maaaan

90 min 700 hands -39BB/100

what the fuck is happening????

Poker is not good to me... after playing shit for some days I really played well today... there were 2 questionable calls but thats just for 1 or 2 euro... rest is fucking runbad...

i got no action when I got something or always was second best or had to fold due to mega agression and i did not want to be the payout wizzard again...

this hand actually sums up this session:

Sick Check Raise on the river is pretty much always the nuts but I'm never folding

Think you lost the minimum though, I'm getting it in here most of the time, he's more likely to have the ace than the 6 and rarely the bloody 67

I might well have lost a lot more by raising the flop, bet turn, bet/call the river ... oops! Meh and move on.

As played I would bet turn and river anyway, so I would again have lost more.

Thanks guys for you replys... It is sooo motivating when i see someone reading my blog.

Poker is a horrible horrible game... I am used to play teamsports. So when I am losing I always can blame it on others. Here in the pokerworld I have to take responsability for my game alone.

Yes there is some runbad... but as we all know I me and myself play bad. Thats where all the losses come from. But I have a plan to improve!!!

Everyday I will review 5 hands via flopzilla. This is such a powerfull tool (as soon as you understand it). It helps to grasp how ranges REALLY work.
I will do at least 1 hour every day of strategy study. This is done via the SpaceLord method

The SpaceLord method was developed in 2007 when i had to study for my final exam - an oral exam - at the university . The content for this exam was basically: "just learn everything you heard here in the last 4 years". This meant thousand over thousand pages of boring books or handwritten skribbling... Thats not how the SpaceLord works. I like it comfy and easy.
So I just organised the questiones that came up in the previous years. Unfortunatly I found out that these couple of 100 questions really covered everything we learned. I worked a bit to answer all the questions. Then I made my own little audiobook and spoke all the questions and answers on my computer. The next 4 weeks I was nonstop playing GranTourismo on my playstation and listened to the audiobook over and over again. It is important to play a game that does not need any braincapacity so you can focus on the audiobook. I knew everything by heart after about 2 weeks. Needless to say that i passed my exam with distinction

I copy this strategy now to my pokerlife with a few changes:

Audiobooks atm:

Small Stakes Poker Cash Games by Jonathan Little --> a nice book, unfortunatly a book that focusses on live games so it does not really help me
Unfolding Poker by James "Splitsuit" Sweeney--> a great book. helps with a lot of questions about organisation, study techniques ...
I will now buy a book that really covers strategy alot. probably something very math related

instead of GranTourismo i play now Path of Exile



I also played a nice evening session.

1 hour 361 hands and +13,5BB/100, you find 1 hand in the review section!

I stayed away from the tables for a little while because I needed to recalibrate my thoughtprocess. The method I described above seemed to work for me quite well.
I can switch between mindset topics and strategy topics and listen to them.

additionally I work through some hands via Flopzilla and try to figure my EV out. First thing that I at least feel better is calling on the flop when I have only marginal hands... If villain is Cbetting 70+% his range has to be made up of air most of the time...

last session I played also tested my mental stability. I can not do anything gainst my feelings. so when i need to let off some steam this will happen. It is important that i do this and then move on and play my normal game.

DB review shows that I still 3bet way to few hands (I do not feel comfortable to 3bet light) and that my BB needs lots of improvement. I also decidet that I will fokus most of my study time to hand reading. This is the basis for all of the decisions that i have to make. It does not make any sense to think about playing agressive when I have little understanding about how to find good spots to apply preasure.

my afternoon session went well

3hours, 1217 hands and +21BB/100

aaaand I played a wonderful night session

1,5 hours, 670 hands and +72BB

Finally my fish payed me off

In the end I punted some money away because I started to lose focus and get tired so I finished the session a bit earlier than planned. I put a hand in the review-section because I am not sure if my reasoning is correct so please feel free to comment on it.

me and my red line... we are not going to be friends any time soon...

nearly 4 hours, 1890 hands, -8BB/100

I was up 2 BI after 400 hands... I was down 1,5 BI after 1000 hands... I was break even after 1400 hands and finished 1,5 BI down

I ran 7€ below EV so after all this should have been a break even session.

Analyzing this session I played very bad. I punted away some stacks by not paying attention. Hope I improve tomorrow

I really was very unhappy with my session yesterday. I played soo badly in the end... As a correction method I try to play shorter sessions. New plan is 1-1.5 hours as a session goal. 2 hours stop. Only reason to prolongue the session are tables full of maniacs and fish but these rarely happen over at betfair.

As a consequence I have to play more sessions and make mor breaks.

So my first session under the new regime:

bit more than 1 hour, 500 hands, +51,5BB/100

This session was probably A-Game. I mostly base this self evaluation on my red line. I have no problem with a negativ red as long as I make some laydowns. I feel that i do not play well when my red is steadily sloping downwards because i play to much fit or fold. I do not force anything here, I just want to make sure that I do not just wait for big hands but to fight for my pots in the right spots. Yesterday my red was down 4 BI. Today it is nearly break-even.

I got it in good in all my AI spots, I lost 1 out of 5. This is exactly what should be expected, so my all in EV is 0 in this session.

Afternoon session.
1,5 hours, 671 Hands and +2,2BB/100

i was up 1 BI, i was down 1 BI end in the end I had a miniscule profit.

Nothing really interesting happened. I learned something new about my opponents; most fish payed as expected, some got there.

shorter sessions make me feel better though, so I will keep this taktic.

now some time for the SpaceLord-Learning-Method and I will make an evening session as well!

And there is the evening session.

a bit more than 1 hour, 526 hands and +46BB/100

Poker is a mental game. So you have to treat you brain like a muscle. Training is everything if you want to get better. When I first startet watching videos and reading books i was overwhelmed by the magnitude of decisions you have to make.
While I am writing about this I see strong similarities to the process of learning to drive a car. In the beginning you are suuuuuper concentrated and it is extremly difficult to think about everythin... correct speed, gears, giving signals
now after years and years of driving all this happens automatically. you dont even think about it... most of us know the feeling when you drive for some time and suddenly you wonder how you got to this point already. Your mind was focused on something completly different.
I want to get to this point of unaware competence also in poker.

Right now I am trying very hard to comprehend hand reading. This is the basis of all decisions in poker. I have to focus alot especially when I try to figure out combos villain can have including blockers.

Constant learning is very important for me because I can see the immediate effect learning has for me. All my "upswings" startet when I focussed on a new learning tool. I became less and less concerned with learning, my results dropped and I tilted... Now I think I found the best method for me.

Going to the fitness center regulary and eating clean also improved my quality of living alot. I even startet cooking Workwise it also runs quite well.

another very swingy session

I played for 1,5 hours, 807 hands and +11,12BB/100

after 250 hands I was up 2,5 buy ins, ater 520 I was break even, after 650 hands I was down one BI after 806 hands i was back break even and i started to close my tables as I had a flush over straight situation in my very last hand.

Something that concernes me is are the 200 hands between 430 and 650 because I lost here 3 buy ins, I got coolered once OK (AA lost against K9) but i also made some calls and folds that i have to analyze.

Afternoon session

1hour 45 minutes, 800 hands and +5BB/100

I played really really strong poker. I am not 100% happy because I did not obey my own rules and played too long. I actually stopped because I felt that I became way to passive... maybe I should set an alarm for the next time.

It probably was not the luckies of my sessions as my hand of the day shows

A session to forget

I started with a very lucky all in but from there everything wenn downhill

1,5 hours, 746 hands and -30BB/100

first 2/3 of the session where OK though... I played fine... the last couple of hands were very very bad... I played very bad and got punished...

That hand is insane!! #rigged

and another horrorsession as followup

2 hours, 1200 hands and -30BB/100

I actually played decent poker. I did not get any bluff through and when i had it they had something better. Its sometimes just that easy....

Lets hope for better session in the future

Evening session:

2hours, 1100 hands and +12,66BB/100

I think this was probably the best session of poker I played in my entire life. I lost 3 stacks in situation where I might have gone on tilt it in the past. I managed to win some small pots and 1 big pot but my blue was break even. My red though.... my red is 150BB up!!!!

So far my gameplan was to win more than otheres when I have it and to lose less when I do not have it. This is slowly changing. Stations are getting thinner and thinner value bets... my passive opponents have to deal with some preassure.

I am dissappointed that my 1st session was that bad, but after 2500 hands of severe runbad I expect my blue to shine in the next few sessions

I played against you today on Betfair, you seem to have it going good. I can't see you being a losing player.

Big pots take care of themselves very often if you know what you're doing, but winning the small pots consistently and regualrly will boost all the lines imo and make me feel like I'm doing something right as opposed to giving/getting coolers.

Oh and stop stealing my blinds, it's naughty!

whats your screenname at betfair?

yes exactly... cooler situation are no sign of skill... they happen and you pay or get paid anyway.... Of course I am happy when I stack someone with AA against KK but i know that on the long run this situations will occure again and again and again and will have me on the losing side 50% of the time. this realisation made it easyer for me not to tilt as I saw them unfair...

Afternoon session

1,5 hours, 666 hands and +11BB/100

I am not sure weather I should be unhappy with my session or not. After all it was very positiv. But after a nice game yesterday today my agression was very bad. I got called by my targets and could not pull the trigger. So i lost confidence... On the other hand the had it so often that i think my folds were fine.... not knowing if I played well or not is kind of frustrating.

afternoon session
2hours, 854 hands and -15BB/100

again a bad session... i dont know what i could change... I feel a bit stuck at the moment...