Poker:Black Belt Poker – Grading week…. and the winners are…….

After my grading week, I have definitely achieved the Purple belt level at Black Belt Poker (which was my main objective and all I really expected to achieve)

The results of the graders has now been released.  To my surprise and delight, I have been ACCEPTED into the full 6-week grading process !   (Article at : http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/articles/read/Grading-II-Dublin-Two-O-Announced)

What’s more, there are now only 20 people involved in the grading, albeit with only 3 Blue Belts (and Irish Open entries) now being offered to the best performers.   (anyone else completing the 20 hours per week gets Green Belt status)  

I can only think that either I really did have a lot of bad luck during my week or there were not that many people who made the 80 hours minimum :-)     Still, I am pleased (and slightly scared) to be through to the full grading.  It will be a lot of hard work to get the hours in, but have cleared it with the wife to have late evenings playing poker…. so now my only concern is the hammering my Poker Bankroll took as I am at a low ebb at the moment.  

The full grading starts on Monday so will keep you all posted to significant events over the next six weeks

Poker : Black Belt Poker – Grading week final analysis

So how did I do overall for the week ?   

The stats make pretty grim reading, I played a total of 6416 hands over 101 hours and my total losses were around $400 (£260)

So where did it all go wrong ?  The week started well enough and seemed to be doing pretty well the first couple of days, then had a horrid day Wednesday and mediocre grim days Thurs/Fri followed by bad days Sat and Sun.    Looking back at my updates, the excuses get more elaborate about the bad beats :-)  but I think in the end I was probably playing tight/weak post flop too much and also calling too much for big bets on the river  when beaten.     Playing over the weekend was also probably a bad move, particularly Sunday, as despite my best efforts I was trying to make money quickly and this probably effected my game

Overall, there were probably more bad beats than stupid mistakes, but when I made a mistake it tended to be a spectacular one and cost me my stack.    

The biggest problem (and my biggest excuse ;-) is that I am still learning cash games as have only started seriously playing cash games in November (and then it was Limit rather than No Limit) and also only started 4 tabling with any seriousness since December (in preparation for the grading week)  

So, lots of lessons learned, both about Poker generally (albeit an expensive lesson) and also about the Poker grading process itself.

I don’t believe I will have any chance to go to the next stage of grading this time, but that’s probably a good thing as I don’t have much of my bankroll left now which which to participate !

Would I go for the grading again in future ?   Well, yes I probably would as it gives a sense of purpose and also an extra challenge to stretch beyond the comfort zone.  I would prepare for it differently though, firstly by making sure I do have a better bankroll behind me, but also to take time off work so I can play the games that I specialize in (Single Table Tournaments) rather than playing the Cash games.   

Will I continue to play cash games ?   I have never previously really “liked” cash games as I tend to just get bored after a while and just play silly.   Doing the cash games under “grading” conditions (and playing 4 at a time!) did make them more enjoyable and believe I now have a better understanding of this variant and how to play it.   I will need to do more reading and build up my bankroll first, but may have the occasional Cash session in the future, but will go back to my primary love which is the STT format.

Poker:Black Belt Poker-Grading week: Day 7

Despite my misgivings after my Day 6 performance, I managed to squeeze in a final session on the last day of the Grading week.

I suppose the first hand should have been taken as a warning to give up, as I put in a force bet and got dealt Q-Ts but got raised from the button.  As I was getting 2.5:1 pot odds and didn’t want to seem weak on the first hand I called and was incredibly happy to see QQ6 flop come (2 hearts)  I check raised (for most of my stack) and got called and although wasn’t happy to see the 3 of hearts on the turn, I didn’t believe the villain would have called a re-raise with the flush draw and only had $7 left (with $27 in the pot) so stuck it all in.   He called with AA but had the A hearts, so of course the 4th heart came on the river and lost when 75% certain to win !   Another huge loss came when I limped Q4 from the SB and got Q-7-4 flop.  I bet pot and got called, bet pot again on the turn and got called, then stuck it in when a 9 came on the river and of course the villain called with his pocket 9’s.   In fairness I was a little over aggressive on the river, but I was 95% certain to win before the river :-)

So that’s it for me, just a case of tidying up my thoughts and submitting my hand histories for consideration and then licking my wounds before starting to built up my bankroll again!

Poker:Black Belt Poker-Grading Week:day 6

Didn’t think I’d get any time to play this weekend, but as mentioned in yesterdays update, I managed to slip in a couple of hours session. 

As I’ve done the minimum hours, the main objective is to make a profit… so is very disappointed to have another loss of just over $90 !

Actually, on three of my four tables I made only a $1 loss…. which could have been a healthy profit but for some bad play/luck with pocket 7’s (I got them all in pre-flop against K-Q on one occasion, and on another occasion made some silly calls to try and hit my straight flush on 8-7-6 club flop!)

The fourth table was another story, dropping $90 pretty much all with 6 hands…. 3 x AK, KK, QQ and a  JJ.    I dropped $40 when my A-K was re-raised and saw A-7-4 flop (2 heart) so I check raised and got re-raised all-in   It seemed I was behind but had only $10 left to call into a $70 pot so was committed.  Another $20 went when I check raised and got all-in with my K-K on a T-7-6 flop and the villain called with T-9 but hit another T    My Q-Q got done by 9-9 when the flop came 9xx, and my J-J got done by T-T when a T came on the turn…..  so all in all had an unlucky session really….. still did have some good luck as well, so you just gotta do the best with what you got and hope to get your money in the middle when your favourite

I *might* get time for another session in tomorrow, but not entirely convinced I want to with my current form !

Whatever happens I will write up a summary of my sessions in the next day or two (but won’t make pretty reading)

Poker:Black Belt Poker-Grading week:Day 5

After day 4 made it a couple of days of loosing money I really wanted a good run today.

Sadly, Day 5 was also a loosing day, this time $75 down.   My big losses were when I got KK in against QQ pre-flop, got all-in preflop with 77 on the BB against JTo and getting all-in with 33 against 44 with a straight draw on the flop (ok that last one was a huge mistake :-) ) but otherwise was doing OK play wise

I have at least completed the minimum hours, so will get some reward for my time and money but seems a remote chance my results are good enough…. perhaps I would have been better off investing the extra time to do the Single table Tournament (STT) rather than focusing on Cash tables which are not traditionally my thing……

I will try to sneak a couple of hours over the weekend to try and get some improvement in my performance, but the worst thing possible would be to try and chase my losses !

Poker:Black Belt Poker-Grading week:Day 4

Phew nearly there now !   Day 3 wasn’t a good one for me, so had high hopes for today.

I stuck to my tried and trusted 4 tabling today, not wanting to get distracted from my task.  Unfortunately the day didn’t start well and my money slipped away.  One particularly memorable hand I got my QQ in against AKs for a huge pot and the flop was blank, turn was blank but the river was a sickening K… but for that K my day would have been a lot better !

Still, you have to accept the hands the poker gods give you and move on…

In the end, my second session was a bit up and down, and ended up $5 down for the second half of the session, seeing my daily loss totalling $80

Overall I am $130 down on the week (£80),  with one more session to go… no pressure then :-)

Bring it on !

Poker:Black Belt Poker–Grading week:Day 3

Having had a good couple of days, particularly day2, I started the session by deciding to play 6 tables at a time rather than 4

This was very busy and often found several tables needing my attention and definitely not playing well enough… I knew I was down, but after an hour I was nearly $70 down, so dropped back down to 4 tables !    At least I know how many tables I can sensibly play at once now !!

Unfortunately the rest of the session was also a bit of a nightmare, ending up dropping another $100 so ended up being down at total of $165.    

Still, it had to happen I suppose, at least it didn’t happen the first day (which I half expected) as that would have been very discouraging !

For the week to date, I am actually “only” $54 down, so just need to have a good day tomorrow to get back to even…. !!

I don’t think I am playing badly as such…. it is just two or three key hands per table in each session, where either make a mistake or get drawn out on, so end up loosing big money on those few hands.     I do get some good luck and win big hands as well, but obviously not so many today as  I needed :-)

At least I am on target to complete the hours required for the week (and still have the weekend free if needed) so expect to get the Purple Belt status by completing the hours at least….

After the session I couldn’t be bothered to do any running, so had a couple of beers instead.  That seemed to do the trick as I slept like a log :-)  

Poker: Black Belt Poker – Grading Week: Day 2

Day 1 seemed a reasonable start, but need to build up my performance (without spewing all my cash away!)

Despite feeling a bit dozy I did pretty well in the first couple of hours, and was well up but in the last couple of hours my performance seemed to suffer a downturn.  (maybe due to being fatigued)

Having said that, my raw performance was not bad, ending the day $73 up, so steady progress (any profit being a good thing of course :-) )

After my session I forced myself to take a run for 15 mins and have a shower before going to bed, but that seemed to do the trick as I was out like a light and had a good sleep !   Hopefully this will make me fresher and more with it for tonight's session !

Poker : Black Belt Poker – Grading Week:Day 1

Grading Selection Week has started and I completed my first days session yesterday

I am playing No Limit hold’em Cash 4 tables simultaneously with blind levels at $0.25 / $0.50

I have played similar cash sessions recently as a test (although only for a hour or so) so was confident I would be able to play 4 tables reasonably well.  As it turned out  I was able to focus and play solid/tight poker for just over 4 hours fairly comfortably.   The only issue was that when I went to bed my head was spinning, so had a disturbed sleep…. I think tonight I will need to perhaps do some running or something after the session to relax !

My main concern was that I’d dump my bankroll in the first couple of days, so decided to buy in for $15 at a time.  Although this is relatively short stacked (only 30 big blinds) it does make pre-flop and post flop decisions easier and protects a bit against big swings.

As it turned out, I played just over my target of 16 table hours (4 hours elapsed time) so am on target time wise, but also made a profit of $39 (just over 4 BB per hour) so am pretty pleased with my performance overall

Whilst I cannot assume I am home and dry, it was a good start so fingers crossed for tonight's session !

Poker : Black Belt Poker - Grading Selection week

 

In my last update I mentioned that the idea behind Black belt Poker (BBP) is to upgrade your status by gaining higher level “belts”   Ordinarily you do this through playing lots of Poker and gaining points, however there is also the occasional opportunity to accelerate this process by participating in a Grading Selection Week.    The top 50 players from this week go through to a full grading process, with the main objective being to gain higher belt status and funding to play live events

I am currently an Orange Belt level, so  decided to give the Grading a go, so am eagerly looking forward to starting the Grading Selection week from tomorrow (Monday).  

It will be tough, as I don’t really have a big enough bankroll to cope with a big downswing, but thought would give it a shot.  Unfortunately I don’t have enough free time to play the Single Table Tournaments (STT) as this stipulates 120 table hours, so am having to play the Cash Tables, as this is “only” 80 table hours of play during the week.  

Its not quite as bad as it sounds, in that the suggestion is to play 4 cash tables at once, so only 20 hours elapsed time is needed.   I have cleared it with the missus, so hope to play 4 hours a day Mon-Fri but will also have the weekend to make up any time  if needed…. so assuming I don’t run out of money, I will at least have the time to take up this challenge.

I will update this blog as often as possible during the week to track progress, but certainly will summarise at the end of the process

Poker: Home tournament – January 2010

The new season nearly didn’t start at all, as the first week was wiped out with the extreme snow conditions, so was prudent to delay the start until this week

It was well worth the wait, as the 12 people who turned up were ready to get stuck in, particularly with the new no limit rules !!

My table had Alex, Jock, Andy, Derek and Jon so you wouldn’t expect the chips to be flying everywhere…. but as it turned out myself, Andy and Jon all had around 7 buy ins ! although it did settle down a bit as everyone’s stacks got to a reasonable size

There were a huge number of interesting hands in the first session, so don't remember them all…. but Derek drew out on Jon at least a couple of times… the most notable time being when Derek got all-in with KQ hearts and Jon had AKo     Jon dealt himself the horrid flop of QQJ but then got T on the turn to give a straight, although Derek picked up the flush draw…. then the A hearts came on the river giving Derek a Royal Flush !! 

I had a run of bad luck and good luck, so was a bit of a roller coaster….  I got in against Jock with 86 from the blind when the flop came 88x   Of course he had an 8 with with a higher kicker so that was my first double buy in of many during the night…. later in the session I got JJ and raised.   Alex reraised but Andy called as well as me.   The flop came Jxx so raised and was reraised allin by Alex.  Andy decided to call as did I… Alex having AA but to no avail as I tripled up and that gave me a huge stack

Despite my worries with the new rules that we would have 12 people for the final table, it transpired that the No Limit rules give a lot of scope for people to get knocked out !    Andy was the first, taken out by me (actually that may have been the JJ hand I described above!)  and it wasn’t long after that Derek got taken out as well, so Bill joined our table.    All the action was on our table as Jon then Bill got taken out in quick succession and we are down to the final table

Myself, Alex and Sean are the big stacks, with Roger and Karen being notably low.      I managed to double up Roger with a foolish lunge at his Big Blind when I was small blind, but Karen was not so lucky, being taken out by Sean

The chips start moving about the table and the chips seem to be evening out.   Jock suddenly had a big stack, then Alex has recovered, then it seems Sean is chips lead so its difficult to keep track

With blinds starting to hurt, the middle size stacks are suddenly short stacks and the carnage continues and we are soon down to five players and the last 15 mins to play.   Sean starts to get busy and busts out everyone !    I can remember suddenly finding myself in the last 3 on the BB but with Alex raising and Sean re-raising all-in decide to fold.  Alex shows JJ to Seans Ax but the A takes out Alex and I am suddenly in 2nd place without really realizing what happened !

Sean has 2:1 chip lead but decides to call my all-in move with J-9 and shows A-7   My 9 hits the turn and I am suddenly chip lead.   I have to fold the next couple of hands but a chip count with two hands to play shows Sean has the lead back.    In the end I get rubbish hands and Sean calls my desperate all-in on the final hand (think I had T-4 or something) and gets the extra point for knocking me out as well !

It was definitely an explosive start to the new year.   We finished a little later than normal, so may need to review the timings but otherwise  think the new rules are working well.

Looking forward to next time (which is only 3 weeks to wait!)

General : Fitness review

Since we moved in October, it has taken some time to get the Home Gym sorted out (again!) and back to normal routine, then Christmas came along…. (you can guess I am building up to some kind of excuse :-) )

My regime has only changed slightly since last year and my general fitness seems to be around the same as 2008 when I last recorded my heart rates (although it’s difficult to compare as I was doing a different regime two years ago)

Monday (Running)
Run at 6.5mph for 25 minutes, then 8mph for 5 mins, plus 5 minutes cool down.

I am actually finding the running about the easiest exercise…. which is odd considering it is probably taking the most energy.  I suppose it is because, being Monday morning, I am running whilst half asleep :-)

Anyway, my heart rate peak at 169 bpm and average 145

Tuesday (Rowing)
My target is 30 minutes at 28 spm plus 2 minutes cool down, however have been hitting my unofficial target of 29 spm for the last few months!   Really must make this my official target soon !!  Cover 4.2 miles

Heart rate peak at 156 bpm and average 148

This for me is the exercise I feel most likely to not complete, or at least in the middle 10 minutes… but always seem to make it in the end. 

Wednesday (Cross Trainer and Weights)
6 minutes at level 2 plus 3 minutes backward peddling (or whatever it is you do on a Cross Trainer!)  Then 9 mins at level 4 plus 3 minutes backwards.   21 minutes in total, covering 1.8 miles

Heart rate peak at 168 bpm and average 152

I am still struggling with the Cross Trainer, in that it still kills my thigh muscles !

Then do one cycle of weights

15 x 2 reps of Chest Fly (1 weight)
15 x 2 Chest Press (2)
15 x 2 Leg Extension (3)
15 x 2 Lat Pull Down (4)
15 x 2 Ab Crunch (5)

Heart rate peak at 148 bpm and average 130

Thursday (Cycling)
Pedal at around 14mph at level 11 resistance for 20 minutes, then 10 minutes at 16mph at level 13.   Then do 5 minutes cool down. Cover 7.5 miles

Heart rate peak at 158 bpm and average 143

I am finding the first 20 mins fairly easy so may have to look at upping the pace a bit during this year

Friday (Weights)
2 x cycles of the Weights.   First cycle as above, then do a second cycle :-

15 x 2 reps of Chest Fly (2 weights)
15 x 2 Chest Press (2)
15 x 2 Leg Extension (3)
15 x 2 Lat Pull Down (5)
15 x 2 Ab Crunch (5)

Heart rate peak at 145 bpm and average 130 (appx, will have to re-update next week!)

My current weight is around 12 stone 2 pounds so a little over what I consider normal, which is probably attributable to my excessive Christmas feasting (told you there was an excuse on the way :-) )

Overall I think my fitness levels are pretty good and seem to be still improving over time (very gradually)   Just need to be stricter on myself over my weekend chocolate binging to get rid of a few pounds and will then be a lean, mean fitness machine :-)