January

I put in loads of tournament volume in January, but am now well behind on my cash hands goal. Here are the stats:

Tourneys - 67
Profit - ($18.78)
ROI - (7.4)

Cash Hands - 373
Profit - $3.55
BB/100 - 4.76

I am well above pace to reach 200 tourneys this year, but I fully expect to play much less as school is kicking in to gear. I've only played ~ 10 tourneys since Jan. 20th. I'm a little disappointed with the monetary results, but it is a small sample. I feel like I played pretty well most of the time, but there were five to ten tournaments where I felt I was reverting to old habits of not folding the worst hand because "I don't want to play if I have to scrape back from less than a starting stack." This is horrible thinking, but I can be prone to it if it's my last tournament up; I'm just ready to do something else, and after playing for 1/2 hour or more, it really sucks to drop a decent pot and have to rebuild. I need to work on this, since it severely impacts my overall equity in tournaments.

In cash, I'm well below my goal for number of hands. Further, I have a hard time putting in volume both when I'm playing well (don't want to jinx it) and when I'm on a downswing (I suck). I need to keep playing through both. I started the month up 2 buyins in ~70 hands and the next few sessions ran into some coolers.

So far in february I've dropped another two buyins on the following hands. Other than these two hands, I'm about even, which sucks, but I think I've been running under expectation in terms of hitting any flops whatsoever. So this should turn around. I'm a bit disappointed in myself for the two hands I'm about to post, but I really didn't see any other options. In the first, I don't know if I can fold to his C/R even though it really feels like 7x. I wanted to, because I couldn't think of any hands I beat that C/R this flop into three opponents. I guess I was just hoping for a random Kx. In the end though, I'm a spewy monkey.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

CO ($2.65)
Button ($5.35)
SB ($9.10)
BB ($9.25)
UTG ($14.05)
Hero (MP) ($10.45)

Preflop: Hero is MP with A, K

UTG calls $0.10, Hero raises to $0.50, CO calls $0.50, Button calls $0.50, 2 folds, UTG calls $0.40

Flop: ($2.15) K, 7, 7 (4 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $1.30, 2 folds, UTG raises to $4, Hero raises to $9.95 (All-In), UTG calls $5.95

Turn: ($22.05) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($22.05) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $22.05 | Rake: $1.05

Results:
UTG had 5, 7 (three of a kind, sevens).
Hero mucked A, K (two pair, Aces and Kings).
Outcome: UTG won $21


The second hand I think is probably standard for most people. I had a really bad feeling when he insta-min-4bet. I think flat calling and then folding that horrible flop is better. The flop was horrible because now everything in his PF range crushes me (I put his PF range aat QQ+ after the insta-min-4bet at $10NL).

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (4 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

Hero (BB) ($10.75)
UTG ($1.45)
Button ($17.30)
SB ($16.30)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, K

2 folds, SB raises to $0.30, Hero raises to $1, SB raises to $1.70, Hero raises to $10.75 (All-In), SB calls $9.05

Flop: ($21.50) 6, Q, 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($21.50) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($21.50) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $21.50 | Rake: $1.05

Results:
SB had A, A (two pair, Aces and sixes).
Hero mucked K, K (two pair, Kings and sixes).
Outcome: SB won $20.45

Time to put in some volume. Hopefully at least 200 hands. Then write a lab report. Until next time.