Please vote for my video (happyham) on www.hokiegreg.com There is a poll going on and the winner will get an hour of coaching from Hokie for free! I would absolutely love to win it! Only one day left to vote! Go and do it now!
Song of choice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAMAw-DFwWY
After waking up in my clothes on Saturday morning after spending the previous night in the bar, I felt this song was appropriate.
My weeks goals:
Play 100 games - Complete
Play 10 $50 games minimum - Complete
Post a hand history each day - Kinda complete (I'll explain)
Finish the poker mindset book - Incomplete :(
So lets start with the stats:
I was having a really strong week, untill today. I played 10 $50 games today and only won 2. I didn't get too upset about it though. That's one of the benefits of playing comfortably within your bank roll.
Posting a hand history every day on HUSNG.com:
I posted only twice, but I have connected with a couple of players who are in a similar situation to me in terms of skill. I think one of the key factors of improving both mentally and strategically is having a group of likeminded friends to keep you on the right path. I have been frequently talking strategy and having them review specific hands. Its been going really well, and I hope we climb the ladder together.
Finish reading the poker mindset:
Didn't even read a page since I mentioned it last. The book is great, but I haven't made time for it this week. If I haven't been playing poker, I have been talking with new friends about it. The Australian open has been on all this week, so often at night I have been watching that. I went to my local bar and socialised one night, as well as attend a fundraiser for a friend of my wife. I simply haven't been in the mood to read. I'm going to make extra effort to keep reading next month.
An interesting hand I played today:
Merge - $33+$1.50|<> NL (2 max) - Holdem - 2 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: http://www.pokertracker.com
SB: 980.00
Hero (BB): 2,020.00
SB posts SB 10.00, Hero posts BB 20.00
Pre Flop: (30.00) Hero has 2h 7s
SB calls 10.00, Hero checks
Flop: (40.00, 2 players) 3d 2c 9s
Hero checks, SB checks
Turn: (40.00, 2 players) 7c
Hero bets 40.00, SB raises to 160.00, Hero calls 120.00
River: (360.00, 2 players) 9d
Hero checks, SB bets 240.00, fold
SB wins 360.00
This player was pretty weak, and limped almost every button. To this point he was fairly passive, calling down with marginal hands when out of position. It was still pretty early in the match.
When I lead the turn and he raises me I'm not feeling fantastic, but there is no way I'm folding. His range is pretty undefined and hadn't played enough hands to know how often he stabs on flops vs checking back flops. Using population tendencies, I would say this raise is usually a sign of strength. The question is, what is HIS idea of strength? 9X? Overpair?
I felt like if I was to reraise him here and get it all in on the turn, I would see a lot of hands that are better than mine. So I chose to call, and allow him to bet big on the river with the intention of calling. Obviously the 9 is a bad card for me, so folding was easy for me.
I talked this over with one of my new contacts, and he thinks I should reraise the turn and get it in. In hindsight, I think he's right and I always play these spots pretty tight. He could be doing that with 9x, worse 2 pair, flush draws, straight draws etc..
I'd be interested to know what anyone else thinks :)
Hope everyone is doing well in whatever they are doing!!
I've worked out tonight and come home to a new sofa, a clean house, a cooked meal by my sexy wife, and my darling baby girl running up to me screaming DADDY!!! *Hugs* Its a tough life...
Feeling a little sexy right now myself, so I'm gonna link to an oldy but goody!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z66wVo7uNw
Tonights play:
$33s: W2 - L1
$30s: W4 - L2
Current bankroll: $2279.55
I could have played more but I don't wanna burn myself out for later on in the week. Although it was just 9 games, the action is so slow on Merge!! It was faster at the $20s thats for sure. I almost took a shot at a $50 but I found myself waiting for so long, that eventually I thought a reg would sit me through impatience. So I pussied out. Thats how a real champion does it. :P
An interesting hand that I played:
BB: 1,625.00
Hero (SB): 1,375.00
Hero posts SB 15.00, BB posts BB 30.00
Pre Flop: (45.00) Hero has Ac 4d
Hero raises to 60.00, BB calls 30.00
Flop: (120.00, 2 players) Jh 3s Js
BB checks, Hero bets 60.00, BB calls 60.00
Turn: (240.00, 2 players) 8d
BB bets 120.00, Hero calls 120.00
River: (480.00, 2 players) 4c
BB bets 320.00, Hero calls 320.00
BB shows 6s Qs (One Pair, Jacks)
Hero shows Ac 4d (Two Pair, Jacks and Fours)
Hero wins 1,120.00
Lol I'm still not sure about this one, and am definitely gonna post it on HUSNG.com for review.
Villain was a winning player over a small sample of games, but definitely was a thinking player. He played approx 45% of hands out of position, so wasn't calling with complete junk.
His check raise range on flops was pretty weak I had found out. I had 3 bet him a few times and he had folded. His strongest line was flatting the flop, then leading out on turns. He had done this with flopped top pairs, and two pairs. It was almost like for protection that he would lead out if the board was getting scary.
So at this point I had already won a match or two, and was kind of running well/running him over. My thinking was when he flat calls the flop and leads the turn, he either has Jx, or a flush draw. Even though I had seen him only do this with value hands, I believe he could be trying to take advantage of this because he was getting run over.
I call the turn bet simply because I believed I could have the best hand. He wouldnt lead out on the turn with 3X or 8X because it would be too tricky to play if he was to get raised.
I hate to say it but when he bet the river, I snap called. His sizing seemed pretty big if he was trying to get value. Although I suppose if I had 8X it would be hard to lay it down to any size. The point was he was never thin value betting, so all 8X, 3X, 4X was out of his range. He was polarized.
I'm sure I'll find out how good/bad it was soon enough!
Lastly but not least, Roger Federer squares off against Nadal in the semi-final of the Australian open tonight! I love my tennis. This is in my opinion the best match to watch in all of tennis. A great advert for the sport.
My money is on Roger! Well, not literally... but... yknow...
I'm gonna introduce a new feature to my reports on here. I'm gonna post a link to a song which is best describing my mood right now. I stole the idea of posting a song from someone else, although I am not sure if they do it for the same reason I will be doing it for.
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUqLGRMrFAg
What the hell is going on? I live in the midwest of America and currently there is no snow. This time last year I'd almost died of drowning in snow. At least it felt that way. I'm not complaining obviously, but I don't want none of that 'snow in June' bullshit!
Anyway, after a productive weekend cleaning (and playing a little poker here and there), I feel ready to put some serious volume in this week. The house isn't perfect, but at least my 'poker room' is clean. I'm itching to grind a good session out, so the rest of the house can be a gradual process :P
The month so far:
Low volume + (Playing great x Running good) = Great ROI lol. I'm only posting these results to show what I've done this month, thus keeping track with my progress easier. Not because I think these results are awesome. Oh, PS - You can see I played a $50 also. Hopefully more of those to come!
EV graph for January:
You can see that I am running approximately 13,000 chips above EV. Over this small a sample, thats pretty big! Finally I'm starting to catch up on my EV graph overall, which I am of course happy with :P
Overall bankroll:
$2105.55
Short term goals for the week:
Finish the poker mindset book
Play 100 games this week
Post one hand review a day on HUSNG.com
As long as I stay above $2k bank roll, play at least 10 x $50 games.
Lets do this thing!!!
I just thought I'd add a few pictures of the recent foosball world cup I participated in. This does absolutely no justice to how incredible the atmosphere is, but the pictures are still nice :)
Frederico Collignon and Tom Van de Cauter of Belgium vs myself (goalie on the right) and Robert Atha in the final of the doubles event.
Trying to keep the best player in the world (Frederico) from scoring a goal. Not easy!!
This match was being televised live throughout Europe. The crowd and pressure was simply amazing.
A glimmer of hope as Rob gets a goal to take it down to the wire!
Sadly however, it wasn't to be. Myself and Rob took second. We've now finished 1st, 3rd, and 2nd the last 3 years we have played this event. Not bad considering there is over 250 of the best foosball players in the world competing!
I am late in goal setting and even playing poker in general this month. Mostly due to my trip to France, but also other things.
For anyone interested in the foosball tournament results:
Mens doubles - 2nd, Mens team event - 5th
I want to talk about life balance, goals, and organisation for a minute. I feel that right now, my life organisation is hindering my poker progress. I mean this on a psychological level, not just causing volume problems. For me to completely focus when playing poker, there are a number of things that need to be OK first.
1). My house must be tidy
2). I must be eating well
3). Going to the gym regularly
I have decided not to bother setting any poker goals for the month of January (at this point its a little late anyway) mainly because I am making it my priority to tidy up my house. There are a couple of rooms in the house which will always be a challenge due to my wife running a daycare business out of our house, but there is absolutely no excuse for the majority of the house.
I have been reading the poker mindset (a great book I got for christmas) and am full of motivation to correct everything psychologically at this point. I don't feel like I can really put solid volume (whilst playing A game!), untill I have adressed these 3 short term life goals.
I am working out and eating pretty well at the moment, so its just the house to go! Hopefully by February I will feel fully committed both mentally and physically to putting in a solid month!
Ironically, I am having a better month than last month even tho I have not put in much volume at all, and also have not really felt focused. Short term results are always so very interesting :P
Games played: 17
$33: W4 - L1
$30 (reg speed): W7 - L2
$23: W1 - L2
Net profit:
$203
Bankroll:
$1875.90
Like I've said though, for right now, organising my life is the priority. These results mean nothing. I will continue to keep reading the poker mindset, and aim for February to be the start of some serious volume and focus. If I finish January with more than $2K bankroll, I will start taking occasional shots at the $50 games in February.
Hey everybody,
This entry is not going to contain any poker, so I thought I should mention that first :P
On tuesday I travel to the ITSF foosball world cup. All information on the tournament and other interesting articles about foosball you can find here http://www.table-soccer.org/
There will be live streaming of the tournament. All sorts of angles, with commentary and excellent quality streaming. Jim Stevens will be the main commentator, however I plan to be his co-commentator whenever possible. If you are interested in watching any of the streaming (which starts thursday), visit http://www.kozoom.com/en/table-soccer/
I myself will be competing in the Mens doubles event as well as the International team event. Go team Great Britain!!
