Been awhile...

I figured I was due for an update in the blog since it's been quite awhile. The main reason I haven't blogged in a long time is that I haven't had much to blog about. I feel it's tough for me to blog during school because I really don't do a whole lot that's worth writing about. It's the occasional class or two, drinking on the weekends, and hanging out with Lauren. I also play poker an hour or so a day, but I don't want go in that direction. I do have some good news for my faithful readers. Now that Christmas break is here, I have a lot to blog about! Not only will I be free from school duties for about a month, I have a lot of upcoming travel plans. I am heading down to Florida in a few days and our new condo should be finally done, so I can post some pictures of that. Following Florida, I am heading down to the Bahamas with my family, Lauren, and a couple of friends, so that should be a blast. Don't expect a tan from me after all of the stuff I have read about skin (and other forms) cancer, but I will definitely be going to the beach (just covered in about 2 inches of 65 spf sunscreen). Once all that is over, I will have my last semester of school and then will graduate and finally start getting paid for doing work. I actually want to write a post some day about my career prospects, but I don't want to discuss that just yet.

Lauren and I are also panning another Europe trip! This time we are hitting more of Central and Eastern Europe. We are going about it a little differently this time. Instead of going to 5 or 6 places, we are going to just visit 3 and spend more time in each place to really experience the culture. I think we have decided on Munich, Germany - Prague, Czech Republic - and Interlaken, Switzerland. Munich seems like a nice city and they have these beer gardens which are right up my alley. Also, you can see some extraordinary Bavarian castles by taking a couple hour train ride outside the city. Prague seems really nice from what I've read. It was voted the top place to visit in Europe by tourists, plus my Dad's grandfather came from the Czech Republic, so I've got some of this culture in my blood. The last one we are visiting is Interlaken, Switzerland. I never heard of Interlaken, but I know Switzerland is beautiful so I did a little research (Lauren did most!). This place is absolutely gorgeous. The views are like those you only see in movies. There are just tons of snow capped mountains in the Swiss alps and they are all breathtaking. There is a lot of hiking and exploring paths you can take to really see some of these beautiful views. This place might be my favorite. I just love nice views, and I am making sure that my house has a good view of something, whether it's a city, mountains, or the ocean. You can count on that.

More to come in the next few days...

November Poker Results

Laptop


Desktop



Live: +3000
Tournaments: +350
Tilt Bonus: +600 (only 100 cleared so far)
Stars Bonus: +285 (not cleared yet)
Rakeback: +270

Monthly total = $6400

I wasn't sure how to include the bonuses, so I just added them on now. Other than that, this was clearly my best month ever (not including my WSOP final table). Most of my profit came from really soft live games at a local casino, but it's definitely real money. Plus I got to put about 2k of those winnings into the bank, which allows me to let my online roll grow instead of withdrawing. As far as my results in online cash games, they really weren't that spectacular from a numbers stand point, but I ran pretty shitty this month. Just about every session, literally, I would be getting ready to quit with a small win, and then I would be dealt KK and inevitably run into AA. I didn't suckout once, but the funny thing is the one time I had AA vs KK I ended up losing, so kind of weird. I also had 4 set over sets that costed me at least a buy-in. So all in all, still turning a decent profit online is kind of an accomplishment for me this month. Hopefully I will start running better and will be on the favorable end of some of these coolers because I think I am going to play solely 2/4 this month, unless it goes poorly and I'm forced to move down.

Hopefully I will be posting some big numbers this month, even though I'm not sure how much I will get to play with finals, the Bahamas, and Florida coming up. I'll see what I can manage...

Forgot about the blog

It's kind of ironic because I read a lot of blogs over the course of a day, but I somehow neglected my very own blog. I guess I should update since it's been awhile since my last post. We just had a week off for Thanksgiving break, and as a family tradition, we did the exact opposite thing that most families do on this holiday. Rather than cooking a turkey and spending time with all of your relatives you only see once a year, we went down to Florida and relaxed in the 80 degree weather! I actually kind of like doing this because it is too cold in Pittsburgh this time of year, but I also do miss making the turkey and pies and other traditions like that.

There are about three or four more weeks until the semester is over and Christmas break begins. This will be a nice month long break, and for me, it will be filled with warm weather as I will be in Florida and the Bahamas most of the time.

I will definitely be more active in the blog from now on and already have some ideas for upcoming posts. At the end of November, I will post my customary poker results, but I also have an idea for a reflective type post. I like the concept of what I'm going to write about, but I still need to collect my thoughts and organize them before I dive right in and put it on paper, or in this case Microsoft Word.

Until next time....

Turkey Time

My girlfriend Lauren and I celebrated our Thanksgiving today instead of next week because I will be in Florida over the holiday break. Last year was the first year we started this tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving, turkey and all. This year we got a 20 lb turkey (big) and fed some of the minions. We also went all out on the sides including mashed potatoes, candied yams, creamed corn, and some nice pumpkin pie for dessert. Here are some pictures of this festive day:




Life is really good for me right now, which is why I changed the title. It honestly feels like I am riding on cloud nine...

Changing it up

In case you didn't notice, I am taking my blog in a completely different direction. Blogging about my life as a poker player is very unfulfilling and and to be frank, is boring to read. Unless I start winning $100k in a few more tournaments, I don't see any merit in continuing to describe my 400 hand sessions with chart included.

With that being said, I want to focus my blog on all facets of my life. Poker won't be completely removed since it qualifies as a facet of my life, but I've come to the realization that I have much more interesting stuff in my life to talk about.

November Update

I have three tests this week, one of which I just took an hour ago, so I'm a little short on free time. Combine that with MMA and Thai Boxing three times a week, and you have nothing left over. I didn't like the way that was going, so I am removing some study time from the schedule to play poker.

My results have been pretty good so far, but I'm not really running that well except for one hand (luckily that hand was accidentally at 2/4 on Stars for full buy-in suckout). I have been running into a lot of coolers and just plain bad luck, but I have been hanging in there and not tilting, which has typically led me to recovering it all back. If I get some coolers to go in my favor, this could be a really good month. I have been playing pretty well on Stars (barring that one hand) and am taking advantage of people really well. I haven't been able to get any rake back on my new tilt name because I transfered $1k there to play 1/2 and ended up losing $500 in 80 hands. Since I didn't have enough money in the account to even 3 table (didn't feel like going through the hassle of transferring), I moved to Stars where I made $550 in about 300 hands and salvaged the session. Here have been the major hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668826
I felt my opponent was on a check raise bluff, so I made the very illogical play of shoving so that only a better hand will call and all worse hand will fold (sense the sarcasm). It was nice to get lucky though

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668837
Set over set here. I actually wasn't thrilled about calling because the board was so dry, but I'm not going to fold a set a 1/2 just yet. He could have had 79s or T8hh or some pair flush draw, so there is still plenty of equity in my call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668845
I think I can fold this to a tighter player, but he was pretty LAG and already had 1/3 of my stack in so I made the crying call and didn't suck out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668851
This guy and I had battled some earlier and I stacked him then. It felt like he was tilted and trying to get back at me after that hand, so that's why I called this light. I put him on a medium pair or complete air on this flop, which is why I just called because so few turn cards can hurt me. I wasn't happy about the 9 but there were still so many other pairs in his range that I felt I was still ahead. I unfortunately got 2 outered and stacked off.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668863
This hand is kind of sick. My opponent must have narrowed my range completely down to a King here, which I think is a mistake as I will have a medium to high pair quite often that might get blown off by his aggression.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1668885
I couldn't believe I lost this hand. This guy was a huge station, as evidenced by him never raising me here.

I'm going to keep trying to squeeze in hands during this testing time and hopefully put up more results...

Halloween Weekend

Halloween weekend was a great time. Some of my friends came up, Lauren and I had matching costumes, and there were plenty of good pictures.






I would've posted more but it takes too long for them to upload. All I know is, everyone loved thing 1 and thing 2. We had random people on the street taking our picture and every gave us praise as they walked by. It was a good weekend...

October Results

The first half of the month started out great with me running well and playing well (which tend to go hand in hand), and the second month was filled with a ton of variance. I probably ran about $1000 under expectation in the second half of the month and tilted some off, but that's poker. I already have a bunch of things I plan on doing differently in November, so I'm excited about that.

I'm going to make another Full Tilt screen name so I can get rake back. This would've given me around $300 extra on the month and I didn't even play that much. I also played on Pokerstars today during the day, and I was shocked with how many games there were and how bad the play was. I ran ok but I was able to get three streets of value with TPTK and I had people calling with draws on the turn with nowhere near the right odds. The games at Full Tilt during the day plain suck, as it's filled with competent regulars and very little dead money. When I was scrolling down the list of games in PS, there were a ton of games with average pot about 20-25 BBs and 35-40% of the people seeing the flop. I also think a leak of mine was 3 betting light too often at this level. I think I would rather just call with small pairs and suited connectors and check raise the right flops instead of building such a big pot pre-flop, which in turn causes me to make a larger continuation bet.

So my October Results were:

Cash: +$1947
Tourn: +$400
Total: +$2347


I obviously didn't finish at my high point but I am still somewhat pleased with this result. I've had three straight positive months, all of which increased in total, so hopefully November stays on this trend...

Quick Note

The video blog didn't work very well because blogger makes it too small. I'm in the process of finding somewhere else to host my hand analysis videos so that I can just post a link to it. I also am in the works of creating another site that should hopefully have hosting capabilities as well, so I will keep you posted...

Thai Boxing and Monthly Blow Up

I went to Thai Boxing this morning with my brother, and it was actually pretty cool. It was mainly basic stuff but it was still a good workout, especially in the shoulders. I tried writing something after the workout and my hand was shaking because I had zero shoulder stabilization. My brother and I might also start taking Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) lessons as well. This would be a good way for me to get a couple of workouts in each week with some consistency. I don't enjoy lifting and running as a means for working out because they are so boring and monotonous. It becomes more of a chore when I work out in that style. I prefer something interactive like basketball, football, or martial arts as you are always doing something different but you are still getting a workout. The martial arts is especially interesting too because it is very practical and can help you defend yourself.

As for poker, I managed to blow up again, this time resulting in a -$1165 day. I ran really poorly in 1/2 and was down 2 buy-ins within 150 hands, and I tilted a little and moved up to 2/4. I was playing composed at 2/4 and was up around $200 there when I started taking more beats, and I was re-tilted. This lead me to playing poorly and finishing the 2/4 session down almost 2 buy-ins. I'm going to post my biggest hands for both ways but I'm not going to go in depth with them now. If you read this Bob, feel free to comment as I'm sure I played some of these poorly.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622784 I wanted that Qd

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622789 Bleh. Maybe should've checked river

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622800 Nothing I can do here, just unfortunate he flopped the nuts instead of having 88,99

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622808 retarded 3 bet against a less than half stack who opened

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622816 I do want to describe this one a little. Pre-flop I mix up calling and 3 betting here so that's irrelevant. The flop check raise is standard but when he cold calls and this turn falls I literally beat zero hands in his range. Any lower pair is now a set or straight and any overpair playing it soft is still way ahead. The 4th diamond is the only way I can win the hand, but I don't know if I can rep anything more than a medium diamond or bluff. I figured I could fold out maybe a set or straight. His hand was definitely AdAx or AQdd/AJdd, so I lose.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1622833 I knew he was on a weaker Ace, but I really thought it was AQ/AJ. Horrible river. I didn't like a river check because only a better hand will bet, but my pot sized river bet looks more like a bluff and I felt it would get called down by AQ/AJ a lot.

Running bad and playing bad is part of poker, I just need to learn how to handle it a little better. I'm going to play some $100 max to regain some confidence and stabilize the swings a little bit. Hopefully I can go on a little heater and get my monthly profit back to around $3k...

Video Blog

I'm not sure if I got this to work, but it should be pretty cool if I did. This feels like a better way for me to convey my thoughts on a street by street basis. I think it also puts pressure on me to say what I'm really thinking, rather than crafting a good response for as long as I need by writing.

For the three people that read this blog, let me know what you think...

Mid month update

The month has gone pretty well so far, with me 16.5 buy-ins in cash and breaking even so far in tournaments (easy to do when you are staked most of the time). I really haven't played many hands, but I have been busy and am happy to just be playing and winning.

After I am done with classes today, I think I am going to take a 2 or 3 buy-in shot at 2/4. Hopefully I run well so I can keep the confidence going and maybe move up early. I have 27 buy-ins for 2/4 so losing two or three buy-ins won't really hurt me, but if I win a few buy-ins and think I can compete there, I will be back to my highest levels again. I will be sure to blog about so stay tuned...

Swing Swing

This was another crazy, swingy session, most likely due to my LAG image today. I don't have time to describe my thought process during the hands, so I will just post the largest ones.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1590439 Cooler

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1590445 Butchered this one. This guy was isolating the limper a lot, so I felt the need to keep him in line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1590453

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1590457. This guy was running at 28/25 so I had no problem shoving here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1590461

I'm going to post the mid-month update later. Oh, I also got the new iPod, so pictures of that then too...

Decent Day

I did my usual for the Sundays, which is just playing a few tournaments. I lost both the Pokerstars and Full Tilt fairly quickly, one to a cooler, and one where I probably over played my hand. Luckily, I was staked for both tournaments so it didn't affect my bottom line. I did play some cash games later to stimulate myself and had a pretty good session. Here are my results:

I also made another $120 finishing my dad's Full Tilt tournament for him. I probably could've have taken him pretty deep but I had QQ lose to JJ all in pre-flop and was forced to use my ninja short stack skills to prolong as long as possible.

The month is about half way over, and I will be making a mid-month update post tomorrow. I recently started data mining 2/4 because there is a good chance I will be playing that next month, and I'm think about taking a 3-5 buy-in shot sometime later in the month, assuming things keep going well at 1/2. From what I've watched, the players there don't seem that much better, and a quite a few of them play 1/2 as well.

Only 4 more days until Baltimore and I can't wait!!!!

Crazy Day

This is exactly why I don't like playing long sessions, but I still don't like quitting when I'm stuck.

A lot of today's session was very frustrating. I tried to make way too many bluffs (main factor of swings), plus I had some real trouble making hands. It felt like at times people could see my cards. I wasn't getting any action on my big hands no matter how aggressive I was playing, but every time I was vulnerable I just got run over. This hand nearly sent me on some major tilt (http://www.pokerhand.org/?1577107). It's probably a good play by this guy not stabbing after his attempted squeeze, but it's so rare to see people not continuation bet in situations like these.

Here are some hands:
Bluff
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The problem with blind on blind battles is that it's really hard to assign a range for your opponent. I've played with this guy before and he's not afraid to play back at me, especially in position, so I found it difficult to put him on a ten. I tried to make my hand look like a slow played big pair, because I will often do that on paired boards. I liked raising the turn because I felt he was on medium strength Jack, and my line is so strong. Plus, if he calls, I have 4-10 outs to still win the pot. I bricked of course, and here was where I might have made the biggest mistake. I decided to shove my last $112 to try and put any Jack to a really tough decision. I think this is bad because the river is so harmless, that any hand willing to call a check raise is most likely going to call now as well. It was also really poor by me to discount a Ten so heavily, as hands like T8, T9, JT, QT, KT, and AT are all calling as well as some other, lower suited tens.

Good Read
I like this hand a lot for a couple of reasons. First, I don't really like this guy because he made an "pwned" comment after a hand he won from me earlier, plus he really isn't that good but he certainly thinks he is something special. The reason I made this play is because of the size of his raise. A hand of real strength won't raise this flop because it's a very dry board and their opponent will fold a worse hand way too often. A medium strength marginally made hand has to raise more than this to protect the hand while still trying to extract value. This leaves only a bluff, so a rebluff (might actually have been best hand)is in order. I make the same move in position all the time because most people aren't willing to put in a 3 bet bluff here.

It was still nice to make a little bit of money, and this did actually put my Full Tilt account over $10k. I want to play all of this month at 1/2 and only move up to 2/4 if have > $12k by the beginning of next month.

My two weeks of hell school-wise are over, so there should be plenty of time to play poker and hopefully make lots of money. I think some of my friends are coming up this weekend (Bob, Bri, and Dino), as well as my parents, so that should be a good time. Lauren and I are going to try out a Chinese restaurant here shortly, so that will be a nice treat after a day like today...

1/3 Month Update and a Rant

Things have been going pretty well lately. I am running well, meaning I am hitting some 6-10 outers, which is always nice. I still haven't had much time to play because of all these tests. I wasn't suppose to play today because I should be studying for my 8:15 pm test but I couldn't resist. It doesn't look like I will get too many hands in this month. I am basically free for the rest of the month school wise, but I have some friends coming up this weekend, so I won't play much then. Next week, Lauren and I leave for Baltimore on Thursday and probably won't get back until Sunday evening, so there is another four days of not playing. I don't any of it though because I am doing so well this month without playing. I think my theory about playing shorter sessions is correct for me, as I've only had one session over 400 hands and it was just barely above break even.

My plan is to utilize this theory as much as possible, meaning playing multiple 200-400 hand sessions per day. There is one mental problem I have with this though, and that is having the results from my previous session still on Pokertracker. I still haven't rid myself of that fear of losing money I have already made, and I still constantly "force import" during sessions for even faster updates than every minute. One of these times I am going to play with Pokertracker minimized and see if I can handle it. I also remember reading somewhere about someone doing a prop bet to not look at their Pokertracker for an entire month of play. This is something I might be interested in doing.

Ok, I am saving this last part of my blog for a rant, which I don't do too frequently. I have been following the live tournament circuit periodically because I am dying to play another big buy-in tournament and the chance to play for life changing money. Even though I don't like 9 handed play (can't 3/4 bet liberally because too many other cards in play plus you only get on stack), I feel my game has improved a lot since the WSOP. Every day I check the tournament updates, I keep seeing people like Travis Rice and Alan Sass and others who are making the final table and sometimes even winning these things. I know I am just as good as these guys, maybe not in tournaments but in general ability, and it's frustrating to see this. I'm not trying to take anything away from them and I believed it was only a matter of time before they would really break out, I just feel like I am missing opportunities because of school. These guys are traveling all over the place winning 6 figures while I'm forced to study for an Astronomy test that I'm going to finish in 20 minutes and get an A on. An argument could be that I should just play online tournaments, but they are nowhere near the same as live tournaments. These big buy-in events give you a lot of room to play deep stacked the first couple of days (even though it is a crap shoot the last couple of days). This rant probably stemmed from all the tests I have had lately, and I'm not going to drop out or anything drastic like that. I just want an opportunity to play some of these events so I can prove to myself whether or not I am capable of doing something spectacular. I will be going to some tournaments after the end of this semester, so I better take advantage of the few I get to play in...

Keeping it going

These are the results of my three latest sessions, all of which have averaged just over 230 hands per session. I am happy with these results because school has been pretty busy lately, so it's nice to make some decent money when I actually get a chance to play. Next week should be pretty similar since I have two more tests and a quiz to deal with. I'll be sure to make a post or two...

Playing and Running Well

I played another short session today because I have to study for another test tomorrow, but I felt like I played really well today. There are a couple of things I want to highlight from this session:

1) Playing more aggressive
As you can see, I highlighted my VPIP and my preflop raise. For $100 max, I think I averaged a 17 VPIP and 14 PFR. Now I've been running right around 20/17 the past two sessions and it really was a necessary adjustment. People are more aggressive at this level, as expected, but most aren't skilled enough to do more than 3 bet light a few times and try to pick up dead money. This makes them very exploitable to things like 4 bet bluffs (http://www.pokerhand.org/?1544652).

2) High Showdown winning %
My largest pot of the day only netted me about 40 big blinds, which isn't even half a stack. This means I had to win a lot of medium sized pots. Typically in pots of this size, the goal is to keep the pot from getting too inflated with only a marginally made hand but to still extract as much value as possible. I only went to showdown 27% of the time, but when I did show down, I won almost 90% of the time!

I also ran really well when I had a bunch of 70/30 situations against short stacks and that is always a great feeling.

I love analyzing things about my game, making changes, and seeing the changes work in a positive way. Progression is addictive in that when you get a taste of it, you just want more and more. I know I am playing well and running pretty well right now, but I'm sure there will be a time this month where things don't go perfectly. The real trial is still trying to play well when you are losing and running bad, and that's something I definitely need to work on.

I can't wait for the trip to Baltimore in a couple of weeks. I haven't really traveled in a while, and I did hit a point earlier this year where I started to get worn out from it, but I'm getting the bug again. I have so many cool trips to look forward to, like Baltimore with Lauren, and then Las Vegas, the Bahamas, and Australia for poker tournaments toward the end of the semester. I will definitely have plenty to write about the next couple of months...

October is off and running

My first full day at a new level went incredibly well. Here's the PT screen shot:

I know I only played 126 hands, but I don't mind quitting this early when things go this well. I think I played really well, and I definitely played pretty LAG as the 20/18 stats show. It's weird how this feels like a new level to me because I played nothing lower than 1/2 on Pokerstars and sometimes 2/4 (although not very successfully). Once I get used to buying in with $200 at each table again and adjust to the swings, I am confident I can beat it on Full Tilt like I did on Pokerstars.
Here are the two interesting hands:
Unlucky then Lucky
Most of the time I will just continuation bet this flop because it looks suspicious not to, but I wanted to really make my hand look like a pair by check calling. I figured I could induce some bluffs from other pairs trying to represent an Ace. I basically had him narrowed down to about 70% pair, 20% AQ, AJ, AT, A9 and 10% pure bluff. The turn is the confusing part of the hand for me because I'm not sure what to do. If I check, a lot of pairs might check behind for pot control and Aces might do the same to either induce a river bluff or river call down. On the other hand, if I bet, I will freeze a lot of pairs (thus folding out hands with only 2 outs) and still get action from most Aces. I opted for the check raise because I didn't think a hand like 88 would call a river lead and it definitely wouldn't fire again on the river. He ended up hitting his 2 outer on the turn, but I managed to spike my 7 outer on the river for the resuck.

Nice Hand
This hand was kind of interesting, mainly due to the flop play. This isn't the best flop for my hand, but when I get raised, I was thinking a few things. This is a good flop to bluff raise as it misses a lot of hands and is pretty scary for over pairs. His raise was kind of weak, meaning he was either really strong or he really wasn't comfortable with his hand and didn't want to risk too much money. I also felt hands like 77 or 88 could raise here often. I decided to 3 bet for some more information. When he called, I basically narrowed his range to set, 77-TT, and 78. The turn was beautiful giving me top set and crushing every other hand but 78. I shoved for like 60% pot and he called with TT and was drawing dead.

I will definitely be playing more hands than 126 on average unless things go this well every time. I have a test tomorrow so I won't be playing anymore today, but I will definitely be playing plenty this week, so hopefully I have more good news to post...

September Results

The month didn't go as well as I would've liked, but I can't really complain too much about winning money. My total ended up being right around +$1,000 ($859 in cash and $145 in tournaments), but it easily could have been a lot more. I once again had one blowup day where I lost $1000 and left me in a big hole in the beginning of the month. As you can see from the PT screen shot, I did really well in the areas I usually concentrate on, like $100 6 max and 1/2 6 max, and really poor in my experimental areas, such as the heads up levels. The 2/4 heads up was just every wrong form of tilt, and without it, the month would have been decent. Hopefully I learned something from it and will prevent myself from chasing losses.

I have also decided not to set goals anymore because I start focusing more on reaching the goals, rather than how I am playing. I will still of course have general goals like "make as much money as possible" but I really want to concentrate on playing better. Actually, an idea just came to me now, and that is to set non-monetary goals/rules for the month. So here they are:

1) Use a 2.5 buy in stop loss no matter what
2) Don't chase losses
3) Get a coach
4) Only take shots when I have won at least 5 buy-ins for that level

I will be playing only 1/2 for the month of October unless something goes horribly wrong and I'm forced to move back down. I don't plan on getting the coach until the end of the month or sometime next month because I want to make sure I can handle 1/2 first. Hopefully October goes well and 30 days from now I will be posting good things...

New Rule

I have come to the realization that I don't perform as well when I play longer sessions. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but whenever I play for more than an hour ( >400 hands) my results are a lot more inconsistent. I get into this state where I feel like I'm not even blinking because my eyes are so focused on the monitors, and I don't believe that's a good thing. So the new rule is:

I will not play any session longer than 1 hour or 400 hands unless the table is to good to leave. If this is the case, I must close all of the other tables and play only the good table. A break of at least 20 minutes must take place before the next session can start.

This was all inspired by my session last night. I played a 735 hand session and lost $190, which is my first loss in a while. I did notice though that I played much better in the first hour and my results were better, and that includes when I got stacked on a bad beat. A graph will illustrate it better:

I did have KK run into AA, as indicated by the steep drop later in the session, but I also lost a lot of medium sized pots. I think part of the reason this happens is that I sometimes tighten up too much and then I feel the need to make plays, when I really don't need to be doing that. This post isn't all bad news though. I did play 180 hands today and managed to make $150, so my total loss for Thursday and Friday is only $40. I am still debating about whether or not I am going to play the WCOOP ME. A cool million for first is very tempting...

Another good one

I played another short session of 414 hands today but I was still managed to win $250. I know this rate is obviously not sustainable but I really do feel like I am crush $100 max. I'm starting to pick on the regulars, who make it so obvious that they are trying to steal dead money, and thus letting me open my 3 betting range quite a bit. I also have been playing just a little bit more aggressive, somewhere around 19/17 or 18/16 and it seems to be working. I can't say that I am not running good, because I obviously am, but I can't remember sucking out this past week. I also haven't been racing with AK vs QQ or anything like that. It basically comes down to the fact that I am getting it in ahead and I am holding, and everything is great when poker goes like that.
Pretty graph:


Hands:
Confusing
I didn't know what to make of the minimum raise. It typically is a big pair so I figured I would 4 bet small enough to entice him to shove. When he just called, I thought he has QQ or JJ, so I didn't really like this flop at all. When he flat called the flop, I was leaning more toward QQ and the K was another bad card. It would either scare his QQ or he just hit his two outer with KK, but I didn't have much left and the pot was pretty large, so I shoved and he had AK (lol).

Nice LAG image
This past week has really shown my why it is so good to have a LAG image. I am getting a lot more action with my big pairs because I'm being so active, and I get action when I have hands like this one because they think I'm a loose, bluffing idiot. I didn't have any history on this guy or I would've shoved the river instead of just a 3/5 pot value bet.

Whenever I started out a session, I used to play pretty tight at the beginning until I figured out the players a bit and then I would make my adjustments. I now like to start playing LAG, because like life, poker is heavily influenced by first impressions. It used to work that I would play so tight that when I finally got my AA or KK I wouldn't get any action. Now, by raising liberally right from the start, I can slow down and start to play tighter, and I still get action on my big hands because all people remember is the low, suited cards I played in the beginning of the session. I am currently right around +$1,300 for the month, and my aim is for $1,500. I thought about making it $2,000 but I won't get to play much tomorrow and probably not at all Saturday, so unless I have a good Sunday Major, I should finish the month around +$1,000-$1,6000. Hopefully this good run will continue for awhile...

Still Rolling

Today was another good, short day of poker with some nice results. This post is going to have a lot of images, so brace yourselves. Here are my results for the day:

And the graph:

I love it when graphs look like this. Lately, I feel I have been making some really good decisions and its really been paying off. I have been winning a lot of medium sized pots by making good reads and really extracting value from one pair and other marginally made hands. I really attribute most of this to sticking to one or two games and not hopping around playing something different each day. Here is my updated September graph:

After that poor 2/4 decision (straight line down in graph), I have stuck to mainly $100 max with some 1/2 thrown in and I have really been focusing. As you can see, it has been almost straight uphill since then, and while I have been running decent, I think most of it is because of my new ability to concentrate fully while playing. I am up about $900 from cash games and $145 from tournaments, so I have reached my $1000 refined monthly goal. I didn't think $1500 was going to possible, but with the way things have been going, I definitely have a shot at getting there by the end of the month.

As for life matters, Lauren and I have to decided to take a long weekend to Baltimore on October 18-21. I can't remember if I traveled there when I was younger or not, but either way, I am really excited. They have one of the largest aquariums in the country I believe (I love sea life, especially behind 6-inch glass), plus some great crab. For those of you that don't know me, crab is definitely my favorite crustacean and I haven't had any in a long time. It will be nice to get away and just enjoy a city with Lauren so I will definitely post a trip report when it's done...

Lauren is better than me at Poker

Every Sunday, I play the Sunday Majors, watch football, and Lauren usually comes over and cooks me a fantastic meal. That's why Sunday is usually my favorite day of the week for now. Last week, Lauren decided to play a $2 bounty tournament on UB while I played my tournaments. I helped her along, and she ended up getting down to 2 or 3 tables and cashing for something like $3.5, and she got $1 as a bounty for taking a player out. This time she decided to play a $10 tournament, and she did amazingly well, taking the whole thing down! I did help a lot because she is still new to tournaments, but she did a lot on her own and was always asking me to explain why I wanted her to do this or that. She took down $321 for her effort and now probably has a better pokerdb record than me. I couldn't be more proud of her, and I know she was excited to win. Just watch out for some of the WSOP events in the upcoming years, as she will be a major force when I'm done training her.

As for my Sunday, I played really well and managed to get a 100k stack in the $1k WCOOP event with about 400 people left until the money. Things just went downhill from there as I kept bleeding chips with tough hands like JJ, and then I 3 bet in position preflop with AQhh and the original raiser called. The flop came 445 rainbow and he led into me for about 2/3 pot. I knew his hand was something like 99/TT so I decided to shove for about 50k more because it would be really hard for him to call that type of hand, and if he does call, I am only 3:1 to suckout. He time banked for a long time and then called and I bricked about 150 from the money. I like my play but I wish I had done it differently. I should've taken more time to make the play because I think I shoved just a little bit too quickly. I also would go back and just 3x his bet, even though it would leave me with only 10k left. Doing it this way seems much stronger to me, because he knows I can't fold if he puts me in, and it looks like I really want a call but don't want any scare cards to come for his/my hand (e.g. an Ace or King on turn). So you live and you learn.

I played some $100 max today and made $205 over 500 hands, so I was very pleased. Here's a graph:

This brings my monthly total to just under $800, so I should be able to hit 4 digits for the month but $1500 is unlikely. I might not reach the hands goal because I haven't played a lot lately, but if I really try and grind, I can most likely do it...

I hate hangovers

There were a couple of people up at PSU last night so I ended up going out. For some reason, I got pumped to really drink a lot and ended up drinking way too much. I threw up for the first time in about a year and woke with a pretty bad hangover. It is now almost 8 p.m. as I write this, and I can still feel some slight effects from it. Nausea is in my top three for worst feelings in the world, and I especially hate when your head spins. I most likely won't be drinking anything more than one or two pleasant tasting imported beers when it comes to alcohol and going out in the next month or so.

As for a poker update, I played about 750 hands on Wednesday and about 200 today with the following results:

Wednesday:


Friday:


I don't feel like posting any hands at the moment so the graphs will have to do. As for life matters, basically all of my friends have gone somewhere for the weekend, so I will have a lot of down time and will probably be spending most of it with Lauren. I am actually looking forward to this, especially after last night. I just cleaned the kitchen and it's really comforting knowing that it won't be a mess again tomorrow since my roommates are gone. Lauren and I are also in the works of planning a long weekend vacation in the near future. At the moment, Baltimore seems the most likely destination, but nothing is set in stone yet. I love having my class schedule because it gives me the freedom to do things I love doing like traveling and seeing new places. Plus, Baltimore is suppose to have some good crab, and there aren't many things I love more than crab...

Taking a shot

I played two sessions today, a 570 hand one at $100 max and 230 hand one at 1/2. Here are the results:

And here is a graph:

The $100 max session I played decently but I ran pretty bad. People kept rivering two pair in pots where I played for pot control, but I like that style with marginal made hands. Then I had one sort of cooler with AK on an AsJs5x board where the under the gun raiser had 55. If not for that hand, I still would have made money at .5/1. I had a test at 8:15 tonight and then hung out at Lauren's for a little before I came back and played my second session. I decided to give 1/2 a shot because my bankroll now has 20 buy-ins for that level, games are typically softer at night, and I know I'm good enough to play at that level. I used to play only 1/2 on Stars (and sometimes 2/4 until I reached my pain threshold) and I was beating the game pretty good, and I am confident Full Tilt is a little bit softer. The game plan is to now keep playing these days of mixed levels to phase myself into 1/2 where I hopefully can make some nice money and prepare for 2/4. I played really well at 1/2 today so that goes a long way for the confidence. Here are some hands:

Hand from above
This hand is actually kind of interesting and I'm really not sure if I played it correctly. If I had a deeper stack, it is a clear fold, but with my stack and now getting 2:1 with his shove, I didn't think I could fold. I figured hands that would do this were set, AJ, AQ, AK,KsQs, QsTs, and maybe a suited connector flush draw but that is unlikely because he has to know he doesn't really have fold equity. I don't like squeezing with AK against UTG raisers and callers because when you miss, you are out of position and often get floated/shoved on dry flops. Flat calling does disguise my hand and may get a guy to stack of with AQ or AJ on an Ace high board.

Discipline Fold
My river bet here is bad but it was a nice discipline fold, which I have gotten a lot better at lately. A bet on the river is bad here because my hand is sort of transparent when I bet the river because there is no way I have a boat with with that scary flop and I definitely would've bet a King or Queen on the flop. It's also bad because I don't get any value from an Ace as we will chop and he certainly isn't laying down an Ace for only $25. I really think he had TJ, but if he didn't, then it was a nice bluff by him.

Nice read
I was almost positive this guy was squeezing based on my reads of the table, and I'm glad I actually had the nerve to follow my read and pull the trigger. Next time though, I think making a pot committing bet like $110 looks stronger whereas the all in bet looks a lot like AK.


Another Nice Read
I liked this hand a lot. I normally wouldn't play as big of pot in most situations, but this guy was a major donk. I had seen him make a few big raises with weak made hands or draws, so I had no intention of folding on this under flop unless some really bad cards came. He hesitated calling my turn check raise, and him not shoving made me put him on a draw. This guy's stats were something like 60/25, and he was the type that would raise any pair as he raised a lot and limped with suited cards, so I wasn't too worried about a set. The river was perfect and put me ahead of a hand like 86 suited and I snap called pretty confidently. His hand was right around what I thought, so that was a nice pat on the back along with the 260bb pot.

This post is running kind of long, but I haven't posted in awhile so I feel the need to make up for it. My friend just started a blog and I must admit, it is one of the most intelligently written piece of writing that I have read in a long time. He certainly has a gift for writing and I truly believe he should pursue something in that field (he does intend to). What really caught my eye was the level of reflection involved. Reflection of oneself is something I have done before and something I plan to do more of in the near future. It is one of the best ways to analyze yourself and assess how you truly are feeling at a certain period of time, and it often leads to eye opening revelations. Reflection is very dandy indeed, but for it to truly be effective, you have to go somewhere with those realizations and take the proper actions to maximize your benefit from them. I have a very wonderful and happy life right now, so my reflections may be more focused on smaller things, but I really need to work on following through on those reflections...

I'm not dead

This is probably one of the longest time periods I have gone without updating the blog. I just wasn't really in the mood for blogging because poker has been frustrating for me this month and I've made a lot of foolish errors. My biggest mistakes have been bankroll management and not fully comprehending variance. I was doing nicely in the 6 handed $100 max at the beginning of the month but then I hit a spell where basically nothing went right for a couple of sessions. This led to me getting frustrated, even though something like this is clearly within the boundaries of negative variance, and caused me to want a change of scenery. I moved to heads up, where things really kicked off nicely and even led me to think I would play it solely or the rest of the month. Once again, variance kicked in and I took a few beats and tilted some. I then saw a guy who looked pretty weak at 2/4 HU table, so I decided to play him. I ran pretty awful and ended up dropping close to two buy-ins to him, which was around 25% of my FTP bankroll. After that horrific day (ended around -$1100 that day!), I have since been grinding $100 max again and have regained most of those losses. I think I am down only $150 for the month thus far, so I'm setting a new goal of $1000 for September. I do think I will reach the 15k hand mark so that's at least one goal achieved.

My big thing right now is working on not getting frustrated and changing things up all of the time. I've also been playing pretty well since my blowup day, and I'm happy about that, but I'm still not giving as much credit as I should be and still not laying down some big hands when I need to. I just started datamining 1/2 since I might be moving up in around a month, so hopefully the extra stats and preparation will help. I'm on my laptop now so I can't post any graphs or stats, so I will do that next time...

Heads Up Pt. 2

I wanted to play a session during the night time hours to see if they are any softer, and I think they are, but not overly. I played 360 hands of $100 max on two tables and made another $88, bringing my total for the day to about $265. It feels good to finally get some traction this month, and I am can really contribute it to heads up. This session was a lot more volatile, mainly because of this hand: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1454158. This one for some reason really tilted me, and I actually dropped another buy-in to him on a stupid bluff, but I ended up taking it all back from him, so that was extremely sweet. Here's the roller coaster graph:


I am really enjoying this heads up stuff because it feels a lot more like a competition than 6 max. It's also really fun trying to adjust to your opponent and then seeing that adjustment work. Hopefully, I can keep this good run at heads up going and put up some decent numbers this month. This weekend is the Notre Dame game and there are a ton of people coming up to visit, so I'm not sure if I will get to play much, but it should definitely be a good weekend...

Very Quick Session

I was in between classes and decided to play some $100 max HU. I played two tables, one against a short stack and another against a guy with a full buy-in. Oddly enough, I killed the full stack guy and I lost about $15 to the shorter stack.

I was shocked to find out I only played 40 hands, so 20 per person. It was amazing that I was able to stack the full buy-in guy twice within 20 hands! I had three decent hands against him.

Very Nice
I was looking back on this hand, and the more I study it, the more I like it. Preflop 3 bet calling ranges are much larger heads up, so this was a good flop for me. When he smooth called I was pretty sure he didn't have a ten, as he would have to raise since so many scare cards can come, so that basically left a smaller pair, a draw, or a complete float with overcards. I really felt it was a float with an AJ/AQ type of hand because there is so much floating on these types of boards. The turn was a perfect blank, and I checked to induce, and he obliged. I shoved the turn with no fold equity because I was pretty sure my hand was best, and I got it in as a 90% favorite.

Baby Flush
I love betting my flush draws in HU pots as it really disguises your hand and allows you to get value on the next street as well, rather than trying to trap. Once again, the smooth call showed me he didn't have a king, but the ten was a great card to complete straight draws and maybe some two pairs. When he raised me, it was a no brainer shove because I can't afford to let another spade fall and kill my action or crush my hand.

Setting up a check call
This is a good example of the check call principle. After his turn check, I knew my Ace was good and his hand was weak. Any hand of strength would have to try and extract value from the many draws the turn made viable, so knowing this, I knew there was no value in betting the river because there aren't any hands that are going to call me that I have beat. He had to bet if he wanted to win the hand, and I was there to pick it off.

Hopefully I can keep it going well with these heads up matches. I'm going to really try to practice good game selection because it really makes a world of a difference...

Change of Pace

The six handed $100 max game hasn't been going as smoothly as I would like these past few days. I am still up almost 2 buy-ins for this month, but that isn't too special when you have played 3500 hands at that level. I'm not sure if it's a pride thing or not, but I know for sure I have developed some bad habits. I think one of my main problems is that I am trying to play way too LAG. This is a style I am still not the best at, but I really do want to be good at it. I just don't think that style is optimal for this level, where the players aren't as conscious about ranges, and are more or less calling stations. I have been a little too recklessly aggressive and I haven't been giving people credit. Also, lately, I just can't seem to lay down a hand even when I know I'm beat. Today, after playing a frustrating 6 handed $100 max session, I switched to heads up poker. I think I might be addicted. The player disparity is so much easier to spot in heads up than in 6 max. You can almost label anyone who doesn't buy-in for a full stack heads up as a weak player. I really think I played well today heads up, and I did have some mistakes, but I'm still learning. Here are my results:


And a graph:


I started the heads up stuff a little before hand 600 and as you can see, it took me a little bit to adjust. Also, I really felt good about this hand (http://www.pokerhand.org/?1449866)
as I knew exactly where he was strength wise. He was giving off some timing tells like he wasn't comfortable, and I thought this guy was decent, which is a main reason I ran this bluff. It's just a shame because about 80% of the time I will have him crushed here, and leaving him feeling stupid. Once I started to get the hang of things and stopped playing the good players, the graph looks very nice.

I think I'm going to keep playing this mix of 6 max and HU for now, but I'm going to try and lean more towards heads up. This one site I bought videos from has some great heads up videos, so I plan on watching them all again and getting really good at this stuff...

Much needed update

I haven't updated in a few days, mainly because I didn't really know where one session ended and another began. I started my September this Sunday by making $180 in cash games over 200 hands and the cashing in the Sunday Million for a profit of $145. Then I played a bunch of hands on labor day, 1744 to be exact. I had been grinding out $100 max and I just couldn't get things going. I had stayed down about a buy-in for around 1100 hands and decided to take a break. When I came back, I played 1/2 instead, and that was a total train wreck. I lost over 2 buy-ins in 85 hands! My AA lost to 89 and QQ lost to AK and so I was forced to take another break. I was now down about $550, which is a lot for my Full Tilt account at the moment. I came back and started to grind $100 max and was doing well and had reduced my losses to only about -$400 when this happened: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1447697. This was a big momentum killer, but I hung in there and managed to finish the day down only $350. So now I was only down like $30 for the month, and I played another 1000 hand session on Tuesday and made $120, which puts me in the green about 1 buy-in for the month. I always have one of these crazy days every month so hopefully this is my only one and the rest will be a lot smoother. Here's a graph of the craziness, and it doesn't include my tourney cash:


As for personal stuff, Lauren and I did our annual hike of Mt. Nittany on Labor day this year. I love doing this hike as there are a lot of great views and it's an amazing workout. The path we took was the long, six mile one, and about 1/4 of it is straight uphill over rocky terrain. Needless to say, I definitely slowed Lauren down during this part as I had to stop a few times for rest. Lauren and I are also watching the Prison Break dvds and we are loving it. I have already seen them, but even watching them a second time makes me want to do a massive marathon of them. It is seriously the best show on television and I watch a lot of these types of shows. Go buy Prison Break and I promise you won't be disappointed...

August Results, September Goals

This is the first monthly results post I've made, and I'm doing it on my school computer so I can't get a monthly graph. I have calculated overall profit, number of sessions, etc. and can post those.

Results
Net Profit: $1426
Days Played: 17
Winning Days: 14
Losing Days: 3
Largest Winning Day: $470
Largest Losing Day: -$1065


September Goals
Hands: 15,000
Profit:$3,000
-> Start with $100 max for at least half of the month, then move up to 1/2.
-> Try to incorporate at more loose, aggressive style


This result was a good one for the amount of days and hands that I actually played. Also, if I take into account the -$1000 day I had at 2/4, it could've been a much better month.

I am climbing Mt. Nittany for the third time with Lauren tomorrow. It's always fun to do that as it's a great workout, has some nice views, plus allows me to spend a lot time with my wonderful girlfriend!

Strong Finish

I just finished a quick session of 235 hands and ended up +$184. I didn't want to play too long today as I have some other things to do, but I am happy with how this session went. I only made one questionable call, but the rest of the hands I felt I played really well. I should've won about double if my Aces didn't get cracked and if I didn't split a pot when I had a guy drawing basically dead with only 3 chop outs. Here is the graph:

Hands:

AA less than K7
This is exactly what you want with this hand and you just have to hope your 3:1 holds up. It was such a nice turn card too in that it killed another out for him, but he still managed to get there. This didn't bother me at all so I am getting better.

Ehhh
This is a pretty questionable call down on my part. The only hand I was really worried about was 79 or a small set, so I think I have enough equity against other hands to call. I Pokerstoved this range: 99,77,33-22,A9s,K9s,Q9s,J9s,T9s,97s+,A9o,K9o and it said I had 60% equity, but that's only on the flop, and the range I applied was more of a turn/river range. If I could somehow adjust, it might be a lot closer to even or less for me. I just don't see him bluff min-raising the turn, and then potting the river without a hand that beats me. At best I was splitting so it's probably a fold but I have made worse calls.

Sets are nice
I didn't have any history with this guy, so when he called my 3 bet, I put him on 77-JJ and AQ+. The flop was beautiful and I bet a small inducer to tempt him to raise or at least not fold out some lower pairs/high cards. The turn was another great card because I could act like it was a scare card and it also hits his over card floats. He bet out nicely allowing me to stall call and I again checked the river because I really felt he would bet. He obliged by shoving and I insta-called and he folded seven high.

Shame
This was against the same guy, who I now see is an awful player. He only had three chop outs going to the river, but I might not have stacked him on a blank. I certainly would've gotten a decent value bet from him though.

Grinding

I played close to 500 hands today and it was actually pretty tame. I didn't win or lose more than half of a buy-in during any hand for the entire session. I wanted to focus on cutting down on some of the crazy variance plays I make like too many big bluffs and trying to get too active with connected cards. I thinks that's why the session went the way it did, but I am happy with this. I wasn't winning a lot of big pots but I was exploiting the weaker players and still making money with much less risk. Here's the graph:

I'm only going to post a few hands because there wasn't a ton of action hands.

Maximizing Value
I really think I maximized value on this hand. This is a flop that doesn't hit a ton of hands so I knew I couldn't really force it as he most likely has something like a medium pair or a medium Ace. The turn was a great card to check to make it seem like I was continuation betting and now giving up. This allowed me to get some value on the river (lol at AT).

Punked
This may sound like I'm trying save myself, but when this guy 4 bet me I immediately hit the max button, but then I stopped myself from being rash and started to think it through more. I folded because I didn't think it was worth it, but I do have to give this guy credit for making a good play. He was definitely the best $100 max player I have seen thus far and probably should be playing higher.

I'm going to be playing a decent amount today as I once again don't have any classes. This weekend is PSU's first football game so I definitely will be there. They are playing some scrub team but next week is Notre Dame so that should be insane. We are also going to maybe do a cookout next week and the thought of it is making me hungry...

Crazy Cash

Cash games have been very volatile for me lately, but I've somehow managed to come back from some extreme intra day lows most of the time. Today was another day like that. I got off to the worst start ever, losing two buy-ins within 50 hands to a bad beat and a cooler. I didn't tilt really at all after those two hands but I still couldn't get anything going at $100 max. I decided to take a break after 430 hands and then came back and played 1/2 for 360 hands. I played ok, but not great, at $200 max and won almost 1.5 buy-ins to put me up $75 for the day. Here are the results and the graph:



I know I have some major leaks at the moment, as well as some emotional discipline problems, and I'm going to do some in-depth study after this post. There were some interesting hands so I'll probably post more than normal:

Annoying
This is one of those hands where I knew I wasn't going to hold. I had watched this guy suck out a few times before this so I didn't get my hopes up. Anyways, the moral of the story is push any draw and you will get there.

Cooler
It's tough to put a guy on a set of fours here but my entire river sequence is just awful here. His turn bet looked like a blocking bet with something like JT, weak King, or pair and flush draw. I tried to make a really small value bet on the river to maybe get some action from another King, but I might have been being optimistic. When he check-raises the river, I should've insta-mucked as he won't do this on a bluff because he has no fold equity. I also don't really beat anything that would check raise the river but I think I got mad at betting and made a crying call.

Leak
This hand is so unnecessary in so many ways that it hurts. This guy had 3 bet me quite a few times (which I really hate) and so I was a little frustrated with him. Looking back over this hand, it is a pretty tough spot with this rainbow board and a lack of scare cards for me. I think it's probably better to just continuation bet and shut down out of position with 77 here. This board is very floatable as it misses so many hands and I didn't really think he was that strong. I tried to play for pot control but he bet the turn, which is what he would do on a float. The turn is the most confusing part for me here, and I hate confusing decisions out of position. I put out a blocking bet on the river because I felt I was going to call a bet but I wanted to dictate the size of the bet and there was still a chance he could fold out a hand like 88 or 99. I think a better line is to turn my hand into a bluff by check raising the turn (which I would do with an overpair on this board) and then bet about 80% pot on the river.

Nicely Played AA
I think I basically called out this guy's hand to myself when he bet the turn. On the flop, his min-raise was either a set or a strong ten, and when he potted the turn, I really didn't think he had a set. I was never folding but I definitely maximized value here.

I had another fantasy draft tonight with some other newer people like Lauren and my brother. Lauren's team is actually pretty solid and I play her in week 1 and I'm really afraid I might lose. My brother and his friend have also started taking Jujitsu at a local gym that offers a lot of martial arts training. I talked with my brother and his friend Bruce about it, and we decided we might all take some private lessons in Thai Boxing. I really want to do this for so many reasons. It's a great way to get in shape, learn to kick people's asses, and an excellent way to learn discipline. I am pretty excited about it and I'm going to make sure I follow through with it...

Almost forgot

My best friend Bob Preston was on ESPN tonight for the WSOP. He managed to get a feature table when we played in the WSOP and he got some decent coverage. He ended being the Degree all in moment like me except he actually won his as he beat on Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and ended his WSOP tourney life. So congratulations to him and I believe he has more coverage coming on September 11th, so for the 5 people that read this blog (including you Bob), tune in and be amazed...

2nd session

I decided to play another session after I hung out with Lauren and finished grocery shopping. I put in another 620 hands, bringing me to a grand total of 840 hands. I managed to finish the session at +$178 but it was a very swingy session. Here is the updated graph:


A big leak of mine today was trying to bluff too much. I have been having some success with my multi-street bluffs, but today I tried it way too often. The spots were still decent but I can't assume I can always push people off a hand or they will believe what I'm representing and make a big laydown. So I'm going to work on that in the next few sessions. I did take a few beats at critical times in the session but then I had a nice two-outer (I wasn't all in though so not a big suck out) right at the end to cap off the night. Here are some hands:

Ouch
I had been getting beat and was maybe slightly tilting a little before this, but then I composed myself and was on a nice run when this happened. It killed some of my momentum. This was a nice standard cooler that I was suppose to win but didn't work out that way.

Got there
This was one of my multi-street bluffs that actually worked, even though I did get there. The river card is meaningless as I'm betting the same on basically any card, but it does make you feel better when he time banks. It was pretty easy to tell he was on a medium pair. I didn't get any great scare cards so this one was a little more risky, but I was confident about his hand and I really thought I could get him to fold. Now I only wish he would've called.

Whew
I didn't realize this pot was 3-way when I flat called, and I might have raised if I did know, but I was a little suspicious of his lead out. When he bet the turn, I really thought he had a set as he should have slowed down with any weaker hand, but I just called because I didn't want to dissuade him from betting the river if I was wrong. I got semi-lucky but I'm never folding my hand here as I am ahead sooooo often.

I had my first day of classes at school today and it was pretty good. I managed to attend all three and the only hiccup was going to handball (which I thought Josh and I signed up for) and then finding out we actually signed up for a nutrition class with quizzes and other graded material. The class still seems pretty easy so I am going to keep it, but next semester I plan on taking one of the martial arts gym classes. It has been nice to be able to see Lauren everyday up here at school. Her apartment is a little further away this year, but the weather is so nice and her apartment is much nicer than last year that I really don't mind the walk. She also keeps me grounded and has been a big help in me sticking to my resolution of not being wasteful, so thanks babe! I don't have any classes tomorrow, so I am going to rearrange my room furniture, write down all of my assignments, and of course, play a bunch of poker and hopefully win lots of money...

Internet is so nice

I have never been more grateful to have the internet in my life. I really felt Amish these past few days but I was a lot more productive when it came to errands and stuff like that. Anyways, I played my first session since getting the internet back. I only played 200 hands because I'm in between classed at the moment, but I still managed to make $86. I didn't get a chance to blog about my losing day. I played around 800 hands on Friday before the internet and lost a buy-in and a half. It was a really frustrating session where I was constantly getting three bet when I was raising light and then got zero action with my big hands. It was also very swingy with me being down $220 then back to even and then dropping a buy-in at the end of the session, resulting in me quitting right then.

Here's today's graph:


There were a few interesting hands so I'll post those:
Got Lucky I Guess
This hand was pretty interesting and I feel my read was pretty good. I felt this was a good board to continuation bet and double barrel if needed as it hits so few hands. Also, on boards like this, better players will often float you to induce a check from you on the turn so they can steal it on the river. On the flop, I felt he was on a hand like 66 or 77 because a 9 should definitely check raise, and same with a flush draw. The Ace hit the turn and was a great double barrel card and he called again. This was a little confusing and I had to hands like AT, AJ floating the flop and now getting there. I almost didn't realize I had made a straight because I was trying to figure out his river lead. His line kind of looked like a flush draw that got there, but he most likely wouldn't have played it so passively. He also could have slow played a few 2 pair hands, plus he could very easily have an Ace, so I'm ahead of too many hands to fold but there is no value in raising as I'm only getting called by a flush on that board. I really hate his river bet. He isn't getting any value from hands he is ahead of (which is very few) and his line didn't add up, so a nice pot for me.

Won a race
It was nice to win a race, especially when it was over by the turn. I wasn't thrilled by his call but it worked out.

Very Surprising
I didn't think I was actually going to win this hand but I somehow did. I was going to stab on the turn but I didn't want to push myself of my draw.

I might play again later tonight since I didn't really play much this afternoon. I am going to get groceries and run some errands so we shall see...