davidross
02-15-2004, 12:13 PM
It was an eventful week in the davidross household, poker and otherwise. I’m not even sure where to start this week. Between my wife’s graduation ceremony and semi-formal dinner/dance, my renewed commitment to improving my game, and a loss-free week of poker that included some days off, and some tournament play.
I had a great week at the tables. Interesting that it would happen just when I’ve stated my goal to play more aggressively, and I have been receiving some very valuable feedback from some fellow posters in the shorthanded section. I can’t help but wonder if some of the good results are an example of better play, but clearly most of it was due to incredible cards. Just as an example, a week ago I had a win rate of 1.01 bb’s per 100 hands, and today that win rate is now 1.66, with only around 9,000 extra hands. I started the week winning $591 on Sunday night. I had an up and down day on Monday, but managed to finish ahead $284, and then had a huge day on Tuesday, winning $1,271, most of it in the evening. Wednesday I finally hit a bad run and lost $650 in just 2 hours of play in the afternoon, but made it all back in the first 90 minutes of my evening session, and then managed to win $168 for the day. On Thursday I had another real good day, winning $905. My mother in law arrived on Friday morning for my wife’s graduation. She doesn’t know that I’m playing poker for a living right now, and for some reasons I’d rather not go into, but rest assured they are very valid reasons, we don’t want her to know. SO I only played fro an hour on Friday, and managed to win another $236. And that was it for my ring game play this week. So I end the week up $3,455, and with 7 consecutive winning days. I facetiously told someone that after a bad January I decided to have a good February, and it seems to be happening.
I played a few tournaments this week. I’m harboring (My American spell checker makes me spell it this way, I apologize to my Canadian and British friends for selling out) Moneymaker dreams, so I’ve entered 2 Empire satellites to try and qualify for the WSOP semi-final. In addition, I had qualified for Party’s $30,000 freeroll so I entered that too on Friday night. I’m going to try as many satellites as I can without upsetting my normal playing schedule. Empire runs 2 multi-table satellites daily for $9, and for every 24 players one spot in the semi-final is awarded. They also have single table tourneys running all the time, but the tables don’t fill up very fast. I did play one no-limit single table early in the week, but lost pretty early on two hands where I got run down. The first hand happened when I had more than average chips, around 1200, flopped a set and had a player from the blinds go all in for around 600. I called and his top pair turned into a runner runner straight to beat me. Just a few hands later I made a raise with QQ, and got called by A4. On a flop of J94 I went all in and he called me. River brought his A and I was gone. ON Friday night after my wife’s convocation I entered the Party Freeroll and decided to enter the Empire multi table at the same time. The Empire tourney was limit, and the Party tourney was no-limit. I went 45 hands in the Empire tourney without winning a pot. That stretch included a flopped set (lost to a bigger set) and a flopped straight (lost to another set that filled on the river). I then won 1 small pot before going out without winning another hand. The Party tournament went pretty well for me. There were 1700 entrants and a first prize of $6,000. I went from 1500 at the start to around 2500 at the first break without making any risky moves. Then the system froze. We waited for around another 90 minutes, playing 1 more hand and numerous false starts. Finally we got a message saying everyone left in the tourney was guaranteed $50.
Empire/Party have had a lot of technical problems lately. It’s been pretty frustrating. I’ve quit early several times lately out of frustration. I sure hope they get this worked out soon.
I would sure love to get lucky in one of these satellites and win a trip to the WSOP. What a great way that would be to wrap up a year of posts. I’d certainly have enough material for a book then.
Now on to my quest for self improvement. When I first started playing I worked very hard to improve my game. I read books, discovered this website, and played a lot. And it worked. I got better fairly quickly. And after running badly for a while I made a renewed dedication to improvement about a year later, and that was when I truly became a winning player. But since starting to play full time, I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t focused on improving my game. I do believe the sheer volume of hands I have played has helped me improve from the experience alone, but I haven’t really worked on my game. Getting the stats from pokertracker really drove home the fact that there is plenty of room for improvement. ZeeJustin made me an offer last weekend that was simply fantastic. He asked me to play 2 tables for 100 hands at the same time and send him the hand histories. He has reviewed them and extracted hands where there could be some debate on the play of the hands, and he posted them in the shorthanded section. We have been reviewing them all week. The results have been eye-opening for me. There is clearly a general consensus that is different from the way I played most of them. Almost all of the time I have limped when most would have raised, or checked post flop when they would have bet. I need to find a way to make this an automatic part of my routine.
I have played many fewer hours this week for several reasons. My mother in law’s visit being the primary one, and Conan O’Brien’s Canadian themed shows this week, had me taking a 1 hour break each night to watch as well (they were hilarious, and a big event here in Toronto). But in addition, I found it much more mentally draining playing outside of my normal comfort zone, and needed to take more breaks. It’s obvious to me know that I had gotten into a set routine that was easy to play, but far from optimal. My task now is to improve my game to where these plays become as automatic as my old routine, so that I can play that style as comfortably as I played my old way. Again it was very fortunate that I ran so well this week. The reduced hours didn’t hurt me in the pocketbook. I really feel like I made some progress this week and I thank everyone who has helped pick apart my game.
I have been overwhelmed by the responses I have received since starting these posts. I get the nicest PM’s every week, ranging from poker advice, to tournament invitations, to people sending me links to topics I’ve discussed here, like gifted children. There are truly some very fine people using this web site.
I had a great weekend watching my wife receive her diploma. She has set a wonderful example for her children and I’m so proud of her. Then we went to a nice dinner/dance last night where I was the designated driver for a group of new nurses. They let their hair down a bit after 3 years of study and we all had a good time. Quite a mixture of graduates, from the young 20 year olds, to the surprising number of 40 somethings who are returning to the work force.
Now it’s back to the grind. I hope to get a full complement of hours in this week, but still try and qualify for next weekends WSOP semi-final. Have a good week everyone.
I had a great week at the tables. Interesting that it would happen just when I’ve stated my goal to play more aggressively, and I have been receiving some very valuable feedback from some fellow posters in the shorthanded section. I can’t help but wonder if some of the good results are an example of better play, but clearly most of it was due to incredible cards. Just as an example, a week ago I had a win rate of 1.01 bb’s per 100 hands, and today that win rate is now 1.66, with only around 9,000 extra hands. I started the week winning $591 on Sunday night. I had an up and down day on Monday, but managed to finish ahead $284, and then had a huge day on Tuesday, winning $1,271, most of it in the evening. Wednesday I finally hit a bad run and lost $650 in just 2 hours of play in the afternoon, but made it all back in the first 90 minutes of my evening session, and then managed to win $168 for the day. On Thursday I had another real good day, winning $905. My mother in law arrived on Friday morning for my wife’s graduation. She doesn’t know that I’m playing poker for a living right now, and for some reasons I’d rather not go into, but rest assured they are very valid reasons, we don’t want her to know. SO I only played fro an hour on Friday, and managed to win another $236. And that was it for my ring game play this week. So I end the week up $3,455, and with 7 consecutive winning days. I facetiously told someone that after a bad January I decided to have a good February, and it seems to be happening.
I played a few tournaments this week. I’m harboring (My American spell checker makes me spell it this way, I apologize to my Canadian and British friends for selling out) Moneymaker dreams, so I’ve entered 2 Empire satellites to try and qualify for the WSOP semi-final. In addition, I had qualified for Party’s $30,000 freeroll so I entered that too on Friday night. I’m going to try as many satellites as I can without upsetting my normal playing schedule. Empire runs 2 multi-table satellites daily for $9, and for every 24 players one spot in the semi-final is awarded. They also have single table tourneys running all the time, but the tables don’t fill up very fast. I did play one no-limit single table early in the week, but lost pretty early on two hands where I got run down. The first hand happened when I had more than average chips, around 1200, flopped a set and had a player from the blinds go all in for around 600. I called and his top pair turned into a runner runner straight to beat me. Just a few hands later I made a raise with QQ, and got called by A4. On a flop of J94 I went all in and he called me. River brought his A and I was gone. ON Friday night after my wife’s convocation I entered the Party Freeroll and decided to enter the Empire multi table at the same time. The Empire tourney was limit, and the Party tourney was no-limit. I went 45 hands in the Empire tourney without winning a pot. That stretch included a flopped set (lost to a bigger set) and a flopped straight (lost to another set that filled on the river). I then won 1 small pot before going out without winning another hand. The Party tournament went pretty well for me. There were 1700 entrants and a first prize of $6,000. I went from 1500 at the start to around 2500 at the first break without making any risky moves. Then the system froze. We waited for around another 90 minutes, playing 1 more hand and numerous false starts. Finally we got a message saying everyone left in the tourney was guaranteed $50.
Empire/Party have had a lot of technical problems lately. It’s been pretty frustrating. I’ve quit early several times lately out of frustration. I sure hope they get this worked out soon.
I would sure love to get lucky in one of these satellites and win a trip to the WSOP. What a great way that would be to wrap up a year of posts. I’d certainly have enough material for a book then.
Now on to my quest for self improvement. When I first started playing I worked very hard to improve my game. I read books, discovered this website, and played a lot. And it worked. I got better fairly quickly. And after running badly for a while I made a renewed dedication to improvement about a year later, and that was when I truly became a winning player. But since starting to play full time, I think it’s fair to say that I haven’t focused on improving my game. I do believe the sheer volume of hands I have played has helped me improve from the experience alone, but I haven’t really worked on my game. Getting the stats from pokertracker really drove home the fact that there is plenty of room for improvement. ZeeJustin made me an offer last weekend that was simply fantastic. He asked me to play 2 tables for 100 hands at the same time and send him the hand histories. He has reviewed them and extracted hands where there could be some debate on the play of the hands, and he posted them in the shorthanded section. We have been reviewing them all week. The results have been eye-opening for me. There is clearly a general consensus that is different from the way I played most of them. Almost all of the time I have limped when most would have raised, or checked post flop when they would have bet. I need to find a way to make this an automatic part of my routine.
I have played many fewer hours this week for several reasons. My mother in law’s visit being the primary one, and Conan O’Brien’s Canadian themed shows this week, had me taking a 1 hour break each night to watch as well (they were hilarious, and a big event here in Toronto). But in addition, I found it much more mentally draining playing outside of my normal comfort zone, and needed to take more breaks. It’s obvious to me know that I had gotten into a set routine that was easy to play, but far from optimal. My task now is to improve my game to where these plays become as automatic as my old routine, so that I can play that style as comfortably as I played my old way. Again it was very fortunate that I ran so well this week. The reduced hours didn’t hurt me in the pocketbook. I really feel like I made some progress this week and I thank everyone who has helped pick apart my game.
I have been overwhelmed by the responses I have received since starting these posts. I get the nicest PM’s every week, ranging from poker advice, to tournament invitations, to people sending me links to topics I’ve discussed here, like gifted children. There are truly some very fine people using this web site.
I had a great weekend watching my wife receive her diploma. She has set a wonderful example for her children and I’m so proud of her. Then we went to a nice dinner/dance last night where I was the designated driver for a group of new nurses. They let their hair down a bit after 3 years of study and we all had a good time. Quite a mixture of graduates, from the young 20 year olds, to the surprising number of 40 somethings who are returning to the work force.
Now it’s back to the grind. I hope to get a full complement of hours in this week, but still try and qualify for next weekends WSOP semi-final. Have a good week everyone.