April's Graph, Freeroll, and GO BRUINS GO!

My graph to date for April. You can notice exactly when I went on tilt too. I'm trying to reduce the occurrences as much as possible, but its not easy. Overall, the bankroll is growing, but been taking some work to get it there. I build up a nice stack each session, then get a bad beat most times to lose it all in one hand. Then takes a few orbits to get things back under control. One hand today had me tilting...get KhKc on the puck and raise it 4x, get the bb to call me cold. Flop comes down 10J6 two hearts and I'm thinking I'm golden. BB bets out smallish and I raise 3x his bet and he cold calls. Okay, a flush draw, but I have a ton of outs. Turn comes down a garbage 3offsuit and he checks to me. I make a pot sized bet, and he insta shoves into me. I call and show my kings...and he has a lousy AJo, no heart. Yep, Ace on the river and he wins the hand. Sick play. I did give him a note though. Next time, buddy, next time.



I've registered to play in my first freeroll on PokerStrategy on Titan Poker. Its the Silver level game and has a $5000 prize pool, top 100 pay, limited to 1000 players. Filled up FAST too, was lucky to get into it. Play starts soon, less than an hour, so I've logged off the cash tables and getting ready for tournament play now. Different mind set altogether, and need to regroup my thoughts before I start.

BOSTON SWEEPS THE HABS!!! Is there anything sweeter to the ears of a Bruins fan than those four words? I think not. Great job boys...now take it all the way to the Cup! My banner is in the window! Hard to be a Bruins fan in a Leaf town, but I'm not the only one. Seems one of the new neighbors is also a fan. Going to have to get to know them better, already seem to be smart people ;)

It came to me late this week...this weekend is opening weekend for trout fishing. Now how the HELL did I miss that?? I can't remember the last opener I missed. Oh well, never do well on the first weekend anyway. Yep...that's sour grapes right there...damn my poker hobby. The weather hasn't been the greatest either, and I have yet to get the golf clubs out for a round. Hopefully soon though.

Anyway, going to start to get ready for the freeroll now.

My TEN COMMANDMENTS

I posted this on pokerstrategy.com forum, but thought I would post it here. After I was finished with writing it, it sounded REALLY good, and I wanted to post it in my blog as well...

Came upon an epitome tonight.

For the last few sessions, I've been struggling a bit, and really couldn't figure out why. After losing a couple of buyins tonight, I figured I would stop playing and just look at the hands I was playing, so I shut everything down except Elephant and reviewed my play for the last few sessions.

Truth be told, I haven't been referring to the SHC for the past couple of weeks, figuring I had it memorized by now, so its been sitting in my desk drawer. While reviewing some hands, I took it out again, and to my surprise, saw that a number of the hands I played aren't ON the SHC at all, and I just sat back and tried to ask myself what happened.

Without the SHC, I was allowing leaks back into my game. I figured I had it all but under control, but truth is, I was starting to play speculative hands oop, hands not on the chart at all, and over valuing hands I shouldn't have, all because I lost focus on the basic strategy. I noticed that hands I once saw as worthy of seeing a flop BEFORE I started to use the BSS were creeping back into my playing range again. I noticed that raising OOP with speculative hands was actually detrimental to my game again. All the things I THOUGHT I had a handle on are once again coming back to haunt me.

So...in light of my newly re acquired insight, I'm making a few of my own COMMANDMENTS. Feel free to add your own

I Thou shalt not play w/o referring to SHC regularly
II Thou shalt not allow old patterns re emerge and become self destructive
III Thou shall learn the game by applying ODDS and IMPLIED ODDS moreso
IV Thou shall study a new article every day and fully immerse thine self to it
V Thou shall spend MORE time study thine own performances BEFORE playing a session
VI Thou shall post hands on appropriate forums for discussion and evaluation by experts
VII Thou shall come to know how to compress self made videos to be sent to others for review
VIII Thou shall ACCEPT all criticisms of thine actions without question, for thou art still a pupil in this school and need to open thine mind
IX Thou will participate more in forum hand discussions and never stop learning
X Thou will become a true player of the game, realizing that thou will never 'know it all', and accept the fact that it is the true nature of the game to continuously evolve

So help me GOD, I'm going to learn this game better!!

The effects of Tilt, and making a Video

Had an absolutely BRUTAL session a week or so ago. Was doing okay for the first hour, but then everything went to hell. QQ got hammered by some donk overplaying 74o and hitting a straight just got it started. Before you know it, I'm down three or four buyins in total in the span of less than 20 hands. I haven't updated my graph yet, but I'll post it soon and you can surely see the impact it had on me. Sick. Managing to slowly build it up again, but what a chore. Gotta learn to take these as they come and realize its just a game, but man, it was harsh.

Downloaded some new software that is giving me the oppurtunity to record my sessions. I think this is great, not only for my own use, but I can forward them to my coach for him to critique me on my play. Having a problem with compressing them, but when I get that figured out, I'm sending him my sessions once a week about 1/2 hr each, and waiting to hear back from him. Hopefully this will catapult my game to the next level even more quickly.

Took second place last night in the league game. Shocking considering I barely played a hand all night. But when I did, bluff or big hand, managed to get them paid off just the way I wanted them too. Unfortunately, QQ on a AK7 flop can only spell disaster, and it doomed me to second place. Still quite happy with the way I played though.

Weather is finally starting to warm up a bit now. Hoping the links will open up soon and I can get out and hit a few balls. I KNOW it will horrible after the winter off, but I'm still looking forward to getting out more.

Last weekend I was asked to deal at a stag for a friend, and met this girl that organizes special events. She was looking for dealers and tournament directors and took my name and number for future contact. Got me thinking if I had enough tables, I could maybe hook up with a couple of event directors and lease myself to them for some extra coin. We'll see what happens, just a thought right now.