Anatomy of a Tilt

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 20, 2009 in fish, tilt | 1 comment

The good thing is that after a year I pretty much know what will put me on tilt. When I'm on tilt I am not playing my best (also know as my "A-Game" for you Angelo fans) and my winrate spirals down, thus it isn't in my best interest to play when on tilt. My remedy is that I take a big step back and breathe deeply, and get other tasks for the day done before returning.

So here's what happens in a session that will get me to tilt:

Step 1: Idiot Enjoys Massive Heater at my Expense

Our villain here is one of the worst players I've seen at 100nl full ring. He just loses and spews and makes terrible calls. In this case he posts out of turn with his 75% buyin stack and we stack off ... his 4bet % is 33% so ... yeah ... I can't imagine a self respecting grinder not to get it in during this scenario.

Step 2: Same Idiot Enjoys Another Massive Heater Against a Big Pocket Pair

I've seen this guy play and I know he'd check with that Ace ... obviously on the flop its a WA/WB scenario but the turn check was more metagame than anything since I've seen him check-call with TPTK type of hands ... on the river my call was probably tilt induced. At the river I knew I had sorely underrepresented my hand so making a call there against him may not have been terrible but it was probably bad. Anyways he flopped quads so lucky me.

Step 3: Get a Walk in the BB with a Big Pocket Pair

At this point obviously my faith in AA and KK isn't high but at least I figure it's an opportunity to win a hand. Oh wait, nope.

Step 4: Massive Cold Cards
Just don't get any more hands the rest of the way and sit, wait, and stew while the blood boils.

Anyways judge all you want, I'm just posting this so people know what makes me tilt during a session and the fact that something on here might tilt you too. The opportunity we have is to step away and regroup and fight another day.

January Mid-Month Update

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 16, 2009 in General | 4 comments

Well for some reason nobody else at CardsChat cares to do blogging nor even posts their mid-month updates. I think the site's new Monthly Chat threads are killing the site IMO ... but that's for another discussion. Here's my mid-month update to kick off the new year...

• This year started really bad. As in 8 buyin downswing when combined with the last day of 2008. That really blew.

• Fought my way back and managed to get myself even. Decided after taking my 2nd ridiculous bad beat as a result of a 2 outer suckout that 50nl6max was done with me.
• Moved up and started playing 100nl Full Ring. The growth of my game and the "6max aggression from late position" was a key in a good start to playing this level.
• I'm having fun 9-tabling 100nl FR and that's keeping my mind occupied while at the same time allowing me to follow the game to make isolated plays against opponents.
• I've been having a weird stretch playing 100nl FR. First, I am not "running bad" and seeing cooler after cooler. At the same time, I'm not hitting sets (the expected % is very low) and occasionally seeing the retarded bad beat or cooler, including my third KK AIPF vs AA and my second AA losing to QQ AIPF. And all of this has equated into me winning at a very impressive winrate!
• I've been trying to do more research on the regs of 100nl since I see them more often than I have regs at other levels, and find out how good they are and what they are capable of. There's really only 1 I've been told to avoid.
• I got Tommy Angelo's book Elements of Poker (link: Click Here) and am nearly done with it. It'd definitely a great book and one of the better ones I've read and an absolute MUST for any full time or part time poker pro.
• Goldstar is nearly in the bag obviously by 9-tabling 100nl the FPPs are piling up. Unfortunately I think Platinum is a pipe dream at this point.

So that's it. The move to 100nl has been profitable so far and I'm obviously up on the month. I just hope that this click can continue and will look to continue my good mindset and good play through whatever might be in store for the rest of the month. Here's the obligatory graph.

Switching Formats: The Numbers Just Don’t Lie

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 14, 2009 in 100nl, 6max, moving, stakes | 3 comments

I think it was about six weeks ago I took a shot at 100nl and had break-even results but felt overwhelmed and bored with the full ring game. I had such a great time at 25nl 6max that I felt a return to the game would improve my post flop play, and ideally, improve my winrate. I spent quite a bit of time and hands at 50nl 6max and approached almost the volume I had when playing fullring. I'm going to post my winrates ... somewhat sensitive data but I think for this purpose it's fine.

As you can tell at 50nl I am more than doubly successful at full ring than I am at 6max. Maybe I'm a bad 6max player, or perhaps I went through a tough 30k hand stretch ... both are conceivable. I didn't see myself moving to 100nl as a 6max player and thought that it might be prudent to do what I did before - move from 25nl 6max to 50nl fullring - but in this case move to 100nl full ring.

The results for 100nl above are a total between my "original breakeven shot" at the level and the 3500 hands I have played this month which have been very profitable so far. I feel comfortable at the tables and I am adjusting back to dealing with super-uber-nits and those darn shortstackers that always have the nuts. But overall the play at the level is pretty predictable, and I'm hoping to do some research to find out who the handful of awesome regs are so I can just avoid them at this point.

So the numbers don't lie ... I win more and apparently play better at fullring. The sample sizes of 30k hands are basically what I consider to be the starting point of where you can start making some decisions. Although many would consider 100k to be the actual mark ... however being rolled properly for 100nl and my current poker state definitely point to me playing at 100nl Fullring, and like I said earlier the short-term end results are good, but MOST importantly I feel like I can handle the regs and exploit the fish profitably.

Are Good Blogs Dead?

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 11, 2009 in General | 1 comment

I got a glimpse into why most top players don't talk poker if they have a blog after my post where I show a hand I gruesomely misplayed. In fact, I got a glimpse why most good internet players don't talk hands at all if they have a blog. After posting "You can tell how bad I played the hand" and "And yes yes yes I know I butchered this hand" I still got comments from 5 different people about my apparent (and sudden) bet-sizing problem and how I apparently suck at poker. I only posted the 1 comment (from the guy I liked the most) and to the rest I guess I can say thanks for making me refocus my blog. You won't be seeing any more standard coolers, standard heaters, or botched hands anymore. I'm finding out that posting these hands are either super standard (meaning no strategy to talk about) or just put me on tilt (either comments get me pissy or I re-live a bad moment).

Anyways, it seems in late 2007 and in 2008 everyone that I know fairly well internet-wise kept a blog. Specifically two guys I really respect (names omitted) kept up a blog about twice a week and I really enjoyed watching their progress and thinking with hands as well their progress up the cash game ladders. Neither player has updated their blog in 3 weeks and only one has an entry in the last 4. Other guys are reviving blogs (Munchrs) which is great to see, but I'm finding blogs like Nat's (Blog) a better read overall.

I don't know some of the high stakes pros Nat knows so I tend not to read those blogs, but I'll troll around from now and then to check things out. Some of the guys on 2+2 have some promising blogs as I've been crosslinked in the blog list for the beginner's section, but reading about struggles at 5nl and 10nl are ... well ... less than dramatic if you can understand where I'm coming from.

Maybe blogging is a fad going out of style, and I can understand that. I like to blog for self reflection and if others find my rants/whining/occasional insights interesting, GREAT. If not, it was posted for myself anyways. In terms of me, since I got myself back above break-even for the month it's been a nice horizontal break-even stretch. I'll probably get an hour in tomorrow, and then I am hoping for at least 1.5k hand days on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We'll wait and see where I am after that. For now just plugging away at 50nl 6max.

1 Session = Two Gruesome Hands

Posted by icemonkey9 on Jan 9, 2009 in General | 1 comment

Bleh. Ever have one of those sessions where you pretty much airball everything? And then you hit like 2 flops out of 220 and both times you dont get paid? AND THEN as you are breaking even on basically guts and steal attempts these two hands hit you simultaneously?

KK against ... wow AGAIN.

AA Disaster

So out the window went THAT session and a buyin and a half. It's crap like this that is continually making me sit at the current level but "them's the rules" and I'll keep abiding by my guidelines for BRM.