+10/bb Over 20.000 Hands

Summer time hasn't been poker time for me, but I have managed to squeeze in a couple of sessions with a pretty decent results. Over the last 20K hands I made more than 10bb/100 which was my goal for the entire project so I'm very happy with it! So what has changed? I have step by step changed my game from a "Weak-Tight" style to something that could be called TAG. First 20K hands: VPIP:12 / PFR:8 / AF:1,86 Last 20K hands: VPIP:15 / PFR:11 / AF:2,24 But the most significant change is the ability to use my possition. I have gone from +12bb/100 from the button to a very high +39bb/100 and 27,5bb/100 from the cut off. I make half my winnings from the button although it's only 11% of the hands. I play over 30% of my hands from the button. Once you get a feel for the game there are so many orphan pots that nobody wants to fight over and on NL25 you hardly ever get check raised on the turn and if you do you can just fold and are hardly ever bluffed unless you are facing a mainiac on drugs. I have also started to cold call pretty often with very marginal hands against players that C-Bet 100% on the flop and then give up on the Turn if they don't hit anything with their AK/AQ hands. This type of player is very easy to float, call the Flop and bet the Turn if they check. Tomorrow I'll have the last session with my coach and we'll be doing some leak plugging, my plan is to find as many leaks as posible and fix them during the rest of these 100K hands and then I'll be prepared for the NL50. Results after 58,350 hands: Winnings: $962 Win rate: +6,60 bb/100 Bonus: $280 Bank Roll $1,742 ($500) The Graph after 58,350 hands

Take Care and Play Well!

Half Way and Tripple Bank Roll

Long time no blogging. But I think I have very good excuses for not spending much time in front of the PC. It's summer, and rather be out in the sun having playing golf or having a cold beer on my girlfriends terrace! So what about poker? When I started this 100.000 hands project I was hoping to finish it before the end of June. But a couple of family things and a 3 weeks heat way made me decide to take a few weeks brake from poker. The first of June I started a training program with my coach and have been working mostly on plugging pre-flop leaks and slowly widen my hand range. It has worked out pretty well but there are still a bunch of leaks to plug. So what have I improved so far? I play more hands and play them more aggressively. The first 10K hands I was playing I played a 12/8/1,70 game with and + 5,1bb/100. The last 10K hands I’ve played a 15/11/2,5 game with +11bb/100. Is a wider hand range and a more aggressive play the only reason I have more than doubled my win rate? I don’t think so, but it has absolutely improved my win rate! What else has improved during these 50K hands?

1. Folding a marginal hand.
2. Inducing bluffs.
3. Floating aggressive players who C-bet almost 100%.
4. Increasing the River betting frequency.
5. My feel for the game

Today it rains and I’m back at the tables and played for a couple of hours and made almost 3 buy-ins and according to the weather forecast there will be a lot of poker this week. My bank roll needs a rain dancer! Results after 49,400 hands

Winnings: $792

Win rate: +6,41bb/100

Bonus: $280

Bank Roll $1,572 ($500) The Graph after 50K hands

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)

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: