5NL and a Confession

So I've played 2 sessions in the past couple days. I played 2NL to get just over the $100 mark, so I've finally graduated to 5NL. However, upon moving up to 5NL, I promptly tilted off a few buy-ins, then played another session where I went on a epic heater and won most of it back, putting me at about the $95 mark.

My confession is that I have not been doing as much session review as I should be. I had some 2NL sessions that I was going to go over, as well as the HU SNGs that I played that I want to review. Now that I'm playing 5NL, I'm going to skip over the 2NL sessions and just start focusing on 5NL. I'm going to review the SNGs and the 5NL sessions, post some hands, then get back to playing.

I know the downswing @ 5NL was at least partially due to getting outdrawn, but I know I made some plays (like a squeeze play that wasn't necessary, as well as some c/r bluffs that weren't necessary) that were definitely spewy. Add that together, and I tilted a bit, and that's where another part of the downswing came from.

Fortunately, when I sat down today, I was in good spirits. I had played a live home game last night at a frat house and basically owned. Made some really good plays, and sat down to play a short session in good state of mind. Ran like god too :), but I ended up making most of that downswing back (in case anyone is curious, no, live earnings are not being added to my bankroll; not at least until I'm playing live somewhat regularly, after my home game gets rolling).

Next, I just need to upload the sessions I've played so far and review them all, take some notes, and then take another crack at the game. I feel good finally being able to play 5NL. It's going to be a lot of work before I'm back up to 10NL, though, so I'll be here a while.

My next post will probably be some discussion of the live game I played, as well as some hands from 5NL.

Update: Not too much to say

Sorry about the lack of updates. I haven't been playing too much lately, just been really busy with work, trying to find a new job, plus taking care of some other things. When I get a chance to do some session review, I'll look at the tilty session I had and discuss what happened.

Some HU SNGs - Not So Good :(

Played a bunch of HU SnGs. Lost about $6 playing those. Unfortunately, I'm clearly not cut out for heads up yet. Need to learn more patience. HU gets really frustrating when I'm not getting hands, and I tend to start making really spewy bluffs. That's kind of a general problem of mine. I need to learn to be more patient.

My First Losing Session

And the tilt monster rears its ugly head. Just when I thought I was about to cross back into 5NL, I have a -$7.50 session. Back down to $89.5ish. Part of it was definitely tilt. It's kinda stupid tilt too. I'm going to definitely review all my hand histories for that session before I do any more playing. I let you know what that turns up.

I gotta take this kind of thing as a learning experience though. Figure out why I tilted, what hands I played badly, vs what hands were coolers (there was one hand when I raised AA, got shoved on a low board, and was shown a set; I wonder sometimes if I should be folding those spots or what).

Another Short Update

Another short session, made about $2.8ish, so I'm around $97. Almost up to 5NL. Will probably get there on Monday, although I won't be able to play as much Monday because I'm working in the morning. Definitely going to play the quintuple shootout again on Monday though. Going deep in that was awesome, and I was CRUSHING when we got down to HU on each table. I'll be doing some review Monday, mostly, if I can play at all, and I'll probably be sharing some hands from that tourney. There was basically one key hand on the last table that basically cost me that tourney, where I made a hero call with middle pair and was wrong :(.

Short Session

Played another short session. I feel like I'm paying people off too much. Gotta do some more hand history review. Made like $4.5ish, so I'm up to $94.5ish. Bedtime!

Tourney Review

Reviewing the tourney from yesterday, there are a couple hands that stand out. The first was a really terrible bluff I made, which I'm going to decline to share with you :). Although I did manage to get most of my chips back from that fish from a set when he couldn't fold top pair. The first interesting hand, though, is this one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t6910)
BB (t8905)
UTG (t6860)
MP1 (t2140)
Villain (MP2) (t14380)
CO (t2665)
Button (t2720)

Hero's M: 31.41

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7♥, 7♣
2 folds, Villain calls t100, 2 folds, Hero calls t50, BB checks

Flop: (t370) 8♥, 2♠, 8♦ (3 players)
Hero bets t200, 1 fold, Villain calls t200

Turn: (t770) Q♥ (2 players)
Hero checks, Villain checks

River: (t770) 6♦ (2 players)
Hero bets t300, Villain raises to t1300, Hero folds

Total pot: t1370

Results:
Villain didn't show
Outcome: Villain won t1370

If villain had a AQ and floated the flop, I would've expected a turn bet. The only thing I can really think of him having here is an 8, maybe 6 that thinks I'm bluffing, or air. Is he turning 2A into a bluff? I'm not really willing to give villains at this level that much credit, but I don't really know what he could have in this spot period. Should I have check/called the river? Looking over some of his hands from earlier, his play has been a little weak, so it's possible he had an 8 and didn't think he'd get any more value from betting the turn. I posted this hand on 2+2:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/23/mtt-strategy/2-20-90man-getting-little-deep-river-decision-787755

Actually, that was really the only hand. Nothing else really needs a whole lot of discussion. As I stated in my earlier post, I lost a flip (55 < AJ), which in retrospect, is more OK than I felt about it at the time. I also open shoved my button w K3s a little short, which I'm less happy with. Overall, I think I played pretty well. Can't win 'em all.

Nice Run in the Quintuple Shootout

I came in 15th place, for a nice $30 cash. That puts me at an $85 roll. I've got some stuff to do today, so I'm going to go get that all done, do some reviewing, and post some key hands from my tourney yesterday and the shootout today. So far, the challenge has been going pretty well. I've been mediating, and I'm almost at the 5NL level. I would like to be there by the time the day is over, so I do plan on playing some cash games later today as well.

Today's Play

I played the $3.30 6-max MTT @ 9:40 and played really terrible. I'm starting up the $2.20 4-max quintuple shootout (which is SO MUCH FUN), so hopefully that will go a little better now that I've gotten the spew out. I did meditate this morning, so I'm feeling good otherwise. Got my coffee, doing some review while I'm waiting. I'm going to review the tournament I went deep in (but didn't cash). I know there are a few hands I want to talk about in that tournament, see what mistakes I made. Post-shootout, I'll have around $55ish in my account, but I plan on playing some cash games later as well, after I've finished reviewing (and finished with some other stuff), so hopefully, I can at least bump that up to $70ish by the end of the day.

Why, God, WHY?!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.02 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP ($2.39)
Hero (CO) ($5.84)
Button ($7.89)
SB ($7.16)
BB ($7.20)
UTG ($2.54)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6♣, 2♠
UTG bets $0.08, 2 folds, Button calls $0.08, SB raises to $0.28, 1 fold, UTG raises to $0.80, 1 fold, SB calls $0.52

Flop: ($1.70) A♦, 9♦, 5♥ (2 players)
SB checks, UTG bets $0.84, SB raises to $1.68, UTG raises to $1.74 (All-In), SB calls $0.06

Turn: ($5.18) 3♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($5.18) 2♦ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $5.18 | Rake: $0.25

Results:
SB had 2♥, 9♠ (two pair, nines and twos).
UTG had K♥, K♠ (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $4.93

Gotta love 2NL.