Poker, Business, Sports, Girls, Life

End of summer. Beginning of school.

2008-09-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

So it's been over a month since I last blogged anything meaningful and I think it's time I get back into the swing of blogging and other things that I'll go over later. It was a rough summer with all the family issues, but it has definitely gotten a lot better. There is no such as normal still and there are a lot of ups and downs, but things are slowly getting easier to deal with.

I went on a trip out west by myself, driving straight out to Edmonton in 13 hours and staying there for a few days with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who I haven't seen in years. After that I drove the 3 hours to Calgary and caught up with a lot of old friends. They've all changed, most for the better, but a couple for the worse and it's sad to see those who have kind of strayed but I guess that's life and it just gives me more motivation to keep myself focused. Finished off the trip in Regina with my sister Amanda for a night. We got some time to get to know each other and talk about what may happen in the future for our family. That's the basics of the trip and like every time I go on a trip by myself, I come back with a renewed perspective on life and what I want from it. I wasn't excited to come home because Calgary is just such a great place to be and potentially live in the near future, but I do feel that I have lot more motivation now, which I was lacking the last fews months while dealing with the family matters.

Anyways, the first thing I want to do is get back into poker. I've been playing randomly throughout the summer but nothing to where I could get back into a habit but I KNOW I'm ready to go now. It just comes down to taking the first step and playing some hands. Tomorrow is September 8th and I want to get in at least 10k hands the rest of the month and with all the time I have now that school is back on, that shouldn't be too hard. The biggest thing is to get my buddy to sweat on quite a few sessions so I can really start feeling comfortable at 25NL. I have the basics down but I just need the confidence and the ability to know that I may have made the right play long-term, but it didn't pan out for me this one play. I look at the BR way too much and I focus too much on the short-term too much.

Secondly, I want to learn how to play acoustic guitar. I've always wanted to play the guitar but I just haven't had the motivation to get on it...taking the first step always seems the hardest for me. I already have a really nice Fender guitar in the house, it's just a matter of taking weekly lessons so my goal is to get that going by the end of the month.

Lastly, my working out has been going pretty well considering that I was out of town for 11 out of the past 16 days and now it's time to move to the next section of my workout schedule. Instead of doing 3x12 for each exercise and having a break in between each one. I'll be doing 4x8 with heavier weights and a break only after every second set. Keeps my body guessing and thus allowing to gain muscle a lot faster.

In summary:
1) Play AT LEAST 10k hands this month

2) Start taking guitar lessons this month

3) Continue with working out while not missing any sessions this whole term.

A.D.D.

2008-08-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

To start this blog off, I played 2000 hands in July and finished down 3BI. I played solidly over this small sample size but that bitch variance got me in the bum, especially over the final 500 hands. Ran KK in AA, set over set, and lost a 3:1 and 9:1 to take away any profit that I had. Bankroll is back down to $675, which sucks, but I'm still properly rolled for 25NL.

I can blame not playing at all due to the family stuff that's been going on the last month or so, but that's only a partial culprit. The other is that whenever I seem to get my roll up to a respectable amount, say $850, it seems to collapse right back to where I am now. It's been a yo-yo and I'm scared to play as the swings definitely hurt the confidence in my play, especially when I make a sizable mistake. To get over this I need to be sweated a lot more from the nothing that I've had at 25NL, which has been my own fault I haven't been around. Of course I also need to put in a nice sized amount hands this month to get back into the swing of things.

On other news, I have been really frustrated lately with my workout routine and my lack of motivation to do it. It feels like I've just been going through the motions and although that is better than nothing, I'm not realizing my true potential by simply going through the motions. Today I started a new 6-week routine that I got from a workout book that I've had forever. It's in two week segments and each segment becomes a bigger challenge, building off the last segment. I'll be recording the weight I'm using daily and I hope that by having a visual to focus it will allow me to push myself and beat my last workout's weight for example. Here's the first two week segment I'll be doing:

Day 1
Modified Compound Superset #1
Back-dumbbell rows 3 set of 12-15
rest 90seconds
Chest-Incline dumbbell press 3 set of 12-15
rest 90 seconds

Modified Compound Superset #2
Back-dumbbell pullovers 3/12-15
Chest-Chest dips 3/12-15

Modified Compound Superset #3
Back-Wide grip pull-ups 3/12-15
Chest-Incline dumbbell flys 3/12-15

Modified Compound Superset #4
Shoulders-Bent over lateral raises 3/12-15
Calves-Seated calf raises 3/15-25

Day 2
Bicep-dumbbell curls
Triceps-lying dumbbell extensions

Biceps-Concentration curls
Triceps-kickbacks

Biceps-reverse curls
Triceps-dips

Shoulders- shoulder press
Shoulders-upright rows

Day 3
Thighs-barbell squats
Hamstrings-dumbbell lunges

Thighs-leg extensions
Hamstrings-stiff-legged deadlifts

Thighs-leg press
Hamstrings-leg curls

Calves-calf press 3/15-25
Calves- standing one-legged calf raises 3/15-25

So you get the idea that each group of two is a superset where you take a break between each one and then as the weeks progress, the reps go down, weight goes up, and breaks go down to eventually none. This will keep my body from adapting and constantly keep it challenged and thus, build more muscle. Oh and this 3 day set is done twice a week so i think my break will be Thursday most likely.

I haven't weighed myself lately but I'm assuming I'm still around 145-150lbs and that's fine, but I've been in that area since January. Since I've never done legs before in my life, my legs can do nothing but gain mass so especially in the first couple months I think I can gain anywhere from 4-6lbs just from the legs alone. I'll weigh myself tomorrow when I workout but my goal for this first 6 week segment is to add between 3-5lbs, which is a challenge for me as I can't really add anything but lean mass to my body as fat doesn't seem to like me lol.

This has been a long blog but it was needed yo. I'm looking forward to these new challenges in addition to my business challenges and will look to update this soon with my progress.

I'm back.

2008-07-20T12:59:00.001-07:00

So the last month has been pretty rough with family stuff and what not so I haven't played since late June, which sucks, but it would have been -EV to play. Sorry to my millions of fans who read this blog daily. Get a life geez.

Anyways, I played about an hour so far today while only focusing on two tables. It's been slow but I think if I jumped right back into 4-6 tabling it would be pretty overwhelming. My plan is to 2-3 (maybe 4) table during this coming week to get back into the swing of playing poker and to focus on the fundamentals. Not much time left in July so my goal is to hit 5k by the end of it and start anew in August. I'm currently 30BI deep for 25NL which is a nice place to start again and I'm just going to play some standard ABC poker and value-bet the made hands. Towards the end of June, I think the grind was getting to me and I was playing a little too robotic, a big no no.

Not much else to report on the blog today but I'll probably update it at the end of the week after hopefully 1500-2k hands.

8 Days left...

2008-06-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

So as the numbers of days dwindling down to my deadline of hitting 25k hands before the 23rd of June, I'm actually slightly ahead of schedule believe it or not. Played 1400 hands, with a nice 2BI win, last night to bring to just over 14k hands for the month, which means 11k to go over the next 8 days.

I can't say that I've been running "hot" as of late, but I've been beating 25NL over the past 8k-9k hands at about 4.5BB/100 hands, which has been great considering my breakeven performance up to this point. With my solid winning rate, I have managed to get on a current upswing of 8BI and erase my 5BI deficit and lock in a 3BI win so far for the month. Looking back, I definitely regret not being able to control my emotions and getting into sticky situations early on in the month as I would have been up a respectable amount at this point otherwise. Oh well, it's funny that I'm only halfway done the month in both days and hands, I think I should be able to hit 30k for the month, which I think is absolutely crazy and would have never thought possible.

Helping this out of course is the fact that I am now a 6-tabling regular and can play around 550-600 hands an hour and have hit over 2000 hands in a day three times in the last week. I have also found that 6-tabling reduces the volatility of a session as I may be down on one or two tables...but on the other four or five tables I'm breakeven or up. Helps with the tilt management and the constant attention I have to pay to each table reduces the chance of me getting 3bet a lot, which I used to take personally lol.

Not going to post any hands today as there have only been a couple of note in the last few thousands hands that I will post in a later blog, but I will detail my plan to finish the last 11k hands in. I've noticed that I really can't follow a set time schedule for playing poker as it is just too player dependent based on how I am feeling at the time (tired, pissed, bored, etc) and the quality (or lack thereof) of tables so here is just a lose breakdown by day:

Monday: 1 000hands
Tuesday 2 500hands
Wednesday: 2000hands
Thursday: 2000hands
Friday: 1500hands
Saturday: potentially going the lake...
Sunday: 1500hands when I get back
Monday:1000+hands

Expected hands by June 23rd:25 500hands?

Easily a reachable goal and the rake over the next 12k hands roughly should be close to about 3-4BI on top of the 4BI of rake I already have.

Hands to date: 14 145/25 000

Ten days left...

2008-06-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

So with the 23rd of June coming up fast, it's time to update my progress once again. My goal is 25k hands by said date and I'm almost halfway there so I'll definitely be pressed for time, however, I've played over 10k hands in about 7 days...most I've ever done. Last night I played the most hands I've ever done in one session, playing just over 2300 hands. It was a late night lol. I finished up about a BI and paid over $50 in rake...crazy yo, but nice knowing I'll be getting some back. I noticed that PT undervalues rake compared to my rake site as PT shows I've only paid about $150 compared to $230 on the rake site. Not going to complain obviously as this month alone I've earned 3BI in the first 10k hands which I'll cash out at the end of the month. Quite a compact paragraph of thoughts here so I'll just go right to interesting hands from last night.

Hand 1
Don't usually post coolers but this was ridiculous lol. I probably would have folded had there not been a cold call by the random guy to my right. I hit gin on the flop and get it in as a 3:1 favourite...and he sucks out. Ah well, like 2 hands later I get AA and 3bet him pre with 88. flop is xxJ and he shoves over me and I happily call and get my money back from him.

Hand 2
Was not happy with my play here. I played it fine up to the turn and then that's where I should have slowed down but instead got in. Now against a guy who is playing 36/20 over 200 hands I think I'll be seeing a lot of weaker aces, but then why not just call here so you're not folding hands I beat. However if I called on the turn, there wouldn't be much left behind so I'd probably be committed on the river. Tough hand as i think I'm good here a lot...but he showed strength and my hand is so easily dominated.

Hand 3
This hand hurt, I think the only thing I didn't like about my play here was bet sizing, but I think betting any stronger I would lose a lot of hands that I beat. When the 4th straight card on the river hits, I think it definitely hits his range...but he SNAP called flop and turn, making me believe he had a pair of tens with a random kicker as he calls everything. His shove on the river is pretty easy to call as it's only $6 50 more, but it hurt when I saw he didn't even have the A...ugh.

So those were the major losers of the night, nothing too horrible but I probably could have saved a BI in mistakes..but again not bad over 2300+ hands.

10 623/25 000 hands.
aka around 1400 hands/day until the 23rd

Update time.

2008-06-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

So things have been pretty swingy to start off the month, but I have been really happy with my play...except for about 3 BI that I spewed due to random tilt issues. It's been a rough start, currently down 5BI this month and the BR is down to $605, or $650 with rake that I can cash in. Frustrating but I only have myself to blame.

Played 1800 hands today, which is the most I've ever done in one day and was playing great...up until the last 300 hands. Bah. I flop the set on a drawy board. I c-bet and get called. Turn is an A which I think is fine to bet again so I did, get snap-called again. River is another A which gives me the boat. I bet river, and get shoved on, easy call by me. Guy shows with with AAAJJ to my 999AA. That tilted me and shortly after I threw another BI away from a guy who was being super agro with me for the session. What was once a profitable session turned into a 2BI downer at the end of it. Frustrating stuff. On good news, I felt really comfortable 5-tabling and might try 6 tomorrow so I can get more volume in. That's all for now I guess, I'm frustrated that a cooler and a bad call ruined the night...but I still feel I'm playing well overall.

5 836/25 000

'Tis the beginning of June

2008-06-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

So May ended up being a pretty rough for me as I just couldn't get anything going and whenever I did get any kind of run, it would fall apart shortly after. Stopped playing around the 27th as I was on a 6BI downswing with about 2BI due to bad play and the rest I just couldn't get anyone to bite at my big hands. I ended up playing only 16k hands and finishing down 1BI for the month, which really isn't that bad I guess, definitely could have been worse.

Obviously didn't meet any of my goals lol but I guess it happens and I'm looking forward to June where I can hopefully get back on track, especially with so much time on my hands now that I'm done working until the 23rd. On that note, a prop bet has been created with my bud JB (with the consequence to be decided soon) for the number of hands I should play up until the 23rd. He suggested 30k, which I thought was a little excessive, and I brought up the number 20k and we ended up settling on 25k hands by June 23rd. I'm pretty nervous and not sure if I can make it...but that's what prop bets are for, to push you into doing things you might never have thought possible. With 19 days to go, it's going to be tight, however here is my schedule to get'er done:

Weekdays
4 00pm-5 30pm
8 00pm-whenever I stop playing my A game.

Saturday
Never really know what's going on Saturday and frankly I have never played during the day on Satuday so it'll be interesting to see what the tables are like. Either way, I hope to get 2-3 hours in.

Sunday
Other than working out, running, and the odd family dinner, it is usually a quiet day and obviously everyone plays poker on Sundays so I might try to get an hour or two in the afternoon and then another couple in the evening.

I need to average about 1300 hands/day to reach this goal lol, which is more than I usually ever play but I can do it! I'll probably miss a few days over this period due to some random time constraints so they'll have to be made up on other days, which is fine I think if I just spread the sessions out and take steady breaks.

Poker and improving my conditioning are my primary goals this month so because drinking usually dulls my mind and body the next day, I am abstaining from major drinking this month in order to reach my desired goals. This isn't a horrible thing I guess, just means those average girls won't look so great anymore. ZING. Anyways, not much else to say other than that I'm pumped to get back into poker after a short break and look forward to hitting my 25k goal. I'll be looking to post every 2-3 days to monitor my progression so far and to report on any interesting hands.

S
356/25 000 hands

Is May over yet?

2008-05-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted in a while and I since I'm doing nothing right now I might as well give a quick update. I've played about 16000 hands this month, way below my end goal of 25k for May, but it's been a really busy month surprisingly and I just haven't had the chance to get in as many hands. I'm also breakeven at 25NL so far this month, up maybe a BI at most. Had a nice session a little while ago for +3BI but it followed a session where I played fine...and lost 3.5BI over 850 hands. I just couldn't hit anything and lost a lot against short stacks or guys whose lines made no sense at all. My W$@SD was something like 27% and W$SF was around 31% playing 18/16/3.3 lol. Just couldn't get anything going.

I'm not sure if I should have stopped at my 2BI stop-loss that session and frankly I believe that sticking around was fine. I was playing against some huge, deep donks, on 2 of the 4 tables and long-term I'd be taking a lot of there money. My hands, and play, just couldn't hold against them hitting absolutely everything, or for example, I raise pre with KK, get called by donk, it goes bet/call, bet/call, and then he shoves on a blank river. He did that twice and I just couldn't follow through the second time even though I had TPTK. Bah. Just a rough session.

Anyways, I've become much more confident in my play at 25NL, sucks that results haven't followed, but I still believe that the game is still the same; bet for value when you hit, and don't be tricky when you miss. That's about all to report, looking forward to June where I have 22 days off and will be looking to get in a lot of hands.

BR is currently at 770.

Sean

Mid-May Report

2008-05-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

So the first half of the month has been pretty rough, I think mostly due to human error, aka me, so I'm stuck two BI to start 25NL over 10k hands. However, over the last 4 500 hands, even though I'm up only 2BI over that period, I feel that I have really improved. I have begun almost pretending to make a poker video, talking things out loud at times and it has helped, especially when I would usually fall in love with the hand I have. Looking forward to continuing this over the second half of the month and hopefully turning around a, so far, very swingy month.

My stats so far:

Glad to see my AF getting closer towards 3 again, felt I was really forcing the action early on, being way too aggro. Solid stats otherwise as I believe I have solid fundamentals, now it's just time to start thinking deeper like I have been the last 4k-ish hands.

May 12

Obviously a nice day here up 3BI. Got paid off with my sets and made some solid reads on players and they shipped the chips over my way. No hands that I was upset about here. Got it in on flop with top set vs KK and the third 6 hits on the river to give him the bigger boat. Lost another stack to a rivered straight against my trips on the flop. Crappy, but those were easy coolers and I played them fine imo.

May 13

Had a couple tough hands here that I'll post, otherwise, didn't really get into any crazy spots and I was able to keep my losses to a minimum.

Hand 1
This hurt obv going up against a guy who limp/calls AA preflop. I put him on an overpair type hand or a strong AJ/AQ/AK type thing when he raises me on the turn. I think I fold out any stupid hand like 92os so I expected to take this pot...took a note on him afterwards and i'll be playing more cautiously against this dude if we ever meet again.

Hand 2
Flop a pretty big monster here but I think I played it too passively by just calling his repops on the flop and turn. I put this guy on a strong, or maybe even made, draw or two pair type thing. By just calling here I have no idea where I am and I shouldn't have called his turn bet as it make the river play very difficult. Sucked folding but I'm going to be beat here 90% of the time as this guy is not bluffing.

May 14

This was kind of the break-through here where I really started to think a lot deeper and analyze my decisions a lot harder, sadly it was after a rough start where I was down just over 2BI at one point. Took a break and began talking to myself when playing (lol) and it worked, made a lot better decisions and managed to break even. Not going to bother posting any hands here, I played two pretty stupidly but I just don't see any value in posting them.

May 15

Played really solid here and again I kept my losses to a minimum and lost only two big pots, which I'll post here.

Hand 3
In the small blind and I raise the button for value as I believe I crush his range with my AQos. Flop TPTK and he raises my c-bet strong. Not sure what I should do here as I'm going to be up against a lot of Qx type hands like QK, sets, overpairs, and a bit of air. Looking back at it, I don't like my shove here as I'm folding out any hands that I beat and only getting called by hands that beat me. However, calling gets me no where and chances are I'd be getting it in anyways on a later street. In hindsight, folding is obvious here...and I think I should have...but could I have folded TPTK to a raise on the flop?

Hand 4
This hand really got to me as I think I played it fine and that I'm way ahead of his range. When he bets small each street I'm thinking a weak A or K type hand and that a reraise would fold out any hands that beat me. I can't reraise the 8 on the turn as it narrows my range huge and I only call on the river because I raise would be getting shoved on by the flush, although doubtful he was drawing to the flush. I couldn't believe it when he had QT and hit his 4 outer on the river...but if I raised anywhere I would have folded it and lost so much value...still don't know how I should have played this. Bah.

Anyways, PT is being stupid again so no playing tonight I don't think. I'm about 2500 hands short of where I should be to reach my goal but I still think it's reachable. Will try to get in 6k hands or so this week and go from there.

S

Frustrating month so far.

2008-05-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

So I've figured out now that 25NL is just as soft as 10NL with maybe a few less idiots, but in the end, a lot of idiots still out there. Sadly, I've been playing like an idiot at time, allowing emotions and "gut feels" or "let's just see what he has on the river for cheap" kind of things to get in the way. I have shown signs of my brilliance and high IQ...lol...but it's just been super high variance so far this month. Haven't played much as of May 12th, only 5500 hands, mostly due to being unusually busy, but I'm hoping that by the 19th, I'll have close to 12k hands so I can reach my goal of 25k-30k. I'm currently down 4BI, which isn't horrible at all, but I still feel positive that I can finish this month profitable.

Here are my stats for the days since the last blog:

May 6

Nice day obviously, and the 1700 hands were great to get in and showed that it is possible to grind for 4 hours and pull of a decent number of hands while four-tabling. Made a lot of good reads, shoving on a AAx board with QQ when the guy insta-pots without thinking. Could have had the trips or boat but as he played it, I figured I was good against him a lot of the time as he was going to have lot of air.

Hand 1
My only full stack loss this day, this guy was a maniac, shoving with second pair and weak draws, sucking out on a lot of them. I just didn't believe he had the four and expected to see either air or a weak jack or king. I didn't like my shove though on the river as even though I have two pair, he's only calling with better. In hindsight, checking in front and calling a donk bet by him would have been better.

Hand 2
This was a tough laydown. I'm betting for value each street with TPTK and the third spade on the riv doesn't do much in my decision making as a guy passively calling with a runner runner flush draw is really unlikely. However, when he minraises me on the river, it does scream a lot of strength, which makes no sense as he was so passive throughout. I'm assuming I'll be seeing J8 a lot here or KJs but with the strength he shows on the river I have to respect that as he hadn't gotten out of line with me in our history. I noted his minraise on riv and moved on. Tough fold though, but correct I believe.

May 7

Very rough day here, got coolered for 2BI right off the bat and the rest is history, mindset changed with the losses and made some costly mistakes. Since this day, I've made a stop-loss of 2BI mandatory where I will not play for the rest of the day, I'll be doing this until I get better control of my losing mindset in these situations.

Hand 3
This was a difficult situation, I flop the nut flush draw so I bet pot, where he repops strong on me, I call one street and then I turn the straightdraw as well where he repops me again. Here is where I should have folded but I just could see what he was doing that with other than a set, had no clue what was going on and therefore should have folded on the turn.

Hand 4
So here is where I should have 3bet for value as flatting this OOP is always tough. I'm way ahead of his range here and I would have folded a lot of garbage. As played, I got it in good on the turn as I think he's doing this with any Ax hand, just sucks that he got his 3outer on the river. Bah. First of two coolers to begin my session.

Hand 5
Second of the two to start my session, don't know if it's a standard cooler but I think I'm getting it in here 99% of the time as villain can be showing up with so much. Hurt that he had the set but I can see him doing this with a lot of draws and TPTK type hands. I still have to question though if I could/should have folded this. He shows quite a bit of strength here on a rather wet board...set definitely becomes a bigger part of his range with his strong repop on the flop...don't know if I can ever fold here. Tough hand.

Hand 6
Lol gah, this is what happens when you're on crazy monkey-tilt. My line makes no sense at all, I'm only folding out weaker hands on the river and getting called by everything that beats me. Nothing really to say here, this is where the 2BI stoploss comes in so I don't do dumbass plays, although rare, like this one. Could have saved myself almost a BI there. gross.

May 9

Nice standard session here, flopped nuts and got shoved on by AA, which is always nice and got it in with TPTK AQ vs KQ on the turn.

May 10

Another rough day, but I was playing too well in my opinion. I don't think I give short-stacks a lot of respect, naturally, but I find that my shoving range on them opens up quite a bit when I'm holding most likely the top hand. Not going to show those two hands as they're pretty standard, but I lost a BI coming over the top with what I believed was the top hand and of course, short stacks do, believe it or not, have a made hands sometimes. Bah

Hand 7
This hand hurts, I raise UTG and get called by the blinds and BB hits the nuts on the flop with...79s? I knew the board was drawy...but seriously. This one topped off the session and I quit right after because I was pretty damn pissed off. Warning bells could have gone off when he makes a small reraise on 2 turn, but I'm still thinking he's doing this with a lot of draws and garbage I'm not folding KK on this board.

That's it for my playing the last little while, like I said I really have to start grinding this week and I'll have a lot of time to do it as well. Hopefully be over 10k by Friday night and...profitable? I feel very confident in my fundamentals of poker, but I'm still uncertain when it comes to control the emotions when getting hammered in a session. My stoploss will definitely reduce variance as so far at 25NL, when I lose, I lose big lol. Gotta put an end to that.

Having played a lot in the mornings this month, I've also noticed that finding a profitable table is very tough to do, which sucks because I feel that I'm on my A game in the mornings, but so are all the regs that make up the majority of the players at the tables. So instead of grinding it out against those regs, I'll be playing 1 or 2 hours in the mid-afternoon when the tables soften up a bit and then 2 more hours late at night when the idiots come out to lose their money to me :P.

Bought a laptop last week from Dell so hoping it comes in by next week so I can start grinding it out on that upstairs where it's not so damn cold (def +EV). It only put me back $1.2k for a very nice laptop, although it is only 15.4". I figure with the money I saved there, if I make a nice profit this month I'll buy a Samsung 24" 1080p monitor for $250 for the room so I'm not hunkered over the laptop all the time.

Anyways, long post today so congrats on anyone who finishes it. It's a new and I'm looking forward to hitting the tables and improving as always. Next update will probably be the weekend yo.

S

So far, so good?

2008-05-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been able to play as much as I've hoped so far this month, mostly due to random things I've had to do, but I'm still on track to hit the 25k-30k goal I set out for myself. The month started off pretty rough, got coolered a couple times to put me in the whole and have made some expensive mistakes to begin this month. All in all though, I'm only down about 2BI and the intimidation that I found that I had earlier on is gone so I can begin to win like I was doing in April. I'll just get to the review of the days and couple stupid plays each day and go from there.

May 2

Lost the proper mindset during this one, losing AA to KK and set over set while ALSO making some dumb, costly plays. Here's the two biggies:

Hand1
This hand was doomed from the start, played it way too passively beginning preflop where I should have reraised the button minraise. He would have repopped me and I would have folded, saving a lot of headaches. As played, I can't check/call all the way down as I had no idea where I was in the hand. Pretty self-explanatory after the fact.

Reviewing now...that's probably my only huge mistake of that session, the others were set over set, AAvsKK, or having to fold AK on the flop after raises preflop. Just couldn't win anything at all, I only had one double-digit dollar win the whole session.

May 4

A break-even session, oh well, got a lot more comfortable playing on Sunday and actually won a couple nice-sized pots. Only big mistakes here was felting QQ vs a guy playing 34/5/1 preflop who had KK. He didn't get out of line with me or anyone else during the hundred or so hands that I had with him and frankly, it was pretty blatant what he had before I called his shove. If it was a guy playing 34/20/4. I wouldn't be upset if I came up against KK as that would be a small part of his felting range.

Hand 2
I felt that I had the best hand and I'm reasonably happy with my play up to the river when K comes down. It was a pretty obvious value-bet and I just couldn't get away with my weak hand and made a horrible hero call. I wasn't even pot-committed so my line here makes no sense.

May 5

Had a good day today, finishing up BI in 2 hours of play, but made a few costly mistakes that took away about 1-2BI that I could have definitely used. Played a lot more aggressively pre-flop, even 3betting in good situations with my medium hands in position, basically just pounding the button and got paid off thanks to that. Here are two hands though that I'm not pleased with:

Hand 3
Lol this hand sucked, I put this guy squarely on an AT/AQ type hand and of course, I couldn't fold my rivered idiot straight. Pretty obvious that I just didn't quite think it through enough on the river, but I just didn't think I'd be seeing a KJ from the small blind. Bah

Hand 4
It's weird how your mind sometimes refuses to let you fold a hand, even though there's huge evidence you're most likely behind. Pretty obvious value bet here, but I kept on telling myself that I have the 3rd nut flush here....bad move on my part, but at least it's etched in my brain now and never happen again....right?

I have the place to myself tomorrow all day so I'm going to try to hit 1500 hands, but we'll have to see. Lately my parents have been "joking" around saying I'm addicted to poker which really bugs me obviously as that's as far from the truth as possible. Doesn't an addiction have to have a negative impact on your own and others' lives, etc, etc? So far, I've watched way less tv, am much more scheduled not only with when I play poker, but with everything else too, and am actually thinking more critically about situations outside of poker as well. Bah and then of course I can't tell them I'm NOT addicted because they'll say or "think" that denial is the first stage, blah blah blah.

There is no doubt in my mind that I'm not addicted at all, especially when approaching it in the manner that I have done. Still bugs me though that it feels like I have to play covertly around my family. We'll see what happens I guess, I'll update once again on Friday or Sunday I'm assuming.

S

End of April Stats and May Goals

2008-05-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

So April was a pretty crazy month, starting with a 10BI downswing and then a 20BI upswing to finish 10NL and becoming rolled for 25NL. In 25NL I started off up 5BI and now I'm back down to break-even lol. I met my goals of having a profitable month and also becoming at least a bronze ironman by playing just shy of 19k hands. wooot. I also won the side prop bet with a buddy of mine, who admitted defeat last night on facebook, and I'm looking forward to some tasty lobster at his expense in July lol.

I'm very happy with my 3ptbb/100 winrate considering my rough start and I'm not worried about 25NL yet, still have lots to learn about 3betting and squeezing preflop, which players do a lot more at 25NL. There are also a lot more regulars and guys playing 14/12/3 but very aggressive in position. I know I can be profitable at this level, it's just a matter of being patient until it clicks like it did at 10NL.

Here are my stats for April:

My stats for both stakes are almost identical but I'm going to look to tighten up my UTG, MP, and CO ranges a bit and look to play more a 17/15/3 or 16/14/3 and loosen up as I become more comfortable later in the month.

As for my goals for the month, it's a pretty quiet month for work, only working 13 days total so I plan on getting a lot of hand in during my days off. Here is my schedule for my non-work days during the week:

8 15am: Wake up
9 00am: 1.5hour session
11 00am: 1.5 hour session
1 00pm: 1.5 hours of basketball
4 00pm: 1-1.5hour session
10 00pm: Review the day's session and blog every 3-4 days.

With this schedule, I can get in about 1.7k-1.9k hands on those days. 12 week days of this is 20.4k-22.8k hands right there. I also have 4 Sundays and the evenings to put in so with that in mind, here are my goals for May:
1) Play at least 25k hands.
A) Secondary goal of hitting 30k hands.
2) Have a profitable month again
B) Secondary goal of making $500 and thus moving my BR above $1k.
3) My current posts on Cardrunners is around 20 and I want to take better advantage of the forums so I want to have my postings up to 75 by the end of the month.

I've been reading a lot of this dude, E-Cart's, blog since I started poker and have watched him move up from 25NL to 50NL successfully. I like how he posts each day's PT stats on his blog every few days and comments on them and I'm going to do that for this month and see how it goes. Every 3-4 days I will post my stats for each day's sessions and be critical of them, in addition to posting some HH.

So there we go, I'm pumped for a new month and looking forward to it being profitable soon enough. No playing for me today, going to take my first break in over a month as I have to work today, so I'm just going to lay low this morning and watch a 50NL vid by Fruitypro.

S

Graduation to 25NL and first $100 day

2008-04-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

The title sums it up. I felt like I was playing scared at 10NL while being bankrolled for 25NL so I made the jump yesterday and played 400 hands, finishing up a BI to start the new stakes. I grinded out 3 hours this morning and did even better, finished up 4.6BI over 1200 hands and winning a $100 pot (flippin' huge yo!). Not going to bother posting stats other then to say that I played 18/15/4 and winning 71% of my showdowns. In addition to the win, I also unlocked another $20 bonus so my two days winnings over 1600 hands is around $160. Nuts yo.

Here are some hands from today:

Hand 1
This was an interesting hand as at this table I was playing pretty donkishly, but only against a half-stacker who shoved any pair or ace hand. Against the shorty I called his shoves with AKos and AJos, winning once, but also showing the table I have a pretty wide shoving range. Villain here was playing super tight so after his 4 bet I put him on AA, KK, QQ, or AK and I figured he'd be shoving all those with whatever I did. So instead of doing a customer 5bet to say around $14, I just shoved to look donkish. It worked well this time obviously but I would not do this play often.

Hand 2
This was a weird hand that I think the villain played horribly. After the river hits that completes the flush and straight draws I didn't really have any other option but to shove as I wasn't going to fold with only 1/3BI left behind. I really couldn't believe it when calls with 99...ty I guess.

Hand 3
With so many outs, it was a dream flop for me with the second nut flush, two overs, and straight draw. I bet strong against the villain and make sure to get in before the turn. I hit one of my many outs on the turn and shipped the chiplets over my way.

Hand 4
After missing so many of PP hands on the flop, I finally hit one here. I automatically put this guy on a K with such a dry flop and I try to rep a K as well. It was great that the ten hit on the river and he insta-shoves with the two pair. Lovely.

Hand 5
This was the big loss of the day against the half-stacker mentioned above. I played this fine and glad that I got it in preflop vs him as chances are I'd just be shoving on the flop anyways. He had jacks on this one, good for him, I took his money later anyways. Snap.

Next post will be on Wednesday, the last day of the month, with a summary of my play and goals for May. GL at the tables.

S

End of school, beginning of the grinding

2008-04-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

So just finished off my last exam today, went pretty well, and I'm going to put it in the back of my mind until I get the final marks back in May. As for poker, I'm still running hot, winning 2BI in 400 hands yesterday and hoping to keep that going tonight when I look to play about 1k hands.

I am now officially rolled for 25NL, but I think I'm going to stay at 10NL until the end of April or 20k hands, whichever comes first. I've started datamining the next level, but currently I only have stats for about 3k players. By the end of April I'm hoping that number will triple and I can therefore make much better reads off them. Other then the news about moving up soon, I'll just show my up-to-date stats and hopefully write a more detailed blog come Sunday night.

EDIT: 2 hours later...
So I just played 400 hands at 10NL and finished up 2 more BI (ship it), but I got sucked out on HUGE. I don't think it's ever been this bad. Felt myself starting to tilt after the last one so I quit while I was still ahead and finish my session later. Here are the coolers.

Hand 1
After his c-bet into me and then call of my raise, I put him on an overpair as he would have shoved had he hit that flop at all. Turn is a 7 which could have paired him but I'd be willing to pay him off with that as I think it's unlikely so I shove to get his last 1/3BI in and he snap calls with TT. I just had a feeling he'd spike his trips on the riv...ugh
Macky:95%
Villain: 5%

Hand 2
So I flop top pair and kicker (assumed here) on a drawy board but seeing as how villain had 5BB left I just shove and he calls with A7s...and hits runner runner straight...ugh
Macky:80%
Villain: 20%
Hand 3
This one was tough and I don't think I can lay it down. After he donk bets the flop I reraise him and call his shove as I'm pretty much pot-committed. It just looked to much like a straight or flush draw and with an overpair I think it's just too hard to fold a strong OP to the board, especially when he is repping either straight/flush draw or overpairs...bah
Macky:....ugh

So those three hands cost me 2BI and the majority of the time I'll take those down so what happened didn't really bother me, just the close proximity to each other got to me. Anywho, hope you got a laugh out of these...I didn't.

Edit #2:
So the poker Gods obviously weren't too happy with me today. After taking a break from the last cooler session, I get with 3 more crazy plays lol. Ran into quads twice with my full house and lost set over set on the flop when I spiked mine and...surprise surprise he spikes his on the riv... So I'm going to stop after 800 hands now, thank you very much, with a very RESPECTABLE $1.4 in winnings lol. Wow what a night, here's another few for you:

Hand 4
I have nothing to say to this, I don't think I could away with this hand EVER EVER EVER. Ridiculous. Lol loved how we both slowplayed it though.

Hand 5
Flush draw on the flop, I bet out strong and I assume the guy has either the FD, set (doubt it), or overpair to the board so I made sure to get my money in ASAP. Not going to lie, started to tilt a little after I get beat by A 2 OUTER ON THE RIVER FOR THE SECOND TIME TONIGHT!

Hand 6
This kinda topped the night off. I was behind this whole hand and I didn't know it. After the third K hits I refuse to believe that anyone is going to have it. When he raises me on the river he could be doing with with some many pocket pairs or bluffs that I'm forced to call.

What a night, I'm going to go pray and maybe give a sacrificial virgin to the poker Gods because I obviously need to repent for whatever sins I have incurred.

Some hand histories.

2008-04-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

So although I've been running at over 15ptbb/100 over the last 5 000 hands, I've still made some mistakes, some that were avoidable, and others I would consider to just be coolers. Anyways, I'm going to try to post something like ten hands in this blog with some thoughts on each one and see where I went wrong.

Hand 1
So I'm going c-bet this flop like 90% of the time here, but after a strong re-raise here I probably should have proceeded with a lot more caution. If it was a min-raise I wouldn't be too worried but he showed a lot of strength here and at this level, it should be pretty blatant. Throwing away the other half of my BI probably wasn't a good idea either. Tough to let go of AA with a loss, but I have to show more control in these situations.

Hand 2
So I flop top pair, most likely top kicker on this board and after the smallish raise on my c-bet, I put him on a weak A type hand or maybe a flush/straight draw. The 8 on the turn I considered a blank and I'll happily get in on this turn almost all the time, just sucks that he hit his 2 outer on the turn that I considered a blank. Not too upset about this hand.

Hand 3
The villain was tilting me a bit over the session as he was so passive and calling with almost anything on each street. He was like 82/15/1 over 200 hands and he was somehow up money! Anyways, I was stupid and just didn't believe he had the K, it was in his range, but so was a lot of Ax type hands, which is what I assumed he showed up here with. Anyways, played this horribly so I noted this guy and moved on.

Hand 4
Set over sets always suck but I have to ask myself I could have played this any differently? The way the villain flatted me from the CO screamed TT-QQ, AK, AQ or AJ so when I flop the set I thought that checking would allow him to catch up as I believed I had his range killed. He bets so I put him on a TPTK type hand or maybe even a KQs so I was happy to call. The J on the turn wasn't that great as it completes a straight draw but I don't think AT is in his range. I bet strong showing strength and he calls and then the river is an even worse card and we both check it down. I think I played this hand fine, maybe betting strong on the flop would have been better but still, a tough situation.

Hand 5
Bah this hand was ridiculous, there isn't much to think about by getting it in on the flop with AA on a K high board. Although it is slightly connected, I still don't think it's a bad move. I kinda blinked when he showed up with J7s and the cried when he rivered his straight. Oh well, I got in good and he was able to hit his straight.

Hand 6
This hand kind of sucked but I played it well I believe. I liked my min-raise on the turn after I hit my nut flush as it was pretty obvious villain had the other T or a smaller flush and I was expecting him to shove, which he did. He rivers his 3-outer on my of course and I lose flush over flush. Another one of those hands where you rip out some hair and then move on.

Hand 7
I think a pre-flop fold wouldn't have been a bad idea, being OOP for the hand but with the suited AJ, I think a call is also correct. Got into trouble by just check calling and never really knowing where I was in the hand. I think a re-raise on the flop would have been sufficient but with AJ against a very loose player, I think I would have gotten it in a lot of the time if he shoved to my re-raise. He was definitely playing an A, just sucked that I was outkicked.

Hand 8
I played this hand with JB sweating me so I'm pretty sure he owes me for half my loss here lol. Top and bottom pair versus top two pair. Villain was showing any aggression and I simply bet out each street believing I had the best hand. So I guess I lost the least amount possible thanks to the villain being so damn passive.

Hand 9
I didn't like how I played this hand vs the shorty here. I flop top-pair, but was behind the entire time. I thought he could have a J like me or smaller PP type hand so I put him in on the turn for the rest of his stack as the A was a scare card, sadly he had AJ lol. Probably a c/f would have been in order on the turn after his min-raise on the flop, but of course, hindsight is always 20/20.

Hand 10
With an overpair on the flop, I was probably ahead of his range. I bet the K on turn as a scare card, but with his min-raise here I think it would have been fine to just fold here as obviously the K wasn't scary for him. The call by me was a leak for sure. Then with J on the river, I finally get the idea that a c/f is proper. Meh, could've saved myself 13BB by not calling his raise on the turn but other than that, I played this hand fine.

Upswing into the clouds.

2008-04-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

So after struggling in the beginning of the month, things have really picked up for me as of late. I don't think my play has changed much, but I do believe that I'm being a bit more critical in my thinking of what my opponents are on and acting accordingly. I've also had a nice run of hands that have thankfully been paid off. Just to give you an idea of how hot I'm running, over the last 4 400 hands, I'm 13BI or 15ptbb/1000 hands. That's nasty.

I haven't played much the last little while with exams going on (2 down, 2 to go) but I've been making sure to play every day so I can participate in the $2k freeroll at the end of the month. I played 600 hands tonight after I got from my exam and finished up almost a BI, but I played the worst that I've played in a while. Wasn't truly focused, a little burnt out, and just wasn't all there today. I was up about 2.5BI with about 200 hands left but I donked off about .5BI and lost a flush to an improbable full house. All the same, still nice to pull off another winning session and I obviously hope to keep that going.

Here are my stats as of the 19th of April:
*note: having some trouble with uploading my stats, firewall is being stupid. in a nutshell, I'm playing 18/16/3 over 12 000 hands and I'm up 4BI for the month (1.85ptbb/1000).

On other news, I sold my BMO stock yesterday at $48.01 after purchasing it about a month ago for 41.46. A nice 15% is always lovely. I'm just going to leave it all in my account for now and hopefully get back into the market when things (hopefully) tank in the near future again. That's it for now I figure. I'll be playing for 20 minutes before I study to get my FTP points but I'll hopefully blog tomorrow night with 7 or 8 hands that I'm not happy with.

S

Mid-Month Progress Report

2008-04-15T19:29:00.001-07:00

So it's the middle of April already, it's gone by way too fast, and it's time to take a look at my first 2 weeks of play:

So I started off the month horribly. I really wasn't sleeping well and was focusing too much on the short-term wins and losses (mostly the latter) and I found I tilted very easily. It didn't help that I was coolered quite a few times by ridiculous hands (AKvs63s????), but I've come to realize that in poker it is in the probabilities that you'll be be on occasion AA vs 24os type crap, just have to understand that LONG-TERM, you'll be profitable. Easy to say and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't perfected that mindset, but I'm on my way to it. At one point I was down 10BI and due to some solid play (and a couple suck-outs of course), I've narrowed it down to just 2BI. Definitely on cloud 9 right now, especially after a +3.5BI session today in just 600 hands. I had some good flops but also so good calls on the river just not believing that the villain had what they wanted to me to think they had.

Also while looking at my stats, I recall at the end of March that I wanted to tighten up a bit in order to cut down the variance, but in reality I've actually done the opposite. I think playing 18/16/3 is perfectly fine for this level and that it'll pay off in the end (with maybe a bit more variance). In summary, I'm very happy with my stats as I made sure to reduce my AF from >4 last month to a much more reasonable 3 so far this month. Seeing results from my hard work always feels good.

As for my bankroll, thanks to some winning sessions lately and my tourney win, my BR is now up to $475! I'll be playing about 1k hands tomorrow morning and thus I'll be unlocking another 2BI bonus so there's a solid chance that I'll be profitable for April and be able to comfortably move up to 25NL beginning in May.

I think that's about it for now, as I said before, I'm really proud of my stats and I'll be looking to focus even more once my exams finish on the 24th of April. Should be able to hit 20k hands though and I'M JIZ-ACKED!

S

Funny Hand

2008-04-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

I was playing this morning a quick one hour session and this hand came up lol. Instead of just doing a normal c-bet, I accidentally bet half my stack lol. The villain was talking the whole time about what I have and the whole time I'm thinking, "oh s***," so he shoves...I obviously have to call the last bit with the Q on the board...and he has...55? haha whew. lol I really liked his logic of "I have outs." So lucky he didn't have anything there.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: thebonemonkey ($10)
Seat 2: scrubby02 ($9.55) -
Seat 3: KATMANDRU1 ($4.65) -
Seat 4: mack87 ($10) -
Seat 5: sangral ($12.55)
Seat 6: MCDavis08 ($11.85)

PRE-FLOP:

KATMANDRU1 posts small blind $0.05
mack87 posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

CALL sangral ($0.10)
FOLD MCDavis08
FOLD thebonemonkey
FOLD scrubby02
CALL KATMANDRU1 ($0.05)
RAISE mack87 ($0.50)
CALL sangral ($0.40)
FOLD KATMANDRU1

FLOP:

Pot: $1.1

BET mack87 ($5.70)
RAISE sangral ($11.40)
CALL mack87 ($3.80)
UNCALLED sangral ($1.90)

TURN:

Pot: $20.1

RIVER:

Pot: $20.1

SHOWDOWN:
sangral:

mack87:

mack87 collected $18.1 from main pot with two pair, Tens and Sevens

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $18.1 Rake: $

Final Board:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

That's all for now, I'll blog it up later this week most likely.

April Update

2008-04-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hey All, so far April has been a down month after roughly 8 000 hands, but I'm confident I can become profitable in the last 3 weeks so it's all good. Over the last 3 000 hands it has been pretty swingy, having a +1BI session, then a +2.5BI session, followed by a -3.5BI session, and then last capping it off with a +.5BI session. Not horrible of course and I think I still have to work on my long-term approach required for playing poker successfully. I still focus too much on the sessions that I lose a BI or two from and not on the fact that I'm looking to be profitable for the MONTH, not the SESSION. I'll be ordering the book "A Poker Mindset" this month, should help in reshaping my thought process somewhat.

There has been good news though this month so I'll bring those up right now. First off, I came in 3rd in a 70 person MTT, netting a 6BI win (shwing) so that felt good obviously, although I definitely had a solid chance of finishing first after having the chip lead but losing 3/4 of my stack KK > ATs. Ah well, I'll take what I get obviously.

Secondly, I applied for coaching position with the U of M this summer and I received the email this week saying I was accepted for it, meaning I get weekends off and get to shoot hoops all day. Now the only thing to do is to give my notice to BMO for the summer, ugh not looking forward to that.

Lastly, my BR is now finally back above my initial deposit of $400, finishing at $415 last night with the help of a winning session and unlocking a bonus. Hopefully I can get up to 25NL by May 1st, but if not, I won't mind sticking around 10NL for another few weeks to work out some more kinks in my game. However, I do believe that 25NL in May will be my most likely route I'll be taking.

Here are my stats so far for April, pretty solid I believe, but I'm still making the occasional costly mistake, probably responsible for -4BI, but I've also lost my fair number of coolers which I'm not really used to yet and they were tilting me there for a while.

Here's a hand which I'm not happy about. This guy was playing all over the place during my session with him, he flats my 3bet pf, making me believe he has AK, or QQ-TT, potentially ATs kind of thing. He c-bets the dry flop and I'm willing to pay off some random set so I shove because I figure I have 95% of his range beat here, any overpair would call my shove, and that AA was unlikely. I think either way we'd be getting it in on the board if not on the flop then on the turn or river so I think my play was fine here, just sucked that he had AA.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: FineByFar ($11.40) -
Seat 2: BiotchesFull ($14.35) -
Seat 3: TMacClemson ($9.95) -
Seat 4: TheAbhorsen ($12.65)
Seat 5: kfed5672 ($14.70)
Seat 6: mack87 ($13.40)

PRE-FLOP:

BiotchesFull posts small blind $0.05
TMacClemson posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

FOLD TheAbhorsen
CALL kfed5672 ($0.10)
RAISE mack87 ($0.45)
FOLD FineByFar
FOLD BiotchesFull
FOLD TMacClemson
RAISE kfed5672 ($0.80)
RAISE mack87 ($2)
CALL kfed5672 ($1.20)

FLOP:

Pot: $4.15

BET kfed5672 ($2.50)
RAISE mack87 ($11.40)
CALL kfed5672 ($8.90)

TURN:

Pot: $26.95

RIVER:

Pot: $26.95

SHOWDOWN:
mack87:

kfed5672:

kfed5672 collected $24.95 from main pot with two pair, Aces and Fives

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $24.95 Rake: $

Final Board:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

End of the month.

2008-03-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

So after my first 6 000 hands or so in my poker career, I was about ready to roll over and die. I was chasing way too many pots, double or even triple barreling with few outs, and basically just trying to push people off of, most likely, made hands. First I should mention that I beat my goal by 10%, playing 11 000 hands, about 5 000 of those in the last week and have really improved my game. It's been like a light switch has turned and things have become a lot clearer like when to give up, when to double barrel, etc. Also, I think the addition of 4-tabling has dramatically upped my game because I've been less likely to tilt. Playing 1 000 hands in a session rather than only 200 or 300 leads to a lot less variance and therefore a lot better (and fewer worse) situations.

So with that being said, I'm almost back to break-even after being down quite a bit. I'm about 3BI short of my initial BR and I don't see any problem surpassing it within the next week with some average play and some nice bonuses coming my way. If all goes to plan, I'll be working my way into some 25NL games by the end of the month, which I have already started datamining.

On a side note, a good friend of mine, JB, and I have made a bet to see who can play the most hands in April in order to get his motivation back up to par and to get some much needed volume for myself. The loser has to buy the other a lobster (or equivalent) dinner at a damn nice restaurant come July when he comes to town. My initial goal for April was to get 12k-15k of hands but I think in order to be competitive in this wager, I'll have to up that to 20k-25k, which is definitely doable with a lot time off in the beginning and end of the month.

That's about it for now, feeling really good about poker at the moment with the profitable last few thousand hands and I'm looking forward to getting it going. I'll post some stats of my first 3k-4k of hands this Friday and also get some hands down to review. Ship it!

S

Ship it!

2008-03-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey compadres, had a great session (3 1 hour sessions to be exact). First session I finished off down 2 BI which sucked, I was trying to force the action, getting myself into marginal positions etc., and obviously wasn't happy with my play. Second session I swung it around huge, finishing up around 4BI after getting my money in good the whole time and coming out on top. Third session I finished slightly down (1/10BI) after getting stacked in a cooler (my AKs vs his AJos, board is xJxxA) so I'm happy with that as I know I'll come out on top enough to profitable in that situation.

Going to keep this short as I just posted yesterday with my last 1000 hands so here's my PT stats and then a screenshot describing some of the situations I got in (I got 1/2 BI off that the guy to my left somehow). Oh and I also unlocked another 2BI bonus so my net for today was +4BI, not too shabby at all.

2008-03-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

Alright so I finished up a 1000+ hand session yesterday (3 mini sessions of 1 hour each) and ended up about 1/2BI, which is a nice win of course but the best part about it was that I was 4-tabling the whole time. Was surprised how it was actually easier than 2 tabling because you had to focus the whole time, whereas your mind tends to wander a bit more when doing only half the number of tables. Probably should have finished upwards of a BI but of course I had 3 or 4 costly mistakes that kept me from killing the session. Here are my stats:

As you can see, I tightened up a bit compared to what I have been doing usually although my AF is still a little on the high side at 4.4. Oh well, small sample size but probably is still telling me that I should take it easy a bit more, still chasing sometimes or trying to push people off decent or made hands.

Before I get into hands that I wasn't happy with, just wanted to state some goals for April. I don't think I'll be able to hit 10 000 hands like I planned for the end of March (currently around 7 500), but I do have some challenging, ableit attainable goals for next month. Here they are:

1) Play 12 000 hands ( with a secondary goal of 15 000 hands)
2)Achieve Bronze Ironman status (15 days of 100 points or 20 days of 50 points). Thought having a pot at the end of the rainbow to chase would be good motivation.
3) Really focus on playing TAG, meaning staying around 16/14/3 for the month.
4) Have my first profitable month?

These goals are all realistic and I should be able to meet or beat all of them. I threw in the ironman challenge just to have a bonus to look forward to, almost like a badge to show off. Good motivation I figure. I really believe that April can be a profitable month (I'll take +$0.01) and with the $80-$100 in bonus that I can unlock, I'm pretty sure it can be. I'll be looking to post every 1000-2000 hands to keep everything up to date and review my mistakes. Wish me luck.

There were a couple hands that killed me, mostly of stupidity but of course I'll share them and provide some commentary.

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Seat 1: Brandt1 ($6.25)
Seat 2: GottaPayTheBill ($13) -
Seat 3: Smegmadrol ($10.05) -
Seat 4: headson ($5.20) -
Seat 5: mack87 ($10.75)
Seat 6: chrisdaphish ($4.15)

PRE-FLOP:

Smegmadrol posts small blind $0.05
headson posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

RAISE mack87 ($0.45)
FOLD chrisdaphish
CALL Brandt1 ($0.45)
FOLD GottaPayTheBill
FOLD Smegmadrol
FOLD headson

FLOP:

Pot: $1.05

BET mack87 ($0.80)
CALL Brandt1 ($0.80)

TURN:

Pot: $2.65

BET mack87 ($1.80)
CALL Brandt1 ($1.80)

RIVER:

Pot: $6.25

BET mack87 ($3)
RAISE Brandt1 ($3.20)
CALL mack87 ($0.20)

SHOWDOWN:
Brandt1:

MUCK mack87

Brandt1 collected $11.4 from main pot with a straight, Five high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $12 Rake: $1.25

Final Board:

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I swear sets have lost me so much money, I always seem to flop them on ugly ugly boards. The 345 flop of course doesn't really fall into any dangerous territory other than the set over set (unlikely the way he played it) or the straight draw. I put this guy either on two pair (20%), overpair 66-JJ (30%), and overcards (50%). My biggest mistake here was on the river when the 2 came. Probably should have checked behind here as I don't think I'm folding many hands, of course hindsight is 20/20, but a c/f was probably in order as a guy with any Ax hand had me beat.

I think other than that one hand above, it was a pretty straightforward session with the majority of my smaller losses coming from c-betting one too many streets and a cooler (guy flops a bigger boat on the river after getting it all in with 2P). Should finish this month off with roughly 8 500-9 000 hands in the book and looking forward to next month.

Poker Frustration and Random Musings

2008-03-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

So my goal for this past Friday was to play 1000 hands of poker because I know that I have to get a lot more hands in to get the kind of experience that I need. To sum it all up, I only managed 650 hands before I became too disgusted with myself. I know I'm a pretty patient guy when it comes to things I'm motivated in and I was doing pretty well up to the 400 hand mark where it all went downhill. I got my money in good against a 1/2 stacker with QQ (My notes on him told me he was going in with KT, Ax, etc.) and of course when I finally go head to head with him, he has KK. That didn't really hurt me too much because I know I'd own his stack a lot of the time but it seemed that like that was the play that got the ball rolling on my tilt. My stats were 13.6/11/2.4 >650, which were super tight, but could have been profitable if I kept my cool. Here are some plays that I didn't like:

Seat 1: mack87 ($11.25)
Seat 2: Furry Nut ($19.95)
Seat 3: CRHardHitter08 ($5.25) -
Seat 4: hersheymaster ($2.05) -
Seat 5: gensing ($3.70) -
Seat 6: 4 King Luck ($10)

PRE-FLOP:

hersheymaster posts small blind $0.05
gensing posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

RAISE mack87 ($0.45)
FOLD Furry Nut
RAISE CRHardHitter08 ($1.50)
FOLD hersheymaster
FOLD gensing
RAISE mack87 ($5)
RAISE CRHardHitter08 ($5.25)
CALL mack87 ($0.25)

FLOP:

Pot: $10.65

TURN:

Pot: $10.65

RIVER:

Pot: $10.65

SHOWDOWN:
CRHardHitter08:

mack87:

CRHardHitter08 collected $9.65 from main pot with three of a kind, Kings

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $10 Rake: $1

Final Board:

Like I said, this was the one that got me tilting somewhat. I knew I was a dog once the cards were shown but the Q on the flop gave me hope, only to have a K on the river. Ugh that hurt. I got my money in good against this guy but to think that I almost sucked out definitely didn't help.

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Seat 1: Tunny55 ($12.55)
Seat 2: fullyloaded777 ($5.55) Sitting Out
Seat 3: jxxr ($4.05)
Seat 4: macbball31 ($9.40) -
Seat 5: mack87 ($10) -
Seat 6: POPPY5252 ($7.55) -

PRE-FLOP:

mack87 posts small blind $0.05
POPPY5252 posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

CALL Tunny55 ($0.10)
CALL jxxr ($0.10)
CALL macbball31 ($0.10)
CALL mack87 ($0.05)
RAISE POPPY5252 ($0.40)
CALL Tunny55 ($0.30)
FOLD jxxr
CALL macbball31 ($0.30)
CALL mack87 ($0.30)

FLOP:

Pot: $1.7

BET mack87 ($1)
RAISE POPPY5252 ($2)
FOLD Tunny55
FOLD macbball31
CALL mack87 ($1)

TURN:

Pot: $5.7

BET mack87 ($3)
CALL POPPY5252 ($3)

RIVER:

Pot: $11.7

CHECK mack87
BET POPPY5252 ($2.15)
CALL mack87 ($2.15)

SHOWDOWN:
POPPY5252:

MUCK mack87

POPPY5252 collected $15 from main pot with a straight, Ten high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $16 Rake: $1

Final Board:

Seat 1: Tunny55 folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 2: fullyloaded777 is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: jxxr folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.1)
Seat 4: macbball31 button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 5: mack87 small blind mucked [6s 6d] - three of a kind, Sixes - Net Gain/Loss: ($-7.55)
Seat 6: POPPY5252 big blind showed [9h Qc] and won 15 with a straight, Ten high - Net Gain/Loss: ($7.45)

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This hand with 66 was ugly from the get-go but I held on because I put Poppy on a two pair type hand which of course he didn't have. After the 7 came down on the turn, it should have been an easy c/f which I had been pretty good at doing earlier in the session but my old habits came to haunt me. After he called on the turn, I knew I was done but I was already committed to the pot. When he finally bets into my on the riv (another ugly card) I just feel obligated to call the remaining part of his stack. For next time, I know that if the board wasn't as ugly I'd probably call, but I should have c/f on the turn card. Blah.

I also had another almost identical hand with AQs and TPTK on a very drawy board, except villain slowplayed AK on turned the nut straight. Another c/f type situation on a very drawy board.

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Seat 1: SBucko ($8.20)
Seat 2: rman62 ($6.75)
Seat 3: alexandra5 ($9.15) -
Seat 4: mack87 ($11.65) -
Seat 5: OSUalltheway ($3.90) -
Seat 6: dgtlblcknss ($11.15) Sitting Out

PRE-FLOP:

mack87 posts small blind $0.05
OSUalltheway posts BIG blind $0.10
Dealt To: mack87

CALL SBucko ($0.10)
FOLD rman62
CALL alexandra5 ($0.10)
RAISE mack87 ($0.40)
FOLD OSUalltheway
CALL SBucko ($0.30)
CALL alexandra5 ($0.30)

FLOP:

Pot: $1.3

BET mack87 ($0.80)
CALL SBucko ($0.80)
FOLD alexandra5

TURN:

Pot: $2.9

BET mack87 ($1.50)
CALL SBucko ($1.50)

RIVER:

Pot: $5.9

BET mack87 ($3)
RAISE SBucko ($5.50)
CALL mack87 ($2.50)

SHOWDOWN:
SBucko:

MUCK mack87

SBucko collected $15.9 from main pot with a straight, Six high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $16 Rake: $1

Final Board:

Seat 1: SBucko showed [4h 5d] and won 15.90 with a straight, Six high - Net Gain/Loss: ($7.7)

Seat 2: rman62 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: alexandra5 button folded on the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.4)
Seat 4: mack87 small blind mucked [Ad Ac] - a pair of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($-8.2)
Seat 5: OSUalltheway big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.1)
Seat 6: dgtlblcknss is sitting out - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)

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This hand absolutely killed me. I had a dream flop here with Kxx and unless Sbucko has KK (which he definitely didn't), I had by far the best hand. Turn card was blank but here was my mistake I believe. Pot was at $3 and bet only 1/2, I still think it was a bad call on Sbucko to call my bet with basically only a 7 or 2 as an out but he rivered the two and went AI with me and I was forced to call the extra 2.50. Ugly.

Those four hands described were my biggest losers and other than that, I was very happy with my play although disappointed with the outcome obviously. Another weakness in my game though I noticed on two of my hands was when I had the nut straight when the river completes a flush draw. Although I won both as neither of the opponents were playing to the flush, I could have extracted a lot more out of them. I can't become scared once that flush draw hits, especially if they aren't playing like they would be drawing to a flush. Just a thought.

On non-poker news, I have an interview tomorrow for my summer job, a camp counselor at the U of M summer camps so I'm pretty psyched for that. I realized during the last year at the bank that I can't stay in one spot (an office) for very long, it drives me crazy. I also hate working Saturdays as it kills my weekends, especially in the summer. So I'm banking a lot on this interview, if I don't get it there could be some potential waterworks.

Last on the agenda is to report I bought some BMO stock a couple weeks ago when it hit $41.68cdn. I only purchased $1 500 worth (that's all I have lying around) but I think it's a good start. A lot of people think I'm crazy for buying a financial stock right now but here are my reasons why I bought it:
1) I'm not looking to flip right away - I figure I have a 1 year time line (roughly) on holding this stock and I believe that the finance industry stocks will be going very far up (and down) over that time. Buying at its 5 year low gives me pretty good odds.
2) I have a 7% div on that stock ($100/yr). So long as BMO doesn't cut it's div %, I believe I do have some leverage.
3) The entire industry is depressed right now, if I thought BMO would be tanking irregularly compared to other banks, I obviously wouldn't have invested in it.

There are of courses risks involved. The assets BMO holds in the subprime market are pretty volatile and could lead to more write-downs and issuing of equity (just released that BMO restructured it) and that was a gamble for sure, but only a short-term one. If the div % is cut, that'll send the stock downward, but since banks rarely do that for shareholders, I'm saying 80/20 that it won't happen.

Anyways, I wrote a lot today, gotta let it all sink in a look to be more profitable this week.
BTW, goal for the end of march is to have 10 000 hands under my belt. I thought of quitting after Friday but I cooled off and I'm ready to get back into the saddle.

S

PT Stats up to March 20/08

2008-03-20T11:50:00.001-07:00

So here are the stats so far for my short poker career. Like I said before, it's easy to hide the bad stats and just brag about the good hands but I can't afford to do that so here we go:

Definitely embarrassing but I can't really defend my play, it's just been horrible up to this point. I can say that I'm still new this game but that's no good excuse for someone who wants to excel and beat this frustrating game. Bear in mind that the first 2500 hands were horrendous so they don't help the end image but you get the idea, so far I'm a losing player.

My stats, 18/14/5 are definitely off and I have to correct those for sure. Either I have to bring my VPIP down a couple notches or increase my PFR a couple notches, most likely I will be decreasing my VPIP (playing less hands) and playing a tighter game for the time being. Also, my AF is way too high imo. I think to be profitable, an AF of 2.5-4 would be preferable as my high AF shows that I'm chasing way too many hands, leaking a lot of money.

Here are my positional stats to date:

I'm not too upset with position stats except for the SB (playing 19/11 from first to act on the flop is a leak). I've done better as of late in the SB position, cutting down my VPIP, but it is one of the things I should be working on in my game.

So I feel pretty naked right now with my subpar stats on show, but I think it's the right thing to do to improve my game. I've played 250 hands so far today (down 1.2BI on a couple bad plays) and I will probably play another 150-200hands tonight when I get home from school so I will be posting those stats, in addition to some good and bad hands, to review.

Blog numero uno

2008-03-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I figured it was about time to get a blog, I've been playing poker now for about 2 months, have a lot of ideas running in my head for business, and of course just random musings that I should probably get down on paper for later review.

This blog will mainly be for poker, I find I don't review my sessions enough afterwards (especially after a losing one) so forcing myself to post my best and worst hands of a session will be beneficial. Also, I guess like the guy you here who only talks about his winning days in the stock market, I find myself in a similar position in poker. I feel great when I finish up for a session and happily share with others how I'm doing, but when I finish down I clam up and hide it. Doing this is like buying high and selling low it feels, I will get the most out of feedback if I share both my bad and good hands, but mostly my bad.

With this in mind, my plan is to post a 2 of my best and as many of my worst hands each session (min. 300 hands most likely) onto my blog. In addition to that, I will post my current PT stats on the 15th and last day of each month. This will allow me further review and make adjustments to my many leaks and also won't let me hide anything.

Other than poker, I think a blog will be perfect for getting some ideas down for my future (when not if) business. There a huge number times each day that I think of what to do for a business in the coming year or so and it's about time that I write them on here and start moving towards a realistic endeavor.

This first blog was pretty long (surprising how much is going on in a person's mind at one time) so I'll end it here and post some PT stats soon to get this show on the road.

S