"..where she stops nobody knows"

Well back again on a very hot Sunday evening. After thinking I was going to put in some volume this last week I barely made 1,500 hands! The week started off poorly and every time I played the downswing just kept rearing it's ugly head and my combo draws with 14+ outs kept missing while my opponents kept hitting their 2 and 3 outs. I just gave up after a while and never got to feeling like playing again.

In those 1,555 hands I managed to lose nearly $140 and that loss hurts. I'm down to $880 now from a high of over $1440. Nearly $600 that I worked hard to gain has disappeared over the last few months and I'll have to get my head into the right space to be able to get it back.

Back to work tomorrow and in reality I'm mostly looking forward to it. Only really enjoyed about 2 of my 8 days off and maybe getting back to work will help me to get back into the right headspace, even if I'm too tired to play much.

Good luck at the tables

Fagin

So, it's Sunday evening again. This last week seems to have flown by. The downswing continues with a loss of $38 in less than 550 hands played.

I put in a short session on Thursday morning as I had the day off and managed to break even, but only just. I thought things might be turning around but then I was silly enough to play this morning. In less than 40 minutes I dropped nearly $40. I just couldn't win pots regardless of what I did.

A couple of examples -
1st one here. I wanted to play the 77 but was reluctant to call OOP so 3 bet and got called. I flop a set on a monotone board and bet small on a dangerous board. I get called and decided he was on a flush draw so on the turn I bet 1/2 pot and of course I get called. The river brings the flush and I check, he checks behind and wins with his 55. Dropped about $8 there.
2nd one here. I raise 1st in playing 4 handed with the A10os and get called by both blinds. I flop TPTK and bet 1/3 pot IP. They both call and we see the turn bring 3 to the str8. I figure I'm probably still good and when it's checked to me I bet 1/2 pot. This gets rid of the SB but the BB calls. The river brings the os7 meaning any 6 has a str8 and he checks. I decide I'm not getting called by much worse and check behind. He of course has called to the river being way behind and then hit his 2nd pair showing 10,7s.

The 2nd one is only a small pot, where I only dropped $3.25, so NBD, but when this happens 10 times in a session that's over a BI gone without even trying. This seems to be a pattern at the moment. If I bet a draw I miss and if I don't bet the draw they bet huge on the turn and I have to fold. Over a 10 minute period I had 8 big starting hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK). 6 of them I managed to pick up the blinds, the other 2 I lost to villain hitting runner runner str8 or flush. It's very tiring playing when this is just a constant battle, struggling to get anywhere, trying to remain positive but just losing pot after pot and being relieved when I raise the button with a premium hand and I get the blinds to fold because at least I won a pot!

I've rambled enough, just needed to let some frustration out I think.

Take care all

Fagin

Hey ! First time I see your blog, and I lurk around Pokerstrategy for years.

Regardin your 77 hand : consider betting larger (60–70%) on draw-heavy boards when you have strong value hands like sets. Protect your equity and charge the draws.

Good discipline on that river card. At this point, you're beaten by any spade, and most hands that called the flop and turn likely improved. There’s no value in betting, and you avoided losing more.

Hi AgapieGheorghe,

thanks for dropping by.

You're completely right about the bet size, I was definitely not playing well. I think it's a problem in that having been on a long downswing (over 30 BI now), I find it more difficult to put chips in the pot. It becomes very easy to see how I can lose a hand and very difficult to envisage myself winning so betting smaller appears better as I lose less (because in my head, I know I'm going to somehow manage to lose the hand anyway).

In the 2nd hand I knew I was beaten, (the river just seemed like such a horrible card), I just didn't know by what and it felt that he would call any bet so no point losing any more.

Good luck at the tables

Fagin

Sunday evening again and another update.

Nothing to report this week as I've not played a single hand of poker all week. Partly due to the heat and partly to not feeling that I was in the right state of mind to play well.

I'll be back again next Sunday with another update.

Cheers

Fagin

Hi, Fagin
How is 25NL on GG Poker so far?
For me, there are a lot of good players.

Hi VisionBoard,

thanks for dropping by.

I have found that NL25 on GG has a wide mix of good regs and some poor recs. The better regs tend to be very aggressive and will put you to the test for big bets if they feel you are weak. If they are putting chips in the pot they generally have a good hand or a good draw.

The poor recs will shove the river for 60+bb with A high making calls difficult as they can do the same with big hands. I have called these bets with the 2nd nuts and lost and called them with 2nd pair and won.

Being on a long downswing at the moment I wouldn't trust my thoughts on the play too much, I'm down over 1/3 of my BR right now and have not played in nearly 2 weeks.

When I started on NL25 I did well, built my BR nicely and was enjoying the play. I feel like I am playing the same way now but losing far too much. I suspect I lose most of it without getting to showdown. I just seem to find myself on too many rivers with busted draws facing bets I can't call and seeing my BR sliding across the table one pot at a time.

Hope you have better luck than me.

Take care

Fagin

Well, back again on a Sunday evening with another update. Nothing much to say this time. I've not played a hand for a few weeks now. Been supremely busy at work and coming home mentally drained and definitely not fit to play poker, I've even been struggling with solitaire!

Hoping things calm down a bit at work this week so I can put in a few hands. I've had a colleague on holiday last week so I've had to pick up a lot of her work also and that has been draining. She's back this week so hopefully I'll be up to -playing some more soon.

Cheers

Fagin

Sunday evening again and here I go with yet another rambling update.

Nothing really to report again this week. While I did play a little poker it was on another site not connected to the BR challenge.

I place a few small sports bets on some sports I know a little about. Thanks to these I got a ticket into a Thursday evening freeroll - I think it was about $650 guaranteed. I was on a day off on Thursday and managed to be free by the time the tourney started so I decided to play. I played ok and got lucky a few times, mostly by their not hitting when they needed to and a few times by their calling when they shouldn't lol. I played 1 cash table at NL5 while I played the tourney and managed to finish up by about $6. I would have played another cash table but whenever I looked all the other tables were full. I also managed to cash for $2.57 in the tourney so while the hourly rate wasn't great I was at least happy with my play.

I'm struggling to find the time to play when I don't feel either physically or mentally tired which is why I've not played much for a few weeks.

The BR stands at $841 at present. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to playing soon and see about building it up again.

Cheers

Fagin

Hi, another update where nothing has happened. I've not even opened a poker playing app since my last update. RL just seems to be getting in the way at the moment.

I'm hoping to have some time off soon so I'm expecting to be able to find some time to play then. Until then it's not looking like I'm going to be playing much if at all.

Take care all

Fagin

Hi again,
still not played at all. Partly down to motivation, I'm not making time to play, rather I'm finding time for other things. I hope to get back to poker soon but not sure when that will be.

I'll try to keep this updated as I go but no guarantees.

Take care all

fagin

Back again,

another period of no play so nothing really to report. Updating early as I'm off to the WRWC quarter finals today in Bristol so probably won't be able to update later.

Take care all

Fagin

Hi all,

still no play as yet, life is just getting far too busy at the moment. Barely finding any time for myself at all and no time for poker.

I'm working on it though and I will be back!

Take care

Colm

Poker is always waiting for us ♠_drink:

Originally posted by sebadread
Poker is always waiting for us ♠_drink:

That's very true sebadread. I got a ticket to a freeroll last night and decided to play. It was on Coral where I have about $100 I use for sports betting. I decided to play a couple of cash tables at the same time but there were no NL5 tables available so played 2 x NL2 tables.

It seems my luck is still the same as ever! I got AA twice in 10 hands, got it AI pre both times and was against KK both times. Both times KK flopped a set. I finished down about $3 on the cash tables and cashed for $1.60 ish in the freeroll. Interestingly I had played about 220 cash hands and the Poker Wizz thing on Coral was insisting that I was only losing 2.35 BB/100 ??? I have no idea how it worked that out.

At least I played a bit and was happy with my play if not the results.

Cheers all

Fagin

Hi all, still not managed to get back to playing, just lots happening to keep me away from the tables. I have some holiday coming up in a few weeks so hoping to get back to the tables then, probably with some NL10 action to start.

Take care all

Fagin

Originally posted by Fagin
Hi all, still not managed to get back to playing, just lots happening to keep me away from the tables. I have some holiday coming up in a few weeks so hoping to get back to the tables then, probably with some NL10 action to start.

I hate it when real life gets in the way of poker

Hi all,

still nothing to update with. Only a couple of weeks until I have some time off work so expect to be playing some poker then.

Cheers

Colm

Hi,

an update where I've actually played some poker for a change! Played 905 hands this week and managed to only drop $13 finishing with $828 in the BR. Nothing much to say about it, missing draws and when I hit I was getting out drawn mostly. About average for the sessions I've been having. Reasonably happy with how I played. I think I would have played another 400 or 500 hands today but life got in the way.

Looking forward to having some time off at the beginning of Nov and expecting to play more poker then.

Cheers all

Fagin

Here we go again on a Sunday evening. I've played a little poker today, just 650 hands with a slight loss of $3.90, no big deal there. Dropped nearly a BI on one hand where I shoved the R with the flopped nut flush to find that villain had called flop and turn to hit an unlikely runner, runner boat with A 5os

Looking forward to playing a bit more this week with some time off work.

I'll hopefully have another update next Sunday.

Take care all

Fagin