I drive myself crazy

Really depressed right now. I was having such a good month, and I had to go and ruin it by dropping 20 buyins in my last 4k hands. I don’t understand how this is possible. 

I think I might have to drop back down to 100nl, which is incredibly embarrassing and kind of makes me want to never play poker again. I really thought I’d be taking shots at 2/4 by the middle of October – at this rate I’ll be lucky if I make enough to cover living expenses.

It’s times like this that make me wish I were someone else.

Rough day

I was gonna post an update for the month but decided to play a session instead, and it didn’t go well. I dropped about $1900 in 1800 hands at 1/2nl. I ran bad in some key spots, got called almost inexplicably on a few failed bluffs, and made quite a few of my normal tilty calls. 

Sigh. This is definitely not how I was hoping to finish out the month… I’m still up about 20 buyins in 18k hands at 1/2nl, but I’m on a nice little 13 buyin downswing in the past 1.5k hands or so. I’m a little stunned right now and don’t have anything very coherent to say about it.

Plan tonight is to watch some TV and try to play 2k solid hands tomorrow. I’ve started getting mental game coaching from Jared Tendler over at Stoxpoker, so I guess we’ll have plenty to talk about tomorrow.

Oh well, I can’t complain too much, aside from today it’s been a really nice month. Hopefully I can pickup some buyins before the end of the month.

Oof

Just got back from my first Crossfit workout in about four and half months. I’m stronger than I was back then but my cardiovascular fitness is absolutely terrible. Here’s the workout I did:

1 mile run
25 pushups
800m run
25 ab-mat situps
400m run
25 1.5 pood kettlebell swings (that’s about 50lbs)
200 m run
25 35lb dumbbell thrusters

The runs were pretty embarrassing but it was fun seeing some of the Crossfit Boston guys again. I finished just under 31 minutes, which is pretty damn slow, but hey, I haven’t done any running in forever.

Right now I’m watching the premier of Fringe, the new JJ Abrams show. It’s pretty cool so far – I guess it had better be considering that it cost $10m to shoot. Unfortunately I think they spent about $9m on the idiotic, floating 3-dimensional set identifiers alone – you know how whenever you approach a military base in a movie, a bunch of type-writer font clacks up onto the screen? Not cool enough for JJ Abrams. It blows my mind that somebody thought they’d be a good idea.

True Blood

I think I mentioned this a while ago, but I’m really excited about HBO’s new show True Blood. Not a huge surprise given that I’ve seen every single episode of Buffy, but still, I think it’ll be a sweet show. I’m watching a pre-air of the second episode, and so far the series is funny as hell and (sort of) well-acted. The vampire conceit is a little strained – Buffy was explicitly a fantasy show, whereas True Blood is more fantastical-realism I guess, and it’s hard to be realistic about vampires – but I assume I’ll get used to it.

More importantly, Anna Paquin is hot as Sookie Stackhouse. Honestly, I never realized how attractive she is, but she’s a total babe in True Blood. Let me go on the record: I approve of short summer dresses.

Anyways, the show has some definite kinks that need to be ironed out, but I’m hopeful. Can’t wait to watch it on the new TV – we ordered a 40″ Samsung LCD that should be pretty nice. Hopefully it’ll get here by Friday so we can watch some foot-bawl this weekend 🙂

Move-in

Moving into my new apartment in Boston was the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. Oh my fucking god.

I’m livinging in a small three-bedroom place in Beacon Hill. My two roommates and I are on the fourth floor, and we have no elevator. Our staircase is about twice as wide as my hips, and it sags alarmingly, so if you’re not careful the guardrail will knee-chop you into the stairwell. All told I think I made about 15 trips up and down the stairs. Every muscle in my body is sore. I was planning on going to Crossfit today but I’m gonna wait until tomorrow.

We moved in on Saturday and still have a ways to go before the place looks nice. But it’s definitely a pretty cool apartment – my room is a perfect fit for my bed and my poker setup, and the location is sweet. You can walk to a Starbucks in three minutes, the Common in about ten, and the restaurants and shops on Charles St. are close too. Should be a really fun place to live – once we get it cleaned up and buy a TV we’ll be living in style.

I’ll probably play a session later tonight, and hopefully I can get started on my routine tomorrow morning.

Jennifer Tilly?

Is that you?

Poker Stars, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

CO: $279
BTN: $224.10
SB: $344.60
Hero (BB): $513.80
UTG: $106.40
MP: $200

Pre-Flop: 9 K dealt to Hero (BB)
4 folds, SB calls $1, Hero raises to $10, SB calls $8

Flop: ($20) 9 9 9 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $12, SB calls $12

Turn: ($44) 8 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $36, SB calls $36

River: ($116) A (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $102, SB calls $102

Results: $320 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB mucked A A and LOST (-$160 NET)
Hero showed 9 K (four of a kind, Nines) and WON $317 (+$157 NET)

Not gonna lie, bet sizing seems pretty retarded in hindsight. But gotta give credit where credit’s due, he read my soul (and still called lol).

Some poker content!

I haven’t talked about many poker hands lately, so I thought I’d go over a few from yesterday’s play.

This first hand is gonna seem retarded, but it’s a pretty interesting example of how the past few months have corrupted my thinking a bit. Villain is an aggro reg, and so far seems like one of the best players at 100nl.

Poker Stars, $0.50/$1 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: $99.50
UTG: $102.40
Hero (BTN): $100
SB: $203.10

Pre-Flop: A 2 dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $3, SB calls $2.50, BB folds

Flop: ($7) 9 K 2 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero bets $5, SB raises to $15, Hero calls $10

Turn: ($37) 5 (2 Players)
SB bets $26, Hero calls $26

River: ($89) T (2 Players)
SB bets $56, Hero calls $56 and is All-In

Results: $201 Pot ($2 Rake)
Hero mucked A 2 and LOST (-$100 NET)
SB showed 9 9 (three of a kind, Nines) and WON $199 (+$99 NET)

I called down because in this spot I think villain can pretty much only have four hand combos that beat me, the case deuces and the three combos of 99, and I kind of expected him to 3bet the nines a good portion of the time. That said, the relevant question is not how small is the number of combos that I’m behind to, it’s what could he possibly be bluffing with.

That fact that I’m aware of all that Bayesian jazz and called anyways is because I’ve been pretty solidly perma-tilted lately. I think I stacked off because deep-down I wanted to get some validation that I know how to read hands… sigh.

Oh well, I had a lesson with WiltOnTilt later in the day at 1/2 and not only did we play incredibly well, we actually ran well too!

Here’s a pretty standard hand from before the lesson started, it’s fun to win these now and then.

Poker Stars, $1/$2 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $224.50
SB: $198
BB: $112
UTG: $248.30
MP: $243.20
CO: $97

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG calls $2, MP folds, CO calls $2, Hero raises to $12, SB raises to $34, 3 folds, Hero calls $22

Flop: ($74) Q 4 T (2 Players)
SB bets $58, Hero raises to $190.50 and is All-In, SB calls $106 and is All-In

Turn: ($402) 4 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

River: ($402) 7 (2 Players – 1 is All-In)

Results: $402 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Fours) and WON $399 (+$201 NET)
SB showed K K (two pair, Kings and Fours) and LOST (-$198 NET)

I can’t decide if I prefer flatting his squeeze or 4betting/shoving, as part of a general strategy against squeeze plays. It’s a slightly odd spot given stack sizes because I have very little room to 4bet a non-committing amount, and 4betting to like $65 seems very strong to me and probably never induces action… well who knows, I guess I should experiment with it. Against unimaginative TAGs it’s probably a very profitable bluffing spot, and against spewtards it’s probably like waving a red flag.

Anyways, I wanted to post some sick multi-street bluffs Wilt orchestrated for me, but I’m on the wrong computer. He’s been playing a ton of HU this summer and I think it shows – he’s always been a great player but now he’s sick.

Here are some fun poker theory links instead:

Understanding Game Theory and Hold’em, by Bryce.

Using Equilibrium Strategy to Better Understand Exploitive Play, also by Bryce.

An excerpt from Moshman’s Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em book.

And finally, Sklansky on the NL semi-bluff.

Come on September!

Well, I’ve been trying to put up a big blog update for a while now, and just can’t seem to do it. To make a long story short, it’s been a tough summer, and I’m not really interested in turning this blog into more of an emo-fest than it already is.

So! Here’s the lowdown on September plans. I’m finally done with travelling for a bit and should have some consistent peace and quite once I move back up to Boston next week. Time to to relearn how to play poker. I’ve played a whopping 35k nightmare-ish hands since May 1st. I am seriously rusty and my heart is probably bleeding from all the beats I’ve taken, and I think my brain has melted from all the tilt/stress.

I’m shooting for 40k hands of 100nl in September. I’ve got an absolutely beautiful new 30″ Apple cinema display that fits six tables like a dream, so I don’t think that should be too hard. As always the catch will be whether or not I can maintain some discipline and not tilt like a monkey every five minutes. We’ll see – I’d like to say I have some compelling reasons for thinking I’ll do a better job handling the swings, but I don’t, at least not really. I don’t know what to say other than that it’s time to grow up a bit.

Anyways, on to more fun stuff. In no particular order:

Mad Men is a sick show. I’m only a couple episodes into the first season, but I’m impressed.

I will buy one of these soon if I ever make $ again at poker.

StoxEV is an amazing piece of software. Another goal for September is mastering how to program with it.

The Gaslight Anthem and Ra Ra Riot are both pretty sweet bands. I think the edge has to go to Ra Ra Riot though since they somehow have a super hot violinist AND a super hot cellist 🙂 I mean look at them! If poker doesn’t work out I’ll probably become a groupie and try to marry one of them.

Let’s see, what else… I’ve been reading a bunch of Philip Roth’s stuff lately. Portnoy’s Complaint is probably the funniest book ever, if you like goofy lewd humor you should check it out. I can understand why some people wouldn’t like it (it’s definitely monotonous, but being monotonously hysterical isn’t such a bad thing), but I really enjoyed it. Right now I’m working on A Confederacy of Dunces, In Defense of Food, and Frank Wilczek’s new popular physics book, The Lightness of Being.

Ok sweet, hopefully I’ll keep updating this thing and get back on track quickly. Peace and good luck everyone, Alan

PS. I also have an iPhone now! It’s pretty damn cool, although it’s hilarious that whenever you’re inside a sturdy building, standing behind a large bus, in a remotely rural area etc. you get no signal from AT&T. Lame.

Down another 5 buyins

Sigh, I said I wouldn’t play any more poker but I had a free day and was a little bored, so I fired up four tables of 1/2nl on FTP…

… and promptly dropped five more buyins. Some of the highlights were my AKs vs. QQ vs. AA aipf against two other aggressive regulars, 150bbs deep with the QQ guy who of course won. Shortly thereafter on the same table I get QQ<KK vs the guy who had aces. Also lost top two pair vs. tp + turned fd, flush hit on river.

The AKs hand is pretty typical for how things have been going lately – this used to be such a standard spot to do whatever it takes to get all in preflop, but now I’m not so sure. But even if it’s thin, it’s just insane to lose in this spot every single time. I continually run into the very top of people’s ranges (either that or I’ve suddenly lost all sense of what those ranges might be, which seems unlikely) and cannot suck out. Blah.

Anyways, I might go for a run or something. Bummed.

Update!

Hey everyone, sorry for the complete lack of blogging lately. I’ve been pretty insanely busy here in Japan, and I also haven’t been able to play much poker, so… yeah, I’ve been lazy 🙂

Briefly, poker is been epicly lame – pretty much nothing has gone right since May 1st, which makes this definitely the longest, most frustrating downswing of my career. My analysis is that I’ve been running horribly (like OMFGWTF-is-happening-shit-fuck bad), and all the incessant losing has fried my poker brain. So the past couple months have been a pretty ugly combination of ridiculous variance and increasingly poor play.

I’m not entirely sure what to do about it. Conditions aren’t ideal here in Japan since I have to play on a tiny laptop screen with an unreliable wireless connection. Given how hair-trigger my tilt response has gotten, that seems like a pretty solid argument for taking a break until I get back to the states in early August (and can play on my super sick new 30″ Apple cinema display!). It’d probably be a better use of my time to just watch a whole bunch of deuces cracked videos and try to get my poker mindset back on track.

Anyways, enough about lame old poker, on to Japan! Just to jog everyone’s memory, I’m taking a couple classes at Waseda University through the Harvard summer school and living with a Japanese host family. I knew going into the program that the courses would be kind of annoying (and they are), but getting the chance to explore Tokyo and work on my Japanese is totally worth the aggravation.

My host family situation is a bit of a mixed bag – one the one hand, my host father and mother are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met; on the other, they live waaaay the hell out in Tama, in the suburbs of Tokyo. There are a few Japanese kids taking our classes, and when I told them where I live they were like, “Tama!? REALLY!?” No joke, it takes me an hour and twenty minutes to get to school in the morning. Given my lazy ways, having to get up at 6:10 am every day has been a trying experience. And ZOMG the commute is a bitch – first, I get on an absolutely packed train at 7:12, struggle to stand amongst the crush of morning commuters (lol at getting a seat), and get off forty minutes later. I then switch to a different train and go one stop to Shinjuku station. Shinjuku is I believe the busiest subway terminal in the entire world, and I get dumped out right at the peak of the morning rush hour. It’s complete insanity. After basically moshing my way through the crowds for a few minutes I take the JR line a couple stops to Takadanobaba, and then switch yet again onto the Tozai line, which drops me off at Waseda.

How all these people can handle such a grueling commute day in and day out, year after year, is completely beyond me. It’s only been a month and I’m already completely sick of it. I’ve started getting up extra early in the morning just so I can sit and unwind at the Waseda student cafe before class – otherwise I feel like I’ll go all Godzilla on people in lecture 🙂

Anyways now I’m sleepy and I have a midterm tomorrow, I’ll try to keep the posts coming – maybe I’ll even throw in some pictures…