A poker blog...?

Quick Post

2008-03-03T18:47:00.000-08:00

This is something similar to what Taylor Caby wrote recently on his blog at www.cardrunners.com, but it's true for me as well.

Nothing makes me happier than winning money before I go to work...but nothing pisses me off more than losing money before I go to work.

I should probably just stop playing then...the risk/reward isn't really there.

Overwhelmed with life

2008-02-26T17:43:00.000-08:00

I've been a busy guy lately.

It's hard to go to school, work, play poker, and find time to blog about poker. One of them fell behind. It's not hard to see which is which from the timing of my posts.

The other thing that falls behind is my poker playing itself. I'm not even sure if I'm going to make goldstar this month on pokerstars, something that I've had since either October or November. So again that explains a lot with how often I've been posting here.

I'm not trying to make any excuses but I feel my 3 faithful readers deserved some little bit of explanation for my absence.

I've done very well this month even without being able to have much playing time. Playing mostly $13 6-man SNGs on stars along with some multi-table SNGs and limit hold 'em mixed in from time to time. I'm up a little over $1k I believe but I'm not entirely sure, I'll get some proper accounting done at the end of the month when I review my numbers.

I do feel that I'm playing very well and am getting into a very nice groove with my playing. So I expect a lot of success to continue over the coming weeks. Hopefully resulting with a brag post from me hitting sharkscope's leaderboards. I was close for a while but a minor downswing got in the way. I'll be up there next month definitely...it's just about getting the volume in for me at this point.

I plan to get back onto posting about once a week like I was good about doing before over the next bit of time. I don't really have much else to say. For now I'm playing in the 'skill series' with my limited funds on full tilt...so if you see Big_Bobo playing say hello =)

Still around...

2008-02-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

I post in this more when I play poker.

So since I haven't been playing any poker at all over the last week the obvious side effect is that I don't post in my blog.

Starting tonight I make a run at my goals in February. My only real goal is to play 1k SNGs. That's it. There is no monetary goal at this point. My goal is to be able to put in that amount of volume. I will be playing at the $13 6-max level as well as the $16 9-man levels on pokerstars.

If the stars align I'll be back up to higher stakes soon, but we'll see about that. Right now I just want to get myself back on track and nothing but being disciplined about playing matters to me right now. I will play long committed sessions at least 3 times a week so this should be something I can accomplish.

I hope to update this again next week and tell you all how well I'm doing.

Good luck at the tables this month.

SNGs might be the death of me

2008-01-15T14:37:00.000-08:00

I think I'm finally realizing what smokkee used to talk about when he said that SNGs were just stealing his soul and that he didn't want to play them anymore. I haven't been able to get myself to grind SNGs in the last couple of days. I've only done about 180 total single-table SNGs since my last entry.

The weirdest thing is that I did pretty well. I averaged over a 10% ROI during that time and I still can't make myself play them. I think I'm going to move back to grinding cash games like I used to. Just playing 9-12 tables of full ring, the decisions were just much more interesting and I didn't have to deal with the runs (both up and down) that I hit playing SNGs.

The swings are just sick, something cashing in 2 of 12 and sometimes cashing in 8 of 12. It's something that drives me nuts as someone that only plays pretty short sessions.

So I'm going back to cash, I destroyed the 25NL level when that was what I was exclusively playing. I beat it for something like 21BB/100 over 15k+ hands. Then I moved up to 50NL and tweaked my game when I didn't need to and that destroyed my results and made me give up cash for a while.

So my goal is to play 20k hands by the end of the month because that should give me a good sample size to see how I'm doing and it should just get me over the mark to hit platinum star for the month, which would keep me on pace to hit supernova at some point this year.

So basically about 1.5-2 hours of play per day average for the rest of the month. That shouldn't be too hard, hopefully I actually end up making money by the end.

Short Term Goal

2008-01-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had one of my worst SNG days in the last few months dropping about $400 at the 25/2 games and the 30/3 games. After that bad run I'm actually running at only a 3% ROI over my last 170 25/2 games. That's discouraging to me. I feel like I need to tweak a few things in my game, specifically the fact that I love to shove over limpers way too much. So I'm dropping back to the 15/1 games for the rest of the month until I feel I'm ready to move up again.

The problem with this is that I'm a points junkie and was on pace to hit Platinum Star this month. So I've decided that I'm still going to make it just playing the 15/1 games. I'll be 16 tabling for the rest of the month and hope to maintain at least a 10% ROI over the 1200-1400 tournaments I think I'll be playing. I'll probably be able to play about 50 a day during the week and more on the weekends. I already have 66 done for today so I'm right on schedule.

Hopefully I'll be able to find and plug some leaks in my game as well as getting some nice money from being in super-grinder mode. I plan to be back at the 25/2 games next month and crushing them.

The Journey

2008-01-06T01:23:00.000-08:00

I hate the title of this. I unfortunately have to have a title before I can begin writing anything. It's something that basically crushed me in high school because all of my English teachers wanted good titles for our papers. That was something I was never good at, so I would struggle with the title for hours and never have any work done on my paper. The due date would arrive and I would have nothing to turn in because I was never able to get past the fact that I'm really bad at coming up with titles. As one might assume I did not get the best grades in high school, but it's getting better.

That's all really irrelevant, but I am unhappy with my title.

I have a friend who occasionally gets philosophical and talks about life being about the journey as opposed to the destination. So that's where I got my lame title.

Lately I've been thinking about that in poker. Am I playing for the journey (the actual time I spend playing) or for money I can make in the end (the destination). I think I really play for the destination 95% of the time. I have a goal for what I can acheive in the end. I want x amount of money or I want to reach a certain milestone or I need to win a tournament.

It's not that I just want to sit around and have fun playing a game of cards. I feel lazy when I play less than 6 tables most of the time. I still have fun playing the game. I don't just sit down start clicking and become miserable, but I don't know if I play in a healthy way. I want to get back to the feeling I got when I was learning poker, the joy and excitement that brought to me.

...but it sure will be hard to hit Supernova with that attitude.

Goals reached and the new year

2007-12-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a nice time over the holidays and that everyone is safe tonight. I myself pulled the short straw tonight so I'm the one who has to drive on "amateur night," but it's probably good anyway. At least tomorrow I won't be piecing together my night during the bowl games.

This year I didn't get into a college bowl game pool, that sucks. Thank god it's almost time for March Madness, but I am dreading the 2 worst months in sports which are approaching ever so quickly. I'll just have to learn to avoid ESPN again. :sigh: I guess it won't be that bad.

On the poker front I had a great December making almost $1200 if I recall correctly. I'll probably get some more exact numbers up once I'm able to review my records, but that's pretty accurate. I was also able to acheive my goal of getting my bankroll up to $3k by the end of the month. I rewarded myself for that with a small cashout that will hopefully be the first of many throughout the new year.

My game really took off this year compared to the last few years that I've been playing. I've made more money and taken more positive steps than ever before. The idea of having a constant supplemental income from poker has now become a possibility that I hope to make a reality throughout 2008. So with that in mind here are my goals for 2008:

- Getting a minimum of $500 into my bank account every month
- Becoming a consistent winner at the $60 SNGs on Stars
- Playing and beating $5/10 Limit Hold 'Em for over 1BB/100 hands
- Reaching 'Supernova' status on Poker Stars

Those are in order of importance to me over the year. I will need to work up to many of these and I will be making more short term goals from month to month to help me attain these. I believe that all of them can be done as long as I continue to learn and focus on the game. I have never been more focused than I am now with regard to becoming a better player and I don't plan to stop anytime soon.

2008 is going to be my best year playing poker ever.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T15:34:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone has/had/is having a good Christmas with their family. I ended up getting a lot of things with relation to moving out. I guess it's about that time. Eh it was a good run living off of my parent's money =D

I have finished my 2 year degree over at fullerton college, so I suppose that I can put 'college graduate' on resumes now. I should probably look into getting a new job too.

Lots of changes coming in the next few months for me as I start up at Cal State Fullerton.

On the poker front I decided to give myself a gift and sign-up for SNGicons, so far it seems like a pretty good investment. I have really wanted to work on my SNG game for some time. I think the only reason I was winning before is because I naturally play tight and that just worked out for me. Now I feel like I'm grasping more of the fundamentals of the game itself. Or I could be wrong, but I at least feel more confident - and that's always good.

I hope everyone has a happy new year and if you see me online feel free to say hello. I'll be playing a lot in the coming weeks.

My Triumphant Return to Limit

2007-12-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

As the title may suggest I've started playing limit again. I just love it too much to stay away. There is nothing more fun to me than being able to pound people like to can in limit. When you make that river check/raise that you can tell hits the other guy like a punch in the face. The raise that forces him to think for a second after he had been insta-betting the entire hand. He thinks, acknowledges that he's fucked and then pays you off anyway.

Who said no limit was sexier?

So basically I've been 8-16 tabling $1/2 LHE on stars for the last week. I've put in about 4k hands and am running at 1.5BB/100 but I think that I can get myself up to 2BB/100 if I work at it. I'm already rolled for $2/4 but I want to make sure I'm really comfortable with my game at one level before moving up. Probably going to play another 6k to 11k hands at $1/2 before going and demolishing the $2/4 games.

This move has also allowed me be the points junkie that I've always wanted to be. I'm about an hour of play away from goldstar for this month and I think that I'll be able to get up to platinum during January. Since I won't be in school, all the important things get to come back into my life. By important I of course mean poker, partying, and going to the gym. I'm already excited for it.

To update on the bet I covered briefly last post:

- 17 people entered
- $50 a person, for a total of $850 to the winner
- I have over $120 in side action with more to come I'm sure
- I'm already down around 221 for a loss of 13.6lbs.
- No one else has a chance.

The Bet

2007-12-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

Long delay between posts I know, but it is finals time for us college students and I've been quite busy.

As you may guess that does mean that I haven't had much time to play poker, but when I have played I've felt pretty good about how I'm playing. I've recently focused more on 6-max cash games as opposed to full ring, for 2 reasons:

1. It's a little more fun to be able to play more hands, play more read-dependent poker, and get to be more aggressive.

2. It keeps me from turning into a robot and playing 12 tables because I just can't play that many for 6-max. Right now I'm usually only at 4.

Poker updates will probably come in the next couple days as I should have a good amount of time to put in at the tables. I have a cash goal for the end of the month that may or may not be attainable, it probably just depends on me putting in the hours.

Now on to more interesting things, prop bets. The company that I work for has started a prop bet about losing weight. $50 to enter, whoever loses the highest % of their body weight in 60 days takes the entire prize pool. Over 20 people have entered and the pool is looking mighty fat. As some of you may know about 1 year ago I weighed in at about 290 pounds and through not much more than my diet I've been able to drop myself to just below 230. I still have a lot of weight I can lose though (I'm about 6'1") and feel really good about my odds for the bet. I used to wrestle in high school and the discipline involved in cutting the weight shouldn't be too hard. My goal is to be down 40-50lbs. by the end of the bet. That should put me around or over 20% of my body weight. I can't see the competition beating that, especially as many of them are over 40 and it's not going to be as easy to lose weight as they think.

So I'm on a super crash diet (compared to what I was eating) and I'll be going to the gym quite a bit more over the course of this time. The final date is 2/8/08, so wish me luck =D

I'm a shiny gold star

2007-11-28T23:53:00.000-08:00

Dear SilentRebel,

Congratulations! You have achieved the "GoldStar".

We invite you to learn about your many new PokerStars VIP privileges by visiting http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/gold/

Sincerely,

PokerStars Team.

Open Letter to PokerStars.com

2007-11-22T01:48:00.000-08:00

Dear PokerStars,

You and I have been close for some time now. I've played at your site for several years and still count it as one of the best in the industry. I've gone to other sites and always seem to find my way back to you. I was even counted among "valued customers" when you chose to start allowing certain people to deposit via eCheck.

I'm a winning multi-tabler, playing as many as 16 tables at once, which I know is your favorite type of player. The kind that generates rake and plays a big volume. I may not play the highest stakes, but I'm working on that and that's beneficial for the both of us.

With all this in mind, I'm going to humbly ask you to turn off my doomswitch. I mean it's gone on long enough. How many hours will you make me suffer for your amusement?

I thought we were friends.

Friends don't give each other 100 tournament long stretches of negative variance. That's just not nice.

Thanks in advance for considering,

SilentRebel

My Biggest Poker Problem

2007-11-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Well maybe not my biggest problem...my biggest problem may be my natural instinct to want to look people up on the river. I suppose this falls under the category of my biggest psychological problem with reference to poker.

The Stop-Win.

I know everyone has heard of a stop-loss. For those who don't, it's where you stop playing after dropping a specific amount of money. This is done to prevent tilt and to try and stop playing when you're more likely to be playing poorly and chasing your losses. I never really put a stop-loss on myself unless I'm taking a shot at a higher buy-in game than normal because I am almost always properly rolled for the tables that I'm playing.

My problem is exactly the opposite. If I sit down at the tables and win 3 buy-ins after a few hundred hands I'll often stop playing even though I feel like I'm playing great and I usually have planned to play more. I stop though. It's not really something I can explain, but this fear starts creeping into me that I'm going to lose it back because I'm inevitably winning way above expectation at that point. Something inside knows that my winrate will regress towards the mean at some point and that often times means losing some money. That starts to overwhelm my thoughts and I look at my new account balance, then I can't make myself play a hand for fear of losing the hand and losing money...so I have to stop playing.

This has been something that has plagued me for as long as I can remember. I've been able to play far longer when I'm losing than when I'm winning. I hate that I do this, but I can't seem to make myself stop. I don't have many big losing sessions because I don't really stop until I can get back to even. Sometimes I play an extra 2 or 3 hours than I planned to because of it though. I feel like I'm getting better at stopping myself when I'm playing poorly, but I can't make myself continue when I'm playing well and the results are showing it. I feel like this is a time when I can be making a ton of money and I'm missing out. I'm playing well and I'm definitely not on tilt because I'm winning...and yet I have to stop. It drives me insane.

Has anyone else had to deal with something like this...how did you solve it?

Stressed out and October Graphs

2007-11-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

School and work have been kicking my ass lately. I've actually missed several classes this week because I just needed a break. I cannot wait for this semester to end. This has also led to really varied amounts of time for me to play poker.

Even still, I managed to turn a pretty good month out of October. I went through sharkscope and they show me up a little less than $150 for the month and here is my cash game graph for the month (this includes all levels, limit and NL that I played during the month):

What a disappointing day

2007-10-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

I managed to play over 1400 hands today...that's not a typo, I played a ton in between my obligations today. I was playing anywhere from 4-9 tables at any given time. Unfortunately, I ran pretty bad. I didn't have any cooler hands (against a reasonable sized stack), but I just kept missing flops in key spots and bleeding chips that way.

I don't remember flopping a set all day and if I did, I didn't get any action on it. I lost tons of all-ins to people with 20-25BB stacks. I was in on the good side of a race every time except once when I ran JJ into AA, again it was only for 25BBs. Whenever I got to the river in a hand, I almost never had the best of it. It was just one of those days that nothing really went right, even though I can't find anything that I did wrong (that's really obvious).

I eventually ended up due to just playing forever and managing to have TPTK hold against a flush draw for a monster pot. Of course when I mention "up" here, I mean that I was up...but running at only 20% of my normal winrate. I suppose that my winrate may have been inflated before though, it could be closer to where it's supposed to be now. I just know that if I play at least 4 tables I'm making more than I do working an hour at my job still, so that's special.

I'm just still cruising at $25NL until I can get my roll up to a point where taking shots at $50NL isn't going to kill me...from what I've noticed so far at that level, the play isn't much better - they're just a whole lot nittier. I'll adjust when the time comes.

At least after playing so many hands I was able to rack up the VPPs.

I'm a terrible updater

2007-10-21T01:27:00.000-07:00

I've been behind on updating this primarily because I haven't played much recently and when I did I tilted like freaking crazy. Seriously...the worst tilt I've had in some time. It was actually a pretty pathetic moment for me. So I had to stop playing for a while to refocus myself. I've done that and I'll get a real update in here soon tracking some progress.

WBCOOP

2007-10-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

1337 started and I get to knock out Astin.

PokerStars Game #12626029782: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (150/300) - 2007/10/14 - 15:56:50 (ET)
Table '63028692 87' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: EuRock (17075 in chips)
Seat 2: BlackStar255 (9805 in chips)
Seat 3: cadmunkey (15400 in chips)
Seat 4: unoturbo (10450 in chips)
Seat 5: Critterer (26450 in chips)
Seat 6: xvegtx (43175 in chips)
Seat 7: Astin (5200 in chips)
Seat 8: United113 (9921 in chips)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (24300 in chips)
SilentRebel: posts small blind 150
EuRock: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [Tc Th]
BlackStar255: folds
cadmunkey: folds
unoturbo: folds
Critterer: folds
xvegtx: folds
Astin: raises 900 to 1200
United113: calls 1200
SilentRebel: raises 3300 to 4500
EuRock has timed out
EuRock: folds
EuRock is sitting out
Astin: raises 700 to 5200 and is all-in
United113: folds
SilentRebel: calls 700
*** FLOP *** [Td Kc 7h]
*** TURN *** [Td Kc 7h] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Td Kc 7h 8d] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SilentRebel: shows [Tc Th] (three of a kind, Tens)
Astin: shows [Ac Ks] (a pair of Kings)
SilentRebel collected 11900 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11900 Rake 0
Board [Td Kc 7h 8d 9s]
Seat 1: EuRock (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: BlackStar255 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: cadmunkey folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: unoturbo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Critterer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: xvegtx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Astin showed [Ac Ks] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 8: United113 (button) folded before Flop
Seat 9: SilentRebel (small blind) showed [Tc Th] and won (11900) with three of a kind, Tens

I'm in the top 40 after the first break. Updates to follow.

Lost a huge pot here

PokerStars Game #12626486557: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level V (200/400) - 2007/10/14 - 16:20:22 (ET)
Table '63028692 87' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: EuRock (34513 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: BlackStar255 (16127 in chips)
Seat 3: cadmunkey (8672 in chips)
Seat 4: unoturbo (7256 in chips)
Seat 5: Critterer (25850 in chips)
Seat 6: xvegtx (41375 in chips)
Seat 7: DcInTheBluff (6350 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: United113 (12642 in chips)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (27679 in chips)
SilentRebel: posts small blind 200
EuRock: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [Qc Qh]
BlackStar255: folds
cadmunkey: calls 400
unoturbo: folds
Critterer: raises 800 to 1200
xvegtx: calls 1200
DcInTheBluff: folds
United113: folds
SilentRebel: raises 3600 to 4800
EuRock: folds
cadmunkey: folds
Critterer: calls 3600
xvegtx: folds
*** FLOP *** [4c Td 7s]
SilentRebel: bets 7200
Critterer: raises 13850 to 21050 and is all-in
SilentRebel: calls 13850
*** TURN *** [4c Td 7s] [9d]
Critterer said, "oopz"
*** RIVER *** [4c Td 7s 9d] [Ac]
SilentRebel said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SilentRebel: shows [Qc Qh] (a pair of Queens)
Critterer: shows [8s 6s] (a straight, Six to Ten)
Critterer collected 53700 from pot
DcInTheBluff has returned
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 53700 Rake 0
Board [4c Td 7s 9d Ac]
Seat 1: EuRock (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: BlackStar255 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: cadmunkey folded before Flop
Seat 4: unoturbo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Critterer showed [8s 6s] and won (53700) with a straight, Six to Ten
Seat 6: xvegtx folded before Flop
Seat 7: DcInTheBluff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: United113 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (small blind) showed [Qc Qh] and lost with a pair of Queens

Then got back into it with this hand.

PokerStars Game #12626537973: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (300/600) - 2007/10/14 - 16:22:59 (ET)
Table '63028692 87' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: EuRock (33913 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 2: BlackStar255 (15527 in chips)
Seat 3: cadmunkey (7672 in chips)
Seat 4: unoturbo (6856 in chips)
Seat 5: Critterer (54300 in chips)
Seat 6: xvegtx (38346 in chips)
Seat 7: DcInTheBluff (5950 in chips)
Seat 8: United113 (12642 in chips)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (5258 in chips)
unoturbo: posts small blind 300
Critterer: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [As Ad]
xvegtx: folds
DcInTheBluff: folds
United113: raises 1800 to 2400
SilentRebel: raises 2858 to 5258 and is all-in
EuRock: folds
BlackStar255: folds
cadmunkey: folds
unoturbo: folds
Critterer: folds
United113: calls 2858
*** FLOP *** [4s Jh 2d]
United113 said, "lol"
*** TURN *** [4s Jh 2d] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [4s Jh 2d 9d] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
United113: shows [8c 8h] (a pair of Eights)
SilentRebel: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
SilentRebel collected 11416 from pot
SilentRebel said, "i rock lol"
Critterer said, "karma"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11416 Rake 0
Board [4s Jh 2d 9d 7c]
Seat 1: EuRock folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: BlackStar255 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: cadmunkey (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: unoturbo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Critterer (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: xvegtx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: DcInTheBluff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: United113 showed [8c 8h] and lost with a pair of Eights
Seat 9: SilentRebel showed [As Ad] and won (11416) with a pair of Aces

67soooted let me down...oh and irongirl was at the table.

PokerStars Game #12627105112: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (400/800) - 2007/10/14 - 16:52:54 (ET)
Table '63028692 87' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: EuRock (30113 in chips)
Seat 2: BlackStar255 (40903 in chips)
Seat 3: fjflb (7756 in chips)
Seat 4: sijht.nl (25920 in chips)
Seat 5: Critterer (63582 in chips)
Seat 6: xvegtx (60902 in chips)
Seat 7: irongirl01 (12950 in chips)
Seat 8: United113 (16108 in chips)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (12016 in chips)
EuRock: posts the ante 50
BlackStar255: posts the ante 50
fjflb: posts the ante 50
sijht.nl: posts the ante 50
Critterer: posts the ante 50
xvegtx: posts the ante 50
irongirl01: posts the ante 50
United113: posts the ante 50
SilentRebel: posts the ante 50
EuRock: posts small blind 400
BlackStar255: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [7s 6s]
fjflb: folds
sijht.nl: folds
Critterer: folds
xvegtx: folds
irongirl01: folds
United113: folds
SilentRebel: raises 1600 to 2400
Critterer said, "where do u blog what site"
EuRock: raises 8000 to 10400
BlackStar255: folds
SilentRebel said, "i have my favorite hand..."
SilentRebel: raises 1566 to 11966 and is all-in
EuRock: calls 1566
*** FLOP *** [Tc Jd Jc]
*** TURN *** [Tc Jd Jc] [Ks]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Jd Jc Ks] [Td]
SilentRebel said, "lame"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
EuRock: shows [Qd Qs] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
SilentRebel: shows [7s 6s] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
EuRock collected 25182 from pot
Critterer said, ":("
irongirl01 said, "gg"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 25182 Rake 0
Board [Tc Jd Jc Ks Td]
Seat 1: EuRock (small blind) showed [Qd Qs] and won (25182) with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 2: BlackStar255 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: fjflb folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sijht.nl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Critterer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: xvegtx folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: irongirl01 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: United113 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SilentRebel (button) showed [7s 6s] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Tens

My birthday

2007-10-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday...I just turned 20.

The countdown begins.

Taking shots and missing

2007-10-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

I played a bunch more poker this weekend (starting to become a theme for me). Twice this weekend I tried to take shots at higher limits to jumpstart the bankroll a little bit, without great results.

On Saturday I played in the $25k guarantee on PokerStars, which is a $50/5 buy-in. I wish I had more to write about that, but I busted unceremoniously on the last hand before the 1st break when I had incorrectly read my opponent as weaker than he was. Right after the tournament though I had a really nice session 6-tabling $25NL and won back my buy-in and more.

Then today I took a shot playing some $50NL and just got bitchslapped back into the lower limits. I dropped about a buy-in and a half, but I just played like total shit and don't even really want to talk about it that much. I let myself play scared poker for most of the session and then suddenly decided to make a really big move into aces...it was a real special moment for me. So again I fired up 6 tables of $25NL and tried to grind back what I lost. I ran a little worse than expectation, so I couldn't quite get it all back...but I was able to negate some of the damage.

Now to the more exciting part of my post, I now have about 7k hands of $25NL/PL and I've just been doing really well. I'm running at 27.81BBs/100 hands. That's just awesome for me. I really wanted to be over 20BBs/100 hands once I hit the 5k hand mark, and I've just destroyed that number. For most of the time I've been playing 4-6 tables as well. I do seem to play a little better if I'm only playing 4 tables, but I don't seem to be dropping off much when I have 6 of them up. I have no idea how some people play 10+ tables at a time...that's still beyond me. Basically all multi-tabling is giving me a better hourly rate than what I'm paid at my job...which is just as exciting as it is frustrating. Now lets take a look at a graph:

I've also been trying to work on my limit Omaha hi/lo game...If anyone can help me with that, please let me know. I've been working really hard at it and it's getting upsetting that the results just aren't there yet.

Should be fun

2007-10-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 9861424

Been playing a ton...

2007-10-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

I've put in about 1200 hands in the last 2 days. That's exceptional for me as far as volume is concerned. I've also put up a great winrate over those hands...I'll post my stats again after I hit 5k hands (or maybe more...I'm unsure) here at the $25NL/PL level.

I ended up playing a lot of PLHE when I was trying to make silverstar because the $25 tables just had bigger avg. pots and that's what I needed. What I found out about those tables is that they're SOOOO much softer than the NL tables at the same level...and it's not like most of the NL tables are the toughest games in town. There are just less high-volume, set-mining multi-tablers. The table's have a higher avg. pot and a higher avg. players per pot. That just equates to an easier table. A good buddy of mine from 67suited (majingohan28) used to 12 table those games and now I totally understand why. If only they had high speed tables I'd play them more often. I really hate only seeing 40-60 hands an hour at those tables, even though I normally 4 table. When I can see 20-30 more hands per hour at a high speed table that can be almost 100 extra hands an hour I'm seeing. I'm not sure the greater winrate would justify that decision just yet.

I am going to try to hit GoldStar on PokerStars this month and get myself the $285 bonus that I can buy with FPPs at that point. Though even with how much I'm playing I think I'll need to build the roll into an amount that would allow me to play $50NL before this really becomes feasible. I might be able to cut it close this month just playing $25NL though...we'll see as it gets closer.

I'll finish here with a fun hand I played yesterday (file this under good table selection):

POKERSTARS GAME #12379871779: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/10/01 - 16:18:49 (ET)
Table 'Lina' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: xTJaxx ($24.65 in chips)
Seat 2: 120282 ($41.65 in chips)
Seat 3: SilentRebel ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 4: Terenos ($24 in chips)
Seat 5: AlphaMale626 ($79.75 in chips)
Seat 8: MojstrMiha ($9.50 in chips)
Seat 9: jeffreymb ($48 in chips)
120282: posts small blind $0.10
SilentRebel said, "if he didn't call you, i woulda had you"
SilentRebel: posts big blind $0.25
aqbaq: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [Kc Kd]
AlphaMale626 said, "i dont care"
SilentRebel said, "lol"
Terenos: folds
AlphaMale626: raises $16.25 to $16.50
MojstrMiha: folds
jeffreymb: folds
xTJaxx: folds
120282: folds
SilentRebel: raises $8.25 to $24.75 and is all-in
AlphaMale626: calls $8.25
*** FLOP *** [Ks Ts 9d]
*** TURN *** [Ks Ts 9d] [As]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Ts 9d As] [2d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SilentRebel: shows [Kc Kd] (three of a kind, Kings)
AlphaMale626: mucks hand
SilentRebel collected $47.15 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $49.60 Rake $2.45
Board [Ks Ts 9d As 2d]
Seat 1: xTJaxx (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: 120282 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: SilentRebel (big blind) showed [Kc Kd] and won ($47.15) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 4: Terenos folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: AlphaMale626 mucked [2h Jh]
Seat 8: MojstrMiha folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: jeffreymb folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Wow I'm a star

2007-09-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Dear SilentRebel,

Congratulations! You have achieved the "SilverStar".We invite you to learn about your many new PokerStars VIP privileges by visiting http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/silver/

Sincerely,

PokerStars Team

Not too bad. If I keep moving up in levels I should be able to get myself up the VIP levels because I can put in some decent volume.

5k hands revisted...NL style

2007-09-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

A few posts ago I put up a screenshot of 5000 hands at .25/.50 limit. Unfortunately since that time I tried to move up to .5/1 limit and just got flat out destroyed and demoralized to the point of not really wanting to play limit in the near future. Since I wasn't playing limit and I can't really just stop playing poker, I tried SNGs again.

SNGs were my bread-and-butter for a long time in poker. Apparently though, I'm not nearly as good at them as I remember being. I lost...a bunch. Just take a look at the downward slope on my sharkscope. It's not pretty.

So going back to cash games, my only real options left were NLHE and PLO. I've played some of both, but it's much easier for me to multi-table NLHE and for the most part that's what I've done. So without further ado, here are some stats:

Really busy

2007-09-15T14:25:00.001-07:00

Lately I've just been crazy busy...school has really kicked into full swing for me and I'm taking more units than ever this semester (15) because I'm in a rush to finish up at the junior college and move on for the spring semester. So I'm taking 15 units and then still working 25-30 hours and week. If I need to study for anything I'm completely out of free time. Which means I'm not playing much poker and (obv) not really going to be posting in here. I wish I would post more...I still read everyone's blog fairly often, but just a lack of things to cover here.

The little big of poker I've been playing has been fairly good. I'm still building up the roll on stars...I took a couple shots at moving up in LHE and just got crushed, so I'm not sure what to do about that yet. I'm down like 50BBs over 900 hands, that's getting beaten pretty soundly. I'm running at least a little poorly, but I'm certainly not playing my best there. So I'm back down at my regular levels licking my wounds and recovering the roll right now. Something I have been experimenting with (at the lower levels) is 6-tabling full ring games. I seem to do pretty well at it right now, but we'll see how it all turns out long term. It'd be really cool if I could keep it up though because that would help me build my roll just as quickly even though I'm able to play less.

Here's a hand from some NL that I played recently that just shows me how much I've grown as a poker player since I first began playing:

POKERSTARS GAME #11817526177: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/09/01 - 19:33:11 (ET)
Table 'Sidonia' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: qwertyy66 ($7.75 in chips)
Seat 2: J of Clubs87 ($5.95 in chips)
Seat 3: johanvdvelde ($10 in chips)
Seat 4: Candog98 ($7.70 in chips)
Seat 5: Espacio07 ($6.30 in chips)
Seat 6: nancyoy18 ($8 in chips)
Seat 7: SilentRebel ($29.85 in chips)
Seat 9: Dakota521 ($9.75 in chips)
Espacio07: posts small blind $0.05
nancyoy18: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SilentRebel [Kh Kc]
SilentRebel: raises $0.20 to $0.30
Dakota521: folds
qwertyy66: calls $0.30
J of Clubs87: folds
johanvdvelde: folds
Candog98: folds
Espacio07: calls $0.25
nancyoy18: calls $0.20
*** FLOP *** [8c 8s 5c]
Espacio07: bets $1
nancyoy18: calls $1
SilentRebel: raises $2 to $3
qwertyy66: folds
Espacio07: folds
nancyoy18: raises $4.70 to $7.70 and is all-in
SilentRebel: folds
nancyoy18 collected $7.80 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8.20 Rake $0.40
Board [8c 8s 5c]
Seat 1: qwertyy66 folded on the Flop
Seat 2: J of Clubs87 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: johanvdvelde folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Candog98 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Espacio07 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: nancyoy18 (big blind) collected ($7.80)
Seat 7: SilentRebel folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Dakota521 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

5k hands finished

2007-08-31T00:33:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I finally finished something I told myself I would do in poker. This is a pretty big thing for me because I have a tendency to run bad at some point and give up before forcing myself to finish...that's just a terrible thing when you're trying to improve your poker game. So hopefully I've broken myself out of that habit. I even ran pretty bad towards the end of my hands and still kept my spirits up and grinded it out to the finish.

Numbers are a lot more telling than anything else I can say, so this is a nice little screenshot from my pokertracker.

More of the same

2007-08-29T18:13:00.000-07:00

I've played 800 hands since I last posted and it doesn't really seem like much is changing. I suppose this is just a standard thing after the heater I was on, so I can't really be mad. It's pretty frustrating to play 800+ hands and have won only 1 BB after all that. I'm almost to 5000 hands at this level and I'm on pace for my goal pretty easily at this point unless I hit a collosal downswing in my next 500 hands (if posting this jinxes me, I may never blog again). I'm actually on pace to finish the 5000 hands with a winrate of 2BB/100 hands and that would be awesome for me. If this all works out I'll start playing 3 tables of .25/.50 and 1 of .50/1 so I can get into the swing of another level before I move up completely.

One thing I have been proud of is the way I've been dealing with tilt lately...not that I've been able to stop tilting entirely. That would be ridiculous and I would probably be lying to you (and myself). I've just been able to keep it from affecting my play (for the most part) and I've been able to calm myself down a little faster, which is a must if you're playing 4 tables. The fact that I'm playing cash games helps too, on more than 1 occasion I've just stopped playing for like 20 minutes because I was so pissed. That's something you can't do in tournaments/SNGs and something that I probably wouldn't have done in the past.

Poker is about discipline and control. It's something I've continually worked on and it's great to see some growth in that area.

glglgl.

Ever play 702 hands of break even poker?

2007-08-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

I just finished a session like that. I guess technically it wasn't break even...I won a couple of big bets by the end, but I really felt like I should have won more. I was a bit of a calling station earlier in the session and I was mostly able to correct it about halfway through. Sometimes I just can't stand knowing my hand got cracked, so I have to see it. Probably a bad habit.

I've been playing a ton of LHE again. I suppose at this point it's because I love pain...and because I've bubbled 5 of my last 7 SNGs. I can't remember a time when I've run worse at SNGs, just sharkscope SilentRebel on Stars. I assume at this point they have me at super tilt. Actually, I'm still just on regular tilt apparently...my ROI has dropped from 8% to 5% during this time, which is especially depressing because I thought I was a better player than 8%. Oh well.

So as my mentioned it's been back to LHE for me. Specifically I've been playing 6 handed .25/.50 anywhere from 2-4 tables depending on how i'm feeling. I've actually been running really well despite my title suggesting otherwise. I'm running at 3.14BB/100 hands over about 3200 hands so far. My goal initially was to play at least 5k hands at over 1BB/100 hands, so I'm well ahead of that pace and tonight was probably just a little bit of negative variance after running so hot.

Tonight I did break one of my cardinal rules in poker...I harassed a terrible opponent. He had rivered me twice and then once called me down with A high on one hand where I thought he had to fold. Then he had the nerve to flop a set when I flopped TPTK (gold in limit 6 handed) and I turned trips so I lost another big pot. So I started giving him crap about how well he was running. So he responded saying that I got into raising wars too easy. I then told him that if he just sits with me long enough I'll get all his money, it was only a matter of time. Basically I made myself look like an asshat and I hate doing that. Also what I said was true. He was playing over 50% of the hands preflop and winning 70% of all showdowns he saw. No one runs that hot for very long...if we played long enough I was going to get all of his money and that's all there is to it. I don't need to tell him that. Live and learn right?

Loads of PLO

2007-08-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

It's been all PLO for me lately as it seems to be the only form of poker that I can play well anymore. Right now I've been running pretty well and beating up on the $10 tables on Stars. I hope that I can continue to play as well as I feel I have recently and get myself rolled for some bigger games without having to redeposit. Most of the boredom that comes with playing lower stakes is taken out because of how many more hands I can play and the fact that the average pot at most of the tables I'm playing is $3-4. It's not uncommon to see multiple people with $40-50 in front of them and if several people have been at the table for a while, the game starts playing pretty deepstacked.

It's nice to have some of the fun come back to poker again. I'll probably post some interesting hands and my thought process over the next few days.

I post in this thing right?

2007-08-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

So occasionally I lose track of this thing no matter how much I enjoy putting my thoughts down...and I really do enjoy that. I feel like some part of my life is being missed in my head if I haven't done any major writing over a decent period of time.

I've been playing a quite a bit of poker lately. I really only let myself play too much in a night tonight...that's one of my big problems in cash games because I start to get a little bored and I make some bad calls/bluffs. Which is what happened to me tonight and I dropped an unneeded amount. Besides a couple of hiccups I have been playing pretty well (not my best, I still play the river like a pussy sometimes...losing value w/strong hands and calling with some hands that are too weak). I've been mixing in some NL, LHE, and PLO. I had a session where I ran super hot playing some PLO with people from 67suited this evening. I bought into a $10 table with $4 and ran it up to $21 or something before I left. That was the biggest limit I've played recently as I've been following proper BR management for a change.

Tonight was my first MTT that I had played since whenever my blog post was. I played a $3.30 freezout on Stars and managed to play great and then terribly. I doubled up on the first hand when I had my opponent drawing dead, from there I played very cautiously and managed to increse my stack nicely with no risk. Then I ran a bluff against a player that I had seen call a pot-sized all-in earlier with nothing more than 2nd pair. He magically folded to me firing the 3rd barrell on the river when I had no business still trying to the run the bluff. I felt like I was just in that poor mindset that Hoy has talked about multiple times on his blog and I eventually knocked myself out of the tourney by bluffing off my chips into top pair. I did like my second bluff better than my first, but both were probably poorly timed/poorly run.

Right after that I stacked off a buy-in playing a cash game because I couldn't fold AA after it was pretty obv (in my mind, my buddy said it was a close spot) that I was beat. I then lost a bunch of chips overplaying another hand. All of these things happen I guess but I had done very well with eliminating them from my game. My pokertracker still shows me as positive in cash games since I started playing on Stars again, so I can't be playing that terribly. I'm not too sure though.

On a life-related note I had probably the best week of the summer last week after going to Hollywood to go see The Format and The Honorary Title, followed up the most epic party weekend ever. We basically had 10 people party it up at this house all weekend with other people coming and going all day, every day. Lots of pool time and spa sessions with a lot of my really good friends.

I just looked over the stuff I wrote about poker and it looks very negative. Results-wise I'm up over $35 just playing micro cash games over my last 2500 or so hands on Stars. I really can't complain, but I was just bothered by a poor session that I just finished...I'm sure you can all relate.

Just Cruising

2007-07-27T01:12:00.000-07:00

I've been playing a little bit lately but nothing massive as I've been trying to keep myself balanced with poker and life. Though it seems that I just play more video games instead of poker...it's at least slightly better for my pschye I suppose (with the exception of playing old Sonic games...those are so fucking frustrating).

I've sent my money from Full Tilt over to Pokerstars. I've always liked Stars better and with Full Tilt crashing at the only times that I play on it I feel the shift is a solid decision.

I registered for my fall semester this Tuesday, I'll be taking the following classes:

Contemporary American Politics
Principles of International Business
Principles of Macro-Economics
Intro to Chemistry (Chem 101)
Boxing [I had to take some sort of PE type class...this seemed like the best option]

Also I've added a link to the blogs that I read, it's from my forum buddy acbarone and his quest to grind out a moderate living on SNGs. He's on the sharkscope leaderboard for playing $15/1 turbos on Stars, he plays under the name abarone68. He 12 tables and just crushes the game so stop by and say hello.

Running Deep in the Ferguson/Harry Potter

2007-07-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

I've gone deep into the money of the Ferguson each of the last 2 nights. I've been playing well early a got a little lucky in the money both times. Tonight I finished at 17th and I'm pretty bummed about that right now. Though it did about double my roll on Full Tilt which is exciting. I guess it means I'll be able to play in the Ferguson a little more =)

This was the hand that did me in tonight. I actually lingered a little beyond this but I couldn't get much going and eventually flamed out after shoving K-x over a limper and running into the BBs AK.

Full Tilt Poker Game #3033068460: The Ferguson (22605418), Table 74 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:31:27 ET - 2007/07/23
Seat 1: MlK33_MO (54,643)
Seat 2: NXTBGTHNG (76,200)
Seat 4: hanapaa47 (39,151)
Seat 5: Rimarima (56,412)
Seat 7: Big_Bobo (70,640)
Seat 8: PANZERXXX (182,570)
Seat 9: DirtyOmahaDave (54,422)
MlK33_MO antes 600
NXTBGTHNG antes 600
hanapaa47 antes 600
Rimarima antes 600
Big_Bobo antes 600
PANZERXXX antes 600
DirtyOmahaDave antes 600
NXTBGTHNG posts the small blind of 2,500
hanapaa47 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Big_Bobo [Qd Qs]
Rimarima has 15 seconds left to act
Rimarima raises to 15,000
Big_Bobo raises to 70,040, and is all in
PANZERXXX folds
DirtyOmahaDave folds
MlK33_MO folds
NXTBGTHNG folds
hanapaa47 folds
Rimarima calls 40,812, and is all in
Big_Bobo shows [Qd Qs]
Rimarima shows [Ac As]
Uncalled bet of 14,228 returned to Big_Bobo
*** FLOP *** [Ks Kd Jh]
*** TURN *** [Ks Kd Jh] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Kd Jh Ad] [7s]
Big_Bobo shows two pair, Kings and Queens
Rimarima shows a full house, Aces full of Kings
Rimarima wins the pot (123,324) with a full house, Aces full of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 123,324 Rake 0
Board: [Ks Kd Jh Ad 7s]
Seat 1: MlK33_MO (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: NXTBGTHNG (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: hanapaa47 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Rimarima showed [Ac As] and won (123,324) with a full house, Aces full of Kings
Seat 7: Big_Bobo showed [Qd Qs] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 8: PANZERXXX folded before the Flop
Seat 9: DirtyOmahaDave folded before the Flop

Nothing I could really do picking up QQ at a 7 handed table and being short. This guy had a sketchy connection so it took him a few extra seconds to call and that sort of pissed me off. Nothing like thinking you're ahead for a second only to get punched in the face by AA.

I've only played poker a few nights since I've last posted because I was reading Harry Potter and didn't want to be near any media outlet that would ruin the ending. It took me about 20 hours after getting the book to finish it (including some sleep) and now it's safe to be in contact with the rest of the world. The book was a little disappointing in some aspects, but overall I did enjoy reading it. I'm glad it's finally over as well. I wasn't sure how many years I could still read Harry Potter without feeling utterly ridiculous.

Right now I'm watching YouTube videos of old poker hands trying to fall asleep...it's not working nearly fast enough.

Tales from the OC Fair

2007-07-19T23:43:00.000-07:00

I have been at the OC Fair 3 times in the last few days because I keep ending up in situations where I don't really have to pay for it. Here are a few of the more interesting moments:

- Jared, Natalie, and I are getting on this ride that will take us up in the air and flip us while were are doing full rotations. We're sitting all in a row and there is an empty seat to my left. At the last moment before the ride starts this big gal probably about 5'4" 200lbs. comes to the seat next to me. She's wearing a T-Shirt and mini skirt that maybe covers her goods. This is where the story gets interesting...you have to be harnessed into the seat and this girl can't get the harness on because of her skirt. So after like 3 minutes her and 2 small-handed carnis finally get the harness on, only having to expose her for a moment. The ride then begins lifting us into the air. The seat rides up pretty hard and as we go up I burst out, "Oh God my balls." The girl next to me then responds, "You think you hurt? I have a piercing."

- Some girls we saw were so hot I'm surprised their boyfriends were even comfortable letting them out of the house. It was fun having all 6 of us (4 guys, 2 girls) stare as they walked by though. Seriously like fucking supermodel hot...and they let them out for a fair?!? That's a bad call.

- Deep fried foods have been putting a serious bad beat on me.

- For the first time we called one of those, "For a good time call..." numbers. I feel pretty bad for people that have their numbers put on those. Hello is this Jessica?...Yes...I hear you like to suck...*click*

- I was 1 for 1 in carnival games. I run goot.

- I saw deep fried twinkies, cheesecake, oreos, and snickers bars. It was the kind of stuff that makes other countries hate us and makes me proud to live in the US of A.

- We watched the pig races. I lost $20 to my buddy John, so rigged.

- While waiting for the pig races to start we saw this little boy start eating some of the pig treats. We were going to let him know to stop...but then we saw that his family was watching and laughing. I'm sure he'll blossom into a productive member of society.

You have to love the fair. Though I'm glad it only comes once a year.

lmao bodog

2007-07-12T02:09:00.000-07:00

Umm...so I traded in 2,010 player points over at Bodog for $30. I'm currently playing the $3/.30 turbo SNGs. I got my money in as a huge favorite a HUGE % of the time tonight except for when I ran into AA once HU and jammed into QQ blind vs. blind. So I tore it up for a $20 profit and I'm almost rolled to play at the level I'm at =)

I remember how much I missed Bodog though...the passive play is so refreshing. I'm less at the mercy of the cards when my opponents play like this.

In other Bodog related news, it's been about 13 [business] days since I requested my payout from them...so at the worst it's about 3 weeks away. Though it would be nice if they could have been a little faster.

And it ends

2007-07-09T01:31:00.000-07:00

I blew through my bankroll. It was my fault for losing my mind because of getting beat down really hard playing small SNGs and then moving up in stakes. I can't keep my interest in $2 games while I'm losing...it's easy to be interested at all times while I'm winning.

I fittingly busted out of my last 2 SNGs making my worst plays of the night. This is my last hand I'll play on Full Tilt for a while:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2894496526: $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (22084797), Table 1 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:26:18 ET - 2007/07/09
Seat 1: Big_Bobo (1,625)
Seat 2: KJMN (3,820)
Seat 3: LuckyF8 (1,680)
Seat 5: anja1976 (2,210)
Seat 6: bkbetor (1,015)
Seat 8: polarjoe (2,455)
Seat 9: just hit it (695)
Big_Bobo posts the small blind of 80
KJMN posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Big_Bobo [Ks Qc]
LuckyF8 folds
anja1976 calls 160
bkbetor folds
polarjoe folds
just hit it folds
Big_Bobo raises to 1,625, and is all in
KJMN folds
anja1976 calls 1,465
Big_Bobo shows [Ks Qc]
anja1976 shows [As Ac]
*** FLOP *** [Kh 7d 5s]
*** TURN *** [Kh 7d 5s] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 7d 5s Js] [2c]
Big_Bobo shows a pair of Kings
anja1976 shows a pair of Aces
anja1976 wins the pot (3,410) with a pair of Aces
Big_Bobo stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,410 Rake 0
Board: [Kh 7d 5s Js 2c]
Seat 1: Big_Bobo (small blind) showed [Ks Qc] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: KJMN (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: LuckyF8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: anja1976 showed [As Ac] and won (3,410) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: bkbetor didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: polarjoe didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: just hit it (button) didn't bet (folded)

The next time I play poker will probably be the next time I decide to go with my friends down to Morongo. I'm still waiting for a little over $1k from Bodog so at least that will remind me that I might actually be a profitable poker player. Though I've pretty much lost my desire/drive/confidence at this point.

Blog will be updated as I have something interesting to say...probably just to brag about how awesome the Angels are.

I just finished...

2007-07-07T04:29:00.000-07:00

...what was probably my worst session I've ever had. I couldn't catch a break. It was so brutal. I lost back all of my profit from my previous limit hands. I went from up over 70 BBs to being down about 24BBs. I played over 1000 hands and just constantly ran into bigger hands and didn't get enough action when I had a big hand. I feel like I was playing well the entire time despite my spirit being slowly crushed. If I didn't think I was playing well I would have stopped, but I don't think I've ever had so many people hit so many hands against me.

I'm looking over hands in pokertracker and I just ran ungodly bad...I probably lost about 10 bets because of my mistakes, but to lose over 90 bets in one session?!? Come on...

I'm totally and utterly dejected about poker right now. I don't have the roll to handle this...I'm down to less than 100BBs in my roll. Rad.

UFC fight tonight though. I have some people coming over so that should be awesome.

I finally had one of those sessions...

2007-07-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

You know the kind I'm talking about...where you see all your money going to people that aren't nearly as deserving. With how I was playing tonight I should have crushed the games, but I ended down a few bucks. I was actually up until getting bubbled on my last 2 SNGs of the night, but I'm not bitter ;)

I've still been mostly playing LHE and tonight was no different as I put in about 250 hands. I finally had AA cracked tonight. I was wondering when that was going to happen. I had won all 10 times I'd been dealt it since I started my database about 2500 hands ago. It was unfortunate that it was in a 12BB pot, but such is life. I had a couple other big hands cracked by hands that had no business being there, but for the most part it was a pretty straightforward session where I didn't catch many cards. I managed to squeeze out a small win by the end and I was proud of that because I was just getting straight up shit on for a while. I'm still having a little trouble playing AKo out of position. I've noticed that problem in quite a few of my hands. Where I'll open raise and then I'm 3-bet by someone in position. I don't think I'm capping enough in those hands and it's leading me to be lost post-flop if I don't hit. Obv everything is easy if you hit the flop. I do have a tendency to be an overaggro blind defender at times and that's something I have to work on.

This is a hand that I saved just for Smokkee because he thinks playing limit makes you a calling station. I had already seen my opponent overplay one hand earlier so that makes this call down easier, but he probably open raises AK-A9 here preflop so I'm sitting pretty good against what I figure his range to be. The K on the turn is a very good card for me because it's now less likely that he has AK. I'm still unsure if I should have just raised that turn to try for a "free" showdown or maybe a value bet oppurtunity on the river. What this hand really shows is that I don't get bluffed much =)

(I cleaned up the history a little to make it easier to read...I know some people had reading HHs...if you don't see the player after the top part - they folded)

FullTiltPoker Game #2865212529: Table Maggie - $0.25/$0.50 - Limit Hold'em - 3:23:30 ET - 2007/07/06
Seat 1: Nicks Baby ($5.25)
Seat 2: crawfer9999 ($11.05)
Seat 3: Big Slick x13x ($10)
Seat 4: BBeckerFan ($27.90)
Seat 5: luke skiwalker ($11)
Seat 6: IBAlonieS ($7.45)
Seat 7: grupmpynuts ($12.30)
Seat 8: Big_Bobo ($9.05)
Seat 9: crontor ($19.85)
crontor posts the small blind of $0.10
Nicks Baby posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Big_Bobo [Jc Ac]
luke skiwalker raises to $0.50
grupmpynuts calls $0.50
Big_Bobo calls $0.50
*** FLOP *** [As 8s 5d]
luke skiwalker bets $0.25
grupmpynuts calls $0.25
Big_Bobo raises to $0.50
luke skiwalker raises to $0.75
grupmpynuts calls $0.50
Big_Bobo calls $0.25
*** TURN *** [As 8s 5d] [Kd]
luke skiwalker bets $0.50
grupmpynuts folds
Big_Bobo calls $0.50
*** RIVER *** [As 8s 5d Kd] [2h]
luke skiwalker bets $0.50
Big_Bobo calls $0.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
luke skiwalker shows [Ad Td] a pair of Aces
Big_Bobo shows [Jc Ac] a pair of Aces
Big_Bobo wins the pot ($5.80) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***Total pot $6.10 Rake $0.30
Board: [As 8s 5d Kd 2h]
Seat 5: luke skiwalker showed [Ad Td] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 8: Big_Bobo (button) showed [Jc Ac] and won ($5.80) with a pair of Aces

USA USA USA!!!

2007-07-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Today is Independence Day (obv) and I just want to give it up for this guy:

A truer American there never was. 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. We finally beat Japan in a sport they should have never had a chance in...Gluttony.

Makes you proud to live in the US of A. Happy 4th everyone!

Balance/Tilt/Recovery

2007-07-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

What I've really been trying to focus on lately in my poker game has been balance.

I've been trying to play different games to keep my interest and focus as high as possible during my entire session. A big problem of mine is when I'm playing a game that I feel I have a pretty good grasp on (i.e. SNGs/MTTs - at least at my stakes) and I run like shit. That tilts me like mad. I feel like I'm being cheated and it pisses me off. Nothing bothers me more than playing great and having the results suck. So what I've been trying to do is mix in games that I know I haven't close to mastered. I can shrug off my own mistakes because I know that I'm learning as I progress.

I mention all this because tonight I played some limit O8 and LHE to start the night. Omaha Hi/Lo has always had a soft spot in my heart. My biggest tourney cash for a long time was a 2nd place in a $10/1 PLO8 tourney on Party for about $300. I've played the limit variety a bit in tourneys but I'm definitely a newbie in the cash games and I feel like I'm playing decently at this point. The games get pretty nuts though as you see a lot of pots capped preflop and I've been at tables where the average pot size is up to 14BBs. I played ok for a during that hour making only one major mistake where I severely misplayed a hand preflop in O8 and then I proceeded to make a bad fold later in the hand.

I was still feeling good as I got ready to transition into the tourney portion of my night. I really like playing The Ferguson. It's only $1 entry and it helps get my MTT fix for a small amount. Also, it's a non-NL game twice a week which is always fun. I proceeded to donk off about half my stack early in that and was sitting at about 950 chips when slb jinxed me and I was hit by a 6 outer to get knocked out just before the break...that wasn't really that bad though. Just a bummer. Not long after that I began the SNG portion of my night.

I ended up playing 4 SNGs and some more LHE during that time. The problem was that I wasn't in a very good LHE mindset at that point and my play had been deteoriating throughout the night. I ended up playing pretty well in my SNGs but I was just playing like a madman on my LHE tables where I was running something like a 30% VP$P...that's just so bad a full ring LHE. I usually run around 17-20%. I forced a few hands that I just shouldn't have and had one cooler hand and I was suddenly on my way to destroying a night of good play.

I don't know how it is for everyone else when they're tilting...but it actually causes a physical reaction in me. My heart rate accelerates and my body heats up. I can actually feel myself tilting. There's no avoiding that I'm on tilt and I'm not going to be playing great. I also have the incredible ability to be completely unable to get up and stop playing when I'm tilted. It's bad, but at least I was playing limit right ;)

I decided to open up another table (I'm like the smartest guy I know). I immediately lose 2 pots on that table. I'm on the edge of losing it...then suddenly I'm able to get myself to stop being such an idiot and I refocus myself. It was bizarre. I just took a few deep breaths and I played great poker after that. I picked up AA and QQ for a few good pots. I was also able to apply some knowledge learned from this article to win a couple of nice blind defense hands. I didn't end up making a full recoup of my tilt losses but I'm very proud of myself for managing to come back and play my A game after just playing absolutely abyssmally.

...from the end comes the beginning

2007-07-03T00:09:00.000-07:00

So I'm giving this another attempt.

If nothing else I hate to give up.

I've been trying to manage with a meager roll sitting on Full Tilt right now...it's going alright I suppose. I'm really trying to make a concentrated effort to improve without regard to results. This would be much easier if I didn't have the specter of going broke looming over my shoulder, but I think I've been doing a good job at not being results-oriented. I've been playing a TON of LHE as well as dabbling in a little limit O8 this evening. I feel like my game right now is much better suited to limit cash games rather then letting myself call off my stack with an overpair in NL. Using pokertracker and some LHE training videos I was able to spot a few leaks in my game that were just getting me killed. I feel like I'm playing pretty well a pretty good percentage of the time and while I'm trying my best to improve, I'm in a good place with how I'm playing right now.

I'm still playing a couple SNGs but I really don't want to get overloaded on them again...I can run bad so easily in SNGs and it's so easy to break bankroll control when I'm playing them that I don't really want to subject myself to that. I've played a couple small MTTs but no real results to report from there.

I'm not going to post any bankroll numbers down here or talk about any actual results here anymore. I'll try and stick to how I feel I played. That's all that matters and I need to keep that in my mindset...also I've recently become superstitious about how talking about my results affects my next session ;)

...this is my new musical obsession:

Its been fun...

2007-06-23T02:56:00.000-07:00

I came to the realization in the last couple days...I'm not cut out to play poker. Not that I don't think I'm a winning player, I'm up money in my short time playing poker. Not that I don't have the desire to get better, I do everything I can to improve my game. I just don't have the mental stability to do it.

I tilt like mad.

I am able to refocus myself most of the time when I'm playing poker and still play my best poker. Sometimes I'm still playing great poker all the way through the session when I've been frustrated. Then at the end of the session. When I'm sitting down 4 buy-ins and I've finally convinced myself to quit...I can't sleep. I lie in bed thinking about hands and trying to figure out what went wrong and what I could have done better.

IT'S 3 IN THE FUCKING MORNING...and I can't stop thinking about what went wrong in a $15 SNG. I'm losing sleep over $15. That's fucking insane.

I just can't do that anymore. My life is just totally off balance with the amount of poker I've been playing. I can't have that. It's not healthy and it's not the way I should be living my life. I finally found out that it doesn't matter if you're winning or losing...you just need to have a positive outlook on what you're doing. Somewhere along the way I lost that. Poker isn't about winning or losing, it's about making the right decisions over time and eventually if you're making the right decisions you'll make money. I'm totally and utterly unable to function with that kind of mindset. I'm trapped in win/lose mode. Thinking in terms of winning and losing is a surefire way to go on and tilt and inevitably lose money. I love playing poker more than just about anything else I do (this is a disturbingly true statement), but lately it does nothing but make me angry. Winning never makes me as happy as losing makes me unhappy. I know that's normal but why am I subjecting myself to that night after night? I don't know how some of you are able to play as much as you do without losing your minds. I'm both impressed and jealous.

As for me...I'm 19 and poker is ultimately a game.

I cashed about $1000 off of Bodog because that was all that was left after being up to $1400 after winning that MTT. I hadn't logged a winning session at Bodog since that tourney win. Was I running bad? Sure. Was I playing my best? Not 100% of the time. I deposited $200 on May 2, I ran that up to $1k before it got to my mind (disturbing that it only took about a month and a half).

I'm bummed that this isn't going any further. I actually like blogging and I only just began here, but it seems stupid to have a poker blog when you aren't playing poker.

I stil have $5.60 on Full Tilt and I guess I'll play one DS 90 man SNG over there to see if I'll have any poker money. Though I ran soooooooo bad on Full Tilt the last 2 nights I don't even want to talk about it. So I'll be fine if that money disappears (although obv I'm going to try in the SNG).

I'll still be around and reading everyone else that I enjoy here online. I wish you all the best of luck

Back into a groove...

2007-06-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

So the first thing that I did tonight when I got home was sign up for Cardrunners and I watched ActionJeff's SNG video. It was pretty good. It showed some things that I've been doing wrong and a few things I was doing correctly. It helped to hear him talk about certain things I was unsure about in my game. I'll be watching more videos over the next little while because I'm still not comfortable with my cash game right now.

I also finally invested in PokerTracker which is something that was long overdue, but since getting HHs from Bodog is such a pain in the ass I had resisted it. Now that I'm playing more on Full Tilt though it just seemed like the right thing to do. I then proceeded to donk off 2 buy-ins during my cash game play =(

I'm working on it though.

My SNG game seems to be firing on all cylinders and that's really good after that prolonged bad stretch on Bodog (which I have been playing very little on). I'm probably going to cash some money out of Bodog as soon as I have a workable roll on Full Tilt. I'll really just be leaving money on there for their MTTs because they have a great structure that I've been able to have success in, but the software really gets to me. It's just so easy for me to 4 table over at Full Tilt that I feel like I'm going back in time when I play on Bodog.

Rolls:

Bodog - $1,134.52
Full Tilt - $143.55

MTTs goot, SNGs not goot

2007-06-16T01:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been playing a lot lately and I've been in a general downward spiral because I'm just running awfully with SNGs and I don't really want to bore everyone with all the details. I'm playing a little too aggressively for the stakes I'm at and I'm getting called very lightly. It's something that I need to tone back in my game as it's leading to me taking too many risks on the bubble.

Before I get to my recent MTT success, I'm thanking my buddy Sam (gamge on FT, he's a SNG beast) for sending me $50 on Full Tilt. Of course I did have to ship some shit to England for him to get it, but it's rad to have money there again.

I've cashed in 4 of my last 5 MTTs. My MTT game has come a really long way recently and I'm probably playing those as good as I ever have. I feel like my big stack play (which was a weakness of mine) is the thing that's come the farthest. I've been able to keep myself out of marginal situations and keep myself from hands where I trap myself into calling reraises. I've basically just been able to really take advantage of short stacks playing less than optimally and just using them to chip up while playing small pot poker if I'm in hands with other larger stacks.

I'm just very comfortable with every level of my MTT play right now. I came very close to final tabling the 4.5k the last 2 times I've played it, busting in 12th and 20th. First is about 1.1k and with the way I'm playing right now I feel like I have a very good chance for a big score in this tourney. I run a pretty good ROI in it and I've never done better than 7th. It's probably one of the better nightly tourneys and has anywhere from a $750 to $250 overlay most of the time.

Rolls:

Bodog - $1211.50
Full Tilt - $54.95 (low stakes purgatory)

Leaks that were fixed...

2007-06-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

For about the 10th time I've had a bad night that started playing SNGs, then losing a few, then deciding to play PLO, dropping a few buy-ins, then playing HU limit hold em and losing about 25BBs.

Lessons to be [re]learned today:

1) I'm not good at PLO, I haven't had a winning session in probably my last 10 tries. I don't know what I'm missing about that game right now, but 1AM probably isn't the best time to try and figure it out.

2) I run worse than anyone I've ever seen at HU limit...my sample size is small, but over 150 hands tonight I managed to only win 29% of the hands that went to showdown. This guy was just crushing me. I'm not sure if I just suck at this too...I'm a winning full ring limit player, but HU seems to elude me. Again this time of morning probably isn't the best time to try and figure out my game.

3) When I'm leaving somewhere telling myself that I'm not going to play that night...I need to fucking listen to myself because I know when I'm tilt-prone before I start playing, I have trouble stopping once I start though.

Tonight was a pretty sweet $170 loss...only $48 coming from SNGs which is all I should be playing. Chalk up $122 of the night to me not having any discipline with following my own rules.

Thank god I had that big tourney score to make this night hurt a little less.

Roll = $1271.70

2k Guarantee PWNAGE!!!!

2007-06-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

I just took down the 2k guarantee for $600 and also my first tourney win ever online...fuck cash games man. It's all about tourneys =)

I know it's hard to see but it says, SilentRebel - Winner...damn straight.

2251 and Done

2007-06-10T17:16:00.000-07:00

I'm done playing cash games exclusively. I'm just not playing well. I keep stacking off with hands that I shouldn't because I'm not going to go broke in the hand. I just can't handle myself playing as badly as I am. It upsets me. I'm not even taking any beats most of the time. I'm managing to get my money in bad and not get enough money in good.

So I'm playing and being a calling station at the same time...that's a really good recipe for losing money.

I was only down about 4.5 buy-ins for the 2251 hands I played, I'm just playing too poorly deep stacked right now and I hate to see myself lose money.

I'm back to grinding away at SNGs I guess...I'm playing exclusively 15/1 games and we'll see how I do through 100.

Roll = $772.25

Can you say downswing?

2007-06-07T23:53:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'm still not running great...I ran into 5 flopped sets today when I had top pair or better. I ran KK into quad 5s on a 5549 board. Only flopped one set over 500 hands and had it run down by a flush draw. Made 2 bad calls and got bluffed out of big pots twice and that is the recipe for being down another couple of buy-ins.

So much for going to cash games to try and get some luck back on my side. I'm down over 4 buy-ins so far, but at least my roll can handle the swings for right now. Of course I'm still one good session away from being ahead so I'm definitely not ready to despair yet.

Roll = $783.09
$25NL Hands = 1340
Profit = -$106.37
BB/100 = -31.8

Cash Games Cont.

2007-06-06T23:51:00.000-07:00

So I'm still chasing that elusive goal of being profitable in cash games...I put in a TON of hands today because I woke up much earlier than intended this morning. I played over 500 hands today either 2 or 3 tabling, that's just nuts.

I actually dropped another buy-in early but was able to grind out a recovery and am back to almost even since I started this challenge. I had one interesting hand that I'll try to recreate for you right now (Bodog's HHs suck a nut so I'll do my best).

I have about $29 in my stack to start this hand and I have the Villian covered. Villian is new to the table but he just got stacked calling down with 99 on a Q567J board. So my only read is that he looks like a massive calling station and may be tilting from losing a buy-in.

Another new play sits UTG and posts his BB for some reason.
UTG+1 folds.
I raise it up to $1.25 with KhJh from MP1 (this is not my standard play but I had been relatively inactive and wanted the free money from the idiot poster).
MP2 calls.
MP3 (villian) calls.
Button calls.
Blinds fold and poster folds.
4 handed to the flop, Pot ~ $5
Flop: Kc 10d 7h (nice flop for my hand)
I bet out $4.
Only the Villain calls (right now I'm going to punish him the same way I saw him punished when he got stacked, just keep betting into him).
Turn: 7s (not likely to have improved him)
I bet $7
He calls.
River: 3h (this board sure turned out nice for me)
I bet $10.
He calls.
He mucks.

A quick look into the hand history shows he called me down with K6o...he then preceeded to reload and get stacked one more time that orbit and then leave the table. If I could find that guy every time I played I wouldn't need to work.

Roll = $878.51
$25NL hand = 822
Profit = -$10.95
BB/100 ~ -5BB

Angel Time Bitches!!!

2007-06-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

I went to the Angel's game tonight...it was fucking awesome. I'm kind drunk right now but let's hear it for Anaheim sports. They kicked some ass tonight.

Also who fucking doesn't think the Ducks are taking it down...I'll post some pics after my buddy loses his bet to get a Ducks tatoo after they take the cup!!!

New Resolve

2007-06-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

So tonight is my triumphant return to the world of online poker. Well not so triumphant, but I suppose I'll get to that later. I've made a new committment to play some cash games...I've always been successful at the lower limits and I think I need to do something to get off of the deep depression that is constant failure in MTTs.

So I've decided to play 5-10k hands at $25 NL and track my progress from there. I have over 30 buy-ins for that level and that should be sufficient to keep me from going busto, though I'm putting a stop loss on myself of 3 buy-ins in one night. That means actually getting stacked 3 times as I'll be constantly reloading to stay at max buy-in if I dip below. I do think I'm a winning player at this level but I've never really tracked any results and to be honest, if I get a couple thousand hands into this and I'm not winning I may have to call this off because that will be far too depressing for me...to have my roll slowly grinded away in this manner.

I also want to focus on cash games more because I enjoy the idea that you're not winning or losing at any point. If you run out of chips you just reload because the goal isn't to outrun everyone else it's just to make the best decisions to make the most money...in a sense it's a more pure form of poker. It seems to help me deal with beats because I don't have the pain of bubbling on the edge of the money multiple times in a row, getting close to my goal and failing multiple times in a row is something that is sure to set me on tilt...so at least that can't happen in a cash game.

Now on to how I actually played tonight.

I think I actually played fairly well with a few minor missteps but nothing major. I did get stacked with KK on a J 7 3 flop...I'm not too sure I can get away from my hand there (opp. had 77). I posted the hand on 67suited so hopefully I'll get some feedback to see if I was a total asshat in the hand or if I'm just doomed there. I had a few hands where I made some opponents pay dearly for their draws but they got there so I can't be overly worried about those hands. I let myself get bluffed once, but he did make a pretty convincing play at the pot and most of the time I think I made a good fold. I managed to stack a guy with AA vs. KK all-in preflop. Other than that there weren't really any interesting hands. I logged 316 hands during the evening (all $25 full ring) and I was playing 19% of the flops, but I only managed to win 6% of the hands so I really wasn't running too great. Looking back at a few hands now I think I may have played a few marginal hands too passively...that's going to be something that I need to work on.

Roll = $857.86
$25 Hands = 316
Profit = -31.6
BB/100 = -40BB

2007-05-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

"At some point in your life you will run worse than you ever thought possible"

I'm in the middle of the downswing that won't go away. I'll start posting more once I have the heart and am convinced that I know how to play poker again.

Roll = $882.10

...fuck.

EDIT: I'm on temporary poker hiatus until Monday night, I've played every day (for some length of time) since the end of April so some time off will probably do me well. Updates to follow.

Spicy Food and Coping with Failure

2007-05-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just got back from having what could possibly be the spiciest meal of my life. I've been a vegetarian for about the last 6 months and the biggest problem with eating food without meat is having things that are too bland. With that in mind I went to a Thai place for dinner tonight. I ordered the Thai chow mein with tofu...then the waitier asked me how spicy (1-10) I wanted the dish. I thought 8 sounded like a good number because I've had a lot of bland food lately and I love spicy things.

Fast forward to me 25 minutes later...I was in a full sweat, my face was a lovely shade of red, my eyes were tearing up, I had gone through 6 cups of water, my mouth was still on fire, and the waiters were just laughing at me. It was really good food, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a solid 20 minutes of punishment for my toilet later...

On to poker related items. Lately I've been able to grind away in SNG's with a little $50NL mixed in there. My results have been positive but I've found myself going to sleep angry on a very regular basis. I have yet to have any real success in MTTs. I was going over my stats on thepokerdb and I've played in 74 tourneys and made the final table on 8 different occasions. Unforunately my best finish at any final table was 4th place and I haven't done better than 7th recently. Despite this, I'm still slightly above break-even with my MTT results (probably due to some of Bodog's overlays). It's so frustrating to get so close to some big cashes and fall short...8 times in a row. 8 final tables without a top 3 finish is terrible. I've either had the best hand or been in a race situation when I get my money in during the final table, so as of right now I'm chalking the results up to negative variance...but I'd be very willing to change that assessment if nothing improves over the next few final tables I'm able to make.

Bankroll = $1043.95 (first number over 1k...it feels good)

On the life front I have some buddies coming over tomorrow night for the UFC fight and maybe a little partying afterwards. So it should be a nice start to this 3 day weekend.

EDIT: 4 MTTs tonight...made it past the break in all of them, more than doubled my stack in all of them at one point, bubbled one, cashed in zero.

I'm really good at being bad at poker

2007-05-21T01:29:00.000-07:00

Turns out i'm still right in the midst of a downswing...I just had a slight upward stutter at the beginning of this weekend.

I am admittedly not playing my best poker, but the cards sure aren't ever bailing me out. I'm getting punished with my big hands and I'm not able to suckout when I make a mistake and get my money in bad.

I've been too aggressive as well. This is something I notice myself doing during a downswing...I'll push my draws like they were the nuts while I forget that people don't fold to those bets when I really have the nuts. I just let myself lose some discipline and my play gets out of hand.

It's been something that I've worked on for some time now and it's very frustrating when I see it coming and I feel unable to do anything to stop it.

I did manage to cash in a satellite to the 50k guarantee today for $3, but was unable to play in it. So I saved the $55 in tourney cash, donking off $33 in buy-ins tonight so I still have $22 of that left. Looks like I'll have to stop taking shots at the $25/2 SNGs for a while too...which is annoying because I've seen some really bad play there. There are 2 regulars that I have yet to see cash and they usually finish 6-10 so if I see them in a game I may have to go for it.

Bank Roll - $919.40 (T$22)

On the life front this is my finals week for school. Finishing up my 4th semester of college...I'm pretty stoked for summer and to be able to work enough to again to have some real money and maybe save up a for a Europe trip in late July. So we'll see how the rest of this week goes, but that should eliminate a lot of stress which can only be good for my poker game.

Some reading today came back across this post and this post over at 2+2. I really liked a lot of the theory stuff that gigabet did, it's almost retarded how smart he is about poker (of course I'm giving him a lot of credit for being right about things that I don't really do in my poker game). He's also the current chip leader at the championship event at the Mirage.

Running Bad/Insomnia/Bad BR Management/I'm A GOD!

2007-05-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

So as of the last time I wrote I was running decently but had missed a few shots for some big money not being able to finish off a couple of big SNGs. So as I fired up Bodog last night I was expecting some big things as I've felt really good about my play lately.

...it was not to be.

I played for about 3 hours and God knows how many SNGs (over 10 because I kept busting...and I like the turbos). The sickest thing was out of all the games that I busted in I only went all in with the worst hand 2 times. I couldn't win a race when it counted and I was watching my BR go down the drain. I take a couple of 3rds at the end of the night and won a few HU SNGs to put my nightly total at only -$20.

At this point it was about 3 AM and I tried to get some sleep...but I just couldn't, since I had no class that day I had slept in until 2 in the afternoon and just wasn't tired. I laid in bed for about 2 hours before turning on the TV around 5:30 and getting a little workout in. I took my sister to school and got some breakfast with her around 7 and then got home more amped than ever...sleeping wasn't going to be an option.

So as I usually do in this situation I drained a Redline and fired up Bodog only to find out that my luck hadn't changed. I bubble a $6 SNG, 2 $15 SNGs, and busted out of the $2.5k guarantee. I got my money in every time as at least a 60/40 favorite (when I was the one all in) and in 2 of the SNGs actually went from chip leader 4 handed to bubble boy. So I was clearly discouraged by the results, but I was feeling realy good about how I was playing. So exercising my usual poor BR management during a downswing I saw a $55/5 Turbo SNG starting up...

...so naturally I couldn't resist.

The tourney started out slow as I expected it would, but there was still a surprising amount of limping and multiway pots in the early levels. I took down a couple of early pots and stole a few blinds and was at 1700 and 10 players still in with the blinds just moving up 50/100. I'm on the button with A10o and a shortie pushes from the CO for 450, I flat call and the BB (to my surprise) calls all-in as well. The CO has A4ss and the BB has 58o (I don't know what to say about this). I flop a 10 and send them both to the rail. I'm at 2500 and cruising.

I'm able to steal a lot of pots and nothing too interesting happens until we're 6 handed with 100/200 blinds and I'm in the SB with AKo. The CO (3k chips) raises to 600, he had been very aggressive so I I'm ahead and push. I have him covered by about 1000, he instantly calls with 55 and obv presto is gold. So I'm on the button next hand and I had gone from chip leader to shortie in one hand. It's folded to me and I push with 97o. The SB calls and the BB folds. The SB shows pockets 10s and I need some help bad. I miracle a straight on a J 8 5 K 6 board to double up (still running bad?).

During 5 handed play I catch a huge card rush and make some timely pushes and take myself up to 5500 chips without a showdown. I knock out the 5th place player when his J10o can't catch my AKo. I raise almost every hand on the bubble (blinds 200/400/25) and eventually knock out the shortie when he had over half his chips in on the BB. I go into 3 handed play with over 9k in chips (15k on the table). First hand ITM and I pick up 77 in the SB and knock out the BB when his A8o couldn't win the race. HU I have a 13.5 to 1.5k lead with the blinds at 300/600/50. I pick up 33 on the button and push and he's forced to call with 34o, my hand holds up and $275 is shipped my way. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

The Roll = $998.84 (I broke that $900 barrier in a big and donkerrific way).

And so it begins...

2007-05-17T00:18:00.000-07:00

Tonight I logged my first session of poker after officially becoming part of the "poker blogger community." It appears to have pleased the mighty and fickle poker gods as they smiled upon me this evening and let me pull out a winning session from what seemed to be utter disaster initially.

I am mostly a SNG player, partially because I enjoy the idea of taking all of the chips on the table...and partially because I'm better at math than I am at poker. Generally I play turbo SNGs because I feel that players make more fundamental math errors (especially at the levels I'm playing at) when the blinds are moving faster.

Tonight I played through 10 SNGs at various buy-ins and 1 $10/1 MTT.

I played in the $4.5k Guarantee tonight on Bodog and I put together about the worst performance I've had in a MTT in a long time. I just leaked chips until I was short eventually and busted before the first break putting my money in as a huge dog. My MTT game has been off since I final tabled the $4.5k about a week ago, I just haven't been able to put anything big together.

My SNGs didn't start out much better than my MTTs as I only cashed in 1 of my first 5. I was running badly and as a result playing worse. I'm the kind of player that tends to make aggressive mistakes when I'm not running well. I overplay draws and will begin to overestimate my fold equity on almost every single hand. This can either lead to me getting lucky (obv preferrable) or me suddenly turning into one giant tilting machine that can't play enough tables at a time trying to get even and getting myself stuck even deeper. Luckily I was able to catch myself tonight and refocus my game before I did any irreversible damage to my roll.

Over my next 5 SNGs I cashed in 4 including a 1st in a $6/,5, 2nd in a $15/1, and 3rd in a $25/2. That was enough to get me not only even for the night, but up about $36. It was a great comeback for the evening for me. This may not sound significant to everyone else, but I very rarely win if I start my session on a hard downturn. More than likely I was able to turn it around because I didn't want to have to post losing stats on my first real post on the blog.

The Roll = $887.34 (I still have yet to break 900 and I've been dancing around it recently)

So I suppose doing this may have some value after all...

I Finally Broke Down and Did It...

2007-05-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

So I started a poker blog...much to the joy of some and to the chagrin of others. This is intended to chronicle my progress and growth with regard to that game we all know and love. I may even be so bold as to make some strategy posts from time to time. I play online a couple hours a night and whenever else I can fit it in between school, work, and still having a social life. I've gone through periods where I was [quasi] addicted to playing poker and I like to think that I have a more proper balance in my life with regard to the time I spend staring a digital cards on a screen.

The only site that I play on right now is Bodog due to its ease in relation to transferring money and the fact that the play seems to be worse there than anywhere else. The software does suck a nut, but I overlook that since I never really played more than 3 tables at any time profitably.

At this moment I have $852 online to play with...my goal right now is not to make money to cash out, but to build a roll that will allow me to play in the higher games. I started this most recent foray into online poker with a $200 roll about 1 month ago and I've been running well so I hope that I'm able to continue that level of success. I am mostly a SNG player, but I do also play a couple MTTs on a regular basis. I'm working on my cash game, but it's not where I want it to be at the moment.

I've been reading many poker blogs for a long time now and I hope that this effort I'm putting forth here holds to the high standards that many of you have set. I'm always open to opinions and if I post any hands, I would love the feedback.