Steep Learning Curve

Apologies for the lack of updates, but 2013 seems to have just flown by, it seems only days since the grind for supernova began on Jan 1st.

The grind is going a lot slower than expected, I was ahead of schedule on Jan 1st, but since then I have slowly been falling behind the pace. This was to be expected as I knew that at some point I would have to move up to 50NL to have a chance of reaching my goal. What I wasn't expecting was the amount of VPP per hand being approx 20% lower. This has put me further behind schedule than I had planned for, so I will need to up the grind or move to 50NL quicker.

The other option is to add some 10NL zoom tables, however I would rather not do this until I am winning at a constant level at 25NL. I am currently down at the tables overall on the year by a few buyins, so I don't think it would be a good idea to add tables while I am not in profit pre rakeback.

I managed to play just under 100k hands in January which is the most I think I have played in a month before and I am on schedule to play about the same this month. My losses at the tables have really come down to about 6 to 7 days losses. In Jan I did manage to have 1 day where I was 13 buyins down, which was really annoying that the time as I was winning at about 5bb/100 until that particular day. It was just one of those days where I was running KK into AA and when I had AA, KK was sucking out. I also manage to have 3 top sets vs lower sets where they rivered quads after all in the money had gone in on the flop or turn.I did also manage to hit quad 9s on a QQ9x9 board where the villain had flopped quads and played it perfectly when all the money went in on the river.

The one bad thing about grinding is that there are many days where you just don't feel like playing, are tired, or just are generally in a bad mood, I have had a few days like this and have tilted 4+ buyins off. Its these days that I need to take note of and learn by my mistakes. I am not sure what to do, ideally I still need to play, but I need to be very mindful of my mood and if I detect any sort of adrenaline going or see myself 4 bet bluffing in a stupid spot, I need to force myself to stop straight away. It might be wise when these days happen that I do stop playing and use the time for studying instead, at least then some useful poker activity will be happening !!

The other addition to the learning curve I need to adjust is playing pissed after the quiz on Thursday nights. It was unfortunate at the end of last year and at the start of this year I had a few small winning sessions when I was doing this, which gave me the false reasoning that 6 pints of Winona does not effect my play or judgement at all, the last two Thursday nights with a total loss of about 10 buyins has proved this to the contrary !!! I def need to stop playing. I still have about £30 in one of my iPoker accounts, so I might just force myself to play some 1c/2c 6 max on there if I want to blow some steam off when I get back !!

One thing I am pleased is that I am studying a bit more, still nowhere near as much as I would like and I am not yet posting hands on forums etc like I should. I decided to buy leak buster and it immediately identified some critical leaks in my game which I have started to adjust, it did spot quite a few leaks that I knew I had and even tell myself while I am playing that I am doing it, but still carry on. Hopefully I can keep ironing them out one by one and get my game more consistent.  I still have a massive leak in paying people off to much when I know I am beat, I still can't help myself calling with my big hands knowing full well he has the exact hand I have put him on, its almost if I have to call to prove that my hand reading skill is spot on !!! as I watch the pot go his way and I say "I knew he had that"

Been a bit of a long post, hopefully won't be as long until the next one.

Goth.

2013 Review and Onwards

Well the year has come to an end poker wise as I won't be playing any more hands till the 1st Jan, a full 3 days off !!! WooHoo !!!

I am not sure what to think of how the year has gone really, I should really be pleased as its my most profitable year so far, but this was mainly down to luck boxing a $5k+ payout in an 800 runner tourney. I shouldn't really worry about how I win the money I suppose, but I can't help thinking it could of been a lot better. Saying that, I believe that it is the first year I have actually been in a profit on the cash tables over a 12 month period, which is a sign of progress in the right direction.

 The yearly breakdown of how the money came in is as follows:-

Cash = + $437.01
MTT = + $5400.06
SNG = + $126.11
Rakeback = +$350.00
Bonuses = +$395.21

Total Profit for 2012 = $6708.39

The plan for 2013 is another shot at Supernova on Poker Stars, this will mainly be done at 25NL Zoom, so it is gonna take a fair bit of effort to get considering I will be working full time and trying to spend more quality time with the wifey and doggies. I also have the goal of upping the fitness levels and losing at least 3 stone in weight. This is the same Goal that I set this year, but due to my heart and lung issues that I have had for most of the year, I have not been able to put any exercise in at all. Hopefully as I am slowly starting to feel better I can start progressing on this front as well. I intend to take some weekly topless pics to track progress, might even take a few in the old budgie smugglers, if all goes well, I might even post some before and afters for you to peruse and help you bring up your lunch !!

I have put up a progress bar on the left of the blog to track my progress, the code is courtesy of Glanza_Mike on 2+2 who is having his own shot at Supernova Elite in 2013, heres wishing him all the best in this, he has a PG+C Thread on 2+2 for this and I have linked his blog if you want to track his progress.

Apart from the poker and weight loss, I have a number of other personal life goals for 2013, not sure if I want to out these yet, will see how January goes and might discuss it then.

Will definitely be making a more concious effort to update the blog on at least a weekly basis with some tails of woe and the odd mandatory giraffe, also need to post some more "real life" stuff, as this blog is a Poker AND Life blog, seems to be too much of one and not enough of the other.

So thats it for 2012, no need to look back any more. Looking forward to 2013 and hoping it can be the best year of my life so far. I hope it is for all of you too.

Best Wishes and a Happy New Year.

Goth.

Lazy Boy + Live Donk Fest

Title sums it up really, poker seems to have taken a back seat to other things at the moment, I hardly played at all last month and just about did enough to get Silver VIP on Stars. This is a big shame as I had managed to get to Gold the previous months so it was a waste of a chance to build up some fpps. The good news  however was I had a decent month running at about 7.4bb/100 for the hands that I did play finishing up $365 on the month, also cashed in some fpps for a total monthly profit of $494.11 which I would happily take for most months.

Had my infamous xmas shopping day with Stu on Weds just gone with the drinking starting at brekkie and carrying on for the rest of the day. I landed at the casino at about 22:45 and still had time to enter the $25 triple chance, there was only about 54 runners, but the bar was open and the beer was still running good. I felt a I played really well for my drunken state and ended up bubbling the final table when I ran AhKh into KK + 99 aipf which was a bit of a wounder, if I had won that hand I would of hit the final table about 3rd in chips but it was not to be.

It was still fairly early at this point (2am) and the bar was still open so it was time for a bit of £1/2 cash. I wasn't in the mood to be pushed around and I played the most aggressive game I have ever done and things were going really well until I re-raised all in with my king high flush when it hit on the river and I hadn't noticed that there were two pairs already on the board loooool the other guy obv had the nut full house, what a muppet I was. Still I reloaded and went on another massive bluff fest and like an idiot showing most of them with a plan to get paid when I hit a big hand. The big hand unfortunately didn't come until there was only 4 of us left at 6.15am and they announced last 3 hands. UTG straddled for £4 I bumped it up on the SB to £13 and then he re-raised to £28. I decided to flat call as I still had about £140 behind me. The flop come down K42. I had already decided the money was going in, so checked to see if would have a stab, he surprised me when he massively overbet the pot sticking in a £100 bet, I was still convinced he was doing this as it was the last two hands so decided to shove. His face said it all and I obv had him. He was committed to call the extra £40 I had back and he flipped over AT, the turn bought another king and then the kick in the teeth when the river bought the ace. I just laughed as the £340 or so pot went his way. Don't get me wrong I would rather of won the pot as I would of had a free day out on it, but I had really enjoyed playing and I think I learnt a lot about live cash and also more importantly I learnt a lot more about what I am capable of when it comes to playing poker.

I eventually got home at 7.30am when I bumped into my wife at the train station of the way into work lol. Roll on next year.

I think poker this month will be pretty much the same, gonna just get enough for Silver Star and then between XMAS and New Year make a decision on whether to go for Supernova or not.

Prob gonna be me last post before XMAS, so heres wishing you all a great one and wonderful new year.

Goth.

Hoping for a better Month

Well last month ended up as a disaster, reckon I was about $600ish down at the tables overall. Managed to pull a big back on the stars Boom Bonus where I managed to hit 4/5 of the hands I got dealt for a $100 bonus, also got the 10k Stellar Bonus for a further $50 which limited the damage a bit, but still was net about $500 down on the month.

On the bright side, I did actually hit Gold Star for the first time this year and got about 3.7k vpps. I have got enough fpps for about $200 worth of bonuses. Not sure when I am going to cash these in. If I manage to maintain Gold Star status, I might roll them over, but if it looks like I am gonna drop to Silver I will probably cash in $150 worth and leave the rest till the new year. This is assuming that I don't go on another downswing like I did in October and I need to cash them in to keep a roll going !!

The other factor to take into account will be the Full Tilt factor, its possible Zoom will take a big hit on 6th November when Tilt opens again. If the traffic there is strong from the start and the Huds are working I might take advantage of the Deal Me In bonus of $200 that I have been offerered and play the remaining of the year there.

I will ultimately decide where I want to play in between Xmas and new year. Would love to go for stars supernova in 2013, but unless I know I can be at least +1bb/100 at 25NL over a large sample, it might just not be worth the effort, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Will be playing the 888Poker 20k Challenge tonight, lets hope I can bink some xmas cider vouchers.

Goth

'Aving a mare....+ Uber Tilt Monkey

Well the new PC was back up and running in no time after delivery all software installed and working fine. Thats as far as the good news goes !!!

I decided instead of going straight to 25NL Zoom, I would stay on 10NL while I was getting all of my HUD etc set back up and working, during this time I managed to donk off about 10 buyins, no bad beats, just KK into AA 2nd nuts into the nuts etc, all standard stuff, so I wasn't worried. Once I was happy with HEM and my Hud was working fine (did play for an hour not noticing the seating on the hud was out and I was 3 betting uber nits light as hell !!! lol) I was straight on to the 25NL tables, I had my whole plan worked out while I was on hols in Spain and this was it, I was there. After the first couple of days I was over 5 buyins up, things were going well and I was a happy little Goth.

The last few weeks however have been a total nightmare, again I am not running 20 buyins below EV, I am just walking into the nuts EVERY time and it does really seem like EVERY time !!! I am currently on a 20 buyin downswing and its driving me crazy. I know this is standard stuff and I shouldn't panic, but its amazing how you can have 8 winning months in a row and then get abs battered, surely it should level itself out over the year and not just come in massive swongs like it does....PAH !!!!

After one particular mouse smashing session I decided I had had enough, but instead of quitting like a good little boy, I went straight to the 200NL 6 Max Zoom table and sat with the max $200. I won a few pots that gave me some confidence, then managed to shove all in on the river for my remaining $102 with A5 on a A2479 board after betting flop and turn only to be called by 22 for a flopped set. I reloaded and then 3 bet light, missed the board and bet both the flop and the turn with complete air only to get shoved on on the turn. So reload up to $200. I was fuming, I was quite happy to blow my whole roll on stars at this point to "teach myself a lesson" It was then I got out of Jail, I 3 bet with QQ and got shoved on for a full 100bb stack, normally I would tank and think about folding, but the mood I was in I snap called and he flipped over 99 and my hand held. I won a few other pots and got my stack up to $530 and sat out a very relieved man. I checked HEM and I had played 167 hands and was about $29 up !!! The only good point was I averaged 0.72 vpp per hand !!!!

The following day after a lot of deep thought I limited my stars account to 50NL so I wouldn't do that again, I can see how it is so easy to go on mega tilt and I got off very light indeed.

Things haven't picked up that much over the last few days, I did try a few thousand hands at 6max and quickly won a few buyins in the morning session, but lost them in the evening session to be back where I started.

I have finished Verneers "Building a poker Bankroll" book and I think for the next few weeks I am going to concentrate more on the studying side, just doing enough to get to Gold Status. I have to admit, I have really slacked on the studying side, and when I say slacked off, I mean I have actually done none, no session reviews, no leak finding, nadir. I wrongly thought I could do all my learning at the tables and have paid the ultimate price. Its time therefore for a big change on the old learning curve. Also after my mad tilt sessions, I think its time to start reading Jareds Mental Game of Poker properly instead of just doing a few pages on the bog like I do !!!

Lets hope I can lower the stress, lower the variance, increase the knowledge and ultimately increase the $$$$ coming in !!

Goth

Aaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhh !!!!!

Foooking typical, about 3 hours after my last blog post, screen goes purple on my PC, big ole BSOD and its fooked, spent 6 hours trying to repair it and its really foooked now lol.

Can't believe the timing of it. Its almost as if it knew I was thinking of replacing it out of my tournie winnings and thought fck you, I'll go when I'm ready !!!

It has lasted 5 years to be fair and has been a decent investment, but the new one has been ordered but won't be here till about 18th !! So its no pokes until then.

Although i was able to get all of my important files off my old PC like photos and documents before I trashed it completely, I didn't bother getting my HEM database off, I decided as I was gonna move up to 25NL, I might as well start off a new database, bit of a pain I won't have the hands on a lot of people, but they may play different at 25NL than they do at 10NL anyway, so it might be better in the long run.

I do have HEM2 and I am debating whether or not to use this, I did try it when I was doing SNGs, but it was abs pants then, especially as the SNG wizard was not integrated, just have to see how I feel when it gets here.

I was part hoping I could get to Gold this month on Stars, but I will prob have to push to get to retain Silver by the time I have got all the new one setup and raring to go. Def gonna push for Gold in October and as per my last post, we should then have a better idea what is happening with the player pool size on Full Tilt so I can make a decision accordingly.

I guess for the next 10 days I will at least have the chance to get some study in and hopefully some decent excercise as I have got fook all to do in the evenings now !!!

Why is life never shimples !!!

Goth.

Moving on Up + New Cash Bankroll Plan

Well that time has come when one just has to make the move up to the next stakes, so as of tomorrow, I will be starting to play 25NL pretty much exclusively. I have played 159184 hands at 10NL and finished $654.17 in profit which equates to running at 4.11bb/100 which I am more than happy with. It could of been a lot better as I actually had my first negative month of the year in August being approx 4 buyins down, this was mainly due to a couple of tilted sessions which cost me about 15 buyins. I really thought I has managed to get those sorts of sessions out of me, but I guess the demons are still there. Its really annoying when you know you are tilting, you are actually saying it out allowed and that you should stop the session, but no, you carry on, calling 3 bets with dumbass hands and try to push anyone of anything cos you think you can. Oh well, lesson learned. Here is the mandatory giraffe of my time at 10NL.

I have also amended my bankroll plan to be a new uber nitty system. This time, I am not counting the money I have online as part of my poker bankroll for moving up. So at the moment, I have about £1k on stars and £2k in my poker bank account, it is only the £2k in the bank that is going to count towards me moving up to the next level. I intend to move up to 50NL when my poker bank account reaches £4.5k which is 90 buyins (again in £ not $ so its even nittier) I will finally move up to 100NL when it reaches £10k.

The main aim for playing poker at the moment is to get my mortgage paid off before Amanda reaches 50, its gonna be a pretty tall order and I really am going to have to work at my game and put the hours in, but I think I can do it.

I have set up a new plan to do this which involves withdrawals from Stars when my balance reaches a certain point then using 50% of that withdrawal to go into my Poker Bank Account and the other 50% will pay off the mortgage. The plan is highlighted below

Stars         Withdraw           Stakes       Bank Acc   Withdrawal Split

£1,500.00 - £400.00          25NL        £2,000 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£1,600.00 - £400.00          25NL        £2,200 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£1,700.00 - £400.00          25NL        £2,400 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£1,800.00 - £400.00          25NL        £2,600 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£1,900.00 - £400.00          25NL        £2,800 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £3,000 - £200 BR, £200 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £3,250 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £3,500 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £3,750 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £4,000 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £4,250 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          25NL        £4,500 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          50NL        £4,750 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          50NL        £5,000 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,000.00 - £500.00          50NL        £5,250 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,100.00 - £500.00          50NL        £5,500 - £250 BR, £250 Mortgage
£2,200.00 - £600.00          50NL        £5,800 - £300 BR, £300 Mortgage
£2,300.00 - £600.00          50NL        £6,100 - £300 BR, £300 Mortgage
£2,400.00 - £600.00          50NL        £6,400 - £300 BR, £300 Mortgage
£2,500.00 - £600.00          50NL        £6,700 - £300 BR, £300 Mortgage
£2,600.00 - £700.00          50NL        £7,000 - £300 BR, £400 Mortgage
£2,700.00 - £700.00          50NL        £7,300 - £300 BR, £400 Mortgage
£2,800.00 - £700.00          50NL        £7,700 - £300 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,000.00 - £700.00          50NL        £8,000 - £300 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,100.00 - £800.00          50NL        £8,400 - £400 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,200.00 - £800.00          50NL        £8,800 - £400 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,300.00 - £800.00          50NL        £9,200 - £400 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,400.00 - £800.00          50NL        £9,600 - £400 BR, £400 Mortgage
£3,500.00 - £800.00          100NL      £10,000 - £800 Mortgage
£3,600.00 - £800.00          100NL      £10,000 - £800 Mortgage
£3,700.00 - £800.00          100NL      £10,000 - £800 Mortgage
£3,800.00 - £800.00          100NL      £10,000 - £800 Mortgage
£3,900.00 - £800.00          100NL      £10,000 - £800 Mortgage
£4,000.00 - £1,000.00       100NL      £10,000 - £1000 Mortgage
£4,000.00 - £1,000.00       100NL      £10,000 - £1000 Mortgage
£4,000.00 - £1,000.00       100NL      £10,000 - £1000 Mortgage

When you set all of your goals out in a table like the above, it all looks soooo simple, just play pokes take money out, rinse repeat lol. If only it would really work like that. As you can see the max I am setting to play is 100NL. In an ideal world, each of the above steps would only take a month to reach, this would be my ultimate aim, if I could acheive that, my goals of paying off my full mortgage by 2020 could easily be reached.

So thats the plan for now, but for those of you who read this blog regularly, you know how often the plan changes. Also the relaunch of Full Tilt may scupper the plan as the player pools may end up getting split between Zoom and Rush, although if I can get the standard rakeback on my old Gothman account on Full Tilt, it may be worth moving back to there as until I get to Supernova on Stars, I would prob be better off on Full Tilt, I guess I wil just have to crunch the numbers when it comes back online and we know what is going to happen on there.

Goth