Just spent the last week in Ibiza on holiday with the family and some friends of ours. Had a great time despite a couple of days of iffy weather.
I never had time to update the blog before going, so here is a quick recap of the week before we went.
Played 7 hours
Won $2500
Bad luck $400
Withdraw $2000 (10% of bankroll)
Bankroll going forward $18.5k
In the big pots I got my money in really well on many occasions, so this was a great result to have leading into a break. I wonder if a string of bad results would have affected my mood on holiday. I guess not, but things have been going so well lately that its tough to remember a long losing streak and how that feels.
I resisted the temptation to play last night, having arrived back home by tea-time. I resume hostilities later today.
Tuesday 25 September 2007
Monday 10 September 2007
Nice result, didnt feel very good
Results-wise I should be happy with the last week but I dont feel as though I played that well. I played for 13.5 hours and showed a profit of $1456. I was a little unlucky in the big pots, which were few and far between, but nothing to get excited about.
I won quite a few medium-sized pots without showing down, but overall in the big pots I did no better than break even.
Biggest winner of the week (EV-wise) was when my 77 hit a 997 flop in a 4-way limped pot. I bet it on the flop and the turn and the big blind seemed very keen to call big bets. I guessed he'd hit the 9. When he checked the river I bet all-in (about twice the size of the pot) and he insta-called with K9 (trip 9s).
Biggest move of the week came when I raised in EP with 67-suited and got two callers, both solid regulars. This is something that I do very rarely but I had been playing very tight in that session and people had probably noticed. The flop came QJ4 (all spades) and I fired a near-pot-sized bet as many players will just give up if they dont have a great hand here. One reg called and the turn was a 5 giving me a straight-draw. I fired pretty big again and he called. Now I put him on something like KQ with the K of spades. The river was another 5, which I considered a good card to bluff with as it paired the board. I would have played QQ or JJ exactly the same as I played my 67, so figured that a big river bet would get him to lay down. I wanted to be enough for him to be sure that I was representing exactly QQ, just in case he had flopped a flush, so I bet all-in (almost 2x the pot) and he folded after some delay.
Biggest loser came when I raised to $40 UTG with AK-suited. It folded round to the big blind who made it $120 to go. This was a loose-aggressive player, but I didnt get the impression he was messing about here. However I called, figuring that I had position and I could quite easily be up against QQ or KK. The flop came Axx and he checked to me. I had about $575 left (I started the hand quite low as I had just lost a decent pot and failed to reload in time) and bet $250 to signal that I wasnt messing about. He then raised all-in and at this point I guessed he probably had the other two Aces. I just couldnt bring myself to fold. Booo! I deliberately bet an amount on the flop that looked as if I would never fold to a check-raise so that I could do just that. Then I called and got see his AA. I played this hand like a mug and got punished accordingly.
On Sunday night I played like a gambler, and my results were poor, with a $1200 loss. The table started short-handed and the guy to my right was in every pot fighting for it. I got too involved with him, despite not hitting anything at all, and quickly lost money in decent-sized chunks. So the week ended on a sour note, but I can console myself with the knowledge that I made $100+ per hour this week despite this loss.
The plan for this week is to play well every session and hopefully the results will follow.
I won quite a few medium-sized pots without showing down, but overall in the big pots I did no better than break even.
Biggest winner of the week (EV-wise) was when my 77 hit a 997 flop in a 4-way limped pot. I bet it on the flop and the turn and the big blind seemed very keen to call big bets. I guessed he'd hit the 9. When he checked the river I bet all-in (about twice the size of the pot) and he insta-called with K9 (trip 9s).
Biggest move of the week came when I raised in EP with 67-suited and got two callers, both solid regulars. This is something that I do very rarely but I had been playing very tight in that session and people had probably noticed. The flop came QJ4 (all spades) and I fired a near-pot-sized bet as many players will just give up if they dont have a great hand here. One reg called and the turn was a 5 giving me a straight-draw. I fired pretty big again and he called. Now I put him on something like KQ with the K of spades. The river was another 5, which I considered a good card to bluff with as it paired the board. I would have played QQ or JJ exactly the same as I played my 67, so figured that a big river bet would get him to lay down. I wanted to be enough for him to be sure that I was representing exactly QQ, just in case he had flopped a flush, so I bet all-in (almost 2x the pot) and he folded after some delay.
Biggest loser came when I raised to $40 UTG with AK-suited. It folded round to the big blind who made it $120 to go. This was a loose-aggressive player, but I didnt get the impression he was messing about here. However I called, figuring that I had position and I could quite easily be up against QQ or KK. The flop came Axx and he checked to me. I had about $575 left (I started the hand quite low as I had just lost a decent pot and failed to reload in time) and bet $250 to signal that I wasnt messing about. He then raised all-in and at this point I guessed he probably had the other two Aces. I just couldnt bring myself to fold. Booo! I deliberately bet an amount on the flop that looked as if I would never fold to a check-raise so that I could do just that. Then I called and got see his AA. I played this hand like a mug and got punished accordingly.
On Sunday night I played like a gambler, and my results were poor, with a $1200 loss. The table started short-handed and the guy to my right was in every pot fighting for it. I got too involved with him, despite not hitting anything at all, and quickly lost money in decent-sized chunks. So the week ended on a sour note, but I can console myself with the knowledge that I made $100+ per hour this week despite this loss.
The plan for this week is to play well every session and hopefully the results will follow.
Monday 3 September 2007
Starting new tables
This is something I notice that many players are not prepared to do, but is something I have always done willingly.
I started doing it originally on UltimateBet as you used to get double player points for being the first player to join a table. Now I have moved on to other sites but I have noticed that there is often good value to be had in waiting at a new table for other players to join.
Often, other regular players will stay away as they dont want to play heads-up against another regular. Or they may sit down but then sit out until some other players arrive. This is fine by me. Generally, the first one or two players to sit down will be weaker players. Maybe they just fancy a gamble and all the other tables are full so they think "Heads up? OK, why not!"
Sometimes they give away their weakness by the amount they sit down with. If its a strange amount, like $455.72 at a $1000 max table, it is quite likely that they have their whole bankroll on the table. This is a favourable situation, as you will find that if you can get them off to a losing start they will be desparate to get ahead. They will often become married to any hand that they raise or call a raise with. When they've lost a good chunk of what they started with they will often gamble recklessly to win it back or go home.
Other players sit down with the minimum buy-in, and will often start to play 'properly'. For a while you can bully these guys and take a few blinds off them before they realise what you are doing. They normally counteract this by re-raising all-in. If I find anything decent here, like AJ or KQ I will normally call their bet and expect to be in decent shape against their range.
Sometimes the min-buy-in players will reload but with their 2nd attempt they genereally play a bit more aggressively.
On some occasions the table will start to fill up quite quicky. Usually at least another couple of 'gamblers' will come along but when the table gets to 5-6handed the multi-tabling regulars usually swoop. This means that the table dynamics change again. You need to play totally differently against the regulars compared with against the gamblers. However, you can try to isolate the gamblers and you will be largely left to it by the regulars.
Its almost implied that there's no point messing with the regulars when there are some loose fish to fry. I try to take advantage of this a little more than most, but you cant be too greedy or you may get slapped.
After maybe 30 minutes the table plays more like a normal full-ring table, as the fish bust out and are replaced by tight regulars attracted by the higher than normal pot sizes. In my opinion, they have arrived too late to extract value from the fish and must patiently wait for a soft spot to arrive and dump off some cash. This is much more difficult as the shark/fish ratio is totally reversed by this stage. I will generally stay at the table until there are no soft spots at all, which rarely happens, or until external factors (such as bedtime!) require me to leave.
I started doing it originally on UltimateBet as you used to get double player points for being the first player to join a table. Now I have moved on to other sites but I have noticed that there is often good value to be had in waiting at a new table for other players to join.
Often, other regular players will stay away as they dont want to play heads-up against another regular. Or they may sit down but then sit out until some other players arrive. This is fine by me. Generally, the first one or two players to sit down will be weaker players. Maybe they just fancy a gamble and all the other tables are full so they think "Heads up? OK, why not!"
Sometimes they give away their weakness by the amount they sit down with. If its a strange amount, like $455.72 at a $1000 max table, it is quite likely that they have their whole bankroll on the table. This is a favourable situation, as you will find that if you can get them off to a losing start they will be desparate to get ahead. They will often become married to any hand that they raise or call a raise with. When they've lost a good chunk of what they started with they will often gamble recklessly to win it back or go home.
Other players sit down with the minimum buy-in, and will often start to play 'properly'. For a while you can bully these guys and take a few blinds off them before they realise what you are doing. They normally counteract this by re-raising all-in. If I find anything decent here, like AJ or KQ I will normally call their bet and expect to be in decent shape against their range.
Sometimes the min-buy-in players will reload but with their 2nd attempt they genereally play a bit more aggressively.
On some occasions the table will start to fill up quite quicky. Usually at least another couple of 'gamblers' will come along but when the table gets to 5-6handed the multi-tabling regulars usually swoop. This means that the table dynamics change again. You need to play totally differently against the regulars compared with against the gamblers. However, you can try to isolate the gamblers and you will be largely left to it by the regulars.
Its almost implied that there's no point messing with the regulars when there are some loose fish to fry. I try to take advantage of this a little more than most, but you cant be too greedy or you may get slapped.
After maybe 30 minutes the table plays more like a normal full-ring table, as the fish bust out and are replaced by tight regulars attracted by the higher than normal pot sizes. In my opinion, they have arrived too late to extract value from the fish and must patiently wait for a soft spot to arrive and dump off some cash. This is much more difficult as the shark/fish ratio is totally reversed by this stage. I will generally stay at the table until there are no soft spots at all, which rarely happens, or until external factors (such as bedtime!) require me to leave.
Record month
Cash-wise, this has been a record month for me. My bankroll has gone up by an amazing $10,726. This beats my previous best for a month by almost $6,000 and that was about 2 years ago. It feels great.
However, as regular readers will know, this has been due in no small part to good luck in the big pots, which I have quantified at $3,800 for August. On top of good luck in the months of June and July this means that my bankroll of $16,200 is a whopping $7,000 higher than it would be if I had received average luck.
This means that I have been able to happily play $5-$10 NLHE without fear of going broke. This in itself is worth a lot of money. If I had run badly, or even fairly, I would have been in so much more danger of going broke and it surely would have affected my play. So, although I have played well for most sessions this month I must acknowledge the impact luck has played.
However, as regular readers will know, this has been due in no small part to good luck in the big pots, which I have quantified at $3,800 for August. On top of good luck in the months of June and July this means that my bankroll of $16,200 is a whopping $7,000 higher than it would be if I had received average luck.
This means that I have been able to happily play $5-$10 NLHE without fear of going broke. This in itself is worth a lot of money. If I had run badly, or even fairly, I would have been in so much more danger of going broke and it surely would have affected my play. So, although I have played well for most sessions this month I must acknowledge the impact luck has played.
For September the plans remain the same:
$5-$10 full ring,
happy to start new tables when required
play well, leave if not playing well.
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