As the world turns: bad to worse to better

1st! Good Luck Santo! Keep up the good progress!

Robert Pattinson!

thanks!!!...

kiwi.. i know who Robert Pattinson is now! He's the actor from Twilight! I could have drawn a vampire =/

Originally Posted by Santo2True

thanks!!!...

kiwi.. i know who Robert Pattinson is now! He's the actor from Twilight! I could have drawn a vampire =/

orly? Nobody would've gotten it anyway.

Dude good luck to ya! Looking forward to watching/reading your journey.

update: 5/18/2010

List of leaks to work on that are killing my bottom line.

1. Calling when I know I'm beat because I'm playing against a fish who I just watched bluff someone else. (biggest leak)

2. Playing when I'm tired and know I've had enough, but waiting for the blinds to come back around and risking stacks against shortstack all-ins.

3. Limping in the SB cause there were three limpers ahead of me and I'm not sure if raising here is good or not with hands like KQs, AJ, 22-66

4. Study more.. keep studying and keep watching videos and keep asking questions.

From last nights session......
Hands I should have known better:

Hand 1: My god, I have no idea honestly what I was thinking other then I have watched this guy take this line several times when he was far behind. Stupid stupid play

$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
PokerStars
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Mflsk ($5)
UTG+1 zhaoxia520 ($5.35)
MP1 omerta63 ($16.90)
MP2 creepfish ($12.80)
CO laubal16 ($12.15)
BTN iiitsal13 ($7.60)
SB Hero ($12.60)
BB stub3pkr ($4.55)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is SB 10 10
2 folds, omerta63 raises to $0.50, 2 folds, iiitsal13 calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.40, 1 fold

Flop: 2 8 Q ($1.75, 3 players)
Hero checks, omerta63 bets $0.50, iiitsal13 folds, Hero calls $0.50

Turn: 9 ($2.75, 2 players)
Hero checks, omerta63 bets $0.50, Hero raises to $3.25, omerta63 goes all-in $15.90, Hero goes all-in $8.35

River: 3 ($30.25, 2 players, 2 all-in)



Hand 2:


$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
PokerStars
9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG stub3pkr ($4.90)
UTG+1 Mflsk ($6.60)
MP1 Leva Nazar ($5)
MP2 omerta63 ($12.20)
MP3 jparks12 ($26.40)
CO madden1809 ($4.30)
BTN laubal16 ($9.25)
SB iiitsal13 ($6.35)
BB Hero ($12.50)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35, 9 players) Hero is BB K K
2 folds, Leva Nazar calls $0.25, omerta63 calls $0.25, jparks12 calls $0.25, 2 folds, iiitsal13 calls $0.15, Hero raises to $1.50, Leva Nazar folds, omerta63 calls $1.25, jparks12 folds, iiitsal13 folds

Flop: 3 10 A ($3.75, 2 players)
Hero bets $1.75, omerta63 calls $1.75

Turn: 8 ($7.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, omerta63 bets $3, Hero calls $3

River: 7 ($13.25, 2 players)
Hero checks, omerta63 goes all-in $5.95, Hero calls $5.95


and two hands I feel good about:

Hand 1:

$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
PokerStars
8 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG Hero ($18.30)
UTG+1 trappers12 ($15.15)
MP1 Timoo6k ($7)
MP2 Gianni242 ($46.60)
CO 82mouton ($9.25)
BTN zzaacc101 ($5)
SB Glassman VII ($9.80)
BB anibal332 ($2.10)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35, 8 players) Hero is UTG K A
Hero raises to $1, trappers12 calls $1, 5 folds, anibal332 goes all-in $2.10, Hero calls $1.10, trappers12 calls $1.10

Flop: 7 A J ($6.40, 3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets $4.75, trappers12 calls $4.75

Turn: K ($15.90, 3 players, 1 all-in)
Hero bets $8.75, trappers12 goes all-in $8.30

River: 7 ($32.95, 3 players, 2 all-in)


Hand 2:

$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem
PokerStars
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG alleycat1965 ($2.90)
UTG+1 maxemius ($6.25)
CO LucianL1 ($10.75)
BTN rowdie45 ($9.90)
SB Hero ($12.50)
BB xiaoneng ($5.25)

Pre-Flop: ($0.35, 6 players) Hero is SB 8 8
2 folds, LucianL1 calls $0.25, rowdie45 calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1, 1 fold, LucianL1 calls $0.75, rowdie45 calls $0.75

Flop: 5 5 6 ($3.25, 3 players)
Hero bets $2.25, LucianL1 calls $2.25, rowdie45 calls $2.25

Turn: 8 ($10, 3 players)
Hero bets $4.50, LucianL1 calls $4.50, rowdie45 calls $4.50

River: 6 ($23.50, 3 players)
Hero goes all-in $4.75, LucianL1 goes all-in $3, rowdie45 folds

Just read your intro post. Good luck dude! I'll be following your progress.

05/19/2010

Hit a milestone of mine today. My bankroll is back over $400 at total of $407.68
This is important to me only because this puts me back to where I was and wanted to be awhile ago.
I still have a long way to go to my ultimate goal for myself but I'm pretty much taking each $100 humps at a time.

Working right now on practicing hand combinations and when to 3bet for value/as a bluff
and all that good stuff.

I have been switching between playing 10nl FR and 25nl FR 20-50bb. The only reason I have been playing the shortstack tables at 25nl is because I have found so many softtables when there were no good 10nl tables available and the pots pay out a little bigger and seem to move faster. Soon I will be moving away from 10nl completely and merging back into regular 25nl FR tables.

More to come soon....

hmm never thought of playing 25nl just on shortstack tables. nice idea. good luck with your goals santo, i liked your poker story-so-far. i think just about everyone goes through the naive first 1-4 deposits thinking they can beat the online games because they took down their last homegame/pub game. i think the more you know about poker, the worse you realise you are, and the less you realise you know. weird eh? GL!

yeah rpm, you pretty much hit it right on. The more I learn and play I realize how much I was missing in my game. I mean I can literally sit here and say I was a horrible poker player! Now I can say I'm just a bad player, lol.. but it's a move in the right direction.

thanks for reading!

I've been reading up and looking into some HU (heads up) play. Something about HU that really intrigues me. Last month I decided to take a few stabs at some soft games so I wanted to post some of my results as I'm thinking of playing a few more and maybe getting serious about this aspect of the game as well. I can see where learning and being good at HU could ultimately add some angles to my regular FR games. Although they are two completely different beasts, I believe learning other areas of the game can only help you play better.

This post is more for me to keep a record of the HU games I have played so feel free to skip.

PokerStars Tournament #254814137, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $4.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/03/21 1:13:14 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 4.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #265900516, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $4.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/23 16:34:50 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 4.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #265930381, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.25 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $10.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/23 18:07:43 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 10.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #265937668, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.25 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $10.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/23 18:32:07 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 10.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #265938934, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.25 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $10.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/23 18:35:40 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 10.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #265950096, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $11.00/$0.50 USD
4 players
Total Prize Pool: $44.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/23 19:16:44 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 44.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #266644584, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $4.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/04/25 21:48:49 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 4.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Tournament #270880581, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $4.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/05/08 20:34:41 ET
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 4.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

Santo glad to hear things are going well. Just an observation from somebody who really hasn't a clue but thinks he may be right about this aspect. I think you would benefit most from deciding what it is you really want to learn first. Is it FR, 6m or HU? Once you've decided then stick with that until you feel you are at the top of that particular game. They all play so differently I think you are doing yourself an injustice by bouncing around. Just a thought.

Harley, you are correct, except in this case I am not really devoting any major time to HU at the moment. FR is my main game and where most of my time is going. However I enjoy playing HU SnG's from time to time and there's nothing really wrong with playing two different game styles at once. What my plan is once I get rolled for 25NL I'm going to take a little pause from FR and do some more serious HU at that time.

05-27-2010


The trials and tribulations of becoming good at something can wear so heavily on the mind. It creates moments of stress and mental breakdown. An odd thing the way the human mind works. On one side we can control it and forcefully do things at will. On the other side we allow our mind to take over our own suggestions and thoughts and do things we don't quite understand or disagree with. Yet we allow this to happen over and over again and when we don't learn from our own mistakes is when we get stuck in what I like to the call "the rut of the mind". It's a path that has been grooved into our mental thought process that is very hard not to follow.
I read recently something that sparked my interest. I want to say it was written by Jennifer Tilly. She talked about this samething and how once you think a certain way it is very hard to convince your mind to think otherwise. She compaired this to being a child and walking to school or where ever you might be walking. You'd have to pass through a field on your way. This field had a trail that had been walked by people for years so it had formed a nice little rut. When you cut through this field you could literally walk it a million different ways. You could walk it a thousand times and each time could be a different way. But instead, what do we do? We walk the path that has been laid out before us. We follow it each and every time and think nothing more of it. The path is already there and it's so easy to just walk the same way as we have for so long.

The reason I bring this up is because I think this is so directly related to progress and how well one will do at poker only when they are willing to look at the field as a whole. We need to realize there are several different paths to take and if we can't step outside of the rut we will never improve.

Lately I've been assessing my bigger leaks. If I can plug the BIG leaks then I will have less to worry about later. One of my major leaks is kindof falling into the same rut every session. I start my sessions maybe with not enough dedication (i'm not sure yet), and I'll usually lose a few buyins. I spend the next few hours grinding back the money I lost and then will usually profit at that point. It really gets to me though cause I realize if I hadn't started off my session so bad, at the point I'm ready to get off I could have profited ALOT more. Almost every graph I have looks like the Grand Canyon. A little time of BE and then a big drop and then a little more BE and then a big incline.

Perhaps I'm stuck in a rut of thought process and this is contributing to my horrible start of sessions. Perhpas it's just variance messing with my mind. Most likely I'm playing better when I'm more focused on winning my money back. I don't like the latter for many reason. I can see where playing to get my money back has got me into spots where I'd fold and be a NIT when I probably was ahead but was to affraid to take the chance. This is a horrible way to play poker.

I had the pleasure of getting some coaching from Carrot yesterday. This is probably the best 2hours of time I have invested into my poker training/studying. He was able to go over alot of my leaks with me and I was able to watch his style of play and get a better grasp of putting villains on a range. I decided coaching was probably going to be the only way I could get myself off this rut and start walking a different path. I think it was a smart move.

For the record too, Carrot is a sick coach! He's extremely good at putting opponents on a range and knowing what to do in certain situations. He explained everything he was doing to me and walked me through several hands and spots where I'd usually not know what my next move was. Having a plan going into a hand makes all the difference. I mean, we come up with plans everyday in our normal life and usually follow them through right? Why should poker be any different? We need to know what we are doing and why or else we will find ourselves on a river shove and scratching our heads. Carrot was able to bring alot of key factors I am missing in my game into play for me. I will be using everything he went over with me in the days to come and hopefully can improve on my thought process.

I will report back with updates as always. Until then, if you find yourself unable to get out of some sort of rut, what ever it may be, talk with someone about it. Tell them what you are doing and why. If you don't know why maybe they will be able to give you a suggestion. If nothing else at all, maybe just talking about it will help YOU realize that you ARE stuck in a rut. Once you know you are then you can start the process of getting out of it.

LATAZ

^^^
You are absolutely right about the mental part right here. I definitely experience the exact same thing. And like you often start sessions by losing and having to win it all back over the rest of the hours I play. Well, that used to be my pattern at least. I think, at least for me, it came from the impatient mentality I would have where I was kind of pissed off that I was stuck playing micro stakes and wanted to make money asap to get the hell out of 5 or 10nl. Because of that, I'd end up starting the sessions hyper aggressive and stacking off very light/bluffing a lot to accumulate chips. Recently, it's become my habit to remind myself constantly at the start of sessions "tight is right, wait for reads, would I really stack off here mid session?" It really is a huge boost when you aren't grinding to recoup your losses and the feeling you get when you look at a 500 hand session graph and see that it starts up and just continues to climb is pretty nice.

very nice post, santo. as best i understand it, poker is purely a manifestation of thought processes. some people's thought processes are more conducive to winning money at this game than others. not just Professional No Limit Holdem-style Range/Equity/Maximisation thought processes, but a holistic kind of understanding of the influence of psychological, social and emotional influences is needed, as well as understanding of people's limitations/inhibitions (from things as specific as personal optimal session length or spewing in 3bet pots OOP, to broader, objective consideration of dominant patterns/modes of thought, as you delved into above), not just your own but of your opponents. an ability to objectively analyse not just what you're doing, but why you're doing it, and most importantly, evaluating the merit of whatever it is you're doing, as you did above, i think is possibly the most important thing in improving at poker. i obviously can't say this very matter-of-factly because i'm actually very bad at poker. but it seems to make sense. in conclusion i'm drunk and probably making little sense to many people, so i'll just say nice post again and then go to bed. nice post.

Yah I like your thinknig santo. This thought process is a big step from "I lost 5BIs so I have to grind it back now" Keep putting people on ranges and thinking things throgh as best you can and you'll do well imo.

Nice read. Someone who actually know how to write.


"I thought you had pocket Kings. I was like.." Jennifer Tilly

thanks for reading guys, makes it worth writing!

05/28/2010

It's an amazing thing what one can do when realizing a thought process, taking control of it, and altering it in to a completely different direction.

With coaching from Carrot I realized some of my main leaks. I plugged those leaks the best I could and applied my new thought process into a session.

I wanted to test this and see if I could visibly see a difference in my play and profit. What I did was I played one straight session for several hundred hands the way I've been playing. Sure enough my graph and profit reflected how I've been playing all along. Big slopes of win and lose and only breaking even in the end.

My second session I played, I focused much more then I ever have at the start of a session. I played back in my mind everything Carrot went over with me and thought about what he would tell me to do in every situation I found myself in. Again, I did this over several hundred hands, and I think the results speak for themselves. Below I will post the graphs from both sessions and tell me what you think...







I know I need to continue to apply this logic as I move forward and only a large sample will actually tell the full truth. But regardless, I still believe the two hours spent getting coached will have the biggest impact on my play. Time to grind on and Carrot, I'll be getting in touch to continue our sessions!

05/31/2010

quick update... everythings been going pretty well as of lately. staying focused and staying ontop of my game..

my graph of the past 30days.. around 12k hands is when I started to get coaching from Carrot

now just have to work on ATS and maybe get my aggression up a bit
one leak at a time =-)

Nice work sir, your attitude to learning and succeeding pwns imo. I have full confidecne you can reach 50NLz in no time.

6/03/2101

first, let me say thanks Carrot! I appreciate your support! as well as everyone elses!

Now, a new month.. so I'm going to set some goals for myself and see if I can spend the next 30days reaching them and plugging up some of those leaks.

Goals:

1.Start stealing more from CO and Button... I have been raising more from the BB as well when SB limps in after it's been folded around to him. So between these three spots I want to work on raising a wider range.

2.Turn betting/barreling... I feel this is a big leak in my game that I still am having trouble with. I give up to easily I feel on the turn and allow my opponents to see free river cards... So deff. going to work on this one.

3.Get in a little more volume. This isn't very important, but I'm only a silver star and would like to get up to Gold before the end of this month atleast. I just cleared my last $10 stella so on to the $50's and I'd like to clear them pretty quick to help the BR..

4.HAVE A GOOD MONTH!

hope everyone else has a great month too! GL guys!

06/07/2010

So far so good. Had a rough start to the month 6/5 and 6/6. Dropped down 3 buyins at 25nl and almost hit my stop loss to go back to 10nl. But I stuck at it and got back my lossed monies. Very close to hitting $600 and working on all the goals I set for myself. One more thing I want to add is 3betting flops. I have been focusing strongly on ranges but this is still one area that needs major helps. Sometimes I feel like I'm spot on and others I feel completely lost and scratching my head. I think I'm giving up alot of BB by folding to flop raises after cbetting/donkbetting and situations like this.

Going to get another session in with Carrot soon hopefully and get a few more kinks worked out. I look forward to this month and have high expectations for a profitable run. I know most of you do not like PTR but since I do not have PT3 or HEM it helps me keep track of how I'm doing for now. PTR says I'm definitely getting better so I feel good about that as well.

I also want to add in a quick thank you to everyone over in Mirc and here on the forum for all the help you have given. I would not be anywhere near where I'm at right now without you guys. I also appreciate you reading my blog and posting encouraging words.

Off to the tables!

06/11/10

Bad news on the home front. Have a had a rough couple days. My first major down swing since really trying to focus and play to make money. It could be due to being nervous about moving up or it could simply be that I'm the sour end of variance. Seems I've got it when I was good but have been losing excessively to draws. So I've dropped almost a full 7 buyins and I guess I will have to return to 10nl for the time being until I can take another stab at 25nl. I still have along time left in the month so I could turn it around. However I will be moving into a new house the last week of June and first week of July, so this will give me some down time.

Right now just trying to manage my tilt and try to grind back up. Took two days off so I'll be hitting it hard this weekend. We'll see what happens by Sunday. I'm optimistic!

Originally Posted by Donachello

^^^
You are absolutely right about the mental part right here. I definitely experience the exact same thing. And like you often start sessions by losing and having to win it all back over the rest of the hours I play. Well, that used to be my pattern at least. I think, at least for me, it came from the impatient mentality I would have where I was kind of pissed off that I was stuck playing micro stakes and wanted to make money asap to get the hell out of 5 or 10nl. Because of that, I'd end up starting the sessions hyper aggressive and stacking off very light/bluffing a lot to accumulate chips. Recently, it's become my habit to remind myself constantly at the start of sessions "tight is right, wait for reads, would I really stack off here mid session?" It really is a huge boost when you aren't grinding to recoup your losses and the feeling you get when you look at a 500 hand session graph and see that it starts up and just continues to climb is pretty nice.

All bang on. I've experienced this same journey.

06/17/10


Horrible month so far. moving up has proved to be devastating to me. pretty much I have lost all the money I made last month and have to start back over at square one. decided taking a short break is probably best so I can relieve some of my tilt while I still have a bankroll left.

If I had to guess where I went wrong, I'd say I'm being too aggressive. Also the amount of suck outs has not helped. Taking a few days off will hopefully be good to clear my head and when I come back I guess I will start over at 10nl and wait a little bit longer before moving up this time.

See you guys in a few days.

Dude, if I had to take a guess as to what was wrong I'd say you are downswining, but you're making it a whole lot worse for yourself by A - being very results orientated and tilting as a result and, B - just trying to win loads of pots as supposed to thinknig clearly and logically about ranges etc. Defo take a break, even if you don't think you're trilting too hard, you probably are. Dowswings will affect your game until you're used to them and you are most definitely not yet farmiliar and accustomed to variance, and I wouldn't expect anyone that's fairly new to poker to be.

Next time you're on IRC, look out some trouble hands, even find some of the big pots you lost so we can make sure you played them well etc and that they are just mainly coolers.

Drop back to 10NL and realise that you have your whole life to master poker and succeed in the coming months/years. You don't have to sky rocket through the limits without setbacks to be successful in the end. If you could do that there'd be no need for communities and forums like FTR. Rewatch the coaching vids or w/e and make sure you're sticking to the clear objective analytical approach of putting people on a range and playing accordingly. The three steps to a good thought process:

1. What is my opponent's range when he does x action on x board.

2. How will he react with this range when I do x action in response on x board.

3. What will x action be on my part to generate the best EV in this hand.

(4.) What other factors may I have missed in my analysis.

Do this without self convincing emotional demons in the back of your head having their say. The thought process is for your logical brain, the part which does not give a fuck about short term results or money gained or lost in a small sample.

I realise It's hard to have a crystal clear thought process in a limited amount of time when you're new to ranges and affected by a nasty downswing, but always make sure you're trying to think this way and not just making decisions based on emotions or single thoughts that are misleading in a vacuum (where you haven't pieced the whole puzzle together and are just focussing on one tempting piece of reasoning on it's own)

Hope things start improving for you, whatever you do, stick to BR managment when you return to grinding, if you violate this, you'll busto sooner or later.

7/27/10

I'm BAaaaaaaaaCKKKKK... it's been a bit, but i'm back...

Finally all moved into my new place and got internet up and running. Been playing a little bit of 10nl to get back in the swing. So far looks like not much has changed, still lots of fish! Going to probably be a couple more days before I really get back into playing as I still have alot going on, but it's deffinitely been long enough. Time to rebuild and start all over. Look forward to talking to all you guys again!

BRB.......

bump? still around?

Holy cow that was a long break!!! Lol...
Going to start trolling around and see what's new. Hope some of my old buddies are still around!