Poker Blog – icemonkey9 on PokerStars

March was just the month that wouldn’t end it seemed in terms of poker, tilt and needed breaks.  This was, by far and away, the most challenge of all months.  Looking through my blog posts it’s almost a little embarassing to look through all the agony I was going through but I am really trying to focus on the positive things I learned during this very difficult month.

• I learned that a real ‘downswing’ isn’t losing 3 to 5 buyins.  It’s 15 or more, and that’s according to guys that play a bazillion hands and have been around forever playing NLHE on the internet poker rooms.
• I learned that keeping your mind busy with other things in poker can be a good distraction away from the game when you need a break.  For me, I picked up an Omaha book and watched videos and that did wonders for my mentality.
• I learned to stop looking at the Below-EV graph and number figure that HEM outputs.  Is it ever a good thing to look at it?  Never!  If I am below I give myself a great excuse to say I run terrible.  If I am above I give myself reason to get paranoid because I’m apparently getting lucky.  I just threw that thing away a week ago and haven’t wanted to revisit it again … I think I stopped looking when it hit $600 below EV this month.
• I learned a bit about what it takes to make a final table in an online micro-stakes multi-table tournament. Basically get that big stack and enjoy the flips that you’ll need to win to get there. The play is just horrible so ignore how bad people play and just look to exploit it.

In terms of fiscal breakdown I narrowly avoided my first “losing month” in my history.  The bad news is that I did end up in the negative (barely) in the NLHE ring games.

BONUSES:  +$29 from Donkey Site, +$250 from PokerStars
RAKEBACK: $0

MTTs: 31.6% ITM
ROI: 5.6%
Winnings: +$4.62

NLHE Ring Games: 18,118 Hands = -$173.91
Omaha Ring Games: 1,676 Hands = +45.65

End Result:
——–

March = +$155.36

After I got my work done yesterday I was chatting with good friend KingCurtis and we decided to hit up a slew of multi-table tournaments on PokerStars and see what would happen. It was a really fun day playing these ultra-micro stakes tournaments and I got to see what it takes to really make a deep run in one of these things. Some highlights:

• Played in 6 tournaments, cashed in 4.
• Highlight of the night was finishing 11th out of 2,367 players in a $3 tournament.  Unfortunately that only meant a $45 prize, but Curtis finished 3rd for a very nice $500 score.
• Played my first PLO HU Sit n Go ($2) which was fun, and won it.  I came back from a 2700-300 deficit!

Clearly I was playing stakes about 20 times below what I should be playing at, but the goal was to make poker a fun activity – so mission accomplished. On top of all that I managed to coordinate a sweat session with ChuckTs, one of the better low stakes 6max players on stars.  He recorded the video which is an hour long and is a fantastic watch if you want to see some good solid poker theory in action. You can see the video’s thread on CardsChat Video Thread.

So that pretty much rounds out my month basically.  I think I actually ended up in the black when you consider the deposit bonus at the new site, the $250 bonus I unlocked at Stars and the Omaha I played.  It might be razor thin but that’s kinda crazy to be actually in the black this month which is a positive spin on things rather than dwelling on a -$1,300 slide.

Abbreviated post … I just want to see if this will work from weaktight.com :

$0.1/$0.25 Pot Limit Omaha Hi
6 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:

Pre-flop: ($0.35, 6 players) Hero is CO

trforgy1 calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero raises to $1.10, VietDo goes all-in $2.35, 1 fold, maloletkov calls $2.10, trforgy1 calls $2.10, Hero raises to $11.85, maloletkov goes all-in $25, trforgy1 folds, Hero goes all-in $13.15

Flop: ($54.80, 3 players)

Turn: ($54.80, 3 players)

River: ($54.80, 3 players)
maloletkov says “nh“

Final Pot: $54.80
maloletkov shows:
Hero shows:
VietDo shows:

Hero wins $52.10 ( won +$27.10 )
maloletkov lost -$25
trforgy1 lost -$2.35
VietDo lost -$2.35

The following is an email I sent to PokerStars customer support who are renown for their good humored nature.  Have fun reading my email to them and the subsequent reply…. basically I show I lost with a Royal Flush (I was kiddin around) and try to make amends with SkyNet (aka PokerStars).

—————————

TITLE: I Love You PokerStars, But…

Dear PokerStars …

For almost a year your site has been a tremendous place to play poker.  Whether I wanted to play cash game no limit holdem or pot limit omaha, or engage in a multi-table tournament, your site has had its doors open for me and allowed me to play against some of the best and most of the worst players in the world.  I’ve made a decent amount of coin doing so too playing the micro-stakes games and consistently showed a profit every month for 11 straight months.  Sadly, I attributed some of the very difficult beats and coolers to something I might have said or did towards your site.  It’s the only explanation I had for what someone on a message board website said that “you got doomswitched” which apparently means I have been flagged to lose no matter how good (or bad) I play.  The results in March definitely have me raising an eyebrow … however, I wrote the following response to that message about this doomswitch:

“It’s impossible that PokerStars has this ‘doomswitch’ that you speak of.  I can’t imagine such a big company risking so much for its customers.  There is no way that can possible exist, and I will stay loyal to the site. I can’t imagine this being true, there’s a better explination.”

Many people applauded my response and said that I was simply going through a “downswing” where the statistically anomalies of constantly running into AA with KK preflop in a NLHE game happen, or seeing villains hit runner runners on consecutive hands simply happens.  It’s rare but “does happen” according to raw statistics I’ve been told by some of my more math inclined friends.

After a while though, when the beats kept happening, I realized that if there was no such thing as a doomswitch, then there must be one final alternative explanation.  Get ready, I hope you are sitting down.  This is a biggie.

Your software has gained self intelligence and sentient awareness.  It has run so many algorithms and interacted with so many humans, that just like SkyNet from the Terminator movies, it has gained self awareness and is “alive” much like we’ve seen in the movies.  But I am not here to warn you against it, but rather to ask you to embrace peace with your new found artificial being.  We have seen what war would lead to with machines – global destruction/human genocide (Terminator movies), killing innocent scientists and astronauts (2001: A Space Oddessy), and apparently widespread doomswitching (current).

The olive branch of peace has been extended from me to this new beautiful and intelligent being (I imagine he/she/it can read this so I imagine a little e-butt kissing should help!).  I know it’s impossible to lose at showdown with a Royal Flush, yet that even happened to me today as well … which boggles my mind and shows how dire my circumstances really are (I attached a screen!).  I hope my theory isn’t met with skepticism but with the tender belief that humans and super-cyborg-intelligent-poker-servers can someday live together in peace and harmony.

Lost with a Royal Flush

Love,

It looks like it’s finally come to me throwing in the towel and officially giving up on NLHE. I’ve done everything I could …

• I tried stepping down from 100nl to 50nl.  That didn’t change anything.
• I tried stepping down from 50nl to 25nl.  That didn’t change anything.
• I deposited on a new poker site with looser action and worse competition.  That made things worse.
• I’ve take three breaks of 3+ days and one break of 5 days.  That didn’t change anything.

I won’t post the replays but today (after yet another break) in the span of 10 hands to the same 76/35 (over 50+ hands) donkey I 3bet both AA and KK on separate hands (obviously) to a rag flop, and he stacks off with a miracle rag set.  Earlier AA was cracked by QTo in a 3bet pot when he stacks off on a OESD which he shouldn’t have been at in the first place.

Why. Does. This. Keep. Happening. To. Me.  ???

So the fish win.  The doomswitch wins.  I lose.  Psychologically I see that this is really affecting my life and my happiness.  I can’t do anything to change this losing streak but to simply walk away and quit.  For how long?  Depends but I’m not playing NLHE of any way, shape, or form for at least a week MINIMUM.  Maybe 2 … maybe forever.  The idea is that I am not going to play or think about NLHE for a week, and then totally re-evaluate everything and decide just how long the break really will be (or just quit).  If I made a decision now I would simply unload it all and enjoy the money before this bulls*&t downswing sucks my soul right out of me.

So congratulations whatever-the-f*^k is responsible for all this – you’ve won.  Sadly this means that I really need to step away from the blog, CardsChat, 2+2, all of it really until I can get my head on straight.  I just can’t deal with this crap anymore, it’s beaten me down and I don’t have stregth or hope left.

Thanks for coming to my blog for you people that regularly visit, I’ve appreciated your support over the last year.

For many of you that frequent this blog to see how I’m doing, you’ll know that I’ve been battling the major search engine of the internet (the G word) because sometime in mid June or July it was excluded from the search engine. Sucks! Why would they blacklist me of all people, and how the heck would I be able to get back on?

Well, it wasn’t easy and took some research on the internet as well as bugging a really patient fellow that helped me out. I think the steps that I took were:

• Signing up for the Google Webmaster Tools
• Watching the “Submit Reconsideration Video”
• Moving to WordPress on a Linux Server
• Adding the SEO All in One Pack & Permalinks for the blog
• Being very patient
• Reading interesting SEO topics about Blogs on various SEO forums

This morning I checked the search engine to see if I had been added back in, and sure enough, I’m back baby!  Now I haven’t seen a huge spike in traffic but I am now seeing people come in from the general internet public which is cool.

Today I am also headed to New Mexico with the wife.  She is working out there as part of her clinical trials study (she does monitoring of research projects) and since I haven’t seen her in a month I decided to go along.  I’m taking my laptop and all the goodies so working and playing poker won’t be any problem from the hotel room.  We’re hopefully going to have a smooth trip and plan to go out with her cousin one night and then hit up one of the many resort-type casinos in the area for some food/entertainment/poker another night.  I’m looking forward to it.

Poker wise I haven’t played in a few days, I think since Thursday afternoon.  It was a good time to take a break since I couldn’t even win at 25nl … the sick hand there was me stacking off with QQ on a rag board:

I played it right, so I guess I should be happy but a month’s worth of every-session-playing below EV and coolers has my interest in poker down to a minimal level at this point.

Anyways, if you were like me and have your blog excluded from the major search engine, do sign up for those webmaster tools and watch the video.  The main reason that a site gets excluded is that you’ll be linking to a bunch of websites in your blogroll that all just link to each other and makes the search engine think it’s a link scheme so they just ban all of you (which sucks).  Anyways, good luck, and welcome general search engine traffic type people!

Having been slumming it at 50nl the last few days on Stars has me thinking about just how absolutely nitty all the levels have gotten. It’s straight up ridiculous how tight people play … what’s put it into perspective for me is that I’ve started a little roll on a “donkey” poker site (aka NOT a mainstream site) getting rakeback and a bonus. The idea is that the action there is looser at 50/100/200nl and I can diversify my lineup at the cost of VPPs at Stars. Anyways playing at this other site … OMG … it reminds me of how things were in 2005 when all you really needed to know is how to push the all in button when you have top pair top kicker on the flop. It’s that crazy.

Anyways, I think that action on Stars and Full Tilt has gotten too nitty. It’s not “fun” which is why I find myself pining to play 6max so often (which I am worse at!). Anyways I was thinking what these sites could do to inject some more action at the tables, so I thought up “Action Tables” for all the limits. Consider this an open solicitation for all sites to adopt:

No Limit Hold’em Action Tables
- 50BB Minimum Buyin, 200BB Max
- Fast Speed
- Increase the animation speed for dealing
- One-Half Small Blind Antes (all players)
- Two Big Blinds (or maybe even 1 Small Blind and 2 Big Blinds)

I think that would really create some ridonkulous tables where VPIPs and PFRs are huge and there’s lots of action from a full table. I’d be interested to read what others might think of my idea.

Anyways, this was all inspired by the play at this other website (I might mention it later) where the play is fast and furious. It’s a lot of fun, and I deposited $500 (healthy bonus + rakeback coming) with the intention of following a 14/9 BRM rule where I will move up a level once I have 14 buyins and then move down if I only have 9 at that buyin. Currently I am playing 25nl but I am hoping to get up to 50nl very soon, but we will see if the fates and my abilities will allow that to happen.

I didn’t post my last rounds of ridiculous beats on Stars. Went something like this:

- Omaha HL SNG. 4 left, 3 are ITM. We all have identical stacks. I get it in with a flopped Full House. Villain calls and hits quads. I am cripped and go all in with AAxx next hand, same guy calls, I hit a full house, and he rivered quads (again). Wow.

- 50nl … flopped Flush under Flush. Lost a Stack. Flopped trips with J kicker on KK4 board, villain shows Q kicker and takes a stack. More stuff like that.

So the slide kinda continues although I put in two consecutive winning sessions today with extremely modest wins, but the momentum is at least in the right direction.

March just blows, plain and simple. I’ve never had a month where no matter what I do, it’s wrong. I’m playing breakeven poker at 50nl (for goodness sakes … 50 nl … unreal) and seeing great hands busted by runner runners, and AIPF losing no matter what the situation was today. Tonight was just uber-frustrating, it was a super swingy night that had the hopes of turning around and then at the end came CRASHING to a thud and ending up -$118 for the day and played (again) $50 below EV. Not a horrible day but still… two steps forward yesterday and now a step back.

I am not sure where this leaves me poker wise. The debate last week was if I really wanted to keep this up … if maybe unloading 75% of my roll and just starting over was the better option. Kinda feels like that might be the case at this point. I’m going to wait until the end of March to make a decision. Putting myself through this day in and day out isn’t worth the f’ing pennies I am taking down when I do win.

I guess I am super sensitive to bad days or bad sessions since it’s been 5 weeks since I’ve been able to win consistently (defined as a period of 3 days in a row). In 15 months this has never happened, so I am running out of ideas at this point for a remedy. This morning it felt like a weight was off my shoulders and now it seems like it’s back on. I just don’t know what to do.

Here’s today’s low-lights:

Tried to get it in, ended up shoving into the nuts (I did hit my Ace high flush though):

Villain is a 45/7/1 and I hang myself and hand him my stack. Seems pretty standard to try to get it in. Oh well.

Not a big pot but just a good example of the crap I am going through…

This guy is a 32/26 with a 18% 3bet number … wow. I run like crap.

Today was the kind of day I really needed at the cash game tables.  It’s been a LONG time since I had a decent/good winning day … something like 2 weeks or so, which is a long dry spell for me.  I decided to drop to 50nl for the time being to get my game and mental state centered.  In addition to this I also cut down from my usual 9 tables down to 7.  It means less tables/VPPs per hour but means more mental capacity for the tables available.  So that whole experiment went real well … I put in 1,652 hands at 50nl and came out +$281.67 which feels absolutely fantastic.  Seriously.  I feel like a weight has been totally lifted off my shoulders.

I ran into a guy from Sydney at the tables who turned out to be a real nice guy.  He was playing a 92/4/2 game which obviously is total fish mode … only he kept hitting trips against my overpair two consecutive hands in a row!  Anyways I feel bad I kinda got into him for being a fish into God Mode but was a Team Fortress 2 player and recognized the reference so we started chatting and he was actually a good guy.  Aussies generally are … my cousin in Brisbane being one!  Anyways he said he decided to chip dump to me, which is fine with me.  Here’s the hand…

Awesome right?  Yeah, totally awesome.  I also had a hand with a bit of good fortune where my KK>AA with a river K, but at the same token, I had KK<AA AIPF as well today.  Anyways the confidence is growing and I definitely adjusted my game to be a lot more nitty (a lot!!) and that seemed to pay off especially for 50nl on a Sunday.  I’m going to spend a few more days at 50nl and see how it goes before taking a crack back at the old stomping grounds of 100nl.

In case you haven’t heard from me complaining a lot on the Cardschat forums, things from my last “OMG I RUN HORRIBLE” type post went from bad to worse. I’m actually stuck on the month (that means down) and I can’t remember that even happening at a half way point ever, or being a full 5 buyins down below expected EV (meaning people are sucking out).

Anyways, I dropped down to 50nl and the beats just kept coming. Case in point, the hand that made me say “okay i’m done with this” was stacking off with KQ on a KQ7 board against a fully stacked fish who called with QT and then having A and J roll over runner-runner to give him the straight and me out $50. With that brutal hand, I knew it was time to take a step back.

I’ve focused a lot of writing and making videos, which does earn me a decent amount of coin. I feel pretty good being away from the cash game grind and will enjoy my wife the next few days while she is in town before she leaves yet again. I hope next week goes smoother than this week … this really was a long crappy week. The crazy thing is that it’s not just me … seems like a lot of good players are running just as bad if not worse than I am, like ChuckTs and BelgoSuisse specifically and to a degree even Zachvac. These are 200nl players that are playing right at that 5 buyin below ev level or worse and can’t catch a break. Hopefully we all are able to shake it off soon and put the world back in order with us at the top of the poker food chain.

Finally … for those of you that watch American Idol … is it me or is favorite-to-win Danny Gokey eerily similar in looks to WSOP Champion Jamie Gold?!