My abstinence from caffeine has thus far been a success, however I've been getting besieged daily by headaches which has really affected my ability to play poker. I think most of the caffeine withdrawl has subsided, yet I still am struggling on a day to day basis. I did some thinking and came to the realization that my beloved Ginkgo Biloba has been having detrimental effects on my health as well. The other day I took a normal dose in preparation for some poker, only to be lying in bed two hours later to shake off another headache. I checked out wikipedia and found that Gingko Biloba, as caffeine, also has the nasty side effect of administering headaches. Upon reading this I also dumped this suppliment which I've been taking pretty regularly for the past year. It's been about two days now since dumping this and I am doing somewhat better. I'm starting to sleep a bit less at night and am more motivated during the day, yet I still don't have the full feeling of energy I'm used to experiencing. I'll attribute part of this due to my lack of interest in working out as of late, however this withdrawl has definitly taken a toll on my body.
As for poker, It's been difficult to keep focused while fighting on and off headaches, all while operating on sub par energy levels. I've been playing mostly 100nl as the easier games are less stressful while in my recovery stages. I've been doing quite well and have been running over 10bb/100 over my last 5000+ hands or so. This weekend I will put in some more time and try to get back into the swing. All next week starting Monday and continuing through Sunday I'll be working with the National Guard. Not entirely thrilled about this, however it will give me a good break from my mundane life and should motivate me to play some more poker when I get back. I'll still try to fit some hands in during the week although I don't forsee any major sessions occuring.
I decided to completely quit taking caffiene. I've been consuming upwards of two energy drinks a day over the past few months and I feel this has been detrimental to my health. I think this is the fourth day since I quit and I think my body is starting to feel normal again. I've put in a few sessions at 100nl these past few days and have done decently well, aside from running bad. The whole reason I became accustomed to taking caffiene during play began when I first started playing poker more competetively. I noticed for the most part, that I lost w/o caffiene and won with caffiene. Since then it has just been integrated into my daily life while playing poker. However, over the last few weeks it became very apparent to me of the side effects from taking so much caffiene. I've been feeling brain dead during most hours of the day. I have some pretty bad mood swings and almost a bipolar type of attitude sometimes. I also struggle to get up in the morning and frequently sleep more than I probably should. What really drove me to quit were the extreme crashes I was experiencing more and moreso lately. I'd start a poker session fired up and ready to go, only to be drowsing off a few hours later and out of energy. Couple this with a headache and even potential downshifts of my mood, it was really affecting my game. I somewhat looked into it and noticed that a lot of players who I know play full time do not take caffiene on a daily basis. This lead me to question myself as to why I think I need to take this product in order to win. Since for the most part I'm very health concious, I just went ahead and made the decision to drop caffiene all together. The first few days were rough as I experienced several daily headaches and ended up taking naps throughout the day because of them. I also basically didn't do anything the past few days as my mind just felt empty and aloof.
Last night I put in a decent session and although I lost, I felt my brain working as it has in the past during my massive multitabling sessions; although this time without the aid of caffiene. This morning I put in another 2000 hand session at 100nl and beat the game pretty badly. I am confident that over the next few weeks I should put down some good results as I become more energy through natural means and can focus more on my game. I also am still pushing myself to study the game more while I'm not playing, which I should be able to do so more now without my frequent headaches from caffiene. In my opinion, if you are too tired to the point where you think you need caffiene to be awake enough to play, you probably shouldn't be playing anyways. If I experience a lack of energy it probably means I haven't been eating healthy enough or working out enough.
I didn't post any hands as again, most 100nl hands are no brainer non exciting hands for the most part. I plan on putting in some 200nl sessions either tonight or tomorrow and should have some more hands up soon.
Got pounded on a bit at my 200nl game. I definately wasn't playing my strongest game, but at the same time I had some setups as well. I was playing a bit looser than my normal game and I feel this is due to having just played live poker. Nothing too dissasterous though. I ended up moving down to 100nl at the end of last night and quickly made 6.5 buyins to cover some of my losses. I might play 100nl for a few more days and work on my win rate again. I should be really making bare minimum of 5bb/100 at this limit and I just haven't been able to hold those numbers consistantly in the past.
I was playing a bit reckless at the time but I did have a pretty good feel for his hand. My turn bet is indictive of this as I fired pretty hard to fold out a QT draw. He spent a while thinking about the call which really lead me to believe more so that he had a draw. It was humorous as I was sitting here hoping for a J or A on the river, then realizing I didn't want to see an A if he did indeed have QT. With his river bet of QT it was relatively cheap to look him up in general, and I don't see what hand he has that he is half potting the river with. Not a spectacular call but not bad for a limped pot either. This line my opponent took is a mindset most weaker players tend to follow. His flop call is fine but his turn play could be seen as more questionable. Granted he retains position on me, however if he does hit his card he will need to make an extra $100 or so on the river, which is especially tougher as the pot is limped. In addition he could is really only drawing to six outs as hearts may effectively ruin his action or make my hand. In his mind he feels he can accomplish one of two things with his turn call. Either he can hit his hand and get paid off on the river by a decent amount, which is generally unrealistic. Or secondly, if he misses his card he can outplay me on the river and make me fold. This errorenous line of thinking plagues a lot of players and I've worked hard to distance myself from it. Had an A fallen on the river and he fired something like $72 or more, I would have folded without a doubt.
First ouch. I think I called preflop here because he was really tight and was likely to have a big pair here. Although I could have just been playing very loose not sure.
I insta called this. I didn't feel there was too much to think about and assess at the time. His line in this hand is rather strange though. What hand bets half pot on the flop and full pot on the turn? I hand that spikes a set on the turn of course! In all reality, this is an unknown player to me which usually means he won't be very good. Maybe if I had more stats or a read I could have laid this down or put him on a specific range of hands. In general I figured he could have some goofy two pair here, AQ AK even over pairs. With the lack of information and reads I just called without thought. I'm not sure if this general line of half pot flop, full pot turn indicates strength or not. I know a line of small, small, big is usually very strong. This line in particular could indicate some sort of weakness, it seems as if he shoved because he felt he had the best hand and was scared of being drawn on? Maybe he just shoved because he knew I'd call. Either way I think he could have a multitude of hands here and I don't believe calling is terrible.
Definitly playing looser this hand, but really just got sucked into dissaster here. It was a limped pot to begin with so that's always bad to be going broke on. SquishFish is a regular and I've played quite extensively with him over the past months. His raise on the flop here doesn't have to be strength by any means. He could have a bigger hand, but he could also very easily be making some sort of squeeze. I am also pretty confident that the unknown player left to act behind me will make this call so I am getting decent odds. On the other hand, four of my outs make a four card staight on the board and would effectively ruin my action. Although again, if for some reason someone held a seven here and a four game, I would be definitely stacking them for sure. On the turn as I had somewhat suspected, Squishfish slowed down and I really felt he was weak here. I went ahead and made a stab at the pot as I didn't feel at the time that either opponent was too strong. Again I didn't really know the other player but he could be easily drawing here. I think most players with a strong hand would probably repop the flop from his position after the second raise. On the other hand, he didn't have the nuts so he may have just been calling to see a turn and to see how the hand played out. I feel he may have been somewhat scared of SquishFish's raise with his hand, where as I was more inclined to think he was pulling off some sort of squeeze. After Fish checked the turn, I put him on a weaker range, but I'm sure my other opponent did as well. Maybe he was just waiting to check shove anyways so it didn't matter, but from my point of view this seems logical. His shove basically gave me pot odds to make the call and there wasn't much else to do after that. What's interesting though as I reassess this hand is that I actually didn't have odds to make this call here. I was paying 82 to win 356 which would mean I need to have a 23% chance or better to win the hand to profitably make this call. My hand was about 17% to win on the turn so this was a bad call on my part. It is interesting that I made a mathematical error to this extent in this game as I am usually impeccable with my mathematical decisions. I'm inclined to think I was just playing poorly at the time as I stated earlier and lost more money than I should have. In all reality this call wasn't a monsterous error, but it did cost me a small amount of money; which over time all adds up.
Obviously getting really lazy with this whole posting thing. I really completely hate the way I post and would much prefer to just write something in MS Word and have it pop up on here. I completely stopped with my Web Design efforts as of now so I won't be making any time saving updates myself. If anyone knows any easy way or PHP script in which I can make easier posts to this blog, that would be great.
In other news, I just got back from Atlantic City and it turned out to be a pretty successful trip. I finished up three buyins at 2/5nl, which makes up for my Foxwoods dissaster I experienced a few weeks prior. I honestly didn't have that many interesting hands. I won a big pot with KK when someone shoved a flop of T7x and mucked his hand when he said he missed on the river. I suppose the hand was maybe somewhat interesting. One player raised to 20 ep and I came over the top to 60 from mp. Folds around to the sb who cold calls 60, and the other player calls 60. The sb just open bet 250 and left himself something like 50-75 chips left. I honestly thought the other player had folded preflop and just annouced allin. Apparently my expert attention span online translates well into live play as well. The other player antagonized about this for a while and eventually folded. He said he had JJ so I don't know why he thought it was a tough decision to make. The sb's cold call looks suspicious maybe but I put him on a weaker hand right off the bat, and wasn't suprised he shoved the flop. I figure he shoves any pair here, any draw, and maybe even Ax if he's feeling that crazy. I kind of wanted to see his hand but it doesn't really matter a whole lot.
Another hand I had 77 in the bb with a few limpers and the sb raised to 20. I called and flopped a set. Pretty standard hand. He opened for 60, I raised to 175 and he shoved. To my suprise he acutally had QJc for a flush draw and not AA. My hand held and I scooped close to a 1k pot. Other than that I made most of my money just raising and cbetting flops hard. I had AJd 4 way on a Q88 flop and a $120 pot. Live is interesting with all the additional information you have. I just felt everyone was weak so I fired at took it down. I doubt I ever cbet that board online with a completely missed hand 4 way, but live I had a better feeling for the table.
Overall it was an enjoyable experience and I definitly want to start playing more live poker. I'm going to start a live bankroll now as well as my online roll. Right now I have 3k wrapped up and I'm going to keep using that soley for playing live poker. I eventually want to play 5/10 and 10/20 nl live so I'll build my roll and work my way up to those games. I'm fully confident I can crush 5/10nl now and probably even 10/20nl, but I should build up a roll playing live games anyways.
I haven't played much online poker with my trips and working in the guard this past week. I played a few hands today and my roll is up to almost 13k. I definitly fell way short of my goal but I had a decent month in Feb and didn't play nearly as much as I wanted. I won't complain and am going to focus on playing way more hands this month. I am also going to focus on really breaking hands down more and studying the game in general. I've been reading The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and it's been a really enlightening journey for me so far. John was one of the top US chess players for many years, who later got into martial arts and proceeded to win many national and world martial arts championships as well. It's incredible to be the best in two completely different areas, one being more mental and the other more physical. Obviously you need endurance for chess and you need to be smart in any sport, but you know what I mean. It's really made me take a step back and evaluate my life style and how I treat poker specifically. I mean right now and since Jan 07 basically, my sole income has been poker. My plans right now are to play poker professionally for several years to come, and eventually invest and make proceeds off of that as well. I have big plans but basically my driving force right now is poker. With this in mind, I really just dick around with the game. Yea I play 20 boards and I put hours in etc etc, but really I don't feel like I advance myself enough within the game. Aside from watching a card runners video here and there, I don't study the game at all. I don't read forum posts, I don't read articles or books, and I don't review enough hands.
No top performer in any field has gotten to where they are without hard work. Even other great poker players who may not have necessarily "studied" the game most likely did inadvertantly. I know many pools of great players who share hand and information with each other, which in turns betters themselves as a whole. Aside from talking to a few players online here and there, I am mostly cut off from groups like this and I don't work on the game enough on the side. I certainly don't want to lose my life to poker, but on the other hand, if I want to play the biggest games which I do, I need to work harder. With all this jibberish being said, I'm going to start reviewing hands in much more depth either here or just personally, and I'm going to review more analysis for hands posted in forums. Most poker books aren't geared toward higher level play, but I may reread some older ones to refresh solid ideas as well. There are definitly not as many resources availible to learn from as there are for chess, however there is still a ton of information readily availible for those who seek it.
Well anyways, enough of that. I'm excited for May as I'll be moving to a sick apartment up in Malta, 10 mins north of my current place. The new place is much newer and bigger, and I'll be able to host some pretty good home games. Anyone interested in playing 300max or up and is near by, shoot me an email.
Kind of a weird session this hand occured in. I went on a huge run early on going up about 1k, then ran into this hand and also had a hand where I had Aces full vs quads. Oh well. This player is a total nut and I've been allin several times vs him way ahead of his range. I wasted no time in making this call here as he is probably almost always bluffing me in this spot. Overall I make a killing making this call and I don't really care that much that I got sucked out here as it's bound to happen once in a while.
I knew I flopped a flush here, but didn't figure out it was a straight flush until after I bet. I might have checked the button had I known this at the time, but in all reality, I need to bet the flop if I want to have any chance of stacking someone this hand. On the turn I was definitly putting this player on a K high flush draw. This being known, I still bet the turn to make him pay for the draw. I don't want to just give him a free card so he can check fold the river if he misses, but at the same time, I want to bet an amount that he probably won't ever fold to. The river was obv a great card for me, and instead of just going crazy and shoving I just bet 30, fully expecting a reraise if they had the Kc. If for whatever reason this player was drawing to the Qc, they can probably fold it here if I just shoved. However, if they have the Qc and I just bet 30, I'll certainly be called and definitely reraised if they have the Kc. His raise was rather small which may have made his fold easier but I cam all in obviously anyways and he called off. I really hate when players check raise like this but make it a small amount and I'm holding the nuts. I'm betting here to be raised big so I can easily get it in, but when the raise is smaller it makes my push look that much better. I doubt anyone at this limit aside from a sick reg would be folding the Kc here so I'm sure it doesnt really matter anyways.
Absolute worst hand I've played in a long long time. One of the disadvantages to playing so many tables, but at the same time lol @ this. I really have no reads on this player and no stats even so it's basically a total random player. The reraise to 18 could be anything, but calling with 44 here preflop is standard. Obviously a great flop here and the player checked to me. The flop was so dry, rainbow flop no obvious straight draws, that my first instincts were to just check and be deceiving. Really though, what kind of hands does a random player reraise with preflop and then check on the flop. I definitly considered him having the possibility of KK here. Maybe he was slow playing AA or maybe he was scared with QQ? I feel most random players are going to cbet any decent hand here, possibly check KK and possibly check QQ-. This was probably my main rational for my check. I didn't want to just fold out something that missed, but at the same time I probably just need to bet the hand and build the pot. On the turn he fires hard and it brough several backdoor draws as well. At this point I figured for whatever reason he was AA or KK or AK. I wasn't really scared of any backdoor draws. Most random players don't reraise QT here preflop so I'm not worried about that. Also, most reraises from random players are pairs or AK and maybe KQ, so I don't feel like he has the possibility even of having a flush draw too often. He could have AKc I suppose but not much else. On the other hand, what kinds of hands could I be holding? I could certainly have AK here, QT, or possibly a flush draw since I checked behind. There are a lot of cards which could come on the river and shut my action down. so I feel slow playing my hand a second time is absolutely terrible. If this player is holding AA and a club comes or a Q or T, he is going to be much less apt to get it all in. Even a K on the river would kill my action if he held AA. I was maybe being a baby since I considered KK to be in his range, but if I flopped set under set then I just need to stack off here. Maybe I could get away from it in a live game with additional information and tells, but I'm not folding this hand to a random player online. The river was a club but I was like whatever I probably have him so I just shoved and that was that. I don't even care to evaluate my river play much, aside from the fact that his bet was either the nuts or a complete bluff - which made shoving a horrible choice. It was more so just an impacient play that I made after having played the hand poorly and wanting to stack him anyways. In retrospect my only two options are really to fold or call here. I don't even think most players just open bet the pot on this river with AA, so I don't really put him on the hand. It was kind of just a "whatever" call. Either way I shouldn't have gotten to the river the way I played the hand so it's not super important anyways. The comments below the hand are interesting. I don't know if Keanureaver knows I'm joking. Well, only somewhat joking - the plant on my desk really is withering away. I put the damn thing in the sun and water it and it just doesn't want to live so what is there to do.