FWIW I would crush both Bolly and DTM in a heads up session!!! :P jk, I have no idea who'd win but I'm past my days of wanting to prove I'm better than everyone else!! It's always fun to test yourself by playing against a tough reg HU cause it improves your game, but no need to play 4 rolls as that's not the point of poker!
Had an uneventful couple hours grinding before where I finished ~ £30 up. Got it in with JJ against AK at 30NL and held but on the flip side I got it in with 2 pair OTT against a pair and FD which hit on the river.
£1466 is my current balance. Think my new target will be to reach £2k by the end of the month which should be doable unless I get a full time job (ideally looking for part time in the future but I probably need a full time job right now, even though it would limit the poker!!)
Can we not derail my thread with silly bittering? FWIW I would crush both Bolly and DTM in a heads up session!!! :P jk, I have no idea who'd win but I'm past my days of wanting to prove I'm better than everyone else!! It's always fun to test yourself by playing against a tough reg HU cause it improves your game, but no need to play 4 rolls as that's not the point of poker! Had an uneventful couple hours grinding before where I finished ~ £30 up. Got it in with JJ against AK at 30NL and held but on the flip side I got it in with 2 pair OTT against a pair and FD which hit on the river. £1466 is my current balance. Think my new target will be to reach £2k by the end of the month which should be doable unless I get a full time job (ideally looking for part time in the future but I probably need a full time job right now, even though it would limit the poker!!) Posted by F_Ivanovic
Very good point!
Ill stop the de railing mate!
Gl with this quest, it's a good read and a challenge you will defo complete mate!
Great diary, always interesting to hear about life as well as poker. Like others was surprised to see you pop up at nl20 but had a couple of enjoyable sessions vs you. Seems like the roll is motoring ahead, and no doubt you will be smitalised soon (is that a word!). Any ideas what you want to do work wise, unfortunately I suspect part time work wont pay that well, but I guess its a question of balancing it with your potential poker earnings, which of course are not guaranteed.
I've just come across your diary after a few days away from stuff. Now i'm 55 and a retired teacher but i too did mathematics at university and experienced problems with examinations. The reason was more to do with the fact that i have epilepsy although well controlled now was made worse by stress. Exama exacerbated that stress. i'd have an attack and lose my memory which for maths modules such as Relativity and differential equations is a BIG problem Anyway i was let off my 2nd year exams and told the third years would count for 100% of my degree. Thank god poker wasn't involved in those days as i can't think of anything worse if you're feeling down etc.
Twenty odd years later my brother took his life whilst i was a maths teacher and i tumbled into anxiety and depression, which has recurred a couple of times but you should seek CBT as you need someone to push you through in the correct direction. I'm experiencing a period of it now and i'm receiving help(CBT). Depression can really be strength sapping some days but do get medical help and stick to it as there is a way out of it, i promise you.
The ups and downs of poker can't help but the recognition of how you feel is paramount in these periods and needs a qualified person to guide you through it. All the best for the future Ivan and good luck with the CBT.
sorry about that post matey, gl in your grind Posted by bolly580
No worries! Don't mind a bit of banter in all honesty, just as long as it doesn't derail the thread completely! Had a decent afternoon session and now reached my weekly target of £1500 (plus a bit)
Folding AK like a pro pre-flop:
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
HarryUrz
Small blind
£0.15
£0.15
£25.09
F_Ivanovic
Big blind
£0.30
£0.45
£56.33
Your hole cards
K
A
NooGooood
Fold
5toneFace
Fold
joburns06
Raise
£0.90
£1.35
£19.36
dougy
Fold
HarryUrz
Raise
£3.45
£4.80
£21.64
F_Ivanovic
Fold
joburns06
Fold
HarryUrz
Muck
HarryUrz
Win
£2.10
£23.74
HarryUrz
Return
£2.70
£0.00
£26.44
Getting someone to barrel off a bluff vs you like a boss:
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
Dumbmofo
Small blind
£0.15
£0.15
£30.86
oswaldfich
Big blind
£0.30
£0.45
£31.74
Your hole cards
A
A
lerky
Fold
Raise
£0.90
£1.35
£32.00
spideryd17
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£2.30
£3.65
£27.55
Dumbmofo
Fold
oswaldfich
Fold
Call
£1.40
£5.05
£30.60
Flop
6
A
6
Check
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£2.10
£7.15
£25.45
Raise
£4.80
£11.95
£25.80
F_Ivanovic
Call
£2.70
£14.65
£22.75
Turn
4
Bet
£8.00
£22.65
£17.80
F_Ivanovic
Call
£8.00
£30.65
£14.75
River
5
All-in
£17.80
£48.45
£0.00
F_Ivanovic
All-in
£14.75
£63.20
£0.00
Unmatched bet
£3.05
£60.15
£3.05
Show
8
8
F_Ivanovic
Show
A
A
F_Ivanovic
Win
Full House, Aces and 6s
£58.35
Flopping quads like a boss:
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
MATT8
Small blind
£0.10
£0.10
£21.35
Big blind
£0.20
£0.30
£21.35
Your hole cards
6
6
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£0.60
£0.90
£32.02
basty2010
Fold
dougy
Fold
5toneFace
Fold
MATT8
Fold
Raise
£0.80
£1.70
£20.55
F_Ivanovic
Call
£0.40
£2.10
£31.62
Flop
5
5
6
Bet
£1.58
£3.68
£18.97
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£4.30
£7.98
£27.32
Call
£2.72
£10.70
£16.25
Turn
3
Bet
£8.03
£18.73
£8.22
F_Ivanovic
Call
£8.03
£26.76
£19.29
River
6
All-in
£8.22
£34.98
£0.00
F_Ivanovic
Call
£8.22
£43.20
£11.07
Show
J
A
F_Ivanovic
Show
6
6
F_Ivanovic
Win
Four 6s
£41.40
£52.47
So yeah, ran pretty well. Made up for a bad earlier session where I ran badly (only lost 1.5 BI's though) - I had AA about 4/5 times in the first 20 mins. On one of them they did get cracked by a flop set though and it was against the same player in hand 2 (which happened literally 1 min before!!)
In Response to Re: F_Ivanovic 20nl to 100nl reg by the end of 2013 (+ skypoker/lifestory) : Bolly would OWN your soul in a heads up session dude! Posted by macapaca
Seen as Ryan has bumped you... how's your month going Ivan, hardly see you on the tables at all recently?
Been a pretty awful month for me so far but I just keep telling myself 'If I can lose X amount in 10 days, then I can win twice as much in the remaining 20'.
EDIT: Don't wanna de-rail thread further but tbf I don't think DTM has ever sat out V me once when a table has broken.... maybe I'm just a fish
Seen as Ryan has bumped you... how's your month going Ivan, hardly see you on the tables at all recently? Been a pretty awful month for me so far but I just keep telling myself 'If I can lose X amount in 10 days, then I can win twice as much in the remaining 20'. EDIT: Don't wanna de-rail thread further but tbf I don't think DTM has ever sat out V me once when a table has broken.... maybe I'm just a fish Posted by Lambert180
I try and keep at least the 16 tables going Paul even if they do get down to hu. Its not easy playing 4 hu tables against 4 different people while playing another 12 tables. Of course there are easier spots than playing yourself but I just hate being the one to quit. I maybe a terrible player but one thing I don't do is sit out. p.s your twice the player bolly bag is.
I'm done posting on this. This forum gets worse by the day. Tikay mentioned it at the SPT and I totally agree with him.
I think it is a requisite that 100nl players know what "flopping quads" means....... Perhaps check on Google. Posted by calcalfold
Hey, what's it matter if you flop them or river them. Still quads!!
@ Lambert: Not played as much volume as I'd have liked but still playing! I've mainly been playing PLO though so probably why you haven't seen me much. I got up to 1.5k but back down now to just less than 1.4k... profiting at PLO but then losing it at holdem! Still confident I can reach 2k by the end of the month though if I put in a bit more volume. I've become a nit in moving up these days (except when it comes to PLO!!) but think that's OK, no need for me to rush my way to 100nl even if I did only give myself a few months :P
The other thing I forgot to mention about playing 50PLO is that I tend to just 2 table (usually playing a 20PLO alongside it) so I can fully concentrate on it. Want to be fully maximising my winrate when playing 50PLO!
Had a good long session this afternoon where I finished about £250 up. Played mainly Holdem and 15/30p tables although had one 20NL mastercash and 1 40NL table. Ran reasonably well and had 8 pots where I won more than £20 and only 2 pots where I lost more than £20. This was one of the pots I lost more than £20:
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
RED_MAN
Small blind
£0.20
£0.20
£34.00
F_Ivanovic
Big blind
£0.40
£0.60
£80.03
Your hole cards
A
A
walks2311
Raise
£1.20
£1.80
£70.92
NooGooood
Fold
SJspanky1
Call
£1.20
£3.00
£37.60
dubzs
Fold
RED_MAN
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£3.30
£6.30
£76.73
walks2311
Call
£2.50
£8.80
£68.42
SJspanky1
Call
£2.50
£11.30
£35.10
Flop
7
K
10
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£5.20
£16.50
£71.53
walks2311
Raise
£11.20
£27.70
£57.22
SJspanky1
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Call
£6.00
£33.70
£65.53
Turn
5
F_Ivanovic
Check
walks2311
Bet
£16.85
£50.55
£40.37
F_Ivanovic
Call
£16.85
£67.40
£48.68
River
8
F_Ivanovic
Check
walks2311
All-in
£40.37
£107.77
£0.00
F_Ivanovic
Fold
walks2311
Muck
walks2311
Win
£65.60
£65.60
walks2311
Return
£40.37
£1.80
£105.97
Small raise OTF was scary looking and couldn't do much but call. Turn I figure he may still be betting draws and call. I exploitedly folded the river because I think people at these stakes will often give up any bluffs OTR and the only value hand I could see him play like this would be AK. I block some of his AK because I have AA and I think I'm almost always up against a set by now.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
F_Ivanovic
Small blind
£0.15
£0.15
£51.47
AJ_Rockets
Big blind
£0.30
£0.45
£66.02
Your hole cards
3
5
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£0.75
£1.20
£50.72
AJ_Rockets
Call
£0.60
£1.80
£65.42
Flop
4
7
2
AJ_Rockets
Check
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£1.35
£3.15
£49.37
AJ_Rockets
Call
£1.35
£4.50
£64.07
Turn
A
AJ_Rockets
Check
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£3.38
£7.88
£45.99
AJ_Rockets
Call
£3.38
£11.26
£60.69
River
9
AJ_Rockets
Check
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£8.45
£19.71
£37.54
AJ_Rockets
Raise
£19.00
£38.71
£41.69
F_Ivanovic
All-in
£37.54
£76.25
£0.00
AJ_Rockets
Call
£26.99
£103.24
£14.70
F_Ivanovic
Show
3
5
AJ_Rockets
Show
9
A
F_Ivanovic
Win
Straight to the 5
£102.24
£102.24
This was the biggest pot won. Pretty standard cooler although a worse player probably wouldn't go broke since they wouldn't have value-raised the river with TP2.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
robert1968
Sit out
tallboy
Small blind
£0.15
£0.15
£29.83
F_Ivanovic
Big blind
£0.30
£0.45
£45.33
Your hole cards
Q
8
jd44
Fold
Raise
£0.90
£1.35
£33.22
tallboy
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£2.40
£3.75
£42.93
Call
£1.80
£5.55
£31.42
Flop
6
10
3
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£2.78
£8.33
£40.15
Call
£2.78
£11.11
£28.64
Turn
8
F_Ivanovic
Check
Bet
£5.70
£16.81
£22.94
F_Ivanovic
Call
£5.70
£22.51
£34.45
River
10
F_Ivanovic
Check
All-in
£22.94
£45.45
£0.00
F_Ivanovic
Call
£22.94
£68.39
£11.51
F_Ivanovic
Show
Q
8
Show
J
A
F_Ivanovic
Win
Two Pairs, 10s and 8s
£66.59
£78.10
And finishing off with a nice hero call!
Current balance now £1674... £330 off my target off £2k by the end of the month. C4P is only at £55ish with 3800 points. Should have taken more advantage of the double points earlier but nvm. Need to play a lot over the next couple weeks to try and make priority but just going to concentrate on playing good poker more than anything I think.
Just £40 shy now off £2k. Came 2nd in a £11 BH today for a ~ £55 profit. Really grinded that result as well and didn't have many bounties to show for it!! That and a late(ish) run in the mini last night shows my tourney play is improving slightly.
Still, biggest profit is on cash! Playing 15p/30p now for the most part since 50BI's is more than enough. If there's a 20NL mastercash playing them as well because love playing deep stacked! So much more pressure you can apply. I don't think I will make Priority this month unfortunately. Don't know how I managed it last month tbh when I was playing lower stakes (on avg) I think I may start adding in some 50NL games when I reach the £2.5k mark although atm the 30NL games are pretty good so not in any rush to move up!
I feel like I'm bound to have a downswing soon though as well. Been pretty plain-sailing the last week where I hovered around 1.4k/1.5k for a while before having a good run up to my current total.
Anyway, reviewing some hands today I've had 13 where I've won more than £10 and 6 where I've lost more than £10. Probably 1 hand that I was disappointed in where I called down with 88 on J6x6J board.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
Rumpy
Small blind
£0.10
£0.10
£42.22
F_Ivanovic
Big blind
£0.20
£0.30
£40.50
Your hole cards
8
A
Bodie66
Fold
dubzs
Raise
£0.60
£0.90
£57.13
rocky62
Call
£0.60
£1.50
£20.41
Rumpy
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Raise
£2.00
£3.50
£38.50
dubzs
Call
£1.60
£5.10
£55.53
rocky62
Fold
Flop
3
5
4
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£2.80
£7.90
£35.70
dubzs
Call
£2.80
£10.70
£52.73
Turn
7
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£7.20
£17.90
£28.50
dubzs
Call
£7.20
£25.10
£45.53
River
A
F_Ivanovic
Bet
£13.00
£38.10
£15.50
dubzs
Fold
F_Ivanovic
Muck
F_Ivanovic
Win
£23.84
£39.34
F_Ivanovic
Return
£13.00
£1.26
£52.34
This was a pretty unusual spot I got into on the river. I had him on a range of hands that was mostly 99-KK and occasionally a slow played set/some float that picked up a flush draw. I thought 6x was pretty unlikely. My range OTT is probably some 6x, random 2 pr, big overpairs, some FD's.
OK so quick update: Comfortably reached my target for this month of £2k. (Just shy of 2.3) with a £200 profit for today. Rough figures: +£90 in PLO Omaha (20PL) +£30 in NL Holdem (1 BI at 30NL) and + £80 profit in MTT, (the main event tonight where I finished 12th iirc)
Volume's been pretty low with me only 2/3 tabling at most but just means I'm making better decisions on each table. The BH tonight I really thought I had a decent chance at final tabling. I was in the top 10 for so long but then ran really card dead for ages and after losing a flip got quite short. I miraculously doubled up when my Q8s ran into AA (I think this was the first time my tournament life was on the line and it was with 13 left) and flopped a flush draw and hit on the river. Few hands later though I flopped top pair, turned 2 pair and shoved river only to find myself up against a slow played set of 88's (that slow rolled river?!)
I think if I can reach 3k by the time SPT comes around I may decide to buy in if I haven't already won a seat. Going to be tough but I reckon I can definitely get close to reaching the target if I put in enough volume! As for priority... doubt that's going to happen this month
Here's a hand that happened a few days ago that I think I played pretty well when I was looking through my hand history. Some people seem to go really big on the flop here with their range when in reality we should be betting small. It's a dry flop and unlikely anyone has connected so going for small we get calls from a much wider range. Turn card makes the board slightly more wet so I bet a little bigger this time (but still less than half pot) which leaves me with a perfect river sizing to go all in.
OK will PM you both if I decide to take up on the offer! For now I think I am going to try and do my best to satellite/make enough to BI direct... if the latter though I may sell some %
Nice work with the roll.
How did you learn to play PLO btw are you self taught?
Thanks I'm still waiting for that inevitable downswing though! And yes self taught, same with holdem really. I read 1 PLO book (can't recall title atm) but that's about it. To improve my game I mostly just read/comment on threads on the SSPL omaha forum on 2+2 and then just put in lots of practice.
With a 2k+ roll why are you not playing 50nl? With your talent ur risk of ruin is like <1%. Plus u can step down if u drop like 10 BI's. Step up Posted by Dumbmofo
In the past I would have definitely been playing 50NL by now. However there are a few reasons why I'm choosing not to move up yet.
The main one being is that I'm planning on poker being my main source of income, although I also plan to get a part time job as well. Atm I have no part time job so my BR management needs to be as strict as possible and ideally want 60 buyins for my main level. Once I get to 50BI's I will gradually start adding some 50NL tables in.
Since I started poker I've had a job and then been at Uni so poker was just a nice side-earner for me and hence bankroll management was less strict.
The second reason is that I know I can have tilt problems and with better bankroll management a downswing will affect me less and hence reduce the likelyhood of me tilting. Also with my health problems I know a major downswing could have a negative impact on that if the downswing was a significant amount of my bankroll.
The third reason is that 30NL seems to have more recreational players anyway on a regular basis whereas 50NL has a lot more regs, so I'm not sure my winrate would increase that much if I decided to move up. I'll happily play 50PLO omaha though because although the variance increases there it's much softer than 50NL holdem!!
OK so not had an update for a few days. I was close to 2.3k but since then my BR has stayed steady. Last night I entered the £55 BH tournament and finished 8th despite taking no bounties! So I won back £55ish + the orginal BI. Cash never got going really and lost a slight amount leaving me a small profit for the day.
Tonight has been much better although I'm disappointed somewhat as it could have been better. Entered the rebuy which cost me £33 total and built up a really nice chip stack after the addon period. Got myself into some marginal situations though and my chip stack dwindled. Picked up tens in the BB and squeezed after the HJ raised and got 3 callers. Original raiser shoved and I figured I'd been active enough that he could be shoving fairly wide. He had 88 and flopped a set and that was that!!
£55 BH I started well and was gradually increasing my chip stack. Got it to 8k and found 77 in CO. Raise with 4 callers. Flop a set and short stack shoves - I decide to flat as board is super dry and get sky's great MTT player MattBates to shove over the top with QJs drawing pretty much dead. I hold up and get myself to 30k. 19 or so left and I pick up JJ and a short stack limps. I raise to 4x and then the BB 3-bets me which puts shorty all in who obliges. Now my gut said to fold here but I was reminded of last nights BH when I folded AQ after investing 1/3 of my stack to find out villain had 9s. People will just go crazy in BH's to knock players out so I ended up going with it. I run into KK from the BB and the shorty has AA. Board runs out 4 flush of which we all have! Mine only J high I lose though. I then stupidly shove KJ for 11bbs or so from an UTG raise. Find myself a race (AQ) but they flop an ace and it's all over. At least I had 2 bounties that time to recoup some of the BI.
Omaha 50NL was where my big profit came for from the night. Had 2 tables open of it and finished with £200ish on one iirc and £350 on another. Below is the biggest pot of the night for me: (nvm it wouldn't post)
Basically I got it in with AA23ss pre-flop against 3 opponents. One had AQJT, the other JJT9 and the oher QJ79 (all ss, hearts which i had and spades) - the pot was £219 total
Just checked the equities and I was a huge 60.59% favourite - it helped that everyone had each others cards. So glad to see that it held up! The flop + turn was stuff dreams are made of :P
Bank roll now is at £2543. Probably enough to start playing 50NL. That being said if omaha continues to run regularly on here at 50NL I may spend most of my time playing that.
Don't comment too much on the forum but I've followed this from the start. Just want to say that your story is somewhat inspiring and your ambition to keep playing after so many setbacks is again, inspiring. Hope you get everything you want from poker. GL!
Comments
GL and look forward to reading the updates.
Folding AK like a pro pre-flop:
Been a pretty awful month for me so far but I just keep telling myself 'If I can lose X amount in 10 days, then I can win twice as much in the remaining 20'.
EDIT: Don't wanna de-rail thread further but tbf I don't think DTM has ever sat out V me once when a table has broken.... maybe I'm just a fish
Perhaps check on Google.
@ Lambert: Not played as much volume as I'd have liked but still playing! I've mainly been playing PLO though so probably why you haven't seen me much. I got up to 1.5k but back down now to just less than 1.4k... profiting at PLO but then losing it at holdem! Still confident I can reach 2k by the end of the month though if I put in a bit more volume. I've become a nit in moving up these days (except when it comes to PLO!!) but think that's OK, no need for me to rush my way to 100nl even if I did only give myself a few months :P
The other thing I forgot to mention about playing 50PLO is that I tend to just 2 table (usually playing a 20PLO alongside it) so I can fully concentrate on it. Want to be fully maximising my winrate when playing 50PLO!
Current balance now £1674... £330 off my target off £2k by the end of the month. C4P is only at £55ish with 3800 points. Should have taken more advantage of the double points earlier but nvm. Need to play a lot over the next couple weeks to try and make priority but just going to concentrate on playing good poker more than anything I think.
Still, biggest profit is on cash! Playing 15p/30p now for the most part since 50BI's is more than enough. If there's a 20NL mastercash playing them as well because love playing deep stacked! So much more pressure you can apply. I don't think I will make Priority this month unfortunately. Don't know how I managed it last month tbh when I was playing lower stakes (on avg) I think I may start adding in some 50NL games when I reach the £2.5k mark although atm the 30NL games are pretty good so not in any rush to move up!
I feel like I'm bound to have a downswing soon though as well. Been pretty plain-sailing the last week where I hovered around 1.4k/1.5k for a while before having a good run up to my current total.
Anyway, reviewing some hands today I've had 13 where I've won more than £10 and 6 where I've lost more than £10. Probably 1 hand that I was disappointed in where I called down with 88 on J6x6J board.
Was gonna reply in lamberts diary but didn't wanna spam it.
Grand final is really deep and slow clock? Would always prefer to back a good cash player than a good sky mtt player but moreso in this structure.
PM me if anything becomes available plz
fwiw u cud probably sell all 100% of yourself 4/5 times over.
Nice work with the roll.
How did you learn to play PLO btw are you self taught?
Just checked the equities and I was a huge 60.59% favourite - it helped that everyone had each others cards. So glad to see that it held up! The flop + turn was stuff dreams are made of :P
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