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Uber downswing, back to the bread and butter.
2008-04-14 21:31:00
So since my last post I have gone and uber downswing starting from when i tried to move up in limits. It took my Bankroll all the way down to $300 but I have managed to grind it back to $500 at the moment.I hope to get a $285 bonus bought and cleared within the next week so I can go back to playin 16-20 tables of 25nl for the two weeks that I wont have any school or anything else on.During those two weeks I hope to make some significant money by grinding like hell at 25nl and really being disciplined to stay at those limits and make the $25 per hour I know i can make.As most will know grinding gets tedios after a while so when mr BR hit $300 i decided I needed to play the games that I learnt when i first started poker over a year ago now. Turbo 18 man SNGs!!!. I have been playing the $6.50 and been averaging around $1.5-$2 roi which is very nice seeing as though i play about 10 every hour.hopefully i will be able to hit the high orbit leader board in the coming weeks and get a nice ...
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Back On track.
2008-03-19 07:42:00
Poker is back running smoothly. Have had no major downswings and overall been playing well lately. My results show and my BR is back to $1300.Wont be able to play at the tables for the next 5 days as im going away to watch my brothers basketball tournament :)His team is pretty good and will hopefully do well and make the final. If they fail to make the semis then something went ape shit and they were screwed by the basketball gods IMO.GL all.
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Swingaments
2008-03-15 19:50:00
Long time since the last update. My apoligies.After my good start I decided to hit the $50NL tables for another "shot". Good bye profits.I have started playing 10 tables of 100nl and buying in Short Stacked(SS). It has been going well and putting some profits back in my BR. It has also meant that im earning VPPs faster so hopefull I will make Platinium this month. Only 6k VPP to go.Heres a pretty little graph :)Heres the 100nl.In other news, I have played some $4.40 180 man donkaments, the play is horrible and I managed to make the final table of the 2nd one I played and come 6th when my AJ Mood swings have coincided with poker swings and things arnt the best at the moment but i will get back on track and control my emotions.SS'ing is fun :DHope you all have good luck.

Grinding My Way Back
2008-03-07 04:57:00
So ive read zachs latest blog and commented but that fucked up and im to lazy to rewrite the lengthy comment but he talks about some stuff that I agree with alot.The bit about poker being a sustainable income at $30/hour is very true although as I myself have found that grinding 6-8 hours a day is hard for 3 days straight and I cant imagine how people do it 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year.Zach also touches on how he is wondering what a downswing will do to him psycologically and wether he will be able to play his A game whilst having lost $400 or whatever. I have also struggled in my infamous move up to $50NL where I tilted alot when I got down a couple of buy-ins. Personally i think the best way to combat this is to play on a depper roll. Instead of 20 buy in minimu make it 30 buy ins.Stox has been continuing to help my game. I have been running steadily at 15-17bb/100 for the last 3K hands without being on anysort of heater and just being dealt average luck. I do notice how bad alo...
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Back in the Saddle
2008-03-05 08:12:00
So finally after my 7 days away from playing poker I have got back in the saddle so to speak and today i put in a decent session running at 27.7bb/100 for $96 profit over 1300 hands.My play has definately improved and im making better plays and finding myself in less didicult situtions because of my improvement. This is largely due to stox pokers wonderful coahing videos. Ed Miller's Poker Made Simple series has liturally revolutionized my game and opened my eyes to many new and different concepts. Hopefully I am and will be applying those concepts in the correct situations as I continue with my poker.It seems after my little break I have a new zest for poker and really look foward to playing a ton more hands in the next few days.March so far.As ive said on the CC March goals thread I want to cash out 1K this month. That means that I will need to play atleast 40k hands of good poker to even hope of getting $1k cashed out. I currently have $900 online and need to win $1100 in March....
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Monkey Tilt
2008-02-26 00:09:00
Today was my worst day ever. I lost $500 and my BR has dropped to $900 afeter having a nice upswing just prior to this.I have self excluded myself from playing and will hopefully get away from poker and come back fresher and playing better.On a nicer note I see im still up $700 on the month so im not overly disgusted.StoxpokerSo I finally got my subscription to Stoxpoker and will be looking to utulize their videos in improving my play. On chucks advice I am going to watch Ed Millers Holdem Made Simple Series first as he says it was the most helpfull.I am really quite annoyed with myself at the moment and am quite frankly hating that I loost $500 in one day and about 1.5k hands. It was rediculous the amount of times people sucked out on my sets with overpairs and FD and SD.Unfortunatly all this bad luck ahs come at the time I am trying to move up and for my total 9k hands at $50NL im running at $550 down compared to my Sklansky Bucks which sucks balls IMO.I intend to step back down t...
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Update-ament
2008-02-22 09:51:00
So its been a loong time since I last updated. My apoligies but recently I have not felt compelled to write. In a sentance, I'm lazy.The poke has been going as good as I could have hoped for. Have manged to get up to just over 30k hands at $25NL/PL for something like $1260 profit and I am running at 16bb/100 or $4/100 anyway you can see all that in the graph.Yesterday I had 2 teeth extracted so I stayed home and played poker and did nothing much really. Was quite fun and boring at the same time. Managed to get up $93.45 over 4700 hands in 5 hours of play. Not to bad averaging like $18/hour.Hopefully this month I will achieve Platinum star. I only need 3900 more VPP and I am doing virtually noting all weeken so I am going for 10k+ hands.During the last week I cashed out $217.43 to help pay for my new monitor. Since then im up another $150 or so.I have an awsome new Acer 24" HD LCD Monitor which will tile 12 tables with no overlap so I run that alongside my 19" and fit 16 easily. If ...
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The Secret Life of Pocket Pairs
2008-02-17 19:18:00
Intro: Reccently Grundy from cardschat asked me to do a cross blog post. ie he writes an article for my blog and I write one for his. Here is his article, you can find Grundys Blog and my article at The Unlikely Guide To Poker. Enjoy!Low pocket pairs can be difficult hands to play. On one hand, you want to bet them heavy to buy the blinds or to limit your opponents (hopefully to one) in order to get the best odds to win. However, if you do get that caller he probably has two over-cards leaving you with a coin-flip situation and somewhat pot-committed with your initial bet. So do you want to bet small or just call pre-flop? Well, not really. Then you would have more callers and each player who stays in the hand drops your odds to win with a quickness.In good conscious, I will begin with a disclaimer that I don’t play pocket twos and pocket threes unless I am dealt them as big blind. These pocket pairs still work with the two below strategies, but for me they hold a high enough risk...
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Moving Up
2008-02-14 04:00:00
Sorry for not having posted in a while my life has been very hectic with school work and that sort of thing. Although I have managed to play some Poker amoungst all that, but not find time for my blog. Prioritize people!Poker PlayingIn the last week or 5 days or whatever it was since I posted last, I have manged to put in another 1k hands at $25 NL which gave my the $1200 Bankroll to move on up to $50NL. I have played 3k hands at $50NL so far and have played pretty averagely.At the start I was very timid and generally playing way to weak/tight to make any money. I have "aggro-ed" my betting up a bit and managed to play a little bit better. I think i still need to be betting a bit more agrresively on c-bet/semi-bluffs as I usually try to keep the bets small so as to not loose to much when I do get called/raised. The major differences I am finding is that the number of solid regulars on $50NL is way more than $25NL. What this means for me is I need to be more selective on which hands ...
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A Downswing, Bad Play and getting a Poker Education
2008-02-08 09:22:00
So the last three days of poker have seen various things go on. I have had my downswing that was inevitable considering my winrate. The downswing was also partly due to monkey tilt which can account for about 65% of the money lost during the downswing. Some amazing bad luck with big pocket pairs also attributed to part of my losses. A 24 hour stand down saw me ralling to get educated more on poker and some different concepts hopefully stretching my mind while allowing me to play better.The DownswingWednesday was New Zealands National day (Waitangi Day) and also a public holiday. It saw me play alot of hands whilst not playing my best poker. I put in 3500 hands on wednesday and had a grand total og $140 lost of which about $90 was bad plays.Here a some of the hands that i played badly:AQ is well overplayed against a nit with 12/4/1.5 stats.Badly Play ed KK, tried to slowplay and let him catch up.Shoving TT on river with 2 overs and a paired board.Feel free to analyze on what the bette...
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$1000 Milestone
2008-02-05 09:22:00
Yesterday marked an awesome milestone in my poker career. I oficially have a $1003.78 bankroll! This relizeation was accompanied by various phrase and action including the famous "yea baby!", "pass the sugar" both of which were paid there respects with a heart fist pumping session which lasted about 0.13334 of the 2 hour poker session.After my last blog and the comments of how well i was doing, i espicially enjoyed zachs and chucks. Zach thinks that I may be doing something right to be winning at the rate I am. Whilst Chuck seems to think im going to be playing $100nl in the near future. Whilst i have every intention of doing things right in poker i have no intention of moving up to $100nl even if i had the roll because the plan as you will notice in my goals for 2008 i say that i wish to cashout 3.5k for my trip. So i think i will use the 50/50 bankroll build method.The 50/50 bankroll build method is where you play for a set period of time at the stakes you want to play or the stak...
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Poker, Life and an update.
2008-02-02 09:41:00
Over the last few days I have sorted my shit out so to speak. I haves stoped playing any other games apart from NLHE cash. Mainly because most other games are breakeven or -EV for me. i personally find myself to be exceptionally bad at tourneys and SNG's. I think this is due largely to the fact that recently i have played a vast majority of cashgames rather than tournaments.Tournaments aside my move up to $25NL full-ring could be considered extremely productive, whilst it is only a 5K hand sample it is still a very nice win rate of 39.81bb/100 which spreed over my regular 16 tables means that I am running at $65.25/hour, admitadely only over 8 hours of play but i will take what im given.Goals Update So it was a day late but i managed to achieve and surpass my goal of a $750 Bankroll by 1/2/08. I currently have a very nice Bankroll and will be looking to hit $1200+ and atleast 15k-20k hands at $25NL before moving up to $50NL. I had been raking in FPP points(helped by my Gold Star Sta...
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Shares Trading and the simularities with Poker
2008-02-01 08:44:00
This post is provoked by a recent Bussiness Studies Class that I had. In the class the Teacher was asking us to give her different possible sources of income such as wages, sponsorship, royalties etc. and ofcourse trading the share market. I piped up and said poker/gambling as a possible source of income. The teacher immediately said that gambling could not be considered a legitimate sorce of income. Funily enough she said that was the end of the matter and didnt give a legitimate reason that it couldnt be considered a source of income. The reason she gave was "it's a recreational game played for fun".I then proceded to point out that Shres Trading has just as much if not more risk involved than poker does. I said poker was a game of probability where players used information provided to make the best mathmatical decision possible and in the long run the players with more skill would win more money because they would be more often capitilizing on their opponets mistakes while make ...
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Swingy Swingy
2008-01-30 06:22:00
The past few days has seen my Bankroll go up and down back down againg then back up a settled somewhere in the middle at $531.53.A good thing to come from this is i manged goldstar status :DI also had a very nice hand on $25 NL.I missed th actual cards but read down in the chatbox, and you will be pleasently surprised.I found a excellent blog called Smart Poker which is about a guy who earns $120 an hour playing 16 $200NL tables on Fulltilt.

Becoming Poker Weekly $5 PLO
2008-01-27 06:44:00
I have set up a private tourney that will run weekly.The game is Pot Limit Omaha. The tourney will run at 22.00 on a saturday night Poker stars Time.See tourney schedule on right for more details.Hope to see you there!!Name/Title: [Becoming-Poker $5 PLO]Tourney id: [75285430]Site:PokerStarsBuy-in: [ $5.50]Game: [PL Omaha]Password: [become]Date: [2/02/2008]Time: [22:00]Bounties: Munchrs(Munchers94)-$2Post a comment with your bounty(not compulsory) or you can post it on CardsChat Forums here or on Railbirds here
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Poker Tracker 3 release!
2008-01-25 23:33:00
It has just come to my attention that poker tracker 3 has just been released.Check it out hereI will make a longer and better review after i have used it a bit more.
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Inability to Stick to one thing.
2008-01-24 06:46:00
I really enjoy No-Limit holdem and Limit Holdem. i also enjoy SNG's and Tourneys and PLO h/l and just hi.The problem is i dont stick to one long enough to become really good at it and there for am lacking in a steady income. Although i am leaning to wards NL tourneys and Limit Cashgames.The bankroll has been a bit up and down of late, hitting $800 at best and $400 at worst right now it is $672 so not bad.Hope i mange to find my best game and stick to it the majority of the time.
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PLO Win
2008-01-20 01:11:00
After my dismall effort to move up to NL$25 I decided to semi-shortstack Pot Limit Omaha 25c/50c Tables. I buy in for $20 and leave as soon as i hit $30+.This is working very well and i manged to recuperate my losses and ge tmy Bankroll back to $530 or so.Why do i shortstack? Basically it increases my showdown value. It increases my showdown value by letting me get all early in the hand either on the flop or on the turn, which means that i cant be bluffed off my hand if the river is a scare card. This strategey only works though if you regularly get your money in ahead on the flop and turn. If you dont then you loose money.

Crappy Arse Poker Beats
2008-01-20 01:06:00
So I tried another session at NL$25 6max and lost around $150.I had AA twice. Both where all in preflop. AAI had KK twice. Again i got all in preflop. KKI also had QQ once. QQBasically i coulndnt win a hand, i also managed to flop a set ang get all the chips in only to be out drawn when he flushed up.
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Good Week
2008-01-18 08:24:00
It’s been a hectic week this week. I’ve spent most of my mornings helping Mum paint the windows ardor house. This is a mammoth task as we have large roof to floor windows right along the front of our house and they all need 10 coats of wood stain. The good thing is we get a coat on all of the windows by around lunch which leaves the rest of the day free to play poker.The poker playing has been going very well. I played in a $5.50 PLO8 rebuy on Titan poker, I didn’t rebuy or add on and managed a 2nd place due to my flopped Full House getting beaten by a turned higher full house. That tourney netting me a $117.50 profit.I have also played some Sit n Go's as promised and run ok managing a small 20% roi. I played mostly $6 9man turbos and 6man Sit n go's which are both donk filled but I always seemed to be the bubble boy or come third/second, which is probably due to bad bubble play on my part and not playing premium ICM value.The Cash games have slowed down a lot and I am offic...
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New Plan
2008-01-12 04:01:00
For the last month or so ive been grinding Full ring cash games and prfited around $200 from it. In the last week or so I have stoped winning and started loosing, wether this is a downswing or not it is over a not 8k hand selection.I think one of my problems is always playing the same game, same conditions and often same opponents. So I have decided to go back to Sit n Go's.I will be playing what are my best sit n go's. The $5.50 18 man and the $6.60 6max No Limit Holdem Sit n go's.I will be implemeting the 50 buy-in Bankroll manangement plan. Heres how it will look.Bankroll-----max Buy-in allowed------Move Down mark. $300----------------$7-----------------No ne(under $5.50 is to high rake) $600----------------$15----------------$4 80 $1250---------------$25----------------$1 000 $2000---------------$40----------------$1 600I have also decided to bonus whore the ipoker network sites and take advantage of the easier poker games on their that are full of fish. I will probably take all ...
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Tilt Factor
2008-01-10 08:55:00
Tilt has been my downfall. Times that by 16 tables and it’s a mighty big downfall. Today’s session has not gone well.I opened up my usual 16 tables on pokerstars $10NL full ring and would be greeted with the donkeys and, what seems to be my growing ever larger, share of horrible luck. I had KK busted 3 times all by A-rag, every straight or flush I hit ended in villain hitting a better straight or flush and more likely a Full House. The horrible cards brought on tilt and I started to play badly getting my money in when I knew I had been counterfeited when the board paired giving villain a better two pair. So using my genius poker skill and my $50 smaller $350 Bankroll I decided to hit the 6max Pot-Limit Omaha eight-or-better tables netting me another $55 loss which $25 of which can be attributed to bad luck but the rest was bad play.The day was not without good news though, I got an email from my satellite internet provider informing me that I had used 80% of my 5gig internet usa...
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New CardsChat.com Avatar
2008-01-09 09:57:00
I found this really beautiful pic and decided to use it as my CardsChat Avatar .Here it is...

Statistical Significance, Poker Addict
2008-01-09 05:16:00
People often rave about thier great BB/100 and often complain about "Huge" downswings. I personally have done both. But realising just how statistically significant your results are depends on the number of trails run. A statiscally significant amount is considered 10k hands, but to be a bit more in depth you really need to aim for 25k+ to draw accurate conlusions.After running my own numbers I see how insignificant my stats actually are at this point. What i thought was a downswing was nothing more than a little varience and the fact that i was probably on a heater before the varience occured made it seem like a much bigger downswing than it actually was. Prior to my miniscule downswing I had become very self-assured in my game and my poker ability. The downswing was pokers way of telling me to pull my head in. It was making sure I didnt get to big for my boots and that I always reviewed my game and keept on trying to improve and better my poker ability.It seems poker has a funny w...
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Pyschological Leaks
2008-01-08 07:58:00
Ok my game is going to be put under serious sqruntiny in the next week or so.I intend to plow throug The Poker Tracker guide i mentione din my last post. Then im going to re-read "The Pyschology of Poker" and hopefully it will improve my overall play/winrate.A serious leak is being to short-term results orientated. Poker is not about the short-term, its not about how this particular hand ends or this particular week, its about playing the best for every situation and waiting for the good results to come. And they will come aslong as you are playing Mathmatically/psychologicaly sollid poker. Using a mixture of reads and probability to make the best decisions most of the time is what it takes to be a good poker player. The amount of bad decions you make will define how great a plyer you become.Another leak is being statistically orientated. I seem to feel the need to play a 700 or 800 hands an hour whilst I would probably earn around 2/3 the amount of money playing 8 tables instead of...
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Poker Coaching
2008-01-08 01:52:00
So ive been looking into poker coaching recently. The results have beeen good i've found numerous coaching sites and have also found the Poker Tracker Guide which ive brought and hope to read tomorrow or later today.Hopefully Poker Tracker Guide and help me find my own leaks and once i progress up to $25 and $50 NL then i can get some pro poker coaching.So i played some Omaha hi, didnt do to badly am up $35 over 1200 hands at $10PLO. Basically to beat the players at this level all you need to do is play tight/nitty preflop and nut peddle the flop. Although i saw one very good player there who raised every hand pre-flop but was an absolute nit post flop. This strategey worked amazingly well. it did 2 main things for him. 1) Gave him a maniac image(because he reaised every hand pre-flop), 2) His opponents payed him off on his good hands as they thought he was a maniac. What they failed to notice(i noticed and i was playing 8 tables lol) was he was a net pedler post flop. I find $10PL...
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2008 Goals
2008-01-06 08:12:00
Ok so i decided to post my 2008 poker goals before I lost the piece of paper i wrote them on. So here they are ...1) Have $750 Bankroll on Pokerstars by 01/02/08.2) Achieve Silver star status in January.3) Have a $1500 Bankroll on Pokerstars by 01/03/08.4) Achieve Gold Star status in Febuary.5) Achiev platinum star status for 3 months in late 2008.6) Cashout $3.5k by August to pay for trip.7) Become loyaler.8) Get some profesional poker coaching and/or subscription to coaching videos.
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The Obsession
2008-01-05 23:57:00
Wow found this great article here. Go down th the post made on 1/1/2008 titled "The Obsession ".Its really a great article about growing and developing as a poker player. It touched on some points on how much work/time you have to put in to become not only good but great at poker.I'll leave you with my take on this article:"To become the great at poker you must not let poker become part of you but become part of poker."

Introduction
2008-01-05 21:57:00
I started playing poker in early 2007. After winning money from freerolls i floundered around building it up to $1100 then loosing about half and withdrawing the rest.In December 2007 i decided to take poker seriously and deposited $100 onto pokerstars and started grinding micro cashgames. Since then i have progressed up the stakes to $10NL(lol still micro stakes :P) and am currentl on a BR of $350.GL
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