FeARFaCTs Poker Blog

Been a rough week so far but my biggest struggle has definitly been to keep focused over thousands of hands each day. I know a lot of situations I'm running into would be handled much better if I was playing less boards and thinking clearer, yet at the same time I'm able to see more situations from the added boards. While I could drop some boards here and there, I think over time I'll develop a more solid game if I keep trying to stay focused during each session and minimize my spewing. I'm kind of still going back and forth trying out different styles, and as of today I'm backing off my aggression a bit. The prior week I was cbetting every flop and did pretty well, but either I just ran well or people didn't know me becuase this week I'm getting looked up much more. I'm varying my play from check raising to check folding and trying to mix it up a lot more. I still don't think I'm running great this week, but I'm also making a ton of dumb mistakes. Either way if I can run even 3bb/100 on 20 boards, this is basically 6bb/100 on 10 boards or 12bb/100 on 5 boards, which is a great win rate.

I had a few hands today similiar to this spot. Maybe I just ran bad today but I wonder if this is every avoidable or if I'm forced to stack off every time. The reason I bring this up is that it happened several times today and it seems like I may have made some mistakes. The way this hand in particular was played, unless I had a super read on this short stack I think it's going in every time no questions asked. I could be wrong but I don't know.

I'm not proud of this hand and how it was played. It was strange from the start being 4 bet min raised by one of the players. I don't know if I should ever be just shoving JJ here but it seems like a losing play. I feel like players who make this raise either have AQ+ or TT+, in which I don't dominate much of the range and more likely I'll see bigger pp's than JJ here. I think calling in this spot is reasonable. The other odd thing about this hand is the other player cold called 12 then called another 12, which lead me to believe they probably weren't that strong. This player could have possibly had a strong pair but most likely were holding a lower pocket. The flop check from the 4bettor was strange, in that this player could be checking with any hand in his range. The cold caller bet out pretty strong and to me at the time it didn't indicate strength. I wasn't putting this player on QQ+ so I figured JJ was probably good here and shoved. Although looking back, this player bet pretty hard into 2 other players here. I don't know if this is a total mistake on my part or just and odd ball hand. It seems like its a bit of both. In the future I should just consider dumping this spot, for all I know the player betting 50 could have been cold calling a monster like KK or AA and decided to fire away on the flop.

Hands like these are interesting in that they can really screw up my thinking later on in a session. I find players make complete off the wall plays like these, and then players make very similar moves with strong hands as well. Sometimes its hard for me to decipher what exactly the player is trying to do on the spot, and thats the down fall I face playing so many boards. With this hand in particular, he donk bet the flop on me and I put in a standard raise. He came back and instantly shoved over the top of me. To me this really does not indicate strength. If this player had played his AA or KK in this manner then so be it, I think I'm stacked. I don't feel like hes doing this with a pair higher than mine and felt like he hit the flop in some way and was hoping I was AK. I think if this player has TT+ in this spot he might put in a smaller re-raise or even check call or check raise. To donk bet here and then insta shove just seems like you are over playing either a weak pair or a draw, so I put him in.

This player is the biggest dumbass ever. He went broke the next hand with 77 vs KK.

Again, just like my first hand - I stack off with pair under pair to a short stack. His check minraise here is suspect, I'm still a strong pair here. With hands like the two I just showed its tough for me to lay this down and give him much credit. I guess in general this isn't the best spot for JJ but still I don't know if I can reasonably get away from it.

This was just stupid. It wasn't the best flop ever but I liked it for what I had. His check and lead of 4 was pretty weak so I went ahead and raised. He went and min raised me and at this point I should have tossed, but just became frustrated with the whole hand and shoved it in. It didn't occur to me at the time that I was probably shoving drawing dead but in general I just became fed up with the hand vs. a half stack in the heat of the moment, which is something I need to fix.

Interesting spot here. This player was obviously tilting at the time and was down a chunk of money. Sometimes you get minraised and you know its scary and that you are beat, and sometimes you get minraised and you just know it screams garbage. This was one of those situations where his minraise looked really off to me and I went ahead and called. I could have 3 bet him here, but at the same time I was also confident in calling down a bluff and didn't want to face a 4 bet shove on the flop. The turn card was obviously not great, but this player went and bet 35 into 65, which is about 1/2 pot and a pretty weak bet. Maybe I consider folding to a strong turn bet but this size of his bet did not tell me he was that strong and I went and peeled off another card. The river really didn't change the board dynamic unless he had min raised me with middle pair on the flop. I feel like if he had tripped up on the river he would have just shoved and hoped I had an ace. With his bet here and the board essentially the same I figured he probably didn't have an ace since his bets were just weak and random, and he probably didn't have much off the flop. He could feasably have an ace if he had min raised me with an A high flush draw on the flop, but his bet on the turn was just so weak I didn't give him credit for it. With all this information along with the fact he had been tilting pretty bad I decided I was good enough of the time here to make a call.

Not a standard play for me but I had my reasons. First of all this guy was raising a really high percentage and also seemed to be tilting at the time. I felt that if I hit the flop well, I could easily take his stack. I also wasn't putting him on a monster hand like QQ+ since he was raising so much and tilting as well. I've seen these situations in the past where players will raise up a decent hand and over play it, so as long as I could connect decently on a flop I'd play the hand hard. I also would have probably played the hand allin if I flopped either pair, depending on how I felt about his hand. The flop worked out pretty well for me and I called a rather large bet by him. I did have implied odds to make this call, since I was calling 32 to win the 67 in the pot as well as 120 of his remaining stack. I also figured if I hit a ten I was probably good as well as a king. He ended up having a slightly better hand than I thought he had and maybe I was lucky to have live cards, but either way it was a decent spot to pick up vs and obviously overplayed hand.

This hand really sucked to put it plainly. He was playing a lot of hands so I had to put him on a wider range. The turn card definitly looked good for me but also sealed my grave. His raise on the turn indicated a set, but I had just picked up top two vs a wild player and didn't want to let it go just yet. He shoved the rest on the river which is usually indicative of strength but I called off anyways hoping that he was bluffing. Spots like these are tough because a lot of the time I feel like I talk myself into calling because I do have a pretty good hand and it would be coold to take down a 400$ pot. It's tough that he flopped a straight here, but at the same time he could have easily had 55 or 22 and I was beat either way. Maybe he could have had A5 or A2 in this spot as well and I was way ahead, but I don't know. I feel like I probably could have folded this hand if I was playing really solid, but for the most part maybe I need to stack off to a wild player here as well.

Looking back at this hand, my play just looks off. I bet pretty small on the turn but I feel I did this because I wasn't putting my opponent on much and I obviously really wanted a call on this board. When he called the turn and I had the second nuts on the river, I felt this was a great shove spot. Either he has something here or he doesn't. If he were to call a 75$ bet he might as well call off a full stack. Also it looks suspicious of me to bad players when I just shove and sometimes I get called off light. I also don't know why I only raised 18 more preflop, I usually 3x a raise in position like this. I do recall this player raising a ton of hands so it turned out suprising that he had a strong holding, and I was probably lucky to hit such a nice flop or I could have gotten in trouble.

Been playing a ton of hands last week. I actually made back about 4k last week and cleared my bonus so I jumped my bankroll from 4k to 9.5k which was pretty nice. I bumped up to 200nl and have been doing fairly well there, although the stress level is basically doubled as well. I find the game to be much more aggressive than it used to be 1-2 years ago. Now I have to 3bet out of the blinds and in position with crap just to stay ahead sometimes. Players are also bluffing much more and I've had to make adjustments to my game. I'm down about 1k over the last 3 days and have been running a little terrible again. I've been still making some pretty stupid mistakes and whenever I can manage to plug these I should be running consistantly well.

This was bad, the villian is tight and won't raise here w/o a hand.

Should have called reriase for set value and folded flop.

Again I need to get away from this hand.

I thought I ran a great bluff here, there's just no way he can call my bet without hitting his flush or improving his hand.

I've been playing pretty aggressive but I just don't think my hand is ever good here vs. a tighter player.

I tried to get tricky here and the whole thing went back. I was pretty sure I had him on the turn, and figured if I call a turn bet I should call the river bet. I could have thought the hand out more although it's tough to put someone on a flush here. Either way I'm not sure this player fires two barrels at me with nothing.

This is pathetic, I actually misread my hand here. I thought I held 86 instead of 56, and shoved because I was pretty confident my hand was good. I was correct in that 86 would have been good, had I held it.

Pretty wild hand. Wasn't really sure where I stood on the turn, although this guy was a total nut. With his flat call I was probably good, and wasn't folding the rest so I stuck it in anyways.

This was suprising. I considered this player to be a winning regular, and there was absolutely no reason for him to go broke on this hand in this limped pot. I'm never bluffing here and his hand is dominated by my possible range. I think he put me on a flush draw, but again I'm never bluffing here in this spot.

I don't know if I really like my call or not. This player is a bit wild so draws are definitly in his range, as well as any set. I guess even if he has a set I still has a flush draw, and if he has a draw im ahead or a flopped flush I still am drawing to the second nuts. If this wasn't three flush I would think this is a fold.

Obviously put this guy on tilt. He's been raising me sb vs bb all day and I've been three betting him all day. There's no reason for him to defend this hand ever, or even raise it in the first place. This hand is completely hillarious, I don't know what else to say about it.

Another player I apparently tilted. I really thought there was a huge chance he was a medium pair here and not a large pair, so I raised him in. I don't like how he played his hand at all, maybe he thought I was bluffing AK but I think calling with 88 here is pretty bad.

I read this player pretty well. Although I had the nut draw on the turn, I really felt I was ahead and put in the raise based on that. River was nice but it would have been interesting to see what his action was had he missed.

On the turn I was kinda like, wow I have no idea what you have but I feel like I have to call you here. Granted I've been getting set mined all week long wtih AA, but this was just like what do you have here.

Some river value on a scary board.

I don't know why I was even talking this hand. For some reason I thought the Ace hurt my hand at first, like he had AA or something. Then I decided what the hell was I thinking and shoved. He was time banking and I honestly thought he had KK. Guess not.

Although I could have gotten myself into trouble, I like how this hand played out. I figured I was good on the turn and that if I checked he'd fire two barrels at me with a worse hand. It was a scary board but I didn't think he had a hand.

Snapped this guy off two bluffs, and both times he was overplaying AK. Granted I have "top 2" here, but if he had an overpair I was crushed. Even though he bet three streets I figured he was donking off with AK.

I also really like this hand. Again I put this player on AK, and I felt that if I bet $20 on the turn, he would shove, and I would call off the rest.

I got 2nd in a tourney today netting $350 so that wasn't bad, but what was bad is I can't win at poker anymore. I have no idea whats going on and I probably lost 6 buyins over 5k hands. I'm not going to comment on my hands, I'm just going to post a lot of my big winners and losers and try to figure it out. But yea, I dunno.

Losers

Winners

Another interesting thing I noticed is the sum of my losses of my biggest 16 losing hands is $1220.95, where as the sum of my winnings of my biggest 16 winning hands is $884.20. The difference of this is only $336.75. It's safe to say I probably spewed off around $400 today from bad plays, which would account for the difference there. However, the problem is that I finished down $792.60 today in ring games, which leaves $455.85 of extra losses not accounted for in my biggest 16 winning/losing hands.

This really baffles me and I think makes it obvious that I have some huge leaks in my game. I would like to think that my biggest losses for the day should be accounted for in the most part in my biggest hands, and then my smaller hands should in theory even out into the positives. The fact that I'm losing this much money on smaller hands is killing me. In looking at today's stats, I actually finished down $36 with AA, which is obviously due to running bad. I was down even more with AK, and this could be more likely due to mistakes on my part.

I finished up about $100 each with KK and QQ, which is a pathetic amount for 5,000 hands played. My biggest losing hands were 88, QTs, TT, AKs, AQo. The first found can be accounted for with huge mistakes on my part. I didn't lose any monster pots with AQo, but I did finish down with it which makes it obvious that I am still miss playing this hand. The rest of my losers were AA, 99, 75s, KQo, 75o. The AA is clearly not my fault but I am still overplaying these other hands. After that there is an even distribution of losses amoung the rest of the bad hands to play.

There are still a lot of money in losses not accounted for. It's safe to say over a normal distribution of 5,000 hands, I should be up ~$600 with AA, $300 with KK and $250 with QQ. If I had hit these numbers I would have been actually up $100 for the day, and if I hadn't spewed off about $400 I would be up $500 for 5,000 hands, which I would be happy with. All in all I feel like I'm not playing great, but I really think I'm running terribly and just can't explain how I'm losing this much money every single day this week.

Can't seem to win, just blowing my mind. Played 8,500 hands today on 24 tables and finished down almost a buyin. Cashed in a tourney but went out in a stupid way and didn't make much. I'm looking at my stats and I'm trying to peice together where everything is going wrong. I really got screwed on AA on QQ today as I didn't make much with AA and actually lost money with QQ. I think most of my pocket pairs were in the negatives so I need to stop playing them as much I suppose. I was also down with hands like QJ and I am probably over playing those as well. Even all this in mind, I know I am running terrible. I am not having any easy money spots and a lot of my hands are failing to hold. I lost to at least one runner runner today and a few other ridiculous hands. Even if these hands held I wouldn't be up as nearly as much as I should have been, but I feel this rut is a combination of sub optimal play and a bad deck.

Obviously a seemingly stupid spot to stick my stack in. The whole thing blew my mind though as he INSTANTLY min raised me on the river here. I was sitting here thinking to myself, did you really just instantly min raise me with the nuts? I really figured this to be a stupid play so I decided he probably wasn't the nut flush and shoved on him. Low and behold I was wrong.

Ok so I'm probably overplaying AK here. What threw me off about everything is I've seen this player super slow play AA in the past out of position. With this in mind I figured he probably wasn't AA in this spot and went ahead and reraised him. If I am just overthinking the entire situation then somebody let me know, and this is probably a wreckless play, but what the hell does he have. I feel like he hit QQ on the flop, or he had AA. Those are the only two hand he could possibly have with the way he played, and most probably he had Quads or something. If he snapped me off here with anything less or even AK himself then I need to quit poker forever.

I don't like my play here. I don't feel he shoves much less than top two here on the turn, but I was raising to see where I stood. I could have just check called down the board and seen a showdown, but this came off as a stronger player and it looked like he had a set.

I played this slow which is why I don't think he was worried about the flush.

I had my drill weekend in the National Guard this past weekend so I wasn't able to play. I used this as a good opportunity to reset myself and not think about poker for a bit. I also fasted for 24 hours which really helped kick this cold I'm on and get some more rest. This week I'll be playing a lot and very hard and want to make some big leaps and bounds in my play. I don't want to necessarily get mad at myself for playing bad, but I really need to step it up and stop making stupid mistakes as well.

Well I played a ridiculous ammount of hands today, ~11500. I was up 3 buyins after the 8,000 hand mark and lost 4.5 after that. Really was an annoying overall day as I feel I was out drawn left and right on a majority of hands I should have won. I did get fatigued near the end of the session and that played a role in losing a few buyins. Either way I just feel like screaming after today because even though I won several huge pots I'm still down for the day. Oh and to top it all off, I literally bubbled a decent sized tournament I easily should have won with the hands I was getting.

This was terrible, I didn't even see the straight flush. The worst part is, at the time I looked at it quickly and told myself there was no straight flush possible because I held the Ace.

Pretty much got tooled on here. My first inclination was that he was weak for making such a hard bet on this particular flop after checking to him. In light of this I raised, and he must of almost immediately shoved. At this point I should have considered going back to the drawing board and re-thinking the hand out. For whatever reason I still felt he was weak here at the time and called my stack off.

Another dissaster as I started to get tired near the end of the session. I don't really know if raising with hands like A7o here is even profitable because I feel like I get 3bet a lot more than I scoop the blinds. This player raises a lot so I decided to repop him. Really should have just folded but I felt like making the play. I hit the flop and opted for a free turn card so I could evaulate his action as well. I guess his shove should have indicated more strength to me, but it seemed weaker at the time. I just didn't think he had AA and I didn't think he was shoving with a lower pair. I guess I don't know this player well enough yet to be making these kinds of reads.

I have notes on this player saying he bets small amounts with the nuts in spots like these. Regardless, his bets are so small it still makes me want to shove all day long on him. I feel like I'm good here vs. any other player. In the future I'm going to have to have better hand to shove on this player with, but for now I think this is just a rough spot that could have been avoided.

I don't like my play at all here. I think I should have just made a continuation bet on the flop to see where I stand. Obviously the Q is not a great card to see as I'm putting this player on a big pair. If he were to call my flop bet, which he would, I think my only play would really be to shut down here. Yes he could have KK in this spot, but if he went off betting and shoving on me I would have to put him on a boat and not KK. This player is a smarter tighter player and I don't think he ever stacks off with KK here considering how tight he knows I'm playing.

Well I was putting him on a decent sized pair here and turns out I was called down by Ace high.

Sweet turn.

I haven't made an update yet but I've been playing religiously this entire year so far. I've already played 41k hands this month and hope to keep these numbers up every month. Last year was an odd year of poker for me as I played as high as 1000nl and as low as 100nl. Last summer I burnt myself out and took some time off. I've really came back strong so far and have been doing a lot of thinking as to where I want to take poker. I've been in and out of college several times and have been working on a few online business ventures as well. I basically decided that I won't ever be able to work at a normal job because I don't have patients for anything. This year I'm going to work extremely hard at my game and want to see myself at or around the 2000nl level by the end of this year. I would also like to hit Supernova Elite, and I think this goal is very possible assuming I don't wait too long to move up through the limits. I'm not going to rush myself since I've been having great results at 100nl, but I also can't play 100nl for the rest of my life.

As for this year so far, I'm down. I took a shot at 200nl and lost several buyins to some horrendous beats and questionable play at my part. My luck at 100nl hasn't been much better, although I've been turning this around over the last few days. I've flipped around between various styles of play, from being overly aggressive to overly tight. I think I've come to a middle ground where I'm still playing a smaller range of hands but taking those hands to the felt whenever I feel I'm good. I have about 41k hands to look through so far as I get lazy with it pretty much most of the time. Once I sift through some hands I'll post the bigger ones on here and discuss my thoughts on each hand.