Plugging Leaks

I've only read a few chapters of Jared Tendler's book and it's helping my poker game already.I've got a bit lazy when it comes to improving my game and I tend to just jump on and play most weekends without reviewing previous sessions or giving much thought to any leaks I have.

I've written here before that I don't tilt much and that means I don't do the common stuff like stepping up levels to chase losses or just spewing off chips with silly calls and shoves.That's not to say I don't get frustrated.I played 75 six max hyper turbos last night and many of the repeated bad beats seemed almost surreal at times.I was actually quite pleased I only lost $69 after taking a real battering for most of the night.

Anyway this post is about leaks and the first one I have is related to how I stop myself from going on full on monkey spew mode when running badly.My technique in turbo/hyper turbo games is to tighten up and go back to my basic game for a few hands/table orbits until that sick bad beat feeling passes and then I open up my game again.I've now realised that this may seem effective and may save me spewing off my stack, but it is in effect a form of tilt in it's own right. Tightening up too much and getting even marginal push/fold decisions wrong will be costing me money.

The other leak I've identified when playing six tables of 6 max hyper turbos is that the action is so fast that I tend to just go all in or fold.Now although against better players this would mean my ranges are more balanced and it would be harder to put me on a hand,$7 players are only really focussed on their own cards and most wouldn't notice me trying to get more value by min raising stronger hands and shoving weaker ones. ( for example)

I mentioned playing 75 games last night.I only started six tabling towards the end of my play and I went to bed wondering how much I could make over a 7 hour day if I played 24 per hour.From reading the Two Plus Two forum today I think the answer is not as much as I thought! I've currently got a 5% roi over 832 six max hypers but I would need a sample of many thousands for it to be truly meaningful.Apparently most winning players make more from rakeback ( player points on Stars and the VIP bonus system)than they do from the games.

I also now realise that with 150-250 buy-ins recommended to be able to comfortably deal with the crazy hyper turbo swings,I really would be just taking a shot if I put aside $900 to take a 30 buy-in shot at the $30 level.I may do it anyway just for kicks and give myself a 10 buy-in stop loss limit to keep me within my gulp limit over any given session.

Ok,that's more than enough for a quick post on leaks.Back soon...

Focked Up

I could slap myself today after my donkery last night at the tables.I made a good start on Party,3-4 tabling and winning a couple of hundred dollars quite quickly at the $22's.I also enjoyed watching the PDC World darts and nearly jumped out my seat when Barney hit that nine dart finish.( darting perfection,see clip!) Hopefully it will be a Barney v Taylor final again and another classic like last year.



I could have gone to bed happy with my evenings profit, but volume is the key and I logged into Stars and fired up a few $16's.After a decent start to '09 on Stars,I was hoping I could build on that, however the poker gods had other ideas and before long all the lost races and flips left me pissing into the wind again.I managed to pull back a hundred or so and should have gone to bed at that point.

Instead I fired up some more and allowed all my frustrations to boil over.I was well up at Party.How dare this joke of a site ( Stars) keep pounding me into the dirt like this! Maybe it was greed too which pushed me over the edge a bit.I always go on about seeing my bankroll total figure as not being set in stone.The turbo swings mean even a winning player will always have peaks and troughs on an overall upwards looking graph.I think I'd mentally banked all my winnings over the last few days and was in no mood to run badly and see my overall profit figure reduced.

I had decided over Xmas that I am going to pay off my car loan with poker profits and that most of it will come from my Stars account.( 6.5k from Stars,1k from Party and another 1k from Ladbrokes/Ipoker is the rough plan, leaving me just over 4k online)

Several times last night I had my finger hovering over the submit button on the cashier page ready to remove every last cent from my account there.Instead I donked off about $150 at $16,$27 and $38's to leave me about $300 down on Stars for the night.Lowlights were raising with A3 from the button and insta-calling a shove from the bb and getting it in with KQ v several raises in a multi-way pot.Add a couple more horror plays like that and you get the picture.

As mentioned I was up a couple of hundred from Party and I've gone to bed before and slept soundly having lost a lot more than $100 over a session.I don't tilt often though, and I think knowing that made me even more angry at myself for letting my emotions slip.Nobody says its a fair game and that so-called justice will prevail.I know that and yet I played like a whiney self-pitying asshoooooole.( also enjoyed watching "Meet the Fockers" again after the darts!)

On the upside I didn't start four tabling the $1000 turbs and when I do play the $38's again, I'll hopefully manage to confound a few of the "huge donk" notes I'm sure the regulars will have on me! Yeah,it was all meta-game and range balancing tactics....

Apparently there's a programme on tv soon about who the tightest person in Britain is.I reckon we could all learnt from Gareth.There's a man who knows how to spoil the lady in his life.Good to see that she was suitably grateful.....

"Some of the other stars of the programme are Gareth Taylor, a farmer in his mid-50s from Yorkshire, who bought his wife, Wendy, her first ever Christmas present - from him at least - last year. It was a chainsaw. He said their fuel bills were getting so big that she could make herself useful by chopping down trees to put on the fire. Her response, 'I was so stunned I didn't know what to say. But I was a bit chuffed too. I've never ever got a present from him before.' "

Tilt Control + Confidence

The ex Mrs A popped round last night to clean the flat.After grabbing a pizza and dropping her off I headed home to hit the virtual felt.Thankfully my man flu is getting better and only a nasty chesty cough remains.

I ended up messing around reading forums and watching poker clips before eventually firing up a couple of $16's just as the US presidential debate started at 2am.I don't follow US politics closely.Obama reminds a bit of Blair in '97 although I'd probably favour him over another Bush clone.In the debate itself I felt McCain came across as the stronger more sure footed candidate but I didn't find either man very inspiring.

At the tables I crashed out of the first $16 when my AK fell to A8.In my other game I had about 1200 chips and looked down to Qc6c.Someone limped and for a brief second I considered shoving before realising my tilty inclination and folding.Obviously an all in and a call followed my fold and although I would have been dominated preflop ( KK and 1010)I would have rivered a flush and my Q6 would have won me a huge pot.Folding hands which turn into monsters has always been a tilt trigger I need to keep an eye on and before I knew it just a couple of hands later I found myself calling all in with AJ soooted v Mr/Mrs Tightest Nittiest tight nit in nitland.I was up against QQ and didn't spike my Ace.Stupid tilty donk call.Served me right!

I took a ten minute break before coming back and taking a 4th and 2nd place in my last two games before bed.It gave me food for thought though.I was annoyed at myself for making a tilty call and the old saying about a mans character being reflected at the poker table came to mind.

I'm certainly nowhere near being manically depressed or anything like that but I do sometimes seem to be full of zest,outgoing confidence and energy one minute and lethargic,bored and introverted at other times.At the poker tables when I'm doing well I feel I could happily take on any of the regulars at my levels and ( cards willing!) win.I feel in the zone and able to make instant correct decisions and yet at other times I'll move sites to avoid the regulars at my usual $16's and when I look down at a hand I feel like it's the first one I've ever played.I suppose I've only really been at the sngs for about a year and although more and more of my decisions are quick and are based on previous experience and pattern recognition,there are always going to be marginal situations where there's no easy set path.

Ok,I've got Nacho until Tuesday.Time to go and walk him before the rain gets any heavier...

Wee win ends tilt form...

I had to dig deep last night when my first $16 turbo ended after a few hands when my KK fell to AK sooooted, which made a flush on the river.The pain made me almost glad Cog’s KK had held against my AK in the DTD game!

I’ve become a far better two tabler over recent months and had another one on the go, until I shoved with 88,Mr A7 insta-called and the seemingly enevitable Ace hit on the turn to send me packing.

Sharkscope already had my recent form as “tilt” after going 0/4 without cashing and I was beginning to think I was running into a bad luck brickwall, especially after my JJ fell to good old AK in my third game of the night.

I took a minute to tell myself to get a grip and actually quite enjoyed my last turbo of the night,as one fish spent the entire game lecturing another fishy who ignored him throughout.The quiet fish did make some terrible plays but the big mouth bass outdid him with some dreadful calls and shoves.( and bubbled in redonkulous fashion)

In fact there were only four winners from sixteen starters and much of the play seemed no better than a play money table.Min raises,lots of weak calling stations and big stacks who had no idea how to maximise their position around bubble time.I adjusted by raising 6-8bb early on preflop and by overbetting for value with made hands on later streets.My hands held up and my strategy worked as I finally broke my wee losing streak to take it down for $108.

I watched an excellent cardrunners video where the pro was playing $50nl and this inspired me to play a little 6 max $100nl at 365 where I two tabled,ran quite well and left about $50 up after 25 minutes play.

I’m off to buy a badminton racket at lunchtime as the one I had in my cupboard has three strings and is marked “4b” which means I used it in Fourth year at high school.( so it’s a couple of years old!)

Back soon…

Knock knock + stats Ytd

The title is because ( I made up with my Mum at the weekend) my parents have offered to buy me a new front door for Xmas! What a great idea!

Congrats to Spid for taking down the Bloggerment for the second time.I finished a lowly 12th after overplaying 66 and then running A8 into Hammerheids AJ.

I mentioned overplaying the sixes and both Cogs and Rosie ( both players I respect) have mentioned my habit of overbetting recently.I think it comes from the fact I usually only play turbos and not standard speed games.I have tried to tone down my preflop raise sizes a little but my “bet big or go home” philosophy has served me well and I’m not sure I even want to adjust my strategy too much.

I hit up a couple of $16 turbos afterwards and had my Aces scudded by KJ only a few hands into the first one.Yes the fish called off his whole stack without hesitating with KJ.A king on the flop and Jack on the river left me shaking my head at my poor luck.The second game I played ended with yet another nasty one and I reflected that at least I’ve played enough turbos now to not get too hacked off.

Partys cash tables were calling and I’m pleased to say I won $75 during a very short $100 nl 6 max session thanks to fish who called with crap.I only won two big hands for my profit.In the first one my AK was good on a King high board and for the second I called a raise from a tilty shortstacked moron with A10.We saw an Ace high flop and I checked to the raiser,awaiting his enevitable all in bet ( he had k6 sooted and had missed board totally) and he didn’t let me down.

I read an interesting article on tilt recently which concluded that winners tend to sit on gains and losers chase losses.Despite the impression probably given by this blog I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I don’t play more often.Yesterday I was free all day but my first game was the Bloggerment at 9pm.Most evenings I don’t start playing until later either and I wonder if the desire to sit on my winnings ( lowly as they are) has something to do with it.The other factor is that I usually feel exhausted from work between 7-10pm and it’s only usually after 10pm when I get my second wind and feel like I could stay up all night.

The article also mentioned that bad beats lead to tilt because when people see that they are for example, 80% favourite when their money goes in on a hand ,they mentally bank the winnings, which leads to a major shock to the system when they lose to that nasty 2 outer.Perhaps I reasoned , I deal with beats quite well most of the time because I’m an inherently cynical pessimist who doesn’t mentally bank the pot when I’m a big favourite, because I’m just waiting on the “enevitable” bad beat coming!

Either that or the repetitive nature of the beats has numbed me slightly to them.I’m not claiming I’m immune and several in a row can still awaken my tilt monster but generally I reckon I cope reasonably well.

Ok, here are my updated end of the month stats.I now have only one month to go before the end of my 3rd year of real money online poker and the last time I checked on June 7th I'd made $1599 in profit since Oct 31st '06.The overall total was $4254.Profit since June 7th is $1967.Overall profit this year so far is $3566.I made aprox $4k per year in my first two years and after a poor start to this year it looks like I'll make about the same again.

Full Tilt $1530, Party $1625,Pokerroom $440 ,Pokerstars $685,Ladbrokes $1941.Total $6221. ( + $414 since 20th Sept).This also excludes my Bet 365 "take a shot" roll.