Dec 9 Update #Ride the Heat#Holiday#Snow#On Pace to $24,000 Month

#Ride the Heat#Snow in Vancouver! 

For the last 2 days I really haven't been putting in much volume that is to say. . . compared to what I'm usually putting in. Nonetheless . . . I'm still on pace to Supernova Elite which makes me pretty happy since I'm taking it easy.

I'm ecstatic to see some of my losses from last month in both $$ and ev$$ are slowly being caught back. 

sushi = +ev

Hit'd up the gym today; got some fish and proceeded to eat some more fish on the tables ;).  It was the first day of the season that I saw snow here in Vancouver! On the bright side, it's much better than the cold-wet sleety rain that dominates the weather. . . . that being said; the snow is usually quite short-lived :(. Hopefully I can get some good pictures of it tomorrow. . . =]

Since I figured I'm already relatively on pace/ ahead of pace to SNE chase I took an early day off yesterday to knock back a few brews with Dad and watch a movie. 

As far as Bruce Willis movies go. . . the general tempo of the movie is same and I was quite pleased about the "relative-originality" of the plot; since most Action movies so heavily lack a decent story line and just abuse the "chase scenes". *Ahem(Bourne Legacy)*

Vertical Winter Ale

If anyone is here in Vancouver or nearby and can access this; I highly suggest it. It's by far one of if not my favorite beers in the world : "Tree Brewing- Winter Ale". . . 

Due to the fact that it's only around for 2ish months of the year. . there's a likelihood that some of my outrageous plays on the tables will be attributed to this delicious beverage. 

Only about 21.7k VPPs left ! Not too bad considering that's about 50-55 hours of (6 tabling zoom 100nl). . . or if I'm a little frisky; 35-40h of (200/100nl 6m zoom).

It's actually been awhile since I've gone to see a movie in theaters. . . and probably will go to see "Catching Fire" tomorrow. Considering it's a Tuesday. . . and mid-week games aren't exactly "drooling", it's a reasonable trade off =)~.

So far so good just riding the First Week Heat like back in October. It would be pretty amazing to set a new personal record considering I've already taken a few days/half-days off this month. . . and plan on taking another week or 2 off. . . but who knows! 

I think hitting 8k- Profits, Supernova Elite will more than qualified in my book for a "decent month".  So in reality. . . even if I continue to run as well as I do for another 100-200k hands; I probably won't hit 20k month since I plan on cutting my grind short and taking holidays off~ =( 

I've already put in nearly 55-60 hours this month. . . but feeling pretty good about it so far. Since there are 1 or 2 days where I went into "Degen-Watch How I met your mother+grind all nighter mode" and the remainder chill 3-5h days which I feel are really relaxing. 

Hand of the Day

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 2377447
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $56.28 Fish
Hero (SB): $292.08 Reg Fish
BB: $354.73 Loose Aggrotard
UTG: $115.50 Tag
MP: $197.77 AggroReg- thinks I'm full of SH** reg
CO: $109.50 Always Nuts Nit-Reg

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with K K
UTG raises to $3, MP calls $3, 2 folds, Hero calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($10.00) 9 7 8 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG checks, MP bets $7, Hero calls $7, UTG folds

Turn: ($24.00) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $15, Hero calls $15

River: ($54.00) K (2 players)
Hero bets $24, MP raises to $114, Hero raises to $267.08 all in, MP calls $58.77 all in

Final Pot: $399.54

Hero shows K K (a full house, Kings full of Eights)
MP shows 8 8 (four of a kind, Eights)
MP wins $396.74
(Rake: $2.80)

Good luck To Everyone Else on the tables ! 

Run HOT! and may the Odds be ever in your favor ;) 

Holiday Upswing #December Week 1 Update

Holiday Upswing #December Week 1 Review

4.19bb/100- heat

-Mistakes- Unlike what the graph seems to be showing; the start of the month has not been terrific for me in a psychological as well as goal-oriented way.  The dip you see around hand 70k was me playing over 12hours late into the night; then proceeding to 200nl to spew money and chase losses. For the rest of the month I need to be focused on making solid rules and abiding strongly by them.

I'm currently sitting on: 976,607.32 VPPs for the year and 23,889.43 VPPs for the month. 

This means as long as I can muster up 1000 VPPs a day for the remainder of the year; the Supernova Elite Status along with its' bonuses will be mine!  

With Christmas and Holidays coming up; I do want to finish up Supernova Elite with some time ahead to take some time off; going skiing, hang with friends and family.

This actually doesn't seem to bad at all since for the year so far I've been making between 400-450 VPPs/hour mixing 3 tables of Full-Ring and 3 tables of 6-max ZOOM!

For the rest of this month; my primary goals are : 

Play Solid; minimize spew

Working out, and eating a healthy diet

Play no more than 8h a day

ZOOM along the whole way

No more 200nl+ 

Played in the Pokerstars Sunday 5m Guaranteed today hoping for the 400k bink like the other 25,000 players. . . . unfortunately didn't even cash. *Sighs* 

As it the year begins to close; I revisit my initial goal when I started this blog:

6 Months; 60k; 100nl and below

Results with lots of graphs and summary will be posted nearing the end. Unfortunately due to my terrible results at the regular tables as well as 200nl; perhaps it's not as great as I thought it would have been.

Zero Table Selection+Mass Volume + Good Nutrition= Profits all the way $$ =)

Happy Holidays Everyone ! And of course; may the run hot be on your side ! =] 

See ya on the tables =)~

Month End Review - November #Disaster Strikes

November Review- December Goals

Poker

It's been awhile since I've updated my blog and hopefully the graph to the left will illustrate sort of the reason. Unlike the beautiful results that I've attained in October. This month started off as a disaster and didn't really result in my full recovery. Thankfully for the Pokerstars VIP system I somehow managed to end the month in the positive despite the atrocious results on the tables.  I took 4-5 days off in November attempting to freshen my mind from the continuous downswings that never seemed to cease.

The Numbers 

Now as you can see to the left 200nl was a complete disaster for me. Considering the small sample size along with the "negative" "ev winrate" it's pretty easy to conclude that I played awful and ran just as awful. I ended up making 127859.19 VPPs for the month. Full-Ring Zoom is a breeze as usual, my 6-max game deteriorated. Approximately 255 hours on the tables as well. This worked out to be 18$/hour after losses despite the ridiculously poor performance on the tables. 

Lessons

Butchering my Game Plan- I made every single possible mistake possible last month. I played late into the night with the notion of "chasing my losses", lost track of what a profitable game was, and spewed relentlessly. It had began bad to the point that I had other players on the table commenting on how my play is so much worse/ different than before. The FOLD button also seems to magically disappear from my field of view while on a downswing and been replaced by the "Shove or Call option". 

You don't have to win every pot- If only I could have repeated this to myself while on the tables. . . countless amount of money would have been saved. My biggest losing day for the month I had dropped almost 4x the amount more than my biggest winning day. (-5.7k vs +1.6k) . Neglecting stop losses and constantly peeking at my graph mid-session resulted in poor performance on the tables and self inducing tilt. 

Variance is variance, let it go- What is variance and what isn't?. Let's just take a breather and assume that my plays were 100% best to my abilities and 0% tilt-play was involved. Well had I run at "Expected Value", my month would have been at approximately +9.4k. Had I run 4.6k above rather than below, I would have ended the month at +14k profit. 

Stop blaming variance- Rather complimentary to my previous lesson. There's a line, sometimes a thick line sometimes a thin line between variance and poor play. 

eg. I call a 6bet-shove with 9Ts and lose to AK-Situation 1 

eg. I call a 5bet-shove with KK and lose to AA-Situation 2

In almost 95% of the cases situation 2 is "variance" situation 1 is "bad play". Despite having more "equity vs the hand" in situation 1. There's a pretty clear line of the two hypothetical examples I gave is variance/bad play. As ranges become thinner and thinner it becomes less conclusive whether a play is poor or good.

That being said, I don't think that my game has "evolved" to that level of strategy; nor do I think that the skill levels at small stakes (100-200nl) have reached the epitome of poker. 

*Note to self* - Don't overestimate fold equity or thin value. It's an easy sure fire way to kick up variance through the roof. 

Goals for December

• Hit up the gym 4-5x a week. 
• Hit Supernova Elite
• Work on maintaining A-Game and hopefully recover from "november Downswing"
• Manage Time much better
• Have lots of fun "It is the holidays"
• 3evbb/100 - 200k hands -
• Not checking my results relentlessly. (Hopefully just once a day. . then couple days. . then week.) 

 

Sunday Update~ First Upswing

Regarding my previous post of the massive downswing I was struck with this month it seems like I'm slowly breaking out of it.

Downswings really take a toll on my game; in the sense that "over adjusting too frequently" and making pseudo-plusEVplays.

Took a day off yesterday to get my mind off the game. . .
So far so good~ =). Even during an upswing . . I run below EV. *sighs* Actually the graph is far from impressive in the sense that bb/100 was about 1.90; and EV bb/100 was 4.35. . . .  Although it doesn't seem like I'm "THAT MANY" buy ins below ev. . it stems from mixing stakes mainly.

Will be hitting the gym before my grind tomorrow; ~

Best of luck to all ! =]


135k VPPs left. gogogo!

Disaster Strikes- Week 1 -November

To start off; the month was more or less alright; I had several terrible (F-Game sessions).

F- Game is something much worse than C-Game, whereas C-game is just me trying to win every single pot without regards for what hand I have. . . .

F-Game is me trying to play as many pots . . whether not I win or lose.

The majority of the run-bad occurred at 200nl-6 max ZOOM. As you can see. . in a single week I cranked out close to 100k hands. . which is a result of me grinding way too much. Playing an excessive amount of volume is a heavy contributor to not playing my most optimal.

I'm planning to drop 200nl for a few days and grind it out at the lower stakes (100nl FR - 6max) . . this is probably the biggest downswing I've had since the end of September where I also experienced a 6k drop.

In terms of "big blinds". I'm down about 35 bi's for the month and about 25 bi's below ev. . . absolutely atrocious. I was completely taken by surprise at the craziness of variance this month.

Hopefully I can cut down on the grinding just a tad bit and update a little bit more throughout next week.

I'm currently sitting on about 858k VPPs, (33k for the month). Dropping 200nl for now will definitely put a small dent in my VPPs for the year; however I'm sure that it will be a huge benefit to my win rate.

Being on a downswing is a terrible feeling. . . it's a cold and dark place where all you actions are clouded with doubt. It feels as if you can't win a single pot, and that you don't even know how to play poker. . (actually).

Hopefully by the end of this week I will have regained my confidence and have a solid game. I notice that results orientation can have a huge impact on fluctuations in one's game.

It's so easy to start trying to change everything about your game-plan even though it's just variance coming on. More often than not; I'm finding that the changes that I make are hurting my game more than helping. . .

Best of luck to everyone else on the remainder of your grinds !! ,

See ya on the tables !