Dragonystic

2011-06-13T19:45:00.004-04:00

Been a while since I've posted. Black Friday was so depressing I could barely think or talk about poker for a month. Friends whom I normally talk to about poker, I ignored. In fact, I still can't really talk about it. I lost $17k that day, that I'm quite certain I'll never get back. On top of that, I lost my source of income.

After I got my bearings, I deposited onto Merge. I spent a few weeks playing 2c/4c, just to get used to the new software. I also have been teaching myself to 9 table, instead of 6 like I used to. It's starting to feel normal now. I don't feel overwhelmed by doing it anymore.

The biggest thing for me now is getting back to 200nl where I can make decent money. I've been building up my roll all the way from those 2c 4c games. I spent time at each level, 10nl, 25nl, 50nl. I won 30 buyins quick at 50nl to get to 100nl. And that is where I spent the last 5 days playing...dropping 15 buyins in spectacular fashion. So today I went back down to 50nl to grind up again.

I feel like a mouse, running in a mousewheel. I feel like im in a dark tunnel with no light at the end. This may sound emo and all, but the amount of money I had saved up is quickly being used up. When Black Friday hit, I had about $15k. $3k in bills per month gives me a 5 month window to get my shit together. I couldn't even play the first month, and I've now spent about a month working my way up to 50nl. I have maybe 3 months of bills I can pay.

I'm a nervous wreck a lot of the time. I took up smoking again. I have to get back to atleast 100nl and grind, then make enough money to withdraw, then wait for the cashout to process (which is taking forever these days obviously.) Then hope the check doesn't bounce. Oh, and I have to hope that I don't run way under EV. A hope that was dashed on my first attempt at 100nl. I played really well and ran into a slough of 2,3,4 outers, amongst random cold decks. I could feasibly spend 3 months just getting my roll in order and getting used to playing 200nl.

It's quite difficult to move up through stakes fast, and adapt to a new set of players. Takes a while just to get used to all of the regs. And the tables are very reggy. Thankfully a lot of the regs are fairly bad, but still, I don't expect to win at anything above 2ptbb/100. Even that sounds quite nice at this point. The other day I was on 9 tables, and counted 3 donks combined at all of the tables I was on. The rest were regs of varying skill levels.

So ya. Things are shit now. And I don't really see an end to the shit for the time being. I'm planning my life around playing 150k hands a month. What else can I do but grind all day? I feel isolated and it weighs on me. Playing online poker for a living is bad enough, but to basically be tied to your desk all day with little choice on the matter, is fucking brutal.

Oh, and I also have to hope that Merge doesn't get shutdown soon. I could get my roll back in order, be comfortably playing 200nl in 2 months (and this is if things go well) and then have Merge get shut down by the DoJ. I would then have no money, no job, and no prospects for a new job. I would basically be fucked in every possible way, and this is a legit possibility.

I think about these things every night when I go to sleep. Makes it hard to sleep. Atleast I get to live in a country where I'm free.

2010-11-08T16:59:00.002-05:00

I've only been playing sparsely the last few days. I bought a new computer and I've been setting that up. I had almost forgotten how much work it is getting a new computer; finding all of the newest drivers, troubleshooting programs that are being glitchy (i.e. Steam,) setting up HM and importing all of the hands I had in my previous database (I said fuck it after importing all of my hands from this year. That's all I need.) The list goes on and on. I've probably spent 20 hours on it so far, and it's finally stablizing and not being weird.

I think it's worth it though. I bought a Radeon 5700, and I can play L4D2 with most of the settings maxed out, and a super smooth frame rate. Makes the game even more fun. It also has 2x-Dual Link DVI. So I could add another 30in monitor if I wanted to. Right now I just have the one 30in, and I flipped my 24in onto it's side. Makes a nice space. But I would like to get another 30in at some point.

Poker hasn't been very kind to me this month. Dropped 5 buyins yesterday in the few hands I played, but I was 4 buyins below EV. Didn't really feel bad about my play except for one hand, which I've been mulling over for a while.

I 3b JdJx from the blinds. TAG smooth calls, and flop is KJx with 2 diamonds. I bet, get called. Turn is another diamond. I bet, get called. River is obv a diamond, putting me in an awkward spot with the third nuts. I check and guy bets $155 into $200, or something like that. And I grudgingly call and he has AdKx. I think I should probably c/f against this specific reg, but I'm so tilted about my sets turning into spots like this on nearly every occasion, or atleast in the big pots, that I end up calling because I'm so frustrated. These kinds of calls have been costing me quite a bit of money. They're the kinda calls I was talking about in a post I wrote a few days ago.

I really wish I could stop making them. And I usually don't at the beginning of a session. But something happens after I take about half a dozen beats, and I can no longer think through hands as well. And I end up making these kinds of poor calls. I should probably just quit when that happens. But I keep telling myself that I need to learn to deal with this kind of stuff. Quitting feels like running away. But it's costing me money. Ugh.

2010-11-02T13:40:00.003-04:00

Played just under 6k hands yesterday to start the month. Got owned pretty hard. And I also got really frustrated while playing. I can't seem to start months off well anymore. First few days I usually get buried in a hole that I have to spend the rest of the month digging out of. I'm kind of sick of it. Would be nice to start a month off on a good foot.

But I'm really trying to stay disciplined and not turn into a huge calling station. Was tough yesterday while tilting, and getting raised constantly by very strange hands. In one spot I turn barrel an OESD and face a raise deep stacked. So I call because of the implied odds, and I brick. River goes check check and he turns over ace high, no draw. Another hand I turn barrel NFD when it brings the third club. Short stack guy shoves all in with third pair, no club. And it holds.

This kinda stuff makes me paranoid, for more reasons than one. But the point was that after seeing hands like the ones above, it makes it hard to not go into calling mode when I have an overpair and I face a turn raise from a reg. I think I avoided turning a bad day into a total trainwreck by not paying people off in those spots. (Or maybe I just hope that.)

I Kinda Wanna Start Blogging Again

2010-10-31T21:11:00.002-04:00

The last four months or so, of poker and life, have been quite a ride. And it is making me want to blog lately. I doubt even some of my friends know that I moved out of Ohio. For certain reasons, I don't want to say where I currently live. But if anyone cares, you can message me on AIM or email me. (And I'll also show you why I don't want to say where I live.)

But it's been an interesting year for me. I've been changing my game a lot, constantly trying to get better. Ultimately what I've found is that all I need to do is play solid and not tilt. After so many years of striving to improve my game, nothing seems to win as well as when I'm not overreaching in hands, not trying to constantly outplay my opponents. But rather letting the game come to me.

For the most part, the cards will determine the proper action to take. I've become too obsessed with outplaying people, and making sure I don't get outplayed myself. What this has done is turn me into a calling station on the river, as I don't want to get bluffed. And I'm giving away massive amounts of money doing this. I think I continue to do so because every once in a while I pick off a bluff and it reinforces the bad habit.

I need to just accept the fact that sometimes I'm going to get bluffed, and that is not a bad thing. It's poker, everyone gets bluffed, everyone folds a winner sometimes. It's not a big deal. But the wrong adjustment to make is to start calling down marginal hands all the time.

I find myself in so many marginal spots where I'll face a river bet, and my initial instinct is to throw away my hand immediately. Then I think about it for a while, notice a draw or two that villain could have been on, then go against my gut reaction and call, only to see what I knew he had the whole time...a better hand.

::

A few months ago I put in the most hands I ever have in a month, about 102,000. I ended up only winning about $7k poker-wise. I then went through all of my river calls for the month, and kept a tally of how many losing calls I made. And I don't mean in spots where a call would be reasonable. I mean where I am calling and all I beat is a bluff, and his hand doesn't look like a bluff but I call anyways.

Usually it will be anywhere from $75-150 a night. It doesn't sound like a lot. And when you win $1-2k in a session, it is very easy to overlook. But when you do the math, and it was sickening to my stomach to actually do the math, I found out that I was literally giving away thousands of dollars a month because I've become too much of a nonbeliever. My WSD (went to showdown) stat has risen from 20-21% all the way to 26-30%. Some sessions I'm even higher, and it's not because I'm playing a different style that requires this kind of WSD adjustment. It's mostly because I'm too paranoid that people are constantly trying to outplay me.

So this is the main thing I'm trying to work on. I looked back through some of my best months of poker in previous years. February of 2009 was especially good. I won like $15k in 22k hands. And all I did was play very solid, and fold when I know I'm beat. My WSD that month was 21%.

I'm trying to reconnect with the tight nitty player inside me and streamline my game again. The games are a lot more aggressive these days, so it's easy to fall into the trap of calling down more. But in reality, despite the higher levels of aggression, people still aren't constantly bluffing the river.

I'm hoping in November I'll be able to mimic my play from early last year, where I was getting better and also made the jump to 2/4. This time around though, I want to stay up there. And hopefully all of the experience of the past few years will propell me to do that.

My goal is to play atleast 100k hands in November, win at a solid rate (anything above 3 is good.) And hopefully start mixing in some 2/4 tables again. Hopefully I'll be able to blog from time to time as well. Because I think it's a helpful thing to get my thoughts out. So keep checking back, and if I don't post, yell at me or something.

2010-04-21T00:16:00.004-04:00

*read previous post first, this is a continuation*

Hand 1.

Here I flop top pair top kicker. And I just check to him. Now if he never folded to cbets, obviously I would never do this. But this particular player folds to cbets routinely. So why bet?

People might say..."well you want to protect your hand, otherwise you let draws go for free." This may have been true years ago, but almost no one checks behind with a draw anymore. If you miss a cbet, they bet. And if they have a draw, it's not like they are folding anyways. So by checking you get a ton of value from all of their air hands that they are forced to bet because every coaching site and strat forum says to.

Same deal on the turn. There's really no point in betting. If he has air, he'll fold, and if he has top pair, or even worse, he'll likely bet it. My hand looks like air, so he'll often bet third pair, or underpairs, making sure I don't hit whatever hand I'm going for.

So I check call the turn.

By the river, either opponent has a real hand, air, or a marginal hand. If he has me beat, obviously checking is best. If he has air, checking is best. The only time checking sucks is if he has a bad top pair, or good second pair that he would otherwise be willing to call. These situations are rare. There's only 2 kings left in the deck for him to have. And he might just bet anyways, since my hand looks worse than top pair.

Or you can just lead the river for some value. I usually just check. Plenty of players have that third barrel in them these days. That I'd rather just let them go nuts.

Hand 2

Here I flop pretty good. An OESD, and my pair is likely good too. Most people cbet here. But I'd rather just check and make it look like I don't like the flop so villain can bet. I have a hand I can call with atleast twice. And on the river, I didn't believe him and looked him up, and won a nice pot with my 2nd pair.

Had I cbet I might have put myself into a much worse spot. If he raises the flop or the turn, it's a rough spot and I'll have to fold. And if he calls twice, and I don't complete my draw, the river plays pretty rough. Would be harder to call the river after I bet twice because his range will be a lot smaller if he has a hand good enough to call twice. But when I check twice to him, his range is still everything he was willing to call with preflop.

Hand 3

Crater is a pretty tough reg. If I bet the flop he probably folds. Or at best, he calls once, and folds the turn. Either way, check calling twice maximizes value against him here. I'm pretty sure he thought he was value betting twice.

Hand 4

Here I do something a little differently. I miss my cbet, and call a bet. Then I lead the turn and river for value. Villain was a tight reg, and I'm convinced this line got as much out of him as possible. If I cbet, he will probably call once, but that would be it. But with this line I win a pretty nice pot in a spot where I should not win that much.

Hand 5

In this spot, villain is actually a huge donk, and not a reg. But check is still good. Aggrodonks can't help themselves. And I win a $137 pot where if I cbet, I probably just win the $23 in there on the flop.

I keep finding more and more awesome spots where checking seems way the best option. Especially in spots where I can't really get 3 streets of value. Against tight regs who won't call 3 times with top pair, I just check and let them bet. Like if I have KQ and the board comes Kxx. There is almost no chance a tight reg will call 3 bets with KJ. But if I check call twice, and then bet a small bet on the river, they have little choice but to call against such a weak and weird line.

Another hidden benefit of missing cbets is that if the flop goes check check, villains refuse to believe your turn bet. The next hand is an example of that.

Hand 6

In this hand, villain can't get away from KQ, even though I 3bet the turn, indicating a lot of strength. But how many good hands could I show up with after checking the flop? Not many. Had the river not been an ace, I suspect I would have stacked him.

Now you might be thinking that in this hand, if I just bet flop and turn, he's never folding. That's probably true. But he probably wouldn't call the river, or atleast not a big bet. Also, the pot would not be as big. The pot was only $12 on the flop, so even full PSB's on flop and turn only get the pot to $108. (And actually less, since I didn't consider rake.) And he might not call both PSB's. So to be able to get the pot to $146 on the turn, and have my hand look suspicious is a huge advantage.

So that's what I've been up to this month. And it's making poker more fun. I find myself being able to read hands better playing this style, and it also trips up a lot of opponents. Yes, sometimes I let villains catch up for free, but people are gonna hit cards regardless of what you do. I think this style of play is becoming optimal given game conditions these days. If everyone around you wants to bet so frequently, you no longer need to do as much betting yourself.

2010-04-20T23:56:00.002-04:00

Been doing a lot of thinking about my game lately, as well as just poker in general. Online poker is evolving so quickly, the game is quickly escalating into aggro wars, even amongst the donks.

I recall the reason, several years ago, why I started upping my betting frequencies. It was because this was the only way to get paid off. Games were filled with more passive players. So you bet more.

This isn't how things are anymore. I think this requires a radical change in strategy. C-betting is all the rage now, and has been for some time. But is this really for the best anymore? I don't think so.

It's becoming commonplace that anytime you miss a cbet out of position, villains will automatically bet, and usually two barrels. The more aggressive ones will routinely 3 barrel you when you miss a cbet, surmising that if you don't have a hand good enough to cbet, you can't stand to call down 3 times.

Even donks now do this. Most donks are aggro nowadays. If you miss a bet, they bet.

So what I've been doing lately is just check/calling my top pair hands for 2 or 3 streets, on most boards. And it's paying off huge. So many times I go check-call, check-call, and the river goes check check and I win with a crappy top pair hand and villain turns over total air that he would've just folded had I cbet. I could post so many hands where I win way more than I possibly could have if I bet.

Another hilarious spot is when I check raise a flop cbet, and then check the turn into the preflop raiser. They basically always fire, it's a riot. So I've been check raising my sets, and then check shoving the turn and villains usually spaz out and call with top pair.

This month I've gone into a very nitty solid mode, playing the most insanely boring ABC style of poker, and I'm ripping through everyone because no one knows how to slow down anymore. Most regs are combatting the rising aggression in todays games by playing even more aggressive!

I'm doing the opposite. There's no longer any real need to "advertise." Remember that concept? Playing loose a little bit so people pay you off? That concept does not exist in 2010, as nobody folds.

What's even better is that now I look like a fishreg to a lot of the other regs. Most of the time, when a reg sees you do something different than what they would do, they automatically categorize your play as bad. Few players seem willing to consider that alternative styles of play can be more profitable. When I flop tptk and go c/c, c/c, I look so weak. Nevermind that I got tons of value out of total air, and minimized my losses when I'm beat.

Anyways, what got me thinking along these lines is I started going over some hands of another $1/2nl reg who wins at a very good rate, and plays a mostly passive game. At first I thought he must be doing something really special to be winning at such a good rate over such a long period of time. And as I poured over thousands and thousands of his hands, I realized he was owning everyone by letting everyone own themselves.

Go to any online strat forum and post a hand where you flop good and don't cbet. It's a sin! People will literally laugh at you, and call you a huge donk.

In my next post I'll post some hands and show just how effective it is to let everyone barrel your missed cbets.

2010-04-20T00:07:00.002-04:00

Might be the best call of my life. I wasn't planning on calling. I was getting ready to just fold and my brain wouldn't let me fold. I was getting that weird feeling...dunno how this happens. But I just knew. I probably shoulda shoved though so I win against A high too.

2010-04-09T15:54:00.001-04:00

I am endlessly cursed.

2010-03-17T20:59:00.000-04:00

Ya, okay.

2010-03-10T13:31:00.002-05:00

Guy was playing 86/13, spewing money to everyone. This is the first big hand I played with him. Then he gets me again in an even grosser hand.

There's this gem. Against another crazy loose player.

This one too... against a drooler, playing something like 42/21, and with hyper aggro post flop numbers.

Another perfect turn card... in a spot where he's already committed and there's less than a pot sized bet that's going in no matter what hits. Therefor he hits his weird 5 outer.

I have no idea what this is. Can someone tell me what this is? I guess he was just like "eh, fuck poker, here have my money." He insta left after the hand was over, I don't even think he looked at the results, simply assuming he wouldn't win, since you know, he had 7% equity.

Runner runner to crack yet another overpair. Granted, I didn't like my line. Even during the hand I felt I should raise the turn. (Though that would have only added to my losses.) Would be a better line.

These are only from this last 1500 hand session mind you. Just today. I also had trip kings snapped off, another spot where I lost with KK, overpair, facing a lot of heat in a really bad spot, so I dunno what the guy had. And I bricked out all of my good draws in all of the medium sized pots.

This is every session.

2010-03-09T12:26:00.002-05:00

I don't get it. I really don't. This guy isn't even a huge retard. He plays 21/13. Everyone just knows their gonna own me. So he calls with...no pair, no draw, no overs. And hits running perfects. What the fuck?

2010-03-09T00:06:00.002-05:00

Repeat this hand a dozen times, and you have my day today...my losingest day of $1/2nl of my life.

Congratulations to everybody for not missing a draw or a 2 outer for 3,500 hands. That's impressive.

All Aboard the Run-Bad-Forever Train

2010-03-06T22:53:00.002-05:00

Woo Woooo

Just another day of finishing $1200 down in all-in ev. Ho hum.

2010-03-06T14:54:00.002-05:00

Dude gets my aces twice in like 10 minutes. How does this happen? In all the hands I've ever played in my life, I don't think I've ever snapped AA off the same guy twice in 10 minutes.

Could you be drawing more dead on the flop?
Awesome.

Also this one... in the same 10 minutes span. I'm running so bad in all-ins this month.

2010-03-03T00:28:00.002-05:00

What an interesting day today was. A lot of it I probably won't be able to properly explain. But I'll try.

I started out the day on a quick heater, running up $1k+ in less than 400 hands. It was mostly just running good, none of the hands were all that interesting. Won a 400bb pot with JJ v AJ, AJx board...and a handful of other cold deck style hands.

Nevertheless, I felt like I deserved these. Afterall, I've been running like dirt for a solid 50k hands. Anyways, I gave every penny back, and more! I went from up $1k, to down $200 in a few hours. Ugh. I was not mad, more demoralized.

But I picked myself up and hit the tables again for a second session, which I lost as well.

So I went and ate and did things, then came back for my third session of the day. And this one did not start out well. In fact, it was quickly becoming a trainwreck.

Was all in preflop with KK v QT (yup...) and I flopped top set, but he rivered a gutter. Literally at the same time on the table below I have aces up against a guy with a gutter, and 2 outs to his set...and he rivers a set on me. A short while later I get all in on the turn with AQ on an AT65 board against a guy with just A4...he rivers a 4. And to cap it off, I flop a sick monster draw against a guy with aces....KdQd, on QxJd3d board...and get it all in again, and brick out for another stack.

At this point I'm basically numb. Just flat out numb to the beats. I'm not angry, I'm not upset, I'm nothing. Just sitting here staring, nothing. A blank slate.

Now something shifts in my game. I'm no longer even thinking about anything. I'm just looking at the hands and doing whatever action feels best. And I start ripping through everyone. I shoved all in one hand with a busted flush draw on the river after villain c/r'd me on the flop, and fired the turn. He folds. Then I raise a guy's small $35 into $90 river bet to $135...and he folds. And it wasn't that I was tilting and just playing like a maniac.

Once I stopped thinking, I just started playing how I already know how to play. And so many things came together. I played a full hour+ this way, and eventually quit when something came up. But it reminds me that I have a wealth of experience that has honed my instincts into something often better than what I can achieve by thinking through every hand.

This is what losing does to me though. It turns me into a thinker (and a doubter.) I start questing every fucking facet of my game, even mundane decisions. "Hmm, should I really 3b KK here?"

Now I will say that this approach has certainly forced me to improve my game a lot over the past few years. But it has its limitations, and I need to play by feel more often. I think it's when I'm at my best.

Anyways, I ended up turning the day around, and won near a grand...would have been more if I didn't run so bad in all of my all-ins. But whatever. I'm excited to play tomorrow and see if I can get in a good zone again.

2010-03-02T12:48:00.002-05:00

No good call goes unpunished, does it? I've been gutted half a dozen times today already. How does this happen so many times?

2010-03-01T23:34:00.002-05:00

Put in 5451 hands to start March. I mean business! This might be the most hands I've ever played in a day. Dunno. But I eeked out a win for the day, after starting out miserably.

Very first hand I play I get minraised on the flop by total air. He had 72 (on a non seven-deuce table, mind you) and minraised the flop of T64...no flush draws. The runners come 5, 3, and he makes a straight, and I'm already thinking "geez, I'm gonna pick up right where I left off huh?"

Next pot I play I again get minraised, on a different table, by bottom pair bottom kicker and he gets there. Then I flop a flush against a guy with just top pair, and he goes runner runner to boat up.

And I'm steamed. Prior to the session I gave myself a peptalk, telling myself to remain calm no matter what. Yeah, that went out the window. To cap things off, I raise JJ, get 3b, flat it. Flop comes AJx. And I run into a set of aces.

But I just kept telling myself to fight through everything...and I managed to pull back to even, and then win for the day. So I'm pretty happy about that, even though it's just one day. It's always nice to get things going on the right foot.

Want to have a big month this month. Need to stay focused and motivated.

2010-02-26T13:31:00.002-05:00

So I decided on a course of action. I'm taking the rest of February off. No point in continuing to slam my head against a brick wall. And then I'm gonna hit the tables like I did in January, play a lot. Disregard results. If I breakeven, I breakeven. But I have to atleast put in the time and effort. I can't control the cards.

I'm not gonna stop studying either. I'm trying to come up with a schedule of studying, to make it routine. What happens when I win is I start thinking "eh, I'm winning, I don't need to study." Then a week will go by. And I might start doing a few stupid things, and getting overly tricky, and my fundamentals go to hell. Before I know it, my game is in a funk and I'm trying to claw my way out.

I think it's best if I study first thing when I wake up, before I hit the tables. I like to go over turn and river c-betting situations, and keep an agressive mindset. I'll use HM to filter those spots from my opponents, and I'll watch replayer go through 20-40 hands. This gets me in a good frame of mind to play.

::

How bout Cleveland marching into Boston and crushing them by 20. Oh so sweet.

2010-02-24T16:27:00.003-05:00

Right now I'm 4 tabling, trying to get back to basics. I might 4 table for the rest of the month, it's less stressful, and I can focus on each hand more. I just want to make sure I'm not doing anything stupid.

It bothers me that I'm going to fall well short of my goal of 100k hands. I'd be suprised if I hit 60k. But what bothers me most about this streak is that it's brought my winrate for the year down to about 1.9BB/100. I am so much better than this.

I work so hard on my game, I rarely take a day off. And the few days that I do, I study hands and opponents. Where are the rewards? Why aren't I winning at higher rates yet? I can't remember the last time I ran good, I really can't. I'll have a session or two that are good. But it's always mired within awful breakeven stretches. I ended last year on a breakeven. And here I am breaking even again.

I don't know what the fuck to do. I don't what else I can do.

2010-02-23T21:42:00.002-05:00

Dear god. I thought things were going bad before. I've never experienced anything quite like what I've experienced today. I don't even know what to say at this point. I'm basically stunned into silence.

2010-02-23T00:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I've finally calmed down a bit. This month has riled me up, but it's also forced me to look at my play. I think I've been pressing a bit. Trying to push thin (sometimes imaginary?) edges, and becoming somewhat paranoid that everyone around me is constantly trying to exploit me. Sometimes I'll get in this mode where I can't lay down top pair, despite every sign being there that I'm beat. I'll rationalize it by saying that if I fold then my opponent can just walk all over me.

The problem is that 1) most opponents aren't doing this and 2) I should atleast have some evidence that this is taking place before I start calling check raises, and multiple barrels with just a pair. Either seeing villain show up with air or seeing them do it several times to me. Instead I'm just taking things personally.

This has happened in the past a few times, and it usually spurs on a really long breakeven stretch. This happened when I got coaching, and I can see it happening again. The good thing is that I've noticed it before it has had the chance to stretch into several months of breakeven awfulness.

I've spent the last 2 days getting my head right, and going over some hand histories of a few regs that I respect. Sometimes I forget just how profitable solid poker is. I'll get too far away from fundamentally sound poker, and think I can just muscle my way through tables. I'll usually experience a short burst of success, and then that will be followed by a lot of losing.

In any case, I'm once again optimistic that I can hit the tables and play well. Something I haven't felt in atleast 2 weeks. I'm neutral on whether or not I'll start winning again, but atleast I can play better.

2010-02-21T18:25:00.002-05:00

I have this filter I made to review my sessions. It's where I play the pot (VPIP) and where I won or lost more than 9 BB's. Basically, it is all of the larger pots I play.

At $1/2nl all time (every hand I have in my database): I average +$9.25 per pot. This covers close to a million hands, so it's safe to say that is a longterm type number.

This month I'm averaging $4.06 per this type of pot. May not seem like a big difference. But that $5.43 difference over 1468 hands. Which is to say, I'm basically running $8k below expected in these kinds of pots.

It's all of the medium pots. They add up. I can't win any of them. I flop trips with the nut kicker, turn is an 8, and I instantly hate my hand. I know I'm gonna lose. Every hand is like this. I'll make a monster draw on the turn. Guy will bet into me and I'll raise huge. He'll call with third pair. I'll brick 16 outs, and he'll win at showdown with his third pair, and I have no idea what is going on anymore.

Now you may think "well, you gotta fire that third bullet." Nope, that doesn't work either. I fired the third bullet 3 times today, somehow they had it every single time, inexplicably.

I fucking hate this game.

2010-02-21T17:18:00.003-05:00

I'm at my wits end. I really am. This month is such a pile of shit. It's a never ending joke. Where hands like this are the norm. I don't know what the fuck to do. I really don't.

2010-02-19T14:24:00.002-05:00

This is the month of being unable to fade gutters. I get sneaky for one hand, against a guy with ridiculous post flop play. Everytime it was checked to him, he snap PSB, without fail. So I decided I'm gonna check/call two streets and let him hang himself. What's worse, his gutter is my top 2. I have so many hands like that this month it makes me wanna throw up.

2010-02-17T23:09:00.003-05:00

Well, it looks indeed like the Cavs have made a trade. They are getting Antawn Jamison for Z and some draft picks. I'll say that they got a lot more for a lot less than I thought they would. I think this is a good move for Cleveland.

But a part of me feels somewhat sad for Z. He spent his entire career in Cleveland, battling injuries, and going through losing season after losing season while they rebuilt. And now, on the brink of a championship, he's being shipped off. He was always one of my favorite players, it's hard to see him go.

Ultimately though, I think Cleveland just got better. (Which is kinda scary.) When I wrote about possible trade scenarios in my last post, I thought we'd be getting rid of more players, and most worrisome for me, the thought of trading J.J. Hickson.

I don't like to see young talent go. People may forget, but Shannon Brown was drafted by the Cavs in 06. Wish he was still over here. We also had Carlos Boozer before he ended up in Utah. But at the same time, I understand the need for Danny Ferry to do whatever he can to bring a championship before LeBron is a free agent.

The next 6 months should be very interesting for NBA basketball.

2010-02-17T00:17:00.002-05:00

All these trade rumors surrounding the Cavs right now are really scaring me. Possibly picking up Amare from the Suns, or Jamison from the Wizards. And letting go of some combination of Z, Hickson and Moon. I'm against all of these ideas. Mo and Delonte go down, and we still rattle off 13 wins in a row. This isn't the same team as last year. The Cavs should stand pat. They have great chemistry, and plenty of size now with Shaq. Bringing in new players will just unbalance things, and there's only 28 games left for Cleveland.

I know the all-star break just happened, but that isn't really a half way point anymore. The Cavs have played 65% of their schedule. Trying to acclimate new players into the system in the last third of the season, while riding an awesome win streak, is possibly the worst thing Cleveland can do.

::

Speaking of the all star break, was that the worst dunk contest in history?

2010-02-16T13:29:00.002-05:00

Need to vent. This month has been really bad. Started off in a $2500 hole to dig out of, through the first 20,000 hands. Then I finally got back to even, and then started winning again. I was starting to get more optimistic, had a plus $1,000 session. And things were going better. And I immediately gave it all back and more. And now I'm sitting in a hole again, close to 40,000 hands into the month. It's been so frustrating.

Several times I've lost with sets on 2 different tables to flush draws getting there. In just my last session of only 350 hands I had...a set of aces lose to a flush draw, a flopped nut straight lose to a backdoor flush draw and a flopped top 2 lose to a combo draw.

The above series of hands has, more or less, been every session I've played for the whole month, minus that one good session where I ran up $1k+. So I think I'm gonna take a few days off and get my head right. I just don't feel like I can hit the tables and play my best, although I do think I've played really well for the month, despite losing. It's difficult to beat opponents who have the deck hitting them in the face all month.

I went to the library today and got 3 books I've been really wanting to read. So I think I'm gonna read for the next few days and try not to think about poker. Let my mind clear, and then come back in a few days and try to put in a lot of hours. Whatever, we'll see how it goes.

2010-02-15T19:27:00.002-05:00

Another awesome day where I win 38% at showdown. But that's every day, so I should be used to it by now.

2010-02-09T12:53:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-02-08T00:29:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-02-04T23:18:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-01-31T20:45:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-01-31T15:12:00.001-05:00

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

2010-01-26T02:14:00.001-05:00

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!

2010-01-25T23:04:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-01-23T11:07:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

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

2010-01-20T14:52:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-01-18T11:12:00.000-05:00

Read of the day.

2010-01-17T21:47:00.004-05:00

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.

2010-01-13T23:35:00.000-05:00

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

2010-01-13T00:03:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-01-12T11:25:00.001-05:00

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.

2010-01-05T23:13:00.003-05:00

So far this year is going much how I had hoped. Not in terms of winning money, but being able to put in as many hands as I want.

Hands by day:

Jan 1 :: 4506
Jan 2 :: 4504
Jan 3 :: 4150
Jan 4 :: 4196
Jan 5 :: 4004

It's been somewhat hard, but not as hard as I had expected. I thought it would be grueling. But, I just tell myself I'm playing cards all day and I don't have a choice in the matter. It's easy to do things when you have no choice.

So far I'm running like shit EV wise, but I'm playing really well, and that's all I can do. Don't wanna put up any numbers or even really look at them until the end of the month.

::

The most pleasant surprise is that I think I'm honestly playing better than I normally do. Something happens after you grind for 4-5 hours...I really get in tuned to everyone and make some incredible plays. I called a river bet a few days ago with K-high and it was good for a $150 pot.

Plus I've been able to work through the dreaded sessions where I'm down a grand or so and have put in several thousand hands. In the past, I'd just quit and call it a day. But now I'm forcing myself to work through them. I can already see it's making me a better player.

Well I guess that's it. Wanna update more often this year.

2009-12-29T12:23:00.002-05:00

Been a while since I really posted how things are going. This was easily the most frustrating year of poker for me. I moved up to 2/4 full time for several months, only to eventually be forced to move back down. And upon moving back down, and getting coaching, I continued to lose.

I tried to change so many things about the way I played, and it pretty much all backfired. I have a graph from my past 600,000 hands or so, here. The initial green lined upswing is just me playing normal poker, trying to learn, but mostly playing ABC. The downward red line (the worst thing I've even gone through) is when I started trying to change what I did. I was 3 betting more, 3 barrelling more, looking for more spots to take the pot down. The red line also represents when I started getting coaching.

It was grueling. I would argue with my coach about things, and situations. And basically disagree with what he told me, but I'd follow his advice anyways while I played, because I wanted to give it a fair shot. I played a solid 100k hands before I eventually gave up trying to play the way he told me to.

The very instant I changed back, and I mean the very first session...I started winning again like normal, and pretty much at the pace I did before, if not slightly better. I can honestly say I learned a lot during that 3-4 month stretch (where I didn't make any money,) but it was hard earned knowledge. And it was probably more knowledge about myself as a person.

I've never tilted so hard either; cussing people out, constantly in a bad mood. It looks like a small blip on a graph, but when you live through it, it's all encompassing.

::

In any case, I haven't played much this December. Too many things were going on in my personal life that I don't wish to discuss. But I have a lot of ambition and motivation for the new year.

I'm going to be trying to play 4-5,000 hands every day, if not more. This is a tall order, as I've never averaged more than 2,000 hands for a month. But I have a lot of motivation, and these days I have the time. I need to spend more time at the tables and just get used to putting in full days, rather than leaving when I get upset.

So I'll probably be posting more. I'm sure I'll have a lot to vent about. In order to put in that many hands per day though, I'm going to have to get better at controlling my emotions. At this point, I don't feel like the improvements I need to make as a player are strategic. I've studied the game enough to know the proper play in most scenarios. And though I admit I can still improve, I think the best improvement I can make is not tilting, and remaning calm through adversity.

But as the great sage, Mike Tyson, once said: "everyone has a game plan until they get punched in the mouth." The real test will come when I'm in the middle of a session, having put in several thousand hands, and still down a grand or whatever. Will I be able to play through it, and play well. The only way to get in a lot of hands is to be able to not care about daily results.

In order to help me do that, I'm going to keep HM open only to the main tab, and I don't have any of my $ won/loss numbers there. So I'm going to try to stay blind to how I'm doing. I was able to do this rather well for the 15k hands I put in at the beginning of this month. If I can not pay attention to how I'm doing, and just focus on playing my best, I think that will give me the best shot of controlling any emotional/tilt issues I might have.

And hopefully, after a few weeks, it will feel more normal to play so many hands and I won't have problems working through long sessions. It's certainly going to be a work in progress type thing. But I really want it this year.

This is the year I really try.

2009-12-05T21:13:00.004-05:00

I just thought of an awesome holdem variant. Instead of the hand going to the river and then showdown, you keep having more streets of cards; river, sixth street, etc etc...until all in or everyone has folded. I call it Endless Holdem.

2009-11-30T01:18:00.002-05:00

Just a heads up...I'm going to be making this blog private in a few days. I don't post all that much anymore, but if anyone would care to continue reading, lemme know and I'll make sure you have access.

2009-11-13T03:45:00.000-05:00

...

2009-11-04T23:36:00.003-05:00

Things are still utter shite at the tables. Hands like this are so common as to be mundane. 97% favorite on the flop, and I know somehow, the runners are gonna fuck me over...and they do. And the sick thing is, I could easily find several dozen more hands just like this from the past week. And the week before, and before, and before...for 4 months now. It just will not end. I really don't understand what is going on anymore. Just look at my PTR graph...it's a 200k+ hand trainwreck. Such a joke.

2009-11-02T18:07:00.003-05:00

Time to whore my music site again. It's just a bunch of hour long dj mixes of house music, mostly tech and deep house to be specific. It's good!

2009-11-01T05:14:00.003-05:00

Don is right, I should post more about the NBA, since I don't care to talk much about poker. I liked how so many guys in the media were blasting the Cavs after starting out 0-2. Instantly they were out of the discussion as to who are the elite teams in the NBA. Barkely said it's the Magic and Celtics in the East, and the Spurs and Lakers in the West.

Also, during the Lakers Mavericks game the other night, Mark Jackson said something along the lines of "far and away, the Celtics are the best team in the east."

I find statements like this to be laughable. I mostly chalk them up to speaking loosely, and in the moment. It's different when you're announcing a game and just randomly shooting things off the cuff. But maybe he really believes this, I dunno. It's still a fairly stupid thing to say.

People quickly forget, but the Cavs started out last year poorly as well. They lost to the Celtics on opening night just like this year, then they lost to New Orleans in their third game. So they started 1-2 last year, just like this year.

And what does all this mean? Nothing. An 0-2 start is 2 games. % wise, it's not even equal to half of an NFL game. The NBA season is long. Even the 95 Bulls had a streak of losing 2 games in a row, and they only lost 10 games the whole season. Drawing anything from 2 losses, unless you're in the playoffs, is just a waste of time. And really just highlights how little a lot of media guys have to talk about.

And after tonights win, the Cavs are 2-2, and everyone will forget their 0-2 start in a few weeks when they are 10-3 or whataver. It's a joke.

::

Another thing I find funny is how people don't seem to understand just how much luck there is in basketball. Sure, if you take 2 teams that are mismatched skillwise, the better team will prevail a lot of the time. But take last years Magic Cavs matchup in the playoffs. Prior to the series, most people picked the Cavs to win, though most also said it would be a tough series.

The point is that whichever team you think is best, it's probably a 55/45 type situation. No team was significantly better than the other. And the series could have gone either way. But once it's over, it sort of becomes cemented into peoples minds. "Ah, the Magic won. They are the superior team." And maybe they were, it's difficult to say.

More things worked against the Cavs than non Cavs fans would know about in that series. And luck can take many forms in a playoff series. I consider it bad luck that they swept their first two opponents before playing the Magic. It made for an extra long layoff in between series' as the Magic went to 7 games with the Celtics. The Cavs didn't play for 9 days I think. Now everyone knew this, but few people probably realize how much that effects players like Ilgauskus.

For whatever reason, it always seems like it takes him a game or so to get into the swing of things after a long layoff. That was again evident in opening night this year against the Celtics where he shot terribly. But now he's shooting good again, it just takes him a few games.

Secondly, when you roll through two teams you don't get a chance to feel that unique playoff pressure that accompanies a loss. Losing a playoff game isn't like losing a regular season game. And it shook their confidence a little. The Cavs were riding a high going into that series, and the Magic stealing game in 1, at the Q, where they were virtually unbeatable the whole year, hit them too hard. It would have been much better if they experienced their first loss in the first or second round.

In a way, that makes me happy that they lost the first 2 games of this season. Struggling is how you learn to overcome. No team in the NBA has enough talent to just rip through the playoffs anymore.

In any case, I still think the Cavs are gonna win 60+ this year. Few people seem to think this. Which I also find humorous. They're basically the same team as they were last year, +Shaq. Unless you are of the opinion that Shaq will be more detrimental than helpful (I can see an argument being made for this, though I don't hold this opinion) than it seems absurd to think they won't have about as much success as they did a season ago. FWIW, my prediction for their regular season is 62-20.

::

Lastly, I think the Mavs are gonna surprise a lot of people this year. I honestly believe they could win the West and make the finals.

2009-10-12T18:27:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted. I haven't had much desire to post about poker. It's going as awful as I've ever seen in my 4 years. It's worse than I had even thought was possible to be quite honest. Every session I leave just stunned and confused and full of doubt. And then I regain my composure, look at the hands from the previous day, note that they are all bad beats and cold decks, and then hit the tables again, only to experience another collection of some of the sickest beats imaginable, and in succession.

A quick warning here, I'm sure this whiney post will be absolutely annoying to read. I'm not even posting this shit for the enjoyment of anyone to read. I just need to vent.

From today alone...I was dealt KK twice...

Flop top set in a 3 bet pot...but that's no match against someone with a gutshot!
KK again... but obviously he has AA. I only run into this one every session.

Random hands from the last few months...

Flop top set... which is a marginal hand, but I decide to get frisky and go with it.
KK all in preflop against an erratic 52/36 retard who can't fold. Obv he has to have AA.
Yes, I lucked out cause I'm pretty sure he has AA, KK or QQ. I mean I only lose to one flush, AdKd, cause he's never 3betting a worse 2 diamond hand preflop.

Top set... nope. There isn't much of a chance that is any good.
All in with KK again. I can breathe a sigh of relief...he doesn't have AA. Oh nevermind.
Set of K's vs Set of A's ...lol
QQ v JJ all in preflop ...
Flop top 2... you know he has bottom set. We can safely check/fold probably.

KK... what on earth could he have.
Flop trips against a guy bluffing. Don't worry, he gets there.
Flop trips again... against a guy with lone top pair and no redraws.
TPTK against total air/undercards.

Those are just from this past week...moving along.

One of the grossest hands of my life. Get all in with the nut flush...on the turn for 3 stacks. Ship the $1200 pot to the other guy please.
Top set you say? Yeah I know the drill.
****TOP BOAT? Ok, I finally win a hand. I'm sure of it.
TPTK vs...wtf
AA v AK all in preflop.
KK you say?
rinse repeat

2nd Nut Flush And you know the old saying, if it's not the nuts, it's not a winner.
KK v AA ldo
AA v AK again all in preflop. Not a chance.
this is getting old
Flop a set vs a gutter

You're joking right?
Can I please just take the split?
All in with a set vs a guy with a pair and no draws.
Another failed set.
Not again please.

A ha! This time I have the aces.
Flopped trips vs 2 outs.
Nut flush is not the nuts.
Top 2 is no match against a guy with 3 outs.
Top 2 again...
Top 2 vs bottom set

I honestly have no idea what the hell this is?
Flop broadway against a guy with a pair.
TPTK against...a draw.
Flop a boat in a 3b pot. That's a good thing isn't it?
Flop a set in a 3b pot. Against a guy with a pair.
Heh, I thought making my set was a good thing.
Set. Lose.

Trips over trips, all in. And I'm on the good end of this one, or so I thought.
Another KK all in preflop.
Top set...
AA vs a pair

There are so many more, just from the last 6 weeks. This shit is endless. This is my graph for the last 550k hands or so. To put into perspective how awful I'm running. No previous downswing can match this one...and I'm not even including $2/4 there, where I dropped $15k in 2 weeks to a bag of comparable beats...including my favorite...losing a $1600 pot with AA all in preflop against KK.

Alright, I'm sick of this post already.

2009-09-08T01:07:00.003-04:00

I was too tired to blog too much about the tourney. But I went and got some food, and now I'm feeling better, so I wanted to write a little bit more.

People are always touting the Stars software as being the best. That it may be, but I must say that I was quite underwhelmed by a few things in this last tournament.

For one, your time bank never refills throughout the WHOLE tournament. By level 4 I was out, and had to play the final 6 or 7 hours with absolutely no time bank. I actually timed out of two hands, and one of them was very important (the other one I probably would have folded anyways.)

Here is the bad one. I time out with AKs after a raise and a reraise. Now this was likely a very costly fold. This guy had a 3b of 13%, and on the button it was even higher. I'm not very worried that he had a better hand. I was measuring out what I wanted to raise, and just like that it folded me with no warning, due to me not having any time in my time bank...

Which brings me to my main beef with the Stars software. Unlike any. other. poker. site...Stars doesn't feel the need to visually show you or tell you in any way how much time you have. On AP you get a clock shaped ticker. On FTP you get that red to green bar or whatever that is. On Stars you get nothing! You just have to guess how much time you have left to act. And if you have no time bank, you better play like you're on a turbo table.

This is very bad for a WCOOP event. Sometimes you just need a minute to think. I play tournaments very deliberately, since every decision counts so much.

The other hand I timed out was later in the event when I was moderately short stacked. I raised with 77 and got 3b from a tightish player. I was thinking about what to do, and again...timed out. Very frustrating.

It boggles my mind how Stars can have the best customer support, and best software, and a million different options for multi tablers, and yet still doesn't have a rudimentary thing like this. Seriously, this should have been remedied 5 years ago.

2009-09-07T22:48:00.002-04:00

Finished 92nd in the 4-Max event, out of 3854. Won a cool $1100 or so. But I'm disappointed. Even a mediocre run of cards would have kept me in a lot longer. I was at several tables with 3 donkish players who would have happily handed me chips if I could either get dealt a hand preflop or make a hand postflop. Lost a bunch of gay hands in the last hour and finally busted with TT v QQ all in pre when I had 10 bb's.

But PokerStars deserves credit for a great structure. I was low for long periods of time, but never had to resort to push/fold tactics. And even still, 92nd isnt terrible.

I'm only scheduled to play one more, but now with $1100 more to work with, I'll probably enter the $1,050 NL Holdem event tomorrow. Although maybe not, as 9 hours of poker today has kinda wore me out.

2009-09-06T19:51:00.002-04:00

Finally upgraded my monitor to one of these. It is so much nicer grinding on a 30in monitor. I can easily put 6 tables on it, and 9 if I shrink them just a little bit. Decided that it would probably pay for itself, and make my life easier, so the $1150 expense isn't too bad.

Lately I've been 8 tabling $1/2nl. Might do this for a while. It's much lower stress, and my roll was hit hard last month. But I've cleared 6 or 7k in my first few weeks back here. Starting to feel somewhat normal again. Though still running moderately crappy.

::

Played in the opening WCOOP event. Not much to say, was one of the most boring tourneys I've ever played in. I hovered around even for like 4 hours, then busted on a flip. Didn't get dealt anything the whole time. I believe I had KK once, and everyone folded. Not much to say.

I'm currently in Event 11 of the WCOOP. It's the $530 2-Day event. First place is a sick $472k. But I've drawn probably the worst table in the whole event. Seriously, so far it has been me and 8 other FR grinders. The loosest player is 22/16. The rest are 10/8, 15/8, 7/7...etc etc. It's ridiculous.

Hope I have something nice to post in the next 24 hours.

2009-08-27T02:33:00.003-04:00

Things are still pretty crappy at the tables. I'm on the worst downswing of my life at the moment, and it's becoming quite prolonged. I've done everything I can to try and turn things around...but so far it has been futile.

I've even had to drop back down to $1/2nl, to no avail mind you. Somehow, everybody has a set every hand. And I'm in the red with fullhouses for the month, something that I didn't think was even possible.

Despite these things I'm still optimistic. I feel like I've played surprisingly well regardless of how awful things are going. Something I couldn't do in the past. I keep shaking sessions off, getting my mind right, and heading back to the tables to get another ass kicking. Oh well.

I feel like I'll come through this one a better player, and hopefully win at even higher rates than before. I just hope this ends soon.

2009-08-16T20:31:00.002-04:00

Ok. I do this every year, so I'll do it again. I think this is my year for the WCOOP. That tourney win gave me a lot of confidence, atleast for other tournaments (things are still in the crapper at the cash tables.)

In any case, here are the list of events I'm playing.

Sept 3, $215 Holdem 6-Max
Sept 4, $109 8-Game
Sept 6, $530 Holdem 2-Day Event
Sept 7, $215 Holdem 4-Max (probably my best chance at winning any of them.)
Sept 20, $215 Holdem $1Million Guaranteed

If I money any of the earlier ones I'll use the winnings to enter a few others. I kinda wanna play the Razz event. It's boring, but full of dead money. And I'd like to maybe play a HORSE one too. A big cash would be nice because then I'd enter the Main Event. Has a $10Million Guaranteed prize pool this year. But I don't feel like tossing $5k out of my bankroll to play it. Hopefully I can make a deep run in the 4 or 6-max event. The 8-game is just for fun, but I'm competent in everything except PLO.

Who knows.

2009-08-14T03:21:00.003-04:00

A good one.

I'm very happy with my ability to see through people's bs these days.

Here is another one.

The weird thing is, there's really nothing I can say about the hands that would give insight into why I called down. There's something about poker that a hand history can never capture. I don't even know what that is. But when you play with people for a while, sometimes you just know.

I surprise myself with how often I know exactly where people are at in hands. The hardest part is listening to your intuition. More and more these days I'm just going with whatever my gut tells me. Even if it seems retarded.

Here is one more.

I hope I can get to the point where I totally trust my reads, and I win or lose based on the quality of my reads. There's plenty of money to be made by playing solid, but there's another level beyond that. I've had glimpses of what it's like to play where you know where everyone is at for like 15 minutes or so. It often happens when im not paying attention, but im also not splitting my focus with tv or whatever.

2009-08-09T21:15:00.003-04:00

Just shipped my first big cash in a tournament. I suppose it was only a matter of time. Well, not really, I never play these stupid things. I hate tournaments.

But AP started "The Donkament." Buy in was 10,000 FPPs, and it was a $50,000 prize pool. I beat out 563 players. The only thing that is weird is I don't really know how much I won yet. The prize pool in the lobby was also frequent player points. So right now I have 1,400,000 FPPs sitting in my account. (Worth about $10,000.) But it clearly says in many places, that it is a cash tournament with cash prizes. So I think it's just a glitch, due to the incompetence of AP.

Secondly, it was a $50,000 tourney, but there was only $39,000 worth of FPPs in the prize pool. So it's hard to say how much I won yet. But it should be about $12k.

Ship it!

2009-08-05T13:13:00.002-04:00

Think I'm gonna take the day off. Things went poorly yesterday as well. I'm lucky that I kept $3,500 sitting in my rakeback account. I always do that so if things go really badly I can stay afloat by withdrawing it all into my poker account.

Here are some of the beats just from yesterday.

Seat 2: SYNODIC ( $412.00 USD )
Seat 3: FLUSHED_OUT25 ( $309.70 USD )
Seat 4: SHOMPI ( $1377.21 USD )
Seat 5: BADBERT18 ( $717.35 USD )
Seat 6: 7TEMPEHEAT7 ( $425.60 USD )
Seat 1: OTSOA69 ( $394.05 USD )
FLUSHED_OUT25 posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SHOMPI posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ 8h 8c ]
BADBERT18 folds
7TEMPEHEAT7 raises [$14.00 USD]
OTSOA69 calls [$14.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$14.00 USD]
FLUSHED_OUT25 folds
SHOMPI calls [$10.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, 8s, Qd ]
SHOMPI checks
7TEMPEHEAT7 checks
OTSOA69 checks
SYNODIC bets [$45.00 USD]
SHOMPI raises [$156.00 USD]
7TEMPEHEAT7 folds
OTSOA69 folds
SYNODIC raises [$353.00 USD]
SHOMPI calls [$242.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2s ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qs ]
SYNODIC shows [8h, 8c ]
SHOMPI shows [Qh, 9h ]
SHOMPI wins $851.00 USD from main pot

Seat 3: SYNODIC ( $476.50 USD )
Seat 4: ANYLIVETWO ( $374.30 USD )
Seat 5: ILEMON ( $479.60 USD )
Seat 6: MARCLAR3 ( $417.60 USD )
Seat 1: ULTRALYONS ( $315.75 USD )
Seat 2: THEFLOW ( $403.00 USD )
ANYLIVETWO posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
ILEMON posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Kd Kh ]
MARCLAR3 folds
ULTRALYONS raises [$8.00 USD]
THEFLOW calls [$8.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$38.00 USD]
ANYLIVETWO folds
ILEMON folds
ULTRALYONS calls [$30.00 USD]
THEFLOW calls [$30.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, Tc, 3s ]
ULTRALYONS checks
THEFLOW checks
SYNODIC bets [$72.00 USD]
ULTRALYONS folds
THEFLOW raises [$365.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$293.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
** Dealing River ** [ 2s ]
THEFLOW shows [3c, 3h ]
SYNODIC shows [Kd, Kh ]
THEFLOW wins $846.50 USD from main pot

(the above kinda beat, where I squeeze an overpair prf, and then villain flats with small pair and hits their set, has happened 3 consecutive times.)

as in here...

Seat 5: FLYINGDONUT ( $3.00 USD )
Seat 6: IAMMAVERICK ( $795.00 USD )
Seat 1: SYNODIC ( $419.55 USD )
Seat 2: KASLAN ( $785.10 USD )
Seat 3: KIDCHESS88 ( $933.50 USD )
Seat 4: RON UBL ( $228.50 USD )
SYNODIC posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
KASLAN posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
KIDCHESS88 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
RON UBL posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
FLYINGDONUT posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
IAMMAVERICK posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
IAMMAVERICK posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ As Ah ]
KASLAN raises [$12.00 USD]
KIDCHESS88 folds
RON UBL calls [$12.00 USD]
FLYINGDONUT folds
IAMMAVERICK calls [$10.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$58.00 USD]
KASLAN calls [$50.00 USD]
RON UBL folds
IAMMAVERICK folds
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 7d, 9c ]
SYNODIC bets [$85.00 USD]
KASLAN raises [$170.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$271.55 USD]
KASLAN calls [$186.55 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Qh ]
SYNODIC shows [As, Ah ]
KASLAN shows [7s, 7c ]
KASLAN wins $863.60 USD from main pot

and here...(although I would have ran into AA anyways.)

Seat 4: YELLOWDAWG ( $771.00 USD )
Seat 5: MARCLAR3 ( $426.00 USD )
Seat 6: SYNODIC ( $463.00 USD )
Seat 1: BUZZ68 ( $430.75 USD )
Seat 2: CRATERING ( $400.00 USD )
Seat 3: L TAKA ( $916.45 USD )
BUZZ68 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
CRATERING posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
L TAKA posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
YELLOWDAWG posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
MARCLAR3 posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts ante of [$1.00 USD].
MARCLAR3 posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SYNODIC posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Kh Ks ]
BUZZ68 raises [$12.00 USD]
CRATERING folds
L TAKA folds
YELLOWDAWG folds
MARCLAR3 calls [$10.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$56.00 USD]
BUZZ68 calls [$48.00 USD]
MARCLAR3 calls [$48.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 3s, 6d, 7d ]
MARCLAR3 checks
SYNODIC bets [$115.00 USD]
BUZZ68 raises [$369.75 USD]
MARCLAR3 calls [$365.00 USD]
SYNODIC calls [$254.75 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 5s ]
BUZZ68 shows [Ah, Ac ]
MARCLAR3 shows [7h, 7c ]
SYNODIC shows [Kh, Ks ]
BUZZ68 wins $9.48 USD from main pot
MARCLAR3 wins $1277.52 USD from main pot

Seat 2: TUNAPHISH ( $403.00 USD )
Seat 3: SYNODIC ( $858.50 USD )
Seat 4: SOLOD ( $425.50 USD )
Seat 5: COOKEMAN23 ( $1192.75 USD )
Seat 6: GUIGUI_88 ( $432.30 USD )
Seat 1: 7TEMPEHEAT7 ( $400.50 USD )
SYNODIC posts small blind [$2.00 USD].
SOLOD posts big blind [$4.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SYNODIC [ Ks Kh ]
COOKEMAN23 folds
GUIGUI_88 folds
7TEMPEHEAT7 folds
TUNAPHISH raises [$12.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$38.00 USD]
SOLOD folds
TUNAPHISH calls [$28.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2c, 8c, 9c ]
SYNODIC bets [$57.00 USD]
TUNAPHISH calls [$57.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9s ]
SYNODIC checks
TUNAPHISH bets [$111.00 USD]
SYNODIC raises [$531.00 USD]
TUNAPHISH calls [$195.00 USD]
SYNODIC wins $225.00 USD
** Dealing River ** [ Th ]
TUNAPHISH shows [7d, 9d ]
SYNODIC shows [Ks, Kh ]
TUNAPHISH wins $806.50 USD from main pot

Thats enough boring HH's. I'm sure things will turn around at some point. Dunno when that's gonna happen. But atleast I can be happy that I've avoided tilting rather well. I usually tilt much worse when I run bad. I could see being down $20k if I started spewing left and right.

In any case, I still think it's a good idea to take a day off and clear my head. Not think about poker shit for a day if possible.

2009-08-03T20:29:00.003-04:00

Wellp, things have taken a turn for the worst. My 2 worst days of my entire career have both happened in the past week and a half. $3k+ losses both times. Just getting destroyed no matter what I have. It's really disgusting.

Think I'm down $15k for the past month. I'm almost to the point where I might have to drop back down to $2nl, which I really really really don't want to do.

The sickest thing of all is that I've been playing quite well. I don't think I've ever played better in my life than I have been the last few months. Been studying like crazy, and really focusing at the tables. I even self banned my own chat so I couldn't get distracted while playing.

Don't even have the motivation to play anymore. I feel defeated. I'll make a sick read on someone, get my whole stack in on the turn against just a draw, and it won't make any difference because draws do not miss against me.

Normally I'd post 20 sick hands, but what's the point. Probably a bad idea to dwell on the awfulness of the past month. All I can really do is just play solid and hope I pull out of this bullshit.

::

On another note, variance is a sicker thing than most people realize. I've been plugging in numbers into this variance simulator that I saw on 2p2. Even 100,000 hands is nearly meaningless. Almost anything can happen.

I'm so sick of some of these people who have run good for a short time and think they are amazing players. And I'm more convinced than ever that the people who carry 5ptbb+ winrates for 250,00 hands or whatever are really just the players who have run the best out of all the regs on a site. Put in 100 3ptbb/100 winners into a variance simulator for a quarter million hands and 8-12 of them always end up winning around double what they should. And a few who win half of what they should.

I'm not saying anything one way or the other about where I fall in there, but I don't think the highest winners at $4nl, atleast on AP, are really that good. A few of them are, but even more of them unwittingly run ungodly well. And for their good fortune, they feel superior to the other regs and talk condescending shit. (Which is a side reason why I keep the chat turned off these days.)

Here is that simulator I was talking about, if anyone is interested. And a normal SD is about 50 for a 6-max NL player.

I just did one simulation, with 10 players. All 4ptbb/100 winners, with a SD of 50, over 250,000 hands.

The lowest $ winner was $5,200, the highest was $18,000. And it's the same skill level. But one player gets 3x the winrate. Why? He ran good. For a quarter million hands. For a lot of players that is atleast 6 months of play...and maybe more. And you can be pretty sure whoever that player is...he's ready to talk shit about everyone else who didn't run as good as he did.

I guess the lesson is, slow and steady wins the race.

2009-07-11T20:14:00.002-04:00

Every once in a while I feel like I should post how things are going at the tables. Here are my first 90,000 hands of $4nl since jumping up there this year. Not great, not terrible. I see a lot of room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy that I've been able to maintain almost the same winrate that I had at $2nl. I thought I'd have a sharp drop off.

I'm also happy about my winrate since I practice basically no table selection whatsoever. I'll sit with 5 regs, I don't care. It's not an ego thing, it's probably neutral or slightly -EV, in the short run. But I figure if I'm going to play higher I better get used to playing against regs. So it's good practice if nothing else.

A lot of my previous misconceptions about midstakes games have been shattered. Sure, there are better regs, and more of them. But there are still fish, and reg fish. I'm reminded of something I read from a fellow player on 2p2, who said that as you get better and better you classify more players as fish. I see that happening with myself. A year go, if I saw a table with all 21/17's sitting in, I would run away. Now I look to exploit each players weak tendencies. Some regs fold way too often to c-bets, or not enough. Some fold a ton to river bets, or again, some not enough...etc.

Which ever way it seems like the player leans, I try to push on that. The scary thing is how much room for improvement I still see in my play. I miss value bets frequently, I make calls when I should know better, I chicken out still on calling hands that I'm pretty sure are bluffs, especially if I'm having a bad session. I also need to open up my 3betting more. So I definitely see ways to win at higher and higher rates. I hope I can get there, because my roll is almost ready for $3/6nl.

2009-07-05T22:04:00.000-04:00

Everyone please take a moment and sign this petition. And if you're a blogger, please just put up a quick post with this link in it. Only take 37 seconds, I counted.

2009-07-03T20:15:00.001-04:00

Have to post this one. I just knew it. Guy was livid afterwards.

2009-06-28T16:13:00.003-04:00

Wow. Could this NBA offseason be going any better for Cleveland? (The answer is no.) They pick up Shaq while giving up very little. But the key to this trade, like any trade, is how the pieces fit. Shaq to Phoenix was awful, and I predicted it. He didn't fit, and it wasn't hard to see. I'm genuinely surprised people who know basketball so well, like Kerr and D'Antoni, couldn't see something so obvious.

What is even more obvious is how well Shaq fits in with Cleveland. And again, I'm surprised at what a lot of analysts are saying about the trade. Most are saying it doesn't help the Cavs out very much. They are very wrong. Shaq fits perfectly with what the Cavs already do; running a half court offense most of the time. There shouldn't be any problems with cohesion. They don't have to change anything really.

Secondly, Z and Andy will still get tons of playing time. Shaq will only play 55-60 games, and he won't be stacking on heavy minutes either. So people wondering what will happen with Z don't really understand the situation at all. Z is still going to get a ton of playing time and be a solid backup. How many teams get a 7'3 center with an excellent mid range game coming off the bench?

So the Cavs match up very well now with Orlando. Howard had trouble getting things going against the Celtics, and it wasn't because of lack of touches like he thought. It was because Big Baby and Perkins kept him out of the lane with their huge bodies. Howard is a beast, but he has very underdeveloped legs. And he still can't muscle through the larger defenders. This is the only reason the Magic made it through the Cavs in my opinion. Shaq will keep Howard away from the hoop and force him to make hook shots or free throws. (And Howard still doesn't have a jumper.)

On top of that, Hedo opts out of his contract with the Magic...AND they trade away Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, and Tony Battie to get Vince Carter. This is a truly puzzling move. I understand why they let go of Alston since Nelson will be back next year. But Courtney Lee is one of the best young talents in the Eastern Conference. I think they're gonna regret this the way Dallas regrets letting go of Devin Harris. What exactly does Vince add to the Magic? It's like they don't understand what it is they do.

The Magic space the floor with Howard in the middle and shooters around him. Carter isn't a 3-point shooter. And he's undersized, which now gives away the size advantage the Magic had over many teams. Carter also prefers playing around the key area most of the time. This is gonna make it easier for teams to collapse on Howard. Before, you had to keep Hedo honest since he could hit the 3. But if you see Vince Carter out there, you can leave him to double Howard. Or if he plays inside, again, you can double on and off. It's gonna be a lot harder to have a well spaced floor with Vince in place of Hedo. And it's going to be a lot easier to defend the 6'6 Carter than it was the 6'10 Turkglu.

Really poor off season moves by the Magic. They're gonna have a tough time even making it back to the Conference Finals. And great move by the Cavs. If they stay healthy...they should dominate again this year.

2009-05-26T20:02:00.002-04:00

I'm so disappointed in the Cavs so far this series. I can't even watch anymore. I'm taping the game tonight, and I'll check the score around 11pm or so. I'm only watching it if they tie the series up, otherwise it'll be depressing to watch.

It's such a shame too. If you've only been watching the conference finals, you'd think the Cavs were a mediocre team that was being carried along by LeBron. But the entire regular season, and the first 2 rounds were completely different. Z, Mo, Delonte, they all helped out a lot, and shot the ball well. Ilgauskus can't make anything. And Mo is sucking out loud. People are saying the Magic should be up 3-0, but in reality it could just as easily be the Cavs up 3-0. Delonte missed a wide open 3 at the end of game 1. And if they could hit a bucket in game 3, they would have had a good chance there too. Instead LeBron bricks 4 free throws, and Howard luckboxes 15 of 19 from the line. (Run good?)

As god awful as the Cavs have played, they've been in all 3 games. Now if they could just shoot the ball like they have all season, they'll run the Magic out the building, take back home court, and win this series. For the love of god, somebody make a shot!

2009-05-19T09:44:00.004-04:00

So I went 4-0 on my 2nd round predictions after getting killed on my opening round ones. Having said that, the conference final matchups are going to be very hard to predict. Both series could go either way.

Denver is actually playing really good team defense in the playoffs; something that I thought would keep them from success in the playoffs. But they've stepped it up. And they can beat the Lakers. They match up really well too. Much better than the Rockets did, and the Rockets took them to 7 games.

Denver can match the size of the Lakers. They're a long team. Carmelo is 6'8 I think, and K-Mart is 6'9. And they have the 6'10 Birdman coming off the bench too. So the Lakers won't be able to own the offensive boards like they did against the Rockets in several of the games. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, Denver is just as physical as Houston. And LAs kryptonite is physical teams. They're still soft in my opinion. And they still have mental lapses on defense.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Denver is gonna beat them. And it might be a pummeling if Denver can grab game 1.

As for the Cleveland Orlando series. This is another interesting one. I was happy to watch Boston lose game 7 on their home court (ecstatic really.) But I would have preferred the Cavs see Boston. They could sweep the Celtics. But Orlando is a much different team. So how do the Cavs match up?

Pretty good. Of course there is no answer for LeBron. So let's move on. Ilguaskas will be the key in this series. Dwight owns the paint, but Z can shoot 20 footers like nothing. And Howard will eventually have to come out and guard him. He'll simply have no choice. Z can even hit 3 pointers, so this will keep Howard 15 feet away from the basket very often. With the floor open like this, LeBron and Mo will have a field day. Other than Howard, they lack a strong defensive presence. And I expect the Cavs to have an easier time scoring against the Magic than they would Boston.

But things are more tricky on the defensive end. Let's face it, Ilguaskas won't be able to guard Howard by himself. He's gonna need help. And this will leave some of the Magic shooters open. And this is the key for their team. They do well when they shoot the 3 well. And they suck out loud when they shoot poorly from 3. Thankfully, 3point shooting isn't particularly consistent, and the Cavs have good perimeter defenders (LeBron and West.) So unless the Magic can shoot lights out for most of the series, they're gonna have a hard time. I'm takin' the Cavs.

So let's say, Denver in 6.
Cleveland in 5.

2009-05-17T06:55:00.002-04:00

I am having a blast playing $4nl these days. I'm winning at a decent rate, but that's not the fun of playing. The regs are better, but that makes for more interesting play. There is a rationale behind their plays that goes beyond "I have a hand, so I should bet," or "I don't have a hand, so I should check."

Take this hand for instance. Here is a hand that basically never happened at $2nl or below. There simply aren't regs there who are willing to 2 barrel an OESD and then fire a bricked river. But at $4nl, it's very different. That's probably why it took me so long to finally jump up. I was playing the same style, and it wasn't as effective against players who will play this way. (I also ran $4k below all in equity. lol)

I have half a dozen hands like the one above just from this month alone. And not all of them were correct. But the point is to be thinking through each hand, assign a range to villain, and act accordingly. Even if that means calling river pot sized river bets with K high like in my previous post. Or marginal hands for river PSB's.

The regs who do the best at $4nl all seem to have the ability to make some super sick calls. As well as the ability to put out bets that put opponents to the test. Here's a river bet with a busted combo draw. This is something I rarely did in the past but have noticed all the winning regs do. So I'm looking to incorporate bets like this into my arsenal. It also helps that lrdofdarkness is a really good, thinking reg. I would never try this against a non thinking player who is just gonna call with an overpair or tptk without realizing what kind of range I have in this spot.

So it's been a lot more enjoyable this past month playing these tables. I'm not getting in as many hands as I used to, and that's the only thing upsetting me at the moment. I stop a lot of sessions quickly if I lose a few buyins to avoid tilting. And I also quit anytime I notice I'm not focusing like I should be. I find I do terribly if I try to autopilot the $4nl or $6nl tables. A few times I've hopped on some $3/6nl tables and dropped $1200 in 15 minutes right after waking up from a nap. This wasn't a problem at $2nl. I could be sleepy or zone out and do just fine. But I can't do that anymore. So I end up getting fewer hands in since I don't wanna be at the tables unless I'm ready to play my A game.

I've been using HM as a tool to keep me on my A game. Someone on 2p2 posted that they review hands before they play. So I started doing that. And I've noticed it really helps. I'll watch 20-50 hands in the HM replayer and just pay attention to what is going on in every hand. This only takes like 10 minutes, and then I'm ready to play.

One last thing I've been doing again is printing out hands of my opponents and studying them when I have free time. I have my poker binder sitting on my coffee table. Anytime I'm just sitting there I look over hands from the tougher regs while I drink coffee and try and absorb everything that they do; both to figure out their tendencies, as well as find new things to add to my game.

I think it's paying off too. I've put in a ton of work on my game the last 5 months. And for the year I'm winning at 5ptbb/100. A winrate I never thought I'd keep at $2 and $4nl. I still think I have a lot of ways to improve. So I'm looking forward to the rest of this summer. I'll have a lot of free time so I'm going to continue to study hard and try and play consistently at the $6nl and hopefully the $10nl tables too.

2009-05-08T23:08:00.000-04:00

Fun

Been reading hands really well lately. Playing 2 or 3 tables helps.

2009-05-03T15:39:00.002-04:00

Well my bracket got torn to shreds in the first round. But that's not going to stop me from making more predictions!

Orlando > Boston.
LA > Houston.
Denver > Dallas.
and the Cavs will beat Atlanta, verily.

I'm gonna go 4-0.

2009-05-02T03:00:00.003-04:00

Wellp, I've finally jumped up to $2/4nl for good. It's taken a dozen tries, but I'm pretty set at those tables now. Last month I 2 tabled $4nl, and this month the plan is to 3 table it. I honestly don't expect to play anymore tables than that in the future. Poker is more fun when I'm not just coasting on autodrive. I enjoy thinking through every hand, and looking at every opponent and figuring out how to exploit them. I'm still obviously learning, but I think I can hold my own against most of the regs; a few of them are still giving me probs, but that is just more opportunities to learn.

Here are my stats for the first 15k hands I've played there this year. I realize it's a small sample, and I could break even for the next 60k. So this isn't really a brag pic. I'm simply happy that I've busted out of the $2nl rut I was in for a year.

My goal for the next few months is to average 1k hands per day, and study my opponents as much as I can. The leap to $3/6nl from $2/4nl (a 50% increase) is much smaller than from $1/2nl to $2/4nl (a 100% increase.) So hopefully it won't take me too long to play those tables too. Just gonna take a lot of hard work and focus.

2009-04-26T17:31:00.002-04:00

Why can't people in sports interviews ever answer the question asked? It's an epidemic, and no one ever calls them out on it.

In the 3rd quarter interview with Michael Curry of the Pistons, he is asked "With your season possibly over in one more quarter, how much of what you say to your team is emotional, and how much tactical?"

His response? "We just gotta go out and play hard."

...

2009-04-20T22:53:00.001-04:00

Is this Rick Carlisle or Jim Carrey?

2009-04-20T22:46:00.003-04:00

Well my horses are doing terribly. Dallas looked great in their first game (though awful so far in the 2nd.) I'm amazed at how many blowouts there have already been. That's a rare thing in the playoffs usually, but Miami got owned by 30, Denver won by nearly 30, Houston won by 27, and the Cavs won by 20. Not very interesting to watch, when the game is over by the end of the 3rd. But the Boston/Chicago series is turning into a gem. I really don't see Boston making it out of the 2nd round. Hell, Chicago might get em.

Speaking of blowouts, whats the deal with players complaining about foul calls when they are ahead by 30 in the 4th quarter. I saw Kleiza of Denver whine about a call with 5 minutes left, and most of the garbage players in the game. Who does that?! Aside from the fact that it's totally meaningless, it's also counterproductive, since you will again see these refs later in the playoffs. I wouldn't needlessly antagonize them while up by 30 points and a few minutes to go.

Does anyone actually watch Tyler Perry's shows?

2009-04-17T03:17:00.002-04:00

Here's my bracket for the playoffs that start in a few days. I'm gonna go 13-0.

2009-03-31T22:42:00.002-04:00

I've only played like 10k hands this month. Been taking it easy poker wise, though spending a lot more time doing music. Sorry for the lack of posts.

I went down to Wheeling a few weeks ago and played poker for 2 days. It was a frustrating affair. They only had $2nl tables going...nothing higher. It's quite boring playing those stakes live. I brought about a grand with me to play with, and I ended up losing it all. Mostly due to coolers and bad beats, but I gave away a few hundred just straight up gambling too. Whatever.

I just purchased this from the AP shop with some of my fpps. It's the best tv I've seen them carry (other than those 60+ inch ones, but that's way too big for my basement.) I hope everything goes smoothly with this TV. The last one was a nightmare.

Not much else going on.

2009-03-22T19:51:00.002-04:00

I've started a podcast to host my dj mixes that I do. I doubt there are many readers who listen to house music, but if you want to listen...you can either get them here...

...or you can just put http://amm.libsyn.com/rss into iTunes, or whatever you use for feeds.

2009-03-04T19:36:00.003-05:00

I just got NBA League Pass for the last half of the season. I watch it while I play cards. It's well worth it for $50. I seriously watch 2-4 games a day. But the funniest thing is listening to the announcers from other cities talk about their teams. This is actually something you rarely get to do unless you travel a lot, and watch sporting events while on the road. Otherwise you get to see local broadcasts, or the nationally televised events with neutral-ish announcers.

But now listening to these commentators from other cities, you realize just how biased local guys are for the home team. They point out when the opposing team travels, when the blocking foul was actually a charge, and how the refs are really unbalanced against the ______ [fill in with local team, local player.] Somehow I've never really noticed with the Cavs broadcasters. My theory is that they're the only unbiased ones in the league.

2009-03-01T12:09:00.002-05:00

Well February has come and gone. It was the month, poker-wise, that I wanted January to be, to get me off to a good start for the year. I finished up $15,300 at the tables, and over $17k with bonuses and rakeback, which makes it my best month thus far. So I'm happy with that.

I also don't think it's any coincidence that Feb was my best month and it came right after playing a ton of heads up poker at the end of January. I also made some tweaks to my 6max game and currently feel pretty good about my playing. My hope is that these kinds of months become more common (though I'm sure I can't do $17k every month.)

I've also been playing more $4nl. Put in 4,000 hands of it in February, and I should be able to get in even more this month. I'm trying to ease into $4nl, while playing $2nl when the tables look really good. It helps that my roll is healthy enough to withstand the swings at $4nl.

gl at the tables this month

2009-02-22T11:10:00.002-05:00

Tired thought of the Day: the worst part about this whole recession is having to hear the word 'stimulus' so many times. I now hate the word.

2009-02-22T08:45:00.002-05:00

I've changed things up quite a bit this month. Last month I was 6 tabling mostly and barely breaking even. So I decided to play 2-4 tables this month and really focus on every hand and every table. I've had much better results. I may just stick with playing fewer tables from now on.

2009-02-22T02:25:00.001-05:00

Here is one you don't see very often. I am such a donk.

2009-02-17T22:35:00.002-05:00

Wow. I'm watching the Suns game on Channelsurfing.net, and it is like night and day. They are back to runnin and gunnin, and they are up by 40 points in the 3rd quarter. Granted, it's against the Clippers, but you can just see a new pep in their step.

2009-02-17T21:49:00.001-05:00

Real life calenders are an excellent source of excuses. Happy Fulrade of Saint-Denis Day too!

2009-02-17T06:20:00.001-05:00

Hell yeah!

"We are who we are and I think we have to go back to trying to establish a breakneck pace like we’ve had in the past,” Gentry said at a news conference Monday announcing his promotion.

I bet Steve Nash is giddy.

2009-02-07T16:33:00.004-05:00

How long is it gonna take Phoenix to man up and finally say that Shaq does not fit in to their team in any way whatsoever. Last year there was a lot of "well, we gotta wait and see." And then they get bounced in the first round. Then people were saying "well, they gotta get used to playing with him." And they aren't even in the playoff picture more than halfway through the season, sitting in the 9th spot of the Western Conference.

And last night's game against Golden State, though they won, was really the clincher for me. Shaq gets 2 quick fouls in the first minute and sits down with 10:59 on the clock. The Suns then run up and down the court like they used to and own Golden State the first quarter.

Then Shaq returns in the second quarter and Golden State catches up. It's so glaringly obvious, it's very difficult to watch. Their entire Organization is in denial, and I don't blame Amare for wanting to leave. The lane is too clogged for him to do anything but shoot jumpers when Shaq is on the floor. Watching the Suns these days is like watching a ship sink in super slow motion.

Someone in Phoenix needs to start being honest.

1,001st Post

2009-02-05T20:56:00.003-05:00

Now I can get back to normal blogging.

I was just thinking, if ever aliens attacked us, it would be so unlike anything in the movies. I doubt things would blow up, or that ships would hover over large metropolitan areas. (If they need ships, I doubt they'd even be visible.) I bet it would be more like everyone around you just falling down dead, for no apparent reason. And then you'd die too. It would just look like the soul was sucked out of every human being all at once, because any civilization that could travel the cosmos and make it here would have technology beyond our understanding. Killing us would be so utterly easy. Then again, that makes a poor movie.

1,000th Post

2009-02-05T20:54:00.002-05:00

I've been avoiding posting little stupid thoughts I have because I wanted my 1,000th post to be something worthwhile. I still don't have anything worthwhile, so I'm just gonna put up my Pooh-Bah post from 2p2. It's about losing, and how to deal with it.

::

Losing sucks. But there's no avoiding it. If you play for a living you're going to experience some downswings, and on occasion, some prolonged downswings. I've gone through many, and each time I feel like a better player after going through it. So I want to share a few things you can do to help while dealing with the ass end of variance. Each tip is intended to be something concrete that you can actually do to help the situation! Not just the "don't tilt" advice repeated over and over.

1) Cut back the # of tables you play. If you normally play 4, try playing 2 or 3 for a week. If you play 6, go to 4, and so on. This serves several useful purposes. Obviously, it gives you more time than usual to make your decisions. This is good. Sometimes leaks can develop when you're running bad. And having more time to think over some decisions can seal up those mistakes.

Secondly, you can double check that you are playing optimally in general. It's very easy to auto-pilot when things are going well, and not realize some of your decisions are suboptimal. By cutting back on the number of tables, you can focus on making every decision.

A side benefit of playing fewer tables is that, for the most part, they should be better tables! If your choice of tables at $1/2 has the best 6 tables being 42,41,39,39,37,36% seeing the flop, then playing all 6 will have your average table at 39%. But by cutting out the 2 worst, your average table is now 40.25%. It's not a lot, but if you can play with worse players more often, you'll have a better chance of getting a big hand paid off and pulling out of your slump.

Playing fewer tables shouldn't be viewed negatively either, it's a chance to grow. When you're autopiloting a lot of tables you aren't really learning much. You're applying what you already know to make money. But when you cut back and play fewer tables, you have a chance to focus on each decision and think more about the play of each hand.

Maybe the line you were taking with tpgk oop was not the best and not being forced to quickly click on several other tables will allow you to realize that. Whether this happens or not, you have a choice to either come out of a losing streak as the same player, or a better player. Use the time playing on fewer tables to recraft your game to be even stronger.

2) Book the win. Many poker books and poker pros will tell you that the cards have no memory. Though this is correct, unfortunately poker players DO have memory. And it's the crushing psychological effects that are the most difficult to handle when on a prolonged downswing. To that end, whenever possible, book the win!

Say for instance that you've lost 10 of the last 12 sessions. You feel like **** and your confidence is wavering. Shortly into another session you stack a few players and find yourself up a good amount. I find it best to quit right there and leave the tables for a while. It doesn't have to be a long time. I'll often play a morning session and then a night session in this manner.

Having booked a win in your previous session, you'll have all the time away from the tables to be relieved that you aren't doomed to always lose. Your mind will hopefully click back over to thinking about winning poker and not how you get outdrawn every time. If you come back and win a few more buyins, quit again! Don't play until the following day. You'll likely find yourself out of the hole you were in and back on track.

3) Consult your database. If you play for a living, then you're a long term winner, and you have the numbers to prove it. Don't forget this. It's easy to look at the results for this month or the last 2 months and how much of a trainwreck they were.

But while on a losing streak, this is not best. Pull out the graphs for your last 500k hands. Look at the nice long upward curve (until the end) and remind yourself that you have won for this long, and you will continue to do so. Things didn't all of a sudden change, you're just being tested by the poker gods for a short while...as all players are. Looking at the long long run can really put things into perspective and keep your spirits up.

4) Cash in. This may not apply to all players, especially Stars regs who don't get rakeback. But for those who have rakeback or fpps, cash them in. Say you have a godawful session and drop 10 buyins. Your roll just shrunk by $2k. Now might be a good time to get $1000 pts for cash, and withdraw that $800 sitting on your rakeback site.

All of a sudden your roll is right where it was before the hideous session. Of course you had the money anyways, but seeing your account stay stable through a rough streak can really help your pysche. And that's what downswings are all about. Coping.

So if you can, do whatever to keep your roll where it's at. This can be planned for. Don't cash out of your rakeback site often. Save up your fpps. (Or credits, goddamnit.) And when the time comes, use them to keep yourself afloat, rather than cashing them in when you don't need them anyways.

Well that's it.

::

Since then I've discovered yet another good thing to do. Check Tableratings and look at the "Biggest Losers" section. And just see all the other regs who are running bad, makes ya feel better.

2009-01-22T20:46:00.002-05:00

Things have been going rather poorly at the tables this month. So I've decided to try something new. I've reconfigured my "Reports Tab" in Holdem Manager to take off all of the stats relating to how well (or badly) I'm doing. (bb/100, all-in EV, etc.) I'm just keeping hands played, and some other stats that I might need. I'm gonna try to play an entire month without ever looking at my win/loss results.

I can't tell if this is a stupid idea or the most brilliant idea ever. But I think it has a chance to work out well. I honestly don't even want to know my stats each day, other than number of hands played. And when I'm at the tables I can easily not pay attention to whether I'm up or down. Sometimes I'm quite surprised when I look at the numbers after I'm finished. But I'm going to try to go a full 30 days before looking again. My hope is that this will help keep me from getting too upset at any of the results, and I'll be better able to play my A game a higher % of the time.

Also to note, this is my 999th post ever. Dunno what I'm doing for my next post, but I feel like it should be something special. (Maybe another goat gif.)

2009-01-20T17:37:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted in a while, and that is on purpose. This has been a rough month, in many ways; especially the last two days. I don't feel like writing about running bad at the tables, so I'll write out what has been going on in my life.

My car died a few days ago, just wouldn't start up. My guess was that I needed a new battery. The other one was low for a while, and was already visibly oxidizing on the outside. It also was a piece of shit Econo battery that came with the car when I bought it. So I decided to walk to NTB to get a new battery. It's about a mile walk, and it's about 15 degrees outside. This was not a fun walk.

But I make it there and get the battery and head home. I had forgotten just how heavy a car battery is. Weighs more than a turkey! So here I am trying to lug a car battery home in the freezing cold weather. The coldness is compelling me to keep walking while the heaviness of the battery is forcing me to stop every block and take a breather. This was not a fun walk.

But I make it home. I take out my old battery and start to put this one in. Hmmmm. It's not going in so well. In fact, I don't see any way for this to work at all. They gave me the wrong battery. And let's be clear, the name of the place is NTB...as in National Tire & Battery. They only have to do 2 things, and they gave me the wrong battery. They asked me the make and model of the car, I told them what it was, and somehow they still fucked up.

Well I realize that I can't lug that fucking thing back up there. My arms and hands ache from the laborious walk back, and I'm running on empty in the energy department anyways. So I call a friend up and go back to NTB. "You gave me the wrong battery," I inform the guy. He looks confused and gets a manager. The manager pulls a large book out from under the counter and looks up what battery my car needs. "Oh, I see the problem. Apparently the computer and the book don't match up." I just nod. I have nothing to say to these people. I just want the correct battery so I can go on with my life.

They give me the new battery and I go home to put it in. The car starts up fine and I finally feel relieved. I go take a nice hot shower and try to go on with my day. My mom says she's taking the car up to the gym and I bid her farewell. An hour later she comes home and from the tone of her voice I can tell something sucks. She tells me the car wouldn't start up at the gym and she left it there. Fuck. I thought I was done dealing with this.

I now have to call up another friend (thanks Jerad) to help me try and jump the car. I don't know if that is the problem or not, but that's all I can think to do. So he picks me up and we head up to the gym and try jumping the car. Nothing. I have no idea what to do, and by now it's 9pm and too late to do anything anyways. So I just head back home and drink.

After drinking, I decide it would be a good idea to get an AAA membership. I'll have to pay to tow the car anyways. So I go ahead and join and decide to wait for the morning to do anything about stuff.

The morning comes and I call AAA to get a tow. "Do I have to be with the car when you guys tow it, cause I'm at home right now and my car is at my gym." The woman says she doesn't know, and she'll ask a manager. A minute later she comes back and says that I have to be with the car to show them my license and AAA membership card. She says she is sorry. I'm not mad at her.

So I walk up to my gym (it's about 9 degrees out now) and meet the tow truck people. They are nice and take my car to the nearest Goodyear. I grab a lift with them. The Goodyear guy says it might be a while. So I just walk home from there. My whole body aches at this point. I've been walking around for 2 days now in the freezing cold, and I'm stressed outta my mind. I also take note that the tow truck guy never asks me for my license or AAA card, so I'm confused why I had to even be there. But nevermind that.

Eventually Goodyear calls back and says one of my lines going up to my battery was loose. That is all. So I walk up there and get my car. And finally, hopefully, for the love of ham, I'm done and sitting here with 2 layers of clothing on trying to get warm again and vent this shit off my chest.

So there it is.

2009-01-01T11:35:00.003-05:00

2008 was my best year of poker yet. I cleared just over $50k at $1/2nl (not including bonuses and rakeback.) So that's something to celebrate I guess. I'm not happy with the number of hands I put in though. 346k for the year. That's not really a lot for a whole year. I want to get over 500k this year and have my first 6 figure year of cards. There's really no reason I shouldn't be able to play that many hands now. Especially after UB and AP merged, so there's more tables going in the off hours.

I don't have any resolutions for this year. I know what I need to do, it's just a matter of putting in the work. I've written out a weekly schedule of studying to try and push myself to the next level of play. This involves some days of studying CR videos, some days of going over hands of the more difficult regs, and other days where I look over my own play for the past week. Even a small gain in winrate (say half a ptbb/100) results in $5-10k gains over the course of a year in winnings, so it's worth the effort.

Also to note, I'm only 3 posts away from my 1,000th blog post. Pretty amazing! I never thought I would last this long. Also this will be my 5th year of blogging, which is also amazing. (Though I have been posting less and less the last few months.) In any case, happy new year everyone!

2008-12-26T06:11:00.003-05:00

Had a nice Christmas. Played cards a lot of the day. There are quite a few bad players on the tables during the holidays, it's tough to not take advantage. Even though I deserve the day off. I ended up almost $2k for the day, despite losing several unbelievable all ins. Two different times I 4bet shoved a full stack and got snapped by 66 and 77. Lost both of those flips, and a few other ones which were worse than flips. But I can't complain.

I'm now the 4th highest winner at AP $2nl for the year, which is pretty good. If I wasn't so lazy I feel like I could be first. Oh well. I'm genuinely debating whether or not it is worth it to play $4nl. If you look at the top winners for those stakes at AP, they make basically the same amount of money overall. It's just so reggy everytime I look at the tables. I don't see much of an edge. I dunno, maybe I'll switch sites.

2008-12-18T00:47:00.003-05:00

Been playing some $2/4 this month. As usual, I run as bad as mathematically possible, losing virtually every all in. I'm so cursed at $4nl it's disgusting. For the year at $4nl I'm $4209 below equity in my all-ins according to HEM. Not to mention the cold decks. They just won't let me jump up.

KK v JJ all in preflop
Top set v flush draw all in on flop
Flopped set v flopped flush
Straight gets rivered by donk
Lose flip ldo
QQ v KQ all in preflop
AK v A3 all in on flop

Can I ever jump up and just run average? I don't even want good luck, I just want to avoid getting screwd in every large pot. Is that so much to ask for?

2008-12-10T23:04:00.002-05:00

The AP/UB merger has been interesting. There are about twice as many tables now, and many new regs to get used to. The UB regs play a vastly different style than APers. At first I found it difficult to handle; many 35/30 laggy players. But after adjusting, I'm actually liking it. None of the lags seem to really be any good. They rely on you to tell them when they're beat with a raise on the flop or the turn, otherwise they keep firing. So I've just been slowplaying a lot, and making some looser calls.

I've only put in 10k hands this month thus far, but it's gone fairly well. It's really nice having more tables to select from. There's more regs, but usually a few really fishy tables. Plus now theres games around the clock, even at off hours like 5am.

2008-12-10T20:27:00.001-05:00

2008-12-05T04:35:00.000-05:00

"Much like a fine yogurt, legislative bodies do better when you add some of the old, crusty culture that stuck to the last jar."

Sometimes the Onion is not only hilarious but also brilliant.

2008-12-01T14:55:00.002-05:00

Last month finished nicely. I ended up over $10k, despite running bad for the last week and a half. I was getting kinda drained on my normal 6max games, so I played a lot of heads up over the past week. I've been downloading various Cardrunner tutorials on HU strat, and they've helped a lot. (Though they didn't help me run good.)

The variance in HU play is so sick. It's akin to what it was like jumping from full ring to 6max several years ago; very much a shock to the system.

In any case, I feel like I should become a competent heads up player. The game is evolving so quickly. It's important to keep up with the competition (and stay ahead of the fish.) HU is becoming so popular. Again, very much like what happened with 6max a few years ago. So every month I'm gonna try to play 5k hands of HU and watch a few CR vids. I won't be nearly as good as the HU regs, but if I can slowly learn the game over the next year, it'll be easier to switch over completely, should the need ever arise.

Hope everyone has a good December.

2008-11-19T18:57:00.003-05:00

Things are going pretty well at the tables. I've set a new personal record for most days winning $1k+ (yesterday was the third day in a row.) But I don't think I'll get there today. After 1200 hands I'm just about even. Oh well. I'm too drained to write much else. My blog sucks of late.

2008-11-17T14:49:00.003-05:00

I sat down at a $2nl HU table just for fun last night. Wanted to practice my heads up game a little, and play vs a good opponent: wporter. I ended up getting really lucky and got up to about $500 or so. Anyways, he said he had been on a sick downswing. So I told him I would flip him for the winnings to give him a chance to get it back. So we do...

I get 33 v JTo, and win it. Now I have $800 or so. He says we should do it one more time for $275. I tell him I'll flip as many times as he wants. I get dealt KQo v his J9o, and win that one too. $1050 in my stack at this point.

So we go another one. And we agree to flip on the 4th hand. Which I get dealt AA. I felt so bad, I just open folded it and showed him. "Next hand," I say. And on the next hand I get 44 v his A7o, and flop a set. Now it's getting pretty sick, and he's tilting pretty hard in chat. And I feel pretty bad. I sat down at the table just to play some heads up and pass the time. And at this point I'm up like $1100 on him and he's already having a huge downswing.

So I agree to do a few more flips with him. He says he's not quitting until he wins one. J6o v Q2o I win that one. A9o v 73s I win that one too. Now he's on mega tilt. And just rebuying and shoving each hand. Finally he win's one...my 64o v 95s. But then we do two more and I win both of those too. My final stack sitting over $2050.

The sick thing about winning flips is, it barely even feels good. I honestly couldn't care less after I had won $1800 off of him. Afterwards I was trying to figure out why I didn't care. I think it's because I felt like I didn't earn it. EV wise, flips are even. And my HM has me up $1000 in all-in EV. It's probably the same reason I don't care if I lose flips. They're even money minus the rake, so there really is no point getting upset or excited about the outcomes. (Unless of course it was a lot of money on the line.)

In any case, I think I owe him some more flips sometime in the future when he's running better.

2008-11-13T00:55:00.002-05:00

In an attempt to do every bit of damage possible before leaving office, President Bush and staff have finalized the UIGEA regulations this week.

Info on that can be found here.

For people who want to get involved, consider reading this thread. It has many good ideas.

Lastly, I think everyone who plays online poker, or is the least bit concerned with the government getting involved with internet restrictions, give some money to the PPA. The link is always at the top of my blog.