Hands Played Today - 7859

Hands Played June - 199005

Comments:

Another horrible day. I just seem to lose every hand that I play. But once again, I thought I played ok. I will look it over tonight and see if anything is wrong. If I have one more terrible day there, I will have to drop down to regain some confidence.
Hands Played Today - 10845

Hands Played June - 191146

Comments:

Today was a complete disaster. First day at NL25. Thank you Pokerstars! Ran about as worse as I have all year. I was down 9 buyins at one point. I managed to get back to minus 4 buyins so I count that as a victory. I played pretty good today but in retrospect there are a few big pots where if I thought things through a bit more, a very difficult, but correct fold, was there. I really need to work on this as it totaled 2.5 buyins today that could have been saved if I was on my A+ game. I played a bit more aggressive today that normal. 14/12/4 with a 4% 3bet. I think it is fine.

But I should have just nitted it up more cuz I have hardly any info on the regs or even the fish. I lost a lot of money today in non showdown spots b/c I simply could not get people to fold anything. A good part of this is running bad though. They just had it every single time today.

There are a few pretty good regs at NL25. Real solid guys who are very aggressive. I shipped 88 preflop for value against one of them today. I'm not used to these kind of players as they are non existent at NL2 and NL5. Obviously NL25 plays much tighter but all and all, it is about what I expected. There are still lots of fish and most of the regs are way too nitty and passive like at NL5.

VPP rate is .084 on my 11k hand sample which is about what I expected. Unfortunately I will probably come up just short of Platinum this month. But stellars move really quickly now, and FPP pile up fast. Oh and the day I leave the nanostakes PokerStars implements a 10x VPP month lol. Whatever, I won't be playing down there hopefully ever again.

Hands Played Today - 109

Hands Played June - 180301

Comments:

I spent an hour or so today configuring HEM and the HUD. I must say that I am very impressed with the software. I have used PT2 and some crude free HUD (Realtime and before that Gametime+) for my entire poker career. While they served their purpose, it is definitely time for a change. I will be coughing up the 90 bucks for HEM once the trial runs out. I am also fully upgraded to Windows7 now. It also rules. No more Vista crap. I will be playing NL25 starting tomorrow. As promised, my redline. It is for June.



Hands Played Today - 7053

Hands Played June - 180192

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 7541

Hands Played June - 173139

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 7560

Hands Played June - 165598

Comments:

I dished out the ultimate suckout today. 1 out with 1 card to come. I didn't feel too bad. Its happened to me enough times. I have certainly been running pretty decent this month though. No complaints here.

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $5.13
MP1: $1.93
Hero (MP2): $15.19
CO: $7.07
BTN: $4.93
SB: $13.55
BB: $12.50
UTG: $9.51

Pre-Flop: 5 5 dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, Hero raises to $0.15, 2 folds, SB calls $0.13, BB folds

Flop: ($0.35) 2 T A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.35) 5 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.30, SB raises to $0.90, Hero raises to $3, SB raises to $13.40 and is All-In, Hero calls $10.40

River: ($27.15) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $27.15 Pot ($1.35 Rake)
Hero showed 5 5 and WON $25.80 (+$12.25 NET)
SB showed A A and LOST (-$13.53 NET)

Hands Played Today - 4042

Hands Played June - 158038

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 7574

Hands Played June - 153996

Comments:

Funny hand from today. Villain is a really bad reg who is very nitty. We don't really have much history that I can remember. I did run a huge successful bluff against him a few months back but that is about it. I have however heard from a good reg that he is inclined to do retarded spewy things sometimes. So snap call and lol.

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

UTG: $12.50
UTG+1: $4.78
UTG+2: $4.88
MP1: $4
MP2: $6.04
CO: $12.83
Hero (BTN): $12.70
SB: $5.09
BB: $7.07

Pre-Flop: 3 3 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG raises to $0.20, 5 folds, Hero calls $0.20, SB folds, BB calls $0.15

Flop: ($0.62) 5 5 4 (3 Players)
BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($0.62) 3 (3 Players)
BB bets $0.35, UTG raises to $1.05, Hero calls $1.05, BB folds

River: ($3.07) Q (2 Players)
UTG bets $11.25 and is All-In, Hero calls $11.25

Results: $25.57 Pot ($1.27 Rake)
UTG showed K A and LOST (-$12.50 NET)
Hero showed 3 3 and WON $24.30 (+$11.80 NET)
Hands Played Today - 6053

Hands Played June - 146422

Comments:

Last 2 days sucked. Serious heater today. Just played one long session. Nice when you hit everything in sight.
Hands Played Today - 7120

Hands Played June - 140369

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 7064

Hands Played June - 133249

Comments:

The shit finally hit the fan today but I still shipped 8 cents profit on the day because I am that good! (well really it is because they are that bad). The past week or maybe two weeks have been very nice. Not a heater but just a consistent streak of running a bit above average (not too many coolers and good hands holding against draws etc). I don't think I have ever seen a stretch this long before. I almost forgot what poker stress was.

My last session today where I lost all the day's profits through no real fault of my own made me think that there is just no point in trying to understand variance. I alluded to it in the article last week. Our brains just can't compute/process this stuff. I actually said to myself that if I just quit early I would save myself money. I was right. It was just downhill the whole time. And this has happened many times before. I can't explain it.

But this is not always the case. Sometimes a session starts bad and then turns around. But I prefer to ignore those and focus on the disasters like tonight as evidence of rigging. Just stop trying to understand. Because I can't and never will. Just grind.


“The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.”

- Sir Francis Bacon

Poker Bell Curves

Hands Played Today - 7041

Hands Played June - 126185

Comments:

I can't complain about this month, especially the last week. Its been smooth sailing. I gave up using a HUD a week or two ago. It was lagging my computer too much which was tilting in and of itself. I actually kind of prefer playing without one anyways. All the regs at NL5 are pretty much the same...really, really tight. And unknowns are pretty much always bad.

A few months ago I erased all EV programs off my computer because I think looking at them when running bad can just reinforce negative feelings. But AA vs KK has been so out of whack this month that I had to get setometer again and see it for myself.


I've lost an incredible $80 in AA vs KK situations so far this month, mostly 5 dollars at a time as I rarely fold KK preflop for only 100bb, but often do so against tight regs for 250bb. I don't think I have ever seen such a wide discrepancy in BB amount. However the same goes for my set hitting abilities. As can been seen by all the blue in the graph, I am hitting an insane amount of sets this month. So it all balances out.


For comparison, the above is my setometer on the year. I am hitting well more than my fair share of sets. But I am well below average in set over set and AA vs KK. The sample size is 1 million hands. Variance...lol.

P.S. before I get a bunch of comments asking for this program here is a link

http://rapidshare.com/files/114685051/Setometer.msi.html
Hands Played Today - 7047

Hands Played June - 119144

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 6013

Hands Played June - 112097

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 6165

Hands Played June - 106084

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 4017

Hands Played June - 99919

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 6056

Hands Played June - 95902

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 5008

Hands Played June - 89846

Comments:

The games were amazing today and I ran like God. Always a nice combo. Unfortunately didn't have time to play longer.

How To Deal With Tilt

I had a good question in the comment section section yesterday that I will just answer here. The question:

I have a question for you, if you have the time. In one of your earliest posts you stated the following: "Fuck this game. It makes no sense at all lol. How the hell is it not rigged, seriously? "

I'm wondering how you got past this point? I find myself constantly tilting, thinking this game is rigged, PS is rigged, guys like you have a 'boomswitch' account, etc... I've wanted to give up so many damn times! I just can't see how the suckouts and bad beats can happen so damn often when it's just 2 players in a hand.

Any secret to how you got past that statement? Did you read more, watch videos, fold more, meditate, witchcraft, voodoo? Anything?

To answer your question. Yes I did say that. And honestly, I think that statement in my head just about everyday at some point. I just don't rant about it here anymore or at least try not to. Nobody likes bad beat stories. With the amount of hands I put in, the insane shit I see on a daily basis is just impossible to understand at times. I bring bad news however. There is no magic formula to overcome this.

Everybody seems to complain about how bad they run these days. You've all heard the stories of aces getting cracked 3 times in a row, that fish hit his flush draw on the river yet again etc etc. There are so many unlucky people out there! But how can that be? Somebody must be running good right?

Online poker sites have been around for 10 years in some cases. Pokerstars alone has dealt 60 billion hands...I just checked. Each of those hands has a raw hand history file that you can request from them at any time. Surely somebody would have found the rigging by now right?

The problem lies in the human brain. There is nothing rigged going on. We just cannot compute the short term craziness. We expect things to always be somewhat "normal" or close to probability. When the truth is, that sometimes it will be off by a wide margin and for a long time. And this is completely normal. Its just part of the random chain of events.

If you have some time to blow try flipping a quarter a bunch of times and write down the results as you go. I did this once. I flipped it 250 times. I believe I had 3 separate instances where it came heads or tails 6-8 times in a row. Crazy stuff happens. And it only gets crazier as you increase the sample size.

If I really had a lot of time on my hands and flipped the coin 1000, 10000, 100000 times in a row I could probably expect to find instances where it came heads or tails, 10, 20 or even 30 times in a row! How many poker hands have you played again? I think you can see where I am going with this.

We also tend to overestimate our abilities a lot. This happens more in poker than almost any other area. There is so much ego involved. And ultimately this is a big reason why it is so profitable. People constantly have their blinders on. Its not my fault. Look at him. He just runs good. I am just unlucky. When we succeed we tend to attribute our successes to some talent or ability of ours. But when we fail, we prefer to blame it on some outside force. This is called the self serving bias.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias

This has gotten fairly longwinded at this point. Basically the only thing you can do is try to lessen the impact of tilt. Everyone is gonna tilt due to short term crazy runs of cards mixed in with feelings that they are cursed etc due to the self serving bias. As long as you are human, you are going to tilt.

But the best players finds ways to minimize it. Some of the ways to control it may be genetic. That is, some people are able to control their emotions more easily than others. But some of the ways can be learned to a certain degree as well, such as constantly reinforcing the rational arguments above. But there are also a whole host of ways to prevent tilt that you can work on away from the table, or before you sit down, that are available for everyone.

Some of these are not playing when tired, angry, hungry or drunk. Only play when you have a fresh mind and there are no distractions. Always remember that the games run 24/7 and you never have to play.

There are going to be disaster sessions every once in awhile. You need to develop the ability to instantly close all tables and just go take a walk. You simply have to have the ability to not chase losses at higher limits. Its gotta be like committing some horrible crime. You are just not going to do it...ever.

Get better. Be humble and approach the game as though you are going to learn something new each day. The guy who thinks he is already the greatest and never studies will get left behind. Be the guy who is always improving his game and thus his winrate. Bigger winrate = more winning sessions/days/weeks/months/years. Bad beats and coolers are easier to handle because they are cutting into your profits more than creating losses for you.

Lastly, living a healthy lifestyle is crucial for me. Solid diet, regular exercise and good sleep. Simple breathing exercises, or meditating from time to time can also work wonders. You can ever do this while you are playing!. Try it sometime.

poker tilt
Hands Played Today - 7098

Hands Played June - 84838

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 10530

Hands Played June - 77740

Comments:

Today was absolutely wild. I played twice as long as I normally do in my second session as there were several maniacs who I had position on. They destroyed me early. I was down about 4 buyins and really tilted. Some of my stackoffs were a bit questionable but it is very hard to get away from top pair against a guy playing 100% of hands. Anyways, I beat them in the end. It just took a lot longer than I would have hoped.

My favorite hand of the day. MP2 is a tight reg. BB is crazy.

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (UTG): $19.39
UTG+1: $1.98
UTG+2: $14.44
MP1: $5.77
MP2: $12.30
CO: $9.41
BTN: $11.86
SB: $5
BB: $12.13

Pre-Flop: 3 2 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $0.15, 3 folds, MP2 calls $0.15, 3 folds, BB calls $0.10

Flop: ($0.47) 5 T A (3 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $0.30, MP2 folds, BB calls $0.30

Turn: ($1.07) 4 (2 Players)
BB checks, Hero bets $2, BB raises to $4, Hero raises to $18.94 and is All-In, BB calls $7.68 and is All-In

River: ($24.43) A (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $24.43 Pot ($1.21 Rake)
Hero showed 3 2 and WON $23.22 (+$11.09 NET)
BB showed 4 5 and LOST (-$12.08 NET)

Hands Played Today - 7436

Hands Played June - 67210

Comments:
Hands Played Today - 7110

Hands Played June - 59774

Comments:

Well today was going about as horrible as possible, losing every hand etc. But near the end of my final session I found a table with a total maniac. The kind who is probably 15 beers in and open shoving every other hand. Hurray, I can finally make some money now.

So first we will make the standard call with King high for 250bb. Oh wat...Pokerstars?

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $12.50
Maniac: $15.58
UTG+1: $13.33
MP: $4.93
CO: $13.68
BTN: $6
SB: $9.65

Pre-Flop: T K dealt to Hero (BB)
Maniac raises to $15.58 and is All-In, 5 folds, Hero calls $12.45 and is All-In

Flop: ($25.02) A 2 T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Turn: ($25.02) 8 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($25.02) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $25.02 Pot ($1.25 Rake)
Hero showed T K and LOST (-$12.45 NET)
Maniac showed J 9 and WON $23.77 (+$11.27 NET)


Well lets try this again. This time I have a Jack and a 7, they are suited. I also have the button which is kind of overkill. Since there is some postflop action in this hand I will leave my thought processes below in blue


Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $13.62
SB: $4.29
Maniac: $26.57
UTG: $13.51
UTG+1: $4.61
MP1: $13.96
MP2: $5
CO: $7.80

Pre-Flop: 7 J dealt to Hero (BTN)
3 folds, MP2 raises to $0.15, CO folds, Hero calls $0.15, SB folds, Maniac raises to $0.50, MP2 folds, Hero calls $0.35

MP2, who opens the pot, is a 10/4 supernit reg. I would probably flat him here even without the maniac behind. LOL when he folds to the maniac's reraise. Pay attention much?

Flop: ($1.17) J 8 K (2 Players)
Maniac bets $0.20, Hero raises to $1.35, Maniac raises to $2.50, Hero raises to $13.12 and is All-In, Maniac calls $10.62

Hmm. I have middle pair. He is crazy. I raise...I'm all in.

Turn:
($27.41) 5 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


River: ($27.41) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)


Results: $27.41 Pot ($1.36 Rake)
Hero showed 7 J and WON $26.05 (+$12.43 NET)
Maniac showed Q 9 and LOST (-$13.57 NET)

Yay


Unfortunately this story does not have a happy ending as the maniac lost the rest of his money to another supernit who woke up with aces.