Guess it's time for an update....

It's been a while since I updated my blog.
Not because I stopped playing poker, although I didn't play much the last couple weeks, but just because I didn't had much inspiration to write something.
But it seems that at least some people like to read it, so I decided to give it a shot again.

I've been playing full-time poker now for exactly 4 years and the games have changed a lot since I started. The last 1,5 year it got much tougher, mostly because the ratio between regs and donks has gotten a lot worser. So i'm quite proud that I managed to have only one losing month out of 50.

Since the beginning of this year I'm not playing full-time anymore.
The last couple months I had been thinking about doing something besides poker, because playing 5/6 days a week can be very 'empty'.

So I was lucky to get a nice offer to work for a friend of mine for 2 days a week.
It's an internetcompany (www.studentmobiel.nl) which he started 10 years ago with 2 friends and which is now one of the largest dutch online telecom shops.
I will be doing some financial analytical things there which suits perfectly with my education.

By working 2 days I can still enjoy my freedom (one of the main reasons I started playing full-time), but I also have the challenge of a job again, with colleagues and all the other normal stuff I missed while working alone.

I will still be playing poker on those other days and I might play some live tournaments as well, although I don't know which one yet.

Let's see if I can update this blog more regularly as well....

Good start of the month

I started the month off good (except for Full Tilt, where I keep running terrible).
Games really seem to be getting better the past week after it was really quit the past 3 months.
Im trying to play a lot of hands this month and I might even give some WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) tournaments a try.
Lifetime I probably played around 100 big tournaments ($100+ buy-in) and I believe I only cashed in 3 off them.....(all min cashes) so a big score is soon to be mine ;-)

Here's are the tournaments I might play in:

Event 3 : $215 ($2M guaranteed) -> 3684/12066 (first prize $336k)

Event 12: $215 HU ($200K guaranteed) -> 2035/2307 (first prize $78k)

Event 14: $265 6max knockout ($400k guaranteed) -> 333 (ITM)/3325 (first prize $104k)

Event 14: $134 (2nd chance) -> 20 (ITM) /1324 (first prize $22k)

Event 22: $530 ($3M guaranteed) -> 4659/5799 (first prize $469k)

Event 23: $215 4max ($700k guaranteed) -> 290/2915 (ITM) (first prize $104k)

Event 32: $320 6max ($300k guaranteed) -> 1328/1957 (first prize $ 92k)

Event 50: $215 big antes ($600k guaranteed) -> 11/2933 (ITM) (first pize $94k)

As for my running bad on Full Tilt, it keeps going on. Ive played 300k hands there now and Im still losing with all my premiums except AA @ preflop allins.
Here's the updated graph again:






This is how it could be when you run hot like I do on Everest....

The bleeding has stopped

Finally it seems Im running somewhat better on Full Tilt.
It also takes a lot of time getting to know all the regulars and try to find a way to beat/exploit them. Running a little better offcourse helps, but I also have the feeling that im getting to know them and that my change in gameplan helped to improve my game and results.
So far this month (just 2 weeks for me) Im up 30 buyins which is ok.

I also found out that this is my 50th month as 'winning' poker player. In those 50 months I only lost money in cashgames in one month, so im quite happy with those results, hope I can do a little better in the next 50 ;-)

Here's the updated graph with preflop allins:

Back to work

Its just been a week since im back from holiday.
As always after a period without poker it gives me a fresh look on my game.
So I tried to adjust some small things about my game again.
The things I changed are mostly about position, which offcourse is one of the most important aspects in poker, but also a lot of players are just terrible at it, although they probably know how important it is, they just don't use it good enough.

As Im playing mostly rushpoker now on FT I think it's even more important as gameflow isn't a factor at these tables it's all about using position to you're best.

To give some examples of regulars who don't use their position I'll give some examples:

1. A FT red pro who plays a ton, his position stats are like this:
UTG: 19/19
EP : 15/14
CO : 16/13
BTN: 16/12
SB : 14/8
BB: 13/4

2. Another random regular who is playing a lot...
UTG: 23/23
EP : 25/22
CO : 24/17
BTN: 23/17
SB : 30/17
BB : 31/7

3. A laggy dutch regular
UTG: 27/27
EP: 32/32
CO: 33/31
BTN: 39/33
SB: 27/23
BB: 23/10

Well you don't have to be a genius to see that thats absolutely terrible.
On first sight these players might look ok to you, but when you study there game for a little bit they just have huge leaks in just their pre-flop game....
To give an idea about my game, I play around 15/15 UTG and 45/40 on the BTN.

Results for this first week have been ok, although im still running bad (especially on those preflop-allins). After 200k hands of rush im still losing money on preflop allins with KK/QQ and AK (KK should obv be a big winner, QQ a small winner and AK is pbb a 0-5bb loser normally). Here's the updated graph and let's hope that it will turn around soon....

You know when you're running bad....

....when you start a session and see hands like this.
Hope it turns around after my holiday, cause this is getting really sick.

***** Hand History for Game 22650361982 ***** (Full Tilt)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, July 28, 07:13:11 ET 2010
Table Swiftly Tilting (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Seat 1: yoda70 ( $192.75 USD )
Seat 2: Fons von Luba ( $213.30 USD )
Seat 3: maurice1979 ( $299.50 USD )
Seat 4: clerk66 ( $280.35 USD )
Seat 5: yogurt61 ( $615.85 USD )
Seat 6: DaviBoy337 ( $359.25 USD )
yoda70 posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
Fons von Luba posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to maurice1979 [ Ah Ad ]
maurice1979 raises [$7.00 USD]
clerk66 folds
yogurt61 calls [$7.00 USD]
DaviBoy337 folds
yoda70 raises [$23.00 USD]
Fons von Luba raises [$84.00 USD]
maurice1979 raises [$292.50 USD]
yogurt61 folds
yoda70 calls [$168.75 USD]
Fons von Luba calls [$127.30 USD]
maurice1979 shows [Ah, Ad ]
yoda70 shows [Ac, Qc ]
Fons von Luba shows [As, Kh ]
maurice1979 wins $86.20 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 9c, Tc ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 4d ]
maurice1979 wins $41.10 USD from main pot
yoda70 wins $582.25 USD from main pot

***** Hand History for Game 22649740549 ***** (Full Tilt)
$200.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Wednesday, July 28, 06:17:51 ET 2010
Table Swiftly Tilting (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: maurice1979 ( $244.05 USD )
Seat 2: Balzs ( $163.95 USD )
Seat 3: Sank Yu Sir ( $210.90 USD )
Seat 4: CuteIsWhatIAim4 ( $825.55 USD )
Seat 5: R-Quaresma ( $437.65 USD )
Seat 6: BULENT_D ( $167.00 USD )
BULENT_D posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
maurice1979 posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to maurice1979 [ Kd Ks ]
Balzs raises [$6.00 USD]
Sank Yu Sir folds
CuteIsWhatIAim4 folds
R-Quaresma calls [$6.00 USD]
BULENT_D calls [$5.00 USD]
maurice1979 raises [$28.00 USD]
Balzs raises [$62.00 USD]
R-Quaresma folds
BULENT_D folds
maurice1979 raises [$214.05 USD]
Balzs calls [$95.95 USD]
maurice1979 shows [Kd, Ks ]
Balzs shows [Ac, Ad ]
maurice1979 wins $80.10 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ah, Qc, 3s ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2h ]
Balzs wins $336.90 USD from main pot

Still no luck....

Somehow I still cant get it going on FT. Played over 160k hands now and despite the good games I still don't win what I should be able to win.

Here's my preflop all-in graph with QQ/KK/AK



And this one shows it all...my preflop all-in graph with KK, if you're EV line is down all the time with KK, you know you're getting a lot of coolers....



Time for a nice vacation trip to Italy I guess....back in 3 weeks!

Way back....

Seems that me previous post helped me, cause today I'm on my way back up.
I also did some research is my old database and with a huge sample it seems that +3bb per allin seems like a normal amount to win in those situations on average.
So instead of being down 4500 big blinds, I should have been up around 600.
Lets see how this will develop...

And it goes on and on....

I played a lot of hands today again.
And just as my previous sessions on FT it was the same story, I just cant win allins with QQ/KK and AK. With all 3 hands Im a loser in preflop allin situations over a sample of 150k hands. I hope I reached my lowpoint now, so from now on I will be posting this updated graph after every day.
Lets see if I can turn it around!