Running well again

Finally, after a 25K hands breakeven streak I'm running well again. I might even reach some of my goals for August. I hope to post some hands and maybe a graph later.

Hands played in september 25,863
Won in cash games ~$1300
Received from VIP bonus $150
Won in Tourney $73
Pending Red carpet bonus $300

BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : ~$13,330

Table selection

One of the most important things before playing a sessions is your table selection. The higher you play the more important it becomes. Personally I think you can do without it on NL25 and maybe NL50, but when starting on NL100 you have to do it, because it influences your winrate a lot.

I'm using a program to select my tables I want to play. It is called Sixth sense (no its not free) and the program scans all the tables of the limits I select.
It then rates the table based on the players that are at the table. To rate the players it uses your Pokertracker database, so you have to have a large database to make it work.

So I then sit down at the 6 tables were there are bad players (high VPIP is the key here). Its a very easy process which may take 5 minutes but in the end it really pays off.

Then my last 2 days of playing.....I played a ton of hands and finally I'm back in the green again. It wasn't to easy though, but in the last 2,000 hands I won almost $1500! The variance is still amazing and I also had some extreme bad luck against very bad players.



Hands played in september 23,785
Won in cash games $788
received from VIP bonus $150
won in Tourney $106
BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : $12,584

Some big hands from the last sessions:

Before reading the below hand I must say that bkman is one of the biggest donks at party. As long as you let him bet he will bluff with every possible draw, middle pair hand and so on....

***** Hand History for Game 5174376497 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 15, 02:21:20 ET 2006
Table Monster #1290322 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 4: bkman ( $268.75 )
Seat 6: atcAce ( $430.05 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $206.50 )
Seat 1: omgbentley_7 ( $0 )
Seat 5: PollockV ( $44 )
Seat 3: poopmastiff ( $200 )
PollockV posts small blind [$1].
atcAce posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards
**Dealt to PayStation4 [ Jc Ah ]
PayStation4 raises [$6].
bkman calls [$6].
PollockV calls [$5].
atcAce folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ As, 9d, 3s ]
PollockV checks.
PayStation4 bets [$14].
bkman raises [$30].
PollockV folds.
PayStation4 calls [$16].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
PayStation4 checks.
bkman bets [$100].
PayStation4 is all-In.bkman calls [$70.50].
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
bkman shows [ 4s, 6s ] a flush, ace high.
PayStation4 doesn't show [ Jc, Ah ] a pair of aces.The time at which hand ended:Sep 15 2006 02:22 ET
bkman wins $418.50 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.

A few hands later against the same player...(this time he has some kind of a hand though)

***** Hand History for Game 5174502755 *****$200
NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 15, 02:55:09 ET 2006
Table Monster #1290322 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 4: bkman ( $194 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $248.80 )
Seat 1: omgbentley_7 ( $466.35 )
Seat 3: poopmastiff ( $222.40 )
Seat 6: whoaak2 ( $146.43 )
Seat 5: PollockV ( $95.50 )
bkman posts small blind [$1].
PollockV posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards
**Dealt to PayStation4 [ Td Th ]
whoaak2 folds.
omgbentley_7 folds.
PayStation4 raises [$7].
poopmastiff folds.
bkman raises [$11].
PollockV folds.
PayStation4 calls [$5].
** Dealing Flop **
[ Tc, 2s, Ac ]
bkman bets [$50].
PayStation4 calls [$50].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8h ]
bkman is all-In.
PayStation4 calls [$132].
** Dealing River ** [ Qd ]
bkman shows [ Ad, Qc ] two pairs, aces and queens.
PayStation4 shows [ Td, Th ] three of a kind, tens.
The time at which hand ended:Sep 15 2006 02:56
ETPayStation4 wins $386.50 from the main pot with three of a kind, tens.

A few hand later against 2 good players. I decide not to raise the flop, don't know exactly why (normally I do), but I wanted to vary my play. Poops call scared me as he must have been on a draw. Luckily the turn is a non club one and I push. After the hand Poop told he had a straighflush draw with Tc9c.

***** Hand History for Game 5174637884 *****$200
NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 15, 03:37:41 ET 2006
Table Monster #1290322 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $521.60 )
Seat 1: omgbentley_7 ( $193.30 )
Seat 3: poopmastiff ( $819.60 )
Seat 5: mKU7TR4 ( $239.28 )
Seat 4: andysila1 ( $56.90 )
Seat 6: FckTheOdds ( $187.60 )
andysila1 posts small blind [$1].
mKU7TR4 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ 8c 8h ]
FckTheOdds raises [$8].
omgbentley_7 folds.
>You have options at Monster #1289690 (No DP) Table!.
PayStation4 calls [$8].
poopmastiff calls [$8].
andysila1 folds.
mKU7TR4 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 5c, 3c ]
FckTheOdds bets [$22].
PayStation4 calls [$22].
poopmastiff calls [$22].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 7h ]
FckTheOdds bets [$69].
PayStation4 raises [$200].
poopmastiff folds.
FckTheOdds is all-In.
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
PayStation4 shows [ 8c, 8h ] three of a kind, eights.
FckTheOdds doesn't show [ 7s, 8s ] two pairs, eights and sevens.
PayStation4 wins $42.40 from side pot #1 with three of a kind, eights.
PayStation4 wins $404.70 from the main pot with three of a kind, eights

Getting back my confidence

After a few very long session were I was 7-tabling NL200 I'm still in a huge roller coaster. To get my confidence back, I will play my next sessions on NL100 again. For some reason I'm far better at NL100 then I am at NL200. I don't think it is because of my play, because there is not much difference in skill between the levels (there are only a few more regular TAG's at 200).

Hands played in september 14,741
Lost in cash games $880
received from VIP bonus $150
won in Tourney $106

BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : $10,916

Making the right decisions

In poker, everything depends on making the right decisions on the right time.
When your not playing well (as I was doing yesterday) you're folding the wrong hands and calling when you should fold. Below I post 2 hand in which I had a big river decision with 2 pair. In both hands the situation is about the same. I made the wrong decisions in both hands, but what would u do? Please have a look:

Hand 1:
***** Hand History for Game 5152261300 *****$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, September 11, 22:22:13 ET 2006
Table Monster #1293965 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 5: PayStation4 ( $229.31 )
Seat 6: ClaysAA ( $331.34 )
Seat 2: pocketwin111 ( $255.59 )
Seat 4: ShayneMO ( $337.14 )
Seat 3: Hunter69 ( $174.65 )
Seat 1: KingCodeRed ( $117 )
PayStation4 posts small blind [$1].
ClaysAA posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Td 9c ]
KingCodeRed folds.
pocketwin111 folds.
Hunter69 folds.
ShayneMO calls [$2].
PayStation4 calls [$1].
ClaysAA checks.*
* Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 4d, 9d ]
PayStation4 bets [$4].
ClaysAA calls [$4].
ShayneMO calls [$4].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6c ]
PayStation4 bets [$14].
ClaysAA folds.
ShayneMO raises [$33].
PayStation4 calls [$19].
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ]
PayStation4 checks.
ShayneMO bets [$175].

Hand 2:
***** Hand History for Game 5154297296 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, September 12, 05:35:54 ET 2006
Table Monster #1289690 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: BigSeanStud ( $204.72 )
Seat 3: raphaelbilly ( $305.98 )
Seat 4: Treeshurt ( $196 )
Seat 5: Abilene99 ( $338.85 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $198 )
Seat 6: Mazzarazzi ( $178.11 )
PayStation4 posts small blind [$1].
raphaelbilly posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Ac 2c ]
Treeshurt folds.
Abilene99 folds.
Mazzarazzi folds.
BigSeanStud folds.
PayStation4 calls [$1].
raphaelbilly raises [$2].
PayStation4 calls [$2].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jd, 2h, Ad ]
PayStation4 bets [$5].
raphaelbilly raises [$10].
PayStation4 raises [$28].
raphaelbilly calls [$23].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Th ]
PayStation4 bets [$35].
raphaelbilly calls [$35].
** Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
PayStation4 checks.
raphaelbilly bets [$130.88].

My initial fault in both hands is not making a blocking bet on the river. A blocking bet of about 40% of the pot, gives them no chance to bluff and you can easily fold to pushes......a blocking bet only works when your OOP offcourse, but these two hands are perfect examples of when to make a blocking bet.

Then my current graph for september....enjoy the rollercoaster....

Back on track

Starting yesterday I had some sessions after a week off and it showed me how nice variance can be. I played about 3,000 hands and won 60% of the showdowns.
At the end of the session I had about $2,200 across 4 NL200 tables. I got a lot of AA/KK/sets and so on. In total my won at showdown is still below at 50% for september so hopefully I can expect some more positive variance.


Hands played in september 7,898
Won in cash games $154
received from VIP bonus $150
won in Tourney $106

BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : $11,950

Week off

Starting today I will be away for almost a week (back sunday). It's actually a great timing, because I'm in the middle of this terrible downswing. Played some more yesterday and was at the table with the luckiest but worst donk I've ever seen (name was jailbird22). If he he had something on the flop he called down. It didn't bother if it was a gutshot or a pair of deuces.
Amazingly he kept hitting the most amazing rivers (not only against me) and his stack was $1100 at a time. He cracked overpairs with hands like 94o, 72s.
He called reraises pre-flop witk K4o and so on....This was a good example of how lucky a donk can be.

Hands played in september ~5000
Amount lost in cash games -$990
Amount won in Tourney +$126
BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : ~$10,600

September is starting terrible

September so far is not very lucky for me. I've had 3 sessions and all of them brought a loss. Today I played pretty well, but just was very unlucky again. My Won @ SD at the moment is 42%, which is about 10% below a normal won @ SD which shows that I've been more unlucky then usual.
As a compensation for my loss I came second in the weekly tourney for Pokernews which earned me $126.
Some hands from today:

In the hand below it was quite clear pre-flop that bail had KK or AA. He raised almost never but limped a lot (70/4/1). Those players always make mini-raises pre-flop with KK/AA. As the flop was really dry, I decided to trap him on the turn and it worked, but he sucked out.

***** Hand History for Game 5100728471 *****$100
NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, September 04, 14:14:55 ET 2006
Table Table 106836 (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 5: Bail3232 ( $106.70 )
Seat 2: PayStation4 ( $153.34 )
Seat 1: run409 ( $99.50 )
Seat 6: RaiseOnAce ( $59.40 )
Seat 4: SpillaMajig ( $100 )
RaiseOnAce posts small blind [$0.50].
run409 posts big blind [$1].
SpillaMajig posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards
**Dealt to PayStation4 [ 2d 2s ]
PayStation4 raises [$4.40].
SpillaMajig folds.
Bail3232 raises [$7.80].
RaiseOnAce folds.run409 folds.
PayStation4 calls [$3.40].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 2c, Qd ]
PayStation4 checks.
Bail3232 bets [$5].
PayStation4 calls [$5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
PayStation4 bets [$17].
Bail3232 is all-In.
PayStation4 calls [$76.90].
** Dealing River ** [ 4h ]
PayStation4 shows [ 2d, 2s ] three of a kind, twos.
Bail3232 shows [ Ah, As ] a straight, ace to five.
Bail3232 wins $213.90 from the main pot with a straight, ace to five.

Below is one of the worst bluffs ever made. This was from my 'drunk' session.
I should have pushed the turn here with so many outs, but I choked and made a pretty obvious bluff on the river.

***** Hand History for Game 5080919647 *****$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 01, 20:45:12 ET 2006
Table Monster #1293446 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 5: Supbr0 ( $288.20 )
Seat 3: PayStation4 ( $179.80 )
Seat 6: MrPapagorgeo ( $244.12 )
Seat 2: MrStation33 ( $222.40 )
Seat 4: mudcat45 ( $266.30 )
MrStation33 posts small blind [$1].
PayStation4 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ 8h 7h ]
mudcat45 folds.
Supbr0 folds.
MrPapagorgeo raises [$8].
MrStation33 folds.
PayStation4 calls [$6].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9s, 3d, Th ]
PayStation4 bets [$8].
MrPapagorgeo raises [$23].
PayStation4 calls [$15].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
PayStation4 checks.
MrPapagorgeo bets [$30].
PayStation4 calls [$30].
** Dealing River ** [ 4s ]
PayStation4 is all-In.
MrPapagorgeo calls [$118.80].
PayStation4 shows [ 8h, 7h ] a pair of threes.
MrPapagorgeo shows [ Tc, Ah ] two pairs, tens and threes.The time at which hand ended:Sep 01 2006 20:47 ETMrPapagorgeo wins $358.10 from the main pot with two pairs, tens and threes.mudcat45 has left the table.

Hands played in september 3,697
Amount lost in cash games -$750
Amount won in Tourney +$126

BR beginning of september: $11,540
Current BR : $10,926

Never play when drunk and tired

Saturday night I played a session after I went out and drunk some beer, which is NOT a smart plan. The only smart thing I did was playing a level lower then normal (100 6 max). After 1000 hand of playing I was about breakeven, but then for some reason I lost 2 buy-ins in half an hour with a stupid river bluff on a missed flush/straight and some other big hands I couldn't laydown.

Hands played ~1250
Amount lost $230

Total hands played in september 2350
Amount lost in september $350

BR end of august: $11,540
After ~2350 hands: $11,190

First session of september

Yesterday I had my first session of september and it was a very frustating one. Lots of bad players and maniacs on the tables (played NL 200 6max on Party), but it just seemed that everytime I had a big hand they had nothing at all or they sucked out on the river. Overall I was down $120 (- 3ptbb/100) after 1100 hands which isn't much at all after an unlucky session.

BR end of august: $11,540
After ~1100 hands: $11,420

Here are some of the key hands during that session:

This first hand was against the biggest fish of the table, he went all-in before with lots of garbage, but that 6h on the river just scared the hell out of me. With every other card I probably would have called, but here I just couldn't find a hand which I was ahead of (a bluff only).

***** Hand History for Game 5080684495 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 01, 20:12:53 ET 2006
Table Monster #1293446 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: ManianMava ( $229.72 )
Seat 5: Supbr0 ( $232.25 )
Seat 3: PayStation4 ( $204.90 )
Seat 4: jstroke83 ( $314.50 )
Seat 6: MrPapagorgeo ( $248.15 )
Seat 2: eljacomino ( $132.05 )
ManianMava posts small blind [$1].
eljacomino posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Ad Ah ]
PayStation4 raises [$7].
jstroke83 folds.
Supbr0 folds.
MrPapagorgeo folds.
ManianMava calls [$6].
eljacomino calls [$5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 7h, 5c ]
ManianMava checks.
eljacomino checks.
PayStation4 bets [$16].
ManianMava calls [$16].
eljacomino folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
ManianMava checks.
PayStation4 bets [$40].
ManianMava calls [$40].
** Dealing River ** [ 6h ]
ManianMava is all-In.
PayStation4 folds.
ManianMava does not show cards.The time at which hand ended:Sep 01 2006 20:14 ETManianMava wins $296.22

This one is a really standard hand, in which I played fine and lost the minimum.

***** Hand History for Game 5079914236 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 01, 18:32:02 ET 2006
Table Monster #1293947 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 1: thompy53 ( $283.70 )
Seat 2: fckA9to5 ( $253.20 )
Seat 3: Fixable ( $196.22 )
Seat 5: wiskyman1214 ( $464.72 )
Seat 4: PayStation4 ( $211.75 )
wiskyman1214 posts small blind [$1].
thompy53 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ Kc As ]
fckA9to5 raises [$7].
Fixable folds.
PayStation4 raises [$21].
wiskyman1214 folds.
thompy53 folds.
fckA9to5 calls [$14].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 5d, Ks ]
fckA9to5 checks.
PayStation4 bets [$28].
fckA9to5 calls [$28].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
fckA9to5 checks.
PayStation4 checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
fckA9to5 bets [$50]
PayStation4 calls [$50].
fckA9to5 shows [ Ac, Ah ] a pair of aces.
PayStation4 doesn't show [ Kc, As ] a pair of kings.The time at which hand ended:Sep 01 2006 18:33
ETfckA9to5 wins $198.50 from the main pot with a pair of aces.

And this is the last hand which I will show from this session, it is again against the biggest fish at the table. It looked to me that he had the ace of clubs, but after the hand he told me he even had the straight flush. Either way I think I was beat at the river.

***** Hand History for Game 5080634491 *****
$200 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, September 01, 20:06:32 ET 2006
Table Monster #1293480 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 4: PayStation4 ( $262.68 )
Seat 6: odin6606 ( $185.04 )
Seat 1: JUDYMURPHY ( $144.92 )
Seat 5: Novikoff ( $11.29 )
Seat 2: bassmaster1995 ( $126.08 )
Seat 3: csp134 ( $203.60 )
JUDYMURPHY posts small blind [$1].
bassmaster1995 posts big blind [$2].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to PayStation4 [ 7c 8c ]
csp134 folds
PayStation4 raises [$6].
Novikoff calls [$6].
odin6606 folds.
JUDYMURPHY folds
bassmaster1995 calls [$4].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3c, 5c, 2c ]
bassmaster1995 checks
PayStation4 bets [$13].
Novikoff folds.
bassmaster1995 calls [$13].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
bassmaster1995 checks.
PayStation4 bets [$42].
bassmaster1995 calls [$42].
** Dealing River ** [ Qc ]
bassmaster1995 bets [$51.06].
PayStation4 folds.bassmaster1995 does not show cards.
The time at which hand ended:Sep 01 2006 20:08 ET
bassmaster1995 wins $176.56

My first post

Overall my net result for August was about $4,200 including the $500 of different bonuses I received.

After reaching all my goals in August (see above graphic) I will to start my blog with setting my goals for september:

* Play at least 20,000 hands on NL200 (6 max)
* Winrate @ NL200 (6max) of 5 PTBB/100
* Bankroll > $15,000
* Try to post a interesting hand from every session
* Update my progress after each day of poker
* Try to post some sort of strategy stuff once a week

August was also the month in which I transferred from being a Full ring nit (16/7/2) to a 6max shark ;-) .