Welcome to the Xylinx Poker blog.  I seriously appreciate you reading and commenting.  Please be brutally honest.  Let me introduce myself.  I am a donk.  I play poker obsessively and have been for 6 years.  I think about the game all of the time, I have read every poker book, many several times.  I watch all the videos, use all the software and talk about hands with friends.  And I can play a mean game of poker, multi-layered, tricky and clever.  But I can also play awful at times.

I am playing $10NL at pokerstars right now because my bankroll is in the pits.  I guess I am punishing myself, since I could easily deposit.  It's psychological.  Also, I think the play at $25 is so weird that I just cannot beat the game except by playing gruellingly tight.  I would rather be playing $50, as I do ok there, but surprisingly, I think $10 plays closer to $50 that $25.  There are some very good micro limit grinders, believe it or not.  My edge comes from my reads, my reads depends on my opponents thinking.  And I cannot detect much thinking at $25.

This blog is about trying to get serious about winning poker.   I have been playing too long to still be going broke.  I hope that by creating this blog and honestly documenting my experiences and ideas, I might at long last find a way to seal up the biggest leak in my game -- Playing late, drunk and above my roll in madman tilt.

I am often amazed by the plays I make near the end of a session, that I don't even remember playing the next day, and when viewing the hand histories, cannot figure out what I possibly could have been thinking.  I win all night, then blow off the win and more in a few tilty hands.  Think I'm exaggerating?  Well take a look at my last few hands I played on 2/19 below.  It is not the looseness, it is the spewyness.  I play a loose aggressive game, and if I am to do that, I cannot spew, since they all think I am full of it anyway, and are calling me light, but they are scared of me so they are raising me solid.  That's my edge, so if I spew, I am just a fish.  The last one is particularly bad.  Why bluff that board?  And after I get raised, Why call such a huge bet with nut no pair.  It just makes no sense.  

This post is a little boring, so enjoy the 3 stooges episode  below.  ;)

BB ($3)

UTG ($9.55)
MP1 ($5.55)
MP2 ($2.20)
CO ($12.20)
Hero (Button) ($12.95)
SB ($4.80)

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, 4
2 folds, MP2 calls $0.10, CO calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.60, 1 fold, BB calls $0.50, 1 fold, CO calls $0.50, (unknown) checks, 4 folds, MP1 checks, MP2 calls $0.10, CO calls $0.05, Hero checks

Flop: ($2.10) A, A, 7 (5 players, 1 all-in)
BB checks, CO checks, Hero bets $1.40, BB calls $1.40, 1 fold, CO checks, Hero checks, justwokeup checks, MP1 checks, MP2 checks

Turn: ($4.90) A (6 players, 2 all-in)
BB bets $1 (All-In), Hero calls $1, CO checks, Hero bets $0.60, 3 folds, CO raises to $1.20, Hero calls $0.60

River: ($9.30) Q (3 players, 3 all-in)
CO bets $1.65 (All-In), Hero calls $1.65
Total pot: $12.60 | Rake: $0.30

MP1 ($8.55)
MP2 ($3)
MP3 ($9.80)
CO ($5)
Button ($2.45)
SB ($2.95)
Hero (BB) ($11.75)
UTG ($3.95)
UTG+1 ($9.85)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K, 4
UTG (poster) checks, 4 folds, CO (poster) checks, Button calls $0.10, SB calls $0.05, Hero checks

Flop: ($0.50) A, A, 7 (5 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Button checks

Turn: ($0.50) A (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.60, 3 folds, SB raises to $1.20, Hero calls $0.60

River: ($2.90) Q (2 players)
SB bets $1.65 (All-In), Hero calls $1.65

Total pot: $6.20 | Rake: $0.30

nyuk nyuk nyuk