The End Of The Road

Well, we made it. There were a few times when I thought of throwing the towel in or jumping off the cart for sure but that would have been the easy route innit? Certainly not the spirit of the determined poker player who wants to keep the fire burning... and I'm very glad I've not let myself down too. The results may not have been great but, hey, that's all part of the development. As my tagline states, the hope was to bring something different to the table and I've always tried to achieve just that. I also hope to have shown, to all types of people, not only what a year is like for the amateur poker player but the sort of agonies and ecstasies that are experienced along the way - and how long they can last for. It can be intense at times (if you let it) and you really do sometimes forget that it's only just a game where the money is pretty negligible in the wider scheme of things. 

To any sceptical non-poker players out there I hope to have shown that by studying the game and by attempting to become at least half-decent - you really DON'T end up being a degenerate gambler who loses his life-savings as some scaremongers might have you believe. To any beginners out there, I hope to have shown that poker is nothing to do with short-term results but everything to do with the long-term. You get the hard knocks early on but if you perservere, it's the long haul and how you approach it that really defines you as a player.

To all those amateur players out there - from long-term losers, to break-even players right up to the big winners - I hope you've been entertained and informed. I know I go on, I really do, but if you've looked at the game from a different angle as a result of reading the odd post then I guess I've done my job. For the crushers and the pros, the material may not have given insight into strategy but it may have given you an insight into how a lot of us humble amateurs think about the game. (Just remember though, we do evolve and I, for one, expect to be a more developed and complete player when I get to sit at your table.)

Finally, I'd like to thank my followers (including those who have kept themselves hidden) for keeping me company throughout this here journey of mine but also everyone who has visited my blog and contributed to my total pageviews count. Special mention has to go to some of the regulars at PKR like Rhymenoceros and WongaMan who joined me on this journey right at the very beginning and whose mere presence alone has given me the encouragement to crack on with the blog in those trickier early days.  

Although the blog ends, my journey as a poker player has reached a new chapter. I know I'll be tempted to post again at this url address but I really will have to resist. It has to be about breaking free, starting a clean sheet and flying away now. If I do get the urge to blog again, it will have to be as another fresh start somewhere else.

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Wittgenstein once said that whatever is worth talking about is always left unsaid. (Maybe that's why poker - a game where you hardly ever have to speak - is such a great game.) So I am going to be a bit cheesy and have my parting piece be a bit of music which, for me, has such a strong and emotive connection with the great game that it's the only appropriate thing to end with.

It's a piece that's included as part of the soundtrack for Sergio Leone's masterpiece "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"; the best western film ever brought to the big screen. It occurs in the concluding moments of the film when the character Tuco ("the ugly") has, like myself, come to the end of the road. He has stumbled upon a graveyard with thousands of gravestones. One of them has the buried treasure beneath it but he doesn't know which one. In his greed, desire and passion to find the elusive gravestone, he runs around frantically trying to search for it while this piece of music plays in the background.

To a large degree, poker is a bit like Tuco desperately searching for the treasure - we're all like him really, full of hope and desperately searching for something that we often feel like we're never going to find and which always seems so tantalizingly close. There is definitely an element of greed to it (whether we like to admit it or not) and we all think we are the ones who deserve to find the rewards and to possess it for ourselves more than others. It can only be the beauty and power that is:

Ecstacy of Gold

A Late Surge At The Online Game

I'm probably typing this too soon but with just two days to go now before the new year is upon us, I bring good news on the online front. Over the last few weeks I've been storming the virtual tables to the extent that my faith in my abilities as an online poker player have been well and truly restored. Yep, the brief run may only be a very small sample but after some really sound play at the cash games from all levels from 50nl up to 200nl, I'll be closing 2011 as a break-even online player. Hurrah!

It may have not been my greatest year at the online game but at least this late burst gives me the boost in confidence needed to give me hope and optimism for the new year. Good results and friendly cards always help, of course, but I've really been encouraged by my discipline, table selection skills and my playing and quitting the tables at the right times. Oh, and I think I've fixed a few leaks along the way as well - so it's all good, good, good. In fact, I'm so encouraged that I've even transferred the necessary money over in my bank accounts to prepare to make my second big deposit into PKR to ensure my bankroll/investment is complete and in place for 2012.

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This, by the way, is my penultimate post. On the 31st December I'll sign off with a final message and write my final farewells. However, I'd just like to take this opportunity to write briefly, once again, of the BIGGEST change that has occurred in me since I took up the reigns of this blog at the end of last year; that is, the change I've had  in my attitude towards my poker bankroll. I'm re-emphasising this precisely because it's something that only became a revelation to me on that night I lost over £300 in one hand while holding KK and when my villain hit his 10 on the river to complete his set - an unpleasant experience at the time, of course, but one which really did turn on the biggest light-bulb in my head this year. You really do tend to have the most enlightening experiences in this game when you've suffered your biggest losses.

I refer, of course, to the idea that your entire bankroll - and the cash held in it - must never be looked upon as actually belonging to you. If a poker player is convinced that his abilities are sound (based on a history of a decent track record), has absolute faith that he will make the right decisions at the table, adheres to his bankroll management strategy and is of balanced enough mind to know when he is tilting (and, at the very least, minimise his losses) then the actual money in the bankroll should really mean diddly-squat.

--Personally, this new attitude towards the poker bankroll along with a continued desire to study the game on a regular basis in order to get better and better, means that I really do think 2012 will be a good year for me at both the real and the virtual felt.

Shuffle Up And Deal Baby!!

Final Thoughts

Once you've caught the poker bug and start to believe that you have an edge over the competition, the game can become an addiction. After all, winning money at something you enjoy is pretty seductive, right? It's then up to the individual to take it how far he wishes. At the bottom end you have the casual/recreational players (ok, let's call them "fish") whose knowledge of the game is minimal and who dip in and out when they get the urge. At the other end of the scale you have those who are totally absorbed by the game almost to the point of obsession - and they turn into pros (not that this is true for all pros mind you).

Somewhere in between these you get the amateurs; players who generally take the game seriously, play quite regularly and who generally end up winning a modest amount in the long-term which may supplement the income but is nowhere near enough to sustain their lifestyle on its own. Throughout my blog, I have often referred to the pros and have often used their way of doing things as a kind of measure or comparison with how I, myself, approach the game.

For me (apart from not being anywhere near good enough), the volume of hands needed to be put into the game, the amount of studying required and the amount of profit needed in order to maintain and sustain that livelihood and lifestyle of a pro (not to say of the desperation when a bad run kicks in) is something that I'm pretty sure would just do me in.

The greatest and most important thing that I think I have learned, as I come to the end of this here blog, is that I really don't need to try to emulate or compare myself to the pros anymore. The pros do what they do - and are fucking good at what they do - because they immerse themselves in the game and live and breathe it on a daily basis without the stresses and strains of a normal job (that's why they're called "pros"). For someone who works full-time for a living, there is just no way to compete with them on those terms mentioned above. For the pros, it's their life and they have to live with it; for us amateurs it is and always should be just a game.

For the average amateur poker player with a regular full-time job, the actual profits and losses of his poker bankroll - if he's a half-decent player with a solid bankroll management strategy in place - is probably negligible in the wide scheme of things. The point this leads to and the point I am getting at is that my days of results-orientated thinking really ARE over. At the moment,  I really really don't give a shit what my pathetic little bankroll balance is going to amount to anymore. What I DO give a shit about is becoming a better player, studying the game (at my own pace) even more and always making sure that I make the right decisions by bringing my A-game to the table.

If there is nothing else meaningful in this blog that any amateur player out there has taken away then I hope that the above two paragraphs, at least, resonate and strike a chord - because that's pretty much all there is to it.

Live Session #70: The Last One?

Ok, so after a bit of Christmas shopping I thought I'd pop into The Fox Club to try my luck. A one hour card-dead session at the cash table proved fruitless with £40 going the wrong way there - and then I thought I'd give the £48 MTT a go. Well, with 24 players left (from about 70 runners) I was going great guns with an average stack and a not too tricky table - but then got dealt my curse hand: KK. I saw a 10K raise before me, threw in the rest of my 45K chips and got the call which my villain just about covered. He flips over KQ of spades and I'm none too surprised to see two spades hit the flop plus a straight draw for our skillful villain. The dealer rewards him with the 10 of spades on the river handing him the straight flush. So that was that.

What made things worse was that when I got home I thought I'd fire up PKR and try a little 100nl online play. Yep, there it is again: I get dealt KK and see a king on the flop to hand me a set! ...Oh, but there was the flush on the river for my opponent. Now I thought my days of taking out a bad beat on inanimate objects were over but I'm afraid to say the mouse did get a bit of a battering after that. I know poker players say things like this all the time and I know it's boring to hear but for the love of god am I ever going to win a decent pot with KK!!??

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I know I wrote that I was done with poker for the year but I guess once a poker player, always a poker player and I felt I would play fine and I couldn't resist a little dabble at The Fox after the mad dash that is last-minute Christmas shopping - but Jesus H Christ I hope this bleedin' bad-run ends soon. Today, I've still got more Xmas shopping to do so it's another trek into town to brave the madness of the last-minute rush. They say that if you find yourself saying things to yourself like, "Can my luck get any worse!?" then it's probably not the best time to play but if I do end up in the poker room it'll be my last session of the year and I'll let you know how I get on.

Bankroll Management Strategy For 2012

Bankroll Management Strategy - Rationale
Now the thing is, for me, bankroll management has never really been an exact science. Although I've kept records and been very conscious of results (perhaps too conscious some might say), I've generally played an amount I've been comfortable with and that's been that. For 2012 that's going to change and I'm going to employ a concrete bankroll management strategy unlike any that I've done before. The crux of the matter is that not only will I be setting aside a definite amount of cash for poker but I'll be seeing my poker bankroll as an investment that will no longer be part of my savings; essentially money that no longer belongs to me. My entire focus will then be devoted to studying and playing the game as best as I can with the idea that the results will just take care of themselves. Important to this process is another approach which I think is crucial - and that is having a detached, almost indifferent, attitude towards the balance of that bankroll. 

Online Bankroll Management Strategy For 2012
Online poker has no doubt become tougher so consequently I'm going with safety and stability in the new year; in other words a more conventional bankroll management strategy. My effective online starting bankroll will be £2000 (~$3200) although I'll only deposit £1000 (~$1600) to start with. This will give me 64 buy-ins to play the 50nl cash games in great comfort but will also, with 32 buy-ins, suffice for the odd 100nl game as well. Incidentally, there is really not that much difference in player quality between the 50nl and 100nl cash games anyway.

To be honest, the main idea behind this is to just see if I'm actually still cut out for the online game. If, as is hoped, I manage to claw the bankroll up to $4K I'll make the 100nl cash game more my home with a view to dipping my toes into the 200nl waters once again. On the other hand, if I feel there are just too many sharks around spoiling my fun, or if I feel I just can't compete at the online game any longer, I'll pull the plug once and for all. I hate playing anything lower than 50nl so, rather than dropping down to 25nl if my online balance plummets (or if I just start to feel uncomfortable about my prospects), it will have to be a case of thank you and goodbye online poker - and I'll shift the money over to my live game bankroll.

Live Bankroll Management Strategy For 2012
My effective starting bankroll for the live cash games in 2012 will be £6000. With my usual sit-down amount at £1/£2 being between £250-£400, this gives me between 15 to 24 buy-ins. Now while this may sound like a small amount, I don't often buy in for the full £400; in fact, the average amount I usually buy in for is more like around £300 which makes it more like 20 buy-ins overall. Additionally, I'll be playing the odd £1/£1 games as well which have a maximum buy in of £200 so that gives me 30 buy-ins right there which is ample. Finally, with fewer sessions played live than online and a lot more hope and confidence in my live game, I reckon this is fine for a year's investment.

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All told, this means that the total investment for my 2012 venture in poker will be £8K. Rest assured, this is not a "leap of faith" I'm embarking on here as, with a lot of years of experience and knowledge behind me along with a half-decent track record, I'm reasonably sure that this will work out. Furthermore, without a blog hanging over me and without all the pressure to "prove myself" I hope to be able to focus more effectively on my game and on making right decisions. One more thing; if I feel I'm playing well but my early live results are going badly, I'm given myself the option of giving myself a £2K top-up from the funds from the bank (which makes it more like a £10K bankroll) - if I start off with an horrific bad run.  

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MTT Bankroll Management Strategy For 2012

With the online game I intend to keep MTT play restricted to playing just the satellites - and even then, this will not be often and will probably be for stages with an entry fee that just costs around $10-$20. I'll play the odd standard freezeout as well but this will be a rare occurence.

As far as live MTTs go, I've pretty much had my fill of the usual £30-£60 MTTs at The Fox - but I know I won't resist the temptation to enter a few of these every now and again. Like the online MTTs, I intend to enter these only very occasionally, as a kind of break from "proper" cash game poker, and to use money for them from my savings account rather than from my proper bankroll. I'll still keep track of my results and progress for these but will regard these more as a "fun night out" rather than a serious attempt to actually make money. With this method, I get to keep my serious cash game bankroll separate from the losses incurred after playing the donkaments. The only thing I really need to be careful of is over-drinking during these freezeouts, getting sloshed, and then sitting down to a cash game straight after a bust-out - bringing my C-game to the table.

Finally, what of those special mid-range MTTs of around £100-£350? Well, I'd really like to play in a few of these next year. However, even though I would like to keep payment and records of these separate from my live cash game roll, these MTTs have a slower structure and are actually worth taking seriously. Therefore, I'm going to try to play a few of these - but, again, will use money from my bank account rather than the poker bankroll. This way, cash game poker will stay as my staple diet while entry to MTTs can be kept to a minimum and just entered as a diversion from the usual routine.  

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Final Considerations
As mentioned, there is always the possibility that a huge downswing will hit both my live and online game in the first couple of months. Well, you know what? Shit happens; there are far more important things going in the world than some geezer losing a few grand at poker - and a hell of a lot of people are putting up with a hell of a lot more hardships than yours truly so let's not dwell on a few thousand going up the spout in a little business venture eh? Anyway, this can always be met with a £2K top-up from the ol' reserve funds.

As a final remark on this strategy I'd like to point out that, although I like to see myself as a semi-pro, I remain an amateur poker player. I won't be putting in anywhere near the same volume of hands or games as a pro and I certainly won't be depending on results to support my livelihood. My position at the start of January 2012 will remain the same as it started in January of this year: I still have a steady job; I enjoy a good, regular and steady income; I have a decent family in the background; I'm in good health and nothing terrible (touch wood) has really happened to me in my life. So yep, I may complain of my woeful lack of joy in poker but let's face it, with all those positives in place, I'm a lucky sort of chap really.   

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Any comments on the feasibility or effectiveness of this bankroll strategy would be welcome.

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble.

My End Of Year Review

Forgive me all, but being in run-bad mode for the last three and a half months means I'm not entirely as enthusiastic about writing this post as I probably should be. There again, to be honest, I've been quite thorough as far as reflecting back over the year is concerned - and an actual review just seems a bit superfluous. Lessons learned have been highlighted well enough in this post and a look at a bankroll management strategy for 2012 will be forthcoming. However, I'll go ahead and clarify the salient points just for the record.

The main point regarding online poker is that it's become a tougher, almost different style of game to the one I signed up to about 6 or 7 years ago. This is reflected in my online results this year (down a few hundred dollars) and consequently I'll be on a drastically reduced online starting bankroll for 2012.

Live poker meanwhile, although kinder results-wise over the year, has been a heavy-going affair over the last third which has seen a downward spiral and a four-figure hit to the live balance. Thankfully, satisfactory results over the first two-thirds of the year were enough to see me reach the finish-line in the black BUT paltry total winnnings of £1.5K is frankly unacceptable for the time and effort I've put into the game. To be honest, not quite what I had in mind when I started the wobbly blog.

As mentioned a few times, it would be easy to point to a poor run of cards as being the main contributory factor to account for this (five big losing hands totalling a loss of around £1K while holding those cursed KK comes to mind, along with extreme card-dead periods of time) but I have to raise my hand up to making some poor decisions as well while contesting some fairly big pots. 

Behind all this and despite the latest bad form, my study of the game is still an ongoing process and my hopes for 2012 remain high. With just ten days to go then until January, I don't think I'll be playing any more live sessions and the little activity I'll spend online will probably be at the micro-stakes. Whatever the situation, my main focus is now really on next year and I would like to outline that bankroll management strategy for 2012 in an upcoming post so that I can finally draw a line under my poker playing exploits and look to the future.

True, this summing-up has not quite been the fanfare or blowing of trumpets I had hoped for. Nevertheless this less than mediocre year does go to show that there really isn't anything definite in the world of poker. I can only hope that my consolation will come in the form of richer rewards next year.

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble.

It's A Wrap

Ok, well the idea was to keep £200 back for the live game until the end of the month but as I've just donked that off online, methinks I have come to the end of my poker journey for the year. It would be easy to say that the cards have just run badly for me over the last few months but truth be told my play has been shockingly bad recently, with my online play today being just awful. It may all be down to a bad frame of mind but whichever way you cut it, I really need to knock poker playing on the head for the year. There is really no need for me to struggle on in an attempt to climb out of this little hole I've been digging for myself over this last quarter so, poker-wise, it's all about starting afresh now.

The next two weeks will just be about enjoying Christmas, relaxing with the family, playing lots of computer games and studying (rather than playing) a bit of poker. I only really plan to do a few more posts; one to outline my bankroll strategy for 2012 and one to review how the year has gone.

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #69: Crucial Decisions

Well, last night was a £1/£2 cash game session at The Empire that, once again, didn't quite go according to plan. In the very first hand I got dealt the cursed KK - which got cracked once again as per. This time the villain turned a flush. The table proved to be extremely loose; not a good time to have my card-dead run revisit me for the entire 4 hour session. I only really needed to wait for a good hand to get involved with the maniac to my immediate right who was raising a hell of a lot about 75% of the time.

Unfortunately, after a great deal of patience, when the opportunity finally arose I messed up. While holding top pair/good kicker on the dry flop, I stupidly folded to his £100 raise when I should have just gone with my read and raised him all-in (for about £250). I discovered that, indeed, my read was correct and that an all-in move would have been the right decision. Not good. I really have to start bringing much more gamble to my game.

So with another painful losing session behind me, I'm kicking myself right now for making that terrible fold. It seems that I'm just not making the correct crucial decisions when they really count - and am still not having the balls to go with my god damn read. It's probably not a good idea for me to go and play some live poker this weekend but as it's my first full day off work of the Christmas break, and it's pretty sunny outside, this temptation will be hard to resist. 

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I have now put aside a very nice bankroll for next year which is locked away in a safe place. This means that rather than having a bankroll to play with for the rest of this year, I'm working with a budget - a budget that amounts to just £200. This, at least, will allow me to play the £1/£1 tables from now until the end of the year. Yep, the £200 is effectively a stop-loss amount - but, as I say, as my decision-making process is still a little blunt at the moment, I'm happy with this little set up and it's probably just as well. If I lose the lot, I'm done with live poker until the end of the month and I can start preparing for my 2012 campaign.

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Well, it does seem that the home straight is going to be a slow crawl to the finish line after all rather than the sprightly sprint that I'd hoped for. Never mind, it's probably all fate and is happening for a reason - let's just hope it's a good one eh?

Fix That Leak

In my last post, I was still in the doledrums about poker and didn't really feel in the mood to be merrily posting more of my usual old twaddle. However, time is always a good healer and although I'm still looking forward more to next year's poker than the few sessions I have left this year, this blog has to also be about the road to improving as a player - and this sometimes means facing the shortcomings, swallowing the pride and tackling the problems head on. (Rather than just feeling sorry for myself.)

It's a painful experience, to have to admit that you have faults, but I've had a few live sessions recently which really have highlighted a leak; not, that is to say, "just any old leak" but a worrying leak more associated with players we call "fish" rather than the "serious player" I like to think I am. This weakness needs be clearly stated for the record so the crack can be smoothed over once and for all.

I'm talking, of course, about calling or going all-in for heavy amounts when the brain just doesn't want to accept the fact that I'm beaten. The red mist usually appears after I've either been card dead for a long period of time (and then I "finally" pick up a premium hand) or when I've seen nothing but missed flops for hours and then "finally" see a very good flop for my hand and can't get away from it. All these situations show that I seem to lose it when I feel stuck in some way but also, of course, shows the onset of frustration and a resulting lack of patience on my part when things aren't going my way. I actually think that this is quite a prevalent fault with many players and so I have to say I'm a bit vexed for being guilty of the weakness myself. 

Examples of this have already been documented but it does seem to have happened a lot recently. Maybe the poor run of cards in addition to the 3 month downswing is making me play worse? Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly on a major downswing by any means - but recording a losing month for three times on the trot now could be a contributory factor. The thing is, I like to think that under normal circumstances I would go with my read and fold the losing hand as a good player should - rather than convince myself that my hand just might be better and throw more in the pot to see for sure, "just in case". Stoopid!

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So let's inject some logic here with the good ol' Jared Tendler method and see if we can come up with a fix:

1. First off, I have to tell myself that every player gets shovelled the shit once in a while. I've just happened to have my fair share recently.

2. We all get dealt good hands and then get outdrawn once in a while. Again, I just seem to have a high frequency of this occuring recently.

3. Generally speaking, I have been making good decisions and have been playing well. It's only this annoyance, of my low frequency of good hands getting outdrawn on, which has caused me to get emotional.

4. I must not allow the emotion of frustration to shut out the higher thinking part of my brain. This will only cause me to make bad decisions. I must take a stroll when I sense that the feeling of frustration is taking over my ability to think clearly about the hands.

5. The history of which cards I've been dealt should be irrelevant. I must go with my read and play the player. If I feel the villain has me beat and won't fold to a bluff, then I must throw the cards into the muck. But I must ALWAYS think the hand through and GO WITH MY READ.

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Ok, I need to start following through with this now and to make sure it sinks in.

Onwards and upwards...

I Want To Get Off Now!

When I look back at what I have achieved in this blog, at a basic kind of level, I have to say that I feel pleased to have kept it going and to have sustained it for the duration. My intention was to show what the ups and downs are like for an amateur poker player in the space of a year and to show the thrills and spills that are involved in trying to eke out a small profit in this maddening game. I know that some of my posts have been boring, or dull "thinking aloud posts", but it's the therapeutic nature of writing and the need to fit the pieces together via the written word that have made those posts necessary. Despite those less dynamic posts, I like to think that I have achieved my goal and that readers have appreciated what I set out to do.

The point I am getting at is that even though there are about three weeks to go, I really think that I have said all that I want to say and that I just want to get off this ride now. I won't pretend that my recent results have nothing to do with this, they do; I'm just finding it very difficult to keep the motivation going (for writing about poker) when every time I think I'm back on track, I get knocked off again. As mentioned before, as far as the blog goes, all I really want to do now is to get to next year, brush off the demons (both poker and work-related), wipe the slate clean - and break away from the chains of this blog!

Strangely, I guess, one thing I'll look forward to doing is smashing this wall of honesty that I've built up around myself over the past year. I've done a lot of reflective thinking over the last year in this blog and have revealed a hell of a lot about my thinking processes. Thankfully, poker thinking evolves and next year as well as being able to move forward with my development and the way I think about poker at a strategic level, I won't have to write about it anymore either! Hurrah!!

The other reason that I want this year over with is so that the exact details of my bankroll requirements are clear in my head. With one more payday to come, Christmas approaching, the daughters coming home from Uni and a few more poker sessions on the cards it's quite hard to arrive at a final bankroll figure for the live and online games. But this isn't really an individual or personal problem, all poker players are in that boat.

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To sum up, I'm feeling just a little bit sorry for myself right now and although I'll still post a load of old twaddle now and again, I can't see myself posting as regularly as I have been over these last few weeks.

Live Session #68: Frustration - Part 2

At just £60 down for the evening, I start to make the walk over to The Empire. Apart from getting dealt AA twice at The Vic, I've been shovelled shit my way all night so I'm pleased that I'm only a small amount down. At about 11PM, I sit down at a £1/£2 game with £300. It's an extremely aggressive table with some strong players but preflop raises of about £12-£15 are practically compulsory. Luckily, a space on another table becomes free and I get a table transfer. I bring over £270 to the new table but proceed to go card-dead for the next 2 hours. Opportunities to bluff just don't materialise.

Key Hand #5

Of all the hands I've played in for the evening, including the two other sessions, I've missed every flop apart from, maybe just the one. With the time approaching 1AM in this third session, and with another two hours past, the story is the same. I'm down to about £220 and I'm feeling quite stuck. Then I get dealt the hand you probably don't really want when you feel stuck, JJ in middle position. I raise it to £10 and the Tim Henman look-alike on the button just flat calls. I check/call the K x x flop, feeling that he is just continuation betting with a weaker hand. (You can start to feel like this when you get stuck.) The turn and river bring more bricks but my opponent plays the hand excellently for value as I check/call both of those streets. I'm mildly vexed when he flips over AK but he played it well..

Key Hand #6

Down to about £120 I get involved with Tim Henman again. We're in the same positions as before with Mr Henman holding the button and yours truly in middle position. I look down at AQ and raise it preflop and Henman makes the call on the button. The flop comes Q Q x and (after almost fainting at the site of a flop that I actually hit) I check as I did in the previous hand to continue with my passive image. It's the same story. He raises, I call and it's the same with the turn, only this time I throw in the £25 underbet on the river - he tanks quite a bit but makes the call and my stack gets the much needed boost it was crying out for. He is, by the way, an absolute gentleman about it.

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Brace yourself dear reader, for the poker gods are about to pull that rug. With the time at about 1:30AM and my stack now back up to a healthy £200, I get involved in a hand which - if it panned out as planned - would have given me a satisfying evening of poker.

Key Hand #7

I think quite a few factors may have contributed to my bad call here so a quick preamble is in order... As you recall, virtually every hand I was involved in tonight (apart from KH#6), had me missing the flop - and after nearly 7 hours of play, this does play on your mind a little. Secondly, the villain in question was quite an obnoxious Romanian fellow who had been bantering (very badly) and laughing at his fellow countryman's inane jokes for much of the evening. This may or may not have had something to do with the hand but it did make the result all the less sweet.

I'm looking down in the small blind at 6 7 of clubs. The straddle is on and two players have limped so I elect to do the same. Four players are in the pot and the flop comes 4 5 8 with the 5 and 8 being clubs. I've flopped the nut straight and have a flush draw with a straight flush draw to boot! I can't go wrong right? I check for deception and then the action goes: bet £9, call, call --> and the action is now on me. I reach down and throw in £40 which gets two folds. Mr Obnoxious Romanian tanks for a while before calling and I actually put him on the flush draw right there!

I prey for the dealer NOT to put that club on the turn - there are only five winners for him, if the 4 or 9 of clubs falls I have my straight flush. But of course, he delivers the 3 of clubs on the turn. My villain checks but I still think he's playing it cute and I check likewise. The river comes and of course I hope to see him check it down but he reaches for £65 and throws it in. I'm pretty sure I know what his game is but when you miss flops all night and then flop the damn nuts but still hit a flush yourself it's so hard to fold. Yep, I made the call and saw him turn his KQ of clubs face up to beat my lesser flush. A terrible call for sure (especially when this was the clear read I had) but, what the hell, it's another lesson learned: despite the history of the cards you really need to go with your damn read!

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After mucking my hand, the villain even asked what I had (as if I was going to tell him) and this often annoys me. He had just won £100 off me yet still wanted to know what I had. I said, "What does it matter to you what I had? You won the hand, that should be enough." Tim Henman though, in his polite way, asked if I had flopped the nuts and I told him I had. And then I took my leave. Bah Humbug.

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Once again, then, we're talking about a recovery process and, to be honest, I'm getting tired of this. Obviously making the bad call like I did in KH#7 shows that I still have a long way to go; calling when "knowing" you're beaten is a fish-like tendency, plain and simple. But I really just want to take this on board AND on the chin - and for this year to end so I can start afresh. As I've mentioned many times before, it's very frustrating to have to report on losing months and losing sessions when you feel that your game is actually getting better. But, yeh, those blips are proving costly and they're entirely my own fault. I just REALLY need to learn from them now.


Until next time, then...

Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #68: Frustration - Part 1

'Twas a fairly long session last night which consisted of visiting three poker rooms. Frustration was the order of the day. First up was a 5:30PM start at The Vic and a £1/£1 cash game. I bought in for £200 and lost around £100 in the first 10 minutes: 

Key Hand #1

I look down at JJ in early position and raise it up preflop. A very loose and tilting player opposite me goes all-in for the rest of his £34 in chips. It's folded back round to me and I call. He flips over AK and hits the ace on the turn. Why do the fish always win when you are the one competing against them?  

Key Hand #2

A few hands later tilting boy is still playing bizarrely and I look down at 10 J in late position. I raise it up preflop and he calls. The flop comes 10 x x with undercards to the ten and I decide to go all-in. Tilting boy calls and when the board gets dealt out he announces full-house and flips over 10 10! Another £60 goes south.

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With about £90 in front of me, I dig in and manage to make a full recovery:

Key Hand #3

I'm looking at a 6 3 3 flop and I'm holding 6 3 in middle position. A villain in early position goes all-in for about £40 and I make the call. Another villain in later position announces that he's going to make a nit-fold and folds 3 2 face up! I realise more of a tank call was in order. Anyway, the rest of the board is dealt out and I take down the pot.

Key Hand #4

After getting dealt AA and winning about £25 I look down at AA once again and am delighted when there is an all-in of about £50 before me. I call and he flips over AK. My aces hold up and I'm back to break-even.

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Two good players to my left then leave for a short ciggie-break and I'm able to boss the table for a little bit while it's short-handed but this is then followed by a drought of hands and I'm card-dead for about an hour and a half. I leave at 8:30PM, after a 3 hour session, about £30 down.

Next up, I decide to give The Fox a visit and I sit down at a £1/£1 table with a £200 buy-in at about 9:15PM. I play very loose early doors but get played back at and fold. I feel I'll get paid off if I actually hit something but get dealt total junk for the next hour and a half and leave while about £30 down.

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Action Plan For 2012

Just over a year has past since I first started the idea of writing a load of old twaddle about poker. I had already learned a lot of things about metagame strategies way back then but during 2011 certain issues have become so clear and obvious that they now really need to be cemented and fixed for 2012. Many, if not all, of the following points have been tackled in this blog already - but let's do a "Top 10" anyway just for the record.

1. Reduce Alcohol Intake While Playing.
Getting drunk at the table, while always seeming like a great idea at the time, has always ended up being a mistake - not least because it gives the illusion you can make great decisions and play great poker at the same time. I need to cut this out altogether or, at the very least, set myself a limit.

2. Keep Studying.
With more and more players seeing the benefit of tracking software nowadays as well as the benefits of training sites, along with reading forums and books, studying the game is probably more important than ever. I'm reading some great books at the moment and certainly intend to continue studying the game throughout next year and beyond.

3. Cash Games Good / MTTs Bad.
I should now make this my mantra for next year. I've got to get away from playing the high-variance game and sheer lottery of the low buy-in MTTs. I nearly always regret entering tournies and as it's cash games that I study, it's really cash games that I should play.

4. Bankroll Management.
My savings and poker bankroll have always merged and got in the way of each other so in 2012, my poker bankroll will be held totally separate from my savings and current account. The bankroll will now be seen as an investment that has been paid for so the money will be considered as spent. I will have a detached attitude to the poker bankroll and as long as I play my best, the results should take care of themselves.

5. Reduce Online Poker Play / Increase Live Poker Play
If 2011 has taught me anything it's that online poker has just got tougher. I have drastically reduced the volume of online hands I've played this year and results-wise I have barely broken even. Next year I will cut down with my online play but attempt to play more live poker as a result. I hope to mainly play the £1/£2 game at The Empire some time between Fridays and Sundays but the odd £1/£1 game at other venues will be fine.

6. Walk Away From A Tough Table
Many evening live poker sessions have had me pleasantly swimming in all sorts of fish ponds with all sorts of fish. However, a few off-peak sessions at various poker rooms (and some evening ones as well), can seem like shark pools. In future, if I feel the game is not tipping in my favour, I'll need the self-discipline to rise out of my seat and just leave!

7. A-Game Poker Only
The mind needs to be free of all sorts of influences when sitting down to play. The main thought process that should be going on when sitting down is: "Let's see what these opponents are like and let's figure out what is the best way to win their chips." If this thought process is not uppermost in the mind then something is probably not quite right.

8. More Reason / Less Emotion.
I'm all for A-game poker, but there have been occasions when my heart has ruled my head and I've made a call or gone all-in despite what logic dictates. As Tendler would say, this is when the emotional side of me is heightened to the extent that it switches off the brain's capacity to think or function properly. It's a rarer occurrence, thankfully, but it still creeps back every once in a while.

9. Keep Records
I did this for much of 2010 and I've been doing this throughout 2011 and know exactly where my money has been lost and won. Every live poker session result has been recorded and I record my online balance at the end of every day. As a result I'm confident where my best chances lie in 2012. If any player wants to hone their skills in a certain format, they need to know how well they're doing at cash games, MTTs or SnGs - and at which stakes. Online or live is also a consideration.

10. My Business
This is one I've learned after doing this blog for a year. After playing poker quite seriously for about 2 or 3 years, I can see myself now as a winning player; not a GREAT winning player for sure, but a winning player nevertheless - with faults and leaks galore. But I've had it with pressurizing myself by revealing those results. I know it was my own choosing to show them in the first place but I've come to realise that I now need only to prove my ability to myself. Consequently, in 2012, my poker business is MY business and MY business only.

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This still leaves me with  settings goals and targets for 2012 but, to be honest, I don't really think that setting monetary targets is useful. All I think I really need to do is stick with my action plan (above) and let nature, or the poker gods, take their course. One thing I would like to do in 2012, which I haven't done in 2011, is to enter one or two higher-end MTTs; preferably via a satellite or two. By these I don't necessarily mean the 4-figure buy-in events that the high-stakes pros go for (although satelliting into one of these would be nice) but, possibly, a few of the £200-£350 events that take place in London from time to time. I'll have to see how my cash game is getting on before entering one of those though.

Finally, online poker just never goes away does it? I'll really need to figure out just what I'm going to do in that department; Shall I just go with a small monthly bankroll strategy? Shall I stick to low stakes? Shall I just focus on satellites or shall I switch backwards and forwards between sats and cash? I really don't know but I do want to lay out a clear strategy before the new year arrives.

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As always, I'll let you know.

Online Effort In December

Last weekend I made a £200 (~$300) deposit into PKR and told myself this was probably going to be the last deposit of the year. I've mainly been playing cash game poker from nl25 to nl100 and have played about 1000 hands. It's been pretty standard where I've made slow and little progress but still confirms to me that the games just ain't getting any easier online and that live games are where it's at. With quite a few bad beats thrown in I'm currently breaking even. However, with two Phase 2 tickets bought with PKR Points about a week ago (value $3.40 x 2), my little Phase campaign of December has been going very well.

Here is my avatar settling into a Phase 4 game, this evening, which I've managed to battle my way up to:

 

(P.S. I crashed out in 9th place.)

In addition, I've also managed to fight my way up to the Final Phase stage as well and earlier tonight I gave it a blast. I played good, especially in the middle stages of the game, but the cards didn't quite fall for me when it mattered (ain't that always the case?) and I ended up finishing 4th and being awarded with another Final Stage ticket so I can have another crack at it on another day. I suppose you could say I bubbled, but at least the good thing about the Phase games is that you are given consolation prizes:

Phases are ok but do seem to play out in a very similar fashion to the deadly dull "Double or Nothing" games where you just end up playing Fold 'Em poker for the vast majority of the time in the early stages, with it then becoming Shove Fest City in the latter part of the game. You're not exactly playing the player like in good ol' cash games but a kind of maths game which many half-decent players know about anyway. Not really proper poker in my opinion but there it is.

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I'll end the post with a short two and a half minute YouTube clip of a comedy sketch which always makes me chuckle. It's a shame that it's interrupted at 1:00 for a few seconds but I don't think it detracts us too much from the humour.

Tommy Cooper All At Sea

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble

On The Up

About a month ago, I wrote that work was getting me down to such a degree that a little time off was needed to clear away a few demons that had crept into my head. I was so down about it that I even mentioned a change of job was on the cards or even a change of career! Well, I am very pleased to say that after returning to work and climbing back on the saddle for a short time, things are not only getting back to normal but that the outlook seems a lot rosier than it was before. My department, of course, have been superb but it's actually the kind words and the warm reaction of the students on my return that have inspired and motivated me to not only get back on the horse, but to start galloping along at a brisk pace! Life is good once again.

The other pick-me-up is that on the 16th December, a two and a half week break from work will come my way. This will provide me with plenty of time to cram in a little bit more study of the game and to have a little bit more practice at the live and online tables before I reset the scoreboard and start with a clean slate in 2012. The fact that I can do this two weeks before 1st January, and without the stress and worry of work getting in the way, is a great bonus. Hell, I might even throw in a few mid-week £1/£1 cash game sessions at The Vic into the bargain! I guess as long as I feel that my game is at a reasonable standard, that I'm confident with my new bankroll management strategy and that my mindset is sharp and focused for the new year - I think I'll be in tip-top condition for the new challenge.

As we go through the month, as well as keeping you posted about how my current poker exploits are going (as usual), I will also give you details of my action plan for both live and online poker in 2012 as and when the ideas come to me; just to get the clarity clear in my own head if nothing else. In an upcoming post, I'll let you know how my little online effort has been getting on.

Hand-History Analysis

I've often written about the advantages and disadvantages of being an amateur over a pro and vica-versa but one of the more obvious pros of being a pro, as it were, is the extra time you have to study the hand-history files in order to fine tune your game. It might also have been the case that were I a professional player, I may have spent more time working through and analysing hands in greater depth on this blog.

Regular and perceptive readers of my blog, who may be serious poker players and who have looked at some of the hand-histories I have posted here, will have noticed the weaknesses in my play. I certainly know that I may have played passively in some hands and I also know that I've raised excessively pre-flop with premiums. I'd like to think that there were reasons for this but sometimes we just have to put our hands up and say - yep, I played the hand badly, plain and simple.

Another facet that a lot of good players may have noticed about my game is that I don't post or write about hands where I bluffed very often. In fact, I don't think I've ever posted a single hand that shows me playing a well-timed bluff. Now this is not to say that I never bluff, you have to in today's game - especially online - but I've just never really felt the need to write a post about it - until now. What got me thinking about all this was how I played Key Hand #2 in my last live session and how I could maybe have rectified it had I been a little more creative. Let's turn the clock back, then, and have a ponder...

A "Wobbly" Hand Analysis (Ooh Err Missus, Ooh No Don't...) 

This is a very interesting hand which shows how sub-standard/bog-standard thinking can get you suckered into competing for a pot which costs you far much more money than if you just folded preflop when you bloody should have! On the other hand, I hope to show how one might have played it otherwise which just might have got one off the hook.

We're in a live £1/£2 cash game and we've been very active and playing for quite a few pots. We've also been quite aggressive, almost to the point of being the table bully, and our image is that of someone who doesn't mind throwing chips into the pot willy-nilly. We're in the small blind and we look down at 3 4 of spades. There are two limpers in late position and so with £7 in the pot we must make our first decision - whether to limp in for that extra £1.

Now a lot of strategists would suggest throwing 3 4 straight into the muck as it just plays terribly from early position with practically any flop - even if they are suited and with the 8-1 odds that the pot is giving us. So, yeh, give yourself top marks if you would have chucked 'em. However, on the night, with the Big Blind not being a particularly tricky player (we'll see why in a minute) I thought I'd come along for the ride and I just called the extra £1.

The BB then chucks in three blue chips making it £5! Not only is this bad because he's only going to get a string of callers (increasing the chance he'll have the worst hand on the flop) but he's also increased the pot in a hand where he'll now need to play while in early position (UTG+1). Still, his extra £3 goes in and the three of us call. (Yeh, you may argue that I'm now getting worse odds of slightly less than 7-1, and this along with a few other factors might give me enough reason to fold, but I make the marginal call.

The flop comes A 3 7 and I check, which is a standard move. The preflop raiser throws in £10 and it's folded all round back to me. Now that £10 raise just seemed a bit wimpy and overly-cautious to me - but here is my point: my thoughts were generally focused around my hand strength and what it could improve to if I called. What I should have done was, by noting the weak raise, put him on a hand and come to the conclusion that he must have held any pair between 88 and KK inclusive - and floated the flop with a view to attacking back later while representing Ax. If he had held AJ - AK here himself, I'm sure he wouldn't have been so cautious with his betting. 

What happened was that I responded to his weak raise with not only a weak reply but a weak plan as well. ( I called his flop bet by the way due to outs and implied odds.) The interesting part was that when the 5 hit the turn - and dynamic and creative play was called for -I simply check/called his £10 bet in the hope that more outs (four 2s) would give me a better chance to improve on the river and I could take it away with superior cards (rather than superior play). Needless to say the outs didn't appear on the river and I made a very feeble £10 crying call.  

What I am saying is that while the villain wasn't the most dangerous player in the world, I think I could (and should) have represented a pocket ace and got him to fold by putting in a check/raise of about £30-£50 on the turn. Maybe, with him betting yet another cautious £10 on the river (when an ace fell) I could have even done this then (more for £40-£50) and taken the pot away from him then. This river-bluff, incidentally, would probably have less chance of working against better players who would most likely smell a rat.

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So there it is, my version of an in-depth hand analysis. The point I'm making really, is that as I move towards the new year I really do need to be ready and willing to make more dynamic moves like this. However, not only are hand reading skills important but also how you think the opponent is going to play that hand as well. It's touch and go whether my opponent, in this case, would really have laid down the QQ that he had, in this situation, but the fact is, the float play with a definite and emphatic plan behind it MUST now be an extra weapon I must add and use from the arsenal. (Or should that be an extra tool from the tool-box?) Anyway, you get the idea.

Live Session #67: Breaking Even With The Donks

Now don't get me wrong, I don't usually like to label poor players as "donks" or "fish" but at The Empire last night, I was seated at a table full of them. It was a late start for me, as I'd had a few beers (two and a half pints) with Nobby McNob and I didn't actually sit down at the table until about 11PM. I settled down with a £300 buy-in and was happy to see that I was the big stack. Unfortunately (and I'm sure we've all been there), I just wasn't able to fully capitalise on the key hands I got involved in tonight. I won plenty of small pots for sure, as it was a table where players were only playing hand strength and only played back if they had the goods (so I was able to use aggression effectively), but, as I say, the cards just didn't fall right for me at those crucial moments.

Key Hand #1

We're about an hour into proceedings and I've established a good image as the Table Captain by playing fearless, loose aggressive poker. I haven't won a great deal but have shown that I'll think nothing of throwing large amounts in the pot. I'm on the button and look down at a pair of black kings - I'm in one of the best situations to be in when you have the image of playing loose... well, you'd think that innit?

It's limped all round to the hijack seat and I see another sight poker players dream of when they're on the button with KK; the player in the hijack seat reaches for his chips and throws in £11! He's got about £65 behind so I raise it to £32 with a view to shoving on the flop. He calls the £32. Great! There is no ace as the flop comes a harmless looking J 10 x. The villain checks and I go all-in for the rest of the villain's 30 or 40 quid. He calls and I once again feel my KKs have let me down again. Yep, he shows JJ and even gets another jack on the turn to give him quads.

One of these days I might actually win with KK but they've now cost me going on about £1000 in the four key hands in which I've held them in the second part of this year. Sigh.

Key Hand #2

This was a poorly played hand to be fair. I've clawed my stack back a bit by continuing to play loose aggressive poker but I start to get cocky. I'm in the SB with 34s and it's limped round to me so I complete but then see the BB bet it to £5. (From the BB this is a terrible play by the way.) Of course the two other players call and I, likewise, make the call.  The flop comes something like A 3 7 and I check. The BB puts in a cautious £10 which gets two folds - but I elect to call as I have five outs and good implied odds.

The turn comes a 5 and it's the same routine. I check and the villain throws in another wimpy looking £10 which I just have to call because I now have another four outs (the 2s) and the odds (particularly the implied odds) are so favourable. The river comes an ace so I have to check again and the villain puts in another £10. Yep, I guess I now have to reluctantly call that and muck when he flips over QQ. The message? Never play rags in the small blinds kids!

Key Hand #3
With my loose play still making life easy for me, I finally get a payoff hand. I look down at 88 in the SB. I don't know if it's limped for £2 or the £5 straddle but I complete anyway and about 4 or 5 players are looking at the 8 9 Q flop which contains two hearts (a tad dangerous). With so many draws out there, but with the possibility that I may hit a full-house I decide to bet out £50 straight away. Interestingly, it's called by a reluctant and cautious chap in mid-position (I put him on the flush draw) while it's raised all-in by the new but inexperienced looking player on the button who has £60 - so it's just an extra tenner to call and we do the necessary.

Of course, just to make it interesting, the dealer puts a jack out there on the turn. It's not a heart but luckily, the mid-position villain has the worst tell ever which says he missed. At this point, of course, in retrospect, I should have fired again but stupidly decide to check. The river thankfully doesn't complete the flush and mid-position man is clearly disappointed. (It still doesn't stop me stupidly putting in £75 on the river.) Mid-position man folds so it's a showdown between me and button-boy but he doesn't seem hopeful as he shows KK - and I take down a pot which contains about a £120 profit.

Key hand #4

Although I've only been playing for about two and a half hours, it's about 1:30AM and I'm getting a bit tired. I'm about £50 ahead and thoughts are turning to night-buses and trudging through the drunken late night revelers to get to the bus-stop. It's very hard to tell whether I played this last hand correctly because even though I gave my villain the right odds to call me down, I still think he would have called me down had I raised more.

I'm out of position and up against the same chap who took me for about £35 at Key Hand #2. I'm looking at J 7 and seeing a 6 8 J flop. This time I decide to raise £10 and he calls. The turn comes a 7 giving me two pair so I throw in £15 - which he calls. (A weak bet in retrospect BUT I still think he would have called a much higher raise anyway as he was a fairly weak/loose passive player.)  The river then comes a 4 and I automatically bet £25 without thinking the board through - suddenly the straight possibility dawns on me and I have a bad feeling. He calls and flips over 5 7 for the straight!

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With exactly the same amount as I had started with (£300) I decide that I'm too tired to play on, scoop up the chips and cashout. Thinking through the evening's play, I am encouraged once again by my newly-found aggressive moves and am very happy to have these new tools in the tool-box (or is it new weapons in the arsenal?) Yep, the 4 on the river in the very last hand made the difference between me being up £75+ on the night and breaking-even. But in a way, I may have saved money because I really felt this opponent would have called me down if I had put in a lot more on the flop and turn. I don't know, maybe I should be annoyed that I played the hand incorrectly?

KH#1 was yet another cooler while holding KK and I don't think there was any way I was going to throw those in the muck on that flop. KH#2 was definitely poorly played and I probably shouldn't have even limped in for the £1. KH#3 was satisfying but, again in retrospect, if I had read my opponent as missing the turn I really should have put pressure on him with a large bet on the turn.  

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Still, the confidence is still there to go onward and upward and I guess that's a very strong point in my favour.

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #66: Safe & Sound

Yep, it may have been a "safe and sound" live session tonight but still a results-orientated one I'm afraid. I arrived at The Empire at about 9PM and sat myself down with a £250 stack and at what seemed like a fairly tough table.

Key Hand #1
It's virtually the first hand of the night and after reading in "How To Play Great Poker" that you should always fold 78 in early position, I choose to limp with it in early position and it's limped or folded all round. The flop comes 3 4 5 and I check under the gun. Mid-position player throws in £11 as does late-position guy and, with the pot offering fair odds plus good implied odds it's probably worth a cheeky call, but as it was early days and I don't want to spew so early, I fold. As I plead for the 6 NOT to come on the turn - bosh! - the bloody six gets turned and placed neatly on the board, taunting me and pointing at me and laughing into the bargain! Mid-position guy throws in £30 and it's called and yet more chips go flying in when the harmless red jack falls on the river. I'm kind of pissed off when pocket 3s is shown for a set of 3s which takes it down. Yep, I woulda had the nuts and won a packet. Still, I tell myself not to let it trouble me and move on.

Key Hand #2

With that hand still lingering in my consciousness a bit and with it still being early doors I'm in the SB and look down at 7 J of spades. It's folded to the button who limps in as do I but then the BB elects to up it to £7. The button calls so I complete the betting as I feel kinda priced in. I elect to play my flush draw passively by just calling the small bet on the flop and I just choose to call the bet on the turn as well when a gutshot materializes. I then miss my outs and fold as another bet goes in on the river from the BB and I'm left feeling kinda stupid playing 7 J from the SB in the first place.

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As I muck more marginal-type hands and see that they would have hit beautifully, I start telling myself not to get frustrated and to just play my normal game; also, I tell myself I must get up and go for a stroll if I need to. Then I look down at QQ. I'm out of position but get chips into the pot  - right up until that damn ace hits the river and I'm forced to muck when the villain reaches for his chips to bet. I just KNOW he had it! I tell myself NOT to repeat what happened at The Vic when I tilted after I lost with QQ when I was also forced to fold when overcards hit the board. Thankfully, I do start to feel calm and in control. I then win a nice £65 pot when I hit a 4-outer on the river to make a straight - and this is followed by my jackpot hand.

Key Hand #3

I've just changed seats to get myself on the left of a tricky American player who was on my immediate left and who seems to know what he's doing. About 30 minutes later, I have about £190 in front of me and I look down at AK in early position and throw in a £12 bet. (Standard at this table.) I get FOUR callers. The flop comes A K x and it's happy days. I make a £35 bet and it's folded to Mr Tricky American who just flat-calls. The turn is a jack and I'm pretty sure I still have the winning hand as he looks really reluctant so I throw in something like £70 which he also ends up calling. The river bricks so I throw in the rest of my stack which is about another 70 or 80 quid. He tanks for a bit so I'm sure I have him beat - and then I'm very pleased when he throws in his chips to make the call. I show him the bad news and he says he had A J.  He goes very quiet for the rest of the session after this.

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With a £400 stack I then unfortunately go into results-orientated thinking mode and tell myself that it would be really nice not to fall below £350 and to go home with a £100 profit. So what happens? Yep, I let my stack fall to exactly that amount and at 11PM, after a 2 hour session, leave the casino with the £100 profit. What an arse!

Now non-poker players and results-orientated players may applaud a decision to leave while in profit but there is more to poker than this and I KNOW this is wrong and is something I've actually got to rid myself of when I start afresh in the new year. Results-orientated thinking of this nature will only make you a break-even or marginal winning player at best as it's a very conservative, safe and cosy mentality which Mike Caro has termed "manufacturing wins". I've said it before and I'll say it again: to "crush" or to be a "proper" winning player, you have to do away with any sort of stop-loss mentality at the table (unless the table is super-tough - in which case you should probably just get up leave) and that's another leak I really need to sort out if I'm going to be a contender.

NOVEMBER - Update #11

Regular readers, who have joined me on this bumpy journey of mine, will already know that I made the decision not to reveal my exact results after my last update at the end of October. I've mentioned the reasons for this quite a few times (bringing extra pressure on myself, playing too tight, engaging in results orientated thinking etc) so I won't harp on about it anymore. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be much of a blog if I didn't write about how the month has gone in general so here goes:

Both online and live poker have followed a similar pattern this month with both starting off averagely but hitting a nosedive towards the end. The little online poker that I have played this month was proving fairly promising when I felt I was playing well and when my balance hit a $300 profit last weekend. Unfortunately, "One More Hand Syndrome" hit me and rather than take a break or even cash out the winnings, greed took hold of me and I deservedly went on a bad run and had the profit wiped out and then some.  If I was honest about this, I'd have to say that bad play may have had a role in this as well. (Although losing a buy-in at $200nl on an all-in with JJ v. QQ on a low dry flop was the trigger that caused the insta-cashout.)

Live poker was a similar story results-wise. I started off reasonably well enough but then had a minor hiccup while intoxicated during a session. Just as I felt I was turning a corner with a break-even and a small winning session, I made a schoolboy error when I just couldn't throw away KK to someone who made a full-house with their 56o. I then may have played solidly in my last session of the month, which definitely brought a little light back, but I am still annoyed with myself over the fact that I let my guard down both with the above mentioned hand and the donk-plays I made online. Poker really can pull the rug from under you - very suddenly!  

Results-wise then, it's been another losing month both at the live and online game - with the consolation being that the losses are fairly small. On a positive note though, as I've mentioned in other posts, I feel that I've gained quite a lot in other ways. First off, apart from learning a few lessons for next year, the idea of banishing results-orientated thinking while at the table AND the importance of always being on your guard at the same time has really hit home. Getting up from the table/computer and actually taking a stroll or a short break once in a while, to inject logic (as Tendler would say) would, I think, have saved me hundreds this month. Just getting up and having a stroll once in a while, therefore, will be something I'll need to do more of in future to make sure my head is in the right place at the table.

Secondly, possibly as a result of the poker books I have been reading recently, I have definitely incorporated more aggression into my game and, certainly over the month of November, can thoroughly see that this has brought benefits to my game. "Decide To Play Great Poker" by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus has been a really good read with "Poker Math That Matters" by Owen Gaines also bringing in an interesting mathematical angle to the fore. In fact, while I had originally thought the maths in Owen Gaines book would be a breeze, I am now arriving at mathematical ideas that are really quite dense and definitely require attentive study. Some of these ideas may seem to be taking the maths too far and may not even seem entirely necessary (like counting the combination of different hands that may be in an opponent's range and then calculating our equity against that range and then working with those numbers to calculate the EV etc) but it does show to what level you can take the game to if you wish to put in the effort.

Finally, the beginning of the month proved to be a nightmare at work. It may be easy to blame this for my cloudy thinking at the table but, there again, if I felt that work issues would interfere with my thinking at the table then I shouldn't have made the choice to play in the first place.

With December virtually upon us now, and with three months of poor results behind me, I'll consider this to be the home straight where I feel almost like I'm on a damage limitation exercise. I know this isn't the greatest mental attitude when approaching the game in the last month of the year but I guess if that's the sort of bed I've laid then I may as well lay in it. Work-wise, I absolutely detest the last two weeks leading up to Christmas - it's always freezing cold and dark, it's often wet and miserable - and as a consequence, with the excitement of Christmas thrown in, the students are usually bouncing off the walls!

I know, all negative stuff, I reckon I need a good positive live poker session tonight to give me that boost. If I do go ahead, I'll let you know how I get on...

AA Versus The Mighty "Doyle Brunson Hand"

So with just a few PKR Points to play around with, I thought I'd buy a few cheap tickets to some of their "Phase" Tournies. These are fairly low buy-in affairs that play as a 10 man sit 'n' go; you get promoted or relegated between each "Phase" according to how you place (or totally eliminated if you do badly). The idea is to claw your way up to the final phase to get a chance to win a hundred dollars or two. With Phase 4 being just a $23.80 entry and Phase 5 (final phase) costing just $64.40 to buy-in direct, they're probably not bad value to enter directly at Phase 4 or 5 as a lot of micro-stakes casual players, who have worked their way up, perceive those tables to be the "dizzy heights" of poker. 

Unfortunately, they can sometimes take an age to fill up with those final stages rarely getting filled at off-peak times and rarely reaching a full table at the best of times either. You can even easily wait over an hour or two for the lower Phase levels to fill as well. Anyway, to cut a long story short, as my current balance is on zero, I thought I'd buy a few early stage tickets. Things have been going ok as I've just managed to progress from Phase 2 to Phase 3 and I've also got an extra Phase 3 ticket as well (value $8.90 x 2). A top two place at a Phase 2 game will promote you to Phase 3 so the result of this screenshot is irrelevant as far as results go but I thought I'd just plop it up as it shows my pocket rockets getting smashed by the might "Doyle Brunson" hand:

 

Lessons Learned For Phase 6

For the reader who dared trawl through the lengthy history of my poker journey so far way back in December of last year, it wouldn't have escaped notice that the lifetime path through this great game we call poker can be broken up into phases. For me, it is my belief that these phases are leading up to something more and more meaningful and I thoroughly believe that each one is a kind of stepping stone in making me stronger and better as a player. Phases 1-4 have all been explained in that long post while Phase 5 has unraveled over this year and is documented in this here blog of mine. Needless to say, some lessons have been learned and, for the record, I'm going to outline them right here.


Four big meta-game changes will be made to my game in 2012 (The Start of Phase 6):

1.  Phase 6 will begin in 2012 when my new-found attitude towards money will hopefully see my game taking off in a new and more fulfilling direction. This will involve a much less precious, almost indifferent, attitude towards my bankroll with the idea of cutting out my results-orientated way of thinking which was getting in the way of my game. These were small issues that I allowed to creep into my head but which I have now come to realise are poisons that no half-decent poker player should allow to fester in their consciousness.

2.  The consumption of alcohol while at the table will either be cut back drastically or cut out altogether. This problem has made a huge difference to my bottom line this year and my game can only improve without it. I guess you could say that as an amateur player, having the odd beer and getting sozzled at the table once in a while shouldn't be a problem - BUT, as I will be considering myself a "semi-pro" next year, excessive alcohol intake at the tables will just have to STOP.

3.  Online poker will be much less of a focus for me in 2012. This year, after paying around $2500 in rake alone and barely breaking even, something is telling me that my fortune is not going to be made on the virtual felt. The reality (at higher levels anyway) is that it has now become the domain of "maths wizards" who play huge volumes in bulk (multi-tabling) and who have, as a unit, thanks to 3rd party software tools, pretty much monopolized the market. The result is that the shark to fish ratio has tipped so heavily in favour of the sharks that it's just harder to even find the fish anymore let alone take their money before someone else does.

Also, in comparison to the live game where you can take things easy and study various tells, online poker is a bit like playing poker on crack. It is super-convenient and easy to settle into; it always has the allure that manages to call you back and it always seems to convince you that the big win you are hoping for is just around the corner.  Still, while it is true that I will no doubt head back to it, I think I'll need a more stable strategy than making endless cycles of deposits and withdrawals  - which is what I always just end up doing. It may even be that I just stick to satellites in future, but I'll see.

4.  In 2012, my results will now be my business and my business only (and this will also likely mean the end of this blog). As I also mentioned in a previous post, giving out results is just an ego-driven way of proving to the world that you are a winning player - but, I have since realised, it is not the world that you have to prove this to - the world didn't ask to see the results and it's none of their business anyway! Profits and losses are considerations for the individual player and the individual player only.

Also, giving out results left right and centre can only bring unnecessary pressure on yourself. When you're winning, you're just proving what you set out to do in the first place but when you're losing or are on a losing run, you are forced to tell others of your loss and it's just too easy to make yourself out to be a victim - and that's not a very good state to be in. Furthermore, it is easy to perceive that non-poker players, who know nothing of variance, may actually see you as a loser - and just that thought alone can also mean quite a bit of a hit to the ol' ego. So, yeh, best to keep results to yourself.     

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These are the four main changes I will be making to my game that do not involve actual hand to hand combat. That area will be improved by in-game practice and studying the game as part of the ongoing process. (I am currently reading some very useful books that I recently ordered off Amazon.) So there you have it. These are the main things that Phase 5 has taught me and what I intend to do about it when I launch into Phase 6 next year. In an upcoming post I'll review the month of November and clear the way for the final home straight that is the month of December. Will it be a crawl to the line or a sprint finish?

The answer, my friend, may only be held in my buttocks or, perhaps, may be blowing in the wind that contains the gas that just emanated from between my buttocks.

Until next time...

Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #65: Listening To The Right Voice

Well, rather than take myself off to South Kensington to the Bluff@The Mint this evening, I thought I'd stick to familiar territory and play some £1/£2 at The Empire instead - and, as is often the case after I do badly at other venues, managed to sit in a comfortable game and come away from the place with a tidy profit. I really do just LOVE this place right now. It wasn't a huge amount mind you (not enough to wipe out the recent demons) but enough to give me a vital confidence boost. Also, another good point was that rather than listening to the call of Bacchus to join him for another pint of lager (I only had the one), I listened to the more gentle voice that said (after about two and half hours of play) "cash out and go home."

I began with £250 and sat down at a fresh table that was just starting up. Luckily for me, the good players were on my right while the weaker players were on my left. The money mainly came from value-betting the calling stations to my left (one of whom was the most clueless player I have ever come across in a live game) who seemed happy enough to contribute to my stack. At one point I was up to a £380 stack but after failing to hit a few draws, and after a player on a table transfer decided to plonk himself down on my immediate left with well over £800 in chips, I chose that that was probably the time to take my leave. I did consider going on to play at Bluff@The Mint but thought it best to go for the conservative option and head for home with some winnings instead.

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As I mentioned in my last post, I think that December will mainly be about putting up the shutters or, at the very least, slowing down to a crawl. Results-wise, although not catastrophic, the last three months have really not been very good. Thankfully these have been fairly small loses overall but if last year is anything to go by, dropping profits in the later months of the year does seem to be a habit of mine - maybe it has something to do with the winter season approaching or maybe the reasons go to an even deeper psychological level. I'm not sure.

Whatever the reason for these poor results, it is certainly one step backwards on the financial front. However, as I've gestured towards in other posts quite a few times, I do feel that I have recently taken my game into the next level in so many different ways and I feel I've actually taken two or three steps forward in the developmental department; meaning that I'm very hopeful about next year. Poker really does work in mysterious ways.

Like last year then, when I started the blog and set out my stall for this year's journey, December will be about looking forward and planning for 2012. I'll probably not play so much poker next month but will mainly be reading up, studying and reflecting on the many things I've learned in 2011 so that I have a greater opportunity to achieve better things in the poker world in 2012. This may not be visibly recognizable in the form of the winning of high-profile MTTs - and I really can't see myself being much of a force on the online front - but it would definitely be nice to be a more feared and respected regular on the cash game circuit around London. (Well, maybe just at The Empire.)

My Second Biggest Leak

For non-poker players out there, a "leak" refers to that part of your poker game which you do over and over again but which will lose you money in the long run. For a lot of players, this could include things done during hand-to-hand play at the table like playing too many hands in early position, defending the blinds too much, over-valuing pocket pairs or raising the wrong amount in certain situations etc etc. However, there are also other leaks that have less to do with hand-to-hand play but are more psychological like playing when tired, playing because there is nothing else to do, tilting too easily or playing with scared money. These are the leaks that make you screw up at the table and actually cost you more so it's important to have these well and truly plugged.

In an article, dated some time ago, in Bluff Europe magazine (author unknown), these two facets of the game were termed the "micro game" and the "macro game" respectively. Now, personally speaking, my efforts to reduce "micro-game" leaks mainly comes in the form of reading books - and I think my "micro-game" has certainly come a long way as a result. My "macro-game" on the other hand, is still not fine-tuned enough and even after all these years of playing, I still haven't bloody cracked it.

After my hiccup at The Vic during the week and after playing on the internet over the last three days or so, I believe I have hit upon a second "macro-game" leak which needs to be sorted out - and certainly something which needs to be corrected come 2012 when I relaunch the next phase of my poker career. The first leak has been very well documented in this here blog thank you very much - and that's the overuse of alcohol while playing - and this, I think, has cost me a small four-figure sum. The second leak involves what the great John Vorhaus calls "OMHS" or "One More Hand Syndrome."

I hate to admit it, but this not only cost me over a few hundred at The Vic in midweek but has now cost me a few hundred online as well. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was thinking of up and leaving at The Vic when I had £330 in front of me (a small £30 profit) - but stayed and duly lost a very large whack after getting slightly tilted soon after losing with QQ. If I had left in the first place, when the thoughts of leaving first came to me, I would still have had plenty of money in my pocket to enjoy a second session at Bluff@The Mint which I had promised myself.

Similarly, "OMHS" has cost me online as well. After a few good battles, and after what I considered to be good play, yesterday afternoon I stood on a $300 profit after playing at the $0.50/$1 and $1/$2 cash games. My "macro-game" thinking then kicked in and said that as my balance was over a certain milestone, I should log-off, be happy to have recuperated my Vic loss, take a break and go and do something else - good solid thinking. Unfortunately, greed got the better of me and "OMHS", or in this case "OMSS" (One More Session Syndrome) took over. I played more, lost, played a little bit more, lost more - and then lost a lot more - and ended up DOWN on my initial deposit. 

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It's now Saturday afternoon and I'm counting the cost of "OMHS". It's a real bugger and, I tell you now, when "OMHS" goes wrong, it can tilt you bad and make you play VERY BADLY INDEED.

So this is how it's going to be:

With "run bad / bad play" mode activated and my head in a losing mindset right now, my "macro-game" control room is screaming at me and it's saying "STOP PLAYING POKER!" And I hear it baby, I hear it - and I've cashed out my full balance from PKR as a result. (Yet again!) But there is one more thing I have to do before the shutters go up and that's to make one visit this evening to Bluff@The Mint which is the last live venue I have to check out for the blog.

The missus is driving me a bit mad nowadays so rather than strike her down with a rolling pin, my plan is to get out and play at The Mint tonight with a lower buy-in than usual and to see how I get on. After this, win or lose, I'm planning on putting the shutters up for much of December - and it will be a crawl to the finish line; much how I finished last year in fact! My main focus will then be on reading up and studying the game (I certainly have plenty of material) and less on actually playing. With lots to consider about employment and where my regular income is going to come from, I'll also need to figure out a strategy on how to launch my 2012 poker career.

Apologies if this turned into a tl;dr post. I just needed a longer therapy session today.

Was That A One-Outer On The River?

We're on a table with loads of donks and unknowns and we're all-in on the flop:

I think the expression the youngsters use these days is "fml" (fuck my life).

Here are the Poker Stove figures for the turn just to rub it in:

Over the next twenty minutes or so, this was followed up with a few hands where I held baby flushes and was beaten by better flushes. Someone up there likes their little joke I suppose. The odd thing about my recent run of bad form is that (apart from my hiccup at The Vic last night) I actually feel like I've had a sudden surge up the learning curve and that my game is getting a whole lot better.  Funny how poker works at times.

Decide To Play Great Poker

Yesterday, before I hit The Vic to play poor poker, I bought a book at Foyles by Annie Duke and John Vorhaus called "Decide To Play Great Poker." Now, although it can make you think you can play great poker (as many good poker books do) - it might not necessarily guarantee that you won't go on tilt (as no poker book can). Nevertheless, after reading the first few chapters I can say that it's a promising read and I think it could certainly help many intermediate players. On the Amazon site in the USA, it scores four and a half stars out of 67 reviews which is quite impressive.

Live Session #64: Back To Square One

Well, no doubt about it, KK is definitely my jinx hand for sure. Yesterday, I decided that a visit to The Vic was in order and after arriving at 4:30PM and an hour long wait, grabbed my seat at a £1/£2 cash game and bought in for £300. The stacks to my right were huge (one player had about £800 and another around £1000), while the stacks to my left were pretty meaty as well (two players with about £600 each). It was time to play cautious.

Fortunately, as play progressed, due to solid play, I managed to build up a strong solid image but wasn't making a great deal of money. After about 3 hours play, the better players and big stacks had left and of the new players that arrived, no one appeared to pose any real threat. Despite this, with about £330 in front of me, my thoughts turned to locking up the £30 profit and moving on to Bluff @ The Mint in Kensington - a place I had intended to try tonight for the first time.

In retrospect, that IS exactly what I should have done but soon after dismissing thoughts of leaving I lost about £60 to a fairly loose player who pushed me off my hand on the river while I held QQ to a K x x x A board. Slightly tilted by this my mind said "go for a stroll" but my heart said "stay for a bit and see what happens"; I went with my heart. Unfortunately, this is where it went wrong. The QQs were the first premium hole cards I had held in the entire three hours; a few hands later, I got my second premium hand, KK in late position - surely I was going to win with these! I raised it £15 and got a call from the button and the small blind (but I thought that only the SB had called at the time). The flop came low and uncoordinated so I raised another £20. I saw the old guy in the small blind fold his hand and thought I had taken it down but then noticed that the button had, in actual fact, called the £20. (Something in my head had already told me I had won the hand.)

Well, I'm sorry to say that this is when the red mist set in. Without even putting the villain on a hand, I told myself that, surely, I had him beat. I checked the 10 on the turn anyway, to see what he would do, and when he put in £30 just told myself that he was surely on a bluff and I stupidly went all-in. He insta-called and when the river came he announced full-house to have me well and truly crushed. Yep, he called on the button preflop with 5 6 and hit his full-house. Pocket kings cracked once again!! It wasn't a complete wipe-out as I had him covered but enough to make me get on my coat and leave.

When I think back, I realise that I was not thinking about ranges or the player at all (he was a relative newcomer to the table) but the fact that I had "finally" been dealt a premium hand and that I deserved to be paid off at last. The loss with QQ a few hands before certainly didn't help with my mindset and I know now that I shouldn't have put so much value on the monster preflop premiums. It really was the basic schoolboy error of falling in love with KK, not being able to get away from the hand and then being caught off-guard. I really should be beyond that by now and I feel stupid for falling for it. KK has been a nightmare for me in live games in this second part of the year. I've lost three big hands of well over £800 while I've held them. Not nice.

It was a long journey home after this but now that the dust has settled I think a break from the live game has to be the answer. Tilting is NOT usually my thing and although a little bit wiser, it's almost as if I'm back to square one all over again. It may be that work issues are still clouding my judgement and impeding with my thinking but something made me think badly at the table last night and made me make a bad decision - and that's not right.