Verre's Suck Blog, Now With More Suck!

Will be reading with interest!!

Hello everyone,

So I decided I'd put in a large session before tomorrow when the whole workout and grinding starts. The session went less than optimal to be sure. I am not even sure what the leak was but it was a fairly solid one.

Heres the graph:

Clearly less than optimal play indeed. 2546 hands with a profit of $13.43. Terrible win rate. The whole session I seemed to be fighting an old enemy. Fighting the break even line. I would get up 10 dollars and then drop down to -30 in a few hands. Then back up to plus 10 then back down to -30. It was a viscious cycle the whole session. I ended up snap stopping my session even though I felt I could keep playing because 13 profit was basically the highest all day long.

I unlocked a $10.00 bonus out of the redeposit bonus as well. Always nice but I'd like to start smashing out 200 BB sessions like they are nothing again.

Until tomorrow.

This blog has a great potencial for be an amazing poker and health blog!!

GL!

I just wish the health part was already true ♠_biggrin:

Unfortunately I believe I'm going to be destroyed after the first week and will probubly sleep throughout the rest day lol.

Also I somehow have to fight off Diablo 3 for a while just so I can get my quota of poker and workout in.

I'm going to move up to .5/1 at 500 BB profit in .25/.5. This means I'm only 40 BB away from moving up. I hope to plug a few leaks by then but I think I'm actually one leak away from smashing a 40 BB session. The plan is to move down if I lose 50 BB at the new limit.

Verre, welcome to the blogs forum!

I know the feeling of not being as fit and healthy as I should be too. I was a bit of an athlete in a previous life, but it all went by the wayside because of smoking; which I may quickly add I have dumped.

Anyway, I haven't heard of this P90x thing so will watch developments with interest. Sounds tough though.

On the poker side I'm afraid I tried to play FL and was a dismal failure, even with the great god TerrorBlade's help, but yes agree that Boomer is superb.

Best regards and have fun!

Mal.

Yes I saw TB does some coaching. I used to follow his blog a lot. Unfortunately since I live in Vancouver I basically don't have the luxury of watching as they are usually at 3am for me.

I've noticed that a lot of the edge I've lost is from out thinking myself against the good regs and talking myself into a thin call with A high on somewhat dry boards. This is costing me a lot and I need yo start avoiding this. A bet saved is a bet earned afterall

Hi all,

Today I felt like a soldier ready to storm the beaches of Normandy in WW2. I know some of you are German/Italian ect but dont worry, I didn't feel like shooting you. No, I felt like an epic battle was about to commence. That battle was Day 1 workout.

The day involved an hour of chest and back followed by an hour of cardio followed by 15 minutes or pure ab workout. Now this has been done before in my life, but the p90x workout cds I'm using consist of keeping your heart rate HIGH for the entire time.

I was looking forward to coming on here and telling you all I crushed said workout. Alas that is not to be. The chest and back workout went well and as expected. Aside from an unbelievable amount of sweat for a muscle workout and my unbelievably bad power/weight ratio of my chest, the workout went well. So far so good.

On to the cardio. About 30 minutes in I started to feel the results of having a high heartrate for so long. Cramps started and I started to break down. I'm pleased to say I grinded through this. I knew it would be very tough for the first few days and at this point I mentally stepped up. Cardio is great like that. Its not like lifting where your muscles essentially give out and you literally cannot lift. Its all mental and if you have the stones you can go for quite some time.

So after the beach landing and storming the bunkers I was feeling quite good about myself. I let down my guard just long enough for one of those crafty German snipers to shoot me. The sniper came in the form of the ab ripper x workout. I was mentally ready to destroy this workout, but my muscles where ready to not cooperate. I got through 3 of the 16ish excersises before I basically could no longer move and layed on the ground for the remaining 10 minutes. Oops. Well, its day one. I got most of what I needed done.

It is now 2 hours after the workout. I took my wife out for dinner and we are going to head to a movie. I can feel every muscle in my body. Its not as pleasent as I was hoping I'd feel but on the bright side theres only 44 days left and I'm sure I'll be feeling great then.

On the poker end of things. I literally have no time to play tonight. Tuesdays are quite literally date night with my wife. I usually get time in to play none the less but with a 2.25 hr workout it cuts into this poker time considerably.

Another concern is that I need to do these workouts right after work or else other things get in the way. This cuts into PRIME poker time. Since I live on the West coast of Canada prime time poker for me is between 8am and 8pm. Unfortunately I work a full time job and so 5pm-8pm are the only times open to me in said window. Now the workout is taking a lot of that time. I have no problem playing with the tougher tables after these times, in fact it might be better atm to learn to play on tougher games but the profits might be a bit lower than I'm used to.

Anyways nows the time to take my wife out for the movie. I hope you all have a good sleep since that is what your most likely all doing atm. See ya tomorrow ♠_biggrin:

So today I was feeling very sluggish all day. I ate extremely healthy and drank properly in order to help replenish but I never seemed to be able to get to the level I wanted. It didn't help that I was up late last night out with my wife so I was tired all day.

Anyways, after work I came home to grind out arms and shoulders. Its been a while since I've worked out these muscles but I'm proud to say I crushed it hard. Feels good. Anyways today I decided I'd try and do Abs in between cardio and lifting instead of after. This was a bad idea. My abs are oddly out of shape and it seems the excersises are very hard for me. I need to start off with these in a different way.

This killed my cardio enery in a serious way. I got through about 30 minutes of the hour before I was literally laying on the ground. This could have been because I didn't get a meal in an hour or so before. Either way it ended weak after the strong start.

Now as for poker. I only played for 1.5 hours. There are 2 reasons why this is the case.

1) My tables where getting increasingly bad. They started off half decent but as 9pm my time hit the tables where pretty much the worst they'd been in a week.

2) I'm exceedingly tired to the point of exhaustion. I'm afraid I'll break down and make some big mistakes at the table. I get frusterated when I make mistakes that I know are strickly made do to fatigue. I decided to cut bait instead of fish. I'll give my session a solid overview to look for some leaks. Heres the session graph.

40.5 BB session in 1 1/3 hrs isn't bad. It actually put me .5 BB under my 500 BB requirement to move to .5/1. I didn't look at my profits mid session so I didn't know that was the case. Looks like I'm going to have to play another session at this level to break the threshold.

Until tomorrow ♦

Today was about as bad as it gets. Lets start with poker!

So today I played my standard 4 tables. It seems I cant concentrate properly when not on my A game to play 4 tables. It doesn't even really effect my hourly since I kill when I 2 table. I will be 2 tabling from now on I think. Plus its much easier to find 2 good tables at ANYTIME.

Heres a hand of how the day went basically.

Poker Stars $0.25/$0.50 Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 1753371
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.4 SB) Hero is BTN with A A
UTG raises, 2 folds, Hero 3-bets, 2 folds, UTG caps!, Hero calls

Flop: (9.4 SB) 9 8 2 (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, Hero caps!, UTG calls

Turn: (8.7 BB) 7 (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, Hero caps!, UTG calls

River: (16.7 BB) T (2 players)
UTG bets, Hero calls

Guess what he had? A solid AJo. Of course. Realistically I probubly still should have lost today. Lots of things went against me and I made some solid mistakes. But heres how the day went....

As you can see, basically as good as a train wreck.

Now onto the second dissapointing thing of the day. Yesterday I tweaked a muscle in my ribs during the last workout I did. It didn't seem bad at all. Until I went to sleep and I woke up feeling like I'd been stabbed. All through the day today it was extremely painful and I required pain killers.

I made the mistake of going to work and I should not have done so since my job is a physical one. Either way its now 36ish hours after I did it and I am beginning to feel a little relief. This makes me hopeful I can get back to the challenge on Saturday as I want to make sure I heal properly and not prolong an injury.

I need to make sure I keep my mindset in the positives. A lot of bad things happened today and I realize its not the end of the world. Hopefully realizing is the first step to breaking a trend.

Until tomorrow.

Hey all,

I feel like I am in limbo at the moment. I didn't go to work today because for some reason I didn't get any better from yesterday. This sucks large as I was hoping to get at least a light workout in today but alas it was not to be.

So with me not going to work I had/have some time on my hands. I decided it would be best to study a little poker before playing a 2 tabled session. I'm also going to impliment a new rule. If after 75 hands at a table I am taking a loss I will leave no matter how good I percieve the table to be as it might not be as good as I think.

Anyways after watching a session review and the blind defense logic knot boomer vid I started a session.

As you can see it went well. I still have an issue with opening a table and then losing very quickly, having problems getting momentum. I understand that a new table isn't a different game or a different session or anything, but subconciously I still snap under the pressure of a new table.

Anyone have any ideas?

I know I just posted but I had some reflection time and I have some thoughts on things.

So undoubtably I'm a winning player, but for some reason I am having confidence issues. These stem from times when I cannot seem to beat a certain table or player.

Now obviously this will happen frequently. But my problem is that I am playing at nearly the lowest stakes and I have previous experience at higher limits. So why am I having these issues?

I think its safe to say that losing is caused by 1 of 3 things. 1) Our own bad play. This could be the reason for a lot of peoples losses. 2) Bad card distribution. Everyone hopes thier losses are purely caused by this because it means they had no control. Now I would venture to say this is a much smaller piece of the pie than anyone would venture to admit. 3) Opponents are more skilled than you are. This is the item that worries me. I can live with losing because I make glaring mistakes or I get rivered by a terrible card that has to be paid off but is the last card you would like to see.

Obviously in FLHM you do not get all in expected value. This makes understanding your edges a bit harder than it would be in NLHM. This may be an influence in my lack of confidence. When I dropped down to .25/.5 to start playing online again I had full confidence I was better than 95% of the people at the stake. The 460 BBs in 2 weeks and 13 of 15 sessions being profitable should be enough to prove to me that I am better than average. But is better than average good enough to give me confidence I can go crush the next stakes? Its obviously not atm.

So now it comes to what can I do? Well I can just jump stakes when I hit my 500 BB and continue to play disregarding emotions. This is obviously the optimal thing to do if you can disregard your emotions. Unfortunately not everyone can do this efficiently. This is definately what I'm going to do. Common sense states that I am clearly good enough to beat this limit and need to move up to further my developement.

Does anyone have any advice on how to control these feelings of undeserving? I want to feel like the best and play like the best and while I play a lot closer to the best players I feel like I'm amongst the worst.

Well, even with all my issues I've done it. +500 BB at .25/.50 in less than 2 weeks. Also along with that is another 200 BBs of rakeback bonuses.

I played a second small session today. I watched some more vids to boost confidence and I knew I only had about an hour to play but I played GREAT. Hmm why is Tony the Tiger in my blog? Anyways heres the session graph.

So now that I have got the 500 BBs I will be moving to .5/1. But before I do so here is the .25/50 graph.

So the idea for .5/1 will be to hopefully move through as fast as possible. My goal is to get to 3/6 if all goes well by the end of the year. That way next year I can make a push for supernova and be able to supliment my income by about 20k over the year. If I drop 100 BB at .5/1 I will move back down but heres to hard play and hard work and that not happening.

So over the last few days there has been some developements in my life. First off I got a new job. This will cut down a bit on my poker time but since I cant provide for myself with poker as of this point it was a no brainer.

Secondly I'm feeling a lot better with my back tweek. The workouts start again tomorrow.

Thirdly I was having issues with 6 max. I was getting really bored and was having problems controlling fancy play syndrome. So whats my solution? Go somewhere where FPS is useful.

FLHU! I'll credit a bit of this to Terrorblade for having a not sucky blog (like mine) and reminding me FLHU can be profitable. In fact over my whole online career the only game I've ever been a constant winner at is FLHU. So I decided before I made a post about me switching I'd play some hands just in case I looked dumb for saying i'm switching from 6M and then post a graph of me drowning hundreds of big bets playing it.

As you can see I did alright. That downswing in the middle is me playing against an opponent that completely dominated me. I kept playing him hoping to learn something and figure him out but he literally slayed me silly. After that massive loss I basically told him he outclassed me completely and I would have to avoid playing him until I got better. He tried to sit me a few more times after but I always just told him the same thing.

As for every other opponent I had no problems. I won against all others except for a few that play one hand, win, and then run.

good luck man.. What limits in FLHU?? Are u going to stick to HU?

Originally posted by VirtuaGod
good luck man.. What limits in FLHU?? Are u going to stick to HU?

Thanks for the post VirtuaGod. I'm playing .5/1 atm but I have 500 BBs for 1/2 atm but I need to make sure I'm very solid at the game. I do plan on staying with HU as I find it incredibly interesting. Its like a game of chess. Every move is a piece of the game but you can still only make one move at a time. Its very different than NL where you can play terribly and lose 50bb over 50 hands just sucking, and then go all in with Aces and your opponent has Kings and you win a stack. Realistically you won money and your EV line will look good, but you haven't played well. That does not happen in FLHU. You have to be in control of your emotions and each move is working to your end goal of winning the session.

Anyways, there have been unforseen things that have been happening in my extended families life. My wife and I are basically in the middle of it trying to work to a resolution. This has been consuming my life for the last week and I have basically not thought of anything except for these issues. Luckily today I had a short amount of time to play a session and to post here. Heres an interesting hand and I dont know if it was played optimally.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Limit Hold'em - 2 players - View hand 1761329
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is BTN/SB with K K
Hero raises, BB 3-bets, Hero calls

Flop: (6 SB) T 5 J (2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls

Turn: (4 BB) A (2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls

River: (6 BB) 2 (2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls

Villian is an 81/20 with a 3bet of 24.1. He has a low WTSD of 20 but he has an Agg of 2.9. He also has a high cbet and I didn't have a good sample on what he did when I got out of his fixed betting sequence.

Here is the session graph. As you can see it went well. I only played 3 opponents but I stacked all 3 quite easily.

Hopefully I'll be able to get more volume in as the family matters start to get worked out. I actually have been craving poker in the downtime which is nice. Until next time I hope everyone has a productive week.

Hi! Good luck with your Blog and with your poker career.

Thank you!

I'm not sure I can consider it a career I am a firm believer that careers define a life but I hate working period and I do not want my living to ever define my life.

I'd always play poker for fun if money wasn't an issue but I wouldn't feel the pressure or need to play like I do now.

So I had some more free time and I decided even though I did not feel like playing at all I should put some volume in. As it turns out when you dont feel like playing your A game and cards are not going your way AND your not picking up on your opponents switching gears it turns out to be painful.

First off, lets look at a few fun hands.

Hand #1.

Villian loves to bet Aces. There hasn't been a board where an ace fell that he didn't bet it like he had it. It was clear that he usually didn't have it. Heres the hand.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J:d, K:h.
BB raises, Hero calls.

Flop: (4 SB) 2:h, Q:d, 9:d (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks.

Turn: (2 BB) A:s (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-Bets, BB calls.

River: (8 BB) 4:d (2 players)
Hero bets, BB calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows high card ace(J:d K:h).
BB shows a pair of fours(K:s 4:c).

BB wins with a pair of fours(K:s 4:c).

Next hand, new opponent. Super super aggro with air and bluffs and very passive with made hands.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Q:c, J:d.
Hero raises, SB calls.

Flop: (4 SB) 8:s, T:c, 5:h (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB raises, Hero calls.

Turn: (4 BB) 3:h (2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

River: (6 BB) Q:d (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 12 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of queens(Q:c J:d).
SB shows a straight, queen high(J:s 9:h).

SB wins with a straight, queen high(J:s 9:h).

And my last opponent for the night. I was crushing him for something like 35BB. He was super predictable because he would fold with air to any bet on a street after a check raise in position or to a normal double barrel. This is where he decided to switch gears (or just got frusterated with losing) and I didn't switch mine to go along for the ride.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5:c, 4:c.
Hero raises, SB 3-Bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6 SB) J:h, J:c, Q:h (2 players)
SB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4 BB) 7:c (2 players)
SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

River: (8 BB) 6:d (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows a pair of jacks(5:c 4:c).
SB shows a pair of jacks(3:h A:c).

SB wins with a pair of jacks(3:h A:c).

And another painful hand against him.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 9:h, 9:d.
BB raises, Hero 3-Bets, BB calls.

Flop: (6 SB) 8:c, A:d, 7:c (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-Bets, BB calls.

Turn: (6 BB) 9:s (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-Bets, BB caps, Hero calls.

River: (14 BB) 3:d (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 18 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows three of a kind, nines(9:h 9:d).
BB shows a straight, nine high(5:d 6:s).

BB wins with a straight, nine high(5:d 6:s).

And heres how you build a 12BB pot with some outs to dodge but since its your night to suffer you have to wait till the river to find out that your dodging skills are those of Opra.

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$0.5/$1 Fixed-Limit Hold'em (2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is SB with T:s, 9:d.
BB raises, Hero calls.

Flop: (4 SB) Q:c, 9:c, 6:s (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets, Hero raises, BB 3-Bets, Hero caps, BB calls.

Turn: (6 BB) T:d (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-Bets, BB calls.

River: (12 BB) 2:c (2 players)
Hero bets, BB raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 16 BB.
Results follow:

Hero shows two pairs, tens and nines(T:s 9:d).
BB shows a flush, queen high(T:c J:c).

BB wins with a flush, queen high(T:c J:c).

It was fun times. I did my best to get back on my A game but even though I did feel I got back my card luck was running stone cold. Heres the final results of the session. Tis not good.

Hi! You seem to always overplay your hands a bit. I don't think every villain of yours is a maniac.

The weirdest one is the KJ hand, where you bet out on turn Ace. I don't see any merit in doing this. It's not a bluffbet - no better hand will ever fold. Do you have a valuebet? I don't think so, he either has some air that he's going to fold or Ax, draws would probably bet the flop.

When you bet and he raises - why on earth would you 3bet there? Against bluffs you have solid showdown value and can call down - if you think he's bluffing. And he's not folding a pair, he's only gonna fold worse hands (which we don't want to, as he'll barrel the river with them and you can go check-call there).

Bet/3bet turn - bet river with KJ: are you hoping he's folding a pair there? After he raised the turn and the pot has become huge, I think it will never happen.

You could c/c c/c from turn, but c/folding the turn might be the best option. When he checks back the flop I think he definitely has some Ax in his range, along with Kx. You're only getting 1:3 to catch a bluff.

As I said, betting the turn makes absolutely no sense to me. It would be very optimistic to go bet/calldown there in this small pot. Bet/3bet is even worse, I don't get it.

Anyway, nice to see a FLHU blog! I'd recommend to play SH until 2/4 though because of the rake.

Gl, I'll be following this!