May roundup

March continued in a similar vein to the rest of the year, and by the 14th I was up to $35k in makeup. Luckily we had a family holiday planned in Greece for a week, which was just was I needed. Spent the time reading books in the sun and floating about on boats in the med, very nice, very little to do. Barely thought about poker once, which is unusual for me!

Came back ready to play, and I started binking. Think every session I played in the week days after was a winning one, and I had 2 $6-7k scores. Made ~$17k, bringing makeup down to $18k, which is seeming more manageable now. Didn't play as much as april because of the week off.


Hours: 76
Results: +$9k


Apart from a luckbox, the other thing I brought back from Greece was a different sleeping pattern - started having siestas every day now. Quite nice as it lets me wake up at a vaguely civilised time (11-12ish) and actually see some of the day. I need to remember not to play poker unless I've had one though, I'm usually too tired.

Hope you all run good in May! (though not when you're at my table obviously)

April Results

Sooo April didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I mean, in some ways it was awesome because of the two scores I had online whilst at the Irish Open - I had 100% of myself in them and personally I made $12.8k on the month. Which is obviously great - that puts me a little bit in the black for 2010. However I'm also in $27k of makeup (about -300 buyins). My backer now has all of my action as well, so basically that means I have to earn 27k before I actually get to see any money. Which could take a while. Because I made money personally that's not a huge deal right now thankfully, but if this downswing continues I could be in a spot of bother...

Ftops went pretty poorly, didn't really make many runs. Scoop so far has gone very annoyingly, had several deep runs and big stacks only to lose in very frustrating ways. The only solace I can take is that my backer has railed me deep in a few mtts and seen some horrible suckouts in 10-18th, etc so hopefully he knows I'm not just spewing his money away!

Did the DTD 300 a few days ago - went pretty standardly. I 3bet pre oop in the first level with 68s and fired 3 barrels. I even brought a book to stop me doing crap like that!!! Luckily I r/red the straight - oooops. After that I buried my nose in my book and nitted up, actually worked quite well for a few hours, but then I couldn't resist 4bet shoving 88 and forgot live players always have aces. Congrats to my mate Dan who came 4th though. He has much patience and crushes live imo.

Anyways, there's a bunch of scooooops left, scoopscoop! So I'll just scoop one of those and all will be well.

Cognitive Dissonance and Poker

So in one of my insomniac wanderings of the internet, I started reading some stuff on cognitive science, and more specifically Cognitive Dissonance. For those who don't want to read it, simply put, it's about easing internal conflict. One example is the old sour grapes fable - the fox can't reach the grapes, and so concludes the grapes are probably sour anyway. The conflict of wanting the grapes but not being able to get them leads to the rationalisation that he doesn't want them, thereby making him feel better.

As with most things, I thought about how it applies to poker - and I think it does in a big big way. Think about it - how many times have you recklessly fired the 3rd shell, got called and thought 'Man, what an idiot, how can he call there'. Or made a fancy move which didn't work but rationalised that it was good because the guy played the hand weird and normally it would work great. Maybe it's just me (!) but I think it happens to most players, and I think a lot of players use these rationalisations a lot to make themselves feel better - often about their bad play.

Say you make a calldown in a spot where you're vaguely aware that he probably has it, but you haven't mentally set in stone that this type of situation is a fold - so you just press the call button (certainly happens to me a lot...). There is huge dissonance here - you're supposed to be a thinking, intelligent poker player, you're aware he usually has you, but you pay him off anyway. This internal conflict, this contradiction is unpleasant to you, so you rationalise it. You think 'He could've had the busted flush draw' or 'he probably isn't good enough to value bet top pair here'. You focus on the few times you've seen people show up with air here, even though it's far less common than when they have you beat, and decide the call was probably fine, you just got unlucky to run into a hand. This means you'll continue to make the same mistake, until you address the problem and actually stop calling in these spots.

The idea of lying to yourself isn't exactly new, but I think being aware that it's an inherent human trait, and not simply some vague thing 'that some people do' can really help to identify when you're just trying to make yourself feel better. Earlier today I made a pretty bad call with a flush on a paired board where it was pretty much never good, and rationalised it by thinking about players from years and years ago who could show up with weaker flushes in this spot. I knew it was a bad call, but I sort of decided it was more of a cooler since maybe he can have lower flushes, maybe a straight... and I sort of pushed it from my mind. Then I decided discussing the hand was probably a good idea, and my coach verbally slapped some sense into me!

So, that's the lesson for today kids. Be aware when your mind is simply trying to placate you - ignoring or rationalising your mistakes away or blaming them on others is easier, but it wont make you a better player.

March roundup, April showers...

So... march didn't go too well. Played a little less than february, and with no results to speak of really.

March
Sessions: 9
Hours: 77
Results: -$2.3k

DTD was fun but losing. Was starting to get a little down over the lack of results etc, but figured going to Ireland for the Irish Open would be a nice get away. 3.5k main event started of brilliantly. Had a very soft table, was playing well, feeling great. Got up to 30k (from 10k) within 4 hours, pretty much a dream start. 90 minutes later I was bust. Not quite sure how to be honest. Made 1 bad multi-street bluff that was just FPS, and 2 marginal/possibly bad calldowns that cost me a bit. Few coolers. Lost a flip. Still a lot of work to do on my live game I think. I just can't stop myself playing hands!

So anyways, was feeling pretty sorry for myself, lost a bunch trying to sat into EPT San Remo where some friends are playing (to no avail) and lost some playing live cash. Decided just to grind online instead... a good choice it turns out. Saturday night I binked the FT 50/50 for $8.7k, and tonight just finished the obligatory sunday session, coming 2nd in the FT $59 superturbo for a little under $10k. weee! Also, just done my spreadsheets and the score tonight FINALLY gets me over the $100k lifetime profit mark. Been hovering around it for bloomin' ages, nice to cross it.

So I'm in a good mood. Going to play the 330 bounty event tomorrow, think it's the last event in the Irish Open schedule, should be fun. Hope this weekend bodes well for the rest of April!

February roundup

Weird month. The downswing continued until my live games, where I lost money too. Ended up nearly going bust online down to about $2-3k or so, which really sucked, and I was starting to worry a little financially. I mean, things weren't getting desperate or anything, I just didn't have any spare cash to redeposit (other than savings which I wasn't going to dip in to) so I'd have had to drop down to $10-26mtts and nothing higher. Thankfully a mate of mine offered to stake me for a while. We joked that his money runs good so I'll be off the stake in no time - obviously within 3 sessions I make him $10k! Had my biggest ever score, a little over $15k for a stars $162 win, and a few other smaller scores.

So I have a roll again, although I'm still being backed for most of the stuff I'm playing - I have my action at the lower buyins. Going to stay on the stake for a little while I think, less pressure = happy cheesies. I'm still not in the black for 2010 yet, down a few $k overall, but feb results were much much better than I expected a week ago.

February
Sessions: 13
Hours: 102.5
Results: +$4.6k

Live pokerament trip report

The DTD £300 lasted all of 45 mins. Was feeling really good about this tournament, had a soft table, was playing well, for the 45 minutes I lasted anyway. Obligatory bustout hand: A few limpers to me at 50/100, I check BB with Q4s. Flop comes 442ss. I c/c a pot bet from anonymous live player #1. Turn is a blankish card, an offsuit 9 or something. I c/r his pot bet to 4kish, he raises to 10k (with ~2k back). I actually consider folding as it's live, but then I remember I have teh tripz and shove it in his face. He sigh-calls and flips A5ss, and obviously gets there. So that's fun, I end up playing cash for most of the rest of the weekend (the £165 on the sunday goes fairly similarly) and actually do really well at 1/2 nlhe. Unfortunately my friend Dave persuades me to play some drunken 1/2 omaha, obviously I lose a £2k pot to him (he runs waaaay too good) middle set < flush draw, to put me down a few hundred for the trip. Fun though.


Spend a few days in Sheffield which was great, though I'm starting to feel a little tired after 4-5 days of late nights and drinking. We turn up for the £500 UKIPT Manchester on the wednesday as there is a PS party/free bar (I'm not playing until friday so I get a lie-in!) which is fun, though my liver is groaning. We hear recent EPT winner Jake Cody is having a party nearby, so we tag along and there's free champagne flowing like orange juice, all very jolly. Then we go back to the casino for some poker (obviously a fantastic idea)... I think I won some money? I'm not sure. Next day Dave and Dan are groaning about having to get up for the tournament that starts at 2pm - I lie in bed. Score. I head down for cash in the evening, although it's so full there aren't any free tables at all and all the waiting lists are full, so me and Dave end up heading back to the hotel and playing online. I break even, he crushes some more HU PLO. Dan's still in the tournament, and ends the day amongst the top stacks.

I get up the next day to play my starting day, and feel pretty rubbish. I get an ok starting table, a few scandis (one very stereotypical - 'straddles' every utg, playing a bunch of pots. he busts pretty quickly after a few rough coolers), a few standard live nits, teddy sherringham in seat 4, a few youngish guys who seem ok. I end up playing pretty badly all in all, trying to force things. I get that a lot playing live I think, I want to play every hand and end up seeing J8s in Mp1 and considering it a mandatory open - using 'it's live!' as an excuse to spew. Anyways, so I kind of hover around starting for a while, but things start going down hill, and I lose a bunch of pots in sucky spots. Finally I get it in 99 < AKo, whatever.

I played a £100 side event that evening, win a last longer bet vs dave and dan, but bust before the money. We play a bit of omaha, where I lose some more money (I'm never playing live PLO again) but I win it back and more at nlhe. Me and dan head back earlyish and leave dave omahaing it up at £5/5, as Dan plays day 2 of the ME the next day, and I feel like crap. Dave comes in at 8am or so, after losing an £xk pot (8k I think?) after getting it in with top set + 2nd nut FD and losing to the nut FD. Sigh.

Dan leaves early the next day, we sleep until the evening. I play the £300 side event, dave goes out drinking, dan plays his day 2. The 300 goes a little better than the others, I'm playing better, but generally get ridiculously card dead and short, and end up busting standardly. Dan busts too, mincashing for 1k (we have 5% in each other for the main event so weee £50!). Dave comes back and there's generally more drinking and pokering going on. Me and dan take it in turns playing dave HU on the HU poker machine for £50/game, and end up busting him which is pretty funny (I don't think he won a single game) and so he obviously goes and withdraws £3k, throwing £1k on black as he walks past the roulette wheel. Drunken gambling for the win...? It comes in of course, because he runs good. He then makes a no-pit games rule, and if we ever see him playing a pit game ever again he has to give us both £100.

Anyway, long and the short of it, we sit at some 1/2nlhe, play stupidly and and annoy all the regulars, Dave loses after calling allin for several hundred with 53o, and leaves to get his train, me and dan play until 12pm the next day (18hours playing for me, 22 or something for him) I win a bunch, I think dan lost some. Next day me and dan turn up and play some 5/5 for a while, it goes very badly to start with for me, but I win a few hands and leave breakeven, and I get the 5am train back to bristol for some much needed sleep.

Think lost about £1.5k on the trip, but it was great fun. I also realised that I need to play more straightforwardly in tournaments, more live nlhe cash, and that I should never, ever play PLO.

Jan roundup

A spectacularly bad start. Fun! I'm pleased with a few things though, I've been putting in a lot of volume this week, and watching a lot of training videos. I also think I've been playing ok - not great, I definitely still have leaks, but it's getting better session by session. Also, I've had a pretty good mindset despite running horribly, haven't been getting down or wasting the end of sessions because I'm in a bad mood.

January
Sessions: 6
Hours: 52
Results: -$7.9k


I have an average buyin of ~$80 at the moment, so a nice 100 buyin downswing to start things off. Pretty much halved my online roll so I've been cutting things bit by bit, the amazingly soft ipoker 50r was the first to go, then 30rs on FT. Playing up to 100FOs and 20rs for now. Could use some rungood! Really don't want to have to drop down too drastically.

Going to play a few days this week, then off to nottingham for DTD, spending a few days in sheffield visiting people (and hopefully going crazy in a cash game or two) and then manchester for the UKIPT. Really looking forward to some live poker, hopefully I'll run a little better in real life.

Here's to a better Feb!