November So Far

So far November's been a lot better than October. I'm not quite sure if I have played my 10 hours a week so far, but I think I'm pretty close thanks to a pretty good run in a MicroMillions event and a freeroll, plus some Sit&Go action.
I have not spent as much time at the cash tables as I would have liked, so I need to work on that. But getting back into the MTTs and Sit&Gos reminded me how much I do enjoy these games.

And while I have no idea if I'll reach my goal of moving up to 5NL by the end of this month, I am on the right track. My bankroll has been going up, and I seem to have collected my thoughts. So I'm much more focused at the tables.

The BR at 888Poker took a hard hit a few days ago. I tilted just a tiny bit (okay, I tilted a lot), and ran the BR down from $9.29 to $4.88. I was able to pull myself away, and came back with a more leveled head. So the BR is now at $8.17.

Over at PokerStars, I have been playing quite a few FPP satellites, and took some of them down. So I got tickets to MicroMillions Events 001 and 024. I didn't cash in event 001, although I got pretty close to the money. But I had a decent run in event 24 where I placed 115 out of 12,352 players.

I was knocked out by a rather sick hand, but still had lots of fun (see it below). Especially since Jodi was there to rail and support me along the way. I would never have kept focus if it weren't for him, so a huuuge thanks goes his way!

I also made it to top 10 in a freeroll that gave me a ticket to another tourney where top 5 gets a Sunday Million ticket each.

When I have sat down at the cash tables at PS, I have left with a profit, so I'm getting back on the right track. The profits, small as they were, are all thanks to a lot of hard work to improve my game. I still have some huge leaks, but I'm really working on them.

Pokerstars Bankroll is currently at $44.96, pretty close to the previous high of $47.91.

Even though I am more certain than ever that I'm a much at tournaments than at cash games, I am determined to keep learning and evolve. So lately I've been following several poker streams on Twitch. They all give me lots of inspiration and motivation, as well as picking up some nice tips along the way.

That's all my ranting for now.
Hope you're all doing well, and wish you all the best for the rest of November.

xx,
Ava

New Project at 888poker

Since I'm not happy with the rake changes and exchange fees at Pokerstars, I decided to check out some alternative poker sites. And someone told me to check out 888poker, which I've been doing over the last couple of days.

The rake changes at PS won't affect me much, but I worry that this is just the beginning. So I'm doing my tiny bit to tell PS that they will lose players if they continue making unfavorable changes. There are other alternatives out there.

So far I'm not 100% sure what I think of 888poker. It's different, that's for sure. And I really enjoyed getting the sigh up bonus. They started me off with $2 in cash and six $1 tournament tickets. If you play and achieve a certain amount of points within the first 90 days, they'll give you a total of $88 in cash and tickets.

Yesterday I tried sitting down for one of their Snap cash games (the same as Zoom on PS). I only played 6 hands because the whole layout confused me.

Today I've played six Sit and Gos. I cashed in 4 out of them and got knocked out early in the other two with KK vs AA and straight vs better straight. The games do seem softer than at PS though,
and there are less traffic there.

And my cash bankroll is up to $8.98. So I decided to make this a separate BR project, but I'll still continue with my project on PS as well.

I've also played some FPP satellites over at PS, winning two of them. One gave me a ticket to the first Micro Millions event, which I'll play. The other was for a Sunday special tournament which I took out in T-money.

I'll be grinding for the $13.08 project later today. Fingers crossed that I'll make my goals for this month :)

If you've finished reading through my scrambled thoughts, then I wish you the best of luck at the tables. And if you have any other poker sites for me to check out, let me know.

xx,
Ava

PS. I would also really appreciate it if any of you could help me go through some hand history. I'm always aiming to improve.

October was meh... Goals for November

I think that's the best way to describe the month of October when it came to poker. I had some goals for the month that I didn't even come close to accomplish.

I ended September with $28.57, and ended October a slight up. The BR is currently at $30.93.

One was to play at least 10 hours each week. This did not happen at all. I didn't even play 10 hours in total this month. Work has really taken over my life this week, and when I've actually had the time to play, I've opted for poker training instead.

Life hasn't been too good this month And as I explained in my previous post, I have a tendency to let my life influence how I play. So I've decided to stay away from the tables when I'm in a bad mood.

And since I've played less than 1000K hands this month, I didn't even have a shot at making enough money to move up to 5NL.

But I've made some improvements throughout the month. Such as actually not losing my whole stack when someone has my pocket aces beat. Looking back I'm not 100% happy with the way I played the hand below, but it is an improvement. I think I should have bet larger on the flop, and also bet the turn.




October did end on a good note though. I'm self-employed, and yesterday I got an surprising email from a company that wants to work with me. They said that, "you have been highly recommended," which is very nice to hear. And I'll get a huge pay-raise compared to my other contracts. This might mean that I'll be even busier in November.


Fortunately I'm too stubborn to give up, so my poker project will continue. I have some goals for the month of November: First of all I'll try to get in the 10 hours of play a week, this should be around 2500 hands a week. And yet again I'll aim to move up to 5NL by the end of the month.
Oh, and I'm going to play at least one Micro Millions event at Pokerstars, as well as sign up with 888poker to try out their platform.

I'd love to hear how your October went, and if you have any goals for November.

Life and Bankroll - A Positive Correlation Relationship

...and I'm not talking "positive" as in YAY!
Ever since I started my $13.08 BR project I've been tracking my progress carefully. And there have definitely been some ups and downs since the start.

But the other day, while I was looking at my bankroll development, it dawned on me: There's a really strong correlation between life events and my BR (yes, I might be a tad slow for not figuring this out sooner, lol).

Looking at the graph, I realized that my BR is heavily influenced by negative life events. During this time period a lot of stuff has happened, including and in no particular order:

• Two deaths and two funerals
• Learning that a good friend's cancer is back, and things are not looking good
• The one year anniversary of my dear cousin's death
• My grandfather having a heart attack, he's okay though!
• My dad losing his job

Can you pinpoint some of these events just from looking at the bankroll graph?

I'm the kind of person who really like to cheer people up, to make the people I love feel great. And I feel so helpless in situations where there's nothing I can do. So I worry. And it's quite apparent that I bring all of these feelings with me to the poker table.

In the game this comes out as either a complete lack of aggression, being to passive, not thinking while I'm playing, or just plain old monkey tilt.

Most of the time I've been able to step away from the table when I realize that I'm not playing my, A, B or even C-game. So I haven't played nearly as much poker in October as I'd planned on.

But there's one good thing to take from all of this. I know not to play when I'm feeling like s**t, and I need to find another outlet for my feelings. Yoga, climbing or karate sounds pretty good. And I'm taking up archery, which should be a lot of fun.

So while hoping for life to brighten up a bit, I'll focus on getting my thoughts and emotions under control. And I'm slowly working my way back to the tables.

Until next time, GL to you all :)

xx,
Ava

Back To The Grind

After taking a week-long break from my project, I finally felt like playing some poker last night. I've decided to start off slowly to keep myself from tilting, so I've only played a few hands.
The last couple of weeks have just been one bad news after another, so pretty much anything will send me on a horrible tilt.

When I started playing yesterday, the project was at $26.43. And I did make a small step in the right direction, ending the day up a "massive" 12 cents. Sometimes it feels a bit silly counting each cent, but with such a small bankroll, every penny counts.

Today started off with even more bad news. It's getting a bit ridiculous by now. But the good thing is that I still felt like playing, mostly to distract myself :)

And thanks to the hand above, the project is now at $28.57. I'm not quite sure if I played the hand correctly though. Maybe I should have been worried about a set?

My thinking was that with his 3-bet, although small, he must have a really good hand. I ranged him at AKo, KK, QQ, JJ. And I was not worried about anything worse than pocket 10s. So imagine my surprise when he showed his hand. Did not see that one coming. He's definitely in the #IHateFolding club.

I think that was all the poker I have time for today. Enjoy your weekend, and best of luck at the tables!

The $100 Project Is Cancelled

Lately I haven't played as much poker as I would have liked. Actually, I haven't played any poker in almost a week, which is really weird. And the last time I played, I was not paying any attention to the action on the table. Just check out the hand above: Why didn't I shove on that river?!

Since work and life has gotten in the way, I decided to cancel the staked $100 project. It's just not fair to play for someone else's money when I'm not giving it my A-game. So I decided that the best thing was to send the money back. I really do appreciate the opportunity, now has just been such a bad time for me.

But I have taken a log of  time talking to other poker players, watch them play, asking questions, watching Youtube-videos and reading articles. I want to be ready to hit the tables again soon. First I need to unclutter my mind :)

And thank you to those of you who are there helping me, always encouraging me and answering my silly questions. You know who you are :)

Poker is a game of both luck and skill. And it requires you to be in control of your emotions. Lately I have been bringing my emotions to the game. I can pretty much feel the monkey tilts building even when I'm away from the table.

I promise that I'll be back soon, and my goal is to get the $13.08 project up to at least $200 by the end of this year. Hopefully life will start to get better soon :)

Until next time: Good luck at the tables. Find me if you are playing and want someone railing you or want to talk poker!

Should Have Folded...

Check out the hand above. I'm in the BB with KTo. Everyone folds around to SB who makes a pretty standard raise. The flop, J9J gives me a straight draw.
We both check (should have been a warning sign...)

The Q on the turn gives me a straight, but Villain raises. Instead of folding, I re-raise. And then I call when he goes all in on J river.

Looking back it is so obvious that he had a Jack or a Queen. Hopefully I did learn something from this hand. I should be made an honorary of the #IHateFolding club, because I seriously hate folding a good hand.

Made another bad mistake in this hand. Here I should have given up when my flush draw didn't come through.

End of day status is, Project A is up 44 cents to $29.26, and Project B is down to $78.95. It's really time to turn it around and to get my act together. I get really mad at myself for making silly mistakes and bad decisions like the ones above. Something that in turn affects my mindset and my play. It's a vicious circle.

But to end on a positive note, I did get back some of the money I lost. Like on this hand: