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