Sliiiide

Another good week in the bag. This week saw FTP run some software updates which made life slightly difficult, and led to a drop in volume, but it's all good in the end. The new software is a bit slicker, and hopefully they'll iron out the last of the bugs soon.

On the tarbs I continued with my 3 table assault plan, which has been going really well. I'm very comfortable at 200 right now and think I am getting better all the time. That said, there is much to do. Work hard is the only solution.

This week's group therapy session went well again, we're definitely banking some knowledge at each meeting and learning from each other's mistakes. Mark has a really specific learning plan for July, which is good because he makes so many mistakes (joke) ... (is it?) ... (hmm...).

Sad news that Arturo Gatti has passed away, a one-man boxing entertainment show during his career. Such a shame when they don't get to enjoy their retirement after such a hard working life.

's a week, that is

Had a decent week results-wise, while working on my game "in-game". This means I didn't study so much off the tables due to the heatwave, but I did get in a couple of rounds of golf!

It's nice to suckout on WW now and again, and to feel like things are running with you for a bit. I'm certainly not complaining. I hope to make some genuine hands soon, I'll keep you updated on how it goes. In the meantime be content with the fruit & flowers picture from Monkey's kingdom.

Heat

Poker is going well at the moment. It's safe to say it's turning out to be a whole lot more complicated than I ever thought possible when starting out 2 years ago. This is a relatively good thing, though, because it explains why not everyone makes it. It seems like a bunch of people are dropping out right now. At 200 the level of play is definitely better than the levels below, there's a sizeable gap between 100 & 200 now. I'm grateful for having the eyes and ears of the poker group, as you can feed off of their experiences, as well as share your own. We had a theory session on Thursday night which may have been our best yet. I think it's safe to say I am not a natural where poker is concerned, I've worked with a few people whom I consider to be more naturally gifted at certain elements of the game. That said, I see no reason why I will not be successful at 200 & 400NL, & possibly beyond. I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but I will get there.

Feels like there are a stack of videos piling up I want to watch. With the current heatwave going on I have not hit my hours played targets, nor my usual study quota. I'm not going to complain too much, as we could all probably do with some enforced rest periods from poker, & we'll all be wondering where the summer went to as soon as it passes.

June Results

Monthly Summary.
After golfing in extreme heat yesterday my mind is toast today, so I called it a month after session 1 earlier on. I'm down a small amount for the month, which is obviously not the end of the world. With rakeback the loss is negligible. I did learn a ton in June, though, and think I am a better player all-round for it.

After upswonging at the end of May I brought a vanilla-esque game with me into June, where I decided to play the whole month @ 200NL in an effort to step up and improve. I feel this was a mistake, as vanilla is not enough at 200. I certainly did become a better player by sticking to the level, though, and I'm glad I did not level-hop throughout June. I showed some discipline by putting the brakes on mid-month as I realised my downwards plunging graph was not entirely the fault of natural variance. I was playing straightforward poker and was too easy to beat, especially in non-SD pots.

This changed when I cut down the number of tables I was playing, I was more observant and played better as a result. My blog post on 18th June shows how I changed my approach to the month, I just took some time off and relaxed. Over the last 2 weeks of the month I made money and was generally happy with my game, despite running below EV. I feel like I'm playing well right now, making better decisions, and am comfortable in the 200 games. Looking back at the past 2 weeks I didn't get any run good, but still held it together. This is very encouraging for the future, heaven help the fishies! Volume suffered, but this was a good thing, as I needed to make the adjustments I did. One of my goals for July is to get back on schedule and play at least 80 hours.

Working with Mark & Florian from our poker group has been excellent this month, for different reasons. Mark has done well and really pushed his game forward (well done, fella, we got to see results this month for all those "you stupid panda" sessions), which has been great. Florian had a tough month, but it was damn interesting to see someone else wrestling with 200 and taking more beats than the rest of us, but still come out on top and making progress. Having both viewpoints, & just discussing hands and whatnot, has been invaluable to my game.

Many thanks, as always, to all my poker buds for their input this month, and congrats again to Brian & Jasmine on the arrival of Jacob Daniel on the 10th of June.

Monkey Magic

Just to break the doom spell I can report I played a decent session earlier today. I was chasing a 1k day at one point, but had to settle for less once the Monkey Magic ran out. It's not that I'm getting whoop-de-doo about one session, but it does make a nice change and it's the first time since the first week of June that I've made more than a buy-in profit in a session (and you thought your month was bad, huh?).

I also then used my supernatural skills to sweat one of the group guys to a massive $75 win in his session. Not too shabby seeing as he was down 3.5 buy-ins himself, due to some siiiiiiiick beats. I then stuck it to my golf partner out on the course in 30 degree heat, cruising to a 4 hole win. I hit my irons really well, easily the best I've played this year.

Same old

Just running like crud at the moment. The monotony of going 4 to 5 buy-ins down at the beginning of every other session is beginning to wear thin. I played my ass off last night for a 1 buy-in profit, felt it could easly have been a bigger win, but so many hands are not holding up at the moment.

Today I went nearly 4bi down in the first 15 mins, KK loses to QQ, a turned flush gets rivered by a Q6 full house, AA into a 77 set, TPGK into another set. Once I get the barrage over with I play some decent poker and win some back, but it's hard to post winning sessions when you start so far down!

As a result there are no sessions where I'm winning multiple buy-ins in return, so it's a bit of a slog this month. I feel like I'm playing okay, wish this would turn around. There is always room for improvement, of course, so I'll try to do that in the meantime. Obviously it's boring from a blog standpoint, but it is what it is.

ACHAB

Lost 2.5 buy-ins in a session earlier today & feel pretty good about it. I played aggressively, did the things I wanted to do, and was just plain out of luck. I was 4 buy-ins down pretty quickly, AK lost to QQ all-in pf, AA lost to JJ all-in pf, got it all-in on the flop with KK versus a flush draw and lost, flopped trips and lost, etc. Made a bit of a comeback and struggled through to the loss mentioned above. I felt I held it together well considering I couldn't win a hand in the first 100, and I had to make a couple of sick call-downs with top pair hands to make the recovery. I only won one full stack, so I feel I played well overall. I called one small river re-raise when I shouldn't, but I was curious to see if the villain could float a paired flop, call the turn, river the straight & re-raise with it. He did, but at least I don't have to wonder about it tonight :-)

If I angered the poker gods by requesting a heater then I'm really, really sorry.

But I still want that heater, 'k?