Double bank roll!!!

When I started this blog I made a $500 deposit which is now above the $1,000 mark. Since the last coaching session I’ve played some 6K hands with a pretty decent outcome. I made 9,5 big blinds/100 or roughly 5,5 buy-ins. Here are the most important issues I’ve been working on this week. 1. Playing top-pair hands vs. a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all down all three streets. There are a few other ways to handle this: You can fold on the flop, raise in position and probably get afree card on the Turn or check-raise the SOB and let him make a hard decision. I have been pretty successful when it comes to lay down my TT-QQ type of hands when someone shows a very strong line on a uncoordinated board. I even laid down my Aces against a loosing Nit who loves to play small pocket pairs and always bets All-In with the Nuts. I raised Pre Flop with AA UTG and he called from late position the flop came 5-7-9 with 2 clubs, I had the Ace of clubs so he didn’t make the Nut flush. I C-Bet ½ pot and he raises me I just call for a re-evaluation on next street. The Turn was a brick off suit 3 I checked to him and he made a 5/4 pot bet and I tanked for a while before mucking my one pair hand. I have had an Over pair on the flop 37 times and won 30 of these hands, and made a nice 300 big blinds profit. I had Top Pair Top Kicker 27 times and won 20 with a 173 big blinds profit. That’s almost 5 Buy-Ins with a one pair hand folks! Have I laid down a winning 1pair hand? Yes I have but all-in-all I think I’ve been able to smell the danger to a much larger degree than before. The only hand I screw up was against a very aggressive 40/9/4 player with a who C-Bets 80% on the Flop and 100% on the Turn. I had JJ on the button and cold-called his raise from the HJ. The board was 8 high after all streets and all draws missed so I called him down and lost to 23 big blinds vs. his KK. 2. My 3-bet percentage is still too low! My coach gave me a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands, but over such a small sample as 7K hands I haven’t been involved in too many of these situations yet. I only 3-bet 31 times but took down 23 of these hands pre flop or with a flop bet. I got 4-bet four times: - Called a short stack with QQ and ran into KK - Folded AK against a tight player who raised UTG and put in a huge 4-bet. - Folded AJ to a shove. - I had Aces one and shoved hoping he had KK/QQ/AK but he folded When looking at these stats I only got 4-bet 3/31 times, hmmmm… 3. My River play is far too passive! Over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet? I’m still loosing a lot of value by not betting the River. Don’t be AFRAID of the River!!! Results after 32,600 hands. Winnings: $452 Win rate: +5,54bb/100 Bonus: $120 Bank Roll $1,072 ($500) Do you remeber the cold winters?? Get that lazy fat ass moving and enjoy the summer!!!!!!

Hey Hey Hey I finally made $10K!!!!

I finally reached a milestone profit. It has taken me about three years to grind $10,000. The first two years most of my winnings came from bonuses and rake backs and a smaller part from actually playing better than my opponents, well not playing quite as bad might be a more appropriate way to put it. For the last 6-8 months my play has gradually developed and I’ve been able to beat the SSNL (Small Stakes No Limit) for about 4-6 bb/100.

During the first 5 months of 2009 only 25% of my total winnings has come from bonus and rake backs. With the above in mind you might think that I’m a nitty coward who doesn’t have the balls to play at higher limits. While blushing a little I do agree with you tough big balls guys. But I have a few small words of defense:

- I don't have a bank roll for the higher stakes yet as most of the money won has been spent on Holidays, expensive car repairs and some other daily expenses. Not to much on booze and babes though my days will come!

- Yes, you are right if you think I’m probably “loosing” money by not playing a higher stake. I just feel that I have so many “beginners leaks” to be plugged before facing a little bit harder competition for twice the amount of $ I’m used to at NL25. That’s why I have hired a coach and found my self a poker buddy. Believe me when I say that I’ll be grinding the NL50 in September.

- If there is anyone out there who recently stepped up from NL$25 Full Ring to NL$50? I’d highly appreciate any tiny piece of advice!!

Last but not least...

Don’t neglect your prayers to the Poker Gods!

I have a coach!

I have played some 7,000 hands since the last update. The plan was to identify: A) Two loose weak victims at the table and trying to play as many hands as possible against them with position. B) Two weak tight victims at the table and trying to push them off their hands when they show weakness and I have position. It started pretty well but then I guess I got a little bit too excited and this combined with a few bad beats I lost 4 buy-ins within just a few hundred hands. Looking back at this bad short stretch, I realize I have to have a plan when things get out of control. Good players change gear back and forth many times within a session which I didn’t, I just kept hammering. I feel very comfortable at NL25 and was able to take a break and get my $$ back the next day and end this 7K hands with a 170bb profit. Not a great result but still a profit. Last week I had my first session with my coach. After talking a while about my game and my goals we did a 30 min sweating session. Afterwards I sent him my last 50K hand history which we went through together yesterday. Instead of continuing this 100K project divided into 20 different blocks I have decided to divide my training blocks into 2 weeks sessions focusing on the issues my coach considers to be the most important things to work on. Here is a quick update from our session. We went through half a dozen of common issues and situations where I loose money or where I can extract more value. Here are the most important ones:

1. Playing a top-pair hand against a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all 3 streets.
2. My 3-bet percentage is still too low. I was given a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands.
3. My River play is far too passive. over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. Hmmm, I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet?

Results after 27,000 hands. Winnings: $318 Win rate: +4,75bb/100 Bonus: $0 Bank Roll $818 (started with $500)