I'm a golfer!!

For many years I have been thinking of taking up golf, I took some classes when I lived in Spain but there was never enough time to get serious as my work took too much time and once I had some time off I just wanted to hit the beach and relax with a cold beer under the parasol. Today I live only a few miles from the golf club and I also have more time. So two weeks ago decided to sign up for a beginners course and I will have my green card on Saturday. I used to play almost every ballgame available during my childhood and until I was in my late teens. This made me cocky enough to think that I will be able to get my handicap below 20 during the first summer. I guess I still have a few hours on the driving range until I can accept the mighty Dusty Schmidt and his $1,000,000 challenge (read never unless I have Bill Gates staking me). I’ll keep you guys updated on the golf and if you don’t get any golf info during the next few weeks, well blame that bloody driver! As far as poker concerns I think I have to quote a phrase from the Leatherass blog where his wife told him with a sad face after a downswing that; “I’m just so swingy”. I do love that comment! This fourth training session was focused on stealing the blinds as often as possible and change tables if I had some loose players behind me. As I was playing during the weekend nights I didn’t follow the plan 100% there is just too much money to be made if you get a few drunk fish at the tables. But I did steal a lot but I wanted to have some kind of playable hand 9-3 off suit don’t play well but 9-7 suited do. Some stats from the last 5,000 hands: Steal from the Button: 67% and I got away with it 51%. Steal from the Cut Off: 30% and I got away with it 47%. I stole 173 times and faced a 3-bet only 14 times where I happened to have a pocket pair 5 of these 14 times and could call in position and take down some of the pots on later streets. I was called 73 times of the 173 steal attempts, but playing the hands in position helped me to break even although many times I was holding pure crap. I made a profit of 23bb/100 when I raised first in from BTN or CO. I once again managed to push my aggression factor above 2 and it feels like I’m getting there. Over all winnings +10,6 bb/100 Results after 20,000 hands. Winnings: $275 Win rate: +5,5bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $775 (started with $500) Graph after 20K hands:

Lost the Pace

There has been a lot of things going on away from the poker tables lately so it took me 12 days to play 5k hands. Why? Well when you are living up here in Scandinavia you spend too much time indoors during the dark and cold winter season and when the May sun finally hits your eyes you get very keen to start up the barbeque, prepare the golf bag, but some new clothes, clean the car, have a beer on the terrace and just do what other people are doing 8-12 months a year depending on where they have their little castle called home. This time of the year also provides us with two fantastic hockey events: the Stanly Cup Playoffs and the World Championships. In spite of Sweden missing the final when they got beat by the Canadians who played a much better game than us, most of the other games have been awesome and ended just the way I’ve wished. The fantastic Russian team beat Canada, Red wings have a 3:2 lead over the Ducks and my super hero Ovechkin and the Caps are still alive and kicking (But it was damn close last night). Trough Stoxpoker I got in touch with a guy who is playing the same games as I do. We have had two sweating sessions over “Skype” & “Team Viewer” so far and it has been very helpful. Our plan is to help each other to the next level (NL50). Videos, books and forums are all great stuff, but having someone to talk to is even better. During the 3rd training session the goal was: “Focus on which limpers I can raise with any playable hand from the BTN/CO” I can’t say I did very well! I’m still too greedy and result oriented although I told my self not to. When at the table oftentimes my brain instinctively converts my chips into money. This is a “mental leak” I have to work on! I played most of these 5,300 hands during the weekend and wanted to se as many flops as possible and raising to isolate didn’t work very often. Playing a marginal hand in a raised multiway pot is hard but can of course be rewarded if you hit the board a few times. Stats: Cut Off, I limped behind 15% and raised the limper(s) 7,5%. Btn, I limped 24% and only raised 8%. These stats are POOR!! I actually think I should have played something like: CO: 20/15 and Btn: 30/20 and put my self in many situations where I would have been able to pick up a grate deal of the pots in position when the other missed or checked a scary board. POSITION IS POWER AND I MUST LEARN TO USE IT! The bankroll didn’t get much of a boost during this session, I only made 2,2bb/100 but when you get it all-in with Aces and loose twice there is not much you can do just take a note on the players that are willing to stack off with Queens and Jacks. I have already started the 4th session and running better, I’m up 3,5 buy ins after 1,300 hands but more on that next time. Keep fishing!! Results after 15,000 hands. Winnings: $154 Win rate: +4bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $654 (started with $500) Graph after some 15K hands: