Spew.

So I'd got back to where I was before my previous autopilot session, been running at 7ptbb/100 and then came Saturday.

Despite knowing that you generally have to nit at the weekend, I switched autopilot on, raising sc's under the gun, spewing left,right and centre. Finally packed up 6 buy-ins down. Now level for the month.

Some coolers thrown in, but in general I was getting money in bad.

It's now becoming a serious problem I have no answer to, was looking at coaching, but after this set back I need to rebuild my roll a bit more.

So this is for me "STOP PLAYING ON AUTOPILOT"

Small Session.

Title says it all really, played a few hands after taking a break yesterday. Thought process was still a bit lacking, its like one side of my brain tells me opponents range and is usually quite accurate, but the other side of my brain says yeah but I wanna do it this way.

Only 2 hands of note, first played badly but I had JJ as part of his range, in the end playing badly saved me a lot here. Second hand missed some obvious value on the river by not raising.


http://www.pokerhand.org/?2748087
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2748108


Ended up about half a buy in, but i'm generally happier with the way it went.

Meh.

So as predicted variance had it's way and combined with bad play i've undone most of the good work from last week, I have no idea how to get out of this playing on autopilot that causes most the problems. I've recently started eating better, I get plenty of excercise and yet every now and again I play a session with no thought.

I was worried about moving back to NL50, I needn't of been, the level of play is horrendous, if I can get my act together and adjust the way I know I should, everything should work out in the end. I am reluctant to nit it up, but it seems it will be the best way to progress at this level.

So on a positive note I realise what my leaks are and I know how to beat the level i'm at, (i'm still running at 5ptbb/100 somehow as well) so it's not all bad, I was just hoping for a month where I might get my money in good regular and it hold up. Meh maybe July.

Quick summary of last night:

AK < KQ Q55 (K turn)
AK < K3 All in pre (3 river)
QQ < AT T83 (A river)
AA < K6 652 (6 river)

Also ran into 4 sets.

Me.

So a little about my poker history.

I started dabbling in the summer of 06' on Party playing sit'n'go's but it was very brief and I didn't think about it again until after seeing Casino Royale, most people seem to be brought to poker by Rounders, i'd never heard of it until i'd been playing a while.

In December 06' I opened a few accounts and started dabbling with sit'n'go's on Stars, I deposited $50 not knowing anything about bonuses, rakeback or bankroll management. So for some reason I decided to play a satellite to the Sunday Million. 73 players later i'd somehow won 1 of the 3 places, but why save the tourney ticket until I knew what I was doing, that Sunday I sat and played cluelessly for 4 and a half hours, finishing 753 out of 7000 for $457. Not a bad start for 1 month of playing

There's still this HH knocking about online:

PokerStars Game #7940157960: Tournament #39201176 $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIV (2000/4000) - 2007/01/14 - 20:12:21 (ET)
Table '39201176 524' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Dr Tev (44930 in chips)
Seat 2: stingerkling (42170 in chips)
Seat 3: devinr12 (120290 in chips)
Seat 4: xyz666888 (7410 in chips)
Seat 5: p0ck3tp3ar (55080 in chips)
Seat 6: ACDIII (32095 in chips)
Seat 7: yoyostack4 (67200 in chips)
Seat 8: dwf76 (52880 in chips)
Seat 9: latolato (44200 in chips)
Dr Tev: posts the ante 200
stingerkling: posts the ante 200
devinr12 : posts the ante 200
xyz666888: posts the ante 200
p0ck3tp3ar: posts the ante 200
ACDIII: posts the ante 200
yoyostack4: posts the ante 200
dwf76: posts the ante 200
latolato: posts the ante 200
devinr12 : posts small blind 2000
xyz666888: posts big blind 4000
Dealt to devinr12
FOLD p0ck3tp3ar
FOLD ACDIII
FOLD yoyostack4
FOLD dwf76
FOLD latolato
RAISE Dr Tev, 6000 to 10000
CALL stingerkling, 10000
RAISE devinr12 , 110090 to 120090 and is all-in
FOLD xyz666888
FOLD Dr Tev
FOLD stingerkling
>>>Dr Tev said, "what u got, devinr?"
devinr12 collected 35800 from pot
devinr12 : doesn't show hand
>>>latolato said, "hand to hand already ugh"

With my new improved bankroll, I started playing $5 sit'n'go's with reasonable success, but I wasn't playing many.

January 07' was when I found TwoPlusTwo after reading HOH 1,2,3 (which I also put down to my success in the Sunday Million)

Things were quite quiet until June when I won a $4 180 player tourny for $216

Then I moved to the cash tables after seeing how you could win the same as a Sit'n'Go in a couple of hands, these cash players were nuts.

Still with no idea of bankroll management and fealing fearless I sat at NL50 fullring, somehow I got through it only losing a buy in over the hands I played, but realised I needed to move down to NL25.

I started buying books like TOP and NLHE: TAP and taking notice of the forum stickies, in particular posts by Pokey.

I can't remember when I started 6max, I think it was because I wanted more excitement and to play more hands, at this point i'd never played more than 1 table at a time.

At the beginning of 08' I decided to bring my roll from all sites together on Stars, started paying more attention to the microlimit forum and found the brew.

My bankroll reached 1k for the 1st time in January which for me was a milestone i'd struggled to get to for a long time.

So to June, I finally had the guts to move up to NL50 with a bankroll of $1,350 (nit) and so far I don't feel phased by it, but think i'll be there for a while so I can really work at my game.

Better Late Than Never.

So a whole year and a half into my poker experience i'm finally starting a blog, I probably haven't bothered with it in the past because to be frank I just didn't play often enough to warrant it.

So why now?


It pretty much stems from the week i've had, I'm really pushing myself to play and get over my fear of losing and stop using work or being tired as an excuse not to play.

This week i've played less than 2k hands, which is a really small amount compared with some, but for me as a 2 tabling bankroll nit it's a breakthrough, and more importantly it's gone well and I finally see some potential and the money making possibilities it can have. Needless to say I fully expect to get brought back down to earth next week :)


So whats changed?


Three things happened this week to that have pursuaded me to do a blog and also changed the way I play for the better.

1) TwoPlusTwo and in particular the uNL brew, I have a lot of time and respect for those guy's and I feel a part of their community, I would go as far as saying their extended family, strange family, but family all the same. Reliable, funny and a great help when things aren't going well.

2) Ryan Fee's book, it's no overstatement that i've been wanting something like this for a long while, a book that gets you thinking outside the box, more on opponents,feel and where were at in a hand. Great work Mr. Fees.

3) Last but no means least, I picked up on something Thac said in a thread and although it was probably something a lot already knew or didn't pick up on, it changed my game when it had no direction and I was grinding out a small profit playing autopilot, and for that I thankyou.