Might get this active again

So been talking seriously about getting back to the pokers. I have a lot on my plate right now though for sure. About to hit this deployment, so never know how that's going to affect time I'm able to devote to things, plus now we're banned from electronic devices, so I can't even bring articles and posts to read during downtime.

Also, going to be working on my FX trading while I'm out, but at least I already have my entire trading plan constructed, it's merely implementation at this point.

If I am going to go back to live games, I'm gonna have to make sure I'm putting in some quality time with play and reading again. Really, I ought to focus on getting back to the $5/$10 tables, but I think what'll really happen is I'll start with $2/$5 to get into the swing of things. Only problem of course is that game plays a completely different dynamic than $1knl.

I've been beating the everloving hell out of $25nl since my last post. I have a higher BB/100 than what is shown on $10nl in that last one (Woah....not accurate, didn't realize how early on that was. $10nl ended at about 7ptbb/100 and currently around 12ptbb/100 at $25nl). I was up to just over $800, and closing fast on being rolled for $50nl but I had a couple horrendous sessions, including somehow dropping $50 on $4PLO, lol. But yeah actually had 2, now 3, losing sessions of $25nl and it was just dumb stupid crap happening. So still playing well, still making good decisions, cards just not falling my way. That's fine, it's gonna happen eventually, but it was nice to ride a high of just sailing along.

I'm going to have to determine some good plans here for play/study along with time that will be allocated to investment properties and FX trades. I really need to figure out how to create automatically executing entries that will not only open but close upon hitting my desired parameters. It shouldn't be so hard but MB Trading's software sucks so hard, god I hate it, and MetaTrader4 apparently straight up does not have the option to do what I want. I can't always be there to monitor the market, and if I'm outside the wire for an extended period I don't want to be coming back to a bad position that busted because I wasn't there to close it. Gah, damn these first world problems!!!

Update

So it's been awhile since I found that $100 sitting around. Life's been hectic, working on purchasing some investment properties, so had some trips to Daytona and heading to Tampa in a couple weeks. Just in the last couple days I had some extra time a couple evenings and put in some time playing. I ran the $100 up to $200 playing $4nl FR and HU hyperturbo SnG's. Once I hit $200 I sat at a few $10nl tables, and my God man it's going well.

I've put in just under 7 hours for ~$143 in winnings. The thing is, I'm doing it by playing what feels close to my tightest poker ever. These guys just love throwing in bad money, I fold a ton, get AA/KK/QQ and bet it hard and they go all in with whatever junk they have. I've been playing way more straightforward too. If I'm cbetting air, I throw out 1/2 pot, if I have a real hand I'll bet 2/3 - full pot. Easy game right?

So I'm definitely tighter than before, letting a lot more hands go in early position, not expecting to get implied odds as much, and all that is helping the bottom line for sure. Even my steals have been requiring a bit more hand strength than I used to go for. Granted I'll still exploit high FvSteal %'s but not like before where my button VPIP has seen the high side of 70%. Actually, checking my stats my Button unopened PFR is 60%, so not as low as it seemed, just I'm getting out of the way much more often when there are limpers or late raisers. Which I think is fine, I'm making the vast preponderance of my money from premium pairs, so wait to get those and then 3bet them for value. Where I'm making (or losing) money

So here's where I'm at so far, hopefully I can keep this up. I really feel like this is the most fundamentally sound poker I've playing in a long time. I'm not making moves on people, not making hero bluffs (hardly any bluffs at all actually). I'm folding to most any aggression except when I have a strong holding of my own, and simply betting those good value hands. I've always sort of forced my game into a mode where I'm making moves, trying to outmaneuver the other guy, and I'm seeing how unnecessary that all was.

Let's move this forward and back to the full time pokers!

Not dead yet

So I've been playing as much live poker as able. Seem to still have it, and doing quite well on the real felt. In fact, knock on wood, I haven't had a losing session since....honestly I can't remember a losing session. The places I've been finding games (dog tracks, casino boats, on a cruise) these people are the biggest fish. It brings back memories of the way the $2/$4 NL tables online were back in 2002/2003. Anyway, I got an email from Carbon telling me I had funds in my account. I honestly thought I'd emptied that but okay, let's see. Lol, it's $100. I think it was payment from rakeback that I forgot about. Well since I don't have any other games to play I figure what the heck, let's grind some uNL! I came across Verneer's Well post on 2p2 and it kind of made me wanna see if I can't run this tiny $100 into $10,000. I know I'm not going to have as much time as I'd like to play, but something to aim at right? Maybe we'll set the sights on $1,000 to start. Looks like game selection on Carbon = play what tables are available. Whatever, it's poker still. All right so good little session there, I put in 1699 hands in just over 3 hours 6-tabling $4nl.

Fairly standard session. I did a better job than before of understanding taking villains to valuetown, even at uNL does not mean barrel three streets with any piece. I actually did a fairly good job of understanding when I could expect to extract value versus worse hands that will call, and when I couldn't, simply checked. I made a stupid bad terrible play on one hand, the only really poorly played one.

I'm not sure what it was, but I felt like he was pushing a draw hard. Of course I made a stupid horrible play and overvalued top pair, which is very unlike me. I honestly felt he was bluffing so I didn't care what it was that I held so much really though. Of course he had me beat, he had JJ and in retrospect was protecting versus the flush draw. But other that that one, I played quite well. Have to remember at these stakes just let them run you over. If they push back at all, you better have the nuts or close to it. No hero calls, no bluffing, just hit solid hands (Overpairs+ basically) and push them hard. I hit a few more hands and have my "roll" up to $128.58 so not too shabby. +28.58% in one day

AF and the Pokers

So the Air Force definitely isn't helping my poker playing at the moment. My job for now is to come sit in this room where I can browese the internet except for any sites related to poker, grr. And I can't have my phone in here due to sensitive material, so I can't even read poker things of use on the little screen.

I was wondering why my online poker rolls were so small, but I forgot that I took almost all of it out before leaving for OTS. I only have a little over $400 online right now, which is just gross. I want to just shoot a couple g's on there and start hitting $50nl rush, but time's so short right now anyway.

Once March gets here and class starts, not going to have hardly any free time. If I do manage some of that, I doubt I'm going to want to spend it inside on the virtual felt. I guess I'm going to have to live my poker life vicariously through everyone else for awhile.

This was kind of a boring post, but there's not much to talk about really right now. Maybe I'll shoot some cash onto FTP and have some good stuff to talk about.

Dare to dream?

After another hiatus from poker/talking about poker, I came back in a big way. Hit the $50nl rush poker tables on full tilt with a fury. Right now I'm pulling 4.76BB/100 @ 1040hands/hour for $44.46/hour.

Now I don't expect this winrate to hold, I was playing on a weekend and that's a biggish winrate for me anyway. But it got me thinking again about how close I am. $100nl is just one step up now. If I held a 2BB/100 winrate there, I'm still banking $41.40/hour.

I've tweaked my game a bit as of late. I'd been making bets that were too large. These guys are calling stations, but I've been blowing them away. Yeah they call down light, but not when you try to pot them three times. I honestly can't even articulate what exactly I've changed other than the size of my bets. I still cbet about 80% of the time, I still bet a lot, and am still aggressive, but in a different way I guess.

I still make lots of mistakes. Too many in my opinion. One hand stuck out particularly bad where I lost about $13 of value on the river. Was going to bet $25, instead threw out $12 when the guy's range was pretty polarized to either having trips (which I think he would've called the pot sized bet) or air, which folds out either way. As soon as he called I wanted that bet back, and he mucks trips of course.

Stupid things too, like cbetting terrible boards. Board comes out 45J with two diamonds or something, villain checks, and I cbet my AK. Instantly think, "Why did I do that?" get check/raised and muck, throwing good money away for no reason.

I have continued my insistence on playing pots that people don't want to fight for. My range becomes significantly narrowed even after someone merely limps into the pot. That's not really the pot I'm looking to play unless I have a real hand. I much prefer to have late position and an unopened hand. In that case I'll be a bit more liberal, though really loose only on the button. My CO range is still pretty tight, very tight for me. 32% currently, and 47% from the button. 56% from the SB, and it's costing me. I'm losing at 63.25bb/100, and would be doing better to simply fold 100%.

I'm to see if I can continue this trend, and I would most like to return to $100 and $200nl. I guess only time will tell how this turns out

Back....again

So, ended up taking a pretty big break. Went through the worst run of my life both online and live. Talk about disheartening. I'm now playing full ring, and doing quite well actually. Very different game it is. 9 tabling right now, so some things might be choppy. Set of T's, got nothing.

So yeah, back in the saddle, been beating rush poker on FTP hard. HA, just got owned by A5 v my set. Runner runner one card straight, well done. I gotta fix my tilt issues. Stuff like that really bothers me, even more so when you go to HEM and the EV says that was spot on. That pot was $13 and the last $2 went in when he hit the straight. So annoying. I hate the way HEM does EV.

Oh well. Running bad today, but loving winning again. Bankroll is pushing $600 again on stars, so that's cool. Ending my session, probably a good idea since I'm bored enough to start typing this thing out. Means I cannot be paying the attention I should be. Took a beating here at the end. Dropped a full buy-in of EV in 200 hands, ouch.

Planning on putting in some $25nl hands in a bit after this break. See how that goes, it's definitely different from $10nl. More aggression overall I'd say, and people are just better at not paying off. There's still tons of fish obviously though, I mean there's tons of fish at 100nl, so 25 should be a cakewalk.

The Rape Continues

So yep, awesome, kept it rocking just like the last session. Got smoked with straights, boats, and flushes. I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong, but it seems like 25nl just kicks me in the god damn face.