Play Bald!

Probably the next to last post (penultimate, if you will)

2009-04-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

As you may have noticed, the activity level of playbald.com is slightly down these last couple of days. I think I am going to try to explain why I am not blogging.

The main issue here is that I don't play much poker anymore. When I played, I would eventually run into a winning streak, and I would have to brag about it somewhere. The blog usually came up. So not playing is basically the one reason the well has run so dry. The fact is, I don't much like the total sum of being a poker player. There are so many other things that I enjoy more. Spearfishing for example. Playing PS3. Working a day job, I shit you not. Making babies. One of those showing up any day now.

Obviously, there are some parts of being a pro poker player that are very attractive: Winning stunning amounts of money is as fun and exciting as any activity can be. Not because of the money itself, but because of the opportunities and freedom than come right along. Talking and thinking about how you will use all your money is also fun of course. And finally, talking and thinking about how great you are that you can win all this money in fierce competition with others who would also like to do so, are also enjoyable activities.

Other than that, it pretty much sucks big time.

Poker is a game of exploitation. I've always enjoyed strategy games, sometimes to the point of obsession. Once the game is in front of me, I have to know how it works, and how to win. I take it personally if I can't. But professional poker is not a strategy game. It is a game of finding the weakest points of the weakest opponents and exploiting it.

Poker is a game of uncertainty. I am a fan of logic. To every action, there is a consequence, to every question there is an answer. Everytime I see something surprising happen, I think about why it happened, and I try to find the reason. In poker, there is no reason. Some times the flush draw hits. Some times it doesn't. You win a yearly salary in November, lose it in December. Kings beat aces. Amateurs beat pros. Idiots are interviewed as experts. Luck. It's chaos.

Poker is lonely. I am a socially minded person. I like friendly competition. I like to hang out with friends. The best way to win money in poker is to sit by yourself in front of your computer. The best part of your day is when you break someone, and he calls you a retard and expresses his desire that you die painfully. For the last 4 years I've had to deal with frustrating loses alone on a regular basis.

So why is this just the next to last post, and not in fact, the last? I don't know exactly. Maybe it's a dream of going back to the happy days of big money flowing in. I really enjoyed all that milk and honey. The fact is I just can't pull the plug on this chapter of my life just yet.

After all, the next winning streak is always just around the corner...

Fade to grey.

2008-12-08T06:32:00.000-08:00

I am amazed that people still drop by here so regularly despite a lack of updates. Things have been difficult lately, for a number of reasons. First of all, I have been down for a while with a back dislocation, preventing me from spending significant time doing anything really. Only this week have I been a allowed a normal level of activity again. Poker work hours especially have been sacrificed, and not just because of health issues.

After a dissapointing September, October proved to be more of the same unfortunately. While rakeback and bonuses is a nice addition, it is not enough to compensate for all the stress of playing break even poker. It's like I am having my own private financial crisis of poker to go along with the world wide one (which has also been nasty for me).

Since October I have played maybe 15 hours of cash games and a couple of tournaments, so these days poker hasn't been a lot on my mind. Basically, I am bored with it. I am uncomfortably aware that I probably wouldn't have been bored if I had maintained a good income rate. It somehow seems wrong to enjoy an activity only when the pay is good. But poker is the ultimate capitalistic game, and income is so directly related to success that it is hard to enjoy the game during such a long break even period.

Would I regain the excitement and joy of the game with just a nice upswing? Start believing in and enjoying the life of a poker pro again? Maybe. But the fact is that for a while now I just haven't had the energy and motivation to handle the downswings, the bad beats and the break even stretches. Whatever else may happen, you know that those are always just around the corner, and being a successful poker player largely depends on your ability to handle them.

So these are going to be some of the last words from this full time poker pro. I am not leaving or anything, I just won't be playing full time poker for a while. I honestly don't know how much I will play going forward, but I intend to remain playing as a hobby, the income is just too good put it aside completely. Hopefully that will be enough to regain the motivation that is missing right now. Where this blog is going, I can't really tell, but I promise to deliver an entry whenever I have something on my mind.

It's been a while

2008-10-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

It is high time for a report from this blogger, who has seen some tough times at the tables lately. This is a graph of September:

September turned out to be a break even month for me. Combined with questionable results stretching back all the way through the summer, that was enough to make me thoroughly sick of multitabling 6-max poker for a while. In the beginning of the year up until the middle of May, I had a very healthy win rate playing 6-10 tables of NL1000-NL2000 over more than 150k hands. That history taken into consideration, I am simply not willing to concede defeat just yet. But the fact that I have only won very modestly since then is no longer something I can ignore, and I clearly need to focus more on quality, not least in terms of game selection. I could also consider playing fewer than 8 tables of course, like a wuss.

To add to my frustrations, I am unable to find a functioning keyboard tool with attention queue to work with Partypoker. Their new software includes keyboard functionality, but it just sucks to use in its current form in my opinion.

So in a purely defensive measure, I am currently doing something completely different. Heads up cash games is my new 'job', until I find the motivation to get the old money machine back in gear. It has been going fairly well so far, and it is a nice change of pace from the 6-max grind. Other than that I am just doing a little bit of coaching here and there, and enjoying a lot of free time. I still find it fun to coach, and if you need some new input from a proven 6-max warrior, read this.

September gaining steam.

2008-09-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

Entertaining online screen name of the week: IfukedAnurse

September has been a rough ride so far. I started the month Monday with a bad taste of August in my mouth, having lost 19k in the last week. So I sat down Monday, happy to be starting on a fresh month, and BAM BAM BAM BAM lost four times in a row with AK vs QQ or QQ vs AK. Another couple of buy-ins went, and one hour into the month I am down $6k. Nice.

Luck is a funny thing. After such a session I often think about how many hours it will take to earn that back. At an expected $400/hr, thats 15 hours of work I just lost in one hour, and of course I was pissed. But somehow, yesterday evening I had a great day and made it all back plus $800 in just four hours. How am I supposed to make sense of that?

Today was just another trip down into the gutter of bad results. I was down 5 buy-ins not having a single spot of luck, but just this last hour everything turned around, and I come out of the day about $500 ahead. Not a flashy result, but sometimes a small win feels like a world championship. A small world championship, granted.

I was amazed today when one of the regulars played this hand against me. You know you have a rotten table image when someone does that with a pair of sevens. Or he was just on monkey tilt, I dunno:

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $1107
UTG+1: $2808
CO: $1334
Hero: $1409
SB: $1248
BB: $1559

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is Button with :qc :ac
UTG raises to $30, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Hero raises to $130, 2 folds, UTG raises to $285, CO folds, Hero calls.

Flop: :jd :qs :6c ($615, 2 players)
UTG bets $275, Hero raises all-in $1124, UTG calls all-in $547.
Uncalled bets: $302 returned to Hero.

Turn: :as ($2259, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $2259)

River: :th ($2259, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $2259)

Results:
Final pot: $2259
UTG shows 7s 7c (one pair)
Hero shows Qc Ac (two pair)

Would you have folded that AQ preflop? You probably should most of the time. I kind of had a feeling he was going a little insane. That's what happens sometimes in the 3-betting war, don't let it happen to you.

August is broken...

2008-09-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

...and it happened on the 24th or thereabouts. Apparently advertising your own competence in the game of poker through coaching adds is enough to piss off Lady Luck. I know that I am probably not generating a lot of sympathy with a $20k month, so to compensate I will have to feel extra sorry for myself. No seriously I am happy with the end result, I just had my expectations set a lot higher after a terrific first half.

In terms of BB/100 I have also had a satisfactory month (2.7BB/100), but it just so happened that I ran very bad at 2000NL and very well at 600NL, not a recipe for success. My hourly rate is about $200/hr which of course is a disgrace to myself and poker players everywhere.

I managed my 100 hour goal for the month, and I am quite happy with that. For September I will try and exceed that by playing 120 hours. That would be a monthly record for me.

Coaching.

2008-08-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

As I've previously mentioned, I've had the opportunity to get my feet wet in the business of poker coaching. The results have been so good, that I am confident I can offer a valuable product to any aspiring poker player up to and including mid stakes 6 max NL Hold'em cash games. Since I also seem to enjoy teaching, I have decided to make myself available as a coach.

Coaching process.
I preferably offer live and in person coaching in the Copenhagen area only, and the price is $200/hr. Once the coaching process is well underway, I am going to be more flexible on these terms.

It is a challenge for many poker players to evaluate and develop their game by themselves, due to the solitary nature of the game. There is naturally no qualified debate or discussion of strategy when playing poker, and while participation in online forums can be a big help, it is always a time consuming process and often a frustrating one as well ("I cant blieve u fold that u fkn retard, LOL!!1").

The strength of coaching in person is the amount of two-way communication possible. It gives me the opportunity to watch you play while you explain your thought process. Afterwards we will discuss strategic issues that I notice during play, and obviously also situations that you currently find to be frustrating or difficult. While poker strategy is the primary area of focus, I will also be able to evaluate your whole approach to the game, including mind set, bank roll management, multi-tabling and technical aids, and alert you if I spot potential conflicts with the life of a professional player or areas with room for improvement (wife control problems is an area of expertise :)). As the coaching process continues we can mix in theoretical discussions and improve on already working strategies. This would be my suggestion for a valuable coaching process, but your ideas and needs are obviously the deciding factors.

References.
As this blog documents I am a winning player on 6-max cash games up until 2000NL. My main source of income this year has been 1000NL typically played at 7-10 tables. My hourly rate this year over more than 200k hands has been about $500/hr, so this coaching offer is of course dirt cheap. I play at the poker office in Copenhagen, and this gives me the opportunity to discuss strategy with 11 other professional players on a daily basis, giving me an excellent overview of the online poker scene.

If you are interested, drop me a line at poker@hasloev.dk. I expect us to exchange a couple of emails and/or have a conversation before we decide if there is reason to continue.

Back in the game.

2008-08-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

Online screen name of the week: OMGCAPSLOCK

Its been two weeks since my return to the tables, and things have mostly been going very well. The first week I played only $600NL tables, in order to ease back into the grind without getting too rattled by the beats, and also simply as a reaction to my bankroll being slightly smaller than I like. After winning the first 10 buy-ins, I started mixing in $1000NL tables, and now I am mostly playing those, although frequently I think the games are much better at $600. When the difference in opponent skills is too noticable, I don't feel too proud to ditch the $1000 games. Mostly it is my opinion that you should try not to get too hung up on playing at a specific level if the games are better elsewhere.

I am up a little over $20k since my return, even though I dropped $7k of all-in results through bad luck yesterday in a break even session. When you can run that much below expected results and still break even, things are pretty good. I am also about half way through my 100 hour goal, which could have been better I suppose. I will get there though, no question about it.

I have had some interesting battles with other regulars around the 3-betting game pre-flop. I punish players who steal too often, and some won't back off. If they steal too often, and fold to 3-bets too seldom, the result is lots of big pots with mediocre holdings on both our parts. If you don't know what is going on, it can seem like a stupid game of chicken between two bullies. In fact, it is just a logical consequence of players trying to exploit a particular leak, namely playing too loose preflop. If you often 3-bet someone who often steals and then often calls your 3-bets, you would be losing a lot of money if you didn't adjust your post flop play accordingly. And suddenly I have a situation where I can't fold a pair of eights out of position on a jack high board with 250 in the pot and 875 behind. A logical consequence of the 3-betting arms race, or a macho pissing contest? Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference.

Chase for 100 hours.

2008-08-09T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here I am, back home again from holiday. I spent a couple of weeks in Italy, enjoying the mountains, the sea, the ice cream, the pasta and of course the wine. Italy is a nation of aesthetics. They love beauty in all forms, buildings, people, cars, and they spend more energy enhancing and celebrating it than any other people I have visited. When a 200 year old building is considered new, you know they must spend a bit of money on building maintenance here and there. This is very enjoyable when you are on a holiday, but I think for every day life it might become too much for a dull scandinavian like myself. On the other hand, the fine art of taking a break for a perfectly brewed espresso is definetely something to be inspired by, even up north of the wine countries.

It has been an expensive summer, and while vacationing is more or less supposed to be so, I have also been losing a nice pile of money on teh poker since beginning of May. I have booked about 100k hands of poker with a net loss to show for it. I will give you a minute to think about how long it would take you to play 100k hands.

...

The question that everyone asks is of course: Have you played bad, or have you just been unlucky? Of course it is more or less implied that it would be impossible to be unlucky for such a long stretch. Well, that is obviously up for debate, but I will maintain that yes, I have more or less been running bad while playing well. It may sound like I am ignoring obvious warning signs, but I simply haven't played significantly different from the previous 100k hands in which I basically cleaned up the tables. It is hard to believe when you haven't experienced it, but the amount of variance in poker results is just mind numbing, and I have received a heavy dose of the worst of it the last 3 months.

All that is going to change now, and I have promised myself 100 hours of solid poker in August. To start with I have dropped down to 600NL to try and gain some momentum, confidence and hard currency before I return to my beloved 1000NL that have treated me so harshly lately. I have already booked 20 hours with earnings of a little over $200/hour this week, so it has been a pretty good start. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I played 6 hours, and I was down 6 buy-ins at one point. I finished strongly though, and brought it back to even before it was over.

I will update a bit more frequently now and hopefully it will be all reports of happy days and big $$$.

Royal flush!

2008-07-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

I don't remember getting a royal flush before, but tonight I got one. Not that it's a very interesting piece of news, but these are slow times. I started with a horrible run after coming home from Vegas, but I am back to green now, although not by much. My plans for the coming week includes some spear fishing and poker playing, and then I go on vacation with the wife on Thursday.

I have been coaching a friend of mine a little bit lately, and I have found that very enjoyable. I show up live at his place, and we discuss the game as he is playing, and I pin point whatever general weaknesses I see. I could definitely see myself doing that some more. If you live around Copenhagen and feel like getting some new input, let me know. I don't come cheap though. I think $200/hr is about right for what I can offer, considering that I make more than that playing poker myself. It has to be live though. I think a verbal discussion gets the points across much quicker than emails, and besides I sit in front of my computer enough as it is. When I get back from vacation, I will write down something properly about how I can help people improve their game.

Congratulations are in order for Spain with a spectacular Euro Cup win. I don't remember such a huge skill difference between two teams in one of the big finals. Spain was just completely outplaying Germany 75 out of 90 minutes.

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
6 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
Hero: $1000
UTG+1: $1121.30
CO: $1419.14
Button: $1223
SB: $1129
BB: $1137.24

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG with :jc :tc
Hero raises to $40, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, Button calls, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: :kc :qc :kd ($165, 4 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $100, CO calls, 2 folds.

Turn: :6h ($365, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $200, Hero calls.

River: :ac ($765, 2 players)
Hero raises all-in $660, CO folds.
Uncalled bets: $660 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: $765

Snap back to reality.

2008-06-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

This post just to let you know I haven't fallen off the earth and that my brain is not completely melted from my stay in the Nevada desert sun. I am slowly getting used to a world where things make a little sense. No pink stretched hummers and the inside temperature correlates roughly with the outside temperature. Looks like I am getting rid of that cold I picked up out in the desert. I have had some annoying hardware problems, so I have only just today gotten back to the grind of online poker. It is almost a relief to get back where bet sizes are sensible.

Otherwise the last couple of nights have been spent with the Euro Cup of Football. It has been a couple of decent semi finals, although the Russian performance tonight was dissapointing. Hard to understand what happened to the team that destroyed the dutch. I guess a final of Germany vs Spain is pretty good, considering that it could have been Turkey vs Russia. That would have been a bit of an anti climax. Anyway, I am just happy that Italy is out. Their match against Spain is one of the most disgraceful I've seen, bad even for Italy. It is just a shame that Donadoni orders 11 guys, many of whom can do great things with a football, to just stand and defend for 120 minutes.

It is nice to be home, even though I miss my Porsche. That is one nice ride, and a cabriolet is made for the Vegas heat. When you accelerate quickly from 50 to 90 mph past a roaring truck on the freeway, you know you are alive. It cost me $500 for a day, it was worth every cent and it is not close. A+.

Short stories from Vegas.

2008-06-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

I played in a tournament at Bellagio early in the trip. An old rock to my right started out loudly declaring how he would never raise an ace and a face card, "never!". Another player questioned his truthfullness, and he repeated "NEVER!", clearly agitated. First hand I remember him playing he was betting flop and turn of a semi large pot on a QJxx board with two spades. When the river came a non spade king, instead of considering his action he just started mumbling "You motherfucking...", and checked it down. He showed an ace high flush draw, and the other guy took it down with KT for a rivered one pair. Clearly the old guy thought the world was against him. 20 minutes later we had the most brutal of suckouts on the table as some guy was sent out of the tournament with 33 against AJ on a JT3 board. Turn, T, River: J. Just a sick beat that pretty much left the table shell shocked. The old guy commented "well, what about me with that king on the river, talk about being unlucky". Half an hour later, he flopped a flush from the big blind against another guys set. A set against a flush is not in horrible shape with 7 outs on the turn and 10 on the river, and he hit one of those. That was too much for old guy who stood up and yelled "Did you ever see shit like that in your life?!?!?". My answer would be, well, yeah, once or twice. He also got in a few choice words about the WSOP management who wouldn't let him play in an event when he was only half an hour late. Some people just have no luck at all.

In the $5k event, I played at a table with both TJ Cloutier and Allen Cunningham. The only table chatter I overheard there was TJ telling how he had once seen Doyle get away from quad tens "years and years ago". As he himself has documented in his book 'Championship NL Hold'em', TJ is the very definition of a solid rock, who has made his living at the poker tables folding a lot, and then soul reading people in big pots. He displayed both in a hand where he 3-bet from the button. The first raiser then said "why so little?", and then 4 bet it. That sent TJ into the tank. After a while he said "Another raise...". Then "...with a speech...", and then he folded queens.

Most places in the world, driving a Hummer will be a powerful statement in itself. But in Vegas, some people can't handle the thought of someone not noticing how much money they have. So they stretch the Hummer. A lot. And then they paint it pink...

Thomas from the office had Gus Hansen at his table in Mondays event. Obviously, the first time Thomas raised his blind, Gus instantly moves all in for a full stack early in the tournament. Thomas folds and Gus says to him: "I only do that when I think I have the best hand". And then smiling: "...but I always think I have the best hand."

Same Thomas busted Phil Helmuth in an earlier event with aces against Helmuth kings. Helmuth took it gracefully, shaking his hand saying "That's the only way they beat me".

Event #31.

2008-06-16T16:49:00.001-07:00

Event 31, $2500 short handed was a bust. Everything is back to normal, as I lost with a set against a flush draw all in on the flop. Biggest dissapointment was not busting Jamie Gold as he was all in preflop against me earlier in the day. I had 88 against his 22, but he spiked the deuce. His words were: "Everybody tells me I am the luckiest man in the world, I might as well run with it". He busted later though, so I guess he wasn't that lucky.

No. 30 out of 2706.

2008-06-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

Not a bad result when you look at it that way, but of course it would have been a bit nicer to see the final table. For 30th place I took down $13,666, enough to keep my tournament gaming in Vegas close to break even.

There have been a lot of big hands today, and I don't really have the energy to recount them all. At one point I had 270k chips, which is 90 times starting stack. Things went downhill from there though, and the last hour I was severely short stacked most of the time after losing a 170k pot with AK vs 99 preflop. I survived one all-in with JTs against A3o, but I finally busted with T7o called by AQo. I shoved 75k from CO, 6k/12k blinds, and 1k antes. Good shove IMO, considering each orbit cost 26k.

Early in the day, I would have been in the top 10, if my pocket aces had held up against queens. Overall though, there is no question I was lucky to go so far. But of course, I wish my luck could have held a few hours longer. Such is the life of a tournament player.

WSOP cash.

2008-06-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

I played my fourth event of the series yesterday, or I should say, I am still playing it! I have made it to day two of event 27 ($1500 NL) with a little over average chips, and we are in the money.

It was a great day 1, in which everything suddenly worked out, in sharp contrast to earlier events this year, when nothing worked out. I played two different tables, both of which was among the best I have ever played. On the first table, two thirds of all hands went unraised preflop, and on both tables the level of passivity was at times almost mind numbing. It was very cozy though, with an 80 year old geezer to my left who couldn't really see the board, and a middle aged woman across taking the 'friendly game' prize. They went very deep with the method of call preflop, call flop, call or check turn, call or check river and show down a set, trips or a straight for the winning hand. They combined for a total of 2 preflop raises in five hours, and on one of those the lady put in 2200 chips from the button when the blinds were 600/1200. I will never know if it was actually meant to be a call as well. On the other raise, the lady knocked out the short stacked geezer with kings against queens. She is still in it with a decent stack.

There are just 224 players left, and first prize is $628k and of course a bracelet, so that is where I am going.

I gotta run, I am playing in an hour and a half. Wish me luck.

Vegas update

2008-06-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

As I am sporting the mother of all hang overs, this will just be a brief report of our doings in Vegas. Pretty much every one of us is losing at the tables, so there is not much profit yet.

I played event 21 yesterday, a regular $5k NL tournament. I doubled up early with aces against eights all-in preflop, but went totally card dead after that. I also made a semi bad bluff that cost me a chunk. I finally bust with 30 BBs about 5 hours in with a flush draw and over cards against aces.

It turned out to be a good day anyway, as I saw the cirque de soleis show 'Ka', which is an awesome production. Other prime activities include a long drive in the desert. We started out by Hoover Dam, drove by Lake Mead to the Valley of Fire, and then home. Day before that we visited the gun range, where I shot Saddam Hussein in both eyes with a Desert eagle in two shots total. I also tried an AK-47, an M16 and a .45 hand gun. Much fun. Our internet is basically not functioning, so sadly I can't spoil you with updates as much as I would like.

Now, sleep.

Event #13.

2008-06-09T10:53:00.001-07:00

Event #13 Saturday went much better than #9. I lasted over twice as long, and lost as a much bigger favourite. About 100 minutes in I raised from UTG+1 with 97s, and get 3 callers. I flop a flush draw, and BB bets about half pot. I call, and so does the button. We are 3-way, the pot is growing big and on the turn I make my flush. BB checks, I bet 2/3 pot, Button raises, BB folds, and we go all-in. He shows a flopped slow-played set (not a good play imo). He obviously rivers a full house, and I am gone.

The beats you take playing live poker are somewhat harder to bear than online. Everything is much more in your face, it takes longer to play the next hands, and the emotions of yourself and your opponents are an important part of the game much more so than online. This recent beat is not exceptional at all, but it took its toll on me emotionally. It more or less ruined my day actually. But I am nothing if not stubborn, so I will keep plugging of course. Yesterday was a vast improvement, we hung out at the mansion for most of the day, and then went for a good meal and some cash game. I watched game 2 of the NBA finals, played 10/20NL at the Bellagio for a few hours and won $1100 in only small pots. A good solid evening that I think I needed.

WSOP Event #9 and other failures.

2008-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

Event 9 had the look of a great tournament for myself and a couple of the guys: Short handed, which is our normal game and a large weak field to take advantage of. Things didn't work out though, I busted with aces against a flush draw on the flop only 45 minutes in. I succeeded to some degree with my plan of establishing a loose aggressive image, and I suppose that prompted my opponent in the final hand to make a large overbet all-in on the flop with the flush draw. But when you can't win a hand as a 68% favourite you are not going to get far in any tournament.

I played in a $1080 tournament at Bellagio afterwards, and busted in that one about half way in after folding a lot. 6 hours of tournament poker took a harder toll on me than expected, so I called it a day after that. I haven't really had any cards to play with so far, so I have yet to see if my aggressive strategy will work.

Back home Mathias sucked out on me in a 4-way pool tournament that I had practically clinched. Everything is so rigged. Today we go shopping.

Reporting from Vegas (baby).

2008-06-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Las Vegas Monday, and the guys joined up yesterday, so the 'Pokerkontoret Mansion' is up and running. I managed to sleep until 7AM today, so hopefully the jet lag is not going to bother me much. The house is cool, the car is cool, and it looks like it will be a great trip.

A few of us will play in WSOP Event 9 today, it is a $1500 6-max event, and I am really looking forward to that. I hope to really attack the table and build that crucial early big stack, that could allow me to dominate the table the first few levels. Of course it is a risky strategy that will often quickly cost your tournament life, but I think it can be very profitable to play a lot of big pots against bad players who are more afraid to bust out early than you are. We will see how it works out. Of course the most important thing is always to adjust well to the other players.

And the beat goes on.

2008-05-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

I played in the weekly Thursday tournament in Casino Copenhagen this evening, and lasted about 40 minutes. Things went as planned early, as I attacked the blinds and weak limpers of whom there were plenty (the limpers that is, the number of blinds was standard). There was about 4 weak calling stations at the table.

Then one of them 3-bet me preflop when I had AK. I called, hit an ace on the flop while he hit a set of nines, and I was crippled. Ten minutes later I lose a preflop all-in with ATo against a calling station with 65s. He called a raise from CO, and then called my shove from SB as well, for about 15 BBs. nh, wp.

Since my last post, I have had two losing cash game sessions. The last one I was just about to get away with a $2k win, which would have been huge this month, but then as I was going home I sat at two very juicy 2000NL tables for an hour and promtly lost 4 buy-ins.

I am now at break even for the month, and feeling some poker sadness.

Looking forward.

2008-05-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Lately it has been all about cash games, and that is about to change. This month I have played a load of cash game hands, and I am sorry to say things have not been too smooth. Since my last post I had another bad session, so I my monthly result, while still positive, is absolutely dismal compared to the amount of time I put in.

Fortunately, I don't worry too much about that, since in about two weeks I am going to Vegas with a few of the boys from the office. It will be good times, liberal gambling and booze policies, and of course: Tournaments. I am looking forward to playing about 5 WSOP events this year, and this time I will not be jet lagged during most of them. While tournaments are not my speciality, I am not too bad at it, and I hope I will catch a bit of luck and win a bracelet or just some money. The plan is to spend the next couple of weeks playing lots of tournaments, including a few live ones if I can find any in this by gambling forsaken country.

Sadly, tournaments are rigged. I was reminded tonight when I crashed and burned in all but one, and then I crashed and burned in that one too. My tournament account books show a deficit this year for sure, with no sign of things turning around. Considering that I also have to pay tax of my Las Vegas winnings, the trip is money out the window from a short term economical view point. But whatever, I have a right to dream of bracelets and suitcases full of money, so I am going. If the trip does nothing else, it will reinforce my conviction that tournaments are rigged so I can focus better on the cash games. If all else fails I will get to drive a few very fast cars. I checked, and you are eligible for jail if you just drive 30 mph above the legal limit. I have never been to jail before...

Anyway, the blog is about to change gears for the next month, going from the never ending grind of the cash games to reports of fast tournaments eternally full of bad beats. Then it will get worse with all the fast cars, fast money and hot sun of the Vegas desert. You have been warned.

Like night and day.

2008-05-21T04:19:00.000-07:00

I have always thought it more or less established fact that the games were better late at night (Danish time, GMT+1). The logic is that at around midnight everyone in the western world will NOT be at work, and that sleeping schedules is less of a hindrance for poker playing than work schedules. Also the European players who are on roughly the same local time as me will supposedly play worse late at night for various reasons.

What is lacking is some hard proof that this is actually fact, and not just an example of the standard human mindset that the grass is always greener on the other side, or in this case, that money flows more freely when I can't play 'cause wifey wants me in bed.

During my marathon, I did not have the feeling that the games were much better at night time, and surely my results are an indication of the opposite. My day time sessions (before dinner break) produced a win rate of 3.6 BB/100, while my night time sessions produced a win rate of 0.22 BB/100. Obviously those results are not proof of anything, for example a break even session on Sunday night instead of a -17k session would have made the two win rates roughly equal.

If you have some solid evidence one way or the other, I would be pleased to hear of it. Unfortunately Poker Tracker 2 was not much help in this regard. Right now I am working with PT3 to see if there is functionality there to help me (I am pretty sure there is, but I am having some techical problems and am in contact with support).

Fellow blogger Joxum asked for showdown statistics during the marathon. I went to showdown on 26.4% of the hands were I saw the flop, and I won 56% of those showdowns.

Last week...

2008-05-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

I played 70,034 hands of poker in 71.5 hours.

I won $23,476.

I paid $7,572 in rake.

I played 979.5 hands per hour.

I played 348 table sessions.

My longest single table session was 818 hands. That was a 7.5 hour session Sunday. I should have left that one out, because it cost me $5,550.

I paid $100,804 in blinds.

I made a total of 421 cold calls preflop (calls where I had not previously put money in the pot. A call from the blinds is not a cold call). This is about 0.6% of my hands. Over half of that was from the button.

I was dealt pocket aces 331 times, and I won $114 with it on average. I won $78/hand with kings, $24/hand with AKs and only $11.6/hand with queens.

I had quads every day. 19 times total.

I did not have a single straight flush.

I raised preflop 17.76% of my hands, and voluntarily put money in the pot 19.94%. My total aggression factor was 5.39.

I 3-bet preflop 8.35% of the times I had the opportunity.

I hit the bottom of a 30 buy-in downswing (middle of Tuesday), which started earlier in the month.

I had two $19k downswings, and I am still at the bottom of the last one.

I played three different buy-in levels:

2000NL:
5,185 hands
$1,856 won
0.89 BB/100

1000NL:
62,822 hands
$19,991 won
1.59 BB/100

600NL:
2,027 hands
$1,630 won
6.7 BB/100

If you have any burning questions concerning the numbers from last week, now would be a good time to post them, since I am already up to my elbows in number grease.

A little perspective, please.

2008-05-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last post was a nice reminder of why it is important to balance your life, especially so if you spend a significant portion of it playing poker. The highs and lows of poker are so extreme that if it is all you ever do, you will end up with manio depressive tendencies.

I played 71 hours of poker last week. During a run of eight hours Tuesday, I won $23k, almost exactly corresponding with my entire weekly profit. During five hours yesterday, I lost $17k, nearly cutting the entire weekly result in half. It is a wonder I am not a raving lunatic. Like they say, poker is a hard way to make an easy living.

Now I have had a chance to sleep on it, I am still a little bit pissed off actually, but I am capable of other feelings as well. For example, I am glad it's over, and I can do stuff again. Furthermore, I can give you three thoughts on the project as a whole.

One: When you have a load of playing time laid out before you, it takes a lot of focus from your immediate results. This was especially usefull to me in the beginning of the week, since I ran very bad the first day and a half. I think this experience can motivate me to try and fit my play into a larger plan in the future. For example, I could have a specific plan to play 40k hands in a month, and cash out whatever profit is there at the end of it. That way the first couple of sessions will automatically be put into the perspective of the whole month, and hopefully at the end of the month there will be a large surplus, so that the swings of a few hours won't seem so significant. And then I'll try not to lose half the monthly profit in the last damn session.

Two: Holy crap, I can play a lot of hands when I want to! Both in number of tables and number of hours I surprised myself with how well I managed with relatively little effort. I did not think it would be possible to play 1000 hands an hour, but it was. It gives me some satisfaction that I can sit down and grind it out like that, and expect a profit. The problem for any poker player capable of self critisism is that you never know for sure if and by how much you are a winning player. You just never get in enough hands to prove anything, and even if you did, it would take you so long that the games will have changed along with your own playing style. Although 70k hands is still not enough to prove anything concerning poker results, I think that along with my other results this year, there is now very strong statistical evidence that I am able to solidly beat 1000NL while playing a large number of tables. Those 70k hands last week now sit as a sort of documentation, or at least they would have if I hadn't lost half the profit in the last damn session.

Three: As I understand it, if you've been brain washed you are not going to be aware of it. I think it is not too far fetched to compare a 71 hour 10-table work week as a sort of extended brain wash of your poker senses. I should spend some time figuring out how my play has been affected. I can see in my stats that I have actually played slightly less hands and raised slightly less hands this week than I normally do. I believe that I am able to make good subconscious adjustments to my game, and do so continually, but I should try to make myself aware of the changes at some point to make sure they are constructive. For example, if I run bad over an extended period of time, I may make defensive changes that are in fact going to cost me money in the long run. It is about time I took a look at my game, if nothing else by running through a few hands.

I hope you are all now convinced that I haven't grown totally bitter, just slightly annoyed at the unfairness of it all, as ever. I will return with a run down of my stats from last week tomorrow. As you may know, pokertracker 3 is now shipping, so I am in the process of importing my entire hand history two years back into that program right now. Teaser: In my next post I will reveal how large a percentage of my hands that i 3-bet preflop!

I hate everything.

2008-05-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Total
71.4 hours, 70,029 hands, $23,877, MT Ratio: 8.78, 1.64PTBB/100 (e.a.:2.5), $7,503 rake paid.

Today:
10.25 hours, 10,993 hands, -$13,860, MT Ratio: 9.49, -3.78PTBB/100.

"I must admit it was a relief to finally crack $30k, hopefully for good. As the graph shows, I have been grinding the same money up and down forever, and I was getting fairly sick of always returning to $23k. I know you are probably not feeling very sorry for me about being stuck at 'only' $23k, but imagine working 25 hours on something, getting no result and then having to pay for it in the end. But a little before midnight, I finally, finally, FINALLY got rewarded for all the lost coin flips and setups over the last two day. Makes me feel like river dancing."

-Quote playbald yesterday

"$25,031"

-Quote playbald Wedensday.

"Crap day, crap week, crap project."

-Quote playbald right fucking now.

End in sight

2008-05-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Total
65.4 hours, 63,876 hands, $40,584, MT Ratio: 8.74, 2.72PTBB/100

Today:
4.25 hours, 4,840 hands, $2,847, MT Ratio: 9.96, 3.45PTBB/100.

Last marathon dinner break ever. I just want to share with you the sickest suckout ever:

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $5/$10
5 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: $2305.05
Hero: $2965.80
Button: $830
SB: $1092
BB: $2460

Pre-flop: (5 players) Hero is CO with :9h :9c
UTG folds, Hero raises to $35, 2 folds, BB raises to $125, Hero calls.

Flop: :9d :js :5d ($255, 2 players)
BB bets $199, Hero raises to $500, BB calls.

Turn: :as ($1255, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $700, BB raises to $1400, Hero raises all-in $1640.8, BB calls all-in $435.
Uncalled bets: $505.8 returned to Hero.

River: :9s ($4925, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $4925)

Results:
Final pot: $4925
BB shows Ah Ac (three of a kind, aces)
Hero shows 9h 9c (quads, nines)

Yes ladys and gents, a one-outer on one try for 5 buy-ins. Of course this sucks royally for me, since it completely ruins my hard earned image as a notoriously unkucky player who succeeds despite horrible circumstances.

Dinner break.