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 I've withdrawn a lot lately, but I think I'm good for now.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.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
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
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
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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
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
Monday, October 6, 2008
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.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
