Coaching

After my whiny tilt-post, and a successful coaching session with filthyvermin, I figured it was time to look for a coach to fast-track my learning.

I looked around a bit on 2+2, and found out Insane Steve is offering low-stakes coaching at a very reasonable price.

The session lasted around 1.5hrs, and started off with him sweating me for 2 games. After that, we discussed the hand history, and he soon noticed a few leaks, and suggested alternative lines. The full review of my session can be found in his coaching thread on 2+2.

Anyway, the positive effect of the coaching was immediate:

28% ROI in the last 24hrs

I've already booked my next coaching session, and I'm confident that he'll be able to help me move up quicker than I could on my own. I'm still pretty confident I'll be playing the $22s sometimes in early may, especially now that I'm back on track.

A few things that I've been working on in the last few days:

- Tighten up on the BB: This had probably the most drastic effect on my ROI.
- Villain categorization: I'm now quicker at categorizing villains, and acting accordingly.
- Playing straight forward: I used to outlevel myself by playing too fancy against brainless villains, NO MORE!!

A good example hand of how absolutely insane the players at the low stakes are came up during yesterday's coaching session. The hand before, I called the villain's river bet with 3rd pair, and he showed up with a busted draw...that kinda put him on monkey tilt.

PokerStars Game #27139215033: Tournament #156231275, $6.00+$0.25 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level III (25/50) - 2009/04/16 4:41:17 CET [2009/04/15 22:41:17 ET]
Table '156231275 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Villain (1290 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (1710 in chips)
Villain: posts small blind 25
Hero: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Radeh [Qh Ah]
Villain: raises 1240 to 1290 and is all-in
Hero: calls 1240
*** FLOP *** [Kh 9h 7c]
*** TURN *** [Kh 9h 7c] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 9h 7c 8d] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Qh Ah] (high card Ace)
Villain: shows [5h 3d] (a straight, Five to Nine)
Villain collected 2580 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2580 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 9h 7c 8d 6s]
Seat 1: Villain (button) (small blind) showed [5h 3d] and won (2580) with a straight, Five to Nine
Seat 2: Hero (big blind) showed [Qh Ah] and lost with high card Ace

Overall, I'm in a great mood and actually looking forward to grinding a lot in the next few days. I've also started chatting to many more fellow players on AIM, and discussing hands with them has done wonders for my own game.

As for non-poker related things:

I've lost my job in March, and surprisingly I'm not really unhappy about it. Even though I loved the type of work, the company atmosphere was just really bad after a bad incident 6 months earlier...and no, I wasn't involved in the incident.

Anyway, I now have A LOT of free time, lol. I'm on a pretty hardcore workout schedule, I thai box around 4 times per week, and started weight lifting 5 times per week on the side. In addition, I've also changed my whole nutrition, which not only had a positive effect on my body, but also my mind. I've gained like 6.5kg in the past 5 weeks, and my punches and kicks are now a lot harder than before.

I've also applied for the MSc in Real Estate at London's CASS University. The course would help my career development a lot. I've also got a job offer in Montpelier (France), but I'm not sure if I want to take the offer, even though it's a pretty cool job. Got a lot of thinking to do in the coming days...

Funny video of the day: