I have a Coach!

June 3, 2009

I have played some 7,000 hands since the last update. The plan was to identify:

A) Two loose weak victims at the table and trying to play as many hands as possible against them with position.

B) Two weak tight victims at the table and trying to push them off their hands when they show weakness and I have position.

It started pretty well but then I guess I got a little bit too excited and this combined with a few bad beats I lost 4 buy-ins within just a few hundred hands. Looking back at this bad short stretch, I realize I have to have a plan when things get out of control. Good players change gear back and forth many times within a session which I didn’t, I just kept hammering.

I feel very comfortable at NL25 and was able to take a break and get my $$ back the next day and end this 7K hands with a 170bb profit. Not a great result but still a profit.

Last week I had my first session with my coach.

After talking a while about my game and my goals we did a 30 min sweating session. Afterwards I sent him my last 50K hand history which we went through together yesterday.

Instead of continuing this 100K project divided into 20 different blocks I have decided to divide my training blocks into 2 weeks sessions focusing on the issues my coach considers to be the most important things to work on.

Here is a quick update from our session. We went through half a dozen of common issues and situations where I loose money or where I can extract more value. Here are the most important ones:

• Playing a top-pair hand against a PFR that shows a lot of aggression. The worst way to handle such a situation seems to be a “Passive Calling Station Line” and call all 3 streets.
• My 3-bet percentage is still too low. I was given a couple of new situations/hands to 3-bet my non monster hands.
• My River play is far too passive. over the last 27,000 hands about 35% of the hands have gone check-check and I have won 65% of these with a 18 buy-in profit. Hmmm, I wonder how many times I would have been looked up by a worse hand had I put in a ½ pot bet?

Results after 27,000 hands.

• Winnings: $318
• Win rate: +4,75bb/100
• Bonus: $0
• Bank Roll $818 (started with $500)

Graph after 27,000 hands.

I’m a golfer!!

May 19, 2009

For many years I have been thinking of taking up golf, I took some classes when I lived in Spain but there was never enough time to get serious as my work took too much time and once I had some time off I just wanted to hit the beach and relax with a cold beer under the parasol.

Today I live only a few miles from the golf club and I also have more time. So two weeks ago decided to sign up for a beginners course and I will have my green card on Saturday.

I used to play almost every ballgame available during my childhood and until I was in my late teens. This made me cocky enough to think that I will be able to get my handicap below 20 during the first summer. I guess I still have a few hours on the driving range until I can accept the mighty Dusty Schmidt and his $1,000,000 challenge.  I’ll keep you guys updated on the golf and if you don’t get any golf info during the next few weeks, well blame that bloody driver!

As far as poker concerns I think I have to quote a phrase from the Leatherass blog where his wife told him with a sad face after a downswing that; “I’m just so swingy”. I do love that comment!

This fourth training session was focused on stealing the blinds as often as possible and change tables if I had some loose players behind me. As I was playing during the weekend nights I didn’t follow the plan 100% there is just too much money to be made if you get a few drunk fish at the tables. But I did steal a lot but I wanted to have some kind of playable hand 9-3 off suit don’t play well but 9-7 suited do.

Some stats from the last 5,000 hands:

• Steal from the Button: 67% and I got away with it 51%.
• Steal from the Cut Off: 30% and I got away with it 47%. I stole 173 times and faced a 3-bet only 14 times where I happened to have a pocket pair 5 of these 14 times and could call in position and take down some of the pots on later streets. I was called 73 times of the 173 steal attempts, but playing the hands in position helped me to break even although many times I was holding pure crap.
• I made a profit of 23bb/100 when I raised first in from BTN or CO.
• I once again managed to push my aggression factor above 2 and it feels like I’m getting there.
• Over all winnings +10,6bb/100

Results after 20,000 hands:

• Winnings: $275
• Win rate: +5,5bb/100
• Bonus: $0
• Bank Roll $775 (started with $500)

 Graph after 20K hands:

Lost the Pace!

May 12, 2009

There has been a lot of things going on away from the poker tables lately so it took me 12 days to play 5k hands. Why?

Well when you are living up here in Scandinavia you spend too much time indoors during the dark and cold winter season and when the May sun finally hits your eyes you get very keen to start up the barbeque, prepare the golf bag, but some new clothes, clean the car, have a beer on the terrace and just do what other people are doing 8-12 months a year depending on where they have their little castle called home.

This time of the year also provides us with two fantastic hockey events: the Stanly Cup Playoffs and the World Championships. In spite of Sweden missing the final when they got beat by the Canadians who played a much better game than us, most of the other games have been awesome and ended just the way I’ve wished. The fantastic Russian team beat Canada!

Red wings have a 3:2 lead over the Ducks and my super hero Ovechkin and the Caps are still alive and kicking (But it was damn close last night).

Trough Stoxpoker I got in touch with a guy who is playing the same games as I do. We have had two sweating sessions over “Skype” & “Team Viewer” so far and it has been very helpful. Our plan is to help each other to the next level (NL50). Videos, books and forums are all great stuff, but having someone to talk to is even better.

During the 3rd training session the goal was: “Focus on which limpers I can raise with any playable hand from the BTN/CO” I can’t say I did very well! I’m still too greedy and result oriented although I told my self not to. When at the table oftentimes my brain instinctively converts my chips into money. This is a “mental leak” I have to work on!

I played most of these 5,300 hands during the weekend and wanted to se as many flops as possible and raising to isolate didn’t work very often. Playing a marginal hand in a raised multiway pot is hard but can of course be rewarded if you hit the board a few times.

Stats:

• Cut Off, I limped behind 15% and raised the limper(s) 7,5%.
• Btn, I limped 24% and only raised 8%. These stats are POOR!! I actually think I should have played something like: CO: 20/15 and Btn: 30/20 and put my self in many situations where I would have been able to pick up a grate deal of the pots in position when the other missed or checked a scary board.

POSITION IS POWER AND I MUST LEARN TO USE IT!

The bankroll didn’t get much of a boost during this session, I only made 2,2bb/100 but when you get it all-in with Aces and loose twice there is not much you can do just take a note on the players that are willing to stack off with Jacks and TT.

I have already started the 4th session and running better, I’m up 3,5 buy ins after 1,300 hands but more on that next time. Keep fishing!!

Results after 15,000 hands.

• Winnings: $154
• Win rate: +4bb/100
• Bonus: $0
• Bank Roll $654 (started with $500)

Graph after some 15K

10,000 hands

April 29, 2009

Poker contiues!

This morning I finished the 2nd block of 5K hands where the game plan was to play many more hands from the CO and play them aggressively pre flop and knock out the guy on the button so I would “have the button” twice per orbit.

These are the stats from the CO during the 5,000 hands I have played.

• VPIP / 24% / (During the 1st 5,000 hands it was 18%). Opening my game from late position will help me learn how to play marginal hands.
• PFR / 17% / (11%). This is much better but still too low when I compare it with the VPIP. I should have raised more in order to have position on the whole table. To my defense I made sure to have a tight player to my left so even if I limped behind I was playing most of the hands in position.
• AF / 2,4 / (1,8) my goal was to get this above 2. I’m very satisfied with this as I think that the lack of aggression has been one of the key leaks in my game.
• 3-Bet / 2,1% / (1,7). Still too low should be about twice as high.
• W$WSF / 47% / (44) I played more hands and won a higher percentage of them so I’m on the right track here. Being in position usually helps me to choose the pots I want to play as well as having the advantage of controlling the size of the pot.
• Steal / 38% / (24) much better. It might be too high but I seldom get 3-bet. If I do get 3-bet from the blinds I can still have the power of position if I have a playable hand. If I get 3-bet by the button, my default play is to fold or when I have the goods I 4- bet him big.
• Steal Success / 41% / (50) worse, but I still win 41% of the pots uncontested.
• Cold Call / 7% / (3) Hmmm, higher than before, but my plan was to play many hands in position. I cold called 95 times and won more than $70 from these pots. I used to cold call 30% which can never me profitable unless I play like Phil Ivey.
• PFR when there is 1 limper in front of me / 7% /(6) FAR TOO LOW, I must learn to punish the limpers!
• Over call when there is 1 limper in front of me / 17% / (20) well, it’s going in the right direction but still on the passive side. I should raise more often.
• bb/100 / +13 / (26) I think it should be much higher. I still suck at using my position.

Conclusions:

1. I have managed too widen my range from the CO I have increased my aggression a little bit to 1,9 overall. But I’m still too passive!!
2. I was able to win more hands from the CO than before in spite of playing many more hands.
3. I still don’t punish the limpers!! My 3-bet button doesn’t work!!
4. I only made 3,5 big blinds/100 overall which isn’t even two buy-ins. This is very bad! A good player should make at least 10bb/100 at NL25.
5. I still loose 9bb/100 on the Non-Show-Down-Winning graph. This must be a fundamental systematic leak; unless I get this fixed I will not be able to play at NL50!!!!

Results after 10,000 hands.

• Winnings: $125
• Win rate: +5bb/100
• Bonus: $0
• Bank Roll $625 (started with $500)

Below is a graph of the results after 10K hands:

1st 5,000 Hands

April 23, 2009

Hi guys!

I  just finished the first block of 5K hands where the game plan was to play as many hands from the button as possible and trying to outplay my opponents with help of my position. These are all stats from the BTN:

• VPIP: 25%   Probably OK but I think I could raise more often.
• PFR: 13%   Too Low should be about 20%
• AF: 1,4    Too Low should be above 2
• 3-Bet: 1,6%   Too Low should be at least twice as high
• W$WSF: 44%   Pretty good as there are usually 2 opponents on average
• Steal: 46%    Pretty high but they seldom 3-bet me so if I have a hand I can se the flop in position
• Steal Success: 52%    If it works more than 50% and only get 3-bet about 10% of the times I can still win the pot, I don’t raise with crap unless I have two Nits in the blinds
• Cold Call: 9%  much better than it used to be (30% )
• PFR:  When facing 1 limper in front of me: 7%  FAR TOO LOW, I must learn to punish the limpers!
• Call when facing 1 limper in front of me: 16% Probably good but I should raise more often
• Flop Raise C-Bet: 20%  I don’t know, but sometimes it’s more value in raising the Turn as villain has put mote money in the pot 
• bb/100: +26 I think it should be higher if I can take advantage of being in position

Conclusions:

• I am still too passive!!
• I don’t punish the limpers!!
• I don’t 3-Bet!!
• I made 6,5 big blinds/100, overall which is more than 3 Buy Ins. But a good player should make the double on NL25

Any Comments are highly appreciated.

Tomorrow I’ll start the next block:”Playing much more hands from the CO and play them aggressively, which means knocking out the button and play the hand in position” I must focus on my aggression as well!!! Cheers!

Back to Basic!

April 22, 2009

We all play poker for a very personal reason, and theses reasons vary much more from one person to another than most of the other games and sports. Poker is not a tennis mach where you just want to win 3 sets over the guy on the other side of the net.

Until now I have mostly been chasing as much bonus as possible on all known and unknown sites. During this period I have focused less on learning how to win than avoiding losing as this would counterfeit my goal of collecting the bonus (at least I thought so). This has resulted in a decent amount of winnings for the micro stakes. But the down side of this is that I have adopted a very weak-tight playing style. But instead of winning a few $$ and collecting some bonus after whole evening I asked my self the question. What do I need to do if I want to become a better poker player???

After watching Jason Ho’s SS Foundation videos again I realized I needed short & long term goals. So here they are:

• Beat NL25 FR for 10/bb over the next 100K hands.
• Move up to NL50 FR and make 5bb/10 over the first 100K hands.
• Beat NL50 for 10bb/100 over the following 100K hands.

Well goals are easy to set. But what do I need to do to reach my goals? After talking to Matt Pethybridge I had almost 100 items in my note book. That’s good AND bad because where the hell do I start? I’m not sure but one thing I know for sure is that any plan is better than just fooling around without any plan at all!

MY PLAN!

• Play 100K hands on NL25
• Have 3 different hand charts that go from Nitty – TAG – LAG. Each one of the charts will be played for 30K or 35K hands.
• Only play 4 tables and always focus on table selection and look for tables that will suit the things that I want to practice.
• Divide my training into 20 different blocks of 5K hands and only have one certain thing to work on.
• Make one post at the forums every day.
• Always take notes as I play.
• Replay the 10 biggest pots from last session before I start a new one.
• Reset my HUD in accordance to what I’m practicing.

MY TRAINING BLOCKS!

1. Playing as many hands from the button as possible and trying to outplay my opponents with help of my position.
2. Playing more hands from the CO and play them aggressively, which means knocking out the button. This way I will be able to have the button twice per orbit.
3. Focus on which limpers I can raise with any playable hand from the BTN/CO.
4. Stealing almost every time from BTN and CO and it’s folded to me. If I have a calling station on the button when I’m in the CO I will change tables.
5. Looking for two loose weak victims at the table and trying to play as many hands as possible against them with position.
6. Looking for two weak tight victims at the table and trying to push them off their hands when I have position
7. Start with 1/2 stack and play very aggressive
8. Stealing from the SB, when in the BB. Never let the SB limp in, raise him with what ever crap and adjust to his reaction. If he let me keep my BB and give me his SB it will make a huge difference over 5K hands, not to mention the rest of all hands I will play in the future.
9. Balancing my C-Bets, trying to figure out if C-betting or not, depending on board texture, my hand and his playing style and possible range. My C-Bet% now is far too high
10. Delayed C-Bets. Figure out how my opponents react, will they call with worse hands thinking I missed the flop or will they take a stab at the pot by betting into me on the turn.
11. Double Barreling, who will call the flop and fold to a turn bet and on what board texture?
12. 3-bet lighter in position.
13. Float the PFR and attack on the Turn
14. Raise the Pre flop raiser on the Flop
15. Check raising the Flop as a semi bluff
16. Find out how to handle a donk bet when I raised pre flop and have position
17. Turn play, when I have a made hand. How can I set up a plan for getting the whole stack in on the River?
18. River Play, who is bluffing with missed draws, against whom can I induce bluffs, when can I value bet with marginal hands?
19. Defending my blinds against steals, I have to win back at least 50% of the blind money I have to put in the pot, this means the SB stats must be better than (-25bb/100) and the BB (-50bb/100)
20. ???

I’m convinced that it is possible for me to make 10bb/100 at Full Ring NL$50. I am also very aware that it will take a big load of work to achieve it but I will succeed!

 This year’s graph for NL25 FR before starting the project

My First Blog!

 April 22, 2009

My first Blog, Hello and welcome to my contribution to the “Blog World”.  All posts before Nov 18th 2009 are copied from another Blog I had but the format was anything but userfriendly thats why I am here.  Read! Enjoy? Add comments PLZ… 

My intention with this blog is to cover what my life brings and offers without limitations, but to start with I will probably cover poker a larger degree than other topics.

My on-line poker experiences started about 3 years ago when my neighbor and I was having a few drinks and he let my play on his account and it was a lot of fun although we lost about $100.

The next day I opened an account on Pacific and deposit $20 which I lost in about 30min, I reloaded another $30 and same result. In spite of this little loss I knew that on-line poker could be very profitable because another neighbor had started very early in “Party No-Foldem” days and made a lot of money.

I bought a poker book, reloaded my account with another $100 and read a bunch of articles from cardplayer.com to get some basic ideas about the game.

During this time I began a bonus hunting trail playing micro stakes LH full-ring and after a while I switched to 6-max and was pretty successful on $0,25/$0,5 and $0,5/$1.

Until Aug last year I was not using any tracking software and was only playing on intuition and feeling. I kept my records in a spread sheet and made a little more than $7K where about $3K came from bonuses.

In august 2008 I signed up for a Stoxpoker membership and bought the Holdem Mgr software. Reading the forum and watching the videos at Stox became a chock as well as a wake up call. There were so many things I had never heard of or didn’t understand what they ment; squeezing, double barreling, pot control, delayed C-bets, ranges, stealing from the SB, and of course the 2 phrases by Leatherass “Punish the Limpers” and “All-In Baby”. Neither did I know that someone could play +100K hands/month!!

I read the forums back and forth and printed out a bunch of post which I kept in the bedroom in case my girlfriend would have a headache…

There were so many insightful comments on the hands by that I realized that I DIDN’T HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL ABOUT POKER!! All the videos on stoxpoker were all great some greater than others, but not a single bad one IMO.

The less great videos were probably the greatest ones because they were far far above my poker knowledge.

Last year I was mostly playing NL25 Fr and 6-max on Sun Poker due to a good rake back deal, but when they left cryptologic for iPoker I didn’t follow.

In January cashed out my money from all sites and made my first deposit on Poker Stars. I have only played FR NL25 and made about 10 buy-ins on the first 30K hands.

In March I got in touch with Matt Pethybridge and he helped me to dig into my HM database and give me a bunch of good tips. You are a very good plumber Matt, Thanks!

Two weeks ago I saw a new video (Jedi Mind Tricks) by Jason Ho and remember that he did a few videos for beginners last year. I didn’t like them because I wanted to se some great players play poker and be as good as they are!

Anyway I liked the Jedi Mind Tricks Video and went back to watch his old videos and just came to the conclusion:

 “The Small-Stakes Foundation”  Were The Videos To  Watch For Someone Like Me!

Now I know that this was the way to learn the game, step by step and not trying to figure out why “Leatherass” squeezes a certain player with junk at 6-max NL200 when I play against the other donks at NL25 FR. Sorry Dusty, Kyle and the rest of you fabulous players, I will understand more from your videos when I have a solid foundation to lean on to!

Here are the results from last year. This year will be better!!