Tuesday Ramblings

When I started this blog I was feeling good about some progress I had made. I was sure that the lessons learned over the years, the books I read, the pure volume of games I had played would give me the edge I needed to continue to be profitable. I've studied so many hands and put so much time into the game it had to payoff. At the time I had been basically a break even player who had about 6 months of just over the line profit. I'm referring to weekly profit too, not just a big cash.

Then progress stopped and actually regressed. I stopped writing because I was only recapping the games I had played the night before and more and more it just became bad beat central and who wants to read that dribble. Let alone write it. For a while I was using the exercise to recap and think about my game but then that started to get boring as the topics became repetitive.

The game of online poker has really evolved and it has become very very difficult to beat.When I started 7 years ago at least half of the field where beginners. It was enough then just to be able to count outs and to know your percentages. I still use the 4-2 rule all the time. Now everyone who plays is a pro, semi pro or a sick smart college kid who plays and studies the game 60-80 hours a week.

These guys not only work hard on their game, they use all the tools and they have a plan for long term profitability. That plan may or may not include real poker but may actually just be a series of complex formulae and actions which over time will show a profit. Have you ever noticed the guy who registers for 10 super hyper turbo sat's at a time? I assure you he believes he has figured out something and what he is playing is not poker.Its calculated gambling. I find it hard to play that way as I have to be interested in what I'm doing to do it. I already spend most of my time in an office. I'm no spending my evenings.

I digress....

So, I've been getting to the point where I no longer believe I can beat the game. The beats I have been taking in critical spots has been crushing. AAQQQ on the turn last night and I shipped it to QQQQ7. Seriously, I raise 8BBPF with AA in the $10r and get called by Q7o. He flopped 2 more Q's and when I filled the FH he got the rest of my 25BB stack.

Again I digress....

So I decided that one glaring hole in my game is that I'm not effectively using software to study and improve my game. Additionally I have not been using HUD. So I dropped $90US and bought PT3. I have to say I'm very disappointed so far. Things have changed a lot since the last time I used it. I know it has its own learning curve but.........I'm having trouble importing stats from PS MTTS, there seems to be a cap on how many hands I can mine, My HUD seems to open randomly and only on one table, when I change tables it doesn't always open up, I don't seem to be getting live updates as the hands go. I just realized everyone is stuck on (1) hand ??? etc etc. Don't even get me started on MTT summaries.

I'm sure for the experienced users I sound like a noobfool (yes, one word, lol) but damn this shit is complicated and time consuming. I can see how it can be a huge advantage when it is loaded and working though. I'd love to see PF raise % witha decent sample size.

So this may be my last kick at the cat. I'm giving myself until the end of this Spring to see if I can find a profitable game/niche with or without PT3 or whatever else I need. If no I think I'll go back to trading stocks. It seems easier and the rewards are good. Taxes suck though.

More Rush, being impatient and Zackjack

Very little felt related action last night.

I played a $22 super duper mega donk turbo sat to the $70k guar on PS. I had a bout 15 minutes to wait until the game started and figured I'd take a shot at a cheapo entry. Saving a whole $33 bucks. Its 6 handed, 2 win a seat, 3rd gets $22 back. I lasted 2 hands pushing my 500 chips in with 1010. Seemed like a good idea at the time but the was not good.

This seemed to set the tone for my night as I now felt unlucky and skipped the $70k Guar which I was stoked to play. Instead I donked my way through a $8.80 MTT and an $11MTT. It was dreadful, I may as well have tossed my money at the cat. Why did I bother. Everything was wrong. I let that small coinflip of a satelite put me on tilt and the I didn't play the game I wanted and finally the stakes were to to low to keep me interested. FK!

I switched to FT and more rush poker. Back to my prefered cash game of PLO. I again bought in light for $40 at the .25/.50 game. I know its better to come in full but I just seem to be having better results being hyper aggressive with a small stack than playing with the full buyin. This is very very new for me. I would always be teh first to chastise a shortie. When I get a hand I want the most amount of $ possible on the table. In fact if I'm ever at a live game/casino I'd be to embarrassed to buy light. Anyway, it all went pretty uneventful although I was getting more than my share of premium hands. I was chipping up steady when finally I hit a hand at the same time as an opponent. We 4 or 5 bet it all in PF with AAxx(nut spade draw) vs AAxx(club draw) and my spades got there for a real nice pot. I pretty much went on cruise control and signed out up $100. Saved my day. +/- $80-100 seems to be my routine on Rush poker, nothing more or less so far.

Here is a link to an Ottawa player why does a nice job of writing about a Live MTT he played at Turningstone. Read and enjoy.

http://zachjackdad.blogspot.com/