Think lucky get lucky

Why do some people get all the luck while others never get the breaks they deserve?

That's the question at the start of the article i read the other day on the BBC site.

The gist of it is people who think positively get more luck.

As someone who's played a lot of poker over the years i've had to train myself into always looking on the positive side of things.

Just yesterday i was 3 buy-ins down but stuck at it and ended up 1 buy-in in profit.

However today i'm pretty much at the end of my tether.

5 buy-ins down, 4 buy-ins below all in EV the session can be summed up by:

JJ v QQ (lost)
QQ v AK (lost)
KK v JJ (lost)
& Set vs flush draw that gets there OBV.
& Trip Aces vs rivered full house but i didn't stack off.

This has been normality for me the last 3months i've played (March, April, June)

My stats show i'm playing top quality the last week but i'm 10 buy-ins below all in EV.

Better to be lucky than good i guess.

Ermm ... I don't know where to go from here. It's all pretty fucked up at the moment.

Last 7days

I run good at life

Ok so yesterday i moan about running bad on the poker table.

Today i get reminded how damn good i run at life!

Helping my dad cut some glass for his greenhouse today i'm messing about as usual showing off my terrible efforts when the piece of glass i'm tapping against my left hand smashes and a large piece strikes me in the face!

I can feel blood streaming down my face so look in the reflection of a window and see there's a cut about 1cm away from my left eye.

It reminds me of many moments in my life i've come so so close to disaster but somehow got away with it for example falling out of a big tree when i was younger and landing on my ass. Running towards the edge of one of those bridges in france that lifts up to let big ships through not seeing a large hole with some crappy netting covering it until my sister screams STOP, i stop dead, literally 1 foot away from almost certain death.

Nearly been run over a few times, nearly had big car accident a couple of weeks ago when i couldn't see out of a turning and i was about to go but just decided to wait an extra second for whatever reason and a huge lorry comes storming past at least 30mph.

Also been in planes that have dropped out of the sky in turbulence and ferries that have stop working for a long while in storms in the middle of the night in the channel.

So i think yet again someone up there somewhere is telling me to stop being a whiny ass and remember how LUCKY I AM.

Genuinely am so so lucky in life but perhaps because i've appreciated how great life is for many many years.

So appreciate life as you never know when it can just blow up in your face...

Cursed blog..

Since my last post i've run 7 buy-ins below all in EV.

This month reminds me a lot of March this year when i played pretty rubbish for the first couple of weeks of the month then sorted my game out, play great then ran 20 buy-ins below EV (serious i just looked at the graph).

Poker is fun for all the family.

Of course all in EV is a pretty sketchy thing as you can get $99 in ahead and only $1 in behind and it'll say you got all the money in behind so i did another search for how my luck is in all ins pre flop this year on the two main sites i've played. 10 buy-ins below EV in all-ins pre flop.

I remember the days when i could flop a set with 77 on a 78J flop and get three streets of value vs any combination of hands. Not these days. It's EZ game for my opponents these days when they can just call with T9o and flop the straight isn't it.

EZ game folks.

At least the weather is nice.

Feelin so high ...

Was up a few hundred the last few days but the last day hasn't been too good and it got me wondering about how to improve my game further.

I've played vs people from all corners of the globe on all sorts of different sites and see a lot of people who just don't tilt. Some people just don't seem to have moments of madness where they spew off a buy-in for no apparent reason. In contrast i'm quite adept at this. So i think it's time to change this bad habit.

Over the last day i lost the profit i made in the 2days previous but looking back on my stats my play didn't change too much at all. The big difference though was in the sessions over the last day i've played whilst distracted and when tired - i used to think it was ok playing when not feeling at my best but in todays games every edge is vital.

Now the aim is to only play when i'm on my 'A' game.

Tommy Angelo is a poker pro and psychologist he strongly advocates making priorities off the felt to aid you on the felt. For example he says sleeping well, taking breaks, focussing fully etc. should be made as strong a priority as making money.

So to try this out i'm going to set my alarm every morning for 10am ! Without an alarm i rarely wake before mid-day so getting into a morning routine should be good. Also going to do an hours daily exercise and maybe try out some yoga which i've been wanting to do for a long time.

A feel good tune i found on my ipod the other day (random) is So High (Martin Roth remix) by Starchaser - this youtube version is 2mins longer than the one off itunes and the quality is a bit tinny compared but as one of the comments below the vids says, if you don't like it "Fuck the song Look at her!"

Krantz mode

So i've just managed a winning session for the first time in 4days after losing 8 straight sessions.

That's quite a hefty monkey off my back after days of run bad and play bad but it may come too late to save the month.

Perhaps the most costly mistake i made this month was something i did (or didn't do) away from the felt.

There was a new video on DeucesCracked by jongreenway (a v.good 100nl/200nl reg) that i started to watch. But stopped it after less than 2minutes.

Why?

Because i thought i knew better.

My mindset going into the month was i'm going to play my own style, do what i want and not conform to what the 'right' plays are. This included watching no strat videos.

But today after a brutal week i decided to watch the video DeucesCracked-JonGreenway just to see.

As i was watching whilst 5tabling i didn't take too much notice to his exact actions but one line caught my attention in a big way.

He said at 100nl and 200nl there's no need to go aggro-tard or tag-fish like a lot of players do. Just playing normal solid poker will make money. This sounds pretty obvious of course but it's coming from one of the top winners over the past year and just shows you don't have to get fancy, don't have to read too much into things just play solid poker keep grinding away and you will make money.

His exact term was going in to "krantz mode" i.e. being over-aggro leading you to level yourself against other aggressive players. But as none of us at that level are as good as Krantz we don't know how to react to people being aggressive back at our aggressiveness. Leading to mistakes and losing money.

I'm sure i've been in Krantz mode this year when it's just a lot easier to make money playing normal solid poker. I guess i knew this in the back of my mind but having it re-affirmed by a top low/mid stakes player has brought it to the forefront.

Is every player a superuser?

That is what it feels like at this moment from what i've seen the last few days.

To put it into context i 3bet this guy with AK, flop comes Q high we both check, i big barrel turn and river blanks to put him all in he insta calls with QJ. (who ever stacks off with one pair Q Jkicker at 100NL these days??)

Later on its the same again with AK, this time the flop is KQx we check again so i'm staying in pattern for how i big bluffed earlier except i have a big hand now. I bet the turn and river again all in he insta calls again the river this time he has 89s for the back doored flush.

Seriously no matter what i do the last 4days i get soul owned. If i choose to 3barrel bluff (incredibly rare) they call down with rags or have the nuts if i check raise bluff (even rarer) they go all in, if i go for value i valuetown myself. It's that kind of days weeks and month.

Actually starting to think ipoker 100nl 6max may be unbeatable.

The irony is as they call down light it seems so so often they are exploitable but if you never bluff then you'd expect in turn they'd tighten up.

As i have unfortunately showndown a lot of bluffs now you'd think i'd have made a lot of money getting value from big hands, yes i've won big pots vs people calling down light, but haven't stacked anyone in over 2days and 4,000 hands.

The next step?

Pray to run better. If these people keep calling down with rags i MIGHT actually make a hand once in a while paying me off big style as i'm running the bluffs just as i would the big hands as shown at the beginning of this post.

The wider picture is europeans are just bloody crazy.

Snippets

Good PR makes celebrity's lives a lot easier. Take russell brand and jonathan ross for example they make lewd comments about andrew sach's daughter and receive dogs abuse, hefty fines and brand lost his radio 2 job. Chris moyles calls apprentice runner up kate walsh a "daft bint" on friday's show to gasps and a telling off from his female producer. That's as far as it went though, no national media coverage no thousands of complaints generated by a delayed media campaign like we saw with sachsgate.

Both incidents are unimportant to me and barely worth another mention but the outcomes in how the mass media reacted were very different and that's interesting in itself.

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In a post a couple of days ago i mentioned how i managed to lose a stack $100 playing ONE accidental hand of heads up after hitting a straight vs full house.

Guess what? Yes it happened AGAIN. FML. So i was there playing 6tables and one table broke really quickly and so there were just 2 of us left. I got dealt KJo raise, call, i flop top two pair HEADS UP, that's like the virtual nuts heads up, nevermind just playing 1 hand of it.

So all the money goes in it turns out opponent has top pair K with the flush draw. They hit the flush and that's another stack gone in an accidental heads up.

It's great to be me isn't it ?!

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My month is going from bad, to rubbish to slightly worse still.

The only option is to post my daily results in this fateful blog. That's juicy content for the reader but also means i can't call an all in pre flop with AQo just because (like i did yesterday), needless to say they had AK.

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Congrats to Phil Ivey on his 6th and 7th bracelet wins at this years WSOP.

Dubbed the Tiger Woods of poker Ivey is clearly delighted with his 7th bracelet and subsequent $10million in prop bet winnings from his 'bracelet bets'

Clonie Gowen hits top set

Notice the two guys on either side trying to sneak a sideways glance ...



... Good to see her back.

I don't want to be brilliant

Poker is a funny old game isn't it?

During my terrible month of March which was my first losing month in a year i was so hung up with why profits were turning into losses i delved deep into my stats to see where i was going wrong. I used the plugging leaks articles you get with HoldEmManager and other guides created by respected people on 2+2.

To my surprise every one of my major stats explored was either in the expected solid winner or big winner categories i.e. in the top 2.

Yet i was losing consistently - that's quite a head fuck right there.

I still don't know what happened that month but losing near 20 buyins wasn't good for the soul.

It made me realise that poker is just a game of cards, forget the stats, the books the 'logic', there's 52 cards whatever happens happens and as a Sheff Utd fan i know only too well that whatever the worst is that can happen, invariably will. (Yes i went to Wembley, awesome day apart from the 90mins in the middle)

Some tables i'll be playing 35/30 some tables it will be 10/7 but what's clear is it doesn't really matter how you play pre-flop as people don't adjust at 100NL, it's only essential to create an image post flop to be able to correctly value bet thin or push people around.

I have a few things in mind and i'll be mulling them over.


So yesterday i'm grinding tha pokers playing my usual 25/22 ish and i'm just getting crushed every 3bet i make with AJ gets 4bet every 4bet bluff i make is 5bet you know one of those days so i decide to nit it up.

My stats gradually go down to 20/17 ish and i'm in the BB vs a reg in the SB he raises i 3bet with QQ he 4bets to $40 totally committing himself i shove it in he thinks for a few seconds then shows:

Q5s (and i won fwiw)

We have a tiny bit of history, he's 5bet shoved vs me pre with AJo before i had a note of it.

But he's a reg and he's spewing off like this it really makes Gaf's comment on PL stand out, he said:

"Most of your profit in poker comes, not from your own brilliance, but from your opponents ineptitude - so you make money not by doing the right thing, but by making fewer mistakes than your opponents."

I want to make money.

Nice life huh

It's funny that i remembered about this blog exactly 2years since the first and only post but what's also funny is the title.

Nade refers back to my poker 'handle' Nade which i use on nearly all poker sites but for the last year i've been playing on Full Tilt where my handle is bennyballblade so the fact that i've just recently started playing back on Euro sites where my handle is Nade and remembered about this blog which is entitled Nade shows that what comes around goes around (or whatever who cares).

-- Woo i got a comment, thanks VoJoe, yes this will be mainly about cash but it's also a general blog about whatever's on my mind. Good to hear from you and anyone else feel free to comment :)


Today has been a very bad day so far.

So what happened was i'm up 1 buy-in early doors at about 1pm, then about 20mins later the table is starting to break so i'm like cool about to press sit out when all of a sudden but 2 of us are left heads up playing a hand before i can do anything.

The opponent was the very same person i stacked earlier so there was a mini bit of history. Anyways i have KJo heads up i raise as standard he calls.
flop comes T66 we both check (i'm in no mood to get fancy right before i leave)
turn: A, we both check again,
river: Q (i make a straight)

Villain bets the pot $6 i reraise to 21 he ships it in i call he has TT for the full house.

I did think about folding but as it was only 1 hand up heads up and he showed nothing up to the river i was like surely surely i can't possibly be screwed here especially at its the guy i stacked earlier so i added a lil bit of steam value in there too. But no, as ever, they had the nuts and why not, i only had the disguised straight. Welcome to my life.

All i could say was

"Runner runner perfect nice life huh"

He said "ty"

We went our separate ways and the day went rapidly down hill from there.

Update

So this is a huge coincidence but yes it is exactly 2years since my last (and first) ever blog post lol. It may seem planned to some but i can't even plan what i'm doing tomorrow nevermind in 2yrs time so this is just another strange moment in my life that is driven by bizarre coincidences and randomness.

Looking back on that 1st post its clear if i'm looking to phil hellmuth strat. books then i was way behind the times (haha)

Anyways ...

A lot has happened in my poker life since. 2008 was strange. I achieved and crushed all goals i set like being able to afford a car (ship the black corsa with alloys :P) , make £1k in a day (did a few times), become a 200NL reg (achieved in september).

After october when i bought the car my whole psyche subconciously changed. I had done everything i wanted. Life was complete at that moment.

Looking back i realise that the only things that motivate me are acheiving hard goals. So my mistake was i didn't set any new goals. December and January i pretty much played no poker as i just had no interest in it then in February i started back up just because. No goals were set no motivation just playing because it seemed like i should be playing. Bad move. Although February was a good profitable month.

March was a disaster in every way (full of juicy content) but i'll talk about that another time as this is a general post.

So now we're in June i've just recently figured out some new goals for example i want to watch major sporting events all over the globe. i.e. i need to make a lot of money to make this happen.



Basically i want to see the top sports stars in the world play their sport, be it Federer, Woods, O'Sullivan or Barcelona in the Nou Camp etc. i just want to travel around and see them at the top it would be pretty cool travelling around seeing the world and great sport at the same time.


Not much of a goal you may say, but to be honest i'm still finding it hard to think of things i really want to do lol and this actually seems the number 1 thing.

So i need money, how do i get money? with a job? not likely with my rubbish journalism degree (lol @ being a journalist, what scum they are) harshness in this blog - yes :).

Poker is where it's at, i'm really good at it, it's the summer i'm focussed life is good so this is where the journey begins again and this is where the action will be updated.

At the risk of sounding like a 'ruuuuude boi' lyrics from the new eminem album; Medicine Ball; seem apt:

"I've got the whole world, in my palms,
and i'm ready to DROP BOMBS"

(seriously turn that bit up at the start it will blow your amps off the wall ;))

or if you want from the same song:

"I guess it's time for you to hate me again"

100NL on ipoker i'm coming for you, lets go