Another losing streak

There are two big reasons for those.

One, my hand range tends to be too wide for fixed limit.

Two, I attempt to bluff a bit too often. 

Bluffing in FL is very hard - you have the people who mulishly call with any hand even if there are overcards, potential flush draws and so forth on the board. Also, calling is cheap. 

In NL you usually only have to worry about the other guy having the hand you're bluffing to have.

As for hand range... well, Hellmuth says suited connectors are like candy - you play and win with one, it's hard to put any of them down. 

This is true. 

Naturally, I haven't had an opportunity to play SnG's since those require a winning streak. Also, my tournament performance has been shoddy.
I usually start out doing okay, but large blinds in addition to the fact that most tournaments run so late, local time, I'm ready to go to sleep anyway.

A little bit of gambling

So... lots of ups and downs - I'm still between 30 and 40 dollars on my bankroll. 

Some of the downswings are due to playing too much - for a certain reason I was trying to gather a certain amount of frequent player miles, so to speak, but that's past.

Anyhoo, just for fun, when I have a good run, I play a $1 SnG. A ten-seater pays around $5 for winning. 

If I happen to place first, I then play a $3 SnG. And so forth. 

If I happen to lose, or not place first, I start from the beginning... A self-imposed tournament, if you will. 

Playing badly on NL tournaments

I've been mostly playing fixed limit... I'm raising 3x blinds and half pot a lot of the time. I think that's okay.

However, I tend to hang on to drawing hands too much. Risking elimination 3/4 of the time before you're in the money is NOT a winning strategy. Obviously.

I used to know how to play something small-ballish, but I never ended in top places with it - I hung on pretty well, but didn't have the chips for late game, usually.

Bankroll Management... working.

I'm up from my all-time low of about $15 at Partypoker, to about $32.
Still need to make about $8 more, to be able to play at 0.10/0.20 FL, which also makes a $2 buy-in into a NL game a total of 5% of my bankroll, meaning I can play 0.01/0.02 NL.

0.15/0.30 Limit requires a bankroll of $60, so that's my next target - a 0.02/0.04 NL takes $80, which is also the limit for 0.20/0.40 FL.

Thinking back, that's where I was, a couple of months ago. I was playing a lot of $6 - $11 double up sit-and-go games. Alas, all it took was a few losses in a row, and when each loss is $11, a bankroll of $80 didn't last long.

Reading Super System 2

Jennifer Harman's chapter on Fixed Limit, is rather interesting.

I've pretty much given up on getting rich quick schemes, instead I'm sticking to proper bankroll management.
In PartyPoker, this means... actually, let's make a list:

1. <$20 : 2/4 Fixed Limit. 
2. $20-40: 5/10 Fixed Limit
3. $40-60: 1/2 No Limit, 10/20 Fixed Limit

So Forth. 

Helsinki Grand Casino

Visited. Had one decent hand, which was AK. Flop had king, went all in, doubled up against KQ .

I had to make a train, so I'm afraid I may have left a bad first impression on the other players, though, I pretty much left right after winning that hand.

I'm not really playing that well otherwise, or at least I've lost at Partypoker again.

That went nicely.

so, a small checkout, and another win afterwards, and I'm at about 80 $.

Nice to have some money - I'm still down by quite a lot, though.

A little bit of gaming...

I've been playing one-two games per night, and I'm almost back up at 100$. We shall see.
If I hit 100, I'll cash out about 30 $.

Fun?

Yeah, I haven't been playing much.

The thing is, I find, unless I'm playing for fun, I'm not playing very well.
I've been losing a lot more than I was earlier... I listened to Hellmuth's audiobook, and... I dunno, I'm not doing all that well in no-limit anymore.

I've been listening to Phil Hellmuth

His Play Poker Like the Pros audiobook. It works rather nicely on cash games and is way less volatile than a smallball approach. (My smallball needs more work).

Anyway, winning pretty regularly on micro stakes limit and no limit hold'em. I still have hardly any bankroll at Partypoker, though... I have about $10 at Titanpoker, gained as a bonus, and about $50 at William Hill poker - likewise, a bonus. This one from PokerStrategy.com.

I also play at RAY Poker, where I have about 1.2€, won from freerolls.

Partypoker still has the best software, IMO.

Learning styles and plugging leaks.

I found one --- I've started calling all-ins again... I also MAKE some bad all-ins, but much more rarely.

Everyone plays so aggressive online that by playing sort of passively, they practically throw their chips at you.

Oh, placed first on Nordic 50 seat frenzy BTW, mostly playing smallball - more proper smallball, now that I have the book. I had a close call-  I had AKs and called an all-in  costing me little less than half of my chips - It would have been a decent cash game decision, not so much in a tournament. So, I dropped down to three bets at the lowest point. Took some luck and shoving to climb back up.

I think one of the reasons for my play's volatility is that different situations require different styles, and I only know a couple of play styles at this point.

Oh, speaking of plugging leaks:
http://www.sitandgoplanet.com/blog/100-potential-poker-leaks

Tried out the large bet tournament tactic

From the Power Hold'em Strategy book.
On a $1000 Guaranteed Speed game with $1 rebuy.
I played maybe 10 hands - all just going All In. Placed 31st out of 768. Interesting.

Reading Books and Losing

Oh look, weird uppercase-style title again.

Anyhow, picked up some books from the library. I've already read through Dunnett's Poker Wizards and Negreanu's Hold'em Wisdom for All Players.

My game has been running quite badly. I'm not sure why, maybe I've been playing too much again or maybe it's just that I've been calling too many all-ins AGAIN.

I also picked up Power Hold'em Strategy. I haven't finished that one yet, so I can't speak for it. Poker Wizards was an interesting read, definitely.

Today's Facebook fan Freeroll

I made just one big mistake. From the big blind, which is pretty usual for me - I play badly from BB.

Okay, I had a trash hand - 34s. Flop gave me the bottom pair. Just BB got called and everyone checked 'til the river, which paired a K on the board. Everyone checked through, and the player on the button made an oversized bet - 4200 to the 3600 on the pot.

Since it seemed odd, I figured it for a bluff and called. Nope, he had the king set.

I wasn't quite done at that point, but with small blind leaving me at 1100 chips, I didn't have much life left.
In retrospect, I should have folded, of course.  Busting out, outside the money is just plain stupid. Le sigh, retrospect and so....

Busted out 225th in 50 Seat Frenzy

Was getting kind of short, I min-raised A3 offsuite, got called, flop was ATT, and was looking good. Things happened, another player pushed all-in, I called --- a bad call in retrospect, but he had pocket deuce.
....
And naturally, he got a set on the river. Blergh.

*edit*
Replayed the hand. In retrospect... I had about six bets remaining, with blinds at 800... so, if there was a mistake, it was not pushing all-in from the get-go, or three-betting, if I was going to go all-in...

The thing is, without that ace on the flop, I was ready to fold.

Playing loose and tight.

I'm having moderately good  success with this style. If I'm the first to call, I play any pair, any connector above 56. If I have an actual hand, I do a smallball raise of 2.5 to 3 time big blind, plus any ante. So that's very loose.

If someone's already called, I'm much tighter and limp in with anything less that top eight hands or so. I avoid bluffing most of the time, although I do get a lot of folds from post-flop feelers, which really don't count. Unless I have the nuts, I usually fold to big raises, but that's a lot more subjective.

Still, I'm not actually doing all that hot right now - I have a  lot of RL stuff, so I may end up needing to go AFK for extended periods of time, and I've lost a few games just because I had to be away long enough to get short-stacked.

*edit*

In retrospect, I just added a lever to make me play loose on a tight table and defaulting to tight on a loose table. Not a bad thing, for sure.

Smallball and tournaments

I've been doing pretty well using smallball tactics - not going for marginal situations, getting into lots of pots, and weirdly, keeping the pot size small. Checking the turn is a very interesting tactic.

Oh, I'm up to $84, by the way. When I hit $100, I'll transfer $30 away, and continue grinding $11 double-or-nothing sit-and-gos.

*edit* Hit $100, transferred $30, now at $70-ish - I actually lost a 6 game.

My current win/loss ratio on $11 DoN SnG games is 14 wins/5 losses, so it's pretty good right now.

Placed in a tournament.

It was a $1 rebuy tournament, I came fourth, netted about $13.
I tried to play smallball, and it worked pretty well.

The thing is, I lost because I _accidentally_ went all-in due to a missclick. I was in no shape to play afterwards.

Anyhoo, my balance right now is about $40.

Swings are scary

I've been playing some freerolls on Everest Poker. Nice application, and a decent pace of freerolls.

I placed on a Nordic 50 Seat Frenzy Qualifier again, so I have a place on the 50 Seat Frenzy five days from now. Placing there would net me a position on a $250K Guaranteed tournament, which would be peachy keen.

My bankroll has gone down, I'm currently at $38, which is scary... I haven't been doing all that good on $6 Double-or-Nothings lately. I've won 4 out of the last ten, which is slightly bad, indeed. I'd like to get to about $75 so I could start practicing on $3 10-seat SnGs - the profit margin on those is equal to the $11 Double-or-Nothing games.

Working on my bachelor's degree...

So I don't have that much time to blog.
My ability to play is still heavily affected by my condition - how I'm feeling, how awake I am, and so forth. I did actually have a noteworthy placement yesterday - On a Pokerisivut.com freeroll, I placed sixth, winning $36. Last night's hockey game may have stolen attention from many players, though.

Big swings

Wow. Okay, I went from $30 to $60  in two days, and then back to $30 in about one evening. It's the Gladiator messing with me. Getting my target of 10PP per day is a bit much with my bankroll.

Besides that, my win ratio in double-or-nothing is rather good, so that's good... I think I'll build to $75 and start working on 10-seater $3 SnGs for a bit - I need a win ratio of 2 out of 5 to make profit.

I don't get limit

I really don't... it's an entirely different game. I do okay, most of the time, but I really have little understanding of proper gameplay and tactics in limit... also, it's not nearly as much fun.

Still, I think it's definitely something I should learn. Any links I should check out, or books?

A difference between six and eleven.

I can tell... I 'win' in the double-or-nothing games a decent amount of time... but less in the eleven dollar ones, and it takes a lot more attention and effort to do so there. I'm not entirely sure if it's a matter of tension or just that the more highly-skilled players flock to the $11 games, but there it is.

I screwed up day before yesterday - I have some unpaid bills, so I took a big risk and tried to win a rather expensive tournament. Obviously, I failed. So now, I'll just have to stick to a bankroll management plan and rebuild.... which is going to take a long while, especially as I'm taking, I believe, Howard Lederer's advice and not allow poker playing to intrude upon other important things. Frankly, I was playing so much that it wasn't all that fun anymore. So, I'm cutting down to no more than an hour or two per day, for now.

I've developed some interest towards limit hold'em, since fluctuations there seem to be less intense, and my bankroll is crying right now. However, it's an entirely different game - loose styles don't work all that well there.

A short break

I've been on something of a losing streak of late, I'm down below $120, so I can't technically play $6 SnGs anymore.  I lost something like $12 trying out various X guaranteed tournaments, so that's a part of it, definitely.

I made a trip to the library, and picked up two Harrington on Hold'em books, Volume II and  Volume III to be precise, I'll check those out. I also picked up a book called No Limit Hold'em: Theory and Practice by Sklansky and Miller.

How to stop losing? Don't play worthless hands!

Lost a few games, and took a look at my play.

My losses came from hands like, pair of sixes, pair of eights, K5 suited, and such...

Although I only lost with two hands I played off the blinds... in general, two-three hands off the blinds.
Losses come when trying to steal the blinds, or defending the blinds, for the most part... or just from the blinds.

But still, queen seven suited? What was I thinking?
...Okay, I probably was getting short-stacked and tried to steal the blinds, but...

The biggest use for PokerTracker I've found has been reviewing plays, for spotting flaws in one's game.

Having the top pair is not enough!

Okay, I checked some statistics, and my most common cause for a big loss is having the top pair in a given situation, when someone else has 2 pair, or a small set. I can spot straights and flushes most of the time, but a small set, or a random pair (say, from small connectors), those are rather hard to spot.

Just thought you should know.

Analyzing my losing streak.

I placed in four DoN SnGs today, then lost four. I'm looking at my plays with PokerTracker, and two out of those might be considered bad beats - first, my straight lost to a flush (both made them on the river), although I think I read the flush, and just didn't want to believe it. Thus, the previous post.

Second, I had a set of kings, and the opponent made their straight, which I didn't spot.
Another big part was making the top pair on the board, but my opponent having an over pair - like, I had jacks, but they had queens in the hole, or I made sevens on the flop, but they had nines.

My chip stacks have been draining too fast, due to playing bad hands, like A7 - A8 off suite, and I've lost a LOT with Ace-Jack off suite. So there's a flaw there... on the other hand, stealing blinds gets  important later on...

But, when I lose, I get eliminated early - on spots 10-8 - while, when it gets to blind stealing stage, and close to the bubble, I do tend to survive.

Playing hands of hope and disbelief

Sometimes, I make these really bad calls, where I have a good idea I'm beat, but just can't lay my hand down. When I hit my straight, but am sure the other guy has the flush, when I try to push someone off a winning hand and end up losing all of my chips....

*sigh*

Delta winnings and multi-table micro rings

Hm.
I'm up about $20 over the last six days in tournament winnings, mostly from Double or Nothing games. I only play one table at a time with those, right now, since each win is important, plus I want more metrics on my win/loss ratio.

However, to wake and warm up, I've been starting my playing by playing 4 1/2 cent cash games at once. I typically end up with a net win of ~30-50 cents ín about 20 minutes. Those are my best cash games, as I don't see 1/2 cents as 'money' any more, so I can treat them as chips.

I cashed out about $45 for some expenses, putting me back to $145 on my bankroll, out of which $150 is money I'd rather not lose, so I'm on negatives in a way, right now. If my win/loss ratio is correct, it's about 50 games of $6 double-or-nothings... or about 15 games before I can start playing $11 DoNs again.

Double or Nothing

These games are so easy, they can distort one's view of SnGs. Well, maybe.

I do lose occasionally, but it's like... I lose 1 in 4. In fact, I've played on the $11 Double or Nothing Sit & Gos.
Kind of risky, but not as much as normal SnGs, so...  but, I seem to average 3 wins to 1 loss ratio, so I'm gaining.

I wouldn't try 10-seat $11 standard SnGs at this point, despite the fact that winning those would be highly rewarding...

I am enjoying the fact that games get a lot less random. Just today on a 2/4 cent ring game, I ran into someone who keeps on betting and raising with practically any hands, like 26 offsuite. It was most aggravating.

My bankroll is at +$37,36 right now, (excluding the $150 injection), but it fluctuates about $15 per day, easily. I was at about +$35 day before yesterday, and yesterday I went down to about +$20.

It's like a year of investment in one day.

Is PartyPoker rigged?

I very much doubt it, in the sense that there's any intentional cheating going on to make players lose.

In short, No.

However, there does seem to be something odd going on with it's random number generation.

• if you flop a high pair, you can expect someone else to have one too. AA, KK and 88 flopping simultaneously is rather common
• When multi-tabling, you can get a lot of instances where the card numbers are the same in several tables, although often of a different house.

To me, this tells me that there's probably something a bit off about the random number generation. Most random number generators aren't that random, after all. 

It's really no big deal - it doesn't change the game one bit - but it is something to keep in mind, especially if you get a high pair.

Scared Money

The kind one shouldn't play with.
I can handle 2 and 4 cent blinds by now, but that's about it.

I did indeed give my bankroll a 150$ injection, and so far, it's been worth it.
Basically, I don't want to LOSE any of it, so... it's sort of silly, I might as well be playing with a single buy-in, or so...  However, I've been doing swimmingly on the $6 double or nothing games, and when I hit $220, I can reasonably start playing $11 games. At that point, I gain a reasonable hourly wage  from $11 games, even if I lose 1 in three or so.

I'm technically still down from the beginning of my money play, since I lost a bit early on lacking bankroll management, emotional controll and skill.
Of course, Double or Nothing games are not that good a guideline for measuring one's skills, as it's very nearly possible to fold one's way into money with those.

There's a Spring Million qualifier game costing 50 Party Points today. I am missing about 40. Oh dear...

The boons and perils of multi-tabling

Playing multiple simultaneous poker tables... sometimes it goes well, sometimes... yeah.

So, let's do the traditional list of what is good and what is bad.

Good:

• Staves away boredom 
• Easier to throw away bad and semi-bad hands
• When one's good enough, more games means more money, without unduly increasing risk.

Bad:

• I can't get a read on other players, which can be devastating. 
• When there's lot of action, I can get distracted and end up screwing things up badly, folding good hands or raising bad hands. 

So... goods would seem to outweigh the bad. However, the first two 'good' things are really issues due to my inexperience as a poker player... I guess the last 'good' thing increases in value eventually and the bad things lessen in weight?  Ugh. I need to think about this. 

Hey, I found a lot of interesting articles at this site. 

Bad, bad beats.

On this one tournament, in a really short time span, I got my hands on pocket kings twice, pocket tens, and pocket queens.

All those hands lost. The fact that the queens lost when I went all-in was the end of that game.... also, partially due to frustration over the kings - I did have a good idea from the size of a raise from an earlier player, that they had a top pair - which could only be JJ, KK or AA. It was AA.

However, the person who won that pot had J9 suited, as he hit his flush.
*sigh*

Wow. Interesting two hands.

Okay, so I missed the start of the Facebook Fan Spring Million game, and came in to find blinds at 300 and myself at 2000 chips. Needless to say I didn't last long.

So, I'm wondering if I'm playing horribly and I try my hand at a 0,80 $ buy-in 1/2 cent game.
I still don't know if I'm playing any good, since I hit the big blinds, I get A6s, so I check... Flop comes something like Q46, so I bet half the pot, 7 cents and get a single caller. Turn is a 6 and I raise to 14. The opponent re-raises, I go all in, opponent calls, river is an A and I double up. Okay, wow.

Small blinds, I get something like J4 offsuit. There's plenty of callers and no raises, so I pay that 1 cent. I get the bottom pair, and one high card - jack, I think. I throw in a 2 c feeler bet and get three callers. Turn is a 4, and I get a premonition of victory. I raise by 6 c, 2 per each caller, and I'm left with two. River is a 4.

I check.

First caller raises to 33c, second re-raises... I go all-in. I guess one of them had the top full house, since I get called, and hit 3,20$.

Wow. Admittedly, all that wasw pure luck.

It's easy to lose when you're winning

A quick observation from today -- Two examples from today.

The first one was from a $50 Freeroll. I had about 30K chips, which was probably 2-3 times the mathematical average distribution at that point. Very soon, within 10 minutes or so, I was back down at  22000 chips.

On a $2 buy-in 1/2c ring game, I managed to win a big pot and went up to about $2,5 or so. Soon enough, I was down to $1,2.

This seems to be a trend for me. There's clearly something I'm not handling very well about being on the lead.

Tips?

What's going on with me and Sit & Go turbos?

I didn't know Chris Ferguson had a video about the bankroll management tips he did.

In any case, SnG Turbos --- I used to always fail on those, so I tried the normal speed $3 games, and did rather okay on those. Then, I went on a winning streak, I guess, and won like nine in a row relatively effortlessly. Then, just as I began my Bankroll Repair, I could hardly win anymore. Huh.

Well, at least all that tournament playing, which really hones the importance of being careful with one's chips, has made me a better Cash Game player, although I start feeling kind of scared outside the 1/2 cent games - which don't seem like real money all that much, or perhaps the fact that the small buy-ins remind me of $1 SnGs, so I can consider the money I bring to the table to be already "lost" unless I "place".

Scarily, I'm considering bringing in a non-trivial amount of money - like, 150$ - to get access to bigger games sooner. Mostly, this is a foolish idea... however, as mentioned, the cheapest games  can get pretty random, as people may call you no matter what... It's manageable in ring games, since the blinds don't go up, but in SnGs as well as tournaments, the randomness can really eat you up.

Bankroll Repair, Day five - Uh oh, I'm in trouble

Day five:
Starting wealth USD 6,33 $

Up to 15 games allowed. Single at a time to maximize concentration.

1: -1 Another loss in an all-in situation - Flop was Q2J, I had Q2, a larger
stack went all-in... I did consider they'd have QJ - which they did, but...
Mmm... dunno, stupid risking all-in at that point, I guess.
Next game, I shall avoid all-in even with presumably favorable hands, as long
as they aren't the nuts.
Reminds me of my early tournament woes. I really do badly at all-in and
showdown situations.

2: -2 fail.
Thewho07, tough opponent. Raises a lot. I'm having trouble with the speed the
blinds rise, which was my initial issue with playing $1 turbos in the first
place. Not sure how I managed at one point, any more, I used to win these all
the time, a few days back.
Oh, yeah, Thewho07 was fifth to be eliminated.

3: -3 10-seater, to see if I can fold my way to third place.
*edit* Nope, can't.

Time for a break, for some reason or other, I suck.

I'll try my hand on a 80c cash game --- I can handle those emotionally.
Rules of engagement:
- game continues until time, taking all money, or losing half of winnings,
minimum winnings being 40 cents.
Or, going broke, naturally,

Playing less, getting worse.

I've been sitting on a min 1/2 cent table, since I won't get blinded to death there.
I've played less, over the easter, which has been nice, but I feel I'm getting worse. I guess that's a risk from having only played for such a short time... I feel a lot of my knowledge is still sort of short-term, and... really not  digested.


I borrowed David Sklansky's Hold'em Poker  book from the library - there's hardly anything there that I don't already know --- or at least, nothing I haven't read elsewhere already. Still, it has a lot of stuff in it, which I DID need to learn from somewhere.

I'm not very good at cash games, because I find money... a bit scary. 0,80 buy-in 1/2 cent cash games are cheap enough that I can play normally... Unfortunately, the players themselves are rather random - I've seen people raise with 63 off-suit. It's crazy.

In any case, that's why I prefer tournaments and such - I can deal with hundreds of thousands of abstract 'chips' much better.

However, seeing as how I'm not doing too good in 'turbo' games, it does make me wonder, if I just should multi-table some really tight minimum-bet cash games.

Bankroll Repair, day four - Problems, technical and otherwise.

So, Partypoker wasn't really working properly, but then, neither was I.
I'm on some prescription medication, which I forgot to take with me, so I believe I was suffering some withdrawal symptoms yesterday.  Regardless, I did log what went on yesterday.



Today, I'm going to examine the effect of twin tabling on my concentration.

So, I'll apply the following gaming pattern:
single table->twin table->single table.
so, 10 games would be 1-2-1-2-1-2-1, which should be nice.

1: -1,00. Everyone was playing super-tight so I was picking a lot of pots by
just putting in a min-raise. However, as I got a big raise, I chose to call it,
despite knowing it was a tight table, and ended up losing vs. a pair of jacks.

I _may_ have tilted, but I called a big bet with ATs, and the opponent had AQo,
and that was all she wrote.
I was lucky early on, and ended up playing without consulting my brain.

2: -2,00 4th place, Total loss.
3: -1,08 2nd place, okay run.
Felt kind of distracted, the games felt very fast, and it felt I was constantly
switching between the two games, without really paying much attention to either.

4: -2,08. Ran out of chips. I couldn't get a read on my opponents. Busting out,
however, was self-inflicted. I had KTs, and after I raised to about 40% of my
remaining chips - two bets - an opponent went all in. I called, in despair, and
ran into cowboys.
Observation: I bet too much - or not enough - when I have the top pair. I end up
losing chips when a caller hits a higher pair, or a draw.

5: -3,08 - in trouble with 800 chips remaining, , went all-in with a8s,
ran into KK. Again.
6: -4,08. Lost. Three-way all-in, I had QQ, others had KJ and 99.... river card
was 9. I was doing well at that point, so it's questionable if I should have
participated in that contest, even if I did have the third strongest starting
hand.

Bad day so far.

Then, some stuff happened, such as partypoker maintenance and updates, and I didn't have the time to play rest of the games, which may have been for the best.

---
Daily Spring Million Giveaway NL Hold'em:
* My timing sucks, and I'm getting pushed around by the bigger stacks.
1450 players, 1150 to go for the money.... At this point I pretty much need
a huge hand. TODO: Figure out correct timing.
* 5 min break, 1324 players remaining, 6 bets remaining and about to hit the
blinds.
* flopped 2 pair on the blinds, managed to get to 7 bets. dodged small blind,
thanks to table change. 1201 players remaining. I'm considering delaying 'til
the money comes. Especially considering my bad success in SnGs.
*And I'm out. I had pocket threes, the flop was J-5-Q, Pot was about 1400...
and the opponent bet 3200 chips. What the hell?  I considered it a while, and
concluded they were trying to buy the pot. I totally failed to consider they
might have had pocket fives, or a jack-something, and were trying to scare
someone off a top pair or somesuch. In any case, a foolish risk - I still could
have survived a few more hands.

---

So, that was my day. Hopefully, today will be better.

Chris Ferguson

Interesting fellow, I gained a further interest towards him from the Full Tilt podcasts yesterday.

Here's one starting point to browsing his dotcom page.

Bankroll Repair, Day three - Insert Witty Quote here.

Double-tables...

1:+0,92. all-in bluff with jack ended up a loss of 1st place.
2:+1,88. Was a serious underdog and wasn't getting many good hands.


3: +0,88. Ran out of chips, all-in with 33, other had 10-7 , river ten.
folded T9o against a raise, turn would have made a straight.
4: +1,80. A2 all-in heads up vs. A9. Probably a bad call, but just having an
ace is supposedly pretty good.
folded 93s from SB vs. all-in. 993 flops on the board. Of course.

5: +0,80 bad play with just top pair cost game.
6: +1,72. Bad, bad play in the final hands.

I may be playing a bit too tightly - I ended up being too loose near the end,
last two games.

7: +0,72 loss,
8: +2,60 won 1st place, got a LOT of good hands, including 2 AAs.

9: +3,52, things were moving fast, not sure what happened. Need to review.
10: +2,52, running out of chips, all in with QJ, got 2 pair, opponent got set.

Today's final saldo: USD 11,97 $. A bit better han yesterday's before my
adventures with cash games. about 25% increase in bankroll.

I'm also doing fine on a $250 Freeroll right now, we'll see how that goes.

How I made it through Nordic Spring Million Qualifier second time

I was cooking, so I barely played - I was down to maybe 2200 chips from folding, with blinds at 150ish, and about 130 players remaining, when I began playing. I'll need to check the records from pokertracker when I get the opportunity

I doubled up quite soon, which was a coin flip, more or less - I think I tried to steal the blinds with AK suited, and ended up getting called, and flopped KK. After that, I just played my normal game, although I wasn't very eager to really play any hands - So I guess I was a bit tighter than average. I doubled up a few further times, when others insisted going all in against me when I already had the nuts. I tried to steal the blinds when I could, but not consistently - maybe twice per three rounds or so, I had a decent chip stack, so I wasn't panicking.

Rest was natural. My biggest loss was the second to last hand, as I had just dropped from first to second place at about 137K chips, and I wanted to try stealing the blinds to reach number one spot before the game ended. I ended up losing maybe 50K chips, and finished fifth.

If anyone's interested, I could be persuaded to check the details with pokertracker.

Bankroll Repair, day two - this and that.

Start: USD 5,68 $

two-tabling --
1: -1,00; All-in pocket 10s, ran into AA, AK, flop KK.
2: +0,88; All-in at river, KK win.

3: -0,12; 3rd - lost - iffy all-in with K4os short stack.
4: +0,80; 2nd - J10os. probably should have folded instead.
These two games were badly played.

5: -0,20; early loss vs. All-in at turn with AKs; Had ace pair turn;
river flopped 2 pairs for the opponent's A7. Bad beat.
Maybe I should have raised more pre-flop to eliminate A7, I did bet pot on both
flop and turn.
6: +1,68; Won nicely.

7: +2,60... 2nd - Okay play.
8: +4,48... 1st. Okay play.

Should hit rakeback soon.

9: +3,48... 4th. Short-stacked, went all-in with 88, ran into a set of aces.
10: +2,48... 4th. Ran out of chips, chip leader kept betting all-in, was getting
blinded to death, took a chance with T9s.
I was very distracted with these games as WPT Barcelona tournament began and
such.

BONUS STAGE: To hit my rakeback, I need to play one more game, so I'll try my
hand at a 10-hand $1 set-and-go.

Made it to fifth... need to analyze that game. I didn't feel I was playing poorly - I got blinded to death, more or less.

+1,48...

Oh well, a bit of 1/2 cent sit & gos, plush rakeback, puts my bankroll at
USD 11,53$.

Oh, and won a 50 Seat Frenzy buy-in, worth $15, apparently. Or was it Spring Million Special? I do know I'm on Spring Million Special, but I definitely placed on something...

Update: I just got a visceral reminder why I decided not to play cash games, as I just went and plain lost $2.00, in the most stupid fashion, ever.  Cash games just don't suit my personality - they're too direct.

Bankroll Repair, Day one - results.

Games numbered, then bankroll net effects. Scary stuff. I also lost  $1,60 on a ring game, which went up and down so much --- My personality is ill-suited towards them.

1: -1,00; 3. place
Winnable, made TWO stupid calls where I knew I would lose, but didn't want to
give up the pot.

2: +0,88; 1. place
Knew the opponent had a flush draw, and still paid him off. Had AAA.
Recovered. Won.

3: -0,12; 4. place
Called too big an all in, couldn't recover chip stack. Was too hasty and
impatient.

4: -1,12; 4. place.
Lost most of my chips when on the big blind, after flopping bottom pair and
trying to push the opponent off their hand; Went all in soon after with JT.

Part bad play, part bad luck.

5: -2,01 3. place.
Played an okay game, this one goes to the cards.

6: -3.01 5. place
I think I played okay -- My straight draw ran into a flush draw. I was aware of
it, but was unsure if my opponent was on a straight or flush draw.  My chip
management was bad, though, I was not careful enough.
I had AK suited, I lose most often with AK.

7: -4.01. 3. place
I got nervous - other than folding a pair of fives - which I probably shouldn't
have played in the first place - I played an okay game. Hard to say how much
I was affected by my nerves.

---
Realization : I've been playing scared poker today.
---

8: -6,61; 4. place.
 What is going on? I played pretty good... Was Outplayed by AllInDom.

9: -4.69; 2. place.
Played okay for the most part. my last loss heads-up should have been avoided.
I had a straight draw and a mid pair. At  least it's more towards my rakeback,
without further bankroll loss. Partypoints shall help entering sunday bike ride.

10: -3,71: 2. place
Played okay, except heads-up I still made a bone-headed move with a straight
draw, when the other guy had a set.

Today leaves my bankroll at USD 5,20 $, which is bad, but not horrible -
I can sort of recognize my failures and I played better as the evening
progressed. I did win a place at Spring Million Special, which is nice. Also
scored enough party points to participate in the Sunday Bike Ride.

Placed 46th on WSOP Freeroll, would have lasted longer - my last call was bad.
Someone 4x raised from early position, I had AQ so I called. Flop came out as nothing, and the opponent went all-in.

I should have put him on ANY pair - at that point I only had 6 outs. Calling was bone-headed.

Granted, with 16K chips remaining and blinds hitting 8000, I wouldn't have lasted very long, but at least there would have been a chance...

Won an entry to Spring Million Special.

It's a $6.4K game, also granting entry to, well the Spring Million game. It wasn't an elegant win by any means, though. Basically I limped through the final table, trying to survive the chip leader's stack bullying.

I've done quite badly on my $1 games, fortunately I'm getting close to a bit of rakeback, so it's not that... okay, it's bad, but not completely horrible. I've been losing a lot. Just started playing a bit better. Hopefully I'll get to final table at the $250 freeroll, that would recoup some losses.

Bankroll Repair, Day one - Introducing the plan

Okay... I have a tendency to lose money.
I win a lot when playing $1 SnGs, but I also very easily tend to put that money into $1 -- $6 tournament fees, or try to play more expensive SnGs and end up losing.

My losses are often quick crashes, as I have been playing too much of late, and at some point in the evening I always stop asking, what hand could my opponent be on, and why am I playing this hand.

To sum up, my current bankroll is USD 9,81 $.

So here's the plan: I shall ONLY play a grand total of TEN SnGs per day, and maybe one or two tournaments, depending on the desirability of those tournaments and favoring ones which are either free, or which I have a high chance of winning.

This will also give me a nice metric to evaluate my successes. I shall publicize the results of my ten games, and my bankroll at the end. Also, limiting the game count means I'll have a bigger reason to focus better on each and every single game.

Daily Spring Million Giveaway NL Holdem

Okay, about 7000 participants,

Busted out, as per usual, 367th.  At my best I was  ranked 70th or so.
I was doing very well - stayed within top percentage most of the time, the game was down-right EASY---
But, then there was a 5-minute break. Somehow I came back to the game all on tilt.

I had four to a nut flush and river card to come. An opponent with about 50K chips pushed all in, while I had 80K chips or so - I would have had about 75k left after folding.

I
Called.

Okay, I'm down to 22K chips -- few hands later I'm back at 37K. EASILY back at play with blinds at 2000.

I get QQ on hole. I trip-raise to 6000, and get two callers. Flop has nothing better than QQ and no draws.
The two other players go all in.

I could have --- SHOULD have walked away, then and there.

Instead, like a total jackass I called. AA and JK. Thus, I was out.

...Huh.. Turbo Sit & Gos.

I used to think I was no good at them, but I seem to win 9 out of 10 times, when I play. That's only on the $1 level right now, though. I need about $75 to play $3 games. sanely.

Further, I almost always win the 6-seated games, but rarely the 10-seated ones, although I used to place in top-3 practically always on those.

From the $3 six-seated games, If I'm playing normally, I place four times out of five, and win one out of five.

I've never won on the $6 level.

quick math gives the best win/loss ratio for $1 games, but it takes me five hours to process $20 of my bankroll... not an issue right now, since I'm short again, but when I have more than that, it becomes less effective. However, my profit is about $15 per 10 games...

So, if I play 10 $3 games, my profit will be about $2.4 per game...
Hm. That's slightly more profitable, but if I play on some level of tilt, I also LOSE money a LOT faster at that level... I guess that's why I should have a large enough bankroll not to suffer too much from the downswings.

At $18 a day, I could make it to $80 in five days, at which  point playing $3 games would be safe. Need about $160 to $200 for $6 games, then.

The thing is, I do like to play tournaments - the whole win big aspect is very enjoyable.....

Self-control

Okay, here's a fun thing - playing three tables, plus a game of Go on KGS, completely confused all around....


Anyhow, the Go game ends, and I find myself doing quite well in the tournaments I'm playing at.

Three hands later, when I'm actually focusing on the games, I bust out of one of the tournaments - it was a $50 freeroll, so no big - and.... maybe I still play clearly better while distracted.

Or maybe it's the sugar - I've been on low sugar of late, and I bought some candy bars today, so this is my brain on sugar.

I found an interesting forum for poker players, by the way, called Cardschat.

Here's an obsevation I wish I'd made a few seconds earlier:
When an opponent makes a "hey I have high pair" - raise and you have a big hand, and you call, and the flop gives you nothing --- FOLD!


So yeah. It was the 1 Party Point Daily Spring Million Giveaway, I had a good stack too.

Tilt Cooldown / Sick Hand

Lost a showdown, I likely should have won... If I'd played more slowly, perhaps I would have read the other guy better.

What happened was, I had QJ Offsuite, and the flop came down 3QJ. Very few hands beat that. So, there's pushing and I go all in.

the turn and river card come down, a 3 and a J  - I get a full house. Imagine my surprise and dismay as I lose -- the other guy had  a pair of threes.

At first, I think, okay, a bad beat. Then I'm reminded of another hand where I folded in a correct spot - I had QJ suited, and the flop came down something-5-J, and I think I have the hand. I put in one raise. Others call. The turn card comes, and is a 5, and the guy on the other end raises. I put him on A5, and fold - and he had A5 offsuite.

Here's the thing - WHY do I let someone with a pair of threes, or a A5 offsuite stay in on the hand? Stupid...

I need to work on my shoves...

Bankroll Management

Found a nice article on the subject. I've had a bad morning, so I decided to play some 2/4 cent limit, since I should profit by just sticking to top 24 hands.
Anyhoo, link to the article.

My current bankroll is $16, not counting the borrowed seed money. I could play 5/10 cent limit with the seed money...

Today's main tournaments will be the Facebook Fan game, the Daily Spring Million giveaway, and if I can fiddle with the seed money, the Daily Depositor game, which is awesome. If my bankroll does well, I might enter a $3 --  $6 tournament which only has few participants.

I'd really like to get to the $36 range today, at least... 'easy' with a tournament win.

I'm gaining a liking towards limit holdem. Less risky.

Yesterday....

Okay, I won four out of five sit & gos I played at $3 tables. I lost nine out of ten at $1 turbos, so not playing those.

Today, I've played a 10-seater speed game, from which I got a net gain of $9. I tried playing two tables at once, but lost both - other entirely due to missclicks, so basically --- I can't multi-table. Not at this point, at these bet sizes, anyway.

Cheap daily GTDs are pretty good --- while one might only get back their initial investment with tight play, but with a bit of luck, you can get up to or better than 600% ROI. They do take at least three hours, so if you don't make it big-ish, it's effectively a loss, though....

A Disaster Strikes!

Okay... I found a tournament I liked, but I accidently miss-clicked, and registered into a wrong tournament.
The disaster? This tournament had a buy-in cost of $33!

What could be worse? Let me tell you what's worse:

Starting the final table as the chip leader and being busted out as the seventh.
Sixth place would have scored $110.

Aaaargh!

The feeling of loss - especially after having daydreams of the $640 - was incredible.

I'm still up by about $15, which means I've lost $41 out of $60 I won. I've found out I do really poorly on the 'Turbo' Sit & Gos, as I play too tight for those games.

I have a theory about one's bankroll, and that is that one should "process" all of it - or at least half of it - every day. Basically, you should win more than lose, and if you have, oh, a bankroll of 100% but you only utilize 10% of it per day, most of it is "dead money".

Of course, it's not quite so black and white - for an example, you shouldn't risk as much on 'training' in new game types and such.

Risk and Reward

Borrowed money to seed my bankroll. put in $40ish. Partypoker has this $1,000 Daily Depositor Freeroll NL Holdem for those who deposit using a certain bonus code. Placed 5th, won $60. Cool.

Should have played better, though.

Seriously, I had a shot at the top position, too.  That would have been $260.

Anyway, sit-n-gos.... I CAN win, but not easily. Too sleepy to put proper effort into them today.

Flaws in my most recent game.

All in busted out at 1101th place. I was getting short-stacked, and only placement that counts is the top-25.

First, the things I did correctly:

• I called more raises, and raised more often
• I played good hands most of the time

Things that were a mistake:

• I chased hands through minimal raises
• My timing in All-In was bad - I could have lasted up to three more full rounds, trying to get a better hand to do it.
• My raises were probably on the small side.
• I tried pushing people off their pot with raises while having no hand, a few times.

Statistics

 These I play the most

Table:    MTCTs
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    12103

Your actions:
Fold:    45%
Call:    23%
Check:    11%
Bet:    13%
Raise:    5%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    66%
Flop:    6%
Turn:    2%
River:    2%
No-Fold:    22%

Hands won:    17%
Showdowns won:    6%
Flops seen:    28%
Win % of Flops Seen:    43%

 In these I lose money

Table:    Ring games
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    3869

Your actions:
Fold:    33%
Call:    26%
Check:    14%
Bet:    18%
Raise:    7%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    53%
Flop:    8%
Turn:    4%
River:    2%
No-Fold:    30%

Hands won:    23%
Showdowns won:    6%
Flops seen:    42%
Win % of Flops Seen:    47%

In these I win the most, really

Table:    STTs
Game:    Hold'em
Hands played:    907

Your actions:
Fold:    31%
Call:    23%
Check:    24%
Bet:    14%
Raise:    6%
Re-raise:    0%

Where you fold:
Pre-Flop:    45%
Flop:    11%
Turn:    4%
River:    4%
No-Fold:    35%

Hands won:    26%
Showdowns won:    7%
Flops seen:    48%
Win % of Flops Seen:    42%

$1.5k New Player Freeroll today

By just playing tight-aggressive, I should get enough to start playing sit-and-gos. Hard to say how those will go now, but I've yet to not place in no-money games.

I do have some trouble betting large enough, a lot of the time - I like to have 100x big blind in chip stack, to play my normal game, more or less.

Update: Won a bit, but...
 - Sit and Gos with money are a bit tougher than play money ones. I was expecting that, but still...
- Sit and Gos don't give the +2 PP bonus that playing an actual tournament does, so I missed on the $2 bonus I have coming up. Grr.

In other news, placed 27th on the WSOP Freeroll. If I'd switched to total fold mode when I had 300K I probably would have made it, too, as I was only about 1 round short from top 25.


AAAAAAAAAAAGH!

Okay, my early tournament game is pretty good

In several games now, I've managed to gain the chip lead relatively effortlessly in the first two tables, then died somewhat early after the blinds got bigger.

My basic strategy has been simple - close to the button, call any suited connectors or any two high cards, unless there's a raise - the basic idea is to see a lot of flops. Now, after practically any flop, especially if you're heads-up, throw one raise at it. A lot of opponents fold right there. Throwing another raise after the turn is also good - most opponents fold there. So in total, you pay about 3x BB per hand you play. If your opponent has a strong hand, they often re-raise you.

... I think there's a flaw in that I'm not necessarily winning that much money - my biggest wins were when I had the nuts, or something very close, and others just threw themselves all in at me - I never risked going all in myself, since that's when I tend to bust out.

Ideally, one could be in most hand - say, if you only risked about 1/100th of your chips to see the flop. Then, you can just fold anything that doesn't hit something.

The problem is, I tend to end up short-stacked when the blinds start going up, and people from other tables begin replacing those who drop out in the table I'm in.

Running into Trouble

This happened in today's WSOP Freeroll:

I had J9 suited, and flop came up with two nines, thought I had it - I had a set, and a moderately high kicker. A loose player was betting against me, and I ended up all in.

Nothing good ever happens when I go all in.

You can pretty much guess what happened - the other guy had a full house, which I completely missed, and I was out. Was that something I should have read, or should I chalk it up to bad luck?

I really wanted to win, and as a consequence, I was TERRIFIED when playing. I don't want to see my chips go away, so betting felt rather scary. I managed to steal the blinds a few times, which helped, but still, it's worrisome...

How To Get Better at Poker?

Okay, so I got my 40 cents, which I put into a ring game - my goal was to build up to $1,40 so I could enter a tournament or a Sit & Go game, while retaining enough to rebuild again and again.
I got up to $1,30, and foolishly continued, eventually going to tilt, and lost everything. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I wonder, is there a training menu, outside just playing lots and lots of games, to improving one's game? A quick google search got me these links:

About - WikiHow - PokerTips

Okay run on Limit tournament.

I placed forty-somethingeth. Would have done much better by playing tighter in the late game, but I got a suited AK and a pair of jacks in a row, which I just had to play. With blinds at 20000, it didn't take long to run down my stack of 400K.
Especially as a pair of nines flopped when I had the jacks, and I just couldn't put the heavy raiser on a set. Stupid of me. I'd go so far to say that I was on Tilt.

My top placement with 40000ish chips was 12th, at one time, which isn't that much in a $50 tournament.

Update: I took a stupid risk early on, in the NL $50 freeroll. I had 13 outs, meaning about 52% chance of winning... but I missed it, and was out.
The thing is, I shouldn't have even taken that risk in the first place - if you risk falling out of a tournament, it's a stupid risk to take.
One of the benefits of NL Hold'em is that it exercises my self-control.... but, my self-control is still insufficient.

Well, yesterday sucked.

I wasn't playing horribly-horribly, but for some reason I got really sleepy, I ruined my dinner and... yeah, stuff happened. On the upside, I did manage to watch about half of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so it wasn't a total loss. Maybe.

Oh, an observation I do not recall mentioning off the top of my head:
I play at my worst and lose the most when I'm on the blinds, for some reason. I just got eliminated rather ignobly, from today's WPT Barcelona Freeroll, due to trying to force others off the pot by going all in at the river. I had a pair of sixes, but I had missed the fact that another player had made a pair of eights on the turn. I really should have read that, too, seeing as how they raised one blind on the turn. after having checked the flop.

Rounders and $1.5K New Players Freeroll

Matt Damon, that movie. So far entertaining.

As per usual, I'm doing remarkably badly since actual winning is involved. I had a decent sized stack, but went very nearly all in with A8s when there was AKT8 on the table. The other guy had AT, which I really should have spotted earlier, and I went down to... either 40 or 60 chips, while blinds were at 80 chips. Now I'm back to a bit over 2000 chips with blinds at 400 - I expect they're either 500 or 600 after the break.

A remarkable recovery, but regardless - I'm doing rather badly right now. I'll update afterwards, regarding my final placement.

Update: Finished 356th, meaning a gain of $1.05

Any suggestions where to invest it? I could go for the 2 cent blind NL table, I guess...

I'm also playing two other tournaments right now, a $50 Freeroll, and a 10 PP spring million special, in which I'm not doing too well right now. I'll do another update on those two...

Update: Finished 10th in 10 PP Spring Million Special. I haven't played the final tables very much, so I'm probably  not all that good at them.

Update: Finished 32nd in the $50 Freeroll, gained $0.05, probably my best placement on the $50 Freerolls. Lost a showdown with K7 vs. something-8, flopped both two sevens and two eights, so...    Currently playing on a $250 Freeroll, just started.

Update: Finished fourhundred-something, gained 12 cents. I lucked into about 80K chips early on, but I kept on losing whenever I tried to play later, most often on the big or small blind. At least twice I folded winning hands.  Current balance $1.26. I'd be way up if... oh well.
But, that's it for tonight. a $1500 game tomorrow, and we'll see what else.

Oh, finished watching Rounders. All in all a decent movie, although the lzherusskie accent was ridiculously fake on the main "bad guy".

56th today's WPT Barcelona Freeroll and chocolate pancakes

Cooked while playing. Did okay for the most part. I mean, cooking was awesome, but I ended up being sort of short-stacked in the WPT, and I went all in with king-high spade suited cards with two spades on the flop, so I thought I had a decent chance - I seem to recall I had 13 outs at that point.

Turn and river brought two clubs, and that was it for me.

Also got eliminated early in the $6400 Spring Million Special - I ended up short-stacked when betting heavily on a QQ, with another player having ace-something, and ace flopping onto the table... I recovered partially with a pair of AAs, and thought I might get back into the game as I made a low, unlikely straight on the turn when I was the big blind... unfortunately, another person made a flush on the river, and I was all in.
*sigh*

The competition was WAY tougher on the spring million special.

Anyway, pancakes good. Wheat flour, semolina, an egg, water, some cooking cocoa, vanilla sugar and coffee went into the batter. I'm thinking of adding some shredded carrot for sugar.

I tend to ramble.

I prefer chips to cash, just because looking at money going up and down is a lot scarier than looking at chips. Also, the risk-reward ratio is potentially much better in tournaments - while one might, in four hours, turn one dollar into, oh, ten, in a tournament, there's a chance of turning that into seven hundred, for an example.

Of course, you can't beat the profit ratio of free tournaments.

My concentration doesn't really handle four hours too well... sure, you're mostly folding, but still, tracking position, chip stacks, play styles and whatnot is very helpful...

Regardless, I have a habit of either reading or watching something simultaneously... while it does keep the stress levels down, it does distract me just a bit, which worsens my chances.

Sometimes, I write blog posts, too.

So yeah, currently playing a $250 freeroll, in which I usually do ridiculously badly. They typically have more than ten thousand participants, which means they're really long, meaning I've never gotten within top 100, and I've often failed to reach top-1000, even.

There are two reasons for this, first being the aforementioned issue with concentration. The second is that my cowardly nature has a tendency to resurface, and the fact that to make it to top ten, you need around 30 million chips. That's a lot of chips to gather.

Hmm.

Some newbieish bad habits I retain:

• Paying just to see follow-up cards
• Trying to scare people off winning hands with a badly-timed raise
• Not listening to my intuition. I sometimes seem to have nearly supernatural intuition regarding what's going on in the table. It's probably just subconscious pattern recognition, but it feels pretty cool when it works. 
• Missing opponent's flushes, straights and full houses way too often.

Update: Finished at position 3352. I tried to figure out if a high-stack opponent trying to put me all-in was bluffing or not, but I only figured he didn't have AJ, so I didn't put him on a set of threes. 

I did some experimentation regarding my intuition. It seems to work relatively well when I'm absolutely calm. When I get even a bit excited, it goes out of the window. 

Bankroll gone. Need to experiment.

I'm not too devastated, as a single good freeroll game can net the meager amounts I had.

Still, I feel I'm not playing with my full potential, so I need to do some experiments in my next games tomorrow - there's a $50 freeroll and a $250 freeroll every day - both in which I have historically done really poorly.  Partly, I believe, it's a matter of endurance, as they may have more than ten thousand participants, and take more than four hours to finish - the Nordic X games I've done better in, start with a participant count in the hundreds, which makes a big difference.

In a sense, placing 26th on the WSOP freeroll is probably my best result, as it had 3500 participants.

Bad luck on the river.

While luck isn't a huge part of the game, it's still a part, definitely.
I just went all-in with AJ, when flop plus turn was 2TAJ.
I should have been more afraid of a KQ, but that's not what my opponent had. They had an ace-ten.
River card flopped a ten.

Nothing surprising, but the river card screwing me up on a critical spot has happened three times by now, so it's starting to look like a trend.
Mind you, I've been saved  by the river at least once, so...

Anyway, I'm almost out of having a bankroll by now. Here's hoping for less bad luck.

WSOP Freeroll 26th place - just a touch bitter.

Okay, I've discovered I tend to play better if I don't pay too much attention to extraneous stuff, like how many players still remain, what is the position I need to reach to get some sort of a prize, and so forth.

Still, the fact that places 1-25 got an equal reward, and I got eliminated as the 26th, does make just a teensy tiny bit bitter. I guess it was my fault - I could have survived 'til the next hand, and someone else _might_ have been eliminated instead, in that time.

Still, I'm a tad unhappy now.

Recovered my losses

in fact, I went up a bit - my bankroll is currently $5.88.
On the other hand, I've been doing horribly on tournament games, for some reason. I've been doing bad, risky calls even when having a good idea that I'll be likely to lose.  I'm not entirely sure why, but I think it relates to the reasons I've been doing so badly on the various freerolls where there's an actual chance of winning money.

Am I subconsciously sabotaging myself, perhaps?

$2000 Play Less, Win More Freeroll

Starts soon. Wish me luck.

Update: Had a really bad day today - not sure if I've been unlucky or if I've played badly, but nothing seemed to work for me - I even lost 80 cents on a cash game.

Last time when I won, I played a bit more loosely, especially in a late game. Combined with heavy petting it meant I won a lot, when I did win... I do think aggressive betting is a key factor, but I'll try being more conservative with the hands I play for a while.

Maybe it's the necessity of late-tournament loosening up which messes up my mid-early game. Hm.

Stupid distractions, grr. // Passed Nordic Spring Million Qualifier

I'm up to $4.19 from today. I feel like I could have done much better, but I'm not at home, so I've been pretty distracted all day long. Not feeling very proud or anything, as of yet.

You know, in fact, the way I really feel? These are sad, sad results, thus far. I want to win big, I'm just not good enough.

Yet.

Update: Nordic Spring Million Qualifier Speed:
Right now, there are 56 players remaining. Right now, I am number one. Yay!
Update 2:  Finished third place, gained entry to Spring Million Special, which has a $6400 pot. Placing within top ten in that one, would give access to Spring Million, which has... well, guess :)

Only happens in internet poker

I've often run into a situation where most of the players in the table are away, and automatically fold... which is nice, as you can steal most blinds. However, when there's another player in the table, it's easy to get terribly distracted, as playing a single hand takes often less than ten seconds, so my concentration goes all over the place, and I tend to make stupid, foolish mistakes.

Play Less, Win More

As noted, I managed to win 65 cents on the $500 dollar one, which I quickly doubled in a ring game.
Apparently, I could also register for the $750, $1500, as well as the $5000 dollar games,  so I quickly did so. They're all today, and winning significantly could help my financial situation - which is currently, well, bad.
Very bad.

My playing style in still in flux, very much. I did consider, that if a 4x blinds raise steals the blinds 3 times out of four, with the fourth one being a loss, you still make net profit. (earn 4.5x blinds, lose 4x blinds)

Gaining experience

Initially, my intention was to moan about how badly I've been doing, but today hasn't been so bad, perhaps as I haven't played too much in two days - only a couple of hours. So, there's a nice $500 "Play Less, Win More" freeroll game today, and I'm not doing too badly, yet... I'm short-stacked, but looks like I have a lock on at least $0.45, or somesuch... perhaps, if I'm lucky, I'll even hit something that doesn't start with a zero :)

More importantly, playing hasn't been too painful - I made one iffy call - I was the big blind with a bad hand, and lost nearly half of my chip stack running into an ace-high flush - I only aborted at the final round of betting during the river card, so I already suffered a significant loss.

But otherwise, I'm hanging on relatively well.

update: Made it to 65th or so, earning $0.65 appropriately. Then I doubled it up to $1.30 in a 2 cent cash game. I won't play higher cash games 'til I have more than 10 USD.

Fear

Whether it's cash games or tournaments... once you're out of money, or out of chips... that's the end.

I think the fear of that happening is hindering me. As far as it prevents me from playing weak hands, it's not such a bad thing. However, it also restricts my betting, and that gets in the way of winning, which is bad.

I've done fairly well playing lots of speculative hands, at some points... it's rather risky, though, especially if you misread other peoples' hands. So nowadays, I play very conservatively, just the top fifty or so hands, with rather careful betting most of the time.

I've been on the receiving end of aggressive betting, myself - something like 5x - 6x blinds on a pre-flop betis enough to put people off even potential winning hands, myself included. I probably should't be that afraid of those bets.

In any case, my bankroll has hit a flat zero, again. :(

Ups And Downs

I act... rashly, with my bankroll. So, I hereby promise to only play the 1/2 cent blinds cash games, outside the freeroll tournaments, until I have more than $10 on my bankroll.

...which will take a while. Which is a problem, as I'm in serious need of cash, as in I only got to eat today because my brother is visiting and he bought me dinner.

So, yeah, my bankroll went down to $0.45. Oops.

Maybe I'll play better today, now that I'm not so hungry anymore.

$5 Click Card

Free money, yay!

I'm playing 2 cent blinds NL cash game, and a $1 rebuy speed tournament, I should see which one is more profitable for me at this point, if I keep playing the cash game simultaneously with the tournament.

*edit*

Got eliminated around 80th spot in the tournament, so winning about $2.20 on cash game, is clearly the winner.
A shame, as the profit margin is much better at winning tournaments. *sigh*

WPT Vienna

Digged up the passwords for the $1000 live stream ( - which is an interesting watch - ) and the $500 Twitter game. At least placing would give me access to cash games, again. Hm.

Placed 160th on the WPT Barcelona Freeroll game. My late game is still weak.

Update: Only managed to get about 1100th place in the live stream game - I had a long streak of no good hands, so I went all in with AJ offsuit, and... so, yeah.

I also do very badly on $50 and $250 freeroll games, for some reason. Hm.

Update 2: So... Um... I was kinda asleep past the start of Vienna Twitter game. The game had gone on for nearly fifty minutes when I got up, at which point the blinds had pretty much eaten up my stack.  So... yeah.

Oops.

WPT Vienna

Digged up the passwords for the $1000 live stream ( - which is an interesting watch - ) and the $500 Twitter game. At least placing would give me access to cash games, again. Hm.

Placed 160th on the WPT Barcelona Freeroll game. My late game is still weak.

So how am I doing?

Well, it's been... nearly three weeks since I started playing.
I managed $0.04 worth in a $50 limit holdem, and so forth. I'm not just sure...

*sigh*

I'm hungry.

It's easy to reach the top, oh, 10% of any tournament by only playing the premium hands, and even then conservatively, but that means one'll probably be short-stacked when there's only that 10% left, unless you run into a lucky streak when the blinds start getting big.

I don't do quite as many bone-headed mistakes any more, so that's good, at least. Now, if only I had food....

A Tournament-mistake would be to bet large sums - say, more than half of your remaining chips - in an early spot - while there are still thousands of players remaining - when there's a distinct possibility of the other player having a better hand.

Or how I just lost 95% of my chips with a JK vs. a KK hand. I should have read it from the bets, but frankly, the player had a tendency to bet big with all sorts of hands, so....

Losing with Aces

During the last day, I've had two aces come up five times in my games. Once, I doubled up. Once, I just won the blinds. Three times, I lost completely, with opponents lucking into flushes or draws by the time River arrives.

Just now, my Aces went up against a pair of sevens, all pre-flop, and the other guy is all-in. So, what cards hit the table? Why, three, four, five and six, of course.

I'm feeling just a tad unlucky.

When to throw away a set of aces?

Well, obviously, when there's a straight or a flush on the table and someone just went nuts with the betting.

Yes, there's a tragic tale behind this advice.

Looser hands

That is, suited connectors, or sometimes just suited cards - if you can see the flop for the price of the big blind, you get access to a lot more winning situations, which can be useful.

A Tournament mistake to eliminate:
I seem to have the tendency to go all-in against people with more chips, when all I have is a mid-pair.

Okay, I had A-T heart suite, and flop was K-7-T, with a single heart card. Turn card was a heart, so I bet expensively on it - after all, I had quite a few outs. But, the heart didn't come on the river, and naturally the opponent had a King, and that's all she wrote for that tournament. I was doing pretty well until then, too. :(

Anyway, the mistake here was betting all my chips on such an expensive duel in a tournament.

I'm My Own Worst Enemy

I did really badly on the tournaments. I placed well enough in the $1.5K newbie one to get $1, but I really blew it on the $2.5K qualifier ( which would have included a place on a much bigger monthly game ) as well as the 50 seat  frenzy. Both were stupid plays on bad hands, and I even had an inkling of the hand my opponent had in both situations.

I'm mad at myself, sure enough.

Good, or not? It's kind of like fishing.

Waiting for good hands - high card suited connectors at least - can get pretty tedious. So, poker is a lot like fishing - lots and lots of waiting, short moments of frenzied action, and even if you catch your prey (the pot) it may be undersized.

I'm not the most patient person in the world, although I am pretty good at waiting. Still, watching one's stack of chips dwindle while waiting for a good hand in a good position can be quite taxing.

Cash games are especially nerve-wracking. as you can directly see it's money you lose on the blinds, while waiting for good cards, and even if  you happen to get a good hand, the flop may completely spoil things for you... and sometimes it's hard to let a good hand go, after the flop spells doom.

And there's the thing - You mustn't be controlled by greed. A degree of humility is needed for survival - humility and boldness - not quite courage - but, as you win very rarely, when you do, you must reap decent-sized rewards. This means, you can't just use moderately-sized bets. It's possible to increase your stack by an order of magnitude in three hands or less, but it requires, well, gambling.

Big day tomorrow

I have four big tournament games tomorrow, all starting between 8 and 10 PM. Oh dear.

• The 50 Seat Frenzy, with a prize pool of $10,750
• New Player $1.5K Freeroll, with a reward of $266.25 for number one slot
• WSOP New Player Freeroll, with a prize pool of $7,500
• Bankroll Builder $2.5K Weekly with a reward of $250 for the top spot. 

If, by some freakish stroke of luck and good condition I'd happen to win, I'd be finally okay for a while, again. 

Four tournaments at the same time, however, is tough. I can't really follow other players' game that well, so I won't be able to track their betting behavior that well, which is a hindrance. Especially, as I'm only a mediocre player myself, at this point. 

Concentrate!

As much as I like tournaments, I only really do well if I focus on them rather intently, If I watch High Stakes or read a book at the same time, or so --- I may still end up in the top 10%-20% - but that's not good enough when there may be thousands of participants. Also, I'll be ignorant of the playing style of the players in my table, and that matters a whole lot. A big pre-raise gets wasted, if the chip leader is All-In happy.

So, to win, I stare. It's very draining. There's also a risk I get over-excited and start playing bad hands.

In any case, I've done terribly in most cash-reward games, usually dying on a stupid all-in call, sometimes wasting significant chip lead on bad play just before - I have issues with long-term endurance and concentration, but improving those is one of the benefits of playing poker...

Note to self, I need to write a post about the mental and behavioral benefits of playing Texas Hold'em.

Play style musings.

So yeah... tight-aggressive.

I've done significantly better by sticking to better hands - no worse than suited connectors, suited As, both cards high and so forth - AND betting more aggressively. By putting a nice, 4x big blind raise into the pot with a good hand pre-flop, will either win you the blinds then and there - or you might get money in the pot, and thus win more.

One thing I find useful, though, is trying to avoid risking more than one-fourth - a quarter - of the pot on one hand, unless I'm pretty sure I have the nuts. Avoiding All Ins, while leaving me with less wins, also leads to less devastating losses - most of my big losses - also some of the big wins - have come from All Ins. I mean, if I have the ace-high flush, it's obviously the right thing to do, but, say, with a three of a kind when there's a higher pair on the table? Much more risky.

Well, that's interesting.

I was playing on a Nordic 50 Seat qualifier, and since I've already scored a place, I was playing around and learning.

I played silly aggressive, playing almost every hand and bluffing when the opportunity came, and I was winning left and right. I guess it could be because the common strategy early in a tournament is to play really tight.

I did still crash, when I faced a tempting all-in where I was waiting on a 10 to complete a straight on the River, which didn't come, so my opponent took all but 600 chips with a JT pair.

But still, aggressive and loose is strong when everyone else is being tight and passive. Good way to get a chip lead early on, as long as one can switch gears later. In any case, my post-flop play still sucks, in my opinion.

I'm also flat broke again; I need to start winning some tournaments.

WSOP Freeroll

Placed 36th out of... how many thousands? Was doing fairly well, too, but judged a person's all-in call to be a bluff and STUPIDLY, SO STUPIDLY went all-in myself. Would have probably made the final table otherwise.

Especially as I had a mid-pair and it WAS likely the raising guy had a Jack.

It's never been more obvious than it is now, that I'm my own worst enemy.

Thinking of Some Simple Heuristics

Uppercase words again? What's up with that?
It seemed more like a title that way, I guess?

I need to keep the starting hands listed in Wikipedia I referred to in an earlier post in mind, constantly. It makes me a better player. Otherwise I keep playing crap - or at least semi-crap - hands a lot more.

Even a small raise, such as 2x blinds is enough of a psyochological block to wean out non-confident players. A large raise after the river card can scare off a lot of people, too.... Of course, recognizing people's playing habits IS rather necessary for that to work reliably... and when one's scared, it's hard to change that on a whim.

So... I only play hands listed, for the most part, or if there's no ante and blinds are small. Stealing blinds is  important once they get big enough, but at, oh, 1/20th of stack, not really an issue.

Most of the time, I aim to either raise or fold, since I need to be either winning, or cutting my losses and running.

My biggest losses come from miscalculating a situation and betting big when I _think_ I have the best hand, but really... don't.

I also lose quite often when I have a good hand but must avoid All In on tournaments - I lose most All Ins, and the ones I haven't were where I had about 90% winning chance after the flop.

Sometimes I disregard my instincts and call something I pretty much know I'll lose, because I just have to see. That's less than fun.

I may have learned the wrong lesson

The uppercase first letter thing bugs me; I'm not gonna do it anymore.

I was reading Small Stakes Hold 'em: Winning Big With Expert Play, and I think I saw there the reason I haven't been doing so hot lately: I've had some lucky streaks, as well as unlucky ones, and I've learned the wrong lesson from them, I think. I'm either too reckless or too conservative, so I lose in the long run, right now.

I hope I can change this habit; I'll keep reading more of the book, it's interesting.

In Retrospect, Yesteday Wasn't Good

English is a funny language, not sure what's up with capitalizing every word in title.

I lost quite a bit yesterday, due to bad risks, but also due to getting bullied out of winnable pots by aggressive players. On the other hand, taking unreasonable risks is supposed to be a no-no, but if a player notices you're too afraid to go All In, they'll use that leverage to bully you around - unless you're the chip leader.

So, it's a big issue when short-stacked. Not sure what to do about it, besides trying to luck into winning flops.

I did run into situations where the opponents lucked into a straight or a flush on the river card when I did take risks, so... T_T

Here's something to read by Phil Ivey.
I think he's on to something. I've studied strategies and whatnot, but at some point I stopped seeing the cards.
I mean, at the level I play, very few players bluff at all, so what cards they have can often be determined by whether they check or raise at the flop.

A Table Full of Fish

I did okay at the 5/10 cent stakes, ran into a table full of fish, as mentioned. Won $17, which is a nice chunk going towards recouping my losses.

Invested $6 on a tournament. We'll see how that goes. I haven't been doing too hot on tournaments lately.

*edit*
Well, I ranked just barely. I've made the final table only ONCE and even then it was cancelled, as the reward for all seats was the same - a place in a bigger tournament.

I am playing with a better chip stack in most tournaments  so that's good...

My current balance is $3.16, which isn't much...

I think I'm getting better

Placed 15th in a win-a-TV tournament - a shame, final table would have scored some money.

Also did okay on a $1 rebuy tournament, without, y'know, rebuying. I blame my lack of success on me getting sleepy.

I mean, I do okay AND even become my table's chip leader semi-reliably, so that's... good?

In other news, my keyboard broke on my workstation. Writing onna laptop.

*edit*

I think one of the key aspects for me doing better has been that I know when to risk larger sums, and I'm getting better at being sufficiently patient, and knowing when to fold.

I do better when I just play the very good cards - both cards 8 or higher, minimum - most of the time. My natural sloppiness and impatience puts in the sufficient amount of accidental weak hands and bluffs, which keep the opponents off-balance, I hope.

Nordic 50 seat frenzy qualifier

Came in second, qualified for a ten grand game. :D
I played my game, and it worked. Stealing blinds totally dominated late game.

I'm very happy.

I tried some cash games, and I sucked badly... I did okay initially, but then I crash&burned. :/

That was fun.

Wsop Freeroll, 197 out of 3500.
Went from a chip stack of 44000 to zero in one hand, and was doing really well until then, even if I had few All In close calls. That's the type of excitement I must learn to avoid. I was up against a player with 100000K, and my hand was KQ, which gave me a high pair K, and there was nothing else on the table...

Except he coulda had trips or something. In this particular case, he had AAs.

So, again, I failed, not due to luck, but by my own impulsive nature. T_T

I cannot play

A K8 beat my AK on the $§1.5K game. Once again I broke my rule of never going all in.

I can't see the cards right now. I mean, I do still often call the cards others have, but I just, sort of hope I'm wrong and play and screw up. It's really really annoying.

I'm going to play the next game very conservatively - giving up anything beyond the flop, if they don't fold on my raise, just checking everything and folding on a raise. Let's see how that goes

*edit*

Whoo, pretty well. I had a decent amount of chips (about 2x average) and at 500th position on the big $50 game (big as in lots and lots of participants, not much in the way of rewards).

Anyway, with blinds at 1200 and ante rising, I started playing properly, and quickly, after playing a few decent hands, got really excited with an AK hand, especially as I had a high pair, and went all in against another guy.

*sigh*

I even thought of the phrase "Anna Kournikova - looks good, never wins" before playing. The other guy had A4, and there was 4 in the flop, so his two pairs beat me.

That was very invigorating, and I did win all of $0.01, so I don't feel TOO bad, however I would have won at least ten times that much by the virtue of being away, and allowing ante and blinds to just eat my stack of chips. *sigh*

Still can't control my emotions. In any case, sticking to sniping with good hands is a good strategy at least 'til Ante comes along.

Big day // Tired

Won nothing yesterday.

Today there's the $1.5K New Player Freeroll game - winning that would put me in a nice position.

I wonder, when I come into some money - that is, at least $1 - if ring games are the best play for me, or if I should go for tournaments, instead. I've done okay on ring games, but I've also lost, so I guess it does depend.

I do have a serious tendency to start playing weak hands, so I gotta be careful with it.

I'm really fatigued today. I won't register into any new games in a while, I still have few more in queue - I'll do those and then rest for a while.

I'll report if I happen to win anything, or place impressively enough to mention.

I always lose when I do things I know I shouldn't

Okay, so I had A T and flop gave me the T highest pair. Two players went all-in, and I had the best hand, but I would also have to go all in.

Now, I KNEW that in tournament  you NEVER risk all your chips if you can help it - sure, dropping into 1400 chips with big blind at 300 would have hurt, and the probability of another player having TT was unlikely - admittedly, they could also had a higher pair in hand.

So, I went all in, knowing I shouldn't, and lost,  as luck came down with a K on the River, which gave the highest pair to another player.

In retrospect, the probability of a J, Q, or K in their hands was high, and that gave them all in all 9 cards which would beat me, in addition to dropping a small pair, which might have them three-of-a-kind, did exist, so they had... um, about 1 in 4 chance of beating me, so...

Argh! In my defense, I didn't intend to play, my head was just too hot to sleep.

Green tea seems to help on that, btw.

Poker blogs are boring!

I wonder what to do about it? I guess talking of specific hands gets boring.

Today, I won nothing. I did place 22nd on another Nordic Spring qualifier game.
Ah well.

But, seriously, I need to win some cold, hard cash, pronto.

Found an interesting article

How To Win On Hold'Em Tournaments.

I can at least agree that one must be SUPER-tight most of the way - only problem you'll have like that, is that you may end up being short-stacked when the blinds start rising. Just being very tight can easily get you to top 90th percentile.

I'm currently playing on another WPT Bratislava Freeroll, so we'll see.

*edit* Was doing pretty well, until I made a bad call, and dropped low. I managed to build myself back up, but made another bad call. After that it was pretty much waiting for a good hand and going all in. Finished about 160th or so. T_T

Now on the Nordic Frenzy tournament, I'm doing okay so far, but it just started.

*Edit* Finished NINETEENTH!!!!1one. Small blind on a A8, lost to all-in bet on a A9. Damn damn damn!

Time to start playing less and winning more.

Okay.

Yesterday, I made it to 68th position out of 5000 or so. However, I needed to hit 50th to get a prize - which would have included a seat in another tournament with bigger prizes. However, with just few more places to go, I took too big a risk too early, and ....

It was bitter. Really, really bitter.

I've been playing more than 5 tournament games per day, which is a nice way of gaining experience, however I get REALLY worn out pretty fast.

Using a tight-aggressive strategy, I can make it to the top 95% in tournaments pretty reliably, however, I must concentrate pretty hard to avoid self-destructing or falling into traps.

I also need money pretty soon. This means, I need to start placing way better. Like, I need to reach final tables.
So, I will play fewer tournaments per day, focusing on the ones with the biggest pay-off.

Limit or No Limit?

I prefer the style of gameplay in no-limit games, but since I tend to go for various All-In traps, I can survive a bit better at Limit games. Hm.

Went all-in again on a Nordic 50 Seat Frenzy Qualifier Speed game. Admittedly, I was already seriously short-stacked, but regardless, I should just avoid that unless I have a flush or higher.

*edit*
Won $0.04 at $50 Freeroll Limit Hold'em, putting me at $0,13.

I was eliminated again due to going All In. I might have hung on long enough if I hadn't bet on a mediocre hand  - Q9 suited.

Failed on WSOP freeroll early, too, went all in on a pair of aces and ran into a straight. Stupid.

To reiterate:

• Never go all in, if you don't have to
• check for straight, flush, full house before thinking your hand is the best.

Do you feel lucky?

I really don't, not right now. There's something odd about my behavior. I had a $50 freeroll game, but I flubbed it, practically intentionally - went All In with a weak hand, although I had roughly 1/2 odds of winning, but still... one should never risk that big early in the tournament, in my opinion.

So why did I do it? Am I on Tilt?

Was too lazy to cook so swallowed some rice grains and drank a lot of water. Sorta works. I'll eat properly later.

$250 Freeroll

Currently on break. Not doing too good, but hanging in there.

Stats:

Table: MTCTs

Game: Hold'em

Hands played: 789

Your actions:

Fold: 30%

Call: 28%

Check: 10%

Bet: 18%

Raise: 11%

Re-raise: 0%

Where you fold:

Pre-Flop: 46%

Flop: 8%

Turn: 5%

River: 3%

No-Fold: 36%

Hands won: 30%

Showdowns won: 9%

Flops seen: 42%

Win % of Flops Seen: 44%

Not sure if it's good or bad. Being more conservative than in earlier games.

*edit*

Placed 1078 out of 11195. Got $0.05. Again, lost my placing simply due to making a bad call, and pushing when I shouldn\t have, since I had good cards and ran straight into a straight. Still, I'm up to $0,07 bankroll...

$50 Freeroll

Placed 437th out of 5745 participants, gained $0.02.

I... once again, took too big a risk - I was at 20K chips, which wasn't much, but would have kept me in game for quite a while, just checking and folding. Probably would have been more profitable. No, definitely would have been more profitable.

I must improve my self-control.

Playing badly

I'm not feeling too good right now. I may have caught a bug of some sort last weekend, or maybe I ate something unsuitable.

Basically, I just lost three tournaments BADLY. Basically, I play too weak hands, like T8 suited, and from too weak / early and mid positions. Ugh.

Never ever go all in!

Aargh!
On the WPT Bratislava tournament I lost chunks of money on bad All In calls again, and went All In while still having 40K in chips --- with only 93 out of 3500 remaining, and top 50 would'a gained a tournament entry!

I hate myself so much right now.

The above rule isn't that iron tight - when you're too low on chips, you can go all in, or when you have fours, full house, straight or some other highly likely to win set.

*edit*
On a $250K Gtd Sunday 10 Point Qualifier NL Hold'em, I did very badly, and again lost on All In.
I bet on unsuited AK and KQ and other high pairs, but I guess I failed on reading my opponents. I was low enough on chips and I had a good hand, KQ, with a flop of JQA so I risked it, but my opponent had A7.

*sigh*

Let's try to rank this time.

Today's first tournament: WPT Bratislava freeroll.
I didn't do all that well yesterday... I felt like I was doing okay, but in the end, I didn't manage to rank once, and since I have no bankroll at Partypoker, it'd be kind of useful to rank even in the lowest of scoring positions.

I'm still not playing tight enough - especially my post-flop game is too loose - even with a low or no hand, I pay too much money to see the turn and river cards.

So... Tighter, tighter. When I play hands, I try to do it small ball style, but I need to play less hands. I fold pre-flop about 40% of the time, so that means I play with about 60% of the cards. That's a lot ---- OTOH, part of the point of small ball is playing a lot of hands, and it does give good rewards when it works.

It's GREAT for stealing blinds, of course, doing that with cheap blinds doesn't give much...

Hm.

*update*
Ran into a weird bug where everyone just keeps folding. When they dropped out they were replaced by 'functioning' players. Huh.

I'm a work in progress

Still not there --- I feel like I need to reach at least 50K or so in chips, to be secure to wait a prize slot. Also, playing multiple simultaneous tournaments is a bad idea - I don't do TOO badly, but I do make more mistakes, which are more often costly than not.

In any case, I'm too sleepy right now, and the next tournament is in 8 hours or so, so I'm going to sleep for now....

Big flaw on loving them big pairs

Nooo!

Finished at position 138, when position 100 gains money! On a stupid stupid risk! Saw a near-complete straight, but still played my pocket aces! Idiot! Stupid!

An expensive psychological weakness. I really should'a waited in that situation until a cash reward was assured.
I'm really bitter right now.

Had some exciting moments with three simultaneous tournaments running. A bit too confusing, but I did okay in all of them. STILL taking too many risks. *Sigh*

But! I can win! or at least rank high enough for a reward!

New commitment: Do NOT love the big pair past Flop!

Next tournament in 24 minutes.