Tournament Sunday Results

Every Sunday morning I get extremely excited for a chance to win some big money in the Sunday majors, but the usual result is a long, depressing day of poker. Yesterday was no exception, as I did not cash in one tournament, due to some really bad beats and some really bad play. On the bright side, I did manage to satellite into two of the majors, so losses were not as large as they could've been. Here are the results:

1) Poker Stars $1 Million Guaranteed
Investment: -$530
Winnings: $0
Net: -$530
Cumulative: -$530

2) UB 200k Guaranteed
Investment: -$51 (satellite)
Winnings: $0
Net: -$51
Cumulative: -$581

3) FTP $400k Guaranteed
Investment: -$26 (satellite)
Winnings: $0
Net: -$26
Cumulative: -$607

4) Pokerstars 2nd Chance
Investment: -$215
Winnings: $0
Net: -$215
Cumulative: -$822

5) FTP Mulligan
Investment: -$215
Winnings: $0
Net: -$215
Cumulative: -$1037

6) UB Bounty 25k Guaranteed
Investment: -$129
Winnings: $0
Net: -$129
Cumulative: -$1166


Total Tournaments: 6
Cashes: 0
Total Investment: -$1166
Total Winnings: $0
Net: -$1166


The past week or so I have been running pretty poorly and it continued on Sunday. In the UB $200k I was a little below average in chips but still in good shape when this hand occurred (http://www.pokerhand.org/?858660). When I reraised, I knew he had an over pair, but this guy was a bet pot machine, so the implied odds if I were to flop a set were good enough for me to call. I got him in on the turn with my top set and his QQ pulled the gutshot and ended my night. In the FTP $400k, I had some really good fortune and got up to 15,000 in chips in about 40 minutes, and was in first place out of 2500 people. But about an hour later, in about 6 hands I had 99, AK twice, and 88, all of which led to medium sized pots that I got pushed out of. Then a couple of hands later my AA failed to hold up against a pair/flush draw combo and I was down to 6000 in the blink of an eye, and was unable to recover from there. On the whole, my play was above average, but that isn't good enough for Sunday poker, so hopefully next time I will improve.

March Goals

Well this will be the first time I have truly written down goals when it comes to poker. I guess my mentality when playing was to always make as much money as possible or to try and win the tournament, but I realize that isn't specific or realistic enough. So in order to get some structure and direction in my play, I am going to set a monthly, monetary goal that I think is lofty but not unachievable. So here are my goals for March:

March Monetary Goals

Cash Games: $1500
Tournaments: $3500
Total: $5000

At the moment, I am up about $5000 for February and I would normally increase my goal to something above last month's performance, but I will be in Spain visiting my girlfriend for 11 days and will not be playing poker then. I feel I can achieve this number because I have been getting really close lately and have been playing great poker, but then I go and make one stupid play and ruin it. So with a little patience and some more good play, I look forward to the challenge of achieving my goals!

Introduction

I guess I will start off by describing a little bit about myself and the purpose of this blog. My name is Joe Patrick and I am a junior at Penn State University. I just turned 21 about three weeks ago and am enjoying every moment of it, especially with my girlfriend (who I love infinity + 1) and my group of best friends! I decided to start this blog for a couple of reasons. First off, I have been playing poker on and off for about three years now. I have been successful but not super successful like some of these young, online phenoms. I just recently returned to online poker the beginning of February after pretty substantial break (probably around 6 months or so) and have some pretty good success thus far. I have now become fully engorged in the online poker world, including playing multiple tournaments a day, checking my pocket fives status, etc.... so I am using this blog as a way to document my growth as a poker player. I use poker tracker to keep track of my profits and stats, but it doesn't give you as clear a picture as an online blog does. The second reason I'm starting this blog is to hopefully network with some other poker players. There is no better way to learn and improve than by discussing hands and situations with other to get different viewpoints. Finally, I am also using this blog to document other significant occurrences in my life. I whole-heartedly believe in balancing your life. I do my best to devote myself to things like poker, but I do not let them run my life. I have way too many other good things going on in my life for that to happen.

Well that is all that is coming to mind at the moment. I look forward to maintaining this blog and reflecting on it in the future. I wish everybody the best of luck in everything they pursue.