NL100 is the SHIT! And I mean it literally...

Time to bitch again. So I was at $1700 couple of hours back, being up $200 from NL50. I went to 100nl to kill a fish. Well that worked out well, I got JJ and reraised him, he of course called, being the 60/30/2 fish he was. Flop came down beautiful 774 rainbow. Well leads and I put him all-in. His 78 is good. -$100. Three hands later I pick up JJ. I raise him, he minraises me, I call. Flop is beautiful 742. He has AA. -$100. Few hands later, I still haven't given up hope, I have 78s, so I raise from button, he calls. Flop is pretty nice J96. Okay so he checks, I c-bet, he calls. Turn is a Q - he leads like half the pot, I call. River is a T, giving me my straight on a very dangerous board - especially cuz he had AK. I didn't go broke though.

So that's -$250. Effectively putting my result of the day to -$100 (I was down $50 from tournaments - in which I get always bad beat in the bubble - seriously, it's not a joke). Okay so that wasn't enough. I took a deep breath, went to take a shit, ate something, drank water and filled my mug with lemonade, preparing for my new session with around $1500 bankroll. I figured I'd play supertight 100nl for the time being and get this show back on the road.

That worked out nicely until I lost a stack with KK against AA. Well no biggie. Then I split TWO TIMES KK vs KK!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?633990
http://www.pokerhand.org/?633991

Ain't that adorable? Well this and a couple of other rapist hands later I managed to win some pots without showdown (that's my only trend lately). Soo I go pretty deep against this one guy who's 26/6.7/1.89 (small pf raise range huh) In this hand:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?634016

THE DRAW COULD HIT AT LEAST ONCE! THE POT WAS HUGE AND I WOULD'VE QUIT AFTER IT EITHER WAY.



I said to my friend that if I lose this all-in I'm going to quit. I lost it and I quit. Yay. So now, my roll is $1183. Motherfucking yay. It's become halved from what it was since I "moved to 100nl". Obviously it's time to take a break and try not to cut myself for the damage I've done. I can't beat the limit, I'm too fucking bad. I can rebuild the roll for 100nl a thousand times but I can't make the transition. Seriously. I pulled +4bi from 50nl, why can't I do the same for 100nl?


Now I wanna believe that it's just bad luck. I wanna believe that everyone has it. I really really really wanna believe it. But when I went to livegames to play some nl100, I lost 270€. Why? I don't know, I was 70-30 or better favourite in each full stack all-in. Does that make me bad? I've been thinking about skipping this 100nl level all together and now I'm really starting to think it's a cursed limit, whether it's online or live. I just get beat after beat after cooler after beat after cooler after beat after beat after cooler after beat and there's nothing I can do about it.

Fucking AWESOME. That much for this years goal. And there's no point in believing that I could still make it, I can't - I cashed out my entire roll to Neteller, hoping that there'll be some deposit bonus to stars next month (which is when I'll continue playing). I try to force myself to not play anything since I've been having problems doing that - mostly out of boredom. I need to do some studying anyway so this comes at a convenient time. But FUCK. I'm not going to do the estimation of how it went for the month overall as I think my month is around -$100 after that stupid shit.



IF I RAPE AT 50NL LIKE I'VE DONE LATELY - WHY DO I HAVE TO ENTER COOLER CITY AT 100NL. It's fucking ridiculous.

Fuck poker.

Memento Mori

Well it was fun while it last. I played a solid session of NL100 today and it went a bit worse than I expected, considering that I think I was playing good. Reminds me of my mortality. I will move down to grind some NL50. I think I will rebuild to $2.5k before trying again. The limit is cursed. I'm sure of this. I even lost 370€ in livegames playing it - and I was always 70-30 fav. or better going in.

Anyway, here's a graph of today's adventure.


The beginning of it is yesterday. I'd imagine you could guess where today begins. "Shoulda quit when I got back to +-0". Well, what can I say - I got outplayed hardcore. I picked some hands to show. An interesting fact is that I didn't stack anyone today for $100 stack but I did win a couple of consequent small stack doodes. So here's a picture of the stats for different types of hands for today. I think it's all pretty standard, give opinions:


Aight. Sweet god. I took the liberty of adding in some of the cream of the day to demonstrate how well these guys were actually playing.

Early in the session. This one was a treat. It's how the downspiral of cooler and bad beat hell began.

This came soon after. The villain was 48/15/1.6 ba-donk-a-tonk. I dunno if I should get rid of this - his went to showdown was 56% (200+ hand sample), won at showdown 50% (yay for running hot). Well, what a perfect way to kick off the session. These two first hands can be seen on the graph as a huge downfall.

This was amongst the last hands for today. I think he played it perfectly. Yay. And I think my push was brilliant as many people interpret that as a draw. The guy went "lol, I thought I lost when Q hit on turn". IDIOT! THAT Q SAVED YOU. Well either way. Nice hand, sir.

How do you spell a cooler. I had two three of a kinds - aka sets today. I did flop a boat once and I think that even held up. Either way, I didn't need a COOLER since I never was running HOT. Son of a god damn bitch. And no, I'm not folding that. EVER! Not filling up ever either.

This one was my fault. Was going for a checkraise. Good thing he felt that this time his normal aggression was uncalled for and he decided to check. Even better, the flushguy was smart enough to not raise at any point.

I'm going to start limping that hand too. I think I was a bit frustrated or so, calling that down as he could've easily had a sooted connector with a 5. But he didn't make it too expensive. :[ I guess this is the kinda hand I shouldn't have played to the felt.

This was just too funny. There's not much to the hand itself, but I couldn't see two players calling with non-paired A-rag or anything that I have beat. Well I was right - other one called two streets with queen high - I wonder what he was hoping to hit.

Ain't that about the best river there is? Aye. Well at least I didn't call it.

Again, my fault. This guy was 45/15/3, so I didn't exactly give him much credit there. He also almost always bluffed the river. Too bad it wasn't correct this time - I actually planned on CRing the turn, but was fine showing it down cheaply. River I check because I want him to bluff.

A hand I actually won. The river in this one was debateable and after some consideration, checking there and planning to call a reasonable bet is better than pushing all-in. By river, I had him on AJ/QQ type of hand and didn't think he could put me on a K unless I held KJ specifically. It was a bit too fancy and he probably puts me on 2 pair+ when I push. Checking might induce him to bluff anyway.

Great, awesome, super! This one was against the biggest fish at the table at that time. Ultraclub is a 64/7.14/0.56 guy. Went to showdown 36%, won at sd 50% (WTF!!?!?). Also his river aggression is infinite, so he could be raising a large amount of stuff here, even if it's not a bluff, his range still has a lot that I beat. A well.

This one was just weird. Well, he did float me, then bluff the river but wtf was he floating me for on that board. There's no way he thought he was good there, right?

This was officially my last hand of NL100 for the time being. And yes, I agree, I overplayed it by a big bunch. It was more frustration and tilt than clear judgement. I'm still not 100% sure how to play it, but I think folding to the flop CR would be the way to go. If I call and hit the trips on turn like I would've in this one - I still go broke. But yea, this was attrocious, horrible, ugly and I hope I never do anything like this, ever again.

Here's one more screenshot of my entire NL100 stab. I guess being down 4 buy-ins over 2200 hands is very standard cold streak, but why the fuck does it have to hit when I'm trying to move up - it's just ridiculous. And it's not like it's the first time or anything:


My goal for the year wasn't just to get there and fall back down, it's to be able to maintain a roll there. Basically I'm thinking of having over 30bi before I consider the goal achieved.

As a conclusion, I will be taking weekend off from playing. I'm a bit disappointed right now, I will move down, rebuild, restart, and try again. On the bright side, I'm a bit less than $500 away from having 20bi again, although time has taught that that's not enough. $2.5k here I come!

Yo! Poker is fun, fo everyone!

Cheers!

Poonugget Iacta Est!

Yay! 100nl baby! NL100 BABY! $0.5/$1 NO LIMIT HOLD'EM BABY! SSNL BABY! AHH BABY!

I made it! I started the day from yesterday's nice heater (MTTs + like 4bi from NL50) by thinking I won't play any cashgames today. Well I ended up doing well in one 27 sng (won it) and #7 in one PLO8 MTT (well it was small so I got like... nothing). Basically hitting the win of the $11 27 player one, I got to $1.9k. So I pick up two good looking NL100 tables and pull around 2bi up in 450 hands.

Feeling to gamble a bit, I went to 10nl where some highrollers were pushing in like every hand. I lost like $70, then won $40 back and quit. :] Still. It's so pretteeeeh and now I'm over 20bi. I think I will try to get used to the limits playing two tables at the time probably, it was exciting enough today. I lost a flip for a bit over half buy-in and lost a couple of mid-size pots but mostly I just won and won.

This one was nasty. I mean c'mon! Damn.
Here I was a bit behind. Heh.
This one was monkeybutty. I had solid read on him playing draws and I was so certain he had the flushdraw here - ie. As. The question was whether it was paired or not. Well in this case, it turned out that I was drawing dead - I guess raising the river would've been the "correct" way to go (or turn). But I thought I'm probably good so didn't see it - if I raise, my massive ace high becomes a bluff.

Noice.

Cheers!

lol flipaments

I briefly attended a flipament at NL5 table, but I realized it can get really messy really fast so I quit after losing $80 stack in 1c/2c game (only down about $15). Anyway, the stakes quickly got out of hand and here's a screenshot of the biggest pot of the night after vvvQ ALMOST got gunned down (he was dominant all the time, but once they had to flip for over $700!). Ain't that great :D Damn right it is.

Cheers.

lol donkaments...

Well I had fine cashgame session again (around +$80) and I went to the normal 2 MTTs (10 minute level one and 180 player one). Well it's the normal brutality. I got screwed in the 10 minute one (standard coinflip loss) and 180 player i went deep, had over average (was like top 20) and well then I had JJ, I early position, one caller, flop Axx and I c-bet, he raises all-in, I have to fold. Then late pos raises, I push from SB with TT and get instacalled by AKs and that can go only one way. I did catch a lucky break earlier, but I bet that was Lee Jones' twisted joke to make me squirm in pain (not much pain getting eliminated early), when I pushed with AJ on KQxx board with J high flushdraw against KJ with Kh so I had like 5 outs. Besides that, it was buttrape after buttrape. Too bad.

Anyway, I guess I'm doing better and better so all I need to win is those wreched showdowns. One day! One day! Well they're just $11 so they don't really affect all that much to my progress... or well it does, but one day! ONE DAY!

Back on track

Break did me good, I played a LOT better today than last week and probably even the week before (When I had big up). I played 1400 hands (Thanks PokerStars for the fast tables - I can almost double my hands / hour). Also helps with not getting bored. Well, I was up around 4 buy-ins at my highpoint, but ended the session around +$135.30. I must start open folding QQ+ ;D Those hands just seem to piss on my face most of the time. With the recent research I made, of the hands that go to showdown AND lose, all the big pairs are in that category - although they probably should be.

Anyway, good session behind, more TAGgy than usual and I'll try to put weight on playing something like 20/15. I've also been paying attention to my aggression on each street. I've tuned down my reckless flop aggression towards tight-aggressive and increased my turn and especially river aggression a bit. I also increased my pf reraising range against certain types of opponents a bit, but I do this a lot by feel. Today it didn't work out all that well since all 40/20 doods seemed to have QQ+, but overall I think my "experiement" ended around even if not positive. Plus it helped me create an image. I did get hit a few times by some funky two pair against my overpair and I did a couple of bad squeezes too.

I'm not sure of one of the plays, but basically it went down like this. MP raised (6-handed) to 4 BB, Button called and I called from BB with TT (I probably woulda reraised from button but, heh). Flop came down 664 rainbow. I check my option, planning on checkraising. So I check, the preflop aggressor bets $3 into pot of $6, perfect. The Button calls (he's been fairly solid, but I don't really know what his range could be here - probably a pair of sorts or AQ type of hand). I decide to make my move and I make it $12 ($9 more into pot of $21). The initial raiser folds, BUT the button pushes all-in for $50. Dear lord. This lead me to believe he either had a 6x or 44. I guess biiiig pocket pair coulda been there too but I doubt he'd make this with 99-. If he did it with that or overcards, all the more power to him.

It just struck me as a bit weird, but I just folded it. There were some bad plays I did early in the session. Turns out that whenever I decide to make that monthly 3-barrel bluff, I'm against the nuts. I thought I could make him fold top pair, but instead he had top boat. I bet flop and turn and got raised on the river and I called his hand exactly (KK on K44xx board), even though he didn't reraise me preflop and he showed it and made me feel good about myself. Still, it probably was silly and I don't do that stuff more.

As for todays session, I played around 20/13/3 game, with 4/2/2 street stats. Went to SD 24.78% (This has significantly gone to better direction - it could still go down a bit), won at showdown: 52.38%. Won $ when saw flop: 38.35%.

I feel good for getting back on track and I'm currently playing some semi-turbo $11 MTT with friends, but knowing my typical luck at these things, I'll get two-outed around bubble (or FT bubble at latest). That's about it for now! ^^

And here's a cool game that has been ruining my good night sleep lately. I present to you THE FUNNY FARM!

Cheers!

Poker is so...

Let's just say that the people who thought of the word "frustrating" should've thought up a stronger, more meaningful word for poker. My "mental issues" with the game are far from being solved and at the moment, my greatest fight is against the frustration of not making it to NL100 yet. The sad thing is that I was at $1900 roll on monday. Now I'm at $1300 and I only played two big sessions. That last $100 has been the pain in the ass for the last... decade. I just get overhyped and go crazy, trying to get that last $100 before moving up to the SSNL. I'm currently on a break (which I might have to lengthen) that will end on monday. However, I did play some donkaments yesterday and after getting 2-4 outed in 4 of the 5 tournies, I decided that was enough - plus I got the "time killing" done that I wanted to.

Today I thought of not playing at all, but there was this µNL donkament going so I figured I'd go there. Without a single showdown I got up to 3000 stack pretty quickly, but that was about as good as it would get. I then made a brilliant resteal against CO raiser, only to find BB holding AKs, taking a nice chunk from my stack (I had livecards, but what can you do). I continued to run to KK and QQ from raising on the button (I think 3 times total in addition to the AKs hand).

Finally I pushed in with AKs UTG and got called down by MP AJs. Flop came Kxx, but turn and river were jacks (naturally) and I was out. I think this doesn't exactly boost my mentality on the game so I might even take monday off too. I'm working on some stuff anyway so it's not like I didn't have things to do.

Even though my goal of reaching NLx00 (practically it means NL100) by christmas should be very very easy given the level of play and the amount of time, unless I manage to overcome this stupid "OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG NL100 OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG" feeling, it might prove out to be ridiculously hard to make it. The amount of desperation and depression I'm feeling over this week is inconcievably big and even though grinding 14 buy-ins in 45 days should be virtually automatic with even a bad winrate, it gets me to doubt myself. If I just could go without thinking about it but fuck - I've been stuck on this wreched limit for a year. How the hell do I get the excitement to go down. Maybe I'll buy some calming medicine ffs. I had this br race with a friend too and we went up to $1900 hand in hand. Then I figured it was time to part ways and he'll probably reach NL200 by christmas. :D

Cheers.