A DOG'S LIFE

[matt674]

The important thing is that I realised my downfalls and corrected them in time. Many thanks must go to Blondeite Matt674 for pointing out my failures and suggesting that it was because of poor play as opposed to bad luck. I’d realised just in time, but sometimes having someone else clarify the negatives for you is a big plus.

The key here is that I’m still winning, and making a sum that is enough to live on, which was one of the initial challenges of my venture.

But it wasnt me who pointed anything out - you pointed it out yourself. To become successful in poker you need to be honest with yourself and in your posts you were honest enough to admit that maybe the bad run you were experiencing at the time wasnt all down to bad luck.

It helps to have a good friend in poker - one who you can confide in and talk things through with in an open and honest way. Yes we all moan about having to hear other peoples bad beat stories or having to read them online but sometimes you have to get things off your chest to try to see if the problem is all down to bad luck. If you have a good friend in poker it is possible to do that so long as you remember that you have to listen as well as be the one talking.

Fortunately i have a friend like that in BigArmo (as much as we mock each other online!! ) and on top of that now i know i have made several friends through this forum. Whilst someone may not have someone in their area who they play regularly with in live tourneys then they know that they have several friends on here, myself included, to try and help as best they can. As much as i joke around on the site i will always do my best to aid anyone if they ask for it and i will only be too happy to help, even if it means confirming a few home truths!!

I read your posts with interest as in a way i am using you as a guide to what it will be like of i too were to give up work to play poker full time. Hopefully one day when i finally decide to take the plunge and join you i will be better prepared as to how to avoid the pitfalls that lie ahead of me thanks to this thread. So by trying to help you whereever possible i will be helping myself in the long run!!

Keep up the good work sir

[The Baron]

Have you ever prematurely ended an online session because it wasn't going so well?

Or do you always go for clawback?

Good point. Sometimes it just aint your day.

If an hour in, my 2nd nut flush has lost to the nut flush, my set has met a larger set and my bottom end straight has lost to a top end straight I reassess. Is this table worth staying on? Is it loose enough? Am I seeing enough flops on it? Is it too expensive per flop? Etc etc etc

If I find it's not worth staying on and I cant find a suitable table that is, I nip it in the bud. Stop tilt before it starts sorta thing. To me playing in clawback mode means "tilt".

[matt674]

Good point. Sometimes it just aint your day.

If an hour in, my 2nd nut flush has lost to the nut flush, my set has met a larger set and my bottom end straight has lost to a top end straight I reassess. Is this table worth staying on? Is it loose enough? Am I seeing enough flops on it? Is it too expensive per flop? Etc etc etc

But is it just the fact that it isnt your day?

If your 2nd nut flush loses to the nut flush, your set loses to a larger set and your bottom end straight has lost to a top end straight then it means you started with the worst hand on all three occasions.

If this were to happen then maybe it would be worth reassessing your own game and maybe trying to be the one getting your money in with the better hand rather than putting it down to the fact that it just aint your day.

<post edit comments - having reread my post i haven't really described very well the point i was trying to get across. The point i was trying to make is that you should never just think that a losing session on cash or a losing tournament is down to the fact that it "just isnt your day". By printing off the hand histories from a cash game session or from a tournament you can analyze how you played. True your pocket aces were cracked when the chip leader called your all in raise with J8 suited when you were on the bubble of the tourney and he somehow fluked the pot with runner runner to make the flush. However could you have done something prior to that which meant that you were in a better position at the time and could have forced them to lay down the J8 because you had more chips to begin the hand with? Could you have laid down a hand earlier in the tourney instead of calling on the river even though there was a good chance you were beat? Could you have reraised a player out of a pot when you suspected they were bluffing?

Maybe analyze one cash game session every week or two tournaments (depending on how often you play). Always decide before the session starts whether you are going to analyze it or not - this way you will also analyze things even if it was a winning session/tournament, then maybe you can highlight hands where you do appear to be making the right decisions and incorporate it into your game on a more regular basis. Your subconscious is a wonderful thing, it remembers specific things from the past sometimes without you realizing it and helps you make split second decisions that leave other people wondering how could you have known. By reading through hand histories you'll be helping your subconscious store extra information that could be the difference between your next session being a winning one and a losing one!!>

[HarlemShuffle]

Two  :goodpost:s Matt.

I agree with both your posts.

I think bad beats are far less common than people think, especially on the net. A lot of bad beats are down to the way you have played allowing someone to bad beat you. In my opinion this is why the top guys stay at the top. Of course there are many situations that you can do nothing about.

[thetank]

Always decide before the session starts whether you are going to analyze it or not - this way you will also analyze things even if it was a winning session/tournament

Great idea. 

[The Baron]

Good point. Sometimes it just aint your day.

If an hour in, my 2nd nut flush has lost to the nut flush, my set has met a larger set and my bottom end straight has lost to a top end straight I reassess. Is this table worth staying on? Is it loose enough? Am I seeing enough flops on it? Is it too expensive per flop? Etc etc etc

But is it just the fact that it isnt your day?

If your 2nd nut flush loses to the nut flush, your set loses to a larger set and your bottom end straight has lost to a top end straight then it means you started with the worst hand on all three occasions.

If this were to happen then maybe it would be worth reassessing your own game and maybe trying to be the one getting your money in with the better hand rather than putting it down to the fact that it just aint your day.

Whilst I accept that I may have been behind in all 3 hypothetical scenarios pre flop, small sets and small straights are some of the best ways to make money in cash are they not? Especially versus the tight-aggressive player who overplays their AK QQ KK or AA.

Should I stop playing small pairs everytime just incase a bigger pair is out there that might make higher trips? Should I fold every KQ suited just incase AX of the same suit is out there and we both make a flush? I play cash to make money not to limit what I lose. If this means losing with set vs set OCCASIONALLY but means that more often my set busts top pair w/top kicker, then I'll take this occasional loss. That's the risk of playing small pairs - it doesn't mean I should "wait to put my money in ahead" by not playing them.

My game is based on busting people's entire stacks by playing cards they dont expect me to have when they're overplaying so called "big hands". No matter how much I reassess this cash game style the fact is sometimes in cash games sometimes you just do put your money in behind. Especially set vs set.

In short yes I do believe that sometimes it is just not your day.

[The Baron]

I just want to add that, more than any other game, poker is a game of form. When in good form you hit every even money shot you play, you are invincible. When you aren't in form not only do you miss but the idiot next to you calls all your raises with junk and busts you everytime! You cant catch a cold! In my opinion, form and luck are related. Maybe not much, and a whole lot less for better players, but they are interrelated if only a little.

It doesn't matter how good you are there is still a luck factor involved. It is not pure math. There is uncalculable element. You can play the best poker of your life and lose. So, in my opinion, sometimes it just wont be your day - no matter how you play.

I still believe skill will prevail in the long run and the luck factor evens itself out (otherwise I wouldn't play) but we are talking about one session here. In one session you can be unlucky.

[Newmanseye]

I just want to add that, more than any other game, poker is a game of form. When in good form you hit every even money shot you play, you are invincible. When you aren't in form not only do you miss but the idiot next to you calls all your raises with junk and busts you everytime! You cant catch a cold! In my opinion, form and luck are related. Maybe not much, and a whole lot less for better players, but they are interrelated if only a little.

It doesn't matter how good you are there is still a luck factor involved. It is not pure math. There is uncalculable element. You can play the best poker of your life and lose. So, in my opinion, sometimes it just wont be your day - no matter how you play.

I still believe skill will prevail in the long run and the luck factor evens itself out (otherwise I wouldn't play) but we are talking about one session here. In one session you can be unlucky.

 

[snoopy1239]

Have you ever prematurely ended an online session because it wasn't going so well?

Or do you always go for clawback?

Yes, that is something that I have developed over time, although I find that the more I'm down, the more difficult it is to quit.

On this occasion, however, I was playing pretty well, which probably explains how I managed to claw it back.

The clawback always occurs after a good run of winning sessions. I think it must be my mindset when I sit down for that first half hour. It's almost as if you expect to double up asap, and, if you don't, you get greedy and start forcing it. This is when the mistakes come. I do my stack and then shake myself, which is when the clawback commences.

Sometimes, as long as you have your wits about you and are aware of the clawback process, the potential pitfalls, and the tilt factor, then playing on isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially if the table is weak.

It's the next session that's the problem. You're relieved to have clawbacked all that money but fail to analyse it properly. You just consider it a blip where perhaps you received bad luck. Then, the same thing occurs, you start off expecting to double up, it doesn't arrive, and you fail to accept the lack of income. This time though, you don't quite handle your failure well enough and the potential for even more mistakes becomes much more prevalent.

This is what happens to me anyhow.

I'm working on it still...

Good question, thetank.

[The Nomad]

 Hi no flops only having fun .    On a serious note.  I was interested in the  change of speed comments, internet versus live,  it must be coincidence. This week I stopped playing  on the net last night in preparation for the CCC on thursday.  In the past I have gone straight from the net to a tournament and it seemed to take at least an hour till I was in focus . I quite often found my brain had to do a double take to absorb what the flop consisted of ,most strange. This time its serious at 2k a shot so i will have to behave right from the off,    nice to see some cmments on <the clawback<factor. 

[snoopy1239]

A RENEWED INTEREST


Sometimes life grabs you by the balls and throws you into the wide-open world. That’s how I’ve felt recently. For the last couple of weeks, it’s been non-stop. First Vienna and then straight onto Monaco. In fact, in the past fortnight, I’ve been to 7 countries; England, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, France, Monaco (is that a country?), and Germany. Although the majority of them have been due to connecting flights, it’s pretty incredible when you consider that I’ve just doubled my lifetime visits abroad. In fact, I find it breathtaking and it’s left me feeling kind of gob-smacked. When I left University, not once did I think I might be living from a suitcase, spending most of my days in hotels, airports, and casinos.

I don’t know how tikay does it sometimes. Whilst in Vienna, he went on a three or four day cash game binge. One night, me and the crew, Julian, Jen, Matt, and RED, returned home from a heavy day at the Concorde Casino. This was at 4 am. The ol’ fella didn’t return home til 12 noon the next day! And what’s even more incredible, is that at 2pm he was up on his feet ready to hop back over to the casino for some Poker 425 interviews. He must have Red Bull running through his veins!

Anyhow, back to the thread…

Due to my new role with blonde and the jet-setting lifestyle I am happily adopting, my online career has stalled. Don’t get me wrong, online play still remains my main source of income, but when you are offered opportunities to travel the world and meet a host of big names, you can’t refuse. It’s this to which I am truly grateful, and I must offer my greatest thanks to tikay and Dave for taking me on. I hope I have proved that I was worth the punt.

Whilst in Monte Carlo, Micky Wernick offered to back half of me in the €1,000 comp. €1,000 is out of my price range, but €500 isn’t, so I suddenly became a real eager beaver. With Jen and Flushy kindly offering to take the reigns for the final table updating, I thought ‘why not?’ and decided that I deserved a crack at the tables.

Bizarrely, after playing my biggest ever comp in the Walsall £500er last month, this was to be yet another milestone for me. €1,000 must equate to around 750 squid, so it is easily my most expensive tourney so far. The strangest thing was that, in comparison to the 10k main event, it felt like a £30 freezout at Walsall. Everyone, including myself, were relaxed as hell, there was plenty of banter, and I didn’t once think twice about playing differently due to the cost.

My table was filled to the brim with young guns. It was pretty tough. Two to my left – eek – was Stuart Fox, opposite was the raising machine Rory Matthews, and inbetween were a couple of aggressive Scandieboys. I knew that if I were going to survive this band of merry men, then I’d have to mix it up early doors.

That’s exactly what I did. I raised with some goo to let them know I was there, whilst also making the occasional move when I felt the pot was available for the taking. I’m not sure why, but I seemed to have the beating of Matthews on almost every pot I played. He definitely had me down as an ABC player, so I used that to my advantage. If there were a pair on the flop, I’d represent it by flatcalling with rags and then half pot betting the turn. Seemed to work, and I was able to employ this strategy on him a number of times.

One mistake that I think some people make is calling my raises with the intent of outplaying me as though I am ABC only. I get this constantly. Maybe it’s because I look young and am reserved at the table, not sure. It happened in one crucial hand where I raised it up preflop with bullets and was called by Rory from the big blind. The flop came Queen high and we both checked. Turn was a blank. He bet and I moved all-in for a big overbet. He called and showed Q-5. He was clearly calling to outplay me, why else would he play such a weak holding? Anyhow, he spiked the 5 and doubled up. I was down to the felt and in automatic survival mode.

I can’t complain too much about that beat though, as a level or two earlier I’d cracked K-K with A-K. It was 3k more for me in an 1800 pot. There’d been two limpers and I thought my opponent would make the same bet with A-Q, J-J, T-T, A-Q, so decided it was worth a gamble.

After having the aces cracked, I lost a 50-50 against a short stack (Q-6 v 3-3 – ahem) and found myself down to 1400 with the blinds at 200/400. I was under the gun with T-3 off and decided I had no choice. Poker is all about timing (a.k.a luck) and this time my timing was way off. I ended up all-in against pocket rockets and big slick and I recall saying to Stu, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if this T-3 won.’ And yeah, it was kinda amusing. Q-2-4-A-5 board was a real rib tickler, especially with the bullets making trips on the turn. Incidentally, I was flushing with my 3, so I could hardly lose really. Well, sort of…

Back up to 4 or so k, I played it tight and waited for a hand. No big cards came and I eventually found myself in the small blind with K-9. The flop came 9d-2d-8c and I decided to check raise. An early limper bet and I moved all-in, fully expecting to be dominating pocket sevens or sixes. Unfortunately, he had the monster drawing hand 8-6 of diamonds and the inevitable Tc on the river arrived.

Except for the aces, I have no complaints. I’d reached the last 5 tables out of 135 and enjoyed a much needed break from updating. I may not have cashed, but I was pleased with the way I played. Most importantly, and the real reason for this post, I found a renewed vigour and interest for live poker.

Playing online can sometimes be fun and offer the odd adrenalin rush, but nothing beats live play. After watching Jen become chip leader on the first day of the Main Event in Monte Carlo, I realised that I wanted to play these events more than ever. Previously, I’d stayed away from satellites and £20 rebuys because they seemed to just cut into my online ring game profits, which I was finding pretty demoralising. Tourneys can take a long while to reach a profitable status, and meanwhile, it’s hard work seeing your online cash grind dribble away whilst you wait for that win.

However, I have a different view now. I’m not too fussed if I have a losing month. I was obsessed with it before, and being just a penny down would have been considered a massive failure. Well, I think I have the potential to become a good live player, and I’m going to push that. I’ll still earn a crust online, but I won’t worry so much about spending my winnings on satellites and small festival events.

I failed to post a monthly review for February, mainly due to the fact that I’ve been away so much. However, I will deliver one for March and February, and I think it will be much more focussed on live events. I’m going to pop down to Walsall and the Broadway a bit more often to see if I can crack some of the small tourneys and hopefully pick up some sort of win. No bubbles, near misses, deals, no nothing, just an outright win.

Next month’s report could show a big loss or a big win. Who knows, but I need a change and my updating experiences have motivated me into taking that change and hitting the live felt more often. Give us a wave when you see me at the tables.


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[thetank]

Worth waiting for, ya big jet-setter you.

 

[NoflopsHomer]

 


Wooooo Go Snoppy! 

You sound in a much more positive frame of mind.

[ACE2M]

great post ysnopo.

You are the man in my opinion, a really sound and funny bloke and it was a pleasure to have a couple of chats with you in monte carlo (although cutting my chips down whilst shaking like a leaf after raking a pot to make it easy for you i will not be doing again).

I fuly agree with your 'nothing like the live buzz' attitude but you should not turn your back on the internet ring games to a great extent, talking to the assorted scandieboys in monte carlo, the real big winners are the big cash players on the internet and i'm sure with dedication you can get there.

Good luck with it all snoopy, you can crush both disciplines i reckon.

 

[snoopy1239]

great post ysnopo.

You are the man in my opinion, a really sound and funny bloke and it was a pleasure to have a couple of chats with you in monte carlo (although cutting my chips down whilst shaking like a leaf after raking a pot to make it easy for you i will not be doing again).

I fuly agree with your 'nothing like the live buzz' attitude but you should not turn your back on the internet ring games to a great extent, talking to the assorted scandieboys in monte carlo, the real big winners are the big cash players on the internet and i'm sure with dedication you can get there.

Good luck with it all snoopy, you can crush both disciplines i reckon.

 

cheers Tommy (spookily close to Big TK's name)

Watching you play Day 2 next to Andy Black was one of the reasons why I made this post. Kind of made me feel as if I was missing out on something. Your hands were shaking for a reason. -- The buzz -- that's what I play for anyhow. I don't mean the buzz of gambling, but the buzz of playing poker and winning.

The bottom line is that I'm not desperate for the money, my bankroll is steady, and I receive an income from blonde. Therefore, I see no reason why I shouldn't start playing more festival events and throwing myself at a few more satellites. I did it for Walsall and, although I didn't fare too well in the comps, I loved every minute. It might cost me a few bucks at first, but I'm confident that my game's strong enough to take down a big prize.

You never know, we might be playing heads up for that WSOP bracelet.

No deals though.