Island Grinder Poker

Its been a while

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:35:00 +0000

So its been nearly a year since i last updated. I haven't missed it. I withdrew most of my money and eventually busted the remainder shortly after my last post. I did not play again until December. I didnt miss it.

Over the years of playing i had accumulated over 15k in FPP. when i felt like playing again I started playing FPP tournaments. Eventually i found the 90fpp 18seat sats to the midnight madness tournament. These were pretty soft, and with $11 for first place i quickly accumulated over $130.00 in tourny dollars which i then used to play the $3.3 90man sngs.

I quickly turned the tourny dollars into $100.00 real money and started playing Rush poker at the .10/.25 full ring tables with a little success. My bankroll has been as high as 500.00 but is now back at 350.00. I plan on withdrawing whatever i have at the end of the month to buy a Nintendo WII and start all over again in March.

Thats it for poker....

Meh...

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:49:00 +0000

Haven't been playing much lately. Just haven't felt right. When i have free time I've been tired or had places and things to do. My frame for a successful tournament is basically to be well rested, well feed, focused and have about 4.5hrs free time.

None of these requirements seem to come together recently... so even when i decided to play i didn't do well... meh.I'm feeling better this week and hopefully will play a few 180s before the end of the week.

Bizarro Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:16:00 +0000

Thats the only way i can describe what I've witnessed on the tables over the past couple days. I did play on Sunday but only cashed in the Turbo Take down for $35.00, finishing around 9000th out of 30,000 registered. I played ok, but i have to admit that i was a bit distracted by mafia wars.

Wow, is that game addictive or what! I log on to play for a short period and end up easily spending hours playing. I'm currently at level 27 and have 155 mafioso in my family after 4 days of play. I'm adding about 4 levels and 20 mafioso per day. Anyway enough about that, if you're interested search Mafia Wars on Facebook, Myspace or Tagged.

Below is three of the most idiotic hands i've seen in a long time. They're so bad its unbelievable. But i guess i shouldnt be surprised since they're from $10 and lower buy-in tournaments;

that,thats all folks!

Sunday Tournaments

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:48:00 +0000

I haven't updated in awhile. I've been spending alot of time recently playing Mafia Wars on facebook. Its a really addictive game, has to be since it kept me from poker. Guess its something to running a criminal enterprise.

I managed to play several $4 180 sngs on stars and managed to get relatively deep in all of them (final 3 tables) made two final tables finishing 2nd and 3rd. I finished in the 20s around the bubble in the others, and felt i couldve easily gone deeper.

Today i plan on playing several tournaments on stars.

The $5 $20k Gteed at 1pm
The Turbo Takedown at 2:30pm
The $8 5K Gteed at 4pm

That should do it. I may add more according how it goes early. I may have set myself up for a bit of failure in not resting properly or preparing as much as i could've before today's tournys, but i'll still give it a go.

- Isgrinder

Observe your opponents

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:08:00 +0000

Poker is a game of information, the more you have the better decisions you can make. The easiest way to get information is by observing your opponents. Since we're playing online that means noticing their bet size, position, and the hands they play.

While playing recently i realized that i make certain generalizations about my opponents based on what i observe from them.I will go over a few of the basic assumptions;

Limping
I don't pay much attention to this in the early rounds. But later when blinds are >200 and I'm looking for an easy way to accumulate chips i note those who are limping a lot and inappropriately. Eventually i will shove over them with air and take the free chips.

I take special note of opponents who limp UTG and those who limp monster hands in general. This info can be very useful since i will gladly limp behind these guys with SCs when in LP.

Playing weak hands
Recently in a $4 180 sng on Stars an opponent showed down K2s winning with a flush after limping and calling utg. In another hand an opponent showed down QTo after limping and calling a raise in MP, then went to showdown with TPWK.I was not involved in either hand but i was able to learn alot of usefull info on both opponents, both of whom won their respective hands and had nice stacks.

K2s Opponent: This opponent has no concept of position. He/She will likely play any broadway, All suited Aces, and probably most Ax hands. Generally this is a really bad player.

QTo Opponent:This opponent will also play any broadway and most aces. But my note on this player will have alot to do with how he played post flop. He overvalues TP and will stack off with TP with a weak kicker, definitely good to know.

Bet Sizing
Bet sizing can give away a ton of information, this is why most books and sites will tell you to keep your betsize consistant. Many opponents don't seem to realize this and will basically tell you when they have a monster or a weak hand. So i look for hints of hand strenght both pre-flop and Post-flop by noting the size of my opponents bets.

Of course no two opponents are alike so while a min raise utg may be a weak hand for one player it could mean a monster for another. This is why observing opponents when you're not in the hand is so important. Anytime i see a min raise i perk up and start taking notes.

I also take note of sudden changes in bet sizing. Most opponents will regularly open with 3xbb raise but suddenly they change to 4x or +5x. I see this alot in micro stake tournaments, especially in EP. It will usually indicate strong but vulnerable hands like medium pocket pairs 88-TT but most often it is AQ+.

There's a ton of information at the tables, I could go on forever. Its up to us to observe, find patterns and take advantage of our opponents weaknesses to make lots of monies. Remember if you fail to note an opponent who overvaules TP and then proceed to stack off with AK on a T high flop because you raised pf... well thats on you, you're the donkey!

-Isgrinder

I'm a criminal?!

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Fri, 22 May 2009 15:10:00 +0000

We have really weird and unfair gambling laws in this country. Gambling is only legal for tourists in liscensed casinos. But locals cannot enter these casinos and cannot legally gamble anywhere in the country. So basically, every time i log onto pokerstars or ftp i'm commiting a crime. And everytime i withdraw money and deposit it to my account, i'm engaging in money laundering. Crazy!

But recent incidents and public sentiment has me believing that gambling will be legalized with the next couple years. The arguments against it are wearing very thin so i'm optimistic.

In the mean time i'm still playing the occasionaly tournaments. This week has been rather unsuccessful with me busting out of everything.I've registered to participate in the "May takedown" on Stars. But i may have to unregister because i have a football game tomorrow at 5:30. will see how it goes, its kinda rainy so i may not go.

-outlaw

I've decided to write a book

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:53:00 +0000

And no its not a poker book or related to poker in anyway. For the past few years i've been very aware of the limited amount of ideas/solutions by the leaders in my society. I live in one of the worlds most beautiful places and its run by people with no imagination and seemingly no drive. The end result is the country is slowly spiraling out of control.

Violent crime is becoming common place, we have an over burdened judicial system that barely works, immigration is out of control, corruption is rampant, education is at an all time low. Politicians bluster and spew rhetoric, religious leaders quote scriptures and nothing gets accomplished. I feel compelled to speak.

I'm nobody special. No history of great prose or rhetoric that would make people want to listen to me. But i will say my piece. I have ideas and they seem more reasonable and helpful than those proposed by politicians. So I'm just going to put them out there in the form of a non fiction book. Hopefully it will be both interesting and enlightening to the general public.

-Isgrinder

Double barrel bluff - Don't Do IT!

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:01:00 +0000

Now that i'm back playing poker, I've decided to focus on my mental approach and decision making in tournaments. I recently final tabled a $4 180 man sng because i played really well and made only a few mistakes.

While reviewing today i came across a huge mistake i made that was typical of the mistakes i used to make.I fired both barrels on a bluff from the button into the big blind, who just happened to be the only stack on the table that could eliminate me.

Even though i won the hand, this was such a huge mental breakdown. I put way too much of my stack in the middle needlessly. In addition my bet sizing sucked. this was the one glaring mistake of the tourney and i went on to finish 3rd to a runner runner flush.

Isgrinder.

Hiatus Over?

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:22:00 +0000

I have started to feel the urge to play again or at least playing doesnt fill me with a sense of hopelessness anymore. My optimism is back. I now feel like i can play this game and win again. It is a good feeling!

I want to thank everyone for the encouragement and comments over the pass few months. I really appreciate it.

BTW. I changed the format of my blog and lost my blog roll again. I will be adding blogs back asap. But if you don't see you're blog after a week please leave a comment and i will link you right away.

February Update

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:33:00 +0000

I canceled my PXF sub today. I just couldnt justify paying the fee when i rarely used it anymore. When i have more time to focus on studying poker i will probably re-subscribe. But for now i'm busy with school and work.

I ordered a Laptop from an online store, tigerdirect.com, but it hasn't arrived yet. I'm taking a bit of a risk because it was an "open box" item. Which means it was returned to the store by a customer for some reason, was retested/refurbished and recertified by the manufacturer. I decided to purchase it because the specs were really great for the price. Unfortunately it has yet to arrive despite being shipped 2nd day. Not a good sign :(

Since my desktop pc died i've been playing on an old Dell Latitude i had sitting around. Obviously i have no hud or tracking software and suprisingly i don't really miss it. I'm still able to 3 table effectivel with a little table overlap. But for the most part i find that i really don't need the stats. The tracking software is probably more relevant to cash games.

January was an ok month. I finished just under 1k in profit, so it didn't turn out to be my best month though it looked like it was going to be earlier. I'm not sure about February since i'm gonna have to spend alot of time this month doing projects and assignments. I will put in the time where i can and see how it goes.

- Isgrinder

Poker Goals for 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:43:00 +0000

This post is a little late because i was not sure where i was in terms of playing poker. I have come to terms with the limitations of my poker future and have kinda given up on the dream of someday making that big score. I say kinda because its still there. I guess its just that i've come to realize that i'm not prepared to immerse myself totally in poker. Which is what i think might be required (for me) to have a chance at having the kind of results that some people see.

Even as a part time player, poker seems to demand alot of time, eventually pushing other interests to the side or out altogether. Perhaps its even harder for me because non of my friends play and i'm in a country where its frowned upon for the most part. (somehow playing poker seems to be looked on as more degenerate than buying "numbers" which is everywhere over here, but we have no official lotto because gambling is illegal... go figure) but i digress.

My Goals for poker in '09 is to use poker to supplement my income. I don't have any particular figures in mind. I want to be able to use my poker winnings for little odds and ends that i would not be able to accomplish with my normal salary. For instance so far this year i've withdrawn money to help with a property down payment and to purchase a new laptop.

There will be very little pressure to play everyday or study or move up etc etc.... This constant threadmill that many amateur players seem to be on. I still enjoy poker and will probably continue to play almost daily but i will not be consumed by it. I will play and move up when ever i feel like it. Poker is on the back burner in 09

Islandgrinder.

Desktop Died - Laptop Suggestions Welcomed

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:39:00 +0000

My desktop died the other day. It had been slowing down for a few months now and finally started running hot. I could probably take it to a technician, but i had planned to buy a laptop this year anyway. So I'm now researching laptops.

I'm interested in;

15-17" display
>2ghz
>2gb ddr2 memory
<$1000.00

I also wouldn't mind some frills, such as blue tooth, wireless b+g+n, nice/cool design.

Initially I've been looking at the Dell XPS M1530, but I've read some reviews about overheating and dell customer service nightmares. So I'm not sure about it, suggestions would be welcomed.

I've withdrawn $1200.00 for the purchase, so my bankroll is back to $500.00

"Tight is Right"

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:51:00 +0000

This is a concept i learned when i first started playing poker on the $5 sngs at PokerStars in 2005. It struck me while playing the other day that this simple concept is still the most basic, tried and true method of winning at sngs and mtts.

My Bankroll has been steadily increasing and i believe that its possible for me to have my best month of my poker career to date if things continue at this pace. I've been following the "Tight is Right" strategy. Which is basically playing extremely Tight early, only playing premium hands. So simple really. Its amazing how far we stray from this strategy when it consistantly brings home the bacon. Using this strategy I've been able to regularly get deep in the 90 man KO Sngs on Fulltilt and have had some success with it in the low buy-in MTTs.

Poker is easy! It really is. We like to focus on our opponents, trying to out play them or counter what they are doing. But for the most part our opponents are irrelavant. First we need to conquer ourselves. Most of the time i bust out of a tourny its because of a bad play i've made... I can think of numerous examples but i won't bore you. What it comes down to is making the right decisions over and over again.

If you only play premium hands you increase your chance of winning exponentially.

"But i won't get action" - You'd be supprise at how few opponents at the micro $0-$20pay attention to what you're doing. sure if you raise your AA in EP you might not get any action but you will still see more action vs weaker hands than you probably should.

"I will be easily Exploitable" - Again this assumes that opponents are paying attention and if they are, are capable of exploiting what they observe. From my experience this is very rarely the case.

"The loose aggressive gets more action" - True, but it is a much more demanding style of play and its very easy to play it badly.

Try it next time you play;

Don't limp... ever.
Play only premium hands..... for a raise.
Mind the gap - EP raise and you have AT/AJ... fold.
Never slow play one pair hands.... eg AA, KK
Play extremely tight out of position - you're in bb/sb vs a min raise with K5s... fold.

Remember you cannot win a tournament in one hand but you can surely lose it. TIGHT IS RIGHT!

gl

Island Grinder

Where's my edge?

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:39:00 +0000

According to OPR my best game in 2008 was the 46-180 person SNGs. I ran a 33% ROI over 500+ tourneys with an average buy-in of $13. In MTTs with 181+ entrants and an average buy-in of $19 i had a -7% ROI over 350 tourneys.

Based on those stats i should probably focus more on the tourneys where i have the greatest edge over the field. So far this month I'm running 205% ROI at the $10 90 man KOs. Thats only over 24 sngs and obv not sustainable but follows the 2008 OPR stats.

What happens if i play these tournaments exclusively?

I'm gonna give it a shot this month while trying to rebuild my bankroll. I will Stick to the $10 tourneys and transition to the $26 tourneys when i reach 60 buy ins.

Identify where your biggest edge is and maximize it.

-Isgrinder

Weekend Update

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:04:00 +0000

Well i survived the weekend, only felt a strong urge to play one time on Friday and on Sunday, once i put it out of my mind that was it.

Went out Friday night, ran into an ex girlfriend from a few years ago, who happened to take a part-time waitress job at one of my fav hangouts. I got out of there as soon as possible. She showed up at my apartment after she got off around 1:30am and didn't leave til 5:30. she wanted to cuddle and sleep after, but i basically had to get her out of there, got her out to the car and her alarm would not disarm.. replaced the battery with one from my alarm and finally she was off.

By this time sun was coming up and i was not sleepy so i watched an episode of Heroes i had downloaded on my pc. Finally fell asleep after watching the episode, hour later i get a phone call from ex girlfriend wanting to chat... wtf!?!?... i pretend to be asleep answering yes in a sleepy voice to everything she said, she hung up, i fell asleep. 30 minutes phone rings again, wrong number. fell asleep. 30 minutes cell phone rings, guy selling me property calls with some unimportant details, i dont remember the convo, but i shut off cell phone and house phone. woke up around noon... got about 4hours.

Went to a concert Saturday night which was being recorded but was not sold out so they invited a lot of people directly in front of the stage which was VIP i think. Neway concert which started off lame ended up being really good and i didn't leave until 5:30am. Woke up 11:30am with a massive headache and spent the rest of the day in bed, sleeping and watching football off and on.

5 days down and no withdrawal symptoms lol.

27 days....

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:54:00 +0000

I read somewhere that it takes 27 days to form a habit. I've been playing poker almost everyday since 2005, except for a few 2-3 month breaks i took as a result of personal or pc issues... I'm practically addicted! As a result of recent reflection I've come to realize just how deeply poker has become embedded in my everyday life.

Because of my current state of mind and bankroll i thought it would be best to not play for a while, but everywhere i turn there is poker. I logged onto my computer (home & work) and practically all of my frequently visited sites are related to poker. I decide to take a book to work to read during down time but all books i usually read are poker related. when i sit down to my computer at home there is a great urge to play poker because that is how i spend most of my time at my home computer. I find it hard to just watch TV because i usually watch TV and play poker or browse poker sites. Most evenings after work are spent reading about, watching videos about or playing poker, so now that I've decided not play i feel out of sorts about what to do.

I don't think I'm addicted to poker but it has definitely become a huge habit. The difference between a habit and an addiction is how far you go with the habit imo. I still go out, i don't play over my bankroll, i don't neglect other areas of my life just to play poker... nevertheless it is a huge habit that i need to bring into balance with other parts of my life, so that i can continue to grow and expand in all areas.

They say a habit is formed in 27 days of consistently doing something, so it follows that you can get into the habit of not doing something if you don't do it for 27 days also. Makes sense? Neway (<--i saw this word somewhere and i think it will be an official new word in a few years.. IM taking over, lol). Neway i digress, I've decided not to play poker for 27 days starting today. This weekend will be hard because I'm off today, and i usually spend the early part of Saturday and almost all of Sunday playing.

So the plan is to not play, read about, or watch videos about poker for the next 27 days. After which i will be able to better integrate it into my life. thoughts?

Poker and My Life

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:30:00 +0000

So its back to the grind and i'm not in a real positive frame of mind about the time spent playing poker over the past few years. I think i've played long enough to figure out that i don't like cash games. so this year i moved to multitable sngs and MTTs which seem more to my liking. I feel my MTT skills were at the sharpest they've ever been in August and October, but they've since fallen off imo.

Now with my bankroll down to a few hundred i'm back playing the donkfests that are the =<$10mtts and it has me reflecting on how i spent 2008 and if i want to spend 2009 doing the same thing. Is it worth it? Perhaps its time to move on... if not completely then there needs to be major adjustments. I feel i need to get out and socialize more, create some new hobbies and goals. Poker has taken up too much of my time.

However i still enjoy the game for the most part and the idea of making a few thousand extra by playing a game is very appealing. I just need to figure out a good balance and stick to it.

Oh well...

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:03:00 +0000

I'm withdrawing 75% of my bankroll to help make up the down payment for an acre of property on Grand Bahama Island. So that is basically gonna leave me only a few hundred in my bankroll. I will have to move back to the $3 - $10 tourneys exclusively... something i'm not looking forward to. I've already played a few and its brutal.

I will focus mainly on the $10 90KOs and play the occassional $3 rebuy, both of which are probably out of my bankroll. But thats as low as i'm willing to go, if i bust i bust.

back to the grind it is.

Major weakness in my Game

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:09:00 +0000

So after months of playing Mtts and getting much better, i think i've keyed in on a major weakness in my game that has been keeping me from making that big score. I rarely tilt any more, bad beats just roll off me. I honestly can not tell you one bad beat story from memory. But my major weakness is still mental.

I have difficulty playing the 12bb-23bb stack late in tournaments... usually down to the final 5-6 tables or so.

I seem to somehow make one simple mistake that loses the tourney for me. sometimes its a big mistake like playing the wrong hand or a subtle mistake such as missing a spot to open shove or reshove. For example, the other day i went deep in the $50 50k on fulltilt eventually finishing 55/1000+. At the time i busted i was actually 20/55 with a 22bb stack. I made the mistake of playing ATo utg, was called by btn and the rest is history... i don't have the details on hand, but suffice to say i stacked off.

But the point is that earlier in this tournament AT was an automatic fold for me. I was making great reads and laydowns preflop and post flop. Folding AT utg was the right play early and it was the right play late... so why did i play the hand? A momentary lost of focus..shrug. Not sure but i know i do stuff like this regularly, like getting reraised from bb lastnight and 4betting AI with A7s. We were 4handed and i had been very aggr so i thought maybe he was just playing back at me. But it was a $10 mtt and players are incapble of that, so he showed me AK i lost and was out a few hands later.

I need to work on my mental toughness in these situations. How sharp am i after 5 hours of play. How clear is my thought process and reads with a 23bb stack and large blinds.

Let me try to illustrate the problem more clearly.

Lets say your sitting in a tournament with 62 left, you have 109k stack and you're in the top 10. Sounds good right. But wait the blinds are 3k/6k soon to be 4k/8k meaning you only have between a 13bb-18bb stack. You're top 10 and one of the big stacks at your table... the other stacks are shorter but they're still a significant portion of your stack and all are ready shove or call. If you raise you have multiple stacks ready to shove and you will be priced in to call... if you tighten up the blinds will destroy your stack... what do you do? see what i mean?

You have to be thinking clearing, you have to be sharp, this is not a time for losing focus, you have to grab your nut shack and push the right hands, reshove with air, lay down that medium strenght hand thats the best thing you've seen for ages....

this is where i usually make my mistake.

The Plan - I always have a plan right.

1. Review all my tournaments and my play in these situations
2. Watch Pxf videos at this stage of the tournament and stack size.
3. Review public hand histories of this stage of the tournament
4. Get coaching focusing on this aspect of my game.

I will focus on getting this done over the next few weeks... coaching will be a last resort or rather the last step taken.

Lastnight results:
finished 12/797 in a $10mtt
played 4 $12/45 sng on stars... got a 2nd and 6th.

-Island Grinder

Running Bad? Switch sites

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:19:00 +0000

I've run kinda bad over the past two days at fulltilt. So after a few quick bustouts again last night i closed out the full tilt client and opened stars where i had about $622 sitting. I fired up several $12 45 man sngs and had a blast, players were horrible really.

At the end of the session i had played 16, cashed 4 with a 2nd, 5th, 2nd, & 1st, for a 123% roi. They were turbos, so i really enjoyed the push bot part of the tourneys which the majority of the other players seem to suck at...lol good times.

FTOPS #24 Update

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Unfortunately I busted early into the second hour. I just couldn't seem to get anything going. Every hand i raised got called by 2 or more persons and i had to check fold most flops or cbet flop, get floated and chk fold most turns. I did win one pot that got me up to over 6k in the first hour and i had to double barrel with AKs to win that, but never got my stack any higher than that... like i said i could not get anything going.

I don't feel i was impatient, i only played good hands, but people were not folding much. Perhaps i was a bit too patient in that i didn't hammer them like i normally would because i was trying not to stack off early with just AK or Tens or similar hands. I went in giving my opponents too much respect i think... these were the normal donks you'd find in most $26-$75 mtts.

Still it was a good experience. By the end of the first hour i had notes and preliminary reads on every player at the table. I was really focused on everyhand played and knew where the soft spots were. If i can bring that intense focus to my normal MTTs i think my results will improve tremendously.

FTOPs 24 - hour 1 update

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Made the first break. have a slightly less than average stack but still 69bb stack. Observing the table there are alot of weak players with really low rankings on OPR. There is also one donkey running at 56/2... structure is perfect for him... calls alot and does not let go. has a big stack and is 4 to my left.

Alot of opponents to get chips from... just have to pick the right spots

FTOPS EVENT #24

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 06:41:00 +0000

STRUCTURE:

BUY-IN: $120+$9 | STARTING CHIPSTACK: 5000 | BLINDS: 12MINS PER LEVEL

My plan:

This will be the first time I'm playing this deep and slow a structure. Obviously there will be a lot of room to maneuver post flop, this could be both a blessing and a curse. I thinks it will be important to resists the temptation to mix it up by seeing a lot of flops early. Tight is right! Practice patience.

This will also be a really long tournament, i anticipate at least 8 hours given the structure. In addition the field will be littered with high stake pros. I will make an effort to identify these players and know who to be vary of. There will also be a lot of player like myself, who are just taking shots after winning seats via the numerous satellites that have been running. These are the people i need to identify and get chips from.

Whatever happens i will enjoy and hopefully learn from the experience. I don't know how deep i will go, but i will try to play each hand the best i know how and let the chips fall where they may. Tomorrow i will work out, do 15 minutes of meditation and then warm up for the tournament by reviewing some hand histories on PXF.

Patient Play Early
Identify weak players who won sats to the tournament and are playing out of their comfort zone
Try to control the size of the pots; big bets for big hands
No elaborate bluffs early
Enjoy the experience
Talk through all actions and remove hand from the mouse

Bad Beat

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:00 +0000

My ISP has been acting up for several days now. It finally went down completely last night, unfortunately i was several hours into some tourneys but not yet in the money. All moneys and effort down the drain. So i gave them a call this morning and they have an automated message saying they're doing some maintenance and will be back up asap.

It would've been great if they could've emailed me before hand, but w/e, maybe it was unexpected. I was able to get back on around 11am. All seemed well, so i signed up for 3 $10 KOs and a $10+r+r at noon... u guessed it, 1.5hrs later internet goes down again... jloi;kpoihpoifhg;agga'kag;gasiwoiwiwl;''g... I'm writing this from work and i assume my internet is still down. At any rate i will not play again until its been up for at least 24hrs.

I'm playing in FTOPS event #24 this weekend so i'm trying to prepare for that because honestly i'm not in top form. But i'm working on my game, reviewing hhs and watching pxf videos. I recently listened to the 2+2 podcast that featured Jared Tendler, a stoxpoker mental coach and i was very excited about some of things he spoke about because it was what i had been getting at for along time... mental strenght training & mental toughness. I will post more on this in the future.

-Isgrinder

noreply@blogger.com (Game101) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 04:30:00 +0000