Update - 2010 and looking ahead

So I have not posted a blog in a very long time. Since my last post I played pretty much exclusively MTT's. It was fun and i made alot of money reletative to how ive done at cash games/sit n go's but I just cant handle varience. Played like 1100 MTTs or so I think and made all my money in the first 500, then down 2k over the next 600, so meh, whatever poker you suck.

Some good things apart from profits came from my MTT dabble, I learnt that small stakes MTT are super soft and easy to own. I also learnt that varience is a complet bitch. But most importantly I learnt that higher and mid stakes MTT's see a huge jump in skill level from the micro buy ins and are actually pretty hard to be super successfull at. Just like all other forms of poker MTT are a grind and the main reason i decide to switch back to cash games for 2010 is that I hate having to put in 12 hours sessions, getting like 5 hours in and being like 'fuck this shit' but not being able to leave and anti tilt by doing something else.

That brings me to my goals for 2010:

1. Get coaching and improve so I can beat 100nl.
2. Make enough money so I dont have to work to pay for uni next year.(this year is sorted already!)
3. Treat my poker in a more business like and professional way.
4. Volume. But good volume, dont sacrifice quality for quantity.

Coaching

So I have actually already manage to secure myself a coach, who also makes videos for stox poker, and have booked ant payed for 10 sessions at 20nl. So far the first session went super well, came away with a huge amount of info to digest and process aswell as homework and things to do before our next session hopefully in a couple days. Basically just tackled pre flop ranges vs opponent types and where I was missing value in certain spot aswell as some stuff about double barrelling and 3 betting. So far so good.

Since the coaching session i have logged about 11k hands and am doing much better winning at 8bb/100 which is an improvement from my 0bb/100 at 50nl before the coaching(had to move down to protect roll as I needed to pay in advance and didnt want to go busto while spewing as I learnt).

I also renewed my stox poker subscription just in time for Dusty Schmidt to announce that he is resigning as lead instructor there, dissapointing to see my of my favourite high stakes players leaving but never the less will be trying to watch a couple of the video series on there over the coming months.

Other News

Joined up to the uncontested poker forums about a month ago and really helping my game alot to be getting decent HH analysis instead of the boring stuff on the other forums. Been fun for me to get to talk to the likes of zach and BW again aswell as a few more, as they are really good players who are thinking alot about situations and poker, I find myself to be lagging so far behind in the strategy department.

Will be heading back to school for another semester in about 3 days which is very boring and will put a dent in my poker playing volume no doubt. On the whole i was super dissapointed in my last years results but am glad i passed with satisfactory(compared to my peers) grades. I guess expecting all A's and A+'s is a bit much sometimes.

Im looking forward to 2010 and what it holds instore but mostly I am very keen to get through 2010 and seize the great opourtunites that await me about 6 months to a year down the track assuming everything goes to plan with my sporting endevours.

Good luck at the tables and may you pawn the noobs and slap the fish, while 8 bet bluffing nitty regs.

Im back! Only on weekends and holidays.

Thats right you heard it im back but only on weekends and holidays. So maybe weekly updates I do quite enjoy writing. It offers quite a nice place where I can vent about all the horrible things that happen in the world, for example I am now playing at Full Tilt Poker not Pokerstatrs. Why? Why not? Plus FTP has 90 man Knock out sit n gos.

Speaking of the 90 mans, Ive been tearing those up of recent, 47 games, $2.84 average profit. Not to bad for someone who stepped away from poker for 6 months. Sure im only on $3.30 ones ate the moment but I will gradually and hopefully more disciplined than before move up in stakes.

For now have fun enjoy life and realize how great it feels to win because when you dont win, it realy fucking sucks.

Christmas Gift arrives Late but is a good one.

A few days ago a brown package arrived for my brother, unbeknown to me it was infact the very christmas present that I had been given the IOU for on christmas day. In his generosity My brother decided he would let me open the package as he couldnt be bothered wrapping it up in christmas paper. I eagerly tore into the package only to find it so well sealed that my 'tough guy' fingers where unfathomably to me not strong enought to actually pull the stupid brown packaging apart.

"Go forth and get me scissors!" i commanded, after a blank stare from my mother and brother I ended up going to get the scissors myself and finaly manged to get into this mysterious parcell. It was definately worth the wait, as what i found inside was a book entilted "How to Learn Chip Tricks!"

I met this with entrigue and curiosity as I had seen many chip tricks performed by pros and whatnot on ESPN but had always found them extremly difficult to imitate and really given up ever trying to a long time ago. But as i skimme dthe first few pages and hone my dexterity and chip skills I began to get the hang of the first chip trick.

3 hours later I felt I had comfortably mastered the thumb roll and moved on to trick number 2. Another 2 hours and I had this down pat. I continued practicing every seccond I could and can now do the 5 most basic trick with some speed and agilit and usually verl few errors.

Hopefully by the time i can play in a casino I will have hone my skills to the point where I can do the butterfly on both hands at once without fear of dropping the chips and looking a foll!

Munchers "To DO List!"

I have come to the stark realiziation that I need to sort my shit out. I need to straighten out my mental. physical and social state that I'm currently in to try and improve on my happiness and quality of life, which at the moment could be better as I dont do alot all day and waste far to much time than do anything else constructive. So i figure the best way to do this is to make a list of things I need to do;

To DO List!

1. Tidy up my room and house.
2. Limit myself to no more than 2 insults or negative comments to others a day for the rest of next week.
3. Waste less time reading random shit on the internet, rather spend that time doing more construtive things stated below.
4. Play more poker. Sticking to my plan to gring .5/1 LHE.
5. Play some more online Risk because its soo freaking addictive.
6. Do regular 30min+ exercise sessions everday until I go back to school.
7. Spend atleast 20min+ a day working with the football to improve my touch and footspeed.
8. Eat 3 regular meals each and every day.
9. Clean, wash and kepp self hygenic and shower atleast once a day.
10. Be happy and positve.

2008 is over.

So 2008 was a realtively successful year for me poker wise. Through Poker I managed to win about 2.5K at an estimate starting with $0. I managed to pay for a trip to england solely from my poker winnings which is what makes me very proud of the fact that poker has become a viable source of side income for me, alhtough very meagre at this current stage. Im still unsure as to what games I like best but I have decided that it is not NL holdem cash games. Proabably Limit Holdem and SNGs will be my main games this year throwing in an MTT and hopefully a few sunday majors.

Idealy I woul like Neteller to hurry up and email me back so I can get my $400 off them as they have frozen my account when I reched the transaction limit and a soo slow at verifying it. Once the do i think i will withdraw down to $300 and grin .5/1 LHE 6max until I got enough to give 1/2 a shot.

Once I get my money on stars Im never moving it to anothe rsite again as they all seem to have this habit of frezzing accounts for apparently no reason where as stars is reliable and by far the best site to play on.

Finaly, I make it back to the black for the month.

After a turbulant month that stated with a big downswong and me loosing $300 or so, I have finaly manged to get my month back to even and then change. In toatal im up around $35 which only happened after a very memorable win in a 36 player $3 rebuy satty to the full tilt $750K on sundays.



This win has me buzzing but I think it is smart to take the T$216 instead of playing as that represents around 30% of my toatal bankroll now.

I havent played as much as I had hoped to so far this month and definately not posted here as much as I had hoped to but with time off and nothing to do for a week or so leading up to and just after new year I intend to make up for it all and pawn some donks.

Merry fucking christmas all!!!

November Summary

November was a very nice month for me. I started with $116 in the pokerstars account after going awall again the previous month at the cash tables. This month however i decide that i would take the "fuck cash games sit n go's baby!" approach to things which seems to have wroked out really well for me.

I started off playing $3.40 10 person turbo sit n go's. This was my little jem, i managed to play 100 in a week and get the best score on the high orbit Battle of the planets leaderboard aswell as 43rd on the low orbit leaderboard. This netted me a cool $310 bonus and a ticket to the $50k shootout freeroll but we will get to that later.

After the amazing week playing $3.40's i decided to step it up to $6.50 9 and 18 person sit n go's. This went all right, ended up about $120 more profits. Although my average profit in the 9 person's was less than the $3.40 level but I am putting that down to an insane heater at the $3 level.

However as good as holdem is the varience of turbo sit n go's was getting to me, it became a bit of a grind so for the last 5 or so days of the month i mixed my play around in non turbo, 9, 18, 27, and 45 holdem tournies aswell as Omaha High/Low sit n go's. Both these ventures proved to be fun and equally importantly profitable. I averaged about 30% roi in the holdem games mention but amazinly averaged $7 profit playing $11 Omaha High/Low 9 person sit n go's.

The awsome roi % in the Omaha High/Low sit n go's has really inspired me to play these almost exclusivly and try and play 100 in a week as i would have a great shot a taking out the leaderboards with my current stats in these. The play is terrible and i have made 3rd place numerous times with the short stack when two big stacks got it in against each other. I find i just seem to have the knack for Omaha high/low which makes it the most fun game for me to play, aswell as very profitable. We will see how i am doing with a few hundred more under my belt before we become to elated with the short term results though.

Now, back to the $50k shoot out that i gained entry to. As we speak it is still running and i can see my eliminator still in it which really pisses me off. I had played solid down to HU on the first table of the shootout. The winner would advance to the seccond round and net a cool $195 which is about 25% of my current bankroll. I was at a 2:1 chip disadvantage but manged to build my stack back up and no less than 4 times get it in with dominating hands. A9
As annoying as the $50k shootout was at the end of the day it was only a freeroll and i dont doubt i will be there again next month os all in all I am very pleased with my month in poker and look forward to pawning some donks at the sit n go tables!

I applied for steak!

So i applied for a stake on 2p2, just thought i post it on here incase i got some good offers from my zero readers :D


Originally Posted by Munchers
Hi, im looking for a stake to play 25nl/50nl FR on pokerstars and possibly higher later on. I have not played for a while and looking to get back into it but dont have the roll for 25nl atm.

I need around $300-550 from a backer, and i have $200 which can be used as part of the BR.

Here are my stats and hands from Feb-Jun this year.





PM me if your interested or email at ford369@gmail.com

Thanks!

+ i am open to backing offers on the ipoker network aswell!

Big BAD Sunday :(

Sundays plans did not go as well as one may have hoped.



I had a measly 1 cash for $38(16.50 PLO) from 24 tournies. Ended down $240 and decided to not play the last few.



On a brighter note I can pinpoint my reasons for things going so horribly wrong.



1: Middle stages

Probably the worst play ive ever done in MTTs in this area. I usually just try and keep tight if i got 25+ BB and play my strong hands and not pull any moves, but today I played all bluffs and resteals and blew my chis with unnecassary and careless play.



2: Fatigue

I simply cant be starting at 2am so as to get in the deep stack tournie. Need to just skipp some of the really early ones.



3: Tilt

Some tilt from beeing bad beated lead to bad play in other tournies.



Things i think i did well!!(yes there were some)



1:Early(1sthour/rebuy period)

Played this section exceptionally well and usually had atlest double my starting stack of $3k in the freezeouts and about 10-20k after the add on in the rebuys. I especially enjoy the rebuys but just need to work on the Mid game.



Summary

Not the most succesful day if i was measuring my current succes in $ terms but intullectualy and as my development as a play it was an absolutely brilliant. It has really evoked some thought and focused me on what a slack bastard I am. My eyes are opened as to what it really means to become good at poker, I need to work much harder on my game if I want to achieve something in poker. I didnt get my big score that i wanted but i did fgure out a mojor reason why i didnt.

Oh well guess im off to reread HOH numerous times.

PS am heading overseas for a few weeks should be fun and allow me to come back fresh and ready to learn some poker!

Big sunday!

12:00 $11.00 NL Holdem $5k chips
12:15 $11.00 NL Holdem turbo $10,000.00
12:30 $5.50 $20.00 PLO ipoker
12:30 $16.50 PLO $2,000.00
13:00 $5.50 NL Holdem $3k chips $15,000.00
13:15 $2.20 $8.00 PLO ipoker
13:50 $5.50 $20.00 PLO $1,000.00 ipoker
14:00 $11.00 NL Holdem $3k chips $30,000.00
14:15 $3.30 $12.00 NL Holdem $40,000.00
14:30 $11.00 PLO $3k chips $2,000.00
15:15 $11.00 NL Holdem $3k chips $10,000.00
15:30 $8.80 PLO
18:15 $22.00 NL Holdem
19:00 $11.00 NL Holdem $3k chips $30,000.00
19:15 $11.00 $22.00 NL Holdem $10,000.00
19:30 $5.50 PLO
20:00 $3.30 $12.00 NL Holdem $40,000.00
20:40 $8.80 NL Holdem turbo $10,000.00
21:10 $5.50 $40.00 NL Omaha
21:15 $11.00 NL Holdem $5,000.00
21:15 $9.90 NL Holdem 360man
21:30 $8.80 PLO 4max
22:15 $3.30 NL Holdem
22:30 $3.00 $12.00 PLO ipoker
23:15 $11.00 NL Holdem $3k chips $5,000.00
23:15 $11.00 $22.00 PLO $3,000.00
0:15 $5.50 NL Holdem 6max
0:30 $5.50 $20.00 PLO 6max

Total $238.40 $188.00
Total est. cost $426.40

Those are the tournies I have planned out to play tomorrow, if i play them all and use all my rebuys etc. it will cost me $426.40. Hopefully I can finally get me a decent score of $1k+.

Go me, will post cashes on here :D

its up to me to not whack my own thumb

I have hit the wall recently, like an olympian marathon runner it has all just gotten to much and I cant go on. Quiting poker seriously crossed my mind recently and I was on the verge of doing it cashing out around $500 of my $800 roll.

Fortunately for CCers I have rethought, or should I say unfortunately seeing as though I am now going to end up pawning them in CC events! Just kidding im not that good.

I have decided once again, that my discipline is not enough for strenous cash game grinds, I simply do not have the concentration span to sit there playing 20 tables of 25nl for hours upon hours every month, I instead prefer the thrill of going deep in tournies and having 'it all on the river' to see if I can win big or go home with a min cash.

I intend to play pretty much turbo SNGs and a range of MTTs mostly the $4 when I have time but otherwise the 9 18 and 45 man sngs will be my home. I really want to progress my poker game upto something that resembles a decent winrate and this is the best way I know how.

My SNG game was always very good, right from when I first started playing play chips I played SNGs because it offered the oppourtunity to make the most play chips the fastest via the 80k SNGs and I think i should carry that over to my real play now where I have had realtively good succes over my low volume of 1200 or so sngs.

I really fell a new invigoration for poke and am a bit more determined to make it succesful especiall as the christmas holidays approach and I intend to play aroun 500 SNGs a week at a decent level so as to be earning over $1000 a week which is phenominal for me who has never been payed anything more than $12.50 and hour or minimum fucking wage.

i couldnt give a crap at how cliche i am about to sound but it is really soo true especially in my case; I have been given all the fucking tolls you would ever nedd, its up to me to not whack my own thumb and make something really fucking awesome!

Chores

When blogging feels like a chore I just have no desire to do chores, poker is a fun way for me to make some extra money and blogging was supposed to add to that fun. So dont expect regular updates form me as im lazy(means i will be good a poker right? just sit all day??) and dont like doing chores.

In the last few days my roll on ipoker has depleted to a whooping $192.62 and i am pissed. Fortunately some chap on 2p2 accepting my application to ge tstaked for 25nl FR and i will be grinding it out on there for 50k hands over the next month or so. Hopefully I will be able to rack up the VPP as well and take advantage of the double vpp promo that is going on.

I have also decide that I need to focus more and stick to my game of nl cash. I need to study poker and learn more so expect to see more posting in the RA threads and hopefully some stuff will be taught and learnt.

:D

deposit bonus and leaving pokerstars

So the reason I havnt played recently and hence havnt posted recently eithe ris that I have been in the process of transferring my funds off pokerstars and onto the ipoker network under the sit NoIQ Poker.

NoIQ Poker is by far one of the best poker sites on the ipoker network, think of Full tilt and pokerstars combined just with less traffic and slightly worse software. It has a similar VIP system as stars but it is easier to accumulate FPP so I should be able to achive the 60k needed within the 90days to unlock my $600 deposit bonus.

Along with the FPP accumulator which increase the same way as stars with a multiplier evertime you reach a milestone in a month period and the $600 bonus, which requires 60k worth of FPP earned. THe good thing is it is effectively worth about $1200 as you dont loose the 60k FPP earned to unlock your deposit bonus when you have earnt enough and these can then be traded in for more $. If you get the jist of that :)

I am also going to start seriosly playing 1/2 6max limit as multitabling on ipoker is slightly harder than stars due to software but i am going to view that as a good thing as now i will have more time to make better decisions on my hands and increase my bb/100.

So i just put the deposit on today, played a couple of hours and have 300FPP so i am thinking with the free time I will soon have that this may be doable in less than 90 days.

Hopefully i can bonus whore my way up to higher limits and utilise the monthly reload bonus of 20% up to $200 that NoiQ offers!

Rolercoaster!

The varience in 6max is hilarious. It is truly like a rollercoaster, atleast for now im on the uphill part! Played some more pokers, am up to 7k hands of 6max.







Had a fucking meg session today and despite playing horribly in a few spot managed to cream it at 26bb/100 over 1300 hands. So i am very happy as it has taken my BR up over the $800 mark so now al I need is to keep on winning and I will be doing very well to get a shot in at 50nl!









AK flopped straight and villian pretty much gifts me 100bb.





AJ outplays - Here I just have to put villian on AK as both times he has had AA he slowplayed until the river without 3betting p/f so i just dont put him on having the balls to get it in with AK or AQ for that matter here.




KT tripple barrel - 3 street bluff on a relative caling station who gave up on the river alot, I like it can you guess what they had?(FD?)




45s played bad - im just hating this hand, couldnt hav ebeen played worse IMO.

I havnt played much omaha but im making a little over $30/hr at 25nl 6max holdem so I havn't really been motivated to play any Omaha lately, although I did manage to play some on party with my $5.54 on there, that is now $5 so no real change there, at one point it was $25 but i got a FH in against a higer FH and thats poker baby.

I noticed that there was 2 blog posts that I wrote before my last one that have been saved but never published, I actually thought they had been published but obviously my technoligicaly illiterate self couldnt work out they haddnt, so it is no surprise that there has been requests for more updates.

GL for now and hopefully I will actually publish my updates in future :D

Munchers Royale

So in my last blog I mentioned that I had been playing some 6max and whatnot. Wll to put it bluntly it isnt go to shabby. I have have relatively decent succes and will look into ways of dealing with the varience that has ensued.


So theres my graph, as you can see, its nice and peachy for the first 1200 and then relatively break even for the rest, but im not too worried as bw07507 was winning at around $3.25/100 and as you can see I am at $3.09/100 which is very cool.

Im still a bit unsure as to what type of stats are premium at 25nl 6max but im thinking something in the area of 19/15 or 13 are not at all bad to aim for as they make relative adjustments compared to my 15/9 FR and also keeps me playing a tight game as there are a bucket load of cabbages playing the 25nl games.

This is one of the more interesting hands, i put him on a flopped 2 pair and figured the 5 had him counterfieghted on the turn, wasnt to far off. Nice 100bb up!



Meanwhile in omahaha i had probably the greatest hand I will ever get, no wait there is no hand that I could possibly have lost to haha! Horrible cooler for the other chap and he reacted as you would expect in the chat box with a flurry of descriptive comments about various body parts of mine and my sexuality... enjoy!



Buying in for half a stack and playing the 25c/50c PLO tables is alot of fun, certainly seems to make more money than buying in for $25 at the 25PLO tables.

So as the month continues I will hopefull manage 10k more 6max hands and get my roll up to the wonderfull $1k mark.

GO ME!!

New Start, new plan and a protege?

So recently I had an uber fucking blow up lost most of my roll and shot back down to 10nl with $300. I have no desire to go into details but there is an interesting post in the PS cashgame rgs thread on CC that sort of details my frustration. Thank you Icemonkey for requesting a blog update. I need to get my A into G and do more of these blogs as the are quite good for my spiritual or mental well beeing, yeah right. Unless your from NZ you will not understand the tui joke but I have a lovely picture of some of their billboards for you!







Anyway moving back to the shit tha tmatters, poker. I started playing 6max holdem and it went bloody well achiving a 20bb/100 and 10nl and so far a 46bb/100 at 25nl, admitedly only over 1400 hands but whou cares its still awsome seening as though im now back up to $720 in my account. Hopefully i will continue to get good results and improve my 6max and move up with the help of bw who i am trying to do a coaching session with so he can help show me some of the more 6max specific plays.

Speaking of coaching, custo whos blog is (apparently not on my list??) has requseted tha tI help him improve his FR play and move out of the 1c/2c level. I was very enthusiastic about this mostly as he was so enthusiastic and comprenhensive in his PM to me. I will definatel keep you guys updated on what is going on there and hopefully post some hands of his that I analyse. I think that coaching him will really improve my game as I will be forced to question my own methods and strategies which should be fun and interesting. Maybe some good threads will be started in the strat section on CC, you never know.

With my newfound enthusiasm(thanks custo/icemonkey/bw) for poker and learning I am excited as to what lays ahead for me and to what I am going to achieve. Poker is a great game and I am truly greatfull for what it has taught me about life in general aswell as many other skills which will not be lost on my journey through the poker world and ofcourse the real world.

To all of you out there who read, please comment and make me feel special. You never know when you will be needing and pick me up and who will be around to help you pick your arse up and slap you in the face and tell you to "stop fucking around and sort your shit out because you are wasting your fucking time doing this bull shit!"

Character

Your ability to make good decisions does not define you but it is you ability to deal with the consequences of those decisions that is what matters. Most common to poker players is our inability to deal with tilt which is a consequence to our decision to play poker.

Tilt is a very bad thing. This may sound simplistic but until you have truely expierenced money tilt then you will never understand how extremely horrible tilt is. Tilt is not dropping a buy in or two in you usual game because someone sucked out on you, true tilt is dropping 3 or 4 buyins of limits 4 times as high as your normal game because you lost a coinflip. Tilt is the consequences of your decision to sit down and play today. So what are you saying? That we shouldnt play poker? No, we should play poker, but only if we are in the right frame of mind and body. Only if we are at peace with ourselves and anything that may or may not happen at the tables.

As airy fairy as it sounds it is true. If you are tired or drunk or anything else that hinders your focus, concentration and ability to make good decisions then you should not be sitting at the computer or poker table playing poker. You should be exercising the discipline required to stop playing today and wait until you are rested and comfortable and can make the best decisions possible.

That brings us to my seccond point. Discipline in poker is of the utmost importance. A persons ability to make/not make the correct rational decision at the appropriate time is what seperates winners form loser and big winners from winners. The discipline to step back and take a rational look at the situation is what defines your success. Without this ability we would all fail epicly.

end rant.

Uber downswing, back to the bread and butter.

So since my last post I have gone and uber downswing starting from when i tried to move up in limits. It took my Bankroll all the way down to $300 but I have managed to grind it back to $500 at the moment.

I hope to get a $285 bonus bought and cleared within the next week so I can go back to playin 16-20 tables of 25nl for the two weeks that I wont have any school or anything else on.

During those two weeks I hope to make some significant money by grinding like hell at 25nl and really being disciplined to stay at those limits and make the $25 per hour I know i can make.

As most will know grinding gets tedios after a while so when mr BR hit $300 i decided I needed to play the games that I learnt when i first started poker over a year ago now. Turbo 18 man SNGs!!!. I have been playing the $6.50 and been averaging around $1.5-$2 roi which is very nice seeing as though i play about 10 every hour.

hopefully i will be able to hit the high orbit leader board in the coming weeks and get a nice bonus to go with the FPP ones I will be getting.

Best of luck to me and you!!

Back On track.

Poker is back running smoothly. Have had no major downswings and overall been playing well lately. My results show and my BR is back to $1300.

Wont be able to play at the tables for the next 5 days as im going away to watch my brothers basketball tournament :)

His team is pretty good and will hopefully do well and make the final. If they fail to make the semis then something went ape shit and they were screwed by the basketball gods IMO.

GL all.

Swingaments

Long time since the last update. My apoligies.

After my good start I decided to hit the $50NL tables for another "shot". Good bye profits.

I have started playing 10 tables of 100nl and buying in Short Stacked(SS). It has been going well and putting some profits back in my BR. It has also meant that im earning VPPs faster so hopefull I will make Platinium this month. Only 6k VPP to go.

Heres a pretty little graph :)



Heres the 100nl.



In other news, I have played some $4.40 180 man donkaments, the play is horrible and I managed to make the final table of the 2nd one I played and come 6th when my AJ < A9 all-in P/f.

Mood swings have coincided with poker swings and things arnt the best at the moment but i will get back on track and control my emotions.

SS'ing is fun :D

Hope you all have good luck.