Ravageur's Life Thread

[Ravageur]

Good link...let's just say my poker game has too much in common with this year's Raptors. Gonna go play some hockey then hit the tables this afternoon. Also looking forward to hearing a TR from Genitruc's vacation later tonight. Glad to get a break from the GSOP tourneys since today's is limit and you couldn't get me to limidonk for all the overlay in the world.

[Ravageur]

So far today only 2.5k hands, was doing great then lost KK<AQ, AK<AQ, KK<AK and KK<99 so finished down a BI. Good news is I still feel incredibly motivated at the tables and since I've been 12 tabling I don't feel bored or get sucked into doing counter productive stuff like chatting on MSN or checking e-mails during play.

On another note, I got outside and played some hockey today and took some pics of the awesomeness that is outdoor hockey on a near legit nhl rink.

[Ravageur]

Quick update: Just played one of the more epic sessions in recent memory. I finished the session with 400bb or more at 6 of my 10 tables. At one point I dropped 10 STRAIGHT Buyins to lose 2k in about 30 minutes....instead of going into fml world is against me mode, I kept a pretty level head and absolutely destroyed a couple regs HU on a few tables that had broken while i played the other fishies and staged a great comeback for me. Pretty proud of myself. Proof in the garph!

Today:
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/Ravageur/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png[/IMG]

[Ravageur]

Meh meh meh. 4.7k hands today, 800$ under EV for -2 BI. Not sure how great I played, but I felt like variance owned me pretty hard today. I thought I could have a peaceful grind, but it's pretty impossible on ongame and I'm seeing huge swongs - 5-10 BIs up and down etc. Just gonna have to ride it out. The good part in all this is that again today I was saved by a couple weak regs and some fish that gave me their stacks. Soccer game tonight so that should help de-tilting me. Our team has yet to win a game, we're 0-5-1 so far this year so hopefully tonight we can pop our winless cherry.

[kchuen]

nice update man~ keep updating it~

Btw, just curious, how do u find ongame compared to other major sites like Pokerstars, fulltilt or minor ones like absolute poker?

[griffey24]

nice update man~ keep updating it~

Btw, just curious, how do u find ongame compared to other major sites like Pokerstars, fulltilt or minor ones like absolute poker?

I'd say ongame 200nl is MUCH softer than pokerstars 200nl, at least in terms of number of fish. As you move, I suppose the difference in level of difficulty gets narrower.

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

you're a volume beast this month, I really admire the work ethic. I won't say anything about future results in this op since doing that seems to jynx the hell out of you

but good luck!

[Ravageur]

Thanks guys. I got my gunnar glasses today so will put those to the test this afternoon. I feel like i'm on the home stretch of getting my condo downpayment together. I'm just a few k short of getting it in and if all goes well that will be a huge relief and I can stop withdrawing which hopefully means I won't be playing on such a thin roll which has made this more stressful than it has to be.


Ongame nl 200 is pretty soft, way softer than Stars/Tilt but the best part about it is how fast the software is so you can get tons of hands in without having to play all day. It is incredibly agressive preflop (I think I'm playing the most aggro I've ever played in 5 years and I still think there are ppl more aggro than me at a few tables) so you definitely need to be prepared for sick swings/variance.

[griffey24]

Thanks guys. I got my gunnar glasses today so will put those to the test this afternoon. I feel like i'm on the home stretch of getting my condo downpayment together. I'm just a few k short of getting it in and if all goes well that will be a huge relief and I can stop withdrawing which hopefully means I won't be playing on such a thin roll which has made this more stressful than it has to be.


Ongame nl 200 is pretty soft, way softer than Stars/Tilt but the best part about it is how fast the software is so you can get tons of hands in without having to play all day. It is incredibly agressive preflop (I think I'm playing the most aggro I've ever played in 5 years and I still think there are ppl more aggro than me at a few tables) so you definitely need to be prepared for sick swings/variance.

Haha looks like our gunnars are pretty coordinated. I haven't played a session with them yet, let me know how it goes!

[Ravageur]

God I'm so beyond sick of running like death. Today I just crushed the tables but I don't think I've ever seen some of the ridiculous 1 outers that I took over and over and over. 1k under EV + some ridic coolers for -200. It's just soooo frustrating when I should be blitzing my way through this grind but instead it has to be this miserable unbearable bullshit over and over again.

[andy-akb]

I fully believe that you are in fact on a bad run, but how much analysis have you put into your game recently? I know that I personally used to use running bad as an excuse for not needing to work on anything, and when i ran good I didnt care enough to work on my game, both of which combined to really stagnate my progress in general. Its way easier said than done, and Ive had some bad tilt recently that didnt really affect my play but definitely affected my mood, especially today, but the thing I always try to remember is that you cant change your luck but you can improve your skills so luck matters less.

Regardless, I hope it turns around for you

[Ravageur]

Yeah you're absolutely right, and I shouldn't of posted immediately after a uber tilting session. I went to the gym and feel better now. In all honesty though, I think I am playing extremely well, noted by the fact I am getting it in crushing over and over again and I'm rarely feeling 'lost'. There's maybe one reg that I think might be better than me and I'm 12 tabling so that should say a lot.

I mean I could post the hands I lost today as proof, but it'd just be masochistic and trying to prove to you all that I run worse than everyone in the history of poker (unlikely). So I'll just look at the bright side, I put in 4.5k hands again today, I'm up on the month and I'm playing well. I've put in 40k hands so far, and if my goal is 120k hands on the month I'm really not too far off pace which is awesome.


Lastly...as far as analyzing my game. Ideally I would do session reviews etc.. but right now in my predicament I really feel as though volume is more important than maybe shoring up a couple small holes in my game. I know I can beat this stake easily, and when (hopefully) I move back up to 2/4-5/10 I will definitely be putting way more time into analyzing my play.

[andy-akb]

Haha thats exactly what I did today, and it really helped. Just got back into lifting after not doing it for awhile and this week killed my body, but I stuck to my schedule and am taking 3 days off now to see how well the soreness goes away. Today when I went I just did about 30min of cardio which almost feels more rewarding to me than lifting because i hate cardio so much and then sat out in the outdoor hot tub in the snow and when I got back home was in a much much better mindset.

A lot of this is actually what I was going to say to Alex in response to his post saying that he doesnt need to study because he is playing lower. But basically, I dont doubt you are playing well, but I do doubt you are playing as well as you can be. I dont expect you to be a jungleman and spend every waking moment thinking about poker, but I find it hard to believe you really need to choose between volume and studying when studying could even mean just an hour or two extra a day. I think I will save a lot of what I am saying for my own blog post, which probably wont get any views, haha, but basically my point is that I dont think it is an either/or situation and if this is what you want to do for a living, especially with the obligation of a mortgage on the line, I think it would be prudent to find the time to put in volume _and_ study

[Ravageur]

Definitely something I'll think about. I still 'think' about poker...as in I'm looking at regs stats (I'm 12 tabling without a HUD) and making sure my stats are within an optimal range. Postflop tbh I think you're underestimating how easy the games are. The regs are just so straightforward postflop so preflop is where you need to make sure you're not getting exploited and then it's easy game from then on. The fish are bad so it's just bet bet bet with the nuts and b/fold without them. I think it's important to take a look at the 2 or 3 biggest winners in your games once you have a bunch of hands on them, but beyond that I don't think the time I would put in studying would be more +ev than using that time to put in another 1.5k hands/day. Just my 0.02$.


Also, GUNNAR glasses! huge win so far, less squinting, everything seems a bit more clear and magnified. They're a bit weird at first but after 10 mins it seems strange to not have them on. Whether it's placebo effect or not, I am happy with my purchase. I also look like a bit of a ninja in them (red rocket frames ftw) so yeah, I already feel like I'm a better player.

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

lol gunnars are sooo hot right now

[Ravageur]

Quick update, Saturday was spent mostly eating, drinking, eating some more and watching the Leafs make an epic comeback at Genitruc's place to stay in the playoff hunt. I also busted our 10$ sit n go among friends on the BUBBLE costing me at least 8$ in EV by making an aggressive play. Needless to say I was not pleased.

I played the 162$ GSOP event (busted top set vs FD) and only got in 2.6k hands (-200, 800 under EV wheeee yes I'm still bitter). Tomorrow I hope to get in 4k hands and then have a big week starting monday.

[Ravageur]

Well I feel like today what should have been happening (variance getting out of my way) finally happened. Feels great.







My favourite hand today versus a multi-tabling reg. I don't think my image was bad enough to warrant this:

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (4 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($111.75)
BB ($327.80)
UTG ($211)
Hero (Button) ($204)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, 10
UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6, 2 folds

Flop: ($15) 3, 9, 9 (2 players)
UTG bets $11, Hero raises $35, UTG raises $59, Hero raises $163 (All-In), UTG calls $128

Turn: ($411) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($411) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $411

Results:
Hero had A, 10 (two pair, nines and twos).
UTG had J, Q (two pair, nines and twos).
Outcome: Hero won $409

[Alexos]

lol is that really a reg?

[griffey24]

Wow.. haha that is pretty ridiculous. I can see A high but not Q high.

[Ravageur]

4k hands, +650. Again ran at EV....I could get used to this (dum dum dummmmmmm, cue doomswitch).

[Ravageur]

Bleh, ugly frustrating day. Doomswitch obv arrived and I didn't play nearly well enough to avoid a terrible day. -1.7k, 5k hands. I was breakeven after 4k hands which is pretty frustrating but then tilt/variance caught up with me (i was running above EV just to remain afloat). I guess I should be happy i ran at EV to lose that much? I just got pair over paired a million times and consistently got overpairs cracked. That + making some definitely bad calls where I knew I got sucked out on but had to see it and it makes for -9 buyins. Bleh

[Ravageur]

For how badly I played yesterday, I somewhat redeemed myself by playing very well today, reminding me that there's really no excuse for days like yesterday. I wish I could watch myself play yesterday to pinpoint the exact stuff I did terribly, but generally I get into 'unstuck' mode and I'm just playing too loose and willing to take any flip (if I think it's flip that is and it often isn't) instead of making the most +EV play. Basically today I just told myself I was no longer going to get it in with stuff like 77/88 vs this one reg who I had gotten into huge spewing wars with, I tightened up, he didn't adjust and I ended up getting it in great a lot vs him. Obviously he will adjust, but generally speaking I don't need to play as high variance as I have been.

3.6k hands, +1.2k today. I'm behind my 120k hands pace but still on pretty good bonus whoring pace.

Also, on another positive note, I did end up binking the Betfair Live Tallinn package which is 750$ cash + 550 euro main event buyin on April 15th. Actual flight+hotel is around 1.5k so it would still be an expense but I'm considering doing it depending on how the next week or two go.

[JL]

Sweet! How did you win that Live Tallinn package?

[Ravageur]

Sweet! How did you win that Live Tallinn package?

I was one of the first 10 to cash in 3 GSOP NL events. I still somehow lost my propbet with Alexos though for highest on leaderboard.

[Ravageur]

4.7k hands so far today, was down 1.5k after first 2k hands, then brought it back up to +300 at one point and then made some clearly bad 'heat check' plays that cost me 4 buyins to end up down a bit on the session.

Had a pretty epic soccer league game tonight, we were down 3-1, then 4-2 with like 5 mins left and came back to tie it up 4-4 (we still have yet to win a game all year) so that was pretty fun. The league is supposed to be laid back and it's co-ed, but things usually degenerate into crazy soccer arguments/shoving/yelling trying to kick the opposing teams legs out from under them. I almost always stay out of this but today things were particularly wild/heated when one of our guys almost knocked their goalie out cold on a wild rush for the ball and then their backup goalie undercut me hard on a header and things nearly got out of hand. It's hard to discuss this without sounding naive or rascist but our team is really the only stereotypical "white Canadian" team in the league and all the other teams are mostly Italians/South Americans/Middle-easterners and there's this unspoken hostility thing going on. The people that run the league are also middle-easterners and I must say it feels strange to be the minority and I can feel this 'us versus them' mentality in our team that is kind of lame but I really don't know how it came about/what to do about it. It goes without saying that I'm not rascist and try to get along with everyone, but at a certain point you have to stop being nice to people just because you don't want to seem unfriendly to foreign cultures and treat them the same I would some of my more generic Canadian upbringing (i.e. play competitively without worried about hurting their feelings).

Anyway, for the most part I hadn't taken any of this seriously and just told myself not to care and just get some exercise, but tonight it obviously had some kind of impact on me for me to bring it up in the blog.

Tomorrow is another min 4k hands, have just a workout and poker on my plate so no excuses.

[Ravageur]

God, I have to stop digging myself these holes. From the -1k to -1.8k point, there was definitely some tilt-spews, notably this:

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($313.60)
Hero (BB) ($185)
UTG ($492.35)
MP ($211.80)
Button ($103.20)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, Q
1 fold, MP bets $6, 1 fold, SB calls $5, Hero calls $4

Flop: ($18) 8, J, 2 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $14, MP raises $37, 1 fold, Hero raises $165 (All-In), MP calls $142

Turn: ($376) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($376) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $376

Results:
Hero had 9, Q (high card, King).
MP had J, 8 (two pair, Jacks and eights).
Outcome: MP won $373


I think I'm gonna bail on the Tallinn in April, flying over 36 hours for only one weekend to play a live midsized tourney just doesn't seem like a good plan. If I'm going to take a break I want it to be something fun and not poker related at all since I'm treading close to burning out with all my play. Today's progress so far...V for....breakeven?

[Alexos]

not quite sure how you have these ridic swings everyday, it doesn't seem right!

[Ravageur]

Yeah every day I have at least 6-10 buyin swings...and always straight up or straight down. My monthly graph is ridiculous. I put in another 2.2k hands for -700, I actually ran above EV and just never had the best hand. Oh well at least I got in 5k hands today. I made a bit in tourneys and Genitruc binked a tourney FINALLY for 4.5k so it was super fun railing him. Tomorrow is a cheat day and there's a ton of great sports action going on so not sure how much I'll play. Maybe just put in one early session for 2k hands or something. So far 65k hands this month, I'm just a couple days behind pace but I can make it up with some 6k hand days.

Cheers.

[griffey24]

not quite sure how you have these ridic swings everyday, it doesn't seem right!

These swings seem standard to me!

[Ravageur]

No time for a real update, but I definitely have some poker things I need to sort through, notably overplaying overpairs in RRs pots. It might just be monsters but I'm losing tons with AA on boards I should be c/folding on the river instead of shoving. Will post some examples later.

Anyway, 4.5k hands today for -600 and it was way worse halfway through so I'm not too disappointed. EV wise i'm doing fine but I keep getting turned in huge pots and then shoving into the nuts...need to stop doing that. As in I must have shoved with what I thought was the best hand at least 7 times and lost for buyins. Something going on there.

Off to watch hockey/basketball/ufc. Rooting for Leafs, BYU and i'm torn on Shogun/Jones fight. Also, go Lucien Bute!

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

sick beastly effort Rav, all that hard work is gonna pay off!

[Ravageur]

Pretty good night, it was my cheat day so let's summarize what I ate today (and i'm in the best shape of my life!). Started the day with a chocolate milk/oatmeal/rockyroad whey protein/glutamine/ice shake and dipped a double chocolate chip cookie and then 3 Reeses Peanut Butter cups in it just for good measure, then topped it off with a cappuccino. Then grinded, and tonight had a beer, an awesome Napa Valley Cab Sauvignon bottle of red, a rack of ribs, a quarter chicken, a poutine, chips, then chocolate peanut butter Haegen-Das Ice cream with a massive piece of apple pie. Then I nibbled on some sour watermelon candy just for good measure.

All this while the Leafs won, BYU won, Jones and Bute crushed, so all in all a good night. Me and Genitruc toasted to his donkament success, and despite poker being sort of frustrating life ain't all bad. I could be working a terrible job and be on perma life-tilt but instead I'm free to pursue all sorts of things that let me learn stuff about my own emotions.

Tomorrow I think I'll put in another 4k hands and stay away from tournaments. Here's to playing a bit better and staying composed, Cheers!

[Ravageur]

Just making sure you guys agree this hand is a river c/fold. I think I was trying to level him into calling with JJ since it seems like I would never bet QQ+ here but...

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (3 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($262.05)
Hero (SB) ($441.65)
BB ($455.95)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
BB bets $6, 1 fold, Hero raises $18, BB calls $14

Flop: ($41) 10, 7, 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $30, BB calls $30

Turn: ($101) 6 (2 players)
Hero bets $67, BB calls $67

River: ($235) 9 (2 players)
Hero bets $178 WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[Genitruc]

i like the shove quite a bit srsly

[griffey24]

I don't hate the show, depending on how much hero-call he has in him. I'm more worried about slow played set, 999 than a straight here.

[Ravageur]

For that AA hand, only dynamic was that he'd been winning lots versus me that session.

Anyway, today so far good day, busted the mill, but put in 3k hands for +1.5k and by far played the tightest, most disciplined I've played in a long time. I cut down from 12 to 10 tables and started folding all sorts of suited gapper stuff I realized I had been unconsciously peeling from the blinds (leak) and also tighetened up bigtime UTG and I feel it made a huge difference for me. Ran at EV, so all in all great poker day. I wanted to get in another 1k hands so we'll see if I get the urge, if not pretty content. Tomorrow is last day of a rakerace so will put in a steady grind tmr for sure and take things from there next week. I'm now 3/5ths through grinding one of my bigger bonuses so I'm on track in that respect.

[Ravageur]

Was all excited for today since it's the last day of a rakerace and wanted to make a good final push. Cue losing AK<AQ 4/4 times AIPF and then a bunch of coolers. Just when things start to go well for me, it seems this ALWAYS happens.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Ravageur]

Something of a recent setback. Only played 2k hands yesterday and then I decided my sleep schedule was out of hand so I stayed up last night and am in the process of pulling an all nighter/dayer to get back into a schedule where I can put in a morning and afternoon sessions whereas right now I just put in long afternoon sessions. Hopefully this will pay off next week but for now it means I'm not going to get in nearly as many hands as I'd like because I don't think I'll play much today going on zero sleep. Tired = no tilt control in my experience and that usually means huge disastrous swongs for me. Now I just need to stay awake for the next 10 hours and I'll be fine....if I start making strange emo posts in a few hours it's because I've started to get into zombie hallucination mode. Don't mind me...

[Ravageur]

Not much of interest to update. I've been slacking bigtime, only plut in 3.3k hands today and took yesterday completely off. I finished third in a big rakerace for $1350 which is nice. Today I started on a mega-heater. IMMEDIATELY won 10 buyins for +2k and then did my typical heatcheck just playing why too high variance (getting it in with 77 twice in blind war 3-bet battles and 4-bet shoving suited aces in blind battles) and dropped most of it to only be down on the day. Pretty annoying.

Hopefully by next week I can get my mortgage pre-approval finally and start some serious condo shopping. I'll probably post some pics of stuff to give this blog a bit more colour since it's been pretty bland lately.

[Ravageur]

Early start today, got up at dawn and put in 4.2k hands before noon, so far running above EV and +800. Intend on putting in another 2k hands this afternoon to make up for this weeks slacking. Update to come.

[bikes]

STOP HEAT CHECKING IMO

[griffey24]

STOP HEAT CHECKING IMO

lol yah +1.. or at least stop heat checking after you check once and realize the heater is over.

[Ravageur]

Hah, I think the problem is immediately after I heat check and see that I'm no longer on fire, I just proceed to skip the next step and go directly to tilt/spew lol.

[bikes]

would recommend skipping that step as well and going straight to 15 min break

[Ravageur]

Solid day, 6k hands for +1.3K. Tmr is cheat day saturday and it's gonna be great. I would post the awesome transformations the 4-hour Body has brought but I'm not sure anyone actually wants to look at me shirtless so yeah...I'll just say that the diet/workout thing has gone really well the past couple months.

[Ravageur]

Bleh, just busted 6th in Stars 50$ Turbo for 920$. I should feel good about it but there's always that 'what could have been' when it comes to busting tourneys. Got it in JJ vs A10 for the chiplead to go out, Barry fkn Greenstein Ace on the River obv. Oh well, I shouldn't have let myself drool at the thought of an unexpected 5k boost to the roll.

[Ravageur]

Business as usual, I had a couple good sessions, a good week even so I knew deathswitch was coming. I wasn't even in the mood to play today so I shouldn't even have sat, but I forced myself to put in 2k hands just to keep the habit and this happens. I definitely didn't have my A game but I got hand over handed a ton HU towards the end of the session and also lost some ridic hands.




***** Hand History for Game 51304783101056 ***** (On Game)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, March 27, 11:07:10 ET 2011
Table Jerusalem (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Seat 5: AAlejandro99 ( $198.00 USD )
Seat 9: darkspewos2 ( $272.45 USD )
Seat 2: reicki1986 ( $525.20 USD )
Seat 3: MrBustAlot ( $199.00 USD )
AAlejandro99 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
darkspewos2 posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to darkspewos2 [ Ts As ]
reicki1986 raises [$6.00 USD]
MrBustAlot folds
AAlejandro99 calls [$5.00 USD]
darkspewos2 raises [$22.00 USD]
reicki1986 folds
AAlejandro99 calls [$18.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, Ah, Ks ]
AAlejandro99 checks
darkspewos2 bets [$26.00 USD]
AAlejandro99 raises [$52.00 USD]
darkspewos2 calls [$26.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Th ]
AAlejandro99 bets [$122.00 USD]
darkspewos2 calls [$122.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
AAlejandro99 wins $400.00 USD from main pot
AAlejandro99 shows [Qs, Jc ]
darkspewos2 shows [Ts, As ]


***** Hand History for Game 5130543093412 ***** (On Game)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, March 27, 10:58:16 ET 2011
Table Toliary (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 9: MrBustAlot ( $215.90 USD )
Seat 10: darkspewos2 ( $219.00 USD )
Seat 3: ImInDanger_ ( $194.00 USD )
Seat 5: omgwtfunoob ( $535.65 USD )
MrBustAlot posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
darkspewos2 posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to darkspewos2 [ Ah Ac ]
ImInDanger_ raises [$6.00 USD]
omgwtfunoob calls [$6.00 USD]
MrBustAlot folds
darkspewos2 raises [$23.00 USD]
ImInDanger_ raises [$46.00 USD]
omgwtfunoob folds
darkspewos2 raises [$194.00 USD]
ImInDanger_ calls [$142.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, Kh, Jc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
ImInDanger_ wins $393.00 USD from main pot
darkspewos2 shows [Ah, Ac ]
ImInDanger_ shows [Qs, Ad ]
darkspewos2 wins $25.00 USD



***** Hand History for Game 5130528809554 ***** (On Game)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, March 27, 10:19:03 ET 2011
Table Bogata (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Seat 10: omgwtfunoob ( $375.95 USD )
Seat 2: AffroSara ( $31.00 USD )
Seat 3: ImInDanger_ ( $296.85 USD )
Seat 4: darkspewos2 ( $153.00 USD )
Seat 7: saelhest ( $393.70 USD )
omgwtfunoob posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
AffroSara posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to darkspewos2 [ Ac Ad ]
ImInDanger_ folds
darkspewos2 raises [$7.00 USD]
saelhest folds
omgwtfunoob raises [$22.00 USD]
AffroSara folds
darkspewos2 raises [$146.00 USD]
omgwtfunoob calls [$130.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, Th, Ts ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ]
omgwtfunoob wins $305.00 USD from main pot
omgwtfunoob shows [Qh, Qs ]
darkspewos2 shows [Ac, Ad ]

[Hoopy]

I think not checking your results everyday would help a lot, as it's very easy to get into certain thought patterns and be subtlety tilted by them. Maybe just check once a week to start with. Avoid posting to many AA<AK hands as well imo.

GL with poker/exercise/life in the future.

[griffey24]

I think not checking your results everyday would help a lot, as it's very easy to get into certain thought patterns and be subtlety tilted by them. Maybe just check once a week to start with. Avoid posting to many AA<AK hands as well imo.

GL with poker/exercise/life in the future.

I've heard of people doing this, but I can't see how people manage it. I mean, I analyze hands everyday after every session, so how can we analyze hands but also avoid seeing our daily wins/losses?

[Hoopy]

I've heard of people doing this, but I can't see how people manage it. I mean, I analyze hands everyday after every session, so how can we analyze hands but also avoid seeing our daily wins/losses?

I just removed "Amount Won" and "BB won" from from the sessions/hands/results tabs. Also only check my roll 2-3 times per month.

It helps me to forget about the money aspect and focus on my game. Whether it'll help others I don't know.

[Alexos]

I think not checking your results everyday would help a lot, as it's very easy to get into certain thought patterns and be subtlety tilted by them. Maybe just check once a week to start with. Avoid posting to many AA<AK hands as well imo.

GL with poker/exercise/life in the future.

I think this is great advice. I'll do this too, or at worst just have EV winnings up.

Grif- even if u see your Betfair balance at times, it still helps not to keep seeing that big negative number in HEM like 10x per day, whether you want it or not it must be demoralizing to always see red or under EV or whatever.

[griffey24]

I guess so. I meant more along the lines of it even being possible to view hands and not see winnings? I suppose there is a way to shut off that stat in the sessions section?

I might try this too if its possible.

[Alexos]

yeah that's true the session tab is what's killing this, don't think you can turnoff winnings in there and it's the tab I use daily.

[Ravageur]

Yeah I just post the AA<AQ to make me feel better, i.e. hey i lost AA all in pre twice today, if that doesn't happen tmr maybe i'll win manies.

I don't think I could avoid looking at my results for days on end. At the end of any session I'm dying to find out what my results are, and I have a general idea how much i won/lost anyway so curiosity is going to get the best of me regardless. I am well aware of the reasons why it'd be +EV to completely disconnect myself from results, but it ain't happening.

[Ravageur]

I've reflected a bit on Hoopy's idea and I think I'll give it a try for 1 week and see if it's doable. I'm also playing on a relatively thin roll so that's been my excuse for being so results oriented but my roll should still be able to handle anything but a huge downswing.

Today's monday...I'll see if I can go until saturday before checking my results. If that works I'll see if I can just check them weekly. This would definitely have benefits, but part of me wants to be accountable to results even if that's illogical given variance.

I will have to find some other stuff to blog about either than just number of hands played. Maybe post more interesting hands.

So far today, 2.2k hands in...I think I lost a bit? Haha it's already driving me nuts I love it!

[Ravageur]

Well, I think this is the first time I can say this blog has struck 'disaster'. After dropping 2.5k 2 days ago and likely losing a bit yesterday, today was by far my worst session so far this year. I put in my 4k hands, and the unspeakable atrocities that were brought upon me were bad even for someone like me who expects to run worse than anyone else. I think I got AA cracked 6 times, one of them all in preflop vs j10 off and I even flopped top set on the flop. Then I lost every flip, and pair over paired myself pre a bunch. Throw in a few top two to sets (usually they had top or middle set for the one outer flop) and then on the wrong end of 3 flush over flushes and I had myself a comedy of errors. I also made a couple tilty calls with stuff like K10 on 10-10-6-4 boards 200BB deep when I knew they can only have 66 but was too bitter that I flopped trips to fold. This will definitely be a test not to check results because I'm pretty sure I have busted >50% of my online roll in the past 3 days as i'm assuming i've dropped easily 30 buyins. I guess if I have another losing session I'll have to check to see if I need to reload, move down/rethink things. It's just insane how fast the buyins fly when it's going bad for me.

Atm not checking results is just tilting me more because I'm imagining i'm busto, but oh well gonna stick to the plan until the weekend.

[griffey24]

ughghgh.. that sounds so tilting.

But if you're not checking results.. and you think its so bad.. maybe you should drop down regardless?

That sucks so hard though. Sometimes variance feels unbeatable. This makes me scared to play,, cause I feel like we're both running death.

Hope it turns ASAPPP.

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

shitty, your variance is ridiculous! time for a little break at the end of the month when all this bonus clearing is done, imo. it will clear your head and distance yourself from the runbad

how's the bonus clearing going anyway?

[Ravageur]

bonus clearing going well. It's just tilting that i've lost most of 100k hands worth of grinding in 3 days, but whatever, I need to ge tpast it.

Just in bonuses this month I'll have made
- 2k of the 2.5k welcome bonus
-1.35k from another rakerace
-1.5k from the Tallinn package
-Normal rakeback (something like 30%)

Volume wise this month has been great, and when April 1st comes along I'll post all my results/hands played.

[Ravageur]

Well, at least poker keeps me entertained. I'm finding new and creative ways to lose these days. I also went on maybe my most ridiculous 20 minute losing spree ever. It's kind of insane i don't tilt, I just keep trudging along getting coolered and sucked out on. The good news is I think I can confidently claim that I do run worse than 99% of poker players. I guess that makes me feel special.

Today I got set over setted three times (yesterday only once). I also ran KK into AA, and lost big pots with AA four times, 3 of them in RR pots with people flopping nuts. I also keep running JJ into KK what feels like a dozen times. In a funny sequence, I lost 4 buyins in one orbit at the same table. It went like this : set over set, very next hand I 3-bet AA, lose to KQ flopping straight, very next hand, 3-bet QQ, lost to 10s that flop top set on a draw heavy board, and then 2 hands later run KK into AA. I mean...it just felt kind of surreal. You all probably don't even believe since I'm not sure I would if someone told me this.


Anyway, I should start my countdown to busto, but I know that it's much less dramatic than that. What will happen is I'll run terribly for another month or so, have to move down, and then things will even out and I'll start this cycle all over again, never moving beyond the bore of midstakes grinding and never being financially comfortable. Yep, poker sucks sometimes.

[daven]

i posted this link in my op thread, but thought it may be a worthwhile click for you as well?
500th post: Mental Game/Poker Mindset Manifesto + graphs + gambling short story (way, way tl;dr - Poker Beats Brags and Variance

[Ravageur]

Thanks for the link Daven, hadn't read that. Definitely some great information in there. I definitely 'slouch' when I'm playing bad.


Not that I feel that I am always playing my A game and that variance doesn't affect me, but I do feel as though I have a pretty good idea of variance. That is to say I'm in no way surprised at the recent downswing and seeing as I've already been through 2 100+ buyin downswings this is just a blip on the radar. It just doesn't make it any less frustrating because I guess some part of you wants to think 'the worst of it is over' when really you're always going to be experience the same amount of variance throughout your career unless you get significantly better or the games do.

I guess the logical step is just grin and bear it and try to improve your game...which I'm always trying to do but likely not as much as I should. The only thing to do during these runs is try to make sure you're limiting your mistakes as much as possible...so I'll try to focus on that.

Here's a fun hand from some 2/4 last night (don't worry this isn't a runbad hand):


Villain was pretty spewy and was the type to try to win every hand so I guess this is a snap call but since it was the first time i'd played 2/4 in a while it was fun to be have a nervous moment and then see that you are right.

No-Limit Hold'em, $4.00 BB (4 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($916.10)
Hero (BB) ($400)
UTG ($404.60)
Button ($885.65)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
1 fold, Button bets $12, 1 fold, Hero raises $36, Button calls $28

Flop: ($82) 4, A, 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $46, Button calls $46

Turn: ($174) 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $89, Button raises $354, Hero calls $225 (All-In)

River: ($802) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $802

Results:
Button had 2, 2 (two pair, threes and twos).
Hero had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and threes).
Outcome: Hero won $800

[Ravageur]

Regarding Daven's great link - in lieu of it- I will definitely be making some changes to my approach in April. I think I'll cut down from 12 tabling to 10 tabling and worry a bit less on volume and more on quality of play. I've never been successfull using a stop loss because my swings seem to happen so fast I wouldn't even have time to figure out when i've reach my stop loss point... but I definitely need to cut some sessions short when I realize it's just not my day. I also should look into investing in a coach, but atm I don't think I can afford one, but something to look into for the future. I also need to mix up my lines a bit...with all the focus on volume while I sincerely believe I've played fine, my A game is really when i'm making lots of small changes to my betsizing based on opponents and I'm simply not able to do that 12 tabling. Hopefully I can tighten that part up next month.

[griffey24]

I think that 99 hand is unnecessary and spewy and mildly results oriented. Even more unnecessary in the midst of such a big downswing. Just play low variance? There's just no way I can see this line being that great, even vs someone as spewy as you say he is.

I think the flop bet is fine. Turn should probably be a c/f, and at best a c/re-eval. Betting is meh... its like you're betting for protection/as a bluff -or at least more than as value I'd imagine. b/c would never even cross my mind in this spot! Esp when flop had no FD's even.

When you're ahead you've got like 90% equity (VERY rarely), when you're behind you've got 4% equity VERY often.

[Ravageur]

Note: This is going to be tl;dr for most though I think it's worth reading for other struggling midstakers.

Alright, I realize these last few posts have been a bit of a mess, but I think I'm finally arriving at some sort of 'aha' moment, or at least I feel like my poker related thoughts are a lot clearer than they have been in this volume heavy blur of a month.

I spent quite a bit of time today reading about tilt control, the psychology behind playing your A game etc. And it is crystal clear to me that I haven't been even close to achieving that this month. My excuse is that I wanted to grind through bonuses, but I see now that those bonuses are not as important as being happy with how you play, avoiding high variance downswings which have a horrible effect on your mood and life EV and also don't help you progress as a poker player.

So today, I sat down in the whee hours of the night, eliminated 3 tables, and 9 tabled very calmy, focusing on my breathing, thinking through each play, tweaking my bet sizes, adding overbets to my arsenal (something I had inexplicably stopped doing), and lo and behold, I played the best poker all month and had a solid winning session. Obviously those two things are mutually exclusive, but it made me realize something that had creeped up on me so slowly, so casually in the daily grind that I hadn't realize it had happened: I had completely lost faith in poker.

I had lost faith in the idea that I can be really good at it, that I can crush the games, that I can still get better and move up in stakes and be successful. Instead, I allowed myself the luxury of hoping that variance wouldn't own me, I hoped that I would run good to balance out my previous downswings, I hoped that by putting in massive amounts of volume the profits would come knocking at my door. It's so much easier to auto-pilot 5 hours/day and say that you're putting in a lot of work and doing your best. It's harder to play 2 hours, focus on every hand, and stop when you feel like you are starting to make mistakes. It's harder to play less, think more, and discipline your emotions.

I also resonated hard with something I read today from Leatherass's new book - In response to a hand where he recommends folding top pair on the flop to an aggressive player on a dry board. He writes:

"This may sound like 'weak' and 'exploitable' advice. Worrying about being weak and exploitable will only get you so far. It's more productive to think about being profitable".

That really stuck with me today, and it helped calm me down when a few aggressive regs put me in tough spots and I felt the urge to spew and fall into my high variance B game. Another idea that I related to today came from Daven's great link (thanks a ton for posting that in my thread). This is something that has been all too common for me - what I have previously dubbed the 'heat check'. Crashwhips describes the psychology of it a lot better, and I am definitely a guilty culprit of this:

"Another trap of results-oriented thinking is that it can lead to overconfidence and crises of confidence. If you put too much stock in short term results, you will tend to get overconfident after a good session. Then, if things don’t go your way during your next session, the loss will contradict the image you have built up of yourself and the positive expectations you had going into the session, and you might get very upset and try to force things. This is why big losses often follow a big win."



And so, this brings me to what I'm going to do in April, but before that I want to put March behind me. I pretty much achieved my volume goal as I played more hands in 1 month than ever before, but I think this personal record will stand since I have no intention of playing this much ever again. With bonuses, it's not really a month to complain about, though I had high expectations with all the volume I put in. I only beat the game for 1.4bb/100 (HEM).

March




April

I intend on playing no more than 9 tables and I'm not going to place any goals on amount of hands played or hours. I'm just going to try to play as close to my A-game as possible, and most importantly I'm going to try to stop playing the very SECOND I feel like my emotions have been compromised. While I'm not going to check results as I play, if I feel like I'm down more than 5 buyins, even if I feel I'm playing fine I'm going to force myself to stop for at least an hour. Because today when I was playing, I realized how I can absolutely destroy 1-2 when I'm playing my best, and it's not even close. I easily made 3 buyins more today than I would have yesterday because of my frame of mind and the small adjustments I made through careful observation and having more time to think.

Here are some examples of hands where I took different lines than I would have only yesterday:

Villain is a bit of a fish reg who splashes around. In retrospect this is pretty standard but usually when my huge draws all brick my normal reaction would've been utter disgust instead of calmly thinking about villain's river donk range.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($220.95)
BB ($235)
UTG ($593.45)
Hero (MP) ($391.05)
Button ($209.30)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, A
1 fold, Hero bets $7, 1 fold, SB calls $6, 1 fold

Flop: ($16) Q, 7, 10 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12, SB calls $12

Turn: ($40) 4 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $34, SB calls $34

River: ($108) 3 (2 players)
SB bets $79, Hero calls $79

Total pot: $266

Results:
SB had 9, 8 (high card, Queen).
Hero had K, A (high card, Ace).
Outcome: Hero won $263


Villain is unknown but seems competent. Again, what is he valuing this river with? Seems like he's always c/calling 10x on turn.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($232)
BB ($197)
UTG ($200)
MP ($72.45)
Hero (Button) ($251)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6, 6
2 folds, Hero bets $7, 1 fold, BB calls $5

Flop: ($15) 10, 5, 4 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $9, BB calls $9

Turn: ($33) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $25, Hero calls $25

River: ($83) 5 (2 players)
BB bets $62, Hero calls $62

Total pot: $207

Results:
Hero had 6, 6 (full house, fives over sixes).
BB had 9, Q (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Hero won $204



This was interesting because it revealed a huge leak in my emotional thinking. My intial reaction when I saw this river was 'puke' and I almost instantaneously checked back HOPING to split. Then I realized I wasn't thinking about villain's hand at all, realized that he has two pair/flushdraws and he's usually going to shove any J into me so I came to what should have been my natural reaction which is to put him in.

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($70)
BB ($106.55)
UTG ($197)
Hero (MP) ($306.25)
Button ($269.65)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 7, 5
UTG bets $6, Hero calls $6, 2 folds, BB calls $4

Flop: ($19) 8, 9, 6 (3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $12, Hero calls $12, BB calls $12

Turn: ($55) 10 (3 players)
BB bets $14, 1 fold, Hero raises $45, BB calls $31

River: ($145) 7 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $145, 1 fold

Total pot: $145

Results:
Hero had 7, 5 (straight, ten high).
Outcome: Hero won $287



Nothing fancy, but it was a spot where I instinctively wanted to check back the turn before I took a second to think and realized there was value in a smaller than normal bet:

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($96.45)
BB ($211.30)
UTG ($62.75)
Hero (MP) ($397.85)
Button ($379.30)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 10, 7
1 fold, Hero bets $7, 1 fold, SB calls $6, 1 fold

Flop: ($16) 9, 7, 9 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $10, SB calls $10

Turn: ($36) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $19, SB calls $19

River: ($74) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Total pot: $74

Results:
SB had 10, J (one pair, nines).
Hero had 10, 7 (two pair, nines and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won $71



That's it for now. It's fun to be a bit excited again about poker, and not just in the 'can't wait to grind this bonus' sort of way.

[griffey24]

hand 1
-AKss yah I like this river call. He bricked out a lot too

hand 2
-this is a horrible bluffing spot for villain. I really don't think we see many bluffs here at all. I'd rather jam river than call since our range is stronger than his. Wouldn't be too surprised to see some Tx played this way.

hand 3
-yah I shove a lot in spots like this where ppl check. I think the shove works more often if he's betting betting and then cks river, than when you took back the aggression on the turn. Though I think we're mostly only gettin called by JT sometimes and probably taking him off a lot of his 7x.

hand 4
-yah I like this bet. he has 68, T8, JT often, and worse 7x than us.

[pocketfours]

I only beat the game for 1.4bb/100 (HEM).

The good news is I think I can confidently claim that I do run worse than 99% of poker players.

Reality check pls.

[Alexos]

I think that 99 hand is unnecessary and spewy and mildly results oriented. Even more unnecessary in the midst of such a big downswing. Just play low variance? There's just no way I can see this line being that great, even vs someone as spewy as you say he is.

I think the flop bet is fine. Turn should probably be a c/f, and at best a c/re-eval. Betting is meh... its like you're betting for protection/as a bluff -or at least more than as value I'd imagine. b/c would never even cross my mind in this spot! Esp when flop had no FD's even.

When you're ahead you've got like 90% equity (VERY rarely), when you're behind you've got 4% equity VERY often.

Oh its that Cancer guy, he's a complete idiot. I was sweating during the hand and I was praying he doesn't fold 99 vs this guy. Just think of how many pair plus draw he has. 45,56,53,24s,22,55,kqss. Fold to 3bet of 20% and late nite its prolly 0%.

[griffey24]

Oh its that Cancer guy, he's a complete idiot. I was sweating during the hand and I was praying he doesn't fold 99 vs this guy. Just think of how many pair plus draw he has. 45,56,53,24s,22,55,kqss. Fold to 3bet of 20% and late nite its prolly 0%.

Ok try stoving it.. I don't have stove at work.

Fold to 3bet of 20% also results in every Ax in the world.

[Alexos]

Rav- I liked that post, more like this plz its good for you. Also how many times do I tell you to drop down in tables :P GL in April

Oh and late night games are awesome, what's that guy with Q9 doing?

[Alexos]

Ok try stoving it.. I don't have stove at work.

Fold to 3bet of 20% also results in every Ax in the world.

That has no reason to turn its hand into a bluff on turn, so discounted.

[Vi-Zer0Skill]

yea I think expressing your thoughts in writing is really helpful for getting a better understanding of them. Also you can refer back to it later and recall those good ideas you had! When anyone makes a thoughtful post like that someone else usually learns something from it too.

Here's to a month of playing great poker!

[Ravageur]

Reality check pls.

It's likely that my perception of 'runbad' also involves a large quantity of playing bad that i'm unaware of. So that 99% likely has an error margin of 98% or so.

[CBAT]

All that complaining and your + about 10k on the month!

[Ravageur]

Yeah I'm an ass....but I did play 105k hands and my expectation going in was that I was a 4bb/100 winner based on my previous play at this stake.

Anyway, that's all in the past, April is upon us and I intend to invoke some Terminator 2: Soulread Day-like discipline/play that should make for less whiney blogging.