Operation: Pwn March

So I've been around here for a little while (much more reading/lurking than posting, for sure) and I've decided to start an operation mostly to motivate myself and stay focused and partially, of course, to learn. Before I get to the actual goal of this operation, I'll do a quick intro as to what I've been up to lately. I'm a reg at 50NL nit ring on UB. I've been playing said stakes since December and have done pretty well. I've played 39k hands, have rakeback and other assorted bonuses and have been playing at 3.04 PTBB/100 while 3/4 tabling (depending on how I'm feeling). For me, it's been successful. I've never really been this consistent (3.7 BB/100 in Dec, 2.55 in Jan, 3.01 in Feb) but obviously I haven't improved from month to month. Of course, it is only 50nl and it is UB where 50nl is even more fishy since that's where the BBJ kicks in. I've played 50nl at FT and at PS and can say with some certainty that 50 appears much, much fishier here than those two sites (and I especially love the 72 tables as those are even more donkalicious -- over 5k hands 7.36 PTBB/100. Small sample, sure, but take my word for it).

The Goal:
Start owning 50nl FR at UB so I can continue to move towards completing my long term goal successfully grinding 100nl. Win rate of 4 PTBB/100 minimum. Minimum 10k hands.

Why:
I've been playing this level for 2 1/2 months now and have made very little progress with my game. I still have trouble laying down premium pairs in tough spots (my biggest leak for sure). My winrate has been stagnant. I tilted off occasionally in February, something I thought I had gotten a decent hold of over the last few months but has come back to haunt me a bit. I'm actually impressed with my tilt control as far as suckouts go, it usually makes me focus more. In terms of outside stresses and fatigue tho, that's where I've gotten hurt. Slowly bleeding away a buy-in or 1/2 BI at the end of the night. Randomly tilting first thing in the morning out of impatience. All of this must change. I want to move up to 100nl, I more than have the bankroll to move up right now. I feel like if I can fine tune some of my skill set and stop some of the unneccessary losses, I'll have the confidence to move up (confidence, I think, has a great effect on my game). Basically, I started finally getting serious at poker last May with the goal of playing 100nl well someday and have worked my way up from 10nl since then and I don't want to settle for anything less than my initial goal.

How It's Gonna Go Down:
- Posting in this thread. I'm going to try to make a wrapup post at the end of every day that I play including some interesting hands maybe some graphs. I play just about everyday, so I'm hoping this will help me keep myself accountable. I'll post my stats in a reply to this for the fuck of it.
- Learning. The reason I only set the minimum hands at 10k is that I want to play less and learn more this month. I have about 40 pgs left of Harrington's Vol 1. on cash games. I'd like to... Errr... I NEED TO finish that and get started on volume 2. Going to renew Grinder School membership as well and watch/examine videos. So less playing time, more learning time. I'm thinking about planning specific days to dedicate to certain things. Maybe play odd days and learn even days... Not sure yet.
- I know, I know. Nothing too exciting.
- I am however a paid hockey blogger as another side job (don't want to link just in case employer doesn't like gambling or something) so I may be somewhat entertaining, esp when I just don't give a damn late at night.


Here goes nothin'....

Figured I'd post stats in case anyone is interested or wants to critique (certainly would appreciate it). Not trying to turn this into a stats thread at all tho. Also, I sit at ante tables a bit, so that's why it looks like I pay a shit ton of blinds.

So after two days I'm 2,000 hands into the month. Only played 300 yesterday and played like crap and got crap cards. Pretty terrible combination. Started to get my shit together after the first 1k hands and played better -- not well -- and got hot at the end of the night as you can see below. I remember two horrible hands I donked off about 1 1/2 BI combined, so not very successful. Need to focus on playing steadily throughout an entire session. Started to get tired though and called it off at a good time. Not too many interesting hands, pretty much won a lot of $ with standard sets/houses, etc. Actually stacked two medium stacks in a row. Flopped a set of 5s followed by set of Ks.

I guess the good news is that I'm not too far off pace for playing poorly. Just can't do that too often.

Here's one interesting hand, though. What would you do on the river?

Table isn't overly loose, which is why I only went 4x pf. At a crazier table I would have raised more and in hindsight, may have been better. Button is a reg. 10/4 over 1300 hands. 3bets 2% AFq of 33%. He's tight but from LP he is 13/5. I'd say his calling range is something like JJ-66, AKs-ATs, AKo-AJo with some suited connectors and broadways KQs-87s. I discount premium pairs because I figure if he as any idea what he's doing he'll likely 3bet with three people already in the pot in front of him.

The flop is really dry and I'm looking to entice money in the pot from anyone who hit the Q and to get all the garbage hands out and figure out where exactly my hand stands. Bit of a vbet, bit of a probe, bit of a tits or gtfo. Obviously, I do this at the risk of betting into sets, but I think for $5 they might be inclined to move in on me quickly and get it in if it looks like I'm ready to go. Button calls and I'd put his range much narrower, 33, 99, QQ, AQo/s, KQo/s *maybe* JJ/TT. At this point I've established that he's either got tp or a set, I think.

Maybe I should have checked the turn to see how he would proceed, but I decide to not let off the gas pedal. His range is really about the same. Bet is kinda useless since I probably can only discount underpairs. He's pretty solidly either got a set or a Q.

River... I'm not sure. C/c? C/f? I would think depending on his timing/bet size I could then choose between those two options. Certainly can't call a raise if I bet. Not sure I even want to bet.


Absolute/UB Cereus No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (9 handed) - Absolute/UB Cereus Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop

Button ($50.25)
SB ($58.60)
BB ($26.75)
UTG ($12.05)
Hero (UTG+1) ($58.05)
MP1 ($130.12)
MP2 ($49.50)
MP3 ($33.28)
CO ($7.25)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with K, K
1 fold, Hero bets $2, 1 fold, MP2 calls $2, MP3 calls $2, 1 fold, Button calls $2, SB calls $1.75, 1 fold

Flop: ($10.50) 3, 9, Q (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5, 2 folds, Button calls $5, 1 fold

Turn: ($20.50) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets $12, Button calls $12

River: ($44.50) 3 (2 players)
Hero...

One of the other things I've decided really needs work is useless spew/weak-tightness. I mainly play from 11a-2p and 1a-4a, so I find that a lot of times at the beginning and end of the day I have issues with this stuff. It seems to be that when I first wake up and start playing it takes me about 100 hands to warm up. And not that I'm playing these hands poorly, I'm playing them downright terribly.

For example, on 3/3 I started out my day blowing about $80. Not because of a cooler or suckouts or bad run of cards or anything that would to some extent be out of my control. It was more playing weak/tight and finally donking off a buyin doing something stupid. The good news is I finished that day even, playing well and seeing some cards during my later session, but that's one thing that needs to be corrected.

To add to that, I need to make sure I cut off my night session before I just get too tired, stop paying attention and lose a BI or 1/2 BI because I'm just sitting there folding away. I've done a pretty good job of eliminating this the past two nights, losing barely 1/2 BI between the two at the end of the night, not a swing that should really be any cause for concern.

On the 4th, ended up 1/2 BI over 500 hands and this morning played very well, by far my best session of the month, and finished +1.5 BI over only 300 hands.

Date: 3/5 2PM ET
Current PTBB/100: 4.38
# Hands: 3655

It's funny too that I'm meeting my goal at the moment -- long way still to go of course -- because I haven't felt like I've really played well until last night and this morning.

Good news on the training front as well, I reupped Grinder School today, downloaded 2 videos and will be watching them on the train to and from work. Obviously, the learning part is good but I've also decided to not play on the train for the rest of the week. It's only a 45 min ride each way and I feel like playing a session that short gets me too tilted/spazzy/etc since I'm pretty results oriented at the moment. There's no need to play 100-200 extra hands if they're not going to be helpful.

Last but not least, here's a hand from the day. Nothing really to analyze, it's pretty standard but I figured I'd post it anyway for WOO factor. I <3 donks. UTG limper is two hands in, so nothing to note about him. UTG+1 is 65/10, 0/12 on 3bet over 20 hands.

Stage #1937937199: Holdem No Limit $0.50 (7-2) - 2010-03-05 02:02:03 (ET)
Table: DANVILLE (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dead dealer
Seat 7 - KDAWGY80 ($50 in chips)
Seat 8 - FRANKPRO4 ($10.85 in chips)
Seat 9 - T80DARTMAN ($48.50 in chips)
Seat 1 - BREWSKI4U ($30.65 in chips)
Seat 2 - KARL_SON ($69.60 in chips)
No small blind is posted due to player leave
KDAWGY80 - Posts big blind $0.50
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to KDAWGY80 [Ac Ah]
FRANKPRO4 - Calls $0.50
T80DARTMAN - Calls $0.50
BREWSKI4U - Raises $4 to $4
KARL_SON - Folds
KDAWGY80 - Raises $9.50 to $10
FRANKPRO4 - Folds
T80DARTMAN - Calls $9.50
BREWSKI4U - Calls $6
*** FLOP *** [3c 9s 7s]
KDAWGY80 - Bets $21
T80DARTMAN - All-In(Raise) $38.50 to $38.50
BREWSKI4U - Folds
KDAWGY80 - Calls $17.50
*** TURN *** [3c 9s 7s] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [3c 9s 7s Qs] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
KDAWGY80 - Shows [Ac Ah] (One pair, aces)
T80DARTMAN - Shows [9h 10h] (One pair, nines)
KDAWGY80 Collects $104 from main pot
FRANKPRO4 - 72 Proposition Bet returned $0.75
T80DARTMAN - 72 Proposition Bet returned $0.75
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($107.50) | Rake ($3) | Jackpot Rake ($0.50)
Board [3c 9s 7s Qs 8h]
Seat 1: BREWSKI4U Folded on the FLOP
Seat 2: KARL_SON Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: KDAWGY80 (big blind) won Total ($104) HI$104) with One pair, aces [Ac Ah - P:Ah,P:Ac,B:Qs,B:9s,B:8h]
Seat 8: FRANKPRO4 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 9: T80DARTMAN HI:lost with One pair, nines [9h 10h - B:9s,P:9h,B:Qs,P:10h,B:8h]

I promise there will be hands that are more interesting later on.

So, another 2 1/2 days have passed and we're just over a week through the month. So far, so good. Really need to focus on keeping up the consistency, which I think I'm doing better with. 5/8 days are positive and the worst negative day is -2/5 BI. I didn't play on Saturday (the 6th) went out and saw some friends instead. The first day in a few weeks I haven't set aside time for poker during the day and I think it was worth it to focus on other things for a day.

The 7th was very interesting... I managed to lose 2 BI in the morning only to make it back at night to finish... wait for it... +$3. There were two hands where I had top pair/set and got drawn out by stations calling along the river. One of them I specifically remember not reraised on the turn, which I should have, and the other villain was making some absurd play. I believe calling two streets with third pair and lucking into a flush w/ T3 on the river. Obviously, I should post the hands but I think they're fairly wacky villain play and they're a few days old so I'd have trouble finding them. I'll make sure to mark them after I play them in the future.

The good news is I feel like I'm very, very in control of my tilt control, the past three days being a prime example. After losing those 2 BI (around only 1/2 of that I believe lost to tilt, the rest getting sucked out/incorrect decision making not related to tilt) on the 7th, like I said I made it back that night. Of course, I got some cards to do it, but instead of continuing to focus on the losses and play poorly and let it effect me, I'm able to tune it out and get back to playing my game as I did that night. I also very, very rarely let tilt carry into the next day anymore. Instead of waking up and thinking about what could have been, I focus very well on what can be. Example being, the 8th.

After the large swing on the 7th, today I played +1.5 BI in 250 hands today. I played solidly and managed to completely pwn an opponent for his stack over a few hands. I tried to start a 7/2 table and this person sat down with me and then sat out until there were more people at the table. He was quite the call station and called down with most any pair or draw so it wasn't an great opponent, but over the course of 50-60 hands I was able to exploit him and eventually tilt him and get his whole stack.

So here's how I stand:

Date: 3/8 3:20 PM ET
Current PTBB/100: 5.46
# Hands: 4515

Another update late tomorrow night. I'm off tomorrow and have no plans until 7pm so I'm hoping to get in 1k+ hands.