kid you not, five and a half hours) and then "finally" flop a decent hand of a set of 4s, only to refuse to believe that my villian has hit his flush when the third heart falls on the river. Result? Another £300 goes south.
When card-dead I should have done what has always worked for me in the past; just leave.
Now, as we enter the fourth week of October, I'm looking at a £300 return on my investment of 90 hours at the table. With a lot more decent players coming in (from the online game it seems), I can see that I need to be a lot more aggressive and definitely need to start raising with much more frequency on the flop and the turn. Neglecting to do this has been my main leak. This will be what I'll be working on over the next seven days; that's if I manage to be alert enough after my jury service stint which begins tomorrow.
As always, I'll let ya know how I get on...
Sunday, 12 October 2014
Week 1-2: Review
Right, despite one particularly poor evening where I donked off £650, October has been generally OK so far. The loss in question was more a result of self-induced bad play (mistake tilt) brought on after playing a hand really badly, rather than anything else. I hesitate to recall it because it's quite cringeworthy and goes completely against my resolution to play more aggressively on the flop and turn but I'll recount it nevertheless just to give myself the proverbial slap round the face.
In short, I call a £10 preflop raise with 99 and fail to raise on a raggedy board that is 10 high on the turn and after my nitty opponent fails to c-bet or make any effort to take the pot down. A King hits the river, hitting my oppponent's range smack bang in the middle and I actually read him for an AK as he makes a £30 river bet. What do I do? I make one of the worst calls I've made in a long time and see him flip over the AK that I predicted he had from the off! Result? I drive to the Hippodrome and proceed to play card-dead £1/£2 poker for a few hours until the tilt-monster insidiously worms itself into my head.
I inevitably get given the only decent hand of the evening (a set) as a four-flush board starts to roll out. I miss my full-house on fifth street, refuse to believe my villain has it and proceed to pay him off his £100 bet on the river in the most ignominous fashion. A visit to The Empire and a drunken £2/£5 game helps a tiny bit as I eke out a £50 profit after making a mild hero call to a river bet made by a huge whale - but back at The Hippodrome afterwards I donk off another £200 when the red mist comes over as I hold 10 J on a 9 10 J x x board. Yes it was obvious to all but me that the villain had K Q and, yes, I paid them off.
With my wallet depleted to the tune of £650 it was time to go home... but it was definitely a very good lesson in controlling the ol' mindset when making a mistake and when the card-dead monster pays you a visit. Discipline, discipline, discipline.
Other than that stupid blip (and a £170 half-hour losing session where I played weak/passive versus some pretty competent aggressive oppponents) the month has been quite good. One other thing I have also learned - in connection with that £170 losing half-hour session - is that I will no longer sit in on a game where 3 or 4 people know each other well and are bantering with each other in a way where they're obviously trying to make out that they're bad; particularly if they clearly have a large bankroll and seem like they don't care. I'll not touch those games with a barge-pole anymore. If you play in those types of games and you are losing or getting stuck their banter will only serve to tilt you - get out while you can!
Thankfully, as I was saying, other than those blips, October hasn't been too bad thus far and I'm heading for a decent monthly-nut. I've not encountered any serious bad-beat that's cost me anywhere near a full buy-in and I've generally been chugging along nicely in a fairly snug way. I've only missed one day of the month thus far, am on schedule to qualify for both The Empire and The Vic's loyalty/cash-race MTT freerolls, and I have put in a fairly respectable 65 hours. The real test will come when I have to do jury service next week and will need to find enough time to play.
In short, I call a £10 preflop raise with 99 and fail to raise on a raggedy board that is 10 high on the turn and after my nitty opponent fails to c-bet or make any effort to take the pot down. A King hits the river, hitting my oppponent's range smack bang in the middle and I actually read him for an AK as he makes a £30 river bet. What do I do? I make one of the worst calls I've made in a long time and see him flip over the AK that I predicted he had from the off! Result? I drive to the Hippodrome and proceed to play card-dead £1/£2 poker for a few hours until the tilt-monster insidiously worms itself into my head.
I inevitably get given the only decent hand of the evening (a set) as a four-flush board starts to roll out. I miss my full-house on fifth street, refuse to believe my villain has it and proceed to pay him off his £100 bet on the river in the most ignominous fashion. A visit to The Empire and a drunken £2/£5 game helps a tiny bit as I eke out a £50 profit after making a mild hero call to a river bet made by a huge whale - but back at The Hippodrome afterwards I donk off another £200 when the red mist comes over as I hold 10 J on a 9 10 J x x board. Yes it was obvious to all but me that the villain had K Q and, yes, I paid them off.
With my wallet depleted to the tune of £650 it was time to go home... but it was definitely a very good lesson in controlling the ol' mindset when making a mistake and when the card-dead monster pays you a visit. Discipline, discipline, discipline.
Other than that stupid blip (and a £170 half-hour losing session where I played weak/passive versus some pretty competent aggressive oppponents) the month has been quite good. One other thing I have also learned - in connection with that £170 losing half-hour session - is that I will no longer sit in on a game where 3 or 4 people know each other well and are bantering with each other in a way where they're obviously trying to make out that they're bad; particularly if they clearly have a large bankroll and seem like they don't care. I'll not touch those games with a barge-pole anymore. If you play in those types of games and you are losing or getting stuck their banter will only serve to tilt you - get out while you can!
Thankfully, as I was saying, other than those blips, October hasn't been too bad thus far and I'm heading for a decent monthly-nut. I've not encountered any serious bad-beat that's cost me anywhere near a full buy-in and I've generally been chugging along nicely in a fairly snug way. I've only missed one day of the month thus far, am on schedule to qualify for both The Empire and The Vic's loyalty/cash-race MTT freerolls, and I have put in a fairly respectable 65 hours. The real test will come when I have to do jury service next week and will need to find enough time to play.
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
September Review
With the first month over and with just £950 to show for my efforts, September will have to go down as a disappointing month overall. Monday night was encouaraging to start with as I netted £320 following a solid £1/£3 dabble and a mildly successful £1/£2 session at The Vic but seven hours of card-dead frustration at both The Empire and The Hippo in the early hours later that night and last evening has meant the month has ended more with a whimper than the trumpet-blaring fanfare that I'd hoped for.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of positives to take from my inaugural month of business:
1. I achieved the target days and hours played
I managed to get out and play for 25 days of the month and clocked up over 130 hours of play. This is fine for the first month.
2. I qualified for The Empire cash-race MTT freeroll
With a gauranteed prize-pool of £25k and around 50 to 60 runners, this tournament has an effective buy-in of around £450. This will be on Sunday 5th October.
3. Soft tables and poor players abound
I'm still encouraged by some of the sub-optimal plays and downright bizarre moves by many players at the tables. It is equally encouraging to know that usually, I can count the number of other decent players at the table on just a couple of fingers.
4. Bad-beats will even out
I had three brutal bad-beats in a short space of time: (1) AA < J6 when we get it all-in on a 9 9 6 flop. He hit his full-house on the river. (2) AA < AQs all-in preflop when the villain hit his flush and (3) 99 < KQ when all-in on the 7 2 10 flop after I knew I was ahead. These pots cost me around £600. In future, being ahead when getting it all-in should work out in my favour.
5. I made mistakes I will learn from.
A recurring mistake I feel I've made this month is not being aggressive enough. The biggest was holding 22 on a 2 10 Q board (two clubs), not re-raising on the flop and allowing an 8 to hit the turn which filled the villain's straight. Additionally, this meant I had to make a difficult decision to call an all-in turn bet. (£250 to win ~£1.1k when I put my villain precisely on the J9).
6. £2/£5 is not a shark pool.
£2/£5 continues to be good to me. I should play more at this level during October.
7. Bankroll is stable.
If someone had said to me back in April that I'd be sitting on the bankroll that I presently have, I would have thought it far-fetched. Thanks to my April epiphany and around £6.6k in winnings, poker has been good to me. September is the only month in all of this that I haven't received a steady monthly wage - so in the wide scheme of things I'm doing ok.
The main negative are those card-dead sessions that makes it seem like making a living from the game has to be impossible. Sitting down for hours and hours on end while receiving trash after trash in starting hands and where your cards never (and I mean NEVER) connect with the board when you do decide to see a flop, can be close to soul-destroying at times. But battle on we must.
And so we arrive at a fresh new month with the slate wiped clean. This month will be hampered somewhat as I need to carry out civic duties in the form of jury service! In the last two weeks of October I have to attend court during the day and listen to lawyers and witnesses burbling on. (Why I couldn't get the summons while I actually had a "proper" job I don't know - I guess we all have to take our bad-beats in life as well as at the poker table.) Thankfully, a special event will make up for this in November when I'm off to Vegas!! Exciting stuff to be related later.
My main goal for October will be to clock up 150 hours and to generally play much more aggressively post-flop.
Onwards and upwards.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of positives to take from my inaugural month of business:
1. I achieved the target days and hours played
I managed to get out and play for 25 days of the month and clocked up over 130 hours of play. This is fine for the first month.
2. I qualified for The Empire cash-race MTT freeroll
With a gauranteed prize-pool of £25k and around 50 to 60 runners, this tournament has an effective buy-in of around £450. This will be on Sunday 5th October.
3. Soft tables and poor players abound
I'm still encouraged by some of the sub-optimal plays and downright bizarre moves by many players at the tables. It is equally encouraging to know that usually, I can count the number of other decent players at the table on just a couple of fingers.
4. Bad-beats will even out
I had three brutal bad-beats in a short space of time: (1) AA < J6 when we get it all-in on a 9 9 6 flop. He hit his full-house on the river. (2) AA < AQs all-in preflop when the villain hit his flush and (3) 99 < KQ when all-in on the 7 2 10 flop after I knew I was ahead. These pots cost me around £600. In future, being ahead when getting it all-in should work out in my favour.
5. I made mistakes I will learn from.
A recurring mistake I feel I've made this month is not being aggressive enough. The biggest was holding 22 on a 2 10 Q board (two clubs), not re-raising on the flop and allowing an 8 to hit the turn which filled the villain's straight. Additionally, this meant I had to make a difficult decision to call an all-in turn bet. (£250 to win ~£1.1k when I put my villain precisely on the J9).
6. £2/£5 is not a shark pool.
£2/£5 continues to be good to me. I should play more at this level during October.
7. Bankroll is stable.
If someone had said to me back in April that I'd be sitting on the bankroll that I presently have, I would have thought it far-fetched. Thanks to my April epiphany and around £6.6k in winnings, poker has been good to me. September is the only month in all of this that I haven't received a steady monthly wage - so in the wide scheme of things I'm doing ok.
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The main negative are those card-dead sessions that makes it seem like making a living from the game has to be impossible. Sitting down for hours and hours on end while receiving trash after trash in starting hands and where your cards never (and I mean NEVER) connect with the board when you do decide to see a flop, can be close to soul-destroying at times. But battle on we must.
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And so we arrive at a fresh new month with the slate wiped clean. This month will be hampered somewhat as I need to carry out civic duties in the form of jury service! In the last two weeks of October I have to attend court during the day and listen to lawyers and witnesses burbling on. (Why I couldn't get the summons while I actually had a "proper" job I don't know - I guess we all have to take our bad-beats in life as well as at the poker table.) Thankfully, a special event will make up for this in November when I'm off to Vegas!! Exciting stuff to be related later.
My main goal for October will be to clock up 150 hours and to generally play much more aggressively post-flop.
Onwards and upwards.
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