Going on Tilt, climbing the wall, and the perpetual cyclone of the cooler

Guess who’s back, back again…long time no blogging.  Guess why?  I was loosing and it was frustrating.  I’m not going to pretend it’s easy to write when you loosing.  It’s hard to face up to the facts that your not playing well.  So today I wanted to briefly discuss Going on Tilt, and my realizations  with it from the past three weeks or so.  First here is my cycle of tilt as I discovered it, maybe yours is the same, maybe its not.  This is like a lifecycle for me, it almost always happens in this order, and repeats every so often.

1.  Play really good poker

2.  Get cocky

3.  Start playing / calling to many hands (mostly cause you think your brilliant and can make amazing calls, or outplay everyone.)

4.  Get sucked out on, you were loosing before, and this sends you over the end

5.  Get sucked out on somemore.  Now your done your playing terrible, calling to much especially at showdown.

6.  Realize your loosing and need to tighten up your game

7.  Rinse and Repeat

This is my life cycle of poker.  For the last three weeks I spent a majority of the time bobbing around the $40 mark in my account, sometimes down to as little as $15, and up as high as $50 a few times.  For the most part, I was playing bad, a lot of calling hoping I had the best hand, all the while knowing it wasn’t.

Breaking Through

I did have a break through this week.  On Dec. 1st I won a 90player SNG tourney with a buy in of $2 this netted me about $95 and has reignited my push in doing the Ferguson.  My account is now up to $173.83 from its initial amount of around $5.  I also took 3rd in a 45 player SNG which earned me another $35 from a $5 buy in.  I’ve been playing well in large SNGs winning the 90 really gave a confidence boost, but what it goes back to is the cycle of tilt.  If I can figure out how to cut the cycle short, and get back to playing good poker sooner, the dry spells wont last three weeks.  Thats the Key.

Account Balance $173.83

All ready learning and paying off

I had a hunch that blogging and analyzing my play on a regular basis might translate to more success at the felt, or virtual felt as it would be.  The hunch is all ready proving true.  A couple of days ago during a rough night I noticed that in 3 six handed tournaments I had bubbled out not making the money.  I decided this was primarily a patience issue.  If I don’t put myself in all in situations, play small pot poker I have a much better chance of making the money, I’m confident right now in my heads up play so not taking 3rd in any given tournament is a a $3.90 swing from not cashing to taking 1st place.  This is almost an 8% increase in bankroll from any tourney win, that’s a substantial increase.

Today in the one six handed tourney I’ve played I won.  That’s not the exciting part.  The exciting part is during three handed play there were multiple instances where I felt compelled to re-raise, or make aggressive moves and decided against it.  Would these plays have worked, not sure what I do know is that by being patient I put myself in a position to win without having to race.  Getting my money in when I was an 80% favorite as apposed to a 50% favorite this will lead to more cashes, and more bankroll.

Just lost with AA to KK in my final 6handed tourney of the night, good thing is that I made a decent amount in 6handed cash games giving my bankroll a good boost on the day.

Bankroll:  $54.05

Profit: $8.19

As Ice Cube would say…Today was a good day.

Today’s Tournaments:

GameID	Date (MDT)	Type	EntryFee	Position	Profit
113316404	19-Oct-09  21:59	NL Holdem	$1	1/6	$2.70
113313998	19-Oct-09  21:50	NL Holdem	$1	2/6	$0.90
113313669	19-Oct-09  21:29	NL Holdem	$1	1/6	$2.70
113166006	19-Oct-09  00:04	NL Holdem	$1	16/27	-$1.20

Today seemed easy, which after yesterday was a good thing.  The 1st two six handed tournaments I had 4500 in chips by the time we were down to 4 handed that makes it easy to coast into the money.  Got 2nd best a bunch heads up in the 2nd tourney but also got a little over anxious which cost me the win.  There is a huge difference in profit between 1st & 2nd patience in heads up play is KEY!

The 3rd 6handed tourney was the fun one.  I started off hot in this one as well was the chip leader when the following hand played out.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/964658

This put me at $744 in chips with 4 players left, not the position you want to be in.  I won a few little hands and raised with A6 suited and my bottom pair was checked to the river and held up at show down bringing me back to 1500.  The hand that really got me going was this one.

http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/964660

Life is easy when you flop the nuts, and your opponent turns a set.  The same hand that took me out, brought me back.  3 handed play was tedious, but AA against TT helped me get chipped up going into head up.  Patience and a little luck in heads up made it short and sweet and gave me my 2nd win of the night.

Side not turned $2 into just under $6 in a 6handed cash game as well giving my bank roll a decent boost back to where it was before yesterday.

Current Bankroll:  $45.86

Profit $8.61

Hand Analysis 1 Good 1 Bad

I chose to analyze this hand to highlight two points of online poker.  The images below will give you a frame by frame happening.  We were at 4 handed play I was on the button with QT of clubs.  You can flip through the play by play, but I want to give you thoughts on two points in this hand.  First being let people let you draw for cheap, don’t try to win it up front.  On the flop the BB bet $50 into a $600 flop, with a gut shot straight, one over card, and a flush draw there was an excellent chance I was favored, or at least even in the hand at this point.  Aggressive poker says now is an excellent chance to push an pick up the pot at this point, I disagree at this point in the tournament, there is plenty of play left and time to take chances later.  Here is my main opinion with this kind of situation, if the person betting is going to give you 1:12 odds to draw at your outs, take it.  The odds are likely you don’t have the best hand, odds are also if the person has flopped a Jack of any kind you’re going to get called on your all in so why not early in a tournament take the cheap draw and ensure when you get a lot of chips in you have the best hand.

2nd point on this hand that I think I did poorly looking back at it:  Value bet amount the constant debate.  I believe  the most improved portion of my game is bet amount/value bet to extract the most chips possible out of someone.  I also believe the portion of my game I need to work on the most is still this concept.  As you can see from looking at this hand I hit the straight on the river the original better checked and I bet $150 into a pot of $800.  Here are my thoughts, at this point in the hand I was pretty sure I was up against KJ or AJ with the preflop raise, I knew I could get a call with a reasonable bet my disappointment is that because I hit the gut shot, not the flush which is probably what the other player put me on.  The gut shot was less obvious and thus I think I could have gotten more out of this hand

Doing the Ferguson

http://pokerworks.com/poker-strategy/beginner-poker-strategy/chris-ferguson-turns-0-into-10-000-on-full-tilt-poker.html

This is where it started.  2 months ago after talking with a friend about Chris Ferguson turning $1 and $0 into 10,000 plus over the course of a year or more I decided I would try it using his method.  This blog is designed to monitor the progress of this adventure.  I started with slightly more, I started with just over $5, but the challenge is still obvious, turn $5 into as much as possible.

Throughout the process I will analyze days, hands, tournaments, and anything else that comes up.

Here is where we stand currently:

Two months in I have raised my initial $5 into just over $40, it at one point was up to $75 mostly do to a generous bonus from Full Tilt Poker ($25)  I have been playing primarily full ring cash games, and 6 handed sit n go tournaments.  There’s a lot that has happened in the last two months that I wish I would have analyzed and put into this blog, but since we are starting today I will start with the tournaments from today.

Todays will be simply an overview of the tournaments, no hand analysis considering fulltilt was not saving my hand history so I can’t go back and look at them.  From her on there will be at least 1 hand analysis per blog entry.  So take a look, today’s biggest accomplishment was taking 5th in a 90 player tourney boosting my bankroll by 13%.  Cashed in 50% of the tournaments I played in today which is also a good ITM

Todays tournaments:

ID	Start Time	Name		Buy-in	Entrants	Position	Won	Notes
112680898	Oct 15 23:37ET	$1 + $0.20 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.20	6	1	$3.90
112658667	Oct 15 20:46ET	$1 + $0.20 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.20	6	5	–
112648486	Oct 15 19:51ET	$1 + $0.10 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.10	90	5	$6.30
112650601	Oct 15 19:49ET	$1 + $0.20 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.20	6	2	$2.10
112650101	Oct 15 19:48ET	$1 + $0.10 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.10	45	16	–
112615174	Oct 15 15:48ET	$1 + $0.10 Heads Up Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.10	2	2	–
112535168	Oct 15 00:10ET	$1 + $0.20 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.20	6	2	$2.10
112534523	Oct 15 00:10ET	$1 + $0.20 Sit & Go		$1.00 + $0.20	9	7	–

Todays buy ins: $9.30

Todays winnings: $14.40

Total Profit: $5.10

Current Account: $45.68