Switch off your television sets, place your mobile phones on silent, kick the dogs out and get ready for transmission. Today is a monumentous event in the history of internet blogging as i am finally going to lose my blogging virginity!!! I know i know, you’re probably thinking “Holy smoke, did he just say what i think he did? He’s a blogging virgin?” Yes, i’m afraid it is true. I have been surfing around the intergalactic super highways since 2000 and i have never ever written a blog entry. Can you believe that? Well, now i can say loud and proud that i have at least experienced it. I can finally tell my friends and family that i have been blogging and that i am looking forward to being a regular blogger. I only hope they don’t confuse it with dogging!!! Now that would be funny…

Okay, what’s this blog going to be about i hear you cry? Well, i currently play online poker and thought i would share my journey with whoever would be interested. Oh, i can hear the gasps from some people in the galleries. “Online poker? What? Is the guy crazy? I know people who have lost their house because of poker.” Well, i have some news for you… I don’t actually own a house so that can’t happen to me. I am currently a single guy who is 28 and has no real responsibilities or what i would class as real responsibilities. I have no kids to look after or girlfriend to tend too. My time is my time and i can spend this any which way i choose or with whomever i chose. This is the upside of the single life. Poker is currently something which i aspire to become better at. It is a game which for me has the perfect combination of both luck and skill. Anyone can win when they sit down at the table on any given day but only the best can profit in the long term. Believe it or not, poker has been a very positive influence on my life. It has assisted me in becoming more self aware of myself, my emotions and other people. I don’t play just to make money i play to learn. I’ve always been the type of person who likes to become the best i can be at whatever i chose to invest my time into and poker is no different. I enjoy the mental workout that it provides. I’ve always been a very analytical type of person when required and poker suits this side of my personality perfectly.

Anyways, enough rambling from me for the time being. Here is my graph for February. I currently play NL10 Full Ring at Full Tilt.

I am going to put my hand up and admit my volume has been poor over the past few months. I only recently moved over to cash games from SNG’s and i have found my motivation has not been anywhere near what it should be. There is probably a multitude of reasons for this however, i am hoping this is where this blog comes in as a way of staying true to myself and getting my finger out my backside. I see this blog as a way to record information, goals and objectives be they poker related or not. They will then be visible for the whole world to see and i can’t then pretend they never existed or i never said them and then sweep them under the carpet. If i don’t meet the targets i set for myself i will have to stand accountable and take responsibility for my shortcomings.

March Objectives (Poker)

1. Play at least 15k hands at NL10 Full Ring. 
2. Record and watch at least one of my sessions per week.
3. Post any difficult spots/situations that arise in the forums for feedback.
4. Learn at least one new concept and successfully apply this to my strategy. 
5. Review my first 25k hands at NL10 and assess whether i’m ready to move up to NL25. 

I would prefer to put in more volume than 15k however, after only playing around 10k in January and February i want to make the total for March an achievable and realistic target. An extra 5k hands is after all a 50% increase on my previous two months totals.

March Objectives (Non Poker)

1. Meditate at least once a day for a period of 40mins.
2. Go for walks which last 45-60mins at least 4 times per week. (Weather permitting).
3. Read at least one book on either Philosophy or Self Development.

I was a regular meditator up until around 6 months ago when for some reason i stopped. This is something i am looking to get back into as i found the act of simply being had great benefits both mentally and physically. I have downloaded the LifeFlow Meditation program which is a 10 step course designed to take you into a deep level of meditation and greatly enhance your general well being. Unlike the Holosync program, LifeFlow incorporates not only “binaural” beats but also “monaural” and “isochronic” tones in a structure of 12 simultaneous layers. They harmonically layer precision-engineered window frequencies within exquisitely beautiful music and magnificent sounds of nature. You are to spend a minimum of at least 30 days on each level before moving on to the next however, they do recommend taking longer. I am not looking to rush through this course so i am willing to spend however long it takes, at each level, to really feel the maximum benefits. I have already completed two sessions and the experience was very satisfying.

Okay, this seems like as good a time as any to wrap it up and go grab myself a nice cold beer to celebrate. I’m not yet sure whether this is going to be a once a month occasion, twice a month or just whenever i feel like it. My initial thoughts were to make it just once a month however, on revision, i’ll probably go with the later as that will keep a certain fluidity to the overall process.

Until next time…

Cha0s_Th3ory

I had to travel across to Adelaide for work this week, and in the evening I managed to head into the casino there for a few hands.  Unknown to me, the main event of the Pokerstars sponsored  Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) was in progress.  Pokerstars banners everywhere and special tournament table felts.  I managed to snag an open seat at a 1/2nl table almost immediately. Previously when I have played live I had taken it very seriously, but this time I decided to try and lighten up a lot, have a fun time and really engage with the people at the table.  It was a good strategy and I had a great time.  Things looked bad initially when for the fifth time in a week I somehow managed to run top full house into quads.  Fortunately though I managed to lose the minimum by just calling him, as he check-called the flop and turn then led the river which made me suspicious.  I thought I was possibly being a bit conservative but he screamed strength at me and it turned out to be a great read! From there though I had some decent hands that managed to hold up. QQ held vs AK, and I hit a set with TT.  Drained away a little though with some draws that didn’t come in and finished the session up $20.

On the next day I completed the business I was in town for and it turned out I had 3 hours to spare before my flight, so I headed in for another small session.  This time there was only one cash game running, a 2/3. There was again a seat available and the table was full of players who were playing other flights of Day 1. (I had turned up on day 1a, and was also there on day 1b). Sitting at the table was Peter Aristidou, a very well known Australian player, and some other local pros.  It was a little intimidating but fortunately shortly after I sat down a total aggrodonk came along who wanted  to prove his masculinity by shoving all the time.  I woke up with JJ and got all in for $140, he showed JJ and I held.  He then ran into QQ twice (other players) and left $600ish down in ten minutes!

Overall I was struck by the positive and friendly atmosphere at the tournament floor.  The main event was a $3300 buyin, but plenty of the players knew each other and there was lots of friendly interaction.  It was amazing the contrast with the rest of the casino which seemed to have a much less friendly and enjoyable atmosphere.

Well four days into February and it has been an interesting start to the poker month to say the least.  I am back at work today after a long break so I am  moving to a very disciplined schedule of playing and analysis as from now.  Moreon that ina future post perhaps.  With this in mind I’ve only logged a touch over 6.5 hours on the virtual felt so far this month and have seen 1811 hands over that period.  After an initial good start I had a horrible run in the middle stretch, losing a couple of flips and a few coolers such as KK vs A6 all in pre only to see flop come A6x!  However tonight I put in a nice session and was rewarded with some solid results, up a little over two buyins. Probably could have been a little more except for trying to push a 40/11 off a hand, I got the dreaded minraise on the turn which I think is always a monster against these type of fish. I think they haven’t discovered yet that you can actually adjust the bet amount before they hit the raise button

I think my swingy results for February so far really reflect the state of the 25nl games at the moment.  Some days they are wildly aggressive, with 3 and 4 betting all over the place.  Other days its callville. I find this impacts blind stealing in particular, I’ve worked a lot to really raise my percentage on this aspect.  Some days it is just amazing how much you get played back at, and when you have four or five tables running, its easy to blow through a buyin just in raise/call/cbet/raised/fold type situations.

Anyway overall I’m about 1.5 buyins down for the month but it’s early days yet.  Lots of good poker to be played over the next few weeks and hopefully some positive returns.

Welcome to Atlaspoker.net.  I’m Buzz, co-founder of this group and admin of the site.  Atlaspoker is a small group of No Limit Holdem Cash Game players who aspire to improving their game.  Although we are not recruiting new members as we aim to keep the group small at this stage, this blog will be a journal of our poker experience, for those members of the group that want to contribute   I’m planning to post regularly at least, and I hope some of the others will share their thoughts and experiences as well.  If not you’ll just have to put up with my rambling all the time

Some background on me, while I’ve played card games casually for years I came to poker seriously in late 2005.  Joe Hachem had just won the WSOP Main Event (although I didn’t know this at the time) and the poker boom was in full swing.  I started off with Sit n Go’s but pretty quickly gravitated towards cash games.  I started with only $100 online and then worked my way up until I was rolled for 100nl.  While I read forums and the like, really I didn’t do any structured learning of the game, I just picked it up as I went along, talking with some friends and reading plenty of poker books that tought me the basics.  I won strongly at 50nl and was a small winner at 100nl, when real life intervened.  My job began to get demanding and I didn’t have the time to keep playing.  So I stopped playing seriously, only dabbling in a lot of the mixed games from time to time at low levels for fun. Of these, I really enjoyed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo the best, but I was a slow loser at this and the stud games.  To be honest I was a little mystified at losing at low limit O8/b, becuase my starting hand selection was pretty solid and I didn’t make a lot of reckless plays.

Anyway things came to a head at work in Sep 2009 and I realised I needed to change my lifestyle before I totally burnt out.  Maybe I did burn out, I had some health issues and basically I have taken the last five months off.  During that time I rediscovered NLHE cash and decided to start at the bottom again.  I crushed 10nl early, playing a much more loose aggressive style than my previous attempts.  I used to be a 17/14 nitty style player, this time I tried a 28/25 game and loved it.  Soon I felt I should move up to 25nl, I was certainly still rolled for it as I had not taken my roll offline when I took a break.  I also thought hey, I was crushing 50nl back in the day, why don’t I just fire up 25nl and mass multitable, break even or win about 1bb/100, and make masses of rakeback.  I figured I could make $1,000 a month pretty comfortably.  I wouldn’t have to improve, I’d just 10-12 table using table ninja and play a 19/18 TAG game and print money. Or so I thought.

So in November 2009, I kicked it off big time.  I played just shy of 100,000 hands in November … and I lost. For the first time, I was not a winning player.  I did ok for a while and had some huge crashes, where I lost 12 buyins very quickly.  Looking back there may have been some tilt in there but essentially it was just getting very aggressive with premiums preflop and in some cases running pretty cold.  Doubtless there was leaks, but it baffled me, I certainly wasn’t playing a fishy or reckless game. So what was going wrong?  I was ahead after rakeback, but nowhere near my $1k target.  So it was time to come to a decision.  Did I want to really give poker a shot, or not.  I decided it was time to take it seriously or give it away.  I didn’t want to be a recreational small loser.  Also, I had to face the reality that the games had got tougher … 25nl, while certainly beatable, wasn’t the total fishpond it used to be.

So I decided I would give this game one proper shot at getting better.  I became active at Stoxpoker, I got some coaching from Stox Member LillaRya, and I picked up Ed Miller’s excellent Small Stakes Limit Holdem.  I also purchased Dusty Schmidt’s Treat Your Poker Like A Business upon its release – perfect timing.  Here was exactly what I wanted to do – turn my hobby into a second job if you like, commit myself to improving.  One of the recommendations was to form a small team of like minded individuals to acclerate the learning process … and hence Atlas Poker was born.

So that’s my story so far. 2010 is going to be my make or break year, and Atlas Poker is going to be central to this drive for me.  I hope you’ll enjoy following the journey, I seriously hope that this time next year I’ll be looking back at this post having come so far, and think … this was the turning point.  This is where it all began.

Again welcome and I hope you’ll stick around.  We have a public forum for anyone that would like to stop by and chat, talk poker, sports, or anything else.  You’ll find the link on the sidebar.

Welcome to Atlaspoker.net.  This site currently under construction, please check back soon!