Wake me up, when September ends... *session 1*

This has been a weird sort of month in general, I'll start with my graph and results to date:








So first things first, not many hands played. This came mostly from moving house, but also 'cos when I hit my monthly peak I had to make a big withdrawl to cover all sorts of life expenses that had caught up with me. So, on the one hand HEM was telling me I was $16k up for the month, while my bankroll after my withdrawl sat at $9k- putting me on a quite severe form of tilt that promptly slid me into an $8k downswing.

So, to fix it I've pumped some money back online. It's all a ridiculous fallacy as I don't intend on losing any more, but if I'd kept my roll so small my strange brand of tilt would probably've continued and busted me. With a small roll, I felt like I was playing awful and making decisions for the wrong reasons. I'm feeling pretty confident today though, especially when i look at my results and despite the DS I'm still at 11 BB/100 for the month.

So, all life bills taken care of, I need to aim to make around $10k before the month's out to give me the best springboard going into November. So, four 90 minute sessions for the next 8 days (just 2 or 3 today) are in order, and I'm going back to my strict reviewing of all said sessions here.

(Chris, once I feel I'm definitely killing it again, I'll do you that video).

So, expect 30 session reviews before the month's out. I either kill it and all's good again, or I don't. But if I don't, it won't be through lack of concentration, preparation, and attitude.

Session 1 coming up below:

*plays session*

Hands : 780
Net Loss: $1129

"But if I don't, it won't be through lack of concentration, preparation, and attitude."

After writing the above line, I went and broke all my rules to record a horrible loss. I felt light headed and didn't stop, I broke my 90 minutes rule, and I got myself into some horrendous RE situations. It could've been worse, but some spew somehow worked out:

$2/$4 No Limit Holdem • 6 Players

Generated by weaktight.com.

UTG	FLOATACHECK	$1,299.90
UTG+1	PENGUINS25	$1,068.70
CO	JABOIJEROME	$406
BTN	Hero	$1,339.70
SB	MONKEYBIZ111	$314.20
BB	GJAKEY	$420.30

• Pre-Flop ($6, 6 players)
  Hero is BTN
  
• 
  
  
  

2 folds, JABOIJEROME raises to $14, Hero raises to $42, 2 folds, JABOIJEROME raises to $110, Hero calls $68

• Flop ($226, 2 players)
  
• 
  
  
  
  

JABOIJEROME bets $135, Hero raises to $1,229.70, JABOIJEROME folds

• Final Pot: $1,590.70
  

• Hero wins $1,587.20 ( won +$247.50 )
  
• JABOIJEROME lost -$245
  

What mostly went wrong in this session though is my non-showdown spots. Essentially, my philosophy is to try to win most big pots. What makes it impossible to win big pots though is to bluff raise and allow villain right of last initative. I'm normally pretty good at keeping pots small unless I either know I'm calling down or I have a PSR plan to get the last bet in somewhere along the line.

When I'm on top of the above, my red line is basically never ever negative after a session. I must have had something like 50 straight green non-sd sessions, with my showdown winnings bouncing around the break even mark. This is what I consider good consistent poker.

So, technical aspects to improve going into session 2 are the following:

Reverse Equity Spots: (recognise them, fold early)
Don't lose big non-sd pots:
Timing on decisions: (when I'm on fire, I have a little voice in my head talking the hand over, eg 'I raise 77 UTG, one caller in the SB, T1 flop' etc)

I'm planning on playing three 1 hr sessions tonight with a decent break and review in between each. Session 2 coming up now....

dan