mathare's Poker Diary

[mathare]

23rd May 2009
No further play since my last update for various reasons. But I wanted to post a new entry in this diary as a few things have been bothering me recenty, including my choice of game.

Scan any poker bookshelf, pick up any poker magazine, read any poker forum and most of the information and advice will be on no-limit hold'em. The limit game is the ugly sister, if you like. A game that many see as virtually solved so there is little new to say about it. You play certain hands in certain positions and pick up the money in the end. And that's about it. There isn't a fortune to be made in any one session playing limit poker and in some senses you're not a real man unless you're duking it out online with no-limit poker players. And this is all starting to get to me and making me want to play no-limit poker just to feel more like a proper player.

I recently found I had more in my Ladbrokes account than I realised so I am tempted to use that bankroll on effectively a shot to nothing. SnGs or micro stakes cash games though, that's the question. I am tempted more by the former at present but cracking NLHE cash is something that remains a real goal for me. I play it in home games and do reasonably well so why do I fail online?

I'm going to test the waters a little this weekend, all being well. I'll report back on how it goes.

[mathare]

23rd May 2009 (part 2)
I decided if I am going to man up I might as well do it properly, so rather than just playing NLHE cash games I should play 6-max NLHE. And that's just what I did for a couple of hours. I dropped right down the stakes to $0.05-$0.10 on Bet365 (better PokerTracker support than Ladbrokes and I figured I may as well keep all my action on one site and build up one set of loyalty points). And it went pretty well, thankfully.

I had to adjust to playing no-limit again, which was easy enough really, but the six-max factor was new for me. So I loosened up and stole a good number of pots as well as value bet my way to some nice wins. I ran into the calling stations I expected to find swimming at this level and on occasion forgot how to play against them but overall I made a respectable profit, given the stakes.

So what are my aims here? I'm not going to make my fortune piddling about at this level, I accept that. But I can multi-table these games, rack up the hands, build up the experience and also grow the bankroll. If I start with a nominal bankroll of $200 for these stakes I will step up to $0.10-$0.20 when I get to $400 (i.e. profit of $200). That's a way off yet and I know I will lose buy-ins along the way but it's important to have goals. I know plenty about the game of poker so it's about time I started to get something tangible out of it, and I am starting to think that the only way to do that is through NLHE cash games hence this latest adventure.

NLHE stats
Hands: 230
Won Hands: 25.22%
VP$IP: 32.61%
PFR: 22.61%
W$WSF: 42.25%
WTSD: 28.17%
W$SD: 60.00%
AF: 3.44
Won: $4.21
BB/100 hands: 9.15
$/hour: $2.38

[mathare]

25th May 2009
Absolutely awful today. Really, really bad. So bad in fact that this excursion into the realm of NLHE cash games may end very soon. Today was almost enough to convince me to give up poker completely at one stage.

I played poorly (I keep saying that so why can't I do anything about it?) but also got on the wrong side of some variance that did nothing to improve my mood. I finished the two-table session down over 2.5 buy-ins. I got rivered when all-in with AQo against A5s when he hit a 5. I got it all in good on having flopped the nut straight with QTs against JJ only for the board to pair making his full house. I ran AKo into ATo all-in and he hit a set. OK, on balance I also won all-ins with KK (twice), AJo and 33 but the amount I won on these hands wasn't enough to offset the all-in losses. I also had heavy losses with QQ twice, once into AKo and once into 55 which backed into a flush. A seriously bad afternoon. OK, I know in cash terms I didn't lose that much but I have studied the game for years and I am still capable of playing badly and losing even in games such as these. It is really making me question my poker future. Has none of what I have read sunk in and carried over into my game? If I keep getting results as I have been lately I am tempted to give up on the game altogether.

NLHE stats
Hands: 707
Won Hands: 21.50%
VP$IP: 27.86%
PFR: 19.09%
W$WSF: 44.12%
WTSD: 24.71%
W$SD: 50.00%
AF: 3.67
Won: -$21.72
BB/100 hands: -15.36
$/hour: -$4.74

[Win2Win]

Just off the Bellagio :D ....plenty of stupid Yanks in town for the holiday to fleece

[mathare]

31st May 2009
Well it hasn't taken that long but I think I have finally realised that NLHE cash games online aren't for me. Another losing session (at 2 tables) but during this session I did some soul searching and it dawned on me that I'm just not set up to play NLHE cash, even at micro stakes. I don't have the mindset to concentrate solely on the poker - this afternoon I was 'watching' the racing on Betdaq and filling in the results in my spreadsheet as I went along. I'm also not in the best of health at present (don't ask, it's a long story that I don't want to get into here) which is affecting my mindset. The long and short of it is I can't concentrate enough to play poker.

For a while now (weeks? months?) I have been using poker as boredom relief. I'm not into the game sufficiently to stand a chance of winning but I am playing for the sake of it really. I have plently of other things I could be doing but somewhere in my brain I decide to play poker. Perhaps it's because that's the only of the options that gives me the opportunity to make a few quid along the way. Other things I could be doing could lead to much more cash than the poker can but they are long-term strategies. I think I need quick wins, or at least that's the mindset I seem to be in at present.

I think I need time away from the tables to regroup, think about what I want from poker and how I am going to get it. Because playing in this sort of mood isn't going to result in any money coming my way, I know that for sure.

NLHE stats
Hands: 958
Won Hands: 20.88%
VP$IP: 27.04%
PFR: 17.95%
W$WSF: 44.25%
WTSD: 25.22%
W$SD: 43.86%
AF: 4.43
Won: -$28.55
BB/100 hands: -14.90
$/hour: -$4.69

[eruptive plot]

we all go through these losing sessions matt,just remember that big pocket pairs are profitible long term.you just got to grin and bear it when they get cracked and move on the the next big one.
personally i like to see the flop because aces are a nice starting hand,but it is very beatable with any 2 cards, and when i do i get my chips in when playing sit n gos,but when you are playing for cash you have got to be more cautious

[mathare]

Cheers EP. Eventually I will get back to limit poker and try and build up some confidence (and a bankroll) that way. I have these flirtations with NLHE cash games every now and then and they usually go badly but over time I forget that and think "I should be able to play NLHE cash, let's have a go"

[John]

Hi Mat,

You said something to me once which has engraved itself into my brain and frankly, taken a lot of the emotion away when a bad beat occurs. What you said went something like, "It's not always the result that matters. It doesn't matter if you lose the hand if you played it properly" and that's what you've demonstrated above. E.g. on the QTs / JJ hand, 90-95% of the time you'd have hit and KEPT your straight, winning the pot.

You just have to pick your head up off the floor and keep grinding away. And if I may give you a piece of advice - please, please stop doing other things when playing poker. Focus on the table, 100%. Have it open all the time, not minimised when it's not your turn. Poker software only tells you so much, and sometimes you have to make up your own mind, and not rely on the software.

For me, two tables open side-by-side, with music on, is enough to focus me, but sometimes two tables open is too much especially if I'm at the late stages of both tournaments (STTs were what I played, and are now nearly gone... MTTs are gradually taking their place).

I appreciate you're different... but what I don't understand where you're coming from is this... a question I don't know if you'll be able to answer. If you read so much about the game, and enjoy the 'inner workings' of the game i.e. watching the way people move, how they play based on position, etc, and all whilst doing this you're simultaneously and most importantly making your own moves with your own cards, how are you not fully focused on this? How do you get distracted with other things? I just would have thought your mind would be engrossed enough in these things to not even want to look at doing anything else at the same time. Do you think you would make more money if you focused solely on the table(s)?

[mathare]

And if I may give you a piece of advice - please, please stop doing other things when playing poker. Focus on the table, 100%. Have it open all the time, not minimised when it's not your turn. Poker software only tells you so much, and sometimes you have to make up your own mind, and not rely on the software.

Focus is my biggest problem, not just with poker either. I am taking steps to deal with it though, where possible.

For me, two tables open side-by-side, with music on, is enough to focus me

Not me, unfortunately. My brain is still churning at 100mph and craves more so I slip away from the tables. I have been reading some interesting books and articles about the differences between online and casino poker. They talk about online poker being a stream whereas casino poker is an ocean of inputs. You're surrounded by poker - other tables, chips, cards, the sights and sounds of poker, cocktail waitresses and the general buzz of a poker environment. Online you just have what comes out of the screen. You're not immersed, which is the biggest challenge I face and one I need to overcome. Somehow.

If you read so much about the game, and enjoy the 'inner workings' of the game i.e. watching the way people move, how they play based on position, etc, and all whilst doing this you're simultaneously and most importantly making your own moves with your own cards, how are you not fully focused on this? How do you get distracted with other things?

Because my moves are almost instantaneous, in my mind if not in action. I know what I am going to do with my cards as soon as I see them. I know that unless I get three callers before me I'm folding. When the flop hits I know if I am c-betting, checking or folding into a raise etc. My mind doesn't need to think about these things for long. I play almost on instinct if you like so my conscious brain isn't engaged anywhere near as much as it would be for tasks I need to think about.

I just would have thought your mind would be engrossed enough in these things to not even want to look at doing anything else at the same time. Do you think you would make more money if you focused solely on the table(s)?

Would I make more if I focused just on the tables? Possibly. Could I do that - not easily. And certainly not for long or consistently. I know my own weaknesses and focus has always been one of them. My PC (and desk actually) is littered with half-completed projects. Things I start and then something else comes along, more interesting to me at the time, so I start that. Repeat, repeat, repeat. My mind isn't engrossed in the poker enough to not wander. Fold on one table, fold on the other and then what? It could be 30-40s before I see more cards. I can't watch my opponents act and study them to get anything valuable that I can't get from the software (in my opinion, and that's worth it at these stakes) so my mind wanders. E-mail, internet etc. Maybe more tables is the answer, who knows. I need to continue my readings on focus, ADD etc and see what I can learn and then try to apply these lessons at the tables and see what happens.

[mathare]

I was going to play limit hold'em this evening and rack up some more merit points to maintain that VIP level and also get my head back in the game somewhat but then something I had read recently sprang into my head. It was something I read last night about being mentally prepared for a game online. In a real world casino one probably drives there, or at least crosses the casino floor to the poker room. You then put your name on a list for a game, get your set, buy your chips etc. There are several steps you have to go through to get into a game, even one that has an open seat that means it could easily take you a few minutes to be seated and dealt into the game. Online that's not the case. Fire up the poker room, your chips are there waiting for you so you just pick a table with an open seat and you're away. It's much quicker and you don't have time to mentally prepare as well as you would for a live game. Because of there is a tendency for online players to start sessions badly until they really get their mind in gear.

Is this me? Do I start sessions weakly? That was something I was going to find out tonight and then I had another thought.

I have made a profit at limit hold'em, albeit smaller than I was really hoping for at this stage. Is it me or could it be the luck of the cards? Is there a way to tell?

What I have done is calculated the probability of being dealt each hand and compared that to the number of times I have been dealt that hand out of the 8431 hands I have recorded at $1/2 limit hold'em in Poker Tracker. I have also used some empirical evidence of BB/hand (from over 100 million hands dealt at PokerRoom), EVs basically, and compared that to what I am registering for each hand. Let's have a look at what comes out of this shall we?

Before I do though I want to bung in a quick disclaimer - my sample is still small so any conclusions drawn won't be rock solid. I am doing this more for interest and to potentially guide my future play, as well as a quick check on whether my profits thus far are likely to be greater than I could reasonably expect or not. It's not going to be fully 100% accurate though due to the small sample.

I've been dealt 80 hands (out of 169) more than one would expect for a truly random deck of cards. Of these hands I've had A3o far more often than I ought to have done (99 times instead of 76.30). I've also had 63o, 72o and 42s over 20 times more than I 'should' have done. All losing hands for me, and according to the empirical EV values I have too. In fact of the 12 hands I have received over 10 times more than the expected frequency 9 of them are losers. The only significant winner is AQs which I have been dealt 11.57 times more than one would expect in 8431 random hands.

Have I benefitted from the hands I have been dealt more often than normal though? My EV (BB/hand) values are too rough and subject to influence by a small number of hands due to my sample size so I am going to use the 'real' EVs from PokerRoom here. If I multiply the EV of each hand I have received more often than expected by the difference in the expected and actual number of times I have been dealt the hand I get an estimate of the number of BB I have gained or lost by being dealt these hands more often. And the sum of this figure for the 80 hands is negative, i.e. I should have lost money on them. The EV of these 'extra' hands is -6.915 BB in fact.

I have been dealt the following more often than expected and as a result have made more than half a BB on that hand ranking:
AA, AKo, AQs, AJs, ATs, A4s, KQs, KQo, 77

Some of the big suited Aces in there, so it looks at first glance as though the cards have been kind to me and I have gained bets because of these hands. In fact I have had AA around 5 times more than expected giving me +11.25BB there. I can expect a statistical correction over time then, with AA coming less often than expected. Hands like A4s are only marginally profitable (+0.06BB/hand) but I have been dealt that hand 13.57 times more than average, hence it contributing over 0.5BB to my bottom line.

What about hands I have had more than average that have cost me money? The hands I have received more than expected and as a result have cost me more than 1xBB in EV are:
A8o, A3o, K2o, Q7o, J4o, J2s, T4o, T2s, 97o, 72o, 63o, 62o, 52o, 42s

That's 14 hands, and I used a measure of -1xBB EV compared to +0.5BB for the hands that have won me money as I wanted a comparable number of hands in each list. There are 28 hands in total that have cost me more than -0.5xBB! Some of the 14 hands listed above we have come across before, hands that I have been dealt a lot more often than expected. And with a negative EV for each hand it all adds up.

Obviously receiving 80 hands more often than expected means I received 89 hands less often than one would expect from 8431 random hands. What of those? Which big hands am I being dealt fewer off than I should get and what is that costing me? But also which losing hands am I not getting as often to boost the profits (by not costing me money as often)?

The hands I should have been dealt over 10 times more than I have been are all negative EV hands, unfortunately. There are 12 of them but I won't list them as they are junk hands. So it seems I can expect to get dealt more junk in the future to even things out. Great. In particular I can look forward to 98o coming up more often as I have had 26.3 fewer instances of that hand than I would expect from a random deck.

But what about the general EV of these hands I receive less often than the average player? Oh, I have effectively saved over 17BB by not getting these trashy hands so often. That doesn't sound so good.

However, I have been dealt 20 of the positive EV hands less often than expected, including big pairs such as KK, QQ and JJ and some big Aces such as AKs, AJo and ATo (alright, marginal that last one really). I 'should' be another 25BB up had I been dealt these hands as often as the stats say I should have got them. That is good news.

The bottom line though seems to be that, if the empirical EVs are anywhere near (and I have no reason to doubt they are good enough for these purposes given the other limitations on the data) I am actually around 10BB up on where I 'should' be thanks to being dealt some hands more or less often than others. I should effectively knock $20 off my profit to date, is more or less what that says. I have been dealt the best hand(s), or at least the more profitable hands, more often than expected. Note though that the 11.25BB from the Aces makes up more than 100% of the total. Take the bullets out of the equation and I am about square, and that's only 5 hands. OK, that's maybe twisting the data to bring about the conclusions I want from it but you see my point. My data sample is small and I suppose my profit is about where it should be given the hands I have been dealt, taking the limitations on my data into account.

But what does that mean?

It means I am playing good enough poker, or at least that's how I interpret it. I seem to be pretty much on target given the hands I have been dealt. There is another stat that will reveal more on this though - and that's a comparison of my BB/hand (EV) with the empirical baseline figures. When I get AA do I make as much as I should? This analysis is more flawed than the earlier analysis really due to the sample size but I'm going to do it all the same.

Of the 40 hands with a positive empirical EV I am making more than expected on 17 of those hands and less on 23 of them. I make more BB/hand on some of the biggies such as AA, KK, QQ, JJ and AKo. In fact I make 1.71BB/hand more than I should on QQ but that is only based on 33 hands which means a single hand can have a big impact on these figures. Similarly the +0.69BB/hand more I make on AA is based on just 43 hands so a single hand still has a big influence. Recall what I said earlier about small samples. So it seems I am making more on my big pairs and big connectors than I 'should'.

Of the 23 hands I win less with than I should I have actually turned 16 of the winning hands in to hands with a negative EV, including AT, KQo and TT. And though the sample is very small (16 hands) I need to do better with QJs as I am 1.50BB/hand behind the curve with that hand, by far the greatest negative difference between my recorded EV and the empirical EVs from PokerRoom.

For the losing (negative EV) hands I have turned 29 of them into winning (positive EV) hands. However, sample sizes are small (12 to 84) so no meaningful conclusions can be drawn here, other than the fact that these are generally trash hands and I mustn't allow the fact that they have been profitable for me so far to guide my play of them in the future. They are not good hands to be playing so I can't start to think that Q2s, 93o etc are profitable hands to play in limit hold'em.

Am I learning anything from this analysis? Other than I need to play a lot more hands before I do anything like this again as my sample size is far too small, obviously. I think so, but my brain hasn't quite worked out what really. I saw earlier that I am about on the money (no pun intended) in terms of winning what I should from the hands I have been dealt. I have been dealt some hands (such as AA) more than I should have been but there are plenty of other winning hands that are 'overdue' in as much as I can expect to receive them more often than normal if the random distribution of hands is to level out (which it will long term but who can say how long the long term really is).

The one thing I can take away from this is confidence. I had a dreadful session last time I played limit hold'em getting creamed across both tables. Tonight I have got my poker brain back in gear without actually playing. I have taken time to analyse my play (from a slightly unusual angle, admittedly) and feel like the last session was a correction rather than my skills going completely out the window. This is poker, some days you're going to play every hand correctly and still get murdered. That's the nature of the game. It means others can play it completely wrong and win a bit of cash which keeps them coming back for the long term correction where they give all the money back plus some. I feel a renewed energy and confidence in my play. I wonder how long it will last once I fire up the poker tables though

Finally I want to quickly look at something I planned to start the evening with, namely how do I perform at the start of a session? I have 72 sessions (separate tables) recorded at $1/2 limit hold'em in Poker Tracker. Scanning down those, looking at the graph of profit/loss against hand number in the session I see sessions where I had good starts, bad starts and neutral starts. So how do you decide whether you were in the zone right off the bat or not? I have arbitrarily looked at the first four hands in each session, figuring that if I wasn't in the game after four hands (when I had made a few poker decisions) then I was never going to be in it properly. If I won or lost less than two big blinds it was a neutral session, with good or bad starts obviously up and down over 2BB respectively. Of the 72 sessions I had 44 neutral starts, 13 good starts and 15 bad starts. So it seems that I am not succumbing to the dodgy start to a session that I had been reading about. I may not be fully focused on the game (as I mentioned in several previous posts) but at least I am not trying to do it all from a lousy start. I seem to be as switched on as I need to be, or as I ever get, pretty much from the word go.

Another confidence boosting outcome there. Now I just need to work on those focus issues and get those nailed and I can start to make some real money from this damn game! :)

[eruptive plot]

wow matt!!! thats not a post,thats a chapter.
things arnt going to good for me recently at sit n gos,getting murdered to ace fishies.
example last night ace 3 to my qq, out comes 245
aj to my kk out comes 10 q k
a7 spades vs aa out comes 3 spades
it just changes your mindset but just got to dust yourself down and start again

[mathare]

wow matt!!! thats not a post,thats a chapter.

I have moments like that though, you should know that by now

things arnt going to good for me recently at sit n gos,getting murdered to ace fishies.

Sorry to hear that EP

example last night ace 3 to my qq, out comes 245

Ouch!

aj to my kk out comes 10 q k

Ouch!

a7 spades vs aa out comes 3 spades

Ouch!

it just changes your mindset but just got to dust yourself down and start again

Absolutely! You may be an 80/20 favourite but it still means you'll lose 1 in 5 on average so your hand certainly isn't bulletproof. We see odds-on horses getting turned over on pretty much a daily basis and this is more or less the same. But as you say, you just have to dust yourself down and go for it again. You're going to get bad beats, that's part of the game, it's how you handle them that sets you apart from the poor players

[mathare]

9th June 2009
Not a great session at all this evening, 3 limit tables in an attempt to improve focus and combat boredom. Not sure it worked but hey, got to try something.

Rather than analyse this evening's session as I would normally I'm going to list a few thoughts that came to me during various stages of play tonight. It's not exactly a brainstorm, more a brain dump I guess. But as with a brainstorm the key thing is not to dismiss any idea/thought at this stage so these aren't all 'serious' ideas but I wanted to list them anyway. I won't dwell on them tonight though, I want to let them simmer in my head and come back to them another time:

• Stop stealing blinds from the button with trash
• Check how I often I attempt steals and how successful they are
• Play SnGs rather than cash games - the rising blinds may force you to concentrate
• Give up poker completely, it has beaten you
• Keep playing as you are, you're just in a bad run that will turn round eventually
• You're only playing with profit so who cares what happens in each session, really?
• Play more tables
• Play fewer tables at once
• Increase the stakes and have fear of losing larger sums focus the mind
• Change poker site to Party, Stars etc.

And the stats, as always...
Hands: 8880
Won Hands: 10.03%
VP$IP: 16.72%
PFR: 8.83%
W$WSF: 43.96%
WTSD: 40.38%
W$SD: 55.61%
AF: 1.63
Won: $290.14
BB/100 hands: 1.63
$/hour: $3.38

[mathare]

11th June 2009
Pretty much the same as my last session, only this time it was 4 limit tables to try and force me to focus on the game. It was probably better than previous sessions in that respect and I think I could/should add a fifth table. Maybe. I made a few slight, subtle changes to my poker environment too, such as shutting the door to the room I am playing in and auto-hiding my Windows taskbar to reduce the temptation to switch to other applications such as e-mail.

No analysis again this evening, just more random thoughts that I will address at some point.

• Analyse PokerTracker stats for my opponents who have the most hands recorded in the database and build up notes/a profile on each of them
• Play without any music on
• Check-raise more
• Learn what percentages of total hands really equate to. What range is 10% of hands?
• Practice game/table selection
• Have an analysis session (~1hr) after every poker session

Stats
Hands: 9245
Won Hands: 9.96%
VP$IP: 16.67%
PFR: 8.74%
W$WSF: 43.90%
WTSD: 39.99%
W$SD: 55.39%
AF: 1.64
Won: $271.04
BB/100 hands: 1.47
$/hour: $2.93

[MattR]

Mat, just a thought here. You are very analytical and I would say I probably fall into the same bracket but I was just wondering if it would be worth you trying a session or two with poker office off and no analysis after the session and just see whether, bottom line, you turned a profit for the evening/session. I guess what I am saying is maybe you are thinking too much about the game rather than playing with your instincts and knowledge of the game, which are clearly very good.

[mathare]

Mat, just a thought here. You are very analytical and I would say I probably fall into the same bracket but I was just wondering if it would be worth you trying a session or two with poker office off and no analysis after the session and just see whether, bottom line, you turned a profit for the evening/session. I guess what I am saying is maybe you are thinking too much about the game rather than playing with your instincts and knowledge of the game, which are clearly very good.

I can see where you're coming from but I honestly feel Poker Tracker is helping more than hindering. My HUD is set up to make it easier to spot extremes of aggression and passivity so I have a much better feel as to whether or not to take a raise seriously. I've also got the check-raise stats etc on hand if needed. I know how often opponents fold to bets/raises and so on so I am dialed in on my 'reads'. I think I'd flounder without my PT as a crutch now. I can't focus enough on the table to make the same sort of reads without the software telling me.

[MattR]

I can't focus enough on the table to make the same sort of reads without the software telling me.

Maybe the fact that you have all that info to hand is meaning you don't have to focus. Do you think that if you had to watch the game closer maybe that would help your focus?

[mathare]

Maybe the fact that you have all that info to hand is meaning you don't have to focus. Do you think that if you had to watch the game closer maybe that would help your focus?

Perhaps, but then I have a feeling what would actually happen is I would switch off, not stay in the game and lose more by not having reads on players.

I have a few ideas for taking my game forward and this may get added to the list of things I try. Thanks for caring Matt :)

[John]

Maybe the fact that you have all that info to hand is meaning you don't have to focus. Do you think that if you had to watch the game closer maybe that would help your focus?

I would lean towards that as well, but only because in terms of my personal game I feel that as I no longer use tracking software of any sort, I HAVE to focus, and I instill it in myself to focus. My style is super tight, aggressive, which means folding nearly everything and watching with an eagle eye.

I'm not saying this is the same for everyone Mat, but with an absence of tracking software I really do focus - automatically. Do you need to display all the information in your HUD? The option is there to, I know, but do you need it all there?

I would be interested to know how many pros (in particular people like Tom Dwan "Durrr" and Peter Eastgate) got to where they are now, i.e. whether they have ever used tracking software. Wikipedia tells me that Durrr began with a $50 bankroll playing $6 S&Gs and never went bust.

A tactic I try for focus, and it works for me sometimes is to switch off all the lights in the room. So you only have a screen of green poker tables as your light source. Makes you feel a bit like a zombie and is really bad for your eyes and probably also your health if you do it too often but hey it has a habit of working.

[mathare]

Do you need to display all the information in your HUD? The option is there to, I know, but do you need it all there?

The HUD displayed as a table overlay for each player only has 2 or 3 lines in, the basic stats I want on each player. The rest is available in a pop-up by clicking on the HUD for that player, so I'm not suffering information overload by any means. I'm happy and comfortable with what I have.

I would be interested to know how many pros (in particular people like Tom Dwan "Durrr" and Peter Eastgate) got to where they are now, i.e. whether they have ever used tracking software. Wikipedia tells me that Durrr began with a $50 bankroll playing $6 S&Gs and never went bust.

You're talking about freaks here though; players so talented they blitzed from low limits to nosebleed in six months, often poorly bankrolled for the level they were playing, so I don't see them as great examples for the average player to aspire to.

A tactic I try for focus, and it works for me sometimes is to switch off all the lights in the room. So you only have a screen of green poker tables as your light source. Makes you feel a bit like a zombie and is really bad for your eyes and probably also your health if you do it too often but hey it has a habit of working.

Not sure that would work for me. I have blue light in my office which is supposed to be the best light for working under though.

My problems are more fundamental than light etc. I believe taking the time to answer the random questions and thoughts that have cropped up over the past few days, something I hope to do this weekend, will improve my game significantly.

[mathare]

13th June 2009 (part 1)
Let's have a look at the various questions and thoughts that have cropped up over the past few sessions and think about each in turn shall we? Hopefully I will start to gain some valuable insights into my game and how/why I play poker etc. The idea is that I uncover some weaknesses that I can then address and make more money from the game. Let's see how it goes...

Stop stealing blinds from the button with trash & Check how I often I attempt steals and how successful they are

In my opinion stealing blinds is far less important in limit poker than it is in no-limit poker. It's also harder, as it's only one more bet for the big blind to call you in limit poker whereas in no-limit games the raise can be several big blinds. What I want to look at is my steal frequency and how profitable it has been for me. I got the impression from my more recent sessions that I am getting out of my depth and bluffing off several bets when I try to steal with a button-raise with trash hands and get a caller from the blinds. I want to get some evidence to back that impression up, or break it down completely.

There have been 687 times when I have had a chance to steal, according to Poker Tracker. Out of those hands I have spurned the steal opportunity by folding 364 times. Obviously I neither gain nor lose in this situation so it's the other 323 hands that are the important ones really.

I called on 35 occasions and profited to the tune of $8.00 (4xBB). If the hand went to a showdown I have generally lost in these situations but remember we are dealing with a very small sample here. I profit if I have two pair or better, and lose with one pair or worse it seems. So if I call when I have a chance to steal should I throw hands away unless I hit the flop well enough? Of the 20 hands where I have missed the flop and had only a high card I have lost $16.90 so it certainly looks to be a case of fit or fold on the flop. The two hands that have cost me the most in these situations have been draws I was chasing, one open-ended and one double belly-buster. Things would be different had I hit either of these draws but was the pot laying me sufficient odds to draw in either case? In the case of the double belly-buster I bet out from the SB on the flop (9-5-8) with T7s when I could (should?) have checked as the pot was small ($3). I guess that was an attempt to take it down there and then but it failed as I got two callers. I missed on the turn (3) and again bet out, $2 into a $6 pot. That's when I should have checked for sure.As it was I got a call, bet out on the river (another 3), got raised, called the raise and got beaten by three of a kind threes. I kept betting out to try and win a pot I hadn't really got much chance of winning and it certainly wasn't big enough for me to play as I did. On the open-ended draw it seems it was actually an open-ended straight flush draw so I don't have as much of a problem with how I played it. My opponent hit a pair on the flop but I had plenty of outs and played this one more sensibly, checking the turn and river. I called a raise on the flop but with 9 outs to the flush and a further 6 outs to the straight I had the pot odds to do so. As I say, just unlucky on this one.

When I had the chance to steal I raised (as a steal) 288 times and this shows a profit of $150.09. It's profitable, which is certainly good news to start with. It's the same sort of story as it was for the hands in which I called - two pair or better is profitable and one pair or high card results in a loss. Still small samples though so nothing concrete here. Having raised do I need to hit the flop to win as I did when I called? Oh yes! If I just have a high card hand on the flop, as I did 89 times, I lose $111.66 which averages to a loss of 0.63BB per hand. Unfortunately I only folded 9 of those 89 hands on the flop so 80 times I saw the turn - why? My biggest losing hand (from a very small sample) is TT followed by 62o (!), JTs, 87o, 75s and 76o. Mostly trash and in almost all of those hands I refused to give my opponent credit for a hand, despite the fact he is in the blinds so could have almost anything. He called my raise but it's only one more bet and at these stakes the fact that the blinds are defending for one more bet isn't unusual. I think I need to either hit the flop, have a draw (with suitable pot odds) or have a solid read that my opponent will fold in the face of a flop bet before I put any more money into the pot in these situations. My c-bets are winning me money overall when I steal-rase pre-flop but I think I need to give it up more when I miss and my opponent plays back at me. I could continue c-betting but check-fold if I miss the turn and save bets that way. That seems sensible enough.

Now what I really want to know is how it goes when I try to steal with trash, but how do you define trash? For the purposes of this analysis I'm going to define it as any hand I wouldn't normally play in late position. It's a fairly arbitrary definition and certainly not as solid as one would like but there's little I can do about that. It's at least illustrative. I have made 288 steal-raises in total for a profit of $150.09 and of those 146 hand been with what I have defined as trash, for a profit of $51.19. Nearly half the hands were trash but they have generated only one-third of the profit. Do you know what that means? Stop steal-raising with hands you wouldn't normally play from late position unless you have a solid read on the blinds and think the steal has a good chance of succeeding. Simple really.

What about the number of times I have attempted a steal and got away without a flop? 106 hands for a profit of $145 - not bad. How many of those were with lousy cards that I wouldn't normally play? 54 of them, for a profit of $69.50. Now there's no quick way of telling what reads I had on the players in the blinds when I made these steal attempts, I could just have been lucky, but the earlier advice applies - don't steal with tripe hands unless you have that read on the blinds and expect it to work a suitable percentage of the time.

Now I think it's only fair I reward myself with some table time. It'll also give me a chance to apply this new found knowledge.

[mathare]

13th June 2009 (part 2)
A tough 3-table session with a higher proportion of trash hands than normal. I managed to roughly breakeven though. Sort of. A loss of a just under $8 counts as breakeven for me these days

I felt like I played better when I had an opportunity to steal the blinds though after my earlier analysis. I hope to tackle more of those questions/thoughts tomorrow.

Stats
Hands: 9526
Won Hands: 9.86%
VP$IP: 16.55%
PFR: 8.68%
W$WSF: 43.78%
WTSD: 39.90%
W$SD: 55.68%
AF: 1.64
Won: $263.59
BB/100 hands: 1.38
$/hour: $2.95

[mathare]

14th June (part 1)
Why do I still play this stupid game? Another $20 down in just over an hour of play at one table. Two big hands did all the damage, running KK into AA and AKo into QQ.

I was hoping playing just one table would give me the chance to practice hand reading skills but instead my focus issues came to the fore and I found myself more able to take breaks between hands, to nip to the loo, go get a drink etc. I don't get that opportunity with multiple tables really so it forces me to stay in the game. Anyway, I'll be analysing my single-table v multi-table sessions sometime in the not too distant future so we'll see then how things look and what this means for the future.

Stats
Hands: 9602
Won Hands: 9.83%
VP$IP: 16.51%
PFR: 8.66%
W$WSF: 43.69%
WTSD: 39.88%
W$SD: 55.57%
AF: 1.64
Won: $245.04
BB/100 hands: 1.28
$/hour: $2.71

[mathare]

14th June 2009 (part 2)
Play fewer tables at once & Play more tables
The basic premise of playing fewer tables at once is that I have less going on so cannot dedicate more of my brain power to analysing fewer opponents and so practice better hand reading skills. With fewer things to think about I can think about each for longer and in more depth. At least that’s the plan. The idea behind playing more tables is to keep my head in the game, albeit not the game that’s happening on a given table. With multi-tabling I have more hands on the go so many more poker decisions to make so my brain should stay tuned into poker. I won’t have time to get distracted by non-poker happenings.

To tell what works best for me or not I’m going to look at my limit hold’em results in Poker Tracker examining things like my win rate for single tables v multi-table sessions, plus some ‘evidence’ from outside of software such as how I feel sessions have gone when I have had fewer tables on the go.

I’ve recorded 83 table sessions in Poker Tracker but only 46 individually timed sessions indicating a fair bit of multi-tabling. I’ve played anywhere between one and four tables at once. Let’s start with the single table sessions. There are 15 such sessions lasting a total of 22.68 hours and during that time I have made a profit of $82.70 for an hourly rate of $3.64. The majority of these sessions were at the start of the year when I was just getting back into limit poker, a time when I was doing a lot better than I expected. Things have changed since then and I am now doing worse than I anticipated but is that all due to multi-tabling? Of the 15 single table sessions, six are losers and the other nine winners. There are three significant losers and twice as many significant winners. This definitely seems to indicate that I single tabling is a good, profitable strategy. But how much of a part does time of year play? As I said earlier, the majority of these sessions came at the start of the year when my best results were occurring. To check on whether this is coincidence or not I need to look at multi-table sessions from around the same time.

I’ve had 31 multi-table sessions in all, making a profit of $162.34 from 67.70 hours of play, which is an hourly rate of $2.40. If I was doing anywhere near as well on each individual table as I was at a single table I would expect an hourly rate greater than my single table win rate, not less. After all even if my win rate at multiple tables is 75% of my single table win rate, for example, then when playing two tables I would expect a combined win rate of 150% of my single table win rate. Instead I am averaging 66% of my single table win rate across multiple tables.

Is month a factor? I said earlier my best sessions came early in the year. Looking at my multi-table results up to the end of March my win rate was $6.58 compared to a single-table win rate of $7.35 in the same period. So my recent results have been worse but I was still earning less per hour on several tables compared to when I was just playing one. We’re dealing with small samples again here so these results aren’t that significant but there may still be lessons to be learned.

All the stats are saying I should be playing one table at a time so why don’t I? I think there are several reasons I don’t, the main one being boredom. I get bored playing one table. I’m not immersed in the game which means as soon as I switch my attention away from the game even slightly I am out of the game. I can surf the web, e-mail etc. I can go to the loo, talk to the missus, go grab a drink/snack from the kitchen etc. I have too long between hands and not enough that grips me in that time to keep my mind from wandering. Trust me, I’ve tried all sort of things to try and force me to focus on a single table but I find it almost impossible. With limit poker the pre-flop game isn’t that tricky. You know that if you get dealt 65o that it is going in the muck regardless of position. Similarly hands like JTo which can be playable in unraised pots from late position need to be folded in the face of a raise (unless it comes from a complete muppet). And to me once I see the cards I’m dealt I know within a second what I will do with them. I don’t need to wait for the raise to come in as my brain has already decided I will call if 2 others call else I’m folding. Then it’s a case of waiting for the action before me and clicking the appropriate button. Little brain power involved in that one. And there is almost nothing that can happen pre-flop that will make me re-evaluate my decision to play or fold the hand. If I have the right number of limpers I’m in but a single raise is enough to see me off. Players rarely fold to a 3-bet so there is no real point trying it in limit poker; that’s a big bet poker play.

My VPIP is such that I play around 1 hand in 6. On a normal full table this means I am putting money into around 10 pots an hour. If I miss the flop and face action on a small pot I’ll probably give it up as I won’t have the odds to chase any sort of hand. If I miss and face action from multiple opponents on a medium pot I’m also likely to fold. I may have the odds to improve but am I going to improve to a winning hand? No point drawing to the second best hand so get out of the pot. With large pots I am likely to peel one off and re-evaluate on the turn. As we all know you miss around twice as many flops as you hit so I am seeing few hands per hour beyond the turn. In fact Poker Tracker shows me as having seen 16.16% of flops and 11.60% of turns, which I must admit is more turns than I thought I saw. Interesting. That means I see around 7 turns an hour and I take just under 5 of those to the river. That’s not a lot of poker decisions to make in an hour when the pre-flop decisions are now second nature so you can see how easy it is to get bored. There are two ways to get round the few number of poker decisions to be made in an hour at a poker table. One is to find other things to do between decisions. The other is to play more hands and thus have more decisions to make.

There are obviously good things and bad things to do between hands. The good things include watching the others play, making notes of how they play and what they do. But isn’t that what I have Poker Tracker for? And it can do the job so much better than I can. I could switch PT off, or disable the HUD but why would I? It’s telling me things, things I want/need to know. I know at a glance how loose/tight and passive/aggressive each player is. I know how often the raise pre-flop, whether they are an overall winner or loser, how many hands I have seen them playe etc. All useful stuff and information I can use as and when I need to use it to help fine-tune my decisions. I get Q9s on the button. I’m looking for at least two limpers before me if I am to play this hand and then I will also limp in. A raise before it gets to me and I’m gone. But if it is folded round to me I have a good steal opportunity. So a click on the HUD for the SB and BB will tell me how often they fold to a steal, I look at how many hands they have in my database so I know whether 75% (or whatever) folding to a steal means they have done it a few times or many times and then I can act based on that. If I think they will both fold I’ll raise to steal. If I think they will both call I will probably fold unless I think I can outplay them post-flop with position. If I think I’ll get just one caller I’ll quickly think about whether I want to play this hand heads up with a blind based on their VPIP, PFR, aggression factor etc and go from there. All that takes a second or two, maximum and Poker Tracker has done all the hard work for me.

What about hand reading and putting opponents on a range? I only really bother with even attempting this if I am in the hand, else I don’t see the point at this level. Yes, if I get into the habit it becomes second nature and I will automatically do it at higher stakes when I get there. But with limit poker you have to put players on a pretty broad range to start with as the cost of play is limited, unlike NLHE, which means players will call the BB more then perhaps they would in NLHE as they don’t fear a raise because it’s then only one more bet, not potentially half their stack! So you start with a broad range and depending on the flop it can be hard to narrow it down, based on the play I have seen on the tables I frequent. Some players could literally have anything. I have PT stats to tell me VPIP and PFR so I can use that to roughly set hand ranges (although I couldn’t tell you for sure what 12% of hands really equates to as hand range) and work from there. But what am I getting out of this? I can predict who will win the pot but so what? Suppose I see a player get tricky with a hand like A5o, raising pre-flop and spiking an Ace on the river to beat someone holding pocket Kings. I can see the A5o raiser is a muppet but what else do I learn? Next time he raises pre-flop I’m going to look at his PFR and use that to set his hand range; I don’t want my thinking distorted by a suspect A5o he raised with two hands ago. If someone raises 15% of hands then chances are they are raising the best 15% of hands plus a few package hands and positional raises. So if I am going to play I need a hand that plays well against the top 15% of hands. I don’t want to think ‘Ahh, I saw him raise with trash recently so he could have trash again.’ He could indeed have utter dross but the chances are he has a decent hand. My Poker Tracker stats are formed from many more hands than any conclusions I draw from hand reading would be so they will always be what I fall back to. And in the A5o v KK example I can tell from the chat history which shows the summary of each action that this guy had been a lucky muppet so I didn’t need to be studying the hand to see that. If I want to know what sort of hands a player will raise with, 3-bet with, check-raise with etc I have PT stats that tell me these things so there’s my hand ranges – why bother trying to study players in depth to work out probable hand ranges when PT tells me what I need to know?

Or am I wrong? Is there so much more to hand reading and studying my opponents than I think? What else do I need to know at this level of play that PT can’t tell me?

So if I am not fully focused on the one table when I am out of the hand my mind can drift to other non-poker activities which is obviously bad news. When it becomes my turn to act poker cuts in and demands my attentions, I act and then it can go away again until the next time it needs me to do something. It’s not forcing me to stay focused. But if I play more hands I have more decisions to make and less downtime in which to get distracted. So should I play looser at one table? Not my style unfortunately. I play a naturally tight(ish) style and cannot get my head around loose play. I know that to play loose I need to relax my starting hand requirements but by how much and in what position? I don’t have the knowledge, I haven’t done the reading on short-handed or loose playing styles to know the answers to such questions so I stick with my tight style. So having decided that my preferred style is tight how can I play more hands? More tables, of course.

And this is where the dilemma occurs – the stats say I should play one table but my experience of online poker, especially my recent play, tells me that I can’t stay focused on one table so I should play several tables at once to keep my head in the game and to keep thinking poker. Anyway, everyone who is anyone multi-tables. I don’t recall reading an interview with a single pro who claims that one table is enough for them when playing online. Some play 10+ tables at once, others acknowledge their play suffers when they play more than 4 tables. I want to be able to multi-table, it’s a skill I feel I need in the future. But the stats at present say I’m crap at it! I honestly don’t know what to do about this. I can’t play good poker on a single table any more as I have serious focus issues but the more tables I play the less I win if my numbers are to be believed.

There is a chance that the fact that I am losing more recently and that it is
happening in multi-table sessions is unrelated. My game could have just gone to pot and I’d be losing regardless of how many, or how few, tables I played at once. I played a single table session earlier and it felt like lousy play. I got beaten in two big hands which between them basically accounted for the loss I recorded in that session. But I cut the session short as I could feel my mind wandering; I was checking e-mail, the racing results and what deposit methods Poker Stars supports! Hardly conducive to proper poker is it? My graph of winnings against time shows a steady decrease in profits for the last 3000+ hands. I haven’t been winning consistently since mid-April or possibly slightly before that. But why? That’s truly a mystery, and not one I know how to solve. Have my opponents got better? Have I got worse? My VPIP has gone down so I am getting tighter. Am I playing aggressively enough? I dunno. I don’t feel my game is significantly different to how it was two or three months ago but my win rates certainly seem to suggest I am not doing as well as I was back then so something has happened. Am I just in a downswing? Did I start on an upswing and the results I am getting now are more normal for my style of play? Difficult questions to answer so I’m not going to even try.

So what can I take away from this study? I know my results for single-table and multi-table sessions and how they compare with one another. I have taken a look at my state of mind and how I see the game and what I see as important when I play. I know I’d rather play several tables at once and feel comfortable doing so but I can see my win rate suffers when I do. I have played multi-table sessions almost exclusively during my recent poor run but I don’t know if the two are related or not and can’t easily tell. I could keep playing multi-table sessions and hope I come out of a bad spell and start winning again or I could play single-table sessions and see whether the bad spell continues. But I know I am mentally ill-prepared for single-table sessions and as a result am likely to play sub-optimal poker which will of course affect the likely outcomes of the sessions and probably see me lose more, so that won’t really tell me anything about my current luck. Hmm, plenty to think about here.

[mathare]

14th June 2009 (part 2)
I remember the days when I used to enjoy playing poker and writing this diary, but today is far removed from those times. Down another buy-in this evening in a two-table session that is best described as a Texas Hold'em Massacre. Why do we have the river? I was ahead on a few hands tonight, some big pots too, only to lose on the bloody river. My raises were getting little respect too so some of the pots I wanted to keep small-medium ended up being a lot bigger than planned. And ultimately I ended up getting a spanking. Again!

I'm tempted to cash out of Bet365 and not go back there!

A few more random thoughts for me to pick up at some point too:

• Defence against blind steals
• Analyse biggest winning/losing hands from last 2-3 months – what am I doing right/wrong?
• Play of big suited Aces
• Play of pocket pairs

Stats
Hands: 9767
Won Hands: 9.77%
VP$IP: 16.50%
PFR: 8.61%
W$WSF: 43.45%
WTSD: 39.84%
W$SD: 55.33%
AF: 1.63
Won: $192.06
BB/100 hands: 0.98
$/hour: $2.09

[MattR]

Mat, a thought just occured to me. Haven't played poker in months and never had any of the poker software so I don't know if Poker tracker does this, but I wondered as it tracks your own games, can you see what sort of player you are perceived as according to Poker tracker? In a similar fashion to how it shows other players. If so does it portray you as the type of player you'd expect it to see you as?

I guess what I'm wondering is have you considered the flip side of the coin here. Are your opponents that use poker software reading your game too well and second guessing your moves? You say that your decision pre flop is made almost instantly in most cases and from what you've said is quite a rigid process so I'm wondering if that is making others read your game better than you'd like them to be able?

[mathare]

Mat, a thought just occured to me. Haven't played poker in months and never had any of the poker software so I don't know if Poker tracker does this, but I wondered as it tracks your own games, can you see what sort of player you are perceived as according to Poker tracker? In a similar fashion to how it shows other players. If so does it portray you as the type of player you'd expect it to see you as?

The PT HUD shows you your stats for this session only so you can get some idea of how the rest of the table perceives you, at least for this session. The stats show me as tight, not as aggressive as I could/should be pre-flop but more aggressive post-flop. It's hard to say what other info players could have on me as it depends on how often I have faced them and whether they are paying attention and/or using tracking software.

I guess what I'm wondering is have you considered the flip side of the coin here. Are your opponents that use poker software reading your game too well and second guessing your moves? You say that your decision pre flop is made almost instantly in most cases and from what you've said is quite a rigid process so I'm wondering if that is making others read your game better than you'd like them to be able?

It's possible, for sure. But would many players really bother too much with that at $1/2 limit? At these limits winning $20 in a session is a really good win. One thing I could do to try to combat this risk (real or perceived) is to switch sites, which as you can see is something I have thought about.

To be quite honest though I reckon my game is just turning to crap. Health-wise I have been rough for a few weeks to two months now and I wonder if that is part of the problem? It's weird though, the health problems are likely to be stress-related but I don't feel stressed in my mind. It's though the physical and mental aspects of me are split and at odds with one another. My conscious mind is fine but my subconscious obviously doesn't agree. I don't feel like my game has gone to pot but maybe my subconscious knows differently. I have a few ideas in the pipeline that will help diagnose the poker problem and from there I can go about treating it - but we warned a lot of these ideas involve a lot of long posts and hard analysis. Watch this space.

[mathare]

15th June 2009
Guess what - I only lost $3 tonight! That's as good as a win based on my recent results

Following my recent run-in with Empire Poker and my recent wondering as to whether I should play STTs instead of cash games I decided that as Empire had backed down and refunded my inactive account charges I should use the $78 to have some fun. A little trial on the STTs basically. It's the Party network and their house fees suck as low stakes - $5+1! - so I figured I've got seven shots to get it right at a proper rake level by playing the $11 ($10+1) STTs. Short bankroll right? So I need to make a score quickly. It's cash I didn't have a few days ago (even though I thought I did) so why not take a few risks with it? I do understand proper bankroll management, honest, I just don't always follow it :)

It's my first visit to the Party network for a while and it's different to what I am used to so jumping into a speed STT with 5 minute levels probably wasn't the wisest thing to do as I busted out in 5th inside half an hour as the blinds got big and my stack didn't. I jumped straight into a second speed STT and made 4th without really looking like third was really on the cards. I then took stock of the situation as I only had 5 bullets left. I found a normal STT with 10 minute levels and things looked a lot better. It was quite early in level 2 when there were just 5 of us left. I was able to steal to keep my stack steady, increasing it perhaps slightly. I then turned it up a gear as 5 became 4 and then 3. Then I dropped back for a few hands in case the craziness of making the cash kicked in to the game as it does some times. It didn't so I wound up the aggression again and was stealing a lot, with almost any two cards. I got played back at now and then but what I lost there was less than I had already nicked. I span my short stack up nicely and took the chip lead. We had a good scrap 3-handed before we reached a lengthy heads-up pahse with the cheap lead changing a few times but most of the time we were within a couple of grand of each other. I was still stealing a lot of pots, pre- and post-flop till he got bored and went all in a few times to nick some of it back but I was still ahead. Then a dream - AA. I slow-played it to the flop, min-raising and he shoved. I snap called and he hit a straight on the river to cripple me and busted me a couple of hands later but I pocketed $30 for 2nd. So $30 back from a $33 layout and an enjoyable evening.

I felt I played good poker most of the time, not just with the cards but also without them such as my stealing exploits. Most of all I felt engaged. The game had pace, it was back and forth and I felt like I was sufficiently in the game to ignore everything except the poker. My tourney HUD still needs some fine-tuning but I can work on that. But I think I have found my game. Now let's see how far my $75 will take me...

[mathare]

16th June 2009
What did I say last night? That I thought STTs on Empire/Party were the right thing for me and that I should see how high I could spin my $75. And for once I was right!

Tonight's record on the STTs reads played 3, cashed in 3 including two wins (and a third). And boy does it feel good! I played the cards and the situations well, apart from mis-reading the player to my right once in the 3rd game when I busted out with 98o against his TT. It seems he was in the middle of a purple patch as I had been stealing from him outrageously up until a few hands before this. At some time in each of the games I got short-stacked by traditional STT standards (under 10xBB) but I hung in there, stole and battled back. In the first game when we were 5 or 6 handed I was down to around 3BB and starting to think about panicking but I stole a bit, doubled up, hit some cards and built a monster stack to do the damage heads up. Easy

I feel like my game is sharp and this evening I doubled my meagre bankroll, making $87 profit tonight from just a few hours of play. Hurrah! I now 15 shots at these tables so let's how it goes from here shall we? I still have some HUD fine-tuning to do but in these STTs I find I'm not using it. I have good reads on how the players are playing when it comes to the stages where it matters so I am not reliant on Poker Tracker anywhere near as much as I am for cash games, which is good.

[mathare]

17th June 2009
Not quite as good as last night but a profit all the same. Played four but only cashed in one STT, a win after a proper scrap. I doubled up first hand, played the big stack bully for a while and then sat back as I was card dead and didn't need to take risks. When it got to six-handed I had more of a battle than I expected and I was forced to work for a few pots with multi-street bluffs and more refined stealing. I got some big hands cracked and at one stage I was looking 4th (or was it 5th) place in the face after being dropped to under 3xBB. I battled back and got AA, all-in, cracked but fortunately I had the guy covered. A lucky straight and some clever stealing and I'm back in it. I built up the big stack and heads-up I was never really in danger. It helped that before that point the player to my left had built up a good stack but didn't know how to play it so I ragged his BB something chronic from the SB. I stole probably half his stack A pleasing win to ensure a profit on the night, albeit just $6. It all counts though

In the other tourneys I went out with:
KJo v 99, he hit trips on the flop and filled up on the turn
Q7s v AJo. I raised pre-flop as a steal, got a caller and pushed on the flop when I paired the Q. He paired his J on the flop and hit the Ace on the turn to knock me out when the T I needed to make a straight didn't come
I folded KTo into action that got too heavy and lost half my stack so when I got 88 next hand it was an easy shove but I ran it into TJs that paired the flop, hit trips on the turn and made a straight on the river just to rub it in.

I am still really enjoying my poker though and that's the main thing. Well, that and making some money from it

Eventually I'll add some stats to this thread, I just to decide what's important to show here first