Holiday Trip Report

Today is the day after Christmas, I am off today and tomorrow and I am incredibly excited about it. Yesterday was a long day and I need the day off today to relax. Melissa and I exchanged presents on Christmas Eve and I got some good stuff. She got me Transformers, Superbad, The fist season of Heroes which is really awesome. I got some clothes and some other small things. I got her a ring, earrings and a necklace, in the past I was hesitant to do the whole jewelry thing but I did pretty good this year according to her.

The next morning we were up at 7AM to get ready to go up to Gainesville to have Christmas with her Grandparents. We took the dog with us because we were going to be gone all day long it would have been too long for her to stay in her crate. She was her normal self on the car ride, very hyper and all over the place. We opened presents with her family and then we ate. This is their first Christmas without her Dad so I was expecting it to be very emotional but it actually went pretty well. I got a few things at that Christmas, a robe, button down shirt and some money. They decided to not do a traditional Christmas dinner but instead have steak and baked potatoes, I couldn't argue with that at all.

We left there to go to Melissa's Grandmother's house which is across the highway from Gainesville but her Aunt was there and she is allergic to dogs. Bella and I sat in the car while Melissa ran in the house and said hello and explained that we were leaving to go to my family's Christmas. Melissa's dad is buried up there as well so we stopped by the grave site for Melissa, and the dog decided to get car sick. She puked in the car and it was luckily on the floor and not all over my lap. I held her and let her finish up while Melissa was visiting the grave site. Cleaning the dog up after that was a complete pain in the ass. We decided right then to board her someplace next year.

We went to my Mom's house to visit with them exchange presents and all of that. I gave Myra her presents and she really liked it, its a donkey that you can ride and it makes noises. I will post some pics later, I am too lazy right now. We hung out for a bit before bowing out to come home. It was an incredibly long day we finally made it home around 6:30 and after getting everything put away and changing into comfies I finally sat down on the couch about 7:15.

Christmas was so much easier when I was a kid just show up and open presents, now there is so much involved especially with being with Melissa her family has their traditions and mine does as well so there is a lot of planning involved in that. There is so much drama in my family and some in hers it can be such a headache trying to figure out how to plan it all out.

I have been playing a little poker and been doing OK. I am winning but I have a LONG journey back before I can take shots at 25NL again. I am going to be playing a heads up bracket style tournament starting in January. I am not going to really post much poker content until I get back to where I was, most of the play is bad and I am playing better than most of the other people at the table. In other poker news I am going to cancel my Cardrunners membership. I never watch the videos and they are so much higher than any level I am playing at. Basically the information is pretty much the same. be very aggressive in late position and don't stack off too lightly. I get more out of the forums, then I get from the site. There is another video site that I might check out but not until I am playing 25NL full time.

That is really it for now. I will make another post tomorrow.
Until later.

Today is the 7th and its my first entry for this month

Well, I am at work and today is Friday. Its lunch time and I am bored. I figured why not post a blog. There hasn't been to much going on here recently but that is OK. Poker is still there still playing a lot. I came very close to a huge Tournament win. I took a shot and put in $10 and got 19th out of over 2k people. I made a mistake that I am not sure is actually a mistake but it cost me a lot of chips and then I basically blinded out. First place was $4500 and that would have been SICK. I won $100 for my time which I really cant complain about.

Kung-Fu is going well. I was sort of hoping that I would be testing this month but it isn't going to happen and that is fine. I don't think it will be too much longer before I am ready to test again. I think I might be able to start dealing again in January at the back room. It will be nice to have that extra income coming in. I hope that works out.

I entered all my tournament results that I have played online and while its not a huge sample its OK. Over 28 tournaments my ROI is over 150%, that obviously isn't sustainable I don't think but I am pretty happy with that.

Not much else to say. I will post again soon

Until later.

Randomness from work.

Well today is Sunday and I am once again working and bored out of my skull so lets write a blog. On the poker side of things I had my first winning session all week last night. My friend Kevin and his girlfriend Lisa are in town and they were hanging out with us last night. I was explaining to Kevin how the concept of multi tabling works and showing him the software that I use. I opened a few tables and played less than 50 hands and won like 1.5 buy ins. That was pretty nice, not a very long sessions but I will take any win I can get right now.

I am re-reading a series of books that I have had for a long time. The last book of the series came out earlier this month and I wanted to re-read the series because this author will take a year between the books and this is the 11th in the series. The author is Terry Goodkind and its the Sword of Truth series. It is 100% ubber nerd fantasy but I enjoy reading it. I usually read pretty quick and even faster if its a re-read but its been awhile so I am making myself slow down. Most of the books are between 500-900 pages so its going to take me awhile.

I am contemplating buying a new monitor. My monitor is very old and is defiantly on its way out. Its like a 15" CRT, its defiantly time for an upgrade. Best buy has a 22" Samsung and my friend Kevin bought 2 because he knew that I had to work. I should be able to fit 9 tables with no overlap on that thing. That would be awesome because I cant even fit 6 on my monitor now. We will see what happens.

I drank Guinness last night for the first time. I am all for trying new beers and such but I am not sure if I will be able to get into that. I would like to go to some place where I can drink it on tap before I make my final decision. It would be nice to have a large monitor but I have to pay bills unfortunately.

I have been listening to The Avett Brothers a lot here lately. I saw them on Conan and really like them. I downloaded their CD and its really not something I would usually like but for some reason I really am enjoying this CD. Its bluegrass but its mellow, sounds weird but very good. I have also been on a hip hop craze lately, not rap but actually east coast hip hop. Also listening to a lot of Outkast which is kind of like my go to music for playing poker.

I was going to make this longer and talk about more things that I am currently into or wanting to buy but I am lazy and out of the mood. I have Kung-Fu tomorrow and will play some poker tonight. Hopefully I can post another winning session tomorrow.

Until later.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

So yesterday was Thanksgiving and today is Black Friday. I have never really been a huge fan of Thanksgiving and it seems to get less and less important as I get older. The best part is having a random Thursday off. Melissa and I went up to Gainsville to have dinner with her family and Grandparents. My family wasn't doing much so I didn't really miss anything.

I am working today and it is really slow. You would think it would be busy since I work in retail but it has been very slow. I get off in an hour and a half. Going to hang out with Kevin and Lisa tonight since they are in town. Then back to work again tomorrow. YIPPEEE.

Poker has been an ass whipping. I went on a massive downsting losing 14 buy ins at 25NL. I moved down to 10NL and still have not been running overly great. It seems like I am running into the same hand alot. AA vs AA, QQ vs QQ, I raise AT and get called flop two pair and we get it all in and he also has AT. The pots that I am losing are pretty sick as well. I am tightening up and playing pretty solid I just cant get anyone to pay off when I have the best hand it seems. I am going to go back to the ubbernit style to ride out the rest of this downswing and to rebuild. Basically only playing AQ+ and 22+, not great poker but guys at this level dont pay attention to my style so it will be ok. Hopefully I can rebuild quickly.

Kung-Fu on Monday was awesome it was a small class so we were working once again on mobility on the ground. It isnt like UFC fighting but more of just being able to use the ground to manuever and attack. It is very cool and I am picking it up very quickly. I am not sure how much of this stuff will be on my next test if any at all but it is still very cool to learn.

Not playing any poker tonight, I usually lose money on Friday nights so I am just going to take it easy. I have already played 30k hands this month too bad it will be impossible for me to have a winning month. That is all for now.

Until later.

Been sick and not posting...like I need an excuse.

Well, the last time I posed anything was the Sunday when I won my 180 man sit and go tournament. That has been about a week and a half, so much for being consistent. I am getting over being sick, I had to leave work on Sunday because I just couldn't make it through. I had a fever of like 101 or something like that and felt like total crap. So I am here on Wednesday, my day off, making up the hours I missed. I played a small session this morning and ran extremely well and played pretty good and made 3 buy ins. That sounds awesome but its kind of breaking even for the past few days, but that is better than losing and not making it back.

I have class tonight and its going to kick my ass. Combined with being sick and missing a week of class I am going to be worn out by third hour. I am really ready to get into some new material, the ground work is fun but I don't think I will be using it too often. Other than that nothing much else has been going on. This was not a very exciting update but at least its an update.

until later

PAYDIRT!!

Last night I got home from work and was looking for the guy from 2p2 who was going to sweat me. He never got in touch with me so I just started playing my usual session. I opened 6 tables and just on a whim I decided to play another one of the $4 sit and go tournaments. This one was 180 people and I managed to squeak out a win. That was a nice little $224 added to the bankroll and what is really sick is I played between 4 and 6 tables of cash game the whole time I was playing the tournament and won 8 buy ins. It was a really sick night.

So now I am rolled for 25NL but I am going to grind a little bit more on 10NL before I move up. My winrate is pretty good but I would like it to be a little higher. For October and so far in November I have a win rate of over 6 bb/100 but would like it to be a little higher.

Going to fit in a session before I leave for Kung-Fu

Until later

Ok so maybe I should have called this not enough time

So its Sunday and I have read all the decent forums on 2p2 in the micro forums. I read some of the anthology and am now bored to tears so time to post a blog. I have :55 minutes until I can go home and put in some hands. November has been a horrible month so far, almost 4k hands and -$6. A part of me would rather be down like $40 as opposed to $6. That is a slightly degenerate outlook but hey its true. I played to sit and go tournies yesterday of the 180 man variety, one was $20 (first prize looked sexy) and the other was $4 (right where I should be). I didn't really catch any cards and was playing 6 cash tables at the same time. Tonight when I get home a guy from 2p2 is going to sweat my session and take a look at my play and see why my sessions are so swingy.

I hear that the Patriots beat the Colts. I was honestly expecting the Colts to win but I think I am happier about the Pats winning it. I think a part of that is because I had a boss who was a die hard Colts fan and he is such a prick.

A friend of mine turned me onto this comic book series that I have started reading. He has the compilation books so I have the first 3 at home. I briefly started it last night and brought the first 2 books to work with me and polished them off in short order. Its a pretty good story and I am excited to read the others. The name of the series is called Preacher and its pretty good, not your typical comic book story.

We have been slow at work this week since all the temps are out of training and the holiday volume hasn't picked up yet, so I have been reading a lot of 2p2 and just doing research on random things I want to buy. I have decided what I am going to do with my computer situation. I am going to buy a lap top and let Melissa use the desktop. I will buy a secondary large monitor like 22" so I can hook it up to my lap top and play on that when I am playing seriously. I just would like to sit in the living room and play on my computer while playing on my laptop. I have done a lot of researching and I have decided that I am going to buy a HP Pavilion. I haven't found a bad review for these and the prices are very good as well. I get a work discount with Dell and my friend can get me an IBM discount but still the HP is cheaper than the IBM and I hear that Dell has a lot of problems.

I need to get some money together and play some live poker I think. I miss playing the tournaments at the Basement. I know its a crap shoot but one win on a Tuesday night is easily $2500 which would be a nice little payday. I bought Guitar Hero 3 for the Nintendo Wii the other day and its a fun game, I know own all 3. They are more for Melissa than me, I amaze myself that I am no better at that game than I am currently, but I don't put any effort into it so that might be a reason.

I did my forms this morning and I will be very glad to get to class tomorrow. I am starting to do one of my forms on the wooden dummy and it really makes you think about how your directing your energy and moving around an entity and cutting in. Also it would be cool to test sometime soon, I would love to do more of the progression in Chi-Sao.

Nothing much else is going on. Hopefully tomorrow I can post a blog with some good results from my session tonight. I have to get my oil changed and my truck inspected tomorrow so that might cut into my poker/blog posting.

Until later

WOW a lot has happened...

Wow there has been a lot going on since my last post, some good and some bad. Lets start with the bad and get it out of the way. I had been talking with this car lot about a used 2005 Altima, it had a lot of miles on it but seemed in pretty good condition. The best thing was that they were going to finance me without a cosigner which was pretty cool. I faxed in all this info and they said come on in and we will get you taken care of, but the guy never mentioned anything about payments. I figured this was good because it would give me some leverage once I was there.

The car lot is in Carrolton which is about an hour away, I took my friend Chad because he is knowledgeable with cars and I had not driven a standard in a few years. I am not very good with driving in Dallas so I get a little turned around but no big deal. The lot is right off the high way but we miss the exit and figure there has to be a back way to get to it, well there wasn't so we wasted a bunch of time trying to find a way before turning around and taking the highway down one exit. I make a U turn at the light and am going up the access road and I get pulled over for going 58 in a 40. I asked the cop, "No chance of a warning sir?" and he replies "Not going that fast." I then ask "What if I cry?" and he replies "That will just get you another ticket." So other than being a cop not a bad guy.

I get to the lot and the guy I had been working with wasn't even there, I had to deal with some other guy who was wearing slacks a button up shirt and a Texas longhorns hat. Yea thats right a hat. Anyway, Chad and I are looking at the car and it seems OK. The center console is really kind of scratched up and there were some other small cosmetic stuff as well. Then we go to test drive it and the passenger seatbelt doesn't work unless you press on the release button as your trying to attach it. I pointed this out to the guy saying I want that fixed and he says to me, "That is why it's called Preowned brother." This guy didn't really seem to give a shit about the sale. They wanted $380 per month and that was a little bit more than I was looking to pay and after driving the car I had a bad feeling so I backed out and left. So I didn't get the car and wasted a full day and got a ticket.

So I am going to stay with my truck for a bit. Save up some money then trade it in and put money down. I am irritated that it didn't go as well as I had hoped. My mom made the whole scenario worse so I am kind of glad it didn't go as was planned. I should know by now that entering into financial situations with my family is always a bad idea.

My friend Matt from Kung-Fu has been in town this week so we have been hanging out a lot so I skipped class on Monday and today. I will be paying for it next week but its all good. I am not in any hurry to finish the system its all about the journey, not the finish.

Now on to poker. I finished OK for the month considering all the money I lost by taking shots at 25NL in the beginning of the month. If you look at my graph and take out the shots at 25nl it isn't bad at all. I will post links for my graphs with and without 25nl and my pokertracker shot for the month. I played a session today and I really didn't run very well at all and still managed to win 4 buy ins. Honestly though it should have been more like 9 buy ins. Here are links to some sick hands today.

AA preflop and guy calls off all his money.
This hand was pretty sick but I knew I was beat once the turn hit.
This one is pretty marginal, but hard to lay down.
Flop a set and still lose.

This next hand is weird because it was just me and this guy at this table and he was playing a very straight forward semi aggressive game. He was raising his button most of the time and seemed to know what he was doing. When he completed on the button I raised with AK and then he re-raised. It was totally weird because I can see a lot of people doing that with AA or KK. Here is how the hand went down.

Well, I am tired and am going to sit on the couch for a bit and then head to bed. I am working on being more consistent but it has been a busy week. I have some big things happening soon and don't want to talk about them yet but its keeping me pretty occupied.

Here is a link to my graph with out the 25nl.
Here is my total graph including 25nl.
Here is my Poker tracker shot.

Later.

Yet another update.

Well I didn't think I was going to have anything to blog about today but then I decided to play some poker. It was not looking good for the majority of the session, talk about swingy. At first I wasn't hitting anything and then that turned around. I dumped off some chips towards the end of my sessions but its 3AM so needless to say I am not playing my A game. My stats are so out of whack here lately, but I am not playing to have pretty stats I am playing to win money.

I had a couple of pretty big hands back to back on one of my tables. I got a guy to put all his money in with a flush draw and I had a set of fives. Then on the next hand I flopped open ended and check called an Ace hit the turn and I bet about 2/3 of the pot trying to represent a big hand. My opponent shoved all in and I had to call and my straight made on the river. So those were two hands that really helped me get to profit town.

I am finally back in the green for this month after my horrible shot at $25NL. Its not much but its nice to know that I can make a recovery. For the month of October so far I have played 22,258 hands and had won $25.06. It would be a lot more but I dumped $180.00 at $25NL earlier this month. My overall stats for the month at 25/19 which is kind of loose. I have been cold calling raises in position with hands that play well after the flop.

The plan like I said is to grind $10NL until I have at least $600 so I can absorb some hits at $25NL if need be. Hopefully that won't be too terribly long. With the way things are going currently it might be before the end of this month if I can squeeze enough hands in. I am really happy with the amount of hands I have been getting in, I should hit 30K hands.

Today was an OK day. I was kind of in an irritated mood at work today about this whole car thing. I am really pissed at myself for screwing my credit up when I was younger. I wish I could go back and undo all of that, but whatever it's done and there is nothing I can do about it now unfortunately. I have found a couple of cars that will work I just need to see what the lots can do for me.

It is now 3:30 AM and I am still not really tired. I think I am going to play a little counter-strike to tire my eyes out. Goal for tomorrow is another 2k hands and 3 buy-ins profit. I will post and with results.

2 posts in 2 days??? I think I am on to something here.

Well apparently today is the first day of Autumn here in Fort Worth. A cold front blew in last night and it is actually chilly outside. I am quite excited that it is finally cooling off. Autumn is my favorite time of year and it is nice to have to be able to wear a jacket at night. Seeing as how we are halfway through October its about damn time.

I watched the final table of the main event for the World Series of Poker and I must say that I could not be less impressed with Jerry Yang's play. I think its just atrocious, I am all for being aggressive with a big stack but I think he played really bad. He pretty much doubled up everyone at the final table and then had to actually try to play poker. It really doesn't make the game look skillful to the average person watching on TV.

I am about to leave for Kung-Fu class here in about 20 minutes. Since the move the school has been growing significantly especially Wing Chun. Classes are getting so big that Sifu is having to change some things around and I think its going to be good for all parties involved, the beginner students and the advanced students. I think that will start tonight, we shall see.

I called a place about a car I found online its pretty sweet but it was a little bit more than what I had in mind by about $8k or so and the guy told me I would need a co-signer. I am a little worried that even if I find a car in my price range that this will still be an issue and it sucks. I wish I was still dealing at the Basement because I could pay a car off in record time. I am talking to a friend who deals at the Back room to see if I could deal for her on Saturday nights because that would allow me to make at least an extra $150 per week/ $600 per month which is a decent car payment and the full coverage insurance I would have to carry. Hopefully that works because I am really tired of the O'reilly auto parts truck.

Earlier today I played a small session, it was only 289 hands. I was looking at cars and doing some other stuff so I didn't get started until a little later on in the afternoon and Melissa come home on her lunch break so I hung out with her. I decided to play $10NL because the bankroll is getting a close to the period where I should be taking shots. I know that I can play and win at $10NL but I only was playing 6 tables so I could be a little more careful and not so much on auto pilot. Playing less tables I was a good deal looser preflop, generally I run around 19/16 or so and today I played 28/21. Granted it was a very small sample but it seemed to work. I am posting a graph and a poker tracker screen shot. I read an article in Card Player Magazine that basically says the easier your bankroll is to replace the more willing you should be to gamble with it. With that advice in mind I am going to take some serious shots at $10NL and hopefully play there until I have about $600-$700 and then move up to $25NL. $25NL is where I have had trouble in the past so I am going to make sure I am a little over rolled for it. I am not saying that I am not going to take shots at it here and there, but want to be able to absorb any large losses with relative ease.

Link to graph
Link to poker tracker

Well its time to go to class.

Until later.

Weeky update (at work again)

Well despite my better efforts I am still not being as consistent as I would like. Not much has been going on. My only other session playing poker this week was a short one. Friday after I got home from work Melissa had some friends over and they were carving pumpkins so I decided to squeeze in a session. Pretty much as soon as I had settled in they were leaving so the session was only 200 hands but I ran pretty well and made 2.5 buy ins so that was nice. It also made me wonder if I might be missing out on value because I generally sit at the same tables until they break.

I am wondering if by doing this my opponents are seeing how aggressive I am and start to play back at me. I know that most people at my level are not great players but everyone notices the same guy win pot after pot. Maybe I should set a goal playing like 50 hands or winning like 50% increase in my stack getting up and leaving the table. This is kind of hard to do playing 9 tables at the same time. I don't think I will start doing this but it's an interesting theory.

Last night Melissa and I met some friends at "Thrillvania" which is on the east side of Dallas a little over an hour away. This was the first time in probably 6 years that I have been to a haunted house and after all the hype I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately it was kind of lame. It cost $35 a piece for the VIP pass that allows you to wait in a not as long line and we had $5 coupons. It says 6 attractions but I only counted 5 and one of them was a little maze that was made of chicken wire and had strobe lights. The houses are nonstop lines, not done in groups. You are basically being herded through these houses so it basically becomes a timing issue. One of the attractions was a bayou where its basically pretty open and people just run up on you. Melissa wore sandals (I am not sure why) so we skipped that. The other house had a really long line that didn't really move so we skipped that as well.

Honestly for the drive and the expense this place is not worth it. I would rather have driven 10 minutes spent less and gone to Hangman's. I am planning on going to check out Hangman's at some point this week and we shall see which is better.

Only 4 hours until I am done with work. I am ready to go home and play some poker, need to make some money so I can move up. Ready to start making the better money than I am currently. At least the calls are slowing down, I started writing this at 12:20 and its now 5.

I am looking for a decently cheap used car, my mom offered me $1800 for my truck which is way more than I can get any other way. The thing that sucks is my credit isn't great and I don't have any money put away. I have been looking over Autotrader and every car I find has already been sold the day before I call. I am being pretty picky because if I am going to be making a payment on a car I want it to be something I like.

Anyway I am going to read some forums and play some Teagames until I am done with work. I'll post anything interesting from my session tonight tomorrow.

Later

sick night last night

Last night I decided I would have a rum and coke. It wasn't overly strong and it was only one. I decided that I would put in some hands and I guess I was playing a little more aggro. I guess that combined with some tilt and running pretty bad led to me losing A LOT. After a really long session I made a small come back and it was a manageable loss. I decided to wake up this morning and play until I was in profit town. Took a long time but am now officially in the green for $7.50 for 2885 hands.
Link to graph is here.

I am pumped to go to Kung-Fu tonight. I didn't go on Monday because Melissa wasn't feeling very well. I stayed home and took care of her and played Metroid on the Wii. Its a pretty sick game I am going to have to buy it. I am currently eating corny dogs and once I am done I am going to watch a Card runner video and put in some more hands to try to make some real profit today.
Until later.

At work on a sunday...

Well I am done with training for Pier 1 and am officially on my own. I started my regular schedule today and it has gone pretty well so far. I am not saying that I have it all down and that I am billy bad ass or anything but it hasn't been to bad. I have no intention of leaving this job anytime soon I am very happy with everything here.

I wish poker was going well. I was taking some pretty aggressive shots at $25nl and was doing ok then it turned bad. It was a combination of tilt and getting a little unlucky. I find myself going on auto pilot and playing marginal spots when I don't need to be. I know that I have some leaks like calling raises with marginal cards that are likely dominated. I should be mucking hands like K T suited and calling or 3 betting with like 45 suited or 56 suited. Hands that are likely very live and have lots of value if I can hit a flop decently. Also playing those hands to showdown will increase my business when I have a large hand. Anyway I have had to move back down to 5nl because I got stubborn and lost way too much at 25nl when I should have just been taking shots. I am comfortable that within a week I will be back up to 10nl.

I have been putting a lot of faith in what I have been reading on the 2p2 forums but I think some of the logic isn't really applicable to my stakes. A lot of people are saying that if you raise with AKs and someone re raises you, that you should be 4 betting all in. This came up multiple times yesterday and there just are not enough people at the micro stakes 3 betting light. Every time yesterday the guy had aces except for once and he had QQ and I missed. Up until now I have been putting so much emphasis on my preflop play and kind of letting post flop take care of itself but I think that my skill is coming up on a level where I can be raising/stealing with a very wide range of hands and then just play poker from the flop on. Just need to tighten up and stop calling large bets on the turn and river with just one pair. Someone on the forums said that if you folded every hand at micro limits when you got check raised or raised unless you had a super strong hand your win rate would be astronomical. I am thinking about giving this a shot. I find myself doubting everyone and thinking K9 on a K high board and the turn is a J and I get raised by a tight player is still good. Its not. I am not playing with the good LAGs of the game. I am playing with people who don't know what they are doing are not floating me on the flop to take it away from me on the turn.

I have been in talks with a local guy who I met on 2p2 and we are going to work out a coaching deal so I can hopefully move up faster. Coaching has become a big trend and you get a lot of guys who just want the money and charge a lot of money. This guy just expects to make what his regular hourly rate is. He told me that he likes to teach and that is why he doesn't charge insane amounts. I have seen a lot of his graphs and he does very well. I asked him how sure was he that his coaching would help me and he said that if I wasn't satisfied he would refund me the money, I am pretty happy with a response like that.

I am watching updates on NFL.com for the cowboy game and I was honestly expecting a much bigger blow out. Dallas was doing pretty well in keeping the game close but it seems like they are falling off towards the end.

I am not going to post graphs or stats because it makes me want to puke. Rest assured that it is bad and I freely admit that part of it was some tilt. One hand yesterday was really gross. I have AA and I raise and some one re raises me and another guy calls. They are both short stacks and so I raise enough to put them all in and they both call. One has AK and the other has AQ. The flop comes 3 spades and no ace and no king. I have the Ace of spades so I am still comfortable, but then there is a queen on the turn and a queen on the river. I was a little irritated but whatever.

I have been trying to open up my music tastes again. I am starting to get tired of listening to the same stuff so have been going to Pandora which is like a music exploration site and checking out some new stuff.

Kung-Fu has been going well and there isn't really anything to talk about there that makes sense. Just a lot of theory and I think I might be testing soon, but I could be wrong it has happened before. Anyway until later.

Sick run yesterday

I know that is been a little bit but sorry having a job takes up more time than it should. Been busy getting settled in and used to work 40 hours per week. I have been slacking on my poker, I need to be putting more hands but as of right now all the tables at my limit are full of short stackers which I hate. So I am going to update this shower and iron some clothes for the upcoming week.

I had been beating the $5NL and so I moved up to $10NL and was not doing very well at all. I was playing too aggressively and was putting myself into marginal situations. I was going to move back down to $5NL but I wanted to take one more shot before I did. I had a fantastic day. I ran very well but also I played very well, was trying very hard to stay out of marginal situations. It also helps that in two spots yesterday my KK beat AA. I will post links for the graph and for my poker tracker.

Work is going well, I am picking it up very quickly and will be on my own soon. It isn't a very difficult job, just takes getting all the systems down. I am very happy with it so far though. I am going to start using the gym after my shift on days that I don't have Kung-Fu to get into better shape. I think that having my body in better condition will improve my mental conditioning as well. I find my game slipping a little after playing 2 or 3 hours in a row. I have been listening to a lot of different music lately and have been working on importing all my music onto my Ipod. It is so time consuming and its taking awhile, but it will be nice when its all done.

I have been watching Sports Center in the mornings before I go to work, I used to watch it a lot when I was waiting tables because it would be on in the bar. I am not the biggest sports fan ever but I like to watch Sports Center to keep myself updated. I am glad that Randy Moss has decided to shut up and play. The last couple of years he has been such a punk and wasting his talent, its good that he is showing up to play again.

Well that is pretty much it. I am going to recheck some tables and put in some hands if I can get away from the short stackers that are plaguing me.

Link to my graph from yesterday.
Link to my Pokertracker from yesterday.

Lot has been going on.

Well I have once again fell into the habit of not posting on this thing, but I have had a lot going on here lately. My birthday has come and gone I am now 27 years old and officially old. I really was not looking forward to this one but whatever no big deal I suppose. I went out with Melissa and Chad and had some drinks it was a pretty cool night.
I hit the job market pretty hard, interviewing and receiving lots of offers at places that I had some issue with. One was too far for the money and another was not at all what I thought it was and another was in a restaurant. I finally received an offer from a company that I won't name to work in their corporate center which is just outside of downtown Fort Worth. It is super close and the money is pretty good and the people I have met so far seem really nice.

When I went in to interview they were looking for part-time night positions, I told them that I needed full time and I didn't really want to work nights and that I couldn't work on nights that I have Kung-Fu. They were very impressed with me I suppose because I usually do very well in an interview atmosphere. They ended up giving me a full-time position and a mid-shift with Monday and Wednesday completely off. I will have to work on Saturday and Sunday but no big deal, being the new guy I can't expect the schedule of my choice. I work from 10-6 everyday except Sunday which I work 12-9. This is pretty much perfect for me, I don't have to get up really early and I don't have to work late. I can go out after work and its still a reasonable hour. I start there tomorrow and I am pretty excited about it.

I dealt a tournament yesterday at the "back room" and made a much needed $300. Watching the flow of hands while dealing I find that I pick up a lot more about players than if I am playing. Some of the play was atrocious, but I didn't really expect too much honestly. People limping in first position and limping on a short stack, it drives me nuts. I can't wait to get some money coming in so I can play a few tournaments here and there, they are a crap shoot but the paydays can be huge.

Kung-Fu has been going well, we have started to really break it down and learn about the why it works and for me that is something that really helps my learning process. It has really been an eye opening experience and at the same time has helped to reawaken my drive for it. I have been very consistent for the past two weeks and it is showing when I am working out in class. I think it might be getting close for me to test again, I am not in any hurry but it would be very cool.

As far as my poker goes I lost some of my motivation, I wasn't playing as much and just taking it easy. I am not going to hit 30k hands for the month I might make 20k if I work at it. I just got tired of playing and only making small amounts. The good news is that I think I have finally established a foot hold at the higher level that was giving me problems but it might still be too soon to tell, we shall see. There is a link to my graph for the month here. Going to go play some hands now I will post again soon.

One last minute thing, on a friend's advice I watched a show called "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and I have to say its amazing. You can purchase the first 2 seasons for like $30 at Target I highly recommend buying it, if you enjoy "Seinfeld" and "Arrested Development" you will enjoy this show.

Later

I hate online poker on the weekends.

So this whole week I have been playing at least 1k hands per day and crushing my level I am playing at, totally demolishing it. So I decide I am close to having enough for the next level and the buy in is the same lets take a shot at the next level. I play 1k hands at that level today and lose 10 buy ins. I tilted more than a little bit but I don't think my skill level went down I couldn't win a hand all day long it was so sick. The play at this higher level is so much worse than it is at the lowest level possible. I was playing the exact same way but couldn't get a hand to hold up.

So I take a break and because I am being very careful I move down to my original level and sure enough I still can't win. I played 525 hands and lost almost another 8 buy ins. The level of play on the weekends is ridiculous you would think I would want that and I would if I could make a mother fucking hand stand up. Links to examples and my graph for this whole week including this weekend.

Cool 3 outer donk
I hit runner runner and get coolered
pretty cool here
I think I threw up a little in my mouth here
This guy was shoving all in every time I raised so I finally call...
Of course this guy coolers me

I know your thinking that some of those spots are pretty marginal but I had information on the players that showed that they were very maniacal and you can see I have the best hand in most of them.

Here is my graph for this month so far. I highlighted where point where everyone decided to crap on me at the new higher level. Tomorrow its back to square one.

Later

Update

Sorry for the lame title but couldn't think of anything better. I haven't been very consistent and I need to work on that. I have been tweaking my game and playing with different aspects of it. Today I played 8 tables for just over 1k hands and played only AQ+ and 22+ but when I was on the button I raised any two cards as long as there was not more than 1 limper. The results speak for themselves, I have included links to photos of my stats and my graph for today. I am going to keep doing this it works and works effectively. I lost a few big hands where I am just going to go broke with my big pairs but oh well.

Link to graph
Link to stats

I will post more later gotta get ready going to hang out with some friends of mine.
Later

wow crushed spirit

Hey I have not posted in a few days been busy and not in the mood. Quick run down of last weeks action. Thursday I went to the back room and lost a large amount, wasn't running well at all and got aces cracked in a big hand again. Saturday I went to Winstar and played for about 8 hours and won $800ish. Played 2/5 which is higher than I want to play but the lines were all long. The table was great loose as hell easy to make money.

Went back Sunday even though I didn't really feel like it, the table was very rocky and I played bad. Thats right everyone, I am not blaming it on luck or anything else I just didn't play well at all. I was playing too many hands that were very marginal and slowly donked off chips. I lost a good amount more than I want to talk about, lets just say I came home and on Monday I looked for a job. That hour drive home when you have a losing sessions sucks, makes you doubt your play and your skill and makes you want to give it up.

I skipped Kung-Fu last night because the shoulder is still a little sore. I played online and moved from playing 4 tables to 6 tables. This makes you play faster so there is less chance of me getting bored and playing bad hands against people not smart enough to fold a lesser hand. I played over 1,000 hands and was doing ok, not great or anything. I was up about 1 buy-in when I picked up aces and got them cracked on my last hand of the night. The last hand curse got me. So I wound up down almost one buy in last night, sucks but what can you do.

I played about 500 hands today and had a really good session. I would have won more but I made a few calls that were very marginal but I am working on that. I won 5 buy-ins in like 475 hands or so. That is a pretty decent day and I needed it to get some of my confidence back. I think I might go play a tournament at the basement tonight. I know I said no tournaments but the prize pool is always big and I could use an extra $3k. I will post later to let you know how it went if I go.

One last thing before I go. If anyone reading this wants some information about playing well online there is a website that has all the basics wrapped into it. If you read this page and study it you will increase your game. This is what the majority of all online players are thinking and you need to know how/what they are thinking to make the most money off of them. Check it out here

Later

Stupid shoulder

So on Mondays and Tuesdays I have a job where I wait tables at Don Pablo's. This job is to show that I have a verifiable source of income, the money I make there is practically nothing and I don't usually even have to work. I show up yesterday and the manager asks me to be a host since she knows I don't want to wait tables. I say ok because I will get out of there quicker and do less work and usually make more money. Monday lunches are known for being super slow so I figure to be out of there at about 12:30 or so.

This was a crazy Monday, pretty much the entire restaurant filled up. We are already short handed so everyone is a little busy its was pretty crazy and I wound up having to basically wait a few tables and not get tipped, but its no big deal really. I would rather not have to clean a section and do side work. I wound up getting out of there about 2 pm. Before I leave a girl asks if she can have my shift tomorrow and I of course say sure. I knew that Melissa was going to Gainesville and that would allow me to go up to Winstar to try to make some money.

I went to kung-fu last night and it went pretty well over all I suppose. Sifu was on his way back from a trip to another kung-fu school so 2 of the senior students ran the class. The two guys who were running the class are very far into the system and are very knowledgeable about our style. I have the utmost respect for these two guys and enjoy getting to work out with them. Kung-fu is not something you can learn by watching someone else do it, you have to be shown the techniques and have them done to you so you can feel the tempo and timing and the energy involved. The classes are all one on one, Sifu will pair you with a more senior student and tells you what to work on. Without this approach I would have dropped out a long time ago I am sure.

In the first hour I worked with a newer student. He had done some Wing Chun about 10 years ago and has just started back to class and his wife is also taking classes with us. It is really too early to tell about the guy. A lot of people don't make it very far into the system because it can become a large commitment. When your a beginner you come for one hour on Monday and Wednesdays, that is pretty easy. Then after you advance you should be coming for two hours on class days. You help everyone by teaching a first hour student then in the second hour you work on your techniques.

This is where some people start to fall off the wagon. The two hours a day can start to wear on people and some people don't like teaching. I used to not like teaching and would skip first hour and just go to second hour. I realized later that by not going over the fundamentals in first hour that I was slowing down my own progression. Teaching these techniques to newer students forces you to have a conceptual understanding of them, sure you can do it, but can you explain to someone else how to do it and why it works? Once you get higher into the system you have to have so many classes of teaching before you can advance which I think is important.

There were not a lot of second hour students so I got paired with one of my Si Hing (the Chinese term for a student who is my senior.) After doing all the warm-ups and kicks I got to work on a lot of my stuff and that is always a good thing, because I would also get to work on my stuff in the advanced hour as well. So I basically got 2 hours of working on my stuff and that is awesome. We worked basically the whole hour on my Chi Sao which is a exercise used by Wing Chun students.

Time to hit you with some kung-fu knowledge. All styles of Kung-Fu have an individual aspect that you have to learn and practice and that is what makes it different from other styles of Kung-Fu. In Wing Chun you train your fore arms to override your eyes, that sounds funny but let me explain. You will not always see the punch coming and even if you do it might be a fake. Wing Chun prefers to fight very close up and what that does is any hit has to cross our arms to hit our face or bodies. You train your arms to feel the energy and train your body to work off of that energy. You want the movements to become instinct, you don't want to have to think about them. It is like touching a hot stove and whipping your hand away before you feel the heat, same concept applies here. This is hard to do and requires a lot of patience and drilling but if you do it well enough and for long enough you can do the exercises blindfolded just by touch. I know what your thinking and yes it is really bad ass.

Chi Sao is the exercise to work on that ability we call it sensitivity training. You are positioned with a partner and as you move your hands you feel him try to come in and your body instantly blocks it without you having to think about it. You learn to defend and how to attack and it basically becomes kind of a sparring session in the long run. You are not trying to kill them but they should feel your energy and intercept and vice versa. There are lot of videos on YouTube showing Chi Sao but to the uneducated it looks like slap hands. You can feel holes in the defenses of your partner and you learn how to attack those holes. Wing Chun is known for Chi Sao and it is what everyone associates with the art.

Anyway back to what I was saying, we finished second hour and after that is the advanced hour. No spectators, no guests, no junior students, this is closed door with you, Sifu and the other students at that level. This is where you really start to pick up the small things that will make your Kung-Fu good. Theories and ideas that don't make sense until you have spent some time in the art, but are paramount to being able to use the art effectively. I am not going to go into much detail here but you get the idea.

We were working on knife techniques, someone attacks you wife a knife you learn how to defend yourself and take him down to the ground and neutralizing him so he cant hurt you. This is one of my favorite things to work on because it is very active and if you do it wrong you will know, we use a prop knife but you still know if you do it wrong. I was working on how to tumble after being taken to the ground, you can really hurt yourself if you don't know how to tumble. Some of these throws are made to where it doesn't hurt if you don't roll or fall, you just have no choice. It is a strange feeling but imagine having a stick that controls your body and having someone using that stick to force you to the ground. Some of the throws work off pressure points and it forces you to fall or break the arm but the ones we were working on require more control.

I am not a super athletic person, and have never been known for my gymnastic ability so I was taking these rolls slow so I would do them right. We sped them up and I was doing them from an advanced position and I was landing just a little bit off and landing on my shoulder blade. Well long story short I wound up jarring my shoulder pretty badly and had to sit out for the rest of class. I was needless to say pretty irritated with myself, but hey shit happens. I have a full range of motion but the moment I try to apply pressure in any direction pull or pushing or lifting there is a good deal of pain. I took a hot shower last night and laid on the heating pad hoping to make it better but no such luck.

I didn't think driving would be the best idea for me so I decided not to go to Winstar today. My truck is not the most comfortable ride ever and having to turn and driving in general might aggravate my shoulder. So, just going to relax so I can't do any more damage, hopefully it will be better in a few days. I need to make a trip though so I am planning on going tomorrow because even if my shoulder feels better I will probably skip class to make sure it is all healed up. I must get into the habit of making that drive so I can start making some regular money. I will play in the same game I played in last Thursday at the back room, and will post tomorrow with Winstar results if I make it up there.

Later

Fucking Ten on the River

I am telling you now that there is a bad beat story in here so if you don't want to hear it close this now. With that said, here is what happened to me today. I was supposed to deal the big tournament at the "back room" today. I show up ready to work and then the head dealer Trena asked me if I would like to play if the game doesn't make five tables. I had already told myself that I wouldn't play tournaments because they can drain your bankroll, but I had a big win on Thursday so I said yes.

This tournament is a $230 buy-in for which you get $4,000 in chips, there are no re-buys or add-ons or anything of that sort, typical freeze out style tournament. The blind levels are 25 minutes each and they start at 25/25, then move to 25/50, then 50/100, and then 75/150. You get some decent play for your chips, they don't use an ante so you get that much more room. I start out playing very well, I am making good reads and am getting a lot of respect. Some of these players know me from "the basement" and I have a well known image of being pretty crazy pre-flop, but today everyone is giving me a lot of respect. I raised with a suited connector and got re raised and knew that against this played I can raise again and he will fold most of his hands. I re raise and he folds and shows pocket jacks. Later I raise with pocket nines and get called in late position by someone who thought for a while about raising me. The flop comes 7,4,3 and the suits are irrelevant. I bet out hoping to show this guy I have a good hand and that I am not just stabbing at it. He thinks for a long time and then folds and shows pocket queens. He said he just felt he was beat and I, of course tell him that I did have him beat. That is a totally sick lay down on that board I would have called in a heart beat against a player like myself.

Anyway cruising along playing fine picking good spots, we get down to 3 tables and I am still cruising along and then get down to two tables. I am showing my hands after people fold because I am running well and raising a lot. I don't really want anyone to start to think I am fucking around trying to out play me. The blinds at this point are $300/$600 and I have about $7,000 in chips. I don't have a big stack but I am doing better than the majority of the field and I am feeling pretty comfortable, they are paying 6 places and I feel that I can at least slip into the money. There are 15 people left and once we lose a few more I am really going to open up and start stealing because people really want to make the final table they won't play marginal hands because they are so determined to make the final table.

My phone rings and I look down and it's Melissa, my girlfriend, calling from work. I told her that I would call her on a break to let her know how the day was going to work. She usually gets off on Sundays at 8:30 so it is not a big deal if a game runs long or something like that, but tonight she was working overtime till midnight. She couldn't feed the dog on her lunch and didn't want to send her sister over here to take care of the dog if she didn't need to. So she asks how does it look and I explain that I am playing because there wasn't enough people to fill 5 tables. She is instantly irritated I can hear it in her tone as she asks me what time I will be done. I tell her I really don't know that I am doing ok as of right now and we are down to the last 15 people. She asks if I think it will be 7:30 or what and I tell her I don't know I hope not because that will mean I am out of the tournament.

She is really irritated now and just tells me to call her when I am done, I say ok and let her go. I am really pissed now because if I was working it wouldn't be a big deal, but since I am just playing in a tournament that is paying $3,100 for first place as opposed to working to make $300ish she gets all pissed off. If I was dealing I wouldn't have been home any sooner than if I went on to win the tournament. She doesn't really understand that if I want to make money playing poker I have to play, but whatever there is enough there for a whole different blog.

This blog is not about calling people out by name, I am not a big fan of doing that, but I am really irritated about this guy and don't care if he reads this or not, pretty sure he dosn't. There is this guy named Eddie and he plays a lot at the basement and also plays at the back room. He is right at 50 and thinks he is a just God's gift to poker. He is very vocal and makes these shitty comments all the time and can't take a beat at all. One night a guy hit a straight against him when he was all in and he stands up and punches the ceiling and then grabs my arm which pissed me off. I know of no one outside of his home game who actually likes this guy. When a dealer makes the tiniest mistake he throws a fit like it is the end of the world even thought this piece of shit has never dealt a real game or been "in the box" as it is referred to.

Dealing is harder than most people know and is a totally thankless job. If you do it right no one says, "hey man, nice job," but if you fuck up, watch out because you will have every wannabe tournament director on your ass. Once again that is another blog, lets get back to this guy Eddie. He has this way of talking to people that will make you feel kind of shitty. The first night I worked at the basement I asked him for his name and he looks at me and says, "My name is Eddie see it on the point leader board thats me number 9." I am thinking in my head "wow what a jack off." We have some history from playing in tournaments together so when I get moved to his table he makes some kind of comment about how I won't win this tournament by being a good player. I make a joke about it keeping it good natured all the while thinking in my head about how I would love to beat the shit out of this guy. Ok now that the history has been explained lets get to the hand.

The blinds are 300/600 and I got $7,000 on the nose. I have been playing pretty tight, showing my big hands down and then I look down and see pocket jacks. Jacks are a pretty hard hand to play, because you tend to lose a lot with them. You are obligated to raise and if you get called someone will pretty much always hit an over on you and then you have to fold a really good hand. Anyway, I look down and see the jacks and decide to raise hopefully just take down the pot. Before the action gets to me Eddie raises it up to a little more than 3 times the big blind about $2,000. I decide that I want to play heads up with him so I move in for $7,000 on the nose. There are still like 4 or 5 people behind me who still have cards but as soon as I move in he tells the dealer to count it.

When someone moves all-in in a no limit tournament the dealer doesn't announce the what the raise is until a player asks for it. For him to ask when there are still like 4 or 5 people behind me who still have cards it is basically announcing that there is a good chance that he will call. This is giving away information about what your move will be when it is not your turn, and is a major breach of etiquette. The guy right behind me thinks for a long time and then folds later saying that he had ace king suited. Everyone else folds around to Eddie, and he calls instantly. The call was for the majority of his chips, if he loses this hand he will be crippled and we are getting close to the final table. He counts out the money and says call. I ask him if he has a pair just to see where I am at. It doesn't really matter because since all the money is in and no more action is coming we have to turn the hands up anyway but I still want to know. He looks up at me and says, "I called you so I will be asking the questions about what you have just turn your cards up." I turn up my jacks and he turns up pocket tens and says,
"Your ahead was that so hard?" I ignore the comment and am thinking about the fact that I will have over $14,000 if I win this hand and can coast to the final table.

Lets talk about this play for a minute, I am sure that by now your know that I lose the hand, but lets have an objective discussion here. A pocket pair is a strong hand and tens are very strong there is a lot of value there, but he called instantly with them in a tournament with a stack that would be crippled if he didn't win the hand. Meaning if he lost he would have $1500 or so left and with the blinds being 300/600 and him coming up on the blinds in the next 1 or 2 hands there would be practically no way that he could go on to win this thing. I have a reputation of being an aggressive player and he knows that, but at the same time it is still a risky move. His raise was right around $2000 so it was about $5000 more to him. So he was having to put in $5000 more to win a pot of $9,900 so he is getting almost 2-1 on his money. I guess technically he has to call but just the speed with which he called I know that he didn't even think about the fact that he might now have the best hand.

Eddie doesn't race around too much in tournament especially later on this is pretty much a well known fact by any of the better players. I know that with my raise he pretty much has to call with any big hand so I wouldn't be making this move with a hand much worse than pocket tens. If I have pocket 9's there I would just call hoping to hit a set, but wouldn't re-raise him. With ace king I would make the same move, but even if I have ace king it is basically a coin flip for the majority of his chips. In a cash game I would make the call most of the time but in a tournament I just think it is a little early to coin flip. I think he saw his hand and got excited so any poker thought went out the window. I am not expecting too much from this donkey anyway.

The flop comes Ace, 2, 2 the guy who folded ace king mutters a few choice curse words and I feel much better about his folding pre-flop. The turn is a 7 and a big fucking ten on the river. He looks and says, "You just got unlucky there." I am thinking in my head, "no fucking shit moron." I keep my composure and don't say anything. I am so disgusted, I was well on my way to winning that hand and would have made the money easily. That is how it goes in tournaments, you have to get lucky to win, so I got in my truck and came home. I logged the loss in my books and called Melissa this is basically how the conversation went,
"I am on my way home now."
"Sorry about earlier."
"Its fine I am pissed off right now so I am getting off the phone."
"ohh, bye"
"bye." Short and sweet and to the point, I will probably hear about it later but I was too irritated to care right then.

I came home and ran the hands in a program called poker stove. You can put in any number of hands and have the percentages of who will win and who will lose. This is what pokerstove said;

equity win tie
Hand 1: 81.295% 81.12% 00.18% {JdJs}
Hand 2: 18.705% 18.53% 00.18% {TcTh}

Basically I will win this hands 81% of the time or roughly 4 out of every 5 times. I am irritated that I lost but I understand that it happens. I am more pissed off about who I lost the hand to. I will take bets that he doesn't even win the damn thing. So I am at home with the dog and bored out of my skull. I don't think playing online right now is a good idea so I will read or something. I will post tomorrow.

Later

Lazy Saturday

Last night I went to see "Superbad", it was a really funny movie. I was not sure how much to expect, but it was really good. Melissa and I went to the local Tavern theater, you can buy beer there and drink in the theater. I don't usually buy beer because I always have to wind up having to take a piss before the movie is over and I hate doing that. We decided to go to the tavern to hopefully avoid all the young kids that are known for going to the local mall theater. The Rave as it is called is a much better theater but the kids really get annoying. Unfortunately, it was not any better at the tavern. It looked like a senior class trip in there and they all knew each other. Melissa and I arrived early in order to get decent seats and all these kids were running around, "ohhh I haven't seen you since graduation."

I remember when I was that young just out of high school and got excited when I saw people from high school, now I avoid it. It is very weird that people I was not cool with in high school see me randomly and they come up and they are all excited to see me. I fit in with a lot of people in high school, not saying I was Joe Popular or anything, but I had enough friends. These people who have a fit when they see someone from high school and have to go talk to them even though they were not friends with them in high school is a little pathetic in my opinion, save it for the reunion.

There was a Mexican family there with little kids there like 3 or 4 years old, what the fuck is that all about. First I don't agree with taking children to the theater until they are a little older and this is not a kids movie. The word fuck was probably used more than any other word in the movie, and there are drug references and the sexual references abound in this movie. I don't think parents should be able to take their kids to a rated R movie if the kid is under a certain age, that is just bad parenting, go get a baby sitter. Anyway enough of my rants.

I was going to go play in the same 1/2 game that I played in Thursday but I talked to one of the dealers and she said it is not anywhere near as good as it is on Thursday and with their big tournament tomorrow they call the game at 2AM. That sucks because I don't feel like driving to Oklahoma this later in the afternoon. My friend Chino called and said he was going to play in the Saturday tournament at the card room I used to deal at and said he would swap some action with me if I wanted to go. I worked last month on the Saturday before the other room's big tournament it was very small making barely 2 tables, so I am not going to play there tonight. They will spread at 1/2 no limit game maybe and will make a 1/2 pot limit Omaha game. Omaha is not my game of choice, it is very swingy and the people who play in that game have a much better understanding of the game than I do. Its not the best spot for me to try to make some money.

So no poker today, I am going to hang out with my friend Chad. I am not sure what we are going to do, but I am tired of hanging out in my hotter than shit apartment. I will post tomorrow to talk about dealing at the tournament. Just for future reference talking about local rooms can get confusing so let me clear it up. The place where I used to deal I will call "Cowboy basement" and the place where I am dealing tomorrow and had the good session on Thursday I will call "The back room". These are not the names of the rooms but I needed something to call them and don't want to put up any names.

Later

super crazy loose $1/$2 game = big win

Let me start this post by having a small history lesson. Before I started dealing I never really had a job that allowed me to play poker on any kind of high level. If I played $1/$2 and lost a $200 buy in my spirit was crushed for a few days. In those days I wasn't playing on the level that I play on now. I am not saying I am a world class player but my skill level has increased 100% since last November when I started to play online and read the 2plus2 forums. Dealing at the local card room enabled me to get a lot of money together and allowed me to play the big game at the local room with is a $2/$5 pot limit. It really is a great game, you have to be able to play after the flop because you can't just stick it all in. There are a lot of loose bad players so the swings are pretty large, but it is a great game if you can run well.

After playing the $2/$5 game the $1/$2 game at the same room lost all of its appeal. The play was horrible, and people were playing who couldn't afford a full buy in. Nothing worse than trying to play against someone who is playing a short stack because you never know when they are going to shove and if they are shoving how good their hand is. You talk to any online player and ask them what their biggest pet peeve is and they will tell you short stackers. There is some wisdom with playing a short stack, you wait for a big hand shove win and then get up with your profit and sit at another table with a short stack again. There was an article in a poker magazine talking about a guy who did that all over Vegas, he wasn't well liked but he made a pretty good living.

After making the decision to play full time I decided that I wouldn't bother playing the $1/$2 at the local room where I had worked because I just couldn't really enjoy myself. There is another room and I decided to go play there because I wanted to talk to the owner about helping deal in his big tournament once a month. I had heard from a number of people that this game played a lot higher than your normal 1/2 game, I was skeptical but figured lets check it out and see.

I show up at the room and the game has been going on for an hour or so and there is a lot of money on the table. The owner says the MINIMUM is $200 which surprised me because usually 100 times the big blind is the maximum you can buy in for. A number of these guys already had over $1,000 in front of them. I take stock of the table and there are a number of guys that I know from the other room where I was dealing. One of them has a stack of over $3000 I know him to be a semi weak player and want a shot at those chips before he loses them to someone else. I buy $200 in chips and sit down, folding the first few hands to get a feel for the table and because they are not playable. The preflop raise is usually $12-$17 dollars which is slightly higher than most 1/2 games I have played in but still you will have about 3 to 4 people calling behind you. The cards being shown down are not premium by any stretch and I am feeling confident that as long as I can hit some cards I will make some good money.

In my first orbit I am in the small blind and have my mandatory $1 in the pot there is a straddle to $5 and a re-straddle to $10. A straddle is a bet made in the dark to ensure you get last action, it is commonly used by people who have a lot of gamble. So anyway the person who acts first the guy with the big stack raised to $30 and there is a call and I look down to see K and a K. I know that I am going to raise here but I am unsure of the amount that will be best. I decide to raise it to $110 to show that I have a big hand and that I am committed to the pot and wont be folding. The action folds around to the guy who raised initially and he bets reraises enough to put me all in. I am slightly worried about pocket aces but I will never fold pocket kings in a cash game for only 100 times the big blind. If I had like $1500 in front of me then I might have to think about it, but not for only $200. He happened to have ace king and my hand held up so now I am up to $400. I like his play here because he has a lot of chips and he is a coin flip to a lot of my possible hands. If the roles were reversed I would make the exact same play.

After that I play a few hands and bleed off a little by calling preflop in multiway pots with suited connectors only to miss the flop completely. I am used to playing 4 tables at the same time when I play online so even though I am playing only about 15% of my hands since there are 4 games going at once I usually have a hand going on. Playing live and playing a good deal tighter than usual was making me pretty bored. I am not hitting anything at all and not getting any respect from any other the other players. Getting called down by someone with bottom pair when I have played a total of 4 or 5 hands is a little strange, but not big deal I will wait for big hands and stop trying to bluff. I pick up ace king and miss completely and have to fold to a raise and a reraise.

I then have a pretty interesting hand I have pocket 8's and call a raise in position and the flop comes 8,9,10 with two clubs. I am excited because I have hit a set and will bet because the board is pretty draw heavy. There is a bet, then a raise and then a call and its my action. I was expecting action but this is crazy. I don't have enough money to just call, it is pretty much do or die time here, I have to play for my whole stack or fold. Online players will tell you that you pretty much always go broke with a set (three of a kind) because if someone has a better set you just got unlucky, and if someone has a straight or a flush you still have enough outs to fill up by the river. I think and think and then decide to fold because there is so much out there, I might be up against a set, or a made straight or a flush draw. The original raiser folds and on the turn the 6 of clubs comes. It completes a lot of draws and I feel better about my fold. These two guys get all their money in and turn the cards up one has pocket kings and the other has pocket jacks. I am shocked at their hands but I still would have had to dodge a lot of outs on the turn and the river and being the shortest stack at the table neither one of these guys will fold to my all in raise. The river is a queen giving the guy with pocket jacks a straight. I know its a very passive play but I think its the best play for the situation, even if I do shove on the flop I don't have enough to make them fold.

Then I pick up pocket aces in a straddle and re-straddle pot and I make a big raise and get called in two spots. The flop is queen, 9, 5. I am first to act and don't have much left so I stick it in the middle and get called in both spots. I know from the calls that I have the best hand right now because anyone with a set is going to raise. The turn is a queen and I know I am in trouble. The first players checks and the second player the guy with the big stack just moves all in the first player sighs folds and shows pocket jacks. Now lets talk about his play for a minute. He called a large raise from someone who hasn't been playing a ton of hands with a pretty strong hand, I am ok with that because its adds deception to his hand and if he hits a jack he will win a huge pot. On the flop through when I move in for over $100 he calls with a person behind him to act. I think this is not such a good play, I know that I don't have enough chips to make anyone fold so would I really be sticking my money in with a hand worse than pocket jacks there? HELL NO. Anyway he folds and the other guys shows queen ten for trip queens, I am disgusted. His play preflop even though he is getting like 2.5 to 1 is still pretty marginal. He might be dominated by a hand like ace queen. No ace hits the river and I lose.

I get more chips and don't really do much with them just hanging around. The owner of the game usually calls it at 4 AM but if the game is still good he will extend it. At 3:30 I am still around $300, then all of the sudden I go on a sick heater. All my waiting pays off, I pick up some hands and am hitting the flop. Flop a straight, turn a flush and all of the sudden an hour later I am +$400 for the session, this is not a big win considering how deep I am in the game but I will take it.

I am excited to be even and I decide that I am going to just play tight till the game ends then leave with my $200 profit but the heater isn't over yet. I play a few more big hands and when I cash out a little after 5 AM I have $1,000 profit after my buy in of $340. Talk about patience paying off. A number of times when I was short stacked I wanted to just push so I could get broke and go home. I know this was a hard situation to put myself in and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone else, but I sincerely felt I was still playing well and could do well if I just hung on. The game situation was also very out of the ordinary for your normal game, this table had buy ins for like $2/$4 or even $3/$6 game. The moral of this story is, if any of you readers (if I indeed have any) are playing poker for a living do as I say and not as I do.

I slept until almost 2 PM so needless to say I didn't go to winstar today. I am hanging out with Melissa and I am supposed to hang out with a friend of mine tonight and his girlfriend if he doesn't flake out. If they flake I think I am going to go see Superbad, I will write again tomorrow.

Later

bored...

Well this morning ended my run at the heads up event that I was playing online. I am kind of irritated my opponent lives in Australia and time is much different. We were coming up on the deadline we had to hurry up and play I waited around on him for about 2 hours yesterday so we could play. He logged in and said, "Hey I can't play tonight lets do it tomorrow." So I woke up this morning and shuffled over to my computer barely awake to play these matches. I lost the first match won the second and lost the third, I am not saying that I for sure would have won if the games had taken place at a time more of my choosing but who knows. I am going to post links to a few hands that were interesting to me, take a look see what you think.

This first link takes you to the last hand of the first tournament. It is pretty much a cold deck, on the turn I have top pair and I am open ended.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378629

This second hand is just kind of weird in my opinion I am not sure how else to really play this. He played it very passively and I have to think I have the best hand on the river.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378626

This next one is right after I lost the first match we were playing 2 matches at the same time and this hand came up. He had been playing slightly more aggressive, but this is a bad spot and I was frustrated with myself for losing the first match.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378614

This last hand is the last hand of the third match once again kind of a cooler. I remember thinking on the turn that the only real hand I was worried about was the exact hand he had but I decided to commit myself.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1378611

So all in all I was not getting overly lucky, but that shit happens when you play cards. I think I handled my loss pretty well, that is one thing that has always been a problem with me. I will lose a big pot or a pot I should have won and then go on massive tilt. I am working on taking my ego out of my playing so hopefully that won't happen anymore, but its a long process. The good news is that my friend has to win his match to win our bet if he gets knocked out in his match then we are even.

I was going to make myself go to Winstar today but didn't really feel like it immediately after getting my ass handed to me. I took a long shower and then played some online and did very well surprisingly well. Its still at a ridiculously low level but profit is profit. In 41 hands I won close to 3 buy ins which is a pretty good win rate, not one that is sustainable but its nice to run well once in awhile. After that run I decided I would go up to Winstar but am still having stomach issues and don't know if i trust myself on an hour drive. There is a local room that is having a $1/$2 game tonight that I think I might check out, from what I have heard the action is really good and it plays more like a $2/$5 game.

I keep trying to think of other things to talk about in here that will be of interest to other people who don't play poker, but so far I haven't come up with anything. I saw the movie Breach the other night it was very good, very intense throughout the entire movie. It isn't one that I will buy but it was very good. I am reading a book by Michael A. Stackpole it is called The New World it is the 3rd in a fantasy series that I have been reading. Fantasy novels are not for everyone but I have been reading them since I was a little kid so I enjoy them. Anyway that is it for now.

Later

Friends Game > me

A really good friend of mine and someone who is responsible for me playing better poker and getting me to take it more seriously has decided to get a job. After like 2 years or so of playing poker full time my friend has decided to get a job, the decision was made for a lot of reasons that are not mine to discuss. He has taken a job at a newspaper down in Waco which is about an hour or so south of Fort Worth where I live. So last night we decided to have a going away poker game for him, really just an excuse to hang out and bullshit.

This is a group of guys who I have played poker with since the beginning. These guys taught me about outs, and odds, and how to put someone on tilt, back in the day when I didn't know what tilt was. We all pretty much know how each other plays and there is a lot of bad play just in the hopes of busting each other. I did not play well but also I ran horrible, never hit a set, never hit a straight of or a flush. I think I won 2 big pots all night, sick. I dumped off a good deal more than I should have but what the hell, no big deal. I am not going to talk about any individual hands, lets just say a few times I got drawn out on, a few times I got cold decked. No big deal, would much rather have it happen there then in Oklahoma.

I was going to get up semi-early and go play a session in Oklahoma and then be back in time to go to kung-fu but my stomach has been messed up since last night and the idea of an hour drive is not appealing at all. The plan is to go tomorrow and play a long session and also probably go on Friday and Saturday when the money is really easy. Really need to get into the habit of making the drive to start making money.

I have been skipping more kung-fu than I should be but I don't know if I should be going tonight with my stomach being messed up. We are still working on catching the leg when your being kicked and throwing the opponent. Very cool stuff but with an upset stomach probably not the best idea. I will probably skip but try to work my forms at home so I will have done something.

I am in the middle of playing a $250 buy in heads up tournament with a bunch of players from the 2plus2 forums. For those of you who don't know 2plus2 is a publishing company that puts out some of the best poker books around. They have a forum on their website that has a ton of really good information and has really improved my game 1000 fold. You can access the forum here http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/ubbthreads.php. If you read these posts and read the different ideas you will get better. Anyway in this event you play a best of 3 format against each opponent so the luck factor isn't as big. In the semifinals and the finals its a best of 5. I won my first round draw and I am going to be playing my second round this evening or tomorrow morning.

I am really pumped to play the match and think I have an edge on my opponent, we have chatted a bit trying to set up times and he seems cool and probably a better player than I am but I think I have an edge in the heads up department. First place in this tournament is $5500 dollars which would be a nice little bump to my online bankroll. I still have awhile to go so its not like I am spending the money already. A friend of mine is also playing and we have a little side bet as to who lasts longer. He also won his first match so we will see how it goes.

I was putting in my notes about the game last night into my log of my poker games and figured some of you might want to know where I stand. Keep in mind that I haven't played a whole lot because I was broke in the beginning of the year and then was working a lot. So far for the year in cash games I am ahead $2243, that is my profit. In tournaments I am ahead $885 that is after buy ins and such. Not a huge number but your tournament profit is a lot different than cash game profit. For satellites I have won one seat worth $400 and have spent a total of $405 playing them so only -$5 there, not too bad.

So on the agenda for today. I am going to watch a couple of card runner videos then play an online session work in my forums and make a final decision about kung-fu tonight.

Later

Doing the correct thing?

So I decided to play it safe and I skipped the big one. It will be there again in 6 weeks thats not to long. I would have been really irritated with myself if I sat there for 5 or 6 hours and then went out on the bubble. I need to make some profit so I can afford to go to SF next month with Melissa for our vacation. I am planning on hitting Winstar hard this week, going to go on Thursday and Saturday for sure, maybe Wednesday morning as well. I want to play 2/5 but might stick with the 1/2 for now see how things go.

I drank for a good portion of the afternoon yesterday not enough to get drunk but just enough to leave myself tipsy, but then when you stop you get really tired and groggy and achy. Kung-fu is tonight and I am going to go but its going to kick my ass, the effect of alcohol on my body even the next day even if I am not hung over is a lot more noticeable than it was a few years ago. Just another sign that I am getting older.

Last night I played some online and it didn't go well. A combination of being tired and groggy from drinking along with some bad luck and some tilt left me down 5 buy ins. I have some work to make up today before I leave for kung fu. I am going to polish this off then get cracking on that, I'll let you know how it goes.

Later

Already not doing what I said I was going to.

Ok so I missed a couple of days, not like anyone is really reading this as of now anyway. It is Saturday night lets see what has been going on since my last entry. I have been playing online still at very small stakes but I think I have had a few mental light bulbs that will help my game out. I was trying to make super star plays and at this level that isn't what the game is about. It's more about playing in a positive expectation format. Playing at the local card house, snapping off a bluff can make an average day into a really good day. My opponents online are not trying to bluff, and if they are its rarely enough that I should be calling as much as I was. That said I won two buy-ins yesterday over about 600 hands. Not great but a hell of a lot better than being in the red.

I was going to go to my first sparring practice today it was going to be very early and I knew that I was going to be playing some satellites for the big event tomorrow at the local card room, so I decided to skip because I didn't want to be exhausted. I got a call from one of my friends in the system yelling at me for skipping the class this morning. He has been in it for quite some time and is almost through with the curriculum, he does a good job of keeping me accountable. Sometimes its hard to motivate yourself to go work your ass off for 3 and a half hours and not see anything new. The point isn't to see something new every class but hey learning new stuff is motivation no matter who you are.

So about the satellites, for anyone who doesn't know a satellite is a way of trying to win your way into an expensive tournament for a cheaper price. The big tournament at the local room is $400 every six weeks, this is an awesome tournament and you get a lot of chips and the blind levels increase very slowly giving you lots of time to play. First place is usually $6k to $8k, I was lucky enough in December to win the "big one" as we call it. The satellites are held the day before the event and cost $90 a piece. You sit down with 10 other people and play until 2 people are left and they both win $400 that they can use to buy into the tournament, or you can just keep the cash. In the past when I played these I have done very well so now since I am not working at the card room I was eager to play and try to get my way into the big one for as cheap as possible.

My table is pretty soft, lot of calling stations but not really anyone I am overly worried about. I am running pretty well, I lost a few chips early on but was able to triple up when I picked up 33 and flopped a set. Then a little later I have 6 8 suited and its a limp pot and I am on the big blind. I check my action and the flop is 7 9 10 giving me the second nut straight, since there are a number of people in the pot I check knowing someone will bet. Never one to disappoint a guy bets and there is a call I make a small check raise and the original better called and the guy who called the original bet folded. The turn is a Queen which worried me a little bit but I knew I wasn't necessarily beat at this point. I bet enough for the guy to know that I was committed to the hand even if he pushed all in. He pushes anyway and I quickly call and he turns over QJ for top pair and a gut shot straight draw, the river blanks and I beat him. I have a lot of chips now and its looking like smooth sailing. I am known at this place for being aggressive so a lot of people are content to stay out of my way. I pick up pocket 5's and call a raise from a semi short stack because another player called as well. Another player calls as well behind me, he is not a good player and makes bad tournament decisions for large portions of his stack, and we go to the flop 4 handed. The flop comes 8 6 5 giving me bottom set, I am pretty ecstatic here I have a pretty strong hand. The first guy checks and I check not because I am a huge fan of slow playing but because I want the guy who has a short stack to put all his money in. The action checks around and an Ace comes on the turn, the short stack checks and by now I have to bet, this guy will either call or not but I don't want to lose this hand. I bet out and the guy behind me calls and he is second in chips I am assuming he has an ace but am not worried about it all that much. The short stack shoves his chips in and I decide that I will move all in because I want to play against just him. Well to my astonishment the guy who is second in chips also calls, very weird play because he should just get out of the way unless he has the nuts, no point in possibly losing all your chips to the only guy who has you covered. I am worried about a straight but the short stack has 88 for a set higher than mine, sucks but it happens. He doesn't have very much in chips so I can double him up and as long as the other guy has a worse hand than I do I will get all his chips and still make a lot of money in this hand. He turns over Ace 6 for two pair. I am excited at this point, I will lose the main pot to the short stack guy but I will get to bust this guy with a good amount of chips, I will have a lot of chips and can leave the table and make it into the big event. Well as usual I have bad luck and another Ace falls on the river giving the guy a full house bigger than me and the other guy. I was stunned, he had only 2 aces he could of hit to win that hand and he hits one. The guy put his whole stack on the line versus a bet a raise all in and another raise all in, just a bad play with Ace 6 but whatever.

That leaves me short stacked and I am out not much later. I sign up for another one with my friend Jim also playing. We are seated right next to each other with him having position on me. Once again I start out well building up some chips. I raise with 77 and he raises me I fold after thinking about it. He later told me he had AK which is kind of what I thought. This table is tougher than the last one but I am still doing all right. One thing to note Jim and I are not playing together but we aren't playing against each other either. I make a raise he won't get tricky and try to out play me and vice versa. Later on I raise with AQ suited and he moves all in. I think I am at a coin flip and decide to call. He shows 99 and I feel good about my read and know that I a little worse than even money to win. I see a 9 directly on the flop and know that I am going to be short stacked again. That hands leaves me with $350 in chips and with the blinds at 50/100 I have to pick to cards and get it in. I am out short time later, no big deal that is the thing with satellites, you have to play fast and super aggressive because the blinds move up at such a fast rate, you either pick up some chips quickly or your don't and your signing up for the next one.

So now I am 0 for 2, I think its dumb to play 3 satellites spending $270 when the buy in is $400. So I am put to a decision, do I want to buy in tomorrow for $400 or do I want to skip it and save the cash for my bankroll. There are arguments for both sides of the table. There will be a lot of really dead money there and with a prize pool of at least $6k that would really boost my bankroll, but its still $400 dollars and no one is a favorite to win a tournament of that size. I am still up in the air about it but will make my decision in a little bit.

You will find out tomorrow.
Later.