August Review

August was my best month at poker tables, no doubt about it.
I touched in some poker variables at the same time: volume play by griding a lot at in consequence i reached silverstar; poker education, by reading a poker book and watching educational movies,; SNG and Cash games, i played few SNG but played profitable.

Let's go to the goals review:
- Reading the little green book from Phil Gordon: OK.
I started and ended, i studied the book. I will make a posterior restudy on the book.

- Sign up with a training site: OK.
I signed up with one of the top 5 worldwide poker training site: deucescracked.

- Break Even: Nok.
Not exacly, due to the griding on cash tables, i did not B/E.

- Do at least 600 VPP's: OK+.
I even doubled up that amount. I made more than 1200 VPP's this month on pokerstars turning me on silverstar for September.

Here are the stats for Multitable Tournaments August 2009:
OPR Stats:
ROI: 90%
Prizes: $14
ABI (Average Buy In): $0.82
AFS (Average Field Size): 185
ITM (In The Money): 1/9 (11%)

Here are the Stats for the SNG's and Multitable SNG's August 2009:


The point is, i still have to play many more SNG's at this buy-in level ($1.20) before going up. But, i am playing much better. Right now, i am confidente enough that i can play the $3.20 in a profitable way.

The main achievement in August (besides my birthday !!) was the silverstar vip status and my overall better performance as a poker player.

Will post September goals this week.

Silverstar VIP Status

I made it!
I achieve it today, i was multitabling LHEM 0.25/0.50 and one table of 0.50/1. Then it pops-up the message from stars.



This means i will be silverstar until 30 September.
It was hard work to achieve this level. I only play at part-time and most of the time at night, so it was never an easy task.

On the next post i will explain some advantages that silverstar brings to the player.
I will post on Monday the total FPP's made this month and the September goals.

SNG: Two 1st Places in a Row

You read it right. I won 2 SNG's, one with 9 players and another one with 45 players.
Regular SNG's (non turbo) with 1500 starting chips.


On this SNG i had some great spots like having KAo twice and AQ/AQs in other times. On HU my J8o broke the AKo from the villan when the 8 came on the flop and hold it.

The hand before the HU, my pocket eights win the shove from the villan, this is the picture from the beginning of the HU:

When we were 3 at the table this is one of my shoves with pocket jackets:



Before this SNG, or better, i was multitabling this SNG with a 9 player SNG that i also win. They were all micro stakes SNG's, so the 1st place rewarding was not much but i am a begginner on the SNG play.

August has been a cash game grinding month but i like more to play SNG. Hope in the future to play more SNG and make the climb on VIP status by mixing SNG with cash games.
This is my overall performance on the last 7 days on SNG's, (I did not play that much).




Btw, i am almost Silverstar.

Poker Education

Studing poker is the stone to improve the game. I am not saying that is the most important variable in becoming a better player, but definetly very important.

You see, when you learn the basics, how to play (for example) Holdem poker, you are going to improve by griding a lot and learning with your own and the opponents mistakes. But that learning process will only take you to a point, and perpaphs will be a slowly learning and hard process.

To speed up the process and become a very good player you have to put some study on poker. Books are one of the tools, and great tools if you are willing to get inside the author mind and practice what they write, but there is another way.

I am not saying that books are not important, they are and they must be present on your poker education. But we have also the trainig sites with forums and videos, and with videos from very good poker players we learn a lot. This is the stage were i am entering now.

I do not have many poker books reading hours, by now i have only read one poker book. I will read more, that is for sure. But the point is, i have signed up with a training site and i am very satisfied. I still did not put the time to view the videos (only saw 3 videos) but i am sure i will check the great videos they have.
Poker education sites are a tool to the arsenal of great poker player.

Week Review: tough week

This has been a tough week for me at poker tables. I have been taking a shoot at low stakes tables. When i mean "taking a shoot", i am assuming that i am playing at a table that i am not rolled for. But also, been willing to get back to Micro stakes if a loose X Big Blinds.

I am playing almost exclusive Fixed Limit Cash Games. I was taking a shoot at $1/$2, but i do not have skill (right now) to crush that level. I was playing very tight almost never bluff but it was very tough, my pocket medium and premium pairs (except AA and KK) lost on every flop i enter (opponent made top pair, two pairs or a set). The only good thing is that i made a lot of FPP's.

Then i returned to my usually grinding table games, the shorthanded (6 Max.) Fixed Limit $0.25/$0.50. Here i have a slight edge to the overall field, but even here i have to much to learn.
Why did i not lowered to FL $0.50/$1? Because i did not want to screw up here too. I am still in the micro/lower stakes learning process.

I am currently with 820.97 Vpp's for this month, my best Vpp's record in a month, so i have to get more 379.08 Vpp's to reach Silverstar by the end of the Month, that it is about 42 Vpp's per day, i think i probably will make it, i am making at least that number per day.

The toughness of this week was grinding a lot, i have nights were i was late until 1AM / 2AM and on the next morning i was waking up at 7AM to go to work. So you can see the toughness of the week, and mix that with some bad beats and you have the perfect milkshake for hard work at the tables :-)

I even manage to get a feet on the gym! I am adept of the old phrase: "The one who likes to run a lot, does not get tired" (something like that in english).

Silverstar on track

Hi, i haven't posted latelly, been busy grinding some fpp's for my reload bonuses on stars and studing the game, specially reviewing my hands.
Review the sessions is a great study to identify some leaks on your game.

On my yesterday sessions i lose some BB, my pocket pairs did not workout (were not top pair or losed to a set from the opponent). I had AQo three times and i lost on those hands, i did not connect with the flop and turn. My AKo did not connect with the board either. My AJo lost to a set of queens from the opponent. You can see how hard the game was!

I have made lots of Fpp's this week and i almost sure that i will reach silverstar this month. Last week i wasn't gridding so much, so i have to put on volume this week.

I will come back with uptaded news this weekend.

Four of a Kind with Aces - The Nuts

I have not been playing too much this week, i traded playing game with learning the game for a couple of hours this week.
Anyway i played some SNG's and very few hands on cash games, in one of those hands at FLH50, i hit the nuts with a four of kind of aces.
On preflop i am holding AJo and i make a bet.
On the flop i hit three of a kind and raise the opponent bet.
On the Turn another Ace comes and everybody checks to me (i have position) and i also check.
On the River one opponent bet and i make a raise.

Early Preflop Shoves

Yesterday i played 2 SNG NLH 9 players, one i ended up in 5th place, on the other i ended up in 2nd place.
In one of the SNG's i had this hand, i was holding pocket aces. The blinds were in the first level, early stage. I was in middle position just behind the highjack. I raised 4 times the big blind, the highjack raised 11 times the big blind. Everybody folded except the big blind who goes all in, I instant call all-in and the opponent at my left did exacly the same thing!

Big hands, big pots!

The big blind had a pocket queens and the highjack a pocket jackets. On the flop i hit the nuts when an ace comes on board, the turn a 5 and on the river a jacket putting the opponent at my left with a set either.
I was, after that hand, in a rare situation of having 227 big blinds on level 1.,(the blinds were 10-20).

I ended up the SNG on 2nd place.
On heads-up the blinds were 100/200. I had 26 big blinds and the opponent had about 40 big blinds.
The opponent did not practice ICM (Push or fold) strategy, neither do I.

After 43 hands the blinds were the same, I had 30 big blinds and the opponent with 35 big blinds. We were now on the final hand shoving to each other. My pocket jackets loose to a full house, five full of deuces, made by him. He hits the set of fives on the flop, and the second deuce came on the turn. Anyway it was a great heads-up play.

The other SNG, i ended in 5th place, ironically i loose with AKo on two hands. One of them the blinds were 30/15, i had 40 big blinds, i get AKo in middle position (UTG+2), i raised 3 times the big blind. The highjack raised 5 times the big blind, i instant called and the button called. The flop was rainbow, i had nothing on the flop.

The highjack goes all in, the button calls and i fold my AKo. The button has K8s on a rainbow flop and cold call the shove of the highjack, what weak play by the button! The highjack got an AQs, the turn and river did not hit anything for both and the highjack with top pair and top kicker takes the pot that i could win if i did not folded to his bluff.

On the last hand, we were only 5 players, the blinds were at level 3 with 25-50, i had about 23 bb on the UTG+2 seat with AKo. The UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, I shoved, the big blind calls and the UTG+1 goes all-in either.

Well, the UTG+1 had a pocket nines, the big blind had the same hand than mine AKo, and the board was rainbow with no ace and no king.

Gut-shot straight draw

Sometimes we have the odds in our side, sometimes we not. Sometimes we are shoving to our opponent and we find out that we are underdog unless we make it the nuts on the river. Well, that was exacly what happened on this hand, i hit a gut-shot straight draw on the flop. We both shove on the turn and my hand was dominated until the river, when the gut-shot straight draw makes a straight draw.

Check it out the all hand.

Full House in a row

I was on a SNG 45 Players and i was busted in 10th place by doing slow play with a set of Aces! Can you imagine the frustration to see the opponent hitting his flush on the river? Well i learn a value lesson to (almost) never slow play your nuts. I usually never ever slow play but i did this time and it work out wrong.

On my grinding at cash games FL100 i have a positive session this morning were two hands were the key on my session, on the first hand i had a full house, queens full of kings and on the next hand i had another full house, aces full of queens. It does not happen often a full house but two full houses on the same session i do not remember having.

First hand showdown:

August Goals

Before the goals let me show you one hand in multipot that i played and hit the flush on ther river, but i was not the only one with the flush, guess who has the higher card? See the whole action here.
August Goals:

1. Sign-up with one of this trainings site: stoxpoker, deucescracked, cardrunners or leggopoker.
2. Start reading the Phil Gordon little green book.
3. Reach the 600 Vpps.
4. Break Even.
5. Play 2000 hands.

The goal 1 and 2 are educational goals, so i can improve my game. I am almost decided wich site will be and i publish my decision soon. The book i already ordered and the post mail already have so i will start to read this week.

The last 3 goals are more pratical goals. I am willing to reach (at least) 600 Vpps this month on stars. The hands played is a goal to grind on the tables and play more hands.

That's all for now!

Suited Connector & Pairs

Sometimes suited connectors pays off like this hand. I was in late positions and i played 78s and i hit the flush on the river.


I win a pot of $16, not too bad because i was playing very tight and folding many hands.
Click here for the complet hand history.

On the same session i have a pocket nines and i raised preflop, i have middle pair on the flop, there was an Ace but i bet again and the others folded, another pot for me.


Finnaly i had pocket tens on my hand and another guy had pocket nines, well i milk them chips to me, so i won another pot.

I will post August goals this week, see you!

July Perfomance

Ok, July ended for me.

I must say that it was better than June but i was expecting more. I play very few SNG and MTT's and i play a lot of cash games, some days i was grinding. I did not read the book Harrington on Holdem. I improved my overall activity in some poker foruns (twoplustwo and ti) by reading and posting.

Let's check it out the numbers.
1. Overall profit: i made $35.15 from cash games FL100.

This graphic is related to the last week of June where i played FL100. I started well and i was hot on 28 and 29 of July but after that i ended up losing some money.

I remember being in a good shape at NL10 on the second week of July but then i had a downswing and i was not generating too much points so i switched to FL100.

More stats on FL100:

Total played time:	14 h 53 m
Earnings per hour:	$2.36
Earnings per hour incl. bonuses:	$2.36
Total played sessions:	15
Total sessions won:	10
Total sessions lost:	5
Best winning streak:	6
Worst losing streak:	3
Best session:	21.15
Worst session:	-19.90

Total hands played at FL100: 913

2. VIP Points and Frequent Player Points on Pokerstars
1086.76 - FPP's (+159 )
458.76 - VPP's July

458.76 is my best record on VPPs /Month, i made more 54 vpps than June.
I played more this week and i also played on FL100, so i made more 159 points this week.












Conclusions:
Well i had a better perfomance this month at cash tables and i did not play much of tournaments. In the overall maybe i can make it on FL100 but i must work harder and i must reviews my last 2 session were i lost.

Maybe i will post some critical hands from my revision on the last 2 sessions, so you can see how i lost money. Review the hands played is very important to become a better poker player. Study is also important i will put Harrington on Hold, i have 2 books on the horizon that just could make the difference, one is for Limit play the other for no limit.

I will subscribe to the deucescraked trial next week so i can download some videos and learn with the pros. I am also thinking in joining the stoxkpoker learning site very soon.

Ok, right now that is all, i will post the goals for August soon.

Good luck and skill i am all in!