chilling at heaven´s gate

Week 42

Total hands played
4,192
Win rate for all time
BB/100: 3.79
Total bankroll
$37.01 (pokerstars)
$3x (partypoker)

Note
I have problem with Partypoker because they don't let my play in India. I will take out all my money when I get a chance.

My game for the week

Hands this week
3,646 (-)
Win rate for week 42
BB/100: 8.82 (-)

Thought about my play
This is my first week I play so I just started to adjust to playing poker. I feel that I have played really good for being a beginner. I did a mistake by playing in the evening and study the game in morning. I feel that I could play in the morning and study in evening. I feel it better because I'm more alart in the morning and the morning yoga session give a nice boost in energy. Also instead of review my session next day, I will instead review the same day.

Technical game

Leaks

Leaks I found and fixed
Complete the blinds in SB - I felt that this was a good EV+ play but without any reads on my opponent, this play is not good as a standard call against a unknown because I will be raised to many times. And when I hit, I will be out of position and having hard time to get any value.

Bluff with low-medium pocket pairs - When I call a raiser I had this feeling that I could bluff instead of fold because I had invested money into the pot. Pocket pairs are not playable hands if I don't hit. I will often be against someone with something, based on his raise. And I will often need to do a total bluff with low pairs to win the pot.

Bluff against two or more opponents - This happen often with pocket pair when I call the raiser. Same thing as above, but worse!

Leaks to work on next week
Don't follow my intuition - I often have this feeling that my opponent have a stronger hand than me, but I often have high or top pairs and I just don't fold! I have this really strong feeling that I should fold but I don't and next to always my intuition is right! I have lost really much in this leak, about maybe 4 dollars on 3,646 hands. I would have a winrate of 14 (BB/100) if I just followed my intuition.

How will I solve this leak?
I will note and review all hands where I have a feeling that I should fold. I will follow my intuition but keep a close eye on my progress so I don't program a other leak into my game.

Fix my game from the blinds - I have a big problem when it comes to blind play. Even if I have to small sample size to see any good statistic over a specific hand I play, I can see a trend when I see over the graph.

My play from position 0-2: late position

My play from position 3-7: middle position

My play from position 8-9: blinds

Conclusion
If I didn't play any hands from the blinds I would have a -16.5 EV per hundred hands. My rate of loss is over 4.3 times what I suppose to have. -72.48 (BB/100) is just extreme!

How will I solve this leak?
I will stop play any spectacular hand from this position. And I will not try to bluff out of position without any reads.

Good things I have done to improve [technical]
I have review my hands - I have review my hand and made notes of many hands. But only few hands have I posted.

Keep a eye on one opponent - To trained, I have looked at one opponent and try to see how he is playing. the player is to my right.

Study how to make advance calculations in poker - I will soon know how to make good equality calculations

Mental game

Mental problems
Looking at profit or loss
I have this problem that I look and calculate how much I have lost. This is good for stoploss to do, but in middle of the games it's bad timing. But the bigger problem is not that I do it but my reson. I do it because I want to know if I'm up or down. And if I believe that I'm down I will have this bad feeling. The emotion is not so strong that it makes me play bad but it make is easier for me to tilt. At least I believe it so.

How will I solve this mental problem?
I will have it as a goal to find out how I going to solve this problem for next week. Don't have any good idea now.

Idea for next: Warm-up
Next week I will implement a warm-up before I play. Everyone that is in a competitive sport and need to play his A-game to win have a warm-up. So even if I can probably play my B-game on NL2 and win - I feel that is a good idea to start early.

1. Remove any distractions. (1-3min)
2. Review what I'm learning right now. (5-7min)
3. Take a few deep breaths. (1-3min)

Total time: 7-13min
(I start small but I will probly extend the warm-up.)

Good things I have done to improve [Mental]
I write a log book - It's a log where I write before and after but also between the games. With this tool I have had the posibelty to see my mental problems and this is the first week. If a write every time and reflect over my mental and technical game I will get huge insight, that would take much longer if I didn't write.

Read the "mental game of poker" - Really good book to read about most mental problems in poker. The solutions are not so good but with a bit thinking and a basic knowledge in psychology I feel that I will have great benefit from this book.

Posted hands on PS.com - Posted some hand and have got good insight into my play. But I really can improve on this part. I should at least go over them two times and save them in Evernote for future reference.

For next week
Post more hands - I need to anylize more hand because I make a review of a hand, but I don't post it.

Make screen-shots - Instead of writing the time something happends like "Look over what happen 3:43 PM" I should instead do a screen-shot. With the screen shot I can see the stats I had at the time but it also easier if I can find a program that can make a shot with in push of a botten, instead of needing to write down.

Goals for next week
[ ] Play 7000 hands (6 x 1200 hands per day; no play at Sunday)
[ ] Review all my sessions
[ ] Start to use HUD
[ ] Follow my warm-up routine

Game plan for next week
Now I have routine and understand the basics so I feel this week will be very fun. I very optimistic and hyped to see how much I improve next week. This week I kind of saw many small leak that are not worth to mention but after I had improved I really felt I played better. This feeling is really great and I only expect more next week because I probably have many more leaks that I need to fix.

Week 43

Total hands played
5,535 (1343+)
Win rate for all time
BB/100: 7.05 (3.26+)
Total bankroll
$39.47 ($2.46+) (pokerstars)
$3x (partypoker)

Note
I have problem with Partypoker because they don't let my play in India. I will take out all my money when I get a chance.

My game for the week

Hands this week
1,330(-2316)
Win rate for week 42
BB/100: 17.59 (+8.77)

Thought about my play
The first two day in the beginning of week, I was very tierd and I played very bad. So on the 25th I decided to only play on two tables and really try to read my opponents instead of play ABC. What a relief to play this way. I really feel that I can play my A game more because the game was much more fun. It was more about figuring out what my opponent will do instead of just following some chart. I can't say if I play good, because I'm also quite lucky the last hands, at showdown. But when I come to adapting, I really feel that I have a edge. I study when player go all-in with what hands, if opponents are tight or loose and what plan I should choose to play. It's really great feeling to steal the blind from tight players and 3-bet aggressive player that are very weak postflop.

But also I realise how bad some people play. I know it's NL2, I should not expect anything good, but I still thing is very funny.

I have also change how I go about playing poker. Before I played until i get tired but I think that approach was not so good. I get impaction, because I can continue to play for one or two hour and I will lose my concentration because of that. Now I put my timer on one hour and play with total focus - really nice solution.

I'm also really proud of myself. Playing in a coffee-shop in India creates some problem. Everybody pass on joints to everybody else which create little problem, you don't want to be rude. So when somebody pass on a joint, and I take a puff, I quit playing automatically. I don't even think about, so it's really nice.

Goals for week 43
[ ] Play 7000 hands (Played 1,330, I really need to improve in this)
[X] Review all my sessions
[X] Start to use HUD
[/] Follow my warm-up routine (didn't follow the point: review what I'm learning now)

Goals for next week
[ ] Play 3, one hour sessions per day. (total 18 hours)
[ ] Review all my sessions
[ ] Follow my warm-up routine

Game plan for next week
I feel that I have a better edge now when I study other players, and it also have made the game of poker more fun. So I'm really excited about playing next week and crunching NL2 hehe. I don't really have any learning plan for next week, I will just try to fix my leak and go on from there. I will study little about betting every day, and try to fix some leak I feel I have. I will also try to impalement different betting in different positions. So when I'm in late position i will bet 3BB instead of the standard 4BB. Also learn to adjust to my opponent on the flop. Now when the flop comes, aften say: this is a bad/good board and I go about form there. But I know that for a tight opponent a board like 7c6c5h is kind of dry but for a looser opponent this board can be very draw heavy. So change betting and adjust to my opponent on the flop.