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.