So it's been exactly a week since my coaching session with knox828, and things at 50NLHU are looking good. I've gotten in about 6500 hands and am running quite well @ 11bb/100. It's a victory for me since I was definitely just a losing/breakeven Heads up player before. For anyone new to heads up, knox828 is a great coach and definitely a good place to start. He doesn't charge an arm and a leg either.

Does anyone listen to Owl City?

So nothing to really report, just saying whats up and posting my stats and graphs :) I also started watching How I Met Your Mother, really hilarious show so far. I'll definitely put in a longer post when I get some more time. Peace

Humphrey

Grinding Away

So I've put in about 3600 hands since my coaching session with knox828, and I'm up about 4 BI at 50NLHU. Winning around 11bb/100. It's been a kind of swingy last 2k hands, as I made a few bad calls because I zonked back into auto-pilot mode yesterday. They were such obvious folds but when people shove on me, I have the tendency to snap call without really thinking about what they are representing and how obvious the folds should be. I ended up stacking off with TPGK on a dry low board, which given the villain, was definitely not the correct decision. But oh well. So I've been trying to focus more on every decision, and thinking through every hand as I play. Currently still just focusing on one table (yesterday I tried two...bad idea I guess). Also, game selection. There are definitely fish out there who I play for about 300 hands and break even to or marginally win/lose against that are totally not even worth playing. Then there are the fish that basically just hand you 2 BI+ on a silver platter. I need to find more of those guys :) So I'm a marginal winner currently but hopefully as I put in more hands I will start to crush, optimistic, I know... We'll see where I am after 50,000 hands at 50NLHU. My bankroll is about 2750-2800 right now, and I'm thinking of taking a shot at $100NL HU if I get to around 3.5k, taking a 3-5 buyin shot. Of course, this is easier said than done. My bankroll has never been over 3000$. (OK well i got to $3001 once and then proceeded to lose 600 to a downswing/tilt/spew LOL).

So I'm going to try to refocus this weekend and get a LOT of hands in. I know 3600 hands over the past 5 days is a small sample, but I've been busy with exams and school this week. I'm actually headed out pretty soon to go to an all you can eat and drink Japanese restaurant which is near my campus here in Beijing. Oh, did I mention I've been studying abroad in Beijing? I'm trying to learn Chinese...I can speak it already pretty fluently, but when it comes to reading it - I'm completely lost. Anyways, tonight should be fun - sake bombs and going out to some bar/clubs afterwards downtown. I'll try not to get too smashed this weekend. About two weekends ago I had 10 sake bombs and I was so trashed I didn't even make it to the bars after the dinner. It's also important to note that I don't really find asian girls attractive, so when it comes to finding a hot chick here, it's tough for me, I like the blondes. Of course, if you are into asian women, just come to China. You'll have 500million beckoning at you, your money and your US Citizenship. LOL.

If you're grinding this weekend, GL at the tables. I'll try to post some cool graphs, stats, and pictures next time I update.

Humphrey

First 2 days in the Books

So yesterday after my coaching session I played about 750 hands and was up roughly $69 dollars on the night.

Today I played around 650-700ish hands and I'm up about 95$.

So total after 2 days I'm up 165$ (more than 3 BI) over 1392 hands. Which is pretty awesome. not to mention I ran good and rivered a FH versus someone's made straight on the turn. It was pretty sick though, 44 on a 547A board, guess what he had? 23dd. Ridiculous. Thank god the 7 came on the river or else I wouldn't be up as much.

It's a tiny sample but I'll take it. More grinding to come :)

Also be on the lookout for a video by Knox828 soon. He's been working hard.

Peace out and GL at the tables all,

Humphrey

PS: Graph

First Coaching Session and 375 hands...

So today I had my first coaching session with Knox828. I sweated him for the first halfish and he sweated me for a bit as well. Overall I basically learned that I was overplaying too many of my hands, and probably need to play a little bit more ABC poker. It was good though, I also learned quite a bit about certain spots and also need to realize that it's not full ring anymore. It's hard to make a pair (pear?), haha....so calling down light is actually OK sometimes!

I had a 375 hand session against some random fish at stars. I didn't really lose any big pots against him, the most was for like 10$ (20bbs). It was only a matter of time before I stacked him, as he was shoving like 3 out of 10 hands, preflop. I just could never catch a hand 99+ to call his all in. He was doing it with such a high frequency that I think 99 was probably ahead of his range. Oh well. Overall I lost 30$ to him, which isn't that bad, but I lost 60 overall, the rake took $30 over 375 hands!!! That's fucking ridiculous IMO. I really need to move up to 100NL, but I hear it's really not that much better there. Anything is better than 50NL though.

Knox moved up at around $3300 bankroll, mine is slightly less at 2467~ish, so I think I've got quite a bit of work to do. Hopefully with the coaching session today, and an increased effort in studying and thinking through all my hands when I play, I can become the winning player I've wanted to be for quite some time.

Updates to come later, and cool graphs hopefully.

Good luck everyone at the tables :D

My first stack starting today:

PokerStars Game #34220778090: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2009/10/19 16:38:18 CCT [2009/10/19 4:38:18 ET]
Table 'Deimos' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: kutek81 ($46.70 in chips)
Seat 2: Refttt ($52.80 in chips)
Refttt: posts small blind $0.25
kutek81: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Refttt [7h Kd]
Refttt: raises $1 to $1.50
kutek81: raises $1 to $2.50
Refttt: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [Kc 2h 4h]
kutek81: checks
Refttt: bets $3.50
kutek81: calls $3.50
*** TURN *** [Kc 2h 4h] [7s]
kutek81: checks
Refttt: bets $6
kutek81: calls $6
*** RIVER *** [Kc 2h 4h 7s] [Js]
kutek81: checks
Refttt: bets $20
kutek81: raises $14.70 to $34.70 and is all-in
Refttt: calls $14.70
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kutek81: shows [As Ks] (a pair of Kings)
Refttt: shows [7h Kd] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
Refttt collected $92.90 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $93.40 | Rake $0.50
Board [Kc 2h 4h 7s Js]
Seat 1: kutek81 (big blind) showed [As Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: Refttt (button) (small blind) showed [7h Kd] and won ($92.90) with two pair, Kings and Sevens

Welcome

It's October 18th, 2009. Tomorrow I begin my first coaching session with Jesse "knox828" Knox. He is going to be coaching me for NLHU. Currently, I am a pretty big loser over 9000 hands there, and a small winner at the 50NL Full Ring Stakes. Here is my earnings report for my time on PokerStars only:


So, basically I am losing pretty badly there. The purpose of this blog will be for me to be able to record my progress as I receive coaching from Knox828, and be here for me to report to all of you readers, my poker story. I figure it would be a good way to start off fresh, as this is not something I have done before. I think it is a good way to stay involved in Poker, and to encompass myself in the poker mindset, to become a better player. I am interested to see how far this blog goes, if it goes anywhere. Will I still be writing in 1 months time? 3 months time? A year? We'll see... Time will tell.