Time to re-evaluate

I have been reluctant to move up to 100NL RUSH  for fear of running into a 10 buy-in mid session, month ruining, downswing.  But over the last few days I have had one or two stabs with reasonable success. So I decided to take the plunge full time.

I needn't have worried about a 10 buy-in drop.  It was 11.

Things started well.  On the third hand I opened with 56s, flopped a straight and got it in v bottom two.  The session went down hill from there.  He caught one of his 4 outs on the river and I proceeded to do my bollox whilst running about 9 buy-ins below .
 
There were of course some horrific bad beats - that's a feature of RUSH.  My favourite involved aces and my 3-bet calling opponent donk shoving for 87BB into the 27BB pot with AhKx on a low 2 heart board.  The runner runner flush put pay to any recovery hopes I might have harboured (I stacked an opponent with AA v KK simultaneously). 

There was plenty of failing to get there eg: shoving it in on a Kd 7h 8d flop with 10d9d and getting called by 7d5d.  I was a 65% favourite and 50% on the K turn.


But I also made some horrendous mistakes including shipping it in pre flop with QQ v 2 all in opponents - a full stack and a half stack.

In my defence, I was focusing on another cooler hand where I lost 200BB where the money went in on the turn and I had a made straight and flush draw and my opponent had a higher made straight.  It was a 9h7h 5d 6d board - he had 10d 8d - I had 8h5h and missed my 12 outs on the river).  I saw the half stack had shoved, but didn't realise the full stack had shoved as well.

I also aggro tilted off 140 bb pre-flop with AQ v KK, when I 4 bet called v a blind 3 bet even though I had no history to show the blind was a 3 betting blind maniac (it would have been a pretty sketchy call even if he was, as even the blind 3 bettors always seem to have AA, KK or AK when 5 bet shoving particularly when 140 BBdeep).

So its time for a change of approach.  I'm going to continue with 100NL RUSH, but I'm only going to play 2 tables, with short sessions and I'm going to focus on playing a small ball information based aggressive steeling game - my red line crashes as soon as I 3 and particularly 4 table and get into the trading buy-ins mode (which has been the theme of the last month). The 2 tabling approach was basically how I played when I first tried rush. 

For the record, graph for 25 April 2010 - this is what a 4 figure loss looks like aka 'this months' profit and a bit more down the crapper in one push'.  Heave ho:

This is hard work (swongs)

I think 50NL 6-max Rush poker may have had its day.  Player numbers are down (from about 180 at Peak Euro times to about 120), whilst the number of semi competent 'regs' is increasing.

The regs are divided neatly into two camps - the small blind 3 betting super aggro maniacs and the 17/13 Hiltzs (the Cooler Kings) who are waiting for pairs and AJs+ AQo+.  There are very few obvious fish (they get felted fast and few have traditional stats - because they can fold and wait 0.1 seconds for big cards as well as the next TAG).

I think this month I have been coolered in every possible way at the worst possible times.  Every time I take a stand against a aggro maniac with 20% SB 3 bet stat they turn over aces.  I have run boats into quads, boats into bigger boats (why  do I always have to be 200BB deeep when that happens?), and sets into everything.

But I have also played badly at times.  Very badly.  Usually during the period 'imediately after I lose 3 buy-ins in 50 hands to coolers', I get this overriding feeling of I'm about to get my arse tupped and if the cards don't do it to me, I do it to myself.  Then, as if my magic, about 5 minutes later its gone and I'm back to grinding with twice as much focus as before my buy-in dump (because I have something much more powerful to think about - getting out of it).

I also suffer from a form of long term not winning enough tilt - a slow burn tilt which eats away during any period when I break even for a while and then makes me more suseptible to the mid session blow out - its characterised by a growing feeling of the world is conspiring against me. 

There have been a lot of days look like this (note how I went into secondary melt down twice after getting out of it when the mind focus shifts back to 'now lets win some money - I can't win slow burn tilt mode'):

 

My most recent attempt to get out of it involved switching to 100NL about 500 hands in (and then bam - 5 buy ins gone):

The last graph is this month's RUSH.  I have also lost 3 buy-ins at regular 100NL on what used to be my main site.  But rakeback is keeping me in profit!

I have got to cut out the mid session 5-10 buy in downswing/cooler/tilt/self mutilation crap.

Edit I recognise most of the tilt types in Dr Pauly's latest post. I have them all.

March results

Statistically March was my best month so far and in a week or two that's probably all I'll remember, but at the moment, I can't help feeling that it could have been a whole lot better.

I switched from 2-tabling 50nl  rush poker to mainly 3/4 tabling about half way through, which meant I managed to fit in 34,837 hands - about 9k more than in any previous month - for a profit of $1,932.75, at an hourly rate of $34.11.  With rakeback and bonuses I made $2,282.53, which works out at $40.28 per hour.

I have got some serious leaks at the moment, mostly to do with calling 3 bets.  The SB v But or C/o 3 betting situation at RUSH poker is just absurd.  Several of the 'regs' are 3 betting 20% or more in the SB and a lot of the time its difficult to actually play pots in position.  Speculative calling is a leak and 4 betting is not working out well - I need to think about my responses a bit more.

But the main characteristic of this month has been the swings - pretty much in every session, I have at some stage dropped about 6 buy-ins in 100 hands and I always seem to end up spending the rest of the session getting out of it for a small profit.  Essentially RUSH poker is about coolering people - the way most people play is to try and flop sets and crack big pairs. And this can lead to some big swings when you get on the wrong end of a few and your aces don't hold up against kings.

But all in all, it was a good month.  The aim for next month is make $2k before rakeback (I was above $2k this month before my 11 buy-in downswing on the last day).   Oh and I need to grow some balls and move back up to 100NL!