Frustration

Currently I'm a bit frustrated. I try to play my best, I'm not tilting. Sure, that I have some leaks in my game but yesterday I lost some unreal hands and got coolered in four consecutive matches....thats hurts. I can now believe that some players thinks that the pokersites are ridged but for sue they are not, hopefully. What have I done to you FullTilt Poker? Getting my money in as a hugh favorite and got sucked out at the river. I know I'm whining but some times it helpes. It's like you are learning and learining and write a bad exam. I always say to myself "keep cool tinker, one day there will be a hugh turnaround". I got some PM's that some of you are waiting for a blog update. Unfortunately I have nothing good to say and think its more fun to write about success. However, it's very nice that I get some positive feedback and hopefully I can write something positive next time. Maybe I have also to learn that HUSNG has variances and have to deal with them. So stay tuned and wish me some luck at the tables. Cheers Tinker

The aspect of Tilt

I would like to write about "Tilt" today due to that I noticed that getting on tilt is a big issue for any poker player.
How do you notice that you are on tilt? Usually you notice it at the end of a session and its probably too late.
When you are on tilt you don't play very well and make some strange decisions, either by making some stupid calls or
stupid moves. You generally would like to force your opponent to make mistakes but when you are on tilt most of the time you are the one who are making hugh mistakes.
It is a creeping process until you register it and sometime you dont even do that.
Why are you tilting? I think it depends on several factors. Sometimes a normal bad beat could be the an activator or the own thinking. As an example I played agianst a very bad player. His sharkscope stats were horrible. Great, ist easy money was my thinking even before the first hand was dealt. This bad player played so weird and I couldn't adapt my game. So, I lost the first match. He accepted a re-match and I lost that game, too. I tought OK, stay calm and play him again. I dont want to go in hands in detail, because not the hands are so important if you are already on tilt. More important is the reason for the tilt and this was in my case AKs and villain made again a strange bet from the buttom, he bet half his stack by a 2:1 lead an I shoved all-in...he showed T2o, I couldn't believe it. The flop was something like Q82 and I lost the third match in a row. He accepted another re-match and I declinded. I looked in his sharkscope in more detail and he lost 11 matches in a row before playing me and that was the normal stretch in his last 250 games. After having a break to come down a bit I played some more matches against several players, some good some bad and after the session I lost 8 buyins and I made some weird things. The strange thing is that I knew in some cases that this would be a stupid move but I did it anyway.
In this posting I would really appreciate if some of you would leave a comment how your technic is to protect against going on tilt, please. I know it is difficult and ther is no general advice for sure.
If I am concentrated and thinking about my game I could be a well basicly skilled HU SnG player. I read a lot, watched a lot videos but I think I have something like a tilt problem...or say it my tilt skills are way behind my poker skills some times. It's annoying when the good work the last couple of days gets smashed by tilting in a few games. Fortunately I did not make things like playing a higher limit or so...but who knows when I am able to do those crackbrained things on my next tilt!? Thnaks for any comment on that in advance and stay tuned.

Good shot (I shot the sheriff)- hit my targets and play very relaxed

As I mentioned in my former blog I took some shots at the 20$ Limit. Fortunately it went very well for me. I think sometimes in a poker career you should step one side beside yourself and think what you really want or what are your expectations. I am surely in a phase at HU SnG's to find my own style and to have my own concept of playing. Very often when somebody sees videos from a coach and the plays/moves are reasonable or almost allways justified with a lot of thinking it looks so easy. The biggest mistakes what someone can do is to copy that play and think "hey, are understand that and will adapt that into my game". It's great if you have understood the concept or the thinking but very often you can't adapt that ono to one into your game. Every game is different, every villain and even every board structure, for sure. I take the advices from the coaches and the videos very serious but I have to figure out when I have to get these advices back in my mind when I need it. Sounds so easy, doesn't it!? In every video is a hint that you could value from but the time to establish into your game will not come prompt. I compare it with a puzzle, every little peace you found and can stick it in the picture will complete it. The difference is that I don't know when the puzzle is comlete, maybe never ;-). I have to really thank RyPac for his good advice regarding my turbo vs. regspeed issue and another big advice from Cog in his Video 11.. Very often I had a big lead over my opponent and felt my edge is slightly better then his/her I wanted to finish the match as soon as possible and often made mistakes by giving no respect. My last games went very different and I don't know really why....is this the announcement of the "click"? I hope so. I went into every game with the same concept - Looked at the sharkscope stats - and figured out how my opponent plays - look for good spots to make bets, raises and some moves - and justify every action to myself, why I make that or that now - and the main thing for me is to relax and try to play my best poker in no hurry and no pressure. I even didn't looked at the cashier, what I intend to do. Of course at the end of a session as any poker player does :-). So, I thought it would be good to write that down and remember me when things goes not so good...if this is a good upswing?....who cares....I enjoy it. Stay tuned, Cheers,Tinker

Grinding at FullTilt

Whats up, I'm grinding FullTilt again and it went very well. As I postet in my HUSNG blog I switched back to FullTilt due to I feel the regspeed structure is the best for me and my game. I still need some time to define my opponent and how my strategy is to exploit them. I struggled a bit between playing the turbos or regspeed but RyPac13 (HUSNG coach) opened my eyes that I should not worry at which structure I play. I should play were I feel comfortable and thats recently the regspeed structure at FT. Sounds like a minor advice but for me it was very important because I had in my mind that good HU SnG Players plays turbos due to the bigger hourly rate. According my bankroll (shiftet some $$$ from my 6 max roll) I decided to take some shots at the 20$ limit and I believe that was a good idea. Hopefully I left my breakeven stretch far behind for a while. I play really concentrated and don't bother myself on thinkings that I have to play faster and the turbo thing. I play relaxed, have all coaching advices in my mind that that works....unbelievable. I currently watch a lot of Videos from Cog Dissonance's and I really like his voice and the way he teaches. So finally I insert a graph from my matches at the 20$ Limit.

English <-> German and Poker

Hey all, some days ago since my last posting. So, what happened so far. I have registered for an advanced English Course with a friend. We both want to improve our English.
Unfortunately my friend was categorized in a course one step below me (she reached Middle Step III and I reached Certificate Step I). We asked to go in the same course and it should be no problem.
I think that is much better for learning and motivation if we manage it together, so we decided to participate at the advanced certified course. Lets see how we manage that. Start is on Wednesday and I am happy to be a student again. So all English native speaker, please feel free to give me a hint if I make horrible mistakes in my blog and please don't hesitate to correct me.
So, lets get to Poker. My first deposit bonus at FullTilt expired and I would like to try a new software with bonus and rakeback. I signed at PokerHeaven. I assumed that the software would not be so nice as FullTilt but it is very cool. The only thing that is missing is the re-match button. On Pokerheaven you can play 5min, 8 min and 12 min HU SnGs and I tried out all three. As I assumed I play the 8 minute games and figured out that there are the most unexperienced players and very bad. I dont really now if it is good that I can't play against US players, but a colleague from PokerTips said that PokerHeaven is much softer as on FullTilt, so lets see. I play the 10€ + 0.5€ Limit and I am very comfortable with that according my bankroll. Again I am break-even...so nothing changed since my switch :-(.
A highlight was yesterday as I organized a 10 HU private tourney at FullTilt some days ago. We had 22 participants and it was a lot of fun playing my mates from PokerTips. Unfortunately I had no luck regaridng my opponents. I managed to win the first round versus a very strong HU player and got kicked in round two. However, it was fun and we hope to have more HU Tourneys in the future mas they are rare in the Pokerworld. Maybe its not so plus EV due to the fact that most of the players have basic or advanced poker knowledge...but the fun factor for the community is great and the buyin limit is small and fits to most bankrolls.
Thats it for today and stay tuned and let me end my break-even stretch into a winning stretch...my training should make profit at least and hopefully.

Tinker is back in town

Hi there....I am back. Egypt was great. Nice weather, nice hotel and nice food (maybe the food is a beat now :-). I spend a day more in Hamburg and now I am back in Berlin.
I have to go into my office for a couple of hours due to my colleague will go on vacation next week and has a seminar beginning on tomorrow. Maybe I can play some poker in the evening I would really love to check-out some stuff what I have learned from Collin Moshman's Heads-up book. This book is really great and should have read it from begin on. I recommend to read it in case you start playing heads up. I saw some videos drinking cocktails on the beach and enjoyed the advices from Primordial, Rypac and Crog laying in the sun with my earphones and watching them playing on my ipod. In general I make some hugh mistakes in Heads-up play I have figured out and hopefully will avoid that in the future. The good thing is that I am a very aggressiv player at HU but very often I have not chosen the right spots for my aggression and should give up some hands earlier to avoid trouble in the beginning of a match. The mainly second big leak is to give players credit and even a fish could have good hands and surely a big mistake by new HU players....position, position, position. Collin's book explaines a lot details in calculating pot odds and equity and I really have to focus on that, too. I look forward to manage those leaks in the future. So have to got to work now...See you at the tables...stay tuuuuned.

Holiday!!!!

So all...that will be my last entry before going on holiday. Yesterday I cashed in the 24$ HU Tourney on FullTilt (thanks to BBU for railing and your great support). I played a few HU SnG today and it went well. I am not that winning player as I would like to be but I'm learning in every game. Hoepfuly it will work better after reading Collin Moshman completly during my holiday. I will drive to Hamburg tomorrow and will fly on Tuesday very early. I decided to get some coaching in December and hope that will also improve my game. OK, take care all and see you next week. In Egypt is about 34°C so I hope to get a nice teint :-). Stay healthy and good luck at the tables. Bye, bye...Tinker