« Cashgame update | Main | Another update»
k, so since I said I'd update more often, here's a short post about the last few days. I don't remember everything, but I'll try to write a little something anyway. //edit: not so short finally,but go ahead and read on anyway ;)
- Coaching
So I started coaching NL100sh for the frenchies. First session: 11 viewers (yay). Although I didn't get many interesting hands and quite a lot of blanks (didn't know what to say, except for a couple discussions on opening ranges etc), but overall it was ok I think. I'm thinking of doing a special coaching one of these days, most likely a public private coaching - so if you happen to speak french, keep a lookout on the forums in the next few days.
We also played a 6-max 6-coaches game last Thursday, and.. well, it was the best session imaginable really. It was a typical nl200/400 kind of table, with one player really adapting to my LAG (45/39, roughly) play, the others being average to good NLSH players - the kind I play every day. On top of playing them on one table with 120 viewers (meaning I concentrated a lot), the video should be out soon, and I'll know exactly how my opponents think when they're faced with a good LAG. This is an invaluable learning tool, much better than private coaching or whatever else...basically a huge boost for my game, I can't wait to see it :) I did make some dumb plays because I was bored or stuck - like a stupid river bluff that worked out. Hand went roughly like this:
I raise 98o UTG, folds around to Myrddin84 in the BB - NL100sh player (I think) who was playing roughly 22/18 and trying to adjust to my play, although I knew he had trouble trusting his reads in marginal spots (he laid down AQ to a 4bet after squeezing me at the beginning of the session). Anyway, he 3-bets and I call (-EV call most likely, but I wanted to create action as we were about to stop). Flop Jc Tc x. He c-bets and I call. He fires again turn Kx, and I actually called, not realising the odds were awful (other mistake, due to tiredness, lol). Anyway, river comes Jx, so I miss my draw, same for a potential club draw. He times down, checks and there I decide to shove my 1/2 PSB stack, mostly because of him timing down (If he had an easy decision, such as Jx or AK, I think he would've acted quickly), so I thought he could have a marginal hand, or even a missed draw - but also because it was the end of the coaching and I even said "well, this is a -ev bluff, but hey, at worst it'll entertain you". Anyway, he ended up folding his 99 (which he was planning to c/c with, but didn't have the balls to follow through :P).
That's just one of the stupid hands I played just for fun, but overall I think I'll still get a very good impression of how typical NL200+ regs react to very loose/aggro players. So basically, I'm going to be working more on that in the next few weeks, and hopefully I can master lag play soon enough - in any case it's very interesting and fun to learn.
Anyhoo, aside from ma new coach status, I've been playing a bit more NL200-600, and well...it was a disaster. I lost about $6k in the last 3-4 days, so my roll is down to $12k (I just cashed out 1.6k). And actually, I'm ok with it. Yesterday, I had my worst session at -3.2k or so, and I felt good. I got this far, and I know I'm capable of beating the games for a decent winrate, so it's just a matter of time, and of course constant work on my game, before I get back to my high point of 18k, and further. Money takes on a completely different value when you know you can have swings of several thousands of dollars in just minutes. To some people, it's a month's worth of hard work, I guess to a poker player, it's just numbers. All they mean is what level one can afford to play. I'm thinking about all this as I type so I might say a couple dumb things, but I think I'm going to make a few changes in my poker habits. I won't brag about my wins or whine about my losses, I'll just post updates every now and then, dunno whether I'll post my current BR or not, we'll see about that. Anyway, I'm going to focus more on my game, and judge my success much more on how I play, and not on how much money I win or lose. I'll probably be making more self-review videos to make sure I spot any leaks I might be developing. Also, I think making regular cashouts every month might be a good idea. For starters, something like 1000€ at the end of every month (unless I have very long losing stretches, but I'll try to avoid that) - I don't need that much money, I'm still studying and living at my mom's for the moment, but I guess I feel a bit too detached from the money, actually having it in my bank account or in cash will be very different from just seeing those 5 numbers in the partypoker window. From the tone of that last paragraph you probably guessed it's getting late - it's 5 am and I should be getting some rest and stop writing dumb blog posts that only 2 or 3 people read. G'night, thanks for reading my too-long post, and I'll try to update more regularly.
by the way, I'll post videos here as well whenever I upload a new one, so hang around =)
Craig
