Supernova Pursuit 2010 – September 22, 2010

September 22, 2010

I've been having lots of ups and downs.  I'm currently still playing 100nl 100bb 6max, I've been changing the amount of tables based on how I feel I'm performing.

2 days ago I won 1100 even after losing that 400 pot that I posted, then the next 2 days I lost $600 each day, the 2nd day was capped off with accidently calling a $90 river shove... OOOPS!!

I was pretty frustrated with my last 2 days and confused on how I had done so bad when I started BOTH days with over $300 ev only to crash down throughout the day.

I studied some post flop hands toward the end of the night and was appalled at how bad I was playing.  Not in the big all-in hands, but just in the frequent post flop to the flop or turn hands.

Check folding hands I could tell were obvious bluffs by my opponents on the hand review and what not and realized I must have been worn out and not paying enough attention.

I was 24 tabling all day, I did 2 4 hour blocks and by the last one I must have been just totally out of it.  Literally hand after hand I was like.. WTF?  why did i do that, and I had NO IDEA i had done it.

So today I said, fuck the vpps, and only 16 tabled.  I started off with my signature +300ev in 1 hour only to lose it back as always, but kept more focused and fought it off when I felt I was slipping.
I finished a 4 hour block +550 cash and +380 ev.

I took a long walk and about  a 45minute break and fired up again.  I ran great.. REALLY great i was hitting flops people were folding when I didn't, and when i did get coolered I managed to keep it small.  A few times i DID notice myself slipping into robot mode and auto folding hands based on the hands and not position, where i was in the pot etc.  I shook it off and kept going, and in only another 2 hour session I finished the day up $1579   and +1339ev.

Great result.  I was going to play another 2 hours but when I was SO frustrated yesterday I figured I was just going to leave it at this so I will wake up tomorrow ready and eager to get back at it, because if I played and lost $500 in my last hour, sure its still a GREAT day but it would make me feel a bit uneasy about playing tomorrow and I just really felt like I needed this moral victory.  And with only playing 16 tables Im only getting about 400 vpps per hour right now anyway.

Hopefully I can continue to engrain the habits I have when I 16 table so as I add more I can keep playing this game, I don't need to keep donking off money playing terrible, I've done that enough this year.

MellowYellow @ Low Limit Poker Forum

Supernova Pursuit 2010 – September 15, 2010

September 15, 2010

No updates in forever, as most of u know i hit a bad patch and decided to start trying to improve my game more than just grinding VPPs for now as it was worse than I realized, or bad variance, but regardless, I needed a change.  I didn't update here mainly because i forgot and didnt feel like I was even grinding lately just doing lots of homework.

Anyway as u guys know i've been playing some 6max... today's was no different.

The theme of today is... Can u convince urself to NOT pay off (you jackass)

So today I ran 2 sessions, a 4 hour and a 5 hour session.  Both were 100nl 100bb 6max.

I started off with 18 tables, but surprisingly somehow it had slowed down SO much from even yesterday I ended up doing 20 by the 2nd session.

The first session went pretty good, I unfortunately dropped a bit right at the end and went from +500 cash +450ev to 250 cash 200 ev, though still decent.

The 2nd session started out in shambles.  I was beat by set over set early on, and 2 times my 2nd nut two card flush ran into the nut flush.  That with some general bad play and bad luck, I was soon -300ev and -800 cash.

I kept playing and battling and felt like I was making some sound plays, I bluffed a lot more than normal as for a stretch it seemed EVERYONE was  a fucking nit, at one point I flopped 3 sets and 1 straight almost simultaneously, in ALL 4 all my opponents check folded on the flop.  I couldn't believe it.
Anyway I go on a nice heater about 3 hours in and suddenly Im up 600 ev for the day and 285 cash ( i ran terrible this session).

But then it happened, I had done it once or twice earlier but i just started paying people off.

I knew how nitty they were, but i hit a run of missing everything or constantly having 2nd best hands that normally would have been strong, yet i STILL knew i was almost definitely beat, and I kept calling.
I almost think it was a psychological thing like, OK i made my EV back AND some money back, time to relax... very very dumb.  I dropped to 150ev or so for a while, then the last 20 minutes which i didn't even plan on playing it got REALLY bad, I even made my first LEGIT tilt call ever.  I was 200 deep and this guy who previously and recently had hit 2 sets against me when I had top two in one and AA in the other on the flop was against me, flop came AQ4 I had AQ i bet he calls, turn is a Jack, I bet and just KNOW he will raise, and he does, I cant believe it, so what do I do?  Fold?  NOPE I tilt call, saying, oh maybe he's overplaying AJ... RIGHT... would I raise it to $68 there with AJ?  No... never.  So I call. and here's where it gets REAL bad... river is a T.  So any king will do... pot is 180 we both have a little over 100 left.. he puts it in and I already decide so i snap call.. and BAM KTo  ship it.  200bb gone.

I just shook my head, I really don't think I've ever done that, at least not this year, and if i did it might have been like a smaller bet or something.  But this one was bad.

So I ended the 9 hours -600ish in cash and -280 in EV.  Really MUCH better EV than I felt I deserved.
I looked through my top 25 and worst 25 hands of the day though.

and of the top 25, 2 of my winning hands maybe u could make an argument for 3 were iffy calls.
But, of my 25 worst hands, a whopping 12 were bad calls that shouldn't have been made.
I estimated each one was worth an average of about $80.  So if we took them all away including the 2 - 3 I won, we're talking about 700 of cash and ev that I spewed.

I really REALLY gotta stop doing that without good reason.  I said in Skype i was going to only about 10 minutes before i donked off the 200bb pot and a few others.  It was crazy I def was in a form of tilt even though I didn't feel angry.

However, I really am actually more optimistic now than I've been at 6max.  I've been winning in general, and don't feel intimidated or out of place at the 100nl level thus far (it's still early i know) and I really feel like once I sew up this leak I will be an instant winning player.

I definitely have more work to do and more to understand but i think the coaching vids on sites I've been on are helping and I think I'm thinking about my play and my opponents ranges more than ever, so hopefully I can just make myself fold once in a while, and we'll be on to the NEXT leak which I'm sure will rear its ugly head soon... probably folding TOO much lol.

GL everyone.

MellowYellow @ Low Limit Poker Forum

Supernova Pursuit 2010 – August 9, 2010

August 9, 2010

The PokerStars love continues.  Today (my first day playing since the $1300 day) I yet again had a few great sessions.  I made $400 in my first 3 hours despite my ev actually being DOWN $250.  I came home to finish my 8 hour day and within less than 1 hour I was up 500 again but this time actually had positive EV.  I got as high as +1200 at one point and was hoping to have back to back +1k days, but then I got SMOKED down to about 750.  I finished the day up about $875 though with 350ev.

This now makes 3 consecutive winning days for me, and GOOD winning days at that, and best of all, all 3 were positive EV days as well.  Hopefully I've shaken off the rust and can keep this going for a while.  Man its nice to stack up a few winning days after such a long stretch of getting smoked last month.

My wife gave me a rather simple obvious way of breaking down my 120,000 vpps/month goal (5k per day 24 days).

I basically just need 40,000 vpps every 10 days.  I like this though because it gives me little intermediate goals to hit my main goal of 120k.   So with 2 days to go I'm at 32,500 so I don't even need the full 2 5k days.

So hopefully things keep going well and in 2 days I will be 1/3 of the way through my August goal.
The cool thing is that even though I felt like I slacked SO bad in June and July (and I did) the SNE pace right now as of tonight is: 602,740

I'm sitting at 572,500, so although I'm a BIT behind, the pace is only 2,740/day so at the end of August, pace will be at 663,020, and low and behold, my exact goal for the end of august is 660,000 vpps, so this should get me virtually right on pace and then from there it's just maintaining it and seeing just how early i want to get done with the grind this year.

Hope you all are doing well at the tables (IF YOU ARE EVEN PLAYING!!!)

MellowYellow @ Low Limit Poker Forum

Supernova Elite Pursuit 2010 – July 30, 2010

July 30, 2010

It's been a while since I've given an update because... well there hasn't been a lot to update about.

For the past 2 months my progress has all but come to a halt.  I have been drifting only getting around 50,000 vpps/month with all these commitments that keep smacking me in the face.

Well... I don't like it.  Days off are nice, but I'm the type of person that can only enjoy himself so much when in the back of his mind he knows he is slacking off.

I am still behind pace after being well ahead for most of the year and it has really been getting to me, but I have seemingly gotten through most commitments and am excited to get back to the grind and get going.

My upcoming goal is to have August be my biggest month to date.

I'm currently at just under 538,000 vpps.  I plan to play some tomorrow so I will at the very least get myself to 540,000 to enter into august.

At that point I will need 460,000 vpps in 5 months to get SNE.  I am going to play until I get 5k vpps each day and am going to start off the month playing 6 days/week.  If I play all but 7 days in august (3 2 day weekends and 1 1 day weekend) I'll hit 24 days of play for a total of 120,000 vpps.

This would put me up at 660,000 and actually if I continued this for Sept, Oct I would hit Nov 1st needing only 100,000 points for the rest of the year.

That is a bit ahead of where I am now, but I'm excited to try it.  It's 3 months of buckling down and then BAM I'm home free and the last 2 months are a cake walk (though I'd probably try to just finish it off in Novemeber if I get to that point)

So 1 step at a time.  August is almost here and I DESPERATELY want to keep my word and goal and hit 120,000 vpps next month.

Good luck all.

MellowYellow @ Low Limit Poker Forum

Supernova Elite Pursuit 2010 – July 18, 2010

July 18, 2010

Just started a 4 hour session.  It went bad.  I started off just dying.  Kept getting allin on the river with 2nd nuts against 30%vpip types and what not, I only really felt bad about a few of the hands but the next thing I knew I hit refresh and I was down about $400 ev and $800 cash.  Kept playing for another 2.5 hours to finish off the 4 hour session.  At end I was -$470 in EV  and -$1270 in cash. ..

This brings my month total to -$2690 in cash and +$1.75 in EV.

Sad that over the last 2 days my ev dipped about $1,000 but also sad than my cash is falling faster.
I'm surprised that I'm running this bad when I thought having bigger stacks and being allin much less often would lead to less deviations from EV.

The good news I guess is that I'm still a few hundred up in EV since I started fullstacking over a month ago, but lately I've been having more bad days, time for a session review and see if I pick up on any boneheaded moves I guess.

MellowYellow @ Low Limit Poker Forum