Tuesday, February 26, 2008

HUD reliance

Things have cooled off a bit since my last post which is not too surprising. I can't run like that forever as much as I would like to. I am pretty much break even since that point, this includes the bonus so probably down about 2 buyins in play. I am not overly pleased with how I have been playing, I am been too spewy in spots and I think the reason behind it explains my title.

I start using the Holdem manager HUD last week after it randomly started working, it hadn't been working properly on Prima since it's purchase. I had the hud working on ipoker but I didn't like the lack of flexibility in the layout(which is still a problem) There was also something about it which I didn't like. I couldn't put my finger on it initially, but I figured it out after a while and it turned out it was the lack of colours for each stat. They didn't stand out like they did on PAHUD but with a little tinkering in options once I had the colours on and the number of stats streamlined then I liked it a lot more. There are an incredible number of stats displayed and just an amazing amount of information at your fingertips. There is also a great feature where you can double click stats box and get stats for current session for each player which is incredibly handy to able see how someone is playing now.

The added information has resulted in me becoming more laggy in spots, floating people more, cr in limped pots when I see they have a high steal% in limped pots etc and I think at times I can get a little too caught up in numbers so when I see someone who has 3 betted 8% of the time on the button I sort of stop evaluating ranges and just obsess over the idea that he is stealing and trying to bluff me. I then find myself calling a 3bet oop with marginal hands and trying to outplay people and generally getting it in bad. This is costing me too much money. It's good to experiment and try things out but there are definately times when I am over doing it.

This hand is an good example. I mean I almost embarrassed to post it
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168410

Needless to say donk betting/3 betting 99 on KT3 board in 3 bet pot tends not to put you in good shape. I felt sorry for bartboos and he started going mad in chatbox asking me why I raised all in, I didn't answer as I had no answer. Looking back his aggression got to me and I got owned
Now thankfully this is worst example and probably the worst hand I have played in long while but I am still doing other things that need to be curbed.

So while the HM hud is really powerful I need to be careful not to get too caught up in the numbers and then maybe I will be able to post something more positive next time.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Motoring along

Things are still going well. My unibet account has nearly hit a nice landmark and as of tonight I have reached 11,320 VIP points which means I need 5000 more to complete the bonus.
I should get 1000 points tomorrow which will release the third part of the bonus and then I shall do final stretch during this week. If things keep going the way they have be then if you use the $ as base currency I will have a 5 figure month which is pretty sweet.
My graph for this week looks pretty sweet I must say. It's posted at the end of this entry.
I set up on Carlos poker, I got a pretty nice offer and once I complete the bonus on Unibet this week I shall be moving there and starting another session of bonus whoring. God getting free money is great :)

Tonight I read a post on security on how to keep your machine safe, it was quite the eye opener I must say. There is so much more I need to do and shall be doing now to keep my machine secure, considering the money that is being played everyday it's something I haven't taken seriosuly enough and it is rather obviously very important to get that right, the thought of being hacked and have moniez stolen is disturbing to say least.

In non poker news, Eduardo suffered a quite terrible broken leg today for Arsenal, I haven't watched it and are actually avoiding it but everyone say it is seriously gruesome and foot seemed to be almost hanging on which doesn't sound pleasant. Arsenal also threw away a lead in last minute, really handing the momentum to United this week even though they are still 3 points behind.
Also Dustin qualified for the eurovision which is sweet. Lods of people were complaining about it no boards which I found rather humourous but I think it's great, contest is a shambles in anyway with the Baltic bloc just giving to each other each year so might as well openly take the piss out of it.

Anyway here is the graph. Isn't it nice :)

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Running well

I love rushes. It's what makes poker so great and I am currently in the middle of an hefty one.
I am up 17 buyins over the last 4 days and I also got the 2nd part of my bonus for an extra 500. I should hopefully have another 2 of them coming as long as I put the hands in. In general I have been playing well, being aggro when need me and making some good call downs and feeling good about things. I also found out today that Unibet have deal going which means if you get 10,000 VIP points within a certain period of time then you get entered into 3 sats for WSOP package which is pretty sweet. I will get that pretty easily and hopefully I get lucky in 1 of them.

My 2 favourite hands came on the same table against the same opponent. He was a real donk, very aggro, stats were something like 34/24/5 and aggression factor by street was 5/9/14 which is crazy.
In the first hand my plan was to c/c down and then make small river bet to induce a bluff raise and it worked like a charm, I would have done same without the Queen hitting.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2134028

The second hand was was 25 minutes later. I think on that board he tends not to have it and river is a great card for me as well so felt obliged to call
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2134032

There has been a really funny thread on boards which started with an innocent 5-5 hand from Daithio but which has descended into big hu for rollz type debate, A prop bet has been proposed and looks like it's going to be accepted which is great. I am firmly on side of Phantom, cardshark and Holllaments. This debate about reads versus maths has being to death and yet it seems to pop up more and more often. With all due respect to Adam his post about 3 of them in other camp having won 200k on Hendon Mob was so hilarious. I haven't seen him play much but judging by this thread I think his current rush he is on is maybe going to his head. I never really rated HeeHaws from his previous posts and this thread has done nothing to change that view, more re-inforce it. It will be interesting to see how that turns out if it happens. Maybe, I will be proved completely wrong.

Today I played real bad yet won 3 buyins thanks to donk donating to me and me getting really lucky and hitting a flush, whole hand was a disaster and guy thinks I am a donk and going by that hand I can't disagree with him. Still, I shall have to use to my advantage by hopefully playing well and keeping my rush up!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I am a sheep

I always mean to start 1 of these usually around this time of morning when I can't sleep and have nothing better to do and find myself reading random blogs just because I see them linked.
Well tonight I decided to do it. Going by previous attempts at blogs, journals etc. I will go on a posting spree for a while, wait a year and do same again and I imagine this will be no different.

So quick overview I am currently playing 200nl at this very moment on Prima but in general on Ipoker. I am rolled for 400nl but that never stopped me moving up before. Away from poker, well that doesn't cover much. I occasionally deal at the big festivals although I am cutting back from that as I simply earn more money playing online but I still like to do big ones. I am repeating final year in college, yeah repeating. I sort of messed up final year cause I didn't really care and well I still don't but I have come so far. I only have 2 subjects to do so that means I really don''t spend much time on them. Exams are in May, worry about that then. As for after that well I will worry about that then....

As I said currently playing on prima, on french site called Unibet for a 2k bonus. It's good bonus especially as it's in euros but jesus software is bad and even worse Pokertracker and HM are being crap and not importing all the hands properly and hud is not working so it's challenging to say least. The bonus ends on March 1st and I think I will get it although does require some grinding. it's full of french players so that part is most acceptable

Once I get done and likely move back to ipoker I am actually going to try playing some 400nl, get used to it and combine it with 200nl and see how it goes. I can afford to lose a few buyins in anyway so no reason not to give it a shot within reason of course :)

Anyway today I won 8 buyins which is super sweet, played really well. Hand reading skills are getting much better now. I keep this up and it could be a very good month.