Day 3 - 775 hands $1.700Monthly goal $10.000 sofar $2.436

This post is delayed, because I couldn't access the site yesterday.

I don't think setting one thousand hands a day as a goal is very productive. I don't multitable as much as I used to, due to playing higher limits. One thousand hands wasn't that big of an issue when playing eight tables, but with three tables open it becomes a chore. Therefore I am gonna set myself a diffrent and hopefully better goal this month. My goal will be to earn $10.000 in one month. Beating my old record of $8.500, I'll keep $5.000 of it online to build my bankroll for higher limits and cash out the other $5.000. That is if I indeed make it.

I had a couple of interesting hands in yesterdays session.

55 in the Big Blind: This opponent has been a thorn in my side for some time now. I really don't know how skilled he is, he might be better than me he might be worse. One thing is for sure, he is decent enough and he has outflopped me time after time lately, so he probably has me pegged as a money bag.
My actions in this hand only makes the matter worse I guess. Needless to say, I am offcourse not very happy about how I played the hand.

AK in the Small Blind: This hand features the overbet push again, but not in the standard sense. I could have easily played myself out of this pot. If I had bet a normal amount of say $80 on the flop, both my opponents would likely have called. And then on the turn I would have played myself into a tough decision when the third heart would have fallen.
Instead I just push of the bat, because I know that the opponents in this hands will call me with plenty of worse hands.

652 hands $736

Getting back into shape is hard. I took the planned walk today, but in the poker department I just couldn't get in the thousand hands. The hands I did manage to play though were good, I flopped some sets and got paid off.

The work I put into studying when to overbet push to get maximum value out of a good hand is starting to pay interest. In pots that would never swell to all-in size with normal betting, I reap alot of otherwise missed profit by pushing with some hands.
The trick is to know what kind of hand your opponent will risk all his chips with, if he thinks there is a chance you are bluffing, and then push whenever you put him on exactly such a hand and you have him dominated. There is no easy way in learning how to put your opponent on a range of hands, you just have to play alot.
The hard part with the overbet-push is that you can't just push with your nut hands, you have to bluff at times or your opponents will know never to call. There is no need to show your cards when your bluff works.

My quest to get a decent picture of myself continues, this time the likeness is a bit better than the previous picture.

My brother took this one of me today using my new camera, I'll link it up to the profil. Hopefully it is a bit easier on the eyes than my previous choice.

I have been very pleased with my results in tournaments recently, so I am thinking about taking a shot at some big guarenteed prize pool tourneys in the future. The change of venue would probably help with my lazyness.

A day of live poker

I played in a live tourney and as a result havn't played any online hands today. Only eight players showed up and we each put up 500 DKR, about $85. I walked away with the win and $425 profit.
Afterwards some of us started a live cash game, with blinds of about $1 and $2. I lost about $50, but it was great fun and I hope to play it again.

End of July results:16,554 hands $4.489

These are my results at the tables for the month of July:

My total profit for the month after rakeback, bonuses, promotions and the odd tourney or two that I profited from is: $4.489. (In my currency: ca. 26.000 DKR)
My results are noticable worse this month than last month, where I made $8.500. I have been lazy and unfocused, and I am sure I have played worse as a result.
My plan offcourse is to shape up in August. I think I will try to get 1000 hands in a day. I will try to stay focused and fit by taking a exercising walk most days and eating right. Atleast once a week I will take a day off from poker to rest my emotions and my mind.

My friends and I are going on a holiday in September, so my poker playing and blog writing will go on halt for about 20 days next month.

753 hands -$2044

I had just a dreadfull session today. Bad hands, concentration lapse and tilt sums up a 2 hour session at Party and Full Tilt.

Party Poker is running a promotion this comming month, where you have to accumulate 100 partypoints for as many days as possible in August. I am thinking about giving it a shoot, so I played 500 hands today at Party to get into things again.
I got horribly outdrawn and stood to loose a fortune until atlast an overbet push lessened my losses somewhat.

99 in the Small Blind: I really feel the work I have put into studying when to make this move has paid off. I know better players than me employ it, but throughout the month I have had difficulties making profit on overbetting. Now I feel comfortable adding this valuable weapon to my arsenal.

Anyways ...

I stop at 500 hands played on Party Poker, thinking to myself that I will take a little break and turn to Full Tilt for another 500 hands. My clever plan is to turn a loosing day into a winning one while starting my trend of 1000 hands a day again.
The second session was only more brutal than the first. It seemed like every time I called my opponents had just outdrewn me and each time I folded I got shown a bluff.
I felt that my losses were starting to get the better of me, so I quit the session before the planned 500 hands were played.

All day I have been in a good mood, looking forward to writing about my great month and how much I have won. Losses really get you down, regardless of whether they stem from bad play or bad beats.
This day ended so badly that I will postpone my planned End of the Month... diary entry to tomorrow. Sadly the day will still be reflected in the results that I write about tomorrow.

On a lighter note, I held my planned live Sit and Go with my friends today. I baked cakes that I hope they enjoyed. I planned on posting a picture, but I am still very inept with my new camera and I couldn't find a picture that would do the tourney, my friends or my cakes justice.
I came in second in the Sit and Go, loosing to Kenneth heads-up.

Poker is not an easy profession. It is a true joyride when you are winning, but loosing is where the trial starts. There is no break and you can't call in sick. All you can do is try to learn from each mistake, while still not being affected by the results emotionally. And to turn it around you have to go head back to work with the added baggage on your mind.