Satisfaction

Tuesday night was the most satisfying night of poker I've had in a couple of weeks. I only played 3 games and felt mentally quite exhausted after them but the results were good. I cashed in all three, 2 x 1st and 1 x 3rd, all in $6 x 10 player games.

Running Total: Played 101 / ITM 36% / ROI -3% / Profit -$25.20

So, 101 games and many hours into my challenge and… I’m almost back where I started. My performance over the next 100 games is going to have to be pretty exceptional, but I'm feeling good.

Yesterday I referenced an article on Pocket Fives by Jennifear, well I re-read it last night and that lead me on to reading an excellent article on Standard Tight Aggressive play and another article on a slightly looser style. I’ve been thinking quite a lot about my game and what I have been experiencing recently, so these articles definitely helped.

I went into Tuesday night’s session with a renewed determination and a refined gameplan:

1) Loosen up slightly during level 1 & 2 playing suited connectors, semi connectors and suited aces, basically anything that can make a good flush or straight, with the view of hitting a monster cheaply.
2) I have been arriving at the bubble with a relatively short stack compared to the chip leaders too often, so I need to be stealing more during level 3 & 4. So when it gets down to 5-6 players or about halfway through level 3 start stealing with any Ace, Two court cards or Kx greater than K-6, but be very aware of position and the opponents current behaviour.

3) Keep stealing as the blinds get bigger and move into ICM bubble mode at 4 players but rather than shoving when the opportunity arises be more inclined to go for a 2.5 – 3 times the blind raise. This is because the players at this level seem to recognise the shove as a stealing tactic but are more likely to take a coin flip gamble and call. If I keep the ICM raises to a standard 2.5 – 3 (or sometimes a bit more) then I can still get away from them if donkey boy calls with his 7-2 offsuit and proceeds to flop the nuts.

4) Heads Up. Just be patient and play my usual aggressive heads up game, chip away at them, wear them down and then trap them when they finally get sick of it. Just remember, patience.

Well it seemed to work a treat. I don’t know if it was my refined gameplan, lucky table selection or something else as the sample size is entirely inconsequential, but something went right so I’m happy. Now all I’ve got to do is hold that moment, and try and continue playing in this style to see if holds over a longer run.

One other thing I did was to concentrate far more on the other players’ hands during the game using the Hand History window and Poker Tracker to note every hand shown down (or mucked at showdown). I did this before but not as diligently and last night I started noting them down in a slightly different way that turned out much easier to read in the player notes window. I felt I really got into a groove last night and my focus on the game and the players surpassed my normal level, I think that’s why I felt a bit mentally drained by the end of it but I’m sure it made a big difference when I was choosing my spots to make a steal from.

Finally after I was finished playing I spent half an hour in Poker Tracker and spotted a few interesting things.

The hands I lose with are when I have just a high card or a single pair, everything else is +EV and the position I lose from most often is the Big Blind. So there are a couple more pointers for me to follow as I tweak my game a little more.

One thing is for sure, playing so many games, at the same level, on the same site and opening myself up to public scrutiny is bringing me a focus and level of self analysis that I don’t think I have achieved before. Long my it continue and hopefully my results will improve accordingly.

Onwards and Upwards….

No report tomorrow, Wednesday night is Bishopton Poker League night.