Barcelona 5 - 0 Real Madrid. No comment.

Hi everybody.

As you can see I'm not very inspired this days. This is because things doesn't work as good as I like. I haven't played a lot during the past week because my Virtualized XP died and took with him all my poker clients, my databases and my skype plus some other unpleasant issues. Now I'm in linux but even with wine is quite difficult to play poker confortably. In the few time I've played I can't complaint: made the money like 60%-70% of the times, but never a big score (12th the best). I'm sad because I had very good stats till november, winning a tourney every month but... :( I've been unable to keep the pace on this one.
Apart from this, there're no more interesting things to say. I will come to you when I feel my motivation grow up again because right now I feel a little down.


GL at the tables and see you soon

Hi everybody,

Here's me (and my frustation) again. It's been a few weeks since my last post. There's not been a lot of news since then. Well, there's not been GOOD news in fact. The only thing I can say is that I've got the "Loser Mode" on. I know I'm far from being a pro. I'm not as good as I wish I were but, even when I play my best poker, seems I can't get to end.

I know that, to overcome downswings and variance, I have to increase my volume but I can't play more than 2 or 3 MTTs a day, and not everyday, so downswings can take a lot to overcome.

I always say that all the players that fill the chat with comments where blame and curse other players for their loses/bad luck actually doesn't understand poker reality. Coolers and bad beats are gonna be there always. If you are 9:1 favourite this 10% will happen sooner or later. But, what really hurt, is that the 9 always happen in the rebuy period and the 1 in the bubble. If you add that AA<<QQ, AA<<KJ, KK<<J8, etc. and the times you get AJ but he has AA, KK vs AA, AQ vs AA and so on and so forth you start loosing your faith. And if at last your virual OS crashes and you can't recover your files and have to play without HUD or any other software plus a very slow client you probably end up tired and riled of everything.

But hey! Nobody wants to hear pitys and complaints, lets back to the (virtual) felt and let me show that all the time, the work, the effort and the money that I'm putting into poker will allow me fulfill my dreams and become an awesome poker pro.

Have a good time and good luck at the tables.

Hi everybody!

I'm really happy of being writing this post. That's because after being a few weeks only whining because was unable to make a deep run yesterday finished a nice comeback. I have to say is nothing spectacular but to me is the confidence booster that I need.

Last thursday I was eliminated 100th of 200 players in a live tournament. The reason why I'm disapointed is because all the players of my table was really weak. When I was trying to talk deeply about a hand they say: "meh! forget stack sizes", "play as you want" or "no, I don't study". But after that change happened.

Friday didn't play and Saturday I registered in a few stars tournaments. In one of them ($2.5 12K GTD) I made my deepest run ever. We started 7722 players and busted 35th (AQs << AA). The bad thing of this is the frustration you feel after been playing 7 hours to see you barely get $30 more than the 1170th and $2900 less than the 1st. After all I'm happy with my overall game, but still have a lot hands to review because leaks are there and must be swept out before going up in the stakes.

Monday played my favourite tourney: $3R in UB. This tournament is awesome. I like it because is not the massive field that plays in pokerstars (300 vs 7000) and because players are mostly weak and "easy" to beat. After getting my PT3 working, I realized they are pretty loose and passive. Is easy to find players with a sample of 100+ hands playing 45/9, 36/11, 28/2, etc. So is a +EV tournament. That being said, monday I finished 19th. I was the chipleader when the bubble busted but after 4 awful hands I ended playing shortstack till end.

But yesterday was a good day. Yesterday I won the $3R in UB (again). After 6 hours playing, taking 20 min for a dinner lunch and another 20 because my PC hung I took it. There were a few hands I'd like to discuss and a pair of suckouts but, hey!, that's poker.

So, in short. I think although I have to keep working really hard, it seems thing are going in the right way.

GL at the tables and see you soon.

Hi there,

I'm back and trying to make it work for me. As you know I've been in a down both in my mind and in my game. Seems that my game is slowly going up again, but this is not enough if my mind doesn't come along. Yesterday I played a bunch of tournaments and made the money on 3. I finished 150/6500 in a $12.5K GTD that, altough there was not big prize, boosted my confidence because never got so far in such a big field. Also finished 23/300 and other ITM finish that don't remember exact position in my usual UB tournies. I'm glad that I'm winning again because thursday I'm going to a live tourney again (I know, I know I promised a post dealing with live play vs online but, in addition that I haven't had the mood for writing, if I play the tournament from the begining I'm sure I will make a more accurate read (and review).

From study point of view I've taken back the right way. I'm posting again in Pokerpwnage forums, I find useful to read the opinions of others players that give me new ideas and show me which spots could I use to improve. I'm also working in the stuff my new coach suggested to. Watching vids, reading articles and reviewing tournaments with a critic eye is something I've forgot during this month and I'm on again. One thing I'd like to remark is something that happened during my first coaching session: My coach asked me what my ultimate poker dream was. Man, I was never asked something like that and didn't throw me away of my answer, he told me that fulfilling a dream si hard and takes tons of hard work but, if I put the effort and hours, is not impossible. These are very kind words and help to find I light when you find yourself in the dark. I'm gonna study, I'm gonna work and I'm gonna go for it.
Whish me luck for my next tourney and see you soon.

GL at the tables.

PS: I finally found the flat I was looking for and I'm a proud brand new owner. So no more banks, mortage, furniture and related issues. Hope to have the time to play poker now

Hi everybody,

Yesterday I played 2 tournaments and I finished both out of the money. I know that everybody gets bad beats and that, if can't stand beats you can't play poker, but I need to release this feelings. I've been the whole month in the same way and I'm pretty frustrated because of that.

(Imported from my PocketFives Blog)

Hi guys!

How you doing? Hope that at least better than me because I'm having an awful month. I haven't played a lot and (big mistake!!) I haven't respected the BR management rules. I took my BR from $80 to $1K and then started to spew it playing $25 and $15 MTT that I'm not ready (BR and game) yet. If we add losing every flip and few Way Ahead situations and almost $200 in cash you got my BR now, barely $200.

All that said we go outside poker. Have been a complicated week, I'm on the way to buy a house (well, a flat) and had to face some embarrasement moments with my parents and girlfriend and I piggyback all that sh*t with me when sit at the tables. Is because of this situation that I haven't played all the tournies I'd have liked because I'm not actually in the correct mood.

After setting up the background i explain the title of the post. I'm anxious (poker related), I haven't make a score for a few tournaments. I know that playing MTT can take you to a long swing without scores, if you play 10 MTT/Day you can be a week losing, but playing 2-3 MTT/Day this is like a month and is Frustrating. To finish with this situation or, at least, to realize where I am at this point I've watched the new GhettoFabolous video. I got to say is a great, great video. I really liked it and I'm waiting for the next part to come. If you want an inmediate solution for your problems (if you have them) change your chip, you wont find a switch that will turn the "easy way of life mode" on. Instead of that you will find a lot of issues that maybe affecting your game and you should fix.

I'm gonna take some time off the tables, I'm going to study hard the theory and the videos that I have, gonna review the tournies I played to find my leaks and plug them and I'm going to take care of all the issues GhettoFabolous addressed to become the best poker player that I can be.

Good Luck at the tables and see you soon!