Jugglegeek's diary. First profitable day for two weeks.

jugglegeek

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. NL8 disaster:

hi juggles, looks like you are doing well now on £175 from your original £40 start.

Actually I started with £100. After the first post I decided to deposit another £60 to make it up to £100. I wanted to have a solid bankroll and I also wanted to spend as little time at NL4 as possible since I've beaten it before. I could afford a bankroll of £100 so I did it.

jugglegeek

What a difference a short break can make. Played 400 or so hands this evening (still 4 tabling at the moment) and won £19.56. Looking back at the big wins there was only one full buy-in, I c-bet with a gut-shot JT on a K49 flop and turned a queen for the nuts. The villian then checked and shove over my £1.14 bet into £1.52. The rest was steady grinding and working out the differences of playing a table full of calling station fish vs a table with 3-4 tag players. These players can be just as profitable as the stations but for smaller pots. Rather than making huge mistakes like NL4 fish. These guys make regular small mistakes like folding to 3-bets; calling 3-bets out of possition and then check-folding the flop; or c-betting every flop but hardly ever betting the turn. This was vs a player who looked like a solid reg but seemingly each time he raised pre-flop I would have a hand worth 3-betting. I think he may have leveled himself into a 4-bet-fold here after folding to my 3-bets two or three times before, or he may have made an excellent decicion with JJ, I guess I'll never know.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£8.19
jugglegeek	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£12.89
	Your hole cards	Q Q
UTG	Fold
BTN	Fold
SB	Raise		£0.20	£0.32	£7.99
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.64	£0.96	£12.25
SB	Raise		£1.60	£2.56	£6.39
jugglegeek	All-in		£12.25	£14.81	£0.00
SB	Fold
jugglegeek	Muck
jugglegeek	Win		£3.68		£3.68
jugglegeek	Return		£11.13	£0.00	£14.81

Later I ran top pair into a set but this time I think I lost the minimum.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£3.12
BB	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£8.04
	Your hole cards	J A
UTG	Raise		£0.24	£0.36	£7.95
jugglegeek	Call		£0.24	£0.60	£18.25
SB	Fold
BB	Call		£0.16	£0.76	£7.88
Flop
		7 4 6
BB	Check
UTG	Bet		£0.40	£1.16	£7.55
jugglegeek	Call		£0.40	£1.56	£17.85
BB	Fold
Turn
		A
UTG	Bet		£0.96	£2.52	£6.59
jugglegeek	Call		£0.96	£3.48	£16.89
River
		10
UTG	Check
jugglegeek	Check
UTG	Show	6 6
jugglegeek	Muck	J A
UTG	Win	Three 6s	£3.21		£9.80

I think I played the hand perfectly. I don't like to 3-bet pre here because I have to fold to a 4-bet and will fold out all the dominated Ax hands that I want to play against. I expect this villian to c-bet this flop about half pot 100% of the time so I'm not giving up to one street of betting. Raising the turn for value is an option against a loose player but this is one of the TAGregs. The river is an easy check back since I'm not beating very much by this point. I made a note on this player that he checked the river to try to enduce a check-raise.

July Totals:
hands: 3081
P&L: £26.85
BB/100: 22.91
BR: £195.69
C4P: 116

bolly580

why not 3bet fold the AJ? he alsmot never 4betting with worse and surelys its better than flop ciming A high and u losing bout 50bbs when he rolls over AK/AQ?

jugglegeek

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. NL8 comeback:

why not 3bet fold the AJ? he alsmot never 4betting with worse and surelys its better than flop ciming A high and u losing bout 50bbs when he rolls over AK/AQ?
Posted by bolly580

I don't like 3-betting mid aces because of the range of hands that should fold to 3-bet (especially out of possition). 3-betting does make sure that AK will likely 4-bet me, I agree. But it also means that worse aces will simply fold to the 3-bet. Also hands like KJ or even QJs might raise fold from early possition. Also he could have QQ/KK and I could spike an ace, 3-betting would mean I don't see a flop. A good 3-bet % is about 6% and JJ+/AK makes 3% of hands so the other 3% should be made up of semi-bluffs like suited connectors and suited rag aces. The type of hands that are easy to fold to 4-bet and have some equity of out-flopping bigger hands. AJ falls neatly in the middle of these ranges so I don't like to 3-bet with them. I'd rather 3-bet a hands like A5s or 9Ts than AJ.

bolly580

well there is that, however we 3bet to cbet..we will earn a ton of money cbetting in a 3bet pot as players of these levels your playing will peel really wide and check fold almsot every flop.

anyway GL

jugglegeek

NL8 is crushing me. Slowly. I've played 2029 hands so far at this new level and lost £14.85, that's -9 BB/100 and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. There are fewer tables at this level so table selection is pretty much nonexistint. I feel that I have to play at least four tables otherwise I get board and start leveling myself into 4-betting with KJo. True story, that actually happened. Worse I then c-bet and called a shove on the turn after the board runs QQ9K. This afternoon I ran AK into a set (see below), KQ into AQ on Q-high flop, tried to bluff a tight reg off a hand and failed, and lost a couple of 50:50 draws. But I'm not winning enough full stacks. I sure as heck are losing them but I've only had four hands winning more than £5 (I've had 6 where I've lost more than £5.
The plan is still to keep playing until I lose five buy-ins but something has to change. I don't know how much longer I can maintain the enthusiasm for playing when I'm gradually bleeding out my bankroll.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
jugglegeek	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£8.10
BB	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£6.53
	Your hole cards	K A
UTG	Raise		£0.32	£0.44	£7.82
CO	Fold
BTN	Call		£0.32	£0.76	£11.83
jugglegeek	Raise		£1.00	£1.76	£7.10
BB	Fold
UTG	Fold
BTN	Call		£0.72	£2.48	£11.11
Flop
		A 9 10
jugglegeek	Bet		£1.24	£3.72	£5.86
BTN	Raise		£2.48	£6.20	£8.63
jugglegeek	All-in		£5.86	£12.06	£0.00
BTN	Call		£4.62	£16.68	£4.01
jugglegeek	Show	K A
BTN	Show	9 9
Turn
		6
River
		Q
BTN	Win	Three 9s	£15.42		£19.43

I don't know what more I can do here aside from fold pre, or better yet take up scrable instead. I feel as though I should also be winning some of these. So far I'm not, I either don't get action or I get beat.

July Totals:
hands: 4450
P&L: 14.77
C4P: 207
BBs/100: 12.47 (NL4:30.59 - NL8:-9.15)

rancid

3 bet more pre, hand is a cooler though

at least with a bigger raise pre they can't set mine against you profitably plus you fold out better hands  - FE is your best friend

cash poker is a long road )

jugglegeek

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. NL8 still not working out:

3 bet more pre, hand is a cooler though at least with a bigger raise pre they can't set mine against you profitably plus you fold out better hands  - FE is your best friend cash poker is a long road )
Posted by rancid

To be honest I thought giving him 10:1 implied odds (72p to win £7.10) was enough. Can he really set-mine profitably in this spot. I supose he does have possition. sigh.

Still no improvement in the run good department. This happened, which I though was good: I check the turn to try and induce a bluff, I want his stack and if I just fire three barrells I no only reduce my chances of getting called with worse, he can just call it down to the river with worse queens.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£2.19
BB	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£8.04
	Your hole cards	A Q
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.24	£0.36	£7.82
MP	Fold
CO	Fold
BTN	Call		£0.24	£0.60	£9.75
SB	Call		£0.20	£0.80	£1.99
BB	Fold
Flop
		5 5 Q
SB	Check
jugglegeek	Bet		£0.40	£1.20	£7.42
BTN	Call		£0.40	£1.60	£9.35
SB	Fold
Turn
		9
jugglegeek	Check
BTN	Bet		£0.80	£2.40	£8.55
jugglegeek	Call		£0.80	£3.20	£6.62
River
		6
jugglegeek	Bet		£2.00	£5.20	£4.62
BTN	All-in		£8.55	£13.75	£0.00
jugglegeek	All-in		£4.62	£18.37	£0.00
BTN	Unmatched bet		£1.93	£16.44	£1.93
jugglegeek	Show	A Q
BTN	Show	K A
jugglegeek	Win	Two Pairs, Queens and 5s	£15.20		£15.20

But then again, I still came out of the session £5.65 worse off. I don't know what else I could have done here. The table is made up of pretty weak players, hence the min-betting. I'm not c-betting this flop ever. It just smacks the range for calling a button 3x too hard. Easy for someone to get stubbon with a pair+draw combo or simply just refuse to fold a mid pai. But I'm also not folding to a min bet with overcards to the board and backdoor nut flush draw. I know it's a paired board on the river but I can't just flat the raise can I?

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£2.05
BB	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£8.09
	Your hole cards	A K
UTG	Fold
CO	Fold
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.24	£0.36	£7.76
SB	Call		£0.20	£0.56	£1.85
BB	Call		£0.16	£0.72	£7.93
Flop
		8 9 5
SB	Bet		£0.08	£0.80	£1.77
BB	Call		£0.08	£0.88	£7.85
jugglegeek	Call		£0.08	£0.96	£7.68
Turn
		4
SB	Bet		£0.08	£1.04	£1.69
BB	Call		£0.08	£1.12	£7.77
jugglegeek	Call		£0.08	£1.20	£7.60
River
		5
SB	Bet		£0.24	£1.44	£1.45
BB	Raise		£1.92	£3.36	£5.85
jugglegeek	All-in		£7.60	£10.96	£0.00
SB	Fold
BB	All-in		£5.85	£16.81	£0.00
BB	Unmatched bet		£0.17	£16.64	£0.17
BB	Show	5 5
jugglegeek	Show	A K
BB	Win	Four 5s	£15.39		£15.56

I'm only two and a bit buy-ins away from my stop-loss of five buy-ins now. I think that we could find me playing NL4 again by the end of the weekend if things keep going the way they are going. On the plus side, I'm now earning 1 point every 15 hands so reaching 500 has become possible. Another 4010 hands at the current rate and I reach 500 C4P, so that's half a buy-in right there in cash money!

In the meantime, I recomend you come join my on the NL8 tables - I'm a cooler magnet and your sure to double up from me pretty quickly.

July totals:
hands: 4688
P&L: £9.12
C4P: 224
BBs/100: 10.33 (NL4: 30.59 - NL8: -11.30)

jugglegeek

So after another catastrophic day at NL8 (down £13) I've hit my stop loss. I played a bit of NL4 this morning because there was no NL8 tables going and lost a buy-in there too. It lasted 8 days and 2774 hands at a rate of -17.32 BBs/100. I'd say that's a pretty impressive downswing. I've won over £5 five times and lost over £5 six times. These pots make up £9.80 of my losses so the rest of the £38.44 that I've lost at NL8 must be in smaller pots. It's hard to work out what I've been doing wrong really. It feels like I don't get action when I get big hands and so struggle to get paid off like I did at NL4. But then there are plenty of spots that I remember just not being able to win a hand without showdown. The tables are hard work too, with the regs buying in for 100BBs and the fish typically a lot shorter (sometimes as little as 20BBs) it makes it difficult to widen my pre-flop range. So many times I'd open with a hand in the bottom of my range and get 3-bet by a short stack, or, most often, miss the flop entirely and be left with the choice of checking and losing the hand this way, or making a pot-committing c-bet and never getting it through.

So it's back to NL4 for the time being. If anyone's still reading then some words of encoragment would certainly be well recieved. I'm feeling pretty annoyed right now. This was my last hand of NL8, after which the villian gave me some sarcasm in the chat box. Uncalled for I think.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
jugglegeek	Small blind		£0.04	£0.04	£7.88
BB	Big blind		£0.08	£0.12	£4.99
	Your hole cards	J J
UTG	Raise		£0.16	£0.28	£11.66
CO	Call		£0.16	£0.44	£9.45
BTN	Fold
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.60	£1.04	£7.28
BB	Fold
UTG	Call		£0.48	£1.52	£11.18
CO	Call		£0.48	£2.00	£8.97
Flop
		9 6 10
jugglegeek	Bet		£1.28	£3.28	£6.00
UTG	Call		£1.28	£4.56	£9.90
CO	Fold
Turn
		Q
jugglegeek	Check
UTG	Bet		£2.28	£6.84	£7.62
jugglegeek	All-in		£6.00	£12.84	£0.00
UTG	Call		£3.72	£16.56	£3.90
jugglegeek	Show	J J
UTG	Show	K K
River
		9
gazza369	Win	Two Pairs, Kings and 9s	£15.31		£19.21

I had notes that this player has tried to bluff on the river with a missed draw before so I checked the turn to try and induce a bet from a worse hand with the intention of check-shoving with the open-ended straight draw as insurance. Is this just bad?

July totals:
Hands: 5546
P&L: -£13.45
C4P: 268
BBs/100: NL8 -17.32

JSTFLIPPIN

Where did ya get the cash game graph from? I can't use my PT3 for skypoker

jugglegeek

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. So long NL8, it's been fun.:

Where did ya get the cash game graph from? I can't use my PT3 for skypoker
Posted by JSTFLIPPIN

It's a spreadsheet program that I keep up to date. None of the tracking softwear will recognise Sky's hand history format so PT3 will not auto import Sky Poker hands. I use hand history after each session to count how many hands I played. You can set the times from when you started playing and search for hands. The number of hands found will be the number of hands played up to 500. If you played more than 500 these will not be displayed and you need to search a shorter time period. I enter these after each session into a spreadsheet that keep a track of the following:
hands played
cumulative hands played this month
cumulative hands played ever
limit (value of BB)
P&L for session
cumulative P&L for month
cumulative P&L ever
C4P
BB/100 session
BB won in session

For BB/100 it's "BB won in session"/("hands played"/100)

The downsides to this are: I can't play two different levels at the same time and the hand history includes hands where I was sat at the table but wasn't dealt cards. So the spreadsheet things I've played about 2-3% more hands than I really have.

I actually find this better than PT3 tracking every hand because it stops me from "chimping" at the graph for the session every orbit or so like I used to do with PT3. This way if I have a session where I break even but had five or six all-in flips the graph takes the average for the session, rather than looking really swingy.

jugglegeek

The end to a very frustrating day. Finished -£22.04 after 1700 hands. Even managed to lose £9 at NL4 today. This hand was a good  play by me I think was actually my only win over £3 all day. You might say it's easy to play AK at these stakes when there's a 3-bet (just 4-bet and get the money in). But by calling the 3-bet I can see what the rest of the players do before making up my mind. I'm happy to stack off on a ace or kigh high flop and can back raise to pick up more dead money if the short stack shoves and the other two call. This is what happened.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£5.04
BB	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£4.09
	Your hole cards	K A
UTG	Call		£0.04	£0.10	£3.39
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.16	£0.26	£6.87
BTN	Call		£0.16	£0.42	£0.72
SB	Fold
BB	Raise		£0.24	£0.66	£3.85
UTG	Call		£0.24	£0.90	£3.15
jugglegeek	Call		£0.12	£1.02	£6.75
BTN	All-in		£0.72	£1.74	£0.00
BB	Call		£0.60	£2.34	£3.25
UTG	Call		£0.60	£2.94	£2.55
jugglegeek	All-in		£6.75	£9.69	£0.00
BB	Fold
UTG	All-in		£2.55	£12.24	£0.00
jugglegeek	Unmatched bet		£3.60	£8.64	£3.60
UTG	Show	6 9
jugglegeek	Show	K A
BTN	Show	8 5
Flop
		J 4 10
Turn
		2
River
		10
jugglegeek	Win	Pair of 10s	£7.99		£11.59

July totals:
hands: 6603
P&L: -£17.85
C4P: 304
BB/100: NL8=-17.32 NL4=13.44

JSTFLIPPIN

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. So long NL8, it's been fun.:

In Response to Re: Jugglegeek's diary. So long NL8, it's been fun. : It's a spreadsheet program that I keep up to date. None of the tracking softwear will recognise Sky's hand history format so PT3 will not auto import Sky Poker hands. I use hand history after each session to count how many hands I played. You can set the times from when you started playing and search for hands. The number of hands found will be the number of hands played up to 500. If you played more than 500 these will not be displayed and you need to search a shorter time period. I enter these after each session into a spreadsheet that keep a track of the following: hands played cumulative hands played this month cumulative hands played ever limit (value of BB) P&L for session cumulative P&L for month cumulative P&L ever C4P BB/100 session BB won in session For BB/100 it's "BB won in session"/("hands played"/100) The downsides to this are: I can't play two different levels at the same time and the hand history includes hands where I was sat at the table but wasn't dealt cards. So the spreadsheet things I've played about 2-3% more hands than I really have. I actually find this better than PT3 tracking every hand because it stops me from "chimping" at the graph for the session every orbit or so like I used to do with PT3. This way if I have a session where I break even but had five or six all-in flips the graph takes the average for the session, rather than looking really swingy.
Posted by jugglegeek

Ahh that sounds good haha, bit complicated for me tho

jugglegeek

If feels like this diary has stopped being about my approach to microstakes cash poker and simply become a place for me to chronical my downfall. So that when I have lost my starting £100 bankroll I have a fair record of my progress throughout this long journey. Played 400 hands today and lost another £8 ontop of the £40 I lost in total this weekend. So far this month I've lost £31.75 in a combination of NL8 and NL4. NL4 I'm actually up but only 1.5 buy-ins over 5k hands, that's just 3.20BBs/100. I could copy the hands where I lost the £8 this evening but nobody will learn anything. Just that sometimes when you have KK and it's a drawy ten-high flop the villian will have TT, or that when a person calls you down to the river with A4 and just top pair vs your AJ they will sometimes hit a straight. It's all variance and there are a million ways to run bad. Here's one example: With three other players seeing this flop containing both an ace and a king, how does nobody have even enough to call a c-bet. For me this happening again and again is more tilting than getting outdrawn by rags because it affects my game. I start doing stupid things like not betting in these spots and losing value. Or thinking that I have to widen my range and seeing too many flops, or trying to bluff people off hands thinking that "if they see me bluff, then they'll think I'm light next time and call when I have a set".

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£2.27
BB	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£2.16
	Your hole cards	5 5
UTG	Fold
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.12	£0.18	£4.34
CO	Fold
BTN	Call		£0.12	£0.30	£5.69
SB	Call		£0.10	£0.40	£2.17
BB	Call		£0.08	£0.48	£2.08
Flop
		5 A K
SB	Check
BB	Check
jugglegeek	Bet		£0.36	£0.84	£3.98
BTN	Fold
SB	Fold
BB	Fold
jugglegeek	Muck
jugglegeek	Win		£0.44		£4.42
jugglegeek	Return		£0.36	£0.04	£4.78

I also have a graph now to show my bad patch. Blue line shows my flurray into NL8




 
July totals:
hands: 8004
P&L: -£31.75
C4P: 339
NL4 BB/100: 3.20

jugglegeek

I know I said I wouldn't but this happened right after my last post:

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
jugglegeek	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£6.72
BB	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£5.70
	Your hole cards	J A
UTG	Fold
CO	Raise		£0.16	£0.22	£3.44
BTN	Fold
jugglegeek	Call		£0.14	£0.36	£6.58
BB	Call		£0.12	£0.48	£5.58
Flop
		10 J K
jugglegeek	Bet		£0.24	£0.72	£6.34
BB	Call		£0.24	£0.96	£5.34
CO	Fold
Turn
		9
jugglegeek	Check
BB	Check
River
		4
jugglegeek	Bet		£0.72	£1.68	£5.62
BB	Raise		£3.12	£4.80	£2.22
jugglegeek	All-in		£5.62	£10.42	£0.00
BB	All-in		£2.22	£12.64	£0.00
jugglegeek	Unmatched bet		£1.00	£11.64	£1.00
jugglegeek	Show	J A
BB	Show	Q 9
BB	Win	Straight Flush to the King	£10.76		£10.76

What do you think? Can I fold here. The honest truth is that I didn't think about what the villian might have. I just saw the A-high flush and wanted to get all the money in. Thinking about it, with the A,K,J and T of clubs accounted for only the queen remains and that would have made a straight on the turn. Surely the turn wouldn't have gone check, check with the villian having a straight and me showing interest on the flop. I'm not folding but I could have just flat called the river. Ah well. Despite this hand I still managed to make 60p in the second session of the evening

walesboy

Hi mate
Sorry you're having a downswing. It'll get better, honest!?
Don't see how you could get away from the hand unless you know the "villian" well?
If he/she is a usual nl4 player they could have quite alot that you're beating -AQ, Qc with alot of other cards.
surprised they didn't bet on turn but this may show they thought you were on flush draw or straight or they're not sure what to do.

I'm sure your swing will go back up, especially if I manage to get back playing!:)
good luck 

TINTIN

im experiencing the downswing also and its hurting me so i sympathise with you. it can be horrid at times. im trying to battle thru mine but it seems like its going on forever but i guess we take the bad with the good.

as for the last hand you posted, im going broke there as well. got to figure they have Qc but its very unlucky they have the 9 with it. i dont mind how you played it tbh

Dazler

think we all go through down swings and can really mess with our head and the way we play and sometimes and we prob analise the way we play even when we have done nothing wrong, If the cards dont swing your way it dosnt matter if you the best player in the world its just a case of being unlucky. It will turn for you but you have to be patient mix up games and try new formats.

With the hand above you hold the A of clubs so you can rule out them having the royal and they just flatted the flop and checked the turn so you have to think your ahead there with the nut flush. There was no way of reading they had the Q8 from the way the play went and any club they hold they could be making a move on you so was correct to get your money in i think, how often are you gonna have the nut flush and be up against a st8 flush and the answer to that is very rarely so unless its for a massive amount of money its a no brainer and you just have to bite the bullet on that one.

I hope you run better soon which i know you will gl

jugglegeek

Thanks for the support guys. Did some hands this morning and lost £1 after 434 hands. Amazingly I was 3-bet seven times in just this session. If we assume I'm opening 15% of the time (it's probably less TBH) that's 65 hands i've made a PFR so that's 10% 3-bet frequency. Unfortunatly I couldn't really call with any of them and almost all of them were big 3-bets to four times my raise size. I don't really have much experience of being 3-bet frequently so I didn't really know how to handle it. Much of it was by the same player who seemed to showdown only value hands but did have a tendancy to overplay them IMO. He would bet shove TT on an A-high flop for example. Here's a list of the hands I was 3-bet in.

ATs  20p to 84p  (2 limpers and on cold call)
ATo 12p to 20p (called x/f to pot bet on 8JQ flop)
AJo 16p to 64p (1 limper)
AJs 16p to 60p (1 limper)
QJo 12p to 40p
KJs 12p to 48p
AQo 16p to 28 (1 limper, called and hero called £1.13 shove on 922 flop)

Looking back I don't think I've done anything wrong folding to these 3-bets, or making the raise in the first place. At some point on my poker journey I'll have to start countering this by calling 3-bets and 4-betting light. I don't think NL4 is the place to do it though.

The last day that I made a proffit was 18/07/12 when I won a buy-in at NL8 after 57 hands and then had to stop playing because someone came over. After a full June of nothing buy winning and 21 BBs/100 average, nine days of constantly losing money has been really hard to take. In reality my downswing has been going on for just short of two weeks. It feels like much longer than that though.

July totals:
hands: 9349
P&L: -£33.09
NL4 BB/100: 2.00
total profit since June: £34.65

jugglegeek

Today saw something of a comeback for my bankroll. I've played 800 hands and won £22.16 this afternoon. I'd love to say that I won it all from my amazing reading ability and bluffing like a NL4 genius, hero-calling with jack high and running people over with 3-bets. But the truth is I picked up good hands at the right times and was helped by some heroically bad play by my opponents. I had a set over set for the first time in as long as I can remember and on at least two occasions I 3-bet with kings and got it all in on the flop against a smaller pair.

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
SB	Small blind		£0.02	£0.02	£3.48
jugglegeek	Big blind		£0.04	£0.06	£4.15
	Your hole cards	K K
UTG	Fold
MP	Call		£0.04	£0.10	£4.02
CO	Fold
BTN	Fold
SB	Raise		£0.14	£0.24	£3.34
jugglegeek	Raise		£0.52	£0.76	£3.63
MP	Fold
SB	Call		£0.40	£1.16	£2.94
Flop
		2 10 3
SB	Bet		£0.58	£1.74	£2.36
jugglegeek	All-in		£3.63	£5.37	£0.00
SB	All-in		£2.36	£7.73	£0.00
jugglegeek	Unmatched bet		£0.69	£7.04	£0.69
SB	Show	6 6
jugglegeek	Show	K K
Turn
		7
River
		2
jugglegeek	Win	Two Pairs, Kings and 2s	£6.51		£7.20

Feels good to win again after such a long downswing. Just hope it stays this way.

July totals:
hands: 10901
P&L: -£19.41
C4P: 422
NL4 BBs/100: 5.85

Spikelad

Well done jugglegeek you have hung in there and you deserved a good day like this.

jugglegeek

I have decided to stop playing poker. Not because I run bad or because I don't think I'm good enough but because I don't think I have the personality to play it seriously for high stakes.

I'm 27 years old and throughout my life I've embarked upon many hobbies that have turned into obsessions. First was playing the guitar. Between the age of 15 and 18 I think I played guitar for at least two hours each and every day. Then when I went to university to study music production I started juggling and the guitar practice dried up. Until about 2007 all I did was juggle. I became pretty good at it over 3 years and was a well know video maker in the UK juggling scene. Then I stopped juggling having discovered rock climbing. After two years of rock climbing I had a serious fall and durring my rehabilitation began to play about with rubik's cubes. I can still solve a 3x3x3 in around 40 seconds. The fall was a lot less serious than it could have been and I escaped with just a broken wrist and a very sore lower back. But the couple of other times that I had taken a huge risk and not fallen began to play on my mind. I lost all confidence and stopped climbing

Then almost 2 years ago I started playing poker. Winning at poker feels amazing, and one one occasion I won a live tournement at a casino. I felt just as good as when I climbing somthing really difficult and scary, or when I pulled off a hard juggling trick I had been working on for months.

But while I feel good with the highs of poker, the lows are unbearable for me. July and August were particularly bad. One session after another of poor play, running bad, and tilt made me a horrible person to be around. One one occasion I threw my chair across the bedroom. I would often have a losing session and then take it out on my girlfriend when she came home.

Then recently I went climbing again after two years of never having the confidence to even pack my climbing gear into my car.  Durring my poker years I have put on at least a stone of extra ballast and lost any strength that I had in my arms and legs so climbing was a real struggle but immensely enjoyable and even though I could hardly climb anything I was happy.

Since 21/08/12 I'd not played a single hand and I hadn't missed it at all. I was pretty much breaking even anyway so my bank account didn't notice any difference either. Then last week I deposited £15 and one-tabled NL10 for an hour. I enjoyed playing there just for fun and not worrying about hand quotas or cash for points and so on. So I think from now on I will simply play poker when I want to, at whatever level I feel I can afford to lose, and when the weather is good I'll go climbing instead.

I may post on the forum from time to time. But I don't expect to be playing 12K hands per month or multi-tabling till my eyes bleed anymore.

See you around

unknown_username

Hi Jugglegeek

What a cracking post. It's good that you can stand back and look at your situation. I'm 53 and took up poker after seeing a bit on sky tv. I've been playing for 15 months and can see that's i've become obsessed about improving and understanding the game theory as i was a maths teacher. However, it can take up so much of your time and i think balance is the key. I like your 'playing for fun' comment and i completely agree. Grinding for me would be torture. Honestly, why bother unless its a source of income for you. I'm starting to feel that i'm paying too much attention to it and not having balance in my life.
 You talk about winning at a casino. I did the same in my first casino expedition after reading Harringtons book for just over a week! God that was a buzz!
I had a bad day yesterday myself. Not loss wise particularly ...just a lack of enjoyment for some reason. I may just be 'pokered' out so i'm having a couple of days off and that may spread to three weeks as off on holiday to Jamaica for some golf and scuba. I personally think you've made a good decision. Look upon it as an experiment. You've not let the grass grow under your feet. You seem to be looking for new experiences. I do and that makes for a contented, balanced life in my book.
You are relatively young but  will experience trauma in your life and will need something to have as a coping mechanism. Put as many different experiences in your life and you may hit upon something that really gives you a good feeling. Personally, i want to travel now. I'm into photography and do a little bit of painting. Much to my girlfriends chagrin i'm trying to play(terribly) guitar, ukulele and harmonica. At different stages in my life i've been avidly obsessed with football, golf, teaching and for a year now poker.

Ocean village Cruises had a sign painted on its ships saying

"See more, Do more, Be more"

I couldn't put it better myself mate. There's so much more to life than sitting in front of a monitor fella. Have an enjoyable game from time to time with zero stress and the odd live game with a friend in a casino. That sounds great to me. Why not make a list of 'STUFF' you'd like to do/experience in your life. You're never too young to make a plan. I wish you all the best in the future. come back and have a game with us(i rec monday night DTD forum). Its cheap, no stress with good banter too.
All the best in the future. I'm sure you've got some great experiences in your life coming to you. Just appreciate them for what they are....cheers....

walesboy

you are making the right decision if you are not enjoying it m8
plenty of time to come back to it and alot of other things to do
i didn't start until just over 3 years ago but don't feel the need to move up any time soon even tho i have the roll. i might enjoy it i might not but until i get the desire to do it why bother.
it's a nice hobby to have
good luck, hope to see you at the tables