Sunday, March 25, 2007

"Playing in the dark"

Well im still not really getting much luck at the moment however im having fun trying out some of the strategies for MTT play in Arnold Snyders 'Poker Tournament Formula' book. Basically ive played a few MTT's this week with my cards covered with a piece of paper, so solely playing using position strategy. I definately feel like my aggression has been stepped up to the next level!

Its quite funny some of the names I got called in chat, for raising from position 6 with 72o, but most of the time it works. Even with the blinds very low it is surprising how many chips can be added to ones stack just by using position steals.
I pulled off a very nice bluff yesterday, basically I could sense weakness from another player who would continuation bet the flop then check the turn if weak. I check called the flop, checked the turn and pushed the river(with absolutely nothing!). My read paid off and I added 1000 chips to my stack, villain chatted he folded second pair..go figure

This kind of play is ideal when your getting cold cards and you need to keep up with the blinds. Arnold also has an interesting chip strategy which is a lot more aggressive than my usual. For example he would consider a player as shortstacked if he has 20-30 bb, and so advocates playing a lot looser than normal (Raising AJ UTg!!).
Arnolds strategies are a complete change to the tight play I usually go for, so its opened my eyes a bit. Im also noticing im getting a lot deeper in these tournaments due to building my stack early

This book is mainly geared towards fast tournaments where the blinds rise relatively quickly. Most MTTs online are structured like this so this book is ideal. Im only about halfway through but loving it so far!

On another note, ITH has setup a peer tutoring project which I think is an excellent idea. Basically you get matched up with another ITHer then the idea is both players will try to help eachother out either by railing or checking over hand histories.
This will be very helpful to me at the moment as im seriously beginning to doubt my sng game, probably due to the downswing but its likely I have leaks.
Ive been matched up with Schlepper which im very happy with, hes very active in the SNG forum and always gives constructive criticism on the many hands posted at ITH.
Hopefully I can also help him out in the same way

Monday, March 19, 2007

An Interesting Observation - Poker Peak Times

Well due to my kickboxing training for my brown belt every sunday I cannot do the usual and go out on the beer on saturday nights. Therefore with the girlfriend away visiting friends I decided to spend Saturday trying to win some serious $!

I played in a 180 sng and the $3 rebuy NL tourney on stars. Ive played the rebuy tourney once before, I managed to build an above average stack with just the initial rebuy. Unfortunately I busted just before the cash though :(
Throughout the rest of the evening I 2 tabled the $16 sngs. What I noticed was the play was much much fishier than when I usually play, this was about 11.30pm UK Time. Ive now been informed that this is during "peak time" for the US - I usually miss this as Saturdays are when I go out and drink with my mates.

So am I playing at the wrong time?? My usual playing times are throughout the week between 6 and 7pm UK Time. Ive been studying the graph on sharkscope as posted in previous posts, and it isnt looking promising. By the looks of it im just about breaking even, the trends are always the same. Up a little bit, down a little bit Up a little etc etc etc..In another words im not getting anywhere! The frustrating thing is, Im not doing anything stupid and do feel like I have a slight edge over most of the players but I just cant seem to cash enough to make a profit :(

I need to sort this situation out as it just seems my bankroll is slowly slipping away for me.

I have an idea which may improve things a bit. I think the play on party is a lot looser than stars, so this week im going to try only playing sngs on party in the week- then back to stars for MTTS and late night sngs on the weekend.
The problem is im at the point where every loss is affecting me because Im starting to worry about losing my bankroll, even though I still have enough BR to play at $16 level.....

ON a side note, any UKers watch the rugby this weekend:

WALES 27 ENGLAND 18!!!!!!!!!COME ON

Every other match we lost during the six nations just dont seem to matter any more - as the stereophonics would say 'Aslong as we beat the English..we dont care' :)

It was sad not to see Ireland get the Grand Slam the deserved, I think the French are looking strong Favourites for the world cup

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Back to normal, hopefully!

Well things do seem to be turning around, the past 11 games since coming back from the break from pokerstars I have two 1sts two 2nds and two 3rds. Ive also dished out an obscene amount of suckouts this week, Ive had quads full houses, flushes you name it - ive also had a fair few premium pairs which have all held up.

So im glad I stuck at it - though I think ive learnt a lot during this downswing, I now know that I like many others am prone to tilt. And stopping and taking a break when tilt sets in is a good idea!
Ive also been re-reading my harrington books this week, its surprising how much more info can be picked up during a reread that I didnt pick up the first time!

Well im shattered and need to go to bed, I have brown belt training tomorrow and I dont want to fail it again!! GL ALL :)

Friday, March 02, 2007

Sharkscope

My results on sharkscope are looking terrible recently due to the downswing. This graph tells it all:



As you can see I lost a lot more than I thought, to think my profit was over $500 at one point. In the last week it has dropped to $141. Lol my form is 'Super Tilt', going back last week that would be about right! I even played a $55 sng for some stupid reason, when I was losing. I think it was a desperate attempt to try and get my losses back.

Whilst browsing sharkscope I had a look at the leaderboard and couldnt beleive how much some people are making from sngs!!
But what is quite reassuring is that a lot of these players have hit nasty downswings along the way, the graphs show steady inclines with a few troughs every noe and again.
I need to realise that even the best players go through dowswings and if im a winning player I should eventually make what I lost back and more.