Day 6

Although some opportunities may arise in poker like in life, the most important thing is to maintain the focus and follow the pre-designed plans. In situations where the plan may not hold anymore or may need some changes, what we should do is re-design it and start following the new plan.
I'm not ready to NL10 mainly because my poker skills are not enough and my bankroll is clearly bellow average.
I have earned the bonus I wanted, and I'm close to the new bonus but that's about all the time I'm giving to NL10...for now!

So...Here I am back to my plan!

Day 6 started hot!
Out of NL10 and it's aggression levels, one comes to NL2 and sees PFR of 0.04c and thinks...omg 2 minutes ago I was trying to squeeze my way to the flop paying only 0.10c and before you notice it you are a bully raising and raising and picking up dead money and even putting people on hard spots where they fold to your air because no one bets there without a strong hand.
Like I was saying, it started hot 50 hands 4$ up 200 hands 8$ up and then happened one of those thins that makes poker fun. I spot a player tilting and going all in and I managed to isolate that player 3 times in a row by raising hard pre flop. On the first two I couldn't respond to his all in because the flop hit his range more then mine but on the third having 2 pairs on flop I called and showed ATo vs J5s on a ATQ rainbow, needless to say K came on river and he doubled up to 2$. Next hand I get AA and raised his PFR making him 4bet me to go all in and have my aces being pwned by 22 doubling him up again to 4$. The guy continued all in again and doubled yet one more time against another player leaving the table right then...well not all is bad, I still have his name :)
After this strange beat I had some good hands smashed and lost a bit of focus but I was able to get a grip and finish on a nice 11,52$ over 700+ hands.

NL2 is my home for now and will be for a while :)

A little detour

Last couple of days, I've been away from PS to test something at FTP.
I used the link here in my blog and created a FTP account where I deposited 140$.
My goal was to make 100 FPP's and that way unblock the affiliate program 75$ bonus.
To achieve this I have been playing at NL10 a level witch I clearly don't master but where my results aren't that bad.
The first session I played 1 table and quickly won 12$. I opened 5 more tables to end with a 23$ up session...I was :O WOW.
The next day I 4 tabled and in a session where I was initially up bu 3$ I ended down by 7$.
The third session I 6 tabled again and after 1 hour I was up bu 12$ but a series of poor decision and worst then that, a series of hero call's I don't even make anymore on NL2 made me end the session 17$ down...pretty lame.
Overall in 3 days I lost 2$ but got my 100 points so I'm getting 75$ back witch makes things overall good. I will probably try one or two more sessions because I'm now 110 point away from a 35$ bonus so I guess I have 35$ to "spend" :P

My goal is and will remain to succeed at PS NL2. This week I will return and hopefully stronger then before.

Day 5

This session I tryed to play as many as 9 tables at the same time and I must say that it wasn't that difficult. The main problem for me is not being able to focus so much on some CBETs and because of that some of the dead money I like to pick up goes away but I think that can be compensated with more set mining and more premium hands. Apart from that, the only problem I foresee in playing 9+ tables is...how the hell do I go to the bathroom??? As soon as I started to move towards it rooms began to flash and beep. I even set up the reflective door of my closet in order to see what hands I had and they were always playable hands so, back to the chair.

As to the session itself it started sky high with 5$ profit on the first 200 hands but at the end it came down to 3.58 after 862 hands witch is a lot bellow my desired goal but at least it was another positive session for me and the total winnings rise to 38$ so far after 5 sessions / 3851 hands.

I really need to stop a day or two and Anallise my hands.

Day 4

I'm glad this day came!

I had to say it although it hurts but the truth is that when after a pause to study the game you come back and start running hot at 70-100 BB's/100 you begin to think that you figured things out and that from now on the road to success is clean, wide and without obstacles. Well Poker just like life ain't like that. And sometimes a reality check it's a more important lesson then a lot of reading.

Enough with the philosophy and let's see what happened.
I started the day bad, really bad. Although I was for the first time on correct VPIP$ / PFR levels (around 21/19), my cards weren't holding up.
I got a lot of AQ/AJ/KQ/KJ/JT most of the times I played them in position and with the raises they deserve but at the end the villain was always hitting something and my cards weren't holding up. I started to go negative for the first time and for most of the session I was loosing 1-2$. Sometimes I recovered to -0.80$ for example but next thing I noticed I was down 2$+ again. In the last 100 hands some value cards finally came like my first AA, my first QQ, a KK that for the first time wasn't folded to me after a 4 BB raise and a set I finally was able to mine and that summed up not only I recovered from the red line but I went up for 2.76$ for the session witch in the end makes me very happy because it showed me that maybe it wasn't everything my fault.

I didn't had time to Anallise the hands yet but I can tell that my biggest mistakes were three:
1. I CBET a lot with air and I even double/triple barrel some times. This is not wrong, what is wrong is when the villain cold calls or check/raises me, I need to get out sooner. I lost a lot of 0.80$/0.65$ pots that summed up make a lot. Like I read on 2p2 one day, at this level if someone tells you they have something...believe him!
2. Again the limping! After my start on the right VPIP$ / PFR levels I saw things going down on earnings so I started to limp more and more. That cost me 2 x KK folded all around to my 0.04 raise.
3. FOCUS! I can't play without focus, at least not for now. I believe that people that have a lot of practice can play 10 - 18 tables without almost paying attention but I can't play 4-6 tables without being focused because when I'm not I make a lot of bad decisions.

I will post some hands later in the day.

Day 3

Another good day in uNL. I've made a total of 11.55$ over 563 hands in 3h.10m.

I'm getting more confident although I still feel I'm making some -EV$ plays.
Tonight I'm very tired but tomorrow I will dedicate some time to Hold'em Manager and try to find out what I could do different.

On the other hand, I feel I'm starting to loosen up on some factors like not paying real attention whether if a lot of money is at stake if I feel I'm ahead. I've been raising more, limping less although I still don't know how to react to a raise on a hand that I would raise if folded/limped to me.
My VPIP$ is still very high but that is mainly because I'm limping the following:
- Low pocket pairs(22-99) for set mining.
- Suited connectors (23-9T) for straight mining. I will do this specially if a bully is at my table.
- A2-A9s. I limp about 30% of them.
- A2-A9o.I limp about 10% of them.
- Gaped Connectors. I rather not talk about this insanity moments
- Suited heavey gapped cards...they are so beautiful...ok I really must start to play on a two colour deck.
Here is the analysis for my limped pocket pairs:

Type	%	Pre Flop Status	Cards	#	$	%#	%$
Pocket Pairs	21.25%	Unopened
			22	1	$0.03	5.88%	0.98%
			33	1	$0.10	5.88%	3.27%
			33	1	-$0.08	5.88%	-2.62%
			44	1	-$0.02	5.88%	-0.65%
			55	1	$0.13	5.88%	4.25%
			66	1	$2.86	5.88%	93.53%
			77	1	$0.61	5.88%	19.95%
			99	1	-$0.20	5.88%	-6.54%
			TOTAL	8	$3.43	47.06%	112.16%
		1 Limper
			44	1	-$0.01	5.88%	-0.39%
			88	1	-$0.06	5.88%	-1.96%
			99	1	-$0.26	5.88%	-8.50%
			99	1	-$0.02	5.88%	-0.65%
			TOTAL	4	-$0.35	23.53%	-11.51%
		2+ Limper's
			33	1	-$0.08	5.88%	-2.62%
			TT	1	-$0.06	5.88%	-1.96%
			TOTAL	2	-$0.14	11.76%	-4.58%
		1 Raiser
			22	1	-$0.06	5.88%	-1.96%
			TT	1	-$0.10	5.88%	-3.27%
			TOTAL	2	-$0.16	11.76%	-5.23%
		2+ Raisers
			22	1	$0.28	5.88%	9.16%
			TOTAL	1	$0.28	5.88%	9.16%
				17	£3.06

It's a short sample but it's the way I play them and I realy would like to change somethings like, raise more, limp less but I feel that whem I'm mining I should save money although I know that if I build the pot not only if I hit the set, the earnings will be bigger but it will put me in a better position to cbet and make better hands fold like I almost always do when I play a HU pot.
In this sample I only mined a set 2 times out of 17 that gives me 1:8 odds on mining  witch are better then the 1:10 average I would have on a bigger sample. On the ones I mined, I got some $ out of them, on the others, I cbet + double barrelled my way to the pot on the HU plays and folded on the others.

I would like to show a special hand witch HM gives me -0.96 EV $ Diff and 83.2 equity. I made this call based on the following factors:
1. He had previously overvalued TPTK
2. The PFR Action made me think that he could have 22-TT AK-AT KQ-KT QJ JT
3. The Flop bet made me put him on A6 AT TT Ax Any 2 Spades.

Given this, I decided I would be WB on TT but WA on everything else even the set mining.

What did I not took in consideration to make my call:
1- Implied Odds
2- Reverse Implied Odds

Now the question...what would you do, did I overdo-it and won on pure luck?

Here's the hand:
Poker Stars $2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players - View hand 315738

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



Hero (UTG): $2.84

UTG+1: $1.97

UTG+2: $10.02

MP1: $3.74

MP2: $5.41

CO: $3.33

BTN: $2.66

SB: $1.01

BB: $2.62



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is UTG with 6 6

Hero calls $0.02, UTG+1 raises to $0.06, UTG+2 calls $0.06, 2 folds, CO calls $0.06, 1 fold, SB calls $0.05, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.04



Flop: ($0.32) A 6 T (5 players)

SB bets $0.06, Hero calls $0.06, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls $0.06, CO raises to $3.27, SB folds, Hero calls $2.72 all in, UTG+2 folds



Turn: ($6.00) 8 (2 players - 1 is all in)



River: ($6.00) 3 (2 players - 1 is all in)



Final Pot: $6.00

Hero shows 6 6

CO shows A T

Hero wins $5.70

(Rake: $-0.19)

Where to play online

As a newbie, one of the most difficult things I had to decide was, were to start playing.
It's easy to find great promotions, hell even in this page you can click a banner and create an account on Full Tilt or PokerStars and get great promotions (please do!).
But the realy important question is:
Witch one is the best?
In my opinion, both of the sites I advertise here are great. In PS you can get realy realy cheap buy in rooms like 0.01/0.02 NL or tournaments starting at...0.01!!!! It's great to have a go at real money poker and not risking that much.
On FTP the limits are a little higher but on the other hand if you are a winning player you will get more rakeback money and you will complete your bonus way faster. Also I think the S&G at FTP are easier and better rewarded.

That's my 2 cents :)

Day 2

Tonight I played 2 different sessions one that went very well playing 4/5 tables and wining above my estimated goal and another that went good but bellow my goal as you can see on the spreadsheet. In this second session I didn't focus so much because I tryed to play 8 tables at the same time...I think I can do it but it requires me to get a bit more trained on the hands I must play in position. By the end of the session I had one of those little plaisures that Poker gives you, I closed all my tables and stayed in one where a French guy kept bullying everyone and braging about how he made everyone fold with 27o. In my HM the guy was loosing 6$ already with a VPIP of 90% and a PFR of 85% so I waited a good hand.
here it is:
Poker Stars $2.00 No Limit Hold'em - 8 players - View hand 311205

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



Hero (MP2): $3.30

CO: $4.92

BTN: $3.61

SB: $2.78

BB: $7.58

UTG: $2.17

UTG+1: $4.17

MP1: $2.97



Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP2 with Q K

2 folds, MP1 calls $0.02, Hero calls $0.02, 1 fold, BTN calls $0.02, SB raises to $0.70, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.68, 1 fold



Flop: ($1.46) Q 9 7 (2 players)

SB bets $0.48, Hero raises to $2.60, SB calls $1.60 all in



Turn: ($5.62) J (2 players - 1 is all in)



River: ($5.62) T (2 players - 1 is all in)



Final Pot: $5.62

Hero shows Q K

SB shows 8 6

Hero wins $5.37

(Rake: $0.25)





The road to move up continues