Rycky's Poker Blog

So, how ya been?

2011-10-11T20:19:00.001-04:00

Good question, huh?

I haven't posted anything on the old blog in a while, I know. With poker being as it is I just don't think to do it anymore. I've been on Twitter (@RyckyRych, feel free to follow) and I've posted a little nonsense here and there since it doesn't take very long and also doubles as my Facebook status thingy.

What little poker I have played has been fine, I min-cashed in Daytona last month, been doing OK in the home games when I get to play, and even have played a little online on Carbon and such. I won a 45-man game just the other day and I have to say the competition just wasn't very good. Despite that, I still needed a couple things to go my way but for the most part these guys do bad things, mainly to themselves.

So much for poker, at least what I can remember. In other news, we are moving to Houston. My wife has secured a position at her company's corporate location and they are going to pay for the move and all that also, which is a relief. She starts in a couple weeks and will have temp husing and everything. Meanwhile I get to stay here and try to sell the house. Yay.

The move is exciting and frightening all at the same time. This house is a financial burden, I won't lie about that. I admit I will be happy to get out of the obligation one way or the other, in fact we had considered selling the house and finding somewhere else to live next spring even before the new job opportunity came up. On the other hand I really like the house and Cameron generally grew up here. We are settled in, comfy and all, and I really do NOT want to see what I find once I start clearing away the decade of shit we've piled up around here.

Of course, once I end up out there I'll need to find a job myself. That might not happen for another 6-9 months for all I know but the thought is still sobering. I understnad Houston is a happening place for jobs and there might be some chance I can catch on with where my wife works too. I admit, if poker were to come back to the US I would naturally fall back on that while I look, possibly with the thought of doing it full time if it works out right. One can only dream.

Hmm, what else can I fill this post up with? The Cubs still suck, though as I write this Theo Epstein might take the GM job. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not but it can't be worse than what they had before. My Vikings still suck also, even though they might be the best first-half team in the history of the game. We won't mention the Magic since they ain't gonna be playing anytime soon. TBH, I don't care if they do or not. The Lightning are my best hope, they were one game away from the Cup Finals last season, maybe they can find a solution in goal for the long term and get it done, eh?

The last thing I'll mention is a sad one. Piper, my #2 cat, the black female we had, went missing a few weeks ago and has not shown signs of any return. A cat next door also came up missing and a group of others around the corner in the same subdivision vanished as well. Who the fuck goes around taking cats? Does that really happen? Yeah, insert the chinese buffet jokes here all you want but I find it strange. I had a woman at Petco tell me that there are coyotes around Apopka, but seriously? Coyotes? I've never seen one. I'm gonna go with the idea that she finally wandered off too far, got lost, and found someone to take her in. She has a coolar and a microchip so you'd think someone might check but you never know. I'm still gonna go with that since the alternatives are unsavory.

Anyway, we are being pretty careful with our #1 cat Pippen and #3 (now #2 I guess, sigh) Peepers when they go out, even though neither one goes too much further than the front yard. Our newest kitty, Pixie, doesn't go outside at all and will never see the light of day, especially now.

Well, guess that's about all I can think of for the time being. Maybe I can think of something else to say a little sooner next time. I am gonna try out the Daytona gig again this Saturday, hopefully it'll be worth an entry on its own. If not, well, I'll think of something.

Back to the Bar

2011-07-15T17:07:00.002-04:00

Since Black Friday has closed out the serious online poker, I've started going out the play the free games at Gator's Dockside here in Apopka, even if just for entertainment's sake. Marc goes every week so its nice to be social and all that stuff. I've always enjoyed playing these things even if the competition is technically bad.

One thing that I do actually "practice" is playing live poker in general. Even though I'm having fun while playing I still actually try to see if I can pick up tells from these people. I also try to see how well I can keep track of people's chip stacks and such. I've played in these things off and on for years now but I figure I might as well not get too lazy in the even I get to play something more serious, like that Daytona tournament. Without all this time spent at these games the transition from computer to live would have been much tougher.

I've been fairly successful so far, I've picked up three or four wins at Gator's, one of which was just in time to qualify for All In Poker Series' June monthly. I'll tag along with Marc tomorrow and see what happens, even if I'm be a small stack. They give out extra chips for multiple wins so others there will have a slight edge on me there. So far for July I think I have three wins so I'll even out the odds a little in August.

Last night I decided to play with another group, Final Table Poker Tour, at El Potro in Apopka. A friend of mine that I work with, John (Johnny Callbox, as we call him) plays with this group each week. They seem to have their shit together a bit more as they can pump out 10-12 single table games in a 4 hour period. They have quarterly gigs and have some agreement with Deep Stacks University also, they always seem to have something set up with those guys. I think for their quarterly in August they have The Grinder set up to have some sort of class you can buy into.

Anyway, I went last night and ended up winning a game so I'm qualified for their gig now. The players here are different, generally they are older, don't raise quite as much, and will rarely reraise or check raise without the goods. I was reminded of that in the first game when I guy had limped in with a pocket pair, and then reraised my flop lead after hitting his set. Even though I had top pair I knew I was beat but I thought (wrongly) that he could have the draw often enough. Also, top 2 get the win (no heads-up) and we still had 8 players left at the table at 500-1000 blinds... it was time to get some chips. I got smoked instead, oh well.

I did have a slight confrontation with some blonde chick in the 4th game, the game I won. I think I got under her skin slightly at the 3rd game as I would make my move (meaning go all-in) just ahead of her several times. As I said, most of these people don't get the math involved, they don't really know when they are short in chips. She kept folding though and I kept showing strong hands (99, AK, AQ, etc) just to make sure they knew I wasn't just going on a lark. Of course I didn't show the T8h one.

Back to the 4th game. A younger guy (relatively speaking) raised to 600 at 100/200, the opening level of these games. I've seen him raise a wide group of hands, from 97s to 88 to AK. After a few calls, including the blonde chick, I elected to call from the SB as well. Flop comes 632 with 2 hearts for a pretty flush draw. Ah, what to do against these players?

I've been reading the Gus Hansen book "Every Hand Revealed" lately and thought I'd see how his philosphy might work against multiple opponents. These guys won't generally show aggro tendencies, the only guy I worried about was the guy that raised and I already knew he was quite wide... he'll fold to pressure from me. So I lead out 1500 into a 2600 pot, leaving 1700 behind me (yeah, they don't start deep). All folds excpet the blonde chick, who calls seemingly reluctantly.

The turn is a Kc... nice scare card I would think! If she did have A6 or something she could fold, or who knows she might even go with a worse flush draw. In any case, she has shown shge can fold at the other table, so I shove immediately with my flush draw as backup. She calls and turns over K4, ugh! She called the flop bet with a gutshot and hit her king instead, ouch! Guess she had enough of my shit and spite-called me on the flop and hit the turn. Thanks alot, Gus.

Anyway, the trouble starts as the river falls... the Kh! She hits trips and gets excited but fails to notice I get bailed out and hit my flush. My turn bet had put her all-in so she is gone... wait, the dealer gives her the pot! Umm, excuse me? I say to the dealer I have a flush, moving my cards on the table where they were displayed when we got all-in. Should be no problem, but the blonde chick seems to disagree, saying that I had already "folded". What? I inform her that I can't fold since we were all-in and the dealer does try to clean the matter up by apologizing for his mistake, but she cops an attitute and dumps the chips on the table in front of her, saying "It doesn't matter, I really don't care." and storms off. Nothing really serious, she didn't make a scene but I saw the shadow of the bitch in her as she left, likely the frustration of finding out you lost when you had the chips in your hand.

I went on to win that game without too much trouble, picking my spots as needed and staying out of big hands when three-handed. I saw the chick was sitting in a booth behind me while playing and decided that I would at least smooth things over as I might have been a little defensive about protecting my own hand. She was very cool about it by then and actually thanked me for taking the time to say something to her even though she knew I had done nothing wrong. That made me feel better also, generally I prefer people to think I'm nice even when I'm trying to destroy them at free poker.

Anyway, I always forget just how much fun it is to play these free live games. I don't get to banter quite as much (or with as much vulgarity) with the Final Table people as I do with the Gator crowd but I do enjoy the table talk. I'm sure they have no idea just how much of a clue I have as far as to how to play these games but I like it that way. I try not to "teach" anything, in fact I try to agree with most of what these guys say. If anything I get a better idea of how they play so I can adjust and in turn have more fun playing with everyone. I love playing the game still, even if I can't do it "for real" at the moment. Perhaps I'll make this my weekly fix for now. Who knows, I might win the monthly or the quarterly!

I'm still here...

2011-05-31T20:08:00.002-04:00

... just not playing much poker.

Black Friday just sucked the life outta me really. Ever since that happened I haven't played much at all (when I could even play anyway). I was playing a little on UB until they finally shut out the US from the tables. I could have played on Bodog some but I just figured... why? Same with Cake or Carbon or whatever.

When Doyle's Room and such got hit on the second wave I decided to just withdraw everything else, even Bodog. I figure that they could be next or whatever so I might as well. I still have about $130 of my bankroll online in forms I can't withdraw but can still play with though. I have $30 of some type of bonus money on Carbon that I haven't "cleared" to withdraw and about $100 on Cake that I can't get since they have a $500 minimum to withdraw there. OK, fine. The rest I either got off already or its stuck on Full Tilt, UB, and sorta stuck on Doyle's Room (we'll see if I get that withdrawal). Bodog I'm sure I'll get and Carbon is a little iffy since I never tried before.

I was lucky that I got about $2000 off in the early part of April "just because" I wanted to keep some offline. I barely got that done too, probably just a couple days later and I'd been completely screwed. Still might get screwed on the rest of it as far as I can tell so far but I'll keep my hopes up.

I've been doing other things though. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons again. I got my son involved with something they call D&D Encounters, short games played at hobby shops and such every Wednesday night. He's really enjoyed it and I've been having fun just seeing how much the game has changed over the last 20+ years. I think some of the MMORPGs have influenced how they've set up the current rules... or maybe vice versa. I really can't tell. We've even started a game with a few of his friends in the neighborhood. I didn't realise how much fun tormenting children with dice rolls could be. Nobody's character has died though... not yet.

In June I am gonna start playing with that leftover cash. Hey, I had fun playing poker, I really do miss it. What I think I'm gonna do is "start over" in a sense and play micro cash games and SNGs and see if I can build it back up. If I end up blowing what I have left, big deal... I can't get this $130-odd anyway. If anything, the cash games should be decent practice for deep-stack play and the SNGs will still be good to keep my push-fold game sharp. Plus, it'll be fun... and this is why I started playing poker (or anything else)... for the fun of it.

Will I be updating my "progress"? Maybe. Probably. I'l be sure to let you know if I kill off the kid's characters in D&D though!

Baby Steps

2011-03-16T09:58:00.002-04:00

I'm slowly working back toward the black in 2011. I have no problems with grinding it out either. As long as I can keep playing well all takes care of itself. I've had a couple bigger hits but nothing earth-stattering. I 4-way chopped the 6.40 super-turbo for about $330 (and the "win" as the chipleader) and I've managed to win a few of the 45-man turbo MTTs on UB. I've even won a couple 45-man SNGs on Stars. Good things are happening, just not great things.

Another good thing that happened was that FTP brought back the 54-man super-turbo SNGs by removing the On Demand gimmick from them. I did fine with the ODs but I really liked them as 54-man games since I could ration out my time knowing that I would be no longer than about 50 minutes with one of those things. They don't fill fast enough to grind them but they are great to fill a spot on my screen while I wait for bigger games. People play bad in them also. :)

We have a couple more weeks left in March and the plan is to keep plowing forward, as always. I'm hoping to use at least one night to play a bunch of 45-man SNGs on Stars and generate some FPPs, if I do it soon enough I'll have enough for the Turbo Takedown. Not sure it'll work out like that, but we'll see. I'll at least make Silver Star again, though I've yet to have time to play in the freeroll for that.

Wish me luck and I'll return the favor.

March On

2011-03-02T21:36:00.002-05:00

Took the last couple of days off (OK, I played a couple things last night) just so I can get ready for the weekend. I really had to get busy to make my volume goals last weekend but things did turn out well. I actually managed to turn a profitable month for February, though it took a strong Sunday to do it. Most of it came on UB and those newer 45-man max turbos MTTs they have scheduled now.

I'm still down for the year but at least I proved that I could actually win a few hands when I needed to... it was getting downright depressing for a long time. Along with those good 45-man games on UB, I also played some of the turbos on Stars and even won a 180-man turbo as well! I made the final table in the $11 bounty and the $11 turbo MTT on UB during the last couple weeks also.

I've had to shore up on buble play in these 45-man games a little since its been some time since I played this many of them. Generally I found that I might have been just a tad too loose with my open-shoving, but as tight as some of these guys have been it might not have been that bad to do. Still, I probably need to trim a little of my range, notably some of the lower-ranked suited connectors I've been going with. For the most part I've been calling tight enough, save a few here and there where I felt the pot odds were just too good. In any case, I mostly use the final table bubble as my chipping-up point since people tend to want to get to that final... even though the games on UB only pay six places (its seven on Stars).

The plan for March is to keep up the hard work and get the games in. I'll keep playing the 45s on both Stars and UB while getting a few 90-man turbo knockouts on Full Tilt in the mix as well. I've been playing more on Sundays that I even have and that's been helpful too. Who knows, I might just win The Dime one day. As long as I can play well and run well enough I'll be happy.

On a sad note... jai-alai season is already over! F me. I love that shit. We saw some really good players on the last night this past Saturday, too bad we didn't hit many of our bets, though the one we hit was pretty good. Doesn't matter, its all in good fun anyway. I'll miss Jericho and Geno for sure. Can't wait until next year!

Middle of February Report

2011-02-14T21:32:00.002-05:00

Hmm, what to report.

Well, I've slowed the bleeding some as I'm not down near as much at this point as I was in January... I guess that's good! I actually have won a couple small things and I haven't been running badly as often, but nonetheless the big scores keep finding ways to elude me. I'm starting to think I should just stick to games with less than 100 players in it.

I continue to get myself into great spots though. I'll resteal and find I get called by a worse hand... but still lose. I'll be chipleader in a game with four players left, get it in as a favorite in three straight hands, and finish fourth. I know it will happen, but does it have to happen so often? I guess the more times I get into that position, the more times it will happen. I'd just like to get my fair share of firsts out of it also. After an extended stretch of time it really gets old, I don't care how much you understand variance and math and shit.

So I'll keep playing, and hopefully continue to play well. The sad thing is that I've felt very comfortable with my decision making and even seeing how often I've made the good decisions... just to see something go bad once the flop, turn, and river comes. Meh, I don't know what else to say, so I won't.

Last week wasn't so bad as I think I was just about break even for the period. I know, its sad to take break-even stretches as a positive but positive is what I really need right now. Like I said, I did notch a couple of wins in some smaller games so that does at least tell me that winning is something I can still do. In fact, I've pulled a profit for the year to date in these smaller games (90 and under players). Its those large-scale MTTs that I've played that have been eating me alive. I just haven't held on the key hands in any of them.

I've been happy with the progress of my post-flop play also. I'm not falling for the traps as much and I've continued to practice better pot control also. I've been a little more active in finding good spots to speculate in position when stacks are deep enough and that has helped me pick up a few chips also. I still don't play a lot of hands early and I doubt I ever will but at least I'm not SNG/super-tight anymore.

I am continuing to refine my opening raises later in games also. I'm learning to find raise amounts small enough to save a few chips here and there while still trying to make them large enough to do the job properly. Trying to balance which hands to raise, when, from where, and even on who is something I've always been trying to adapt to. Same with ranging people when deciding on calling. I've been surprised just how often I've called and actually been ahead, sometimes far ahead... I just need to actually win these hands occasionally.

I think I'll take tomorrow off since I'll be playing a full Sunday schedule this week. The kid is off from school Monday so I'm taking that day off from work. Hopefully I'll also have one of the skylights on the house replaced as well. I'd rather not burn another day off just to be home for that.

Then again, I'm itching to play again. I might just play tomorrow anyway. That's a good sign, right? Wanting to continue the chase for the big score is a good thing, right? I just figure that if I'm playing solid I should keep playing, right? We'll see, I might take the time to do some extra review of some of my play, just to be on the safe side. In any case, I'll keep fighting.

Goodbye, January

2011-02-02T18:52:00.002-05:00

Wow, that was one rough month. I don't even know what to say that hasn't already been said. I can recycle some things but I'd rather not rehash all of that. We'll just move on from here. FTR, I was down $1700 for the month, which is by far the most I've even been down in a single month. I've only had a few down months (thank God) but this one was really a doosy.

One positive I can take from it all is that I did accomplish my basic volume goals. I am currently Bronze Iron Man, SilverStar, and Contender Status on FTP, Stars, and UB respectively. I did hope to get a little more in total buy-ins but considering the losses maybe I'm happy I didn't, LOL. Despite running as bad as I did I also managed to set a nre career-high cash on Stars with that 2nd place finish, so that's a good sign. One day I might run well heads-up.

As for February, same goals. I want to maintain the volume and keep making the best decisions I can. Eventually I have to start winning my share of flips and such... at least the math should say I would. Of course we can argue that each hand is really one unto itself, blah blah blah. I prefer to think that the powers that be owes me as it might just keep me sane.

I've done a few videos for Pokerology though and doing that has helped my mindset by giving me a little break from playing and seeing poker in a different way. Doing this also helps keep things in its proper place, either by working through a problem or just by seeing just how bad other people can play. Sure, they get rewarded at times but as long as I can still identify (correctly) what is right or wrong, well, hopefully I'll be able to continue to learn from it all. Maybe some small thing I pick up on could be the one thing that helps me break out of my downswing... it has to start somewhere.

In any event, I'll keep on keeping on as long as I don't go insane. Might help if I already was.

Knocked Down

2011-01-17T17:43:00.004-05:00

Time to get up again.

Brutal weekend. Again. I've been told when it goes bad, it goes BAD. I don't know how it wasn't worse to be very honest. How I've managed to hold myself together playing all these games has to be a testament to my dedication, discipline, and perhaps stubborness and stupidity.

I tried finding hands that I played wrong, or scared, or moronic. I even sent a couple to some people, all of whom have solid poker sense. So far, no indications that I really did anything out of line. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. On one hand I could at least try to fix something if I was doing something wrong and then blame that for what is happening. On the other hand, all I can control is the decisions I make. If my decisions are good... well, not much else I can do is there? Oh, I could hang myself but that would hurt too much.

Sometimes I am a slave to stats and numbers. I looked at my all-in EV graph again and about fell out of my chair laughing. The damn thing looks like I made it up. No one can run that bad... oh wait, yes I can. After I sulk about my luck sensibiity always comes back to me and says one of two things. First, imagine what it might feel like to run that GOOD. If you believe that things balance out, then its coming... I haven't ever had a good run anywhere near as extreme as this bad one. Second, I look at it as how well I've been able to get myself into favorable situations.

Looking at the graph for my past play, its been very steady and consistant over time. Of course it ebbs and flows, I've had high points and other low points. In the end it pretty much balances out and my actual EV stays pretty steady with my expected EV. We are talking tens upon tens of thousands of hands. I really just can't worry about how the last 10 or 100 or 1000 have went. I have to keep going, just like I always do. MDFR is still my biggest point of emphasis no matter how much I really want to lament my "luck".

Typing about it is one way to get it off my chest. Knowing that as I write this junk what the answers are to my bad luck problem reminds me of that fact. I know everyone goes thru this and they have all come out of it for the better. I've already have experiences with downswings, just not at the volume I've played the last few weeks. Perhaps that just makes it feel more severe than it really is. I'm thinking the upswings will feel the same way... when I can't miss a card, lose a key flip, just plain win more often than I should in the short-term. I know its coming.

I'm just hoping that when the big upswing does show up I'll be too busy playing so many games that I fail to notice.

Mid-January Update

2011-01-14T11:07:00.002-05:00

So far I've done a decent job at keeping my volume up. Both weekend sessions this year have been good, each with about 90 games and about $1200+ in buy-ins. The ABI is down a little but that is a result of my slightly stricter requirements and the fact my roll has been diving since November.

This past week has been solid in results. I came close on a number of events, taking second twice, third once, and a couple other final tables. I did win a 90-man turbo MTT on UB and have kept a strong pace toward my volume goals. The best thing about all of this is the fact that I'm still having fun, even with bad results and increased play. Then again, that has always been the case. I enjoy the challenges, whether its the players, the game, the downswings, or myself. I'm happy I don't have to fight myself very often, I have enough to fight with.

Speaking of fighting, I've been battling some sort of virus or what-not since Sunday night. I took Monday afternoon off from work and I just now left work Friday morning since I was feeling all stuffed up with shit. My voice partially left me beginning Wednesday night and hasn't come back yet, so no video recording for me right now. I'd just strain my voice even more trying to do that. I want to review my 90-man win and see how often I screwed up but I may need to wait until next Wednesday to do it.

As far as this weekend poker-wise, I think I'll try a couple of the mini-UBOC events. I think there is at least two I can play so I may give it a go. I'll play The Dime on UB and the $5000 GTD on Bodog like I have the past few weeks also. I was going to take Monday off and play a big Sunday schedule but Cameron is off next Friday from school and it happens to be his 14th birthday, I'll take that day off instead. I might have taken both days if I hadn't gotten sick... oh well.

I might still go to jai alai tonight, depends how much Maggie wants to go. We may skip out not because of me but more because no one else is going tonight. Might be a blessing in disguise considering my health. Tomorrow morning we'll all go see The Green Hornet though, then after we do lunch I'll sit down for my poker session. I may cut the Saturday portion short if I still feel icky but I'm hoping to make it through as usual. I might need to cut Sunday instead since I really like some of the late Saturday/early Sunday games.

I got a comment about my bankroll and such and I think I may do a post on that also. I don't think revealing my BR info is a big deal, it would be different if we were talking about personal finances and junk like that. My poker bankroll is outside of all that anyway, that is until poker comes to an end. Then the bankroll comes in much like a retirement fund or a severance package would... at least that's one way to look at it. If I feel better I may do that later today.

As for now, I feel a nap coming on.

Getting Serious

2011-01-03T21:36:00.002-05:00

I decided to take a little step forward with my poker "career" and make a concerted effort to play on a more consistant basis this year. I don't have any specific plan in mind this time since I want to keep my options open. I am hoping to play enough to at least qualify for bronze Iron Man on FTP, Silver Star on Poker Stars, and with some luck the third tier (COntender?) on UB.

At the least I'm going to put in solid sessions on weeknights, where I play about 3 hours each time. I'm also looking to play a full schedule on Saturday (at least 30 games) and also extending my Sunday afternoon play into the evenings more often. Hopefully by commiting more volume to poker will result in some good things happening soon.

How is it going so far? Well, my volume is good as I've played almost 100 games in these first three days of the year. So far so good! Too bad I'm still mired in the worst downswing I've ever had as this weekend was a brutal series of coolers and huge bad beats. With more volume comes the chance that this type of thing can happen more often, and I understand that. I just hoped it wouldn't hit me so hard the first weekend of the year, LOL.

I won't go into examples since its pointless to do so. Eventually it will come around and I'll run just as hot, hopefully in spots that I can take advantage of it in a big way. Because of my increased volume and more "serious" play, I've decided to put a "protected" bankroll plan into place where I'll require more BIs for the bigger games. This takes me out of a few of the $55 games but I think its for the best in the long run. Considering what has happened so far its a good idea I did. If I play well I'll be back in those games soon enough... its only been three days.

Tomorrow will be the first weeknight with my extra volume, maybe something good will happen. As long as I keep getting my chips in good (and so far my review of my play has shown I have) I'm just bound to hit something. I've done it before and I'll continue to believe I can do it again. Wish me luck!

2011 Has Arrived... Now What?

2011-01-01T14:05:00.002-05:00

As we turn the corner from one year to the next I find myself wanting to make more big plans and meet high expectations. Last year I had a specific plan in place and then discovered that its not always going to go according to plan. Not that 2010 wasn't a good year since it was successful, however I just felt that I could have done more. I few ideas I had didn't pan out they way I thought it might since things around me change unexpectedly, which is fine. Despite that I feel 2010 was a success.

I feel I've only touched on what could be possible for me in poker last year. I had my share of ups and downs when it came to how things were running, the end of the year was on the downswing though. My fortunes turned a bit south in the last two months and perhaps this is why I feel that I didn't do as well as I feel I could have. Maybe it left a bad taste in my month, I don't know. Still, while I didn't get to play quite as much as I had planned, I did play more than the year previous and all in all I was successful at it.

This year I plan on doing more... and when I figure out just how much of that I want to actually plan out I'll make it known. For now I just want to concentrate on the new year with a positive frame of mind and let it fly. We'll start that today.

Almost Ready...

2010-12-29T17:50:00.002-05:00

... to actually make an entry about 2010. Since I have a couple days left I'll wait.

I can report that December has been a down month but not near as bad as November was. My computer's hard drive took a dump early this month and I lost everything I had on it. I did have a few things backed up but not nearly as current as I should have. I was able to get most everything either restored or recreated but updating my PokerTracker database took many hours. Hopefully I won't be too lazy about backing that thing up anymore.

I still have to update a few things here and there but I'm up and running once more. Poker-wise I've not run too well but I have had a number of close calls and "almosts", perhaps the next one will get there. I did finally win one of the new "On Demand" super-turbo multi-table SNGs on FTP yesterday and overall that game has still been a good game for me. I haven't played a bunch this month since I've been taking time to recover the computer losses (oh, and I guess time with the family for Christmas) but once the new year hits that'll change. I'll get into that in more detail then (and once I figure out exactly what the details are).

Until then, lets see if I can make the last few hours of this year count.

November

2010-11-29T17:57:00.002-05:00

I found some time to write on the blog again at the same time that I actually thought of taking time to do it, so here I am. Too bad I don't have anything good to say about how poker has gone this month, its been a rough go of it here in the last four weeks. Variance is a bitch, I can say that.

I had a few chances for some really nice scores but as it happens they all either blew up in my face or fell a bit short. I was 3rd in a super-turbo MTT a couple of weeks ago and I have done well in the 54-man super-turbo SNGs I've been playing but outside of that its been rough. I did get some solid time in with playing more tables at one time and I can say I had very little trouble with it. I was surprised how well I was able to still make good decisions despite having 4-6 more tables going. In fact, it was fun to have all that extra stuff going on.

Yesterday did help bring me back a little though I still came up short in a couple things. I was deep in a $44 turbo MTT on Stars and ended up getting 3-outted on the river for the what would have been the chip lead, instead I got 13th for about $250 or so. Still a nice result in a 700+ player field. The other almost wasn't THAT close, but I managed $350 in the Turbo Takedown by finishing 225th out of 18000+ runners. That was a bunch of fun, even with all the folding I had to do, LOL. Its not often I get to push 150K and be considered "short" (if you wanna call 14BBs short, that is.)

I had a couple of very strong volume Saturdays, though both days were stinkers profit-wise. All I know is that I have been playing very well, especially with the quality of my reads on opponent's hand ranges lately. Too bad I've been awful at winning those 80/20 flips recently or we could be talking about a whole lot more. As it is, I keep coming to the conclusion that I have to stick to the process and play the games. I've been down before, I'll be back up again.

Since the upswing can start anytime I'll play in the home game tonight and see if I can get the ball rolling again. At the very worst I'll play the best I can and see where it takes me. Since I'll be off from work for a full week after Christmas, December looks to be a big month for getting some volume in. The more chances I have to do good, the better my chances to get there.

Taking Time To Update

2010-11-02T22:00:00.002-04:00

Not a whole lot happening on the poker front since the Daytona Trip. One thing of note that I did do was a simple experiment with mass multi-tabling 45-man turbos on Stars. I decided to simply "stack" all the tables in one place so that only the active table comes up. That way I can simply and easily make my decision and wait for the next table... rinse and repeat. I got up to about 15 tables at one point and really didn't have any serious issues with not having enough time or fumbling with decisions. On occasion I had a new table pop up in the wrong spot or issues with games I busted in staying up, but overall I actually did well enough to turn a profit... and even won two of them!

October ended up as a positive, mainly on the strength of the two big hits I had. Outside of that and the steady pace of the 54-man super turbos I've been playing I ran fairly badly in most other things. I'm glad I was able to mostly take advantage of the few chances I did get to hit a score... and often that's what it really comes down to in the end.

Outside of poker, we just got back from a short weekend Bahamas cruise. I love cruises for the most part since everything you really need is included (like food!) and there is always the casino... I know, I'm a degen. I actually didn't spend all that much time down there this trip, not to say I didn't sit down for a while either. Mostly I played bad games like roulette and Let It Ride with my wife (she likes those games). Overall we were up slightly in the casino and had a fun time doing it. I got to play a little bit of blackjack on the last night and turned a small profit there also.

The one thing I sorta half-wish I did was try to play one of the sit-n-goes they had. I really told myself I wasn't going to go to play poker (I do that enough already) so I didn't really consider it. I took a look anyway and had to wonder if I missed out. First, the buy-in was $75 for 1000 chips, OK, I can do that. Then I read further. Immediate rebuy for $40 gets another 1000, hmm alright. First 30 minutes is unlimited rebuys. Hmph. Then the add-on after the rebuy was another $40/1000 chip deal. Wow. That could get expensive. $155 minimum for that game? I don't think I really wanted to take my casino money and blow half of what I put aside on that, no matter what my chances were. One positive that made me consider it was that it was Winner Take All.... now THAT'S a prize pool. I decided to stick to my pre-cruise decision and pass on them.

Ah, but then I made the mistake of actually WATCHING the play in one of these things. I'm thinking I could have won without looking at my cards. I figured these guys that played would be bad, I knew this... but wow, these gentlemen really had no clue. The one I watched, NO ONE took the add-on, even with only 900-2000 chips in their stacks and the blinds about to turn to 200/400. Not one guy. I saw guys bet and fold to all-ins getting better than 3:1 odds more than once, then make sick calls with king-high the next hand. I saw other things I just can't care to mention here. I had to leave before somebody won since I'd have been tempted to mug them on their way out of the casino.

Bah, its OK... no guarantee I'd have won, but they did have 4 of those games at least. I'm sure I'd have liked my chances in winning one of those but I didn't really have the $600+ to find out for sure. Plus, if I end up as the only one doing any rebuys and add-ons, what is my return really gonna be? Then again, I'd have the chips that they wouldn't and could likely survive a few more hits than they could have. Meh, maybe when I have a $50K bankroll I'll give it a shot. :)

Well, that's all for now. I'm hoping to get back to playing online on Saturday and going strong from there through the Thanksgiving weekend. We'll see how it plays out. I may go back to Daytona again in a couple weeks for another run at that same MTT and we have a few movies we wanna see (Mega-Mind and Harry Potter) so a little time gets taken up that way. Still, should be a good month for volume since I plan on doing a couple more runs and the Stars megatabling thing. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Mini Deep Stack MTT at Daytona Beach Poker Room Report

2010-10-24T21:55:00.001-04:00

OK, lets see what I can remember.

This Saturday I played in what is called the Texas Holdem Poker Tour's Mini Deep Stack Tournament at the Daytona Beach Poker Room. THPT is a bar league really... where you play for free, etc. However once a month they get with Daytona for this $35 buy-in MTT. The good thing about this is that half the field are these same players I would see playing for free... and they are horrible. That makes things a bit easier to be very blunt and honest.

Anyway, the event is really a $30+25 as I'm sure the $35 is $30+5 of rake. You get 3500 chips for that. But you can add a $10 "dealer appreciation" for 1000 more and "donate" $10 to a charity they have sponsered there are another 1000 chips. Throw in 500 more for signing up early and its $55 for 6000 chips. I did so.

We had 166 runners sign up. I go to my seat and find an older gentlemen sitting in it, so I ask him what seat he was. He says it and its the same as mine! I say "But I bought this like an hour ago" and he replied, "Well, I bought mine on Thursday!" OK, you win, pal. As soon as that is over I hear an announcement that the computer has "resold" some seats and to wait for a new seat to be assigned... great start.

They eventually open up a table for us castoffs to sit at, at least they didn't start without us! Blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 20 minutes... some "Mini Deep Stack" this is! Still, it falls to my favor since it'll become a turbo sooner that these guys will realize.

The fest few blind levels I don't get involved much at all but I do take note that just about everyone is limping in... no raising. I was going to maybe limp along in a few spots but I never really had any cards I wanted to do it with. I did get to raise over a limp a couple times and each time the limper would fold, even this early. Hmmm, as suspected, these guys don't want to take too many risks.

After a while I was able to figure out which ones would limp the weaker hands and which ones would limp the TT/AQ/AK type hands, and not fold it. Generally it was the older players doing so, which, I admit, can be a bit of a stereotype. One guy, when he got a few chips, started limping quite a lot with his A4c and KQ type hands and would spew chips away. Another guy would limp anything suited.

Post flop it sure was fit or fold in the early going, it would check around, maybe even until the river, then a guy would bet and everyone would fold. I hit top pair once from the big blind, bet out, and took the pot easily. This happened for at least an hour.

Blinds up to 200/400 now (level 4) and I still have about a starting stack. One limptard, who had gotten lucky by rivering a higher two-pair and also cracked AA on another occasion, limped in from the CO with a 6BB stack. I find AJo in the BB and push over the top, expecting a scared fold. Instead he makes the "give up call" and flips KTo. Numbered flop comes, then the T hits the turn. Great. But then the river brings the J and I eliminate the young luckbox and win my first substantial pot of the day.

The next level (300/600) one of the older guys limps in and I have AJo in the SB, with about 7200 in chips or so. I've seen him limp/fold before, and he was the guy that had his AA cracked, which he raised. I figured he would most likely fold to a full shove since I had him covered and was right, he folded without much thought. Still, I was a little leery that he might have limped a bigger ace but felt that wouldn't be often enough from what I had seen.

At the next level (400/800) the owner of THPT was moved to our table. There was a bounty on him for a $195 BI to some event, so people might have tried for him since he had about 20K in chips, becoming our table leader. He seemed a capable player, thought would still overlimp a few hands. He did raise 98s once, other times it was TT or the like. I had to keep an eye on him for sure as he was three seats to my left.

At this level, a woman who was moved to our table had this look that she knew what she was doing, but played like she had no clue of how stack sizes worked at all. In one hand, BvB, she raised over the SB limp to 2400, and then the SB shoved about 3000 more. She then tanked and folded after raising about 40% of her stack. Two hand later, she raised half her stack from the button into my BB, where I see ATo. I shove and she calls KQo. I hold and she leaves the table as if she was shot by the bad luck bullet. GG chica.

Just before break, I find AQh on the button. Matt, the owner of THPT is in the BB as one seat is open. I raise 2.5x to 2000 and he makes a flippant call with his chip stack, making a remark that he'll "call with his junk". The flop is junk, like 853 or something, and he check/folds, "missed with his junk". I'll take it.

A couple hands later I took out another short stack and I am sitting around 20BBs, which brings us to break. From what I see only about 40 players have dropped out, confirming some scared play is going on since most players are under 10BB for sure. I compare a few notes with one of my friends that made the trip, Marc, and he notices some of the same things even though his table was a little more willing to play back with calls.

Next level (600/1200) I shoved BvB and got no call, then raised again from the button while Matt was not back from break yet (I had 99). The SB again folded without much thought, confirming that he was a nit. Later I would see that he limp/called with JJ, losing the race to a shorter stack, further confirming my read.

Our table later breaks and now I have to start over with reads. New level now (800/1600) and this table has a guy with a huge stack, playing nearly every hand and luckboxing on the shorter stacks it seems. Clearly he wasn't an overly skilled player by any means, but did seem to understand a little about using some of his bets to scare people. Fortune would have it that I never had to tangle with this gentleman, but it may have helped train the table to be a little cautious as I was able to shove over a couple limps to pick up some pots.

Another good break comes when I shoved the button with AJo and the shortish SB called with ATs. He flops a T and I'm looking to lose half my stack, but fortune shines on me and brings a J on the river to send him packing. I now have about 15BBs and am a bit more comfortable in relation to the table.

An orbit later, I raise AQo from the CO over a EP limper to 6400, another older guy. This time he flats me (!) leaving maybe 4000 behind him. Uh-oh. The flop comes rags and he checks. I make the bet and he calls, we both have AQ! Nice split pot there, old timer. Scared the shit out of me though.

I think we are at 5 tables of 10 players now, 20 pay. Blinds move to 1000/2000 and short stacks are begging to stay alive. Not much happens for me here these next couple of levels, but I do pick up a couple pots with some shoves or raises. A couple people are keeping an eye on me for what I might be doing these "huge shoves" with, but I manage to get to 40K in chips.... just before the blinds move to 2000/4000 now... geez, nice jump!

I win another pot to get to 60K (can't remember how at the moment, I think I won a race with KQ over 88 though when one of the older guys that was "watching me" called me). We get down to about 35 players and I get moved to a new table. Here the chip leader came with me but he was penalized for showing his cards without announcing his action properly or something... so he has to sit 6 hands. Anyway, another guy, maybe a German, not sure, has quite a few chips and is a bit of a talker. He seems to have a little idea and is raising, not limping so much. This may be a problem, so I make sure to watch him closely.

Anyway, blinds are moving up and people are certainly feeling the bubble. I've gone card dead for about 20-30 minutes and my stack shrinks a bit smaller. Under 30 players now and the UTG player, a younger lady, moves all-in for 9000 at the new blind level of 4000/8000. An older guy to my right flats. I look at JJ and decide to push my 45K over him. All fold to this guy, who tanks. Eventually he folds but I lose KK to JJ and am down to 36K now. The flat/folder tells me he had AJh and I said "nice fold", then he reminds me he would have made a flush. Oh, my bad.

More dead hands lead to the true bubble. A young kid to my left has been milking a micro stack the whole time, having caught a set on the river once when AI from the BB one time already. He now is AIPF from the BB again. UTG limps, the German/whatever he is also limps, and I complete from the SB with 97c. The flop is a very interesting 653 with two hearts, giving me a belly-buster draw. We hear that someone busted, meaning the bubble is guaranteed to be broken, but I do not know how short the guy was. The UTG checks, and the German says, "Oh, I was just gonna check down, but now I just bet my hand" and bets about the pot. Ugh.

What does this bet really mean? I'm sure I'm behind, but how many outs do I really have? Eight? Fourteen? Fewer? I can't seem to find out about the guy that busted (where's the lobby?) and I also have the UTG to worry about, which I haven't quite figured out yet. Ugh again. I fold and the AI BB makes his straight to stay in... but I would have split the pot. Oh well. Not being able to find out about the bubble buster was key. Good chance he was another shorty but I elected to play safe without enough information.

We move to 5k/10k blinds and eventually I can't seem to get my chips in. I now have 20k on the button with 14 or so left and see J9s as it folds to me. The German, while lost some of his stack with a bit of a loose play, is now in the BB. I shove and pray that I somehow hit my hand... but wait! He looks at his cards and laughs. "I was gonna call without looking, but then I look anyway," he remarks. He keeps looking at it and eventually says, "but I can't call with this, its just 92!" and he folds! I almost double up without a showdown, hooray for live players! He then goes on the explain that he was going to just call, but when he saw he had a "2" he couldn't call... if it was 95o or something he'd have called.

Anyway, a break for the good guy perhaps. Next hand, I get A5o and turbo shove my 35k now. This time the German snaps from the SB... uh-oh. He flips over KQo, I'm ahead! I hit the ace to be sure and move to 8k. Whew. The German's once formidable stack has been eaten away. I managed to hold at around 8k for a bit and eventually the German busts, losing AQQQ and XX. We're off to the final table!

I find my buddy Marc has also survived to this point. He is about the same shape as I am, looking to make a move to get some chips. I fully expect the FT to be a nit fest but I am quickly proven wrong as chips start flying! One guy, who had hurt the German earlier with a well-timed AA, decided to call an overshove AI from another young lady on an all-club flop with Kc8x, she had limped into his BB with KJh and shoved the JXXccc board and held. They count her chips and this guy says "Wow, I didn't realize she had so much!" Ummm, way to stack off there pal. He goes from the CL to a micro stack and busted out 8th... ouch.

Marc is next to go on a fairly standard he pushes/someone calls right hand but failed. GG Marc for about $230ish or so, good for 7th place. Another big hand then happens where the guy to my right limps UTG and the SB and BB call. The flop is QT9 and the SB leads out for about the pot. The BB (Matt the "bounty guy" from earlier) folds and UTG promptly says "all-in".

I get a great read that this guy isn't too familiar with live poker now. The SB calls and the dealer then goes to count out chips. The dealer asks UTG "What do you have?" and the guy discreetly shows the dealer his cards, LOL. "No, I need to count your chips!" and Marc and I get a nice quiet chuckle out of it. BTW, did you guess their hands? The SB has... AQ! UTG? Of course he flopped the straight with KJo... what else would he have? This is important later.

So now there are five of us left. I get 88 UTG next hand and shove my stack of 7500 or so, I think we are now at 10k/20k. Matt calls me out of the SB and shows ATo... off to the races again, cue Lucky the Rabbit from the dog track! The board bricks us both so I double up. I can tell that Matt realizes I'm not one of your standard bar players (which would be confirmed after the event).

A few hands later a short stack finally runs out of time (I think I took him out with JJ, I can't recall where that JJ hand was, LOL) and we have four left. Matt is next to bust out as the guy to my right takes him out and we are now three-handed, the aggressive young lady to my right being the third. Should be a fun finish between the two of these players.

We get to 10k/15k (yes, you see that right, LOL) and I push on the woman with K3o for a full 10BBs. She instantly says "well, I HAVE to call that" and flips up 87s! WTF? Had to? Really? I admit she had gathered some chips, but snap call a BvB 10BB shove 3-handed? No antes? Wow, just wow.

My heart plummets to my colon as I see the flop: 9s6sX. OMG. Are you kidding me? An open-ended straight flush draw? The turn is a brick.... and I can tell I'm still squeezing my rectum. The river falls... as a brick! I hold with K-high and double up.

A few hands go by, pot here, another there, and eventually the next major hand comes into play. The woman limps the button, the man calls from the SB and I look at JJ on the BB. I'm not sure what the blinds are at but I elect to shove as I now had the woman covered (she had spewed a few chips and I felt she was losing it a little). She makes the call with the T9h! The SB folds and I turn over my hand and can almost feel the woman's soul crush under the weight of my cards. I easily hold and send the now disgusted lady to the rail. We are heads-up!

Problem is... I can't figure this guy out. From what I can tell, and my only read, is that he will bet when he "has it" and call if he "might". Absolutely the worst guy for me to try and play with. Also, trying to count all these chips as we go isn't something I'm use to... there is a lot of them! I know I'm down, and I know what I have, so I'm OK in that regard.

Anyway, first hand HU and I have the button with J4o. I limp and we see a flop. J65 is felted. He goes all-in! I'm like, whhaaaaaaaa? Usually HU top pair of any kind is a big hand, but to a shove? Can he do this with a draw? I don't think so. Knowing what I know, this guy might have just flopped quads. Considering my kicker, I let it go... but I just have to wonder.

I pick another wonderful time to go card dead. Nothing even remotely close to shoving/raising comes my way save one (he limp/folded) and we are generally staying close though I feel I've lost a little to him overall. He makes this overshove play a couple more times, leading me to believe that he has as least TP these times and doesn't want to risk being outdrawn. However I get the feeling he is doing this just a shade too often and I need to catch him doing this. If I have TP, regardless of kicker, I'm going next time.

The final hand comes at 15k/30k and I check the BB with 93o (yep, that hand). The flop is 974, not sure of the suits. I check, and if he goes I'm going also. He checks behind. The turn is... a 9! I now bet out 40k, to which he says, "OK, I'll call". Hmmm. What does THAT mean? I immediately think he might have the draw, not the case 9. At this point I decide that I can't let this go.

The river is a T, no flush is out there. I don't like the card... not at all. I figure that he COULD have 86 here, but J8? Maybe. I could see that. But XT? Maybe. Some sort of two-pair? Sure he could. He could have 65, or X7 for all I know. Anyway, I just CAN'T fold trips here so I shove. He calls and flips over J8 for the gutshot straight. GG me.

A disappointing finish but a good run overall for sure. Taking second place earned me $662 of cold, hard cabbage. I held when I had to up until that final hand so I can't complain. I never saw a huge amount of good hands over that nearly six-hour run (JJ and AQ being the best I saw) and I was able to take advantage of the mostly passive play when I could.

Overall I loved having that "edgy feeling" when I was playing. Not a nervous feeling by any stretch, but I could tell I was ready to play. I had a decent idea of what some of these guys would play like (wearing their THPT shirts was a nice tell, LOL) and having some "experience" with playing at these bar leagues meant I was completely foreign to the live game. The result wasn't too bad either.

I just might have to go next month!

Ouch, that hurt.

2010-09-27T09:15:00.000-04:00

I think I just experienced the worst weekend of my life... poker-wise that is (otherwise it was pretty good). Things got ugly on Friday and failed to improve and it really hurt, especially since the month was going pretty well so far. Still, I was reading a post on Pokerology and ended up replying to it with the following. I really liked what I wrote and my mindset about this subject, so I thought I'd cross-post it here:

I don't know the exact numbers, but this weekend I think I played around 60 games and was ITM just twice, and one of those was for a 0% ROI since it was a satty SNG. That other cash was only $40 or something. Considering I probably spent about $1k in buy-ins, I wasn't too happy about it all.

So what do I do? I bitched, I moaned, I complained, I yelled various curses. I considered sacrificing one of my cats to avoid any further dismay. I did these things each time my KK got run over by A3o or my set was chased down by a straight or flush. I then got over it and moved on to the next hand... what else should I do?

I reviewed my play and found nothing unusual. Maybe I could have taken a better line in this hand to save me a bet here or something, but I made no vulgar mistakes, especially at push/fold moments. I even caught a few guys restealing/bluffing on me, but unfortunately they sucked out. Poker sucks when it happens that way, huh?

Based on the decisions I made I had a pretty good weekend actually. My game selection was excellent. I felt confident in my decisions, in fact I would say most of my hands were fairly straightforward, which is always welcome when playing 4-6 tables at once. As I sit here now... I really can't complain.

Times like these are when I really appreciate the fact that I have a bankroll management and cashout plan in place. I still "made" money due to the decent amount of volume I put in, and while my bankroll took a vicious slashing I know I have enough protection in place that I don't have to worry about moving down. If I were doing this for a living, I'd be able to handle stretches like this in stride... and look forward to the next session.

Who knows... the next session I just might run like the gods. You better hope its not against you.

Whoops

2010-09-24T10:37:00.003-04:00

Seems I forgot about my blog again. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened since I was last here on the online felts though things have been going OK. I've been playing a number of the 54-man super-turbo SNGs on FTP lately and I have to admit I really like them. They are mostly push-fold games, they don't time a lot of time and most of the players suck at them. Pretty good combination.

The only exciting news I have is that I've been persuaded to do a couple of articles for Pokerology (meaning I'll actually be paid). Tim (who runs the site) really wanted to revamp his content and wanted me to contribute. I won't be doing anything about strategy, I'll tackle stuff like bankroll management, the cashout system I use, and maybe a tutorial on how to use Pokerstove.

We have talked about doing videos both for the two articles and also of me playing. I've done a few videos now and I have to admit its fun to do. Yeah, I curse a bit and I realize I'm no pro, but I think I make enough comments and I'm not afraid to say that I might not be doing the absolute right thing every time. I think doing that is a different approach and even trying to take time to actually go back and try to find the answers to my own questions might be something nobody else really does. I don't know... we'll play with the idea I guess.

Anyway, I hope to play some this weekend and continue plugging forward with my own game. We'll see!

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-09T06:42:00.002-04:00

I was able to sit down for an extra-long session of poker since it was a 3-day weekend due to Labor Day. As I usually do I played all of the Sunday mini-Majors like the Double Deuce on FTP and such. Cashed a couple of those and min-cashed a number of others throughtout the day but it wasn't until Monday morning that I didn't hit anything big.

I started on Friday night by playing for a few hours like I would do on a typical Tuesday/Thursday night gig. The night was successful since I was able to win a $21 super-turbo 54-man SNG for $388. Throw in a few other cashes and the night was a good one with a profit of $366 over 21 games.

Saturday I kept fairly tame, I got some games in but nothing heavy. Had a few cashes but nothing worthy of note though I did profit for the session (about $75 over 17 games).

Sunday was when the volume was coming. I started earlier than normal, around noon, so I could get in the $11 turno on Stars and a couple other things. I played well but ran worse for the next 12 hours or so and ended up down about $500 over the 51 games that started on Sunday proper. I scared a few things and had some chances but nothing really big came out of them.

As we rolled in Monday morning I guess things started going more my way. I took third in a $12 180-man SNG on Stars that I played almost on a whim (Stu talked me into it and he wasn't even talking to me, LOL). But the big score was on Ultimate Bet, where I was able to win the nightly (morningly?) $44 turbo MTT. That score was $1335 and some change. This thing doesn't even start until 2:30am so you can imagine how I was starting to feel when I won it at about 4:40am. Nice way to start your day, so to speak! With that, after playing a little more here and there on Monday I was $1250 to the good over 21 games on Labor Day.

Add it all up and the weekend tally was pretty solid... no complaints here. Since I didn't sleep at all on Monday you can imagine that I took Tuesday night off to try and catch up. I certainly had fun, like always, but its also much more fun when you managed to win.

This weekend, well, really starting tonight, I'm going to try to play a few of the mFTOPS events starting tonight with the 5x turbo 6-max shootout. I don't think I've ever cashed in on of these mFTOPS events before but I haven't played all that many of them either. Maybe this time I take a ride in one and find something big. I'll be sure to let you know in here if I do (or don't).

Yes, I know...

2010-08-30T17:26:00.003-04:00

... that I suck at updating my blog.

Not much really happened after that nice win I had, in fact it all went to hell for the most part. I probably dropped about $500 or more in the last couple of weeks in fact. Got close a few times but just never quite winning the key hands. Sure, it happens, but when it comes in big bunches it can really test a guy.

In fact, I almost quit this past Saturday. I got in enough to earn my Iron Man points on FTP and about had enough of the beats. The sequence of events that caused these thoughts happened in about five minutes. First, I lost AA to K2h on the true bubble of the $44 turbo on Stars. I then took a viscious beat of some kind in another hand, and all the while I lost three hands as a favorite in a 90-man knockout SNG I was plaing to go from 2nd with 16 left to out 13th. I'm not ashamed to tell you that it hurt. Coupled with how things had gone the previous couple weeks and I was ready to hit the XBox.

As it turns out I collected my thoughts and continued my schedule, which was to play thru the 5pm slot of games I normally try. Among those was a $26 90-man turbo knockout that I had entered. As it ends up I chopped it for a win with a guy that was having a some internet issues (yeah, I'm a nice guy) and took about $536 from it. That reallllllly helped.

After dinner and a walk I played some more in the evening. I had a few decent games and made the money in a few, a couple on Cake and a couple others here and there. Around 1am I only had a single game left (the $22 turbo MTT on UB, which I min-cashed) so I elected to sign up for a $26 turbo Rush MTT to play along side of it. Rush is fast-paced so I liked the idea of keeping active while playing the other game. I ended up winning it for a slick $923.40! Not a bad cash for a game I joined at the spur-of-the-moment. See, you just never know.

The best thing about it was I decided to record my screen using Camtasia just before it started so I caught the entire MTT in a video. I'm going to let Tim at Pokerology cut it up to post on the site just for shits and giggles (and to learn from, I'm sure there is a few spots I can get something out of). It was more intended to follow the play in the $22 game but as it ends up its the $26 afterthought that made it a show. I'm looking forward to seeing it (and hearing it, probably rated 'R' for language).

Got one more play night tomorrow then we'll wrap up August. As of now I'm up a little over $600 for the month (thanks to this weekend) and here is hoping I might add to that total tonight at the home game and/or on FTP tomorrow. Go me.

Found A Big Win, Yay!

2010-08-09T11:54:00.002-04:00

This weekend I played a bunch and Sunday afternoon I finally hit a big score by chopping a $44 Rush Turbo MTT. I really like these Rush tournaments but because of how fast they can be I don't like to have more than one going at a time. Still, I ended up chopping as the chip leader for a shade over $1157.

Here is the final hand that was played in that game. I just wanted to bring this up for a little discussion:

FullTiltPoker Game #22933094581: $40 + $4 Rush Tournament (176978857), Table 9 - 5,000/10,000 Ante 1,000 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:32:44 ET - 2010/08/08

Seat 2: gohockey12 (192,738)
Seat 5: Timitriff (69,164)
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (83,098)
gohockey12 antes 1,000
Timitriff antes 1,000
Rycky4Poker antes 1,000
Timitriff posts the small blind of 5,000
Rycky4Poker posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rycky4Poker [As Qd]
Rycky4Poker: anyones game
gohockey12 raises to 40,000
Timitriff raises to 68,164, and is all in
Rycky4Poker has 15 seconds left to act
Rycky4Poker raises to 82,098, and is all in
gohockey12 folds
Rycky4Poker shows [As Qd]
Timitriff shows [Ac Ts]
Uncalled bet of 13,934 returned to Rycky4Poker
*** FLOP *** [5s 8d Jc]
*** TURN *** [5s 8d Jc] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5s 8d Jc Kh] [Th]
Rycky4Poker shows a straight, Ace high
Timitriff shows a pair of Tens
Rycky4Poker wins the pot (179,328) with a straight, Ace high
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 37s
Total pot 179,328 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 8d Jc Kh Th]
Seat 2: gohockey12 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Timitriff (small blind) showed [Ac Ts] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 7: Rycky4Poker (big blind) showed [As Qd] and won (179,328) with a straight, Ace high

========================

I cross-posted this at www.pokerology.com as well.

1. The chip-leader had been fairly active throughout the final table as he has had a considerable edge for some time. He was raising often but only shown reasonable hands when called, including A9 that fell to my AJ reshove earlier. Usually he went 3x but notice here he made it 4x.

2. Considering stack sizes I considered the 4x bet a shove. When the SB elected to shove in as well I had a bit of a problem. At first glance AQo seems plenty strong enough but I wasn't quite sure ICM-wise. Two factors that made me call were these. First, the fact that I did have the SB covered did help, plus while he had been fairly tight I felt I did have his range beat. Second, since the CL had been opening often I figured his range was pretty wide... maybe not as wide as it should be but still enough that AQo is ahead enough to go.

3. The fact that the chip leader actually folded here tells us a couple things: Some people just don't understand odds/are bad at math and that you ALWAYS have fold equity. Even in a spot like this, where all indications were telling me that this guy had an idea of what he was doing, you just NEVER know.

Sure, he likely would have lost the hand but if he was gonna play he should have shoved. With effective stacks at 9BBs I see no reason to 4x/fold 3-handed with over half the chips in play. As it ends up he likely did save himself some cash since we chopped, but if I had knocked him down under 10BBs I might have been much less inclined to do it, despite my headache and general lack of sleep. I was still in the moment and playing sharp so there is argument that I should have taken my chances after seeing this.... but something told me to take the safe route when the deal page came up, LOL.

I checked the hand at holdemresources and if this guy was playing "perfectly" we would be shoving 60% of his hands. Considering that I could have overcalled decently wide myself (66+ A9s+ ATo+ KJs+). Even thinking he was wide I know its likely not 60%... but still enough that AQo easily plays here. I'd have folded 66-88, A9s, ATo, and the KX hands though... maybe even ATs and AJo.

I wish he had called though. :)

Let's Play A Hand

2010-08-03T09:23:00.003-04:00

I haven't done this in a while, so lets play! I'll cross post this on Pokerology also and use the replayer for the hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #22520112225: $24 + $2 Rush Tournament (173904071), Table 21 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:10:48 ET - 2010/07/22
Seat 1: Michael Craig (8,380)
Seat 2: Hero (3,010)
Seat 3: Junior Augusto (5,200)
Seat 4: TourneRunr (5,750)
Seat 5: ballajr (3,680)
Seat 6: muligatani (1,560)
Seat 7: fengschu (4,990)
Seat 8: jba1986 (3,370)
Seat 9: pokerehdingys (2,420)
Hero posts the small blind of 30
Junior Augusto posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9d 9c]
TourneRunr folds
ballajr folds
muligatani has 8 seconds left to act
muligatani folds
fengschu folds
jba1986 raises to 210
pokerehdingys folds
Michael Craig folds
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero raises to 600
Junior Augusto folds
jba1986 has 15 seconds left to act
jba1986 raises to 3,370, and is all in
Hero has 15 seconds left to act
Hero folds
Uncalled bet of 2,770 returned to jba1986
jba1986 mucks
jba1986 wins the pot (1,260)

OK, as you see I ended up making a very rare 3-bet/fold move in this Rush MTT. This is how I feel about how it went down.

First, the villain pot-raises from the hijack to 210. Since its a Rush game, I have no read on the raise size. Often its a strong hand but not an absolute monster like AA. Sometimes players just hit the pot button every time they raise. We don't know.

I have 99 in the SB and elect to reraise to 600. To be honest, I'm just now noticing that I actually bet a little less than I usually would OOP... I would have thought I'd go 650-700 here normally. Regardless, I'm always reraising 99 against a hijack raise as a standard move and 600 is likely enough to get the message across.

Ah, but now he shoves all-in! Ooops. Now what? As you saw, I elected to fold since I felt 99 wouldn't win often enough against a 4-bet/shove range. I would need to win about 40% of the time here given the pot odds presented (pot was 3670, 2410 to call if I see it right) and unless this guy has 88 or AJ in his shove range, I don't have it. I don't think he does often enough at all, so I fold.

What's the problem you ask? I'm wondering if I just turned my hand into a bluff. If I'm going to be 3-bet folding in this spot do my cards really matter that much? I don't think so. I could have taken a hand outside of my reraising/calling range with a little flexability like T9o and done the same thing.

So what could I have done better here? Well, it seems I didn't plan ahead enough. Granted, its a Rush MTT and it wasn't the only game I was playing at the time, but I do look at stacks sizes. I should have seen that by reraising here I was leaving him a great spot to reshove on me as a re-resteal. Now this guy might not be able to pull that off but the spot is still going to give me fits (obviously).

This leaves me to believe that due to the stack sizes involved here, reraise/fold is just not smart here. That leaves 4 other options: fold, shove, call, or 3-bet/call a shove. We are just too strong to fold, that's out. Shove, while perhaps Nash-friendly and/or coupled with fold equity a potentially viable play, seems really spewy this deep... you tell me. So that leaves call and 3-bet/call.

Calling is reasonable to me. Generally I'll be playing fit or fold with my 99 like I would have with 33, either I hit a set or I'm done with the hand. The odds are there to set-mine so that's not an issue. I think this is the best option unless I decide that 99 is too strong to fold to that 3-bet, which leads us to that last option. Is 99 strong enough to go all the way here?

I'm thinking a stock 4-bet/shove range might be something like TT+/AK, but I gotta wonder if other hands just don't show up enough here to make 99 a call. Are guys really coming over the top of me with 66? AJ? KQs? Are they actually tighter (JJ+) or a combination of this? How wide does he think I am here? That would change his range also. I could be going 77+/AJ+ here... what would he go with against that type of range? Is 99 or AQ in there? If so, I still think I'm behind... but is bullshit in his range enough to change that?

If we had 1500 here I'd shove easily and just take my chances. Being this deep changes things. What do you think?

Bye July

2010-08-02T08:49:00.002-04:00

I see I've been doing real well updating the blog.

The past two weeks haven't been the best but I feel I'm still playing well. Every time I check a spot in hindsight I can very rarely find anything I could have done differently. I'm happy to see that I still don't let all the coolers and the bad beats affect the way I go about my business.

I've been close to a few things lately. I've made the final of the $22 turbo on Full Tilt twice in the last couple days. I almost won a small turbo MTT on UB yesterday and I've been picking up some other deeper runs along the way. I just haven't won that key hand to get into the big money in a few weeks. I'll keep trying.

Outside of that, not much happened. Oh, I did pick up a 7-9 split bowling on Friday... that was very cool. :)

More updating

2010-07-14T09:46:00.003-04:00

I really gotta remember to do this more often.

Been sorta busy with both poker and other stuff so it is hard to find the time when I do remember. Anyway, the weekend was a good one even if I did have issues with my internet again. I got deep in the big $11 turbo on Stars but ran out of chances to finish 21st out of about 2800. I did take 2nd in a $26 90-man knockout and won a $13 version over the last few days though. Sprinkle in a few others cashes and things are doing fine.

Saw two movies over the extended weekend (I took Friday off to spend some time with the family). First we saw "The Last Airbender" as both the kid and the wife really wanted to see that as they are fans of the Nick cartoon. Too bad M. Night screwed up the movie and made it too serious. Fail.

The other movie was "Despicable Me", the animated flick with Steve Carell and the chick from "iCarly" (Miranda Cosgrove? Damn, I shouldn't know that). Funny film indeed, we enjoyed this quite a bit. Probably one of the best things I've seen all year to be honest. I haven't seen "Toy Story 3" yet but its better than "How To Train A Dragon" (though it was pretty good also).

We might go see "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" tonight since I really rather see "Inception" this weekend as save my time to play poker Saturday night, especially since its my birthday. Also worth mentioning: tomorrow is my wedding anniversary. Better throw that in here just in case she ever reads this. :)

July 4th Weekend Recap

2010-07-07T09:00:00.003-04:00

Despite some more internet troubles I was able to get in about 60+ games over the big weekend. Not a profitable weekend but it was fun to do all that playing. I scared a few things along the way. I took 4th in the $11 bounty on UB for my best cash ($350) and I was fairly deep in the Double Deuce but busted around 130th for $160 there.

I played well for sure and that's what mattered most. I didn't get crushed but when you add it all up I'm only down about $70 for the month so far. Compared to how May and June each had started that's pretty good, LOL. All told it was a full weekend, though not much sleeping was involved as I stayed up thru Sunday to Monday playing poker or NHL10 or whatever. I managed to cash both games at Marc's house Monday evening and I don't really remember all that much of it. :)

Anyway, it took a couple days but I think I'm back on track sleep-wise. Tonight I'll hit up Gator's for some nonsense poker fun and get back to the real stuff Thursday.

End of June

2010-06-29T22:35:00.002-04:00

Its pretty much the end of the month since I merely have a single HUST to play tomorrow (for the one-a-day freeroll on FTP) so we can close the book on a really volitile month of poker. I don't think I've even been so up and down before, especially if you throw May into the mix.

Funny how a week or so can really change the way everything looks. About 10 days ago I was getting crushed. Just crushed. You've seen the posts I've made here. I've stayed positive for the most part but I'm human too. I was fearing the worst was happening. I had lost nearly 30% of my bankroll after hitting my all-time high and I felt like I had no answer for it.

Then all of the sudden it turned around. I was making the same type of decisions but suddenly I was either winning the flip or holding as a favorite. I started to actually catch a few timely breaks when I needed it. Sure, I still found the bad beats and the coolers, but they didn't seem so devestating once I actually saw that it wasn't happening EVERY game. Before I knew it I had my bankroll back to where I started after closing out another solid week of play, ending with a very satisfying $26 turbo knockout SNG win on Sunday and a pair of wins in the home game on Monday night.

So, what happened? Why did things change so quickly? Did I find some karma? Perhaps, but not likely. I think the biggest thing I did was simple. I did nothing. I didn't change what I was doing because I hadn't found any evidence that what I was doing was wrong. I played the best I could every time. I reviewed any hands I felt were troubling and sought out opinions on them. In short, I believed in myself and what I was doing and just accepted the short-term results. As long as I continue to play my best the long-term picture will be just fine and I'll continue to do so whether July ends up as feast or famine.

This wasn't the first time I've dropped 25-30% of my bankroll... just the first time the dollars were this noticeable. As I always have before I've come back from it as a player better able to handle the adversity... at least I'd like to think that's the truth. I've picked up a couple more tricks along the way and have already seen the dividends from them. Hopefully I'll keep picking up a few more.

The first half of 2010 is deemed a success, even though The Plan was pretty much rewritten (or even discarded!) over that time. Reality set in and it was that simple. I am happy with the results to this point and I feel that I like the direction I'm heading in. I'm hoping I'll be able to build on these last six months and have an even bigger second half of the year, starting July 1st. Wish me luck.

Father's Day Update

2010-06-22T08:41:00.002-04:00

Despite my blog absence I have been continuing to try my luck with poker during that time. Things have been rough since May but at least the last week or so hasn't been too bad (if breaking even qualifies as such). With this weekend being Father's Day I thought I might try to get some good volume in and see if I couldn't make something happen.

With that in mind I started out on Saturday afternoon for a couple hours since the family came up with the idea of going to see "The A-Team" at around 6pm. Probably was a great idea as the afternoon set was a disaster. I did everything right from what I could tell, just can't seem to hold when I get in as the favorite. Going to the movie at this point might have been a great idea since I was pretty much lost for ideas on what to do at that point. Granted, looking back, there wasn't anything to do different... except for building a time machine or creating an alternate reality.

After the movie (which was fun) I decided to try my luck again. Sometimes you just have to get right back on the horse and just play your game. A few things went my way early, nothing huge, but at least I wasn't getting killed. I got deep in a few things and even had a short final table appearance in the $33 turbo on Cake, so things were going in a positive direction.

Finally, I started getting a few breaks. Winning a flip, a suckout on a 3-outter, overpairs holding to draws, and a few timely resteals here and there helped me win the $22 turbo MTT on UB for $1022! Suddenly I found myself feeling the rush again. I also won a seat to the $215 on UB in a $22 turbo satty right before going to bed... at 4am Sunday morning. I didn't care, I finally had something to be happy about.

I couldn't sleep. Well, not like "sleep", I took what seemed like 50 naps for the next 4 hours. Finally I just laid there like an idiot and eventually got up in time to talk a morning walk with my wife. The sun felt foreign to me and I felt like shit, but I somehow didn't really care. When we got back we went out for a nice lunch and returned in time to sit down for a couple hours of poker.

Things continued to go well. I hit a $320 score with a 4th in a $26 turbo rush MTT and won a $13 turbo knockout 90-man SNG for about $300 more. Throw in a min-cash in another game and some good fun in a private game and I found myself up about $1400 or so for the weekend. What a relief! I'm now suddenly up for June and at least feeling as if I might have an idea of what I'm doing again.

I'm still a good chuck off of my high point and I still have some work to do in that regard but at least I was able to stop the bleeding for a day or so. All this really proves is that you just never know when things might go your way. I've continued to study and work on things with my game and I've tried to make sure I've always played my best... and I really feel like I have. I've felt really comfortable with what I'm doing, its just nice to see a couple results once in a while.

We'll keep on keeping on tonight, I've got four more nights of grinding on Full Tilt to quality for Iron Man (so I can get the mid-year bonus) and I'd like to keep the mo on my side while I can. Wish me luck.

Weekend Report, June 5-6th, 2010

2010-06-08T06:44:00.002-04:00

In a word... crushed. I wasn't outplayed though, that's for sure. Because of that fact times like this can be very frustrating without the proper mindset going in. When you repeatedly see your opponents doing fundamentally poor things time after time yet beat you to a pulp its tempting to either give up or try the same bad plays they are making. I'm not sure which option would be worse.

I came close to a couple things but nothing that really stands out. I placed 7th in a $13 turbo 6-max MTT on Cake for $42 and picked up a few other middling cashes here and there. Overall this was my worst weekend results-wise that I've ever had. The highlight? I won a bracelet event in the WSOPokerology Stud Hi freeroll, luckboxing my way thru 16 others to a big $12.50 freeroll win, LOL. I had never played 7-card stud in a tournament before and if I have played it at all it was a looooooong time ago, probably as part of a dealer's choice night with friends and I certainly didn't know how to play then.

Last night I did chop the first home game at Robin and Phil's so I was up $30 for the evening. I made a huge fold in the second game with AKo preflop and after checking ICM/Nash I confirmed it was correct to do so, given what I knew of my opponents ranges. I keep making great decisions but getting horrible results as I still bubbled it. Oh well.

Tonight I'm back at it on Full Tilt, maybe with a little bit from other sites thrown in for fun. We just can't give up now.

Can I Start June Over, Please?

2010-06-04T15:38:00.002-04:00

Wow, horrid start to June so far as I've managed to cash 1 of 24 games so far (not counting KOs). I think I might have played one hand that I regretted the line I took, other than that its just a case of the run bads/ugly variance. At least I hope so. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win with KK vs. QJ more often than not however.

I did win the main tournament at Gator's Wednesday night and actually got a couple decent breaks there. Perhaps I just have bad timing since I'd much rather get the breaks when playing for money. Eh, maybe I ask too much.

Still, its been fun playing a mix of 90-man turbo KOs and those Rush MTTs and SNGs. I've run awful in the Rush games ever since they started but eventually my hands are gonna hold often enough to win a few.

I also think the latest tweak to my game is going to eventually pay off big time. After talking about some game theory with Jen earlier this week I've become a bit more aggressive with my opening hand selection once antes come into play as well as picking spots to open raise as opposed to shoving certain hands with certain short-but-not-too-short stack sizes. I've seen a difference in how I've maintained/accumulated chips in these spots and I can just imagine how it might help if I actually win a hand at showdown once in a while.

We'll have a full weekend coming up to try to get this thing turned around. All I know is its a good thing I'm practice good bankroll management... no panic here. While I can't play ant $55 MTTs at the moment I've seen enough to know I can play them well. I just have to earn my way back into them.

On To June

2010-06-02T12:18:00.002-04:00

May sucked overall. I was down more this month than any other month in my career. However, I'm not concerned. I understand the reasons why it happened so no panic will enter my mind.

The reasons? There are a couple. One, my volume was down so that gives me less opportunity to hit a big score. Two, I didn't play any single table SNGs again, those tend to flatten out the variance a bit. Three, since I'm playing all MTTs and larger-field games, large gaps between those nice scores can get pretty wide if you don't run well.

With all that in mind I understand how some online pros could start pulling their hair out when this goes on for a few weeks or months, espeically at the volume those guys might play. This is why having a cashout system makes it a bit easier to deal with. While those guys complain about not being able to pay for things if they don't hit a score, I could just keep plugging along. If I ever do play for a living I'm sure I could handle it... I think.

As I've said before, the only way to break out of a downswing is to keep playing. These next couple of months I'll be playing a good bit on Full Tilt so I can cash in on the mid-year Iron Man Bonus. It'll be tougher without the HUSTs but I should be able to pull it off. Assuming I make it I'll have a $300 or so bonus to clear in July... that'll mean a lotta poker for the next 60 days.

Seeing that my wife managed to convince me to book a short cruise for the end of October I'll need that extra money to pay for it. Naturally I was able to parlay this fact into the "need" to play that much more poker until then. Unlike May, where I had quite a few things impeding my play, this summer should now be wide open since I have a goal... and my wife knows it. Lets just hope I make something from it.

Tuesday Night results

2010-05-28T14:25:00.002-04:00

Forgot to post this earlier... as usual. I did get to play some on Stars Tuesday night and it was a virtual wash, though I was $9 to the good overall. I had two sick bubbles in a couple of 180s, finished 19th in a $12 and 22nd in the $36 one I played. Ugh.

I did win a $12 45-man and tacked on a third in another, but that was all I managed. At least that was better than getting zilch. I'm really hoping that once this weekend is over with I'll be able to start back with a more consistant schedule as far as running these Stars sessions.

May hasn't been the greatest but its not over yet. Not sure I'll really get the chance to fully make up for it as I'll be away this weekend, however I will have the laptop with me in case the urge for online poker hits me too hard to deny. The Turbo Takedown is Sunday and I have the points for it, but I'm not sure I can get away THAT long. I plan on winning ya know.

Breaking Even

2010-05-24T18:00:00.002-04:00

As the title says I pretty much broke even over the weekend, ended up down about $30 technically. I had a couple of "almosts", the most notable of which was a 6th in a $44 turbo on Stars that was good for about $505 or so. Unfortuneately that was the bulk of my winnings.

I came close, even real close, to a few more deep runs in a few other games but I either couldn't win the race or found a monster and forgot to suck out. May has been a down month for sure, in fact it'll be my worst one ever unless a good bit of serious run-good comes my way in the next week or so.

Despite this, I'm still in a great frame of mind. I played well all month, in fact I've had very few "OMG WTF do I do here" moments and even those I felt I handled very well and with no regrets. Maybe I could have played a few hands here and there a bit differently if I were given the chance, sure. Overall I really don't have a ting to complain about (other than the fact that I'm losing).

Outside of poker, we went to see the latest Shrek flick, it was enjoyable at the least. A couple of good moments for sure, we enjoyed it. I've started up with the bowling league that my wife's company has each summer also. I hadn't bowled since the last one ended in August but I held up fairly well, rolling a 189, 173, and a 183 for the night. Better than expected.

Tonight its off to Marc's place for some social poker for money, then tomorrow I'll hit up Stars in order to clear the rest of a bonus and hopefully erase some of May's losses while I'm at it. We'll see how that goes!

Is This Thing On?

2010-05-16T13:54:00.002-04:00

Wow, been some time since I've posted on here! I've been pretty busy with other things outside of poker so this is why I haven't really been on here in the last few weeks. What I have played hasn't been noteworthy as I'm down for the month. However I feel I've continued to play well so I really can't complain about it too much.

I put in a good 30 game session last night and ended up down aout $300 overall but I came close a few times. A break here or a card there and I could have come out of this little downswing in a big way. I ended up 13th in the $33 Turbo on Full Tilt and 10th in a $44 Turbo on Stars while also taking 5th on Cake in the $22 Turbo Bounty. The first two in particular could have been really big if I could just win a hand deep.

I had a few other smaller cashes along the way but once again it was Poker Stars that really denied me anything special. No matter how well I'm playing it seems something always goes against me when I'm deep in a game there. Sure, 10th in that $44 game is pretty decent but I'd like to actually win something eventually. I have everywhere else, why not there? One day I'll get it.

I was going to play today as well but the life of a family man is never clear. Looks like I've somehow committed to other things and I'll miss out on the usual Sunday afternoon schedule. I might still play in the Pokerology freeroll but that's about it since I may need to leave the house at a moment's notice.

With luck I'll play some 180s this week and hopefully get a full weekend slate in as well. If I do I might just remember to post something again.

More Fun Times

2010-04-27T12:19:00.002-04:00

I managed to play about 30 or so games on Saturday and came out pretty happy with it all. I had a couple of deep runs, most notably in the Daily Double A on Full Tilt and the $27.50 turbo MTT on Stars. I made the final table in both but came out 4th and 9th respectively. I also FTed the $13 turbo MTT on Bodog for the second week in a row but ended up at 7th this time.

Played in the home games last night and also fared very well there, chopping the first game heads-up and outright winning the second one, both times against our friendly co-host Phil. We actually had 12(!) people for the first game... talk about a crowded table! All in all there weren't any problems though.

With jai-alai being finished, I suppose the wife and I will be heading to the movies for the next few Saturday mornings. Got plenty of stuff coming out that I personally wouldn't mind seeing. The Losers, Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2, the new Shrek, Robin Hood, and a few others I can't recall off the top of my head. Should be an entertaining summer of movies.

Catching Up

2010-04-22T06:46:00.002-04:00

Wow, didn't realize it had been two weeks since I was here. I've been fairly busy with things like taxes, poker, homework and even the last weekend of jai-alai. Overall things have been good so don't fear the worse because of my absense here!

We'll skip anything about taxes except that I am getting a refund, yay. As far as jai-alai went we finally came out ahead, and by a good margin too! Maggie hit on a trifecta box bet and Marc and I also hit on a shared one. My friend and co-worker John came with us and he hit a couple bets as well. Good times.

OK, poker has been solid also. I've managed to grow the bankroll high enough that I've played my first $55 MTTs this past weekend, one of which I just missed cashing on, ugh. Anyway, I had a couple nice hits on Bodog with a win in the $11 Super Turbo at 2:30pm on week for about $150 and a win in the $13 turbo $2K GTD this past weekend that was worth $600. I also nabbed second in the $35 turbo there ($448) and also had some good cashes sprinkled around most of the other sites.

I've also tried to take time to review some of my games and see if I can't get a little better at taking advantage of leverage situations late in the 45 and 180-man games. I think the biggest adjustments I need to make is just learning with of the players are good regulars and how they would respond to different spots. Also, I feel ICM comes into play a little differently than I'm accustomed to since I'm really more tuned to a 9-player SNG. Speaking of those, I haven't played the first one of those games this whole month... I wonder if its time I left those behind.

OK, that should catch everything up. I'll see if I can't do a better job of keeping this updated now that I'm back on a more normal schedule.

Simple Update

2010-04-08T11:13:00.002-04:00

I have been playing my HUSTs but really not much else this week. I elected to throw in two 7.50STx45 and a 15STx45 games yesterday to mix it up since they don't take all that long to play. I busted the two 7.50s but I won the 15 for $240. Yay! I think I won as an underdog vs two players when all-in at least twice in the win. I also managed to 66>88 6-handed but almost found a way to blow it HU but I got it done somehow. I'll take it any way I can.

I've been busy screwing with Camtasia and took the last couple of nights to record a review of the hand history of that MTT win I had on Saturday. All of them are going to end up being posted on www.pokerology.com via YouTube, so if you have any interest at all listening to an idiot babble about poker, be my guest. I'm really doing it for my own benefit since reviewing games and such is something I should be doing. As it turns out I think I found at least a few spots that I could have played differently or learn from so I'm glad I did it.

Tonight I might get to play, but I wouldn't be surprised if I won't be able to until Saturday. I have a couple freerolls then and I'm looking to put in a full day and night of games. Maybe something interesting will happen again!

Chugging Along

2010-04-05T06:37:00.002-04:00

Made it through another weekend and I did manage to play a good amount of poker again. I think I ended up playing about 50 games and came out with a profit, which is always nice. The one that made the weekend was on UB where I won a MTT for $750 on Saturday. This was one of the promotional MTTs from their Leaderboard Challenge. I doubt I'll be able to play anywhere near enough of these to qualify high enough to get anything for it but with a win already under my belt, who knows.

I've also continued to play around with Camtasia, which is the program I'm using to make the videos. Pretty neat little gadget to use to film what is on your computer screen. I'm letting Pokerology host whatever I record so if you wanna take a look, be my guest. I'm by no means claiming to know what I'm doing or talking about but its been a lot of fun doing it.

In other news, I thought "Clash Of The Titans" was good but not great, we did win a bet at jai-alai again (but still burned money overall) and I've just come to the realization that I really should go ahead and do my tax return. Ugh.

My Video Is Up

2010-04-03T00:04:00.002-04:00

The video is nothing special, I just did it to do it. I just explained how I do my cashouts using Jennifear's system and showed the spreadsheet for it. I had to cut it down to under 10 minutes so I just winged it quickly but it came out pretty well considering the lack of planning.

If you want to see it the video is in a post on www.pokerology.com under http://www.pokerology.com/forums/sng-mtt-strategy/2040-bankroll-cashout-system-video.html#post14085 this link (if that works). I'm hoping to get a video of me playing some up soon but we'll have to see about that.

Grinded Out SilverStar, Yay!

2010-04-01T11:49:00.002-04:00

The past two nights I concentrated on grinding out on Stars so I could reach SilverStar and had fun doing so. I ended up just the slightest bit down overall for the two sessions. The biggest blow was the last 180-man game I was in last night. I made the money and had a decent chip stack. What was even better was that I had everyone to my left covered, all of which had no more than about 11BB stacks. I couldn't ask for better.

So, it folds to me in the SB, I shove trash, he folds. That's one. Folds to me on the button and I shove 97o, both blinds fold. Two. Folds to me again and I go with ATh, another pot for three. Folds to me again with KJo and I shove, all fold. Four. We are six-handed now and I get to open for the fifth time in a row... with AA! I get called by 77 and *whack* he flops a set on me. Finally someone took a stand when I had the goods and STILL I can't take advantage, LOL. I ended up limping into the final table in 9th and that's where I ended up when I shoved K2 into 88 SB vs BB at the end. Meh.

Tonight I'm going to try and edit a couple of videos that I made. Yep, that's right. I recorded the last 30 minutes or so of my Tuesday night set for all to see. I did it for fun but there are quite a few spots that I believe can make for great discussion. Tim from www.pokerology.com is going to see about posting it thru his site so I'll post something here when that happens in case you wanna hear me bitch, moan, and cry about getting beat.

The Big Weekend Report, End of March 2010 Edition

2010-03-30T11:47:00.003-04:00

As I hoped I was able to play quite a bit this weekend and things came out fairly well. All in all I played in 74 events, including all of the small majors on Sunday. Those didn't go too well except for a min-cash in the $11 bounty on Cake. One day I'll make a run in one of these... just don't know when.

I did have a couple "almosts" as it were. On Saturday I took second in a $27.50 MTT on UB for $412 and on Sunday I was second in the 4:50pm $5.50 turbo on FTP for $677 or so. That last one was a bit heartbreaking as I fought from being 9th at the final table all the way to about eliminating my opponent heads-up, but he sucked out on my 3 straight times to come back and win. Considering that I could have been knocked out well before that point myself I can't be too upset though.

I had a couple other spots come close, took 5th in a 6.60 bounty on UB for about $200 and a number of other cashes as well. I ended up placing 18th in the weekly SNG TLB on UB also, that was worth $20 for me. Overall I think I put in close to 24 total hours in over the two days... was fun times.

In other news, on Friday night we actually won once at jai-alai so not all the money I brought with me got thrown into that gasoline fire. Monday I took the family to a place in Orlando called The Fun Spot, which is really just a carnival thing that took up a permanent address. Their big selling point are the four multi-level go-cart tracks. Cameron enjoyed himself though and that's what counts.

Tonight and tomorrow night I will be hitting Stars heavy as I want to make Silver Star. I'll probably concentrate on the 45-man turbos but I'm sure I'll add a few 180-mans because I like them. I think I need about 43 total games over the two nights and I should be able to do it without any trouble. Wish me luck!

Big Weekend

2010-03-26T11:34:00.002-04:00

Nothing special is coming up this weekend but since I'll be taking Monday off from work I'll be able to play all the "mini-Majors" on Sunday. I haven't really fared all that well in them to date but its still fun to try. Plus I'll play most of my normal schedule and I'll also have a good chunk of Saturday to play as well. I'd estimate that I'll get into at least 50 games, probably 60+ over the weekend.

Played a few SNGs earlier this week, Tuesday night wasn't great as I only nabbed a second out of six games. However, last night was pretty good. I got in 16 games and won three, got second five times and ended up third in two others. I don't know what it is but I can't seem to hold with the best hand heads-up in those things lately.

Since I did pretty well over that set I'm in position to take a shot at winning some TLB prizes. I have a 6-game set left to try and improve on both the weekly and the monthly boards so hopefully I can get a solid set in. I think I'll try to do that tonight after.... jai-alai. Ugh, I know. Again. Why I do this to myself I have no clue. Well, yes I do. My wife likes going. Who am I to dare say no?

I'm kidding of course. I like getting out and doing stuff like this, even though I could better serve society by donating that burned cash to the Red Cross or something. Then again maybe some degen (other than me) at the fronton could use it. :)

Fun With Aces

2010-03-23T10:44:00.002-04:00

I played a couple friendlies over at Marc's place last night and experienced both the highs and the lows of holding pocket aces. Here is how each hand went down.

In the first game with blinds sitting at 75/150, I sat on the button with AA when Phillip raised from the hijack. The stack sizes were absolutely perfect to flat call in this spot, so I did. To my surprise, Bob in the SB then shoved all-in! Things couldn't be better! Phillip wisely folded and I ended up facing Bob's KK. Naturally he hit the K on the turn and knocked me out. Ooof. I harassed Bob with fake threats and curses for the reminder of the evening, LOL.

To the second game. I was faring much better as I was the chip leader with only three of us left. Since we only pay out two spots I was in a favorable position. Marc was to my left and quite short in third... I would rather have him in second so I can beat the hell out of his big blind, but we can't be picky.

So, on the button I push an Ace-rag hand. Marc then says, "I'm looking for one of two hands here", looks at his cards and quickly says "call". Robin folds and my hand loses to Marc's pocket kings. Since he was so short to begin with Marc is stayed in third and I have still Robin covered by about 2000 chips.

The very next hand Marc looks at his hand on the button and tanks. Lamenting on how close he thinks it is, he finally elects to go all-in on my big blind. Robin then goes all-in also! Whhhhhhaaaaat? Knowing her I figured he has to be hugegantic there so I naturally pick up Marc's line and say "I'm looking for one of two hands here" and peek at my cards.

"Holy shit, I call!"

I flip over aces and hold against Marc's KJo and Robin's tens to win. Easy game.

Reversal Of Fortune

2010-03-22T08:34:00.002-04:00

I haven't played all that much in the last couple of weeks but when I have its been brutal. Standard variance, yada yada. I know it happens. Times like this can wear on you if you aren't careful and everyone feels it in some regard. Taking some time to do some reading probably was a good idea considering how I'd been running lately so I'm glad the timing of it worked out that way. Still, I was eager to get a full slate of games in this weekend.

I had a couple of freerolls to play from the rakeback site so I started around 2:30 on Staurday. Got in plenty of games and just concentrated on playing well as always. As it turns out, I was able to get few things to go my way and I ended up hitting a huge score by winning a $22 turbo MTT on Full Tilt for $2030! My big hands were holding, I was winning the races and when I did lose a hand it didn't cripple me. I was so excited about winning that my hands started shaking, LOL!

I had other games going so I recovered my senses quickly. I ran well in a few others and such but nothing huge happened until Sunday, where I took 6th in another rakeback site freeroll for $270 there. I feel like I stole about $160 of that since I lost a big hand early at the final table, dropping to 9th. However I folded my way around and three players got knocked out before I did... pretty fortunate for me!

Now my bankroll is at an all-time high but I still have a long way to go before hitting some of my goals. Tonight is the fun home game and I'll get in a set of SNGs on UB on Tuesday (I haven't played those in about two weeks, I'm behind). Wednesday I'll do some more reading and then play the rest of the week. Well, except for Friday night... damn jai-alai has me by the balls. :)

Quick Update

2010-03-16T10:49:00.002-04:00

Since I've been reading that book I haven't really thought about updating the blog. I'm almost finished with it but I'll probably go thru it again to review a few points I wanted to review.

I did take time to play this past weekend but other than a 3rd in a Bodog $11 turbo MTT not much went my way. I played well but its tough to win when your big pair get cracked or you bump into them and don't suck out. I did have a good run in the One-A-Day Freeroll on FTP Saturday, finished 17th out of 1400+ runners... for $7.50 in prize money. Wow. At least the experience was good... its not often you get that deep in such a large field.

I'll be playing the $22 turbo mFTOPS event at 9pm tonight so I'll likely run and bunch of 45s and 180s on Stars while I do. Wednesday I'll hopefully finish off my book and then we'll hit the SNGs on UB Thursday and possibly Friday... unless my wife drags me to jai-alai again. She doesn't even bet that much, she just lies going. Now if I can convince her that poker is more fun (and profitable!) I'll have something good.

Another Weekend In The Books

2010-03-08T11:25:00.003-05:00

Was a fun weekend by any standard, and even a little profitable as well. We'll run down the highlights of the weekend past here and then we'll get into what the future could bring.

Friday night was jai-alai night with my friend Marc, my wife Maggie and my son Cameron. Other than Marc's win I simply burned money (as predicted) but its always fun yelling at the players and what-not. Good times. We'll go again this Friday, true degenerates we are. Hopefully I'll get to meet up with Vincent, another one of Jen's student/friends.

I did manage to play some SNGs on Friday night and about broke even. I did improve to 15th on the weekly TLB with my efforts so it was worth the time. More on the TLB thingy later.

Saturday morning the clan went to go see Alice In Wonderland (in 3D of course) and I came away satisfied. Is it the best movie ever? No. Was it worth seeing in the theater? Yes it was. I thought they did a good job with casting all the parts and voices... it all worked for me.

The rest of my Saturday was poker. I mixed in more SNGs with the other MTTs I wanted to play and got a nice bit of volume in. While I didn't make a killing with the SNGs I did manage to creep up to 8th in the TLB. That was good for a $50 prize. As far as my MTTs went I had a few "almosts", a 3rd in a $11 super-turbo on Bodog, another 3rd in a $13 turbo there, and also took 4th out of about 400 runners in the $2 turbo rebuy on Full Tilt. I had a couple of other cashes here and there, including a 31st in a $27.50 MTT on UB. Overall I came out ahead... not by a huge margin but its in the correct direction.

Sunday was some more poker but I kept it fairly small. I cashed a couple times here and there but nothing big. I played in the mFTOPS Turbo Warmup and bubbled and also bubbled another MTT on Bodog. I was gonna play some SNGs on UB but too many regulars/grinders were out and I saw no need to fight them for anything. Having two of them in a game is not a big deal but four of even five? Why? I'll wait for the donks to play.

Tonight is an off night assuming I get to play in a home game, if not I'll try some SNGs on UB again. I'm hoping my new book shows up in the mail though and if it does I'll be making time for that this week so my volume could take a hit. However, this weekend will be quite busy with the poker with a few freeroll events I'm qualified for and a mFTOPS event on Sunday. Could be a lot of fun!

Yay Me!

2010-03-05T08:37:00.002-05:00

The last two nights I decided to play on Stars like I had planned. Wednesday night didn't go great as all I did was min-cash a couple of times over 12 games of the 45 and 180-man games, I think I played six of each and cashing in one of each as well. Played well, had a couple fun spots that didn't work out well in the end but overall just another typical losing session.

Thursday night was better. I played 16 games, all but 4 were 45-man games. However I made the final table in two of the four 180-man games... and won for the first time! Took me long enough but I finally got the first one. The other finish was just a 9th but still it was a good feeling to go deep in two of them. As far as the 45-man games I had a couple vicious bubbles but I did scrap out a 3rd and a 7th along the way. Overall it was a success, that's for sure... but a $594 win tends to help.

I also played a single SNG on UB with Marc and ended up winning it, extending my cash streak to six. The plan today is to get in a set of about 6-8 games this afternoon after I visit the chiropractor. After that we are off to dinner and then to the jai-alai fronton again to burn some money. Really, it would be easier just to take some bills and simply light them on fire but admittedly its not as much fun as watching some dudes with funny-looking curved contraptions strapped to their hands give you false hope that you might actually win something.

Tuesday SNG Night

2010-03-03T15:02:00.004-05:00

Seemed like a good night to sit down and play some SNGs on UB last night since I didn't see very many of the "regulars" out there. As usual I started a little slow but ended up doing fairly well. I played 15 games, winning three and taking second in five more.

I don't know what it is lately, but until these three wins I had lost ten (!) straight HU portions of these SNGs. Almost every single time I've had at least one chance to win outright and nearly every time (maybe EVERY time?) I was favored in the hand. Pretty sick to be able to manage to lose all of them in those spots. Anyway, I have won the last three out of four of those so at least I know I can win.

Got a few nice "trophies" last night from a couple of fish/nits, one guy asked me why I "didn't just call and see a flop" when I shoved with QQ over his late-position raise (I lost the race to his AKo). Two other guys commented on how "dumb" I was to shove T9s in a very obvious shove-like-its-my-real-job spot, blind vs. blind, on the bubble of another game. Guy called me with A6o, which was pretty dumb if he even had a clue about ICM or thought I would be much tighter than T9s, and lost. He managed to finish third somehow after being crippled. I won this one for those keeping score.

The last comment I got was a compliment. Heads up in one of the victories "she" said that I had "a really nice (Sharkscope) graph". Hmmm. I say its a girl because of the pic (it was "real", not a professional/magazine/whatever pic), she plays tight/passive (ok, so I just stereotyped this person, sorry Jen!) and also I based this on a few other things I saw her say in the chat box. Either its a girl or someone doing a GREAT job with a number of reverse tells... I'm sold.

Anyway, looks like I'll do another set of at least 15 games on Thursday, especially since I cashed in my last five in a row. That has the potential for a very good 20 consecutive game score for the weekly TLB... in fact I'm not too bad off now since I can pretty much toss the first four games of this set. Hopefully I'll start off really well this time and keep it up... I'd love to post a big score for the monthly TLB also.

March Goals

2010-03-01T11:38:00.003-05:00

Jen said she wanted to compare goals for March and I said I'd post them on my blog.

1. More SNG and MTT volume. This is where the money is and I need to go get it. The cutting down of the HUST time will help and this is the main reason I'm doing it.

2. Read the new PXF book. I can't remember the name of it (Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand At A Time? Maybe.) but the first one was excellent. A second one is now out and Amazon should be shipping it to me this week. I'm going to make time to read it.

3. I want to put in more volume in the 180-man SNGs. I'll also try to play a decent about of the 45-man ones as well.

Outside of that I'll try to keep doing what I'm doing.

Weekend Report Time

2010-03-01T11:18:00.002-05:00

I played a bit but not as much as some other weekends past. I did manage to get in some SNGs on UB and solidify my standing on the monthly TLB so I'll be in the freeroll. I also finished off my HUSTs when needed. Overall February wasn't great but I feel I played well. The SNGs were solid but I never did land enough strong MTT scores this time around.

Saturday I had a couple family related things going on so my volume got hurt by that, however it was worth it. Life>Poker and all that ya know. My wife and I went to see "Shutter Island" and I think it was the best movie I've seen since "The Dark Knight". I can argue its a better movie but we are comparing apples and oranges here so I won't say that. I'm not going to compare this movie to anything else, you just need to go and see it for yourself.

Sunday I went to go play in a quarterly tournament for one of the local poker leagues. They have free games in some of the bars, etc. in the area and I managed to play a few and win a couple times so I was invited. It was a "weighed" tournament were people who play more (and generally win more) get more chips. I thought of it as a handicap since, to be honest, most of them are fish.

Anyway, they split it up into two days and each day has about 200+ players in it so its not small. Only the final 11 wins anything so its a very top-heavy payout so you gotta get in there and find any good spot to pick up some chips. I found such a spot fairly early when I got all my chips in with AKs on a QT9 board that had two spades on it... but I bricked out and busted. Would have more than tripled my stack if I had caught, but no one ever accused me of hitting draws.

One of the sponsors of the event was Deep Stacks Unviersity, an online training/teaching site that started last year. The guy that started it is from the area and he has managed to partner with Mike Matasow. He also has a few big name instructors, one of which is T.J. Cloutier. He was there signing a few autographs and was also "entered" into the tournament as a bounty prize... he got busted before I did.

I'm not big on following poker players but I did go shake his hand and chatted briefly with him. He seemed to be enjoying himself and as far as I know no one asked him about the WSOP bracelet of his that was supposedly in a pawn shop in Texas somewhere. Maybe its true but I decided not to bring it up. :)

Tonight is a home game at Marc's so we'll have some fun with that. The rest of the week will be hitting the online felt. I'm cutting down on the HUST volume so I can more easily bring up the SNG/MTT volume now. I've already played them for today (I went 16-13 so we're up!) and it was easy to do this morning. I'm going to like getting those completed quickly, I can already tell.

A Quick Update

2010-02-26T09:26:00.002-05:00

The HUSTs have been brutal but after reviewing them I can see that I'm getting in with the best of it too often for it to continue. I'm happy with the way I'm playing them so sooner or later they will turn back around. Its happened before as just before this bad swing I had a full week of positive sessions.

On Wednesday I played on Stars and again caught the worst of it. I bubbled at least 4 times (depending on where the bubble really is, maybe more) but I did escape with a win in one of the 15 45-man games I played. I also scrapped out a 4th in another. Unfortunately I was shut out in all five of the 180-man games.

Last night I went back to UB for some SNGs and had decent results, except HU. I played 11 games and got heads-up in four of them, had the chip-lead and the best hand AIPF at least once in all of those but still managed to lose them all. Still, coupled those with two thirds and it was still a positive night. I'm now fairly solidly in the top 100 for the monthly TLB (like 57th) so I should qualify for the freeroll pretty easily. I might have an outside shot at the weekly if things go right so I'll probably give SNGs one last turn tonight.

Rethinking My Plan Again

2010-02-24T08:15:00.004-05:00

The biggest worries I had when I made my plan were these. First was time. I solved that by pretty much just letting myself play without so much structure and its worked out well.

The second concern I had was the HUSTs. Not the actual game play itself, I'm really comfy playing them and I have pretty much all the ranges I need memorized so I can take time to observe any tendencies my opponents may have and adjust. This month as gone OK since I've gotten to this point so its not results I've been worried about... its the grind.

I knew it was a simple game to play but man, it takes too high of a percentage of my time. The payout is nice, I sure generate a good chunk of it and if I actually played more hours per week (like a pro would) then I don't think I'd notice. But right now I feel its taking away too much time that I could be playing other things.

I'm not sure we could call it "boredom". But the game is pretty bland when you play over 100 a night, every night. I like the fact that it is a simple way to make Iron Man on FTP, but I'm really wondering if its worth the time investment in them. If I were playing 50+ hours a week like a "pro" probably would then yeah, I can see it as a small part of the overall plan. But as it stands now I think running as many as I do now just isn't optimal for my time.

What I think I'll do is finish out the month at my current pace. In March, I'll cut back on the HUST play, maybe just enough to qualify for the lowest level of Iron Man (Bronze). Even on the mornings I don't really have "time" I'll have time to do that and if I don't it still won't be a big deal in the evening.

I think this will open up my evenings to be able to get an extra set of SNGs or 180s in on the nights I play. I'll have time for dinner, a walk, homework help, and whatever else I might have to do. Plus the "normal" games are a bit more fun to play. My cashouts might go down a little but I think the bottom line will be better too... and maybe that's more important anyway.

Speaking of normal games, I did get in 12 SNGs on UB last night and came out OK... had a win, three seconds, and two thirds. I thought I made the weekly TLB last week but it ends up I finished 21st by exactly .01 points.... are you kidding me? How did the rounding work out in the math to do that? Uuuughhhhh! LOL

Tonight I'm looking at a session on Stars for the 180s and 45s, I've already played half of the HUSTs set so I should be able to get in a good amount of games in.... which is the idea. I gotta win a 180-man soon... I can feel it.

Catching Up

2010-02-22T12:07:00.002-05:00

Going into the last week of February and it looks like I'm a little behind on a couple volume goals. I still need to get in two strong sets of SNGs on UB and at least two sets of multi-table SNGs on Stars to get to where i wanna be. The good news is I already have that planned. I'm just hoping other stuff doesn't get in the way (like homework help or whatever).

This weekend was a mixed bag. I didn't play much on Saturday but what I did play went well. I found time to play some SNGs on UB since I was in reach for the weekly TLB. Two wins, a second and two thirds out of seven games was enough to earn 20th place, which was the last payout spot on the board. Its only worth $20 but everything counts. I'm now looking to work toward making the top 100 foe the monthly.

Outside of winning the Pokerology freeroll not much else was positive. I had a 5th in a 180-man for a decent score but not much else. Played a good bit on Sunday though and I played well so that is all that matters really.

Tonight I was invited to a home game so I'll be in that, the rest of the week I'll be grinding online.

The Winning Streak Ends

2010-02-19T12:22:00.002-05:00

Last night I had my first losing set of HUSTs in about a week... rats. Still it was a nice run and one that I needed for my own sanity.

I ran short of time again but I did get in six 45-man turbo SNGs on Stars, only cashing in a $6.50 one for $12. The worst finish I had was 17th and I also had a 9th and a 12th in there also. A couple more breaks here and there and we might have done something big... maybe next time.

No HUSTs tonight, probably no poker at all in fact as we are gonna go to Opening Day... of jai-alai! Yep, I'm gonna go make extremely -EV bets on shit I know nothing about and see if I get lucky. Now THAT'S gambling!

Sidetracked

2010-02-18T10:38:00.002-05:00

The kid needed homework help tonight so my planned set of 180-man SNGs got moved back to tonight. I managed to get in six SNGs, winning one and taking third in another. The HUSTs went decently as well.

I did have a strange occurance in the SNGs though. I had 5 tables up and I tile them on my laptop screen so none of the tables overlap. On one table I had QQ in the BB and got all-in, lost the hand. No big deal. The little box comes up that I went out in 6th, blah blah ok. I closed that box and found another one. Huh? I wasn't in a hand anywhere else. I go look and see that I had gone all-in on another table too!

Now, I didn't even see what hand I had on that table yet (it was A3c) but as it ends up I shoved over a raise and got looked up by AQ and busted. I was in good shape in this SNG (3rd out of 6 with maybe 2500 chips at 75/150) so I certainly didn't need to make a move. How did this happen? Did I miss the guy's raise and shove on the BB? I was the SB but the BB had about the same stack and I'm sure I wouldn't have shoved blind on blind with that big of stacks. So I'm wondering if UB had a glitch that had me make the same action on multiple tables.

I emailed UB but they found nothing, not that I thought they would. They were still nice enough to credit me half of the buy-in so I have T$11 to use. Still, I wonder what happened here. I'm confident I didn't do it intentionally and I just don't see how I could have accidently either. I guess I'll just be even more careful.

Tuesday SNGs

2010-02-17T10:01:00.002-05:00

Started the evening off by putting in a good set of HUSTs and also a min-cash in a Super-Turbo Knockout MTT on Full Tilt. After dinner and a walk I sat down to play some SNGs on UB. I was hoping to get in about 15-18 but I only played 11 games.

The results of those games were good, I won two and took third in three others with all the cashes coming in the final seven I played. With that in mind I'll hope to have a good run in the next 13 I play this week so I can make a run at the weekly TLB (which takes your best 20 consecutive results in a given week).

Tonight I plan on playing the 180-man games on Stars and if I'm online in time I may also play the $16.50 turbo on Bodog and even the $2.20 turbo rebuy on FTP... we'll see.

Meanwhile....

2010-02-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

... the rest of the extended weekend wasn't all bad.

On Friday I shipped two small MTTs. Saturday started off horrible but I took 3rd in the Bodog $35 turbo and 2nd in a $26 turbo knockout 90-man SNG. I had a few other cashes, a 9th in the $33 turbo on Cake being the other 3-figure score. All in all I played 49 games and profited around $250 or so.

Sunday and Monday were much slower, other than that Million all I did was play my HUSTs but both sets were on the plus side.

Tonight I will finally play some SNGs on UB as I really need to pick up the pace there. I'm in the mood for some action there so hopefully things will go well.

In other news, I'm on a 22-game winning streak with my team in NHL 10. I'm a right winger/power forward type so I basically camp in front of the net when I'm not filling the slot on the rush. I also get to try and pin opponents to the glass since I also have a high "checking" rating... its fun when you hurt people on the boards too. :)

That Didn't Take Long

2010-02-14T16:56:00.002-05:00

As you may recall, I was to play the Sunday Million today. See exhibit "A" below:

PokerStars Game #39756554374: Tournament #284020010, $200+$15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (50/100) - 2010/02/14 16:46:29 ET
Table '284020010 473' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: lubor74 (10025 in chips)
Seat 2: mmoermans (6860 in chips)
Seat 3: RyckyRych (9580 in chips)
Seat 4: davyg (9700 in chips)
Seat 5: Marijo03 (8600 in chips)
Seat 6: inhidonks (10600 in chips)
Seat 7: Apt555 (9725 in chips)
Seat 8: eeeooor (10360 in chips)
Seat 9: Qsypal (14550 in chips)
inhidonks: posts small blind 50
Apt555: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyckyRych [8d 8s]
eeeooor: raises 200 to 300
Qsypal: folds
lubor74: folds
mmoermans: folds
RyckyRych: calls 300
davyg: folds
Marijo03: folds
inhidonks: folds
Apt555: calls 200
*** FLOP *** [Tc Ts Qh]
Apt555: checks
eeeooor: checks
RyckyRych: checks
*** TURN *** [Tc Ts Qh] [8c]
Apt555: checks
eeeooor: bets 500
RyckyRych: calls 500
Apt555: folds
*** RIVER *** [Tc Ts Qh 8c] [Kc]
eeeooor: bets 1900
RyckyRych: raises 2850 to 4750
eeeooor: raises 4810 to 9560 and is all-in
RyckyRych: calls 4030 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (780) returned to eeeooor
*** SHOW DOWN ***
eeeooor: shows [Kh Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)
RyckyRych: shows [8d 8s] (a full house, Eights full of Tens)eeeooor collected 19510 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 19510 | Rake 0
Board [Tc Ts Qh 8c Kc]
Seat 1: lubor74 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: mmoermans folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: RyckyRych showed [8d 8s] and lost with a full house, Eights full of Tens
Seat 4: davyg folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Marijo03 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: inhidonks (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Apt555 (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 8: eeeooor showed [Kh Ks] and won (19510) with a full house, Kings full of Tens
Seat 9: Qsypal folded before Flop (didn't bet)

So much for that idea.

The Big Weekend Has Started

2010-02-13T11:24:00.002-05:00

Saturday is here, which might just be the biggest day of poker I've played to date, we'll see just how much I get in after we're done.

Yesterday I ended up taking a half-day off from work and I decided to play a few small MTTs while waiting for everyone to get home from school/work. I didn't play a ton but I did do well. I won two, a $5.50 turbo bounty on Carbon that had 42 players and the $5.50 turbo on UB with 53 entrants. Both scores were only about $70 but they were fun games to play. I also took 3rd in a $15 super-turbo 45-man on FTP for $100 and had a min-cash in a $13 turbo on Cake. Not bad for eight games.

The HUSTs were also decent, was up about $30 for the games I played. I'm gonna try to get a few in now before I start entering all the MTTs I wanna play so I'll end this entry right here. I'll try to update how things went tomorrow if I have time before the Sunday Million gets going. Good Luck to everyone playing this weekend!

Something Different

2010-02-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

Last night I decided to try something that I've been wanting to do for a while now and that was the super-turbo 45-man SNGs on Full Tilt. I figured I could get in 15-20 of them relatively quickly and I like my push-fold game too. The one thing I forgot to do was run well, I only cashed twice in 20 games. The beats are brutal in those things! People generally call too light (which is good in the long run) but I get tried of losing to their 3-outters after a while. :)

The other half of my session was the 7.25 HUSTs and I was slightly up on those. Still my overall downswing continues for February. Things can change pretty fast in this game and I've seen it first hand several times in just the last few months. However my bankroll is down close to $1000 from the start of the month so I could use a break or two to go my way.

Tonight I really should play my SNGs on UB and in a way I'm kinda looking forward to it, so I probably will. I'll try to get in about 15 or so and maybe we'll do some damage on the TLB at the same time.

Some Success in the HUSTs

2010-02-10T10:30:00.002-05:00

Finally had a winning session in the HUSTs. I elected to play almost exclusively the 7.25s last night just to get a little more volume game-wise and things went well. I think I'll try doing this the rest of the week just for the hell of it. If I'm feeling frisky I'll start adding the 14.50s and go from there.

Decided to play on Stars last night and only cashed once, but it was a second in a 45-man SNG. Other than that I just never could get real deep in anything. On Bodog I had a decent run in the $16.50 turbo MTT, finishing 11th of 160 for $28.80 there. I had QQ<66 deep in that but had a few hands go my way as well, just couldn't quite get over the hump. At least three times I had help from players making bad folds against me when I was short... then again if they call and I lose its a good fold for me. :)

Tonight I think I'll give Stars another run after I do my HUST set. Thursday is looking like the SNG night on UB and Friday is up in the air. Saturday will be a big volume day and Sunday is The Big One. Hopefully we'll get on a nice positive run leading into all that.

Home Game Monday

2010-02-09T09:39:00.002-05:00

Marc had his home game and I came out slightly ahead by taking 2nd in the first game. Naturally I had to lose HU after being up 2:1 but I had a few breaks to get there in the first place.

Back to the online grind tonight! I'll do my HUSTs and then decide on whether I'll do SNGs on UB or hit the 180-mans on Stars... I'm not sure what I want to do yet. I think I'll do the SNGs on UB and if they go well I'll have to make a run at the TLB again.

Hopefully I'll be able to turn the month around with some solid play and a lot of volume. Last week was pretty brutal results-wise but I seem to come out of it unscathed mentally. I still can't understand how I can run like I do in those HUSTs though... I could use a nice upswing in those no matter how my mind is. We'll see!

The Weekend Is Over

2010-02-08T09:15:00.003-05:00

Not a whole lot to report on this weekend. I didn't get to play a full slate on Saturday more due to my own choice, I just wasn't feeling that great so I took it easy. Came close in a couple things but mostly it was just a bunch of almosts and couldabeens.

I played more on Sunday and again got close, I was the true bubble in a 90-man knockout SNG and took 13th in the $2.20 turbo rebuy. I also came close to winning a $5.50 turbo MTT on UB but lost two 70/30s in a row to bust out 4th.

The HUSTs have been absolute murder the last few days too. As some of you know, when I run bad I reeeaaaaaalllllly run bad and when it happens in the HUSTs it just gets magnified. On the plus side, I've yet to have a real solid positive run in these so its hard to compare them to each other since it hasn't happened yet. I've had good days but they always seem to be isolated. I'd really like to finally string three, four, even five days of solid gains together just so I know how it feels.

Tonight is an off day of sorts as Marc is hoping to have a home game put together. If that falls through I'll make it a SNG night instead. After tonight I'll be starting to pick up the volume for sure. This weekend is going to be big with multiple freerolls for FTP's Iron Man and One-A-Day, UB's Diamond TLB, and then the rakeback ones too. Of course, Sunday is the biggie... can't forget that.

Hopefully we'll build some positive momentum up leading into all that, I could use it.

Thursday SNGs

2010-02-05T08:15:00.002-05:00

Pretty blah day results-wise, took a very small loss in the HUSTs and took a small hit over ten SNGs on UB tonight. Generally I just got dealt shit but the hands I did get were easy to play. I managed one win and one second and I did so with suckout after suckout (77>99, A6>AT, J9 flopping a straight vs. A7) but I had my fair share on the other end also, obviously.

I'll do my HUST session tonight then dive into more 180s on Stars I think. Tomorrow morning we are supposed to go back to the Science Center for some frog exhibit my wife wants to go to, should be interesting enough. If all goes as planned the rest of the day and night will be full of MTT fun!

Thanks again!

2010-02-03T15:05:00.003-05:00

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on that last hand. After looking at what others have said and doing a little math on my own I'm sure this was a mistake. I'm now thinking TT/AK is what I'd need to go with here and when I do I just need to shove.

Anyway, last night was much more straightforward and overall profitable. The HUSTs went well and I also took 4th and 10th out of ten of the 180-man SNGs. I'll win one of those damn things yet.

Another Hand

2010-02-02T07:47:00.002-05:00

The first one was fun, so let's try another! Middle stages of a 180-man SNG on Stars last night. The limper seems to be bad but able to fold when beat, the raiser is a Supernova, has shown to be solid and for all I know is a grinder of these games. First, the hand:

PokerStars Game #39095419453: Tournament #238607351, $11+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (125/250) - 2010/02/01 21:03:18 ET
Table '238607351 9' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Amzngguy (5692 in chips)
Seat 2: 00hondacbr (5878 in chips)
Seat 4: gaston117 (840 in chips)
Seat 5: Sobizzle21 (10285 in chips)
Seat 6: MisterTroll (1891 in chips)
Seat 7: someonelse (1287 in chips)
Seat 8: RyckyRych (2935 in chips)
Seat 9: Tricker39 (6707 in chips)
Amzngguy: posts the ante 25
00hondacbr: posts the ante 25
gaston117: posts the ante 25
Sobizzle21: posts the ante 25
MisterTroll: posts the ante 25
someonelse: posts the ante 25
RyckyRych: posts the ante 25
Tricker39: posts the ante 25
RyckyRych: posts small blind 125
Tricker39: posts big blind 250
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RyckyRych [8h 8d]
Amzngguy: calls 250
00hondacbr: folds
gaston117: folds
Sobizzle21: raises 750 to 1000
MisterTroll: folds
someonelse: folds
RyckyRych: calls 875
Tricker39: folds
Amzngguy: calls 750
*** FLOP *** [2s 3h Ad]
RyckyRych: bets 1910 and is all-in

My thought process and questions about it are these. First, is 88 strong enough to play in this spot (a hijack raise over a limper)? Now, assuming it is and I'm correct in going with this hand I felt that if I shoved Sobizzle would surely call with the pot odds he were getting, but it would cause the limper to fold.

I decided my best line would be to try and generate some fold equity by trying to stop and go the raiser, thinking that there would be a good chance the limper would fold to a 4x raise and a call... that didn't happen. When the ace hit the flop I wasn't sure if it were good or bad (I really feared the limper had an ace-rag he couldn't let go) but it might still be a good scare card for me as well. So I followed through with my plan and shoved the flop.

You'll see no results here as we don't give a shit about that, I'm more concerned about the thought process here. My main questions are: is 88 strong enough to commit with here and, if so, would simply shoving preflop be a better line?

January's End

2010-01-31T21:28:00.002-05:00

OK, not a bad month to start the year off, was up just short of $1200 for profit and the BR went up about half that so all is well. I reached all my volume goals and I even managed to get that first 4-figure score too. I've learned a little bit more about calling ranges and maybe picked up another trick or two as well.

As far as the last couple of days we had a few things go my way. The HUSTs weren't one of them. One thing I pulled off was I was 4th on the weekly TLB for SNGs on UB this last week, that was worth $100 to me. I won't know for sure until tomorrow but I'm in the top 100 for the month also and that will earn me a seat in the TLB freeroll. I also took 2nd in an 180-man SNG today. Disappointed that I didn't win but $396 is now my best Stars cash to date.

In February I'm hoping to get more of those 180-man SNGs in and see if I can take one down. I'm also hoping the HUSTs come out better this time and we also have the Sunday Million to look forward to on Valentine's Day. Should be a fun ride in any case!

Not Much Happening

2010-01-29T08:28:00.002-05:00

Haven't had the chance to really play this week due to a few family needs, mainly helping the kid with some homework and such. The way the HUSTs have been running that might be a good thing. I can't wait to see how a heater looks in those, wow.

Anyway, tonight I will finish today's HUST session and officially make Iron Man on Full Tilt. With luck I'll play a decent amount tonight and then the weekend should be like normal wit a bunch of games both Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read and/or comment on that hand from the $33 turbo. I hope that something good came out of all the discussion and we all got a little better at the pokah because of it. I think I did, I hope you did too.

SNG Night on UB

2010-01-26T08:20:00.003-05:00

I decided to stick with my first instinct and played 14 of the $22 turbo SNGs on UB last night. As usual the set started a bit rough but we gained plenty of "mo" later on in the evening and did well, even had a couple big suckouts on a few of them. Then again, if you have leverage and shove XX a lot you are bound to get a few of them to go your way. :)

I was able to win five with two seconds out of the set for a $250 profit. The HUSTs were about break even in dollars, good thing I ran well in the $14.50s since the $7.25s were a bloodbath. I also sat in on the first event of the WBCOOP on Stars (the blogger series) and went out fairly early. I started 20 minutes late since I had to come home from work first (it started at 5 PM) but it really didn't matter.

Feels like a Stars evening this time, I'll play a nice set of 45 and 180-man games and see how they go. I think the blogger MTT today is some sort of Omaha game (which I don't play) but I still go in and donk around... maybe I'll get realllllly lucky!

The Weekend Report

2010-01-25T08:18:00.005-05:00

A long weekend it was indeed as I took Friday off from work. We planned on taking Cameron to the Orlando Science Center but he elected to stay up all night and was too tired to go, LOL. So Maggie and I went to see "Legion", it was OK but I could have waited for the DVD. Ended up going to the OSC on Saturday and had a good time running around there for a while.

On the poker front things got a bit exciting a few times. I don't have all the raw data in front of me but we had a few highlights. On Friday night I took 2nd in a $13 turbo MTT on Bodog ($424) which pretty much overcame everything else. Was still a good night of play but not much else happened. I entered the mini-UBOC $13 bounty MTT but didn't get anywhere.

On Saturday we had an "almost" with a 12th in the $10K Gtd, which is a $27.50 MTT on UB. I ended up taking home about $140 but it really could have been a lot more. I got a couple breaks in that thing but ran out of them in the end.

The other item of note for Saturday was that I played the Step 2 ticket on Stars that I had bought with my FPPs, as Jen suggested/tricked me into doing. I won that, earning a Step 3 Ticket ($82 value). Since I really can't do anything with that I had to play it... so I won the Step 4 ticket ($215). Thing is the only way I can use that is to play a MTT with a $215 buy-in... like the Sunday Million. Soooooo.... looks like I'll be taking a shot! So much for being a bankroll nit... thanks Jen, you evil woman.

On to Sunday where I played the mini-UBOC $22 MTT and ended up getting fairly deep. I was a top-ten stack for a good while but then I ran AQ into AK and ended up 98th out of about 1400 players, good only for a cash of about $40 or so. Still, it took a while to play it (maybe 4-5 hours?) and it was a good experience for playing a deeper, slower structure.

The highlight of the weekend was the $33 turbo on FTP, which I played along side the $22 game. I was a non-factor for the first hour of this thing and really I didn't have much going on at all. With about 100 left I was forced to call an all-in from the SB with J5d just because I was already so short that I was getting better than 2:1 to call... then the BB joined in! Up against 88 and 33 I spiked a J on the river to take the pot.

At that point I got hit by the deck for about 15 minutes and was a top ten stack, then later was chipleader with 18 left (36 paid). We got down to four players and that is where things just didn't end up going my way and had to take 4th place out of about 380+ runners. I would have loved to win but my reward was $1068, easily my best cash ever! First would have been around $2900 but I really can't complain about finally taking down a 4-figure score.

To be honest, the competitor in me was pissed off that I didn't win... I actually got up and went outside with the idea of punching the tree in the front yard. Then I looked at the tree, figured I'd lose, and went back inside. MDFR! No need to fight a battle I can't win... well, without a chainsaw or something. Anyway, it wasn't the tree's fault. Once it all settled in I was able to enjoy the score... until the Vikings lost. LOL... can't they hold on the the fucking ball?? Dammit! They are gonna be worse than the Cubs.

All in all a fun weekend for sure. Back to it tonight, not sure what I'll play yet but I'm leaning toward some SNGs on UB right now. We'll see!

Cameron

2010-01-21T21:35:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning and went into the other bedroom and made an unusual discovery. The event seemed, well, quite odd. Perhaps surreal is a better word, I'm still not certain. I didn't know what to make of it after I had realized what I was looking at, this I can certainly tell you. I'd never had anything quite like it in my home before and I was a little scared of what I had seen to be quite honest. What was it, you ask?

A teenager.

Cameron turned 13 today. Thirteen. My son, who once tried to convince me that Pokemon really did exist and had the "photographs" to prove it, is now two years away from a learner's permit. Now, considering that it really doesn't seem that long ago that I was the teenager I have just one question left to answer.

What the fuck happened? :)

So Much For That

2010-01-21T21:04:00.002-05:00

My big winning streak is already over, LOL.

I played my HUSTs tonight and found some pretty bad players. They all kicked my ass (so what does that say about me, I wonder?). I gave back everything I got yesterday, with mafia-like interest. Poker is a really mean game sometimes. The session started a little sour, but turned back to be fairly decent in the middle, nothing serious at the time. Then the bottom just fell out.

There are times, like these sessions here, where you really start to question your faith in the math of the game. You tell yourself that over time you really will win the hands the proper percentage of the time. Of all the hands that you are a 70% favorite in, you'll win 70% of the time. There are no other variables involved once the chips are in, just the cards. I can't alter the outcome by any other way.

Yet when days like this happens and you sit a stew a little afterwards your resolve gets tested. Thoughts like "Maybe I'm just not lucky enough" or "Perhaps in a different life I was a really bad person and I'm paying for it now" or "I wonder if I should have done 'X' today so I'd have karma on my side". If you wanna play along, make up some more on your own... its fun.

So what does one do when things aren't going your way? Well, good thing for me I have these little bouts or run-bad all the fucking time so I'm use to it. First thing I do is exactly what I just did above... I let myself whine, moan, and complain a little bit. I get it out. Why hold it in and let it fester into something worse?

The next thing I do is go back and think about the hamds. In this case its really easy since I know what hands I can push and what I should fold. Pretty easy to tell myself that I'm getting in when I should. When I see that I'm holding to my process, I really can't be mad. Now if I did a few stupid things then I'd have reason to be upset.

Look, I make mistakes, but I haven't made a ton of mistakes within a short period of time in a long time. Even some of the tiny mistakes I've made in the past have been very good things. Some of them end up in three-day-long email exchanges with Jen over some interesting concepts... and it makes me that much better in the long run.

One I realize that I've played my A-game, well... what else can you do? Well, you write a blog about it, might help. You also remember that you've crawled out of the dark places before and you will again as long as you keep bringing your best. I don't quit, I never give up, and I'm not going to start playing reckless, scared, or poorly just because I might get "unlucky" again. I might not know as much as I could but I do know that what I know works... and I'll keep my faith in that.

MFDR. A few of you know what this is, others may not. I stole the phrase from Jen and use it as my rally cry during both the good and the bad. While it came up in a poker context, it really does apply in life as well. What does it mean, you ask?

Make Decisions, Fuck Results.

If you make your best decisions with the information you have at hand, then you've done your job. The End. That's it. Once you made your decision, whatever happens is done. As long as your choice was the best choice you could make, you win. Face it, sometimes we have to chose from bad or worse, but we still have a choice.

Meh, enough of all that. Guess I'll go read my book and try to improve my knowledge some more. Tomorrow night I'll be back to playing as there is a mini-UBOC bounty MTT running and I plan on being in it. I'll probably throw myself into the 45 and 180-man games on Stars as well. If I'm going to start winning again it might as well start tomorrow.

I Knew I Could Do It

2010-01-20T18:17:00.004-05:00

I knew it... I ran well in the $14.50s. Finally.

Went 21-6 in them things for +$196.50, which tempered the fact I had a loss in the $7.25 (-$29.50, 30-32). At least I did it the more profitable way if I'm gonna split like that. I know its a matter of variance, I'd just like it to go my way as much as I feel it should. :)

Anyway, gonna eat and then tackle more of my book tonight. I bought a Step 2 Ticket on Stars since they had such a good deal on them last night (thanks for the heads up on that, Jen) so if I have a little time and I'm itching to play I might see if I can play it.

OK, time for dinner... seeya later.

Quick Update on the Evening

2010-01-19T22:41:00.002-05:00

Busted everything. That is all. :)

Well, I played one $7.25 HUST and won that, so not completely true. Failed in the freeroll (77th) and I failed to cash in four more SNGs on UB, making it 10 in a row. As bad as I've run sometimes I think that might be the very first time I've done that in SNGs. What really hurt was the overall skill of the players I found in them tonight was dreadful... but they get lucky with 87 or A4 sometimes.

The good news is that I played well and got in good the majority of the time. If I didn't do that, people couldn't suck out on me, could they? This bad run hurts my chances for qualifying for the tournament leader board (TLB) this month unless my next ten games are just incredibly the opposite of these last ten. Could happen...

We'll see if this works!

2010-01-19T16:45:00.000-05:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 448661

I Got My Book! Yay!

2010-01-19T15:46:00.003-05:00

Amazon has delivered to me that book "Kill Everyone" that was suggested to me and I've already read the first 20 pages or so while at lunch. Now I'm hooked and I'll have to continue reading it later tonight. In fact, knowing me the way I do, I'll now have to finish the book immediately since I've already started it. Once I get going I can't just lay a book down.

The only problem with that is the fact that I also want to play this week. However, there have already been one or two things that I've read in this thing that has me thinking a bit so I'm thinking that a few days invested in "homework and study" might be a good idea.

I still have the freeroll on Cake tonight so I'll be playing that and a few SNGs for sure but I think I'll sit down and read for my "poker" tonight and the next few days. I'm very interested in seeing how the sections dealing with calling ranges will go along with the work I've already done on that subject. Since I dealt with that last week I really want to get to that while its still fresh in my head.

In other news, go Vikings. I hate the Cowboys, always have, always will. I'm so glad they got crushed. And stop whining about the "late score", if you don't like it, play defense. I was against the Favre signing but so far I've not been proven wrong... hope that holds. I like the Saints but I hope they end up like Dallas this week.

Sometimes, You Just Lose

2010-01-19T10:21:00.002-05:00

Played six SNGs and my freeroll on UB last night, whiffed on all of them. I had no difficult decisions to make, just didn't win the hands when I had to have them. Most of the time I got in ahead, other times I found AA or KK. Some days you just won't win despite your best efforts. I was feeling a bit tired but my mind was nice and clear. I kept the volume down just in case and perhaps it was a good thing I did.

Tonight is a new night however. I'll play my HUSTs when I get home since I decided that I could use an extra 30 minutes of sleep this morning. I'm feeling better but I can still tell that my body is not quite back yet. I'll probably try the SNGs on UB again while I play the other freeroll on Cake tonight. Hopefully I'll post better news next time.

Weekend Report

2010-01-18T13:03:00.004-05:00

Sunday was fun, even if I was still feeling a on the icky side (and still am). I got to play my "majors" but cashed only one, the Stars Quarter Million ($74ish). Overall we did show a profit for the day, about $180 or so if I recall... I'll take it.

I did have some other good things happen, I took 5th in the UB $16.50 turbo for around $55, got a decent cash in the Stars version for around $82, and I won $13 turbo knockout 90-man SNG on Stars, good for $288 plus 12(!) bounties worth $2 a piece. I also took 5th in another one for $76 (with bounties). I also cashed both the Daily Doubles so that was cool to get the bonus for doing that, was about $28 this time.

Seems the hand that bailed me out most was QQ. One time I got into a flop of 832 and was pot committed with two others and got all-in. They had 88 and 33! Turn was a Q, yay me! I also cracked KK in another and took a huge pot later on with QQ in that 90-man I won, which netted two bounties. Now if I can get AA to do all that I'd be in good shape.

Played some HUSTs here and there, including today after the trip to the dentist. I don't know what it is but I'm doing well in the $7.25s but running horribad in the $14.50s. I'm pretty sure I'm actually getting the better end of the cards in those $14s but they keep hitting their 3-outter, LOL. I hope it straightens out soon. Still up $4 in them overall today.

Also jumped in a $6.60 turbo on Bodog and took 5th for $32... was fun since I ended up with a bunch of nits. I was 11th out of 11 and actually threatened the chipleaders before they woke up with monsters on me. I had one guy believing that no matter what he did, he couldn't beat me. Results oriented much, dude?

I thought I'd take today off but I forgot that my rakeback site has its freerolls tonight and tomorrow. Tonight is on UB, tomorrow night is Cake. I might have to take a nap since I got next to zero sleep this morning. Damn dentist appointments.

Slow Day

2010-01-16T21:58:00.002-05:00

Still not feeling well so I decided to go easy. Good thing too since not much went right. Had another one of those bad runs in the HUSTs and of course it decided to punish me in the $14.50s. Played the VIP Freeroll and bubbled (AQ<88) and got either 3-outted or ran into monsters in all the other games. No regrets though, all were easy decisions.

I may play some later tonight, probably do some HUSTs after 1am for the Happy Hour points at least. Tomorrow is going to be a full day for sure, hope I'm rested if not healthy. As long as my mind is sharp and clear like it was today I'll be fine.

Hello Silver Star

2010-01-15T23:53:00.004-05:00

I felt decent enough to sit down and get in enough games to qualify for Silver Star on Poker Stars. I played five games each of the $12 45-man and 180-man games to get there. I was blanked on the 180s (thats at least 18 straight too, eww) but I did get a win and a 2nd in the 45s to make it a profitable evening.

As far as the games this morning, I min-cashed a 45-man but that was it. Overall Friday came out to be a decent day. I still have to adjust my calling ranges but for the most part its worked out pretty well. I'm pretty happy with what I've worked on in that department.

OK, I should go to bed as I'm beat. Saturday should be like normal but Sunday oughta be a full day as well so I need to be ready.

The Weekend Has Started

2010-01-15T09:38:00.003-05:00

I'm home from work today, not a planned day off like Monday is however. Feeling a bit on the yucky side. I got something from Cameron I guess... all I know is I didn't sleep well.

Anyway, the HUSTs have been going well overall. This morning I almost broke even but played well. Last night I played ten $12 45-man turbos and got skunked. Had a pure bubble when AQh lost to AJ and had a few others get close. I was really happy with my play, especially some of the calls I made. My work on calling ranges came into play about four times where I decided to call in spots I would have formerly folded. The great thing was I had the best hand all four times! Too bad I didn't win them all.

One game was a bit unlucky. I was chipleader and got AA in with a guy's TT, but he rivered a straight. I chipped back up and got KK in the SB and shoved... same guy as before was in the BB. He woke up with AA. Ugh. :)

Playing on Stars right now... getting killed as we speak. I don't think I've won a hand yet. I might just finish these six off and take a nap or work some more on those calling ranges. In any case I'll be playing some tonight and plenty on the weekend. Let's hope for good things!

A Night Off

2010-01-13T20:51:00.003-05:00

Ended up taking the night off. Went to the bookstore to get "Kill Everyone", a poker book that was suggested to me by Jen but they didn't have it. Amazon, here I come. Had dinner afterwards and by that time I decided my XBox missed me... so I'll play some hockey after I finish this.

I did do some poker related stuff as I've been playing around with the math involved in calling ranges in MTTs. I know I've always been too tight when calling and I decided for my homework I was going to fix that as best I can. That book has something to do with that as well. Hopefully I'll have it by next week.

As far as the HUSTs I was $111 up today (50-36 combined) so it was a good day. I ran pretty well against one guy in particular (10-2) and had another really nice guy stick around long enough to make a little profit. I usually don't use chat when I play but I wanted to make friends with this person so he wouldn't leave. :)

Tomorrow I'll definately play... just don't know what. I think I'll mix it up by playing on Stars early then maybe jumping on UB for a set of SNGs if Marc is on. Until then, have fun!

Good Day Today

2010-01-12T22:21:00.002-05:00

Finished up the HUSTs, broke even on the remainer of the games but still was up $118.25 for the set. Now if I can only string a few more days like that I'll feel better.

Decided to stick with the SNG plan tonight and I did well. Out of 14 games I won three, came in second twice and also took a third. I played the Bodog $16.50 turbo MTT as well but came up empty there.

Overall, a really nice profit for the day. I think I still missed at least two spots in my SNGs, maybe even three, thought two were really close. One hand I just plan under-estimated how much I needed to acquire chips and folded a hand I needed to take the chance with. Hopefully I'll keep it in mind for the next time it comes up... which it will.

Not sure if I'll play anything other than the HUSTs tomorrow, depends on how the evening goes. I might find a little time to get in another quick set of SNGs on UB.. I may have a chance to hit the weekly TLB with a strong showing. I'll let you know how it goes.

OK, off to bed. I just got in trouble for still being up as I told Maggie I was coming to bed... umm, 45 minutes ago. :)

Fun times

2010-01-12T09:31:00.003-05:00

Had a great time at Marc's last night despite losing HU to Robin when I had about a 6:1 chip lead at one point... I can never beat her. She could be using Uno cards and I'd get pwned every time. Still $10 to the good on the evening.

The HUSTs went very well, still have a quarter of the session to go but I was very happy with it this morning. Tonight I'll close that up and play the SNGs on UB. I was gonna do those on Wednesday but I've changed my mind.

Another thing I've decided on is how I plan on using my time. I want to play as much as I can but lets face it, I still have a job and a family to balance as well. While I have the support of my family and I've not had any time issues yet I've come to see that structuring a tight schedule just isn't that feasible.

For example, I decided to take my "off day" last night to go out (sure I played poker, but not the same thing really). My wife had forgotten about it and while had no trouble with it at all she did show a little disappointment that her planned "Wii Family Night" on my usual off day on Wednesday wouldn't include me this time. To be honest, that sucks. We don't have so much free time as it is to really do a whole lot of stuff like that... can I really just cast it aside because I jot down some schedule for poker? I think not.

Also, something else I had already realized but didn't actually plan on was study. I'm still growing as a poker player and I need to set some time for read, review, or otherwise to improve my play. Just like my son I need to set aside some time to do "homework", whether its reviewing a hand history or trying to learn something new.

So what I've decided is to simply go back to what I was doing before as far as when I played, just play more often is all. I still have those volume goals and I'll keep them. I'm still planning on playing a schedule similar to what I have set down... it just won't be set in stone. If I want/need to take 2 or 3 days off in a week, I will. If I have time to play, I will... whether its for 1 hour or 11 hours. As long as I play, does it really matter when?

Some time spots won't change... the weekends are pretty much staying as is since I've been doing that anyway (and its the best time to play to be honest). The weeknight evenings are the ones I'm a little more concerned with, Sundays to a lesser extent. But in the end why should I restrict myself so much? In the long run I'll ensure that the game remains as fun to play as it always has been this way... instead of making it feel like a grind.

We'll see how it goes from here... I think it'll be just fine. Wish me luck.

The Weekend Report 1/10/10

2010-01-10T20:05:00.004-05:00

Not too shabby overall. I came back and posted a profit for the week (though small) and had a few close calls for some big wins on Stars. I mixed in a few 180s and took a 3rd for $235.62 and also another 6th for $99 there. Later that night I had a deep run in the $27.50 turbo on Stars but ended up in 13th for $265.50 instead. Not bad for a 1000+ player tourney. I at least have a new career high cash on Stars again, yay. I also had another 13th but in the $22 turbo on Full Tilt, was a smaller game with about 400 runners but took $74 or so in that.

The biggest heartbreak was probably on Cake in the $33 bounty, where I was a top ten stack with 62 left (60 paid) and I got JJ in the big blind. A shorter stack limped, then another big stack (who barely had me covered) made a solid raise in late position. I wanted to vomit. I knew that I was ahead of his range, plus I did have enough chips to make him fold some of the hands he might try to raise with but my gut just didn't like it. However, I knew I had to shove JJ here, otherwise what am I doing playing in these things?

Soooo... I shoved, he called with QQ. I flopped a J but it was all hearts (he had the Qh) and the turn was another heart. I missed my boat/quads draw and busted. I did get four bounties for $10 each so I still came out ahead, but if I hold with that set I'd have been chip leader in that thing. Oh well, maybe another day I'll have AK of hearts instead.

Today I didn't play some many HUSTs but I was up in them overall. I decided to try the 90-man turbo knockout SNGs they have on there and took a 6th and a 9th (they pay top 9) out of ten games. They give you 3000 chips to start so they do take a little more time than the Stars 45s/180s do to get to push-fold but they were fun anyway.

OK, tomorrow is going to be an off day since my friend Marc is having a friendly home game that evening. I always enjoy going over there as all the players are good fun people to sit down with to play a little holdem with. That will make Wednesday a play day for my SNGs on UB while I'll play on Stars Tuesday and Thursday, probably Friday also. We'll see how the week goes!

Saturday HUSTs

2010-01-09T14:20:00.002-05:00

Played a session of HUSTs, a little smaller than usual since I will be playing MTTs later on FTP and its likely a good thing I didn't play a full set. I was under seige all day. The 7.25s were OK, lost $10 (20-20) but the 14s were just horrid, I went down $165.50 in those (6-17).

I reviewed the set and while my luck was fairly bad I also ran into quite a few big hands today so I was gonna end up losing anyway. But when you run into the monsters and then on top of that don't run well with your good hands, well, thats how you go 6-17 I guess, LOL. I'm sure I'll be on the other end of it sooner of later and hopefully more often. Hasn't happened yet but I know the odds are in my favor.

Time to play some big MTTs today since its Saturday! I'll play the Daily Doubles, most of the turbos I'm rolled for, and a few other things with posiibly a few 180s mixed in to plug the holes during the slower times. As always, good or bad, I'll have a blast. Let go see what happens.

Friday in the Books

2010-01-09T00:41:00.003-05:00

Finished off the HUST set and was up $62.25 when I was done. Actually made profit in both buyin levels to boot.

Tackled Stars again and started just like I left off last night. Had AA lose to AK, QQ to JT, and a couple other spots when I was at least an 85% favorite and lost anyway. I found it difficult to comprehend actually, LOL.

Ah, but fortunes do change. I finally had a few things hold up and caught a couple breaks as well. I won my first $12 45-man game and cashed in two others out of eight played. I also cashed three times out of the eight 180s I played so I showed a profit in both games tonight. Total profit for Friday was $240.07 and I could use it. Yay me.

Tomorrow is MTT day so it can go both ways (as usual). I'm ready as always, hopefully I'll have good things to say about it next time.

On a non-poker note: I hear it might SNOW in Orlando tomorrow?? WTF is snow? A few things have to happen but its possible we could see a little sleet and/or some light flurries sometime Saturday. Nice... I'll let you know how my snow angel looks.

Thursday Update

2010-01-08T11:47:00.002-05:00

Ugh.

As a few of you know when I run bad, its ugly. That was the case on Stars yesterday. I know... whats new. I tend to run horrible on Stars. I cashed once out of 18 games, a 7th in a 180-man for $69 or so. As is typical, I shoved 22 and found 99 had called me. The flop had blanks, then I hit a 2 on the turn! Yay! But in grand Rycky style a 9 fell on the river.

Of course I lost nearly every race (I usually had the pair). In fact I couldn't win with a pair for my life. Queens might as well been 72o since the Ace (or even the King) would pair up for my opponent every time. I got aces once... lost to 88 on the bubble (yeah, he rivered me). Brutal.

But I came out of it happy. Yes, sounds weird, but I played really well. I got my chips in good (and so often) it was sickening. I just couldn't win the hands. I've been saying I need to make a few more calls in certain situations and I was able to do it... and I was right in getting them in ahead almost every time.

Of course, over 18 games it can't be all bad. I trusted a few reads on some river calls and got paid off. I was aggressive on the bubble of several games and got a few loose calls by worse hands. I was patient when I was short-stacked and waited for my spots. I even emailed a couple hands to Jen for her to check out and I came back A-OK on them (which really helped my confidence this morning). As long as I can keep the discipline I'm sure that I'll find a shade of luck on occasion.

Anyway, I was down slightly in the HUSTs and down about $150 more in the Stars session so it caused my BR to drop under $5000 now. That hurts but I've been through the swings before... just not so quickly. The increased volume of games will certainly do it and my perception of the ups and downs has to change as well. I'll get use to it... its only been a week!

This morning the HUSTs went fairly well as I was up in the 14.50s more than I was down in the 7.25s this time. I still have a little more to play to finish off the set. Tonight I'll tackle Stars again since I simply refuse to let the doom-switch keep me down... I'll break that bitch yet. I just hope I do it soon.

Report for 1/5/10 PM

2010-01-05T22:14:00.002-05:00

I completed my HUST session and was able to keep up the momentum from this morning. I finished in the black in both of the BIs for about a $90 total profit. Let's hope I can keep trending up in those.

Tonight I played 12 of the 180-mans and eight 45s and ended up down in both for a total of $140 or so. Made a FT in a 180 (8th for $51.48) and had two min-cashes (12th and 13th for $23.76 each). I got skunked in the 45-man games however, the closest I got to a cash was 11th (7 pay in case you don't already know). I'm really good at running into KK I guess.

Took around three hours to play them all, again better than I expected. I have to admit that I really do enjoy the play in these games. I can't wait to see how I feel when I catch a few timely breaks along to way and win something. I'm also about halfway to Silver Star status as well, a nice little perk for all the volume I'm putting in now. Hopefully I'll get there soon enough to be able to play in the freerolls they have every week.

Speaking of freerolls, this Saturday I get to play the Bronze Iron man freeroll. I think it has around 1300 runners... I wonder how many of them will actually show up. I'm looking forward to it in any case.

Tomorrow is a planned off day as most Wednesdays will be, however I might still run my HUST set since it doesn't take that much of my time in the morning. Most likely I'll be firing up my XBox and playing some hockey or CoD/MW2 with the kid. If I don't post tomorrow I'll catch up with you on Thursday.

Monday Update

2010-01-05T15:06:00.002-05:00

Been a little busy with getting back to work (inventory) and haven't had time otherwise to get to the blog until now.

Monday's HUSTs were disappointing. I did OK in the 7.25s but got killed in the 14.50s, can't recall exactly how much I was down ($128?). I did manage to almost break even on the day with a good set of SNGs on UB. Played 16 games and won three of them with three seconds and a third added on. I may play another set on SNGs later in the week if I feel I have a shot at the weekly TLB.

This morning the HUSTs went better as I was up in both BIs this time. I'll play a few more when I get home since I ran a little short of time this morning, hopefully I'll be able to build on the morning session. I'll let you know the final tally when I complete the set.

Tonight I think I'll be hitting the 45 and 180-man games on Stars. Here's to hoping that our results this session will be better than Sunday's results.

Sunday at Poker Stars

2010-01-03T19:23:00.002-05:00

My first Sunday playing on Stars was ugly, I got killed today. I did go deep in the $7.50 turbo MTT but ran into a few monsters at went out 25th for around $33. The rest of my gaes were all 180-man SNGs. I played 20 of them but cashed only once, a 9th for $33.66 in a $12 game. I played mostly the $12s but did try a $36 one but it didn't do much. I played well again so that's what matters most. I'm learning who the regulars are and I've also confirmed that a lot of people that play in thse things are awful... I hope their luck doesn't hold up though. :)

In any event, my goal of increased volume was achieved and it was a lot easier and more fun than I thought it would be. I've already paid myself a cashout for about $168 now and that was just for a weekend worth of play. We'll see how much we get next Sunday with a full week of volume under my belt.

Tomorrow I'll be on UB playing the $22 SNGs from about 7:30 to 10:30pm or so. I'll be interested to see how many I can get in.

Saturday MTTs 1/2/10

2010-01-03T03:57:00.002-05:00

Its late but I'll post while I'm still here. Didn't do as well as I hoped, down about $250 or so for the day but I did win the $16.50 turbo on UB for around $168, so the first victory of the year is notched. Took 2nd in a couple very small games also but for the most part nothing really big happened.

Played my HUSTs after I was done and got murdered for the tune of another $146.75 in the hole (47-64). When I run bad, I run really bad. :)

I felt I played very well all night. I honestly can't think of one spot that I really want to say "I wish I could have that over again" and that is the goal each and every time I play. Maybe next time the cards go my way also.

Well, guess I'll try to go to bed. When I wake up we'll go after it again by playing more of the Stars 45 and 180-man SNGs and perhaps a few select MTTs. The guys at www.pokerology.com are having a game as well so I'll be sure to give that a whirl as well. Until then, poof.

Early Morning HUSTs

2010-01-02T02:43:00.003-05:00

Played my heads-up games since I was still awake and turned in a good set, up $29.50 (57-49) this time. I stopped a little short of where I will usually play since I know I'll make up the rest of the points I need for Iron Man by playing tournaments Saturday.

I also threw in a few Step SNGs on Absolute, I had some tickets for a few games that I hadn't played yet. If I'm gonna run bad at all, I'd rather do it here. It wasn't terrible but I did lose more than I won. I only have one ticket and a nickel (yes, $.05) to show for it. I probably "lost" like $1.50 equivilent so its not game breaking. :)

Anyway, guess I'll go to bed. Got a lot of playing to do tomorrow (err, I mean today, oh whatever). :)

First Day on the Grind

2010-01-01T18:14:00.002-05:00

Well, for the most part anyway.

I decided to play the multi-table SNGs on Stars, all at the $12 level since they were filling fast enough. I played for a shade over 3 hours this afternoon and got into 17 games: eight 180-man, eight 45-man, and one 90-man that took forever to fill. I was mostly 5-tabling since I kept waiting for that 90-man to come in as my #6 but it never really happened. I had 6 up for a short time and had no problems keeping up... in fact I found it easier to do than the 9-man SNGs.

I lost the 90-man eventually but overall I fared well. I cashed in two of the 45-man games, taking 3rd in one for $77 and fourth in another for $55. Only hit once in the 180s, but that was good for $158.40 and a fourth place finish. I ended up shoving BvB with T4... and the BB woke up with KK, yay me. In any case, I finally have my first 3-digit cash on Stars. I'm glad to get that out of the way early, LOL.

For the set I was up $86.40 and for the day (so far) we're $141.40 to the good. I'm not sure if I'll get to play some more later or not (likely not) but I might get a few more in later this evening. I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy New 2010 and all that stuff

2010-01-01T12:46:00.004-05:00

First off, lets all have a great 2010, shall we? Now that we've all agreed on that point we can get on with it.

Played my first full session of HUSTs early this morning while chatting with Stu and it was a good start: $55 profit (64-52), all in $7.25 games. Took a little less than an hour to complete. The best thing was I had more fun doing it than I guessed I would... that's a good sign.

Not sure just how much I'll end up playing today. I'll get in a few hours at worst but I originally thought I might do a full MTT session. However, Maggie (my wife to those uninitiated) might have plans for me later on so I might keep it to a normal length session. Anyway, I've got Saturday coming up tomorrow so I'll get in plenty of MTTs then.

Past, Present, and Future

2009-12-31T16:38:00.002-05:00

OK, I said I would give a rundown of how 2009 went for me but I'll try to do it without getting overly detailed or turning this into a brag/look-at-me post. Those of you that have known me for a while probaly know I'm fairly modest in reality and in fact I'm still not convinced I'm all that good at poker. Still, I think it;ll be good for me to review where I started from and up to where I am now. Perhaps this should have been done sooner but but better late than never.

Like most, I started by dumping a few bucks onto a poker site and playing here and there. I started with limit cash games and did fine. As with most things I start to do I wanted to "do it right" and learn how to play properly. I found a few sites on the internet and even joined a teaching site called Cardrunners for a couple months. There I learned the basics of 6-max No-Limit cash games and did well playing those also, though I still only played a low volume.

I had seen a couple videos on playing SNGs on Cardrunners and I realized I might like that game more than cash. Eventually I decided to start playing them on Absolute Poker and started at the very bottom with the .60 games. I did very well in them, more likely because the competition sucked more than it was my own skill... I probably was the only guy that a least had a clue.

Naturally I wanted to improve and be able to play the bigger games... like the $5 ones. This is where I contacted Jennifear and had my first lesson with her. Four hours later I realized there was a lot more to this poker than I had ever realized. From this point on is where I began to really take the game more seriously. Lucklily for me I found a great friend in Jen, a friendship that has gone beyond just the poker aspect of things. I'm happy it ended up that way too.

I took another formal lesson with Jen in July of 2008 and this became the "Aha!" moment of my poker career. We covered a lot of the "games beyond the cards" stuff at this point and it just made a lot of things that we had talked about fall into place. There is still a ton of stuff that I can see I still don't fully understand but it was at this point my eyes were really open up wide about how the game works.

In September of 2008 Jen showed me the cashout plan that I've been using and which I've outlined in my plan. The structure of it was a bit looser than it is now but it still gave me an idea of where I was, where I could go, and better yet gave me an idea of how much I could cash out based strictly on how much I played. I never played above my head before, in fact the plan actually helped me understand more where my top-end game actually was (I tend to play too low sometimes... which is better than too high, but whatever).

My bankroll had climbed to around $750 from the $100 I started with at this point. As I played more and used the plan I had I managed to not only cash out some of my winnings but grew the roll to just short of $1300 by the end of 2008. A good bit of this was the fact I really played more games than I ever had previously, but I had learned a lot about the game as well.

That brings us to now. Early 2009 was a struggle to be honest, I had doubts as to what I was doing and really had to wonder if I was good at all. Despite that I kept at it and still showed small profits for both January and February and even had won my first MTT during this time. March thru July proved to me that I had some idea of what I was doing and even managed a few larger scores, moving my bankroll to around $3000 with help from a $600 cash in one of the Daily Doubles on FTP at the end of May. Because of the bigger bankroll I was now playing bigger buy-in games than ever before.

In early August I won the Bodog $16.50 turbo for the first time which pushed the BR over $4000. At this time things went south for a while and showed me for the first time that the bigger games truly can produce bigger swings. When you are playing $1 SNGs, a loss of $5 in a day deoesn't seem bad. However, when you sit down and play $500 worth of tournaments overa weekend and end up down most of that it can get downright sickening the first time you suffer throught it.

Come November I saw my roll drop to under $2800 again. Fortuneately I was still learning what I could from the game and keeping to my "MDFR" mantra. I was constantly checking my play with Jen, Stu, and others to be sure I wasn't the cause of my own demise. Things started to turn around for me at this point and during Thanksgiving weekend I had a huge swing in my favor, winning three different MTTs and ended up profiting close to $2000 in those couple days. Calling this a "confidence builder" might be an understatement but it sure did help knowing that by playing your best all the time, everytime, eventually your luck will catch up with your skill... at least that's what I hope it is.

December started rough but I stuck to it as always and found another big MTT win (as mentioned in my blog already). Which brings us to now, where I stand at a bankroll for a little over $5800. To be honest, I thought getting to about $3000 would have been terrific. Nearly doubling that was far above what I could wrap my mind around at this time last year. In 2008 I had a profit of around $1500, it was $6100 this year, a good chunk of that came in one weekend! Playing tournaments is like that, at least now that I've been through both the ups and downs of it I'll be able to handle them when they come again... and they will.

So here I am, looking to up the ante again by increasing my volume even more than I have in the past. The swings will be bigger but I understand that now. I'll be able to handle whatever comes my way because I have a plan in place. I'm excited about the new year and the challenges it will bring. Let's just hope I can meet those challenges.

Wish me luck! The fun starts in about seven hours. Weeeeeee!

By the way...

2009-12-31T12:24:00.002-05:00

I went into my options and I think I have it set up where anyone can leave a comment, it might have been set to where you had to have an account to do so previously. If you have something to say (good, bad, indifferent, silly, whatever) feel free to do so.

I always listen to advice and I'm always open to answering questions of all types. If you would like to know something, just ask me.

Change in The Plan

2009-12-31T12:07:00.003-05:00

I've updated my Plan, you can see what I've changed in the first post on this blog. I've decided to make the multi-table SNGs my main grind as opposed to the SNGs. As a few suggested to me, when it comes down to what matters the most is dollars per hour of profit, not so much how much I can cashout in a period of time.

With that in mind I'll be concentrating much more on the 45-man, 180-man, and "larger field" games. This also means I'll probably be trying to play more MTTs on Sundays since I do have more time than on a weekday night. This change will let me play a few smaller scheduled MTTs during the week like the Bodog 16.50T at 7:30. That's usually no larger than a 180-man SNG so I can play that easily.

You will notice I removed the cashout expectation section in the plan. I figured that section was really pointless, especially with the new structure. Some things just can't be plotted out from point to point. The main goal is to play to my planned volume and play it as best I can. From there we're gonna let the chips fall where they may. This strategy has worked for me up until now... why change it?

In the end, I guess I'm really only changing two things. First, I've decided to commit more of my time to poker and I've merely managed my available time to try and maximize my effort. This blog is the second. I'm putting myself out there for everyone to see with the idea of adding more accountability. This is for my own benefit of course. I hope you enjoy what I write but as most humans people tend to try a little harder to do what they say they are going to do when you tell the world what you are going to do... I'm guessing I'm no different.

Those two changes have me pretty excited. I think it'll be a lot of fun playing those games and I've also enjoyed writing this blog... maybe I'm a bit more outgoing than I thought. Well, behind a keyboard maybe. All I know is I can sure ramble on in this thing.

OK, good enough for now. Tonight I'll let everyone know how 2009 went, mostly so I have a place to put the info as my own data backup in the event my stuff goes kapooie or something. Just a warning, I sometimes go overboard with the stats and info so it might be a boring/tedious read. I'll try to keep it simple.

Winding Down

2009-12-30T17:41:00.003-05:00

Today might be the last day I'll play for 2009 as I've come to a good stopping point in regards to any bonuses I've cleared and such. I wrapped up my status on UB today and cleared a bonus along the way. The games didn't go quite as well, I was doing fine for most of the day but took two serious beats in my last SNG and ended up down $20 for the set. Played 14 games, four seconds and two thirds and went zero for my last four, which hurt. Played really well, dominated all the bubbles with my aggressive play... but I don't win showdowns I guess.

Decided to throw in a few HUSTs on FTP since I was really close to clearing another $10 of a bonus there and it went well. Was up $18.25 (7-4) in the $7.25 games and even won a $14.50 that I accidently entered for $13.50 more profit, go me! For the day that brought me to $11.75 to the good, not including the bonuses. I'll take it.

If I play at all it might be some stuff on Stars, maybe some of the multi-table SNGs that I've talked about making my main grind in 2010. In fact, I've pretty much decided that is the way I'm gonna go. I may take a little time to redo my 2010 Poker Plan with that change, but it really doesn't matter. The only thing that does matter is that I get in the volume and do the best I can. If I can do that everything else falls into place. I'm really looking forward to it!

All I need to do is tie up the loose ends for 2009. I was able to finish transfering all my 2009 data from Poker Tracker 2 into PT3 so the entire year is in one place now. I'm glad I did, I found a couple data entry boo-boos along the way. I'll go ahead and request a payout with my rakeback site, claim any points-for-cash that I can on UB and Bodog, and then go ahead and run all the numbers and see how 2009 fared for me. I'll make my final cashout for the year and start nice and fresh on Friday the 1st of January. I'll give a nice rundown of all that for my final entry for the year.

Until then, its off to do something else. Probably the XBox. Who knows. :)

Tuesday afternooon SNGs

2009-12-29T17:17:00.002-05:00

Took advantage of the "Power Hour" on UB for the double points and played another 10-game set of $22T SNGs. At first a saw a couple regulars but toward the end they seemed to go away... either that or I was lucky enough to miss their games. I'd rather play people who don't have an idea of what they are doing.

Was a solid session, picked up three wins, a second, and a third for $140 to the good. Need another set of ten to keep my status, I'll likely do that tomorrow afternoon. Looks like I might just have a shot at the monthly TLB top 100 and qualifying for the freeroll again... we'll see. I had a bad stretch of games a couple weeks ago that might have put a hole in my chances. If things look close I'll throw another set of games on Thursday also.

I hear NHL 10 calling me again... seeya. :)

Tuesday AM Report

2009-12-29T01:28:00.002-05:00

Yay! Finally a winning session in the HUSTs! Was up $20.50 (17-13) to finally break the losing streak. This also secures Bronze level of Iron Man so I don't have to play them for a couple days if I choose.

I should go to bed but I'm watching my son play Modern Warfare 2 and having a blast... I played a little with him earlier and I just might join him. I really should go to bed however...

Rycky's Poker Blog

So, how ya been?

Back to the Bar

I'm still here...

Baby Steps

March On

Middle of February Report

Goodbye, January

Knocked Down

Mid-January Update

Getting Serious

2011 Has Arrived... Now What?

Almost Ready...

November

Taking Time To Update

Mini Deep Stack MTT at Daytona Beach Poker Room Report

Ouch, that hurt.

Whoops

Labor Day Weekend

Yes, I know...

Found A Big Win, Yay!

Let's Play A Hand

Bye July

More updating

July 4th Weekend Recap

End of June

Father's Day Update

Weekend Report, June 5-6th, 2010

Can I Start June Over, Please?

On To June

Tuesday Night results

Breaking Even

Is This Thing On?

More Fun Times

Catching Up

Simple Update

Chugging Along

My Video Is Up

Grinded Out SilverStar, Yay!

The Big Weekend Report, End of March 2010 Edition

Big Weekend

Fun With Aces

Reversal Of Fortune

More Reading Than Playing Again

Quick Update

Another Weekend In The Books

Yay Me!

Tuesday SNG Night

March Goals

Weekend Report Time

A Quick Update

Rethinking My Plan Again

Catching Up

The Winning Streak Ends

Sidetracked

Tuesday SNGs

Meanwhile....

That Didn't Take Long

The Big Weekend Has Started

Something Different

Some Success in the HUSTs

Home Game Monday

The Weekend Is Over

Thursday SNGs

Thanks again!

Another Hand

January's End

Not Much Happening

SNG Night on UB

The Weekend Report

Cameron

So Much For That

I Knew I Could Do It

Quick Update on the Evening

We'll see if this works!

I Got My Book! Yay!

Sometimes, You Just Lose

Weekend Report

Slow Day

Hello Silver Star