Plain rice with fish

Sw33z: Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of your line in that first hand
But well done with getting max value in the second one!

Shuttled: Thanks, you're story is pretty interesting too! Just like you I'm planning on weekly updates on Sunday So here it goes... (I'm that Belgian guy in 'My Poker Study Group' on Skype btw)

Last Friday I had my very first coaching session ever. It was a good experience. My coach is w34z3l. I like his approach. He obviously knows a lot about poker and, most importantly, I think he's a great teacher. This one-on-one coaching will definitely speed up my learning curve.

Since the coaching session I've been playing exclusively 25NL 6max Zoom on Stars. For too long I've been drifting around from site to site, looking for a pool of players even weaker than myself. But now I'm done with being a bottom feeder. Stars has the lowest rake, the best bonus program, the best software and there's always tons of players in the player pool. For me, as a serious player, it's obviously the best place to play. The only downside is that my Stars account is not tracked by PokerStrategy. So I'm destined tot return to Bronze here :f_cry:. But that's a rather small downside in the larger scheme of things (and I've still got a year subscription at CardRunners). ♠_biggrin:

Riding the positive wave of the coaching session, I also joined a poker training group over Skype. Just joined them last night really but I'm looking forward to talk poker with fellow players. For too long I've been clicking buttons, watching training videos and reading books all by myself. This communicating about poker with real human beings is a whole new world for me. It makes me almost feel like a real poker player instead of just a fraud with a dream.

October in cold, hard numbers:

• 4381 hands
• +$8,73
• 0,39 bb/100

Right now I'm very happy with any winrate greater than zero.
So I consider this a small first step on the long road to succes...

about the silverstatus : you can buy a 1 year sub if you want , its only 60$ . easy
peace

Originally posted by Sw33z
about the silverstatus : you can buy a 1 year sub if you want , its only 60$ . easy
peace

Cool, good idea!

There was very little time for poker last week. I did spend almost a full day in the garage to get my car fixed. Afterwards the internet broke down. We had to wait 3 full days before someone came to fix it. Ah, the idyllic life in the countryside

At least I learn a lot about how to be calm and patient (it's either that or go completely nuts).

In between all the mechanical failures my second coaching session with w34z3l proceeded as planned. We did a database review. It was an eye-opening experience. Basically I'm still playing poker like it's 2009: betting 3 streets with top pair and expect to get called down by second pair (ah, sweet memories of Rush poker in the good ol' days). There are also huge leaks in my Button and Blinds play. We went over the all these problems and discussed solutions on how to fix them. These w34z3l coaching sessions are probably the best money I've ever spend in poker.

If not too much stuff breaks down this week I hope to implement all this new found wisdom into my game and put in a reasonable amount of volume.

The cold, hard numbers for October until now:

• 6854 hands
• +$84,51
• +2,45bb/100

♠_biggrin: ♠_biggrin: ♠_biggrin:

Allways nice to hear from you on the other side of the planet
I've played 11 k hands in october . From start on i've gone down the 0 line ( -6bi's was ultimate depth ) but now i'm finally above 0.
Spewed too much ( too much stupid 3bets , played too loose on loose tables . I've narrowed my openingranges and decisions become easier too. atm i'm at 14/11/4 overall .
Also i did my own analyze and remarked that i loose a lot OOP especially in the blinds in 3bet pots . i hate playing 3bet pots oop . So now i flat more and it feels a bit better. This week was a lot about balancing for me .
Since start of my challenge i played 20k hands with 4.4bb/100 . Are you using weezel's hud now ? i've added a popup window for rfi per position as i tend to look that stat up a lot . It's like more accurate then vpip/pfr but i may be wrong . And about weezels review : what does that cost ? First i want 100k hands but a session analysis by weezel can't be bad ( if he's ok to analyze fr play) peace & let the sun shine !

I ended up just adding the popup windows from w34z3l's hud to one I made by myself. There I have rfi by position in the main hud. I'm happy to share that one with you if you like; just send me private message.
w34z3l has his own coaching thread. There's a link with prices in the op. I think just a db analysis might be around $80 or so (but don't quote me on that).

I'm doing allright now. My biggest problem were my non-showdown winnings. Since I learned lots of stuff about how to improve those, things are going nicely. Well, sort of... I'm running 300bb below EV and I still struggle to get enough volume in. But these are rather smallish problems compared to being a total fish (aka me about a month ago)

October so far:

• 12008 hands
• +$116,21
• +1,9bb/100

But my new found succes exposed a new problem with my game: I have to learn not to donk off 180bb's with a single pair: ♦

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $15.08 (VPIP: 5.88, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 17)
SB: $25.00 (VPIP: 23.73, PFR: 22.03, 3Bet Preflop: 21.05, Hands: 63)
Hero (BB): $45.02
UTG: $55.45 (VPIP: 16.84, PFR: 10.53, 3Bet Preflop: 2.70, Hands: 99)
MP: $25.00 (VPIP: 0.00, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 8)
CO: $104.53 (VPIP: 22.02, PFR: 16.51, 3Bet Preflop: 2.17, Hands: 113)

SB posts SB $0.10, Hero posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has A♠ A♣

fold, fold, CO raises to $0.62, fold, SB raises to $2.00, Hero raises to $4.90, CO calls $4.28, fold

Flop: ($11.80, 2 players) 7♥ 5♥ 6♠
Hero bets $5.86, CO calls $5.86

Turn: ($23.52, 2 players) Q♥
Hero checks, CO bets $13.50, Hero raises to $34.26 and is all-in, CO calls $20.76

River: ($92.04, 2 players) 7♠

Luckily I'm not the only one getting it in bad at times:

PokerStars - $0.25 NL FAST (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

BTN: $29.96 (VPIP: 20.75, PFR: 17.92, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 109)
Hero (SB): $32.96
BB: $30.08 (VPIP: 13.04, PFR: 6.52, 3Bet Preflop: 5.26, Hands: 46)
UTG: $25.00 (VPIP: 24.56, PFR: 17.54, 3Bet Preflop: 10.71, Hands: 57)
MP: $16.94 (VPIP: 5.26, PFR: 0.00, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 19)
CO: $23.26 (VPIP: 50.00, PFR: 33.33, 3Bet Preflop: 66.67, Hands: 13)

Hero posts SB $0.10, BB posts BB $0.25

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.35) Hero has K♥ K♣

fold, MP raises to $0.75, fold, BTN calls $0.75, Hero raises to $3.25, fold, fold, BTN calls $2.50

Flop: ($7.50, 2 players) 4♣ 6♠ J♦
Hero bets $3.72, BTN calls $3.72

Turn: ($14.94, 2 players) 2♦
Hero checks, BTN bets $6.10, Hero raises to $25.99 and is all-in, BTN calls $16.89 and is all-in

River: ($60.92, 2 players) 3♠

'till next time

Today was an exceptionally awesome day. Things have been good since I’ve thrown my old poker mantra out of the window (“Bet for value/ Fold for aggression”) and replaced it with

“Don’t f*cking fold”

as in...

• Don’t fold my Big Blind (so much)
• Don’t fold for 3Bets (when in position with anything halfway decent)
• Don’t fold for Flop Cbets (when I have at least some equity)

...and when I’m done not folding; I usually bet. That’s working out really nice at the moment.

I’ve also added 3 new rules to my poker routine:

1. Don’t play more than 3 Zoom tables at once
   Maybe I’m too old, maybe I smoked too much weed in my younger days or maybe I just need more practice but, over and over again playing, 4 tables of Zoom totally fries my brain.
2. Click “Sit out next big blind and close table” every time I get 200bb’s deep.
   Then I take a little break and start fresh again. Playing a 100bb game on all tables makes decision making easier.
3. If I fail to get 200bb’s deep I force myself to take a break every 500 hands.
   Yeah, this way I struggle to play lots of volume. But it’s waaaaaay more important to keep my mind fresh and focused.

The baby’s quiet, the girlfriend’s happy, the sun is shining. There were no surprises today, no emergencies and nothing broke down. This way I managed to play 2549 hands of 25NL Zoom. I crushed pretty hard ♦

Now all I wonder is how long I can keep this up

Originally posted by CamboCat

The baby’s quiet, the girlfriend’s happy, the sun is shining. There were no surprises today, no emergencies and nothing broke down. This way I managed to play 2549 hands of 25NL Zoom. I crushed pretty hard ♦

Isn't life just fabulous at times ♠_cool:

Had a really rough day today... Lost 6 buy-ins in about 1500 hands. I will not bother you with my bad beat stories ♦. Just one of these days when absolutely nothing seems to go right at the poker tables.

Going to watch some poker vids and try to run better tomorrow ♦

I also joined this "Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge ". I will use it as a motivation to play more hands, get better and make $1K as quickly as possible. :f_biggrin:

Good luck with the challenge!
With that awesome coach and a little rungood added to the little one being a good quiet boy and sleeping for a few weeks ( ♦ at that happening ♦ ) you should manage just fine!
Just make sure the coffee jar stays full is all!

Mal.

Very nice blog dude. Loved reading every bit of it. the pictures make it even more interesting. You manage to get by by just growing vegetables and stuff? A man of very simple needs I suppose. I might find myself in a not so different situation soon and I wish you good luck bro. Live it!

Will follow great blog

Hi guys, thanks a lot for your kind words! I really appreciate it and it makes me wish I started this blog years ago. ♦

Yeah, we grow vegetables. We have some chickens and we have a lot of rice in storage (which we bought cheaply during last year’s harvest season). When the rainy season is finally over (should be in a couple of weeks) we’re planning to construct a pigpen. I’m hoping that will be an easy business: buy piggies, feed them rice and leftovers and sell them with a profit when there big and fat. All of that and getting awesome at poker, of course

So, my confidence took a huge blow yesterday. I lost -$148,66 in 1464 hands at 25NL Zoom. That was my first big losing session since I started getting coaching from w34z3l. Yes, there was bad luck involved. But I also was getting way too obsessed with improving my non-showdown winnings… I used to be a nit. Having a big losing session because I’m triple barrel bluffing too much was new territory for me.
Oh well, finding new ways to fail is the best way to improve.

Today we spent all morning on the market for groceries and diapers and other supplies. It’s not my favourite thing to do. My baby son shares seems to share this sentiment. He demonstrated this by crying almost all of the time. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home.

In the afternoon (in beautiful, magnificent silence while the baby was sleeping) I managed to play 1014 hands of poker. Did a better job in finding balance between my inner nit and aggro monkey then yesterday.
Ended with +$32,27 in profit.
Great start for my “Get Rich or Die Trying”-challenge.
Just $967,73 to go...
:f_biggrin:

October until today in numbers:

• 22661 hands
• +$410,65
• +3,6 bb/100

Had another good day today. After 2 days I’m up +$178,61 in this “Get Rich or Die Trying”-challenge already!
Tomorrow no time for the pokers as we’re off to Phnom Penh for vaccinations for the baby (and to hang out in the shopping mall and stuff myself with junk food)

’til next time!

Originally posted by CamboCat
Yeah, we grow vegetables. We have some chickens and we have a lot of rice in storage (which we bought cheaply during last year’s harvest season). When the rainy season is finally over (should be in a couple of weeks) we’re planning to construct a pigpen. I’m hoping that will be an easy business: buy piggies, feed them rice and leftovers and sell them with a profit when there big and fat.

Wonderful. When you get those piggies make sure you post some 'before and after' pics. Makes for some fun reading.

So, my confidence took a huge blow yesterday. I lost -$148,66 in 1464 hands at 25NL Zoom.

I know how it is dude. It takes a lot of maturity to understand that this is nothing in the grander scheme of things.

Had another good day today. After 2 days I’m up +$178,61 in this “Get Rich or Die Trying”-challenge already!

Now thats what Im talking about!. Good luck and waiting for more updates.

Hey Cambo

I've just subscribed to your blog and I'm looking forward to seeing your success. I spent a month in Thailand a couple of years ago; I'd really like to get out to south east Asia again and pay my way through poker. I'll be following with intrigue.

Thank you, seranpoker and StartlingGrope for your kind words.
I make sure to take some pictures when we start getting into the piggies-business ♦

A quick update for the Get Rich or Die Trying Challenge:

• 3478 hands
• +$175,01
• Bankroll: $425,01
• Week 1

So far so good! Or maybe it’s just beginner’s luck?

I played almost no poker the last few days. There were problems with the electrical grid. Power supply was very erratic all weekend
Let's hope next week is a quiet one without too many surprises. I really want to get more volume in

Nice start of your challenge Camboman ! i'm jealous of those curves
i've been struggling with my game ( esp. blind leakage ) but i've been watching tons of vidz so i'm ready to have a nice november curve

keep it up man !

Hi Sw33z,
Great to hear from you again!
I've also been working a lot on my game from the blinds. I can recommend this PS-video "10 Tips to get out of the Micros - #2, Fold less on the blinds" if you haven't watched it yet. The first one in that series ("Steal More") is also pretty great

GL dude! ♠_biggrin:

a whole lot better than the OP...

October; the final numbers
+511,38
That’s about 4.5 times the minimum wage around here.
Not bad for a stay-at-home-dad ♦

Cash games (see graph above):

• 28586 hands
• +2 bb/100
• +$292,67

MTT's: -$17,60
Played 8 donkaments and cashed zero times...

Rakeback: +$236,31
Had an exceptionelly good month collecting bonuses...
(Full Tilt Poker 'Easy Bonus' +$10; Betfair Points for cash +$56,31; PokerStars VIP Stellar Award +$50; PokerStrategy Betfair Rake Race +$100; NetBet Welcome Bonus +$20)

***

It’s been 38 days since I started this blog. I still have a long, long way to go and I still have a whole lot to learn. But coming to this place to share my story with you and getting coached by w34z3l were the two best poker decisions I have ever made.

The last 2 days have been rough. I’ve dropped about -$150. But that doesn’t get me down anymore like it used to. Now I have a solid gameplan (thank you w34z3l). I feel like I know a little bit better what I’m doing; even when everything goes wrong. And I can come to this community to read comments like this:

It takes a lot of maturity to understand that this is nothing in the grander scheme of things.

(thank you seranpoker).
It’s good to know that we’re all going through the same ups and downs.

I’m very excited about my +2bb/100 winrate. But my red line is not looking the way I would like. The plan is to improve this in November by

• Steal more blinds
• 3Bet more In Position (especially from the Button)
• Call more 3Bets In Position Again, especially from the Button… The plan is to attack regs with a high 3Bet% versus Steal + a high Flop Cbet%. That should make them a sitting duck out of position on the Turn on many boards. Hence upping my red line, hopefully
• Avoid the 1-and-done Cbet-approach versus regs but find more double barrel spots instead.

These are my strategy goals for November.

Volume-wise I aim at 25K hands again. That’s not that much. But my mom,
who is 65; isn't keen on travelling; has never set a foot outside of Europe and whom I haven't seen in 3 years,
is coming all the way from Belgium to spend 2 weeks with her son and grandson. During that time I will, most likely, have other priorities than Zoom poker ♦ If I still can get to 25K hands I will be very happy.

And, of course, I plan to stay active on this blog and to have a least 1 coaching session with w34z3l during November (to keep me on the right path).

Thanks you all for reading and commenting on my blog!
I’m looking forward to continue this journey with you

My garden on the 1st of November ♦

Looked at the calendar and smiled. Never have been a fan of winter. But I despise no time and place more than November in Belgium. It’s either dark or grey and spring is still a whole season away. Over here it was just another day. Cleaned my car, went to the market and spend time with the family. Played 716 hands of €20NL Speed poker on NetBet. Made +$46,10. Smooth sailing