Poker's been real frustrating

So earlier on this month I went on an absolute heater. I was killing 2/4nl. However, I'm in the process of moving into my apartment in Virginia, and since I know absolutely nobody here right now, I've been playing a bunch of poker.

Well, things have gotten absolutely awful. I've gone on a 20 buy in downswing. The good thing is that I don't think I've really gone on emotional tilt yet. There was a moment that I remember it creeping up on me, but I curbed that right away. Not to say that I haven't gone on tilt, I don't think that I've been playing optimally, I tried to bluff a little too much. However, I'm glad that I haven't really let emotional tilt, where I just call all types of bets for no reason get to me. I've gotten a couple people go over some of my big pots that I've lost, and I'm glad to say that quite a few of them have been coolers. Needless to say, it has sucked. It also doesn't help that I still don't have any furniture yet, and playing long hours of losing poker on the floor is not fun at all. Here's a graph of my result up till today for the past week.



However, I don't think my head has been in the right place in the past couple hands that I've played. I started playing poker for the big pots, and not the little ones which is more my style. Well today, I got a coach, and he reminded me about general theoretical rules of thumb about poker. And it's definitely put my mind in the right frame work. There were also a couple concepts that I knew, but somehow forgot, about who to value bet, and who not to.

Well today started off like every other day that I've been playing. I got completely destroyed the first couple hands I put in. The difference between today and the other sessions was that I felt like I truly was playing my "A" game today. I didn't see too many spots on the river, where I felt like I missed a value bet. It felt great. And the results, I think, showed up. It feels great battling back after a bunch of crappy sessions. I could be wrong, but I think today is the turning point to my downswing. Below is the graph of today's session.



Tomorrow is my first day of classes, and I'm actually a TA now. It feels kinda weird. I'm TAing for kids a year younger than me, and the profs in my department explained to me that it's not okay for me to socialize with my students because I'm now part of the teaching staff. Strange.

Indo Pics

Back in the States

I just got back a month long vacation back home and I had an absolute blast. For the first time in 8 years, I know kinda sad, some of my friends from America visited me in Indonesia. We did all the touristy things that I hadn't done in more than 8 years and it was a lot of fun. Partially because we were all jet lagged, but mainly due to the fact that we had very full days, we only went out drinking twice on this tripped. I don't think I've had so much sober fun in a while.

Anyways, because of that, I didn't get to play poker that much in the month of July, but I did get some hands in. I think I've turned a corner in my 2/4nl game. The times that I did play, I was very on top of my game, and I'm very proud of it. Below are my stats for the month of July.




It's nice that I'm playing pretty well online, but I did lose quite a bit of money in live games this month. I went to London, UK to get my student visa for next year, and I decided to play in a couple live cash games. I have to say the competition in London was absolutely awful! I've been to casinos in Vegas where I played 2/5nl and the players in London where much much worse. I was playing 1/2pound plhe and 1/3 pound plhe and the players were absolutely atrocious.

There was a huge fish there who was calling 3/4 pot bets on the turn with nothing but a gutshot. And he was doing it constantly too. Well, I was involved in a huge pot with him, and I bet the turn kinda small, like 1/2 pot with basically the stone cold nuts. I wanted to bet enough so that I could shove any river. Well he called, along with another person, and rivered a 1 outer on the river when I shoved into him. That was a 1000 pound pot, and people started berating me that I didn't bet enough on the turn to push him off a draw! Anyways, in total I lost about 1200 pounds in the live cash games, so that amounts to $2400 using todays exchange rate. Oh well.

I don't know how often I'll play in live cash games anymore though. The action is way too slow, and I think that I don't concentrate hard enough. It's hard to concentrate on the action for hours when you only see 25 hands an hour. By the time the blinds come around a couple times, I play on autopilot, and I lose a lot of +ev opportunities. Since people are so passive, I think that I missed a lot of times where I could have 3 betted and taken down pots on moves. I think that, and the fact that I don't have too much experience in 9 handed games anymore makes me a little too cautious, and make me only play my cards. Plus some players are so atrocious I have no idea what their range is.

I'll post some pics on my trip Indonesia later.