"The Mental Game Of Poker" - Chapter 5: Tilt

As I mentioned in my previous post, this key chapter totals about 80 pages and occupies about one third of the book. The first thing that is established in this chapter is that tilt is an anger issue and should be seen as a symptom NOT the cause of problems. The reader is also asked to contemplate on their own game and to complete a "Tilt Profile" which I'll mention later.

Here, Tendler covers 7 different types of tilt and dissects and explores all the features that make up each one. Sometimes they do sound similar and there does seem to be a bit of overlap but nevertheless, the information covering each type will resonate more for some than others. For example, what he wrote on "Mistake Tilt" and "Hate Losing Tilt" made a lot more sense to me and had me identifying much more with the material than what he wrote on "Revenge Tilt" or "Desperation Tilt" which are types of tilt I don't suffer from as much. This obviously alerts me to the area I need to refer to when I make my own self-examination/diagnosis.

The information that he supplies in this chapter is essentially like the spreading out of all the different pieces of the logic puzzle that could be used to help plug the gaps in the mental game. It's then up to the reader to identify his own problems and then possibly use some of these pieces to help him complete or work out the puzzle himself. My interpretation is that, therefore, as you go through the exercises needed in preparing the "Recognition" stage of the Injecting Logic strategy (in Chapter 4) as well as the "Mental Hand History" as part of the Resolution strategy (in Chapter 4) - the pieces of information in Chapter 5 serve as keys to help you identify and/or unlock those problems in those exercises. To make matters clearer, it is my belief that these pieces can also be used to build up the "Tilt Profile" which appears at the start of the chapter. Yes, this, once again, asks for more effort from the reader but I'm willing to go with the, "You get out what you put in" adage.

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Personally speaking, I have still not pro-actively gone out to complete any of the tasks that Tendler asks the reader to complete yet as I still wish to get an overview of the book by reading it from cover to cover first. For me, Chapter 5: Tilt seems to serve best as a kind of reference manual to be referred to when diving into the aforementioned exercises.

One of the shortcomings of the book is this uncertainty of knowing if my approach, outlined above, is the correct way of going about getting the most out of the book or whether it's anywhere near what the author actually intended his readers to do. I think if Tendler had actually outlined a more structured program of study for his readers, as it were, then I would have an even greater degree of confidence in the book. Don't get me wrong, I still think it surpasses anything Hilger or Angelo put out.

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Review of Chapter 6: Fear to follow.

"The Mental Game of Poker" - Chapters 3-4

Here is the second installment of my review of the above mentioned book:

Chapter 3: Emotion
This chapter was definitely the smoothest and most absorbing part of the book thus far and struck all the right chords. First off, he pointed out that negative emotions are the symptoms NOT the causes of why we play poorly and should be seen as an alarm or as a messenger bringing warnings that we should be on our guard. Negative emotions are created "when flaws in your approach to poker are triggered by certain events or occurrences at the table."

He then goes on to write about how these negative emotions can cause the player to play with a "malfunctioning mind". In a nutshell, when your emotional system becomes overactive, it shuts down higher brain functions such as thinking, planning, awareness etc - and consequently really bad decisions are made at the table. Essentially, when the emotional threshold kicks in, your brain shuts off the ability to think. The idea, is that you must develop strategies to prevent yourself from going over that emotional threshold in the first place.

This chapter just made a lot of sense and really pinpointed how the destructive force of negative emotions can wreak havoc with your game. It was really interesting to note that it's crucial to address mental game problems before you go beyond that emotional threshold -and how important it is to recognise when this occurs at the table.

Chapter 4: Strategy
This chapter is the heaviest of the first four chapters, by far, and really demands quite a lot from the reader if you wish to get into the spirit of what he is attempting to do. You will get nothing out of it if you just read it superficially and gloss over his suggestions. I found myself having to go back to make notes when I realised that I hadn't absorbed the information properly. (These are exercises you are required to do in order to solve your mental game problems. I didn't actually DO the exercises there and then, mind you, but wrote down all the details of what I need to do to fix my problem(s).)

This chapter lays out approaches to resolve mental game problems. There is the short-term approach, which Tendler entitles "Injecting Logic" and the long-term approach called "Resolution." Injecting logic is what you do at the table when you catch yourself having a build up of emotion and it's vital to tackle before hitting the threshold. There is a 6-step formula to go through when injecting logic with the first of these steps, "Recognition", requiring the writing up of a profile and a bit of naval gazing beforehand. That's where the work and extra effort comes in.

Resolution is the long-term process and involves pulling out those pesky weeds from the roots so that they don't return. This revolves around the reader striving to permanently remove those demons by using what he terms the Mental Hand History. Again, this involves the reader being pro-active. As Tendler says, "you have to understand the problem well enough to prescribe a solution" so to facilitate this process he supplies us with a 5-step protocol to go through in order to identify the root cause and to correct it. (Again, this is where I felt compelled to actually write down the process so as to get into the spirit of Tendler's program.)

Initially, I read Chapter 4: Strategy fairly swiftly and ploughed straight into Chapter 5: Tilt without really reflecting on what I had read. It was only until I started reading more of Chapter 5: Tilt, that I realised I really had to go back and make those notes if I was to make proper sense of what Tendler was trying to do AND to do the whole mental game thing justice.

Chapter 5: Tilt, at around 80 pages long accounts for about one third of the book and, is by far the book's longest chapter. As I say, I have only written the details of what I have to do (rather than have written them out) so it remains to be seen as to whether I'll need to stop and write out things in depth first (as part of Tendler's program) before cracking on with said chapter. Anyway, regardless, I'll let you know what I think of Chapter 5 in a later installment.

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To conclude with a few closing comments based on what I have seen so far, the book will definitely help those players who can be bothered to get off their arse and put the effort in. It will also appeal to players who don't object to the idea of a bit of naval gazing in order to improve. BUT, it can be a little confusing as to the chronology of when you should complete the questionnaire and profiles in relation to how it fits in as you read the book. Anyway, I'll get back to you as I press on.

"The Mental Game of Poker" - Chapters 1-2

Right, so yesterday I took myself off to the local pub garden, armed with my copy of "The Mental Game of Poker" by Jared Tendler, to finish chapters 3-4. Here is my review of chapters 1-2 with a look at chapters 3-4 to follow.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Tendler sets out his stall by explaining what the ultimate goal of the mental game is. i.e. Identifying the causes of your mental game problems and resolving them so that they can be permanently removed. By developing strategies to facilitate this process, the idea is that you can remain calm and focused at the table - and are able to always make the right decisions. The metaphor he uses, which personally drew me in, was that "weeds grow back if you don't pull them out by the roots" just in the same way that causes of mental game problems pop back if they are left unresolved.

Chapter 2: Foundation
In this chapter, he reveals three theories to make solving the mental game problems simpler. The first (Adult Learning Model) is all about being conscious or unconscious of your competence or incompetence; the second (Inchworm) mainly focuses on the importance of working on the weakest part of your game; and the final theory (The Process Model), for me, highlighted the importance of reviewing the quality of your play rather than being preoccupied with results.

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The first two chapters were a breeze to read through and hit all the right notes. If you read the second chapter as intended (to make solving the mental game problems simple) then it's not so daunting. The first three chapters just require passively reading the text but when you start on Chapter 4, you realise that a bit of extra effort is required if you want to really get the best out of the book.

It Hath Arrived

Finally, I have the book in my grasp! I am, of course talking about this:

It arrived this morning after I had to order it from Amazon. I have read the first two chapters thus far and am well and truly hooked. I'll be taking it out this afternoon to the pub garden to dig deeper, along with its companion piece. ie, this:

This second book is a good read but I think I need to re-read it as I reckon I missed some of the finer points first time round. These two books will form the main part of my training for Vegas.

JULY - UPDATE #7 (Part 3)

Ok, so I carried on a bit today at the online game and ended up dropping £60 thanks, in part, to this final hand where my villain hit his 4-outer on the river:

So far so good...

...And there it is. I know, this was only for $34 but scooping up $72 would have kept me fighting. Anyway, I cashed out £140 and pocketed a £100 online profit this month - which is better than nothing I suppose.This leaves my updated chart looking like this:



MONTH--------LIVE POKER---------ONLINE POKER------TOTAL(MTH)---RUNNING TOTAL

January----------   + £960   ----------------   - £520   -----------   + £440   --------- + £440
February---------  + £740   ----------------   + £60    -----------   + £800   --------- + £1240
March------------   - £230   -----------------   + £810  -----------  + £580   ---------- + £1820
April---------------  + £70   ------------------   - £700   -----------   - £630   ---------- + £1190
May--------------   + £370   -----------------   - £90   ------------   + £280   --------- + £1470
June-------------   + £340   ------------------  + £440   ----------   + £780   ---------- + £2250
July----------------  -£415  --------------------   +£100  -------------   -£315  ------------ + £1935

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I know, it's not the nice round £2K that I wanted to take into August but it'll have to do.

JULY - UPDATE #7 (Part 2)

Yesterday, I ended my post by saying I was depositing £40 on PKR for a bit of a knockabout until the end of the month. Well, I am pleased to say that I've stormed the tables over the last 24 hours or so and, using the wibbly-wobbly way, have turned that $64 deposit into this:

Now this amounts to just shy of £200 meaning I've notched up a tidy £160 profit from yesterday afternoon - but interestingly it puts my update chart onto this:

MONTH--------LIVE POKER---------ONLINE POKER------TOTAL(MTH)---RUNNING TOTAL

January----------   + £960   ----------------   - £520   -----------   + £440   --------- + £440
February---------  + £740   ----------------   + £60    -----------   + £800   --------- + £1240
March------------   - £230   -----------------   + £810  -----------  + £580   ---------- + £1820
April---------------  + £70   ------------------   - £700   -----------   - £630   ---------- + £1190
May--------------   + £370   -----------------   - £90   ------------   + £280   --------- + £1470
June-------------   + £340   ------------------  + £440   ----------   + £780   ---------- + £2250
July----------------  -£415  --------------------   +£160  -------------   -£255  ------------ + £2000

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With the online balance for July adjusted accordingly, my astute readers will now notice that the final figure reads a much more round and friendly £2K - which beats the more higgledy-pickledy figure of £1860 from yesterday. (It also wipes away a few demons and clears the painful £150 loss I endured in my last live session.) The thing is, this presents me with a bit of a dilemma: do I go the amateur way of thinking and cashout the $330, safe in the knowledge that I can take a £2K profit into August? Or should I just throw caution to the wind and carry on playing a bit of online poker as normal?

The thing is, I AM an amateur player - not a pro, so banking the money and enjoying the rest of the month on a nice round number does appeal to me. But isn't it a bit anal? One other thing to consider is the "Progress To Bonus" percentage that you see at the bottom of my vital statistics. This bonus is for $93.65, expires at the beginning of September, and can easily be cleared with leisurely play at $0.5/$1 or above. This little carrot has to be brought into the equation as well.  

Oh well, something to mull over.

JULY - UPDATE #7

After my worst month at the live game arena this year, and hating poker with a passion right now, I have decided to draw a line under my poker playing exploits for the month and intend NOT to play again until August. I know it's a little early, but as such I'm just going to go right on ahead and throw up my July update. Updates will now be in the form of what you see below as this format gives a clear picture of how things have been going on a monthly basis and shows, at a glance, how I'm progressing through the year.

MONTH--------LIVE POKER---------ONLINE POKER------TOTAL(MTH)---RUNNING TOTAL

January----------   + £960   ----------------   - £520   -----------   + £440   --------- + £440
February---------  + £740   ----------------   + £60    -----------   + £800   --------- + £1240
March------------   - £230   -----------------   + £810  -----------  + £580   ---------- + £1820
April---------------  + £70   ------------------   - £700   -----------   - £630   ---------- + £1190
May--------------   + £370   -----------------   - £90   ------------   + £280   --------- + £1470
June-------------   + £340   ------------------  + £440   ----------   + £780   ---------- + £2250
July----------------  -£415  --------------------    000  ---------------   -£415  ------------ + £1840

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Obviously, any losing month is a disappointment but after being up £2.7K for the year by the 9th July, things were looking extremely hunky-dory indeed. It really would have been a great boost to be going great guns while leading up to my trip to Vegas. Unfortunately, as we all know, poker has a cruel habit of giving us a good old punch in the face every so often - and for me - that came in the form of being hit for nearly £1K over the last two weeks or so!

My crack at the online game this month was very short-lived and wasn't that great either. I stormed and swept through the game in the first week of the month like a blazing forest fire, taking down £200 in the first five days, only for the fire to be snuffed out over the next few days - which quickly saw me squelched to break-even by ten days in and yet another full cash-out and retreat from PKR.

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Still, as mentioned in previous posts, I've been enjoying the fruits of my labour after a very busy, hectic and stressful academic year in the workplace. I've now bought a much needed protective case for my iPod classic and I also bought a couple of pairs of trainers (including running trainers) for my fitness regime which I plan to start any day soon. As far as getting a copy of Tendler's Mental Game of Poker is concerned, well I think this will prove nigh on impossible to do over-the-counter in the UK (unless you wait for the High Stakes Bookshop on Great Ormond Street to open after August). I have therefore, finally ordered a copy from Amazon over the internet - with a quick delivery option ticked so as to get my copy of the book before Vegas.

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Well, that's it. I'd like to say that I intend to take a break from the blog until August but we all know I'll get the urge to blogulate some ol' twaddle before then.

So until next time... May the force of the twaddle be with you... Always.

Uncle Wobble.

P.S. - £40 deposit made into PKR for shits and giggles.

Vegas Trip Reports and Poker Room Reviews

With the actual playing of poker pushed firmly to the sidelines, I've decided to blog about how I'm going to do my trip reports when I get to Vegas in three weeks time. First off, each blog containing reports will be headed with the day and date. Eg. "DAY 1: 17th Aug", "DAY 2: 18th Aug", "DAY 3: 19th Aug" etc etc. I know it looks like the diary of a prisoner counting the days in jail but I think that this is a good, practical and methodical way of doing it.

Each day will be divided into sessions. Each session will be headed with: the number of the session; the venue; the game type; the minimum to maximum buy in; my buy-in amount; the time of day I spent at the table; and the time period spent in the poker room. The profit/loss for each session will be clearly stated at the end of the report in either a green font for a profit and a red font for a loss.

Eg.

Session 1 - Mandalay Bay - $1/$2 CASH - $100-$300 - $300 - 10PM-11:30PM (90mins)

Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. 

+$58

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Or, for the odd MTT...

Session 8 - Caesar's Palace - $85 Freezout - 10PM-12:10AM (2h 10mins)

Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. Blah blah blah. Twaddle twaddle twaddle. 
-$85

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As far as poker room reviews go, this will be a different matter. I've already set out the criteria that I'm going to use for this BUT I want to see all rooms first before I start ranking them. Therefore it may well be a case of writing up my findings when I get back to London.

Regarding presentation, I intend to head each review with the simple title - "ROOM REVIEW: (Insert name of hotel/casino here)" and to then use a nice icon for each with the possible inclusion of a screenshot of the $1 chip that each room uses. I'm not quite sure how to incorporate it yet and I'm not 100% clear about the layout but I'll try to make it all consistent and nice for y'all.

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UNTIL NEXT TIME - WHEN I'LL BE WOBBLING ON THE BLOGGLE WITH MY LOAD OF OLD TWADDLE WITH A WIGGLE AND A SHUFFLE AND A BIT OF HUBBLE BUBBLE BUT WITHOUT THE TOIL AND TROUBLE - UNCLE WOBBLE - OH YEAH!

More Retail Therapy

It's Monday morning and, more or less, the first day of my 6 week break from work! Hurrah!! With poker playing taking another firm back seat, and with the sun shining brightly in the sky, I'm off into town for more retail therapy. Here are some items that I have bought very recently:

This is an iPod Classic (160gb) that stores a veritable mountain of tunes. I've already transferred my entire album collection onto iTunes and am very pleased with this acquisition.

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These are a pair of Sennheiser CX880i headphones. The headphones that Apple supply you with, when you buy your iPod, are notoriously awful so I felt I needed to get some decent cans so I could listen to the music with decent sound. The actual earpiece gets some getting used to but the sound is sharp and clear enough.

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This is an Olympus VN8700PC Digital Voice Recorder that I intend to take to Vegas to record all my observations. It has 5 folders so that I can categorise my recordings (one for trip reports, one for poker room reviews, one for miscellaneous stuff etc). Once I've recorded my twaddle, I can then listen back and write the details up and then blogalise my comments when need be.

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Today, I'll be buying more items to set myself up for both Vegas and the coming weeks. The main items I need are as follows:

This is the front cover of Jared Tendler's latest book, "The Mental Game of Poker" and has received nothing but rave reviews. On amazon.com, all the 14 customers who have reviewed the book have given it 5 stars! The High Stakes bookshop on Great Ormond Street is being refurbished so I'll see if I can pick this up at one of the major bookshops in town today.

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This is a running shoe or a trainer (sneaker if you are one of my US readers) and I intend to get a pair of these today (not necessarily the one pictured). The missus has been going on and on about me getting a pair of these so that I can start my fitness regime so this item is on the list.

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Finally, I need to pick up a few synth-pop sounds from the 80s and 90s (with a bit of Abba thrown in) and these compilations are the gaps in my collection that need to be filled. Abba, of course, are the group who have sold a bazillion records but who no one is supposed to like; The Beautiful South is solidly good synth-pop for the middle-classes but very pleasant; The Depeche Mode album "The Singles 86-98" will go nicely with "The Singles 81-85" which I already have and Erasure banged out singles of the highest order back in the day and are synth-pop gods. 

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So there it is. I know, wobbling on about all the things that you've bought and are gonna buy is a bit dodgy, but I've just completed a very stressful academic year and haven't really treated myself to anything throughout the whole time. These are my rewards and I just felt like blogalising about it for the sheer hell of it. So there.  

Live Session #46: And It Gets Worse...

Ok, it was going to be a two week break from the poker and the blog as well but it ended up being a one week break instead; you know how it is. I'm just gonna blog about my live session for the record...

I turned up for the £58 freezeout at The Fox today and was going great guns and playing an absolute blinder up to the final two tables but bust out while going all-in preflop with QQ v AK while on the button. Yep, the villain hit a King on the flop and a couple of aces on the later streets for a full-house just for good measure - and there it is; or, rather, there it was. Goodbye Wobble and thank you very much!

After some bean curd and crispy pork on rice in Chinatown, it was onto the Golden Nugget for some £1/£1 cash game action. I plop down £150, don't play that well, but win a few hands early on and start to trundle along quite nicely. About one hour in I look down at Q 7 and then see a lovely 5 7 7 hit the flop. The action is loose and I just know I'm going to get paid. I play the hand perfectly - the pot is built nicely as expected - but waddya know? My dodgy opponent hits a runner runner flush! That's a runner runner flush which I just have to pay off on the river with a fairly expensive crying call for £50. He had me covered and it's goodbye to another £150 and £210 on the night! I don't think I can take many more of these disappointments, I really don't.

This latest loss, of course, looks bad for my results but I was mostly annoyed, really, with how I responded. On seeing my villain turn over his queen and five of spades I just spun my cards face down towards the dealer, sighed a great big "tssssssss" and just stormed out. No "nice hand" or anything like that. I was so angry that I actually envisaged striking a small child in anger as I passed her on the street as I went to catch my bus!! It's frightening what thoughts this game can make you have.

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All this, of course, means that I am not only having a terrible month at the felt but am once again thoroughly and well and truly pissed off with the game of poker right now. My whole situation is crying out for me to really take a proper break but most importantly to get hold of a copy of Jared Tendler's "The Mental Game Of Poker" as soon as freakin' possible! Methinks a trip to The High Stakes Bookshop on Great Ormond Street is in order, very soon.

Well, that's that then. With the way that I feel right now, I detest the game so much that the next time I want to see a poker table is when I'm out in Vegas in over three weeks time. I reckon, until then, it'll just have to be a case of chillin', watching loads of films that I've been meaning to see, playing loads of computer games I've been meaning to play and going out for some drinking and for some retail therapy. (I really need some decent trainers and a good sweater for when the casinos get cold in Vegas.)

Actually, talking of retail therapy, I recently bought one of these...

...and have been spending most of my time importing over 200 of my albums from CD onto it. (This takes days and days by the way.) It's called an iPod Classic (160gb) and with me being something of an old fossil, it's the very first iTunes / Apple thingy that I've bought - and I LOVE it! Back of the net baby!

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Oh well - Onwards and Upwards and all that bollocks!

Blog Activity Suspended

After the recent run of events at the poker tables both live and online, I have decided to suspend blog activity until I get some sort of confidence back. To get a complete lack of premium hands for hours and hours over quite a few live sessions is not that uncommon, but to then overplay the premium holdings when I do finally get them - and to lose heavily - just shows a lack of awareness and skill. Consequently, I don't really feel confident or even qualified at the moment to write about poker as if I really know that much about it.

All this, of course, points to the fact that I should just take a long break from the game and that is what I intend to do. Over the next few weeks I intend not to go near a poker table (real or virtual) and that also means steering clear of blogging for a fair amount of time as well. I might be tempted, of course, and may well have an online session or a live session before I go to Vegas in mid-August but, presently, I feel that if I do I just want to keep my results under wraps for the time being. 

As I say, as well as a two week break from poker, I also plan to shut down my operations here for two weeks (minimum) as well - just to clear my head. I am due a 6 week break from work on the 21st July and I think this will be a good time to just forget about poker for a fair stretch of time. Maybe after my two week break, it'll be time to purchase Tendler's book, The Mental Game Of Poker, to help me get firmly back on the road again and to set me up nicely for Vegas. I'm really starting to think that Vegas is my "make or break" time.

In the meantime, all the best, I'll catch up with ya come the end of the month or at the beginning of August.

Uncle Wobble.

Live Session #45: The Worst One Yet

Let's get straight to the point: I've gone and chucked away £400 tonight and it aint even funny. First off was the £33 donkfest at The Fox. Yeh... whatever... I have an early exit with a dodgy all-in while holding top pair average kicker but am called by someone with top pair/better kicker - bosh, the end. No real problem - I'm getting to hate these bloody things anyway and really shouldn't play them.

Next up was The Empire. I arrive there at 8:30PM and plonk down £370 on the table. I sit back and for the next two hours see every single one of my marginal preflop hands fail by a mile to hit board after board after board. I get no opportunities, certainly no hands, and then drop around £80 on the rare moment I do connect with a flop - I chase an open-ended straight draw for a reasonable price yet fail to improve. ( I hold QK while the flop is 10 J Q but I just know the villain is ahead and, after a brick on the turn and river, his river bet tells me that he has me beat - maybe I shoulda raised before but maybe I'm just playing bad.)

Later, I raise with Q K on the button but then get a reraise by someone holding AA - and it's basically all going horribly wrong. At around 10:45PM and with a stack of around £200 I finally see AA and take down about a £20 pot. And then on the very next hand I look down at KK. Now the problem is that I haven't seen these premium hands in a month of Sundays and, of course, as I get AA and KK back to back, I just fall in love with KK and overplay the hand. This leads to my downfall. Yep, I raise preflop and get two callers; the flop comes 10 J Q and I go all-in only to see my villain call and flip over A K - he has me covered and it's thank you and goodnight!

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At the moment, I'm just feeling annoyed with myself for failing to be patient or for exercising any degree of restraint. In fact, it actually felt just like the old days when I knew the situation called for reconsideration but I would go all-in anyway - and, of course, regret the consequences. There were plenty, yes plenty, of other soft-spots at the table at the time of my disastrous all-in and I really should have been a lot more patient. 

Unfortunately, I'm now having a mini-crisis of confidence and I'm starting to doubt my ability as a player. In fact, I'm just going to go ahead and suspend any blog activity for the time being and to just keep my poker exploits off the record for a while. I may just have a long break but I'll see how things go up to my Vegas trip and let you know at a later date what the score is.

The Mental Game Of Poker

So I've been reading a copy of Bluff Europe recently and fell upon an article about Jared Tendler's latest tome "The Mental Game Of Poker."

Now I'll probably pick this one up for the Vegas trip but in the meantime, the extract in the magazine will have to do. Now this article included information on what Tendler termed "Mental Game Fish"  and in this article there appeared statements that summed up woolly thinking that made you a mental game fish.

There are 17 points in total but I will pick out the ones that I think I am guilty of. According to Tendler, solid players are mental game fish if they:

1.   Change a proven winning strategy because they are running hot/bad.
---  Guilty - I know I have phases where I become Mr Calling Station both because I've been running good AND because I've been running bad.

2.   Feel like a failure when they lose a hand that was played profitably.
---  Guilty - Especially when it's the latest in a long line of such hands.

3.   Think the solution to running bad is to stop playing or change stakes.
---  Guilty - The amount of full cashouts and long breaks I've done from the online game due to running bad is ridiculous.

4.   Play fewer hands when they are winning/losing.
---  Guilty - I know I often leave a table when ahead purely to bank the win and to feel happier about the session.

5.   Play badly when the stakes are too small for them to care.
---  Guilty - I often go to the micro levels to donk off and let off steam.

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Learning all the time; learning all the time.

Filler

With online poker taking a solid back-seat, for the time being, it may become a little hard to maintain this blog on a regular daily basis. However, I would still like to twaddle on as normal so I'm just going to write about what's occuring in my life at the moment:

1.  On a professional level, there is pretty much only the one main thing on my mind at the moment and that is: HOLIDAY TIME!! At just 6 weeks long, the UK may have the shortest summer holiday for its schools throughout Europe (and probably one of the shortest throughout the world) but by crikey they are well worth the wait!! UK state schools are STILL slogging on but come 21st July the school where I work at will have finally reached the finishing line. HURRAH!!

2.  On the online poker front, as regular readers will know, a stop has been called once again to my online operations. Whether it's because I've just fallen behind with improving or my opponents are getting better, or plain old fashioned variance, I just can't seem to crack the online game. It may even be that something psychologically is preventing me from moving forward; I just don't know but whatever it is, I'm going to take yet another break. (I am currently considering the possibility of embarking on a serious multi-table campaign in September when the daughters have finally packed up and gone off to university.)

3.  Apart from a few hiccups (including a £220 loss from my last session and a few other drunken sessions costing me around £500) live poker has been going fairly well overall this year. I shall certainly be playing at some point over the next few days and/or over the weekend but I'm thinking of dropping down to £1/£1 for a while just to make sure that the variance isn't too painful if it goes the wrong way.

4.  Last but not least, Vegas! My first trip to Vegas kicks off on the 17th August and, of course, I am thoroughly looking forward to it. It's fairly well-mapped out in my head but I still have to think about a few practicalities such as how to carry my cash and belongings around, how to maintain the blog, how to record trip reports and poker room reviews etc etc.

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Nevertheless, when all is said and done, things are definitely hunky-dory at the moment: there are now just five more get-ups needed for work with next week being the winding-down / no one does any real work week; the sun is smiling which is a good thing; I have a clear, work-free, 3-week stretch to enjoy before Vegas and I currently feel I can build positively on my live poker results as worrying about getting up for work the next day drops completely out of the equation. 

Chug! Chug!! Chug!!!  

Online Poker: Is It Worth It?

For people who work full-time and who don't have time to study the ins and outs of the game then online poker is probably NOT worth it. I've just blown the £50 that I made this year at online poker and am back down to break-even (we're talking after WEEKS of play and around $2000 in rake) and to be honest I've run completely out of patience with the whole damn thing.

Unless you really do know your game or get that really lucky break in a big MTT, I don't think there is serious money to be made online at all. Unfortunately, I think I'm at the point now where it's pointless in really trying. As such, I'm just going to devote myself to the live game from now on and to just having fun doing that.

Bollocks to it.

The Vegas Twenty

Thanks to the All Vegas Poker site I now have some nice icons to work with for when I do my reviews of all the poker rooms along the main strip. Here they are:

Nice huh?

A Quick Post Mortem

After yesterday's £200+ donk-off debacle at The Empire, I've been going through a bit of a post mortem with myself and trying to figure out why I played so badly. I think I've pinpointed a combination of three reasons:

1)  Although Friday was a winning session, uppermost in my mind was the long period of being card-dead for that 5 hours. I think I just subconsciously "expected" to hit some hands today because of the "I'm due a win" syndrome which is why I think I ended up being such a calling station.

2)  I definitely under-estimated my opponents and think I felt that I could outplay them but by ending up just succumbing to the weak/tight/passive mode, I just ended up handing money to them on a plate!

3)  The table was actually fairly tough and there were no real soft-spots. After being about £70-£100 down after an hour or so, I think I should have either just left or gone for a table transfer.

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In retrospect, I think I should have been happy with my £190 win on Friday and just not played yesterday - but a gambler is always wise after the event.

Live Session #44: What A Load Of Rubbish

After a good session at The Empire yesterday, I guess it just stands to reason that today's session was going to be a disaster. Well, it wasn't quite a disaster but I spewed bad; real bad. I arrived at 6PM and took a seat with the maximum £400. The table seemed average with a few solid players thrown in and, apart from a very loose young Irish player who practically raised from any position preflop about 60% of the time, no one was getting tricky or out of line. Unfortunately, I was just not on my game tonight and after starting off in tight passive mode, I just never really managed to change gear for the entire three hours I was there and just ended up being Mr Calling Station - not good, not good at all.

With my stack just dwindling £10 here, £20 there and then another £30 here, and with absolutely zero success rate in hitting anything on the board, I just decided to knock the session on the head after I spewed about £40 while holding 10 10 versus the villain's KK on a 4 4 7 4 A board. With just £180 left in my stack and, thus, £220 down on the day I left just not really understanding why the hell I played this session SO BADLY. Oh well, methinks a week off from the game is in order...

Live Session #43: Same Old Story

So let's get the predictable stuff out the way first... 'Twas Friday night and I couldn't resist the temptation to play in The Fox Club's £33 freezeout once again. Prior to this, I dropped about  £17 in a 25 minute cash game session but that was no biggie. In the freezeout, I did my usual good run by getting to the last 3 tables but failed to cash after my all-in on a flush draw, with a fairly small stack, got called by top pair - I didn't improve. I then followed this up with three, short cash game sessions (including a whirl on the £1/£2 table) but ran card-dead throughout. Despite a successful £15 bluff on a high card flop while holding 2 3s, I ended up dropping a further £30 in the 3 sessions. My cash game losses, added to the £33 blown in the freezeout, meant I had a total deficit of £80 when I left The Fox at about 12:45AM and headed for The Empire.

After a ham and cheese bagel at Leicester Square and then about a 30 minute wait by the poker room at The Empire (I was about 15th on the list and falling asleep at this stage), I was called to the cash game table with the time at around 1:30AM. I fished out £300 in cash but remember just feeling very sleepy and kind of hamming up the dozey/tired old man image when taking my seat. In early position, on the very first hand, I looked down at AQ and decided to limp. The flop comes A Q 6 and I doze off in my chair again. The action is on me and, "struggling to keep my eyes open" and feigning disinterest I check. Then I see a mid-position player throw in £25 - bingo! It's folded around to me.

Now I know this player in the past as being someone who makes a lot of loose calls so I decide to just raise him all-in right there, hoping that he just has me pegged as a clueless old fart. He has about £200 behind and tanks for about 4 minutes and it looks like he's going to fold so I start jabbering a little bit (using the talk-if-you-want-a-call trick) and he does indeed reluctantly make the call. The turn is a harmless looking 10 and the river comes a brick. He announce two pair, probably A 6 (music to my ears) as I turn over my own top two to take down over a £500 pot on the very first hand of the session!!

Needless to say this first hand was the only key hand of the session but does go to show that you can sit around for 5 hours enduring garbage getting thrown at you and seeing an entire dearth of any sort of premium hand for what seems like an eternity (my entire 5 hour session at The Fox) but get the whole nightmare wiped and washed away in a single hand! Thank you Empire once again!

Anway, I then start to get a few more nice hands (but win small amounts) and end the one and a half hour session when they break the table at 3AM. I cashout £570 in chips and am quite exhausted although obviously happy with my £270 profit for the session. On the night, however, taking the £80 away that I blew at The Fox, we end up with a fairly respectable £190 profit.

Lesson learnt? Well yet again, in view of the fact that after I have written specifically in previous posts about the need to eschew visits to The Fox in favour of heading straight for The Empire, I am disappointed that I gave in to temptation and entered that bleedin' freezeout again.  (Maybe I just enjoy them too much and just like starting the evening off with a safety net and with little pressure?) I've also written about avoiding Fox Club cash game sessions in the past - but dived into these as well! So let's just write it out again (although I'll probably ignore it):

Try not to play too many freezeouts at The Fox and aim to head for the cash games at The Empire instead of The Fox as these are a LOT more profitable. 

Not that I'll be following this lesson, of course.

A Loss Of Patience

Yep, I've lost patience, once again, with the online game. What has done it for me this time is a series of good but marginal hands losing relentlessly to slightly better ones. This time, rather than carrying on and trying to toughen in out, I just feel that my fuse has already been burst and I really don't feel like keeping my money on the site and continuing any longer. Recently, it's been a turned top two pair losing to a flopped straight from last night (losing a full $100 buy-in) followed by trip aces with a 7 kicker losing to trip aces with a Queen kicker this afternoon (losing about $70).

I know these spots are standard and it's just one of those things but when you play so few hands and only single or double-table, these annoyances can play on your mind and I personally just don't trust myself to be able to stick to my A-game online anymore. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I just think that I need to forget about the online game completely and just focus well and truly on the live game and the live game only - which I think just suits my temperament MUCH more anyway.

So yes, my regular readers know what's coming next... I've just completed a full cashout and, in this case, I've banked £550 for a very small £50 profit in the online game for the month; the only consolation, of course, being that the £50 is actually my yearly online profit!! It means that if I really do hang up the proverbial boots, at least I can say I'm ahead. But, as we've seen before, me giving up the online game just aint gonna happen; I'm bound to crawl back again and some point or other - it's just that at the moment it's driving me round the bloody twist!!

Keep Your Sanity

Keeping your sanity is very important in poker. Very important. When you sit down at a table with suspect players you have to expect to have the edge. You have to weave your spell and expect the cash to come rolling your way BUT you also have to brace yourself for when your clueless opponent hits that miracle 2-outer on the river. However, when the river card hands BOTH villains that miracle to take both the main pot AND the side-pot, you have to make sure that you keep your sanity in check.

Here I am trapping my loosie-goosie fishy opponents with a lovely premium preflop hand:

Ok, so let's just avoid an ace and we'll be ok, yes?

Ah, those villain's cards are better than I thought. Liking the flop and the turn! Let's just avoid one of the two 8s left in the deck and I'll take this one down!! 

Oh...

Breathe in.......hold it....... and breathe out.....
...........And breathe in.......hold it.....  and breathe out.....

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Funnily enough, experiencing the injustice of hands like this is the reason why a lot of players leave the game. In fact, if there are players around who are prepared to stack off with those types of hands, in those types of spots, then that's one of the reasons why we should actually carry on playing with relish. 

We Have Lift Off!

I am now three days into my online poker campaign for July and am happy to say that I'm off to a flying start after 350 hands. With a $85 rakeback payment going through today and playing predominantly $0.50/$1 with just a few micro-stakes games thrown in, I'm up just over $300 which amounts to a tidy £200. The main focus has really been on table selection; avoiding as many of the good regular players as possible and joining tables with unknown players or players holding amounts less than 100BB. The biggest pot thus far happened a short while ago when I was in my trappy trappy slow play mode:

Limping with AK in the small blind is really not that uncommon and a lot of good players actually advocate this move. Criben had a pop at both me and xeno for limping with AK and AJ but there ya go. His raise in mid-position with the ace on the board is terrible. I'll leave you with my nice and healthy PokerOfficer graph for July thus far:

Nice nice nice.

Online Campaign For July

Ok, so on this fine Sunday afternoon I have deposited £510 into my PKR account with the view to playing anything from 50nl cash game poker up to 200nl. In fact, I've already had a little dabble today and even though I managed to win $50, in real terms I've won absolutely nothing because I would still only get £510 back, due to the exchange rate rip-off, were I to make a withdrawal right now :-( So, I'm just going to allow myself the privilege of calling my deposit a round £500 for the sake of convenience - which means I will count myself as being £10 up thus far (even though I've actually "won" £30), so there.

Still, with the 3rd July upon us, our online July campaign is under way. As usual, I will keep you updated of my progress on a regular basis and just hope we can have a winning month online so that some of the cobwebs can be dusted away and so that things can really brighten up.

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Bring it on and let's go!

Dodgy Dealers

Most of the dealers in London are fine but when you've been playing live for a fair few years, certain things about certain dealers can start to get annoying. Bad dealers:

1.   Are easily distracted, don't follow the action and slow the game down.
2.   Are impatient or contemptuous towards both regular and inexperienced players.
3.   Don't say "thank you" or seem unappreciative when tipped.
4.   Outwardly show favouritism towards certain players.
5.   Show emotions about the play (eg, laugh or smile at play they perceive as weak).
6.   Muck cards face down when a player has shown them to the player(s) next to them.
7.   Talk too much and are slow with the cards.
8.   Openly encourage players to straddle.
9.   Don't enforce certain rules like the "no talking about the hand when not in it" rule.
10. Are bad tempered, irritable and evidently don't want to be there.  

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Good dealers:

1.   Are fast with the cards and get many hands in per hour.
2.   Are super sharp, focused and follow the action with precision and efficiency.
3.   Don't make aggressive sounds like thumping the table or thudding chips down loudly.
4.   Always thank players who tip them.
5.   Smile occasionally and are friendly to all players.
6.   Explain things clearly and patiently to beginners in a non-aggressive manner.
7.   Warn players firmly but fairly if they're out of line.
8.   Are super efficient with chip-handling, chip-counting and making calculations.
9.   Have an air of authority but don't dominate or become the constant centre of attention.
10. Are neutral and go about their business in a calm, efficient and friendly manner.

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That's it.

Live Session #42 (Saved By The Empire...Again)

It is now Sunday afternoon but I'm still in bed as I didn't get back from town until 6AM this morning. It all started at The Fox with their 7PM freezeout for £38. I was actually doing really well in this and going great guns when we were down to three tables BUT crashed out after I lost two big hands close together. The first was when my all-in with 44 in late position was called by the big blind's AK (he hit the King on the river) and the second was when I went all-in on a flush draw but was called by someone holding AQ on a K 2 8 board! Needless to say, my hand didn't improve.

I think I've now learnt my lesson regarding these MTTs and I've told myself that I must just keep away from them as much as possible and play in the poker game where I have the sharper edge. Furthermore, there are still far too many players in these small buy-in freezeouts who just take the game far too seriously and I'm just beginning to dislike the atmosphere a tad. A lot of these small-time players really should get themselves to The Empire for a wake-up call and play some real poker for a change!! In future I must now keep reminding myself to go straight to The Empire and just to avoid The Fox Club altogether!

Anyway, after the donk-out at The Fox it was, indeed, onto The Empire for some £1/£2 cash games. I decided to buy-in for £360 and was seated at the central table with fairly average opponents but no real tricky players. It turned out to be a very good-natured table with plenty of banter, laughing, talking and joking. Once again with the players just having that more liberal attitude to money compared to so many of the stuffy old farts who play the freezeouts at The Fox, it just proves that The Empire is often a much more jolly, relaxing and enjoyable place to play in. Anyway, I digress...

Overall, this was just one of those sessions where I ground out a steady profit by playing solid, ABC poker. I didn't really need to get tricky and I just folded a massive percentage of my hands preflop. I avoided tricky spots and attacked where I saw weakness - but usually when I had the cards to back me up. I pushed my good hands for value and did just the one all-in against a very short stack. In all, it was a pleasant and comfortable session where I didn't really feel threatened by any tricky players - and I ended the evening at about 5AM with a £500 stack and a £140 profit at The Empire but a £100 profit on the night.

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The Empire - THE Number One Poker Venue!!

Live Session #41 (All-Nighter At The Empire)

Last night I had an all-nighter at The Empire after arriving there at the late time of 10:30PM. After about a 15 minute wait, I bought £400 in chips and was seated at one of the tables at the back in the corner. From the beginnning it was clear to me that it was a tough table and I asked for a transfer straight away (which never came). There were very big stacks to my left owned by strong players and slightly smaller stacks to my right but enough to do big damage. I'd say that there was only one poor player - who I did extract money from later into the evening.

Anyway, it started badly when I received a run of poor cards which I folded constantly making it easy for my opponents to peg me as very tight. Then, with marginal holdings I started to make lots of loose calls and proceeded to spew quite a few chips by chasing draws which never came - now I was pegged as weak/passive. By about 3 hours into the session I had only won about 2 or 3 hands and was feeling a bit stuck while down £120 and with a £280 stack.

I then struck gold (kind of) after following a string of limpers, who called the £5 straddle, while holding J 9s on the button and seeing a 10 Q K flop (with two diamonds). UTG plops in £12, mid-position calls and I raise it to £25. I'm sure they perceive me as tight but they call the extra ££s to make it a fairly meaty £100 pot. The turn comes a 9 of clubs. UTG checks as does mid-position and so I throw in about £170 keeping just £80 behind. UTG insta-folds and mid-position (a player who likes action) tanks for about 4 or 5 minutes before eventually mucking his hand.

He tells me that he held a set and, as he is a very likeable fellow, I tell him that I would have liked to have seen a call as I had him beat. He replies that I made a bad raise then but I'm not so sure. I think the raise was certainly in order but maybe just a pot-sized, £100, raise was more appropriate in that situation. However, with a possible flush draw out there, along with 10 outs for the full-house or quads (not to mention the possiblity of a Jack arriving on the river as well), I was still fine with taking the pot right there and I don't think my play was THAT bad (if at all).

Around about 4 hours or so into the session I then change seat and position myself to the left of all the big stacks. This turns out to be a good idea as I'm able to make a lot of raises in late position after the big stacks fold and I am able to kind of bully the small and big blinds along with the early position limpers with the help of my superior and dangerous looking stack-size. Unfortunately, while this works to a certain extent, I still don't connect with a few of the premium hands that I did happen to hold while on the button and lose £30 after a few of my big pre-flop raises back-fire. (Including a hand where my AQ on the button proved worthless against the villain who flopped a set of 5s.)

Nevertheless, I felt much more comfortable with my new seat and this built up my confidence simply because I was able to act after the bigger stacks and tougher players. I managed to add another £60 odd to my stack and by the time 4:30AM arrived I was really tired, yawning my head off and flagging like a good 'un. (I already had a day's work behind me.) With £420 in chips and £20 up on the night (a win is a win) I cashed out and took the night bus home on a glorious summer's morning and arrived home at 5:30AM.

Lovin' The Live Game

After a perusal of my live results, in comparison to my break-even performance online, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that I should be heading out more to the live game rather than playing at home on the computer. Yesterday's key hand was interesting in that I had a very strong read on the villain who I felt sure was bluffing and just trying top push me off the pot; you can really pick up on this sort of tell much easier in the live game. As they say, poker is a "people game played with cards" rather than "a card game played by people" and you really do feel this when you play live and interact with real people.