The Swings of 6max

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 28, 2009 in 6max | 0 comments

I have a prop bet going with Tygran over at Cardschat that either he or me will hit platinum. The idea was to motivate us to put in the hands to achieve this VIP level. Unfortunately for both of us, poker took a very nasty turn. At one point I was down about -$650 for the month, then things went well and I was +$300 for the month ... then this weekend happened. Saturday went poor, got coolered a bit and didn't get good action. Sunday went okay, broke even in 2k hands despite hitting, get this, one set all day.

Then the bottom fell out today and I hit the rare 5 buy-in stop loss. That's right, -$500. For some of you, that's a drop in the bucket. Yay for you lol ... but for me it's a stop loss and with the swinginess of 6max that's the breaks. The good news is that I don't think my game is horrible, I think there were some spots where I got my money in good and just came out horrible, From today:

• QJ with two pair loses at the river to straight.
• AJ for top pair in 3bet pot when villain had better (made what I think was a good fold, ChuckTs seems to agree from the HA thread.
• AT in bad cbet spot in 3bet pot, made the cbet and gave up when villain stacked.
• 33 for a flopped set to a flush on monotone board. Villain was a 40/5/2 type, I had outs to the boat and didn't hit.
• QJ for top pair + flush draw to TPTK (AQ) with no draw as we both got it in at the flop.
• KK deep all in preflop vs AK and vs 47s and the AK hit 4 to a flush.

Anyways, I think it was WV that asked me why I am learning 6max at 100nl, but I feel with the 25k hands at 25nl, and I think 15-20k of hands at 50nl 6max I have adequate knowledge. I'll leave it to the coach once we get started but even with all this bullcrap I still have 50 buy-ins in the bankroll. If the coach says I'm in over my head, I can live with that.

So the platinum run might end at 6,424 VPPs, almost 1k VPPs short of the goal. So close, yet so far. Obviously when I have such a disastrous weekend I have to examine my mental state and my game to see if anything has sprung loose. I feel terrible asking help from friends since I just asked for help recently, kind of like that miserable friend you have who is constantly down on his luck. It's a very isolating feeling.

Anyways, wish I posted more when things are going well lol ... but part of this blog's purpose is to "get out the emotion via written word" and the good news is that I'm not ready to kill people left and right tilt-wise and recovered well after pretty much being at that point earlier in the day with the KK hand.

So if you've made it this far, thanks a ton for reading, I know these posts aren't a lot of fun. Hopefully as I learn and discuss strategy I can post my thoughts and situations, which should be helpful and constructive for all!

The River Will Giveth and the River Will Taketh

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 26, 2009 in 50nl, 6max, computer | 0 comments

This weekend really represents the first time I've ever played 100nl 6max on both Saturday and Sunday for 4+ hours each day.  I got in a good amount of hands today, and the good positive news in all this is that I'm not discouraged or tilted.  I did make one tough call at the river that was in retrospect a bad call, but other than that it was just "one of those days" where the villain shot ahead at the river constantly.  This hand was the "worst beat of the day" which is just ugly:

Just gross, but I got my money in good.  Normally I would have just raised again preflop but against the squeezer I'm trying to get action and a raise here totally announces I have KK or AA in this spot against these players.  What I hoped for was someone with a lesser hand like TPTK while I had overpairs would stack (which happened) and take it down ... but I lose the 88-22% situation which will happen.

The rest of the day saw some bad river situations where villains hit their gin card, or more tragically, I'd hit a big river only to find out I was way behind.

• I rivered a straight ... whoops he flopped and slow played a boat.
• AK suited gets it in as nut flush draw + overs, hits A on river, he had flopped a set.
• AK hits TPTK on river (all rag board) he hit set on turn (which he flatted).
• AA < KT , kinda gross.
• AK loses coinflip AIPF vs QQ (fair enough).
• AKs < AJo AIPF vs loose mid-stacked fish.
• K3 in steal spot on BTN hits 2 pair, villain calls to river with top pair, river pairs board, his two pair wins.

So, those were situations where things just didn't go my way, and most of the time I got out of the situation losing a $35-$50 pot which is better than losing $100 pots I suppose.  Looking back at the hands, AA just got no action today (nothing new there) except for the one bad beat, and I hit sets at 7% which usually doesn't help (although they haven't held all month!).

Anyways, probably calling it a day and hope to come back tomorrow ready to rock n roll at the tables and "get in on that Sunday juice" as someone put it.  Like I mentioned before, I feel fine, where before if I looked at the results say at the beginning of the month I'd be bitching/tilting/quitting big time.  I just had an unfortunate day, it'll happen, and I'll be ready to go tomorrow.  See you then.

European Spa Music and Platinum Star

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 24, 2009 in 6max | 0 comments

I'm not sure what the hell European Spa Music exactly is, but I sure know I really like it.  I mentioned in the last entry that I was listening to this tranquil music and I really like how it calms my mood and allows me to focus on the flowing nature of playing through a session without getting swept away in the rollercoaster of emotion that each hand has the potential to bring.  I've listened to my wife's European Spa Music CD about 7 times and finally decided to look into some more, and found some songs for $0.99 on Amazon (each song is like 20 minutes) that weren't "up to par" with the original CD but decent in its own right.  Anyways, I am highly recommending to you tilters out there (that means everyone) to look into meditation type music during your gameplay and try it out. I love it.

I have been enjoying my approach and had a very insightful discussion about some serious poker theory with ChuckTs.  To be frank, I've never really had such an in-depth poker discussion before and realize I have to exert more mental fortitude to take my game to the level I want it to be.  Fortunately, I am pretty sure I have the capacity, and am  trying to soak in a lot of great knowledge.  I am finding that turn/river value plays are really a big part of what I need improving on and a few adjustments in the last few days has meant some better played hands.

I really don't want to get attached too much to goals, since my only goal is to play each hand to the best of my ability, but I am finding myself very compelled to reach Platinum Star.  I've wanted to hit it for 4 months but fortunately didn't force the goal on myself during my bad stretch.  It looks like it'll be close, but given the free time coming up this weekend it just might happen.

100nl 6max, a Prop Bet and Good Mental Tips

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 23, 2009 in 6max | 1 comment

I hadn't realized that the blog had gone so many days without being updated.  I'm a blog freak obviously and update my blog more than any other poker-player blog that I know of.  I think I enjoy expressing myself via the written word and like to look back at my feelings throughout the month so it's both therapudic and construtive most of the time.

As the title implies, I've moved back (again) to 6max ring game poker.  For those of you that don't remember I tore up 25nl 6max for a good 25k hands, and then barely was profitable at 50nl 6max and then when I moved to 100nl decided to just stick with Full Ring to get used to the level of money moving around the table.  I've watched some good Stox Poker videos and decided to get some formal coaching from ChuckTs.  If you didn't know BW07507 has been a bit of a mentor for me playing 100nl full ring, but I didn't want to take any more of his time without compensation especially in light of the fact that he's trying to graduate college in the next few months and has so much on his plate.  As it is, ChuckTs is a 6max warrior and someone that I respect and trust and I'm looking forward to our sessions.  I think he'll find there's plenty of things to work on with my game, but that I might just be further along than he thinks.

I've done a lot of zoning-out tilt wise and really just try to keep a total mental level state where if I win a big hand I don't get excited and at the same time if I lose a big hand, I don't get upset.  In an ideal world you can shake off the negative and celebrate the big hands, but I'm not at that point and am progressing well with the whole balance thing.  It's going to sound a little cheesy but instead of listening to my regular Beatles / Classical Music thing I listened to this "Spa Soothing Sounds" CD while playing which is basically soft tones and running water.  Outside of having to piss a lot more during the day, it actually has a fantastic calmning effect and allows me to constantly remind myself not to get too high or too low.

Here are some "zen" type of things I've tried to instill into my mental routine:

• There is no running good or running bad.  There is just running.  Everything breaks down to a perception of a subjective time frame.  Look at the big picture and focus on the immediate present.
• If you do not allow yourself to ride the emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows that hands will bring, staying at an even mental state will become easier as time moves forward.

Alright well that won't be a published work anytime soon but it's 2 solid things that have really grown on me.

In other news, I've started a prop bet with CardsChat acquaintence Tygran to see which one of us will actually hit platinum.  I have a huge uphill battle to climb in the last week of this month in order to hit the goal but if I do I'll be able to reach this milestone for the first time as well as buy the $650 Platinum bonus (50k FPPs) instead of two of the $285 for GoldStars.  Plus I get an extra multiplier for May, and I'm hoping PokerStars runs another "Double VPP" week like it did in May of 2008.  Hopefully I can put in the necessary volume profitably and succeed in the prop bet.

Thanks for reading as usual, I'll be posting again soon.

Observations and a New Attitude

Posted by icemonkey9 on Apr 18, 2009 in zen | 1 comment

Funny thing happened the other day while online writing an article ... on AIM someone IMs me and said "jake" and I assumed it was my friend Jurn8, whose name is Jake. So I said hi, and it turned out (after what had to be a full 5 minutes of confusing conversation) that the person that IM'd me was looking for Jake, and was actually noted DeucesCracked.com coach "Nolan" who wanted to say thanks to Jake for the plug of his videos on his blog. Somehow, he ended up accidentally IM'ing me. Weird! Anyways was talked about downswings and stuff, and he rifled through my blog. I don't have the transcript but he basically gave me some quick tips:

• My blog reads tilted.  I've become really wrapped up in results.
• I need to get myself to a zen-like mental state and even convince myself "I deserve to run bad" if I have to in order to detach myself from downswings.
• 15-20 buy-in downswings will happen to regulars.

Although none of the information was new groundbreaking stuff that blew my mind, a lot of it I just had to hear one more time from a respected source.  I really appreciate Nolan for taking a few minutes out of his day for me like that, it was cool to briefly chat with him and get his advice.  I did take it seriously and made some alterations to my behavior.

I'm really going to just focus on playing smart and really thinking through every hand.  That means less tables.  Also I am going to play a consistent game free of distraction.  In addition I am going to hold myself accountable (as well as to someone else I asked for help) for my goals and game-play strategic improvement.

I have been using HEM 1.08 Beta 28 which has the slick features of Omaha plus the new Table Scanner.  The scanner is being built by the same guy that made the popular "Telescope" program and is almost identical in form and function.  It's super slick and I really like using it after fooling around with it for a couple of hours.  If you haven't checked it out - it's a nice feature probably worth getting if you play regularly at 100nl or higher.