It's Just a Ride

[VBlue]

Waiting for the Weekend to Begin

I don't intend to write much Friday through Sunday as the weekends are devoted mainly to family time.  It also means I should have more to write about Sunday evening/Monday.

I only work a half-day Friday, so I usually walk home with a spring in my step, eager to see my boy.  Of course, some of the time there is the mundane to take care of - shopping, household tasks, etc.  Roscoe does make shopping much more entertaining though.  He was the star attraction during our last visit to the supermarket - doing some sort of a tap-dance with some teenage girl at the checkouts, trying to help the transvestite who works on the flower stall, getting behind and on top of the checkout,  and charming the old dears.  It is just a huge playground to him and who am I to deny him having some fun?

Fitness & The Fells

I have been keen to improve my overall fitness levels since I quit my job at the bookies last year, a very sedentary day's work, which when followed by a few hours at the online tables did not make for an active lifestyle.  I now walk nearly three miles per day to work and back and often take Roscoe for a walk on Friday afternoons, and again at the weekends with The Piranha.

I am fortunate to be located just to the south of the Lake District and my house sits in a really nice vantage point with views of Kendal Castle and the Lakeland fells.  I am going to start to post some photos from recent walks and keep a theme going throughout.  At the moment they are fairly gentle pushchair friendly walks, although I don't mind a little more challenge when it's just the boy and I, as The Piranha struggles with some steeper ascents due to her asthma.  You may have to forgive some of the initial photography as I have been using my iPhone 3G - not known for the quality of their camera.  I will ensure that I take the digital camera out in future.  I have often held a notion that I would like to get into photography more - "Know what I mean, wink-wink, nudge-nudge?"  A friend lives a little further into the Lakes and takes some simply stunning pictures - I may share some of those with his permission.

I think that I have benefitted from the uptake in walking more.  I would like to get out into the Fells and took Roscoe with The Piranha and some friends last Saturday to some waterfalls, Aeroforce, at the side of Ullswater Lake.  I borrowed the neighbours' backpack and Roscoe was quite comfortable for a couple of hours.  This will certainly encourage me to venture further now and with the weather as beautiful as it has been the last three days, we may find somewhere to walk this weekend.

James Atkin has been following the 'Couch to 5k' podcasts and this had interested me, although on reflection I don't think I have any real desire to take up running.  Michael Moore started a hashtag on Twitter, which had been running for about a year I think, #iwalkwithmike.  This was an encouragement for people to just go out every day and walk for half-an-hour with no agenda other than enjoyment.  Lots of people then tweeted pictures which also appealed.  I like this idea for a few reasons.  I think people get hung-up about fitness, going to the gym, dieting and losing weight and find it a real grind.  I think the best approach is to forget all that and just go and do something for the pure enjoyment.

I've tried the gym before and got into it for six or nine months at my best.  However, I've decided that after several lapsed memberships I just don't enjoy going - the environment, the solitude, the workouts.  If I was to take up anything fitness related it would probably be a racquet sport or something else with some competition about it.  Does snooker count?

Dinner with Friends

The Piranha and I have always enjoyed having people over for dinner.  We both like to cook and we always strive to put on a nice meal and some potent cocktails to accompany.  The neighbours have a boy, Edwyn, the same age as Roscoe.  We met at breast-feeding classes at the local hospital - not nearly as entertaining as it could have been.  We are keeping it simple tomorrow night though, as she is pregnant and he doesn't like to drink much when he has his boy to go home to.  Sweet Chilli Burgers and Wedges will be my duty when I get home, as time is a factor and it's more about the company tonight than the food.  Of course, everybody loves food photographs so I'll post these up to over the weekend.  I'll also be asking you to Rate My Fry-Up, but am going to wait until Mother's Day as I'm going to aim high.  I missed Valentine's this year and The Piranha insisted that I make up for it on Mother's Day.  Rate my Cocktail will no doubt follow in future too.

Whether you are grinding online, venturing out for live action, or just taking in your surroundings outdoors and spending some time with the important people in your life - enjoy your time this weekend.

[VBlue]

Click to see full-size image.

View of Morecambe Bay from outskirts of Kendal

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Fisher Tarn Reservoir

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Moody picture of a tree against an overcast sky with the sun peaking through

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Lakeland Fell view

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View of North of Kendal

[JGill_DTD]

Ah, very intriguing blog, look forward to it, sounds like Roscoe is full of life!

[VBlue]

Unfortunately, the boy was ill all weekend.  I won't provide details.  I decided not to play online last night, as I couldn't leave The Piranha looking after the boy and I felt too tired to potentially play a 7 hour session.

I will be playing tonight, including a community game to try and earn a month's rewards points.  I haven't run well in community games this year, but I still think I have an edge on much of the field and can make these games profitable.

My roll is sadly diminishing but I may be able to return the withdrawn funds from pre-Christmas soon which would put me back to about break-even and allow me to continue playing should I not get a score before then.

American Psycho

I read the book, maybe 15 years ago.  I enjoyed it immensely.  The obssession with detail, with image, and constantly measuring yourself against colleagues, and others who live in the same vain Wall Street Yuppie world.  The relentlessness of the style in which the narrator tells his story builds the mind of what we realise is a serial-killer.  The violence is extreme, the loathing laid bare to see.

I watched the film shortly after it's release and it was forgettable.  Perhaps I had the book too much in mind.

I decided on a second viewing last night.  I thought I would enjoy it more and I did.  Christian Bale, in what I think was his breakthrough role, was superb as Patrick Bateman.  The darkly comic element to the story much more easily apparent and it is so well shot - the style is perfect.

Tournament HUDs

I just got into using HUDs/Trackers last year after trialing HEM and PT3.  I bought the small-stakes version of HM2.

I currently use a fairly basic set-up, concentrating mainly on the standard stats of VPIP/PFR/3-bet.  The small-stakes MTTs on 888 are made up largely of loose-passive players, to a varying degree.  I am not encountering many regs in these games, so am not building up stats on very many opponents.    I have been adding a few other stats in, like limp-call to see how often I can bluff-raise pre-flop over limpers.

I had a thought to build my HUD inline with the coaching I am doing.  If I have just completed the module on 4-betting and am experimenting with always 4-bet clicking it back, I might had a stat such as 'fold to 3-bet'.  Probably not the best example as there is so little 3-betting in the games I play, but you get the idea.

The Black Belt community games I play in give me a better opportunity to build stats and I have a few hundred hands on some of the regs in those games now.

What advice can people give here?  Should I just stick to the VPIP/PFR/3-bet for these types of games - I have heard stats coming in for criticism when you are not gaining anything more meaningful on opponents due to they very few specific spots you will have seen each player in.  Should I go with one of the many templates built by HM2/2p2 users?  Or does anyone think I have had a good idea of building a unique HUD to complement my coaching?

[VBlue]

Small-Stakes MTT Session

Schedule

ipoker ($45 bankroll) - $1k GP Daily Dollar, $1k GP Daily Dollar Rebuy
888 ($38 bankroll) - "The TWO" 2k GP, "The Daily $1" $500 GP, "The Grand Daddy" 2k GP

Session Goals

Focus: Beating up Weak Players & Taking Their Chips

- Consider spots where I have the best hand vs 2nd best hand/worse
- Identify weaker players and look to play more pots with then, widening my range in position
- Look for clear signs of weakness - limping, cold calling raises, VPIP/PFR stats, bet-sizing, and missing value bets

Session Goals

1. Focus on at least two weaker players on each table and ask what are their weaknesses and how will I take their chips.
2. Always bet for value when checked to on the river (20 spots to assess in post-session analysis)
3. Add 20% to every value bet (assess where I have made more money in post-session analysis)
4. 3-bet with air vs i) loose weak players and ii) tight weak players (10x each to assess in post-session analysis)
5. Always fire A/K turns when I have fired flop.  Give thought to other scare cards I can fire the turn too.

Extra goal to use the notes template provided in a recent online coaching session.

[VBlue]

Results

Cash - 42/855 in "The Grand Daddy" for $6.92
Cash - 4/580 in the $1k GP Daily Dollar Rebuy for $91.34

Total Return = $98.26
Total Profit = $89.26

[JGill_DTD]

best of luck blue, looking forward to notes reviewing this

[VBlue]

tyty - still one playing.  2/13 in the $1k GP Rebuy.

[VBlue]

Session Observations

Preparation: I was happy with the pre-session preparation.  I reviewed my notes on the coaching session on 'How to Love Weak Players and Take Their Chips' and wrote my session goals.  I got some music ready and removed other distractions.

Session Length: I played about seven hours of poker last night.  Unfortunately, the boy is still not well although he had slept until about 1:30am when The Piranha had to get up and give him a bottle and, again he awoke at 2:30am when I went to bed, so I sat with him until about 3am.

Whilst I don't mind one late night during the week and I can get by on four hours sleep as a one-off (that said I feel pretty tired as I write), I would have been less philosophical on this had I not made the top four in the last tournament of the night and at one point, when I was close to busting in fifth, I felt pretty despondent about putting in such a late shift for meagre returns.

Focus & Concentration: In the early part of the session I felt that I was giving the tables my full concentration and focusing on session goals.  I exploited some weak players, made some post-flop plays that I would usually just give up on, and started to build stacks in the three earlier tournaments.  After a few hours I was already finding it more difficult to retain this level of concentration.  Once midnight had passed and I was now sat on the settee in front of the fire, with my goals out of sight, I was starting to flag.  I definitely lose concentration when I drop to a couple of tables only.  I then picked a new set of tunes, told myself that the late hour was no big deal if I could get a result, and felt pretty fresh going into the last couple of hours.

Session Goals: I definitely think that trying to go for all five of the goals in a single session when these are all plays I have not learned to unconscious competence yet is too much, which is why I decided to just focus on the first main goal of identifying weaker players and thinking about how to exploit them best.  

A large percentage of the players are considerably weak, showing all of the traits as discussed earlier.  I definitely played more pots in position, and a few OOP, and started to think a lot more about what my opponent was representing and what I could conceivably represent in return, with good success early on.  Where I made mistakes, was in giving my opponents too much credit for some plays when they had a very strong made hand they would not fold or be bluffing with.  I know when I look back I'll see that I could have got away from almost all the spots where I was behind to a better hand when the chips went in.

Again, the later I got into the session the less I was concentrating.  I think when the average stack dropped towards 20bbs, although I had 40bbs-50bbs during this stage, I was going more into autopilot.

Post Session Analysis: Hand history review to follow, probably Wednesday.

[VBlue]

Hospital Trip Delays Plans

We had to take Roscoe down to Lancaster hospital on Tuesday.  He had not eaten much since Friday, had been taking on few liquids, and was pretty listless.  They diagnosed mild dehydration, a throat infection, and gastroenteritis.  He escaped a night in the hospital as he took some milk just before they were about to put a drip in his foot.  I had just listened to fifteen minutes of guttural screaming from a small baby in the room next door.  I then found out that they had just had a drip put in their foot!  Very pleased and relieved the boy didn't have to go through that.  A few sleep deprived nights have followed so no time to play or complete my post-session analysis.

Will reevaluate tonight and see if I can put in another session.  Not sure I can make it as potentially late as Monday night's session, so I may have to drop two of the later tournaments.  If he is not settled then I'll just do an hour or two of hand reviews.  I will probably look at my exit hands as I think I played too spewy in several spots.  I must work out how to mark hands for future review - I really am a HM2 n00b.  I think it was shown to me on the Dojo session Jamie Burlland held, so I can check back on the recording I received.

[VBlue]

Write Off

As you've seen I've pretty much had to write the week off since Tuesday night's late session.  Didn't do any post-session analysis last night either.  Tiredness has been the biggest factor.  The Piranha works two nights per week 3pm-11pm so I had to put the boy to bed and cook and all that jazz.  Was well past it by then, so I just sat and watched some comedy on youtube. 

It's often a battle to stick to my planned week as I would have liked, the post-session work most often suffering from a rearranged schedule.  It is not that I have other commitments Monday to Thursday it is just having the energy and motivation.

Volume

I may have to re-evaluate the tournaments I play.  I don't want to switch away from MTTs right now as I enjoy the dynamic and the possibility of hitting a really good payday.  Of course, making the top few spots requires a degree of good fortune.  The other question mark is achievable ROI.  I know this is a bit of a n00b question too, but I'm taking some figures from a trusted website I used to use when I played STTs:

0-30% ROI - room for improvement but still a positive return
40%+ ROI - reasonable results
70%+ ROI - very good results
100%+ ROI - Benchmark figure for the very best MTT players
150%+ ROI - Fantastic, but not sustainable

Of course the challenge here is to play enough volume so that if I can get up above the 40%/70% mark I am growing my bankroll to allow me to play a little higher.  At the moment it is clear that I am not putting that volume in and if I am only outlaying $15 per night 2/3 times per week it is going to be a very gradual upswing.  This could change if I do hit one decent score of a few hundred dollars and get my bankroll up around the $500 mark so I can just step up my outlay each night to say $30.

There are other reasons for wanting to continue with MTTs.  Ultimately, I would like to play a little more live and be able to peel off the odd buy-in to go and play at my local casino once every 2/3 months.  I would also like to try and get into a UK tour event and sats are my best route here.  Continuing to play MTTs online should mean I keep improving my skill-set for when I do get into the odd live tournament, where the standard may be considerably worse in the monthly £50 games, and may not be a whole lot better depending on which spot you find yourself in on a UK tour event.

Last year I made about £1k playing live but ran way above expectation.  I would also like to play a bit of 100nl cash when I go to the casino, as it so soft it is ridiculous.

So, my biggest obstacle, as it always has been, is volume.  Any thoughts on this post would be really appreciated.

[VBlue]

Update

From topsharkpro:

Played - 138
Profit - $148
ITM - 16/136
ROI - 27.05%

[VBlue]

Friday Night - Fun Session

As part of my ongoing approach to focusing on session goals, I want to play a smaller-stakes session once a week , probably at the micro-cash tables, so I can really experiment with some new things.  I had planned to do this on Sunday night but I ended up spending the evening with a Thai takeaway (the crispy pork belly stir fry was very nice) and a film with The Piranha.

Plans had been changed a few times this weekend and The Piranha went for an early night on Friday so I decided to play just a couple of MTTs whilst watching a bit of TV and listening to some tunes.  It was certainly being treated more as a way to pass the evening than being a massively focused session.

Small-Stakes MTT Session

Schedule

ipoker - $1k GP Daily Dollar
888 - "The TWO" 2k GP

I was not massively focused on session goals other than to keep playing more pots in position with weaker players and ensure good value bet sizes to get full value.

Results

Cash - 11/881 in "The TWO" for $18.77
Cash - 126/1197 in the $1k GP Daily Dollar for $2.15

Total Return = $20.92
Total Profit = $17.92

I feel like since I have turned my focus towards post-flop poker, assessing ranges better, and exploiting opponent weaknesses I am making strides in my game.  I ran well in a couple of spots in "The Two", notably open-shoving AT for about 15bbs utg into QQ to hit an Ace and then shoving 22 from the BU for about 10bbs into KK and flopping a set.

Two session played in the week and two deep runs.  These two earlier tournaments meant a 12:30am finish rather than the 2:30am finish of Monday night.

Downsides to the week are mainly volume and lack of working on my game away from the tables.  It has been a tough week with Roscoe being so ill, but on Friday he started to eat again (better than he has done for some time) and got back to laughing and joking, being mischievous, and sleeping really well.

I tend not to play on weekends, maybe Sunday nights if I can.  I was pretty beat this weekend though with nine hours sleep only over the two nights due to the later poker session and getting up with the boy at 7am and a late night with friends on Saturday.

I took the boy up town on Saturday morning and let him have a toddle around the pedestrianised area whilst I had a coffee.  He charms everyone he meets, walking up to people and shouting 'Ohhh' (he sounds like the wiseguys of The Sopranos) and grinning and pulling funny faces.  There was a girl busking across the street so he stood right in front of her gawping up as she played.  Will post pic later.

Films

I managed three films this weekend:

Senna - outstanding BAFTA winning documentary following Aryton Senna's arrival in Formula One and his love/hate relationship with the sport and governing body FIA, his rivalry with Alain Prost, his celebrity status as a figure of hope for the Brazilian people, and his untimely death.  The footage and compilation to make the story is first-class.

Chronicle - good character-led tale about three high-school kids who make a discovery that changes their lives by giving them superpowers.  Sounds like it could be done very badly, but as it delves into how this secret they share effects them and what they do with their powers it really develops.  Some cool scenes when the story reaches an explosive climax.

Atonement - rather spiffing.  That's not my critique, just a taste of the dialogue.  An interesting story where a young girl's version of what she sees has repercussions that last her lifetime.  Kiera Knightley and James McAvoy head an excellent cast.  A story with a lot more going on than it may first appear and left a lot of interpretation until after the film had ended.

[VBlue]

Small-Stakes MTT Session

Schedule

ipoker ($132 bankroll) - $1k GP Daily Dollar, BBP $5 League, $3k GP F/O
888 ($56 bankroll) - "The TWO" 2k GP

Results

Nope

[VBlue]

Session Review

I haven't done any further work on my coaching or post-session analysis, so I'm just rinsing and repeating as I am happy with my play in general.  Biggest mistakes have been missing value, if they are indeed mistakes.  Hope to get a couple of hours to post some hands for your thoughts tonight.

Ran pretty poorly in the $1k GP Daily Dollar - was in lots of pots early but nothing was working and I had to make some folds.  Then got back to starting stack with a double up.  Was pretty short thereafter and lost AK v KQ when he flopped two Queens and rivered a third.

Busted the 3k losing a flip I think and never got above an average stack in that.

Busted KQ v QJ in "The TWO" with around 20bbs and never got much of a stack going in that either.

The sickener of the night came for me in the BBP League game.  A single leg victory means entry into a second chance SnG with the other seven leg winners - one Black Belt East End Live seat on offer.  With about twenty left I got the chip lead, following two won races (in the same tournament)  and AA shoving over late position open who snapped with AK v my Aces.  I called AJ v BU raiser and lost v 86 on rivered 6 for about a quarter-stack.  I then promptly saw my Playtech engine crash and took 10 mins to reboot.  I came back short and ended up getting AK in to be called by QQ and AK and bust 13th - four from the money.

Hardware

I need to sort out my laptop as this reboot taking for ever really kills me some nights.  I also need to make sure I close everything and log-off each night as I often seem to get problems with programs crashing if I leave on Hibernate.

Does anyone have any advice?  I only use for surfing, email, occasional use of spreadsheet/word processor, poker, and sometimes stream the football.

Probably best to delete all the unnecessary programs etc and then do Factory Reset?  I have some stuff from Microsoft on this at home, but just thought I'd ask here first