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.