January is already over and I’m not sure if I should be happy with it or not.
I started with a normal session last week on Sunday playing $3/6 and $5/10 which was okay. Going to bed at 06:00 in stead of 08:00/08:30 was already nice for a change and I played less tables at the same time to get into the groove again. The day after I did exactly the same thing, I started with $3/$6 and $5/$10 but around 23:00 there were hardly any tables. I opted to do two things: Add a bunch of $2/$4 tables or add a couple of $10/$20 tables. VPP wise you can play 1 table of $10/$20 in stead of 3 tables $2/$4 to get the same amount of VPPs, then the question is of course what will I win or loose on the tables. My idea was that I could better play less tables and try to learn from it, then try to mass table and make the same mistake as last year. Sure it isn’t smart to just move up when you are not even beating the previous limit but I did had some idea’s why I would be more succesful this time.
I’m very confident about the changes I’ve made to my game. I think they are almost all good and I feel I now got the tools to beat the games again. The question is of course till what limit can I beat them. I rather try out now how I’m doing on the $5/$10 and $10/$20 because in case I do well on these limits I can still make a run for SNE. If it doesn’t work out I can always quit playing $10/$20 again and just go for my original goal of 700.000VPPs. If I wouldn’t try now to beat the higher limits and do get there later in the year it might have been a huge waste of SNE value.
Back to the session, I ended up with a small loss, lost about $1k on the $10/$20 but was up on $3/$6 and $5/$10. Not that happy with the session but I knew it was study time the next day. I had a lot of idea’s on how to study my opponents, I’ve had them since last year but basically never executed them which might have been my biggest mistake of 2010. With the volume I play any small tweak can lead up to a lot of profit and working on my game should be as important as playing. I won’t explain in detail what I’ve done since there are probably plenty of foe’s reading my blog but when I hit the tables later that night I crushed the games at $3/$6 and $5/$10 and won almost $1.200 in a little over 4 hours.
This was of course a huge confident boost and my next session was last Saturday. Since it was the last Saturday of the month I was planning to play some tournaments on the side as well. I played the Monthly Gold Freeroll, a WBCOOP qualifier tournament and the $215 Weekly Fixed Limit Tournament. I didn’t play many cashgames on the side, only the $5/$10 and $10/$20 tables. I also had two friends playing at my house so the conditions weren’t optimal to focus. I did however do good in all 3 tournaments. I had never played the Weekly Fixed Limit Tournament and found it extremely soft for a $215 tournament. Maybe that’s being result oriented as I made the finale table and got 5th for $1.040. I got my aces cracked twice on the final table and without that I think a top3 finish wouldn’t even have been a question. It would be nice if the tournament gets some more players, so I encourage you all to sign up next month 😉 I busted the WBCOOP qualifier in 181th place, nothing special but it did earn me a ticket for the WBCOOP Main Event on Sunday. I made a deep run in the Gold Freeroll but after losing KK vs 88 for a top5 stack I never recovered and finished 31st for $160. Not a bad score for the first tournaments of 2011, I did however lose $540 on the cashgames (only at $5/$10).
On Sunday I had the same sort of thing planned. I was playing the Sunday Warm-Up, Sunday Million, the Turbo Takedown, the WBCOOP Main Event and of course our weekly $11 Yanks Zandvoort Home Game alongside some cashgames. No friends at my place this time so I could focus a little better. I busted the Warm-Up pretty quick with a bad move and busted the WBCOOP Main Event in 20 hands with AKo after I 3bet all-in on a AA3dd flop against 33. The Turbo Takedown was an early exit as well and after winning with QQ vs AA in the Sunday Million I busted with a coinflip (JJ vs AQ), argh! So only early exists and even my Home Game tournament didn’t really go well. Only upside there is that we had 45 people playing whom I all know personally so that was great fun 🙂 The first tournament Sunday sucked and I’m not sure if I want to continue playing them mixed with cashgames. Looking back on the hands I don’t think I made any big mistakes except in the Warm-Up but I might make it a tournaments only evening once a month. I’ll then add some $11/$22 tournaments so I’m more focused on playing NL only but again I didn’t really do bad mixing it with cashgames and I wasn’t playing that many until I busted all tournaments anyway. I won $67 in the cashgames after being down all night so was happy with the end-result but of course not happy with the total result of both days.
So yesterday there were no tournaments, no friends, so no distraction at all. Time to whoop some ass and finish strong during the last session of January. I was playing roughly 20 tables at all times and was playing all $3/$6 till $10/$20. Every time I won a pot on $10/$20 I lost 4 at $5/$10. It was just bizarre! Looking at my stats I didn’t get many good hands at the $5/$10 tables but it wasn’t that bad either. I had huge swings but it just never really went my way. It could be that (some of) my opponents already adjusted which makes sense but I dropped $2.193 at the $5/$10 tables in a little over 5k hands, losing -4.35BB/100. That’s not bad, that’s monkey bad! On the other side I won $1.443 in 1.400 hands, which is 5.1BB/100 at $10/$20. I’m not sure what I can tell from that, sure I was running hot there but the difference is so huge, I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad. I had a small plus at the $3/$6 as well, but did lose $660 in the complete session.
Looking at the total month (which was only 2 weeks due to the PCA) my graph/stats look like this:
I’m happy with the $3/$6 and $10/$20 result but what the hell happened at $5/$10. That just looks so 2010 and I was hoping I was over that 🙂 I’m up $496 in online tournaments this month and had my first Hendon Mob (http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=184844) Flag due to winning $10.960 at the PCA so all in all not a bad month but I’m not sure what’s in store for me in February. After I’m done blogging I will do some more studying and hope to improve my game so I can beat the $5/$10 as well and of course continue to beat the $3/$6 and $10/$20.
I’m certainly happy with my “new” rhythm. It’s just a little less poker but it feels like I’m more relaxed. I went to the gym 3 times last week and I’m planning to do the same or more this week. I do have 2 birthdays the coming weekend where the “no alcohol rule” doesn’t apply but I didn’t drink any alcohol last weekend which always helps to feel fit to be able to play concentrated for longer periods of time. I’ll again have to stress everybody to watch the new season of Spartacus, since episode II was again just brilliant! I’ve also finally started with 24 which is something I’m watching with my girlfriend, which is the first time ever I watch a series with her. I normally watch most series in the break between my poker session and thought it would be fun to watch something “good” together, so we picked 24. So far I think it’s a little to predictable but I do enjoy it and my girlfriend as well so I’m sure I’ll get to Season 8.
I’m ready to rock February!
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