I haven't posted for a while, partly because I didn't play for a bit, but then latterly because I've finished most sessions feeling pretty despondent. The last half dozen sessions I've played I've ended up down, usually to the tune of at least one buy-in ($5).
Some of it I can put down to bad luck - getting Aces cracked on the river by Queens, or AK being sucked out by A5, but that doesn't explain away most of it. I've diagnosed a huge leak as getting into pots with 'trouble hands'. I was re-reading Brunson and had an epiphany that most of the hands I'd lost a big chunk on were listed in his 'trouble hands' section. In particular AJ - I think that hand alone has cost me about $10!
So, tonight I resolved to tighten up. I wrote down notes on playing each hand type and made sure to put a big box around all the trouble hands to remind me. With this new, sensible style I was feeling confident....
...I lost my stack again, plus most of almost all of a smaller buy-in. Fittingly a chunk of it was on AJ, but in my defense, I did have 2 pairs when I got nailed by the flush draw.
Weirdly, I actually seem to do worse when I tighten up - I think because by playing fewer hands I'm picking up fewer small pots when no-one hits on the flop. Although, crucially, I seem to have forgotten how to get value out a hand when I have one. I can't remember the last big hand that I was in where I got all my money in and got paid off, with the exception of when I've already been knocked down to a short stack and so 'all-my-money' is about $1.80. Twice I've had quads in the last two days and got not much more than $1 for them each time. A lot of the time that's just luck in not having an opponent with a good hand to bet at, but it still adds up to me losing big and winning small, which is not the correct way round!
Anyway, I clearly need to really look at how I play. I need to sit down and actually work out whether my bluffs are costing me more than they're making, whether I'm playing good hands too fast or too slow, in particular whether I'm paying too much on chasing draws. And I need to fix it soon before I run out of money...
UPDATE: A history of one of the last hands I played tonight:
#Game No : 6375758021
***** Hand History for Game 6375758021 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, October 01, 19:26:01 ET 2007
Table Table 130478 (Real Money)
Seat 7 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 4: e_r_c ( $0.54 USD )
Seat 2: psycow777 ( $5.04 USD )
Seat 1: LeonOrellano ( $7.53 USD )
Seat 9: Ocean53 ( $5.82 USD )
Seat 10: neato451 ( $6.17 USD )
Seat 3: Jan145111 ( $4.94 USD )
Seat 5: Hurdy_G ( $4.94 USD )
Seat 8: akrde ( $5 USD )
Seat 7: Tante_Kaete ( $2.16 USD )
Seat 6: korningg ( $0 USD )
akrde posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Ocean53 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Td 2s ]
neato451 folds
korningg has joined the table.
LeonOrellano folds
psycow777 folds
Jan145111 folds
e_r_c calls [$0.04 USD]
Hurdy_G folds
Tante_Kaete folds
akrde calls [$0.02 USD]
Ocean53 checks
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ac, Jc, 8c ]
akrde checks
Ocean53 checks
e_r_c bets [$0.12 USD]
akrde folds
Ocean53 folds
e_r_c shows [ Td, 2s ]high card Ace.
e_r_c wins $0.24 USD from the main pot with high card, Ace.
psycow777: cool
e_r_c: that was my homage to doyle brunson
Showing posts with label loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loss. Show all posts
Monday, 1 October 2007
Friday, 7 September 2007
Most. Frustrating. Session. Ever
Still pretty pissed off about last night's session, so will keep it brief.
Joined a table, found out it was quite aggressive.
Lost a little but adapted my game, tightened up and was slowly increasing my stack again.
#Game No : 6303999019
***** Hand History for Game 6303999019 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, September 06, 14:14:42 ET 2007
Table Table 125858 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: ksgv111 ( $1.86 USD )
Seat 4: epikor ( $1.84 USD )
Seat 6: StefanWuijts ( $5.24 USD )
Seat 9: LuLu5777 ( $3.46 USD )
Seat 10: sooldsogood ( $4.93 USD )
Seat 3: e_r_c ( $3.84 USD )
Seat 5: winny88 ( $2.92 USD )
Seat 7: Europa180g ( $4.94 USD )
Seat 1: pairof_aces ( $2 USD )
Seat 8: magic_hand89 ( $2.50 USD )
ksgv111 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
e_r_c posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Kh Kc ]
winny88 calls [$0.04 USD]
StefanWuijts calls [$0.04 USD]
Europa180g calls [$0.04 USD]
LuLu5777 folds
ksgv111 calls [$0.02 USD]
e_r_c raises [$0.20 USD]
winny88 calls [$0.20 USD]
StefanWuijts calls [$0.20 USD]
Europa180g calls [$0.20 USD]
ksgv111 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, Jd, 5h ]
e_r_c bets [$0.72 USD]
winny88 is all-In [$2.68 USD]
StefanWuijts folds
Europa180g folds
e_r_c calls [$1.96 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
e_r_c shows [ Kh, Kc ]two pairs, Kings and Fives.
winny88 shows [ 7d, 7h ]a full house, Sevens full of Fives.
winny88 wins $6.05 USD from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of Fives.
StefanWuijts: WOW suckout
e_r_c: every goddamn time
Was dealt KK, raised preflop and got a few callers. The flop came 5-J-5. I bet and got moved in on. Thought for a bit and put him on two pair, so called.
He turned over Sevens, I'd got him trapped. Only 2 cards in the pack could save him.
Nothing to help on the Turn.
Then comes the river, and another fucking Seven drops. All of my money except for $0.90 gets pushed over to the idiot.
I know this shouldn't bother me, and that the odds were 11.5:1 against him. Which means we play that hand over again a few times and I'm going to bankrupt him over and over. But twice in two sessions I've been sucked out on like that, and it chafes.
I didn't rebuy because I thought I'd probably not be thinking properly after that. Managed to waver around the $1-2 mark for a while, then threw it all away on a silly bluff when my tea was ready! I do still have a bit of a fatalistic mentality when I drop below $2, I get like I need to win big or crash out, can't just walk away with that meagre amount. Which is ridiculous really, and will add up to quite a lot of unnecessary lost money over time.
Joined a table, found out it was quite aggressive.
Lost a little but adapted my game, tightened up and was slowly increasing my stack again.
#Game No : 6303999019
***** Hand History for Game 6303999019 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Thursday, September 06, 14:14:42 ET 2007
Table Table 125858 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: ksgv111 ( $1.86 USD )
Seat 4: epikor ( $1.84 USD )
Seat 6: StefanWuijts ( $5.24 USD )
Seat 9: LuLu5777 ( $3.46 USD )
Seat 10: sooldsogood ( $4.93 USD )
Seat 3: e_r_c ( $3.84 USD )
Seat 5: winny88 ( $2.92 USD )
Seat 7: Europa180g ( $4.94 USD )
Seat 1: pairof_aces ( $2 USD )
Seat 8: magic_hand89 ( $2.50 USD )
ksgv111 posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
e_r_c posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Kh Kc ]
winny88 calls [$0.04 USD]
StefanWuijts calls [$0.04 USD]
Europa180g calls [$0.04 USD]
LuLu5777 folds
ksgv111 calls [$0.02 USD]
e_r_c raises [$0.20 USD]
winny88 calls [$0.20 USD]
StefanWuijts calls [$0.20 USD]
Europa180g calls [$0.20 USD]
ksgv111 folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5d, Jd, 5h ]
e_r_c bets [$0.72 USD]
winny88 is all-In [$2.68 USD]
StefanWuijts folds
Europa180g folds
e_r_c calls [$1.96 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7s ]
e_r_c shows [ Kh, Kc ]two pairs, Kings and Fives.
winny88 shows [ 7d, 7h ]a full house, Sevens full of Fives.
winny88 wins $6.05 USD from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of Fives.
StefanWuijts: WOW suckout
e_r_c: every goddamn time
Was dealt KK, raised preflop and got a few callers. The flop came 5-J-5. I bet and got moved in on. Thought for a bit and put him on two pair, so called.
He turned over Sevens, I'd got him trapped. Only 2 cards in the pack could save him.
Nothing to help on the Turn.
Then comes the river, and another fucking Seven drops. All of my money except for $0.90 gets pushed over to the idiot.
I know this shouldn't bother me, and that the odds were 11.5:1 against him. Which means we play that hand over again a few times and I'm going to bankrupt him over and over. But twice in two sessions I've been sucked out on like that, and it chafes.
I didn't rebuy because I thought I'd probably not be thinking properly after that. Managed to waver around the $1-2 mark for a while, then threw it all away on a silly bluff when my tea was ready! I do still have a bit of a fatalistic mentality when I drop below $2, I get like I need to win big or crash out, can't just walk away with that meagre amount. Which is ridiculous really, and will add up to quite a lot of unnecessary lost money over time.
Sunday, 8 July 2007
ups and downs (mainly downs)
I played quite heavily this weekend, playing on both Friday evening and most of Saturday. Well, actually I'll revise that. I played poker on Saturday, on Friday I just sat in front of the computer and doled out money to anyone that asked.
I basically did everything it's possible to do wrong on Friday; I played with lots of distractions around (the window was open because it was warm and so the television was on ridiculously loud to drown out the noise of the city); I called big raises when I should have read from the board the danger I was in, twice I ran a Ace-high flush right into the jaws of a full house; when I did win it was for tiny amounts because I fluffed the betting; I allowed myself to get frustrated and into the mentality of 'winning my money back' with the consequence that I played on far past the point I was enjoying myself and just dribbled away further money.
So, pretty much an unqualified disaster, losing me $4.74 and putting me way down for July but more importantly erasing all of my previous profits and putting me in loss. It's only $0.64 down at the moment, but it's still a little disheartening.
Saturday I decided to try something different, and entered a couple of the Rookie Freerolls. It was my first time playing tournaments and it's very much a different game to the cash tables. I played three tourneys, each with just over a thousand entrants, placing 143rd, 743rd and 265th respectively. The relatively poor performance in the 2nd tourney came from being on a very aggressive table at the beginning. To survive it I really tightened up, but I didn't hit any 1st tier hands and so when I was moved to a new table full of big stackers I got flattened.
Although I placed lower in the 3rd tournament, I thought I played it very well. A couple of problems I've mentioned before is that I don't take notice of people's stack sizes when betting against them and that I'm far too reserved with betting when I'm ahead. With a tournament it's ALL about stack sizes and I felt it played well terrorising the small stacks and going all-in against big stacks when I had the nuts. I think I could've gone much further, but it was getting late and so I started playing like I didn't care if I got eliminated, which was true, and lucrative until I went all-in against someone with AA...
I'm hoping I'll be able to bring some of that back to the cash game tables, although I've got to be conscious that they're a very different game!
This month's total: -$4.34
I basically did everything it's possible to do wrong on Friday; I played with lots of distractions around (the window was open because it was warm and so the television was on ridiculously loud to drown out the noise of the city); I called big raises when I should have read from the board the danger I was in, twice I ran a Ace-high flush right into the jaws of a full house; when I did win it was for tiny amounts because I fluffed the betting; I allowed myself to get frustrated and into the mentality of 'winning my money back' with the consequence that I played on far past the point I was enjoying myself and just dribbled away further money.
So, pretty much an unqualified disaster, losing me $4.74 and putting me way down for July but more importantly erasing all of my previous profits and putting me in loss. It's only $0.64 down at the moment, but it's still a little disheartening.
Saturday I decided to try something different, and entered a couple of the Rookie Freerolls. It was my first time playing tournaments and it's very much a different game to the cash tables. I played three tourneys, each with just over a thousand entrants, placing 143rd, 743rd and 265th respectively. The relatively poor performance in the 2nd tourney came from being on a very aggressive table at the beginning. To survive it I really tightened up, but I didn't hit any 1st tier hands and so when I was moved to a new table full of big stackers I got flattened.
Although I placed lower in the 3rd tournament, I thought I played it very well. A couple of problems I've mentioned before is that I don't take notice of people's stack sizes when betting against them and that I'm far too reserved with betting when I'm ahead. With a tournament it's ALL about stack sizes and I felt it played well terrorising the small stacks and going all-in against big stacks when I had the nuts. I think I could've gone much further, but it was getting late and so I started playing like I didn't care if I got eliminated, which was true, and lucrative until I went all-in against someone with AA...
I'm hoping I'll be able to bring some of that back to the cash game tables, although I've got to be conscious that they're a very different game!
This month's total: -$4.34
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
gah
Bad day today. Very bad. Ended up a very depressing $7.42 down, more than wiping out my first two days play. I think what I learned today is that holding high pocket pairs are a very good way of losing lots of chips. I think about $5 of the $7.42 was lost while holding a high pocket pair. At least half of them I think I played correctly for what I had (there were some infuriating losses to people making unlikely straights on the river), but that doesn't really mean much when I'm dropping a couple of dollars because I can't let go of a pair of aces.
On the bright side, I'm still in profit overall, so I should probably consider this a learning experience. It's probably been a bit arrogant of me to just assume I'll win every time - this has brought me down a bit. Next session I'm going to focus more, try to tighten up and think a bit more before I call a large raise.
I don't like to end on a down note, so here's a song...
Turn around... Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming round....
Okay, forget the song. Instead enjoy this hand where I take a nice amount from the guy who derided me last session.
#Game No : 6098461107
***** Hand History for Game 6098461107 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, June 26, 16:27:59 ET 2007
Table Table 126041 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 2: charli441 ( $4.76 USD )
Seat 3: frenkman ( $2.02 USD )
Seat 9: Phony333 ( $7.05 USD )
Seat 10: e_r_c ( $3.76 USD )
Seat 1: Chipie0711 ( $6.26 USD )
Seat 4: GreedyGold ( $2.51 USD )
Seat 6: BetFlopBoy ( $4.86 USD )
Seat 7: zana2003 ( $3.02 USD )
Seat 5: Insolent9 ( $5.11 USD )
e_r_c posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Chipie0711 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Ac Jc ]
charli441 folds
frenkman folds
GreedyGold folds
Insolent9 folds
BetFlopBoy folds
zana2003 calls [$0.04 USD]
Phony333 folds
e_r_c raises [$0.10 USD]
Chipie0711 folds
zana2003 calls [$0.08 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, Jd, Js ]
e_r_c bets [$0.16 USD]
zana2003 calls [$0.16 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
e_r_c bets [$0.36 USD]
zana2003 calls [$0.36 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
e_r_c bets [$0.50 USD]
The_AKing has joined the table.
zana2003 calls [$0.50 USD]
e_r_c shows [ Ac, Jc ]three of a kind, Jacks.
zana2003 doesn't show [ Ks, Qc ]two pairs, Queens and Jacks.
e_r_c wins $2.21 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Jacks.
This month's profit: $3.75
On the bright side, I'm still in profit overall, so I should probably consider this a learning experience. It's probably been a bit arrogant of me to just assume I'll win every time - this has brought me down a bit. Next session I'm going to focus more, try to tighten up and think a bit more before I call a large raise.
I don't like to end on a down note, so here's a song...
Turn around... Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming round....
Okay, forget the song. Instead enjoy this hand where I take a nice amount from the guy who derided me last session.
#Game No : 6098461107
***** Hand History for Game 6098461107 *****
$5 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, June 26, 16:27:59 ET 2007
Table Table 126041 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 2: charli441 ( $4.76 USD )
Seat 3: frenkman ( $2.02 USD )
Seat 9: Phony333 ( $7.05 USD )
Seat 10: e_r_c ( $3.76 USD )
Seat 1: Chipie0711 ( $6.26 USD )
Seat 4: GreedyGold ( $2.51 USD )
Seat 6: BetFlopBoy ( $4.86 USD )
Seat 7: zana2003 ( $3.02 USD )
Seat 5: Insolent9 ( $5.11 USD )
e_r_c posts small blind [$0.02 USD].
Chipie0711 posts big blind [$0.04 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to e_r_c [ Ac Jc ]
charli441 folds
frenkman folds
GreedyGold folds
Insolent9 folds
BetFlopBoy folds
zana2003 calls [$0.04 USD]
Phony333 folds
e_r_c raises [$0.10 USD]
Chipie0711 folds
zana2003 calls [$0.08 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qh, Jd, Js ]
e_r_c bets [$0.16 USD]
zana2003 calls [$0.16 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5d ]
e_r_c bets [$0.36 USD]
zana2003 calls [$0.36 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
e_r_c bets [$0.50 USD]
The_AKing has joined the table.
zana2003 calls [$0.50 USD]
e_r_c shows [ Ac, Jc ]three of a kind, Jacks.
zana2003 doesn't show [ Ks, Qc ]two pairs, Queens and Jacks.
e_r_c wins $2.21 USD from the main pot with three of a kind, Jacks.
This month's profit: $3.75
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)