Ferociousness

progress

2010-10-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

The past couple weeks I have been really tired and have been going to sleep super early. Tonight i had an energy drink and am still wired. Unfortunately im finding it hard to get my work done but whatever. I know that as I lose weight and get healthier my body will respond and I will get more energetic and such. I dont think this is a case of that though.

Anyways I guess im on day 3 of the diet now and it seems to be working pretty well. So far ive lost about 2lbs but I know thats nothing to get excited about. The first 10lbs usually just fly off.

I went to the gym on monday but couldnt make it the other two days due to a long workday on Tuesday and general things getting in the way today. I am trying to get myself there as much as possible but Im still pretty happy with the way this has been going due to my self control.

Today I had two meals. A breakfast of sauteed veggies/egg-whites/toast and a little steak hash and a dinner of turkey/lettuce/tomato/cheese sandwich. I have basically been hungry all day which is really annoying but I managed to not snack a single time. I almost caved during class, bought some animal crackers, but I didnt even eat them. The best part was when I got back form class at around 10 and was really hungry. I had made a promise to myself not to eat anything after 9 and I managed to keep it today. I was pretty close to not being able to do so and Im proud of myself.

A life controlled by mealtimes is not fun. I need to break the habit of food controlling my life. A constant hunger is annoying but its a good hurt. It tells me that I am accomplishing something. By ignoring the hunger and fighting through it I am assuring myself that I can beat it. And I know, overtime, the hunger will go away.

The culture we live in has programed us like pavlovs dogs. It sucks to see a commercial for some kind of food and just start craving it. I have to assume that this doesnt happen to everyone. If I manage to wait it out these urges will have to go away, right? I should be able to train my body to live comfortably off 1-2 meals a day.

Slow and steady.

Challenege

2010-10-11T09:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't been playing very much poker recently and the poker I have been playing has been at mohegon sun. This and the usual issues have caused me to stop updating this blog.

Recently something new has come up and I figured I might try to give this blog another shot as a means of chronicling the next few weeks.

I went home for the holiday weekend and my dad challenged me to a little weight loss competition. Both of us need to drop some weight and I have been trying to make it happen for some time now without success. Hopefully this little challenge will be the motivation I need.

There are always going to be excuses for why we dont diet or work out or try to get in shape. I have been using college as an excuse for myself for quite some time. Its hard to find time to go to the gym when Im always tired or caught up in schoolwork. Its hard to eat right when people are ordering out and your drunk and hungry. Its even worse when your stoned and just really want some bad for you food.

These excuses and pressures are never going to go away. School stresses will be replaced by work stresses and If i try hard enough Im sure I can always find a good reason to not go to the gym. Hopefully that ends today.

I am going to try and lay out a series of goals for myself.

1. No ordering food.

If this proves too hard I might change it to allow for a chance to order food on the weekends but really there is no excuse for this behavior on weekdays. I can save money and eat better by preparing food for myself.

2. No junk food in the house.

I have gotten into a groove where if theres a bag of chips around and im watching tv or doing work I will eat it. The thing is, just thinking about that bag of chips will make me hungry. I need to eliminate these temptations from ground zero and just cut it out.

3. Go to the gym

I have a free to use gym and need to take advantage of it to shed some pounds and get myself in some kind of shape. my goal right now is to go and do cardio work (bike/treadmill) for 30-60 minutes every other day and take it from there. If I can make myself go more frequently fantastic but I dont know how realistic that will be.

I have been overweight my whole life and have tried dieting numerous times. I know that I will probably break my food rules and the food I cook is not going to be the healthiest food for me but I think thats ok. As long as I work out regularly and make a conscience effort to eat a little better I think I should see results.

Lets see.

HR Derby Live Blog 2.0

2010-07-12T17:06:00.000-07:00

8:11 I know i haven't posted in forever...sorry. Im not sure where I want to go with this blog in the near future.

Nevertheless, for the second year in a row I am liveblogging the HR Derby!

I am again facing off against my buddy Toots and we each have drafted four of the competitors to batt off in a number of categories. We drafted last night and I ended up with

Papi,

Ramierez,

Holiday,

and Young.

Toots has

Cabrera,

Wells,

Swisher,

Hart.

Im not terribly confident with my squad, I first picked Papi in what could have been an iffy pick.

Anyways, the five categories include:

Winner of Derby

Most HR in a Round by one batter

Least HR in a Round by one batter

Most HR when combining all squad members

Longest HR

Most HR hit on the 10th out (Golden HR)

Lets get this started!

8:18 Chris Young's up first, lets set a good tone!

He hits one HR after 3 outs and now has 7. Maybe He'll whiff and be a pretty tough beat for the least in a round?

8:21

Chris Young

Total HR's = 1

Golden HR's= 0

Farthest HR= 410ft

Up next is Vernon Wells

8:23 In his first 7 swings Vernon hits zero balls out of the park. One, however, is assisted by a fan and ruled a HR. Alrighty, with 8 outs he pounds a 428ft bomb. lets see if he can crush the golden ball now. Nope, a long drive to left and lands just short of the wall.

Vernon Wells

Total HR's = 2
Golden HR's= 0
Farthest HR= 428ft

Coming up after the break is Corey Hart,

8:31 Corey Hart is the first batter to find a groove. He has 5HR and only one out so far!

8:33 A slight breeze barely carries Harts ball out of the yard. He instantly hits a 464ft bomb and has 9HR with 4 outs! Make it 10! Hart Hart's the first to hit a Golden HR and ends the rd with a total of 13.

Corey Hart

Total HR's = 13

Golden HR's= 1

Farthest HR= 464ft

8:46 Nick Swisher's up next. He starts off strong with 2 quick HRs after an out and then misses 4 times. Swisher busts a 426ft blast followed quickly bt a 440fter. Swisher goes cold and still has 4 for the gold ball. He hits it to deep center and cant get it over the 400ft wall. Hes done.

Nick Swisher

Total HR's = 4

Golden HR's= 0

Farthest HR= 440ft

After the break we have Holiday, Papi, Ramierez and Cabrera. My boys have to hit some blasts and advance themselves to the next round now!

8:53 Ugh. Holliday really couldn't get anything started but just nailed a Golden Ball to get up to 2 hr lets see if he cant get anything going....Theres Another! And 3 in a row! 4! He's into second place now, behind Corey Hart and ends with 5 bombs! With his longest hr at 497 ft! He is now the leader in the Golden ball and longest HR category,

Matt Holliday

Total HR's = 5
Golden HR's= 4
Farthest HR= 497ft

8:59 Papi's up! lets see what he can do! His first good chance did not look like it was going out but it just scoots out of the wall. He follows that up with a nice 440ft jack over the right field wall. Ortiz is hitting well and knocks a 375fter into right field. He now has 4 HR and 3 outs. he needs 2 more to advance. Ortiz keeps hitting them over to right field, some are crushed and some cant quite make it over the wall. He needs one more in the next 4 swings to secure a spot in the next round. Right field again! and we will see Papi again in the next round.

David Ortiz
Total HR's = 8
Golden HR's= 0
Farthest HR= 440ft

9:11 Hanley Ramierez is up now and needs 6 to secure a shot in the final 4 and nails one over the wall in his first swing.

9:17
Hanley Ramierez
Total HR's = 9
Golden HR's= 2
Farthest HR= 472ft

So we're down to the final batter, Miggy Cabrera. He needs a total of 6 HRs to advance. Toots needs him to step up here and help the team. Currently I have 3 of the 4 finalists which would be crushing for Toot's chances

9:30

Miguel Cabrera

Total HR's = 7
Golden HR's= 0
Farthest HR= 476ft

So, heading into Rd 2 we have Cabrera, Papi, Hanley, and Hart in that order.
Currently Holliday has the longest HR at 497 ft
Hart has the most in a round with 13
Young has the least in a round at 1.
Holliday has the most Golden HR with 4
My squad has a combined 23 HRs.
Toots team has 26Hrs.

9:36 In a last second switch Papi is going to bat first to give Cabrera a break. Papi is on a roll and keeps pounding them to right/right-center and has 5 bombs so far including a 476 bomb with only 2 outs...and he curves one just around the pole! followed by another crushed rainbow to give him 7 with 2 outs. lets go Papi!!! Papi manages to crush 13 homeruns tying him for the most HR in one round with Hart.

9:45
David Ortiz
Total HR's = 13 (21)

Golden HR's= 0

Farthest HR= 474ft

9:47 Miggy is up now after a quick rest and lets see what he can do! he needs 7 to catch Hart and have a chance. MIggy hits our first foul HR of the night but is doing well and having a sold round so far. Theres another foul. He might be swinging a tad to early? Miguel ends up with 5 HRs giving him 12 total, not enough to catch Hart and hes done for the night.

Miguel Cabrera

Total HR's = 5 (12)
Golden HR's= 0
Farthest HR= 485ft

9:53 Hanley Ramierez is next and needs 4 HRs to force Hart to take the plate. Hes going to need a few more to actually advance to the finals. Hanley crushes 9 including a 465 foot gold ball! He had 5 straight outs followed by 5 straight HR in this at bat. There goes another gold ball! ANother that goes 454ft to left field! Another to the same spot in left. He is just mirroring Papi! One more HR and hes in the finals for sure. He lines out and finishes with 21 HR. He is tied with Papi.

Hanley Ramierez
Total HR's = 12 (21)
Golden HR's= 4
Farthest HR= 476ft

10:00 Corey Hart has been sitting for about 2 hours. He now needs to come back and smash 8 Home Runs to force a bat off for the finals. Any less than 8 and hes done. His first hit is a line out. Hes going to need to get in some kind of rhythm. Hes missed on 4 now without getting one to go out. Theres his fifth out. Hart needs 8 bombs in his next 5 outs or else hes done. This one makes it to the outfield but cant get out. Here's his 7th out....Hart could make a run at an 0-fer and win the least in a round category. Heres his 8th out. 9th out and this is it. The golden ball isnt going to make it and thats that.

Corey Hart
Total HR's = 0 (13)
Golden HR's= 0
Farthest HR= 0 ft

10:12 Ok, the finalists are Papi and Ramierez. Since they are both mine I am going to win the winner, most team combined, most Golden HR and longest HR (currently held by Holliday with 495ft). If either of the finalists whiff and get zero I'll chop the least in a round which is currently held by Hart. If either finalist smacks 14 homeruns I'll take the most HR in a round bet. Currently that is being chopped. Here we go.

Im going to cease liveblogging now, going to watch the end in another room. Peace.

gametime

2010-04-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

running like "god"

2010-03-04T22:21:00.000-08:00

Cliffs: Earlier this week full tilt gave me a 100$ bonus to clear. That plus procrastination and noticing that they have 5nl rush led me to playing a decent amount this past week. I brought ye old roll from a low of ~70 to a high of roughly 115 before i landed at 105. Then i started a 900 hand session tonight.

In that 961 hands I got:

AA 8 times

KK 7 times

QQ 7 times

JJ 4 times

AK 8 times

AQ 7 times

It felt like I was getting these hands all the time because i was. I was running the best i have in a long time in terms of simply getting starting hands. Unfortunately my totals won didnt really help the situation. Heres what I won with each hand:

AA +89 bbs

KK -200 bbs

QQ +3 bbs

JJ -80 bbs

AK +23.4 bbs

AQ +20 bbs

Adding these numbers together shows that I lost roughly 143 bbs or $7 with my best hands over this session. I will say that I think i played well this session. I will post a graph and I was trying to work on my "green line" non-showdown winnings. I did a good job of that. I wasnt putting in tons of money and folding and my bluffs were working well. Really the only reason that I lost in the end was a simple section of hands back to back to back. First I ranKK into AA AIP for a large(above 200bbs) pot and then QQ into AA AIP and then very soonafter KK into AA AIp all for large pots all back to back. It was brutal. Dbtoots89 has recently posted about a similar session in which he felt that he ran well but barely won any money. Unfortunately I wasnt able to post a result even that good.

Meh. It felt good to be back at the tables. It felt really good to be picking off bluffs, and stealing some pots. Im going down to florida this week (break) to chill with Dbtoots89 and Jeff , our friend, and it is going to be fantastic. A great week of poker/excitement/debauchery. Im glad that i have a trippple didget online roll again and Im very very pumped to go play some cards and chill with these folks.

Ill leave you all with a graph

Have a good weekend!

rambling

2010-02-10T16:20:00.000-08:00

Ive played a lot of poker over the past few years. As far as i know ive improved as a player as time goes by. Ive watched videos, read forums and talked about hands. Hell, one of the kids i played with every single night is now one of the best mtt players in the world and Ive definitely picked his brain and watched him play long enough to pick up some tidbits of information.

This previous summer saw me do pretty well online. After stringing together a couple wins i built my bankroll to the highest its ever been. Then and i went to london and stopped playing very often until i started the propbet with dbtoots which would take a chunk out of my roll. When i returned to the US i really couldnt get anything going. I put in a ton of volume over this past break and i ran deep in my fare share mtts but i couldnt close the deal on anything.

Then i cashed out half my roll to buy and xbox and i was happy to have something tangible with my poker winnings. I can tell my friend who dont play poker that i bought it with winnings and their attitude toward the game changes. They go from, wow you gamble.....to damn you can buy cool things for basically free.

But back to the story, since i bought the xbox my bankroll has simply plummeted. Absolutely nothing has gone well. I lost a survivor football pool in week 17 which would have been an awesome booster. Most recently i managed to give away close to $130 over the course of a few days at rush. the same rush which i had won about $80 just beforehand. All in all over the course of a week i sent my roll from 230, all the way back to the number it was at when i bought the xbox, to a paltry 50 bucks.

A timely victory in superbowl betting put me back up to 90 and i won some money at rush the same weekend. Since then, ive started losing again. The rolls not quite in danger land again, but its surely not in a spot im comfortable with.

Over time, if ive improved one thing about my game is my tilt control. Playing today and getting 2 outed on the river twice and having numerous big hands just run down really wasnt getting to me. Towards the end i was getting pretty upset so i simply quite the game.

The thing ive been trying to get to...is something that has been on my mind today. Maybe i just suck at poker.

My entire "career" has always felt like a continuous downswing. Of course ive had my runs, where ive strung together some mtt wins or cash success but i think the vast majority of my playing has been breaking even or losing Or ill have weeks where i win small win small and then lose huge.

Ive always felt as though Im terribly unlucky. I run really fucking bad. Ask any of the people who have grinded with me....Its not uncommon for me to get 2 or 3 outed in a huge spot of an mtt. But the nagging feeling is that i dont know if its reasonable to blame luck any more. Its gotten to the point where every time i open full tilt im probably going to lose. So whats the fucking point. Clearly i have missed the boat on how to succeed.

Ive won a number of mtts. Ive had final table scores too. But is it more reasonable to assume that those occasions were me getting ridiculously lucky and running well? Am i the donk that people curse from behind their monitor?

I dont know anymore. Id like to think im good at this game. Id LOVE to get to the point where i could win a couple hundred bucks a month playing and create some spare income. But i dont know.

bloggings no fun when youre losing.

2010-01-31T11:45:00.001-08:00

and im losing. bad.

Long TIme

2010-01-13T10:59:00.000-08:00

So Poker has been plain awful. I cashed out 2/3 of the roll to buy an xbox which has been pretty fun but since then full tilt has decided that i don't deserve to have any fun after withdrawing. I have constantly been running deep in tournies which is great but once the end gets near i run like death in huge spots. Here is one hand that happened today, in the beginning of a 2r. Villain had been openshoving his huge stack on many hands and i was itching for a spot to pick him off. The action ran out He openshoved, i reshoved, and the shortstack called forming a large sidepot.

This pot was for the chip leader position with 400 to go, early in the tourny.

On a different note, I am very excited for the WBCOOP. Im really grateful to stars for putting this event on and hopefully i can turn some of my luck around and win a decent prize.

Im off to grind this 2r....

I raise pre get 3 callers,

bet 555 into 888 on flop, and 750 on the turn putting him all in. brilliant river.

Im going to try to update pretty regularly now that school is back in session and i can get onto a somewhat a consistent schedule

freerollaments

2010-01-11T22:33:00.001-08:00

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 124697

short update

2009-12-27T00:54:00.000-08:00

poker had been going good, then i lost about 10% of the roll in 24 hours in various sngs and mtts. cashed out $250 to buy an xbox leaving myself with about $230. Had an absolutely atrocious night at the sngs today but found myself running deep in a 3 dollar ko which started with 1100 ppl, sound familiar? Anyways, i finished 9th for 45 bucks. So dissapointing. Doesnt even pay for tonights losses across the board. First place was 640. I lost on a standard hand:

I am 8th in chips w/ 11bbs. Cutoff who has 25bbs open minraises and i jam over the top with AJo. He tanks and eventually flips AQo which holds.

An epic seven hands

2009-12-14T16:52:00.000-08:00

As Im sure you all know, the more you play the more variance catches up with you and the more bizarre and crazy things you see. Sometimes, that variance is phenomenally helpful. This sng started innocently enough. I got to the final 3 in good chip position. I had ~5k vs ~5k vs ~3k. Heads up this hand occured:

Now, this hand deserves some explanation. First the line we took.

Preflop: Villain minraises, I call

Flop: I check villain bets 2.4k into 3.2k I jam for about 3k more villain tanks and eventually calls

Heads up i had been abusing this guy. Some hands ago I limp 3bet him from the button and scared the shit out of him. Ever since then he was respecting my limps and folding to minbets on the flop. Basically he was giving me a ton of respect. I decide to come along here thinking i can take this pot away easily on the flop. When the flop falls i actually make the decision to c/r this guy. He had been playing so scared I thought i could definitely rep the ace, and if he does call the jam i have a gutter and potentially one overcard, unless of course he has an ace....but i dont really think thats the case. Well...he ends up tanking forever and i think im going to take it down but then he makes a great call and im left with one small blind....

The next six hands shown were the next six hands dealt.

All in blind:

All in blind (for me) again:

All in pre (essentially blind):

He folds:

All in and he folds:

He limp/calls my jam pre and i fade 1.2million outs:

I folded once, then he folded then this (All in pre):

Talk about snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat.

Rebound

2009-12-14T09:49:00.001-08:00

As Ive mentioned I have been playing a decent amount of sngs recently. Last night was no exception. One thing that I kind of like about the sngs, at least whats been happening recently, is that I will get sucked out on in one but then I might actually suck out on someone in another! ITs crazy to actually get a back and forth kind of variance. I think one reason for this is the fact that by playing sngs, especially turbos, im forced to play a much higher variance strategy because Im often faced with a very small M. Small m's cause me to get it in light which can actually put me in a position to suck out on someone which would be more rare in a cash.

Anyways last night I was playing some sngs to some success, i think i finished up about 15$ from them. The real story of the night, however, was a 3 dollar stud tournament I ran in the background. Ive always liked playing the non-holdem games, i enjoy them and would like to get better at them. I like firing a tourny like stud in the background because it, especially at low limits, is a very low maintenance and straightforward for the first hour or so: basically you just need to play tight, get value from big hands which is easy, and play lots of explorative hands like 1097sss to try to get a huge hand. Then as the tourny progresses they become very fun as you can open up your game, start bluffing, and getting a ton of chips from simply valuebetting your made hands.

Well long story short, last nights adventure turned out good:

As I mentioned the beginning of these tournies are all about getting value out of your made hands:

This hand is kind of a cooler but it was basically me just going bet bet bet on every street getting value from a bad starting hand who eventually became a good draw.

Heres another cooler, but its the same idea. Milk your good hands for all theyre worth:

Its obviously really important to be on the right side of a hand like this but, its kind of tough for villain to just call me down on every street. His hand is relatively face up as a pair of kings while mine is very disguised but obviously strong.

I started rolled up on this hand:

Here is a classic example of what ive been saying all along. I have the nuts on 4rd street. Just bet bet bet bet bet. I am honestly not sure what the other players were doing in this pot but it exemplifies why this tourny is so soft. This hand really seperated me from the pack, put me at like 3/40 or something and gave me enough breathing room to cruise to the late stages.

Heres the situation at the start of the final table which I managed to cruise into thanks to my healthy chipstack and constant awareness of not gifting away chips

After some back and forth, losing some chips and then chipping up this hand occurred to give me a nice stack:

I obviously got pretty lucky on this hand but most of the money, all the big bets, got in after I have the best hand and hes facing what appears to be 2pair at least. I had started the hand firing so Im repping either a 7 or a hand like TT7 which has him beat at this point.

Some missed bluffs and getting bet out of speculative hands brought me down to a meager chipstack but then this hand kept me in the race:

I started with 4T5 and it actually limped around all the way until the three of spades which gae me a flush draw and open ended straight draw which filled on 6th and I started extracting value.

I didnt play a huge roll in the elimination of players until I managed to KO the guy in 4th:

You can see the guy to my left has a commanding chiplead....this hand was crucial to keep it close:

This was the first hand of heads up, i had a lot of ground to make up:

Now, i am by no means a master at heads up stud...Ive very rarely, if ever played it. Be that as it may I was not worried about this joker. Throughout the final table he had proved to be a lucksack and a very bad stud player. I turned up the aggression and tried to take down as many uncontested pots as i could. I dont have a pic for it but at the final table i had started bluffing pretty often. The best spot to bluff is when the bring in is to your left and you hold a Ace King or Queen to their right. If it folds around to you, which is not rare with high blinds a completion representing a pair will easily win the pot and some valuable chips.

This hand was the first real dent i had made in his stack, until this point i had just been trying to win as many 5k-10k pots as possible, just snag the antes and a completion:

This hand is the start of me getting momentum...This hand was also another example of villain checking the best hand until 5th street when I peel a straight and then start the betting and raising action and crush him.

On this hand I started with 345 so while it might seem like a sick cooler going into 7th street i had 8 clubs to win and going into 7th i had 7 clubs and 2 3s and 24s for the win.

After this hand I worked him to about 150k to 50k. Then i disconnected and he stole a lot of blinds. It is very easy to steal bring ins and antes in a heads up stud match. The values are quite high and you pay alot every hand. Plus you can work extremely fast. He managed to get the stacks all the way up to about 120k (me)to 80k by the time i got back. This pissed me off but i managed to stay on track and not tilt myself.

This is the perfect example of how much of a donk this guy is. On 6th street here he is boardlocked. The only way he wins is if he catches a queen or jack. I had both of them so that is extremely unlikely. I thought i had him beat the whole way because I didnt put him on a queen, cuz i had one, and for the same reason a jack is so unlikely. Nevertheless he managed to get 2 big bets in there drawing to 2 outs and i take the big pot.

This hand was a a dagger, not really sure what hes doing going crazy with 99 there:

And a nail in the coffin:

and finally:

VICTORY.

Now did I get lucky in a number of spots, yes. I did. Did I cooler people in crucial moments? Yea, i did that too. These are things that happen in big tournaments. I also played very good stud, imo and managed to get much of my money in good. It was a very fun tournament and im really glad to book a big win that almost erases my prop bet disaster. Im sorry that this post was a. so long and b. not much strategy....but I dont really want to delve too deep into stud strategy/im not really sure about it beyond like basic ideas. Perhaps I can voice my opinions in a future post.

Finally, I just want to say thank you very much for the rail OES, and to tootsy, thanks for the love and keep up the killing of cap!

be back in MA in 5 days, hope everyones doing well!

Poker/Life Update

2009-12-13T04:03:00.000-08:00

So I finally gave up the propbet. I simply couldnt take the losing any more. I played some sngs the other day and theyve actually been going really well. In my first 7 I cashed 4 for a 30 dollar profit and then lst night I played some more and made bak about 30 bucks i had given away in mtts.

In other news I will be flying back to the states in 6 days. I cannot believe that I have been here for 3.5months already. Its crazy. I kind of have mixed feelings about this too. As much as I want to go home, which is quite a lot, Im going to miss it here. Its been a fun semester. I mean, if nothing else this is definitely the last time Im going to get to travel at a clip like this. In 3.5 months I saw:

Wales

Amsterdam

Scotland

Morocco

all of which were amazing trips. Living in the center of Europe has been nuts. Except for the whole exchange rate part...hehe.

Thats all for now. Im just gonna take this last week to write one more paper, relax, catch up on british things i want to do, and enjoy getting legally trashed for the last time in about 5 months.

Cheers!

10 Minutes

2009-12-09T11:31:00.000-08:00

I had 10 minutes to spare today.

Can I catch a break?

no.

Howbout now?

still no.

The worst part is i knew he had aces. I was saying he had aces. then i convinced myself maybe he was repping the flush or some shit i dont know. I debated between getting it in on the flop and decided to just wait til the turn and get it in. So i couldnt fold.

I wont even be embarrassed if i dont finish this anymore. I would like to have some kind of bankroll to try to build up back at school. Im so done with this shit. I just want to have some money to get high and play mtts with. Or at least grind back up at school. Maybe just try to grind some mtts or sngs or something....i dont even know,

If it wasnt for this prop bet...

2009-12-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

Id be done with poker for a long time.

I decided to 4 table the deep ante tables today. I wanted to try and put a dent in my losses from this prop bet. The poker gods did not agree.

In 800 hands i lost 60 bucks.

I am now stuck 150 since the start of this bet. My roll is at 310. The lowest its been in a while. I havent booked a win in at least 4 sessions. At least I finally won a 150bb hand.

The night started off reasonably well. I was running very well and flopped a couple of straights. Unfortunately i didnt get paid on any of them. After a while I called a raise in position with 75cc and flopped trips on a 559 rainbow board. I flatted the flop and turn setting up for a nice river jam given the stacks. After the flop i put him on a overpair. Only problem is the turn and river were both spades. I blockerbet/bluffed the river and he woke up with jack of spades.

A Little after that this hand occurs:

After this hand im starting to laugh. This is how its been for the last 2k hands at this point. They call with no pair no draw. Whatever.

Finally i get some luck to bring me back to even on the session:

(Yes, its very lucky to hold a hand when I get the money in good. I cant win pots bigger than 150bbs remember?)

There are countless hands that i could put up here but I dont want to waste the space. I will however bore you with three that just exemplify not only tonight but my past few weeks.

First the cooler:

Part 2:

This is the worst and its happened 3 or 4 times recently....River the "ideal" card:

To be honest this is a bad example becuase i misplayed the hand. I thought the guy was strong on the flop...maybe overpair maybe top pair but i called anyways. On the river I thought for sure I was good. Problem was I didnt realize that I dont even beat aces. And QQ probly isnt calling me, so i think i should have just flatted. Still wicked gross though.

And finally, the ridiculous. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camals back:

Overall tonight I got aces 4 times. I stole the blinds each time. KK happened once and I won 1 dollar. QQ appeared 4 times losing me 7 dollars. I got AK 8 times, 4 times I stole the blinds, and ended up losing about 8 bucks. AQ was a winner for me. Brutal fucking night.

Overall I have just under 3k hands to win 160 dollars. Is this doable? Sure. If it wasnt for a time commitment I can guarantee I would not be playing though. I usually take a lot of time when im in slumps and try to wait them out. Unfortunately I have 3 weeks to play these last 3k hands.

Ugh. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

In other news Morocco was amazing. Monkeys, goats, and snakes oh my! It deserves a full blog post but im not going to try and do it now.

Go to Amsterdam for Rd 2 on Thursday. Try to play some cards when I get back. Maybe my luck will change.

When it rains it pours.

2009-11-24T15:35:00.000-08:00

I went to see Shawshank Redemption the play tonight with some buddies and it was pretty cool.

I got home and didnt really want to go to sleep. I wanted something to distract me. Some rough shits been going on on the homefront right now. If you know me personally....think this summer part 2. Anyways, might not have been the best idea, but i dont think i made too many errors.

Nevertheless, despite how well i play i cannot seem to beat 10nl. Played about 350 hands tonight and lost a solid 100bb/100. Started off fine, then i got it all in for 120bbs each in 2 situations with sets vs draws which got there. Fought back a little more, lose big on a 25JA9 board. I had AQ and cbet the flop, hit my "miracle" on the turn and bet. Got raised on the river and made a crying call to see AJ. Luckily I walked away with some of my stack. As I was wrapping up I get dealt QQ. Get a good chunk of it in pre and checkraise the rest on a 10 high board. Run into aces for the millionth time.

In my 350 hands i did not win a single pot bigger than 140bbs. If we both put in 70bbs i lost. every time.

I am stuck over 90 dollars in this propbet with about three and a half thousand hands to go.

My roll is annoyingly low at about 350.

I am starting to feel the pressure of a deadline. I still have a final/essay/2 trips to go on.

Whenever i skid like this, which is too often to count, i generally like to give up poker for a while. stick my head under a rock. or at least try something else like SnGs or MTTs. Thats obviously not an option here. Im going to need to go on a sick tear but its looking more and more likely that not only will I lose this propbet but it will bankrupt me.

I dont want to get into too much detail about that other thing but suffice it to say, if everyone could just knock on wood for me id be very appreciative.

Going to Morocco for the weekend tomorrow night so Ill see eeryone later. Might squeeze in a session in the afternoon if i feel up to it. Goddamn do i need to book a win.

Whats colder than cold?

2009-11-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

Ok.

To be honest, when toots finished his half of this little propbet we have going i thought i had it in the bag. I just needed to maintain a profit and I would win. Its safe to say that maintaining a profit is harder than it appears.

Just finished this afternoon session and got coolered approximately 1.35million times. Over 2700 hands I am now stuck 65 dollars. At the beginning of this bet i climbed out of a 75 dollar hole so its not impossible. I can come back from this. I have over 2 thousand hands to make this back. If i can keep it together and grind then i can defiantly still win this bet. Its going to be harder than i thought though.

Heres some of the coolers/me sucking for posterity.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, t0.10 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t11.63)
SB (t20.09)
Hero (BB) (t21.33)
UTG (t21.19)
MP (t44.58)
CO (t19.59)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
2 folds, CO bets t0.30, 1 fold, SB calls t0.25, Hero calls t0.20

Flop: (t1.02) K, 9, 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: (t1.02) 3 (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t0.60, CO calls t0.60, 1 fold

River: (t2.22) J (2 players)
Hero bets t1.80, CO raises to t3.60, Hero raises to t8, CO raises to t18.67 (All-In), Hero calls t10.67

Total pot: t39.56 | Rake: t2

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, t0.10 BB (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t16.17)
MP (t11.02)
CO (t22.20)
Button (t17.80)
Hero (SB) (t23.95)
BB (t24.38)

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
1 fold, MP bets t0.40, CO calls t0.40, 1 fold, Hero raises to t1.50, 1 fold, MP calls t1.10, CO raises to t4.25, Hero raises to t10, 1 fold, CO raises to t22.18 (All-In), Hero calls t12.18

Flop: (t46.08) 8, 8, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t46.08) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t46.08) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t46.08 | Rake: t2

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (5 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($6.58)
BB ($21.21)
UTG ($9.05)
Hero (MP) ($10)
Button ($12.52)

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, Q
1 fold, Hero bets $0.30, 2 folds, BB raises to $1.10, Hero raises to $3.50, BB raises to $5.90, Hero raises to $10 (All-In), BB calls $4.10

Flop: ($20.05) 7, A, 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($20.05) 5 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.05) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $20.05 | Rake: $1.33

This plus the usual assortment of suckouts and other beats really makes for a fun night. :(

Overdue

2009-11-21T05:36:00.000-08:00

I promised a nice blog post and its finally here. Sorry for the delay.

First of all, London's been super busy. I went to Les Miserables with my roommate the other day. We showed up an hour before show time and got student discount seats for like 25 bucks. We sat dead center of the theatre 8 rows back: the best seats ive ever had for anything. The show was absolutely phenomenal on top of that. A brilliant production with some great music in an intimate setting. The big songs, I dreamed a dream, do you hear the people sing, etc were flat out unbelievable. The whole cast coming out through smoke onto the front of the stage.....wow.

Now that im done with 2/3 of my classes I basically work 3 or 4 full days a week. Work is really picking up speed and im doing some cool long term projects as well as basic constituent stuff. Right now, im researching the growth and density of Tesco, a UK supermarket chain that actually controls 35% of the marketshare. Basically they are going into small towns all over the UK and underselling and eliminating corner stores and family run shops. Obviously, this is bad, and so right now im trying to do some research and eventually draft some laws to get it to stop.

As far as traveling goes, I just got back from Scotland a couple nights ago. We spent 3 days in Edinburgh and a day in the Highlands. It was a really fun trip. We spent a lot of time at Edinburgh Castle, bought a bottle of Scotch, and even climbed a mountain! Ill put some pics online one of these days....Im even more behind on uploading pictures than I am on blogging lol.

Tomorrow, Im cooking part of a potluck Thanksgiving Dinner for a lot of my flatmates. Unfortunately, turkeys are not very popular out here. The supermarkets start to sell birds next week, for thanksgiving for the Americans and for Christmas for everyone else. I, however, am going to be in Morocco over the actual Thanksgiving so we're going to celebrate tomorrow. Im going to roast some chickens for my share.

I havent really been playing too much poker recently. I havent played live in quite a while but I did have a pretty big online session the other day and I think i might have another this afternoon. The last one didnt go to well. All in all im stuck about 20 bucks....2 buy ins after just over 2100 hands. Toots finished his 7k hand commitment and ended up with a buck fifty in profit. Im pretty confident I can catch him in the next 5k hands. I know i can and should be a winner at this stake. Its just tough and the bet definitely a sure thing.

one last thing, thanks to BWOP for the add to her blogroll!

Have a happy thanksgiving everyone!

Super busy

2009-11-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry i havent posted in forever....

Cant stay long now, need to go to sleep but hopefully a big post tomorrow.

Cliff:

Last poker sesh = ~700 hands and ~+5buy ins for a profit of 5 bucks overall. Need to stay above a profit of $1.48 to beat the tootsy.

London is super busy

Les Mis is amazing

Just got back from Scotland tonight

Phil ivey :( Cada :)

in shock

2009-11-03T10:06:00.001-08:00

When is the best time to run possibly the worst you have ever run?

If you answered the first session of your first prop bet you win a cookie.

This bet just got a little harder to win. I managed to lose 750bbs (75 dollars) in a mere 350 hands.

In my first 150 hands i dropped 50 bucks.

Welcome back to online poker. I am in utter disbelief right now.

The first 150 hands i played shit was not going well. Standard run bad scenario, big pairs not getting paid, turning straights and losing to rivered gutshots, losing the random ass 3 and 4 outers etc. I take a break and catch my breath. I sit back down when this happens:

then this happens:

I was 6 tabling. All of these hands happened within seconds of each other.

So brutal.

I have a nice big hole to dig myself out of now.

Propbet

2009-11-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

First of all i want to mention that i went back to the cash tables last night and got coolered out of a stack. bye bye 2/3 of my profit from Saturday. I dont want to dwell on that though.

I havent really been playing a terribly amount of online poker recently and when i have been playing i have not been seeing very good results. Overall it is safe to say that my confidence in my game is not very high at the moment. Due to this i decided to try a little experiment today. I dropped back down to 10nl and tried to focus on a couple things.

1. I want to work on multitabling. I ran 6 tables today for 700 hands. I want to get extremely comfortable running 6 tables, which is the max on my laptop screen and eventually work that up to 8 perhaps.

2. I want to open up my game and play more aggressive. 3bet more, open more pots, generally play a more fast paced and pressure packed gamelan

3. I want to work on quickly analyzing my opponents lines and also working to make my lines as effective as possible. I think that working on my game from the ground up will yield very goof results in a number of areas.

After playing for about an hour I was up a solid 2 buy ins and called it a night. I made a couple glaring errors which i need to make sure wont happen again and of course some coolers and suckouts happened on both sides of the felt.

This little session gave me the idea for an interesting little propbet that i am about to undertake with my friend tootsy. This dude just experienced an unreal downswing + tiltness and is back to basically square one. He needs to grind a roll back up to where it was a couple weeks ago (50nl-100nl) from the start (10nl). Unfortunately the immediate downturn has left him with no motivation to play for stacks worth 10bbs at his old stakes. This propbet aims to give him motivation to grind and build his role while helping me put hours in to focus and get better and crush 10nl.

The bet is simply this:

We each have until Dec 19 to play 7k hands of 10nl. Whoever wins the most money at the end of the hands gets a free dinner.

Frankly, i think toots has an edge in this bet. I have never crushed a game like he has. I dont want to count myself out though. I think i have a shot, Its definitely going to be a fun bet to partake in. If nothing else itl give me an excuse to post more.

Oh wow, an actual post.

2009-11-01T02:55:00.000-08:00

I havent done a ful fledge poker recap in a long while so here goes:

I get to the casino at about 9:00 and theres like 5 people sitting down at the cash table. I recognize most of them. One dude who is the best player at the table, probably the best player who goes to this casino, just because he knows how to 3bet, squeeze, apply pressure, and buy in for the full 500 (250bbs) is sitting down with about a 400 pound stack. Theres one other big stack on the other side of the table and everyone else is cliche old people with something like a 100 pound stack or so. Unfortunately i have to sit to the right of the good player, but we know each other and im not going to fuck with him. Plus, he knows that im tight as a rock so hes not really gonna mess with me.

Now, the problem with me going to a place like this and sitting down with a 200 pound stack is that i really cant afford to lose it. My "bankroll" is the money im using to live off and travel with and i cant really take a 300 dollar hit. Fortunately, if i simply nutpeddle, see cheap flops, and get value out of my hands i can crush this game. But, if i allowed myself to play a higher variance strategy i could crush it so much more.

Anyways, the first hand i sit down im i post in between the button and small blind. A number of new players had just sat down so including the blinds 7 people were in the pot. The rest of the table limped along and i looked down at AK. I raise it up to 17 and three people tag along. The flop is 8c4d6c and I check fold to this aggro guys bet of like 30. Kind of annoying to toss away 20 bills on the first hand but im not really sure how differently i could have played that.

My second hand is in the hijack, the button passed me and the dude to my left, and i look down at AA. A couple people limp along and I raise to 12 seeing 1 caller, the aggro dude. we get a flop of Ad7d4s. The aggro guy checks and i make a cbet of 30 pounds into like a 38ish pot. He thinks and raises me to 70 total. I think about this and im pretty sure he has a good hand. Imnot quite sure if he has like a set or maybe 74 or good diamonds but im pretty sure i can get him to commit his stack here so i jam for another 100 on top. He calls and doesnt flip his hand. The turn river are J J and I take the pot. He never showed his hand but im pretty sure he had something like 77 and thought i was on diamonds. IDK.

A few hands later i look down at JJ. A guy to my right with a medium, bad asian player, makes it 7 bucks and I think about popping him to like 25. problem is the really good player is behind me and I dont want to get pushed out of this pot now that I have a big stack, if he jams im probly folding. So I call and good player calls and then this short stack shoves for 25 pounds. bad asian player calls with like 30 behind and its on me. Im pretty confident that good player wouldnt play a big hand this way, hed have 3bet the original raise so i toss in my stack and he folds as expected. Bad player calls. The board runs out AAT76 and bad asian player tables QJ for the raise/call/call all in. shorty mucks and i scoop the pot.

There were like 2 hands that happened a sporadically that kind of sucked. heres one example. I raise with 99. Good player calls, shorty jams for 40, bad asian calls and I tank. I would love to call this except i dont know what good player is going to do. I end up folding, not wanting to play a huge pot with 99 and good player sure enough jams and ends up cracking AA with 66.

The next hand of note is a hand that I basically butchered. I have a 450ish stack and look down at AQhh in the sb. I call a raise and we see a 5 handed flop of Q24hh. I basically flop the nuts. I decide to check because im pretty sure someone's going to bet and I really dont want to get raised if i bet out. The original raiser fires out 20 bills into the 40ish dollar pot and bad asian player calls and i think. I could raise here but this dude has me covered. If he manages to have KK or AA or 22 or 44 I really dont want to lose a 450 pound stack. that would be brutal. I decide to flat and reevaluate later. If the flush comes ill be happy to raise. I call and one other guy does as well. The turn is an offsiit 6 and again it checks to original raiser who bets out 30. The same thoughts go through my head as bad asian call and i call. The river is another blank and we check original raiser who fires 40. bad asian folds and Im still not going to raise so i call. He tables KQss. Turns out, i might have gotten a nice pot if i had raised the flop or turn but also, he might have given up and stopped firing. Im not sure.

Nevertheless after this hand i was up to a solid 600 pound stack. I proceed to raise a bunch of limpers to 15 w/ AK and cbet 30 on a rag flop and fold to aggro dudes raise. Then i saw a pot w/ 64 and flopped an oesd, called one bet and had to fold the turn. All in all i left the table w/ about 525. After some roullette and blackjack i walked away with a solid 500 pounds in my pocket. Ill take that any day of the week. Im definately going to go back soon and see if i cant capitalize again and im also going to try my luck at a weekly 75 pound freezeout over at the empire.

poker

2009-10-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

all my friends were out traveling tonight so i was alone with one of my roomates.

we decided to go play some poker at the casino, 1/2 cash.

I sat down with 200 grinded up to 600 including some reiculously conservative (bad tight/passive) play and then lost a straddle+ raise+cbet w/ ak and a called bet to fall to 525. Some blackjack and roullette later and i walk away with a cool 300 pound profit. Enough to buy in to another session on profit alone and play a 75 pound tourny at the empire.

Possibly a recap tomorrow + amsterdam highlights and london adventures.

Dont get your hopes up though...i seem to suck at updating this thing.

Sorry

2009-10-07T03:13:00.000-07:00

I havent updated recently, its been rediculously crazy.
I promise ill post a big update in a day or two

Poker in London

2009-09-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

Since ive been here ive played a small spattering of online poker. Just played 2 tournaments today-2 suckouts. Meh. I dont really care. Last week one of my roomates and I went down to a small casino located down the street. This place has 2 roulette wheels, a couple blackjack tables and a bunch of video poker machines. After 40min of blackjack, about a shoe and a half Ethan ended up 50pounds and I won myself a nice 20pounds. We both ran like death during the first shoe, Ethan was down to his last 10 pounds, but then managed to turn it around and go on a tear. While we were there we learned that this casino has 2 tables of cash game poker. Its a 1/2 game w/ a 50min and 500max. Due to the fact that this casino is basically a whole in the wall I expect the cash game to be a bunch of regulars and not too much fish. Nevertheless we learned that their busy night is Sunday so i think that Ethan and I will give it a shot tomorrow night.

As some of you may know the WSOPE is happening right now in London. Apparently the Empire Casino which hosts it is actually very close to my flat. Its located in Leicster Square, a 15min walk away where I have been clubbing a couple times. One of my classmates actually sattelited into the first 1k event through a 50r and played with Antonio Esfandiari and got to see pros like Ivey and Negreanu. The Empire seems to be a legit casino which would spread a much wider variety of games. I Definitely want to head down there and see if their games are more fish infested, or maybe even just catch a glimpse of the main event.

Happy New Year

2009-09-19T03:48:00.001-07:00

Sorry its been so long since the last update but things here have been super busy. Monday thru Friday I need to leave my flat by no later than 8:30 to get to class or work and will not get home until either 5 or 6 depending on if i had work or class second. Despite the hecticness this past week has been a ton of fun. Ive made some new friends and really enjoy spending time with them.

Unfortunately, I got sick yessterday and it was not pretty. As some of my friends know when I get sick i get really sick. It was only a cold/sore throat deal but it sucked and prevented me from going out. Hopefully it gets better so i can taste dinner tonight. Heres to drinking lots of tea and soup all day. Speaking about dinner, im very excited that Dane, my flatmate and Aly, who lives uptairs are going to cook Rosh Hashana Dinner for us all! Its going to be great.

It would be a very big shame to spend all this time in europe and not go anywhere outside of london. Thankfully my friends are planning a trip to Wales for October, and Im trying to get an Amsterdam excursion together for November. Id really like to see Portugal or some other country too but idk if its going to happen. Id also really like to see a rugby or soccer game. Hopefuly ill be able to.

Thas enough for now, Im going to go blow my nose til its raw.

Hope everones having a good semester

Quick Update

2009-09-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have an interview at Parliament tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

London Day 1

2009-09-05T12:22:00.001-07:00

I wanted to write a post today but I am absolutely exhausted. Today i arrived in London via Eurostar and wandered around the city with my parents. Tomorrow I have LIP Orientation and begin my 15 week program. Its going to be very exciting and im kinda nervous but right now, more than anything im exhausted so im going to go to sleep.

Peace

update

2009-09-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ok,

For the last couple weeks life has kinda sucked. My mom got really sick as a few of my readers know and taking care of her pretty much dominated my life. Stupidly, i decided to play poker while caring for her because there were times where i would get bored and have few other options. Obviously playing under those conditions was stupid and each time i would quickly lose money and get pissed off. I am not one to believe that feeling bad and having negative vibes will make you a magnet for bad luck but sometimes its hard to argue with that feeling.

I played a couple times after my mom recovered and still just didnt see positive results. Obviously downswings are natural and somewhat common, they just tend to hit me pretty hard. The worst part is, id love to grind through a downswing and try to just put in a ton of volume to wait out the variance and earn sick rakeback but it becomes a pain to play when im downswinging so i put in less volume. I have no earge to play when every time i log on i lose money.

How bad was this downswing? I went from a high of 640 to a low of 500. Luckily some friends owe me some money online which should total 100 bucks so most of my losses are negated.

On to this coming semester:

As of now I am in Paris France. Im chillen here with my parents until saturday when I will travel to London and begin my semester abroad from Clark. I will be taking three classes at FIE and interning at Parliament under Jenny Willott. I honestly have no idea how much of a role poker will play in my life this semester. I am happy about the timing of my downswing if nothing else. I have no urge to play full tilt right now. I am not craving the action. this is good because with a intense work/school schedule I am unsure how much time i will be able to devote to poker. Ill find out the answer to this in a couple weeks im sure.

Ive noticed that a large number of people in my program have started blogs to document their travels. I think i may just use this blog to talk about my goings on. If you dont mind reading about my european adventures, then this is still the place for you. If you only want to read about me failing at poker then...sorry :(

Good luck and Bon voyage!

dddddownswing

2009-08-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

roll is at 507.

Cant cash anything, cant make money at cash. Nothing is working. Playing fine, i think. Getting coolered/sucked out on like its my job. Of course. way to lose 120 in a matter of like 3 days. go me.

Bad first session

2009-08-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

Havent played in a while due to family issues and not having my head in the game. Decided to fire up some tables today and started off quite well, up like 15 bucks before the wheels fell off. I lost one hand, AK< AQ on a Q high spade spade spade flop when i had the ace of spades. It was 3bt preflop. THen i lost a stack getting Kings aip vs Aces. THen i managed to lose two more big pots where i made big bluffs on the river and got called down by 2nd pair or worse both times. All of the hands involved were 3bet or more pre and none of them fared well. I ended with one of my biggest losses in one session, roll is all the way down to 560. Kind of sucks. Did get my poker juices flowing again and im sure ill be back at the tables tonight to try and grind back what i lost.

There is a god

2009-08-17T10:25:00.000-07:00

His name is psutennis11.

Congrats for shipping the 2.5k 2day FTOPS Jake. This comes one week after nearly shipping the Sunday warmup and 100r. Very very impressive. Wish i coulda been there to see you win it/victory bong rips but ill live. Hope the heater continues

Got it

2009-08-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

As usual i havent played any poker this weekend. I actually went to vermont to celebrate festivus with my family and friends and it was unreal. I dont really want to get into it right now but lets just say a keg of Sam Adams Summer Ale was consumed and much merriment was had.

In other news a 16 dollar rakeback transfer shot my roll all the way to $601. I am very very happy to look down and see that milestone reached basically a week from when i hit $500. Its kind of unfortunate that i wasnt able to cross this milestone myself and had to do it through rakeback but i am very happy nonetheless. Lets just hope I never have to pursue this benchmark again.

I also want to give a shoutout right now to my buddy Jake who has already came in 4th in the Stars $109r today for something like 10k and is now chipleader with 8 left in the warm up. Good luck Jake and lets take some celebratory bingers when you get back!

I can fucking smell it

2009-08-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

For the past 2 days my hud hasnt been working and i have felt like im playing naked. Kind of sucks. meh. Anyways, I get to work today and start to grind. I play a session and end at 560(after second bonus installment) I won back about half of last nights grossness.

I take a break, grab some lunch, and decide to play another session. i fire up some tables, grind away, win a nice 200bb+ bvb pot. Sb raises to 3bb i pop it to 9bb w/ AK in the bb and he jams 24 more dollars in. I sigh and man up and call and managed to dodge his 3 outs. he had AQ. That hand and another couple pots puts me at over 590 and i can taste 600. i want to hit this benchmark. Then Disaster strikes.

Maybe i can get away by the river....idk. This hand puts me at under 565. A suckout or 2 later im at under 555. Ugh. I think about quitting and decide to just get up, walk around and take a deep breath. I sit back down and keep going. Eventually by the end of the sesh i had my roll up to 585. A solid 25 bucks from when i started the afternoon sesh and under 1 buy in away from 600. There werent too many interesting hands from this seshion, really it was just cbets, getting value from JJ+/AK, and getting sucked out on.

There is one hand i would like to mention, unfortunately its a hand that i misplayed really poorly and cost myself probably about $7:

I really like how i played this hand up to the river. As soon as i hit check on the river i cursed myself. I think that by check calling the whole way i did a somewhat decent job of representing a flush draw. Especially to a lesser player, check call check call probably means FD. Given that i have a flush draw, there is absolutely ZERO reason that villain will fire the river. But, assuming he is competant he should be able to sniff out a bluff from a missed draw w/ a marginal hand, like 88 for example. The main benefit for playing the hand the way i did was to be able to get a large but very well disguised value bet in on the river and i missed that opportunity. If i dont plan on vbetting the river than i need to be betting the whole way. Otherwise i think check calling loses alot of its appeal. Obviously, i check the flop hoping he will cbet and as it turns out his hand probably couldnt have withstood 2 bets but im pretty sure i need to fire that river.

Thats what 5 tabling and kinda annoyed will do to ya. live and learn. hopefully i cross the 6hundo benchmark tonight at some point. Good luck everyone.

A brutal couple seconds

2009-08-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

I wanted this post to be a brag that i crossed the 600 dollar mark on full tilt. Lets just say thats not the case. Im going to give a brief run-through of my latest session.

I start with 550 and decide to play 2 tournies for like 13 bucks total. 4 suckouts later im out of both and decide to play some cash to win that back. Within 15 minutes im up to 575. A solid buyin plus from when i started. I keep climbing and see myself at 592. I know i shouldnt be looking where i am but forgive me. I decide i really want to play until i hit 600. I want that goddamn milestone.

I grind and grind and flop the nuts on a 4c6c8d flop. We get half the stacks in and the rest of them on the 10d turn. he has 79. Ok, back to 575. lets fight. Grind to 585 when i get AQ on two tables . Table one i get it all in on an A35 flop vs 33. Woops. Table 2 i get it all in on a A84hhh flop i have qh. He has A8. woops. Instantly lose 2 stacks and the roll plummets to 529 and i instantly log out.

This is my first losing session in a while. It feels bad. :( Its good to know though, that im 50 dollars ahead of where i was when i went to sleep last night. Im basically where i was early this morning before my afternoon sesh. Unfortunately the afternoon sesh and promising evening one are for naught. Its no big deal though. Ill get it back tomorrow.

good luck all

Pimp Morning

2009-08-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

Last night before i went to bed i played two sngs and lost them both to see my roll fall to 475. Visions of a losing tear which seem to always follow my winning streaks darted through my head. Fortunately it was nothing to worry about. In an 86 hand session this morning i brought it all the way back to $525 (including the first installment of my $100 bonus). In this session i got AA three times, won a stack once, won a giant pot once, and got it all in on a KT6ccc flop vs TT once in a 3bet pot.

About halfway through the morning right after i lost the AA hand i was at about 500 and wanted to go to the bathroom. I played another 5min and then clicked my dont auto post blind button. This was the last hand of my session:

Ill take it. And ill definitely appreciate avoiding the river for once. I think im going to fire up an mtt or two. Definitely play some more cash later on today. Hope everyone has a good monday

milestone

2009-08-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

I really dont play much poker over the weekend. Its kind of backwards but i play a bunch during work and on the weekends i usually just hang out and smoke a buncha weed. This weekend was no exception. It was filled with adventures and excitement but no virtual cards.

I got back into worcester this afternoon and won about a buy in in 20 or 30 min playing 25nl. I took a nap, went out and came back and just finished another short session up 35 bucks before i got a little frisky and lost a hand where i had a sper draw but none the less i finished up another buy in or $50 for the day. This puts my roll at a very pretty 502. last time my roll breached the $500 barrier it came crashing down to around 420 the very next day. Hopefully i will manage to avoid that fate this time around.

Time to go back to the grind of work, hopefully ill be able to log some nice hours this week.

Improvement

2009-07-30T22:12:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a short post because im wicked tired. First off id like to say that i love love love love love the new full tilt update and also love the bonus. very very well done full tilt. The filters are better than pokerstars.

Now to the juicy part. I got home from an open mic party a lil while ago and decided to play some cards which may or may not have been a good idea as i was pretty tired and have to get up early. 4 tabling 25nl i was holding about even and then got stuck like 12 dollars. I didnt want to quit down money so i continued to grind and eventually worked it up to a 4 dollar profit on the session! This brings the roll to a whopping 456 which is higher than it was this time last week. (Last friday after rakeback it was 440 and then i lost 40 in a day)

Yadda yadda yadda there is one hand i would like to talk about.

Note my line on this hand. Ignore the smalllllll utg raise pre, that was basically a misclick. I bet for value on the flop and turn, basically assuming villain has a draw and then check behind on the river. Now, i know that i probably could jhave bet more on the flop/turn and would have had the same result but thats not what im trying to get at. This hand made me really proud because of my action on the river. I think its pretty obvious by the river that villain either has some missed draw or some sick monster looking to check raise. Sometimes he will have a hand looking to check/call w/ showdown value but i dont see very many of these hands that i beat. AJ A9 are possibilities, but these are both hands that i chop with.

The point im trying to get at is that i think a month or two ago if i played this hand i would fire the river. There is no reason to fire the river. If i bet and he raises im in a really gross spot. He is either pulling a bluff or has me killed. If i bet and run into AJ or some shit i cost myself a bet. And really, on this river i chop w/ any ace and scoop to certain hands. I see very little value in betting. but never the less i think a couple months ago i would have bet and i would have either made a crying call or folded and lost the bet. Here, i check realizing that my hand has showdown value, and eliminating the ability for villain to bluff raise me and push me off a hand.

Sorry if this was incoherrent or rambling, again im mad tired and didnt really edit this.

Getting it In

2009-07-29T15:43:00.001-07:00

This is an exercise that i have given some thought and wanted to explore for quite some time. I started thinking about it when i played 10nl deep predominately. Im not really sure where im going with this and it might be somewhat train of thought but lets see.

The point of this experiment is to find out how simple, or difficult it is to get a full stack in vs another full stack in a cash game at the standard (100bb) and deep (200bb) levels. First lets assume the bare bones method. I will explore whether a line of bet/bet/bet will be able to get a stack in the middle. For simplicity sake i will assume a blind vs blind hand with a preflop raise to 4bb. This is what i often raise to at 25nl oop.

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 8bb

Call 8bb

Turn (24bb)

Bet 24bb

Call 24bb

River (72bb)

Bet 64bb (all in at standard level)

Call 64bb

Showdown (200bb)

So in this hypothetical pot where we bet pot on every street it is very easy to get 100bbs in the middle by the end of the hand. However, I generally only bet out between 2/3pot-pot when cbetting and betting on various streets. This betting line looks like this:

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 6bb

Call 6bb

Turn (20bb)

Bet16bb

Call 16bb

River (52bb)

Bet 48bb

Call 48bb

Showdown (148bb or 74bb each)

It is impossible to get 100bb all in by the river on a bet/bet/bet line when betting less than pot on every street. The exponential increase of the pot based on chips put into it on early streets is too great. This is why cbets on the flop are often too small. If in the previous example, lets assume i bet 6bb into 8bb on the flop and then proceed to bet pot on every street:

Preflop (obb)

Raise 4bb

Call 4bb

Flop (8bb)

Bet 6bb

Call 6bb

Turn (20bb)

Bet 20bb

Call 20bb

River (60bb)

Bet 60bb

Call 60bb

Showdown (180bb or 90bb each)

Not betting that 50 cents on the flop prevents me from getting a whopping 20bbs, 5 bucks into the center by the river. Granted this is only 10bb a player, but the point remains. A half pot bet will on the flop will slaughter any hope of getting 100bbs on the river.

So now i have proved, as we all basically knew: it is very difficult to get a standard stack into the middle of a heads up pot and downright impossible for a deepstack.

Assuming we are playing the epitome of a passive player, one who will never raise, we have two options to attempt a stacking. Our first path is to play a 3bet pot. The larger the pot preflop the easier it is to get a stack in postflop. Therefore an important thing to keep in mind when playing with passive fish who will call down 3 streets with weak holdings is to 3bet often. If there is a limper or blind who is itching to call me down on 3 streets with an unimproved middle pair i want to get that pot as big as possible to accumulate max value out of top pair.

Our Second and somewhat scarier option is to play a multiway pot. A second villain calling preflop and on the flop should bloat the pot enough for us to get our stack in. This is obviously a dangerous situation due to having to fade to villains.

The third option is to devise a line which includes a checkraise. Unfortunately this plan has two potential flaws. Firstly, a weak passive villain may find a checkraise very scary and get out of the way costing us value and also, this villain may not want to bet himself. The checkraise plan obviously fails if the villain doesnt bet and we end up costing ourselves not only one street of missed value but the size of the pot remains the same, instead of nearly trippling, so our turn or river bet will be much smaller.

Thats all for now. I know this might be kind of basic or obvious but i like getting it on paper so to speak. Next time i bring this up i will try to talk about some lines and such. Id like to become comfortable with basic lines to take when betting. Please comment with any thoughts.

Ridiculously Disappointing Morning

2009-07-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

I played 5 mtts this morning.

3 dollar super satt to 55 dollar satt

-standard

3 dollar turbo 6max.

Meh, i didnt really care about these tables. At the time i was chipleader in both a 5 dollar 45 man that had 20 ppl left. I had 10k and 2nd place had 6k. And i was chipleader with 70 left in a 5 dollar ko that started with 270ppl. In both games i had been playing great and catching good cards which allowed me to amass a great stack. I had also doubled up in a giant 900 person 3 dollar ko doublestack.

I even got a spot of luck. I cant find the HH and i dont really want to put in the effort to search but i got aip w/ AA vs TT, he turned the ten and i rivered an ace to get my 15k stack in the $5 ko.

Well, right when everything is going great and i have huge stacks the shit hits the fan.

This first hand was my fault. I played awfully. The villain was a poor player and i should have waited to get my money in. Sucks to let a whole tourny of good play and solid poker go to waste on one hand

That hand crippled me in the $5 ko and forced me from 1st of 60 to like 30/60. It was kind of surreal to lose a 20k chip pot, 11 of my 15k and still be in fighting shape. I ended up mincashing for less than the buy in.

This hand came from the 45 man when i was chipleader with 11 to go. If i win this hand im in great shape for the Final Table.

I ended up recovering and finishing 3rd when i jammed 610 into a5 from the sb w/ under 8 bbs.

Also, the first tourny i played was a 10 dollar 45 man. I started off playing pretty tight to protect my early stack. This hand is questionable but i didnt want to be racing this early.

Turns out that villain is a complete maniac running at 60/20 and a number of hands later i find myself with a 3k stack and again with AQ. If i win here im in 2nd of 30.

All in all i made 12 dollars which is disgusting considering how fucking well i ha myself set up. I could have won the KO if im not a donk with TPTK. I probably win the 45 man if i dont get sucked out on with Kings.

Meh. At least i didnt lose.

cash is scary

2009-07-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

I log into tilt today and am pleased to find my biggest rakeback bonus ever!

yay

Then i jump on a cash table and make a great river shove

I had his range at like A5-AK And unless he had exactly A5 i didnt think he could call the river. And if he did donk call with A6,7,8,9 i valuetown him.

I then play this hand where i shoved in my stack drawing dead on the turn. He played a draw very trickily on the flop, i thought he was protecting a pair or something. I was wrong.

All in All i ended up getting stacked twice for -40 on the day. Bye bye rakeback and money i won yesterday :(

tokens, cash, and betting

2009-07-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

Monday night i used one of my $26 tokens that i won on Sunday. I decided to play a satt to a $216 ftops event that was paying 5 of 22 when i entered which included 2 seats, an 80 dollar prize, and a 50 dollar prize. After reg was done it ended up paying out 3 sets and 22 dollars to 4th. Unfortunately I came in 6th.

I managed to double up early on by sneakily checking top 2 pair on the flop and getting someone to commit with AT on a AK3 board. When i got down to the final table i lost 2k of my 4.5k stack jamming 77 into KK in a bvb battle. A little later i jammed A7o over a limp w/ like 7bbs and ran into 99 who limped utg. Nothing i could really do but it was kinda annoying to come so close.

This morning at work i fired up some deuces cracked vids and was watching hand histories from 25nl. I got the itch and decided to open up a table. Listening to the vids's suggestion, i opened up a fresh table and waited for fish to join. They did, buying in for 40bb stacks of 10 bucks and a couple interesting hands came up which id like to share.

Im very happy with how i played this hand. Cbetting on a board this wet is dangerous but i really want to bloat the pot should one of my draws come. Him raising me on the flop could mean a hand like QT AQ, a better draw like KJ or clubs. Its pretty open. I cold call because half the deck hits me in the face.

I turn the effective nuts, unless he was raising AJ on the flop and consider raising the turn. His bet puts the pot at 16 bucks with 12 behind. I think that he will jam the river with all hands that would call my jam on the turn, plus he might bluff with a busted club draw. I think that calling here lets me play the river close to perfectly. If i was out of position i might jam the turn but in position i think calling is much better, it obviously worked out well in the end.

This second hand comes from the beginning of a table being created. The villain here turned out to be a fish who ran real well. he would also overbet/get it in on the turn whenever he had a strong hand.

TBH I was really confused during this hand. I liked my cbet, and knowing what i know now about this villain i would not have bet the turn. He loves c/ring turn bets w/ a made hand. I definitely managed to put myself in a really gross spot with this hand and paid the price on the river. Please comment on where exactly i fucked up on this hand.

All in all in my first cash excursion since my 100dollar loss today started off great as i built up a solid 60 dollar stack for +$35. i then donked off $10 to a shortstacker, and this pot and one more to end the session at +$7 respectable.

Now, i would like to talk about raising in microstakes cash and id love to hear some views in the comments.

I have always been under the impression since i learned poker that you should always raise the same amount, 3bb 3.5bb or whatever to prevent people from being able to gain info off your betsizing. Then i learned that raising pot (3.5bb) was generally the best option and if someone limped and i wanted to raise i should bet 4.5bbs. Well, since ive been watching deuces cracked vids ive been hearing a different story.

First, they say that when betting, cbetting etc i should be betting less with worse hands and more w/ strong hands . For instance: betting 1.5 vs 2 in a 2.25 pot. this is because players at these stakes will not realize the difference. Thats not really what i want to talk about right here though, i want to touch on opening. DC coaches have been stressing that i should open to more im in early position or the hijack and less if im on the button.

Their idea is that if im on the button i should raise to $.75(at 25nl) and if im in the hijack (UTG+1) i should raise to $1. The reasoning is that i want to buy position with my raises. If i raise early i need to fold out the cutoff and button so i should raise more. However, if im on the button i already have position locked up so i can bet less and just outplay people postflop.

This seems sort of counterintuitive to me. I feel like if im on the button i should be raising larger and trying to bloat the pot since i will win the pot on the flop so often. Im not really sure which is the best option. The DC reasoning does make sense too, but idk where i stand right now. Please comment with opinions.

Seabrook Success and Long day

2009-07-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

A bunch of us went to seabrook on Saturday and played a 100 dollar tournament. In short, we chopped 6 handed and I took home 500. There were 52 runners.

Then on sunday, Jeff and I went to Jakes house to play some online cards. I had a pretty up and down day which included 6 instances of my over-pairs not holding against under-pairs all in pre.

After a couple hours i was stuck 50 bucks, then i came in 2nd in a 45 man tournament to erase my losses. The rest of the day consisted of losing losing and coming in 13th in a 3 dollar turbo tournament. I ended up down 50 dollars, but i had won two 26 dollar tokens. So, i guess i broke about even.

it has happened

2009-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

Phil Ivey is part of the November 9. He is short but it doesnt matter. Heres to the greatest poker player of my generation if not all time running good one more time and takeing down the main fucking event.

Its gonna be a fun tourny to watch on espn

unbelievable morning

2009-07-15T07:36:00.001-07:00

i get to work today and watch a couple deuces cracked videos and im feeling great. lets go ahead and grind back what i gave back last night. Right off the bat i get KQ and 3bet squeeze from the SB. MP and the Button call and im not liking where i am. My opinion changes however as the flop comes KQ4 two diamonds. I bet 7 into 9, MP folds and Button flats. The turn is an off suit 5 and i Jam my last 15 dollars into the 23 dollar pot to get a call from the button with J10o. He cold called a raise and then my 3bet, called a large flop bet basically committing himself that layed just over 2 to 1 and then got it in on the turn getting like 2.5 to 1 with a bare oesd.

So almost immediately i am down a stack but i shrug it off. Ive been working really hard to remain tiltfree at the table and i think i have been able to control myself. For the next 30 or so minutes i grinded and was playing quite well. I was playing extremely aggressive and 3betting quite often to punish 25/20s who were opening too wide.

My constant aggression even opened up a golden opportunity to 4bet bluff out of the small blind with 66 and get a fold from the button. I had been picking on him ruthlessly and he had just started 3betting my opens.

Anyways i had about $40 on one table, $3o on two more, and about $19 on my last table when this hand came up.

With that my stop loss was activated. Roll is at 416. It is sickening to know that everything i won yesterday is gone. Since dinnertime yesterday it has shrunk 20%.

I had a post planned for this morning in which i was going to talk about separating myself from my roll, trying to distance myself from the money with which i play. Luckily for me, i do not count on this money to live. I have a job which funds my hobbies, weed, and bank account (london savings). I have not had to redeposit in quite some time which is fortunate. What I am trying to say is that i need to refrain from freaking out about losing 20-30 dollars of full tilt money. First of all, its not even that much money and not that big of a deal. Second of all, and this is the big one, I need to separate poker money from real tangible money. I do not expect to cash out of full tilt anytime soon, so while i obviously hope to not go busto, money i have online is not money that i use to live. Losing it is not the end of the world. It just means i have to find another hobby to devote 10 hours a day to.

Well, thats what i was going to write. Thats what i think. Thats what i know i should think. But its hard. Its so goddamn sickening that every time i start running well, playing well, feeling well it all comes crashing down. And in the course of what, one day?

I am in a terrible mood right now and why? Becuase i lost 100 dollars on poker. Who the fuck cares. What happens to me in poker shouldnt CANT affect how i live my life, how my day goes, how i interact with my friends. There needs to be some sort of separation.

Easier said than done. Right now i feel like shit. I wish i felt like a degenerate but i dont. I got unlucky in two spots and lost a bunch of money. I was playing the best poker ive played in a while today imo and what do i have to show for it. Thats why i feel like a loser. Every time i try to take a step foward full tilt pushes me three steps back.

Im really tempted to withdraw my roll. It would single-handedly fund a turningstone trip or buy a heady ounce. The only thing holding me back is that i have oh so much downtime this summer. And, i love poker. I dont love it right now but i will love it again. \

OK, so my stoploss for the day has been activated. That means that im not going to open another 25nl table until no earlier than 2pm assuming i really really want to play. Its gross that this happened because this way. Id so much rather be prevented from playing 25nl due to a skill disadvantage that i could make up with practice and studying as oppose to my atrocious luck.

Im not even sure if i feel like cash any more. Its such a grind. At $400 i am officially still rolled for $10 sngs and 5$ mtts. Maybe ill go back to grinding my $12 turbos or lowstakes mtts for a while. I dont know. Maybe ill drop down to 10nl. I guess i could take another shot at 25nl when i feel up to it. I just dont want to lose my whole roll to suckouts.

I mentioned yesterday that the main benefit of taking a shot at 25nl was the speed with which my roll would grow if it went well. That was definitely true, as it shot up 100 dollars in a day. If i try again im sure that is easily re-attainable. I dont know.

At least im not busto.

Gogo Phil Ivey day 8

Roller Coaster of an Evening

2009-07-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

I sat down to grind a little more and watch the all star game and it did not go to plan.

I immediately found myself in a 30 dollar hole. It was brutal. One of those times where everytime i raise a premium hand it folds, every time i open light i get 3bet. If i cbet light he jams and if i cbet strong he folds. It was ugly. I couldnt get anything going and was begining to get frustrated.

I took a minute to take a deep breath and realize that as long as i keep my head up i can fight through this. I started to as i flopped a set and got it in vs a bare OESD and held. This hand left me stuck only 15 or so dollars, not even a buy in. Then the floodgates opened. I proceeded to lose or chop 4 brutal pots in a row against medium stacks (40-60bbs).

First I got AA vs AQdd all in on the turn on a 2342 rainbow board. We chopped the 65bb pot on a 5 river. Seconds later I managed to get 55 all in vs QJ on a T346 turn. he called off his stack with no pair no draw and managed to river the 6 outer. Just as this hand ended i got QQ on a different table and managed to get my stack in vs AJ on a T64 flop. Again no pair no draw gets there on the turn. That was a 25 dollar pot, about 5o bbs each. The final bad beat was a relatively standard one as i got KK all in preflop vs the mighty AQ.

All of a sudden i found myself again down to about 460 and begining to steam. i controlled myself and continued playing. This hand came up to give me some hope:

unfortunately it wouldnt be enough as i continued to just get hammered and keep missing flops. One hand that out is a 3bet i made with KK. I 3bet quite large and ended up seeing a heads up flop in which sticks an ace flops. Out of position, i cbet and promptly got shoved on and felt that i had to fold. This kind of situation happened constantly tonight. Unfortunately playing this hand out, 3betting, cbetting, folding, costs about 6-8 dollars which represents a good chunk of my stack.

When the dust settled i was left with a meager 463.

Is this the amount that i had when i last blogged? yes

Is this the amount that i had when i started this session? no

I had a sick after work session putting me to above 5o0 for the first time that didnt include a tourny score. All those after work profits are gonzo.

Will i be able to get these bills back tomorrow? hell yes

Tomorrow im working a 13.5 hour day. I plan on watching a deuces cracked video or two to refresh and get my head on straight and then hopefully grind all day.

As disappointing as it is to not have 500 in my roll right now i must realize a couple things. I still have 55 dollars more than when i woke up this morning. I could have lost a ton more but i was able to control my tilt and still grind. I will win this money back

Now, if at any point tomorrow my roll hits 413 i will stop playing 25nl for the rest of the day and reevaluate after a number of hours of reflection. (unless i play tournies or whatever, stop loss = 2 buy ins)

I am confident that a good night sleep will help me be refreshed and hungry to play poker tomorrow.

recap

2009-07-14T13:56:00.001-07:00

I had a big post written but it got deleted so heres a watered down version:

Today I played 1,125 hands of 25nl achieving a winrate of 16bb/100. This rate would have been much higher had i stopped about 150 hands prior to where i did stop. My second session of the day started off extremely well as i cruised to a bankroll of 480. I eventually decided that i did not want to stop until i crossed the 500 dollar milestone in my roll. This proved detrimental and although i was able to get as high as 493 i eventually fell all the way to 464. it is important to note that this is still ~30 dollars (more than a buy in) more than i had at the beginning of the session.

Over 1,125 hands i played 16/11/2.6 (vpip/pfr/3bet). As i get more comfortable with this limit and i get some more hands under my belt i anticipate my pfr and vpip both getting closer together and rising close to 18-20. I also expect that my 3bet will rise to about 3.5-4.5. the reason for my high vpip is not limping, it is because i have been flatting pocket-pairs, which is probably a mistake 100bbs deep, and flatting hands like AK vs opponents who i perceive have a hand like A3-AT and will fold to a 3bet but put a large amount of their stack in should an ace flop.

The reason i was able to obtain such a high winrate today was due to how well i was running. i was not sucking out on people, i never sucked out once our cards were flipped up, but more importantly i was avoiding coolers and i was not getting sucked out on myself. Had i not played the final 150 or so hands of my session my rate would have actually been much higher. That portion of the day is when my coolers started to happen. I did a good job of losing the minimum or close too it in most cases and refraining from tilting. For example:

Anyways, As i keep playing hands i get more and more comfortable with this limit. I feel like i can play 25nl profitably and will probably stay here for the time being. (New Steaks!) At 450+ in my roll i still only have 18buy ins which is pretty under rolled but as long as i am able to keep up what i did today i should be ok. I am going to continue to not play recklessly and try to focus on my tables and become a better player and as long as i keep running well i should be ok.

At 25nl my roll will grow much faster than it ever could at 10nl and hopefully it will be properly rolled soon enough. if i do infact hit a rough patch and run bad or play poorly i will still drop back down to 10nl and grind it back up.

Thats all i really remember from what i wanted to say. I am going to go relax, but i might be back on later to play and blog more.

Gogo phil Ivey in main event!

25nl Take Two

2009-07-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

This has the potential to be an apically long post. Sorry :(

Before i get started id just like to mention that Phil Ivey is 3rd in chips of 64 heading into Day 7 of the Main event with twice the avj stack. Antonio Esfandiari is also in the top 10. Safe to say that I cannot wait to watch the coverage of this tournament and am excited to see Ivey take this sucker down.

Now, to other news. I got to work super early today and watched a couple Deuces Cracked videos. Obviously that gave me the itch to play some cards and so I opened up full tilt to see a nice 407 dollars in my roll. Ive been feeling pretty good about my play recently and really like the way ive been thinking about the game. i decided to take another shot at 25nl.

I have 20 buy ins for 25nl. That means that the risk of busto is pretty high. I think i am able to counter this by keeping a couple concepts in mind. First, a stop loss measure. If i lose 50 dollars, 2 buy ins, I will stop playing 25nl for the given session. I will drop back down to 10nl deep or sngs. Secondly, I will approach the game playing a somewhat more TAG style than the looser style i use in 10nl until i become comfortable with both the table and stake. This is not to say that I will stop bluffing/floating/calling light necessarily but i will tighten up especially when jumping onto a table. Finally i will put more effort into table selecting, a skill that i am very poor at. I would like to learn how to table select better and then implement it in the future.

The other issue about 25nl is that i am sitting with 100bbs instead of the 200 which i have been sitting with at 10nl. This makes getting it all in easier but conversely makes it harder to get away from marginal hands an easier to get stacked. I think that tightening up a little will help me avoid gross spots where i make a crying call and get stacked in a spot where i could have gotten away 200bbs deep.

The session started off pretty slow, i was playing 2 25nl tables, a 10nl table and a 3 dollar KO. I had a quick boost and got my 10nl table up to 350bbs where it stayed for the rest of the sesh and eventually lost the KO which became a third 25nl table. At 25nl i started pretty slow, hovering at about 80/90bbs until this hand happened:

I could have easily gotten stacks in with a turn bet but didnt want to be drawing thin vs a made flush. I decided to fire a blocker bet on the river, I figured if he has a low flush he might just call and i can save myself some money becuase i really wanted to see a showdown. I didnt think he was raising my river bet with anything less than a A or K flush or a boat.

Here i flat vs a player who had 4bet me before with a hand that i wouldnt mind playing a multiway pot with assuming a couple hearts flop. On the flop i think villains range is pretty wide, missed overs and hands like K10 Q10 J10. I had seen him open these hands before. I was confused by his turn check raise but it ultimately is what made me call the river bet. I read it as a protective bet or a bluff. I should have picked up that it was a good semibluff. Villain picks up the flush on the river and i should really fold this river, if not the turn. I think i played this hand pretty poorly.

This hand is standard. I just want to point out a situation where Full Tilt tries to 2 out me, fails, and then miraculously doesnt 1 out me for the new biggest pot of my life! I can run good sometimes.

I think that this hand was also pretty standard. During the hand I was quite scared of a river checkraise repping a hand like K10 and am not sure what i would have done should he have jammed. I think this hand pretty much played itself though.

This final hand was against a maniac who hated folding and had a 67% showdown percentage. I call in position with the intention of winning a nice size pot post flop should i hit well. Now, on the flop im not sure if he misclicked or what happened but im not sure if im ever beat here. However, I dont really want to continue against AK AQ AJ KQ etc so i jam to end the hand right here and pick up a nice pot.

All in all it was a pretty rollercoaster day as i was down as low as 370 after the A10hh debacle but ended the day all the way above 430. I very nice second effort if i do say so myself, finishing up a buy in, and im excited to give it another shot in the future.

If you readers have any comments about any of the hands i played please please post them in the comments section. I would love to hear any thoughts/criticism/praise!

HR Derby Live Blog

2009-07-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

12:05 stupid red team. Im gonna go to bed, i have to be up at 6 for work. ttyl ppl.

11:27 Celebrity Softball is the shit! Nely is an absolute BEAST and unfortunately a Backstreet Boy is a redsox fan. Joe and I have 5 bucks on the game. He has Red and i have Blue

11:02 Fielder Wins! I win $15 and 2 bowlpacks. I offered Joe double or nothing on celeb softball. We will have to look at teams before we decide. For now, its time for more sour.

10:35 Fielder Swings and Misses! Hehehe. But he hits enough to KO Howard including a 503 foot JACK! That eliminates the competition between my friends and I. I won the most HR in First Round, Longest HR, Most combined HR by team, and Winner of Derby. I lost the least HR in First Round bet. Its good for a cool $15 and 2 bowlpacks. Lets take a break smoke up and wait for celebrity softball!

10:29 Cruz hits 5 HRs and guarantees himself a spot in the finals. If Fielder can come through and advance than its over.

10:19 Howard manages 8 Hr for 15 total. Fielder and Cruz need to get 4 to force a Bat Off and 5 to advance. 3 of Howards HRs came on the charity ball. its gonna be interesting now.

10:10 Howard hits one after 2 misses. he needs to nail 4 + whatever Fielder/Cruz hit.

10:07 Pujols puts up a respectable 6 but it probably wont be enough to advance.

10:00 Not only does Pujols have to hit first after just hitting which will probably lower his second round score due to fatigue but the two top scorers have to wait upwards of 2 hours too hit for the second time which will lower their totals due to stiffness/long wait. Why are we hitting based on HR totals and not Rd 1 order? I get that Fielder/Cruz deserve to see how many they need to hit, thats their advantage for winning RD 1 but i think everyone involved would rather just hit in the same order and everyones scores would rise.

9:55 Round 1 Summary

Cruz 11

Fielder 11

Howard 7

Pujols 5 (2)

Pena 5 (1)

Mauer 5 (0)

Gonzalez 2

Inge 0

The two hitters after round 2 with the highest COMBINED HR total will advance to the RD 3 slugfest. Hopefully Howard wont be able to overcome his 4 HR deficit and i will be freerolling the Final Round.

9:51 Theyre predicting another Bat off! IDK, i think Pujols is gonna be able to get 2 outa here. His first round was just a warm up job. Misses on a liner to the outfield. 4 swings left. GET OUT! Boom! Pujols jacked one with 3 swings left. And theres another one. He nails 2 and the bat offs over! Pujols adances to round 2 and i have drafted 3 of final 4.

9:50 WTF Bat off = 5 swings, not 5 outs! Even Fooled the announcers. I cant say i hate that rule. Will definitely make the bat off be short and sweet to save time for commercials. Mauer's up now and needs to hit 1 HR to possibly advance. Hes o/3 with 2 more chances. He misses a reallllly close one and now doesnt have the chance to get hot and take the lead with only one swing left. He doesnt push it out and eliminates himself with 0 HRs.

9:46 Pena Bat off time. hes taking a ton of pitches while McNulty fails at pitching as much as he fails at planting evidence and creating crimes that dont exist. He might get frustrated and just hit one into the ground here. Muscles out a close one. He ends with only that one HR and the announcers mention that he might have been frustrated and just trying to swing the bat. Hehe, I called that one :)

9:42 Pujols hits 2 in the 10th out to force a 3 way tie for 4th place. We will have a batoff with only one of the competitiors on my team. This is big. If pujols can take it here and movee on I will have 3 of the final 4. If Pena or Mauer can get hot i will have only 2 of the 4 and be missing my #1 pick

9:39 Pujols is having a real slow rd 1 with only 3 HRs, one of which needed some help from the fans. Lets see some charity magic!

9:28 Mauer hits 5 HRs and likely will not advance to the next round. here comes Pujols and hopefully will hit 6 or more HRs. In other news congrats to Dr. Pauly who came in 13th in a Dream Team poker tourny while his team nabbed first prize for a sweet 33k. Gogo having a life while covering the WSOP! Furthermore, gogo Phil Ivey who afaik is stillll in the Main Event!

9:19 Howard has a really big second half and knocks out 7 to eke out pena. Im looking pretty good in my bets. Sorry im posting less and less. Just wanna sit back and wath. so stoned.

9:07 Pena hits 5 and im officially high.

8:58 Pena is up and the announcers are actually commenting. "His stance is up in the box, a conventional approach" Thank you all for doing your jobs and sorry i spazzed at Joe Buck. Im sorry.

8:50 GTFO Joe Buck. No one likes you. Go fuck yourself. See? You come on the HR Derby and talk to the announcers and what do we talk about? Your dad. Cuz we hate you. Plz leave. And Gonzalez pushes one over on his 7th swing. Gonzalez sits down with 2. He doesnt even get a mention from the announcers as he finishes his turn becuase theyre too distracketed with Joe Buck. Thanks for doing your job and talk about the people hitting instead of Joe, im a POS, Buck. Thought i had a chance to push the least bet.

In other news, sour diesel is a wonderful thing.

8:48 Inge cant manage to muscle one out of the park. Woulda been nice to see him at least get a jack or two out of the charity-ball but it veers foul. :( Looks like joe has got the "least HRs" category locked up and i can only hope for a chop. I guess id rather root to get a ton of HRs to freeroll the team combined category and try to get more hitters into rd 2 and 3.

8:36 Fielder starts off great w/ 4 jacks before his second out and then slows down for a lil. He asks his pitcher to throw it lower and promptly crushes the ball hitting it 497ft to right center. Hits his first gold ball and....a second....and cant get a third to end at 11. the black guy picked prince to win it! Hes the guy who i was absolutely hoping to fall to 4th in both of my drafts. Howard is the obvious second pick and i was just hoping to get fielder to fall. Lets hope he can keep it up in later rounds. As we go to commercial, would you readers rather have Pujols/x or Fielder/Howard on you team? x = Pena/Gonzalez.

8:26pm Cruz smashes 11 including one at 475 feet. He hit one into the upper upper deck and at least one into the upper deck. Decent start. IDK, but i would assume that the distance meter measures how far a HR travels til it stops in the stands. I know that with the upper deck shots these balls would def continue flying if there were no seats there. I guess this is a mutual disadvantage.

8:19pm Nelson Cruz is my boy! idk if i want him to hit a bunch of HRs or try to lock up the lowest number in rd 1 category....Scratch that, he just hit 3. this could get interesting. His longest to date is 449 feet. That wont stand.

8:16pm Albert takes about 5 pitches and hits a popup. Takes another 5 pitches and hits another popup. ugh. This could be a long night for my #1 pick. Hope hes just getting warmed up.

Ozzie smith throws out the "first pitch" at the HR derby....wtf? A. It wasnt the first pitch, Albert just saw about 12. B. WTF. that does not seem like a very good honor to me. Give him the first pitch at the all star game imo.

8:10pm Im sitting here with a crackpipe in one hand (no bong ftl) and a buffalo chicken pizza on a table. Rushed home from pizza but it wont even start til 8:15. Whatever. Well i decided that i might give liveblogging a try and hey, we'll see how it goes. If i get bored then this will end but it might be fun. We shall see! Heres to some fun cheers!

First we got some call your shots goin on, see if albert cant hit some directed HRs.

Prop Bettage

2009-07-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the Home Run Derby

What better way to watch grown men hitting balls really far than getting high and betting on it?

I have two series of bets going for tonight's derby and drafted a team of sluggers for each one.

My friend David and I are betting on 2 categories:

Winner of Derby

Most HRs hit in one round by one player

If we draft the player who wins a category we get smoked out by the loser. One bowl/category.

My team for both bets:

Albert Pujols

Prince Fielder

Adrian Gonzalez

Nelson Cruz

David/Joe's Team:

Ryan Howard

Carlos Pena

Joe Maur

Brandon Inge

My roommate Joe and I are doing the same thing but for 5 categories @ 5 bucks a pop.

The categories are:

Winner of Derby

Most HRs hit in one round by one player

Longest HR

Least HR hit in first round by one player

Most combined HR by all players on team in all rounds

I have the same team in both bets which i like, I get to pull for the same ppl but the drafting process went somewhat differently. In both drafts i led with Pujols and got Fielder 4th overall. David and Joe led with howard/Pena and then differned on their 3rd pick (5th overall). David opted with Maur while Joe took Inge to try and lock up the least HR in first round category. I took Gonzalez and was left with Cruz for my last pick.

I have no idea what kind of shape im in for these bets but it should make the derby a lil more interesting

My luck follows me

2009-07-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

Today i walked into my kitchen and my roomate was cooking some dinner. he was multitasking with a full tilt tourny and was obviously not giving full attention to either task. He asked me if i wanted to play the tourny and if i won anything hed give me 3/4. I said sure and took the computer to see that we were about 140/160 platers in a 6max 5 dollar rebuy tournament that payed the top 102. Joe mentioned that he had not re-bought or added on all toruny and was in for only 5 bucks.

After 2 blind steals, a timely squeeze play, and a double up with AJ I had a 30k stack good for 70/140ish. I managed to continue building my stack as we approached the bubble. I wasnt able to get too out of line however. becuase the palyer to my right was an extremely aggressive villain who actually went from 60k to 180k in about 25min. This villain contained me to a slightly below average stack through a barrage of 3bets and cbets.

I persevered and won a key 3bet pot preflop and another quick doubleup to be like 40/80 when it happened. I had a shortstack covered when he 3bet me all in with A6ss. I had AKo. he rivered the 3 outer. If i win that pot im top 15-20. But alas my inability to win clutch hands as a 94%+ favorite follows me across full tilt accounts. I ended up grinding my 10bb stack until i limped the BB (only sb completed) with T3 flopped top pair on a T85 flop and shoved over the sbs cbet who unfortunately had 85. All in All i busted in 60th for a solid 32 bucks of which i recieved 24. Put me back above 400!

I hate to complain

2009-07-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

...but im in the red again

Roller Coaster

2009-07-08T07:58:00.001-07:00

See that?

Thats what 4tabling 10nl deep looks like. Know what else? Thats what erasing a 20bb/200bb suckout looks like and then some.

I cant believe this. Its not even like i ran great. I sucked out zero times as far as i could tell. Just solid hands and winning pots without showdowns and picking up good hands at good times, which i guess is the key to poker and part of the luck aspect as well. There were a couple really nice spots. I got one guy to put in 70bbs with AcKd on a 753 ccc flop. I had top set and it held.

Another hand was me putting in 2 streets of strong betting with AJ no clubs on a x8JAx board where turn river completed the flush draw. Villain had been calling me down with q8 no clubs.

I was reading an old trip report by Foucalt, from the WSOP main event....and he talks about how if one card falls differntly, He doesnt win a particular race, then he doesnt win 190k. He ended up busting ot in ~40th on day 6. he mentions how eerie it feels to know that one card could change your fortunes.

Well, Foucalt was talking about life changing money, he was playing for 9million and im really only talking about cheeseburgers but still its kind of creepy just how swingy poker can be. if that 9 doesnt fall in 25nl i could be on my way to an epic day. If one of my hands at 10nl goes the other way im still stuck. Im starting to ramble but i hope you understand what im saying.

Back to poker:

Why did i leave 10nl? Damn. If i can win close to 370bbs in 200 hands 4tabling, then this is clearly a pretty profitable game to play. I was expecting to have to grind for a while to make up this mornings disaster and i really only had to play for less than an hour to get to where i was last night.

On to the Full Tilt Software update.

The pros:

I like the new look of the cards when your tables are small (4tabling or more). they look like the card mods i used to use, sort of. I might switch back to my mods but i def like this look better than the old full tilt look.

The idk:

Im not sure if the software is any more reliable or faster but they say it is so i guess ill take their word for it. One thing that i really hope doesnt happen is bugs tho. People were saying that we should play Full Tilt Beta a week ago and now this si a brand new system, i guess. All i know is that when i used to play MTG online and a new system would come out it would be buggy for a while until they caught all of them. Also the Beta was designed as a bug catcher, people would play and report bugs before the general release. That was all well and good for a game where no money was on the line but in poker...I really dont want some glitch in the system to cause me to lose a bunch of money.

The Bad:

The new hand replayer looks pretty cool. Def reminds me of Stars. Problem is it doesnt work. I couldnt get a single replay out of it and had to go digging around in my hand history text files which sucks while 4tabling. I also had a hand that went checkcheck on the river (i was in position) and i showed AJ and he mucked. I just realizd that that might be becuase i acted first on the turn (not sure if that actually happened tho) and i couldnt see his cards.

Also, in the past it was real easy to just click on a table, enter a bet amount and hit enter. That was the quickest way to bet, for me at least. Clicking on the table would highlight the bet amount, entering ".35" would take 3 keystokes and then enter is a 4th and were done. now, the bet amounts seem to be always highlighted and clicking on a table does not necessarily select its bet meter.

BEWARE cbet

I have twice now misclicked where i meant to table 4 and ended up opening table 3 to 2 bucks. Not fun. make sure you actually bet on the correct table I also had close calls in 2 cases where i realized what happened and was able to fix it.

Back to grinding, perhaps, idk getting back to even feels so great right now i might just take a break

Good luck all

fuck me

2009-07-08T07:03:00.001-07:00

this story always starts the same. Im feeling pretty good about my game so lets try to take a shot. Lets fire up a 25nl table. Ill balance it out with a couple 25nl cap tables. This isnt really that much of a step up beaus at 10nl deep i sit with 20bucks on the table and here its only 25. Hell, a 7.5 dollar capped pot at 25cap is less than the standard stacking at 10nl.

Im playing allright hovering when this hand happens. This was actually the first hand that i played at the uncapped table. And to make matters worse, i thought my bet slider was selected on this table when i cbet the 5 bucks but apparently i randomly opened to 5 bucks on a differnet table with J2. Obv a misclick and obv it happens when i lose the biggest cash pot of my life simultaneously. But nevermind heres the hand:

Im kind of in shock right now which is lame. I know that 25 bills isnt that much money. But goddamn, this was my biggest online lost pot to date. fucking, Would have sent my roll back over the 400marker but nope, back down to 350. Id really like to be able to play 25nl...theres a lot of money to be won there. But for now i guess im going to wait for this to wear off and go back down to 10nl deep. God. bad bankroll decisions are always so magnified when you run bad. If i run good there, go on a heater and win some big pots....my roll fucking skyrockets and this is a completely differnet post.

close

2009-07-07T17:15:00.001-07:00

ended up finishing a dissapointing 32nd in EDA for 25 bucks

Swings suck

2009-07-07T12:54:00.001-07:00

Clearly the superturbo was a bad idea. but it was fun. Its hard to not get supersticious when immediately following that i had Aces get cracked twice, and kings cracked twice. Kind of brutal. This hand sums it up even thought its for a pretty small pot.

So.....I started the day at 395 had it up to 403 but now im at 375. Not too terrible. Just kind of dissapointing given the nice start. i think im still going to play the double in 10 min. I really want to run deep in it.

Updates later.

Up and Down

2009-07-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

Played a sng, mtt, and some cash today. The cash managed to pay for the rest of the day with these 2 hands that happened back to back.

I had 50 dollars, good for 500 big blinds on the table. I meant to take a screenshot but as i was writing this i flopped top boat with 88 vs 33 on a 833 board. We get it in on the turn 8339 he has k9. River is 9. Well, there goes the profit.

I think i might play the early double in a hour or so. We will see.

EDIT: Im bad at bankroll management. Just decided that a 15 dollar superturbo would be a good idea. Too bad i didnt win a 60/60. Now to grind back up to 400.

Hope everyone had a good 4th

Little Heater

2009-07-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

Not to be results oriented but rolls at 360.

(after shipping 31 to some friends)

Started off with some more cash. Abused this one villain who i have some history with. Made some potentially spewy/awful plays but he showed a propensity for floating and folding later streets and 3/4betting real light (4 bet qj otb) So idk. They worked out this time. I was gonna go over the hands but im out of time right now. Maybe i will next time i get a chance.

Oh, also came in 2nd in a superturbo. Forgot what it felt like to win 1/2 of my races and 2/3 of my 60/40s. Feels mad good. Made a really bad call hu i had 9k and q9ss he jammed 3k in and i thought he was pretty wide so i called, he had qj. next hand he jams in 6k and i call with k3. He had just jammed qj and i really thought he was jamming wide. he woke up with k7.

I thin the second hand is very defensible but the first one.....i had a 3 to 1 lead. I think i could have let it go and waited for a better spot.

Nevertheless im out

Good luck/happy 4th

Cash can still be juicy

2009-07-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

So im kinda of pissed at mtts right now. Decided to mess around with LHE yesterday, didnt really work out so i went back to a game i had been playing a little while back, 10nl deep.

Mind you, im at work and my boss just came down and interrupted my seshion so i had to quit after 30 hands but ill be back on and off today. Theres just one hand i want to share. I spose it looks like a standard cooler but to me, any sign of money entering my account instead of leaving it right now is beautiful.

One other thing....At eff stacks of 170bbs i really dont know how standard this hand actually is. Im thinking i might have played it kinda poorly by jamming the turn. The only history i had w/ villain is that he pot bet flop adn turn w/ top pair and was pretty passive w/o a good hand. Now, KK obv is better than top pair here but he was playing so aggressive i def thought he could have had a set. On second thought, although he could have a set due to the cold call preflop i doubt a set would want to c/r->lead when im clearly showing interest. That seems like a line designed to get me to fold.

Now, i dont know if im ever getting away from kings here, i might just be over analyzing this hand but...170bbs deep its scary to play one pair for stacks. Especially when villain is showing so much agression. If anyone has any thoughts about this hand please share them in the comments. Id really appreciate it.

30 hands at 585 bb/100. Hehe, ridiculously inflated but ill take it!

Nothing is certain

2009-06-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

I ended up playing 4mtts tonight, the aforementioned tournaments and the Early double. In EDB i got bounced early when i 4bet jacks, ran into AQ and couldnt win the race. In EDA i was grinding my shortstack for the entire tourny and eventually built myself a stack of chips. It wasnt meant to be. I lost a third of my stack 3betting AK and folding to the jam when i wiffed the flop. Then i lost the rest of my stack 3betting 88 and losign to KQ about 30 spots off the money (1200 runners)

Well, what i want to talk about right now is the fact that poker is a very interesting game. In a tournament where i started out with 14k good for 1st of 400 i thought that a cash was a near certainty. Im not really disappointed with my play, i think i navigated the tournament all right. My failing to cash just goes to show that nothing is certain. I have in the past thought that i would never be able to blow a big chiplead in an mtt and obviously i was wrong about that. It can be done.

One interesting thing that i have noticed is that all of my big scores (300+) have com when i entered the cash portion of the tourny in medium or bad shape. I have never approached the bubble of a big tourny with a really big stack as far as i remember.

The EDA is a perfect example of this, had my 8s held i probably would have cashed in about 140/200. That is what usually happens in my big scores, i weasel my way into the cash and then get something together and make a run.

Im not really sure if this is a coincidence or if its meaningful but it is interesting.

Well, ive updated this blog so many times today i doubt i will again. Forutnately i dont feel bad about poker today, im not disappointed, im not tilting i kinda want to play more. Im definately not in the mood to play an mtt right now though, thats for sure.

Maybe ill give some cash a shot.

BTW, make sure you catch some of the HORSE final table tonight, it should be fun

A new kind of dissapointing

2009-06-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

I finished 85th/580. Busted on the last hand before the 3rd break when i shoved the button and ran into A10 and couldn't catch up. After such an explosive start to this tournament it is def dissapointing to finish 30 spots away from the money. For the past couple hours i have been very card dead and have run into a couple tough spots with marginal hands (the two snowmen hands). As far as overall dissapointment goes i think id rather endure this fate than finish 10th again. This was bad in the sense that there was soo much hope and promise that comes with having a giant stack early in one of these but Im not too disappointed with my play and carddeadness happens.

now i have 5 min to deciede whether or not to play the ED

Fighting

2009-06-30T12:35:00.001-07:00

Gotta love the limp call w/ q9s

Jut doubled with 77.

This is not the way i wanted this tourny to go. Going to have to fight now and try to get my stack back

2nd hour

2009-06-30T11:55:00.001-07:00

Well this hour didnt go quite as well as the first one lol.

I wasnt really able to play too agressive like i wanted becuase there were a couple maniacs with rather large stacks that i ddint want to go to war with. Here are the two big hands i played.

i think i played this hand well. I could have raised pre but with so many limpers i think limping along is fine. i checked the turn for pot control but that does set me up to get bluffed on the river. I was prepared to call a small bet but i didnt want to call the jam. Id really like some feedback on this hand.

This hand was standard. Anyways, im down to 11k whihc is good for 56/210 and 3k above average. I still have 50 bbs and a great stack for this stage of the tourny. I am going to take it easy i think and tighten up. Im going to try to grab a premium hand and get paid off. Hopefully it will go well.

Quick update

2009-06-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Boy am i glad i played these.

So far im regged for 5 $5 tournies. Two of them have fired, a doublestack and a turbo. The doublestack started with ~580 ppl and i am currently 2/480 at the first break due primarily to 3 hands.

I played the first level pretty solid, getting value out of my good hands but being tight overall. Then i made a pretty good (imo) call.

After getting to 4k this hand happened. On the flop i was saying "Please check around and turn the 8d please. Then with the action on the turn i was kind of nervous. I flatted the original better because i was honestly worried about the possibility of a better straight/boat. The big squeeze kind of felt weak to me, i didnt think a boat would do that. I have a ton of equity vs a hand like 75 or a better straight so i jam.

Then this hand happened like seconds later. I think it was actually the next hand.

I could have simply flatted pre and evaluated on the flop but this guy as a 40/6 over like 25 hands (not a big sample) but i felt comfortable enough that he could have an ace rag hand which i wouldnt mind folding here. He obv could have AA/KK/AK but i dont want to have to fold to any overcard. and AAKK are getting it in on the flop regardless.

God does it feel good to resuck every once in a while. (2 outers are so standard)

Well anyways, breaks over and im at 2k in the turbo and now 4/400 in the doublestack. Theres a TON of poker to be played but i really hope i can parlay this stack into a ncie run.

Im going to be trying to play pretty agressive, opening pretty light, 3betting light in good spots, but i am going to try to avoid putting large portions of my stack at risk.

Wish me luck yall!

Back at it

2009-06-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

I was going to say that im sorry for ranting last night but im not. I was pretty pissed off at the end of that tournament and im glad that i got it out of me. Anyways, I dont really hate mtts, i love them. Nothing compares to going dee in an mtt and having the chance to play for a ton of cash. Navigating the final couple tables of a large tournament is the best feeling in poker to me.

After a good nights sleep and a nice long breakfast i think i have my head back on straight. I am going to win a tourny one of these days. It will happen. I know how to play well and eventually i will run well and take one down. Perhaps today will be the day.

I have the whole day to myself today and i think that i am going to try my luck with a nice heavy volume day. I am excited to play the Early Double in a couple hours and maybe ill be able to make something happen.

Hopefully ill have something good to report on later on today.

Good luck everyone

Tournament poker is so sick

2009-06-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, Start this off......

I was going to post a trip report of my seabrook adventure but toots did such a good job i didnt want to just copy him.

Ive kind of dissapeared for the last week or so but thats becuse i havent played a ton of online poker for a couple of reasons....first was i had a couple bad sessions in a row which left a sour taste in my mouth. Secondly my good friend Jeff came home from FL and almost every day was spent chilling with him and my other friends.

Well tonight i came back to worcester and had the apartment to myself so i decided to play some online mtts. i settle in for a long night with a 3 dollar double stack and a 3 dollar ko turbo. I ended the turbo getting 3 outed about 20/40 spots from the money. standard.

In the double stack, which first place got 400 bucks btw, i started off great and got up to 6k. I bled down to 2k and fought back to starting stack by the first break. The rest of the tourny was me playing with 1/2 avj stack and trying to grind it and wait for a good spot to double up.

I was really proud with the way i played the entire tournament. I was doing a great job stealing and getting value whcih is key in a 6max tournament. Twice i got dealt AA and twice i got a player to put all their chips in with 99. Twice i held. Thats the highlight.

In the mid stages of the tourny i had a 20k stack which was 2/3avj and lost a big pot to go to 10k. I the turned on the aggression and fought back to 30k.

Anyways, with ~20 ppl left i have a 100k stack which is above average. I had just won a couple key pots. Then this hand happens.

Obviously i sucked out on him first but imo i played this hand near perfectly. My call preflop is standard i think with A8 and then when i flop gin im happy. When he bets out i put him on a good ace. I think i just 3 outed him. I really think he had AK,AJ,AT. I had seen him play for ~70 hands and i had a good feeling. When he calls my big raise i think, ive got this guy killed.

The turned kingmakes me put the breaks on becuase i was pretty sure thats what he had. And then when the river falls i basically cant beat anything. Luckily i was left with a workable stack which i promptly built back to 100k.

Well a little while later i was fortunate to ko the 14th player in one of the AA vs99 hands i mentioned above. Unfortunately this put my table at 4handed with two mainiac aggro players. They were 3betting often and making life difficult. I really wanted to tighten up and wait for a good spot but the shortys on the other tables kept doubling and i was bleeding chips with 2k/4k blinds. Anyways i was playing back at the aggros and eventually began openjamming to avoid getting 3bet.

Well my last hadn was 105o. i jam the button and the big blind calls with A9dd, Flop is 1057. The turn is the 8 of diamonds and go ahead and guess what the river was. If i had won that pot and doubled i would have been somewhere in the range of 5/14 with a 170k stack. But anyways i finish a heartbreaking 13th for 16 dollars.

Tournament poker is so sick. Not only do you have to play well and run well but if you lose one goddamn flip or cooler or bad beat towards the end your just screwed. A 3 and a half our marathon of playing really good poker is just wasted.

So goddamn sick. I used to be able to say, its ok b ecuase im just going to win the next one i play. But ive had enough of these near misses. I want to fucking win one of these tournaments. Its about time.

/end rant.

I was going to try and post a tourny report kinda deal but im def not in the mood now. Maybe later tomorrow. Anyways...im probly going to play some tomorrow i really hope it goes well.

Good luck everyone

Excited

2009-06-23T11:43:00.001-07:00

What do you do when your feeling tilted and annoyed at poker?

Go play live poker in New Hampshire thats what!

Unreal

2009-06-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

I started playing a little bit of plo cash. Ive been sitting at the micro stakes tables for a couple days and have seen some modest success. I managed to win back all of my losses and then some for all of the other games ive been playing.

When i first told Jake that i was playing omaha he said "I anticipate a lot of suckouts in your future" I assume referring both to the amount of donkeys infesting these tables (which is much more than in nlhe cash imo and the fact that we get 4 cards preflop and there are no clear favorite hands preflop. Obviously AAxx is ahead of most hands but its lead will never be 70/30 or 80/20 like in nlhe.) Well I told jake that the key to my strategy, and i assume a solid strategy for plo in general, is to not get overly frisky preflop and wait until you can establish a solid stranglehold of the donkeys before you push your chips in. There should, in fact, be very few suckouts and even fewer coolers becuase we should not be playing hands that are not draws to or are the nuts themselves.

Well my first couple hundred hands were an experiment into Plo. I was getting used to the game. I found myself stacking off with AAxx on paired flops...flops that would be safe in nlhe but in omaha the villain probably does hae the random deuce that paired on the flop. I also played hands like QQxx and JJxx way to fast preflop. When i lost large amounts of chips, or even stacks, with these hands i did not get tilted. I did not curse my opponents. They were my fault. They were playmistakes. In these hands i was a donkey. But its ok, I payed 5 dollars to learn that I should not be stacking off with AAxx on a 229hh flop. A valuable lesson.

The problem comes when the bad beats actually do fall. Ive been working on controlling my tilting for as long as ive played online poker. I thought i finally beat it. For the past few weeks ive been just getting crushed in ridiculous spots and im able to brush it off. Its almost as if i expect to run ridiculously bad so that makes the act of actually running bad more bearable. Unfortunately today and last night were the boiling point.

Last night I played a superturbo with toots and my roomate. I know these things are all luck and i know that of all tournaments i should not complain about them but i was making a goddamn run. This hand was for a 1k stack good for like 30/300

I know its a race preflop but give me a fucking break. I flop a set vs one pair. What the fuck. He hits the miracle 8h on the turn and everyone knows whats coming.

I dick around for a little while and fight up to 400 chips:

Oh lets go all in for a 800 chip stack which will basically secure a cash and open the potential for a deep run. Oh look hes dominated down to 3 outs. Thats great. Who gives a fuck. But hey its not like i can win my 80/20s so why the fuck should i expect to win my 70/30s. Especially for my tounament life. Who the fuck am i kidding?

Well, that brings us to PLO today!

I felt so good about how it went last night(payed for that superturbo and then some) so why not open up a couple tables of 10plo as well as 2 5plo. Give the higher stakes a shot. That was a mistake.

Im not going to bore you with a ton of hands here but i need to share these. I dont have a proper omaha hand reader yet so im going to have to do these by hand. First this jem of a hand that happened yesterday:

Ferocious Kitty: AdQcKd6h

Villain: QhJdJsTc

Flop: Qd8c3d

Villain decides to get 100bbs in here w/ a grand total of 2 live ten, 1 jack, and 3 nines. 6 outs twice while i have a redraw if he hits any of them. I missed the memo but apparently thats more than enough outs.

This morning i had already taken a few pretty bad beats: 9 card wrap vs my set all in on the flop (im a 70/30 favorite) when this hand happened to tilt the shit out of me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12983535560: Table Rex (6 max, deep) - $0.05/$0.10 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 10:10:47 ET - 2009/06/23

Seat 1: B-Shefer ($10.52)

Seat 2: Ferocious Kitty ($10.42)

Seat 3: ($32.61)

Seat 4:($10.20)

Seat 5: ($12.83)

Seat 6: Bruingras ($21.63)

Bruingras posts the small blind of $0.05

B-Shefer posts the big blind of $0.10

The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [Qh As Ah 6d]

Ferocious Kitty raises to $0.35

raginb_m folds

AlexTrebekIsGod folds

Johanne87 folds

Bruingras raises to $1.15

B-Shefer calls $1.05

Ferocious Kitty raises to $4.60 I am more than ok getting it in here. I have AA, the preflop nuts, and I have a suited Q to go with it so i am not drawing dead vs other AA hands. Squeezing pot here commits me to the hand.

Bruingras folds

B-Shefer has 15 seconds left to act

B-Shefer: nice reraise morron

B-Shefer calls $3.45 i think hes preparing to stop and go me. Maybe its a leak but im not getting away here.

*** FLOP *** [6c Ks 2h]

B-Shefer bets $5.92, and is all in

Ferocious Kitty calls $5.82, and is all in I guess this could be a fold...but i thought he was stop and going and I do have the backdoor flush draw, and if he has 2pair im drawing live....its unlikely he has set of 6s becuase i would have the case 6. Is he really chasing me down w/ a pair of 2s? AA22 what hand calls the 3bet. I also think if he has KKxx he either puts me on aces and should fold preflop or he jams. I dont think flatting the 3bet pre is right there. Its so big. This board is very dry....so i think his range is somewhat polarized to sets and bluffs. I really wouldnt put it past him to bluff here (complete the sotp and go) i had been very tight in the 10plo table.

B-Shefer shows [9h 6h 6s 8s] I guess i shouldt have ruled out a set of 6s. Yay for the 1 fucking outers (not really but pretty close)

Ferocious Kitty shows [Qh As Ah 6d]

Uncalled bet of $0.10 returned to B-Shefer

*** TURN *** [6c Ks 2h] [7c]

*** RIVER *** [6c Ks 2h 7c] [4c]

B-Shefer shows three of a kind, Sixes

Ferocious Kitty shows a pair of Aces

B-Shefer wins the pot ($20.53) with three of a kind, Sixes

I guess i was moronic for betting so large pre but isnt the idea to get rtarded hands like that to put money in the pot? who the fuck thinks 9668ds is good?

This hand came a little bit later after i was already tilting. And knowing that i was tilting.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12983541311: Table Calabria (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - $4 Cap Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 10:11:21 ET - 2009/06/23

Seat 2: tilt-johan ($23.35)

Seat 3: Ferocious Kitty ($2.54)I was not outplayed to fall to 2.5. Ill tell you that much

Seat 4: Let Us GoGoGo ($199.45)

Seat 5: samm52 ($10.22)

Seat 6: JJosie ($8)

Let Us GoGoGo posts the small blind of $0.05

samm52 posts the big blind of $0.10

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [7d 7s 8c Ac]

tilt-johan raises to $0.35

Ferocious Kitty has 15 seconds left to act

Ferocious Kitty calls $0.35

Let Us GoGoGo folds

samm52 calls $0.25

*** FLOP *** [8s 5c 3c] Tptk, set draw, nfd

samm52 checks

tilt-johan bets $0.55

Ferocious Kitty raises to $2.19, and is all in "Fuck this shit lets get all in"

Decano_adr sits down

samm52 calls $2.19

tilt-johan folds

Ferocious Kitty shows [7d 7s 8c Ac]

Decano_adr stands up

samm52 shows [9c Th 5h 7h] did not expect to be ahead here. What does he have, middle pair no draw? What the fuck?

*** TURN *** [8s 5c 3c] [6h] ohhhhh he had a gutshot, well in that case fuck it he has to call.

*** RIVER *** [8s 5c 3c 6h] [6s]

Ferocious Kitty shows two pair, Eights and Sixes

samm52 shows a straight, Nine high

samm52 wins the pot ($5.63) with a straight, Nine high

Ferocious Kitty is sitting out

Last time toots was at my house and we were playing cards he commented that he could not believe that i ran as bad as i did. I mentioned on this blog that it felt great to here him say that because it meant that i was not imagining what was going on. I actually do run really fucking bad. Well now i dont give a fuck if people see it or not anymore. i dont need people to believe me. You can think im lying. I know that i do run fucking atrocious. If i had holdemmanager, or omaha manager i bet my red line and blue line would be at opposite 45 degree angles.

The thing that i cant believe about thisis that getting sucked out on to come in 5th in my mtt the other day...(KJ hand) cost me a minimum of 40 dollars, and likely cost me over 100 bucks. All of the goddamn suckouts ive taken to finish 12th or 7th late in a mtt have cost me huge stacks and potential top 3 payouts in mtts. These suckouts cost me a total of like 30 bucks. My roll is still at 366. It was at 391 earlier today. Do the math, its not that bad. But for some reason this is it. This was the boiling point.

Im sorry for the rant, but really im not. writing this post ha done an excellent job of calming me down and allowing me to refocus on poker. Im probably not going to play any more at work today, unless i get the itch but i think that i am going to be able to handle the variance when i do play again. I just really hope i can start accumulating wins.

thanks for listening to me be emo for a morning and good luck at the tables

Getting Somewhere

2009-06-19T08:47:00.000-07:00

So finally, after a week of deep runs and frustrating cashes I managed to final table a 2 dollar cubed. I busted in 5th which was very unfortunate and disappointing but it did provide a very nice boost to my bankroll.

116 is very nice but i freakin wish i could have snagged that 430 for first. Now I was getting all prepared to do a nice little recap today. Toots even showed my how to use the hand replayer so i was going to go crazy and do that. But when i went to import my hands this morning it obv decided to be difficult and not let me. So i guess we'll have to go at this the old fashioned way. Sorry :(

I did not realize that this was a 2c until very close to the add on break. I was under the impression that it was a 2r. Had i known that this was not an unlimited rebuy tournament i probably would not have played this hand the same way pre flop. I may have though. Luckily, ignorance is bliss and it worked out.

Full Tilt Poker Game #12895981123: $2 + $0.25 Rebuy (1r+1a) (95691757), Table 3 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:49:13 ET - 2009/06/18

Seat 1: Ferocious Kitty (2,904)

Seat 2: lady_luck04 (2,040)

Seat 3: Iceman_1215 (1,220)

Seat 4: Nidas1 (1,500), is sitting out

Seat 5: HoldingBullets7 (420)

Seat 6: Krazy Gringo (1,520)

Seat 7: dragao_31 (3,170)

Seat 8: tom121079 (3,975)

Seat 9: IV GOT DA NUTS (6,096)

lady_luck04 posts the small blind of 20

Iceman_1215 posts the big blind of 40

The button is in seat #1

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Ferocious Kitty [7h 7d]

HoldingBullets7 folds

Krazy Gringo folds

dragao_31 raises to 120

tom121079 folds

IV GOT DA NUTS folds

Ferocious Kitty raises to 375

lady_luck04 has 15 seconds left to act

lady_luck04 folds

Iceman_1215 folds

dragao_31 raises to 3,170, and is all in

Ferocious Kitty calls 2,529, and is all in

dragao_31 shows [Kc Ah]

Ferocious Kitty shows [7h 7d]

Uncalled bet of 266 returned to dragao_31

*** FLOP *** [5s Jh Qc]

*** TURN *** [5s Jh Qc] [2s]

*** RIVER *** [5s Jh Qc 2s] [5c]

dragao_31 shows a pair of Fives

Ferocious Kitty shows two pair, Sevens and Fives

Ferocious Kitty wins the pot (5,868) with two pair, Sevens and Fives

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 5,868 | Rake 0

Board: [5s Jh Qc 2s 5c]

Seat 1: Ferocious Kitty (button) showed [7h 7d] and won (5,868) with two pair, Sevens and Fives

Right before this hand i got someone all in for 200 chips and lost a race with him. then seconds later I win a race for 6k. That just shows how important timing is in these tournaments. If i had won the first race and lost the second i am out of the tournamanet.

For the rest of the rebuy period i hovered between 9k and 5k never really dropping below 4.5k. I added on when my stack was around 6.5k so entering the second hour of play i had almost 9k to work with.

OK i just figured out that if i import one hand at a time i can get the replayer to work! Huzzah!

This Hand

That hand is what catapulted me to a nice size stack. I run good to catch the ten on the flop and even better to catch the 3 on the turn. Feels great to be on this side of a cooler for once.

No more really interesting hands happened for a while. I did a good job of stealing chips and playing tight/i was sort of carddead so i wasnt really tempted to play a ton of pots. Unfortunately due to the card deadness and increasing blind sizes my stack began to dwindle.

The next hand i want to show you is from the 300/600 blind level. At this point i really needed to accumulate chips. This situation looked like a great time to 3bet bluff. The villains statts and position led me to believe that he didnt need a strong hand and he very well might fold to my jam. Unfortunately he did now but i did manage to snag one of my 6 outs on the river. YAY suckoutaments!

After hovering in the low 20ks for a little while i turned a really strong hand and managed to get a villain to commit his stack with no pair/no draw.

That hand and the 4ok stack that came with it really gave me the chance to go deep into the money. As the field was narrowed from the 45 who cashed to 20 and below i was playing relatively tight. I really wanted to avoid another 10-15 dollar frustrating cash after running deep in a tournament. This actually got to the point where i was letting myself get to short for my own good. Luckily the blinds were getting so large that if i could just steal one or two pots per orbit i could keep myself afloat. I was fortunate in two ways durring this stage of the tournament. The player on my right was extremely passive and would love to limp the small blind and fold on the flop. Between his pretending to be an ATM and other steals I Kept myself in the game until i was able to cooler someone for a nice stack which gave me the lift i needed to reach the final table.

Eventually as my stack hovered around 70k the blinds continued to rise and i had less than 12bbs, I needed to steal as often as possible to stay afloat. Then on one of my steals I had a classic "oops" moment:

this hand put me up to 140k which was about 13 bbs at the time. a couple hands later i woke up with the fishhooks and put my stack in the middle to try and make something happen.

Unfortunately Blogger does not like these large full tilt pictures. In this hand the Villain called my preflop shove with KJo. The river was no help.

This was for a 250k stack which would have left dali anne at 10k. Had i won this hand i would still be in last place out of 4 (assuming dali anna couldnt miracle his last bb) but with the low ms and fast moving chips i would have been in position to go even deeper in this tournament. Obviously getting 3 outed in the final 5 people of an mtt sucks but i rally cant complain. I ran great in this tournament. I had a ton of moments where I just didnt get sucked out on which was awesome. My AJs were holding vs K10. I hit my fair share of sets...and lets not forget that i just cracked aces with 75 to be put in this position. Nope. I cant complain about how this tournament ended, but it would have been soooo much moe fun to get heads up and pwn.

Before i sign off id like to thank Joppy and Tootsy for the rail. Having buddies watching makes poker that much more fun, not to mention that the sounding board for hands which they provide makes it easier to not fuck up late in a tourny.

I told you a big score was coming, well, i still feel great and i can not wait until i get to actually win one of these ole mtts again. Soon. Very soon.

Good luck at the tables.

Profitable but dissapointing

2009-06-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

Last night i had another winning session of online poker. It sure seems as if things are coming together now. Its nice to be able to string together some wins and try to keep increasing the ole bankroll. So last night me and my buddy get stoned and play some cards. I played a 2cubed, a 3drr shootout to a 55 dollar msop event, a 3 dollar knockout tournament, a 3 dollar turbo 6max tournament, and a sattellite to the double deuce.

I was simultaneously making very deep runs in both the knockout and 2c and really thought i was going to final table one or both of them. I finally busted from the 2c in 38th place with 45 cashing by jamming A4 and getting called by KJ who managed to river a straight. I did slightly better in the 3drr ko, a tourmanent that i was freerolling in due to 6+ kos. In this tournament i kept accumulating a big stack and then getting some guy all in and getting sucked out on, It happened when i was at 3k 8k 16k. Kept freakin happening. eventually i shoved my shortstack into QQ with A8 and busted.

I did manage to secure a seat to the double deuce for a cool $T22, and on the night i finished ahead, by something like 15 bucks. It was just hella dissapointing to go soo deep in two mtts and not get a big score. Both of these tournies had 300+ scores for first place and 100+ for top 4/5. I know my next big score (big to me is 300+ LOL) is right around the corner. I can feel it. It will be coming. You just wait cuz soon enough it will be here.

Good luck at the tables!

Great Night

2009-06-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

I played some virtual cards last night for the first time in a couple days and it worked out really well. I really wanted to upload some hands to this blog and talk about them but im still having trouble with importing hands into a replayer so that will have to be put on hold for now and ill just see what i can remember.

The night started off with a turbo 2r which i was in for like 8 bucks and a turbo 3r satt to the 50+5 50/50 tournament. In the sattellite i got my stack up to like 2.7k when i pick up aces. I 3bet a villain in position preflop and he calls. He leads out on a Q55 flop and i jam...he calls and tables AQ0 for top 2. Im in great position to chip up to over 5k and be a top 4 stack in the early stages of this ~100 man satt. Obviously having a stack early is no guarantee of success but it does make it far easier to abuse short stacks and pick up small pots in these rebuy satts. Having a 1k-2k stack really limits your ability to play poker as you are forced to try to get your money in good and look for double ups. As a big stack you get be more selective and win many small pots. Anyways another Q fell on the turn for the 2 outer and i couldnt 1 out him right back so im left with a stack of just over 300 chips.

At this point the blinds are about to become 40/80 and i decide that i d0nt want to double rebuy + addon again if i bust. Risking 15 dollars to win 55 is not what i want to do here. I manage to steal blinds twice with shoves and then tripple up to around 1130 chips. At this point we are 2 minutes away from the add on break so i decide to weigh my options. Right now i have 6 dollars invested and i can

a. add on bringing my stack to 3k and having 9 bucks invested-this is a silly plan. A 3k stack after add ons will not be many big blinds and is probably a waste of 3 dollars.

b. not add on and basically give up on the tournament as i will enter the break with ~10bbs and 60 people left with only 17 cashing.

c. Somehow stack down to 1k or less, rebuy adn then add on. This option risks an additional 6 dollars, bringing my total to 12 but will place me in ~40th place out of 60. It will give me a 5k stack which has a number of blinds at the break but will be a short-stack very soon.

After analyzing my position in the tournament and my options i settled on option c. I quickly minraised to 200 and folded leaving myself with just under 1k in chips, rebought and added on. I knew that i would have a lot or work ahead of me as i would become a short stack soon but i was ready.

Entering the latter stages of this satt i had a couple hands go my way. the first was a hand in which there was a real straightforward player on my right who had a couple of very big leaks in my opinion. This opponent limped preflop very often and with what i can only assume to be a very large range. Postflop he played his hand very obviously. If he flopped a good hand (top pair) he would bet no matter what action happened preflop. I did not notice him to get out of line at all postflop.

Well, he limps and i wake up with JJ in mid pos and raise it up to 750. Blinds were 150/300 iirc. he made the call and checked a KQ4r Flop to me. At this point the pot was 2.1k and i had 3.7k behind. The villain had me covered. When he checked this flop to me i immediately removed any and all kings from villains range. Perhaps this was a mistake, but my read of the player told me that he would never check top pair to me on a flop even if he had something like K4s. Eliminating all kings from his range leaves him with suited low aces, suited connecters, small pocket pairs, and various queens like QJ-Q9 and perhaps like Q8s. I made the decision that i am ahead of such a large portion of his range which includes many many hands, and maybe i might be able to push him off a better hand like a queen. Therefore i decided to shove and take the pot down right now. My reasoning was that if he has the part of his range which i beat, he is never putting a nother chip in the pot unless drastically improves his hand. With a small suited connecter i doubt he is putting any chips in the pot if he turns 3rd pair and with an ace/pocket pair if he improves his hand he is now ahead. Therefore i should bet to fold out these hands. After thinking about this hand and talking with some other players i still really like betting in this spot. Unfortunately i think shoving is just dumb. I could risk a small bet like 700-1k for the exact same result as a shove (he probably isnt c/ring me light as a bluff on this board) and if he does have a hand that continues i could fold and still have 10bbs. Luckily for me he was not slowplaying a king and did not have a queen so he folded and i won the relativly large pot to out me at around 6k.

the next interesting hand happened when the table folded around to my sb where i looked down at K7cc. This hand is obviously a favorite against a random hand and my villain in the bb had a paltry 2k stack at this point for 7 bbs. I reasoned that he if i jam here he is calling with any ace/any pair/and a good chunk of other hands too like suited kings and queens and perhaps even a hand like TJs. Sometimes people like to make light calls when they are running out of chips. And also, if villain folds i win his 300 chip blind and the antes. So i jammed. Villain woke up with JJ but i luckily 3 outed him on the flop and rivered a meaningless straight. Winning this hand put me at over 8k approaching the bubble.

AfI dont remember a ton of interesting hands fromt he very late stages of this tournament so i will jump right to the bubble play. With 19 people left (17 payed) i was in 15th place with ~4 bbs and facing the blinds. The big stacks were making life hell at my table as they kept opening my blinds and i was running out of chips. Also shorties on the other tbales were constantly doubling and surviving. Luckily for me my Toots was on my rail and helping me curse out short stacks who survived and keep an eye on where i was relative to the others in the tournament. Thanks for the rail man! After paying my blinds i was left with 2 bbs but other people had even less chips and to my joy two short stacks were eliminated (one was all in blind) to give me the 55 dollar seat. It felt great to win one of these things, especially considering the beat i took early and fighting back from 300 chips.

During the rest of the night i played 4 12 dollar sngs and manged to win one and come in 2nd in all of the others. I also got bad beated on a 6 dollar superturbo a couple times to bust. It was like back to back to back 3 outers. heh. I was just happy that the beats came in my lowest buy in tournament. All in all i ended the night +100 dollars in profit which is pretty amazing for me considering the run ive been having the last couple times i try to play poker. My roll is now comfortably above the 300 mark which makes me feel great and i am excited to continue playing sngs and i know that one of these days im going to hit a nice little mtt score. Im getting close :)

Now i just have to work until 2:30, do some dishes and errands and then i get to go back to sharon for the weekend. Couple pretty exciting things happening this weekend: My uncle is getting married which will be a fun time and im also excited to potentially enjoy some cannabis with a friend of mine who i never thought i would get the chance to partake in that activity with. Hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck at the tables!

weekend/movies

2009-06-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

So for this summer i have been and will continue to be working in Worcester at Clark, where i go to school. I have been fortunate enough to locate an affordable living arrangement in worcester so i am not forced to commute an hour westward every morning. I only have to drive out once per week and then i get to come home once per week.

the only unfortunate part of this situation is that i want to spend weekends in worcester with my school friends and people out here but i also feel the urge to come home and spend time with family/highschool friends/my bed/home cooking. suffice it to say that this weekend was very fun. On Friday my buddy tootsy came over, got high, and played a ton of full tilt with me while we read wayyyy too many old 2+2 threads. He ended up making a small amount of money while running deep but petering out of a number of 10 dollar tournies. I continued my theme of being brutally sucked out on in most of the events which i participated in. For example, i managed to get K9 all in v K8 on a K45 all spades flop. He bet out big and i thought he had a big diamond and so i called. He ended up turn/rivering an 8 high straight. It was nice to experience this sitting next to tootsy so i could assure myself that i was not merely imagining these beats.

My night was extended until around 3:40am due to my final table of a horse mtt which had ~250 entrants. I wound up finishing a frustrating 7th for like 30 bucks which paid for all my buy ins that night. This finish got me to thinking about something that toots brought up on his excellent blog, shoving with air: there is no middle ground in tournament poker. This is a very true statement in my mind. When i enter a mtt with more that 150 people there is very little middle ground as far as prizes are concerned. When paying a 5 dollar buy in i tend to feel that anything under a 100 dollar prize is failure. I suppose that in a large field event with a 600 dollar first prize there might be some middle ground but in a tournament like this horse mtt first place got 300 and 4th got 100. I felt going into that final table, and still do that anything less than 4th palce is a failure while 4th or better is a success. Obviously i would much rather win than come in 4th but i think that in my perception it is easier for me to handle placing 4th as oppose to first rather than 7th as oppose to 1st. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

Im not really sure if i explained that as well as i wanted to. I may revisit it in a post or two and try to do a better job.

In other news i saw a phenomenal movie last week which i really enjoyed. It is called Sleepers and came out in 1996. It stars Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Kevin Bacon, and Demi Moore. Talk about a star studded cast. The movie (which is claimed to be a true story) is about four boys who spend time at a reformatory (jail) in new york and get abused by the guards there (kevin Bacon) and how this impacts their life and future goals and aspirations. This film is gripping, chilling but entertaining, and is one of those movies where i was sad when it ended because i wanted it to continue. All the actors and actresses in this film did great but by far my favorite was DeNiro. He performs his role excellently. In fact watching this film made me want to watch other deniro movies and so i stumbled upon Righteous Kill w/ al pachino which was not worth my time. Do not watch that movie. But do watch sleepers!

Swings

2009-06-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been very swingy for me regarding the poker front. I have managed to play the 2r, both the full ring and six handed variety, about 5 times in the past couple of days. In all of those tournaments i have managed to build a stack of ~7-9k durring the rebuy period which promptly gets 2 or occasionally three outed as i attempt to double through another big stack with a large pocket pair or AK/AQ. I would love to be able to have a giant stack durring the rebuy period for the sole reason that chips are flying around furiously. With competitors shoving it in light big stacks are ripe with opportunity to simply absorb smaller stacks and increase.

I have still been playing sngs to some success. yesterday i began the day being stuck 50 bucks, 20% of my roll after failing to cash the 2r, other mtts, and 3 sngs. I proceeded to earn all my money back and ended the day only three dollars in the red. So far today i have played some sngs. I managed to lose 3 races in a row and have my qq busted by ak but managed to run like a kenyan in the last table and place second to secure a modest loss of ~10 bucks on the session. Hopefully i will play some more victoriously this evening and win some money.

Deep Runs

2009-06-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Just finished 14 out of ~225 in a 2r that took me about 5 hours to play. Damn its frustrating to win all of 15 bucks when first place takes home 300. On a positive note it is nice to see that i have had back to back days with deep tourny runs. Hopefully my next big score will be right around the corner.

Im gonna go play some more sngs right now and if i feel up for it i might load up some mtts later on this evening. Hopefully i can bring my bankroll on the plus side of 300 by the end of the day

Recap

2009-06-09T06:29:00.001-07:00

I wanted to try and recap my win in the 3 dollar turbo from yesterday but cardrunners doesnt seem to be working too well. The video replayer isnt displaying bets or villains cards. I tried to fidget with it for a while and i even tried to use a new site called pokerreplayers or something which seemed to be working fine and then just died on me. Well, im frustrated and tired of trying to import the same text files over and over again so i guess there will be no recap/tourny report :(

Maybe ill try again later on or in a couple days.

Anyone know any other painless replayer tools?

Nice Score

2009-06-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

Well my little sng experiment has been going pretty poorly. Over 52 sngs im up just 4 bucks. I keep feeling like if i just started to run a lil better i would be seeing better results. Im not sure yet. I definitely want to keep chugging away at the sngs and see if i cant get a nice steady climb up one of these days.

In other news i won a 3 dollar 126 man turbo mtt today for 105 dollars.

This little victory shoots my roll all the way up to 260.

Now that my roll is on the positive side of 240 i have decided that its high enough to start playing 12 dollar sngs. Obviously i wish that this profit had come from me beating the 6.50s because as of now i might be rolled for the 12s but i havent proven that i can beat the lower stakes. I dont anticipate a problem with the 12s being much harder than the 6.50s and they will provide the possibility for immediate changes to my bankroll. Winning one sng will now be worth just under 50 dollars.

If it turns out that the 12s are much harder than i anticipate or i continue to skid i will be cutting myself off and moving back down as soon as i hit 200. This gives me ~5 buy ins of wiggle room to navigate before i cut myself off and move down. Hopefully i will never see the underside of 200 again.

Gl at the tables

Guess Who's Back, Back Again...

2009-06-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a while. I guess this is the part where im supposed to give a bunch of semi-legit reasons why i stopped gracing the internet with my literary prowess. well...im not going to. sorry. lets just say that i promise to post religiously and it wont happen again.

actually, lets not say that, because i cant promise that and i dont want to lie.

Ill post as much as i can, and if i feel like posting alot i will. Hopefully, this will mean that i will post religiously.

So, where have i been the past couple months?

I finished my second year at school, Im a junior now! and in just about 3 months i will be living in london. I got a job for the summer to try to make some money. unfortunately being a rake even poker player will not pay for the luxurious life of a college student trying to go abroad.

As far as pokers going?

I guess right as i stopped posting i started going on a downswing again. Somewhere in there i started playing 10nl and that went well, until it didnt and i went on a multiple thousand hand downsing. i managed to not nuke my bankroll but it never really got much higher either.

what im getting at is that while one of the points of this blog was to document my play and create a sort of accountability for my play it didnt really do a good job of that. I guess i didnt really want to write about me losing. Thats no fun to write about, or think about. Its much more fun to just bitch at whomever is on AIM.

Well back to now, my friend toots just created a blog in which he writes a novel about how he lost a chunk of his roll one night so i saw that it can be done. And deep down ive always known that i should be thinking and writing about my losing so its time to man up and do it. Im going to make a full hearted attempt to write in here, be it about poker or not, as much as i can. promise.

Ok crib notes on my poker for the past couple weeks.

got back into cash for a little while and started losing. Played some tournies and kept losing. Lost at everything in sight. Then my buddies Jeff and Toots, aka the fucking men, decided to play some sngs with me and stake me for half my profit. Well, i went on a heater and cashed like 7 straight 12 dollar turbo sngs makeing us all a tidy sum. I proceeded to destroy 5nl Deep tables and then 10nl deep tables making ~70bucks in a couple days. I catapaulted my roll from a depressing low of 30 all the way back up to 200. For the past few days ive been playing 10nl deep which i have found that i enjoy much more than regular 10nl for various reasons i may or may not delve into later but ive been grinding. The rolls been pretty stagnant and i was getting kind of bored.

Today while talking to my roomate OES we started talking about grinding 6.5 sngs. hes been doing this for a while to pretty high success and i felt like i might give it a try. A couple things excited me here:

1. sngs are exciting. they contain the most exciting, and heartbreaking, part of poker -the bubble. and you have to confront this period more times than anywhere else.

2. this one is kind of nerdy but i really liked the idea of being able to carefully track my progress. I developed a chart on excel which allows me to keep track of exactly how i am doing in terms of average finish, profit, expected value, after each session (set of 4 sngs) It is really exciting to me to be able to fill out this chart at the end of every session and see just how well or poorly i am doing. This is the same sort of thing that attracted me to poker copilot at first, nothing is more fun than watching yourself perform better and better all the time. the true test is to still be excited about such charting systems when performing poorly.

Well anyways, this is getting kind of epic so i think i will wrap it up.

Today i played a total of 28 sngs. I cashed a measly 1sng in the first 12 and was stuck close to half my roll but then went on a tear cashing 8/the final 16 to end the day down only 5 bucks. Ive definitely learned some things, and ive become excited about playing again which is a plus. It is definitely -ev to sit down and grind cash if you are not excited about it so i think i will play these sngs for a while, or until i want to kill myself due to bubble frustration.

Good luck at the tables, and ill see you in sooner than 3 months!

slip slidin

2009-02-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

this happens very often to me.

i go on unstoppable careens of loss. i just keep losing and losing. right now im at 168. that is the lowest roll i have had in quite a while. in the past 3 days nothing. nothing has gone right. my aces have been cracked upwards of 4 times and my kk cant hold up either. i make mistakes and get bad beated and then subconsciously or not start tilting.

one thing that i have noticed is that i tend to play out of boredem or wanting to get my roll back. this cant happen. i can only play when i have the itch, the urge that will make me focus and concentrate. i cannot donate or get fucked over on any more of my roll. it cannot happen.

who the fuck am i and what do i want

2009-02-08T23:46:00.001-08:00

well the last post started off attempting to introduce this blog and ended up rambling about god knows what. i put the proverbial cart before the horse if you will, got too far ahead of myself.

1. I am Zach. Im a sophmore. go by ferocious kitty on tilt and fer. kitty on stars.

2. im an aight poker player. Im pretty solid live but im break even online. god i want to be good on line, and i feel like i can outplay the shit outa these ppl but over time i tend to just give back allll my winnings. well thats gonna stop. Im gonna grind up a stack online. maybe writing downshit on this blog will help. cant hurt right?

lets see what else should i talk about.

what are my goals online?

i want to fight up to a roll ~1k. pretty ambitious goal. my high water mark is 380 and right now im at like 200. im ehhhhhhhhhh at 3 dollar~ mtts and 6 dollar ~ sngs. there fun, a nice hobby that pays for itself EXCEPT, i tend to go on loooooong cold spots and end up tilting and it gets ugly and i throw away my roll. or i play omaha and lose. miserably. which sucks cuz i feel like i could destroy that game. but anyways, i want to have a roll big enough to play meaningful stakes aka 24 dollar mtts or 20-40 dollar sngs. i want to comfortably hunt for tokens. but most importantly i want to have a roll that i could take money off of without crippling myself. i want to have a backup source of funds for daily life!

live poker---this basically resolves around sketchy cardroom/dogtracks in NH where i have a pretty baller history and turningstone new york where i am looking foward to a great session this spring break.

Allright so enough about my background

where do i want to go with this?

1. i guess i sorta want this to be a diary. gay. but really i want to force myself to write down shit, i guarantee its gonna be good for me. this will be a nice place for me to jsut talk about whatever the hell strikes my fancy right? cuz im basically just talking to the interets. the wide open great beyond of space and shit.

2. somewhat of a poker board. i tried a similar thing with magic back in the day, posting on a board among friends to try to learn and pool ideas and have us get better as a communal group via a online board. well, my friends are certainly more serious and higher level thinkingy about poker than my friends were about magic so maybe this forray into online discussion will work better. it will be nice to actually post hands for opinions so i can see what jake or jeff or dave have to say about em long after the fact, instead of having whatever im get deleted.

3. its gonna be a great procrastination tool. i mean look at me right now. its 3 am i have class in like 7 hours and a paper i havent started. what am i doing? starting a blog. thats right.

Start?

2009-02-08T23:33:00.000-08:00

Well.

Ive been reading blogs for quite some time as both a great means of procrastination and also as a means of learning something about poker. Blogs are a unique medium where viewers can become educated about a topic while simultaneously learning about the blogee as well.

its kind of stalkerish.

but anyways, ive gotten to the point where i want to check my mental bloglist every day primarily to see how my imaginary(one way) internet friends are doing and secondly to see if they happened to post something poker related.

my most recent runin with the idea of blogging has to do with my friend jake, a sicko, who is on a rediculous couple month span of winning multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars on the virtual felt. basically i want to know whats going on in his head when he takes down the 150r and im afraid to 1. distract him and 2. pester him with rediculous numbers of ims as he navigates the fields of various mtts. i asked him to start a blog in which he could cronicle his adventures and i could see a step by step rundown of how to win a mtt jake toole style. sorta like how hoyazo and emptyman structure their tourney recaps. long story short this probably isnt going to happen.

recently i have been reading one of my favorite bloggers talk about how much fun writing is. i always used to enjoy writing, just like reading, but ever since college started i write and read sooo much that it isnt enjoyable anymore. well fuck that. writing on a blog every day, or whenever the fuck insperation strikes, is probably good for me. im sure its a good thing to get thoughts down and just to write, not on a deadline or about a topic, just to write. i mean, this is feeling good right now, no word count or page limit shit. plus the fact that im totally procrastinating a paper and watching my other friend run deep in ftops. kids another fucking sicko.

well damn, ive just rambled a whole lot and i havent really touched on who the hell i am or where i want this to go and i think the reason for this is twofold.

1. the people who are gonna see this are my friends, they know who i am.

2. i dont know where im going with this, im sorta just writing on the top of my head.

i guess it might warrant a post though.....if im gonna do this i might as well do it right.

go big or go home and shit.