Downswing

Sorry for the long delayed update, but for the last 2 month I was stuck in a really bad downswing and every time I played, my bankroll suffered. So I wasn’t in the mood for writing about the decreasing of it and there were apparently no nice hands to show. The reason I lost that much was in the first place that I started playing on NL50 when the downswing began and I lost some stacks on that limit, and that was like 200$, a fourth of my bankroll, so I had to move back. But it was to late, even on NL20 nothing wanted to work.
Every time I got my pocket aces preflop all-in someone hit his set, or some small stack called with complete trash and hit tripps or even better a straight.

Like in these situations:

JJ vs. 68

QQ vs. 79s

88 vs. 99

In the middle one you can’t simply fold to this midstack, and most of the time he hits here something or has a draw and your ahead but not when your in a downswing, then he gets his straight on the flop. On the other side when I got a straight, someone hit his Flush, or I got Flush King high and my opponent got Flush Ace high.

I even started a little side project. Pokerstrategy.com offered me a second 50$ + 100$ bankroll and I thought if I play on the new site and on NL10 it would change something. I also cut down my table number, to concentrate more on the game, but in the end it was no use, nothing but coolers, suckouts and bad beats, so I stopped playing for a while. There were also some leaks because I called in some minor potts way too much, which would have spared me some money but that’s poker, you gotta learn from your mistakes. So a break was the only chance to clear my mind.

Since I started again I could make some winning sessions and I think the downswing is finally over. Here are some hands from the more successful sessions:

J2s vs. AA

66 vs. QQ

AA vs. AQs

KK vs. AA

33 vs. JJ

33 vs. A6s

JJ vs. 73s

Unfortunately my bankroll sunk to $522.

I have to put a little bit more Volume into the game now and increase the table number too. Hopefully I’m back on track again.

Wish me luck

Movie Review: KiDULTHOOD (2006)

Today I watched Kidulthood, a 2006 British drama directed by Menhaj Huda and written by Noel Clarke (Mickey from Doctor Who).

The Movie revolves around a group of 15 year old school kids from West London. There is Trife (Aml Ameen), whose uncle Curtis wants to pull him into a life of crime, his two friends Jay (Adam Deacon) and Moony (Femi Oyeniran) , his pregnant ex-girlfriend Alisa (Red Madrell) and her best friend Becky (Jaime Winstone), Katie, Claire, Jay’s love interest and Sam’s girlfriend and ultimately the movies’ villain Sam (Noel Clarke again) the school bully. The movie covers the day Katie commits suicide and the day after.

In its own a great film, and from the comments I read about it a realistic depiction of live in the deprived Londoner schools, it reminded me very much of Larry Clark’s Kids from 1995. Especially the scenes where Jay goes into a store to buy bear and then attacks the shop cashier, the brawl with the guys in the street and Kids also climaxes in a Party. The characters are maybe a bit exaggerated and the events wouldn’t happen in the course of a day, but the point is to bring attention to the problems teenagers are faced with today and after all it doesn’t reduce the quality of the movie.

My favourite scenes were the one where Trife stands up for Katie facing Shaneek and the scene where the three beat Sam up in his own room. Of course it’s not nice taking pleasure in such a scene but he surely deserved it.

In any case it is a very good movie with good performances watchable more than one time and which should make you think about the topic.

PokerStrategy.com

In the beginning of my first online poker endeavours I just registered with any poker room which gave me the initial money in order to start playing. But you shouldn’t rush registering randomly, you should first consider where you want to play (if the software suits you) and if the room offers any kind of bonus system or rakeback. It is important because if you have a good bonus or promotion even if you are not a winning player you could make profit.

I’m glad that at the room I’m playing now I registered through PokerStrategy.com. They not only endow you with $50 + $100 starting money, you don’t have to make any deposit ever, they also provide you with a lot of learning material like articles, videos and live coachings which if you are in the early stages of your poker carrer is invaluable. Furthermore they got a great forum which gladly helps with all your problems e.g. when you post your hands you’re not sure you played right. In addition to that they also pay out $100.000 to the Top250 players every month.

Their community is steady growing and if you want to be a part of it don’t hesitate to register with them if you haven’t already.

Bankroll Management

The most important concept in poker is the way you handle the money your playing with in order to not go broke.

There are periods in poker in which you make no profit at all or even lose money. Hence you got to have enough money in the backhand, when such situations occur, to survive these times. The more buy-ins you have for the curent level you are playing the more unlikely it is that you go broke. You should consider moving up one level only when you established a really good play on the current level and you got enough money to back up your play on the next level.

A common rule says that you need at least 25 buy-ins to play with a full stack at a NL FR table. So climbing up the limits should look like this:

$250 → NL10

$500 → NL20

$1250 → NL50

$2500 → NL100

…

To be sure you can consider an even more tight approach.

However, I myself don’t follow this model. As soon as I have 10 + 4 buy-ins, and I’m confident I beat the limit I’m playing, I take a shot at the next limit. I always start with 4 tables at first to get comfortable so that illustrates the + 4. I do that because I know that I can and I will, and that is even more important than to know when to step up a level, move down a level once I don’t have enough money anymore to play the limit without risk losing everything.

Therefore I took a shot at NL50 last week and I don’t repent it so far. At first the profit didn’t want to come, but slowly I made some pots. Unfortunately it were only smaller pots and so I couldn’t break my biggest pot ever record.

Here are some hands:

• 66 vs. 35
• QQ vs. ATs
• AA vs. TT
• AA vs. AQ

My first pocket rockets on the limit weren’t that successful but the second were.

Bankroll Update: $810

nh

nh is an abbreviation of nice hand and is used in poker rooms to congratulate someone for a really good hand he was blessed with.

Here are some of mine I had in recent sessions:

• 77 vs. AQs
  
• JJ vs. AA
• KK vs. 88
• 22 vs. KK
• AA vs. KK, JJ & 78s
• AK vs. 22
• QQ vs. AKs

To show the ugly face of poker too, here is a nice suckout:

• AA vs. 7J

But luckily I also can deal them:

• QJs vs. 99

However the biggest pot I played to date is this:

$0.1/$0.2 No Limit Holdem
9 players

Stacks:

UTG	supersquaddy	($26.70)
UTG+1	Laciuwx	($47.25)
MP1	Dushencan	($7.56)
MP2	XterminAAtoR79	($16.60)
MP3	AMD4800	($40.21)
CO	DavyJones307	($5.99)
BTN	Hero	($48.11)
SB	shalzyvl	($32.53)
BB	Uthink2Much	($18.50)

[DavyJones307 posted $0.3]
Pre-flop: ($0.60, 9 players) Hero is BTN

1 fold, Laciuwx calls $0.20, 1 fold, XterminAAtoR79 calls $0.20, 1 fold, DavyJones307 checks, Hero raises to $2, 2 folds, Laciuwx calls $1.80, XterminAAtoR79 folds, DavyJones307 folds

Flop: ($4.80, 2 players)
Laciuwx checks, Hero bets $2.40, Laciuwx calls $2.40

Turn: ($9.60, 2 players)
Laciuwx checks, Hero bets $4.80, Laciuwx raises to $9.60, Hero calls $4.80

River: ($28.80, 2 players)
Laciuwx bets $33.25, Hero calls $33.25

Final Pot: $94.30
Laciuwx shows:
Hero shows:

Hero wins $94.30 ( won +$47.05 )
Laciuwx lost -$47.25
XterminAAtoR79 lost -$0.20
DavyJones307 lost -$0.30

Hoppefully I get more of this when I advance to NL50.

Bankroll Update: $709

The beginning

At the time I started playing poker we were only some guys who were playing 5 card draw at a friend’s house cellar for cents. It should take some time before I got to know Texas Hold’em. Between that time and 2007 when I started playing Internet poker I played every now and then in some home games, and once I even tried an online poker room, but only with play money. I gave up on that really soon cause I saw no reason in playing poker just for fun without any real stake. You can easily find a better hobby that makes more fun than playing poker with play money.

In 2007 I thought about playing online again and registered with a room which gave me $35. I started with some SNGs very successful and made like 150€ in some days. Then I withdrew 100€ to see if it was actually working to cash out, it did. Thus I thought: “Wow you can easily make some bucks with poker!” So I kept playing with the money I still had on my account. But then a downswing hit me, probably more inexperience than downswing, and I lost everything. At that time I had money on more than one poker room, cause I grinded every Internet offer I could get. But I still had no experience and I played really bad, so ultimately I lost everything again.

I started reading some books, magazines and some really good articles on the Internet. In May 2008 I managed to win $7 in a freeroll and I began playing again. After some up and down months on NL1 FR I had gathered $20 by August and I advanced to NL10 FR. Since I concentrated just on cash games, MTTs I only play when I get a good offer like a 30K freeroll, my bankroll is steadily growing. Although a major downswing hit me in November, this time it was a real downswing, I made a “top hand of the day” promotion and made some money good. Since August I also take notes on the players on my table and on how long and how many hands I play. Recently I advanced to NL20 FR and now I play 9 tables at the same time in the iPoker network. My game play surely improved and so my

current bankroll is $584.

Now of course it is too early to think about going pro but if I don’t succeed I’ll keep it down with 50 Cent and “die tryin’”.

Hello everybody!

I’m Kani and this is my first blog.

As an avid poker player I’m writing this blog in order to report about my progress in this field, therefor my main topic will be poker, but I will also write about things concerning my life and thoughts I have about other topics.

My interests go from music, movies and comics to electronics, sports and all kind of gossip. So a lot of news to cover.

I also write this blog in order to improve my English language, so don’t hesitate to correct my mistakes. Thanks in advance for that.

I hope I will update the blog as often as I can, but in the rest of the time I try to play as much poker as possible.

So good luck at the tables.

So long.

Kani