Quotes that clicked for me

I am going to try to blog about poker learnings that finally clicked for me.

One was Clonie's article in Bluff this month. She said that even pro players only plan to win approx. 60% of the time.

For me this was a light turning on moment. I have heard many times similar advice relating to this. For example "don't manufacture a win" from Mike Caro makes sense, but didn't click.

I think I am ready to have regular loosing sessions now and I think this will make me a better player. This may seem counter intuitive but sitting down expecting to win, rather than expecting to make good decisions I think is a critical difference.

I am not expecting the fact that this clicked for me to have the same light bulb moment for all of you. For this comment from Clonie to click with me, it took layers and layers of other learning to cap it off. What I am excited about is that lately I have had a lot of these moments. I think this comes from much more hand review and analysis and not playing.

Again this may seem counter intuitive, how can not playing make me a better player? Well I guess the wise old general stands back and watches the war, sometimes being in the thick of it can cause you to repeat past behaviors.

good luck at the tables and come out ahead 60% of the time and take it to the bank eh!
--Felter

Worthy of note

I haven't been blogging as much as I have been posting on PCH, but here is a post that I think I need to post here to remember:

btw I think it's a good idea to share what finally fixed my want to step up. I held a belief that caused most of the want to step up. I believed that poker wasn't really poker until you hit $1 because anything lower the craziest shit happens because it's only $20 bucks or $50 bucks.But what fixed me to see this is WRONG was:

1) Slurpee Dude - saying it 4000 times to me and consistently showing me that he had that humble ability to play at any level and for a cocky mf he kept his ego out of his stakes.... it eventually started to sink in....
2) Being here showed me that the same insane manic crazy ass play happen at higher stakes too. Take some of Travis's or Clayton's posted hands. It is all relative and I see that now,
3) This facebook mess age from a friend who was regularly winning at live poker. This guy I respect a lot. He is basically a mad genius in life and he was this straight with me after a "why me, I am so good" rant like you have all seen here. He replied with this:

Quote
"I hear you're pain. I've good news and bad news for you although maybe it's kind of arrogant for me to presume I can give you advice. First, though, you can't really be serious about a million hands can you? Um, I figure that's about 15 years at 40 hours a week. So the answer's no. Anyhow, the bad news is that although the donkeys at micro limits can definitely get lucky and stack you once in a while, they are still easier to beat than simply bad, good and very good players. In other words, if you can't beat bad players, you can't beat good ones. Sorry dude. The good news is that it sounds like you're doing the things you need to do to become a good player, mostly meaning it sounds like you've got discipline. And you're reading books. It sounds like you're playing freerolls when you can but spend the rest of your time playing NL cash games. That sounds like a pretty good idea. Although it may not be intuitive, NL cash games have a lower variance than limit cash games at what seem to be comparable stakes and certainly less variance than tourneys. So, NL cash games are definitely where you want to spend you time. All I can say is keep reading books. Let me know if I got the wrong impression about what you're doing. Like, let me know if you're playing more limit than NL, because there's some good computer programs you could get that will help you build mad skills fast."

I tried hard to reply back and save my dignity after that reply.... an couldn't. The light went on, I get it now.

--Felter

btw that buddy of mine isn't playing right now because he feels he "just doesn't need more money right now" bless him. Mad genius I tell you. I have a agreat story about getting arrested with this Dude that I will share later lol oh and as a live only player he had a hard time believing the 800k+ hands I have played

Session

I originally posted this on PCH then though it would be better here on my Blog. I was posting this as I was playing and man it was six pounds of ugly in a five pound bag.

Felt like playing a little hard core for fun say what you want but I am finishing this session up huge just you wait!

So I sit down at a SH table of at least two maniacs and two known fish...

I am buying in with $25 (short stacking it)Saw this guy raise with anything and anything 4 out of the last 8 hands 5-10x blinds, so figured I had the best hand, and I did
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441649

Trying a little push on the flush draw... we turn over... YES.... river... lol
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441624

Sweet Ship it (but look at the river and tell me you didnt think it just happened again):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441657

Now is there anyone here besides me who would make this call against this guy. figure he had a K likely a weak one.... I had a gut shot and the flush draw...
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441668
I know, a better push than a call but on a coin flip sure.

This is starting to get serious!! Updates again in a few minutes.... right now down what is that $100 bucksEDIT: no that's only $75

Wow
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441703
and the best part he says sorry I put you on AK!! ROFLROFLROFL (I just wet myself)

hmmmm
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441743


http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441784
sigh....

well now the way up for this session is getting a little tough lol Can't rebuy, stop loss in effect ...

hopefully things will turn around

Edit:I fold here but this is the hand where that guy donks all my chips away to another player:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441918
What percentage of times do you need your oponent to fold to make this the right push? What an idiot!

and this will do it for me, wow again today
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441949

Bit of a Big Feltering in this session I must say...Wanted to play a little more, but figured I was on tilt so I went down to 10 cent:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1441994

yeah that's enough of that for today lol$244 down to ..... $125, and stopping there!! Really wanted to post some good stuff.... guess there is always next time

Then I moved over to Full Tilt and things went a little better

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1442025
(.... and I had him on AK LOL )

OH heres a new one that went my way.
I let him bluff the river and he did, I did struggle with the call a bit though
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1442180

SHIP IT!!! (dirty Felter I know)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1442233

Didn't continue posting after this one but things went well. I ended up up $150 at Full Tilt and down $125 or so at Absolute. Roller coaster ride, but I enjoyed the agression. I can't afford the swings right now, so I will chill out in future sessions once again.

Anyone wants to comment or trash my playing of any of these, post away....


--Felter

Week 1

Well in week one how did I do to stick to my promises?

I give it a B-

I have successfully changed my mind set. I no longer have a poker goal in mind and I no longer have aspirations of working hard and improving until being semi pro (and it has helped). Actually it has helped me play better as well. Could it be easier to not look at the money already in the pot as lost money when you aren't frustrated to high heaven that your PT graph is flat for two weeks... I think it is. It is amazingly easier to operate as Caro would say with the philosophy of "you are even right now" in a hand, out of a hand, before a session, after a session, you are not up or down you are even right now.

This has allowed me to make some folds that I have not been making and my game that I always believed in, added with some solid folds has given me a confidence at the table that I have not felt since my last heater. As a mater of fact I have never felt this strong at the tables and not gone on a huge heater.

Anyway as I have said I recently got the gift of $44 to have a little life and I have been short stacking it at 50 cent 200BB short handed on Absolute with it. It almost seems too easy this week, so I am likely hitting when I need to, and folding when I need to, a good combination.

The $44 with some slow careful play has turned into $244. Only one sit and go, and I won that, and only one MTT for 1$ and was in first just before the bubble and ...... bubbled somehow (two bad beats in a row to the only chip stacks that could hurt me... I got some good advice off line from Bronx and see how I could have avoided them now however. Huge favorite yes, needed to be involved ... not so much.

So how have I been balancing things, as this was my promise that I couldn't play at all (cold turkey) if I Couldn't get the rest of my life in balance. This is where the A goes to a B-

I have played about four sessions of an hour or two. They were after I had exercised, finished work, taken time with the kids, and they were not taking away from family time. So all of that is good. There is a lot of sharp making session elements there now that I look at it. I have lost my first few pounds, reversing a two+ year trend. So about as good as could be expected.

I do still feel the pull to play too much however. Four sessions of an hour or two was absolutely more than I had intended to play, but then again I had some holidays in the past week so maybe it's OK.

I am not playing when I should be working (this was never a big problem but more of a little leak that happened once in a while) so work is as productive as possible.

So all in all, it is nice to have a few bucks to play with, I wish I could be at higher stakes, but I have learned the same lessons enough times now to know that I might as well flush the cash down the toilet if I am going to step up.

So you should see me at 50 cent short stacking it to $500 then 100BB stacks until 1K then full buy in to 2K before I consider anything else. Some sit & go's and MTT mixed in. I will keep posting honest references to the amount I am playing and the balance in my life I am keeping.

In that way the BLOG is likely to be a great way to be honest with myself and anyone who reads it. Without it maybe I could slippery slope it.

Playing in fun with no time frame or goals in mind. Health and family first.
--Felter

Life Lessons

I am going to try to keep this post brief as I really need to get to work, but I tell you I have learned a lot of life lessons over the past few weeks

First of all there is no question that I was at risk of allowing poker to take over my life. The shadow mission concept certainly applies here. Poker was taking away from my quality of life and certainly not adding to it in many ways.

Secondly with poker as with anything in life if you want it too badly you may choke it too death by trying to hard. I ended up chasing long bad sessions, with twice as long worse sessions, and while yes it was a bad run, it also could almost have been a cosmic intervention of some kind too. I needed something to show me how stressful poker was making my life.

Thirdly a community is very important for whatever you do in life. Don't isolate yourself, and be honest with those around you. You may just find that they are either struggling with the same things you are and or even better they may have a better solution than you.

So all in all I did retire.... and I still am retired from my quest to hit that run and not go pro but have poker contribute significantly to my financial position with regularity would be the best way to say it.

I practically was busted out, and it was for good I can say now. I gave away my last few freerolls, to Gilby and shyguy and they came through for me. Sort of a reverse intervention of sorts. Gilby took on the challenge of a 5K free roll and took an ugly beat to finish out of the money. The chips went in as a huge favorite what more can be done. Shyguy ran better and played really well (or so it sounds) and hit a mid level micro stakes cash, and we split it.

I am not even worried about what is there now to keep me alive. I am putting all other aspects of my life first now and it feels great!

And you know what. The hour or two I might sit down when I truly have some leisure time, I am having fun, not stressing out, and .... winning

Now before anyone says slippery slope, please understand that when there is a completely different mind set in place, it really isn't about that. The goal switch is off, the hope switch is off, and the only thing that is there if I get some time to play, is what brought me to the game in the first place.... and what makes me love chess for that matter.... to learn, to improve, to have the mental challenge and make the best decisions I can, and learn when it doesn't work out.

So retired yes, but that doesn't mean I won't be improving at a slow burn.... well enough for now, I have stuff to do people!!!

Note: for future posts I will enjoy getting out of life's lessons and back into poker lessons as the opportunity arises

Time I hung it up

I have been playing for about two years now and it has been a roller coaster ride to say the least. I have studied hard, read many books, magazines, internet articles, blogs, and put into practice advice from all of you. I have played no less than 400,000 hands of cash and likely more than that. I have either studied or played poker for 15 hours or more a week for those two years as well.Unfortunately I have built what I feel is honestly a pretty decent body of knowledge over that time, but I can't change the fact that I have stretched to stay in the game and not been able to.

I took one final shot tonight and as anything in poker does it had it's up and downs, but I was sucked out on in two tourneys, and no less than 6 times at cash. The river she was cruel but that's OK that's what it's meant to do, and it do it well. I have worked to be painfully honest at all times so I won't stop now, that's how it was. None of the 8 had me at less than a four to one favorite into the river... and frankly I don't think I need to do this to myself any more What I have known for some weeks now while I was in my death throws was that poker, while I love it, has had a more negative impact on my life than positive. It brings a thrill yes, but really a lot of stress that I think I will be better without. I have built a thicker and thicker skin (although likely not ever thick enough) but there is no denying the knots in my stomach that I carry for days lately every time I see a river that sends the pot the other way again. Frankly the knots are there lately when I just think about playing poker.

Take tonight for example, my wife is out of town, it's just me and my son at home tonight, I could have curled up with him and fallen asleep happily. Instead after he was in bed I gave it one more kick at the cat and now I am sitting awake at 2 AM feeling another of the lowest of the lows of poker.It takes time from my kids, it takes time from my wife, time from work, and well that's enough right there.I refuse to let this go any further. Life is too sweet and fantastic to need this stress. Don't worry, I am have not allowed it to affect me significantly financially at all, I have always tried to not buy in and I have come pretty close to that. I am only out a small amount of cash, but I will say that I have pushed relationships a bit to do it. And most importantly I see in my drive to do well at this, a huge risk that I may get lost in it, and or want to buy in one more time, one more time, one more time.

I have dreamed of poker supplementing my income for the past two years. Every day thinking about what it would be like to work hard enough and go pro, what I would buy with a couple grand more... now however the idea of having and unavoidably learning to depend on, a poker related income, now has a claustrophobic feeling to it.So I retire, I may stick my nose in here from time to time but I really hope I don't do it too often, I have kids to raise and a house to work on and a community to give my heart and soul to every day. (This is not to say that you can't do it all, I just so happen to not be able to do it all)

I completely respect you guys for either having the constitution required to live this way, or the intelligence and wisdom to keep it better than I have seen it, and or for some of you the ability to keep it truly recreational and be happy with that.You are an honourable admirable bunch I hope the world for you all, and I will admit it does kind of suck to burn out just before live legal NL and the PCH league comes to Winnipeg.If anyone is wondering why the heck this nutty guy typed all this ... I mean who the hell cares!?!? Well I care, giving this dream up actually means something to me, but I need to do it. I hope that makes sense and who knows maybe someone else one day will read this and identify with it.Take Care,Big Felter - out

Wild couple of months

Well it has been a wild couple of months to say the least. I was within striking distance of my 2K goal built up from micro stakes, then had to buy a laptop with half of it and went on a bad run for the rest.

I can't deny two things about my bad run 1) it was bad, nothing held up and it really really really sucked and 2) it beat me down mentally so that what I didn't give away to the bad run, I did give away at the end to bad play.

So despite all my bitching and moaning on PegCity I have made some changes to my game with what I have left to play with, (and that is next to nothing). I hope it holds up because if I loose this it will be a very long time before I rebuy. I managed to let my credit card grow to a sufficiently wife angering point somehow (and she is right,. and no it was not poker money, as posted before I have not directly bought in) so I need to be very very careful.

The changes are helping and with hands holding up I have had a nice week. Not a profitable week but a nice one. Cards have played as they should and no big surprises... Now this is only four days since I was viciously 2 and 3 outed for two more buy ins, but with the support of the guys I may have managed to stay sane.

I talked about the changes in the posts, but here are a couple that have helped:
1) Continuation betting less or at least being more selective when I do it, and also factoring in a decrease in continuation betting simply because of the stakes I am playing at. Guys will do all kinds of crazy shit once you drop below $1 (although 50 cent is not bad I will admit). So assuming I am going to get called by just plain bad poker say 15% of the time so keep the chips a little closer to me... I am aware that there is a fine line between this change and playing worse less aggressive poker. I think I see the difference clearly and it may be putting me closer to optimal play anyway.

2) As was recommended to me recently I am sticking closer to the top ten hands. I am doing this for two reasons. First with the limited bank I have, I need to be mixing it up less, and I think I have allowed myself to open up too much again. Something feels good about the last few session when I am folding hands without position that I was pretty much leaning towards playing from any position. The only time I am playing the sneakier hands right now is when it is a no brainer and I just CANT fold it. You know what... that sounds about right. I feel that I have been making the suited connector in early or AJ in early folds that I need to be making.

With these changes I have also increased my aggression with the top ten hands, and or when the time is right which also feels good.

Anyway basically I am working on my TAG game rather than my LAG game that I prefer. Not a bad thing.

I think if I can survive this lowest point, then I may be able to look back on the last two months as needed learning.

Oh and one more thing. I haven't been playing much at all. I have made time for other things lately and that has also been feeling good. My sessions have been a focused short 1-2 hour at most, and then rather than take the risk of loosing concentration I leave and get something done around the house... I intend to continue to play less or at least shorter sessions for a while. I must admit I do feel like I am coming out of a bit of a poker induced mental fog around the rest of my life..

Anyway I am tired and I am rambling so good night !!

--Felter

The love of a four year old...

I was outside cleaning the pool early this morning enjoying the peace and quiet and the cool morning breeze. A great moment. Then this little voice calls out from the open upstairs window "Daaaaaad, are you up here".
"I am outside bud what's up"
"I'n awake and I wann, I wann play Spiderman"
"How about some breakfast first, buddy?"

Then my sons little four year old face appears at the window

"There you are" with a beaming smile, "OK.... we can have breakfast fiiiirst, but you better come upstairs for a hug first"

Nice moment, for those of you with kids, I know you understand. As I finished up with the pool in a hurry to go and see my boy buddy (I have a best girl buddy, a daughter too) , I was left with the thought of how he is growing up so fast and I need to soak up every moment I get.
Never again in my life will someone show me this unconditional love as he does right now. A treasure more than measure.
As for my daughter... well unconditional hate may be more like it, she turned 12 and is all of a moody teenager. But she is a treasure too in her own way right now ;) Talk about surviving swings, I walk into one room and I am the smartest, coolest guy in the world. Then on a high I walk into the next room, say hi and get the eye roll, dismissal of a teenager.
Take care of those families people!

Well it's time

I just typed up a two page post that set me straight on the past two months. I was really proud of the insight and the recap of all the errors I had made ...

Then the fucking Blogger site lost the post and brought me back to a fucking empty page... you don't expect to take a bad beat when writing a post on how you are going to avoid taking beats in the future....

Sorry to anyone who reads this, but I just don't have it in me to type it all over again.

Dammit...

--Felter

Articles: Starting from Zero

Articles: Starting from Zero: "To ensure that I keep my bankroll intact, I've adopted some key rules:

• 
  I'll never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
• I won't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll and I'm allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
  If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me. "

I have adopted this and it really really sucks, but likley it will really really help....

Limit

The last post is way better than this one, but I need to vent I HATE LIMIT!!!

Playing heads up limit Omaha Hi and this DAMN CALLING STATION RIVER RAT keeps hit ungodly hands on the river... for an hour now he hits crazy shit every freaking time. I could kill him, I really could. THIS IS STEAMING BROTHER, I AM IT,

... better go, I need to hit something!

Ran bad, but with new learning... so I am ok with that

I haven't done the math yet, but it was not a pretty week. I must have cut my +$1500.00 run down by a third this week. I will check and post the damage but there is something interesting to go over first (ugh as I type this I had another guy (a total fish) hit a set to my over pair... I hate those kicks in the gut!).... sigh



Anyway, as I said I certainly ran bad this week, lots of hands I just could not get away from. Over sets, two pair to my top top, over flushed, coolered you name it, I hit it this week. But there is more to it than that. This was also a week that I Added a new element to my ....



HOLD ON I have the fish heads up... ok made a few more bucks before the table filled up again.



As I was saying this is also a week that I added a new element to my game. Through discussion with poker partner Slurpee Dude on some reading he was doing recently we decided that the biggest difference between ourselves and the players that have the ROI trajectory that we are trying to get to is money left on the table in the hands that are somewhat marginal wins. This may sound like some pretty basic stuff but knowing it is one thing, put it into practice is entirely another.



The change I was trying to implement was to call less and be the last bet into the pot more often. For example it was a while ago that I realized that AK should be a raising hand not a call when the pot is already opened kind of hand... but that is the easiest one to do.



So I took the advice to raise more, or fold, not call and tried to work it into my game (Keep in mind that last set of changes I made made a huge impact on my profitability giving me the best stats and profit run I have experienced). But how to implement it...



If AK is a hand I want to be the last raise in pre flop with more often, does that apply to AQ? If not why not. While it did not feel good, I was trying to move out of my comfort zone so I pushed myself to do it, more because I could not see why not really. So imagine the leak in your game when someone opens the pot with AK and you go to the flop as the final raiser with AQ.



The other part of the changes I wanted to implement was to sharpen my reads to be able to value bet more, and allow my opponent to make drawing calls with slightly bad pot odds, but not always bet them out of the pot.



Two problems with these changes this week.... 1) They were hitting their draws every time, and 2) I was getting frustrated with the hitting and lost the ability to fold when I needed to. Next since the poker Gods seemed content to let every opponent hit a set on me, the very week I was increasing my aggression or value betting hands like large over pairs more... this also created a leak or gaping hole in my game. Obviously if you allowing your opponents to draw more often to add some to your pot 3/4 times, then you need to know a) what they are drawing to and b) be able to freakin fold when they hit and over bet their hit!!


One hand comes to mind where this hurt, I have KK against 55, an overaggressive player at 2$ hits his set on me in a rag flop, he bets into me and I raise. Then his bet on river pretty much commits me, and boom another big loss.

So all in all I don't think that it is the wrong thing to add more value to the hands I am going to win, but overall it is a mistake to go into a session adding in two more aggressive layers into your game at the same time, and thinking, ok I am going to increase the aggression to max out my profit... nothing wrong with the sentiment but if the table texture and action requires a less aggressive position you are leaving yourself very exposed... So a bad time to run bad for sure

Here is a hand where I did max out the value on:

I am Phase II with (9h9c)

Texas Hold'em $0.50-$0.50 NL (Real Money), #528,069,099
Table Mogadischu, 30 Jun 2007 12:20 PM ET
Seat 1: Phase II ($88.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Seraph235 ($96.80 in chips)
Seat 5: flundra10 ($12.45 in chips)
Seat 6: CMETAHA ($56.10 in chips)
Seat 10: DonLC14 ($53.80 in chips)
ANTES/BLINDSSeraph235 posts blind ($0.25), flundra10 posts blind ($0.50).

PRE-FLOP:
CMETAHA folds, DonLC14 folds,
Phase II bets $1.50, (9h9c)
Seraph235 calls $1.25,
flundra10 calls $1.

FLOP:
[board cards 6H,2H,8C ]
Seraph235 bets $3
flundra10 calls $3,
Phase II bets $10,
Seraph235 calls $7,
flundra10 calls $7.

TURN:
[board cards 6H,2H,8C,5S ]
Seraph235 checks, flundra10 checks, Phase II checks.

RIVER:
[board cards 6H,2H,8C,5S,9D ]
Seraph235 checks,
flundra10 checks,
Phase II bets $5,

- I thought about this bet for a long time. The had to be coming with something, and it would only take a 7 to beat me... I normally would check here, but decided from the actions of my opponents that I was a likely to get a call and that no one was open ended on the turn. I did not think I was leading the whole way I will admit.

Seraph235 calls $5,
flundra10 calls $0.95 and is all-in.

SHOWDOWN:
Phase II shows [ 9H,9C ]
Seraph235 mucks cards [ KH,8H ]
flundra10 mucks cards [ AS,6S ]

Phase II wins $8.10, Phase II wins $35.85.

So the idea is this is the extra few bucks I need to be taking down when I am far from the nuts, but likely in the lead. This big fat middle area is where I believe the profit to be that will make the difference for me.

New, New High

Things continue to go well. I am keeping myself out of trouble for the most part, and overall I am comfortable with my play. Of course I have been here before so I need to stay alert to any developing leaks in bank roll management, or play.

This is an nice place to be right now. I am not terribly worried about my cash flow which is great. It is nice to play at the limit that I can afford and have it also be a game that I can beat.

there is no question that I have been hitting and last nights session actually had some sick beats in it. For example twice I flopped top two to my opponent flopping a set, and a few other hands that are a little sticky to get away from. But I made it back and finished the session positive anyway. Believe it or not I am actually thankful for that session as I was starting to worry about the lack of sicker hands that I have been experiencing lately. I have lived through or gone broke through weeks of running bad, and it can happen again (look forward in time through my blog for the next "Man, NOTHING will hold up" post).

Anyway where I am at now:

Cash and tourney since May 2nd 2007: +1440.00

I am feeling the itch to buy myself a cheap laptop, and or pay off a little of my credit card with some of this cash, but will hold off as long as I can.

So close in a tourney

Finished 9th today in a 5K tourney for $150.00

While I should be happy as this is my best tourney cash for a very long time, I am disappointed with the final hand. Once we hit the final table, every person out would guarantee me anther 50 then 100 then more pretty quickly. So I wanted to tighten up as every position I move up the cash has value to me. There really was no room for play though, the blinds were up pretty high so for 70% of the table it was all in or nothing. I got AK and pushed. I was isolated by the chip leader (who had his money in bad several times and took guys out yuck) turns over AQ. I couldn't be happier than to have him pinned to a three outer. Flop 9 9 Q. Lights out.

Yes yes, it happens, but I played well and wanted a big cash badly so I am pretty pissed. Can't shake it so I gotta shut down my session for now, I wont be any good for cash. Knowing I am not in the mindset to play cash well does make me feel a little better (at the good decision).

Anyway moving on...

So the good news is this means I am sitting at +1200.00 since my last bust out (will need to check the date for future posts).

So I Will steal a page from GroovyT's blog and start to post my wins tracking:

Wins since May 2007: +1200.00

New High

Closed my bankroll at a new high (for this newest run since I think early 07 - would have to read my blog to be sure of the start date, but who the hell reads these things anyway)

I have $645.00 in play, but have also given my wife $90 since my restarts and of course the $250 back to Slurpee Dude. So all in all I have ran nothing but a free tourney entry into $988.00 over the past couple of months at 25 cent to 2$.

I will stop mentioning the paid outs now and just focus to the actual cash I have going forward. So as it stands right now:

$153 in click 2 pay
$83 @ Full Tilt
$412 @ Hollywood

This puts me over a quarter of the way to my 2K goal by the end of August.

What has happened over the past week. Well, I had a two day fantastic run here this week, starting last night in a 50 cent short handed NL HE game with a $5 or $10 straddle on. No word of a lie, I am in a session and this guy (bless you sir) sits down and starts to bet 5.50 or 10.50 every hand. So he takes down about 15 blinds in a row before the table starts to react to him and push back. Then all hell broke loose.

The average pot at this 50 cent table was $173.00 and not much below that for about an hour. This guy is all in preflop with anything and everything and or betting people off of the turn and the river with an all in. Soon he is up to over $700.00 (remember this is a $50.00 max buy in) and I am down about $180 (the hands don't matter playing this guy). My favorite hand that this maniac won was a re-raise all in against a guy with KK for a $180.00 pot... with 10 7 diamonds... and he hits his diamond, J high, straigh flush, very lovely.

It was neat to have to adapt my game to how he was betting, as did a couple of other better players. for example, blinds 25 and 50 cent... he makes it $10.50 I have AK o, I raise to $35, he calls, I hit I check, he bets $30 then folds to my $48 check raise. So we can say the action was sick. But I refused to play a call and pray type of game, and I think I was right.

I called up Slurpee Dude and he cashed in for a triple up before leaving. The hardest part was when I started to catch, soon I have $220 (and only up about $35) at this table, and now tangling with this guy is getting really risky. He is all in for his $600, on a hair trigger.

Thankfully he was not a good enough player to recognize that the table had adapted and he was now giving back heavily to three of us. He would bet $10.50 and he would call a big raise with his rags... sometimes catching something sick and cleaning out yet another poor sap. Anyway I kept my head and used him as I should and after he left the table I had $300 and was up about $110. Don't get me wrong it was easy , I had to fold for $130 more into a $220 pot with AQ, A high board, no straight, no flush, on river he pushed at me, and I KNOW it was a good fold against sumb crumby two pair. So I really had to keep my head. (how did I know, well I did pick up on enough betting patterns (thanks PCH boys!) to make my decision based on his betting pattern... the cards DID, NOT, MATTER, he told me what he had by how he bet.

btw he left at just under $400.00 for and there was at least three of us at the table with $200 in play at this point. Very impressive really, I applaud this guy I really do. If he was a hair saner there would be a really good chance that he could have left us all negative hundreds and savagely on tilt.

Anyway so I stayed at the table and took over his roll as the big stack. Not exactly the same far more TAG than he was playing but it was confusing for the players to call my $35 flop or turn bet, and I was taking down some nice pots. So I closed the table up about $150 with over $350.. phew....

Today I took $40 of my winnings and gambled (no other word for it) with a short stack buy in at a $2 table, using the short stack gaem that I am building for myseld (I have a draft post saved with about a page of things I do and don't do, and it is working). But the table was full of short stacks so it was a game I could beat. I soon showed a couple bluffs put a guy on tilt and left after 20 minutes and $140 up.

This weekend I should hit my next $100 bonus, as I am getting close now.

So all is running well, and even better I feel more and more weathered for when it doesn't. We will see, but I know my learning has moved farther in the past three months than in the past year.

The Nordberg

I just want to post to say that Nordberg is a force to be reckoned with. I was but chaff in the wind to his might. I tried to take notes but it was too complicated to even write down.

(all in fun)
--Felter

When nothing holds up

Bad day, nothing held up (appropriate title eh?). The hands don't matter as there is no learning in any of them, but once all in I was 6 outed, 2 outed, runner runner flushed, oh and my favorite my nut flush vs his bluff K 5 miss... runner runner fives, with a paired board on the flop.

There is often learning but I am not so sure this time, other than this is an opportunity for me to work on not being angry for the rest of my night. Poker is a hard hobby for this reason, the feeling when these things happen is kind of hard to know if you don't play poker.

An attempt at explaining it might be a feeling of your gut has this weird empty feeling and you heart is sliding down into the empty space where your guts once were (ignore the graphic reference, I am going for a feeling here). Kind of a winded punched in the gut feeling.

Anyway so as I was saying the challenge is not to snap at your kids, or want to go sit alone in a room somewhere... and likely play more poker. I don't profess to be an expert at anything related to poker and this is another example of where I have a lot to learn.

I have not snapped at my kids and my lovely wife has nothing to fear, but I did need to sequester myself to a private place to blog for a few minutes. This is the only thing that I know of to cool me off.

Anyone have any ideas out there on what to do to cool off?

Wow as I type this... my AK for the rest of my stack all in vs a call from QJ for his whole stack (I have him covered by three bucks).... Flop 10 5 A, Turn K, river who cares... lol no biggie par for the course today

Back to poker

Well after a very distressing week in the Winnipeg poker community, it is time to return back to poker. Make sure you are checking out pegcityhustling.com for all that has happened in our little poker community. But it's time to move on, unless there is some support needed like the social they are talking about holding. If we do anything like that count Felter in.

I have returned to solid play, but it has not been very profitable. I think I may have found a leak in my game where I can have sessions that are way under aggressive. Almost as if there are two Felter's. But I have had a couple of sessions where I have noticed it mid session and changed it up. If I can notice it when it is happening it will be solved. I am beginning to understand how Phil Laak uses brainwave monitoring equipment and can see certain patterns in the images when he is playing well. When I am too laid back I bet it would be identifiable (as insane as this sounds, he really does it apparently).

I have had some swingy session and took my $209, down to $75 back to $205 a couple of times in a couple of sessions, but without tilting the solid play will keep you coming around. As I said before unless I run bad, and I just can't worry about that, I don't have the bankroll for it. So if it happens it happens.

Anyway I have about $212 right now and will continue to plug away. The next bonus is coming soon ($100) so that will help inject a little life back into my game.

Nothing else to report other than my thoughts are with the players who were charged in the raids. I hope nothing untoward happens as a result.

--Felter

Old ghosts returning

It appears that I am more of a creature of habit than I can control. In the past I have taken a small stake or small tourney cash, run it up to just under or just over a thousand dollars and then something happens, and I can not hold on to that bankroll as it slides through my fingers like a handfull of sand. The harder I grab at it the faster it slips through with only the sound of crushed aspirations as it slides into the abyss of failed dreams.

Sound a bit dramatic, yes it is, but to make a point. The micro grinders like me, the ones that are reading and studying and talking and blogging and posting are not really doing this for fun. We are doing it to beat the game; to prepare like a chess player to become a grand master. Until we can make a real go of it, it is not about the money but about the decisions (yet somehow all those Sklansky dollars ain't paying for this education).

Symptoms of the inevitable slide are:
1) Having a great run - CHECK
I took $25 from a free tourney entry win to $765, cashed out $250 to pay back my staker (from a previous $250 stake that I very nearly went broke on). At my high the remaining $475 was at $575 (mid session)

2) Beginning to play too much - CHECK
on a heater the game pulls you in. My goal of reaching a $2,000 bankroll seems like it will be within reach any minute now, the game gets easy, idiots try to bluff you off the second nuts and life is good

3) Since I am running this well here, at a higher limit I can.... - CHECK
If I am running this well at $1, I can step up to $2 and buy in short and ... yes I shamefully admit I made a return to $2 this week, with a $60 short stack buy in (but just one buy in was all I was going to risk) took a cooler and re bought... I ended this session, up 20 cents. When I doubled up the second buy in, I somehow came to my senses and left a table full of better players, or at least players with a much larger bankroll (and with aggressive poker being good poker, sometimes those two things are not as different as I would like to think)

4) Bad sessions increase in their depth - CHECK
I recovered magically from several sessions that cut my bankroll in half, or WORSE this week

5) Then the bad sessions BUT the recovery doesn't happen and you have two big bad sessions in a row - CHECK
I put back to back sessions together that ran me from $575 down to $98 - literally turning my baby bankroll into liquid shit. The first of these session had NO SHARPS in it at all. I played after coming home late just off the plane from a 19 hour day and lost more than $200 (it is hard to type that sentence and not erase it btw)

6) Playing sessions that are likely to be down - CHECK
(from the above point)

Doctor check me into the hospital, it was all coming to reality too quickly, and I slipped again. In the second large down session I was calling near pot bets with third pair sure he was bluffing, and was never right (funny how when I am on my game, I am sometimes right, when I am not, I am never right). Yes it is absolutely correct that my hands were just not holding up, my continuation bets were always getting called, I wasn't finding tables with the maniacs and LAGs that have built my bankroll up, but all of these things are symptoms of poor play too.

For example if your continuation bets are "always getting called" guess what, your competition has adapted to you, but you haven't adapted to you. Through playing too much and running poorly from some legitimate nasty river cards, I almost go into auto pilot. This is where I begin to play the game mechanically, I am concentrating and trying to play correct poker (notice I did not say Good poker) so I revert to a very safe, very predictable strategy and almost could sleep while doing it.

Anyway to wake myself up I went to a 25 cent table and played as an absolute LAG. This may look like tilt but absolutely was not. It was intentionally having a session where I intended to shake up my game (not the table, sorry badass23 but it was not about you at all). I opened every pot for the standard 8x blind raise and showed every garbage hand that was not called. Every time I caught a piece I over bet it, I would bet pre flop whatever the guy next to me had left. All of this when I thought I had the best hand or would not get a call. I finished that session at $57 from the $25 buy in... hmmm and I felt mentally alert again. I shook off the autopilot.

Then I returned to the game I have been doing well at. I bought into a $1 table for $20 and through good short stack poker I closed the table at $88 when I felt tired.

Hopefully my math is all correct but my baby bankroll currently sits (stake free) at $209.35 after those small recovery sessions. Unfortunately all it will take is solid good poker play, but on a bad run to eliminate this, but I can't worry about that. All I can do is return to setting as many things in my favour as possible. For example I virtually never win in early AM Sat and Sun sessions... and I am blogging rather than playing right now.

--Felter