Dear James Chung,
You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 108.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.
YEEEEE
Had a shitty September month because I ran sickly below EV, but this score does make up for it. I sucked out with TT vs QQ 5 handed. I binked a T on the river hehe. And also KJ vs AT bvb which was also really standard since the blinds get so high so fast in these turbos. Theyre almost a complete crapshoot but people still do stupid stuff like limp call a shove with KT.
I played some more MTTs the next day but it didn't go so well. I went really deep in the 4k guarantee but got it in with AA vs KQ and flop comes KKT. If i won that pot I would've been close to top 10 in chips out of like a 3k player field. Oh well, can't win them all
September isn't completely over yet so I don't want to post a big results blog post, but it's coming real soon. Just felt like showing off my sexy 1st place score :)
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Almost done for the month
Only 3 days left in September and it looks like I'm pretty much finished with poker for the rest of the month. I might put in a few more small sessions to finish up my 18k hands, but after that I have to finish a lot of homework. I have essays/projects due for both my English classes and I need to really get started on them.
At the end of the month I'll post graphs, results, and goals for the next month. I'm pretty proud of how I've played so far especially after just coming back to the game. I'm still ironing out my full ring thought process and hopefully I can really sharpen my game next month. I've been thinking of subscribing to the PTR silver premium thingy so that I can look up more people and that it's only $12 a month. If i start playing HU i'll definitely need to get it, but I guess I can live without it if I stick with FR. Oh and next month I'm definitely going to subscribe to Deuces Cracked for their free trial and go on a download marathon :D
At the end of the month I'll post graphs, results, and goals for the next month. I'm pretty proud of how I've played so far especially after just coming back to the game. I'm still ironing out my full ring thought process and hopefully I can really sharpen my game next month. I've been thinking of subscribing to the PTR silver premium thingy so that I can look up more people and that it's only $12 a month. If i start playing HU i'll definitely need to get it, but I guess I can live without it if I stick with FR. Oh and next month I'm definitely going to subscribe to Deuces Cracked for their free trial and go on a download marathon :D
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Crappy session -$1.62 // 1098 hands
Had a losing session today. Things haven't been going well for the past few sessions, but I'm still up almost 4 ptbb at 25NL over 17k hands I've played this month. I only have 1k more to go to hit the volume prop bet which is a huge burden lifted off my shoulders. Albert has a ton of hands to go, so it might not even be a push, I might end up pocketing $100 of his money. Not really what I had in mind since I expected it to be a wash like 95% of the time, but we'll see hahah.
Looking at my red line, I can tell there's a huge downward trend. It feels like my continuation bets are not working that often at 25NL and I'm forced to adjust by either cbetting less or double barreling more. Obviously at 25NL double barreling as a bluff is hardly profitable because people don't like to fold pairs, but when a beautiful turn card presents itself I will definitely fire another round. I've found myself cbetting and having to check the turn and face a river bet so damn often that its gotten really annoying.
I had two interesting AK hands come up where I'm not sure if the play I made was right. At the time I felt that folding was the right play in both of these hands, but during my post-session review it felt as if the spots were a lot closer than I had expected.
Hand #1:
Villains are both loose passive fish, around the 40/5 mark. Flop feels like a very standard call and turn I think it is a mandatory bet when checked to. There are very obvious draws on the board we need to get value from, as well as a lot of weaker aces in both player's range. During the session, I felt as if he would barrel the turn himself if he had a very strong hand so I felt okay about betting here rather than pot controlling TPTK.
River is of course the interesting spot. I have absolutely no idea what fish do this with, but being lead into on the flop, c/c'd on the turn, and open shoved on the river does not feel like a bluffy line. Two pairs and sets can take this line from these bad players. In addition, in multiway pots the general trend is that people play a lot more straightforward/honest and because of this I felt as if his range was weighted a lot more towards a value range than a bluff/spew range. The only hand we beat in his value range is AJ-AQ and we're chopping with AK. The rest has us owned.
Can he bluff this river? He's a loose passive and two players have shown strength/interest in this pot. I don't think he's bluffing often here and I ended up folding. However, we were getting 3:1 on a call so I'm not sure if I made the right choice or not.
Hand #2:
Villain is 26/19 over a 50 hand sample. Flop and turn I believe are pretty standard, and river is where we get fucked with.
He fastplays this hand so hard that I have no idea what to think of it. Two pairs/sets are definitely there but he's representing such a narrow value range since he's raising us already on the flop. Turn brings in some draws and the river is probably the worst card we could ask for. If he was somehow full of shit on the flop and picked up a draw on the turn and decided to barrel, it just got there. Only getting 2:1 on this call, facing an extremely aggressive line, against a player I have no dynamic with, I opted for a crying fold. I don't think this hand is as close as the previous one since we are a little bit deeper and getting a bad price on a call.
Hand #3:
I ended the session with this hand. I was up about a buyin which was okay (better than losing) until this hand came up. Villain is 56/3.
Preflop is standard and I make a cbet on a wet board and he check-shoves on me. Now usually I'm very hesitant calling 100 bb's with one pair and I really went into the tank for this hand. I think this is a semi bluff a huge percentage of the time. He'll show up with straight draws and flush draws, which I have good equity against. He could have QQ+, TJ, or a set which I was worried about, but would he really check-jam such a strong hand and blow me off whatever I have? Had he made a normal size c/r I would just fold here without much thought, but a check-shove is really suspicious. I ended up calling with 3 seconds left on my time bank and he shows me KT for second pair good kicker.
Obviously he binks river. Now I'm stuck for the session. I'll post a september graph later and my allinEV line is absolutely horrid. Hopefully I can learn to emotionally control myself a little bit better and not have these beats/coolers get to me. They are definitely affecting my play and my ability to put in hands.
Looking at my red line, I can tell there's a huge downward trend. It feels like my continuation bets are not working that often at 25NL and I'm forced to adjust by either cbetting less or double barreling more. Obviously at 25NL double barreling as a bluff is hardly profitable because people don't like to fold pairs, but when a beautiful turn card presents itself I will definitely fire another round. I've found myself cbetting and having to check the turn and face a river bet so damn often that its gotten really annoying.
I had two interesting AK hands come up where I'm not sure if the play I made was right. At the time I felt that folding was the right play in both of these hands, but during my post-session review it felt as if the spots were a lot closer than I had expected.
Hand #1:
Villains are both loose passive fish, around the 40/5 mark. Flop feels like a very standard call and turn I think it is a mandatory bet when checked to. There are very obvious draws on the board we need to get value from, as well as a lot of weaker aces in both player's range. During the session, I felt as if he would barrel the turn himself if he had a very strong hand so I felt okay about betting here rather than pot controlling TPTK.
River is of course the interesting spot. I have absolutely no idea what fish do this with, but being lead into on the flop, c/c'd on the turn, and open shoved on the river does not feel like a bluffy line. Two pairs and sets can take this line from these bad players. In addition, in multiway pots the general trend is that people play a lot more straightforward/honest and because of this I felt as if his range was weighted a lot more towards a value range than a bluff/spew range. The only hand we beat in his value range is AJ-AQ and we're chopping with AK. The rest has us owned.
Can he bluff this river? He's a loose passive and two players have shown strength/interest in this pot. I don't think he's bluffing often here and I ended up folding. However, we were getting 3:1 on a call so I'm not sure if I made the right choice or not.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 7 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | unicornvl | $8.65 | |
| UTG+1 | maicons2maiara | $17.23 | |
| MP | shoeB1 | $25 | |
| CO | buzzed_light | $25.69 | |
| BTN | AFchung X | $30.94 | |
| SB | ms2223 | $23.89 | |
| BB | julian olivarez | $37.51 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 7 players)Hero is BTN
2 folds, shoeB1 calls $0.25, buzzed_light calls $0.25, AFchung X raises to $1.35, 2 folds, shoeB1 calls $1.10, buzzed_light calls $1.10
- Flop ($4.40, 3 players)
-
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light bets $2.50, AFchung X calls $2.50, shoeB1 calls $2.50
- Turn ($11.90, 3 players)
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light checks, AFchung X bets $6.50, shoeB1 calls $6.50, buzzed_light calls $6.50
- River ($31.40, 3 players)
shoeB1 checks, buzzed_light goes all-in $15.34, AFchung X folds, shoeB1 folds
- Final Pot: $46.74
- buzzed_light wins $45.17 (net +$19.48)
- AFchung X lost $10.35
- shoeB1 lost $10.35
Hand #2:
Villain is 26/19 over a 50 hand sample. Flop and turn I believe are pretty standard, and river is where we get fucked with.
He fastplays this hand so hard that I have no idea what to think of it. Two pairs/sets are definitely there but he's representing such a narrow value range since he's raising us already on the flop. Turn brings in some draws and the river is probably the worst card we could ask for. If he was somehow full of shit on the flop and picked up a draw on the turn and decided to barrel, it just got there. Only getting 2:1 on this call, facing an extremely aggressive line, against a player I have no dynamic with, I opted for a crying fold. I don't think this hand is as close as the previous one since we are a little bit deeper and getting a bad price on a call.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 9 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | olotol | $29.51 | |
| UTG+1 | Andrew100 | $24.13 | |
| MP1 | smoggy1962 | $25 | |
| MP2 | idealcrap | $30.07 | |
| MP3 | 33gao | $55.85 | |
| CO | koprakahvi | $23.78 | |
| BTN | TroySchultz | $10.29 | |
| SB | Nemenum | $9 | |
| BB | AFchung X | $38.34 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 9 players)Hero is BB
olotol calls $0.25, 7 folds, AFchung X raises to $1.25, olotol calls $1
- Flop ($2.60, 2 players)
-
AFchung X bets $1.50, olotol raises to $3, AFchung X calls $1.50
- Turn ($8.60, 2 players)
AFchung X checks, olotol bets $5.75, AFchung X calls $5.75
- River ($20.10, 2 players)
AFchung X checks, olotol goes all-in $19.51, AFchung X folds
- Final Pot: $39.61
- olotol wins $38.61 (net +$9.10)
- AFchung X lost $10
Hand #3:
I ended the session with this hand. I was up about a buyin which was okay (better than losing) until this hand came up. Villain is 56/3.
Preflop is standard and I make a cbet on a wet board and he check-shoves on me. Now usually I'm very hesitant calling 100 bb's with one pair and I really went into the tank for this hand. I think this is a semi bluff a huge percentage of the time. He'll show up with straight draws and flush draws, which I have good equity against. He could have QQ+, TJ, or a set which I was worried about, but would he really check-jam such a strong hand and blow me off whatever I have? Had he made a normal size c/r I would just fold here without much thought, but a check-shove is really suspicious. I ended up calling with 3 seconds left on my time bank and he shows me KT for second pair good kicker.
Obviously he binks river. Now I'm stuck for the session. I'll post a september graph later and my allinEV line is absolutely horrid. Hopefully I can learn to emotionally control myself a little bit better and not have these beats/coolers get to me. They are definitely affecting my play and my ability to put in hands.
$0.10/$0.25 No Limit Holdem • 7 Players
Generated by weaktight.com.
| UTG | sb138 | $24.63 | |
| UTG+1 | BiggieRobs187 | $23.23 | |
| MP | twintree8888 | $29.38 | |
| CO | AFchung X | $52.61 | |
| BTN | slawor | $60.10 | |
| SB | unstabletk | $22.60 | |
| BB | bogggdanel | $95.76 | |
- Pre-Flop ($0.35, 7 players)Hero is CO
-
1 fold, BiggieRobs187 calls $0.25, 1 fold, AFchung X raises to $1.10, 3 folds, BiggieRobs187 calls $0.85
- Flop ($2.55, 2 players)
-
BiggieRobs187 checks, AFchung X bets $2, BiggieRobs187 goes all-in $22.13, AFchung X calls $20.13
- Turn ($46.81, 2 players, 1 all-in)
- River ($46.81, 2 players, 1 all-in)
- Final Pot: $46.81
- BiggieRobs187 shows two pair, Kings and Tens
- AFchung X shows a pair of Jacks
- BiggieRobs187 wins $44.47 (net +$21.24)
- AFchung X lost $23.23
First Post
I'll be starting a blog to keep track of my poker "career" or whatever you want to call it. It's 4:40 AM right now and I've been up all night and my sleeping schedule is fucked up as usual. Sigh.
I've come a long way from when I first saw poker on TV at my aunt's house. It was during the WSOP and I watched the players and learned the game slowly. Eventually over time I began to think that I was capable of beating the game (lol srsly right?) and my interest in poker slowly began. I had no source of learning the game and I was just watching poker "instructional" videos off of youtube and playing full tilt play chip money. I would have my play chip bankroll and I grew it up so fast that my confidence grew as fast as my play chip BR did.
One fateful day, Pokerstars handed out all play money accounts $5 real money. I never even played a freeroll before so I had absolutely no experience whatsoever regarding any form of real money. Of course I was ecstatic to have something to start with. I remember posting on the beginner's circle of FTR (flopturnriver.com) about what I should do with my $5, and the unanimous decision was to play 2NL and hope for the best with only 2.5 buyins. Sure enough, I beat 2NL... Actually, I destroyed the limit and ran way above expectation. I didn't know it at the time but the poker gods were definitely on my side back when I started, because without my ridiculous run-good I probably would not be playing poker today. That was my start; and what a glorious start it was.
With my newly funded bankroll slowly increasing, I started upping my table count and reading TONS more about poker on flopturnriver. The regs there helped me immensely with my ABC game and as my bankroll kept moving up, I kept moving up. I went to 2NL, 5NL, 10NL, 25NL with not a single major downswing. Those were the golden days. Play tight, play solid, win money. It felt like I never had a losing session.
When I got to 50NL, thats when things got a bit more complicated. Of course the players were still not very good, but they were much more competent. My steals got 3bet a lot. There was a ton of restealing going on, and also a ton of CO/BTN warring going on. I definitely did not expect that level of difficulty and along with cards not going my way anymore, 50NL was a struggle. I could barely stay above even over a sample of 30k+ hands. I sort of hit a brick wall until one fateful day, some random person messaged me on 2+2. I post a lot of strategy threads on there and he read them and asked if I was interested in staking/coaching. I was a pokerstars player at the time but after snap-calling this staking deal, my new home was at Full Tilt. The tables were a bit softer, the software was nicer (imo), and the rakeback was awesome.
Jared was my coach and he crushed the SSNL stakes. He played 1/2 up to 5/10 and had 4+ ptbb spread across all those limits, so his advice was definitely working for him. He taught me to think deeper about the game, he taught me to widen up my game from 11/8 to 18/16, and thanks to him I absolutely destroyed 50NL and up to 100NL. I was so confident of my ability at the time and I was flying high again... but what goes up must come down. For whatever reason, I cut off the staking deal with him and lost contact with him. A few things came into play such as him IMing me a bit too much (kind of like a parent), his odd approach to the game (limp-calling AA utg), and his hatred of me being "robotic". He also played 1-2 tables at a time, which was definitely not my style. I'm from the young internet generation that wants to beat the game at 8-12 tables at a time, implement sophisticated HUD statistics into my game, and pick up a higher hourly earn. Jared was a live player. More importantly, Jared was a "feel" player. A "feel" that never made sense to me because it wasn't backed with numbers and defined ranges.
With all those internal issues, along with school and fraternity pledging, I stopped playing poker. I didn't stop immediately, I kept grinding here and there but my winrate was no where near as good as it was before since I had no coach with me. It eventually became less enjoyable and then it became a chore, and eventually I just couldn't do it anymore. I quit the game cold turkey for more than a year and enjoyed the college life.
Fast forward to the present, Albert Peng is responsible for my return to poker. When I quit playing the game, I was at his skill level and actually a bit better than him (imo) due to the coaching. But after my break from the game, Albert finally moved up to 100NL and absolutely crushed the games. He has a huge sample at the game and has one of the most impressive winrates of all the regulars I've ever seen. As of right now, I'm getting back to the grind. But I'm starting at the lower stakes with a humble beginning. I'm doing 25NL for one month to get into the groove before moving up back to 50NL and seeing how things go there. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to hop onto the 100NL tables and start 6bet shoving light against Albert. Albert and I will be doing volume prop bets each month to help me stay motivated. Hopefully these end up working out for me because I was able to log 6k hands in like two days which is unbelievable considering how terrible my work ethic is.
Well that's how my poker career got started. Hopefully this blog keeps me in check and keeps me motivated to continue playing the game.
I've come a long way from when I first saw poker on TV at my aunt's house. It was during the WSOP and I watched the players and learned the game slowly. Eventually over time I began to think that I was capable of beating the game (lol srsly right?) and my interest in poker slowly began. I had no source of learning the game and I was just watching poker "instructional" videos off of youtube and playing full tilt play chip money. I would have my play chip bankroll and I grew it up so fast that my confidence grew as fast as my play chip BR did.
One fateful day, Pokerstars handed out all play money accounts $5 real money. I never even played a freeroll before so I had absolutely no experience whatsoever regarding any form of real money. Of course I was ecstatic to have something to start with. I remember posting on the beginner's circle of FTR (flopturnriver.com) about what I should do with my $5, and the unanimous decision was to play 2NL and hope for the best with only 2.5 buyins. Sure enough, I beat 2NL... Actually, I destroyed the limit and ran way above expectation. I didn't know it at the time but the poker gods were definitely on my side back when I started, because without my ridiculous run-good I probably would not be playing poker today. That was my start; and what a glorious start it was.
With my newly funded bankroll slowly increasing, I started upping my table count and reading TONS more about poker on flopturnriver. The regs there helped me immensely with my ABC game and as my bankroll kept moving up, I kept moving up. I went to 2NL, 5NL, 10NL, 25NL with not a single major downswing. Those were the golden days. Play tight, play solid, win money. It felt like I never had a losing session.
When I got to 50NL, thats when things got a bit more complicated. Of course the players were still not very good, but they were much more competent. My steals got 3bet a lot. There was a ton of restealing going on, and also a ton of CO/BTN warring going on. I definitely did not expect that level of difficulty and along with cards not going my way anymore, 50NL was a struggle. I could barely stay above even over a sample of 30k+ hands. I sort of hit a brick wall until one fateful day, some random person messaged me on 2+2. I post a lot of strategy threads on there and he read them and asked if I was interested in staking/coaching. I was a pokerstars player at the time but after snap-calling this staking deal, my new home was at Full Tilt. The tables were a bit softer, the software was nicer (imo), and the rakeback was awesome.
Jared was my coach and he crushed the SSNL stakes. He played 1/2 up to 5/10 and had 4+ ptbb spread across all those limits, so his advice was definitely working for him. He taught me to think deeper about the game, he taught me to widen up my game from 11/8 to 18/16, and thanks to him I absolutely destroyed 50NL and up to 100NL. I was so confident of my ability at the time and I was flying high again... but what goes up must come down. For whatever reason, I cut off the staking deal with him and lost contact with him. A few things came into play such as him IMing me a bit too much (kind of like a parent), his odd approach to the game (limp-calling AA utg), and his hatred of me being "robotic". He also played 1-2 tables at a time, which was definitely not my style. I'm from the young internet generation that wants to beat the game at 8-12 tables at a time, implement sophisticated HUD statistics into my game, and pick up a higher hourly earn. Jared was a live player. More importantly, Jared was a "feel" player. A "feel" that never made sense to me because it wasn't backed with numbers and defined ranges.
With all those internal issues, along with school and fraternity pledging, I stopped playing poker. I didn't stop immediately, I kept grinding here and there but my winrate was no where near as good as it was before since I had no coach with me. It eventually became less enjoyable and then it became a chore, and eventually I just couldn't do it anymore. I quit the game cold turkey for more than a year and enjoyed the college life.
Fast forward to the present, Albert Peng is responsible for my return to poker. When I quit playing the game, I was at his skill level and actually a bit better than him (imo) due to the coaching. But after my break from the game, Albert finally moved up to 100NL and absolutely crushed the games. He has a huge sample at the game and has one of the most impressive winrates of all the regulars I've ever seen. As of right now, I'm getting back to the grind. But I'm starting at the lower stakes with a humble beginning. I'm doing 25NL for one month to get into the groove before moving up back to 50NL and seeing how things go there. Hopefully in a month or two I'll be able to hop onto the 100NL tables and start 6bet shoving light against Albert. Albert and I will be doing volume prop bets each month to help me stay motivated. Hopefully these end up working out for me because I was able to log 6k hands in like two days which is unbelievable considering how terrible my work ethic is.
Well that's how my poker career got started. Hopefully this blog keeps me in check and keeps me motivated to continue playing the game.
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