Christmas, I'm ballin'

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I'm pretty happy about poker and everything.

The good people at Pitbull Poker have really got me in the right Christmas spirit. They have given me a lot of presents at the tables. When I started playing there on friday I set myself a very ambitious goal that I wanted to win $500 every day until the 29th. On friday and saturday I won about 600 each day. Then on monday I was even and yesterday up a 100. Today I almost reached my goal again - I lost the connection when I was at about +450. But I'm pretty tired now after getting up early to shop for christmas presents.

My bankroll now stands at $4,200. I'm quite proud of the fact that I've gone from $700 to $4,200 in two weeks without making any tournament scores or violating bankroll management principles.

On the 29th I'm going away for 10 days to play a chess tournament. I'll probably stay completely away from online poker during that trip because there will be so much live poker.

My laptop is still going through repairs. I'm kind of tired of waiting for it. I might put some of my new money to use on a baller laptop and a 24 inch screen or something.

Pitbull Poker

Yesterday I moved most of my bankroll to Pitbull Poker. I'm playing there as a prop player. The action seems to be incredibly soft, and on top of that I'm getting 100 % rakeback. Sweet!

The last few days I've been winning steadily at 0.5/1 on Full Tilt. Last night I won around $600 on Pitbull, $100 of that being rakeback. That shoots my bankroll up to $3100. Since there are so few tables and it's such a soft site, I'm going to play quite a bit at 1/2. There are also 2.5/5 tables, but I'm going to have to at least double my bankroll before I start taking shots there. That might happen quickly if I play the volume I intend and stay on top.

In other news, I have received my grades from the exams. I did well in all three, although I'm probably going to try to improve my grade in one of them in February.

I went to the movies yesterday, for the premiere of "Max Manus"- a long awaited Norwegian WWII epic. It's a great film with very impressive visuals. It could be a contender for best foreign film at the Oscar awards.

Holidays are Coming

I'm just relaxing nowadays. Hanging out with friends, going to the movies, to the gym, hanging out some more, playing poker and Wipeout HD on Playstation 3. :-) That game is pretty awesome on a 50 inch HD screen.

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me. A few days ago I took a successful shot at 2/4 when I saw a huge fish sitting there. Perhaps not the most sensible thing to do, but it worked out and it boosted my bankroll. So now I'm playing 0.5/1 again, trying to get to 1/2 before Christmas. Like I said, yesterday was pretty good. I won around $400 in the cash games. Then I had a last longer bet with three friends in the $26 pot limit tournament. I came in 13th and won the bet with a good margin. Now the weekend starts and life is good.

Exams

I am currently in the process of reading for exams. That takes up a lot of time. I really want to do well. At the moment I am reading philosophy, which I find very interesting.

This was a good time to take a little break from poker. As can be deducted from my previous post, all the bad luck finally started to get to me. Last week my play deteriorated notably. On Saturday I played some tournaments. The $26 pot limit tournament was particularly juicy, and had the largest field I've ever seen it have with 358. I was doing great. Right before the money bubble at 42 players, I was in 10th place or so. But then I completely blew up with a 3 street bluff that was totally unnecessary. A couple of days earlier I played the same tournament and was a massive chip leader with 20 players left, but that time I also blew up with some really poor bluffs. On Saturday I also played a H.O.R.S.E. tournament where I had 13k chips when second place had 8k. In that tournament I also went out on the money bubble. Not because of bad play, but simply because of bad luck. For instance there was a crucial Hold 'Em hand where my top set of queens lost to aces that hit the two-outer on the turn. At the same time I also managed to to turn what was a nice profit in cash games into a big loss. What looked to be a great night turned out to be a really bad one. I think this was mostly because I was very tired and had been drinking.

The last two weeks I have only been playing 50NL after my big cashout. That has worked out decently. I could have made a much larger profit, but it's been a while since I played at that level and I kind of forgot that at that level you absolutely cannot bluff ever. After exams are finished on the 8th I will probably just be grinding 50NL a bit, trying to make a modest income. After Christmas I will have a lot more money and I can start to do some serious poker playing again.

Fuck Poker

This is getting silly. I have played some more sessions where I just have had to sit and take one bad beat after the other. For instance, I called a 3-bet with JT of hearts because I knew the 3-bettor was full of it and we were deep. Flop is A high with three hearts and I get it in against Qx of hearts. Today I lost KK vs. AK and AK vs. AK for full buy-ins. I might have to take a break from poker soon, because this is getting really annoying. I am breaking even money-wise, but with all that I'm spending recently, I am in danger of going broke. I withdrew $1.5k yesterday. I have some small jobs that give me a little extra income, but I don't want to get a real job!

Still Running Bad

Once again I had one of those dreadful sessions where I lost every all-in. Things went wrong right from the start as I lost JJ to ATo. I lost two $400 pots. In the first I had JJ against KK on a J87 board. I'm a 90 % favorite there. In the second it was a coin flip; TT vs. 98 on a 987 board. But unlike the previous sessions, I actually managed to come out ahead in this one, winning $100. I have had terrible luck this whole month. Still, I am a slight winner for November. That means my poker future is looking as bright as ever. Bankroll: $3.7k.

The end of the semester is approaching at school. I'm working on the final project before exams. We will finish this project in a couple of days. After that I will concentrate my efforts to preparing for the exams, which are in early December.

Frustration Again

It's Saturday night. I received rakeback yesterday. I felt pretty good that I finally could meet the standard bankroll requirements for playing 1/2 ($4k is liberal, but still standard). Of course in my session I got absolutely raped by the poker gods.

It started out when I fired a big three-barrel bluff with a missed open-ender against a player that I was pretty certain had second pair. It turned out he had second pair, but also had hit a runner runner flush. I didn't have to bluff all streets, but I'm sure it was a good play. I just got unlucky that he hit the flush.

Then I got limp/re-raised by a fish and stacked off with JJ. He had 44 and hit a 4.

After that I only flatcalled an UTG raise with QQ and hit a set. Turned out that the raiser had KK and hit a set as well. Amazingly enough, I only lost $80 even though we were $220 deep.

Afterwards I payed off the same guy when he min-raised the river again and I had TPTK. I thought maybe he was trying to level me, but he had a very weirdly played flush.

Then I got all my money in with 99 on a 964 board against a flush draw. The flush came like clockwork on the turn.

At the same time on another table I got all-in with AQ on a Q high flop against KQ. The three-outer hit on the river.

With the number of bad beats I took it's quite amazing that I only lost $500 in the session. Once again I have to say that I played very well. This is a new experience for me. Normally when I run bad, I play bad - and vice versa. It's frustrating to to see the pots get dragged away from me even when I play the hands to perfection. I could use the money these days. But all I can do is
continue playing my game and not let it get to me. Fortunately I have this blog to whine to. :-)


Edit: Just played another interesting, yet sickening, session. It started out with me holding QQ and making a tight fold preflop against a player who went all-in. I was almost positive he had AK, but there was another player to act behind me who had showed a lot of strength too. After that I called the same guy's raise with KJs. On a K72 flop we put in $220 each. He showed 88 and I was happy until an 8 hit the river. After that I flopped a set only to get outdrawn by a runner runner straight. At least that's what he claimed (and I believe him) to have, cause I made a very tough laydown with the set. The night ended when my 99 lost all-in preflop against A5o. What a day. Miraculously I only lost $100 in this second session. I feel like a lesser player would have been stuck thousands if he had my bad luck today. Bankroll: $3.6k

Finally a Good Session

Things finally went my way today. I played 6 tables of deep 0.5/1. At one point I was up $400, but then I got coolered in a few pots. I managed to only lose 1/3 of my stack when my AK flopped top pair in a button vs. BB situation and the other guy had a set. In the end I won almost $300. Bankroll: $3.7k

Frustration

I played another frustrating session. I moved down to the 0.5/1 deep tables this time. I think I played very well, but once again luck was not on my side. I did end up +$70, but it could have been a lot more. I got unlucky in some key pots:

An aggressive player had been getting re-raised quite frequently lately and I sensed he was starting to tilt. When he raised my blind and I was staring at two kings I felt pretty good. He called my re-raise and I could just sense that he was weak and was about to do something stupid. The flop was 882 with two spades. He raised me all-in and sucked out with his 79 of spades. I lost the $230 pot as a 2 to 1 favorite.

I had been hammering on a fish two my right all night as he limp-called my button raise. I had 99. Flop was J75 with two diamonds. He check-raised me quite big. I pretty much thought that he was completely full of it. I called. Raising is not really an option in that spot. Turn was an offsuit 8 and I picked up a gutshot. He quickly bet $40 into $56 and I called again. River was an offsuit king and he instantly moved in for his last $70. I'm getting almost 2 to 1 at this point. If he had a pair and a gutshot on the turn, my nines are still good. He could have missed a flush draw. My initial read was that he had finally cracked, so I called. He showed KQo to scoop the $278 pot. That was very frustrating. I had the correct read, but he hit his 6-outer.

I'm realizing now that I have been whining a lot lately over bad beats that are standard for any serious poker player. I did actually end up in the green for this session. If I just keep up playing my game I will eventually have big winning sessions again. A professional poker player should find satisfaction in making good decisions and not care too much about short-term results. Patience!!

I said I wouldn't withdraw more money, but I'm going to have to make withdrawals again. I need money to pay for plane tickets and hotel for a chess tournament I'm playing around New Year's Eve. The hotel is about $100 a day, so that's gonna hurt a bit. All this means that I'm staying away from 1/2 again, at least until I get rakeback in a week's time. Bankroll: $3.4k

Variance is a Bitch

I have been playing at 1/2 this week, although sparsely. I've been very busy at school lately, and exams are approaching. I am also involved in a project with a local newspaper. It has 80,000 regular subscriber, so it's a good chance for me to make some contacts in well-renowned company.

Unfortunately, variance hasn't gone my way at the poker tables. Yesterday I was up a good amount before I ran AK into 77 on a KK7 board with deep stacks. There is really no way anyone is getting away from that hand, it's just a huge cooler. That made my session only slightly above even. Today I ran absolutely terrible. The games were good and I think I played well for the entire session. I was disiplined enough to quit before I started steaming. There were some key hands that made me a $200 loser today:

I trap a guy I know squeezes very light by only flatcalling in the SB with QQ. I knew he would push like 80 % of his range. He pushed with 77 and hit a 7 on me.

I raise A5 of spades in the CO and gets called by a crazy Swedish donkey on the button and a fish in the BB. Flop is 762 two spades. I check to the Swede, expecting him to bet 100 % of the time. He bets $10, I raise to $50 and he shoves another $50 on top. He has Q2 and holds. I don't know if he thought he could bluff me out or if he just thought he had the best hand. Anyway, it worked for him, as he dodged my 15 outs.

I flatcall a button raise with A5 of diamonds in the SB (not really a good play, I was getting a little steamed up already). Flop is Q52 with two hearts. I check-raise to $36. Calling is not really good there against most people, since most cards are bad for my hand. He insta-shipped his $200 and I called quite quickly. There is no way he goes instantly all-in with a hand that has me beat. Sure enough, he had a flush draw and I got it in as a 2 to 1 favorite. But he got there.

In other news, mad props to local hero Johnny Lodden, who made the final table of EPT Budapest. Of course, he got very unlucky and busted out in 8th. Once that kid gets luck on his side, he will start winning big tournaments.

1/2

I've moved up to 1/2 with success so far. I've always felt at home at that level. Somehow it fits my style better than 0.5/1. I had a pretty good Saturday night session. I also helped my friend Joar win the Razz tournament. He disconnected when it was down to three and I finished the job for him. That meant he could finally pay the $300 he owed me. :-)

Yesterday we played at a local underground club. I made 1100 NOK profit in the side games. NOK is the Norwegian currency. As of today 1 US$ = 7 NOK. In July it was only worth 5. That's good news for me, since I've had a lot of $ on Full Tilt all the time. I've withdrawn a lot lately, but I think I'm good for now. Unless the $ starts dropping in value again, I'll keep the money at Full Tilt and try to build a solid bankroll for 1/2. At the moment it's too shallow at $3.7k.

Watching the RailHeaven table at Full Tilt now. Two near-700k pots just occured. That's just insane.

Winning and Grinning

I'm still doing great in terms of my winrate at poker. I'm only playing 0.5/1 and small volume, but at least I'm up $3.4k this month. If experience has taught me one thing, it's that playing twice as many hands at twice the stakes does not mean you'll quadruple your income. I'm just chilling and grinding for the moment. If I just keep it up, I know I'll be balling with a lot of money again soon. I'm planning to take a new shot at 1/2 starting Friday. Bankroll: $4.2k.

In the Zone

Aside from the $700 hickup I had Wednesday night, my results have been great this month. I have been grinding 0.5/1. The fact that I moved down two limits didn't really hurt my pride. I'm winning a lot, withdrawing a lot and living life. The fact that the US dollar has improved helps a lot. I get 25% more Norwegian money for my dollars now than I did in July. I had another good session today. I really feel that I'm taking my game to a higher level these days. I'm making some seemingly insane bluffs and calls that I wouldn't have done a few months ago, and I'm usually right. Betting and calling with no pair has become common. This is because I have a great feeling for where my opponents are at. Confidence is also a key factor. When you're on a downswing, you become afraid to execute the moves that you essentially know are correct.

Here is an example of a pretty crazy play I made, although this was in a live hand, so there were more tells to work with. I was playing a live cash game with some friends, 4-handed. Magnus Carlsen limped on the button. Magnus is a 17 year old kid who is ranked as the second best chess player in the world and also a good friend of mine. In May he gave a simultaneous display against 30 of the strongest chess players in my home town and I was the only one to beat him. I think I wrote about this in my previous blog. I made all the local papers and one of the largest national TV networks aired an interview with me on the sports news. It was one of my shining moments.

Anyway, like I said, he limped on the button. Joar was in the small blind and raised it up heavily. He was on stone cold tilt at that moment. I was also semi-tilted. That's why I called him in the big blind with 94 of clubs. Magnus also called. The flop was 753 two diamonds. Joar bet out, I called with my gutshot and Magnus overcalled. Turn was an offsuit T and was checked through. The river was another 7. Joar thought for maybe two seconds and then bet out. The thing is I know Joar likes to bluff the river when he has no chance of winning at showdown, especially when his opponents show weakness. I knew he was bluffing at this point, because what could he have? In his current state of tilt I was sure he would have value bet a T or 7 on the turn. He is more of a tournament player than a cash game player. That's why I was also pretty sure that he wouldn't value bet a 5 or 3 on the river. In tournaments player generally don't value bet and call down as thin as in cash games. At first I thought about raising in case he was bluffing with a better hand. But the problem with that is that Magnus could have slowplayed a monster behind me. And I didn't really think he would bluff with J high or better anyway, because it looks like everyone has low cards. I looked over at Magnus and he looked like he was thinking of calling. But he's a smart kid obviously, and I didn't think he would overcall if I called. So I called with my 9 high, Magnus reluctantly folded and Joar mucked instantly. I raked in the big pot, Magnus asked me if I could beat his ace high and I flipped over my 9 high to Joar's disgust.

I'm hoping to take another shot at 1/2 next week. Bankroll: $3.6k

Drunken Master

On Wednesday there was a party for all the journalism students. Because I had promised to finish writing some work we did in groups, all of my group gave me a free beer each to thank me. When a classmate arrived and started handing out shots of absinthe I got really drunk. I was home at around 6 am and played a session of poker, perhaps inspired by the great Jackie Chan movie "Drunken Master" I had seen the previous day. Normally my results are pretty good when playing drunk, probably mainly because it usually occurs on late Saturday nights when games are super soft anyway. But when I get too drunk things tend to get a little out of control (like on New Year's Eve 2006/07 when I lost $6k playing 10/20). When I woke up Thursday morning I was surprised to see that my Full Tilt account was $200 richer. Then I realized that I had received $900 worth of rakeback. :-)

Yesterday my buddy Joar was over and managed to fix my laptop. That guy is a genius with computers. I grinded long hours of poker. My NLHE results weren't that great. I lost a big pot with AA vs. 88 all-in preflop that kind of ruined it. Late at night I multitabled some 2/4 and 3/6 HORSE games and made a nice profit against some retarded opponents. I had a great NL session tonight. I won $400, playing 4 deep tables at 0.5/1. The only time I was all-in during the session was when my JJ lost to QQ all-in preflop. Other than that I just won a lot of big pots by playing power poker. When I'm on my game I absolutely crush the deep games. Life is good. Bankroll: $3.3k

Stake Horse

My parents are in Dubai this week, so they put me in charge of the house. That's good, cause my laptop is fucked up and I need a computer. The poker results are still good, although I haven't played a lot, and I'm still grinding 0.5/1. I've spent a shitload of money lately. Yesterday I staked my friend Joar in the $26 pot limit tourney on Full Tilt. He got 4th place. Last time he was staked he won it. I would obviously stake him every day of the week in that particular tournament. So I made a nice sum of money off that. My rakeback is coming in next week and it's going to be substantial. That should be enough to give me a bankroll for 1/2 again. It's currently at $2.7k.

October

I haven't posted in a while. I've been very busy at school lately and kind of forgot about it. Things are going pretty good in the life department. After I recovered from the flu I have been working on my training program at the gym and I feel like I have a lot more energy already. My school work has gotten a lot of positive feedback from the professors. They say I have a bright future in journalism. Hopefully it's not all talk. I might actually take a semester or two as an exchange student at Cal, Berkeley. I would love to live in California for a year. And it would look great on my resume.

The poker gods were not nice to me throughout September. I moved up to 1/2 on the last weekend of the month, but quickly had to move down again after dropping $750 in the first session. I missed like every single 12-outer that I shoved as a semi-bluff. Lately I have been withdrawing $200 three times a week. That makes it tough to increase my bankroll when playing 0.5/1. Anyway, my first October session just ended with a $350 profit. Now let's hope I continue to run like a god, like I did in August.

Sick Day

So I skipped school. No surprise there really. Strangely enough, I still got up at 8 am. That gave me a lot of time to play pokerz. I won $600 from my first two hour session, playing 6 tables for the most part. At 9 pm I was so tired that I just fell asleep for four hours. I woke up at 1 am and played another session, adding $300 to the profits. Having a 9 buy-in day is always nice. Now I get to move up. I'll probably wait until the weekend just to make it less likely that that I take a significant hit to my
bankroll. Bankroll: $4.4k.

Sick

Sick is an overused term in poker, but I do feel a little sick right now since I caught the flu. I've been lying in bed all weekend. The poker could have gone better. I ended up about even. I'm not sure whether it was because of variance or bad play. Probably both. I need to learn that you just can't bluff people at 0.5/1. As long as you play your cards you're fine. I think I'm gonna wait another week to move up since the weekend didn't go quite as I'd hoped. I need to go to bed now. School in 7 hours. :-(

Going Strong

Yesterday I was kind of busy, so I only managed to put in half an hour of poker. I booked a small $100 win. This evening I played a great session. I found some good tables and stayed at the same 4 for 2 hours. In that time I managed to win $600 - obviously running quite hot. The plan now is to play 0.5/1 for the rest of the weekend. I will move up to 1/2 on Monday unless something goes wrong during those sessions. It feels like a great achievement to move up this fast. I'm owning everybody left and right again. I have basically reached all the goals that I set myself a week ago and doubled my new bankroll in the process.

I have a much better outlook on life in general now than I did a week ago. Going on a big downswing like that can definitely sour my mood and make me grumpy and pessimistic. I was afraid I would go broke. Now I've put the money I withdrew to use. I spent about $1k on a pretty cool camera that is useful to have now that I'm gonna be a journalist. If I find time I might actually put some nice pictures up in this blog. It's nice to see my poker winnings actually transform into real life things and not just numbers on a screen. I also signed up for a one year membership at the gym at school. It's supposedly the most state of the art gym in all of Norway. And really cheap, like $400 a year for students. I even got myself a training program with a personal trainer. That's definitely a +EV move for me to make. I'm sure I will make a lot more money in the long run at poker by getting in physical shape again. Overall I'm pretty excited about all this. It's been a great day and I'm ending it by chilling out to Ice Cube's classic "It Was a Good Day". Bankroll: $3.9k

Back on Track

I have been booking solid wins the last few days, averaging about $200 from my daily two hour sessions. I really like my new guidelines, because I'm still putting in way more hands than I did in August. At the same time I'm not overdoing it, like I did at the start of this month. I don't have the stamina or mental control yet to put in five hours a day. Especially not when I'm busy with school. Two hours is perfect. At the current rate I'll move up to 1/2 already next week. Bankroll: $3.2k.

Fresh Start

I decided I needed sort of a fresh start, because I was really tilting out of control. Yesterday I dropped $800 in a 1/2 6-max session after some bad beats. Then I donked off another $600 playing 5/10 razz when I was way too tired. I then proceeded to lose $900 at 0.5/1 HU before ending the night by flipping someone for $1,200 and losing that one too.

Today I withdrew $2k and set myself some rules for the following weeks.

- I will only play 6-max NLHE cash
- I will not play more than 4 tables at once
- I will not play sessions lasting longer than two hours
- I will only play one session a day and two on weekends
- I will quit immediately if I take a significant bad beat or cooler
- I will not bluff all-in preflop
- I will play solid

I will start out grinding 0.5/1 with my remaining bankroll. When I get to $4k I will take a shot at 1/2, but move down again if I drop to $3k. When I get to $10k I can take a shot at 2/4. This has to be during a weekend. I will immediately drop down if haven't shown a profit on Monday morning. It is of utmost importance that the beast that is 2/4 does not destroy my confidence and groove once again. If I feel like it, I can keep grinding 1/2 with a $10k bankroll and withdraw the profits.

I initiated this "Fresh Start" project today. I played a two hour session at 0.5/1 - the first in a long time where I didn't tilt at all. The games were good and I managed to grind a $700 profit. Now I have a clear plan and I feel good about poker again. It's important to have a positive attitude to building a bankroll, instead of desperately chasing losses. New bankroll: $2.5k.

And the Bad Run Continues

I started my day with a HU match where I definitely think I had an edge, although probably a small one. Variance didn't go my way, so I lost a bit, but nothing notable. Sitting at these HU tables today made me realize how hard it is to get fishy opponents at American sites during European day time. So I've kind of put my HU project on ice. I'll probably only sit at weekend nights.

I went back to playing some 1/2 6-max. The first session was a trainwreck. I quickly lost about $800 due to the usual coolers and a little spew as well. I played another session late at night, which started out a lot better. I was up $800 before I ran kings into aces with deep stacks. Then I spewed in some pots before my nightly session ended with a hand that pretty much summed it up. I called a re-raise with KJ in a blind war against an aggressive donkey who had been owning me all night. Flop was JJ4. I check-raised him so that he only had 50 cents left. When he put the final 50 cents in I went into the time bank to put a good old slowroll on his ass. That was when I got disconnected and my hand was folded. So you could say I'm a little frustrated right now. But all I can do is keep playing until luck swings my way again. But I will basically do everything in my power to prevent myself from tilting. So I'm cutting down on the number of tables and on the length of my sessions.

Bad Day

I couldn't sleep tonight. When my alarm bell rang at 8 am I was so tired I just decided to skip class today. Later during the day I sat at 1/2 HU. There didn't seem to be a lot of fish around, so I played two tables against competent players. I played my normal hyper-loose-aggressive style. One of the players were playing way too tight. I ran completely over him. At one point I won 17 pots in a row. Unfortunately he got lucky in the big pots we played. All his hands held up against my semi-bluffing draws. After a while I started spewing. He got up to $1,300. Then I made a comeback to the point where we both had $750 stacks. That's when I did my usual routine of running a big bluff with nothing and I lost a $1,400 pot. The way it went was I raise to $8 with A8o. He re-raises to $24 and I 4-bet to $72. Flop is Q9x. He check-calls my $88 bet. The turn is another Q, putting two diamonds on board. He check-calls my $170 bet. River is a small diamond. I bet the remaining $380 into the pot, which is about $660 at this point. I felt there would be no way he could put me on a bluff when I'm betting that amount. Nevertheless he called me with JJ.

Losing that pot made me so tilted that I sat at 5/10. I found an opponent I felt like I could beat. I got up to a $400 lead, but lost most of it back before he quit me. I calmed down and loaded up a couple of 0.5/1 tables. I built up $600 stacks on both tables, making $1k profit. The match on one of the tables was pretty crazy. My opponent got off to a $500 lead by exploiting my maniacal play. Eventually I won all of it back with interest. The following hand illustrates my insane image at the table: I call his $3 raise from the BB with 33. Flop is K22. He bets $4 and I check-raise to $12. He calls and turn is another K. I bet $30 this time and he calls again. I was now pretty sure that he had ace high and that he would pay me off. The river was an 8. I bet the pot, which is $90. He calls and I win the $270 pot with a pair of threes against his AQ.

I still ended up as a loser today. The goal for the next days is to stop tilting and just grind 0.5/1 until I get things going again. On a positive note I did break my own record at online blitz chess. In the end it wasn't such a horrible day after all. Gonna watch an episode of The Wire now just to get my mood up before I go to bed. Later.

Bad Run

My shot at 2/4 failed miserably. On Wednesday I dropped $2,900 at the tables after hitting upon a bad run of variance unlike any I have ever experienced before. By using Hold Em Manager I calculated my winnings to be ~$4k below the actual All-in EV. Which means that with "normal luck" I would have been up 1k instead of down 3k. In addition I had coolers like set over set and flopping top set against a straight and so on. That took my bankroll straight down to $8k again. The next day I showed the discipline to move down to 1/2 again. But I was tilting hard and dropped $1,400. Friday wasn't any better, as I dropped another $1,200. I would build up huge stacks, then bluff off my winnings in monster pots. I was tired and tilted after endless hours of 8-tabling. Basically I was doing everything wrong.

That was when I decided to go new ways and realize a project I have been planning for quite some time. The idea is that I'm going to be playing only heads up tables instead of 6-max. I actually think HU is my best game. I have just avoided it earlier because I didn't have a sufficient bankroll and I would go on tilt after losing just a buy-in or two. The weekend went great. I won $2,100 without playing much at all. Almost all of that was on 1/2 HU tables. I'm not really sure what kind of bankroll limits I should set for myself, since I haven't played HU full time before. But I would suspect that you need a bigger BR because of the variance involved. I am mostly playing only one or two tables, though. If I continue to do well I might take another shot at 2/4 in a couple of weeks, only HU this time.

2/4 Swings

2/4 NL 6-max games are known for being very aggressive and also being a big step up in average skill level compared to 1/2. I have set myself a new goal this month that I will put in 1k hands per day. My first two days were quite swingy. On Monday morning the games were really tough. I did play well, but also made a couple of mistakes and had some coolers. At the end of the day I was +$100. Today I felt fresh and started out with a good session for +$700. In the evening I played a session that went well at first. I was up $1,300 for the day at one point. But then I dropped $1,900 in half an hour - partly by making some spewy plays in $1k pots. I couldn't quite go to sleep, so I played a late night session at well, sitting at 6 deep tables. This one went better. I profited $1,300 and ended the day with +$700 overall.

I think it will take a few more days before I get used to the money swings at 2/4. I might have to make some adjustments in my game as well. The regulars are definitely way more aggressive than what I have experience with. But if I can get my act together and can continue to put in 1k hands a day, this could be a very profitable month. Bankroll at $11k.

August Results

After a successful session today on the last day of the month, these are my total results (click graph to enlarge). +$5,865.
My best day was the 24th, winning $802 and my worst was the 9th, losing $179 (my only losing day). My hourly rate was $220.

My Full Tilt balance passed 5 digits for the first time today. I will now try out 2/4. If my bankroll drops back to $8k, I will move down to 1/2 again. If I get to $15k, I will probably take a shot at 3/6.

All Work and No Play

I haven't been able to play any poker since last weekend. I have been working on chess related stuff. I was hired by an oil company to take part in their stand at a petroleum exhibition, playing chess against all comers. :-) That was both fun and lucrative. School has also taken up a lot of my time. Which means that whenever I had time to rest I was too tired for poker.

Today I went to the local poker club and played a $20 rebuy tournament. I was the massive chipleader going into both the first and second break, but then my JJ ran into QQ, after which I quickly lost the rest of my stack as well. I played a successful session at 1/2 just now. August is going to end up pretty good. I only had one single losing day all month. Even though I've only played 10k hands, it's going to be a +$5k month for me. I'm moving up to 2/4 as of Sept 1st. Hopefully I can maintain a good winrate there as well so I can continue to make a decent income while putting in an embarrassingly small amount of hands.

Busy Week

My journalism studies started this week. The first week most of the time was spent getting to know your fellow students. It's been a lot of fun and I've been partying hard. There are about 60 new journalism students this year. They seem like a nice group of people. There are some pretty nice girls too. Seems like there is mutual interest between a cute blonde and myself. More updates on that later hopefully. ;-)

Naturally there haven't been much time for poker, but I have done very well the few times I was able to play. Yesterday I played the $100 HU tournament again. This time I was more successful as I made it into the "sweet sixteen" and cashed for $400. I obviously ran quite well, but I never felt threatened in any way in the first 5 rounds. In the round where I was finally knocked out I had some unfortunate situations occur, and I don't think many players could have done much good with the cards I was dealt. I'm up $1,200 in the cash games this week from more or less three short sessions. I have played exclusively 1/2, but my bankroll is quickly approaching $10k, so I will probably make 2/4 my regular game starting in September. Right now I'm sitting on the fence as to whether or not I'm going to play the 750k guaranteed on Full Tilt that starts in 20 minutes. I probably will.

I have to brag about a cool hand I played today. It's 6-handed as usual, and I raise KQo UTG to $7. That's a completely standard raise for me. Although it's one of the worse hands I will raise UTG, I generally think it's and underestimated hand in today's 6-max games. The games play so aggressively that most players are almost always 3-betting the hands that have you dominated. Thus it's possible to play top pair pretty aggressively with KQ in a lot of spots. In fact it's one of my most profitable hands. Anyway, I get called by the CO, who seems to be fishy, and by the BB, who seems solid. The flop comes T52 two hearts and I decide to lead for $16 into $22. Even though I had been rather active at the table, I reckoned my bet should get a lot of respect. It's harder for the CO to float me light with one player behind him, and the BB is usually going to have some sort of speculative hand that he is trying to hit a flop with. I expected him to play fit or fold. The CO ended up calling and the BB folded. The turn came an offsuit ace, which is obviously a good barrel-card for me. I bet $38 into $54, expecting to get a fold most of the time. I don't think it's necessary to bet any bigger. But I got called, and the river was another offsuit ace. So now I was imagining four scenarios. He either has a) the ace high flush draw that just caught an ace b) a ten that refuses to fold c) a naked flush draw or d) AK/AQ. I dismissed d) as unlikely, because he re-raises those hands preflop a lot and the aces on the board as well as the KQ in my hand makes it even more unlikely. Besides, it would have been a daring call on the flop with a player left to act. So I came up with what I thought was the optimal play, which was to check and call a bet. I didn't think he was capable of valuebetting anything less than an ace. So if he bets when I check on the river he either has Ax of hearts or two other random hearts, the latter being more likely. He bet $65, I insta-called, he showed 94 of hearts and I shipped the $255 pot with my king high.

Headsupament

I tried my luck in a $100 HU tournament tonight. In the 3rd round a very sick hand occured. I was playing against a fish. He min-raised the button and I called with J5 of spades. Flop was A34 with one spade. He bet 80 into 160, I check-raised to 280 and he 3-bet to 520. At this point I thought he had a monster, but I decided to call because of implied odds if I hit my hand. Turn was the ten of spades. I checked and he bet 780 into 1160. My first instinct here was to check-raise all-in with my two-way draw (we had 3k stacks), but then he starting chatting, saying "come on big boy", "let's do this chicken" and stuff like that. I really felt like a fish of this magnitude would not bluff and type that into the chat. So I only called. River bricked off and I had to give up because we only had a 1/3 pot bet left. He checked behind and showed... J8 for a stone cold bluff that nevertheless beat my J5. So, so sick. After that I got my stack in with an open-ended straight flush draw on the flop, but could not get there.

I'm still going as strong as ever in the cash games. I took another small shot at 2/4 yesterday night, since it's a weekend. I did fairly well with a $220 profit. Tonight I played 1/2, since I'm trying to make the top winners list at 2+2 this week. +$300 got me one step closer.

Tournament Night

On Tuesday I did an all-nighter along with a friend and played a bunch of tournaments where we took 30 % of each other. Unfortunately we didn't cash in a single one! :-) So that was $700 out the window. 300 of it was from a $5 rebuy where I made 60 rebuys. LOL tilt! At least I had a successful session at a 0.25/0.50 HU table where I destroyed my opponent for $230 in 20 minutes.

Yesterday I started grinding cash games to win back my monies. I wasn't feeling especially fresh, so I fired up some 0.5/1 tables. After a short while I was down 4 buy-ins. So I did what any poker player would do. I moved up to where they respect my raises. Two hours of 1/2 (deep stacks) later I was sitting with $3k+ spread across 6 tables and my bankroll was basically back to where it was before the tournament meltdown. I just finished a standard half hour session at 1/2 with a $150 win. If I have the heart and commitment to the game I might play another session later tonight, but I doubt it. :-)

There is this amazing new site Tableratings where you can track the cash game results of all players and also play through their hands, at least at Full Tilt. I found the epic HU session from April 25th when I built my bankroll from $1k to $2,700 on a single table and played through all the hands. That brought back good memories.

FTOPS Continued

I played the $240 6-max Knockout FTOPS event today. But yet again I didn't cash. :-(
I started slowly, but once I got a feel for my table I began steamrolling. At one point there was a series of 10 hands of which I won 8. But then I made a horrible river call with top pair when it was obvious that I was up against an overpair. After that some idiot shoved 20 BBs on me from the SB and after a long think I called him with A8 only to lose to his A3...
That made me shortstacked and I ended up shoving AQ only to brick off against JJ. We'll try again next weekend.

In cash games things are going better. Yesterday I experienced my first bad run in over a week. I dropped $350 at the 0.5/1 tables. Partly because of bad luck, but probably also because I was a little tired and a little bummed out that I was sitting at home all alone on a saturday night. After relaxing with a couple of beers I decided I might as well chase my losses at 1/2. I quickly managed to even the score, but then a couple of bad beats brought me back down. Late at night I sat at a 0.5/1 HU table, just waiting for fish to give me action. After busting a couple of shortstackers I ended the day about $150 in the red. So nothing to worry about at all.

I just came off a very good session at 1/2. In less than half an hour of 4-tabling I made a $600 profit. It's been a great week and I'm looking forward to the next. I had to make a $2k withdrawal yesterday and I've given out loans to some of my broke friends :-p which means that my bankroll is still at $8k, but once I get it to $10k I will take a serious shot at 2/4. In the meantime, peace.

FTOPS

Like I predicted in my last post, this was going to be a good week. I have dropped down to 0.5/1, 6-tabling on Full Tilt. My hourly has been $160, which is pretty awesome for those stakes.

So when the Full Tilt Online Poker Series 9th edition started, I decided to take a shot at some events. Today was the 6-max quadruple shootout NLHE. My table draw was so, so. There was one shark who had $550k in tournament winnings. Fortunately he was at the opposite end of the table and got coolered quite early. The other players all seemed solid. On my left was another guy with great tournament results. He was also very aggressive. I never really got things going. I started sort of a grudge match against the player on my right by showing bluffs and talking trash in the chat. I owned him and busted him out early, but I also had an unfortunate confrontation with my jacks against KQ where I lost the flip. When we were down to three, I was the clear shortstack. At one point I had 800 of the 18k chips in play. But I picked my spots and grinded my way up by playing aggressively. Then I went on a rush, knocked the weakest player out when my AQ held against A5 and went heads up with the chip lead against the aggressive guy to my left. I continued my rush by making some power moves and all of a sudden I had 14k vs. his 3k. That's when I flopped bottom two pair and got all the money in against top pair. Unfortunately he sucked out. After that I had no hands for a long while and lost my chiplead. In the final hand I called a raise with KQ and flop was Q73 rainbow. I check-called the flop. The pot was now already massive. The turn was a 3, which looked like a safe card. But he had 63 and busted me. :-(

So now I'm more or less on tilt and I won't be playing more poker until tomorrow.

Bad Week

My week started out as bad as it could. On Sunday I was up $400 and tried to push my luck late at night in an attempt to have a 1k payday. I was tired and should have known better. After a big cooler hand, I went on tilt and dropped $900 in less than an hour. I was tired, there was a record-breaking heat wave that day and my internet was disconnecting randomly for some reason.
I should definitely have quit a lot earlier.

During the week my connection continued to be bad and I tilted off some more money at the tables as a result of this, but to be honest I had a lot of bad luck as well. On Thursday I was tired of Full Tilt hanging all the time, so I took my business to WPX instead. I had less disconnection trouble there (plus they have disconnect protection), but nevertheless dropped $1k pretty fast (sigh) playing 2/4. On Friday I grinded the 0.5/1 and 1/2 tables for several hours and was up $1,100. But then I took a horrible bad beat and challenged the guy who beat me to a heads up match. That was probably not a good idea. I was pretty tired after playing long hours, and my opponent was a solid heads up pro. I started out chipping away at him and was up almost a buy-in (at 1/2) when I decided it was time to quit. Just to be polite I gave him a 5 minute warning. In those 5 minutes he managed to crack my aces and bust me. Now I continued playing after all. Bad idea, as my once +$1,100 turned into -$400... I was tilting pretty bad at that point. I did manage to win back some, though, and ended the long and hectic day with a total $100 profit.

It's 7 am Sunday morning now and my day/night has been pretty good. When I got up I played a little 0.5/1 at Full Tilt, winning $200 (although I did lose AT vs. AT all-in for 400 BBs on a KQJ rainbow flop to runner runner flush :-/...) My friend Joar was home from a chess tournament in Switzerland. He brought his laptop over to my place for some grinding. I made $400 profit from a short 0.5/1 session at WPX and $200 playing HORSE at Full Tilt. My internet connection seems to have improved. I am playing well and am confident of a good next week!

Good Times

It seems like all I do nowadays is drink and party. Yesterday I was at a BBQ party. The weather is really nice these days, and we're not used to that on the Norwegian west coast. Today I went to see The Dark Knight, the new Batman movie. It was entertaining and all, but didn't really live up to its hype imo. Afterwards we went out for a couple of beers. Downtown is overcrowded with people everyday because of a food festival. Tomorrow there is another party going down, so things are hectic.

I had a big losing day on Wednesday. Actually, it was my first losing day all month. I dropped $1k, all at 1/2. Most of it were coolers like kings vs. aces. Later at night I sat in for another session and actually managed to grind back $400. The last two days have been pretty standard for me. I play for half an hour, gain a $200-300 profit and call it a day. That's how most of my month has been going. I need to play more!

Sunday Million

Yesterday (Saturday) evening I was sitting at home all alone, eating my pizza with no real plans for the night. At around 10 pm my friend Victor called me and asked if I wanted to go out for a couple of beers. Sure enough, I obliged. We ended the night in the apartment of a couple of girls and stayed until about 7 am. There was no action, since neither of the two girls were really up to my standards. Got home and played some online chess against Odin. I won most of the games, so that felt good, seeing as I was drunk as hell. I ended up not going to bed until 4 pm. I followed the live action from a chess tournament where my buddy Magnus Carlsen won his first game. Mad props to him. At 6 pm I got a phone call from Odin and Emil (a friend who is in town for the week) who were on their way to pick me up for the movies. I wanted to stay in bed, but didn't want to be a jerk either, so off we went to see Hancock, which obviously sucked.

I just busted out of the Sunday Million. I played well, so it doesn't really bother me, but losing 80/20's are never fun. Oh well, there's always next Sunday. One of these weeks I gotta last longer. Here are some of the big hands from today:

Blinds 50/100. I open-raise JJ from middle position to 300. Button makes it 600 and BB calls (?). I call BS and repop him to 1900. He calls, as does the BB (set miner?). Flop is TT3 rainbow and I'm obviously not going anywhere. I bet 3300 and button instantly moves in for approx. 3000 more (sigh). I have to call and he shows me 22 (what?!). I hold and increase my stack to 20k.

Same orbit I open 66 UTG for 300. A shorty moves in for 75 more and BB calls. Flop is 977 rainbow and BB leads for 300. I raise to 1100 just in case he's full of it. He insta-raises to 4000, so I guess not. I fold and he has 97.

Blinds 100/200. Complete maniac open-raises the button to 600. I decide to smooth-call with ATo from the SB. Both because I could have him dominated and because he won't believe I have a big hand on ace high flops. A little trick I learned from Brian Townsend's videos. BB overcalls and we see a flop of Kxx two spades. It gets checked through and turn is the queen of spades, which gives me the nut flush draw and a gutshot. I bet 1200 and the maniac calls me. River is a blank and I decide to bluff for 2600, just in case he has a small pair. Or if he was on a draw as well I'm not going to give him an oppurtunity to bluff. He thinks for a while before calling with QJ. I'm down to 14k.

Blinds 150/300. There is one early position limper and our maniacal friend on the right raises to 1200. I call with 67 of clubs and everyone else folds. Flop J73 rainbow. He bets 1600 and I think about coming over the top, but decide to take off a card instead to get more information from him. Turn is the 9 of diamonds (the J is also a diamond). He checks to me and now I'm absolutely positive that I have him beat. I bet 3300, expecting to get check-raised all-in by a lot of draws. This may not be good tournament strategy, even though I know I have him beat. You should usually avoid getting all-in, but I guess there's nothing wrong with taking a 80/20. He puts me all-in for 6000 more and I insta-insta-insta-call. He shows up with ATo and finds a ten on the river. GG me.

The Journalist

In my first post in this blog I mentioned that I was a student, but nothing specific. I studied electrical engineering for five years, but in the last three I was more or less never at the University. I probably finished two thirds of the degree before I decided to quit altogether. It just wasn't meant for me. Well, the big news now is that I'm going into journalism. It's the hardest curriculum to be accepted into at the University in my city, but my grades from high school are top notch, so it proved to be a piece of cake. That's stating in late August, and I will have less time for poker, but I'm too lazy to play much anyway.

Over to more important issues imo. I have been crushing the 1/2 games at Full Tilt. Even though I had a downswing yesterday, I'm still winning at over 20 BB/100 for the month. I was stuck $550 yesterday before deciding to take a shot at 2/4. Not because I was necessarily on tilt. I am properly rolled for that level and I figured I might as well take my first shot when I was stuck, since I was less likely to play scared money. My forray lasted 10 minutes, after which I had profited $600 and unstuck myself for the night. Owned.

Tried out Titan Poker today since there was a promo that gives me Pokertracker for free. In my first sessions I won two buy-ins at 0.5/1, and I must say the games were very good and that Titan certainly lived up to its reputation as a fishy site. Good to know that there is still plenty of loose action out there for those who seek it, although I believe they don't accept Americans.

LOL Weekends

I was gonna write this post after the weekend, but before I got to it the next weekend had already started. It was a pretty fun weekend overall. On friday me and Odin went to the local poker club and played the $200 freeze. I came in 4th for about $600. Right before I busted I had put the shortstack all-in with 77 and he called with 83o because he thought he was committed. Quite a silly hand to commit yourself with imo, but that's poker. Of course he hit his 8 and I was left short. Fun tournament though, but a little too lengthy for my taste. My run lasted 7 hours.

On Saturday we went clubbing. Fun times. I haven't been drinking much lately, so the 1 liter Bacardi bottle I shared with Odin certainly had its effect. And when I met a cute girl at a bar I obviously bought plenty of drinks and champagne. I spent something like $400 that night, even though we got discounts since one of Odin's friend worked in the bar. Norway is fucking expensive - at least when you buy champagne. It's a good thing I have mad poker skills.

On Sunday afternoon I still felt drunk enough that I took a taxi to Odin's place instead of driving. I played some of the big Sunday tournaments on Stars, notably the Sunday Million (which had a $2.5M prize pool this week) and Second Chance. Odin had a 50 % share so I wouldn't ruin myself. In the Sunday Million I got off to a great start with some good hands and good reads. But then I had to fold KK to a river checkraise, and afterwards I got card dead, before getting knocked out in a very sick hand where the RNG managed to spit out AA, KK, QQ and AK on the same deal (I had KK).

I feel that I've reached the point where I make so much money on cash games that it's not really worth my time to play tournaments unless they have huge prize pools. I'll play the Sunday Million whenever I have time. And when the FTOPS starts in August I'll try to play at least some of the 6-max tourneys and the $300 Razz. Other than that I'll save my energy for the cash games.

So as to not make this post too incoherent, I will make a new one about my week in general.

Table Selection - The Icehawk System

I've seen a lot of advice on online table selection, both on the 2+2 forums and in training videos. They all pretty much bluntly state the same thing. Just choose the tables that have high average pot sizes and a high player per flop percentage. Now, I've given this subject a bit more thought and have come to a different conclusion.

I never used to be particularly disiplined when it came to game selection. The first time I went on a heater and amassed a bankroll (back in the fall of '06) I would routinely sit in high stakes NLHE games with the likes of Allen Cunningham and John Juanda. The tougher the competition, the better. After busting my roll a couple of times I came to my senses. But the first thing I adjusted, was my bankroll management, which is actually way more important. I still chose tables completely at random and never used a HUD. In fact, I still do that, to some extent. I'm just a bit lazy, I guess.

On to the system. The avg. pot and plr/flp statistics that most sites feature can really give some useful information. I've divided the table types into four groups (remember, all of this concerns 6-max NLHE cash only). There are 'in-between' tables that will not fall into any of these categories, but these are the extremes:

• Loose Aggressive (LAG) tables Avg. pot >20 BBs Plr/Flp >35%

These are the tables normally recommended. I will generally stay away from them, unless both numbers are extremely high and there is utter craziness going on. Although many of the players might be terrible, they will still put you in tough spots. Sure, you might have bigger paydays here if you're on your A-game and catch some cards, but chances are you'll have lots of headaches on the way and tilt city is not far away. Besides, these tables attract regulars.

• Tight Aggressive (TAG) tables Avg. pot >20 BBs Plr/Flp <30%

These are the absolutely worst tables in my opinion. You might win a lot of small pots by stealing the blinds, but once you face resistance it becomes hard to play. When all the money goes in, the players here will generally have a strong hand, so it's hard to stack someone unless you cooler them.

• Loose Passive (LP) tables Avg. pot <10bbs Plr/Flp >35%
  

Here is my favorite kind of table! Don't let the small pot sizes fool you. You can really take these players to valuetown big time. The players at these tables are generally calling stations. And it's common knowledge that such loose passive players are the ones you will be making the most money from.

• Weak Tight (WT) tables Avg. pot <10>BBs Plr/Flp <30%
  

These tables are generally hard to make money from, but they can be very profitable if you go in with a clear game plan. Start out playing a ultra-LAGgy 35/30 style. In the beginning you will be allowed to steal a lot. After a while, the table should become fed up with your constant betting and eventually you might see them do silly things like stack off with AJ preflop against you. You just need to be careful about changing gears at the right time.


So this is my table selecting system. I always try to find the LP tables. If the stack sizes are smaller than 100 BBs, that's also a good sign. The good regs will always buy in full and there are no good shortstackers at small stakes.

If you divide the player per flop percentage with the average pot size in BBs you get a number that I call the 'icehawk number'. In my system, this number should ideally be high. A good LP table might have an 'icehawk number' of 4 or more. WT tables will also generally have quite high numbers. LAG tables will have icehawk numbers around 2 and TAG tables can have numbers close to 1 or even lower than 1 in extreme cases. Remember if you play tables with very high icehawk numbers (7 or higher) that these can be quite tricky to play, because so many of the pots will be multiway. Anyway, I hope someone finds these thoughts helpful. I'm sure table preferences vary with playing style. If you're a TAG like me, I'm sure you like to be on tables with a lot of loose passive fish.

Man On Fire

After my nice tourney win I decided to jump in some 1/2 games at Full Tilt. I haven't really played that level regularly before. I took a few shots before my Peru trip, but that was only one or two tables at a time, and besides, it was on WSEX, where the games are much softer. Anyway, I was up to the challenge, as I raked in three buy-ins within half an hour's play. I also booked a small cash win today when I was warming up for the $75 6-max donkament. The tourney went very well, as I made the final table and ended in 5th place for $900. So 3 days and $3k profit! Admittedly I've ran quite hot, but still.

Bankroll is now up to $8k after some cashouts. That means I'm rolled for 2/4 NL by the standard Brian Townsend 20 BI rule. But I don't think I will move up quite yet. I just started playing 1/2! As I've become more experienced in this game, I have come to understand that moving up as fast as possible is not necessarily a goal in itself. If you want to become a professional player, you should always strive to work towards a longterm goal of becoming a better player instead of focusing too much on short-term income. Eventually the money will come by itself. When I move up to 2/4 I have to deal with 4-figure swings on a daily basis. I'm used to playing 0.5/1, so it's a pretty big step up.

El Campeón

I just came home from amazing Peru this evening. I'm not gonna go into too many details about the trip since this is a poker blog and not a tourist guide. But let's just say I experienced a lot during the 17 days I visited that culturally and geographically diverse country.

I haven't really slept since Lima. I usually need a bed to fall asleep. Anyway, I decided to pay my friend Odin a visit. We chatted for some hours about 'current affairs' and future plans while playing a little online poker on separate laptops. I entered the traditional $26 Pot Limit Hold 'Em tourney at Full Tilt (I talked a lot about it in my previous blog - it's a fun little daily 6-max tournament that usually attracts around 200 players - me, Odin and Joar have each won it at least once). After quite a few final table blowups I finally managed to win it again. And I did so in totally dominating fashion, knocking out every player at the final table. So that was a nice $1,300 payday on my first day back in Norway. My bankroll is up to $7k and I'm looking to move up to 2/4 NL soon. I was afraid it would take time to get back in the groove after two week's absence, but it looks like my fears were unwarranted.

Vacation

I'm leaving on saturday morning for Peru with my parents. It will be a long and probably exhausting trip, with hiking in the Andes mountains at 5,000 metres altitude and piranha fishing and anaconda hunting in the Amazon jungle. But it's always nice to broaden your horizon with these trips. I'll be gone until the middle of July. It will be a prolonged break from poker. I guess that's a smart thing to do once in a while. I don't really know if this is the best time, since I'm playing better than ever and I'm not burnt out at all. But at least I won't be sitting on my ass for the next few weeks.

Yesterday night I went over to my friend Odin's house to play poker. As we were waiting for other players, we played some HU SNGs and I beat him in 3 out of 4. That was a nice revenge, since he had been lucking out on me in previous matches. When Joar finally arrived at 2 am we played a 3-man SNG that I won quite easily. After that I owned them in chess as well, so it was a good night for me. :-) When I came home at 6 am I naturally couldn't go to sleep without a little online action first. I played a 30-minute session and won a buy-in at 1/2 just to confirm that WSEX is still rigged in my favor.

When I logged on to WSEX today there was crazy action going on at a 0.5/1 table. A player by the name of 'joelivio' was basically playing every hand and overbetting every flop, and also doing things like shoving his stack into tiny pots and open-raising to $40. He was sitting with over 400 BBs and I had direct position on him. I felt a big win coming. In our first encounter I floated him with 9d8d on a J632 board with 3 spades and showed. After that I had AJ on a QJx9 flop and called him all the way down. Given the situation I think it was the best play, but he got lucky to spike his gutter ball with T8, so I lost a stack there. A couple of hand later I raised UTG with KdQd and he naturally called from the BB. On the turn the board read QTT6 two spades two hearts and he overbet like always. I had nothing to do other than shove, but I ran into his AQ, which was another cooler. Then I re-raised him with AJs and was forced to fold on the river when he overbet-jammed. The very next hand I picked up aces, but had not managed to reload because of the terrible software. I got it all-in against kings, but only won $85 instead of $100 which pissed me off a bit. After that I picked up kings and queens and stacked someone both times. Now I was sitting with a $350 stack with position on joelivio's $250 stack. That was when he decided to leave. :-( Anyways, I bounced back from a quick 2 buy-in deficit to finish up ahead. Crazy swings, considering I was playing only one table for less than an hour.

A Hand I Played at 1/2

Yesterday I finished the requirements for my Full Tilt bonus. From now on I'm switching my attention completely to WSEX, since I have been winning constantly there. A few Razz games have actually been running as high as 2/4 and 3/6. I've played those with success, although the last two days I've been running like shit. So I decided to put in a grinding session at NLHE. I opened two tables of 0.5/1 and two tables of 1/2 and made $150 worth of profit from this short session. I have yet to play a lot of 1/2, even though my bankroll is large enough that I feel comfortable at those stakes. I played a hand I found quite interesting. Not because I was put in an unfamiliar spot, but because I wanted to mathematically analyze a situation I've been in endless times before and figure out the soundness of the play I made. I did some EV calculations. I have hardly any experience with those, but with my experience in math, it should be easy. Unless you take interest in the mathematics of No Limit poker you can skip the rest of the post.

So the first thing I do when I analyze a hand is to analyze the situation at the table. I had sat at this particular table a handful of orbits earlier. During this time I had been pretty card dead. I had taken down the blinds a couple of times uncontested and had won a nice pot with a strong call on the river. Since I am new to these stakes, most of the players probably didn't know anything about how I played, even though it is a very small site. In my mind I had a tight image, and I thought I had a lot of respect at the table after winning every pot I entered and especially after that call on the river. There was one player - let's call him UTG, since I don't have the hand history - who was sitting with a big stack. Apparently he had stacked SB and was trying to get on SB's nerve by talking a lot of trash. SB looked like he might be tilting slightly. He lost several pots and he also 3-bet a couple of times against position raises. The other three players at the table seemed pretty innocuous about this and the general play was tight and careful.

On to the hand. I was dealt 9c8c on the button and raised to $6 when everyone folded to me. SB made it $21, BB folded and I made the call, because I have a strong hand with good semi-bluffing potential in position against what I perceived to be a wide 3-betting range. Effective stacks were $200. The flop came 6c5d3h and he bet out $31 into the pot of $44. I shoved and he folded. Now this situation is interesting because it is so simplistic in a way. There is not a whole lot of draws I can have on such a dry board. And there is also not a whole lot of hands he can call me with. So I stand to have a decent amount of fold equity. Especially against a wide preflop range.

Let's try to put him on a range of hands. Since I had such a tight image and given how the table was playing I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and assuming that he's re-raising for value most of the time. Let's include 99+, AJ+, KQ and KJs. Let's also assume that he only 3-bets 99 and TT half of the time, KQo half of the time and that he 3-bets a good suited connector once in a while. In this approximation of his range I came to a total of 82 hand combinations, 30 of which were pairs. On this flop I am also assuming for the sake of simplicity that he bets 100% of his range and only calls the shove with his pairs. That is actually quite a realistic assumption, although he might actually fold some of his pairs due to my tight image.

On to the math. We can create a simple formula for figuring out the expected value (EV) of my play:

EV = EV(fold) * x + EV(call) * (1-x)

where 'x' equals the chance that the shove will induce a fold.

EV(fold) is the amount I win every time he folds, which is the amount that is in the pot before I make my move. So his $21 + my $21 + $2 from the BB + $31 that he bet on the flop = $75

EV(call) is the amount I win every time he calls. It can be calculated by multiplying my equity in the pot against his hand range with the total amount of money that's in the pot after we go all-in and subtract the amount of my shove. My equity with the gutshot and backdoor flush draw against 99+ is 22.5 %. The total amount in the pot will be $402 and the amount I shoved for was $179 (effective stacks minus my preflop call). Thus:

EV(call) = 402 * 0.225 - 179 = -88.6

Against the range I estimated, my fold equity is 63 %, since only 37 % of that range is pairs that he will call with. Now let's put x = 0.63 into the equation.

EV = 75 * 0,63 - 88.6 * 0.37
= 14.5

That means that on average my play stands to win $14.50 against the range I put him on in this situation. Let's also add that he needs to fold 54 % of the time for my play to be break even.

In conclusion: I made an aggressive play that stands to show a slight profit against a somewhat wide 3-betting range. If his range is tight and weighted towards high pocket pairs it might have been a losing play. On the other hand, if he is the type of player to cold-call a lot with medium pocket pairs and even slowplay high pairs, my play will show a lot of profit. In general, if his 3-betting range is wider than normal I should be able to make this play. Even if he 3-bets small suited connectors that will connect with that flop, I will have decent equity against those hands. My play will have a positive effect on metagame since I will now have more fear equity at the table. On the other hand, the variance will be rather high because of the thin edge that I'm pushing and I might go on tilt if I get called. That's the negative effect. Since I have a decent bankroll for 1/2 I like my play. If you play on a smaller roll, arguments could be made for folding in such situations. Another approach would be to float in position. The arguments against that is that he will bluff me out on a lot of overcards and he might check-raise me with overpairs. However, I'm risking a lot less to win the pot that way, and it's probably the best option against a passive opponent. Against an aggressive opponent I much prefer the shove on the flop. Since I didn't know quite what to expect from this particular player, I made the move. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that you won't make a huge mistake whatever you do in this spot.

The Razz Man

A couple of days ago I came in 4th in the nightly 2K guaranteed Razz tournament on Full Tilt. And guess what, today I won it. Ship the $630! My track record in that game is starting to get pretty good. I've cashed in almost half the Razz tournaments I've ever played! I was also looking good in the nightly 5K guaranteed PL Hold 'Em. But with 15 players left I lost a coin flip that would have given me a huge chip lead. Instead I went out in 15th.

I didn't have time to play any cash on WSEX, which is kinda bad since I should play in as many soft weekend games as possible. But the games are always soft there anyway, and I probably wouldn't have made as much as I did on the tourneys. I almost went to play a live $400 tourney, but decided that my bankroll is way too small for that yet. But it is approaching $6k. I'm a good week's grinding away from being rolled for 2/4 NL, which was my goal for the summer beforehand.

God I Hate Donkaments

I know, I know. I said I wouldn't. But there is this Mini Series of Poker thing going on Full Tilt where all the WSOP events are matched except the buy-in is 1% of the original. It has attracted some big fields, and I felt like I couldn't pass on the great value in the $50 Razz. For some reason I seem to grasp that game and I've done well in tournaments.

Out of the 414 participants, I came in 10th. Obviously a great result on its own, but it just feels like I lost. When we were 16 players left I had a big stack. I had made some great calls with marginal hands and generally played very well, I thought. Then I actually picked up a legitimate hand. On 5th street I held 65432 (a very strong hand for those not familiar with Razz), and had three opponents all-in. Then the biggest of these stacks managed to hit a miracle deuce and made the nuts. If I win that pot I have an absolutely massive chip lead with 13 players left. Instead I went out in 10th for $230. That's right before the final table, where all the big money is. 1st place paid out 5K. I really wanted to go to bed early tonight. Instead, it's 8 am, I just grinded razz for 5 hours and I made $180 profit. I wish I had a shotgun, so I could blow my fucking brains out. Good night!


Edit: Before I go to bed (or rather, before I go to sleep, as I have already been in bed for 8 hours) I must note that this has been a pretty good day all things considered. When I woke up and logged on to Full Tilt, Händel's Hallelujah chorus from "Messiah" was going off in my head. $700 worth of rakeback had arrived. Bankroll up to $5K. Going strong.

LOL Weekend Donkaments

In the weekends I will often hang out with some friends and donk it up in online tournaments, mainly just for fun. Even though I think I have a big edge in all the tournaments I play, it's probably losing me a lot of money to play them instead of cash games. And it's not even that fun. The big scores are so few and far between that it really gets a bit frustrating when you only play a few of them each week. If you're a high volume donkament player you'll naturally see more success in a shorter time span.

Anyways, I played a lot of tourneys this weekend without cashing for significant amounts. In a couple of minutes there is the "big 5K" on WSEX, which is fine, since it only costs me FPPs. But I think I will cut down on the donkament spendings the next weeks until I get a bigger bankroll. I might play some live tournaments, though.

Now I'm getting ready for a long saturday night grind. That's the best part of the week to be playing, EV-wise. So I've got two large bottles of coke standing next to me and I'm bumping some heavy hip-hop on the headphones. Let's try to build a 10 BI stack! GOGOGO!


Update: I played for three hours straight, which is a lot for me. I'm not one of those guys who can put in a ton of hours. I try to play a couple of hours every day and that's it. The games were fairly good, but not spectacular on a saturday night. I got unlucky in some big pots, but grinded out a $250 profit. Since moving to WSEX half a month ago, I've yet to experience a losing day. Overall, I'm up 2K+. I'll try to play there more once I clear my Full Tilt bonus. Took a shot at 1/2 tonight. The game seemed very soft. Let's hope the action doesn't die out completely.

Current State

My bankroll is up to $4K atm. I had to withdraw a lot in May to pay off debts and such. Now that all the financial matters are taken care of, I hope to keep my BR continuously growing without having to withdraw again in the coming months so I can play 200NL. I'd say 20 BIs is the minimum you need to take a shot at a new limit (6max, that is).

The last two weeks have been pretty awesome. I am up $1,500 on WSEX (World Poker Exchange) over ~5K hands, playing 100NL. That's where I have most of my BR and will be playing 1/2 now. On Full Tilt I have a lot less money. I'm basically just playing there to collect a bonus. I played a couple of hours of 50NL today. I was mostly just 2- and 3-tabling while watching the EPT Bahamas (god, I'd love to go there in January). I went on a sick heater. At one table I started a grudge match against the player directly to my right when I noticed he was about to crack. Waging open war against the player to your right is usually a good idea unless he's insanely good. The total profit for the session was 9 BIs.
Ship the $450.

New Blog

Welcome to my new blog!

I just noticed that Patrik Antonius was using this layout in his blog, so I obviously copied it, since he is God.

A little bit about myself: I'm a 23 year old student and poker player from Norway. I specialize in 6-handed No Limit Texas Hold 'Em cash games online. You might know me as icehawk on Full Tilt or icehawk84 on 2+2. I play on other sites as well, but I won't reveal my screen names at the moment. In early 2006 I started playing NLHE online. At first it was just a random hobby, but in August I decided to try to get good at it. Since then, I've made most of my money playing poker. I have by no means gotten rich and I have busted my bankroll several times - most of the time because I had to withdraw money for other purposes.

Hopefully that trend is about to change. In late March this year I started taking poker more seriously. I built a new bankroll starting from only $3(!), moving up quickly through the limits. In April my profit was 3k and in May 5k. I am a believer in good bankroll management as a key to success. This time I am going to protect my bankroll and see how far I really can take it. I think I am ready to become a professional player and make some serious money.

My old blog is still there. Although i realized nobody was reading it and I never made any attempts to get any readers, I still found it useful to keep a diary. I updated it very frequently with stuff that wouldn't have interested anyone unless I was a high stakes pro. Hopefully I will become one as this blog progresses. But I will try to keep it more reader friendly with fewer posts and more interesting content. The goal is to give a view into how it is like to grind your way through the limits in today's tough online games. I like to think that there is someone out there who might find it interesting to read what goes through the mind of a crazy, Scandinavian young gun.

Anyways, GL and see you at the tables!