5/10nl is Craaaazy

Friday: +$198
Hours: 5
To Date: +$65,235

The swings of 5/10 nl are pretty damn sick. I've been playing these stakes for over a few weeks now pretty consistently, and I'm finally realizing how big these games are. The swings occasionally are ridiculous, but I've always been good about handling the emotions of losing/winning big amounts of money quickly. Here was my day yesterday: My first session I played for 1.75 hours and lost $3,465, my next session was 1.5 hours long and I lost $2,103, and my last session I played for 1.75 hours and won $5,766. This left me at +$198 on the entire day, lol. So I swung down $5,500 in a little over 3 hours, and then swung back up about +$5,800 in just under 2 more hours. Those are some pretty sick swings! My first session I really was pissed off about how I played, and absolutely should have lost at least $1,000 less than I did. My second session I just played ok at best. So I was really dissapointed in my play and was down huge. My last session I was very determined to play my best. I was playing some pretty short handed tables, as well as both some 2/4 heads up and 5/10 hu. I was a little apprehensive playing shorthanded on most of my tables like I was because I knew it was possible that I could take another BIG hit. But I ended up playing really well and things went absolutely great. Although I did make a bad call w/ a low flush that cost me around $700, I should have gotten away from it I knew I was beat. Anyway, what a crazy day! Talk about stressful, but also very fun by the end of the night.

Swinging Up Up Up...and AWAY!

Monday-Thursday: +$5,818
Hours: 11.25
To Date: +$65,037

Was hovering right around even since my last update, until yesterday when I made just under $6k in around 3 hours. I've been playing good since then too, but not as good as I want to be. I haven't been putting in my max effort each time I sit down to play, and have found myself halfway through a session going through the motions. That is completely unexceptable and I'm gonna make sure to stay disciplined and focused throughout the whole session each time I play. Anyway that's really all I have to say right now regarding my play and results. But in other news I just read last night that Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are starting intersite transfers. I think that is a great idea, and have wondered if that was ever gonna happen between poker sites for a good year now. I figured it probably wouldn't unless two sites had the same owners running them. Well thats the case w/ UB and Absolute, but I really hope that other sites that have different owners will start doing this in the future. It's a very good idea and will definitely help both websites bring in more business. Too bad I don't really think I'll be playing on Absolute anymore becuase they don't have enough higher stakes games at all. My dream would be for UB, Full Tilt, and Stars to have intersite transfers between them. I'm still very excited that UB and Absolute Poker have started doing this though, I hope it will bring a lot more fish to the mid stakes games on UB. Anyway, I swear I'm gonna add in my rakeback next post. And also gonna post my results from July.

BOOYAKASHA!!!

Saturday+Sunday: +$4,344
Hours: 4.75
To Date: +$59,219

WOW! Saturday was a great day for me. I had my best single session ever and also my best overall day ever(money wise that is). My first session of the day I played for only an hour and made +$4,960. Not bad for just one hour of play. Then my second and last session of the day I played for an hour again and made +$1,070. That brought the total on the day to +$6,030, in only 2 hours of play! I was playing $1,000 nl on most of my tables, but still a couple of tables were either $200 or $400 nl. The first session I played I just ran like GOD, but I also played really well too. I was in complete control and dominating the table, which allowed me to make a couple great plays. Yesterday I lost around $1,500, but oh well that's to be expected after a day like Saturday I guess. So far after my first 10k hands at 5/10 nl I'm doing really well. The swings really don't affect me that much at all, and I now feel really comfortable playing that high. It also makes poker fun and exciting too, which I think will last for a pretty long while actually. If I happen to lose 5 buyins or something more at $1000 nl I will probably just play lower limits for a little while, but other than that I'm gonna try to play at least a couple tables of it every session I play. Unless all of the games at the time are really bad of course. I just remembered that I need to add in my rakeback from last month, so I'll definitely do that a little later on today. Hopefully I can go on a tear the rest of this month and make over $10k more by the end of it.

Back in Black

Monday-Friday: +$4,641
Hours: 13
To Date: +$54,875

Ok I'm finally back in the black on the month! Only took me a little over 2 weeks, lol. I've been pretty happy w/ my play these days. I think this last downswing has made me a better player for sure. I don't have enough time to talk about how I feel I've gotten so much better in the past few months, so I'll save it for another post soon here. But it feels really good to be completely out of my downswing and I'm ready to put in a lot of hours the rest of the month and hopefully the month will turn out to be a really good one!
P.S. - I just had my best session ever about an hour ago! I made $5k in only 1 hour, feels sooooo good!!! Those results as well as my rakeback from July will be posted tomorrow.

VERY BAD NIGHT

Tuesday-Sunday: -$3,520
Hours: 15.25
To Date: +$50,234

I think I'm on my biggest downswing(money wise) ever in the last 2 weeks. That's ok though, I've also been playing the highest limits of my life. For the past few days or more I've been playing at least a couple tables of 5/10 NL every time I play, and even some of the time more than 4 tables of 5/10, while still playing a couple tables of 3/6 and 2/4 as well. The funny thing is that I've been winning a little bit at 5/10, but just been getting killed at 2/4 and 3/6. I guess that's a lot better than the other way around so I can at least feel good about that. Anyway on Saturday night I almost had my second breakdown of the year in poker. My internet at night lately has been cutting out a few times a night, but usually it is for less than 30 seconds and never more than a few minutes. Still it's been very frustrating to say the least and has definitely cost me some money and my sanity at times. But on Sat night I sat down to play at midnight and got on all my 6 tables, 4 of them being 5/10 and the other 2 or 3 of them my normal mid stakes. I started playing and was absolutely amazed at how GREAT the games were! I was so happy and excited and ready to put in a long ass session and hopefully make a shit load of money. Every single table I would consider very good, especially my 5/10 tables. I knew it was Saturday night but just couldn't believe how bad almost all the players were, probably the best I've ever seen in my experience at that high of stakes. So I'm playing and within the first 20 minutes my internet starts going out. I got very pissed off because whenever it would go out I actually was involved in and had good hands which ended up costing me over $300. So I was very pissed off but I just kept thinking I have to keep playing through it b/c the games were so profitable. Well long story short I had to quit after 45 min b/c it was constantly cutting out and I just couldn't continue. I was so unbelievably frustrated because I know this costed me so much +EV and very likely something in the $5k range a fair amount of the time. Anyway it was a very bad and frustrating night and is still very hard for me to think about how great the games were and how unfair it is that I was cheated out of the opportunity to play. So I thought it would be good for me to take Sunday off shut down the engine and recharge the batteries. I think it was a very good idea b/c today I feel great and really motivated to play again. I swear next post will be my results from last month, but I just wanted to get this out first. Time for me to go hit the tables!

Focused Energy+Positive Thought=Playing Well

Thursday-Monday: +$1,521
Hours: 9.75
To Date: +$53,754

So I'm making a steady and slow comeback on the month. Iv'e been happy with how I've been playing the last few days, so that's what really matters. I could go on and on about all the ways I've been getting unlucky on the month so far. But I honestly don't focus on that side of poker whatsoever anymore. I was actually thinking about this yesterday and today, and I'm pretty damn impressed with myself. Compared to almost anyone I know, follow, or read about I talk about bad beats and ways I'm getting unlucky while running bad less than anyone I know. I pretty much just don't talk about it hardly at all, and in my head to myself I don't think or focus on it about 99% of the time either. The more you don't spend any energy on even thinking about how you are getting unlucky, the vastly better you are off for sure. I have become so good at this part of poker that I really don't waste any energy on it at all, and this has really been keeping my mind right and completely filled w/ positive energy and allows me to focus on what I need to. I used to think I was good at controlling tilt and handling the swings and such. But now I realize that I was only OK at this b/c I was still putting way too much thought into these kinds of negative things. Now it is so much easier on my mind b/c I barely have these thoughts at all, so I often don't even realize how bad I've actually been running until later after it's over. I just keep my focus on what I need to and mentally it makes my poker life so much easier. Anyway, I know I said last post that my next one would be on my results for July and goals for this month. So I will definitely do this in my next post which will probably be tomorrow. Also I still want to write about when I read a bunch of poker blogs that aren't on my daily list of reads last week and some of my thoughts about them in the next few days as well.

The Latest

Saturday-Wednesday: -$2,817
Hours: 9.5
To Date: +$52,233

So I was around break evenish since my last post until yesterday when I dropped -$3k. I should have lost around -$2,500 but I made pretty costly $500 dollar mistake that I definitely shouldn't have. I actually played quite well overall yesterday, but just made that big mistake and was getting hit very hard in the face by the deck. I was put in a huge amount of very tough decisions very quickly. That is the only time where multi tabling like I do can really be a problem. I also layed a hand or two down that I figured had to be the best hand from the way it was played out, but my opponets bet big on numerous streets so I assumed maybe I was just tilting and layed them down. Sure enough I was shown a complete bluff once, and the other I'm pretty sure looking back on it was too. That really frustrated me and stressed me out a lot, so that was the end of the night for me at that point and I quit playing immediately. After this before bed I wrote down my goals for August on a peice of paper, so I'll post those and my results for July in my next post. I ended up having similar to June a very good month in July again, but realize that b/c of this and the way August has started out, that this month is most likely gonna be much tougher cards wise. So my goals that I wrote last night are very intense concerning the mental side of poker and life away from the actual tables. Also, the other day I went through and read a BUNCH of poker blogs that I hadn't read much of or hadn't read at all and have some thoughts on them I want to post about in the next few days as well.