Not again ...

Yesterday was really the worst FL session of my life :D

Within the first 100 hands I had 10 premium pocket pairs. 4x AA, 3xKK, 2xQQ, 1xJJ. That is every ten hands! (And some AK on top). But I lost every single one of those hands. After loosing 4 times in a row with Aces I totally tilted. But the funny thing is. I started to play very concentrated and could come back of a 35BB loss within 200+ hands.

I still can't believe it. But I have PO and my hand histories to prove it :D

Here is the graph of the session (the +10BB at the end are of today)


Party: +$1.06

Too much to do

Got too much on my mind. Organizing the move etc. Played some poker. But not much.

I played a sick fixed limit(!) session on party the other day. OMG. Usually I don't cry very often about Bad Beats. But this time it got me good. I lost Top-Set against Runner-Runner-Flush, Flopped Set against Rivered Set, Flush over Flush, Flush vs. FH, Top Two Pair against Runner-Runner Straight. Arghhhh. After some of these beats I just tilted.

Here is a profit graph of the session.


The BB/100h rate is around 1.5. That's Micro Limits ...

Party: +$2.77

Stars: -$2.7

PKR: +$1 (Funny eh?)

Bad Weather Equals?

Bad weather. More poker.

Party: +$.94
Stars: +$2.79

Played some poker

I played some poker today. Limit cash. NL cash. Some tournaments. Nothing special.

Limit at party went like a rollercoaster. I was up $$$, than down $$$. Strange hands. And some plain bad moves. I will never ever learn it: Don't bluff a calling station.
Party: +$.9

Played two SnG and some NL cash.
Stars: +$2.1

Well. I still have those PKR points. So I started the $300 Freeroll. What am I going to do with $1.2? Can't cash it out anyway. I think about "playing lottery". Sit down at an NL100 table and gamble :D
PKR: +$1.2
(And I still have 300 PKR points left. LoL.)

Talk To The Hand

Talk to the hand. Because I don't feel like talking.


(Talk To The Hand, StreeArt in Berlin, Photo by Palikari, 2007)

Yikes. Played one SnG and got busted. Pretty card dead. Then I went Preflop AI with a mediocre hand against a player who I knew would call. (Because he called AI before with hands like A4o, J5 etc.). So I got busted. And I hate it. Because it was my bad play. Grrrr.

Stars: -$1.3

Well. But the rest of the day was amazing. 30°C. Blue sky. Summer. I spent the whole day in the sun. Even worked out a little bit.

Have A Cigar

Today was another lazy day. Great weather here in Berlin. Sunshine. Met a very close friend for breakfast. Perfect.

But not much time to play. Just one SnG. 9 players. And it took 1h 16min to finish. Incredible. The tightest game ever. But I made 1st. Nice.
Stars: +$3.3

And not to forget. A great cigar. Flor de Copan Robusto Maduro. I'm addicted :)



(Photo by Palikari, 2007)

All you have to do is quit your job.

"It's the easiest thing in the world, to become a professional poker player. All you have to do is quit your job."
(Tommy Angelo)

Yes. I quit my job. But not to become a professional poker player. Sorry. After seven years at my first company I needed a change. New perspectives. New challenges. New ideas. And I think I got lucky. I found an interesting new job. The downside: it's not in Berlin. Sigh. I have to leave this town. Believe me. That's hard. The good part: I'm moving to Cologne. I like the city. My family lives there.

So. now I've got seven weeks off. My new job starts in August. A lot of time to play poker. I hope so! But there's an awful lot of thing to do: searching for a new appartment, organizing the move, job center, etc. We'll see.

Another little change. As you can see I put the "poker" in the title now in parenthesis. That's because I want to change the topic of this blog a little bit. I still want to talk about poker. But there are so many things that fascinate me: Whisky, Cigars, Music, Comics, Photography. So I'm going to mix it up a little bit.

I didn't have much time to play poker. Just one tournament and a little cash games:
Party: +$2.01
Stars: +$2.48


(Street Art in Berlin, Photo by Palikari, 06/2007)

Lazy Day

Nothing much. Played one tournament. But got busted on the bubble. Some hands at the NL2 tables. But today I was just too tired to play. Don't know why.

Stars: -$1.33

Well. The WSOP started. But I'm not playing ;)

One thing at a time

Yesterday I watched the poker documentary on arte and played SnGs at the same time. Bad idea.

Stars: -$2.12

Independent Chip Model

Here is a site with an article about the independent chip model (ICM) and an online calculator. Hope it helps!

(The icm model helps to determine if you should play a hand on the bubble.)

Goal #4 - Work on my tilting problem

"To win at poker, you have to be very good at losing."
(Tommy Angelo)

I tilt. And I tilt a lot. I tilt easy. And I tilt badly.

All poker players tilt. I believe even Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey tilt. It's a human reaction. You see something unfair. And tilt. Maybe after years of playing poker you tilt less. But I do believe. Even after eons of poker. There is a situation where you tilt. So. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

But I need to work on my tilting problem. Because that's what it is: a problem. I lost more money on my tilting sessions than I want to remember. It's like a second rake.

When do I tilt?

The funny thing is. I usualy tilt after I played my A game for a long time. Or after winning a tournament. My ego gets pumped up. It's huge. I return to the tables and expect to control them. I expect to win every single time. But that's not poker. AA vs 22. There's still a ~20% chance that my opponent wins. That is one out of five. Better than throwing a dice. So. I'm back at the tables. I feel unbreakable. And than it happens. I loose a race. I get rivered. I try to run over a table. A bad beat. And suddenly I'm on tilt. I know I'm on tilt but. Raaaaaahhhhhh. Hulk will smash. I can't stop. You know what I'm talking about, eh?!

I still don't have a plan, how to work on my tilt problem. I just play shorter sessions. I analyse all sessions after I played them. Especially if I lost.

And hopefuly. Some day. I will tilt less.

P.S. Here is a nice article by Tommy Angelo. At the end he talks about tilting.

Poker on TV

Arte shows the documentary "That's poker!" tomorrow night at 22:10. Sorry. German and French only.

Change of plan?

Right know I'm rethinking my strategy. As you know I play .05/.1 limit at party. But the rake at this limit is incredible 10% with no rakeback. My idea is to use the money I cashed out at PKR and drop it into my party account. That way i could play .1/.2 where the rake is 5%. Makes sense, huh? Well. Let me think about it.

Tomorrow I leave again for a business trip and won't be able to play poker until the weekend. So. I got plenty time to think. :P

Btw. I would like to join another pokersite.
Criteria:
- many players/tables
- PokerOffice support
- rakeback
Any suggestions?

A thought about PokerOffice:
If I ever have to pay the anual fee, I think I would drop PO and try PT&PAHUD. Especially since PT seems more flexible and supports Absolute, Ultimate etc.

The Stars are bright

Today is a bank holiday in germany (Pentecost?!) and my girlfriend went to visit a friend. A perfect day to stay at home, smoke a cigar (Flor de Selva Robusto) and have a good whisky (Oban). And of course: poker.

So I joined the big family at Stars and played a little recreational NL2. Great games & Loose donks (like me). I love you all! Within 20 hands i doubled up.

Then a friend dropped by. The weather was great. We walked to a cafe. And I think we had 5 pieces of apple cake each. Lol. So much for loosing weight.

After coming back I played some more. First a 9pl $1.2 SnG. On my second hand I gambled. I knew that the preflop raiser had at least an overpair (or AK). But I had Two pair on the flop. So I went all in. He called and hit his set on the turn: busted. Nevermind. I went back to the NL2 tables. Within 10 hands I doubled up again. Man. Why do I play limit? It's so much harder. I can't believe it. Well. Maybe I'm up for the competition. Lol.

Stars: +$4.64

Adieu PKR

Just played the PKR $100 tourney. Oh. Me so bad. I don't know. MTTs are not made for me. I finished itm. 30 places got paid and I finished 219/30. Thanks to the bubble boy.

In 30 minutes starts the forum tourney. I think this will be my last game on PKR for a while.

Well. The tournament didn't go to well. I had some good cards. But I played them bad. In the end Nemo kicked me with his AA vs my snowmen.

After the tournament I cashed out at PKR. My reasons are:
- too few fixed limit tables
- SnG blind structure
- slow gameplay

I enjoyed the PW24 tournaments. But in the end I played them only to chat with the other forum members. And to be honest. I think I was the only one chatting. Maybe the others put me on ignore. I don't know.

PKR: -$4.96

Rainy Day

It's a rainy and stormy day in Berlin. A perfect day for ... poker :D
(My girlfriend thinks different.)

Played three $1.2 STT SnG at Stars. In the first one I got busted on the first hand I played. KK vs. AA. It's a classic. You gotta love it. Then I made 1st and 2nd in the next two. After that I tried the 45 player $1.2. But didn't reach itm.

I also played a little bit at the NL3 cash tables. Well. "Me so bad" (Bizzaro) . I should stick to limit. After 1 hour I was $.09 up. Lol.

Stars: +$2.49

PKR - Reloaded

I'm back in Berlin. Finally. 10 days without poker is a drag.

Today I played with the updated PKR software. Well it's ok. Nothing revolutionary. You can stand up when you are all in etc. Try it!

I played a little S&G and made 2nd place. There are a lot of weak players. But I still think I'm gonna cash out. The blinds in the S&G tourneys just raise too fast for my taste.

On sunday is the last PW24 Tournament. I will play that one and decide afterwards.

PKR: +$1.9

Played two more $1.2 SnG at Stars. Finished the second in second place.

Stars: +$.3

Betting Draws on the Come

I just love the 2+2 forum. There are so many interesting threads and posts there.

Here's another one about "Betting draws on the come". This one is especially valuable for newbies.

How I learned to love my downswings

Another great thread in the 2+2 forum. This one is about downswings, luck and Doyle Brunson.

"Do you ever see Doyle Brunson play a hand on TV. Of course you have, did you notice his expression after the hand when he wins, he always has this little wry smile. It looks to me like he's thinking, I just must be the luckiest guy ever." (Bob T. "Something about luck")

How did you do it?

Here's a fascinating read in El Diablo's 2+2 Forum. A lot of different readers tell us how they achieved financial success.