ITH Poker Forum

[PigPen]

GO PISC GO!!!

[Piscivorous]

February 22nd - February 28th, 2009

Uggh. As in Ugly. As in February was Ugly on many levels. MTTs didn't go very well all month, even considering my volume was down in them. I failed to money in my half-staked FTOPs MTT. Taz was gracious to bankroll me in a Sunday Million but I failed there too. Add a $5r $50K on PokerStars where I had a last longer with my dad [I didn't ] and most of my losses came from MTTs. SnGs were nearly break even [I finished the month very well here]. I've said it before, I'll say it again:

Cash games are where my money is at. Although I had a bad session at Full Tilt on Monday, I repaired most of the damage as I finished out the week.

I missed all my goals this week. It's been a weird, hectic, sleep-deprived week. Started off decent. Had to go to bed early Monday night in order to get my wife to the airport for a business trip early Tuesday morning. Never really got that sleep back which kind of steamrolled into a lethargic play week. Added to this was a new review I worked on, plus a lot of my month-end work commitments and our server crash here at ITH and I'm glad I got in what I did.

SnGs are a mixed bag. My ROI through the 1st two months stands at 4.29% through 76 contests. Most have been single table. Three were PokerStars $4 180s and one 30-man on Cake. I didn't money any of the $4 180s, but I did manage to win the 30-man, much to my surprise considering Cake and I don't go well with regards to MTTs. Finished this week strongly. In 6 SnGs I managed one win and four 2nds.

Let's see what March brings. I hope to get in a high volume of play.

[Piscivorous]

March 1st - March 7th, 2009

First positive week in nearly a month. When you set goals you don't expect to hit a downturn as soon as you start. At least March is starting to look up. +$31.60 on the back of a $1r Satellite to the Daily Eighty Grand on PokerStars that netted me $51.90 in T$. I was in the arrears in both cash games and SnGs. What a horrid sight SnGs were. Started 0 for 9 before finishing up with a 3rd and two 2nds. Popping UB for $5 in bonus and my Cake rakeback, small as it is, only slightly alleviated my cash game woes. Once again trying to find time to watch some PXF videos has proven to be a bugaboo. Only got an SnG video in. I simply am finding I am short on time.

[Piscivorous]

March 8th - March 14th, 2009

I wasn't doing well this week, but the last two days were radically the worst two days I've had all year. In fact, I think the combination of hideous beats and a bit of poor play on my part were a lethal mix. I think I figured that I lost around 4% of my bankroll. I'm keeping it all in stride. Although I have had long 10-week losing streaks in the past, most of those streaks were simply just running bad. No cards, untimely sets running into better hands, etc.

This time around it seems remarkably different. Not only am I running into some voracious bad beats, but I'm simply not converting my draws, especially the 12 and 15 out variety with two cards to come. I think poker is hard enough to win when you are running into some beats and not getting flops. It becomes very expensive, however, when the draws you should be playing just simply are not materializing at the average conversion rate they should. I did hit about average in flush draws on Saturday, but those OESD and better were simply killing me. I think, however, that I did manage to save some losses by my aggressive betting of my unmade draws, helping me pick up orphan pots along the way.

I was able, despite all of this to move up limits at Cake. This will help in the rake area there. But the bad news.....I have had to drop to $0.25/$0.50 at PokerStars. I've had a bad year there. I'm on the cusp of moving back up, but I'll wait until I have gotten back to $300 + 1 buy-in of $20, so, I'll move back at $320. However, if need be, I'll plug some of my reload money into PokerStars if I need to in order to finish the bonus I am working on.

Let's hope next week is better.

[Piscivorous]

March 15th - March 21st, 2009

Still running disastrously. I'm definitely playing in the right games if the hideous bad beats are any indication. They're chasing their horrible draws like gutshots or two outers. They're capping with 72s. No, I'm not kidding. I raised with QQ, guy on my immediate left re-raised with KK and table fish capped with 72s. Flop came KQ8 rainbow. Me and KK go crazy cap and lose to 72s' runner runner flush. I'll take the beat. Another horrible beat was when my AA hit a set on a AK4 flop versus AK and 44 and got beat by 44 on the river. What can you do? This brings me to:

I didn't watch any PxF videos again this week. However, I decided it was time to read The Poker Mindset. I'm through Chapter 3 and already have gotten beyond most of the beats.

I decided last week to focus almost exclusively at Poker Host [Cake Poker Network]. Got a lot of time in there and although I ran poorly, I took plenty of notes and know that when my downturn changes I'll make up the losses and then some against these really bad players.

Next week, I'll be playing the same limits through my Cake account [which sports a different screen name ] as I target that site for the majority of my play.

See you next Sunday!

[Piscivorous]

March 22nd - March 28th, 2009

Managed a nice winning week. Cake Poker and Full Tilt lead the way. PokerStars was down in cash games a little which is OK considering the Cake and Full Tilt wins. Big loss of the week was a Turbo Satellite at Stars to the EPT. Thought I would give it a try. Managed a decent stack into the 2nd hour. Got it all in with 33 ahead of AK and AQ, but the A hit the turn to knock me out. Up $44.78 on the week. Hopefully this is the sign of good things to come and I can knock out the $210 in losses this year.

Watched a Bax video on PXF and continued to read The Poker Mindset. So I got in some study. Need to go over my PT results this week.

[Piscivorous]

March 29th - April 4th, 2009

Ran poorly overall and in every category, MTTs, SnGs and cash games. Did manage to do very well in the Midnight Madness on Saturday running deep in both that and a $1 PokerStars $2K. However, bubbling the Cake $7500 Guarantee and a disaster in cash games on Saturday meant that I only got close to even for the day.

I'm not complaining. My MTT play is improving as are my SnGs.

Still reading TPM and although I didn't watch watch any PxF vids, but I have been spending time in the forum there and at ITH going over posts and looking at other's HHs.

[Piscivorous]

Two-week period

April 5th - April 18th, 2009

Would have posted sooner, but life interferes....

Not that I didn't get poker in. I went to Reno and came home even. Played 1 MTT. I was going to play more, but I didn't like the structure. Basically a crapshoot. I'll wait until May when they run the Nevada State Championships at the Peppermill. Between the $90 spent on the MTT and a grievous loss at $2/$4, I managed to lose around $250 at poker. I did, however, manage a 4BB session of $4/$8 full kill. Oddly enough, Blackjack and videopoker covered my losses at poker. Strange. I usually play some blackjack to augment my poker roll while live in Nevada.

Online, however, I only had one winning day in the 9 non-live days. It was when I decided to get some SnGs in and I rolled pretty well in 6 of them, cashing 2nd three times. Talk about bad luck, however. In 2 of the 3 cashes I was the shortstack [one by almost a 5:1 margin]. In each I held the chiplead numerous times, before the hands of fortune dealt me bad blows. Only one that really stands out was when I had opponent down to basically 4 BBs when he pushed A9o into my 66. I flopped a 6 on a 763 rainbow flop, but running 8T doubled him up. Few hands later he had CL when he again pushed , this time with A2s into my JJ and flopped the 3 outer.

Other than that one shining day [and my prowess on the BJ tables and vid poker machines.... ] I didn't run well. All I can do is continue to plug leaks and wait for the worm to turn.

Watched two videos on PxF as well as the Final tables of the Medium and High Main Events of the PokerStars SCOOP.

See you at the tables.

[Piscivorous]

April 19th - April 25th, 2009

Fugly, simply fugly. My online bankroll is getting decimated. Certainly, I haven't been playing to the best of my abilities, but the beats are simply outrageous. Full Tilt and PokerStars $0.50/$1 FL FR Cash are simply goldmines pf opportunity if you can get your hands to hold up. I, unfortunately, can't seem to do so this year. It seems that people are hitting their obscure 2, 3 and 4 outers more often than I am converting good 8-15 out draws. And what is it with always flopping sets on mono-suit boards? What's up with that? I'd love to see some 8K2 rainbow flops while holding 2s or 8s.

Luckily, I did a sojourn to the B&M on Friday evening]. Won $87 in a No Fold'em Hold'em $3/$6 game at the casino. Alas, the $87 was added to my pool of money I have been slowly building for an $1800 B&M bankroll.

I do have $450 in my online bankroll checking account if I need it to bolster my sagging results.

Good Luck this week!

[Piscivorous]

April 26th - May 2nd

I'm getting incredibly dejected. Nearly every session is like the last. I start off beating up the table and getting up as much as 20BB. Then the badbeats set in. I continue to play solid poker, but out of nowhere one player will chase a gutshot and hit. Later someone else will call 3 bets cold preflop with A4 and flop two pair versus my AK.

What kills me is, that I want these people at my table, but I don't want them at my table. Does that make sense? If I could find a rhythm where I win 4 out of 5 of my big pairs over little pairs or any number of other draws or hands, I'd be OK with the badbeats as they happen. But the insanity of constantly losing to gutshots, backdoor flushes, 2 outers and all the myriad of miraculous beats it draining me and my bankroll. And I know, from IRC and the boards here, that it simply isn't just me. What is this plague befalling the good players?

People pine for the days of yore. The ultra looseness of tables. I pine for the bonuses, no doubt. But where I am sitting, the limit fullring tables are as loose as ever [$0.50/$1]. Certainly the main menu at Stars shows anywhere from 15% to 40% VP$IPs, but get on the table and you'll see 2-4 players at 35% or higher.

That said, I only lost around $17 [or 17BBs] this week. Granted, I didn't play as much due to an uptick in my work schedule. Of the $17, $5 was MTT play, so I lost in reality 12BB or .75BB/100.

Maybe this week, I'll log off the darn table when I'm ahead, just for a piece of sanity.

Sigh, alas, I was stretched for time and didn't get in any PxF videos or other training. I did, however, pick up a copy of Jeff Hwang's Poy Limit Omaha Poker. So, let's see. I will finish TPM, and two other books that I am half through, and then......

We need 28 hours in a day.

[Piscivorous]

Two-week Period

May 3rd - May 16th, 2009

Sigh. Still struggling. Can't make heads or tails of what is going on. The results are the same. Start off winning 20-30BB and then the wheels fall off. Don't change my play and switch gears enough to keep the more observant ones off my trail, but all of a sudden sets start to lose, draws miss or get beaten by something amazing.

The 10th was absolutely horrible. 6 MTTs. Crushing tables, then something ridiculous would happen. I flopped two Fullhouses and lost both. I turned a Fullhouse and lost. JJ ran into KK, nothing I can do there. But then KK loses to 88. Only MTT that I money was the miniFTOPS event I played. Bust out hand was QJ losing to J9 when the flop came 99x. C'est la vie.

May switch up what I do. May scrap the project. Did manage to get in 4 videos last week.

[Piscivorous]

May 17th - May 23rd, 2009

I had a decent week. I played $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 FR FLHE predominantly at Bodog and had some really good sessions. Up ~$65 in cash game play. I did manage to get in two MTTs and bubbled both of them. I feel I played both MTTs very well and wouldn't change much of anything in my play. Going out 47th [paid 45] on a big draw to a flopped set of 3s was a bit of a set-back. I managed to turn my flush only to lose to the board pairing the river. I could easily have folded into the money, but I feel I was setting myself up for more than a min-cash by playign aggressively this close to the money.

I didn't get any videos in this week. I'll try to correct this next week. I haven't had the fire to play a lot of poker though and have been working very hard at ITH over the past week. Hopefully you'll like the changes we're making!

[Piscivorous]

May 24th - May 30th, 2009

Bleh. After a reasonably good week before this one, I found myself getting lambasted at the very soft Bodog tables. I played up at the $1/$2 FL tables as I was doing very well at $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1 in the two weeks preceding. They tacked a 46BB loss on me. Although I recovered about a third of the losses a few days later, I was really behind the 8-ball. Stars went south a bit and the normally reliable tables at PDC Poker smacked me around also.

I did find a rather good thing out last week [and into the current week]. I am running very well in the 4:35PM $10,000 Guarantee [2r+1a] at Poker Stars, having cashed 5 of the last 6 I have played in this deepstack MTT.

Also got a few more sheets videos in and feel good about that.

Sometime after I return, Janeg and I will be swapping session HHs and going over each other's play. She has informed me that she is also struggling on the limit tables herself, so hopefully we can help each other plug some leaks and return to profitablity.

Might not be another update for a few weeks.

[Piscivorous]

May 31st - June 20th, 2009

3-week Period

It has been three weeks since my last update and a lot has happened. My wife underwent major surgery and I've been spending more time taking care of her than playing poker or even doing what needs to be done around ITH. She's recovering well although there are still a few issues going on. I have been able to get some poker in the last 10 days or so and remarkably, I am running somewhat well. Still playing well in MTTs but can't catch the breaks. Meanwhile I've done well in cash games.

Added Lock Poker [Cake network] to my list of sites after they added playable cash into my site account. They run a lot of the same promotions as Cake and are International-facing [they do allow Americans], but at this time they are only offering their player rakeback to non-Americans. It has something to do with Cake Poker's rakeback system and the Cake American-facing ideology.

Needless to say, once I do my first deposit at Lock after finishing my last Stars bonus, I'll be playing almost exclusively at Lock. Well that and the site I pick for Doc T River's silly quest!

Hopefully I make a post next week![/u]

[pusaqall]

Have you ever won with these ideas? If so, I will give it a try myself.