Pokerstar?

With the enforced shutdown on Full Tilt I have been playing a little more on Pokerstars. I am currently enjoying some success on the 45 man turbos which have been a favourite of mine in the past. At the moment it seems like I am final tabling ever other game. So much so that I am now ranked quite high on officialpokerrankings.com for the year. Being in the top three percent is pretty solid I believe, though arguably the site is a little softer with the absence of so many US pros.

 

Kartajana

Year 2011

Rating: 97.01%

Rank: 42,616 of 1,423,235

 

Meanwhile my Maui challenge has stagnated somewhat whilst I experience the full range of tilt and variance issues to compliment my current reading material (See earlier post).

 

Last chance to vote on my survey. Cheers.

Colour Coding

As a regular player of the Maui games I do get involved in assessing the quality of my opposition. Over the last few weeks I have taken this a step further using colour coding and sharkcope data to denote three types of regular player.   Orange for players losing 10% or more. Poor losing players.   White for those in the middle not making or losing more than 10%. Competent players.   Blue for those making more than 10%. Good winning players.   This allows me to be more aware of the quality of my opposition ongoing. But what is the true value of this information given both good players and bad get aces? Does it really help in certain spots in terms of how much you respect an opponents play. Does he really have that king? On balance is a solid multi-tabler more likely to have the goods than losing player who is clearly on tilt. Do poor players bluff more? In reality players go through good and bad spells, so a good player can play poorly some weeks, and an average player can easily go on a hot streak. At the moment I would class myself as light blue at best because on the Maui games I have been only above average for the last few months. For now I am testing the worth of this information and I may report back on its worth at some point. At the very least it gives me a picture of where I am at each table. Often there will be a blue player, a couple of whites, a couple of oranges and a few unknowns. I should be making a profit at this table I believe. Good Luck

Hand History 2 - Jendli Mind Trick!

This is not bad beat story. I have just completed a losing session and I am relatively happy. Why I hear you say - because I played good winning sit n go poker. The bit I can't control (luck) simply did not go my way. Significantly I did not let it affect my play. I am being helped by my new poker book (see last post) to focus on the right kind of thinking (In Jared Tendler terms "Injecting Logic") which helps my overall play. In this hand example I lose with aces against a big stack.   BetFred Poker Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 20/40 saw flop | saw showdown Button Art200976 (860) SB Playkillko (1540) CO (0) UTG McMolerson (715) UTG+1 (0) MP austcor (3625) MP Kartajana (895) MP (0) CO-1 MulliganPlz (690) CO mumslittlesldr (1675) Preflop: Kartajana is in MP with A A austcor calls 40, Kartajana raises to 160, 5 folds, austcor raises to 540, Kartajana moves all-in for 735, austcor calls 355. Flop (1850) 2 J 5 Turn (1850) 3 River (1850) 6 austcor shows J J Kartajana shows A A austcor wins 1850 with Three of a kind, Jacks

 A pretty standard loss with aces really. I have not completed the book yet but I can see if I am less affected by such hands my overall return will improve. Whilst I am dissappointed to have a losing session, one where I play well does not compare to the feeling of losing knowing you are playing poorly, on tilt and essentially giving money away. Playing well is key.

May the force be with you.

Mind and Body

Joe Hachem, former world champion recently commented how the difference between a good player and very good player is marginal and that psychology has a key role to play. We all get the same cards but the players who deal with bad cards the best end up being the best. With this in mind I have purchased and just started the new poker book by Jared Tendler "The Mental Game Of Poker." He can help me because I am a "Mental Game Fish" (in his words). Whilst I am a good winning player I am not proficient at playing well consistently and coping with inevitable variance. By helping me understand why I sometimes play sub-optimally I am hoping I can bring my A game more often and be much more balanced in my thinking when bad cards come.

(I will post a book review when I have finished but it has started very well.)

Once my mind is sorted I also need help with my body. I am unfit and a little overweight. I play much better I believe when I feel fitter. I was fitter in January and February when my overall play was very solid. I plan to lose seven pounds by Christmas building up a solid exercise routine on alternate days.

Progress from these two areas may take a little time as I read the book and start to get fitter. Time will tell if I can turn this into more dollars at the poker table. My currently fish-like mind believes I can.

June Result: +$524, YTD: +$1660

A strange month as on the Maui games themselves I made a small loss but my total was boosted by ongoing rakeback and the $500 freeroll win. The breakdown of my $1660 profit at the half year point is roughly as follows:

Maui games: c$700 (Quite a few of my games in May were not recorded)

Consolation Bonus: $200

Direct Rakeback: c$170

Freeroll rakeback: c$600

Kartajana

1,364

$0.48

$5

8%

$656

-

N/A

iPoker

Year2011 SNG Only

x

For me to achieve my overall $4000 profit target I need to play better and play slighty more. Please see my next post on 'mind and body' in terms of how I hope to achieve this.  My year end split should look like this:

Maui games: $2000

Consolation Bonus: $600

Direct Rakeback: $400

Freeroll rakeback: $1000

Total: $4000

It won't be easy but I am definately up for it.

Hand History 1

Finally I have found a hand converter that lets me show the Ipoker hand histories in a workable format. The first example sees me treble up in the first hand of a Maui that I go on to win. If only all games and flops could be like this. The hand went as follows:     BetFred Poker Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 5/10 saw flop | saw showdown Button bargutt (1000) SB Megabollen (1000) BB demolisher1959 (1000) UTG 4in1 (1000) UTG+1 Inegeni123 (1000) MP 0rangeJuice (1000) MP xxShitOutxx (1000) MP oakesz (1000) CO-1 WViking (1000) CO Kartajana (1000) Preflop: Kartajana is in the CO with Q Q 1 fold, Inegeni123 calls 10, 2 folds, oakesz calls 10, 1 fold, Kartajana raises to 70, bargutt calls 70, Megabollen calls 65, demolisher1959 calls 60, 2 folds. Flop (300) Q T T Megabollen checks, demolisher1959 checks, Kartajana bets 100, bargutt calls 100, 1 fold, demolisher1959 calls 100. Turn (600) A demolisher1959 checks, Kartajana checks, bargutt bets 300, demolisher1959 raises to 830, Kartajana moves all-in for 830, bargutt moves all-in for 530. River (3090) 2 bargutt shows J K demolisher1959 shows T 9 Kartajana shows Q Q Kartajana wins 3090 with A full house, Queens and Tens   Despite the quality of my initial flop bet and subsequent slow play, overall it would be very hard not to win this hand in this way and there is not a great deal of criticism for either victim. Certainly it would be very hard for either to lay down post flop for Demolisher1959 and post turn for bargutt. However in the first hand I would not play either of their hands following my raise. This is my keep out of trouble approach in the early levels. The specific area I want to consider is the size of the pre-flop raise I made at the 5-10 level. Is it enough? In this case it does not matter but as I rule with premium hands I try to raise so that pocket pairs are not priced in, which would mean a raise to at least 120 in this case. I really only want one loose caller in this situation, who might be prepared to commit all their chips with top pair or worse. It does not get better than this. Ironically the reality of this game was that I still needed more luck later on to cash and ultimately win.   I will try to look at more hand histories in the next few months and will focus on mistakes and good play rather than just good fortune.   Your comments on this and future hands would be much appreciated.

Sunday Million Satellite Win

My good run in June continues as I took down an $8 satellite to the Sunday Million on Pokerstars worth $215. I had no intention of playing the big one so I have cashed in. Generally things have not gone well on Pokerstars this year but there have now been a couple of highlights to keep me on top on this site. This particular game has been a money spinning one for me in the past and can generate some weak opponents. The downside is that the games don't fill up that often. I will be trying to play one again soon! PokerStars Tournament #405649691, No Limit Hold'em Super Satellite Buy-In: $8.00/$0.80 USD 36 players Total Prize Pool: $288.00 USD Target Tournament #425020010 Buy-In: $200.00/15.00 USD 1 tickets to the target tournament Tournament started 2011/06/18 19:09:02 ET Tournament finished 2011/06/18 20:01:09 ET   1: Kartajana (United Kingdom),  (qualified for the target tournament)   2: gn4ppa (United Kingdom), $20.00   3: IHATEKOPS (Canada), $20.00   4: BlåPolly (Sweden), $20.00   5: pimskiegrunn (Netherlands), $13.00   6: R0bHal (Canada), I have been struggling a little this month to find my form on the Maui games. Despite my recent holiday I am a little jaded with the Maui games and have had a recent poor run of luck. Maybe I am just a little too focused on my results rather than the quality of my play.

The games on Pokerstars and Full Tilt serve, I think, as a positive distraction from my Maui grinding. I certainly have a lot of respect for those playing a lot more Maui games than I do.

For the rest of June I play well........ win or lose. Good luck.