Here is a super frustrating hand. It was at a 7-2 table (if you win with 72, you get 2bb from every player.) The instant he raised the flop, I knew he had air. In fact, I thought I was just calling down for value. So when he turned over Q high, I felt sick. I knew he had shit, I shoulda just shoved the river myself.

So far this month has been utter shit. Last night I had to quit as I lost simultaneously with AA v KK (he nailed his set) on one table, and my set versus a gutter on another table. Just gotta keep on grinding I guess.

If I were Dwight Howard I'd be furious with my teammates and coaches. I'm watching the Celtics Magic game that I taped earlier. Howard does not get his first shot until 7:48 in the first quarter. A minute later Vince Carter drives to the lane and gets KG off his feet...Howard is standing right under the hoop with nobody on him, but instead of just tossing him the ball for an easy uncontested dunk, Carter throws up a weird shot that isn't even close. Howard then picks up his second foul the next time down the court and has to sit down with 0 points and 1 shot attempt.

...?

Stan Van Gundy should be fired immediately. Other than LeBron of course, you're sitting on the most gifted young player in the game, and you're not utilizing him at all! I remember watching Shaq in his early years with the Magic. Almost every time down the court, especially to start the game, they would just dump the ball down to Shaq in the post, and run the offense through him. Even now that is how Shaq is used with the Cavs. That's how you use physically dominating centers!

So what do the Magic do? Well the first time in the game I saw Howard posted up, Barned faked a pass down to Howard in the post...and then shot a 3. (It went in.) The next time down the court Carter launches a bricked 3. The next time they turn it over. And Howard gets no touches for 2-3 minute stretches. It's almost painful to watch.

::

Last week the Magic played the Celtics and they did the same thing...for 3 and a half quarters. Then they started giving Howard the ball and he took over the fourth quarter with hook shots and dunks, and they ended up winning. How does a professional NBA team with a large coaching staff not have anyone sitting around saying "hey, maybe we should get Howard more shots."

Dwight Howards FGA per year:
2007 - 08: 11.9
2008 - 09: 12.4
2009 - 10: 9.7

That is a crime! His FGA should be rising every year until it is as high as the other top players in the league or close. (Kobe averages 22, and Lebron averages 20.)

Now how many FGA is Carter averaging this year? 14.2!! That's 46% more shot attempts per game than Dwight Howard. Again, how is nobody sitting around the Magic locker room thinking "hmm...maybe we're being huge retards in letting Vince Carter single handedly sink our organization."

Oh well, I hope it keeps up if the Cavs face the Magic this year in the playoffs. I know I'd much rather have Vince shooting jumpers than Dwight shooting chip shots around the rim or dunking it.

I feel like my game has reached a new level. I dunno if it's all in my head, but playing so much is really refining my instincts. And I thought I already had decent poker instincts.

Here is a pretty sick river shove. I bet, and get check raised...and normally this would be a dreadful spot to shove. But little alarms were going off in my head...but I didn't have anything to call with, so I shoved it in, and he folded.

I just don't think I was capable of a play like that in years past. But something is different now. My redline is always around even lately, instead of a steady loss. (For non HM users, your red line is your non-showdown winnings.) And this is something new for me. I don't even think it was a concious decision. I'm just noticing more.

Anyways, despite all this, I'm running like crap to start February. Oh well, lotta poker to be played.

Well I'm done for the month. Don't feel like playing anymore today. It figures that the last day of the month is the shittiest. I finished $1100 down in equity, and couldn't get anything going the entire day. Oh well. It's not a big deal. I still had a pretty good month.

Final numbers are 98,983 hands, and $12,537 from poker winnings. And from rakeback and everything I estimate I made $18,692 for the month. Which isn't bad. I was hoping to have a $20k+ month. But this is definitely something to build off of. I know I can play more, and I started changing some things up towards the end of the month. So I think I can have a better winrate next month.

I ended up getting in 183 hours for the month, which is easily a best for me. I think I can improve upon that. I was busy a lot in the early part of the month. And I also took 2 days off because I was sick (and 3 total for the month.) As well as 3 or 4 half days. I don't wanna push myself too hard, but I know I can outdo this month. The only thing is February is a very short month, so it will be a little more difficult. But atleast I can do better on a per-day basis.

I also think I won the most money at $1/2nl for the month on AP. But I'm not positive. That number hasn't updated today, and I dropped a grand, so maybe I'll be in second. So I guess that is something to be happy about.

On to February!

So I'm sitting about 3,000 hands away from 100k hands for the month. Just have to get through today. I've put in 1200 hands so far...and I'm already down $1,000 in all-in EV. My W$SD is a laughable 31% so far. It's just so gross I don't even want to keep playing. But I don't wanna let it get in the way of getting my goal of atleast 100k hands for the month. ggrrrrrr

Evidently, you can post comments directly on the specific post now. Dunno how this happened, I didn't change anything with my template. Echo must have done some work on my behalf. $12 well spent!

Man, I've come down with a cold or something, and this is bad timing. It's the kind of cold that makes you really sleepy. So I can't seem to get the energy to put in enough time. I've played 1,000 hands today, and it has been a grind.

Yesterday was one of the most unreal days of poker I've ever experienced. Dropped $1800, and my W$SD was 37%, for almost 3500 hands! I've been looking through my HM for the previous worst day of winning at showdown for so many hands. I have a few around 30-35%, but for only 1000-1500 hands. The next closest over my last 3 months was a 42% day playing 3400 hands. Suffice to say, it was a day of running into the nuts basically every other hand. I was speechless by the end of it.

Still thought I played good, for the most part. So I wasn't too upset. I also was $1,000 below all-in equity, as I lost half a dozen flips. It's all good though.

January is coming to a close. Right now I'm at 86,598 hands. So I'm confident I'll get over 100k hands in, blowing my previous best out of the water. (Think that was 59k hands.) And all while playing no more than 6 tables at a time. I know a lot of regs can get in more hands per month, but I dunno how many do it while 6 tabling. My hope is that I'll be able to get up to 8 tabling within a few months. But anytime I try, I'm unable to get reads, and make the best decisions. Then again, I used to think it was impossible to get reads while 6 tabling, and I learned to do that. So we'll see.

Lookin forward to posting some numbers on how the month went (assuming I don't trainwreck the end of it.) Just need to finish strong.

Read o' the Day. This one is so sick.

Tim Duncan's voice sounds a lot like Tiger Woods, I never noticed that before.

Quick update on how things are going this month. So far I've put in 72,037 hands. I've already played more hands this month than any previous month of my life. I'm happy about that. I honestly didn't know if I could play this much. But I'm fine.

I'm a little behind pace though, for getting 120,000 hands in. I'm having doubts that I will, but who knows.

Yesterdays session kinda sucked. Got into a lot of awful spots, and didn't trust my reads enough. In one hand I rivered the nut flush, but the board paired and a very tight player shoved all in. I timed all the way down and grudgingly called and he turned over what I knew he already had...a boat. Spots like that make me mad because I feel like I'm good enough to avoid them. That's where I can save money that other players can't.

Anyways, there were a lot of spots like that yesterday that I felt I could have saved money by not paying people off, so I ended up quitting early. But now I'm getting behind where I want to be in terms of how many hours I get in per day/week. I don't want this to become an excuse in the future. I'm gonna have to learn to play through things like that.

All in all though, the month is going well. Don't wanna post any numbers though. Maybe at the end of the month.

Read of the day.

I've read rumors that Orlando is looking to land Gilbert Arenas when the time comes. I honestly hope they get him so that the last bit of team chemistry that they had from last year can be completely dissolved. I'm always amazed when teams don't quite understand what it is that makes them good. Orlando was tough because of the matchup problems they gave so many teams. So they go out and get more traditional sized players in the off season and let go of their big time 4th quarter player, Hedo. If Arenas comes in, I think that would seal their fate as a mediocre team. They're dropped down to the 4th seed in the Eastern Conference, and look crappy every time I watch them.

Not to pat myself on the back, but I was right again about my early season assessment of who the best teams were. Dallas is sitting at number 2 in the West. And Cleveland is rolling through just fine. And Mark Jackson is an idiot who doesn't know shit about basketball.

His "elite teams" in the east and west (aside from Boston and LA....but he doesn't get credit for those, since everyone knew this.) were San Antonio and Orlando. And both of his elite teams are sitting at 4th in their conference.

Meanwhile the Cavs, that continue to get no respect by anyone (this past week on TNT, both Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley said they were not a better team this year than last) are ripping through the Eastern Conference. As far as I'm concerned, they are the team to beat this year.

The only team with a better record is LA, and their record is bogus. They've only played 15 away games so far. (And really, only 14...since one is in the same building against the Clippers.) Also, against top 10 teams, the Lakers are 5-6, while the Cavs are 9-3, and a lot of those wins by the Cavs were on their opponents court.

They're the real deal this year.

Watching the Houston Minnesota game on League Pass right now. This game is fucking ridiculous.

So far I've put in 46,051 hands this month. Some days it's a grind, but for the most part, it makes me happy to play so much. In the short span of 12 days I've been doing it, I already feel like it's made me a better player. I hope I don't get lazy.

I also noticed I'm winning the rake race at the moment. Dunno if I'll finish in 1st by the end of the month, but it would be nice, as it's an extra $2k.

::

As it stands now I'm close to being on pace to getting in 120,000 hands for the month. I wanted to do more, but I have to start somewhere. My previous best is maybe 60,000. So I'm happy with things so far.

::

I'm playing in a few of the UBOC events later this month. Mostly I'm excited for the 4-max event. And I may hit up a few of the 6 max events as well. Hopefully I can make a deep run in one of the earlier events, and I'll use the winnings to play in one of the $1m guaranteed tourneys. There's a $1000 buy in event and a $2,500 buy in one. Would be nice to play in one of those. You never know what can happen, and I'm playing really well lately.

I guess that's it.

Haloscan stopped their free commenting system. So I paid $12 to get Echo comments...they're on the bottom of the page if anyone cares.