Inertia Creeps me out

Only managed a short 423 hand session where I had some of my worst beats to date. Couple of beauties in there actually. Still, made more progress and I think Massive Attack have put me back on track after the Elvis problems of the last 2k hands.

Total hands... 4010
Total profit... $76.69
Win rate... 96/100

Flop percentage was down to just 31% this session, and is dropping all the time. This is probably partly due to me tightening up my sb limping range. I don't have pokertracker or anything but I would imagine my sb hands have been a leak so far.

Annoyingly my mouse is all Omahaed out, completely fucked so six-tabling is proving very difficult. This, along with Inertia Creeps, started to tilt me in this session.

Taking a break now, partly because of the mouse-tilt but mainly because Coyote Ugly starts at 11.15. Bye.

Mass Atta Omah

I opened one table pissed but (fortunately, me thinks) fell asleep during the first hand. My SSC was Have I Got News For You on BBC iplayer. Sadly, Clare Balding pissed me off pretty early on and had to turn off.

So with exception of my heavy breathing and the sound of my heart bashing against my ribs at a rate of 1.2k bpm I was left to play the first hand in silence. Instant sleep was an inevitable and not wholly disappointing result. I heard the buzzer reminder and tried to open my eyes to look at the hand but my eye lashes were harder to prize apart than Velcro so I gave up on it.

Total hands... 3587
Total profit... $66.80
Win rate... 93/100

I plan to put in some serious hours today having missed yesterday through no fault of my own. I was blinded by a bright Red Stripe. I'll post later where I hope to have 6k hands under my belt.

Album choice... Mezzanine Massive Attack.

Drinking

No Elvis.

I woke up at 8pm today/yesterday, whatever and went straight onto the booze. It's horrible, worst decision ever. I haven't touched the Omaha pissed yet but I'm thinking about banging open a few tables now. Would be a bad idea of course as I'll completely lack any kind of dicipline.



On a vaguley serious note I am never touching alcohol again. That's a promise, you can take it to the smoke and bank it if you want. I've had some great times drinking in the past but recently, time and time again, it feels like my heart is going to explode. Seriously. No more of that thank you very much. Not for me. Before I die.

Total hands... 3586
Total profit... $66.82
BB/100... 93/100

Cheers.

One third down... just over half to go

I have hardly stopped playing since I posted the challenge on Wednesday and have clocked up over 3k hands of omaha and and at least 15 plays of Elvis's greatest hits album. I am verysick of both.

It all started rather slowly to be fair. Heartbreak Hotel is not one of my favourite songs for a start and the choice of a $15 BR at $5 buy in tables was cretinous to say the least as it meant I could only really two table to begin with.

The first 700 hands took an age. And I didn't play particularly well either. Saw 51% of flops, which is prolly too many at H/L, and spooned home a small profit of $8.52. Tales of woe.

At the end of session one:
Hands... 700
Total profit... $8.52
Big blinds/100 hands... 61/100

Some way off target but a profitable warm-up session which at least allowed me to four-table from then on.

This helped.

My flop-seeing percentage dropped significantly and by the 1800 hand mark I was down at 37%. I had rediscovered the form which had made me famous amongst the 1c/2c regulars in the past (though they pretend not to remember me now) and by hand 1800 I had churned out a healthy profit of $32.67.

At the end of session two:
Hands... 1800
Total profit... $32.67
Big blinds/100 hands... 91/100

I remember the next thousand or so hands being pretty tough going. It was still world class but I just couldn't seem to keep my concentration.

And Elvis started to fuck with me...

I was happily 5-tabling, plodding along, but then listening to In The Ghetto plunged me into a moment of deep depression. Of course I know better now, but at the time I thought that betting the pot on every table might perk me up a little. Not so... One of them was a stone cold bluff on the turn into six players which did not get through.

The song was blatantly at fault here in my opinion, ITG is by far the most tilt-inducing song I've ever heard and I clearly had no choice but to pot the fuck out of every table. No regrets.

End of session three:
Hands... 2960
Total profit... $40.81
BB/100... 69/100

It was looking good until the last 250 hands here where I needlessly dropped over $5 with no bad beats to speak of. Not sure quite what happened to be honest but I'm guessing Elvis had something to do with it. Or maybe I just went a bit mad.

I grobbled down some dinner, beans on toast with a cup of tea, banged on Can't Help Falling In Love and settled down to a nice little 6-tabling session. This turned out to be an inspired starting-song choice ('SSC' from now on) as I slapped home a $17.10 profit in the 404 hands. Promising.

End of session four:
Hands... 3364
Total profit... $57.91
BB/100... 86/100

So that's where I'm up to so far, guess I should probably get some sleep.

All in all it was a pretty good day (and a half), I'm just a little gutted that I can no longer listen to one of my favourite songs without the horrible image of PGchips reraising the pot with 75KT at PLO H/L.

I did turn the nuts to be fair so I guess sometimes, as Elvis once said himself, even the worst reraises preflop can have a happy ending, or at least turn the nuts.

The '1 bb per hand' Challenge

With tournaments off the menu for a while I've had to come up with a new challenge for myself. It's mainly for fun but I'm not working much at the moment so could do with winning.

As the title suggests, i am going to see if it is possible to win an average of one big blind every hand in my chosen game over a 10k hand sample. After the 10k hands i'll decide whether it's worth carrying on or not (though if i'm losing after 1k i'll just fuck it off obviously).

The game... Pot limit omaha high/low.
The stakes... 1c/2c.
The site... Stars.

I have absolutely no idea what a good win rate at this game is but it doesn't really matter, 1bb per hand seems pretty reasonable to me and anything less is frakking pointless.

The sample... 10k hands.
Intended profit... $200. (Sounds like a big ask actually at 1c/2c but, fuck it, I've said it now).

If I were to play 1k hands per day, this would equate to a $7300 annual profit. That's almost certainly impossible at 1c/2c plo h/l. Oh well.

$7320 on a leap year.

I start with $15 in my account, wish me luck...

Massively overbetting the best hand

This amusing hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573365

led to my reckless-looking exit in a $2 multi on Stars:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573360

After seeing the first hand there was no question i was getting a call from the lad, AQ with no fold equity again anyone?

4-handed shootout on Stars,

Was playing very lively early on as two of the players were too tight. It was effectively me heads up vs villain already. Showed him a bluff the previous hand so knew he was snapping here with any part of the flop:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2573251

Shoved deuces into AK and AJ with 8BBs at 50/100 which didn't hold up to regain the CL. Just checked i was 40% fave pre which i didn't expect... 81% after the turn! Not to be.


The two big overbet hands are quite interesting. It isn't really poker but i find it hard to turn down chances to overbet all in like this when these players are willing to call so light. I have no problems with this play in SnGs (and especially the 4 handed shootout, as above) but if i continue to take 60/40s like this in 1000+ player multis i'm not going to win very many. It's tough to win races consistently so i wonder whether it'd make sense to just peel one for cheap then check fold a flop. Who knows...


Only other tourn today was a boring $1 multi, pretty standard right through to the exit hand AK vs TT to come nowhere, 579th out of 1701.

If i start winning 50% of my 50/50s and 60% of my 60/40s (maybe 50% of my 20/80s!) i'll be fine...

The 'Mikey H' got me!

Nearly made it three cashes out of three for the day: after the earlier 'success' i decided to play the $20k guaranteed on Stars, 2538 runners, 378 paid.

Been sat at a new table for about ten minutes watching the player to my right massively raising every hand. Then with 402 players left and average at 17k decided to take a gamble:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2568598

No fold equity, I'm effectively calling all in on the bubble with AQ vs two random cards. Dangerous, but i'm happy enough with it. Well, not the result, obviously...

He played it well to be fair to him.

Two cashes out of two

Just came 61st in a 1613 runner $3 on Stars. As always, only dosh is at the FT in these so it's slightly disappointing. Few hands of interest below:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2565949
Full house paid off very first hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566204
Raise more pre flop?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566268
KQ vs 88

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566798
77 fold?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2566811
Bust out

Played okay, Q9 shove felt a bit wrong at the time but there were worse spots to push in. Always a little unlucky to run into a hand and miss, but good run.

Also cashed in the only other tourn i played in today. Just a very small win in a $1 multi on Stars again where all the money was for 1st-3rd really.

Will start playing some proper tourns when i feel up to it.

Bad decisions, often costly

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2545954

Having played at the table for a long time, being a deep and slow tourn i knew i was 'probably' ahead of the shover but there was a very real danger of the original bettor being very strong here. Though i do feel a little unlucky that it was a set, i think on very top form i would happily get away from these situations (especially having limped pre) confident i can get my chips in in better shape elsewhere.

Every decision is important in this game, and at the moment i don't think my game is up to scratch. I complain a lot about bad luck but i think you only do that when you're not 100% happy about your game.

No doubt i'm running bad but i feel i'm making some bad decisions at key moments in tourns (prime example above) and i think this is probably costing me more than the bad beats and coolers. I think i'll take some time off to watch the snooker and then sort out some work for the next few weeks to keep me away from the computer...

Good luck all.

Another cooler to moan about

6-max, 970 runner $5.50 on Stars:

Seemed to have the table under control, make a good river call with 99 on an AJ3 4 2 board when QTs tried to steal it (he did river a flush draw to be fair to him). Then the poker Gods reward me a few hands later by dealing me AKs and someone else AA to send me packing. Just shouldn't happen 6 handed...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2545599

All i seem to be doing at the moment is complaining about losing coolers though i do seem to be losing a lot of them.

On a different note i have really enjoyed the snooker this week, there's been some really good stuff and it's pleasing to see my value pick of the tourn, Joe Perry, is in with a decent chance. He was 140/1 at the start of the tourn and is now 9/1 having set up a semi final match vs Ali Carter.

I was especially chuffed to see Ali Carter make a maximum - there's something i find very moving about seeing genuinely nice people doing something they really care about brilliantly well. And the fact that O'Sullivan, the cocky twat, now has to share his dosh is a nice bonus as far as i'm concerned. Both maximums were world class though.