Maintaining

Just been doing my best to stay detachted from results and focus mainly on the decisions I am making. The true importance isnt the results of our hand but rather the choices we make. Once it goes in we all know we cant do a thing about the outcome. Keeping this mentality has helped me maintain away from the tables as well. Plus having no clue where I am at precisley in regards to winning and losing makes enjoying time away from the tables much easier. I used to fall victim to letting poker spill into my  personal life. I intend to tnever let that happen again.

Have mixed in some HU with good results I feel. I did donk 2 BI's off rather quickly to a competent player. He opted to  quit me after I grinded 1 back and he realized I was probably not worth playing against. I could say I was better them him and feed my ego but the truth is he quit me because there are better spots. I played him knowing there were better spots with the intentions of playing a tough opponent and improving my game at a stake where I feel comfortable spewing a BI or 3. The truth is 100NL is swimming with fish who are terrible and just playing for fun. Its quite nice and I am starting to think that one can maintain a pretty filthy winrate at 100NL HU. 

6-max has been going well too, 100NL is quite different from 200NL as far as regs and preflop aggression goes IMO. It is quite easy to be the table captaion and just push people around. My intention is to grind my 10k hands check where I am and consider another 10k just really solidify my game before I jump back in to shark infested waters. I want 200nl to feel the same as 100NL which means I need to grow some more as a player.

DAILY QUOTE, with a twist. 

"If you had to quickly answer the question, Who are you? What are you? what would you answer?"

Just a little something to think about. I have been reading this amazing book which is all about Buddhism which is where I got the quote from.

DAILY THANKS

I am thankful!

Here is a fun HU hand. I was actually getting sweated by a friend who told me to just VB. I was like nah lets just ship.

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem

2 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

Hero (BTN)		($152.20)
BB		($112.90)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to $3, BB calls $2

Flop: ($6, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($6, 2 players)
BB bets $2, Hero calls $2

River: ($10, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $147.20, BB calls $107.90

Final Pot: $265.10
Hero shows:
BB shows:

Hero wins $264.60 ( won +$112.40 )
BB lost -$112.90

Something I just read

"A positive thinker doesnt refuse to recognize the negative; he refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually looks for the best results from the worst conditions." When things look the worst, we need to stay with our plan. There is no more satisfying time to do our work than when things look the darkest.

Another sweet thing I read yesterday was from sauce123 blog. I believe he said he heard Bob Dylan say it on his radio show. "Luck is probability taken personally."

Attachment

I am currently reading a great book on Buddhism, Buddha I believe spoke of the four noble truths. Incorporated in one of the truths was attachment and how it isn't our wants and desires that trouble our minds but rather our attachment to them. In a way this is quite similar to the goal setting post I wrote previously. Basically my revelation is that since I stopped checking my results I have somewhat lost an attachment to them which in turn has lead to little to no emotion when at the tables. I intend to stick to my every 10k hand strategy while continually studying and improving my game through analysis minus dwelling on whether or not I am a short term winner. The 2nd key to this plan having success will be a solid BR plan. Playing with 100+ BI's making checking results completely unnecessary granted I want to get back to 200NL asap for financial reasons but I may need to remain at 100NL for a brief stint for the same reason. 

This is a hand which I posted on Leggo and feel like aftert some thought and analysis I can clearly fold. Lets take a closer look.

$0.5/$1 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at weaktight.com


Stacks:

Hero (UTG)		($230.60)
CO		($99.90)
BTN		($150.70)
SB		($107.55)
BB		($43.15)

Pre-flop: ($1.50, 5 players) Hero is UTG

Hero raises to $3, CO calls $3, 3 folds

Preflop is definately debatable and in retrospect is a fold. My main focus as of late hass been targeting fish when they are in the blinds but due to table dynamics this is a fold.

Flop: ($7.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $4, CO calls $4

Villain had been calling me a fair amount preflop IP and not folding to cbets. I have been trying to cbet smaller in general and this is a great spot to bet close to 1/2 pot. His range at this point is Qx, Jx, KT, T9,AT and 22-TT plus just random floats.

Turn: ($15.50, 2 players)
Hero bets $12, CO raises to $38, $26 to Hero ($211.60)?

Though I had c/f two+ turns to villain I think this is an easy VB when I can excpect a large portion of his range to continue. The true problem is when he makes the raise. His range is grossly narrowed along with mine. In his eyes I can have QQ,JJ,QJ,KJ,T9,AT,KQ and a random bluff thus when he raises I am doubtful it is for anything but value. The fact that my range is so strong when I DB this board makes his raising range that much stronger. The simple fact is if he raises my DB I am a dead duck because I doubt he ever does this with naked trips. Even when I give him all AJ combos and one KQ our equity is not nice.

Text results appended to pokerstove.txt

   1,452  games     0.032 secs    45,375  games/sec

Board: Jc Jd Qh Ks

Dead:  

equity win tie      pots won pots tied

Hand 0: 20.937%   19.70% 01.24%           286       18.00   { Ts9h }

Hand 1: 79.063%   77.82% 01.24%          1130       18.00   { AJs-ATs, KcQc, KJs, QJs, AJo-ATo, KJo, QJo }

The funny thing is villain actually raised AT and tank called vs my shove which goes a long way towards telling you just how scary this board is. At the time I went level 0, I has straight AI. When I go through this hand looking at not only villains range but my percieved range and how they merge together the turn is a fold. I would love to take credit for going CTS and actually turning T9 into a bluff but that wasnt the case, this time.

Random thoughts

I intend to add HU poker to my repertoire. I feel the game is very profitable and will help me develop as a hand reader on my climb to the top of the poker ladder.

I enjoy poker very much when I don't let it bother me. 

My biggest leak is allowing small spots to bother me and lead to major spew. 

Talking poker and thinking poker will drastically improve you as a poker player.

Nute Dawg told me when I took the only lesson I took with him that he studied more then he played. He seems to do well for himself.

I am super duper stoked to have Dodgyken back on the scene. I wouldnt be stoked if I was at his stake because he is set to own.

Children kick ass but nothing and I mean nothing will ever prepare you for them. Best of luck to Btimm.

Still havent checked the results. Been hitting hands like mad and it feel great. Think I have made 3 royal flushes in 09 already.

Woot

I booked a winner and have ran AA into AK and KK and held today not that those hand matters but it always feels good to land a few coolers after being on the short end. Tonight I booked a win not that I know how big it was but i know it was a winner because I never spewed or lost any flips. Basically played a real solid 23/20 and just played solid poker. I was in a nice groove and felt a little confidence coming back. Got a lot going on in my head for poker and am just working things out slowly. I intend to be back at 1/2 by either 10 or 20k hands depending on where my roll and confidence are. Been posting a bit on Leggo small stakes so please take a peek.

NOW SOME HIPPY SHIT:

I found this piece on goals and thought it was actually quite interesting.

"There is a subtle, yet dramatic, distinction between goals and intentions. As I distinguish it, a key difference between a goal and an intention is attachment. With goals there is a fundamental belief that there is a logical path to follow, perhaps even a path that must be followed, if you are to get from point A to point B. To achieve X, you must do Y.

With an intention however that rigidly defined path disappears and ios replaced by a sense of freedom and endless possibility. With intentions, you simply declare for yourself what it is you wish to create in your life, hold it in your heart and conciousness, and then let go and allow for the path to emerge. The great thing to this approach is that it allows for many more options to show up in your life, any one of which may lead you to the result you desire.

Intention + Attention = Miracles

From this point on I will be intending to do things rather then planning to.

Trying...

not to care. I played a session today and definately made some bad calls as well as spewy plays but managed to push through and regain some confidence. Feel like I am on the brink of getting it back and need to just keep my head down and push through. My plan is to not check results except for every 10k hands. I started that plan today so I have like 701 hands where I am really unsure of how I did. I know I spewed a stack and lost a 150BB pot to a sweet turn AI when villain had 13% equity. I did manage to stack a few myself so whatever. The truth is the majority of big pots play themselves and it really boils down to the small to medium pots. Therefore this will be my main focus from this point on.

As far as 100NL goes it is so easy yet I am losing. I may be playing a little too loose but no one ever gives me trouble and I feel like I can just run over the table. I am running at 27/22/4 over 1775 hands. lagtard ftw.

2009

WOW it is 2009, craziness! 2008 was by far one of the best and most productive years of my life though I slacked in some departments. I plan on making 2009 my best year yet. My #1 goal of 2009 is to find a career path whether that be poker or something else. This has been something I have struggled with my whole life and I desire the security of a career for myself and my family. The idea of joining the working world isnt all that appealing to be honest but then again the security it provides is. It is nice to know that when you work you are getting paid. Of course if I focus on the long term the same is true for poker as long as I can return to my winning ways. One problem is that poker has lost a bit of its shine over the last year and I derive much less joy from the game as I used to. I dont know why either.

Truth be told I have an amazing life and no reason to ever feel down or sorry for myself. I have the power to choose what I want and it is time to figure it out and make it happen. There you have it. In 2009 my main focus will be to figure out what I want from life and start creating it.