We all feel the focus drop buddy even the Galfonds of the world.

I have always said I will not play if i don't feel 100% and i also sit out if i feel my mind is elsewhere.

Yep true stuff indeedy Jon, it's frustrating as well when I know I'm not 'on 'it as it were, which only compounds the problem of course. Sometimes it's a 'He who fights and runs away, lives to... and all that fun stuff.

Well, I won 11 days in a row last month for my new record, but then kinda ruined it right at the end and lost nearly all my profit for January.

Started February 1st with a stoploss, so need to get some serious work done to get it back on track. Just have to win 12 in a row instead, easy game!

I just have to work a bit harder this month now is all, but it's going very well overall so far lately so no complaints from me.
The drop back to nl4 had to be a mixed bag with nl10 because the games were a bit meh. I'll be sticking with nl10 now if I can but I do go where the games are good, so we'll see.
Still running about 16bb/100 at nl4 for 27K or so, but obviously nl10 needs a bit of a vitamin boost to get going; fair enough and no real sample yet.
I'll be fine, the games are very similar if one table selects.

In other news two of our stakees have left us for whatever reason which is a shame, they seemed good guys.

If you'd like to join the gang just follow the instructions Here or get hold of the mighty @Jon-PokerVIP if you like, he's always up for it.

And now I have to go do some bloody gardening at the 'suggestion' of Mrs Mal. If you only knew how much of a waste of space I think gardening - and particularly growing flowers - is... But I suppose we all make sacrifices for our...hmmmm, wait a minute, wait a minute...that gives me an idea...



Later all, play fair and have fun.

Yeh we need some new blood that is for sure! I also find new guys help motivate the current team!

Yes it would be nice to get some discussions going again, they're always fun.

Well whack me with a wet Woman's Weekly, here we are at the end of the first week of February and I'm getting punished harder than a masochist at the hands of a drug fueled raging dominatrix.

So, how to find out why it's all gone tits up is my plan for today.

#1 I'll try filtering for all hands more than, oh, I don't know, say >30bb that I lost over the last 25 days.
#2 Replay them all and mark each hand that didn't play according to my strategy and see where I decided to deviate from it.
#3 Think why I deviated in the first place.
#4 Fkn fix it!
#5 Crush nl10 like a boss at nl4

It's not ideal, I've obviously won 30+bb hands to and no doubt played many of those wrongly,plus stats will be irrelevant from anon.

It's a start and has to be better than losing by playing bad, because losing sucks but losing by playing bad sucks more.




This can't be all 'the tough side of variance', well yes, of course it can and yes it's only a small sample but I just refuse to believe I can go from being one of the best at nl4 to joining the great unwashed at nl10 so easily, playing my best. And it keeps me from getting too smug as well as keeping me working at my game.
This time round I'll do more work when I'm winning as well, something easily overlooked whilst basking in a euphoric high, at least in my case.

Well lash me with a limp lettuce is that the time, I gotta get to it so I'm ready to crush tonight. Can't be missing out on the weekend gang now can I?!


Have a fun weekend and hopefully you can stay drier than us here.(rain)

I'm riding the variance wave this month also! Started off on a big downswing and currently on a upswing!

I'm about to move to 10NL

You find a big difference between the skill of opponents?

@colly191091 Thanks for dropping by and well done getting to nl10, did it take long or was it a breeze? I've been up and down the limits like a porn stars ar...but that's mostly down to me having no clue, this time I can fix it. I have the technology, I can rebuild it!

Not much difference at all to be truthful, just bigger pots takes a little while to adjust to. Still got the limp/callers and the spazzouts, nits, tags, gamblers etc.

Best advice I can give there is to think in BBs instead of cash, it takes all the stress out of it. There'll just be 60bb in the pot same as nl4/nl5, not 'wow $6 in one pot!' You won't play your best game if you're thinking about the money.
Apart from that have fun, crush nl10 and I'll see if I can meet you at the next stop on the line.

It was quite a smooth journey for me luckily. I had enough in my BR to move up a long time ago but I ended up withdrawing some money and then redepositing on different sites so it my BR was all spread out haha I regret that!

On 888 I have built it up to $350 so gonna try 10NL there!

I seen for sites such as Party & Pokerstars, you can download software that displays your stack/opponents stacks as BB's at all times! That would work brilliantly for shot taking! I don't think there is anything like that available for 888 though

That software might be StarsHelper(?) but there may well be more, it's not something I've investigated fully. Unsurprisingly the one mentioned only works on Stars if memory serves.

Yes that's the one for Stars!

Made a nice long post about how calm I've been in the face of horrendous stuff at nl10 this month and then my pc shut down all by it's lonesome, I think the elastic band must have broken. Well, I wasn't really.

Anyway, can't be arsed with all that, suffice to say I think all those Komododragon streams may have rubbed off on me. I can't play like 1/4 of him, but I don't tilt or scare the dog anymore. Even my mrs commented that I don't mention whether I lost/won/played but/got unlucky or whatever and she hasn't heard me shout at the screen for a while! Worked hard on that side of it; result.
Playing pretty solid as far as my plan goes and it's working, feeling good even if the results don't match yet. I fi keep going the way I am and results go my way, I'll be good enough by the summer to say I can play a little bit.

So, play well and run good. If it goes tits up stay calm and calculate, that's a win that comes free.

@Komododragonjesus is a complete boss at the tables tbh and he will rub off on anyone who watches his streams. This Twitch thing has been incredible in the fact of people getting 'free' training. 20 hours of watching one of these guys saves you no less than $1000. Hats off to them!

Yes agree jon, it's nice they feel like they can give something to us minnows given they worked so hard to get where they are and don't 'owe' us anything at all, except a big thank you for being worse than them.

Well, various distractions mean volume has been lacking lately, getting in around 500 hands is a bit weak, but it just gets tough after long days doing 'stuff'. I need to fix that before the end of the month.
I did play some Blaze while there was a promo on and the whole world and their dog turned up to have a go, but I can't track it so results don't show and I like to be face up with my play.

Going to change my ranges by the end of this month, getting the hang of the ones I have but I feel like I'm missing out on some value now. Should be fun and will no doubt result in more posted hands and 'Help, my gotz stucks!' questions. Good I don't post enough.

Apart from all that we have a new guy joined the staking team from Canada so wishing him welcome and good luck. I'd better wish him a warm place to, it must be nobbling out there this time of year.

So, not much to say except some waffle this time round (what's new) but I'll report back how the new strategy stuff is working out in a week or two.

Later.

@Jon-PokerVIP , it continues from there.
Hardly played yesterday after dropping 1/2 BI playing like a muppet so went for the study route instead. I has the priviledge of chatting on twitch with @Komododragonjesus and Mike Gano, they gave me loads of advice and we had Equilab and calculator to show me this that and the other; it was seriously worth missing a session for, seriously worth it. Apparently Mike is a crusher at znl200 as well but I know little of him. I had no idea that playing HU you can get a wr of up to maybe 15bb/100 at low stakes by seat selecting - and being really good of course! Good grief!

What did I gain from yesterday's experience? Got confirmation I was on the right track which was nice for my ego of course, but more generally that I can change it up a bit now preflop and still be playing simple stuff, just a little more aggressively which can't be bad can it.
Try to ask the right questions, it works, you get the right answers, duh! Darius even sat out and went through SB v UTG using Equilab for me, an nl10 player and made it look simple; how nice is that!
Bare in mind that I am known for spamming the chat with questions, but he does try to answer everybody and does a good job to, it must be tough with streaming and twitter and all this and that going on.

Did a huge amount of studying this week so volume is meh as I mentioned in my previous post, but pretty sure it will pay off soon so it's all good. It had better pay off or Jon will boot my arse for being a lazy bastard!

So,adjustments to strategy time:
#1. Preflop aggression..
Keep the ranges by position but 3bet for value a little wider preflop, especially from OOP, say SB v UTG. Villain dependent as usual but they aren't that tight a lot of the time Mal, so try it and report on it.

#2. Widen OR preflop a little more when faced with weaker types to get into more pots with them. I do this already from later positions but think I need to start expanding it a little more now I've got the experience, it will improve my postflop play as well.

#3. Play shorter sessions.
I've been experimenting with times and I think my optimal is around 30-35 minutes and take a break playing 6 tables and 45 - 60 minutes playing 4.
A corollory to this is that if I play bad for a few hands in a row I must insta-sitout.
Hey, this isn't easy when the table is full of weekenders playing 80/45/30, try it! Discipline!

#4. Table/seat selection.
I often set up and get to 9 tabs tiled but cut those to 6 at most after sorting the wheat from the chaff; takes a couple of circuits to spot the weaker guys, if there are none or one I'm gone.
This is more difficult because the software sits me in the available seat automatically, but often the shorties or seriously manic guys are planted on my left. It can be tough to play and I often stay too long and my game gets stilted - probably from lack of knowledge about those situations - so I sit out after a while usually.
Sit out earlier until I know what I'm doing it's costing me money, a couple of circuits is enough to know where I'm at. Discipline again sir!

Again, not an easy thing to achieve because games may be sparse but I just have to suck it up, sit out and wait for a better seat and that's it really.

#5. 3bet bluff just a little preflop v more reg looking types especially. Too strong to fold but a bit weak to call - try that 3bet!

Oooooo, Mal adds a bluff into the mix, growing a pair are we Mal!?

Again this is a bit iffy because often I dont really have stats on them, just an overall picture, but it may be enough in some spots, so I'll try that and keep a note on it to.

That isn't a lot but I'll try it all out and see how it goes for the rest of the month. You never know, it may turn my graph upside down that would be a nice finish.


tl;dr
No more Mr NiceGuy!



Have a fun weekend peeps.

Verrrrrrrrrrry nice to see this and makes me know that you are really pushing yourself to get better and better. What do you think of the Mike Gano guy? I saw a quick bit of that stream and I can't remember what it was he said but the line and theory behind it sounded very off to me. I think Komodo winced at is also. Can't remember at all what it was but yeh i didn't agree with it that's for sure. However I could be wrong so who knows!

I have seen his streams separately and he seems very good and a solid winner. Just that made me a little confused.

@Jon-PokerVIP He may have been discussing theory above my pay scale and I highly doubt Komodo would say anything live, too professional, so I'll take another gander later on today.

Glad you liked the way things are going even if results don't match yet, it's a long way up after getting a hammering at the start of the month, but, as you so rightly point out, it's as long a journey as it takes to get there. Frankly I can beat this lot for sure and without my aces holding up to...


Games are good guys, go get em!

Pro tip for you guys, try not to get crushed for too many stacks very wuickly, it takes 20 minutes to lose them but 20 lifetimes to get them fkn back.

Still winning a bb at a time, but long may that continue is my opinion on it. Not beating 12 in a row by the end of the month this time round though but never mind, there's another month coming soon and we can have another go!

Personal challenge:
At nl4 I won 10 sessions in a row so set a challenge to win 11 and actually won 12. So, challenge this time is to win 10 in a row at nl10.
I'll have to start next month but certainly not putting any time limit pressure on it, it's just for fun and helps keep the hype going if I win 3 or 4 or the spin.
Pretty sure I can do it but we'll see how the rng treats me, it's not as important as gaining skills after all.

If I do get there I've promised myself to surprise my pride and joy and take her out for a meal we can't afford, so it's a double edged sword really isn't it!

You might think, ooooo easy game win the 10BI and it's all romantic and win, win, win stuff init! @Jon-PokerVIP happy, Mal happy, Mrs Mal happy, bankroll happy, wtf could be wrong with that ffs!?...

...but then you haven't seen a 4ft 10in Mrs Pacman eat have you...

Thought I'd do the old Journey update now as I won't be able to play much today, the mrs is a bit poorly.

Pssst...wanna see some graphs?

This is Febururarury's




I am of course patting myself on the back for the boss-like comeback but fkin 'ell I could have done without that first bit. I do like a bit of symmetry about the place though, just adds a bit of balance y'know?

Anyway, here's my overall for the year so far:




Heading towards symmetry again y'see? Easy game. Truth one is in the great scheme of things that 9K or so drop will disppear into the zigzag zone soon anyway.
Truth two is I beat these guys up now, been winning at around 10 -11bb/100 lately which I think is around where it should be versus this lot, well, near enough at least. Better than the -19bb from earlier that's for fkn sure!

I was supposed to drop to nl4 at about 10K because I lost too much but gave it a day or two to turn round and it did, so all is good in Malworld again.


Now, next month those changes I mentioned previously should be kicking in and I'll be a winner for about oh, I dunno, +15bb? Ye, right!

Volume will be going up now to as long as the mrs is healthy and my winning days in a row challenge is on, on, on! No idea how many it is so far but not many yet.

Anyway,March is going to be epic and loads fun, so come git some!

Nice post. It's funny how graphs can look like this, like there must be one or two things you were doing differently, and then it turns around completely.
I feel this might be similar to what I've had from Jan to Feb. Anyway glad you feel you've got your groove on and hope it keeps going!

@Grocker6 , yes after my move to nl10 I thought I ran pretty brutally bad which was part of it, but I also played differently as you so rightly point out and it took me a while to realize that these guys just don't fold like nl4 do. Which kinds sucks when I couldn't pin a flop down!

I did the classic microfish mistake of adding a load of bollox into my game because, 'Hey it's higher stakes, they must be better players, right?' Right? Donkey.
So I took it all out again and violin we were off to da races again! I think I've 4bet bluffed like, 'Wait, what's that?' so far.
Hard to get enough hands on villains at anon games to 4bet bluff with clarity anyway, init.

I'll add a few more things in for next month as I've said, but it will still be simple stuff. I fully expect to be crushing these nl10 guys soon, moving up and seeing what else I need to add to beat those guys in their turn. Easy game? We'll see how it goes.
Hey it'll be fun seeing the excel grid fill up a bit more to, some of dem stats must be getting a tad lonely by now.

Damn, nearly forgot! We have a couple of new guys on the team and they both seem nice and the both seem like they know a bit to which is good for fishcakes like me. Oh and they don't take the piss toooooo much about me being a nitfish, unlike @Jon-PokerVIP that is - well, not too much anyway! Bastads.
I think the group we have is going to be good at beating people, which is both encouraging and a challenge. Encouraging because it can rub off on me and a challenge because, well, I want to be the bestest winner, init! We have our coach backing us up and always hugely supportive as well, so how hard can it be, huh?

So that's about it for now. I'd best stfu or I'll be here all day and get bog all else done.

Really, have fun however you run.


Here's my final thought for the day anyway,

...

Started the month with a win so I'm cruising towards my challenge goal already! (in before doom switch alert)



You know it's time to sit out when you play like a 60/4/0, I mean, wtf is this shit all about! I don't think I've played a line like this in oooooo...



So that was my time for coffee hand, what a donkey. This time it was the dog that kicked me.


I was chatting with a couple of stakees about 3bet and 4bet bluffing and ranges, reads, stats and all that fun stuff.
These guys seem to use 4bet bluffs in good spots a fair bit and I haven't got one 4bet bluff hand anywhere in any of my ranges. Fair enough, that will be fixed over the next week after some research. I can do the math obviously, just haven't really found the need to use that stuff much, I don't even defend versus 3bets enough yet, I just prefer good table selection because it's easy, but we live and learn huh. more work than I had anticipated but I wont be going overboard with it just the same.


GL and I dare you to run better than that.