[Closed] My Blog to the Poker Gods

Yoghi I really want to perfect my FR game first and beat the limit with a good winrate. I'm in no rush to move up the ranks and limits. I play a lot of hands/month, I have been playing a little of Sh mainly late nights when the FR tables die off. Not doing so well with SH play as you say more fishes, that lately have been kicking my ass.

My current winrate is 3.82BB/100 over 47K hands. I like to be conservative with my BRM and have enough to move up but my attempts at the higher limit is terrible, I believe the players at $.50-$1 are worst than the level below but, variance has kicked my ass there.

GL Irish.

It seems you are in need of a little luck on the higher limit. If not, then just not as much bad luck.

Them new player freerolls are an absolute goldmine if you can enter them.

Nice read, GJ!
Good cards to you!
Stiev

Bankroll $544

Been grinding a lot lately, on $.25-$.50 received a nice RB this week $125. Been pretty much beakeven poker llast few days. Grinding 16 tables at the micro limits has given me a goal for this month.

Current Titan points 32,094.05

Your current VIP level is Platinum my goal is to reach the next Titan VIP level Titanium. I need to accumulate 13800.33 by the 31st of August I have a lot of grinding to do if I wish to make it. Hopefully I can at least maintain breakeven, with the amount of RB I would receive would make up for it.

Well I have dug up my old blog. Alot has happened with my semi poker playing has had lots of big downswings and alot of tilt and fustration. I'm probalbly one of the most calm and positive people you will ever meet. I don't let emotions rule my thought process at the tables.

I did/do have a solid crasp in FL and understand the game extremely well however the variance has almost destroyed what I worked hard to build. Fl SH hates me to the point that I walked away from online poker for months. I had a comfortable BR for $1-$2 I had well over 2k but never could get much higher I had a downswing that I thought would never end and confidence was shot. So I walked away with my sanity somewhat :/

Well I couldn't stay away forever for my love of the game and my endless amounts of time to work and improve my game has brought me back. I have watched every video on the site for both FL and SNG all the way through to Diamond as I was a diamond for awhile.

I do believe that hard work pays off and not many work or grind as hard as I do. I would like to thank Nick Parkes for my interest again as reading his blog has opened my eyes that good players do indeed go through very trying times. Its all how you handle them and sucking up your pride if you have to move down limits to avoid the busto clause.

Well at work right now so no time to go into my latest poker goals but i will try to post more and bring back this blog from its grave.

Well been doing ok I guess still have a lot of work to do on my game. played a pretty long BE session tonight, looking to grind a lot of games over the next week as I'm on holidays for the week and we have nothing really planned maybe a few short day trips but should have plenty of time to work on my game.

I need to work more with the ICM trainer as my pushes I don't think are up to the caliber they should be at. For me its hard to push hands like K3o, Q8s in position as well as some spots where you should be pushing ATC I tend to play a lot of tables and sometime miss spots where there is free money due to players sitting out happened a few times tonight was kind of funny as a few players said WTF are you doing :/

Anyway I do enjoy playing MTTs and I placed in a few 1 night in Sept I had 2 final tables at the same time came 3rd and 7th. They were small buyin $5.50 RA but was nice just the same. Seems like bust out a lot but most times I do get my money in ahead which is nice.

Here is a graph of my MTT progress not many games however

Here are my graphs for STT for Sept and Oct.
Sept

Oct to date

I didn't do and overall as well I' m very sleepy, my BR sits at just under $800 I do have almost 40K in Titan points that I can cash for $ but not sure if I should save them or cash the points in for the BR boost.

Well gl and happy grinding

Well on holidays and had plenty of time today between household chores to play plenty of poker, however the poker gods wouldn't smile on me today.

I find that when I have the time to play lot of hands/games (SNG) well things don't work out. Surprising how many bad calls were made against me and I would find a way to loose the hand.

My last session this evening was totally bizarre, players pushing first hands (yes very first hand)with complete trash 57s 89s AJo I was in total shock how bad the players are yet in-spite of that I wasn't able to win many games or even place in the money. Saturdays can be brutal as the casual players kick my ass at times.

Tomorrow is another day and I may or may not play Hopefully the poker gods will smile upon me.

Here's my beautiful graph for today.

Well not much has changed in terms of progress, think I'm more like regressing to the point where I'm questioning the reasons why I play.

Think I'm going to stop playing for awhile as loosing for 3 days in a row has me in a bad state of mind. I just finish a set of SNG's and ended up 7th, 10th,7th 10th 5th 8th 10th. Just brutal I mean what do some donkeys play with.

In one game I get knocked out in 10th. I had A :spade:K in sb everyone folded to button he limped I raised 3x BB folds Button called. Flop was A :diamond:,7 :spade:,K I bet pot button calls, turn is 5 I push AI button calls cards shown me A :spade:AK :spade:, button 4 :spade:6 well river is a beautiful 3 to give him the str8. This is just one hand of the 140 SNG's I played in the last 2 days.

How many times can you be ahead and come up short. I don't consider myself as a great player, but I understand the game well. My graph is like coming down Mount Everest str8 down.

This is part of the reason I stopped playing for months, its incredible I feel like a fool after being knocked out I even did something I never do and started to tell the donkey how bad he plays. The table just lol which makes me well feel even worst so enough from me. I don't think I have what it takes to beat any level I know I a better player and have more poker knowledge than 95% of the players on ipoker yet the poker gods just won't let up on me. The cycle has to end sooner or later win a little , then loose more. Starting to think that I'm just a donkey creating rake for Pokerstrategy . I have created alot of rake and can never seem to get over 1K. Not like this gets read by anyone anyways.

Well rant over current bankroll $614

Man I really can get pissy but I'm sorry, I guess this blog will be used for more of a release for me to vent and get things off my chest.

Well went and did some laundry and cleaned the house. I then went and enjoyed a beautiful day outside, had a nice glass of wine and relaxed in the hottub. I came back and figured I would just just play a few SNG not a regular grind session. Well to my surprise AA very first hand lucky me things are going to be great this session. Well here's the hand sorry Talking Poker is giving me errors every time I try to convert this hand so this will have to do I guess. If anyone happens to read this and can point me in a better direction to post HH from ipoker I would be grateful.

** Hand History for Game 2566815197 ** (IPoker)
$2000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, October 11, 10:55:10 ET 2009
Table Tallinn 352495931 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: Mcaon ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 2: philEblunt ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 3: IrishMermaid ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 4: bestinirelan ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 5: ditty222 ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 6: RedHowler ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 7: beachercall ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 8: meleas22 ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 9: abcccabccc ( $1500.00 USD )
Seat 10: graypa4 ( $1500.00 USD )
philEblunt posts small blind [$10.00 USD].
IrishMermaid posts big blind [$20.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to IrishMermaid [ A A ]
bestinirelan folds
ditty222 folds
RedHowler calls [$20.00 USD]
beachercall folds
meleas22 folds
abcccabccc folds
graypa4 folds
Mcaon folds
philEblunt calls [$10.00 USD]
IrishMermaid raises [$180.00 USD]
RedHowler calls [$180.00 USD]
philEblunt calls [$180.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8 :spade:, 7 :heart:, 2 ]
philEblunt checks
IrishMermaid bets [$1300.00 USD]
RedHowler calls [$1300.00 USD]
philEblunt folds
** Dealing Turn ** [ K ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3 ]
RedHowler wins $3200.00 USD from main pot
RedHowler shows [2 :club:, 3 ]

Now I have to say Ty to RedHowler you sir are the reason I play poker to begin with. Very first hand the blinds are only 10 -20 23s is really not the best hand to be calling raises mainly 10x raises. I guess you already know this however then call AI shoves with bottom pair bottom kicker. If anyone reads this please let me know the strategy this people are playing because this is what has been happening for days. I try and get my head around the reason why but still baffles me. Again RedHowler ty and gl in your poker journey.

I have stepped back down to the $5.50 to regain some confidence in my game and to avoid the busto clause this will not happen to me. Been playing around with some of the DON SNG's and slowly get some BR back. I'm only playing the $5.50 DON's as well to get a feel for the game and see how it goes

I submitted a tournament hand history to Flows and his gang in the SNG Dissection and looking forward to their review if mine is chosen. If not I can learn from others mistakes. I know for a fact that my game is not 100% as hard as I try in the ICM trainer I have a hard time getting over 90% which tells me I have plenty of leaks to fill in my rusty boat. So I have that to look forward to.

As well looking forward to something SuperSeanE is trying to start much along the same lines as the SNG Dissection. Where he will make videos and help other DON players. I'm torn between the 2 very different styles.

'm going to take the advice from view88 post in NickParkes blog about not being results oriented. Not going to look at my graph daily anymore. Will try for weekly and maybe monthly post of progress.

Well that's about all just going to continue to grind the $5.50 until my game is better suited for the $11, As well try to get my ICM sessions to where I'm consistently get over 90%

Well been running horrible as of late my SNG play I think is getting worst, but I guess when you tear apart your game it is bound to get worst before you start to see improvements. My online BR was down to under $300, pretty much the downward spiral continues.

Tonight I played in the $35K GP R/A and was doing really well I placed 13th out of 1484 players it paid me $321 which doubled my BR, however was really looking to take it down until I was suckout out on button pushed 4 orbits in a row so I knew he was stealing with a wide range I made a call that I was happy with A9s button showed A5o well he hit the 5 on the turn and busted me. My play the whole tournament was great and was a lot of fun.

These MTT are pretty good to play if the BR allows. Mine really doesn't allow it but was not in the mood to play much SNG today, so I figured the $30 I would spend in this tournament would have been a single set of SNG that I'm currently having trouble winning anyway. I normally play 6 to 12 SNG at a time.

Well it worked out ok in the end anyway, but this is not sound BRM and I know this. I would post some graphs but I reformatted my PC yesterday and didn't back up my files, basically lost all my hand histories for the last year lol. Anyway no big deal fresth starts are always nice hopefully with continued work on ICM trainer and with the group that does SNG Dissection my game will improve. Only hours of work and time will tell.

Well after my soul ripping on the SNG Dissection, I have a few things to think about.

1. Need to stop worrying about my damn status here at Pokerstrategy so much, this has caused me to play to many tables chasing the points for $.

2. Decide which form I should stick to, I enjoy both forms FL and SNG but unfortunatly not playing well at either.

3. Focus as much on going over hands and SNG's that have been played to see the leaks in my game. After watching myself play this tournament I d/l the popopop replayer and watched a few more. What a mess of a player I am.

I will try my best to either improve my play in SNG to where I'm not embarrassed to let others see my replays, or give up SNG altogether. So to do this I think 2 tables would be best for a while. How long is awhile anyway????

I will review each session with the replayer and ask any questions in the SNG forum. As for posting hands Talking poker hand converter is giving me errors all the time so that may not happen.

I have been playing some FL SH and although not doing as well I know at least how to play FL, I know my play is far better than 90% of the regulars I face, but God is surely testing my resolve with poker in general.

You could say my confidence shattered, time to really focus and let go of my ego. Pretty much humbled and broken.

I played 1 table last night and came 3rd, will review that SNG after work. I will then work with ICM for 30 min, play 2 tables of SNG, review both SNG, rise and repeat this process. Hopefully this will help my play. Maybe in a month or 2 I will be confident again and ask Flows and Nick to review my progress.

I have time while at work and generally watch a few videos and read at least 1 article per/day. As well as read others blog that I enjoy following.

Originally posted by FrozenRope
Well after my soul ripping on the SNG Dissection, I have a few things to think about.

Hey, sorry about that....

But you are not the first person who has to suffer through this.

Don't hesitate to ask questions! I will follow this blog and try to answer.

Don't give up SNGs!

GL! Flows

Hey Frozenrope

I know it must be hard to deal with, but you definitely are a lot closer than you think... it is really only a couple minor changes and an increase in understanding that'll have you well on your to crushing these limits... I do know what it feels like to have your confidence shattered, but in order to become a successful player you have to go through many periods of testing... take your time and enjoy the ride, even though it is tough...

I will happily help where I can...

Keep the faith

Nick

Hey FrozenRope, welcome back and good luck with your poker journey!

Well Flows and Nick, your a breath of fresh and and have made me see the light so to speak. I fully understand the work needed. Was mainly on autopilot with not much thought just click click click, or in my case not clicking lol.

I appreciate and welcome the chance to have you continue to rip apart my soul. I can see all the reasons now and although its only been 1 day and I have only played 3 sngs your points you mentioned for me to work are a god send. Normally I would have played 60 to 100 SNG by now lol. I have taken the time to follow my plan and will continue to do so.

In the words of the great TwiceT, you got to move it! move it! Your absolutely right Flows push push push. I came in 2nd in my first SNG today and had a blast had a huge chip lead and was shoving a lot.

When your shoving like 95% on the bubble and have been really aggressive do you just continue to shove 95% knowing that you know your going to get looked up sooner or later. I had the feeling of pure dominance and it felt great, I almost could feel their fear of me. You may have even had a chuckle or 2 on this review as for the first time in my life I shoved 32o

Thanks to you both and Atoks as well for taking the time to help. Words alone can't express my gratitude so I will endeavor to work hard to give myself the satisfaction of improvement. As well give you the respect and credit for pushing me to succeed.

@ TerrorBlade wow thanks for stopping by, love your work in this community. I'm still fascinated with FL and will dabble from time to time for change of pace and to stay sharp, however these damn SNG have my attention and I need to work on them as much as it pains me.

Nice to see things looking up and positive for you... and also glad to see you found out how much fun bubble abusing is You will eventually get called lighter, but generally it is a huge mistake for 2nd and 3rd stacks to call you light, which is why I can fold to the shortie from time to time... fold the odd hand to "preserve" your FE is also OK... but just knowing that they have to fold, and sometimes them calling AK is a mistake it just make things so so much fun... enjoy it