RedBarracuda - it's a fish

srijeda, 31.01.2007.

english... croatian?

I dont know.. I guess it is a bit stupid to write in english here.... so, i think i am about to decide that i will write in croatian from now on.... although this is not a definite decision yet, it is becoming one.... only drawback is that there wont be that many people who could read what i write ... .. like there are any now...

bad beat and tilt...

I just had a worst session of online poker ever.. I jumped in my own mouth with my previous two texts... Well, what happened.... 3rd hand on the NL $50 table. I get KQo. Guy raises from early position, I call and we are heads up. Flop comes Qd7c9h and the guy bets a bit less than pot. I call and the next card comes Jh so now I have nuts pair with decent kicker and a straight draw. Guy bets pot again, and now he has me thinking... Should I call, should I raise, should I fold? ... I called.. The river didnt help me, and apparently didnt have to help him. He went all in which was now only just more than half of pot. I called with my all in and the guy showed AA. Of course. 3rd hand at the table and I am down $50. I went beserk because I now realize that MOST of the people at NL $50 play only top 5-10 hands and they play them aggressively. I myself dont like waiting for 30 hands to get AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ, JJ, AJ or whatever and then play them aggressively. I play slightly loose and aggressive normally, but at these tables with these players, I guess I was bound to get nailed badly by AA.. Of course... I lost my next $50 in hand 46 when I had AKs and reraised the guy before the flop who then just called me. Flop came 592 rainbow where guy checks, I bet, he calls... turn 7s and i bet again and guy goes all in... Now, I guess this was a stupid call what I made because the guy WAS all in. But then again, I couldnt believe that he has strong pocket pair or has made a set with cards on board (because of his preflop raise) so, I called him with my AK. He showed me KK and took my money home telling me that he cant believe I called his all in... I dont know.. I see that I shouldnt have called it because he had KK (obviously), but still, I cant force myself to think that it was in the end such an awful call.... or maybe it really was, because in this case, any paired card would have me beat, but then he wouldnt play all in i guess, even if he were holding A9 in his hands.. I dont know.. Ill have to think about this tomorrow... Now I am mad at myself for even playing when I was already tired from basketball...... damn... now I dont have a choice but to go to $25 NL again and grind my way back to 200-250 bucks, and then get another hit at $50 NL...... I will do it... and I will beat this game....

something I decided...

So... I just came back from basketball... I play it every Tuesday with the same guys at the same place.. Today, I must say, I am very proud because my team won, but we won after we were trailing by more than 20 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Now comes in the life decision that is for me closely related to playing poker, and playing "life"... About a month ago I decided that "I love to win" and from that point on everything I play or do, I do in order to win in it, which before was not the case... Before, I used to play or do something for fun, but now, I do it for fun, but also to Win!

I think that this can add to certain mental stability and brain discipline over a longer period of time. I believe that if my brain believes that I can do something, whatever that might be, that I can really do it.

So, I kind of started using that in poker. Not that I am playing wild because of that, only far more confident. Btw. I started playing NL $50 even though I don't yet have the bankroll for that game. Never mind, I kind of like it, even though it seems more than twice harder than NL $25. Hopefully I will be able to beat the game and proceed to the higher level in some time. I wonder how long, or how fast will it be.. me proceeding to the yet higher level of No Limit Hold'em...

One more thing I want to add right now is that I really find my Poker Tracker a really useful tool, and can't really imagine playing online without it. This way I have everything about my game written down and in safe place for review and my own improvement...

utorak, 30.01.2007.

something about Holdem and where I actually live

I was wondering how to actually start writing this blog thing, and couldn't come up with anything smarter than the above name, and the text I am currently writing.
Since I already mentioned that this blog will be mainly about Texas Hold'em, I should probably begin by saying something about the game, but I won't. If you don't know about this game, I don't really care, because there is already enough being said on the internet and by the word of mouth right now that even if you heard it once, you know what this Texas Hold'em is all about. Besides, I guess most of you watched the new James Bond "Casino Royale". Well, that's the game...

That said... I am currently playing most of my poker online, and that is due to the lack of brick and mortar casinos that offer Hold'em regularly here where I live (Zagreb, Croatia). The situation started improving recently, but still, it is a long way from what it should be. I mean, there are 3 places that I know of that have Hold'em tables. One of those places has like 1 hour daily reserved for people who want to learn how to play the game (some kind of Texas Holdem School), and the rest of the time there is absolutely no action going on in there. Other 2 places are way better compared to the first one. The first of the two exists for some time now (meaning more than year and a half), and offers a decent tournament every friday evening and after that there are usually one or two tables opened for €1/2 Pot Limit Holdem, and one that is what some of my fellow players and friends think is the "strongest" everyday game in Europe - €5/10 Pot Limit Holdem, where pre-flop action sometimes comes to 1.500 Euros as it were chips. The floorman of this place assured us that he is planning of bringing more tourneys, Sit and Go's and more different cash games that would be available every day. This is of course do to the fact that the 3rd place opened. This one has the best looks, and has some potential to it. Unfortunately, here there are only 2 tables (as far as I have seen), but what makes them good is that they are offering a €50+5 No Limit Holdem Freezout tournament every Thursday following with the 2 tables of €1/2 Pot Limit, a game that is affordable to much more people than the 5/10 PL, and where buy-in can be as low as €50 (which isn't really recommended, but can be made).

So, now that I wrote about the BnM casinos in Zagreb that offer Holdem, you can probably understand why I spend most of my time playing online. I am currently playing on "Party Poker" which I find has a good, nice looking software, decent (but not too good) players in the game of my current choice (NL25, which means blinds are .10/.25), huge variety of games (from 0.05/0.10 Limit Holdem to expensive NL games) and it is basically the first site I started playing on, so I kind of stayed with them, and must say that I don't that I will change it even though there is an increased unrest that there are less "Fish" players on PartyPoker now. Well, from my point of view, I like it better that way, because I believe that if I play with better or similar players like I am, I can only profit and learn in the long run, and my goal is to improve from day to day..

Anyway, I am currently playing NL $25 at Party Poker tables.. I am trying to build up my bankroll and currently have around $200 which isn't much, or even enough for the game I am playing, but since I started it with like $50 I am glad how things are going right now (week and a half). I realize that I will probably need like $1000 to go to the higher game (NL $50), and that is some way off from now, but right now, my plan is to get to $300 USD and then go to NL $50 and see how it goes there. If I manage to be up with BB/hr or BB/100 hands then I will continue playing NL $50 until I come to $1000. Then, hopefully I will change to NL $100 and so on.. I also realize that there is a kind of different approach to every level, as well as the probable mental barrier that I might be facing when switching from lower to higher games. Hopefully, this won't be too stressful for me and especially my small bankroll. When I invested the above mentioned $50 I started playing $5 NL, which I couldn't beat. I don't think I could beat that game even now, 3000 hands of a bit higher games under my belt. That game is insane, and the most I suggest someone invests in it is 10-15 USD just to see what it looks like and how are people acting because even that can be very telling in poker. NL $10 is a different game, but can also be crazy at times. Mind you, this is due to the "cheap" buy in and people treating their money like chips. NL $25 is for now the best of three mentioned. In a week or so, I will probably try out the NL $50.

One more thing worth mentioning... I have Poker Tracker. The name says what it is. It is a great tool to evaluate and improve your game after the sessions with a lots and lots of "looks hard to learn but easy to use" options. It tracks your poker records, games, sessions, other players, cards, positions, and more, and it also auto-rates players based on the rules you define so that you know if someone is either a "small fish" or a "barracuda", . Anyway, my poker tracker says that I am making money right now, and almost in every session which makes me very happy. Now I just need to continue with what I think is quality performance..... and never stop..

So, for the first post, I think this is enough. I will try and dedicate some of my time to this blog, and update it regularly, start posting different pictures (from tournaments in Zagreb if I can) and writing about other stuff also...

For now, bye..

	siječanj, 2007					>
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