AND BREATHE.

That’s better. A (mildly) successful day, if not as successful as it looked like it might be. I played a few 45/90 man sngs on Full Tilt with some final tables which resulted in about $150 profit and I also played quite a few MTTs. I had decent stacks deep in the 10k Early Antes and the 14.5k rebuy as well as the late night Turbo, whatever that is, but I faded in those flips to get to the final tables and you’ve gotta win those flips. I also managed to Final Table bubble a 180 man on PStars as the chipleader. Horrible. The button (second chipleader) raised my BB and I jammed 40k with blinds at 500/1000 finding QQ. He snapped me off with AKo and binked the king. Not a lot you can do really but pretty grim. Shipping that one SnG would have taken me from being a losing to a winning player on Stars as I don’t play there much but I really don’t like my stats on OPR. I look like a complete fish. So, disappointing results after so much promise in the MTTs but I’m feeling so much better about my game after today. I’m making much better reads and the gameflow thing feels like it’s back/ Maybe I’m not a total donkey, after all.

I’ve been watching Mement_Mori’s videos over on Card Runners which I think really helped me to focus and realise a lot of leaks that have crept in over the last week or so since I lost all confidence. They’re incredible. Full Tilt / Card Runners do a thing called Truly Free Poker Training (TFPT - http://www.trulyfreepokertraining.com/faq.php) which is awesome. I put in a lot of volume last month - by my standards, at least - and so I’ve earnt a free month-long subscription to the site. I’ve been paying for Deuces Cracked (which is also awesome, by the way - EVERYONE should listen to the free Tommy Angelo podcasts that they have - http://www.deucescracked.com/podcasts) but it’s really nice not having to pay for it. I didn’t realise how incredibliy valuable it is to belong to a training site. Everyone seriously interested in poker should give it a shot.

Right, bed time for the bear. I want to be up early tomorrow so that I can grind before heading to Cardiff to watch Wales beat England in the rugby. ;-)

I really hate bad beat stories but check this out. In just 4 hours today, these are my bust-out hands. Really would love to smash the laptop through the window, but it’s not my window and I can’t afford another laptop, so….

God help me.

KK<AT&A7 AIPF 3k at 15/30

QQ<AA

JJ<QQ

QQ<99 AIPF

TT<AQ

KK<56 (CALLED 3 BET FLOP 234r)

A7<QK AIPF short

TT<A8 AIPF flop AA8

AT<77 AI on T85r flop – turn 7 river 7

AA<AQ

AJ<66 AI on TJ4 flop – turn 6

AT<J2 AIPF for stacks (see hand history below – mind blowing)

AK<88 AI A high turn, river 8

KK<AA

Full Tilt Poker Game #27832495117: $3 + $0.30 KO Sit & Go (216328700), Table 1 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold’em - 09:08:31 ET - 2011/02/02

Seat 1: Littlinho (2,700)

Seat 2: potthunter (20,823)

Seat 3: ZOUMPINIO (19,682)

Seat 4: kostya2373 (11,937)

Seat 5: huxster64 (5,052)

Seat 6: PokeGrif (8,555)

Seat 7: ChAAnt JC (4,900)

Littlinho antes 50

potthunter antes 50

ZOUMPINIO antes 50

kostya2373 antes 50

huxster64 antes 50

PokeGrif antes 50

ChAAnt JC antes 50

ChAAnt JC posts the small blind of 200

Littlinho posts the big blind of 400

The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to ChAAnt JC [Ts Ac]

potthunter folds

ZOUMPINIO folds

kostya2373 calls 400

huxster64 folds

PokeGrif folds

ChAAnt JC raises to 4,850, and is all in

Littlinho has 15 seconds left to act

Littlinho calls 2,250, and is all in

kostya2373 calls 4,450

ChAAnt JC shows [Ts Ac]

Littlinho shows [Kh 7h]

kostya2373 shows [2h Jh]

*** FLOP *** [Qc Qs Jd]

*** TURN *** [Qc Qs Jd] [7s]

*** RIVER *** [Qc Qs Jd 7s] [Tc]

ChAAnt JC shows two pair, Queens and Tens

kostya2373 shows two pair, Queens and Jacks

kostya2373 wins the side pot (4,400) with two pair, Queens and Jacks

Littlinho shows two pair, Queens and Sevens

kostya2373 wins the main pot (8,300) with two pair, Queens and Jacks

ChAAnt JC: are you serious

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 12,700 Main pot 8,300. Side pot 4,400. | Rake 0

Board: [Qc Qs Jd 7s Tc]

Seat 1: Littlinho (big blind) showed [Kh 7h] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sevens

Seat 2: potthunter folded before the Flop

Seat 3: ZOUMPINIO folded before the Flop

Seat 4: kostya2373 showed [2h Jh] and won (12,700) with two pair, Queens and Jacks

Seat 5: huxster64 folded before the Flop

Seat 6: PokeGrif (button) folded before the Flop

Seat 7: ChAAnt JC (small blind) showed [Ts Ac] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens

I write this from mid-Wales where - the idea was - I’m staying with my brother and playing poker for a few weeks. Seeing as I had the win at the beginning of January and I have no major commitments I thought I’d come to Abergavenny where there are no distractions and just get my head down, poker-wise. It was therefore a lovely conincidence that I’ve hit my biggest downswing since I started playing poker.

As I write this, I’m sat third in chips in a $3 90 seater ko tournament on Full Tilt. I’m therefore in the money in an MTT (even if it is a super soft S’n’G) for the first time in over 30 tournaments which is my longest ever non-cashing streak. Pretty sick. I’ve stopped playing large-field MTTs entirely until I get my confidence back up and I’m concentrating on micro MTT S’n’G’s where I know I always have a big edge and I can be a bit more rational about run bad. I could go through the bad beats with you but I think it’d depress us both and is pretty counter-productive so I think I’ll leave it. Needless to say, cowboys are the new seven-deuce and Queens are to be mucked pre-flop.

I’ve been playing quite a lot of 25NL too and during the first half of January I was up about $400, running at around +5ptbb/100 according to PokerTracker having played about 15000 hands. This is the first time I’ve ever really concentrated on cash games in any meaningful way and I was really enjoying it until about a week ago when everything seemed to crash & burn. I’m still pretty far ahead for the month I think, but I’m kinda scared to look at my graphs. I really felt I’d adapted from MTTs to ring games and I still feel like I have to an extent but this kind of variance really makes you question everything and I’m waiting for some answers.

Still, Abergavenny is beautiful and it’s nice hanging out with my brother, eating healthily and running in the Brecon Beacons. I just hope that things turn around, poker-wise. Wish me luck.

PS FWIW I shipped that $3 90 - I even won some coin tosses and sucked out on a guy with 99 vs QQ AIPF - so maybe things are gonna start to turn around. Fingers crossed.

Ok, so last Wednesday I had my biggest score to date, chopping the $26 $10k Guarantee HU on Full Tilt for $2.5k. It really feels like something’s changed in my game lately and I’m on a bit of a heater. It was such a great feeling getting heads up that I wasn’t even really thinking about the money but that cash will help my christmas unbelievably. A real milestone for me, I think.

The very next day I went deep again in the 14.5k guarantee. I was top 5 in chips with 12 left when I made a SUPER spewy bluff trying to get a fish of flopped trip aces. I think it was a +ev play but it’s also super high variance and I should’ve just moved aside. Ridiculous risking my tourney life in that spot. I couldn’t sleep afterward and I felt sick. Today I’ve also gone deep in the 10k Superstack busting in 19th with AQ to AK. This hand also looks a bit spewy and I shouldn’t have got it in pre really but in context of gameflow I think it made sense. One to go over tomorrow, for sure.

Conversely, since I’ve been concentrating more on MTTs the S’n’G’s are going really slowly. I don’t seem to be able to chalk anything up. Maybe I’m in a different mindset. I’m really struggling with gameflow. I don’t seem to be able to get my shoving ranges right. I’m sure it’ll figure itself out though. Just need to start going through some of my hand histories and putting them through SNG Wiz.

GL all.

Ok, so, I’m not really sure what I’m doing here.

It’s not a great way to start this blog, I know, but it’s the truth. This is a voyage of discovery which I’m hoping will help *me* to find out why I’m here. I’m a poker enthusiast (lover?) who plays, as so many of us do now, almost exclusively online. Mostly at Full Tilt and mostly 3/5/6/10 MTT S’n’G’s. I’m a profit player and I’m constantly looking to learn, whether by reading forums and books, getting coaching or watching a million videos on Deuces Cracked. You can check me out over at OPR or Sharkscope by searching out ChAAnt JC. I’m comfortably beating the games that I play and I really want to move onwards and start beating some slightly higher buy-ins. What really excites me and where I’d like to end up is playing large field MTTs, but I think I’m just starting to get the hang of those, having hit my first few final tables in the past month or so.

I’m hoping this blog will be interesting, honest, realistic and accessible and I’m also hoping you’ll be able to join me on a bit of a journey. I truly love playing and hopefully that will come across in my amateur ramblings. Either that, or this will just become a series of bad beat stories and I’ll bore everyone half to sleep. Let’s hope not though, eh? For both our sakes.

jc