Shutting Down for November?

Posted by icemonkey9 on Nov 26, 2008 in General | 2 comments

Well, my family always says that November is the worst month of the year, and that everyone always has bad Novembers. Chalk me up to the list of believers. My month's profits are all but wiped out at this point. Moving back to 50nl has not stopped the hemorrhaging of my bankroll to villains that are getting the best of me, either by miracle flops or miracle turn/rivers, or the occasional out-play icemonkey.

My confidence is shot. I'm really at a low in terms of poker-happiness for the year. I don't feel mad, I guess I am past that. I feel sad, dejected, and cursed. I don't even WANT to go back and play at the cash tables. It has me thinking that playing any more this month could only lead to further disaster. That's why I am fairly confident I am just going to shut it down for the month since I just retained gold-star. I don't even know where I am at with my hands-played goal and I don't give a damn either. I'm just tired of losing and a few days off might be the best remedy for me.

Until then, enjoy this bloodbath ...

AA Overplayed or Just Unlucky? (Both??)

KK, I tanked for a while making this Preflop Call. Cracked by QQ.

Versus a 39/3 shortstacker (38 hands) ... Bad Preflop Min-Call?

Just Breaking Even the Last 2 Days [951 Hands]

Posted by icemonkey9 on Nov 23, 2008 in General | 4 comments

Well the last 2 days I haven't had much of a chance to play a lot of poker, and when I am it's been very frustrating. You know, it's the usual story of when I have these breakeven stretches, which can last 2k, 5k, or even 8k hands (at least historically). Flopped sets lose to flushes, KK gets outflopped by an 89 playing donk, my K high flush loses to his A high flush, and of course KK loses to AA, and to add 1 more my personal "favorite" my KK losing to QQ hitting a flush (didnt lose a stack though). Anyways nothing to do but put in the hands I suppose. I've been dealing with the possible tilt-inducing situations pretty well in my personal assessment, and have just tried to play optimum poker as best as I can.

At 100nl I've had some trouble dealing with the new volume of 3bets and what to do with them, especially OOP. Is it just tighten up OOP even more (supernit)? Start to 4bet? Flat these 3bet bastards? I need to do some study and trial & error to answer those questions.

100nl Swings are Definitely Challenging Me

Posted by icemonkey9 on Nov 21, 2008 in General | 0 comments

100nl has proved to be a much more action oriented game. Tonight I got my ass 3bet more times than I could possibly remember, and like DOUBLE any other time I can ever remember in a session. I was also getting outflopped, and outsmarted on two hands, one of which I sucked out a 2-outer for a stack. All in all somehow I ended up +29 today but it was -200 at one pot, +110 at another ... so the swings definitely have me going crazy so I'm going to call it a night and maybe take a few days off. No need to sustain that "one more hand" that actually gets me UBER-tilting. Tilt is the enemy ... and during this last session I made some moves (specifically with QQ) that were tilt-induced, so I recognize it's time to stop.

Anyways , I guess it's "been a positive day" which is good news, however small it might be. Here's some of the hands I had today, and comments are appreciated ...

This time some good...

KK Wins Big

Pretty standard and straightforward I think.

Not Sure if this Turn Call is Smart?

I know how it ended up ... but?

Okay now for the bad...

I Remember When Flopped Sets Were Good

Silly me, sets are for losers.

Is this a bad play with QQ, or did I just get incredibly unlucky at the turn?

The title says it all. I just pick a horrible time to stack as he spiked it on the turn. I really had put him on AK the whole way.

Now for the QQ Suckout

I am surprised OOP he would just flat with AA there. Real surprised, which is why I stacked off. I guess his super secret plan worked, but fate foiled him. I can say this was near the end of the last session, and I was feeling upset in retrospect.

More 100nl Experience

Posted by icemonkey9 on Nov 18, 2008 in General | 0 comments

I have over 1,000 hands logged in at 100nl and the game is going well and I am happy that I've started in the positive. I have some pretty interesting hands and a sick heater (today) and a gross cooler (last night), but all in all I feel like I'm playing well and avoiding bad situations. The VPPs are definitely rolling in which is making retaining GoldStar status a very good possibility. I think I am officially sick of grinding the 210fpps and will just save up and play a 5400fpp, and if I lose it all in one shot, then so be it.

Enjoy some hands from today's poker.

KK busted by ... wow, really?

How did I know his bad rag hand hit that hard? I just did. I guess I minimized the loss here, but I probably should have just folded that river value-town bet.

KK is a Major Heater

Wow talk about a heater. That poor bastard was definitely doomed. I'm not folding at any point.

A heater and then a move in stakes + Half-Month Review

Posted by icemonkey9 on Nov 17, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Just like the last 2 months before, this month had the first 8k hands enjoy "variance" where I basically couldn't put on a winning session or if I did I immediately lost and just kept this weird break-even long stretch. At the 8k mark this month I went on a great heater - and it felt wonderful! We're talking $580 in about 3k hands at 50nl!

So then looking at my bankroll I saw something I didn't expect - I was rolled for 100nl. Wow!!! So I didn't immediately put in a session, instead on Saturday night I hung out on the internet and posted way too much stuff at CardsChat (then got tired and went to bed). Sunday was football day with the wife, I tried putting in a 50nl session and got coolered left and right by sets, flushes over straights, and overpair against overpair. That cost a 50nl buy-in.

Anyways, last night I decided to finally take the leap and put in a 4 table session of 100nl. I thought it went really well to be honest ... I went really card dead, didn't hit a flop, and also didn't hit sets (was not even half the expected rate) but came away with a profit due to some nice cbetting moves and one huge bluff that I read perfectly.

The villain in this hand is a LAG who I imagine is a regular. His stats were 39/27/2, with 10% 3bet number, so I figured he was just squeezing light and expecting us to fold or have us float and he'll be the flop and take it.

The stats from 100nl's session:

375 Hands , +$18.90 , 2.52ptbb/100

Not sure when I'll be able to play again, I have a lot of things going on today.

Here's the obligatory half-month graph ...