Moved Blog to Cardrunners

I decided to move my blog to Cardrunners for many reasons. I'd like to become more active in the Cardrunner community as I've realized it is a valuable learning tool. I also enjoy looking through the other Cardrunner blogs and the new CR site has an awesome interface and publishing the blog is much easier than here on Blogspot. They also have a cool hand replayer tool which I haven't really checked out yet, but plan on utilizing.

Anyway, from now on all blog updates have a new home here.

Thanks for checking in once in a while!

SEND ME TO AUSTRALIA BABY!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I nailed an Aussie Million Package in the FT tourney. 41 players, 2 packages. I tracked the tourney (as well as other tourneys) in this thread on the PCH forum the whole way. There are tons of hands posted, especially at the final table. I was barely surviving the whole tourney until 5 handed.

I'm so pumped. My stomach is still in knots. My wife and I cheered like a couple children during the final table. I think I probably let out a couple squeal-type cheers. But who cares, I'M GOING TO THE AUSSIE MILLION! It starts January 14th, so I have some planning to do!

I had a feeling I was going to do something tonight (as you could tell by my ealier post)! I guess I've predicted that before with no results, but this time, ship it! This doesn't really help my bankroll since I'll probably spend all the $3k spending money on plane tickets to Los Angeles, food, and other stuff in Melbourne, but I'll take it!!!!

See that message board thread above for any other comments and stuff. Thanks to everyone who cheered me on and have sent congratulations.

Australia baby, YAH!

Tonight I will win

Still bleh. Down almost another $2k in my 100k hand thing. Not sure how many hands I'm at, but not more than a few thousand. Spent a few hundred on tourneys too, didn't make anything except a $1k Aussie Million Qualifier seat which runs in an hour. The Aussie Million package on Tilt looks super awesome, so that would be great to win. I might try for it a little more even if tonight doesn't work out.

I made $250 from Angst on a 33% horsie from a final table he made. I know what you're thinking, NO WAY, right? No, no, I'm serious. Way to go Angst!

I decided to push my real estate licensing exam back to Nov. 5th to give myself a little breathing room and I'm not ready yet. There are a few things coming up this weekend I want to enjoy and not be worrying about the exam. One is Owen's 2nd birthday party on Sunday and the other is a big Halo 8 player system link (with 2 projectors setup) ass-kicking-fest in my basement. For anyone who doesn't like/play Halo or any video games, I know everyone involved sound like complete nerd spazzes. But, if you like Halo, sounds awesome, right?!?

So tonight I've just sat down to a couple tournaments and have a few more planned, including the $1k Aussie Million Qualifier. I've actually had a decent start in a Tilt $150 double stack tourney, was at 2nd in chips with 390 more players a few minutes ago. Though I'm in for 4 buy-ins in the Stars $109 rebuy losing every coinflip so far. I'm also going to fire up some Mansion cash game and give it another try. I noticed quite a bit more traffic there lately since the launch of their new software and promotions.

I want to book a win tonight. I don't care if it's in cash game, a nice tourney score, an Aussie Million seat, or whatever. I want something that doesn't suck to go in the records. This has been an ugly 2 month dry spell and I want it to end tonight.

I will update again later if I get a chance...

Start of 100k hand challenge

Like I've mentioned before, I've decided to focus my next 100k hands on $5/$10 NL across multiple sites. I've done this more to establish a starting over point since the past almost two months has been pretty "meh".

Unfortunately, this challenge has started out a little slow too, though today I'm rebounding a bit. For example, this hand just happened a few minutes ago. I'm also 2nd in chips with 13 left as I write this in the FT 2am Hundo tourney ($109, started with 172 players).

I hope I place well in this tourney because I can't catch a break in it every night I play. Twice since the last update I've flopped top set with KK and lost to draws. And this doesn't help either. I'm probably about 1/10 all-in with AK (until tonight I guess, just won a nice one with it) which is a go-hand usually in a turbo.

Anyway, my 100k challenge is $4300 down so far, but I've taken a number of ugly beats for all-in pots. I've also made some very bad river calls. I'm thinking of my opponent's range and convincing myself they always have one of the hands I'm beating. Not good. I'm really trying to focus on big turn/river bets and thinking "Am I really winning?" and not making frustrated calls because "they couldn't have got there again!".

But tonight I'm up $1500 (which I didn't count in total losses above) on the one cash table I have open and in the middle of the crapshoot of a final table in the FT Hundo (6th in chips, 8 left, I need a couple hands soon cuz I can double up into 2nd!).

And geezus, of course, my Ace down to bullshit flat tire (J4) trying to steal my BB. I'd be a healthy 3rd in chips with 6 left if I hold on the river. So annoying. I collect $645, which looks like crap compared to $4700 for 1st. Bah.

Had the family over for Thanksgiving today. Actually had a pretty relaxing day as my wife took care of everything and we had a rockin' dinner. My 2 year old son and 3 year old nephew are hilarious together, total evening's entertainment.

Feelin' okay about poker. Things still are not going that great, but I'm feeling level-headed about the beats I've been taking and realistic about the bad plays. I think things will turn around soon. Even though I won't have much chance to play before my real estate exam on the 15th, maybe I can pull the 100k challenge back into the positives before next update.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you had a good one.

Real Estate & Monopoly & United Airline bastards

There are 3 assignments per phase (total of 3 phases) in the real estate licensing course. I just wrapped up assignment 1 yesterday, then also did ALL of assignment 2 & 3. Ship it. Now all I gotta do is read a bunch before my Oct 15th exam. Breeze....

On a related note (Monopoly is related to real estate right?!?), I'm addicted to McDonald's Monopoly. In fact, I think I'll need to have all my family meals at McDonald's until mid-November when the promotion ends. Please send me all your online Monopoly codes, I need more, MORE! I hope the MAF (Monopoly Addictions Foundation) doesn't raid McDonalds because there is obviously some hardcore and unhealthy gambling going on there. They can call it Project Kaleidoscope, oh wait, that one is taken. Too bad, thought it sounded cool. Ronald and Hamburglar got what's comin' to them...

I booked my Oct 19th flight to Cleveland yesterday. Can't wait to pick up the Infiniti G35 I bought! I saved the flight itinerary on Expedia a week ago, went back yesterday, and the flight went up $150. I can spend $100s on poker tournaments and such, and not bat an eye when I get knocked out, but having to spend an extra $150 on something like this (which WAS cheaper only a week ago) drives me insane. Why is that? Anyway, I booked a different flight that gets into Cleveland 5 hours later and pushes my deadline to getting to Canterbury tighter, but whatever, United Airlines bastards aren't springin' me for another $150, I could lose that playing roll 'em or something else more constructive.

Rather Uninteresting

Sorry I haven't updated in a little while. I just haven't had much of anything very exciting to report about poker.

I haven't played much in the past week, and when I have it's been very sporatic. A bunch of random tourneys, including some WCOOP events. I don't even feel like talking about tourneys because they just put me on tilt. I know I can improve a lot, but I've honestly just been running horrible in the pivotal pots in the middle/late stages of any decent sized buy-in tourney. All my premium top 5 hands are getting torn to shreds.

I qualified in a $320 satellite for a $2600 WCOOP seat on Stars. It was fun to play, but I was super card dead. I actually think I survived as long as I could have, though I hated going out with my AK being dominated by KK, but I was honestly getting a little shortstacked. Earlier in the tournament, which made the biggest pot I won, I made a pretty huge call with Q high here:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1549458

I've gotten into playing a few shots of the nightly 2am $109 turbo MTT on Tilt. It's fun and relatively brainless and the calibre of play is horrendous. The fields are always between 150-200 players. I have made a couple small cashes and one 3rd place finish for about $2400.

Cash game has just been totally blah. I just am getting cracked for medium-sized pots all over the place and not really getting much action on my hands at all. When I get back to playing a little more often I might try out a new site on the Prima or Ongame network, or just anywhere for a change. I really find the games at $5/$10+ on Party and Tilt are drying up, or maybe I'm just not putting the effort in and/or running bad.

Overall, since the last update, even though my records are full of negatives, I'm only down a few more K. So, no big disaster, but I really got to get things rolling again.

I'm sticking to my 100k hands at $5/$10, but just haven't been playing much. I am in complete cram mode now for my real estate licensing course and will be finished Oct 15th. Realistically, I won't play much at all before then.

I can't wait for Canterbury. Give me a shout if you're going. I'll be there Oct 20-25th.

I'll leave you with this beauty from my last cash session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1532213

And this one of equal loveliness in yesterday's Tilt $109 turbo:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1545822

Yah, I know, wah wah. But, someone throw me a bone...

Peace!

Time to re-evaluate things

On Sunday I played a bunch of tourneys. Got deep in a few, got unlucky eventually, and didn't cash big, standard donkaments. Spent about $1100, but I managed to qualify for a $2600 WCOOP main event seat on PS throughout the day. I'll probably get the W$ and play some smaller events and play the main one if I cash decent in any of them (yah, right...not the way my tourneys are going!).

Okay, so I won't beat around the bush. Earlier this week, I had a disasterous event occur (pokerwise). I started playing really late one night, when I was already tired. I started out shortstacking $25/$50 on Party. After getting AA cracked a couple times and getting really unlucky a few others, I ended up buying in for the full $5k on at least 3 tables. I was tired, frustrated, tilty, and getting terrible luck. What a bad combination. I had a horrible night dropping a huge chunk. Then, the next afternoon, I jumped back onto the tables feeling crappy about poker and tried to make it all back in 30 minutes (well, I wasn't actually trying to do that but my play probably looked like I was). Things went bad again and I lost a bunch more.

To make a long story short, I lost the majority of what I'd made on my nice little $25/$50 upswing. And it all happened in under 12 hours and only 700 hands. I totally don't want to show the graph of this session by itself because I'll puke if I look at it again, so I'll show the graph starting from when I changed my Party screenname to Grooooooving and took my shot at $25/$50. Here it is, I'll call it....The Hump.

So, the only reason I'm quite calm right now is because I decided to take a few days before I wrote anything about this. I thought about it, a lot, and let it set in, and allowed myself to look at it rationally. Obviously, the couple days after this disaster I hated poker and was panicking, like I always do when things run bad. Now, after a few days, I just feel stupid.

I'm not ready for $25/$50. Even if, on the off-chance that my game is ready (which it probably isn't), my bankroll sure in hell isn't. Too many damn bills! Sure, I was really unlucky earlier this week, and I could post bad beat after bad beat, but what's the point? I was LUCKY to get where I was with such a small roll on Party, now I got unlucky to lose it. Whatever. It was stupid to be playing in the first place. It was possible I would keep up my heater, have won that 20k pot awhile ago, and never looked back. But, the odds of that are pretty slim probably. It was stupid. I knew it all along, but now the lesson has sunk in.

So, back to the drawing board. And like the title says, time to re-evaluate. This is the plan: $5/$10 NL for at least 100k hands. AT LEAST. I will do $10/$20 NL only when there are HUGE fish/maniacs playing. And only while they last at the table. No exceptions. I won't even look at a $25/$50 lobby. I have absolutely no idea how long 100k hands will take. Somewhere in the past year I've started gradually losing my patience and I don't know why. $5/$10 used to be a HUGE game to me, and now it's the smallest thing I play online, I should be happy with that transition. I realized tonight $5/$10 is a game I can play more-or-less very comfortably. I can play my game fully, and not lose my mind or be depressed about big losses hardly ever. But, I can still regularly make an amount I'm very satisfied with.

I have 3 weeks to finish the real estate licensing course assignments which you have 3 months to complete. Yah, procrastinating is very natural to me. Then, I want to write the exam by Oct 17th. This will very likely cut into some poker time (which it should at this point!).

Anyway, that's that. I had a horrible, mind-numbing, experience losing all that Party money I so excited to quickly make. But, there is nothing I can do now. All I can do is learn from it and take this reality-check as a positive. I don't think I'll make a mistake of that stature for a LONG time. I will also never play when I'm extremely tired. You'd think this would be easy but sometimes I get the itch to make a little score before bed and it more often than not goes bad. In fact, I will never play for a quick score anymore. Just because I have a small amount of time to play doesn't mean I have to try and force a few double-ups.

Today was my first poker since earlier this week. I played the $320 heads-up WCOOP event on Stars. Lost my first match of course. This guy runner-runnered me twice in big pots, then I lose this ugliness to get knocked out when I should have gotten the chip lead back. I also lost two $335 SNGs on Stars while I was at it. Standard coinflip losses. Waste of a couple hours in the afternoon.

Tonight I played some $5/$10 on Party. I was hanging out with my buddy "Cracker" John who likes to watch me play online occasionally. So, I fired up a few tables. I really enjoy playing while he watches because he's interested and asks questions which allows me to really talk myself through hands and immediately analyze them. Plus, he obviously cheers for me which is fun and sympathizes with the tough hands. And, I tend to play better (i.e. tigher!) with people watching because it's more embarrassing to make bad plays. So anyway, thanks Cracker, good times.

Here are some hands from this session (I think there are some interesting ones and some decent analysis):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507578 - one of my criteria for making a big call is when the play just doesn't make sense to me for that player, something is off. I thought MAYBE he could have 77, but not this time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507505, http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507507 - these are the first two hands i play at this table and just work this guy. I could have looked like a super-genius or a complete donkey on both of these, but I didn't! Big bluff, then big call. Both bang on reads, feels good. Granted, in the 2nd hand he did have a good hand that was actually a favourite on the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507517 - i could smell QJ on him and played it accordingly, though it doesn't really matter, as long as I fastplay this hand he gets stacked everytime. Ship it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507524 - another sweet little set as he's drawin' dead. I just call turn because i want to keep the Blackcode guy in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507525 - this is probably a pretty marginal hand which will get me in trouble once in awhile totally offsetting the profit I can make on it, but this time, it's all profit! :)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507527 - I'm gettin' lucky! I should probably just fold preflop against a shortstack, but it's Greek Style baby!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507532 - meh, i don't mind this one. shortstack played it well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507582 - ah shit. this is such bad timing too because I had JUST been caught in a small bluff after raising the previous hand (and I had been raising quite a bit the past couple rotations), so it was prefect timing for KK. I should be careful about overvaluing hands based on what I think my own image is. But this one is tough either way...decent sized pot too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507617 - woops, i really think he's drawing so I pound the turn. He actually turned the crap out of me, and I then proceed to river him even worse! Nice.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1507671 - i really like how I play this hand. When he bets out on the flop into the preflop raiser, I have him squarely on a draw (I'd bet my whole stack on it, which I do!). I have him primarily on clubs when he keeps up the aggression on the turn. I had hardly any doubt in my mind. Some of you might wonder why I didn't raise the flop or turn then. But, I thought two things: he was on clubs so if they come I can fold, and if he misses his clubs I'm pretty sure he'll bluff the rest of his stack on the river. So, if these two things are true, I should just call the turn. Then, if I club falls on the river I can fold (quite easily actually), and if a brick falls I can check/call the river (which I instacalled). So, I have minimal risk because I can get away from him hitting his hand, yet I still get full value if he misses. I mistakenly label players who check/call me down with weak hands as calling stations, but this hand proves how wrong that can be sometimes because there can be a lot of strategy behind the play.

Summary: I was happy with this session and it was a good start to my $5/$10 NL trek to 100k hands. Here is the graph of this session. I think I did a good job of folding losing hands (even if they appeared strong) early in the betting. This meant I didn't have a lot of tough river decisions that I wasn't sure about. When I called guys down I felt good about it. Part of this was trusting the data I have on players. I didn't start tonight, but from now on, I will start writing more notes on players. It only takes a second and you never know when a specific situation will repeat itself again, so I should start doing it way more.

So, even though this has been one of the worse updates financially on my blog, my frame of mind is okay. I stupidly lost money I was probably lucky to win anyway since I was playing $25/$50 so passively and incorrectly anyway. Plus, the regulars were catching onto my passive play which is really easy to dominate. I was getting bluffed less and less, and getting paid off on my big hands less and less. I'm ready for this 100k hand $5/$10 challenge, and I'm feeling optimistic. A firm plan like this is way overdue.

I'll be playing some more WCOOP events on Stars in the weeks to come. If I could ever win a tournament hand with TT, JJ, QQ, or AK ever again I think I'll do okay. Wish me luck! I'm still itchin' for a really nice tournament score. It'll come one day.

Oh, and I played the best round of golf I have in a couple years. It was at St. Boniface with pretty ugly playing conditions actually (little windy and drizzling). But I think I hit at least 15 out of 18 greens in regulation. The problem is my putting was absolutely horrible and I three-putted at least 4 times (and not from very far away) and hardly made anything else. Still shot a 76 with terrible terrible putting. My driver was better than it's been in a long time. So, that was fun.

Peace!

Lost biggest pot of my life, but still rollin'

Since the last update things have been going pretty smooth, with one big exception mentioned in the subject (see Session 2). Here are the sessions:


Session 1 (graph)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1476005 - I get really lucky here. The explanation is simple, I REALLY felt he was on a draw, specifically KQ. If I was right I was a huge favourite, and if I was wrong, I figured I had some outs for sure. Anyway, I was wrong, but I did have the few outs I was hoping for (8 as it turns out). What a gross river. I made a read and trusted it here, so I won't sweat over it too much and will just be happy I got lucky. :)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1475968 - big pot! I play this hand to induce a bluff, so my plan is to check-call the whole way. He's got total air! I'm making so much money from guys bluffing at $25/$50, they can't help themselves. I'm going to get off this table too. There are a couple really solid players that cover me, and I just don't feel like playing for $11k on a table right now.

Considering I was partially drunk during this session I should be very happy with a winning session and the nice comeback. I think I played fine even though I started poorly, but I lost a lot of ugly medium-sized pots early. Or maybe I was drunk and playing like a moron, I dunno, but I was being pretty careful about not playing stupid drunk poker. Anyway, I hardly ever drink so this is rarely an issue (and it's fun to play while a little buzzed!). I guess I really should play a smaller game at those times though.

Anyway, I'll take the win.


Session 2 (graph)

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480086 - gross running cooler...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480112 - nice start to this table, hold against a flush draw, too bad I didn't buy in for full because I probably double up here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480140 - Ace high bluff call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480151 - I'm planning on calling river if he bets (probably!), so he's wise to give up and check. I've got a good read on bluffs tonight (I swear I'm folding sometimes too!). I'll have to be careful of aggressive plays against me on the $10/$20 tables because I probably look like a calling station at the moment, don't think I'll get bluffed much anymore.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480156 - whew! cooler avoided! I actually make the completely wrong chicken-fold against this super aggressive opponent, but I would have gotten ridiculously outflopped.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480165 - I knew I should be betting turn here. See? Guys are starting to get reluctant to bluff me after those few hands and from previous sessions.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480172 - no-brainer shortstack cooler

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480179 - get caught bluffing trying to represent AK on river. I should have just given up, I had a bad feeling on that river bet (or bet the turn instead where he's much more likely to fold).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480192 - I think he might have nothing on flop raise, so i play to induce bluff. I would have probably raised the turn if he bet, but he checked. I go along with the charade and get paid for a nice bet on the river. If I raise back on the flop, I don't think he's calling, so I don't mind how this went.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480195 - next hand baby! fuck yah! Against the same guy! I hate the turn and river, but it doesn't matter because as it turns out he's drawing dead. Ship it!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480226 - I get paid off by the same guy that called me on my A8 bluff earlier.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480219 - yes! send it AGAIN against enyoj. I'm owning this guy even though he's a regular and a winning player. I'll check later how much I'm up on him, but it's lots.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480233 - wow, enyoj is getting frustrated against me. He obviously tries to pull a 3-bet bluff on the flop here. I actually misplay this because I assume with that big raise we're getting it all-in here. But, if you think about it, I have no reason to raise. If he has touch/draw/overpair/anything we're getting it in on ANY turn card. And if he's bluffing, he might continue on the turn (or catch a shitty touch on the turn). But whatever, I'll take it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1480241 - Oh my God. $20k pot, what a sick cooler. I lose my stack no matter how this hand is played out because he'll call a flop raise for sure with his double gutter. Gah, so gross. I was having an amazing session and was on my last rotation before cashing out my big stacks. Fuck, that sucks. I have "autopost" clicked off on my $25/$50 tables with big stacks. I don't know if I could fold on the turn against this guy. He could definitely have an inferior hand like a set of 7s or 8s, traheho isn't scared to get his chips in that's for sure.

After that super huge $20k pot cooler I'm quitting for the night. Geezus, I wish that board had paired on the river. Ugh. I was having such a great session that I'm still up, but just under a measily $1k which is pretty much even at these stakes. I was so stoked the entire session to be having such a great run and of course, this happens. And it was the only match-up on the entire 5 tables I could lose even close to this much on one hand. Wow, that pot will stick in my head for a little while, I would have thrown a freakin' party if the board paired on the river. I guess it's good news to lose the biggest pot of my life and be up for the 3 hour session. But, damn.

Oh, and I just checked, I'm up over $13k on enyoj mostly in the past 5 days, and $9.5k on queenkris (even though he's won 126 pots to my 86 pots against each other). Probably more good luck than management, though enyoj really seems to like paying me off.


Session 3 (graph, doesn't include Betfair)

Made a quick and easy $2600 on Betfair 10/20 to start the session off (not on graph because doesn't import into PT properly). Then switched to Party again and went on a nice little heater to start off and made $9k in about 300 hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1483363 - lol, donation to the charity of me. I would have puked if a 5 rivered. This was the only big hand.

Then I jumped into a $109 tourney and got screwed when I flopped two pair out of the big blind and a guy who slowplayed QQ pre-flop turned a Q after we got all-in on flop. But in another $109 turbo tourney I placed 6th (out of about 170 players) after my A8 lost to Q2 allin preflop. Cashed over $900, but had to give stupid "I suck at Hold'Em" Quentin 30% because we 70/30 chopped it. Then he beat me in 4 straight games in NHL 08 which is embarrassing beyond belief (well no, I guess Angst losing 0-1 to my wife who hasn't played any video games in over 10 years was worse).

Anyway, then I jumped back into Party and lost some of my winnings to finish up about $4500 on Party for the session. I have to show one hand which is stupid beyond belief (on my part):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1485948 - lol, looking at this hand with no explanation is mind-baffling. So, if you didn't assume it, my 3-bet min-raise pre-flop is obviously a misclick. Then the cocksucker doubles my bet (obviously with AA), and I make the stupidest pre-flop call ever for another $360 to try and screw him. And look what I flop? A stupid heart draw. Then I jam all-in into him because I'm retarded, and I turn a 3 to boot, but still miss the 14 or so outs I have on the river. Man, talk about gross if I had of hit my hand (or running trips or 2 pair even better, lol). Oh well, I suck. Stupid misclick.


Summary

So, all-in-all, running pretty good. That $20k pot really hurt, but still scraped together a little over $10k since last update.

I found a new fish on Party, SLAVIK223. Hopefully he sticks around for awhile. He's basically a calling station who plays almost 50% of his hands and makes awfully timed overbet bluffs occasionally.

I spilt a bunch of milk on my older laptop and it's screwed. Gonna get it cleaned and see if Future Shop will fix it on extended warranty. What a mess.

We're trying to plan a group to go play $5/$10 NL at Regent on Tuesday (starting around 3pm). If you're interested let me know if you're coming out. There is a $224 freeze-out tourney at 6:30pm that night also. Should be some good times!

I'm out.

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO

The title says it all tonight! I'm actually not really sure how much I was up tonight. I didn't check at all during the session. I dropped a bit at the end, but I think it's still pretty kickass. Going to check now........$12k!!! Yah! I think I was as high as $15k or more, but I'll freakin' take it!

Here is the graph. Only 700 hands. Not a bad winrate tonight!

Straight to the action:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472608 - semi-cooler (for shortstacks anyway) to get things started. Not sure I can logically let this go. Down about $1.5k right off the bat AGAIN.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472613 - nice turn, I probably fold to a flop bet, but I guess no one had an A (since they'd probably call on turn).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472615 - gah, i thought he was going to flip over something ugly like TJ here, but for once my worst expectations don't come through and he's just taking a wild river stab at the board he's been counterfeited on.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472620 - ship it!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472646 - I play this pretty passive, but I don't think I could win much more (unless, of course, I could have gotten all-in preflop).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472650 - ew, huge suckout. I play this hand horribly and finally I screw someone. Feels good, real good.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472651 - I like how I play this one, induce a decent bluff.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472663 - Another good pickup from a bluff. Tonight, when I'm trying to entice a bluff, guys are NOT catching weird runner crap on me. Seems easy when you run good. Almost forgot the feeling there for awhile.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472688 - And i almost freakin' folded. He makes such a horrible river overbet with his straight.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472690 - I play AA a little conservative again, but I don't think I sacrifice much here. I actually thought he was drawing and was going to checkraise the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472695 - I've been floating this guy on the flop after he raises a ton. He raises a lot preflop, continuation bets all flops, then gives up if he's missed the board. So I get to see a lot of turns and get the chance to take it on the turn if he checks. I know he'll checkraise me eventually so I'm watching for it...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472699 - hitting draws and getting paid off!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472710 - things are working out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472702 - I think I gotta let this one go, so I do. He's not bluffing this time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472706 - I get caught in a little bluff here. I almost bet $1000-$1200 on the turn then got a bad feeling. Look, I almost go running clubs. I'm running good tonight, but not THAT good!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472708 - I let him have it cheap. Terrible turn card. He could have had just clubs, but screw it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472718 - shoot, first time really unlucky tonight. I almost checked river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472722 - I'm trying to get a little too tricky, though I felt pretty good about the river call. But, checking the flop is just setting up something like this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472727 - yah! I nail it a sweet setup here with him drawing dead.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472734 - I have to stop getting involved in raised pots with shitty aces.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472736 - yah baby! A set holds against a flush draw. That's how I like it!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472738 - oh no, one of these gross hands again. at least it's on the $10/$20 table tonight and for smallish pots.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472740 - ah shit. i wonder if the heater is over for the night. QQ down to AT for $2k. At least the bad luck is against a shortstack again.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1472749 - chickened out on this one, almost bet $500 on turn which would have probably done the trick.

Man, this session felt great! It's been a little while since I've run this well. I've started catching a couple bad breaks in the last few rotations and things are levelling out, so I think I'm just gonna call it a night and quit happy. Plus, it's my wife's birthday tomorrow anyway, so I should get some sleep.

I stuck to my strategy tonight and shortstacked for between $1.5k to $3k on all the $25/$50 tables. The moment I got to $3.5k+ or so, and it seemed the table had a lot of good, aggressive players, I'd leave and find better spots. I also tore up the $10/$20 tables which was nice.

All in all, this has felt great and I think I can say my downswing is officially over. I came really close to busting my Party account a couple times (though I did a number of withdrawals in the past couple months), and I feel very fortunate for it to be where it is now. I'm going to stay very cautious with my $25/$50 play.

Thank you poker Gods! G'night.

Why Do I Write This Blog?

It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster the past few days. The main reason is probably because I'm playing with a pretty short bankroll on Party. I've been playing more and more $25/$50 NL (mostly on Party) because the games just seem pretty good lately and I enjoy shortstacking them (or for full when there is a super fish). I decided I'm just going to take what I have on Party and go for it. I know I've been running bad, but I'm trying to keep it all in perspective. My confidence can't go in the tank every single time I run really bad. I feel like taking a shot right now, so I'm going to take a shot.

I'm going to start structuring the blog a little different, or more accurately, a little more organized. I don't have time to update after every session, so a few sessions often get grouped together. I also write most of the documentation for each session DURING the session or immediately after. So, I will write about whatever I feel like at the start, then have headings for each session (meaning #1 is the first session since my last update and so on). I will pretty much just cut & paste what I have already written into each of these sections.

Also, I always enjoy when someone mentions to me they've checked out my blog. There have been many people tell me they enjoy it that I never expected would take an interest. It's nice getting a little bit of feedback, whether positive/negative/indifferent, other than watching a stupid counter slowly go up everyday. So, point being, if you regularly come back here, take a minute and tell me by posting a comment (available at the bottom of each entry). I'm just genuinely curiuos of who has taken an interest. I've also started a thread on the PCH message board where you can post any questions/comments/whatever.

I've been asked a few times "Why do you write your blog?". I know a couple times the person asking is merely suspicious that the reason is simply for me to brag and talk about myself (though I guess talking about yourself is the point of a personal blog). So, yah, it's fun to have a big win then be able to talk about it and hopefully reach a few interested ears (and even better, maybe some people who are cheering along). Thing is, and you'll know this if you've been reading anything I've written in the past couple weeks, I'm not getting many opportunities to brag...period. It's been rough and I actually have to suck up my pride every single freakin' time things go south.

Here are a few other reasons:
* nice to vent sometimes
* forces me to keep precise records of earnings and hand histories. I really pick up some tendencies in my game by reviewing closely all my crucial hands. Sometimes even WHILE I'm writing my blog entry I realize I was playing much more horribly than I suspected, and it's something I can more alertly watch for in the future.
* sometimes it's a pain in the ass, but usually it's fun and I enjoy practicing my writing (though this isn't exactly Shakespeare or anything an English teacher would approve of!)
* but I think the most influential reason for me is this: poker, ESPECIALLY online poker, is a very, very, very lonely venture sometimes. It's just me, my big-ass projector screen which takes up the majority of my vision, and my extremely durable mouse which accepts the fact it will take regular beatings. It's an extremely emotional and stressful job, but it just builds and builds inside. My wife is here for me always, and is very supportive of my poker in general (she really is great about it), but it's really hard for a non-poker player to relate and fully understand (though by now, she knows more about the true poker lifestyle than many poker players I know). Luckily I also have many poker friends to discuss things with, but I understand people can only hear so many bad beats and sob stories. And on the flip side, when I'm running well I feel some friends don't really need to hear all about it, especially if they're running harsh. So, that leaves me with this blog: I can write/complain/brag/anything and if people want to know about it, they can. If they are bored or uninterested, they can stop reading and that's that. With a group of people following the progress, I simply don't feel as alone in the poker world. This is probably a big incentive for the PCH message board as well. Plus, if anything I write helps a fellow poker player, that's all good too (plus you guys are rarely my competition and when you are I'm mostly playing for fun anyway!).

Finally, I also know there will be the occasional person, possibly even family, who will come across here and not approve at all. If someone thinks what I do, after 4+ years, is some sort of gambling degeneracy, and what I write here doesn't change it, I don't think anything I say will change their mind. If they disapprove morally, I won't try to defend it. I understand. I'm fully conscious of the fact I only TAKE through my poker. My gain is ALWAYS another's loss, and sometimes the other person probably can't afford it (I'm not nieve enough to think otherwise). The only thing that is important in this profession is my bottom line. Money. That's it. I don't feel guilt, it's all fair-and-square and I've worked harder at this than anything in my life. It took awhile for this reality to dawn on me. I think the initial thrill of poker had to wear down a bit before I started seeing past the immediate results and consequences. I want to, one day, help people. Don't get me wrong, I definitely want to keep making coin (and hopefully good coin!), but I want my business endeavours to have more positive benefits than financial. Hopefully real estate will be a small step towards that and is a big motivation for me.

Alrighty, that's enough babble. Here are the sessions. Remember, most stuff written below was written the day of the session.

Session 1 (graph)

Another huge disaster...down about $7k. Not sure why the graph shows down $8.3k. I guess sometimes some of the error hands that don't import into Poker Tracker properly are bigger pots that effect the results. So, this time, I assume just one decent pot I won was not included.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458098 - Good or bad news? Bad - I lose the pot after thinking I'm definitely winning, Good - I save a few hundred by him disconnecting, Bad - I would have won the whole pot on a "no disconnect" table.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458102 - I don't know what to say anymore. How many times is stuff like this going to happen? How far ahead do I need to be? These mind-blowing beats are what I've come to expect, I can NEVER relax in a hand anymore.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458115 - this hand is pretty standard lately. Geezus, when it rains it fucking pours.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458128 - I keep getting the money in while I'm ahead and it just doesn't matter anymore.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458134 - I let everyone and their mother in preflop on this one, but get away with a nice pot. It's funny I gotta play this so risky before I actually win with KK. I should just become a calling station.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458167 - I decide to give up early on this bluff, think that was a good idea here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1458180 - I made a small comeback with KK, and it all goes away and more with KK again. This is pretty much what always happens now when I 3-bet really big pre-flop. I don't see how I can fold this on the flop, I'm beating so much and crushing a bunch of hands too. This was a huge pot. I just can't imagine poker going anymore horribly than this.

Things didn't get any better but I'm tired of posting these hands. I'm sure they're getting tiresome to read because there isn't even a lot of analysis, it's just no-brainer hands that I'm losing over and over. Down $7k today, this is the biggest hit after a long dry spell. This might be the harshest period of my entire poker career. Actually, it definitely is. I wonder how much is bad play and how much purely bad luck, I really am not sure anymore.

Session 2 - 4

Mix of a bunch of SNGs, and 5/10 and 10/20 on Betfair and Party. Down almost $2k total.

Session 5 (graph)

Hey, a WINNING SESSION! WOOOOOOOO! Made $7k, getting back the first session. I didn't save as many hands as I was actually busy with many tables and actually winning some hands. I started this session down pretty good again and made a nice comeback on $25/$50.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1465345 - here, even though I'm not having a great session again, I finally sucked out on someone myself. This hand is actually pretty standard against a half-stack, but still, I hit ugly runner trips. Hope this starts a trend.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1465449 - finally a big pot with AA. If I had of gotten one outted here (and missed my redraw), I think I would have had to quit poker forever.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1465460 - Hey, I even won a short stack all-in preflop with AK. Didn't really think there was anyway I was winning on this board, so nice surprise to see him flip over KJ.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1465483 - Aw. I'm happy when I see him call the river. I probably could have gotten stacked this hand...

Session 6 (graph)

Rollercoaster session tonight on $25/$50!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468595 - nice little pickup, good sign that i had a set hold up against what was probably a straight draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468608 - I slowplay AA pre-flop and hold up against against a flush draw. So, this is what it's like when your opponent misses a draw! It's sort of fun, two in a row.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468642 - Just when I start seeing the light, back to the ugliness, this is so sick...I can't beat poker like this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468650 - he prices me in to seeing a flop even with my shortstack and I nail it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468657 - i think i play this just right. any other way and I don't make nearly as much. this was a strong opponent, and i knew he'd fold to my 3-bet preflop (which he would have with KQ) because I just haven't been 3-betting much at all on this table. More often than usual, I feel the need to slowplay my big pairs with a shortstack. I don't know if it's flawed thinking, but it's been working. Probably being influenced by the fact that i lose everytime i 3-bet a big hand pre-flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468660 - boo, i get unlucky to chop, i had him by the balls on this one.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468700 - I can't tell you how badly I wanted to call this. This guy is quite loose and very aggressive, but I just don't see him continuing a bluff on the turn here (I have seen him give up on many bluffs). There is a chance he has AQ/AJ, but I really don't think so. I think he's hit some ugly two pair or a low set. This was a pretty big laydown given the context of this game, but the right one I think.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1468682 - This guy's "blind steal" percentage on the button is almost 50%, so a 3-bet is a no-brainer here. After he pushes pre-flop I have no choice but to call (his range is so wide anyway). Turns out it's a coinflip and I see a beauty J on the flop. I needed this one. This puts me up (+$1k) for the first time tonight!

Well, like I said, I'm up for the first time tonight and I think I'll call 'er quits. I was back-and-forth between down $1k and down $4k the whole session until now, the games are not that great, so I think I'll just take the $1000 and run for the hills.

I played pretty much only $25/$50 NL tonight with a very short $10/$20 stint on one table. I feel like I'm playing very passive, however these guys are so aggressive, I feel I like this style better especially for shortstacking. My flops seen tonight was only 19% which is quite a bit lower than normal (I usually roam between 25-35%), and I'd like to keep it that way. I played really tight in early-mid position and rarely limped. If I wanted to play a suited connector or low pair I'd raise it up and wouldn't get 3-bet too often because I had table respect in early position. I could take down a lot of pots on the flop or get to see cheap turns. Plus, I found this style less stressful.

Summary

So, even though I'm down about $1k since my last update, I've turned things around a little in the past couple days. I feel I've kept my calm through most of the ugly beats that have continued to happen way more than I'm accustomed to. I'm going to continue to try and focus really hard on not tilting. I have to remember to be very selective with the $25/$50 games because there are VERY profitable games to be found sometimes, but they can very quickly change to a table full of top pros. If I had a HUGE bankroll, I'd battle it out with them because I think I could compete profitably, but that's not the case and I'm not ready.

Here is an interesting graph from PokerEV. The legend is messed up, so red line is Sklansky bucks, blue line is showdown winnings, and green line is total winnings.

I don't even really understand this software completely, but I know this is showing some pretty bad luck in September thus far. It shows me as running $12k below my mathematically expected value, which really sucks! It's probably accurate within a couple thousand. The numbers as far as total winnings goes are not accurate (I'm a bit more down than it shows), and the software is still in beta stage, and I think it mostly just factors in all-in hands and hands where you get to see a showdown. I dunno really but thought it was interesing/depressing/excuse to make me feel better about my play. If you don't know what Sklansky bucks are, well, look it up or don't worry about it.

So, careful game selection and good solid focused play is this week's installment of my random gameplan theory. Hopefully I can continue on this small upswing from the past couple days.

Peace!