That Was Not Pleasant...

34.5K down from my peak...

Played two 20K+ pots and lost both of them, one with AA for 250bb's at 25/50 in a 3-bet pot on 9633Q (he had 66) and one for 100bb's with QQ v AQ preflop at 50/100.

I actually finished the session up in big blinds too...

Month looks lame now, just 12K in winnings after hitting a peak of 47K (although recovering from a low of -33K too). Also no longer have 100K in winnings for the year.

I think now would be a good time to self-exclude, take a break and concentrate on study. See you in four weeks...

Final Day at Sydney University!

Tomorrow is my final day of classes at Sydney University...kind of scary, four and a half years have gone so fast.

Afterwards I have 3.5 weeks to study for three exams and to write one 4000 word essay...then I'm off to Europe!

My plans for Europe have changed a bit...I'm now adding in three days each at Nice, Venice and Florence and cutting shorter my time in Rome, Barcelona and Paris. Should still be amazing!

In terms of poker my 10/20 6-max goal has been going nowhere and I've been breaking even there over the last 40K hands or so. Pretty annoying...I'm sitting on 135K out of 207K at the moment so I still need another 36 buy-ins. I was hoping to clear it before I left but that seems an impossibility now. I have however cleared 100K for the year now so that's one goal out of the way I guess. May so far:



Finally, I've finished my 1/2 deep ante series so hopefully those videos will go up sometime in the near future. That series will be my last series until I guess February next year when I get back so make sure to enjoy them and ask a lot of questions whilst I still know what I'm doing – next year I'll probably be useless and completely out of date lol.

Good luck at the tables.

Won $40K Pot, Bad Month, Never Playing 5/10 Again?

I saw a mark at 50/100 today and sat down. On literally the first hand he doubled through...

No-Limit Hold'em, $100.00 BB (2 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($8000)
Hero (BB) ($20000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 10, 10

SB bets $150, Hero raises $700, SB calls $600

Flop: ($1600) A, 2, 3 (2 players)

Hero checks, SB bets $1600, Hero calls $1600

Turn: ($4800) Q (2 players)

Hero checks, SB bets $5600 (All-In), Hero calls $5600

River: ($16000) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $16000

Results:

SB had 10, K (one pair, Kings).

Hero had 10, 10 (one pair, tens).

Outcome: SB won $15999.50

No matter though because 5 hands later I scooped my biggest pot ever!

No-Limit Hold'em, $100.00 BB (3 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($10000)
BB ($20946.50)
Hero (Button) ($20500)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7, 8

Hero bets $300, 1 fold, BB calls $200

Flop: ($650) 8, 7, 7 (2 players)

BB bets $650, Hero calls $650

Turn: ($1950) 5 (2 players)

BB bets $1950, Hero calls $1950

River: ($5850) A (2 players)

BB bets $5850, Hero raises $17600 (All-In), BB calls $11750

Total pot: $41050

Results:

Hero had 7, 8 (full house, sevens over eights).

BB didn't show

Outcome: Hero won $41049

I then sat at some 5/10 tables because nothing higher was running and I wanted to play my rush. I've played less than 6000 hands of 5/10 this year and I quickly remembered why – I can't take the damn limit seriously anymore. After twice 5-bet jamming preflop with AJo, once into a cold 4-bettor who had QQ and the second time into a back-raiser who had AK, and having neither win, I was officially on tilt. I proceeded to donk off two more 5/10 buy-ins before quitting about 7K down from my peak (the other 3K I lost in standard spots at 10/20).

I always try to take something from my bad sessions, and from this session I think the lesson is clear: don't play 5/10 anymore Joey! Of course, I doubt I'll be able to avoid 5/10 altogether (especially if certain famous fish are sitting) but I'm going to do my damn well best to try. What I'm definitely not going to do is do what I did today and that is play a genuine 5/10 session. I've only played about 3 of those this year and I'm pretty sure all of them ended up in the red. I think it's fine if I supplement my normal 10/20 tables with 5/10 tables, but if I'm playing 5/10 exclusively or even predominantly I end up trying to win every pot and become a -EV, FPS-monkey.

In other news I'm running pretty badly this month, but I've run well this year so I can't complain too much. I just want to make sure I still finish up for the month because I really don't like having negative months. It makes you feel like you've gone backwards...

Sometimes You Just Gotta Chase...

Was down 12K at the trough. Was super tilted after a dude at 25/50 peeled my c-bet with 90bb stacks in a 3-bet pot with 44 on Q73hh v my AhAx and binked the 4h on the turn (I missed the redraw obviously).

I decided then and there that I was going to keep playing until I got even but once I did I kept winning so I stayed on and voila!

Euros, Help Me Travel Europe!

So I booked my flights! July 9 from Sydney to Paris and August 15 from Rome to Copenhagen. The question is, what is the best way to get from Paris to Marseille to Barcelona to Rome? I presume I can catch a train from Paris to Marseille but from Marseille to Barcelona and especially from Barcelona to Rome I'm not entirely sure (train, plane, ferry?). Any advice would be awesome.

On the poker front, I haven't been able to play much these last few weeks. I had an exam last week and have one next week and after that I'll still be busy right through till the end of semester so unfortunately it's looking like I won't be able to finish my yearly goals by July. However, that's not really a concern for me anymore because I've decided that I will take my RSAs to Sweden and at least give myself the option of playing poker while there. Initially I was reluctant to do this because I wanted to make sure I made the most of my exchange experience and didn't just grind in my dorm room the whole time. However I decided that letting my game age by 7 months was not a good idea, especially since I'm now definitely taking a year off next year to travel and play full time. I definitely don't want to start next year rusty or behind the times. Also, even though I won't be playing very much, I'll still probably be foregoing about 100K by not playing for those 7 months, and that's a pretty big thing to give up.

I'll definitely make sure I balance my time well though. I'm going to Sweden to have a lot of fun and gain invaluable life experiences, not to just while my time away playing poker. I might even do something like set myself a limit of 10K hands per month and force myself to donate $1 for every hand I play beyond that or give out free coaching or something. We'll see.

Finally I did a video with Andrew which I think went pretty well, and I've also finished 2 of the 3 parts of my new series. I'll do the final part when my self-exclude ends in a week so look out for the series fairly soon!

Good luck at the tables.