Tonight's session...

[Talking Poker]

In the end, I only lost one buy in - no big deal. But damn do I feel like shit after the 5 buy in swing I took.

Fortunately, after getting stacked TWICE nearly back to back and feeling the beginnings of tiltness, I unchecked the "Auto Post Blind" button, intending to play to the BB and then calling it a night. On my very last hand, I stacked one of the dorks who I had just doubled up, but that was a total gift (he bluffed off all his money to me). Still, I'll take it.

No real reason for this post, other than to say how much it sucks when you start off good and the finish down. I'd rather start off losing and finish up, I think.

Eh, maybe not.

[Boobie Lover]

I won $1K for the day, although I did lose a 3K pot as a 73% favorite and KK lost to AKo all-in preflop for another 2k. I guess I should not be disappointed in winning a thousand dollars playing a silly game in one day, but it is frustrating.

[Talking Poker]

I hear that. But, in theory, for every time that we lose pots like you described, we should win three more of them... In theory.

Here's something else that is frustrating me... With approximately 10,000 hands played this month (hey - that was my goal!), I should have been dealt AA around 45 times. I've seen that hand just 30 times, less than ANY other pair. It's my highest Average Per Hand hand, so it would be nice to see it a bit more often.

Meanwhile, my biggest loser for the month is AKo. Maybe I'm playing it wrong (this is quite possible), but it would be nice to hit a flop with that stupid hand ONCE IN A WHILE (and still wi nthe hand). I swear, I either miss the flop and my CB gets check raised, or I hit the flop and someone sucks out, or I hit the flop and someone else hit it harder. It's uncanny.

I'm a winner for the month, so like you said, I shouldn't complain too much, but come on. Down $2700+ with AKo??? My next worst hand is J9o - down just $1000.

[GTDawg]

Could you post several AK hands? I'd like to see some discussion on the way you (and others) play it.

I've seen half a dozen "theories" on how to play it from pushing allin pre-flop, to playing it like 45 and only going strong when you hit extremely hard.

[lightfungus]

It's a no brainer in my mind that you want to start out losing and finish ahead. I hate when you finish down after being up.

[Talking Poker]

Yeah, but I hate when I start out losing. I think losing causes a lot of players to play worse (not sure about myself honestly), where winning can help them play better. Well, maybe. *I* play better when I've been winning, but I can see that that might not be true for everyone.

[JDMcNugent7]

if i start out winning i end up winning.
if i start out losing it could easily become a big Negative day usually. i suck

[lightfungus]

Thats kinda weird...you should figure that out, it sounds like a mental thing. The only thing I feel is wrong with starting out in the red, is the players tag you as a loser and seem to call bluffs easier and get out of pots less. That pisses me off.

[Zybomb]

Im a similiar way. When I go to play live, if I lose my first buyin I would say 3 out of 4 times I end up down for the session. If I win a few hundred to start, I usually come out a winner. I think the beginning of a session is crucial.

Having a bigger stack also allows you to see more flops with other big stacks bc of implied odds and you can get paid big time.

[Talking Poker]

Agreed. And I think having a "winning image" as opposed to a "losing image" is huge. This is why I typically start off fairly tight, before moving to my LAG image.

Just goes to show how important table selection can be. Starting at tables where you will likely win could be a big edge.

[Talking Poker]

Yep, this sure did feel a lot better. Well, it does NOW anyway - now that I'm done.

[Aequitas58]

TP,

How are you generating your graphs? I don't have third-party software, and I can't figure it out in PT.

[lightfungus]

Go to the game notes tab in PT, then hit the get all button to retrieve the entire data set that you are looking at and it the 1st little g button. THe second one just allows you to set constraints on how many data points you want to graph.

[Aequitas58]

Thanks, I'll try it when I get home from work.

[Talking Poker]

Yep. It's extremely easy. Three clicks (including clicking on the Games tab if you're not already there) and you're done. I don't need fancy - I just need a quick and dirty graph.

For a LOT of hands - many thousand - this will still work, but you may want to go to the "Sessions" tab and do the same thing there - the graph will generate much faster. It won't show your intersession variance, but it's a good way to look at your overall trends.

Once you've generated the graph, simply click Alt-PrintScreen. This will copy the image of your screen to your clipboard. Then open Paint or Photoshop or whatever and paste the image in there. You can crop it and resize it and whatever else you want to do, and then save it somewhere. Then when you want to post it, just click on "Manage Attachments" (in "Additional Options" below the "Submit Reply" button), and upload your image there.

I realize you may not all or part of this process already, but I figured I'd sepll it out for anyone else interested.

[Talking Poker]

OK, I decided... screw the two graphs I posted above (especially the first one).

THIS is the kid of session I prefer.

(I suppose I was briefly down in the beginning, but not even a half a buy in)

[Talking Poker]

I just now noticed this post. I can probably dig some up for you, but considering how badly I get my ass kicked with the hand, I'm not sure what purpose it would serve... I'll honestly attribute most of my losings with it to bad variance, but I'm still probably not playing it ideally.

[Talking Poker]

I'm not going to post graphs every night (don't worry), but tonight's was pretty crazy.

I played 1001 hands. Overall, I ran WELL BELOW average, which is extremely encouraging.

In the middle of the graph, note me getting stacked THREE TIMES in the span of about 6 minutes - all at the same table and ALL with overpairs losing to overpairs that were one better. That was a first for me.

Right before the nice spike upwards is when I started 5 tabling. I usually only play 4. I wasn't on tilt or anything - just saw some good tables and felt like getting more hands in. I have to say, I liked it. I think it FORCED me to focus more and play just a hair tighter.

I stacked a guy when I flopped a set and worked my way from a session low of down $2000 all the way up to $900ish to the good. In my last two orbits, I lost a couple of big hands. The big drop was my AJ vs AA - I flopped top two pair and he flopped top set and didn't raise ONCE until the turn - not even preflop with two other players in the hand. And my final hand of the night - literally with me sitting out of all the other tables and UTG, I had AQs and the flop came Qxx. I called his reraise preflop in position (maybe a mistake), and then called his flop bet... I folded when he shoved on the turn, SURE he had KK..... and he did. So even though I lost $300ish on the hand, I was happy with how I played it.

Anyway, after all this rambling, the moral of the story is that after one hell of a roller coaster ride, I finished up $40.60 for the night. LOL - I probably earned that much in rakeback!!!

[lightfungus]

Glad you fought your way back above the water line. It's always nice to finish in the green.

[Kurn]

Its a tough hand to play because we tend to overvalue it.

Preflop, if you (or your main opponent) are not short-stacked, getting all-in preflop is thin +EV/high variance. If you don't have enough in front of you to maneuver postflop, then getting it all in the middle preflop is optimal.

If you do have a reasonable stack, try to isolate, but if you can't - try to keep the pot small.

Postflop, your play is dependent on position, number(and tendencies of) of oppoenents and flop texture. If 2 of the 3 are not favorable, don't CB and prepare to cut your losses right there.