The 4 Card Grind

Slideshow

2010-11-26T12:25:00.002-05:00

New post at ROllover2k

White coat ceremony for buddy, went to a couple of these hella boring but good for them.

Chatting with Ben on a quick trip to Philly to visit sis and her boyfriend and see Daniel Tosh.

Wharton School of Business at U of Penn.... the only place I actually wanted to go and the only app besides U of Michigan I put in. Bah!

I dig food aight.

Red Rock in LV, great place to go to get off the strip and get some air.. or sun
My buddy who came out. We call him Rowdy, because his last name is Rohde (roadie) and he was notorious cautious back in the day until he found alcohol and the beast was set loose. This is with some girls from Santa Barbara I think, one who looked remarkably like Denise Richards in person. From the 4th if I remember right at Voodoo. The next night we went out Rowdy ended up with a .. women of the street lets saw in the parking garage of Caesars, security found him in building 7 of my condo complex in a stairwell. He had a scratch on his hand, and no money... $400 previously... Grody Rohde is born.
How do you pick up your parents at the airport? Miami Vice style.
Voodoo with girl whose name I don't remember, buddy Eric on the right, and Chinaski101 on left.

Sexy.

Visit Lefty2506's (my) ImageShack profile

Quickpost these images to Myspace, Digg, Facebook, and others!

Short new post at CR

2010-10-29T18:56:00.000-04:00

http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/rollover2k

New Post at CR

2010-05-19T15:02:00.002-04:00

New post at CR http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/Rollover2k

New Post

2010-05-03T14:08:00.000-04:00

New Post at CR
http://www.cardrunners.com/blog/Rollover2k

If only the homeless were better looking...

2010-02-04T12:48:00.006-05:00

This is largely what I got out of the first unit of contemporary philosophy here.

In other news, binked a donkament, pulled out decent month, P90xing going strong, and so on.

Philosophy Rant

So this class has been a massive disappointed so far. First unit was on philosophy of giving/charity/etc.

Some of our sources for those weird folks with interest : )
Petere Singer - Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Peter Unger - Living High and Letting Die
Garret Hardin - Lifeboat Ethics

Kant - Charity

Goes something like:

Singer - "We should give until the point of marginal utility"

-- Opponent "That's nuts bro, what about me?"

-- Singer "Ok whateve, .. we should give until we are sacrificing something morally significant.".....

-- Opponent "Uh, like my right not to give?".....

-- Singer "Doood, don't be a dick. I'm just saying we should do more, but I didn't want to sound like a communist or a hippy!"

Unger - "Slavery is wrong, but everbody thought it was legit a hundred and fifty years ago... that's how charity is today.. in two centuries you'll all realize you are monsters."

-- Opponent "So buying a flatscreen is like subjecting a human being to a lifetime of subjugation and oppression?"

-- Unger "Right."

-- Opponent "More on this please?"

-- Unger "If you are honest with your intuitions you'll realize you are killing human beings when you don't do everything you can to eliminiate suffering"

-- Opponent "Whatev lets run with it... so everything?"

-- Unger "Right you are morally permitted to lie/cheat/steal/punch/kick/ and generally vigilante in the name of charity"

-- Opponent "Why didn't you just say that in the first place, sweet! But wait, so, that means someone else.. someone who buys into this is permitted to take all my shit? And forcefully if I'm not on board?"

-- Unger "Give me your wallet"

Hardin "There's only so much natural chedda to go around, spread it too thin and we're all dead"

-- Opponent "So what do think we should do about famine?"

-- Hardin "Nothing"

-- Opponent "Healthcare"

-- Hardin "Nothing"

-- Opponent "Disaster victims"

-- Hardin "Nothing"

-- Opponent "Why?"

-- Hardin "Teach'em a lesson"

-- Opponent "okeeeeey, kind of hardass huh, your take on eugenics?"

-- Hardin "Let's get crackin."

--- And to anyone who has done some work in philosophy, obviously I didn't do any of these guys justice.... but uh... its my blog.

----- Back to the title. Some of the empirical research that came up in relation supported the following:

1. The more vivid and conspicuous the need, the more likely we are to give... ie. there is somethign to those commercials with starvin' Marvin in them.

2. When presented with the option of giving aide people are significantly more likely to help the less people there are in need... extremely counter intuitive.

3. Additionally, and logically, people are more likely to give to those causes which exhibit only a moderate status of desperation. ie. if there are indicators of improvement or potential improvement with a suffering people.. perhaps they are democratizing, then people are more likely to support them vs. a people who have an unwaivering history of political unrest.... in other words people look for indictors that their investment will see positive ROIs... interesting......ipso facto, if homeless people smelled less, and shaved more and made sure to always panhandle away from other homeless people nearby... they'd see some economic gains : )

Donkament

Also binked off a donkament since last post. UBOC $200+R+A PLO. Didn't get to bed til 4 am, but now and then I'm ok with going to class tired long as I make $33,500.00 in the process.

http://www.pocketfives.com/online-poker-scene/rollover2k-rolls-over-uboc-pot-limit-omaha-cubed-event-5155396

Interview blahahaha... you would think we have enough to report on that things like a poker tournament recap never find their way onto the web.. sad world.

Run Good

Also got my expected rungood on stars, and in general. Came back home from buddy's birthday party on the last day of month and put up an 11 bi sess in addition to an already ok month. Ran over EV which was incredible, I didn't know that happened. Graph worthy imo.

Since then I've merged the lines preetayy much around 1800 bb's over 20k hands, winrate is good but little lower than I'd like to maintain.

P90x

Been going at this pretty hard since about a week before the new year. Just burnt out last night, might be somethign to taking that recovery week.

Also fell off my effing pullup bar right onto my upper back/neck.... ugggh worst pain ever, first i have a skiing flashback to casing this 60ft table.

Here the demon, can't even see the landing here apex of jump will be around that second tree. Later found out when in hospital for crohn's stuff that I had a compressed vertebre.. presumably from something of this nature.

Anyways, had to crawl to couch to recover... tough hit even though not falling from more than like 5ft up.

Brings me to P90x tips!

1. Buy the Plus DVDs... they add great variety, and good cardio if the weightlifting is not your primarily focus.

2. Do intervals, the plus dvd, once a week... it will make everything else super easy including Plyo as your cardio strength goes through the roof

3. Don't wear tightish workout shirts... I swear to god I almost suffocating trying to this shirt off last week effing stuck to my body

4. Don't shave after P90 lifting workouts... shaky danger!!!!!

5. With the plus dvds you have another ab program so you can switch between ab ripper and abs/core plus... making the most miserable part of P90 a little better.

6. Lock your back and lean forward or backward to isolate arms a little more.

7. Wear heart monitor for the lifting routines, if your cardio gets out of range you arent getting enough oxygen to muscles to get your full pump and not doing the workout justice...

Link Dump
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/54/poker-beats-brags-variance/14-000-downswing-masochism-hospital-tr-697958/index8.html
-- Interesting thread about guy who went on tilt and stabbed himself through the ankle, um ,,, yeah.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804461/
PSA about the single worst movie I've ever seen. Never been so let down by Mr. Kevin Bacon, epic bad... interestingly this guy has his hands in all the Saw movies too... just terribad story construction.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/cyril-le-frenchman-con-man-697631/
Thread about Cyril, the guy who pwned in the big games at WSOP this year who turns out to be a fugitive for defrauding to the tune of like $10 milli

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-forums/7/warning-jason-ho-code7654321-coaching-scam-5144214
Story of coach who bilked students out of couple hundo k... ridiculously shameful.. but interesting read.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100113/REVIEWS/100119990/1023
Ebert's Book of Eli Review... he nails the movie, flawed ending that takes on a life of its own. More importantly though, this film had the best cinematography...a nd I can't beleive I'm pointing this out... AUDIO of the year... for that alone its worth your time.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Watch-Scorsese-At-Work-Directing-Shutter-Island-16859.html
Shutter Island ya digggg. This is cool seeing the master at work directing Leo Dicaprio.

-----

That's all for now folks,

GL at the tables.

J

Hey Doods.

2010-01-18T21:30:00.001-05:00

Sorry CardRunners!

2010-01-09T15:50:00.001-05:00

Moooving Locations

2009-12-30T23:54:00.003-05:00

Hey folks,
I'm moving my blog to CardRunners.com.

Novembering

2008-12-01T17:12:00.003-05:00

Hey folks,

Long time no updates, a direct reflection of my school schedule I assure you.

To start, thanks to anyone who still follows my blog despite how intermittent the posts are.

October and beyond

2008-11-09T15:43:00.002-05:00

October ended up being a pretty great month despite dropping 20-30k on my last session. I hadn't realized how well I was doing.

Played alot of hu on ub early this month. There were two players shortstacking, well like 30-50bb actually, who were awful but had run up their accounts quite nicely. So I played a near all night session after these two guys, who constantly hit & ran and berated me. Frustrating, but a necessary evil.

Anyways by the end of the night one guy had left with what I think was around 10k in his account, good for him, the other guy I all but broke, hey had 408.50 or something left. So satisfying.

Also running about 10k below equity on my tracked hands this month.

I started working on a new vid series yesterday. Got about 3 hrs of 5/10 4-tabling. I am excited about this series because I think I did a good job leverages a TAG image, which I kind of lacked at in the previous vids.

Right now I'm shooting for a 4 part vid with a bonus pokertracker review.

I am swamped on work though. Presentation tomm, then I gotta start working on the next two as well as write a 10 pg case study for biz law.

Really do hate school, don't know how some people enjoy this stuff.

I don't have much time to post, let alone post with movie reviews anymore so they are getting cut. If I see soemthing I think is real good I'll throw in a plug.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3426700

Anyone get away from this one? Feel like my lead looks weaks so I can't fold. I dunno though. Obv gameflow/player is a big deal here, but I don't wanna go through all that.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3426712

I really thought I had him pegged on this one. Guess thats a little fancy play syndrome. I think if he has like 800 behind after betting riv he folds tho. Really I didn't think he'd be the river though, I thought I could float and then just take it.

Thats all for now folks, gl at the tables.

ps. a simple plan, billy bob and bill paxton.. pretty sweet movie. Massive amounts of irony.

Couple Hands because this is a poker blog.

2008-10-18T13:54:00.003-04:00

Before I put it off here's a few hands from last night:

ZOIKS SCOOB!

I obviously am not in this hand but I thought it was pretty interesting. Eugene makes what I feel is a good call here, I mean he called the bluff... but the bluff won.

Keep your hand on the trigger

This was shortly after the previous hand, otherwise I might not have made this 3-bet. My intention was to 3-bet/fold to a push, but Eugene's raise to 6k instead of the max just gave away that he didn't have AAxx imo. So easy push given the surrounding situation although this hand looks pretty bad in a vaccum

Tehnik sir, your car is ready to take you to valuetown

Verse some players I am 3-betting this flop to max out my fold equity and fold out alot of the draws that are medium strength but would have me dominated. However, Tehnik is not in the business of folding so I think this is a call, its definately closer to a fold than a 3-bet vs this player, with Call being the best option.

On the turn I have no choice but to ram it, I have a guy who can't fold on a drawy board, if he turned the bigger straight, well NH!

River again is an easy value bet with so little left behind, I hope this hand doesn't cause a mad rush to Cake Poker.

UFC fights for free on Spike tonight at 9 pm, keep an eye on Brandon Vera v. Keith Jardine.. I think Vera is going to come out on top here.

GL at the tables folks.

Whew, relief

2008-10-16T21:35:00.002-04:00

Just finished easy the toughest week I have ever had academically.

I am in 7 classes, which is enough to worry about, but I had 6 exams this week as well. Just really had no time to come up for air. Its done now though, I worked hard, whatever comes out of it is fine.

On the poker front I have played very little this month, maybe 3.5k hands, most in one session where I played a big HU match on Cake at 50/100 and 25/50. This match was extremely frusterating because I am positive I absolutely handled my opponent. I have never leveraged my image as well as I did in this match. I still ended up down around 20k though.

Missed some key hands: Twice I 3-bet pre early in the match flopped top pair and nut flush draw in one, top pair nut flush draw + gutter in the other and stacked off. both hands opponent flopped nuts, top set in the top pair one and nut straight in my top pair+ gutter and fl draw one.

Missed both, and then missed a true wrap at 50/100 for a big pot. Also stacked off on the turn with a middle set into a 2 fl draw board, A high w/ an A high blocker. There was one straight combo on the board after turn... guess what : )

I won a big pot at 25/50 after min 4-betting about 250 BB deep vs villian who covered. There was a lot of cold calling of 3-bets going on and I really wanted to induce a 4-bet which I easily had odds to call and chase out some of the loose players behind. Anyways, someone cold called my min 4-bet and the villian 5-bet which was still an easy call for me.

Can't remember exact hand but had something like K789ds, hand that plays much better HU and against heavy preflop action than otherwise. Anyways flopped a gutter top pair and second flushdraw and stacked off of course, won a 25k pot there lucky me

Then at 4:30 am right before I was going to quit I opened with 99K8, and got 3-bet.. I dunno this might be dumpable pre in a situation like this where his 3-bet range is wide.. but it was soooted so I called. Q93 rainbow, he leads, I raise, he 3-bets, I push... to be honest I wanted to fold when he 3-bet me becuase he had only done so with the mortal nuts all night... but seriously who can fold mid set in a 3-bet pot HU.. even at 250 bb deep. Anyways, he had the mortal nuts of course and I lost a 25k pot. Had to quit right after that, no way I can play my best after that.

So rough match, but I'm proud of the way I played.

-----
I have a break this weekend, no class monday or tuesday so I am going home tomm then heading to illinois to see a girl in peoria, then sunday I'm gonna head into Chicago with my friend to see his bro who works for CardRunners there. Monday we are going to visit the CR office and have lunch with whoever is in that day. Should be pretty interesting, might make a video on site, I'm pretty excited about seeing the operation and obv meeting Taylor and Wiggins.

I'll post a trip report if it is notable, hope to have more poker content.. but to do that I gotta play some hands...GL at the tables folks.

PS. Debates make me sick.

Interesting Attitudes in the forums

2008-10-03T21:36:00.002-04:00

Interesting article on the front page of two plus two below, spawned from the post also below. (Click 2nd link first)

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-articles/twenty-four-hours-for-larry-3384358

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-forums/7/An-eye_2D00_opening-experience_2E002E002E00_-3278376?PageIndex=1

Anyways, this is a nice story, and just my stance on the homeless... helping people who are down and out is neither right nor wrong.. Just like in every subset of society there are some good people and some bad people... ours is not to judge.

More interesting than this story though is the 'help Larry' attitude that has grown out of the P5's forum.

I just think its interesting that an intimate story about one man like this does what an entire cause cannot ever hope to accomplish. When is the last time you just up and donated some time or money to a foundation? I can't remember the last time I did, but I can easily remember the last time there was a person who needed money for surgery in the local paper, or a spaghetti dinner to raise money for the guy who lost his insurance but needs medical care.

I just think its weird how taking the same conditions down to an intimate level entirely changes the game.

-----

Other completely unrelated stuff from the forums. Don't get me wrong, I think the forums are great training tools and even better to keep up with industry news.. but on the whole I think they may be detrimental to the industry.

My reasons being.
1) They tend to change the way people interact on the web, I've seen many things in writing that I know would never be delivered via the spoken word.. so this change in attitude.. is it more impulsive communication, more honest, or have the forums just become an outlet for socially unacceptable behaviors?

Either way, the communication is a definately a little coarse and crude for my liking.. especially when business is involved. I had a guy message me the other day saying

"I'll take all your stars for UB, don't bother responding if you won't send first"

.. this is an extremely ineffective way to approach someone who you want to do business with. I opted not to trade with him just one principle lol

---- as an aside, I think its funny that people invest a certain amount of social status in being recognized in forums.. I had two players that I tactfully messaged in response to their ads for trades with my rates/vig and references and I got back from both of them simply "I don't pay vig".

Obviously if you play high stakes NLHE or have 40,000 posts.. market forces don't apply to you.. i was unaware

2) Reason two is that the forums have become a huge crutch for learning the game. There are a ton of questions posted in the forum that would be much better answered by the player if he'd just sit down in reason things out. I don't think given the condition of most poker forums right now, they are conducive to progressing poker theory.. or at least not as conducive as they once were or could be.

3) Creating inefficient people... 75% of the time I spend in forums is next to useless... there is so much dribble to do through and fruitless posting... and this is coming from someone who is pretty selective about the posts he trolls. So really it is just eating up alot of players' time they could be spending at the tables or doing something more satisfying than spamming 'first' or acronyms for phrases rarely used in the first place. DUCY?

I would just love to see the reform of this tool. A good forum is invaluable in an industry like this that is so decentralized and unregulated.

I know most would disagree on this, but I would love to be a part of a high censored forum. I would even pay to be part of a forum like this, one where the moderators deleted all the obvious fluff, flaming, and unsubstantiated claims/responses.

I'd also pay to join a forum that was strictly for poker hands... hand histories only, that employed a staff of pros ranging from all limits and games to respond to your hands.

There's lots of great things that come from meeting of the minds, but somehow the forums have lost some direction... could be a function of the avg age being quite low, could be a function of lax moderating in the name of free speech. Who knows.

/rant : )

------------

I've got Sept to review and some movies to write about when I feel like it, but right now I just wanted to ramble a bit about that... apologies to anyone who spends alot of time posting, there are surely some very valuable contributions made from the forums and from individuals, but as a whole they are surely degenerating

GL at the tables.

Welcome to International Biz

2008-09-29T12:37:00.002-04:00

So last week I finally got all my checks cleared and everything and was ready to wire money to PStars. If you remember from previous posts, my plan was to wire money in trade @ 2-5% to FTP, AP, UB.. and once I get everything on AP/UB I can wire it out again. Quick easy gains eh.

Well I initiated the transfer and it was credited to my accnt this morning, unfortunately the guy I worked with neglected to tell me that it was being exchanged to Euro's for transfer... in his defense I should have read up on this.... anyways I got exchanged out this morning at a lower rate and lost $1,800!!!

I couldn't beleive that, such a silly mistake, all I had to do was to check send in US dollars on the form.... ugh

So not I have to average a certain percentage just to break even on my play, and I'll be set back about 2-4 weeks while the money gets traded and re-injected into my bank accounts.

Frusterating, but I still think this is a good plan.

Thats all for now folks. GL at the tables.

Balanced

2008-09-23T23:39:00.002-04:00

*** Cavaet, this post is long and extremely self-involved, just some freewriting because I enjoy that from time to time and it helps me think. If you enjoy stream-of-consciousness.. stay tuned....

Just got done reading more of David B's blog on Cardrunners.com

Some people say he is being 'emo' in his post, I entirely disagree. The guy is striving to be a more complete person, a more balanced person, and his blog is where you organizes his plans for this imo.

I walk away from his posts with a smile on face almost everytime. We need more reminders in this business that the picture of Ben Franklin in your pocket is just that.... a picture.. a piece of paper...

So easy to get caught up in this community that has sprung up over the past few years; One which on the intermediate term treats money like its worthless.... and on the long term treats it like the be all to end all.

I know I have to make a conscious effort to escape that mindset. But when you do... its easy to realize the things that actually make you happy.

I've always had a problem maintaining good balance. I tend to pick one or two things to just expend all my energy on and go at them full force. Now this is effective in becoming 'successful' at these things, but does success = happiness... certainly not always.

As I type I am realizing I'm tipping the scales to heavily towards poker as I tried to apply it my job, hobby, academic life, and 2nd job (Cardrunners).

I have already started phasing poker out of my hobby life, I really don't enjoy the game. But that means trips with my friends to casinos = no poker, trips to casinos = business. That also means when I play, I maximize, no more one or two tabling just because I dont really feel like playing, but there are couple of soft games. If I am on board, I'm on board, if not I'm away from the poker games. That means no more mindless forum surfing to procrastinate or to 'watch' for games. Often I look for games even though I know i don't wanna play.. waste of time.

Also am phasing poker out of my academic life, tough to do since I'm President of the poker club I created here. Now that means I find some good honest hard working people, which I think I have, to pass the reins to. I'll still be around to give a helping hand to these guys, but thats because I want them to succeed in running the club as a friend would want... not because I want to expand poker on campus.

I still want to be involved with poker as work, videos for CR, giving lessons... generating income... but I want to be more focused in my efforts. Its easy to slack off and treat poker stuff like what it once was.. a hobby.

Time to take back some of the things I really love to do, tennis, golf, skiing, investing, road trips that don't end at the casino.

Also time to start thinking seriously about using some poker money to expand my business interests.. entrepreneurship, day trading... that was the original goal and I've reached a point where I either need to be searching for internships through the B-School or developing other real plans for happens when I get out of school.

I look around at the 'opportunities' offered to the biz students here and they are just so valuable, the problem is none of them seem valuable to be. There is a huge focus on injecting groups of BBA's into top 20 firms of all the different concentrations... marketing, consulting, finance, accounting, etc.

None of this appeals to me in the least. What sparks my interest in business is really the constructive aspect... building a functional entity from nothing, creating something that survives and thrives of societies' needs seems purposeful to me. No matter what business you create, if it is successful it is serving a purpose to society by some stretch of the phrase.

Just feel like that interest is being stifled by the program and creativity in business practice discouraged.. its like this program is tailored made to turn each student into the man, or not even the man, just an underling for the man's machine.

I never considered myself creative before in my life until I entered this program, looked around, and saw how interested in falling into a system these people were. Does noone want to design their own system?

I know its kind of backwards to want to start a business entity without having an idea what you would do, but I really do think that's where my interests lie and while I'm sure the 'what you would do' part could vary my satisfication.. I think anything would suffice.

So after spewing for 30 mins are so, I have just clicked into these two thoughts.

1) If I can't figure out a way to put my money to work in satisfying my business interests as defined above, then I should be looking to identify young, new companies and start-ups in the area that I could get involved with. U of M has a group called Mpowered that might help me with this, and we have the Zell Laurie Center for Entrepreneurial studies here that could as well.

2) I'm not interested in much of anything that doesn't put a piece of myself at stake. For example, I love trading.. but I can't imagine working somewhere and trading for a living... I have a pretty insatiable interest in life threatening activites (skydiving, hanggliding, 'close calls', rally racing). I enjoyed studying taxes when I started filing professionally... yet I dreaded talking about them in accounting. I sit in business law, bored with the cases/terms etc until i can imagine a situation in whcih I or someone I know is involved. I considered a major in film studies, but couldn't imagine working on non-studio movies... nothing at stake with a no-name movie.

3) The same thing I love, putting myself at risk, puts me in the line of fire of probably my biggest fear.. failure, doesn't make much sense to me... but this is what I do..

Thats my niche, time to start looking for others in it, or who can show me the door to it.

Have a good one guys, gl at the tables, I'll give a poker report at the end of month.

In the meantime do what Raptor said in one of his blogs:

"I did an exercise I read about in a book today. Basically, it said to imagine that you are 100 years old, and a time machine was invented, and you are lucky enough to get to use it but only for 15 minutes, and only to talk to your former self however old you are right now. Give yourself advice on how to find more happiness in your life. Write it down, for 15 minutes, just write. See, we all KNOW what makes us happy. We KNOW what we need to do; it’s not some unreachable mystery that only a select few people are aware of. YOU know what makes you happy. The only thing preventing us from doing these things is apathy and laziness."

.. give it try, written, verbally, or just think it through.. whatever suits you.

August in Review: Yum.

2008-09-02T16:31:00.002-04:00

Ended up having another very good month, largely due to adding Cake Poker to my roster.

Speaking of, that post that people can't read a couple below this is just a test. I was trying out a cake poker hand converter. Anyways it doesnt work, but just of the hand is I make a c/r on the riv (obv turning my hand into a bluff) get pwned and lose 27k or so pot hah

Anyways, I have been playing alot of 25/50, not that I want to, but there are some serious donators on Cake Poker that play bigger games.

Ran ok, then very poorly, then went on a legitamate heater.

I'm back in school now, very depressing. My room is pretty sick, but our house is right on campus so its pretty dirty... standard for college I guess, but I'm missing the cleanliness of home.

I am trying to figure a big deposit into Pstars to sell of for vig, but running into tons of problems as usual in my banking experience.

Also looking for a new bank in Ann Arbor if anyone has a recco.. the bank I use right now I guess shuts down your account if they know you are cahsing poker checks... which is downright ridiculous and seems like itd be illegal since there is nothing illegal about online poker.

Anyways, just wanna avoid trouble and get outtta there.

I hope everyone checked out the new CR site, its not extremely different, but there have been alot of improvements to the functionality I think. Definately smoother operating imo.

Appreciate all the help with coaching stuff last post, I really want to get going on that, but I have to wait and see how my schedule pans out. Right now I have 15.5 credits which is a pretty average load, but its divied up into 7 classes.. in my experience unless its like an althletic class or something... those 1-2 credit classes do not give out an equitable share of work... so this could be really tough.

This town is such a racket, I just wish I could find a way to get on the green side of all this college exploitation.. the rents, food, books, its all so ridiculous.

Depressed about going back this year especially because I was starting to build some consistent or semi-consistent revenue streams this summer and that all goes backseat with classes added.

Looking forward to WCOOP though, hope classes arent too much in the way. One of my buddies found my name on some site, bluff or something maybe, that says i'm ranked #8 online PLO tourneys which is cool. Makes me wanna play the Saturdays that I always miss more and try to climb up, I can see that being a cool motivational factor for the MTT guys.

I reaaaaaallly I am trying to keep my play at 5/10 and 3/6 for rest of year because 10/20 and especially 25/50 swings are a little tougher when you have alot going on on the side, but some of these games are just too delicious to turn down.
-----

Still looking for a Webmail client that utilizes security tokens or other two-factor authentication. I am willing to pay for this research too. I have found alot of clients that can use two factor when directed through auxillary programs.. .but I want a webmail site that I can access from any computer and requires a security token. Our school e-mail does, but only for admins... I tried to get one and they shut me down... bleh.

---

I dont have much to say on movies because I havent watched any lately, and the ones from before I forgot but heres a couple:

Tropic Thunder - SO bizarre, you gotta be on the right level to enjoy the humor, but overall it was entertaining.. its no Zoolander.. but it was pretty funny. And it really stuck to its genre too.. it wasnt some kind of mix-match super genre that everyone has been trying to make these days.

Brick - Weird weird movie about a murder in a suburban type town and a high school kid getting into this drug trafficking ring which is controlled by other young kids. I liked it alot because it was unique, and again no genre mixing really, alot of the acting is subpar, but thats to be expected. Also the casting for the lead, kid from Third Rock from the Sun, was a bit off.

GL at the tables guys, I have another CR vid coming out this week check it out and let me know what u think, always looking to improve.

Coaching Software & Plans

2008-08-21T20:01:00.002-04:00

Hey guys I am looking to get into coaching now as I've had alot of requests but I have no experience in the matter.

So I'm calling on you guys for info.

I'm willing to pay for your research basically.

I'm looking for:

A)Good software for coaching, specifically looking for a program that I can cost-effectively download and have students download that would allow me to view their screen's in real-time.

This is the optimal case, I can also view HH, and session replayers, and even screen recordings post play, but I am trying to avoid having to send and receive large files over e-mail and I think realtime would be more effective

B) Coaching strategies. Search the forums, asks friends that have coached, how do they go about it and what tools do they use. Do they watch a few sessions first to get a feel for the player and plug leaks from there or take a start to finish approach? Do they charge for just realtime and skype lessons or for reviewing hh and stuff too?

C) Finally I am looking for rates from other players/students to compare myself to.

Depending on the quality of information I'll be shipping anywhere from $5-$50 to accnt of your choice (obv things like links to long threads i gotta dig through being less valuable than first info etc.)

Comment here if you'd like a contact to send any information to or AIM to discuss.

Thanks folks, gl at the tables.

Crazy Hand, and checking cake converter

2008-08-20T14:13:00.002-04:00

SB: ($12523.84)[b]HERO (BB): ($15323.00)[/b]
[b]Pre Flop:[/b] HERO is BB with 8:heart: 4:diamond: 9:heart: 6:diamond:
[color="red"]SB raises $150[/color], [color="red"] HERO raises to $400[/color], SB calls,
[b]Flop:[/b] 4:heart: 8:spade: T:club:
[color="red"] HERO bets $650[/color], SB calls,
[b]Turn:[/b] 5:heart:
HERO checks, [color="red"]SB bets $1,600[/color], HERO calls,
[b]River:[/b] J:diamond:
HERO checks, [color="red"]SB bets $3,775[/color], [color="red"] HERO raises to $12,400[/color], [color="red"]SB is all-in 6098.8400[/color],

Cake Poker

2008-08-20T02:00:00.002-04:00

I have about 10k hands in so far, and a bunch on cake i dunno how many, not quite as many as I'd like to ahve because I wanted to play 25k this month but ah well, never did like forcing myself to play... just becomes harder and harder to get hands in as I enjoy the game less and less.

Finished up 3 pt series for CR on moving up and adjustments to make in your game and psychologically to be ready for higher limits. I've always had trouble moving up as an avid reader of this blog knows and so I have really analyzed shot taking, etc. to the fullest extent. I think this series is a little less solid on the play/hand analysis area but more valuable with insight for progressing players. Hope its well received.

I've been playing a little 25/50 and 50/100 this month. I really hate the swings and I'm not properly, in my eyes, rolled for the games but the players on cake are realllllllly bad. There are two like mega fish donators on the site that I know of, but even the guys chasing their money are not superstars so i think this is the best time/place for me to take a chance. I have had some frusterating, but ultimately successful runs, I've probably lost 20k at 50/100 but won a bunch more at 25/50 running legitamately hot.

I'm looking forward to playing the HPT event at Soaring Eagle this weekend. Hope I don't make an early exit.

I've done alot of work on my club this month getting the books in order and scheduling games. I really want to take a backseat with it this year and see if it has the momentum to run itself with minimal guidance. This should give me more time for CR vids and school obv, as well as some other money making ventures I am looking into on the side.

Some movies for you guys

Smart People - New movie, I think script is by Diablo Cody from Juno. Movie kind of follows this family of educated people, a doctor and the adopted bro to dennis quaid who is kind of the black sheep of the family.

Ellen Paige plays a very diff character than in Juno and does a great job, Dennis Quaid plays an absolute jerk of a main character. The amazing thing about this movie is it goes next to nowhere, is very anticlimatic, but extremely interesting nonetheless. The characters are just really unique and the personalities well developed so they really become the plot in themselves. Now I hate Sarah Jessic Parker, but she did ok in this movie to. I gotta credit Diablo Cody I think because its no coincidence that every character is interesting, its not just the stars aligning and allowing everyone to act their best ever.

Its also unique, in that you kind of hate the main character at least on the surface, and even the main auxillary character (Ellen Paige), but at the same time you kind of get them.. you kind of understand why they act the way they do and what they're really all about.

I'm rambling, but i really thought this movie was well made. Not something that is gonna smash the box office, but definately a great piece of filmmaking.

Bonnie and Clyde - A classic. I had to watch it, so many character archetypes and scenes now take their lessons from the classics and its cool to go back and see the root of modern cinema. This dragged a bit as the plot was kinda straightforward, but I did like it. I can't really say the cinematography or acting was great because it was kind of a different biz back then. I mean overacting a little was kind of the norm as we moved from theatre to film so their is still hints of that in some older movies. The ending was nothign I expected, even though looking back there was some obv foreshadowing. Overall I was just entertained by it, can't quite place me finger on why.

The Hustler - Another old film. I don't think there is any hint of overacting in this film tho. Its black and white, the dialogue is cut and dry, the story is something of the biography of a degenerate and its awesome. Goes in a direction you don't really expect, and maybe does a little bit of a job tackling the idea of obsession vs. ambition and the cost getting where you think you wanna be in life. Thats kind of reading into it a bit, but I really think thats what the director/writer was shooting for.

Again I am definately forgetting some movies, definately some good ones too ah well.

Gl at the tables guys, I'm gonna try and find out where cake hand histories go to post some big ones.

UFC

2008-08-14T01:18:00.002-04:00

I forgot to mention I went down to a friends to watch UFC last saturday.

http://www.cardrunners.com/members/index.php?option=com_mamblog&Itemid=29&task=show&action=view&id=22826&Itemid=29

Ryan Daut's blog reminded more of it, and how amazing the fights were.

Not only was the fight card ridiculously strong, even the undercards were good or at least entertaining.

One of them was a 12 sec KO, some guy named emerson.

Then Cheik Congo fought some guy called the 'viking' who I am pretty sure they pulled outta of a bar somewhere... 'hey you wanna make some money!'

That was just a massacre. The other undercard, first fight between Jason macdonald and Demian Maia was terrible.. but watching Demian is.. he kinda just lays on the ground avoiding bad spots then pounces when submission opps arise.. i mean he is good... and will win alot of fights like this.. but damn so boring.

On the good stuff.

Actually nm, Kenny Flo and Roger Huerta.. a fight I thought would be amazing with Huerta charging in and Flo working him with the elbows and kicks was actually really boring and one sided at least I thought. Huerta just never went on the offensive and just let Kenny just control the action the way he wanted. He also keep leaning on him, or staying out of range and like hopping in (GSP style) . The staying out of range with kenny is fine, bu sweet jesus why would u lean on the Muay Tai fighter who specializes in tight knees and elbows.

Brock Lesnar had his 3rd fight, against Herring who embarrassed Congo in their last fight, and holy lord Brock showed up. He still came out brawling as expected, but was much more in control on the ground he absolutely embarrassed Herring. I should mention though that Brock put one of the biggest haymakers i've ever seen on herring in the first 30 seconds. So who knows what woulda happened without that, Herring literally rolled over backwards after this hit into the cage.. amazing.

The GSP v Jon Fitch fight was also very one sided.. but still amazing and entertaining. GSP laid one hit on Jon that may have even been harder than Brock's.. he caught Fitch coming in and really swung through. He also caught him coming up near the cage with a knee.. I just cant beleive the beating this guy took, it was inhumane. Striking was his best chacne vs GSP (obviously he's the submission king) and he still got rocked.

My buddy told me Fedor is gonna fight Brock if they can organize it could be an issue since Ufc/Affliction, which will be cool.

I also thought I heard BJ Penn is fighting GSP sometime, which is exciting.

Nothing else much to say, just wanted to talk about all that ufc biz, i'm becoming a big fan of ufc.. i used to think it was kinda lame... wrong.

Edit: mark def not MrSweets

2008-08-12T03:30:00.001-04:00

Mmm TV

2008-08-11T22:22:00.003-04:00

This blog has very much lost its analytical poker edge, but i'm ok with that. Like I said awhile back, I largely write for myself, if it entertains anyone thats just a bonus. I'll be doing poker content here and there of course, but most of my analysis is me going through hours of PTO hands by myself and the rest is on the forums at CR and on vids.

Recently I bought this:
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2988050&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

I'm pretty excited about it. I normally do not spend like a poker player at all. 90% of my spending money goes to food and cheap entertainment like movies and dinner, etc.... I like nice clothes and watches as much as the next guy, but i'm not going out spending 10k on a breitling... I just don't get it. But this tv was a great value, about $1050 shipping included, and its something I use everyday obv. Also looking forward to saving some of my limited space by putting it above the mantle in my room in AA.

I really don't understand all the HD stuff explicity so if anyone has tips on setup let me know. Specifically all I have right now is a coaxial hookup for my cable, which I understand is terrible for image quality so if anyone knows how I go about getting the most out of the tv using that signal let me know.

Been making lots of non-poker money lately which feels 10 times as good as a winning sess of the same amount. Namely from P2P transfers making between 3-5% on every dollar.

I also am setting up an appt with a guy at my full-service brokerage to talk about some tax strategy and some high liquidity things I can get into, looking forward to that.

In other news, stars 200/400 PLO was running today which was weird. I was trying to pinpoint who the mark was as this game never runs on Stars. It was definately either MrSweets or StevesBets but I cant be sure either way.

Set up my room in AA last friday and its gonna be pretty cool, for a college house anyway, i'll put up some pics when it gets to be that time. Any poker players in the area welcome to contact me btw, we have quite a few parties throughout the year and beleive me they are done right.

I don't really like to drink, something about working so hard to get smarter all the time, only to make myself stupid on the weekend doesnt really register. But I do like to entertain.

U of M biz school has also ruined my ability to create paragraphs, I keep doing business writing where you make it skimmable and leave white space between every thought.

Not many movies watched lately

Namely just Deja Vu again w/ Denzel Washington. Movie is kind of cool, if you like sci-fi or even just like sci-tech type movies, but hate the cheesy effects that usually accompany this is a good movie for you. The dialogue is fairly weak but doesnt really detract from the film, and the plot keeps good pace at least. Overall its just kind of a hoooohumm movie, nothing spectacular at all.. but you don't wanna leave like most of the movies i've watched/been to recently.

I made a new AIM name exclusively for poker on Trillian as its supposed to be much safer for whatever reason. So if anyone has a response or question from blog or feedback from my CR vids or whatever let me know via comment here and i'll get ahold of you on AIM.

I've still got a long laundry list of things I gotta get done before leaving for AA, most importantly i wanna see all my friends as much as possible as this is probably the last summer we will all be living in one area.

Thats really depressing, but change is good too, no?

Oh I also started playing on Cake Poker today because I took some transfers there for 5% vig, I will let you know how cashouts and everything works. So far transfers have been all quick with no hassle. The software takes some getting used to and is a little buggy but not much worse than UB or AP really. The players seems less then spectacular, but I don't wanna underestimate just because everyone says its soft, I did that once today and lost $800 hah.

So I've got 5 active sites right now and that is a good idea for a number of reasons, tons of games/limits to choose from, tons of cashout methods if one site is being difficult or slow, lots of P2P transfer oppurtunities to make free money, diversified risk if I ever get hacked.... so doubtful though my passwords are sick always changing and I'm never away from my computer for that long, and you see other opportunities like bonuses, rake races, and things like that which can be really good value.

Oh yeah I forgot I made it deep in the FTOPS $500 PLO, but went out short of FT 11th after I got redrawn by SowersUNCC, we were all in preflop with KKxx. I played one very lucky hand to get there tho so I should be happy with my 4.5K... but i'm not! One of these days I am gonna hang around the whole tourney and break at the final table and just close one of these things out.

Looking forward to the 100 rebuy and the WCOOP events coming up and i'm considering the 10k HU PLO tourney being organized on 2+2 in the high stakes forum. Might be about time for a shot like that, no diff than playing 25/50 really probably better actually the way I sink my teeth into 25/50 when I try and move up lol

GL at the tables folks.

Meh soso sess's, movies, +CR

2008-08-05T15:23:00.002-04:00

Only have about 1500 hands in this month so far. All sessions have been so so, I have only made one or two glaring mistakes so I'm fine with my play.

The games are changing alot, getting tougher, but I also notice I am getting much better as a result so thats kind of a cool progression I just hope it doesnt get ahead of me.

I'm starting a new PLO series for CR, its going to be a 3 part vid at 6-max mid-stakes. I am not sure whether its better for me to stick to one session and build reads, or play 3 diff sess at different levels and discuss the differences. What do you guys think?

Watched a ton of movies lately while I was avoiding playing hah, I am gonna try to remember them all but suspect epic fail in that department..

Revolve - Mindbender. I don't like Jason Stathan, but this movie was interesting at least. Pretty reminescent of the Usual Suspects, a pretty good movie. Don't look for normal Jason Stathan action here this movie is different and thats probably why I kind of liked it.

Breach - Seems somewhat boring while watching it, although the acting was pretty strong, then I saw the caption at the end of the movie describing the situation this was based on... and it blew my mind. This is based on how the FBI caught their biggest mole in history, turns a somewhat doldrum story into somethign pretty intense. Its funny how i expect a better story from a movie, than what reality can produce.. not sure if thats fair or normal.

Catch a Fire- Tim Robbins movie again, man I love that guy. This movie was about the apartheid in South Africa. Again seemed a little boring during, although it was pretty well made and there was alot of unknown but strong actors in it. But then at the end you see it is based on the true story of Patrick Chamusso who was like this completely non-political working man in South Africa. He was essentially blamed for a terrorists act he didn't committ or have anything to do with and his family and friends harassed (some killed) and this drives him to join the freedom fighters and actually become a terrorist himself. Really amazing story.

Knockaround Guys - Thought this would be like Fight Club for some reason, title I guess. In actuality it was able some mobsters sons who are living under their fathers in a world where the mob really doesnt operate like they used to. They try to get into the business and screw up. The whole movie is nothing special, but it is entertaining, its got some ok acting, and of course some great acting to with John Malkovich. Twist ending like I like, and not entirely predictable.

American History X - Such a great movie, social commentary type film. Edward Norton is awesome, and this kid Edward Furlong who plays his brother is great too. Hes done a lot of work, but nothing real blockbuster type. Anyways, the film doesn't really go anywhere persay, it stays right in Venice Beach over a couple days and utilizes flashbacks to fill in the rest. The cinematography for the flashbacks is cool, and they made great use of them without interrupting the continuity of the film. Ending is not the least bit predictable in my opinion, but is absolutely perfect for the film. Completely wraps up the whole hate breeds hate type commentary.

Harsh Times - Movie looked pretty bad but it had Christian Bale in it so I opted in. And once again he delivers. The whole movie seems to be setting up for movement of the main character later on, but the plot goes in a direction you wouldn't expect, with a focus you wouldn't expect, and turns the main character from a guy you kind of hate/ think is a dick to a guy you pity and feel for. I just had no idea where this movie was going, and thought I knew exactly what was going on, props to the director for organizing a complete misdirection and in doing so draw attention to his message at the perfect moment. Additionally there are alot of real intense scenes in the movie, many seem unimportant, but they all can to matter later on and keep your attention level high.

I gotta get some hands in, GL at the tables.

Quick note

2008-08-02T01:10:00.003-04:00

I found what I was missing from the message of the movie on IMDB, kinda spoils things if you are planning on watching it so check out the Plot: breakdown at your own risk.

Gd'ay mates.

Month in Review, Nxt Month, Movies

2008-08-02T00:37:00.003-04:00

So I did the books for July today and some fun/interesting finds. I hadn't been keeping track of how much I was up or down for the month because I've talked aobut how good that can be mentally before. Anyways, just by feel it was obvious to me I was down, and the way I was running was sickly. So I had estimated a losing month of around 50k, and I was reasonably sure that was what I had lost.

Anyways, after tallying all my transfers/deposits/withdrawals/etc. I ended the month down only 23k.. that was a nice surprise. And PokerEV has me at roughly 27k below equity, not including a sick run HU on absolute, so I actually did ok this month. I imagine I made around 10-15k in equity... not a ton, but considering I was running so far under that is probably a good feat.

Nxt month I have alot to do to prep for what will probably be the busiest school year of my life to date. This year all the career fairs, recruiters, etc. etc. are finally coming with work/oppurtunities available to me. As a fresh/soph its very difficult to get anymore than an e-mail connection with these people, they just arent interested.

That also means they'll be lots to think about in the way of tradeoffs. As always my prime focus will be my classes, I want to learn business plain and simple. But I can tell there is going to be conflicts between career advancement type stuff and poker so i gotta get my priorities straight there.

My resume is sorely in need of some work experience I feel. In actuality alot of the experiences I am getting with poker, and handling money etc is alot more substantial than what I would get at some internships (some, there are some very intensive programs you really learn alot in). But the trick to that is.. how do get an employer to realize that without traditional work experience and references.

Its a tough spot, not sure what the optimum resume plays are, gonna have to run the employers range of responses to 'professional gambler' to see whether I can get it in.

Anyways, tangent over, nxt month I want to get in 25k hands alot considering the other things I have to be getting done. I also want to play 15-20 days.. no more no less... not too lazy forcing myself to place alot per day of actual play, and not spending too much of the last month of summer at the computer.

I've really made a massive rebound from my latest failed attempt at 25/50 at the beginning of the year and I'm proud of that. As usual I am working hard to try and get myself in a grind small grind hard and watch it rain mindset, but I've never been real good and putting in a ton of hands.

On a side note, Google.com is cheap, they only bought the domains and redirected them out to http://gooooooogle.com/ ... that's 7 o's... 8 o's is actually up for sale for $7,500... Thought you guys should now.

Movies----

The Air I Breathe - One of the best movies I have seen in the past few years. Its something of a mainstream type art film. The shot construction and editing (or lack thereof) style is dare I say.. refreshing. Its got that Vantage Point multi-threaded story thing going, but its a little less obtruse about it, and I think it ties together just as concretely

I'm not sure I entirely got the message of the film, and beleive me their was some message, but it was still awesome. Brendan Fraser who I hate, mostly due to Mummy and George of the Jungle movies, was really great. Andy Garcia plays a BA like none other as usual. Sarah Michelle Gellar actually did a great job too, I had always thought of here as pretty second rate. She does make alot of weird contorted faces in the movie though, and they seem so incredibilly genuine that you'd expect it to make the acting more powerful.. but they were just kinda gross/distracting hah.

Emile Hirsch was also in this and he is quickly becoming a top player on my list of good actors playing a huge variety of parts. Now it was almost.. .almost a home run, but the very end of the film was just a little to happy day/neatly wrapped. Really though without spoiling anything I am talking about changing maybe 5-10 secs of the entire film.. so it is strong indeed.

Nothing to Lose - I love Tim Robbins, hate Martin Lawrence, thought the end result would be an ok movie... but really it wasn't even that. Cheap movie, no depth to character or plot, just kind of a dry comedy.

Please watch the Air I breathe... I dont wanna scare anyone away by calling it an art film, really its just what I think movies should be. Its not a cookie cutter plot, style, or ending, or anything. There is no CGI, no unecessary comedy or action, the movie sticks to the genre and tone it creates from the beginning.. .non of this catch-all type filming that everyone in Hollywood seems to be trying to creat these days. The movie has class.

Gl at the tables folks.

Movies + CR

2008-07-31T18:58:00.003-04:00

Grilled - Kevin James and Ray Romano... this movie was terrible.. no wonder I never heard anything about it. It was shot with pretty standard comedy quality, no qualms there, but the story just went from nowwhere to nowwhere and ended completely abruptly. Terrible.

Bookies - Interesting movie I suppose, about a couple kids running a booking operation out of their dorm on 'mob' territory. Clever ending at least, acting is a little subpar, but its worth renting.

The Ex- I love scrubs and thought it was one of the most underrated sitcoms for years. I also loved Arrested Developemtn when it was on, but despite Zack Braff and Jason Bateman movie doesn't deliver. Its ridiculously predictable and the story is too cookie cutter for my liking. The cinematography is actually really strong for this genre though, lots of well designed spaces and use of color/costume.

Awake - I forgot how good this movie was from when I saw it in theatres. Not at all predictable, centers around one event, and the main character is out cold most of the movie, and yet its just awesome. It is depressing that the writer/director Joby Harold really has no other work or work in progress. Married to a producer, so thats probably how this project happened, but the film had tons of style, a great plot, and kept good pace. Not to mention a strong stable of actors, even the auxillary parts were done by fairly seasoned actors. Its not drawn out like most for theatre films are, its just a really tidy project all around.

To Catch a Thief - This is an old movie with Cary Grant, I know alot of people shy away from the classics but you really have to give them a chance. There used to be a much larger focus on dialogue in films and it shows in movies like this. Maybe the conversation is a bit odd to us now becuase people talk differently now, but as fair as the quality and dynamic of the conversation and delivery some older movies, like this one, are second to none. The plot here is pretty entertaining too, its a bit of mystery (kind of transparent), but nothing is truly given away until late in the film.

Sleepers - Pretty sweet movie. Has a Goodfellas feel to it, stylistically and the way it follows a kid growing up in the city. The kids in this film actually seem to act better than their adult counterparts, but nonetheless its a good story little disturbing but very interesting.

I've watched probably 5 other movies that I am missing, but they were pretty uneventful so nothing lost there.

My first 2 vids are up on CardRunners.com now. I did a 4-table 3/6 vid on multi-tabling w/ about 50 mins of play time turned into 120 mins of commentary so it had to be two part. I am really happy to be doing these vids for a number of reasons. A) Its nice to have some guarenteed money every month, $5 in pocket has always felt better than $50 online to me. B) It helps my game, and brings to light some leaks through my own analysis or under the watchful eye of CR Members C) I'm putting this biz on my resume, CR is an industry leading firm and I'm proud to talk about that in any interview.

I'll be making 2 hrs of vid content per month so get at me with any feedback/ideas for upcoming vids. I am up for trying out new things so any ideas are welcome.

The feedback on my first two vids has been very positive and I'm extremely happy about that since I was less than confident in my explanations, I didn't wanna be one level high and not explain enough or one level low and explain too much.

Quick Poker update: Definately a losing month due to some rough rough HU matches, I'm pretty proud of my play tho and I am running $27,000 below equity this month with my HU matches on AP not included. Hopefully in the next few months I can close in my actual equity for the year, I still can't beleive its possible to run 25-35 bi's below equity over 190k hands. Crazy games folks.

GL at the tables.

Off Topic doods

2008-07-31T00:49:00.003-04:00

Well I have a nasty habit of thinking about all this stuff I wanna write down then just backburnering it until it fills my head and explodes out into a massive tl;dr blog entry.

No more sir.

I am going to implement my new blog strategy today and just post about one thing, and try to do that every day.

Today's topic is not poker, so if your not interested, check back tommorow and gl at the tables.

So.. a week ago, monday morning actually, I had another friend die. This is now the 5th person from my graduating class to die, first since school. Now maybe that doesn't sound overly significant to you, but in a small town pop <5,000 for sure, and a grad class of 125.. this is pretty terrible. The problem with these things is no matter how close you were to the victim, in a small town you are always connected to the tragedy in some way.

For the 2nd time, it was one of my close friends, if I had to quantify it or myspace it somehow this person was in my top 10 friends. Again it was a car accident, going to a job he was so excited to get a few weeks earlier, going to a job he thought he would never get because he wasn't supposed to pass the drug test hah. God I wish he wouldn't have, so ironic, he tried some miracle cure from this guy and it actually flushed him for the hair test.. ridiculous, that or the hair test wasn't legit I don't know.

Anyways, it was eerily similar to the first death we had.. another kid name Alex, another car accident occuring when they were supposed to have stopped, very close to home, same place for showing, same place for funeral, same cemetary. It just brought back alot of the same old feelings but stronger this time. I definately feel I have lost faith. I was raised in a standard catholic family, beleiving in God and placing faith in his master plan. Well, I have always been a skeptic but this really put me over the edge. The kid had just got a new job, was heading away for college at Grand Valley State U. for first semester. I've never seen him so excited about something.

Brought back alot of thoughts from philosophy when we covered phil of religion. Below are two midterm questions and the answers I came up with on my study guide. Skip to the white writing if you aren't interested.

They go along way in helping me grasp why things like this can happen. It is incredibily depressing to me to accept that a 'divine power' or just a superior being does not existence, rather I'd like to think that a power, call it God, does exist but that some of the great gifts (free will, etc.) he gives us result in events we would call 'evil' 'wrong', things that make us lose faith.

11. What is a "three-O" god? Explain why the existence of evil in the world causes problems for those theists who want to believe in a "three-O" god. How is moral evil distinguished from non-moral evil? How does Swinburne seek to explain away the existence of non-moral evil? How might an atheist like Mackie respond to Swinburne's arguments on this point? Explain your answer in detail.

A three o god is a god that is defined by the characteristics ominscene, omnipotence, and omnibenevelont. This western conception of god posits that the being created the universerve and everything in it, and serves as the author and enforcer of morality. The existence of evil conflicts with this conception as a 3-o god, would know of the evil, want to stop it, and have the power to stop it.. theoretically. If god did not create the best of possible worlds, then god is lacking in either power, knowledge, or goodness. God did not create the best possible world (evil). Therefore, god is lacking in……. the second premise follows the argument, if worlds without evil are possible, then world with are not the best possible. This world contains evil, and world without evil are possible. Therefore, God did not create the best world. These arguments define the problem of evil Moral evil is that which reslts from the deliberate and free actions of humans. Natural evil is non-moral evil, and does not result from the actions of human beings. Swinburne explains the existence of non-moreal evil as necessary to the preservation of free will, which is arguably a ‘good’ thing. He says its logically impossible for god to grant free will and yet guarantee they wont do evil. Argument: It is good that humans are able to make free responsible choices. It is not logically possible that god could give free will and ensure that we always choose right. A choice is free and responsible only if it involves the opportunity to harm others (meaningful choice). Therefore, the possibility of moral evil which results from people choosing to do the evil they naturally desire is required for the great good of human free will. Mackie would argue that if there is no logical impossibility in a man freely choosing the good on one, or several occasions, there cannot be any logical impossibility in him freely choosing good on every occasion. So he says god could make a creature you freely chooses the good alternative on every occasin simply because they are good by nature. Or more plausibily god could introduce creatures which do.. more good, than we currently do which would preserve the great good of free will with less evil (better possible world).

12. Discuss the commonly made claim that moral evil is an unavoidable byproduct of human free will. Make sure to discuss at least one argument in favor of this view that was presented in the readings. What are some of the counterarguments to this claim? Is it true that moral evil is an unavoidable byproduct of human free will? Justify your answer in detail.

Swinburne is most famous for claiming that moral evil is necessary to the presevartion of free will which he claims is a ‘great good’. He insists so because he attributes responsibility to free will, and without the opportunity to make a meaningful choice (between good options and evil options presumably) free will doesn’t really exist. Mackie would say it is possible to have beings which always choose the good option when presented with the choice. Swinburne would redine his theory by saying that in order to have a meaningful (responsible) choice, we must have a desire to do evil which will inevitably result in some moral evil acts. This response is problematic in that we often have real responsible choices in which we do not want to do one of them, ie. I go to class everyday even though I don’t want to (so ipso facto people could have the desire to do evil, and never actual commit evil acts). This would require that we dismiss purely good peoples acts as they do not have free will (because they have no inclination to evil). Most importantly, its plausible that the existence of free will by swinburnes definition could happen with less evil than is present today, by either making it easier for people to choose good or that god could have given those inclined toward evil less power to produce it.

I would posit that the existence of moral evil is unavoidable by the nature of human desire. Swinburnes objection to mackie demands that real choice involve the desire to do evil. For Mackie to posit that a being could want* something, but never act on that want we have to assume that the alternative is in some way shape or form more attractive and more desired. Whether for reasons societal reasons, or otherwise, there must be a factor which trumps this desire or we would not choose it. So this claim is an infinite one it must hold millions and billions of instances over. I would argue that on the basis of diminishing marginal utility that this claim can’t hold. Eventually the quantified level of desire to do one thing, call it good, will drop below the level of desire for the alternative, call it evil. The result is that in some point and time, moral evil will occur! To negate this claim one would have to posit that either diminishing marginal utility does not exist, which is to my knowledge impossible, or that humans are not rational and won’t consider the quantification of their desires. Positing irrationality would assert that humans do not have any grounds for their choices, which ultimately leads to inconsistent choice anyway.. and thus moral evil.

Anyways. After alot of thought I have landed on this as my conclusion for now, my belief, everyone needs something to beleive in right. God, as on omniscent, omnipotent, and omnibenevelent being does not exist. We are in control of our decisions, and nothing is pre-determined in the sense that we are destined to do something. Thats not to say prior events do not effect our decisions, of course they do, but in the end.

Other conclusions, a man... call him Jesus, did exist. He spoke what he beleived to be the word of a higher power, God. I think this man felt such strong convictions for his believes in how life should live that he himself thought they were coming from a higher power. I think his words, his beliefs, are to this day some of the greatest lessons on how to live our lives.

Which brings me to the bible. To me the Bible is a fable, think Paul Bauyan. Was there really a giant man who brought down massive trees with a single swing etc etc, no.. course not, was there a massive lumberjack maybe 8 ft tall huge build at one time.. likely. Obv I know nothing about Paul Bauyan story, which is probably completely fictional, it is just an analogy for how I feel about the Bible. It is a book of embellished, exaggerated, stories and analogies for the simple words of this man we call Jesus.

It is not to be taken literally, it is to be learned from, like an Aesop fable, and too take lessons from on living a full, satisfying life.

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Sorry this became long again with the copy and pasting and all that, just one more thought and back to business as usual tomm.

Before I sign out I just wanted to offer one another point from philosophy:

Say we have two men, Al and Tom, who work at a car dealership in Town A and live in Town B.
Every day after work they drive down winding Road C between Town A and B to go home. They each speed home everyday.

One day a child is playing on the road around a bend, Al hits the child killing him. We blame Al for the child's death, often we prosecute Al for the child's death, one way or another we attribute something extra to Al in light of this event.

In actuality though is Al anymore morally culpable than Tom? What did Al do wrong, that Tom didn't? It simply dumb luck. This is a theory about moral responsibility that focuses on the act not the results, and as poker players I think we can respect that. So next time you wanna place blame on someone, think about the means not the end... you might be as guilty as those you condemn.

In this situation with my friend all I can do is say, what terrible luck.. what great luck, it could have just as easily been some random person.. it could have just as easily been me...

Leave chance at the poker table guys, where we can afford to lose.

Cool Stuff

2008-07-20T02:29:00.003-04:00

So I haven't put in many hands thismonth and w/ ten or so days to go i'm feeling like a lazy schmuck. I definately gotta put in more hours seeing as these four months of summer are my primetime play time.

Took a shot at 50/100 and lost 12k-15k. It was the perfect time for a shot tho a true donator was on UB. This guy is like legendary, he is not just ur recreational player that tries to play good but lacks in experience. he is a true gambler and just pots everyhand for fun. Anyways, got a 22k pot going, w/ most money going in on turn as 70/30 fav and lost. Ah well its gonna happen.

Tonight I just got back from a friends house I havent seen in close to a year. Me and a buddy went down there to see the Dark Knight in IMAX, more on that in a sec. and to watch the UFC fights tonight. Verdict.. Anderson Silva is terrifyingly good. Google this guy right now if you havent seen alot of him, they said in his 8 UFC fights hes only been on the mat 30 mins lol.. he is undefeated with KO's by the end of the 2nd every time.

Other cools stuff, I got contacted by Brian T. to make a sample plo vid. Now I am going to be making some vids for cardrunners. I'll post links of course when/if they go up, but I am pretty excited about that. Definately not excited to have my game picked over with a fine tooth comb, but that will come with some invaluable feedback.

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Movies....

Dark Knight - Joker... amazing, who didn't see that coming just from trailers. The dialogue and plot were alot more call it.. heavy handed this time around. They moved in the right direction making the film much darker, but the two face character was alittle underdeveloped.. probbly the fault of whats his face, that actor that does Harvey Dent rather than the plot. I definately love that the action and effects were done largely without cgi though, Bourne movie style.

Its worth seeing just because of the Joker, and definately in the upper eschelons of comic book/DC movies... but not on the level I or alot of people expected.

SEVEN - watched this again recently, may have even written aobut it in previous blog, but this movie has one of the most concrete neatly tied plots I have ever seen and the ending is just amazing.

Hellboy II - Sucked.. what a surprise... pretty cool visually, but trash other than that.

Have seen alot more movies out of the theatre but I'm not remembering them right now.

More soon, tired now, GL at the tables everyone.

Meh Swing Swing

2008-07-07T16:03:00.002-04:00

Had a bad sess the other night at 10/25 UB and 10/20 on Absolute. Dropped something in the area of 25k, big loss but really only 10 buy-ins... less if you consider the Absolute game is 200BB deep so 4k stacks at 10/20.

Definately ran bad situationally and below equity, but I made 3 bad bluffs/moves too. Unlike me, normally my 'tilt' is just seeing hands everywhere and folding away a ton of small/medium pots.

Made a little hurrah with a quick 7-9k win while I was watching a buddy of mine at a final table.

I'm still looking for people to submit their Ace or Not flush hands to me. If you didn't see earlier post I wanna make a thread with a bunch of spots where its either dry Ace (or air) or nut flush and make it like a quiz. These are always tough spots for me, and I assume others, and are always big equity spots 100% or 0%.

I've got about 8k hands in this month, havent put in alot of hrs but good bless HU and the ridiculous amount of hands you see. I also think the average bear's HU game is weaker than their ring/6max game. At least from my limited experience.

Does anyone know who Ptowner and HoopleHead are on Absolute? They are basically the only guys who play me on that site at 5/10+ and I'm curious. Ptowner seems to be a NLHE player, but a good one, he's got those transferrable skills but it looks like his PLO game is a little shaky.

Hoople plays pretty solid and I am really curious who he is.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=99247&page=113

Btw looks like more refunds for anyone interested.

Note: I don't think Echoes is superuser either.. I think he is a really creative HU player who plays pretty instinctually, but not a superuser. Trambo mentions maybe Prahlad.. I really wouldn't doubt it. I have play a few thousand hands of HU with him and I could definately see that.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2857853

Funny hand. I have been trying this 4-bet min-raise biz w/ deep stacks. I have had a variety of different players do this to me deep stacked, and while in the past I didn't see any value in it, I think its worth exploring. This was not a very good hand to do it with, or verse this opponent who is 3-betting less then say Ptowner does. I dunno though, able maybe 500 more to the stacks, change my hand to a rundown like 5678-89TJ and I kind of like the way it manipulates the size of the pot so you can play to 5-bet (probably better than your opponent will be able to) and take initiative if he opts to call. Unfortunately if you are doing this with rundowns you probably have to balance that out with AAxx hands too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2857895

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. On the turn I think I gotta go with it, I think AAxx is a small part of his range, he seems to pot control all but the strongest AAxx hands and 3-bets pretty wide otherwise. I think I have to fold this flop tho maybe, I am going to get handled on so many turns that its gonna be really hard to make good decisions just flatting the flop.. and push is playing right into an aggresive 3-bettors hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2857911

Confusion.. I feel like his range had to be pretty tight for leading out this turn.. but it makes sense for him to have very few hands here. I was think KKxx w/ diamonds maybe, but that might be wishful thinking.

I really can't fold this hand unless I can put him squarely on the nuts, and even then its mathmatically pretty close.. all depends on whether he has some my outs to go with.

So yeah I guess this is a call for sure, just too much equity to dump even if I nail him to a pretty tight range.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2857935

Ugh I don't like the way I played this at all. Sometimes I do this when stacks are little deeper because I wanna know off the bat whether I'm up againt AAxx and I can go ahead and fold to a 5-bet.

Really though I think I need to be taking a flop with this hand, getting 20% of the stack in is just not enough. Against a player who I know will c-bet close to 100% of flops tho its very hard for me to just call the 3-bet oop and then what happens on a 834, 962, 10 4 5 flop... Do I just c/f to the c-bet, c/c, c/r? Awkward spots...

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MOVIE REVIEWS:

Vantage Point - Ding Ding! First real solid movie I have seen in a long time. Its as close to avant-garde film as you will find in the mainstream theatres. The construction of the film is cool, very original if all you watch is blockbusters, but this has been in alot of experimental and indy films.

Suicide Kings - Not about poker. Its Christopher Walkin a retired mobster kidnapped by 4 kids to help get one of their sister's back. Its got some twists, aside from Walkin acting is poor.. Jay Mohr is ok I guess. Definately worth renting.

Conspiracy Theory - Meh this is an entertaining movie, but the story is a little too out there and just the way everything plays out seems too heavy handed. But its worth seeing too. Its Mel Gibson as this paranoid cab driver, with some odd history. He gets involved with Julia Roberts bleh bleh chased by FBI, CIA bleh bleh.

Dirty Work - This movie sucked. Norm McDonald and that guy from Animal House and that baseball movie are the main characters. I thought it would at least be funny, but it didn't really deliver in that department either.

Stranger Than Fiction - Pretty original movie, not the Will Ferrell you would expect, but its funny in its own right. This is a good movie to watch if you are tired of the same old stuff, kinda refreshing.

Executive Decision - Creepy because its about terrorisits crashing a plane into D.C. and it was made in 1996. Early Halle Berry work, she has come a long way as an actress because she is terrible in this. Kurt Russell is ok, the plot is pretty cool and the movie doesn't slow down too much or anything.

HANCOCK - WOWWWWWWW this was sooooo bad. Charlize Theron has been in some junk, but Will Smith usually delivers at least an entertaining flick even if its got no cinematic value.

This was just one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time tho, the plot is just scraped together and held by some pretty weak explanations. Jason Bateman and Will Smith both did good acting at least imo, but the story had no chance.

So far animated movies Kung Fu Panda and WalllE have been way better than the 'epic blockbusters'.

I don't know whats happening to Hollywood.. its downright depressing.. its like if someone came in and changes the rules of golf or something destructive like that to one of your hobbies.

GL at the tables folks.

uhhh yes sir, i'll have one more like june please

2008-07-02T18:31:00.002-04:00

So, May was... was... my best month ever, but June said 'hey may, watch this' and now June is my best month ever.

I ended up getting in about 40k hands over 130 hrs of play, coupld hours of tourney play and wins not included. I made 5.5 k in the PLO tourneys last month, cool but very disappointing, so tired of dropping early at final tables.

Overall though my real money came in cash games, specifically HU. Just destroyed the games at 5.5 ptbb/100.

My summer class that was supposed start the 30th got cancelled because no one enrolled in it. So it looks like the lazy summer continues, I'm gonna try and get down to the grind again this month with 35k+ hands.

Played some real deep HU matches this morning and will dig out some cool hands for you guys later. I am not entirely happy with the way I played, I definately steamed a bit which is something I'm not used to because I never tilt in 6-max really.

Anyways, i'm gonna be looking to continue HU play.. it is severely aggravating at times but the only times in the past year or so that I have genuinely enjoyed the game was during HU matches. Not to mention I can 2-table and verse the right opponents get around 500 hands an hr... today i played 2 tables one for 2 hrs one for 2.5 hrs and played 1160 hands.

Now I feel alot better about playing 500 hands /hr HU then 8 tabling where I can't hardly pay attention to anything.

Little bit of a theory question btw:

How deep do you have to be to fold AAxx with nut flush draw on a non-straight flop? So situational so I'll try to dig up some sample hands for the question. But in a HU match say a 3-bet pot how deep would you have to be from the button or from the BB to fold this hand? Are you more apt to go on a board with straight draws or without? In a single raised pot how deep?

These are the questions I start asking myself in HU matches that I never consider, or really have to consider much in 6-max and I suppose that is why it is interesting to me at least at the moment.
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Movie Review:

A History of Violence - wow... this is freaking weird, I like Viggo Mortenson so I might be biased but this movie was pretty cool. The story line was little trippy like, and twisty even though the twists were more or less transparent. This is a good action movie for people tired of action movies.

Kiss the Girls - Murder/mystery biz w/ Morgan Freeman. Much like other serial killer movies so nothing extraordinary about the plot persay, but the construction is pretty good and the movie flows pretty well.

WALLLLLLLLLEEEEEEE - how is it that an animation studio can produce a film with ten times the plot Spielberg/Lucas can. This was so much better than most of the films in theatres recently its a shame its marketed as a children's movie.

Not to mention the trailer is superb, you literally have no clue what the primary plot line is from the trailer but the auxillary line is clever and interesting enough to get you to the theatre.

My only complaint is I never wanna hear the tinny sound of screaming WAAAALLL-EEEE ever again.

Not to film class on it, but if I were in film class I could easily write a paper on the social commentary/criticism underlying the film. Props Pixar

Charlie Bartlett- I wanted an easy entertaining watch, and I got it. I think Tyler Hilton is the main character, his acting wasn't bad..surprisingly. Also that girl that was in What Women Want with Mel Gibson was in it, and she isn't terrible either... and of course Robert Downey Jr. plays an alcoholic to a freakin' T. And thats not even a dig, regardless of his personal life the guy is a crazy strong actor.

Anyways the movie kinda reminded me of Juno w/ all the dysfunctional family matters surrounding and becoming the main story line. It wasn't even close to as good, but it was plenty entertaining.

Drillbit Taylor - Exactly what you expect.... couple funny kids, decently entertaining Owen Wilson.. There is really not alot to say about the movie its pretty shallow and sets out to do what you'd want to get out of it.. laugh a little, and be entertained.

Click - Ok I have seen this a couple times before but I had to watch it again today. Its one of the saddest/depressing/ then uplifting movies I have ever seen. I would like to see more of this from Adam Sandler. I don't think he can play just any part, but every once in a while he just nails a character like you can't even imagine.... Think Reign Over Me... and watch this movie if you haven't seen it, theres no denying it.

BTW Christopher Walkin is in this too and he's the freakin man.

Anyways... its all just killing time until the Dark Knight comes out and blows every other superhero movie away. Gonna see Wanted tommorow, but i have pretty dismal expectations for that.

Luckbox

2008-06-26T02:09:00.002-04:00

Continuing to run good both situationally and in EV. Well to be fair I'm not actually ahead in EV in BB's, just $$$.

36.5k hands in, and I feel burnt out. I just don't know how the high volume players do it, it really is amazing to me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2807068 Tough little hand right here. I don''t see a problem with the 3-bet, don't see a real problem with c-betting, on the turn its just a range calculation.. but its really hard to peg the range. However I can rule out so many big hands because I don't think this player slow plays a set OOP here.. and if he does I don't think he c/c, leads. So his range might be as narrow as 9T**, and QJ** w/ hearts, maybe some kind of 4T**, but that would need to have hearts or a 35 in it I think. Perhaps a 24** hand.

Really just didn't feel like he played any hands that were strong on the flop like this, so I think that makes it a call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2807091

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2807094

Oh the importance of telling a story with your lines. Especially in the latter villian makes it so he can't rep anything, and I can easily rep everything.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2807101 Interesting spot at 3/6. Seems like I just have to have equity here with my massive draw and 4 way action, and in actuality.. not even close really. I know flush draws have me pwned here, but I really overestimated my draw by considering all my outs clean. Something that is easy to forget about is trying to determine whether your opponents range and likely sidecards effect your draws.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2807103 Man whats your turn play here folk? All I could think about here was that I would push almost any draw I had here if it checked around to me, whether others are the same I do not know. Was thinking alot about the J being a heart and how his range could have many a nut flush or good flush draw and top pair, and QT w/ diamonds. I dunno about this one still.

Turning Stone is an official bust now, but I might go to Canada for a day this week.

GL at the tables.

End of month slowdown

2008-06-23T13:57:00.002-04:00

I peaked on volume for sure this month, through 15 days I had 25k hands in. Through 22 days I have 34k hands in. I just ran out of motivation to grind on stars. Having a decent month still, took 3rd in FTP $200 PLO tourney Saturday which was cool but very disappointing. The othertwo guys were pretty bad I just couldn't get anything going, then I got it all in PF with AA77 and lost to KQ99, cold. I just never seem to close.

Don't think I am goiing to the Heartland at Turning Stone in NY. All my friends are working and I'm not gonna drive 11 hrs alone. Still waiting to here from a couple girl friends tho, if they can get the time off I'll take them.

I wanna talk about some changes I have made to my game but there are too many people I play with daily that read this so I probably will not.

Theres been alot of talk about this but wow, live pros.. and not just a bunch of little known pros.. big name live pros are slaughtering the WSOP this year. Its cool to see alot of good players add a bracelet. Its completely ridiculous that bracelets are what get you respect, but seems to be the way it is. Especially cool that David B. just got his first bracelet.

BTW if anyone wants to make some bets on Euro'08 I am in. I'll put some action on Spain, and with some odds on Turkey. Go ahead and take your Germans I like the dark horses.

Ooo also if anyone has money on Stars and wants UB or FTP get at me.

EDIT: That game got out of hand quickly.....

2008-06-17T22:47:00.001-04:00

Sports

2008-06-17T21:54:00.002-04:00

I don't watch much sports on tv at all.. namely I just watch the tennis majors...French, US, Australian and Wimbeldon... and the olympics and xgames... but lately there has been some good shit on.

Watched alot of the Euro cup including the Turk/Czech game where Turkey came from one goal down to a win in the last 2 minutes of the match.

Then the US Open was the sickest golf ever televised I'd imagine. Too bad Rocco, Tiger is such a dream crusher. They both gave a lot of oppurtunities to each other though.

And then game 6 of the finals is on right now, started of a little sloppy offensivelly, but its turning into a decent game.

Just hit 70th on the UB WSOP board so I'll need to play a little this week to stay there and watch it closely, but I should be in the freeroll this weekend.

Ended up breaking even in equity yesterday, but losing 10k in the way of positive net run, so thats not all bad.. just money in the bank for another day.

Plus 29k on the month through 28,000 hands. Volume is trailing off big time, gotta step it up again.

GL at the tables.

Epic Fail

2008-06-16T23:02:00.002-04:00

Massive fail on the low variance plan.

Dumped most of what I made yesterday back, the 10/25 games are just always sooo juicy on ub.. level for level definately the worst players online.

Anyways, ran bad, paid off maybe 1k in bets I coulda folded. This is the only play I really question tho today.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2768000 The seven on the turn connects with enough of his range that I should probably check and try and get a free one. He might not even be folding KKxx or AAxx here. Also its usually gonna be the case that if he was drawing on the flop, he will check behind on turn because those cards are so heavily in my c/r range. Pretty costly mistake equity wise in this particular situation.. I don''t think its terrible.. but a check is probably best.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2768011 Tough spots blah. I can flat this pre, but it seems just too strong and I'll be able to smoke out AAxx which should make my postflop play easier than if I had just flatted and flop comes A or K high. Anyways I flop a very vulnerable hand, I think options are bet/call or check/fold. I dunno my ram looks like AAxx I think so I feel like I gotta go ahead and jam because there are so many draws calling me... which I am doing ok against.

Anyways, I think this flop is a setup.. anyone just check/fold here? and why? I mean it does hit there raise/call ranges pretty squarely.

This month has been sooo swingy, I really would like to just link some good days together, still up 21k on the month tho and feel like I'm playing well.

GL all think I'm done for the day.

Crack of Dawn

2008-06-16T17:31:00.002-04:00

Had to get up early today because I made an appointment with a dermatologist late month and lost the sheet with the time. Knew it was around this day so I just showed up when they opened hoping to be on cue.. false, its tommorow at 11.

BTW i'm not a lepar or anything I just get eczema during school.. stress or weather? who knows i'm fair skinned so its pretty common. But the itching is crazy insano at night, I wake up often and I am stratching at the backs of my knees. I have to stick cold water bottles under them to get some relief. So I am hoping to get a prescription for that biz.

Had a nice day yesterday, got up headed to breakfast/lunch with my dad to this drive-in diner place we always used to go to. It was closed... bummer, but we eat somewhere else and I ended up eating much healthier than I would have otherwise.. fruit and yogurt, orange juice, and dry wheat toast.. ship it. Least satisfying meal of my life, but good for me hah.

Then I visited ex-girlfriend and her friend at the pool and that was ok. Good to catch up and everything.

Then I sat in some 10/25 games and killed, sat stars for a few minutes killed, got back on later, got killed.. only to re-kill the games a few minutes later. Ended up +19k for the day. Going to try and keep the rest of the month low variance.. but lets face it, there are some games its just not smart to avoid. Specially on UB with all the bigger players at the WSOP right now.

I'm running well above equity this month as well, bonus. I'd suggest anyone who is not at WSOP to be looking for good games to take shots, and especially good tournaments.. there are lots with good overlay this time of year.

My buddy did a 50 mcnugget challenge the other day.... he had 1 hr to do it and we thought it'd be real tough. Wrong... he did it in 25 minutes no problem.

Next challenge is to another friend who says he can watch Field of Dreams for 24 hrs straight.

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Too short now and then stories.

When I was in like 8th grade, maybe even later I got this big container and started saving change.. it's like 18 in high maybe 8 in diameter. I have been throwing my change in there since then... it was suppposed to be my Vegas fund for when I turned 21. Well fast forward, and I finally filled the damn thing.. now I don't need it. I am counting it this week with my friend to see whats actually in there tho pretty curious.

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Back in the day, middle school i guess, i ran around with my friends alot during the summer.. .like literally everyday just hanging out. Even back then I was pretty into money and took whatever work I could get from friends or family. I mowed alot of lawn back in the day which was big money job at the time hah.

I remember I used to find a $20 in my shorts all the time from mowing my Uncle Bill's lawn, if your reading UB I appreciate that.

Anyways, this happened like a month ago now, but before I went to NY i wired 8k to my checking accnt in town here that I never use. Its more just a feeder to my online accounts. So I went up there to check the balance to see if the 8 had cleared and deposit like 2.5. Then she writes down the balance its 16.5k, I start walking out then go back and ask about past transactions and shit because this doesnt make any sense.

Well I guess a few months prior I had tried to cash a 5k check, but as they erratically do to me, they put a hold on it. So I felt like I was back in middle school again, just like I used to find $20's and be so happy about it, I found $5k in pocket hah.

I'm out, game broke, GL all.

Oh yeah and movie reviews for the week

2008-06-14T18:25:00.002-04:00

The Crew - Entertaining, not great, but decent acting and everything

Arlington Road - Sick awesome movie. Tim Robbins is almost as good here as in Shawshank Redemption

Mystic River - Pretty good, kudos Clint Eastwood.. Sean Penn does a sick job in this movie too.

Usual Suspects - Solid, different, kinda reminds me of Resovoir Dogs. A little bit slow, but good story line and the acting is fine.

After the Sunset - Salma Hayek is gorgeous.. two points for that, another two because Pierce Brosnan is so BA. And another 2 because its your classic career criminal type movie, its got the twist and the super cool robberies and all that.

----

In theatres... saw the new Hulk movie.. it was semi-decent.. I went in with real low expectations though even tho I love Edward Norton. Had some lame parts that you expect in a marvel movie, but overall it wasn't bad. The worst part was Liv Tyler's terrible acting, if she uses that whimper whisper in one more film I don't know what I am going to do.

Adios, GL all.

Good Day?

2008-06-14T18:22:00.002-04:00

Had a big sess this morning without even realizing it. When I logged out I was +15k on the day. Good stuff. Hopefully Idon't instaswing back down like I have been doing this month.

I have problems playing flushes more than anything else in PLO so I am going to build a post that has a ton of 100%/0% equity spots with made flushes. Hopefully posting it on the forums and kind of quizzing people on the spots will help me realize whats going on in the other person's head in these spots.

I'm at 83rd on the UB leaderboard thing, 13 spots to go by the 21st. As long as 10/25 runs a little bit each day I should get there easy enough.

Alarm

2008-06-14T01:58:00.002-04:00

Just set my alarm for 11:30... thats right... 11:30

I have to set my alarm to get up at 11:30 to play the saturday omaha tourneys... I love my life.

Grinding it out

2008-06-11T15:12:00.002-04:00

been playing alot of hand, including a 16 hour sess the other day.. took a few breaks for food and a run.

I hit supernova for the first time since I think late 06', which was cool until I realize how unspectacular the benifits really are hah

I got about 16.5k hands in so far, up 16ish. Good result, but I have been running into some really tough spots at 10/25 and deepstacked at 5/10.

I have been hunting down this loose passive player on UB. He really isnt terrible but he plays more pots out of position than and calls tons of flops OOP only to fold the turn or continue calling down. Its a real grind playing him, but I know I have such a fundamental edge that I don't even need to try to outplay him.. just ABC poker.

I should post my ultimatebuddy list. I must say I have tagged some really bad players on there and done some great game selection. I never play a table full of regs on UB I only play when someone rando or from my list is on. About 80% of my current list is either play .5/1 or below or not at all now hah, testament that those were good guys to chase.

UB has this leaderboard thing where the top 70 point earners get into a freeroll where 7 12,000 main event packages are given. So I am trying to break into that group, I like 1/10 odds at 12k. I am at 140th place right now, and am going to pump up the UB volume playing everything from 2/4 up.

Last night went to the casino, mostly for the buffett, and the 3 guys I was with and myself were all done.. nothing significant sub- $100. So we decided it would be an awesome Idea if each of us put $5 on 9 numbers of roulette... 9x4= 36 so one of us would win $175 and at least one would walk out a winner on the day. So we go there and I cash $200 everyone is going to pay me back after.

I lay out the the 36 nickels while the dealer is trying to explain to us that we will only win 35 chips! You can only win 35 chips he keeps saying. Thanks guy, we get it. So we are trying to brush him off.

Then the spin comes and you can see where this story is going, 0!!!!!!! Hah, so we looked like pretty big idiots, seemed like such a good idea at the time. Next time we should just verbally bet each other and watch the number it lands on... no $10 juice.

--- I am having a lot of trouble in 3-bet pots lately, specifically the ones I 3-bet in posis.. I am not sure if I am just running cold/opponents hot because I am getting check raised all in like a crazy high percentage of the time. I could be c-betting too much, I kind of curious is anyone wants to share their c-bet percentage after 3-betting... I feel like it should be higher than in single raised pots... more money out there and opponent generally has to stack off to play. ----

Tis grilling Wednesday, and its time to go stock up and get cooking, enjoy the day everyone.

Oh btw I am running like 9k above equity for the month, its so bizzare to see the net run in green to me... something I havent seen for a significant sample in months... still like 36k below equity on the year and my net run is negative in terms of BB's.. but its nice to be running a little hot in some way shape or form. Now if I can just hit some setups.

Get outta my way FTP Pros

2008-06-06T17:17:00.003-04:00

So there has been an influx of pretty good and pretty bad players on UB as of late with the NioNio refunds. Alot of the good pros don't keep bankrolls on UB so thats why they are just on as of late.

Anyways I have a tendency to never play HU 5/10+ when a player I am unfamilar with, or havent played 6-max with buys in for full. Turn outs this is a real good practice. I also tend to google unfamiliar players that try to sit HU with me full stacked. Anyways Brian Townsend, and Niki Jedlicka, and Raptor (Aeron73) have both been trying to get some of the Rollover2k action hah. I think Niki has bustted his UB money, and maybe Raptor too, but Brian is still floating around the games. I don't want to say their UB names in case they aren't well known right now, Raptor's is, but I think Niki and Brian are still flying under the radar there.

I'm just glad I didn't get into any sessions with Niki, because his name was completely unfamiliar to me, and his style makes him look like a fish, tempting.

Amazing the variation in skill levels you find at the 10/25 games on UB, unlike any other site imo.

I'm up 7k on the month about 6k hands, very far behind my 50k hand pace.. that was kind of a goal I didn't imagine myself hitting anyways, just wanted to aim high.

Just played a short weird HU session. I wouldn't have played this guy, but I had been watching the tables and he just lost like 17k in speedy fashion, took and break, and came back.

Watching the tiltfest prior prompted me to make some non-standard, maybe sub-par plays.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721189 ... even in tilt mode I guess c/r on the riv is always the goods... I am not crazy about my call here, its just I had seen him play so fast and impulsive

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721190 I definately feel I'm ok verse his range here, he had c/r'ed the other guy he was playing relentlessly with a huge mix of strong, medium, weak, and air hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721188 Losing some more equity, thank god board didn't pair on turn because i was getting stacked.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721205 Just trying to wiat for a spot like this.... After seeing his hand at showdown it makes me think the previous hands were not nearly as bad as they look if bad at all.

I wish the games 3/6 and above were any good during the day. I would love to get up at a normal hour play for 4-6 hrs. I hate wiating around all day to start up at like 10 pm and then I end up sleeping till noon.

But so goes the job description I suppose.

Any Cardrunners members, check out the most recent vid with Taylor and Cole South playing HU. The discussion in this vid is great all the way each hand, and it was kind of refreshing to see them hash out postflop spots rather than the entire video discussing 3-4 and 5-betting in 6-max. I know the NLHE games operate like this now, but I guess I just find postflop play alot more interesting.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721239

Tough hand here. I have been 3-betting ThingThing alooot because we are deep on 3 tables and I'm in position on all of them. So I know he doesn't have to and probably isnt puting me AAxx or KKxx all the time in this spot.

I couldn't really figure out what to do so I just pushed. In hinesight I figure flatting the flop calling push on the turn is ok/better. I don't know if a flat flop, fold turn is in order just because this is the first time I have been played back at the entire time I have been 3-betting him.

He can definately raise here with AKxx.. but i'd imagine little else.. seems like the type of player to flat AQJT on flop. Also, I think he might be smart enough to fold AKxx if I push, thats why flat flop call turn push might be better. Tough spot, thoughts?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2721254
Here is another one that I have trouble with. The ace should scare him on the turn, yet he pots into it... and will no flush on the flop I struggle to imagine what he could do this with. Even though 23xx is/should rarely be in his range... potting into this turn seems even stranger. I suppose AJXX frusterated/stubborn could take this line sometimes... or maybe 55xx JJxx slowplaying? Weird spot, no clue what the proper line is on the turn.. as you can see when in doubt I push hah.

I hope everyone is enjoying the WSOP, its cool to see all the familiar online names having live success.

GL at the tables everyone.

Hey Hey MAY MAY

2008-06-02T15:29:00.002-04:00

So May ended up being my best month ever between the tourney, refund, and I killed cash this month too.

In normal fashion I am not going to give any numbers, but this couldn't have come at a better time. Really gives me a boost of confidence that'll help my play through the summer months I'm sure.

I had one session where I am not happy with my play, it was 10/25 HU verse a pretty big fish. I haven't been playing much HU and what little I have has been 5/10 or 3/6, so I kinda lost sight of the swings at 10/25. Anyways, long story short I forgot how irritating it can be when your opponent is just hot, and I tilted off probably 3k in equity. Really dissapointing because it has been soo soo long since I felt 'out of control' playing poker. *Note to family, I mean that in the sense that I wasn't controlling the game at all not that I went into degenerate gambling mode or anything.

Still booked a big month, June is off to cold start, I lost 6k in equity and dollars yesterday in about 1300 hands.

I want to get 50k hands in this month, which would be the most I've ever played in a month.. I know i'm lazy ok. I'll easy hit supernova this month on Pstars which will be cool too. I have about 540,000 VPP points saved which is like cash equivalent of $7500 or a bit more.

Just got back from East Lansing and Ann Arbor from a little weekend trip. I played at a charity game in a bar down there. For those not from MI, we have a charity loophole that allows public places to run close to casino quality games as long as they dont sell over a certain number of chips. This is can be worked around by just reselling chips instead of cashing them out. It stretches the allowances and inevitably increases the benifits to the charities so its a good setup.

Anyways, the biggest thing they had was a 1/2 300 max Round by round. But after it got deeper it was pretty much 1/2/5 blinds and we switched to straight PLO. It was a really fun game, with some really soft competition, I didn't make a dime... but I also avoided alot of setups I would never have been able to in an online setting. I feel fine about my play.

Planning on hang gliding pretty quick here. Something I have wanted to do for awhile, hope it gets the adrenaline going a little otherwise I'll be reaally dissapointed. I need that rush every now and then because nothing else really excites me, so if that doesnt do it I guess I'll skydive again, but that wasnt quite the thrill I thought it'd be either.

--- Just saw 21 last night in the cheap theater since its so old, I have read the books and while the movie was pretty entertaining it was far from reality. Kind of odd since it is an exciting interesting story in itself, it didn't really need any rerouting for Hollywood imo.

I haven't jumped back into the 10/20 games really. I kind of decided its just not worth the swingss, and I dont really know whether my hourly even increases playing there versus multi-ing 5/10 and 3/6 hardcore. I still keep an eye on them and definately jump in when the company is right. I ended up making a fair amount at 10/25 last month which was like pure equity just jumping in when I see someone chasing losses. Thats the kind of money I like.

Weather is too nice to sit around, especially with no games running, glad I can post some good news for you guys for once.

------------If you are just stopping in, check out last post for some interesting hands--------

GL all.

A Good Month All Around

2008-05-27T16:19:00.004-04:00

Haven't posted in a bit and I have a lot I want to put down in writing so there are four sections to this post. One for poker in general, one for hands I have been collecting, a third for non-poker biz, and a fourth about poker from a theoretical perspective.

So don't think of this as a blog, think of it as a book and take it by chapters haha. The theory hands are fairly interesting, the tourney ones are standard, the auxillary hands are mostly good, and the life section is boring except for the movie reviews I suspect. Thanks for reading if you crying out tl;dr and stopping here haha. If you are a skimmer, stay tuned every thought is pretty much its own paragraph so its pretty skimmable.

Lets do poker first, nobody cares about the other stuff haha.

Poker Section:

So you all know how much I love the PLO tourneys, specificall WCOOP and FTOPS. Well I final tabled the $100+R PLO tourney, event #22, of FTOPS again. And once again I didn't close... but this time i was much luckier getting there so the $30,000 payday is nothing to be dissapointed with. Also the final table was much tougher this time, specifically because it had Frooodo there with a massive chip lead, for anyone not familar with him check the PLO tables anywhere from 25/50 to 200/400.. good player.

So let's throw up some hands from the donkament.

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2624951 I played a few spots like this.. which I think are fairly standard and got lucky. Otherwise I'd have never final tabled for sure.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625099 So I run bad at hand posting too.. I think what happened here was it was limped 4 way with aggro pit on the button. It checked around on flop so I lead on the turn and treetop pushes, Icant raise so aggropit calls. Blah blah standardness I think, this was a smallish pot for the time of the tourney.

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625101 Probably the most key spot of the tourney for my luckboxing to kick in. At this poitn I have a pretty awkward stack and the other table is massively chipped up compared to ours. I know villian has AAxx or KKxx 95+% of the time.. rarely a rundown, maybe less than 1% from what I notice of these tourneys. So I figure this is a good spot to gamble and I do...

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625261 Key spot for me at ft, I am card dead, and Dr44gz has been opening a ton of pots.. combined with Frooodo and Ashman behind.. I cannot steal any blinds so I take my gamble, forcing a coinflip a huge percentage of the time with my hand.... and you can see the junk he is opening and realize why I chose this hand hah.

5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2625303 And the big bustout. Again this looks standard to me based on Dr44gz button range.. .expecially since he had stacked up and then been recently knocked down he was opening a ton of hands. Also a good spot to gamble given his stack size and mine relative to the others. Its so important in omaha tourneys to be making others take the big pots from the all-in side since you will inevitably be a smaller favorite in most scenarios than the 80/20's in NLHE. Anyways, even when Frooodo pushes this isn't terrible because I make 7k more as long as Froodo doesnt beat me and lose to Dr44. Unfortunately they had very good hands to play against mine.

I also took 3rd in the Saturday tourney on Stars for like 2.2... but that was extremely dissapointing since at 3 handed I had the other two stacks outchipped 2:1 and they were pretty weak players. I found out Full Tilt has a nice $200 PLO tourney at a similar time on Saturday... so I like saturdays now.. maybe some I'll be waking up and playing all the PLO 'majors' like you sunday hold'em grinders.

Theory Section:

Ok so this has come up alot and I hope I can find some good hands to display it. Often I am in a spot where a big bet or push is being made and logically the only hand that beats me.. or rather the only hand that would be value betting is a miniscule part of the opponents range. Or it is essentially not part of thier range at all, but they could randomly have this hand for sidecards. Additionally, these are spots where it seems very silly and unpersuasive to bluff... So my question is what side of the coin do you err to. Do you consider your opponent, smart enough not to bluff in a 'bad' bluffing spot and assume they ran ass backwards into a hand, or do you go with your ranges and say 'opponent shouldn't have the wheel in this spot'.

Obviously alot of consideration needs to given to opponents, I tend to give better players the benifit of the doubt in these spots assuming they know a bluff here would be unconvincing, but maybe I underestimate the ballsyness of the PLO player haha.

6. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2673392 This is not the best example, but it helps with what I am saying. I call the turn because Kash leads alot, and will also push into or pay off nearly all the time on the river. Now the river pairs, and he instapushes. I am thinking... wow there is no way he has a boat here so thats out... why is pushing a straight without a second's thought... he should have nothing here... so i call. Looking at his hand I am sure he didn't know exactly what he was doing either lol... if its a value bet its pretty poor because I will usually have a hand better than his when I call.... if its a bluff its pretty unconvincing as I think I can rule out all boats except for a few random combo two pair hands on the turn.

7. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2673409 This is a similar situation. I think this is a standard preflop spot. The flop is weird.. I consider raising, but audi has just been hit and run on so I doubt he folds overpairs were my thoughts. At the same time I am not sure because of the possible tilt that he has an overpair... could be 3-betting verrrry wide after losing a pot.

So i call, the turn gives me a few more outs against overpair and I am easily priced in unless I can put him on a boat. So on the river he instapushes after check... he is really repping one hand here and I have a blocker. I mean there are so few hands he 3-bets with TT or a 3 in them. I don't think he ever value bets AA or KK on the river here.. not like that anyway.. maybe small like he had been.. So again this is a terrible spot to bluff after Ihave c/c'ed two streets.. which is usually strength on these paired boards.. but he also should rarely have a hand here.

8. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2673430 Another very similar spot where I can't imagine him having a 34 but I cant imagine him c/r ing without it either. I finally decided he can put me on draw because there are so few hands I can vlaue bet 3 streets here and wants to just blow me out of the pot. I was wrong... and the trend of c/r's on the river always being the nuts continues lol

----- Similar theory line, other consideration---

There are also spots where I make blocking bets, and get pushed on when the opponent should rarely have the hand that can push on me. Now I always say how strong raises and c/r's on the riv are in PLO, but I keep thinking.. well my blocking bet is transparent.. so opponent knows I am avoiding heat. Again this depends on the competency you assign to your opponent, but I am beginning to think at 5/10 and below 99% of the players will never be raising your blocking bets without the goods... there are just too many times they will call down if they get the inclincation of a blocker... rarely raising tho.

9. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2673450 Here is a prime example of this type of hand. I consider a push but I really have little clue as to his range and was thinking blocking bet would be nice because I think I am kinda repping in his eyes a weak two pair, set, or busted draw really. And that I could get value from alot of two pair hands of his think the king could pair up a fd pair combo from the flop.. also if he played 66 or 77 slow its probably paying. I don't think my hand looks like a straight at all.. .so I block.. then he pushes.. and 5413 is a pretty good player so Ithought he was seeing through the weak bet.... I was wrong lol

Poker Hands:

Now just some rando hands I have been posting to pokerhand saving up for a good blog post.

10. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2657757 Finding a good spot to 4-bet verse an uncharateristically aggro 3-bettor for tourney games. He had lost a pot the hand previously so I think this mostly for value.

11. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2649021 REAALLY poorly played by me. I had just done a couple flips with Bgizzel on UB and lost like 1500 so apparently I was tilting a little. I have played quite a few hands with Bogg and he has stacked off pretty light to me before... so I was thinking his range was wide for raising here, in hinesight it would have to be so astronomically wide for this to be a good push.. even if I suspect I am getting raised light here he has the perfect stack to exert max pressure if I call and I don't think he would ever do this with complete air.. and complete air is the only thing I am better than a flip against haha.

Stinger talks about spots like these in his latest PLO vid, spots where its right to bet/fold a strong hand.. something very aggravating to do over and over.. but definately to the optimal play I think.

12. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2645675 An AAxx spot where I hate pushing the flop, but c/f is far to weak, downright silly, and I have to 4-bet this preflop I think because it is so strong and I'm oop. Just unfortunate that these stacks were pretty much perfect for craig's hand.

13. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2645512 I get pretty lucky here and it got me thinking about overplaying 5card wraps in 3-bet pots. This particular player had been 3-betting alot so I had no reason to assume AAxx from him, but a more predictable player... Iwould definately think a flat call is optimal because so often a player with AAxx will have a gutter as well which really dominates you. Its important to see these things.

14. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2645428 Finding anohter good 4-betting spot. One hand prior twin had just lost a big pot to gameday when gameday flatted like 365 pre with a really pretty gross rundown hand.. like 8345 or something. So not only do I expect gameday to isolate if he has AAxx or KKxx in this hand, additionally twin can have a huge range here since he is steaming. I am also in position so I really love this 4-bet.. I am well ahead of twin's range and deep enough vs gameday that I can fold if he springs a 5-bet with AAxx (almost never) and c-bet A high flops which will be so convincing. Additionally I think my hand plays well against both the hand tiwn is 3-betting when he is steaming and that gameday is flatting 110 with pre... probably better than if I had AA because I will be dominating there rundowns lots here.

15. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2645347 Just to show you guys I am running better : ) I am not sure I like the way I played this really, neither the flat or the push are great.

16. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2645055 Mighta posted this already, but I gotta be laying down top two here with no reads/history. I am never ahead, just playing for a flip, a split, or I am drawing dead or to 4 outs. Giving him the range of Q8xx, wraps, and sets of course.

17. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2635474 Similar to other hand, finding a good 4-bet. Sir has been 3-betting alot, and from the blinds I haven't seen him showup with an overpair yet. Additionally this has to look like a good squeeze spot to him with 2 players flatting both with full stacks. Now I didn't 3-bet initially because I dont like 3-betting utg raisors much, so when craps calls I know he doesnt have AAxx or course, KKxx is still possible and AAxx possible to SirWatts but I feel not very likely.

So I opt to 4-bet under the logic that A) I am repping the aces and have a good hand to boot, B) with craps call in there the bet to watts is pretty big to be calling with anything but AAxx or a premium rundown.. which I often dominate, C) if watts happens to have AAxx and pushes I know Craps is calling.. this I know just because we played alot the past 2 days and I had a good feel for his preflop game.

18. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2635450 Here is tough spot for sure. When Doc calls the flop I put him on Axxx for sure, hes not the type of player to float it ever.. at least I don't think. On the turn... what! a boat!! I am thinking weak ace for doc or AQ since he didn't raise.. so I want to both control the pot and not blow a weak ace out.. so I'm trying to value call here.

On the riv he blows my mind with a big bet... I have little clue what to do here because I have played quite a few hands with Doc and I don't see him value betting AKxx like this, I think he bets smaller or raises the flop. I dont seem him repping anything here like a boat to fold out my non-paired A or something like that. I really think he had AQ here, so I make a nitty fold.

19. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2635032 Been playing more overpairs like this lately with the level of pf aggression and c-betting in today's games. Often the stacks are different and I am making a comitting raise, but here I havea feely he is very weak or very strong from the underbet so I like a raise/fold.

20. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2633400 I'm not sure whether I should be taking a free card here or not. Its just that 6 only makes one straight combo, which I think is not real commonly in his range and I am not sure whether I have the best hand. I am thinking he has some overpair type hands here often, maybe with a pair to boot.. and I can probably fold out those hands by betting.

21. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2633152 A tough preflop spot,but having played sassoneyal often I am reasonably surehe isolates with like 100% of his range here... which means I am really just calling against his opening range, maybe a bit tighter, so this is a plusEV situation. Additonally I am putting the Chiseler on Axxx, if not AAxx having played quite a bit with him I rarely see him shove his rundowns its usally doublesuited high hands or high and low hands.

22. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2633033 How do you guys play this biz. I almost took the free one on the turn thinking I could fold out nothing.. but then I got to thinking why would he just call the flop.. if he no intention of folding to say a paired board.

23. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2632884 Nittiest play I have made in a long time, I regret this fold actually.. but I was thinking he had AAxx for sure... 23 is a small part of his range and 55 of course as well.. he can raise here with A5xx, but I feel like he gets away from every hand I beat if I push and dominates me when he calls... I could flat the raise.. but the only hands I beat are likely to shut down or close to it on most turns.. and the ones they dont I still end up in a similar probably to the flop on the turn.

This is real tight and I would be interested in hearing what you guys would nail down his range to be.. certainly there are some 678x type hands he could have too. I just didn't know the player and didn't think I would be giving up a lot of value if I fold, but i'd be giving away tons of equity if wrong and I push.

24. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2624288 Another nitty fold, but tough spot deepstacked. The only hand I am considerably ahead of if I push and get called is 456x w/ spades... everything else is a flip or domination... and with the A hgih spades still out there I just like a fold here. DVD is a decent player so he has a fairly standard range here, combined with the early postion raise I just can't imagine I'm in good shape verse a 3-bet.

25. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2623701 Not in love with my play here, but I think c/f on the turn to this particular player is too weak, and I would have to call if I led anyways, so I try and get some equity from his draws/bluffs

26. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2623544 Another tight play. This is an awkward spot because the only hands I can put Welsh on that I beat are JTxx, TXXX w/ diamonds.. I think he makes his decision with a set on the flop... could be wrong though that might be in his range still. It also seems like with two flop callers, there is going to be an 89xx out there, and with welsh being the caller in the middle on the flop.. he is heavily heavily weighted towards the pure draws.

Thats enough hands for now, please give me some feedback if you have any thoughts on these.

Life:

Have been working out running and eating right still. My knee sucks, but I found a brace and am going to get some new shoes so I can start going 5 mi daily and beyond.

Car is working out good, and I have been seeing alot of people from high school and the area that I haven't seen in a while. Friend from AZ is in from the wk and its been nice seeing her.

I have started working on my taxes again, Ifiled an extension earlier in the year.. which is an extension to file not to pay. Ijust wanted to have more time to really dig out all the deductions i can. The standard mileage deduction is pretty nice .485 cents per mile is good stuff

Been watching a ton of movies while I play or wait to play rather and going to alot to. Heres what I know

Ironman - way better than expected, a genuinely entertaining movie wihtout the usual terrible one liners... Robert Downey was perfect for this role

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Freaking rocked my socks off, its in my top 5 movies. If you like Zoolander you'll love this. Its not bone dry, but the humor is pretty dry and just nonstop. The two main male characters are ridiculously funny and its a decent story as well.

Chronicles of Narnia - Freaking terrible, I hate when filmmakers turn the craft into a spectacle, theres debate over what film should be, but in my opinion it can rarely be both a strong story line and a screen spectacle. Here the writers tried for both, and humor in between. It was an epic failure in my book, and far from the first installment. I have never stopped watching a series of movies after starting, but I don'tknow that i'll be hitting the third.

Indiana Jones - Also terrible. This whole idea of a film for all ages and all purposes seems to do well in the box office, but rest assured these films will be noones favorites even 6 months from now. The acting in this one wasnt terrible like in Narnia, and the plot ridiculous, but more coherent at least. but again the writing was poor, and there was a gross misuse of CGI. Filmmakers seeem to think that because they can simulate an impossible event in a 'realistic'' way that the mind will be tricked or something. It is not.. and it strikes any normal human as ridiculous

What Happens in Vegas - Whatever, it delivered on what the previews prompted. Some laughs from Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz being cute and sassy, and a canned ending foreshadowed to the hilt about 40 mins into the movie. At least the makers here didn't try and hit every angle and go outside the boundaries of their characters or plot. That said, I didn't like it, but its a date movie I guess.

Harold and Kumar 2 - This movie pretty much delivered, its not going be on any top 100 lists, nothing provactive or enlightening about it. But it was funny, it was unpredictable, the characters stayed true to form throughout the movie, and it wrapped up loose ends as well as you would expect this kind of movie to. It was funny and entertaining, just like it was supposed to be, worth seeing for sure but not if you havent seen the first. You need to be acquanted with, I don' tknow.. the norms of the characters.

So those are the ones from the big screen, I have rented so many I can't even recall them anymore except that I re-rented Lord of War and Disturbia and just genuinely like those two movies. I could use something new from Scorsese though, I miss the way he makes his movies... just simple strong plotlines with solid acting and fairly standard shot construction. Good stuff that guy.

Hands as I play Round 2

2008-05-13T18:23:00.002-04:00

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2605074

Here is a tough spot, I can't imagine villian betting flop with dry overpair... he has to have something to get with it... maybe as weak as a seven on the side .. but something. My main concern is the diamonds + overpair... all three of my options seem silly in one way or another.. but I think the optimal play here is to fold... maybe thats a little nitty but I can't make a good case for calling or raising... although I obv tried to during hand.

--- Side note----

I'm having alot of mental success with playing 2 hr sessions then taking a 30 minute plus break.
Something to think about for those of you grinding 8+ hrs a day. I am going to try to put a minimum of 2 of these blocks in per day 5 days a week.

-----------------------------

Something I am noticing about the games these days is that unless you capable of value betting very thin and have the image to get called a lower c-bet percentage is warranted. I used to c-bet like 85% of pots i opened and grinded up stacks very easily doing this. People are becoming more proficient in playing oop in c/c'ed pots and in general are check raising much lighter than used to. So for c-betting now I think its necessary to really polarize your bets air and hands you can felt or call a c/r.

Obv this is very player dependant, but i think optimal is about 65% default adjusting way up or down when needed.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2605284

Not sure how I like my pplay here either. Its kind of donkish cold calling here pre, but slayer is a bit of a station and my hand is so strong I expect to get good odds cold calling.

Now on flop I intend to c/f. When it checks around I am thinking shrewder and slayer would have lead any kind of strong hand sets+ not expecting eddy to c-bet into 3 players. So here I think I am up against 2 pair at best when I bet and expect most to fold out. Anyways... i was wrong... maybe i just got married to my pretty hand here and c/f ing all the way is good.

No doubt this play is successful a percentage of the time though, dont wanna get out the calc and figure out how often i need folds though.

End of did pretty I think, have a good one guys.

Hands as I play...

2008-05-12T22:14:00.002-04:00

sdfasdf

Planned on posting hands during my session but I ran into an unbelievably standard run. I think I made 3-5k tonight in about 2 hrs of play so thats a good result.

If anyone knows anything about running shoes or proper foot support get ahold of me, I am having a hard time starting at about 3 miles, the arches of my feet just start to like seize up kind of. Really dissapointing because endurance wise I think I do 5-6 miles daily without any trouble at all.

There has been alot of posts on pocketfives about the NIONIO UB scandal thats been under investigation for 4 months. Nat Arem, who was real involved in the AP Scandal made a post which somewhat implied there would be restitutions and the investigation would be made public this month.

Annie Duke also made a similar post stating the results of the investigation would come out 'very very soon'.

I am real excited about this whether I get my money back or not, I am very interested in what exactly happened.

I dropped my spring class already, and I looking to get into a higher level stats class in the summer term.

----------

Note: Has anyone noticed the increase in classlessness at the poker tables these days? Back in the day people would complain about a bad bead sure, but hey frusteration is part of this silly game. Now there are tons of people who just slander and harass other players completely unprovoked. I also notice people talking like this when they win pots as well, its kind of ridiculous and really immature. Some of it gets really bad. Actually, a couple weeks ago I contacted support on UB about a player's chat, which is somethign I thought I would never do, or never have to do, and pretty much insisted that his chat be revoked.

I don't know what the deal is with people becoming their alter egos when they sit behind a computer screen.. its borderline schizophrenic... you see a little needling and such in live games, but I know 95% of the players doing the talking online wouldn''t dare say anything of sort live. Its really bizarre. I'd be curious what a psychological study had to say about how people use computers to access their... i dunno subconscious, or maybe the id or superego under Freudian psych. I don't know Freudian psych at all except that he explains a little about the unconcious urges all people have.. seems like the laws of social contractarianism don't translate into binary to me.

Big tangent, apologies, just got to thinking about how silly it is.

GL at the tables, I hope I continue to lack postable hands because that means my spots are standard, and stressful : )

HPT ~ Harris, MI

2008-05-11T18:45:00.001-04:00

Cashed out of a 5/5 PLO game 6 am this morning for $6,735 ... lol, back home from my little poker trip now.

Posting after I get some sleep, which won't be much because I am taking a spring class that is 8 am - 12 MW. ugh.

That is all. GL all.

Good Catch Mr. Moneymaker Sir

2008-05-05T22:08:00.003-04:00

Hey guys I'm back at it.

School is finished, I ended up doing better this semester than the first, I'm like a diesel I just gotta warm up.

Anyways, year one of the B-school is finito.

So I know some people used to come to my blog because it had alot of poker content, less life ramblings. I want to maintain that, but the life stuff is solid too imo, so I'll just separate that biz for you guys.

LIFE STUFF:

I am in Turning Stone right now in NY til Wednesday. Got in about 4 am last night and got up at 8 o clock to register and play in this $200 deep stack event. 20k chips, with 20 min turbo levels starting at 25/50. It was run very well, and I am really impressed by this place. I ended up finishing 37th out of 215 about 17 spots away from the money.
http://www.turningstone.com/lodging/

Ahh well, I also realized how much I disliked casino tournaments haha, and will probably skip tommorows in favor of relaxing and playing the 5/10 no max game here later.

I got a new car since getting out of school and I am really happy with it. It's by no means 'balla' or anything you traditionally see young poker players getting, but it serves my purposes perfectly. I got a 2008 Cobalt LT, its small but not euro looking small, parks easy, and the gas mileage is sickooooo. I get 35-38 mpg when I am on cruise at 60-65 mph. I am also not afraid to have it down at school where its no doubt suseptible to any number of door dings and what not.

Its something like this:

To be honest the only cars I am genuinely into are classics, specially a nice olds 442 would be awesome, and the new thunderbirds.

After NY I am heading home for a day to play the FTOPS omaha event, then I am going up to the upper peninsula Harris, MI to play the Heartland Poker Tour event. Going to try and satty into it on Friday and Sat. and play cash games. http://chipincasino.com/

Tommorow morning I also have to register for classes at Saginaw Valley State University. I am trying to finish off my distribution credits there.

I've gotten back into the swing of things with diet and exercise. Although I never really dropped it all I slacked during finals, lack of time to cook healthy.

I bought a Bayou Total Trainer online, http://www.bayoufitness.com/total-trainer-dlxI

I am really not into bulking up, because let's face it I'm a 5'5'', 135 lb Irish kid, I'm not going to turn into a monster. I do like to be in good shape though and toned and what not, and this machine is perfect for that. The resistance on both sides of the exercises feels 100 times better than free weights to me. Its a good machine, easy to change positions and fold and move around. I'd suggest it to anyone with limited budget or space. If I had more space I think a bowflex would be in order, but this will fit in my bedroom at school next year.

POKER TIME:

April ended being another losing month for me, but by a pretty insignificant amount, lost about $5,000.

I have been booking alot of hands at 3/6 and 5/10 and it is so stress free, I forgot how plus happiness EV that is.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=181299

This is a post I made on 2+2 about my downswing hah, I am still over 30 buyins below equity for the year, on the plus side I have been making alot of EV as of late (my net run has been even for May so far, but I've made like 7k in equity). So maybe things are turning around.

How bout some hands eh?

From today:

I have about 20k stack and am in big blind. Pot is limped in by UTG+1, Cutoff, and Button. I check w/ 89 off

FLOP: J88 one heart

SB bets 1100 (Blinds were 100/200 or 150/300 I dont remember)

I call others fold.

Turn is Ah, SB checks, I bet 2500.. kind of teaser bet because I put him on a jack. He says something like 'you gotta have trips every time your in a hand with me!' all irate and stuff right. Now I have hardly tangoed with him at all yet so this sticks out like a sore thumb to me. So he calls after this statement.

RIVER: 10 of hearts. He pauses for a while all 'woe is me' and bets 10,000

Table is breaking and its just me and him left, I laugh throw my cards into the middle face up and walk away.

While I am getting to my other table I see A8 off face up in the middle before the table gets cleaned up haha.

Even without the verbal cue its a fold, because he has to have a piece leading into 3 players and then calling turn.. .and I don't consider him good enough to turn a piece into a bluff on the riv. So still a fold, but man he made it easy.

I also got into a spot where I ended up folding AQ with about 20bb's left after raising. Player ended up having AK so I am proud of that laydown as well.

I ALMOST FORGOT THE FUNNIEST HAND, and the reason for this title.

Ok so I head up to the eagle to play some 2/5, and to my pleasant surprise there is three 2/5 games going with 2 being forced rotation PLO/NLHE. This is all due to Chris Moneymaker doing some Playboy promotional thang that day. So long story short Chris is playing and I get into his table. I am at his left on the PLO rotation when this gem happens.

Effective stack ~1380?

I am SB. Chris is Button. Cutoff is WorldsGrtest or whatever his name is from Full Tilt and UB. Very good player, fairly well known.

UTG+1 bumps to $20, rando guy calls, Worlds calls, Chris calls.

I have AAQQ ds and repop to 105 or whatever pot was. I havent 3-bet yet because I have only been there 20 mins, but this hand is strong multiway as well so I have no problem bumping it.

It goes call, call, call, with just the rando guy folding.

FLOP: Q 5 3 rainbow

I check because Worlds has been splashing around alot. It checks around to Chris who bets 215. I consider flatting, but I think he is pretty weak or real strong given bet size, and so if I flat its not likely I can get a C/R in on the turn.

So I repop to like 1xxx, fold, fold, and now dealer is fumbling around trying to figure out this foreign thing they call pot limit, Moneymaker can't get a handle on it either haha. Finally he just goes how much do you have I wanna go all-in. lol

So I call obv, and the turn is an 8 no flush draws. He asks if I have queens, I say yeah, and I ask if he is live, thinking he has top two or a set (effectively dead), he says no.

River is a J.

I flip up my hand, he flips up his.... I say 'oh' and start pushing my chips to him while he figures out what I am doing.

He has 339T men's wearhouse for a backdoor straight haha. He apologized because he really thought he was dead, but still hilariously. This is also the one day I didn't bring a reload.

So that is my experience with the world champ, he was a nice enough guy though.

Now some hands that won;'t make you lose your mind readin them.

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2558823 You guys like this fold? Its a real awkward spot and I feel like I am drawing so thin to a hold always, even if I am good atm.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2558442 Hand from Saturday $215 PLO tourney. I had these guys 3:1 or better with 3 guys left after coming into FT short, and I kind of blew it and ended up 3rd. This is the biggest hand, but I don't think its played real poorly given game flow. I could lead, but then I probably should fold to a raise as his range is pretty strong. He also has been peeling on me. So instead I figure I induce steals from a huge range by checking and in my worst case scenario I am 30 percent.

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2557905 Anyone like this? This seemed genius at the time. I figured F bones for a strong holding, but also thought he was folding anything but a Jack after I push over the raise. And I figured H2 would be raising alot of mid pairs given PF action here and the smallish raise size. Really thought this was a good play, but maybe I am underestimating H2's range.

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1772013 This hand I thought I had under control then it got real ugly real quick. I honestly, still love the play. Occasionally I run into someone pot controlling on flop C/R w/ nuts on turn, but most often I think I take this thing down without showdown. I mean I don't know how this guy doesnt give me credit for betting two streets into two players on this board. When he pushes I thought I was committed since I didn't think he had nuts (thought he had 6 to ten). And I probably am if he doesnt have my flush outs.

5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2568933 And a hand with Miarar because I said Iwould post one with him. I sincerely hate how powerful flush draws are in raised pots. You can't run it on Pokerhand.org because its a UB hand, but Miarar is 45% here with a dominated pair and now live kickers except the 2 outs for a set. This is one of those spots I get into alot where I am pretty sure my opponent is going to push any turn card, or almost any, so I wnat to flat to look for a good turn. But at the same time it is so difficult to judge what is safe and I hate to end up putting in 550 drawing dead, or folding, when I know I can get into a marginally plus EV spot on the flop.

Those PLO players who are able to peel with weak to medium strength hands and correctly apply a range to determine which cards are safe have a massive edge in postflop play and really respect this skill above all others.

Good to be back posting, I will be travelling till next week, but then I will be back to the grind.

Just a graph

2008-04-16T13:58:00.002-04:00

Hey just posting a graph so I can through it up on a forum, school is is almost over.. looking forwrard to some grinding, blogging, travelling, and general awesomeness that will surely ensue.

Still Kickin

2008-03-24T18:00:00.002-04:00

Hey guys,

I kind of decided to X the blog until school is out. As much as I enjoy writing I don't have alot of time to do it.

I'd rather spend that time on school and playing. I'm still logging lots of hands. Results are definately not following so that is disheartening. It feels like I am no longer a winning player to be frank. However, that require that I went from a 3 ptbb/100 winner to a losing player pretty much overnight. That seems even less feasible, specially since whhen I analyze my plays I feel more confident in them than ever.

I am allows buried in tax stuff right now. I am going to end up filing for an extension just so I can make sure all my records are nice and straight. I still have to pay my 2007 figure and 1st quarter estimated for 08 by mid april, but at least I don't have to worry about adding up and recording all my deductions until this summer.

It certainly feels unjust to be paying taxes on money I don't have already (and nothing to show for it). But so goes law.

Here is an interesting one from a recent session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2322612 The decision to 4-bet here was in part due to the player behind the stack. I have only played plo with him one other sess, never seem him playing before, and I wasn't entirely impressed.

Also because I beleived it would be a bigger decision to cold call 460 and invite everyone else in than it would be too isolate.

Anyways, the flop was also interesting. Given his hand I actually think I was wise to isolate even though we were deep. A seasoned omaha player is coming over the top of me preflop with this hand no matter how deep we are. It is just too strong not to go after the preflop value, I'm fortunate this guy is probably a holdem player.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2322649 This hand epitomizes the situations I've been getting into. I c-bet most players on this flop but Chiu had been playing uncharacteristically... spewy? Just calling every c-bet I made etc, from the hands I saw later he may have just been running hot I don't know. Anyways, I wanted to wait for a hand to c-bet again so I check. Then the turn is completely standard... can't really check, once I bet I can't really fold.

I have a handful of nut straights as well where I just keep getting it in vs set and flush draw. Just ugly situations really.

Anyways, collllllllddddd decking it hardcore, but I went through my database from last year and saw I have actually had some longer losing streaks than this and winning streaks as well. So I'm looking forward to things turning around.

As always GL guys. Don't forget about the blog it'll be back in action late April.

Feb. Review - and crappy internet

2008-03-01T17:15:00.006-05:00

Hey,

Spring break is almost over already. I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to because I went to Canada for a few days skiing. Blue Mountain, I dunno if anyone has been there but its a pretty nice place.

Terrain park is pretty sick but you have to go through some kind of certification thing and get an extra pass to go in it, so that was pretty dissapointing. I didn't want to take the time to do that.

I played two sessions of 2/5 live. First I cobbled up a 360 dollar win just picking up a lot of slop.

Second session was by far the worst grouping of cards I have ever gotten live. I only got to play for 2 hours before the game broke and switched down a 1/2 game (so i left). But in that time I won a single pot (roughyl $65 ahha). I lost AA to KJ, QQ to 54 (all in on 852 flop), AK to AQ, AK missed in big raised pot and had to fold it, and 8T vs KT on QJ9 board (two spades against the QQ vs. 54 guy who is drunk and playing 90% of hands).

Anyways, it was a really soft game with really bad results. Much like my month online hah

I beasted through a ton of hands this month, about 35,000. I decided it would be too difficult to take screenshots of what I needed and do the books at the end of April, so I am just going to stick to looking at cashiers and what not once a month at the end.

I played about 85 hours, so a little over 400 hands an hour. I am definately pleased with the volume I put in, and I felt like I played very well.

Anyways, lost much more this month than I did even in January. Extremely dissapointing, but again its a function of 25/50... as you'll see in a second. So 50,000 hands into 08' and I am down a bundle.. what can I say, poker is what it is.

Ok

well i have tried for about ten mins. to put my graphs up, but it seems a cloud of weak connection follows me wherever I go so that will have to wait.

Here are some gems.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2118836 This is downright inexplicable lol

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2142518 I am running into a ton of hands like this. Where I flop very hard, but my opponent holds some trash that just happens to kill my draws. This is a poor example, but just running into a ton of hands where my draws are dominated.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2143087 And somehow I am losing in these game???? I have no clue what villain is thinking here. My call isn't the best I guess.. but honestly the only hand I can put him on is a completely random deuce as I get raise don the flop by any two pair or set. So something like spades missing is much more likely imo.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2188842 So so I am not always complaining, here is a big 70/30 suckout by me.

To be honest though I like the way I played it. Not only do I win this pot whenever he missed the turn, I have 30 percent equity even when he makes his hand. Also I don't think dry 67 makes up a huge percentage of his c/c range. I can't imagine this is a profitable way to play his hand.

Just a few hands there. There are some real nasty ones from 25/50 I don't wanna dig out. But basically I ran into K high flush vs A high flush 5 or 6 times full stacked once 200 bb deep. All occuring in raised or 3-bet pots. Seems really cold, but maybe I need to be laying the K high down more.. i dunno...

Anyways... back to school tommorow, and back to the grind. Going to try and get 20-25k hands in this month since April will be busy with finals.

I pretty much need to book a winning month, 2 months and 50k hands are nothing but losses is really wearing on my confidence.

GL at the tables dooooods, I am looking forward to posting these graphs haha they are downright disgusting.

Pwned!!!!!

2008-02-19T00:22:00.004-05:00

Hey I'm alive, no worries guys haha

I have been getting beat to death by poker and school, been putting in a lot of hours with both though.. specially the latter.

Two more exams until spring break for me. If I go anywhere it'll be north to do some skiing, not like anyone else is on spring break when U of M is anyways, lame.

I'll post some good stuff over break, and that isnt an empty promise like usual haha.

I have about 37k hands in this year, and have since my last post firmly dropped down again from 25/50 after my most recent beating. Maybe I'll never make it past 10/20, this is of course the third time I tried to move up and the 3rd time I have had masssssssive downswings (note to self: take shots with < color="#ffff66">On the school front I just got owned by an exam. I knew it would be extremely difficult, so I was ready to have a hard time... thing is on one of the biggestproblems (multi-part all buidling off first premise), I misread whether we were analyzing the decision tree for a call or put option. All the samples like this one had been calls so I just assumed, but this of course was a put. With one minute left I figured out my error, which of course meant all my payoffs were messed up.

Really frusterating because I knew what I was doing. Even more frusterating because half the kids don't even know what options are in this business class, and I'd posit that I was the only one in the room who has actually done any options trading before.

Just voicing one of the reasons I hate the way U of M tests... people shouldn't be missing problems because of word play or trickiness like that.. it hardly tests the conceptual material at all.

So uhhhh GL at the tables.

BTW some mentioned whether I do lessons (not that this post makes a lesson from me sound valuable lol), but the answer is not during school unless ur in the Ann Arbor area.

During summer though I certainly have time and would be down. The cost would be a function of what we did... whether it was over skype, some kind of ghosting, or just going over hands, playing HU or something.

The low end of those services would probably be $50/hr (going through hands and talking them out for low stakes players) high end somewhere $350/hr. Pricey yes, but poker lessons are (check CTS's private hourly.. its gross lol). Also I know I have a ton of valuable information for midstakes players on the state of the games. Low stakes I am not so in tune with, but I can definately still provide a +ev strategy. Basically rates would be a function of the type of coaching, and the levels its for because I want the value of my coaching to match the value you'll get it out it. Its going to take a .10/.25 rounder many hours to get $350 off value from my tips.

Anyways, contact at the tables or comment here if you are interested. I am also going to start playing hold'em some this summer so if anyone is successful in the NLHE games 3/6+ and wants to learn omahhahaha we can arrange something.

Adios guys, apologies for the rants I'm running and playing poorly in life right now gotta vent somewhere hah.

GL all.

$1000 a Day

2008-02-06T17:32:00.000-05:00

.....

except in the wrong direction haha. Thats roughly my winrrate for 08' thus far.

Sorry for lack of updates but since early Jan I have really gotten back the urge to play. Unfortunately, the urge to play isn't enough to make money in this game.

I've got about 21k hands in so far.

Thats all for now, I will come back with a real post later. School is ridiculously busy, and of course its difficult to work during downswings because they make it seem like a mood point. That said if I am not gonna my work, I might as well drop out.. and since I'm not gonna do that.. I work!

Mid-month Update

2008-01-19T13:13:00.000-05:00

Burdamania said...
Would like to see you post some PLO8 hands when you play in the near future, I'm just getting back into it and never see anything on Cardrunners either. GL at the tables.

---- Well I don't play any cash game PLO8, although I hear its a really soft game online. I do like playing PLO8 tournaments though, and the FTOPS is coming up. So if I have time I will play the PLO8 event and post some hands. ----

AllanDuke said...
Can you post some hand histories of you against the Nio guy?

Sure. The thing about the hands are some seem to be indicative of cheating but for the most part they are normal(ish). The real smoking gun imo is his winrate over 9000 hands (60-70ptbb/100) against the best players, with the worst stats (VPIP/PFR) wise. No player can find a legitimate instance of a winrrate like this in their databases thus far.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963110 The payoff on the riv here, would indicate he can't see hole cards... or that he isn't an idiot. I know if I was playing a 'superuser' account I wouldn't be folding this hand here. I dunno this all sounds really dumb, but something fishy is definately going on on UB.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963117 Another HH where he just plays like a donk, surely he'd fold if he could see the cards right?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963145 Not incredibily suspect... but definately reads my soul a little here

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963156 Just an example of how bad he is. And how he should be a big loser in the games playing 7723 for 1k pre.

So when you look at the hands, nothing really jumps out that much. However, if you look at his preflop action and call downs. You'll see he calls way too much money pre-flop, and the hands he loses are usually check/call, check/call, check/fold.

His stats are about 70/40 by my count but his aggression factors go 1.5/1.5/4 ish. The agg factors coupled with this kind of looseness preflop is bizarre... rarely do you find a maniac preflop with factors like this postflop.

I'm sorry I can't offer any damning HH's, for those you'd have to see the hold'em players who have about 8k hands on him

I broke down and checked the cashier/pokertracker last night. I've got about 10k hands in, down roughly 12k this month.

Funny because I feel really confident in my game, more than I have in a long time.

Also very odd, and a little worrying to me is a drastic change in my stats. Since 08' and my massive multi-tabling my VPIP has dropped to about 20 with PFR at 11.5 (average players 5).

This is close to a 30 percent decrease in both stats, yet my aggresive factors are still holding for the flop and turn..... (4.9/3.7/2) River is kinda low.

I am a little worried that I won't be able to play profitably at this level of tightness.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963219 Unconventional way to play the hand, but verse a very laggy aggressive player I kind of like it. If I opt to lead the flop I think I end up putting in the rest of my stack on the turn bad alot, or having to check.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963235 I get it in pretty bad here, but I like my play I think. I think I get massive fold equity on the turn given that I am betting two streets into two players. I think it was a good spot to bluff.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963244 I get it in real bad here too. However, my note on appl say, "Check raises turn with draw on paired board after leading flop". So given that, I think it stands to reason that my hand is best here often.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963256 This is another tough one. It tough to fold here because his range is so dominated by AQJ*, QJ9*, KT**, and K4** hands. Which he plays exactly the same way as TT,KK, and 44. So its like, I'm never really far ahead, if ahead at all, of his range.. but I am almost never dominated by the sets either since you can discount 44, and KK or TT arent likely given my hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1963264 This is another tough hand, obviously the dangers of 3-betting a hand like this. I crush the flop and end up getting it in 40/60... ahh well I think its a great spot 3-bet.

Lot of rough spot in hinesight, and I am definately running below expected value by about 6k according to PokerEV. However, running on EV with still net me a negative amount. I don't think this is reflective of my play so much as I am just not hitting hands.

To be expected after a good month in December. Going to try to get 15-20k hands in before the end of the month, hoping for a green month.

GL all, gotta go run a game for my club then I am heading home for a day or two.

Gotta love my schedule this semester, I go to class Mon/Wed pretty much all day, one class tues then the other 4 days I am a professional poker player : )

Adios.

Tell me I Wear the Tin Foil Hat.. I don't care.

2008-01-12T12:45:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I was perusing the forums and saw this post.

http://www.pocketfives.com/10ABEB71-AB46-41BF-817E-365AAC574F4C.aspx

It is in regards to NioNio a player I had poster about in July... can be found below

http://4cardpoker.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

Basically, I remember Nio because he plays like an idiot but still took me for roughly $14,000

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=99247

Sooo.. cliff notes:

Basically Nio has incredibily loose stats, looser than some known extremely laggy players.
Mid-summer he absolutely terrorized UB, I only saw him playing Omaha so when he was up $26,000 over 500 hands.. by my stats, he was just on a rush.

However, in the hold'em games he owned some of the best players on that site: Trambopoline, CTS, Stinger, Arbianight among others.

Take a look at who he has won against.. there is a graph early in the thread..

By there tracking stats he maintained a winrate of 60-70 ptbb/100 over about 8200 hands.

This is statistically... virtually impossible (virtually.. it could happen), especially at stakes 10/25 and above against some really strong HU players.

They estimate he took between 600-800k from the site over these 9,000 or so hands.

The most damning evidence though is not the hand histories, rather it is that the players account literally ceases to exist about September 4.. right about the time the Absolute Poker Scandal heated up. I mean it was actually deleted, could not be found on UltimateBuddy.

So obv this is very suspect, given that UB and AP are operated by the same people. I really feel we have been cheated in a way similar to the superuser scandal on AP. I hope UB gets investigating.. of course this will take time. The hand histories are not as conclusive as in the Absolute Poker case, but that doesn't really say anything. If I was operating a superuser account I can guarentee you would not find my plays suspect.. however my stats would be undeniably supreme.

The most damning stat for me with NioNio is that his Win w/ out Showdown rate is not only positive but is incredibily high (from the stats I have seen). Anyone who uses PTO or PokerEV will tell you nobody sustains a positive Win W/out showdown rate. It has nothing to do with skilll persay, its just the nature of the game (or should be).

I know i have lost 14k to him, I don't know how these things are settled if foul play is found.. but I would like to see some of that back.

High hopes I know, but I do alot of business on their dying website, If nio is found to be cheating and I don't see any money.. I beleive that will be the end of UB for me.

New Format & Resolutions & Theory Question

2008-01-11T13:52:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

So I've tallied everything up and I wrote a whole post with results for 07' in it, screenshots, PTO, PokerEV, etc andddddd I deleted it.

After some though I feel thats a level of privacy I need to keep. I'm not entirely sure why, but it just doesn't sit well with me to share all my results for whatever reason.

In 07' I can say that I played 227,000 hands of cash game poker. Tournament hands aren't tracked but I would estimate that to be another 10k or so hands, plus a thousand or two live.

SO maybe 240,000 hands in 07'... which sounds like a lot to any non-poker players reading... but really thats not much at all.

I logged about 775 hours on PokerTracker, which again doesn't include tournaments or live play, so I figure I spent about 850 total hours playing poker (less than a part time jI ob). Adding in forums, books, and other poker related 'studying' and I have tipped the scales of 20 hours a week I suspect.

I can share a few results comfortably.

I profited roughly $65,000 playing tournament poker, which isn't anything special if I was a tournament player. But I am not, I only played about 115 tourneys this year so those are some pretty great results.. apparently I run good in tourneys. I'm only comfortable giving these results because they are publicly available on the tracking sites anyway.

officialpokerrankings.com or thepokerdb.com ..

Cash game secrets will remain just that. But I will say I ended the year with stats of roughly 32% VPIP
14% PFR
And aggression factors of roughly 3.5 on every street.
Aggression factors are odd.. I was under the impression that most people have diminishing aggro factors... something like ~5 flop , ~4 turn, ~3 river for my limits.

I don't know what to make of mine.

Goals for 2008

1. Play 300,000 Hands
2. Continue Improving Diet
3. Exercise min. 3 days/wk during school, back to 5 day/wk during summer
4. Travel more
5. Play more poker.. get this... FOR FUN
6. Make some training videos for my club
7.
8.

So a little explanation is in order here.

1. I intend to play 300,000 not by logging more hours during the school year. I feel like I have a really good balance between school poker and every else, so I don't wanna mess with that. Instead I have changed the way I play during school. I only play on my monitors now, and only when I have at least 2 hr block of time, and I am back to multi-tabling hard. I have played 3 sessions, each roughly 3 hrs with a break during, 7-9 tables so about 400-700 hands/hr.

Furthermore, I am not checking the cashier at all this month. Though reviewing sessions is beneficial, I definately overdo it and in critically evaluating all my mistakes I end up losing confidence in my play. So instead I will review at the end of the month, and check the cashier hopefully no more than twice a month.

I can honestly say I over the past 5.5k hands I have played I have no clue whether I am up or down. I love that, it definately frees me to play best as the financial stress can't effect me. Multi-tabling used to stress me out, but thats because I was in a different spot financially... now the mistakes/suck-outs/bad beats just roll off me because I gotta get ready for the next decision pronto.

2 & 3. My diet changed alot this year for medical reasons and then I tried to take it a step further just to be healthy. I have completely cut out traditional forms of junk food; fast food, snacks, pizza, ice cream, baked goods, etcs. I have them only when I go home and that isnt very often. My fat intake is roughly 30-40 grams/day and almost never more than 5 grams saturated so that is fine, below the range given to me by the software I use. Most of it comes from peanut butter actually haha. I still eat alot of simple carbs because I love bread and my sugar intake could be lower.

As long as I may active though, the last two things are no big deal they will be used up. Just the same goal for 08' is to find more fruits/veggies that I like because I am so picky. Continue cooking alot, because I enjoy it and it helps me eat healthy.

As far as working out its tough during the school year, but I think 3 days a week for at least an hour is doable. It doesn't sound like much, but you gotta remember working out (weight lifting) is like body shots in boxing. It pays dividends later. Muscle burns calories much faster than fat, so while running a mile is gonna burn alot more calories for you the time than say working out for an hour, the muscle you build will continue burning calories at increased rate 24/7.

In the summer its easy for me to run 3-5 miles and workout 5 days a week, I just have a ton of time.

4 & 5 - I like travelling, I need to do more of it now because an old hobby of mine, poker, has become a job. The only thing keeping me from travelling alot is if I want company Ihave to pay for them probably because most of my friends either don't have the green or have job committments.

I'd like to visit Arizona in the summer and Vegas in 08' if I can swing it over Christmas break (I turn 21 on the 24th of Dec).

I wanna stop by and visit family in Chicago. I plan to make a couple more trips to Windsor Canada when my friends get passportes, and Turning Stone Casino in New York.

Other places I hope to get to are California, preferably LA or San Fran.

I want to go to Australia, Ireland, and the Scandanavian countries as well.. but I am not putting a one year time clock on those.

Along with the travelling I want to be playing live poker as well, this is the only part of poker I still actually enjoy and my $10 home game tourneys with the boys.

If anyone can find me some good Pot Limit Omaha tournaments for 08' buy-in between $200-$10,000 I'd probably have some financial compensation for them.

6 http://camstudio.org - I found this site which has a program that records whats happening on your computer screen. It has volume as well and is precisely what a player needs to make training videos.

My goal is to make some of my own to post here and on my club website mplcore.com . I can't really address ways to improve to my club when we are running games as its not ethical to coach mid-tournament or game. So this way I can get the messages out to them on how to play at a higher level (mentally not stake wise).

Goals 7 & 8 are personal and have no business in this blog.

I had my birthday party this past weekend. There was a ridiculous amount of people here, our house was packed with 2 mini-parties going on in the upstairs bedrooms.

Lot of my friends from home came down which was great. I really don't like to party at all myself, but I like to have all my friends around and make sure they get to party as hard as they want. Pictures from party to come.

You'll notice that I have no monetary goal for 08', all I want to do is play my best and get 300,000 hands in. Whatever happens will happen.

Remember poker is Darwinism on speed, the game changes rapidly as the fittest continue to rise to the top and blot out the weaker players. One day it could easily be the case that poker strategy progresses beyond my mental capacity and I become the player that I now exploit. This is why I am still in school, this is why I don't intend to play poker forever, and this is why I am making the best of this oppurtunity while I have it.

Thanks for reading through this novel of a post. GL at the tables.

Little more Live, 07' Wrap up coming

2007-12-30T14:15:00.000-05:00

Played some more 2/5 yesterday. Casino switched to rake now, which makes live poker a little more boring for me. Obviously, with rake its to your advantage to play tighter, larger pots, versus spashing around and playing a loose aggressive style.

Had another session where I just made second best hand alot, but I definately minimized losses with those hands.

Got the shaft on a $1500 pot and a $1,200 pot. No big deal, I made alot of expected value last night.

Final hand I lost about 800 on goes like this.

UTG bumps to $25 (has been raising with frequency, the table is only 7 handed right now)
2 calls when it gets to me, so I come in with 44, 1 more call behind me. I am small blind

Flop Q84 w/ 2 spades. I check, SB leads 50 and it folds around to me...

I bump to 175.

Turn is Q.. I check with intentions of raising as I felt he had top pair on flop based on the speed of his call.

He bets 100... this is suspicously small.. I consider flat calling.. but I think I lose value to all his random trip queen hands if I flat the turn.

So I push over the top.. he has rouhgly 550 left.. he calls and flip Q8 for the nuts. I miss my one outer, tip the dealer anyways, and take off.

Now I don't love pushing that turn.. but I gotta consider his calling range.

I think he calls with 88, QQ, Q8, Q4 of course.. and then QT, QJ, QK, QA. Q9 and other weak queens my be in there as well.. I dunno for sure.

If I put this range into propokertools.com hold'em simulator.

My hand is roughly 60% favorite verse his range.
That is without weighting his range. I'd have to discount Q4 as I have 44, QQ as I'd actually expect him to check mostly after hitting quads (specially with the possibility of striaght flush coming out for bad bad jackpot), and discount 88 as well as it has less combinations as the other hands.

Now weighted... I would have a pretty dominant hand over his calling range, probably 65-70 percent. So I this is a fine play... plus this is given the Q on the turn. Any non-spade turn and I believe I get his stack as well so just a really good spot for me.. bad result though.

Also lost 3k online in 55 hands. I made a bad call for about 600 I think.. otherwise pretty standard stuff. I just quit after that, no use settling into a session after such a poor start.

So I am punching out of 07' with about a 27k month. I am not playing anyone more this year I am just going to concentrate on getting my records in order and forming plans for 08'.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=89877

This is a really interesting thread on 2+2. It is the yearly profit graphs for a lot of top players and some in betweeners.

After looking at some of them.. all I can say is wow... I mean Bryce.. up 2.6 million in 155k hands

I also look at my own graphs.. which I may or may not post... and say.. J sir.. you have a problem with variance haha

The top players on these graphs dont have nearly the relative swings that I have had twice this year. I don't know if this is a function of them beating their limits better than I am.. or a function of them not taking big shots at moving up limits.

Anyways, I am happy with the money i have been fortunate enough to make in 07'.. but by December 08' I hope to be able to post a smoother graph like alot of these guys.

These posts are really motivating for me though, I see some guys that play the same limits as me.. 10/20 that crank out half a mil in profits.

That said.. I have roughly quintupled my profits year over year for 3 years running now. Obviously I am more settled into my limits now, versus moving up over the other years, so in 08' I don't expect anything of that sort. Just the same I can be proud of that I think.

Going to start tallying everything up and printing out records now. Look for a wrap up post tommorow or when I get back home complete with goals for 08'.

Thanks for reading.

Took my pride back.

2007-12-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

Got up early to play this monthly $200 tourney at soaring eagle.

118 guys played. I got first for $8,000.. good stufff.. that puts me at about $30k on the month.

When there were 3 guys left I had 10,000 out of 600,000 chips haha.. half the BB. I had been folding everything because the other mid to short stacked guys didn't understand tournament strategy. I was able to pin some guys into getting all-in by folding even when I was getting sick sick odds to play and that earned me about 1500.

Then when it was 3 handed I luckily picked up enough hands to stay alive, and the mid stack ended up folding a flop with half his stack in. He really should have waited for me to go out.

Got heads up with a 5:1 chip deficit. I don;'t feel like typing out many hands, but long story short.. I got it in with the best hand every pot I won and shipped 1st place. The other guy was kind of cocky so it was a satisfying win.

GL with the last few days of 07' guys.

A Big Blow... but only to my ego

2007-12-27T01:10:00.001-05:00

Played at the eagle again today and went bust on the hand I was going to play before going home.

I bought in for 1500.
Earlier hands dwindled me down to 1000. These included JJ vs. QQ, folding QK w/ king of spades on a Q934 three spade board, and folding the river in a decent pot where I made broadway straight on turn but board paired on river and the guy led out.

I played all three good, lost little with JJ, guy had AQ on the second hand, and guy made boat on third.

Final hand is a little weird so I'd like to hear some thoughts.

I am in late position. There are 3 limpers and I limp with J8 of clubs.

SB who is probably most experienced player bumps to 20. 2 calls from limpers, so i call.

Flop: 245 with 2 and 5 of clubs, 4 of hearts

SB bets $50, one guy folds, one calls..... I thought about raising here but I put SB firmly on KK or AA and thought he would be too in love with it on flop.

Turn is 8 h, this makes two flush draws. SB bets $100, guy in middle calls....

Now I am thinking I can definately get SB to fold overpair no problem... he is thinking player and has to be fearful with two others in pot. I don't know what to put the middle guy on.. it seems like I would hear from him on turn with hands like sets and straights.. seems like with 2 flush draws he has to come out of the weeds and raise. So I think he has a weak two pair or he is drawing to the same flush. I dont want to just call 100 drawing dead to 8 or J.

So i make it 300 more, committing to the pot.. think I had 400 left or so.

SB complains awhile.. as expected.. and folds his hand... middle guy thinks for like 2 minutes then pushes..

I call and he flips 36 up.

I dunno.. I suppose I can just call the turn but I really felt like I could take it down right there, very surprised at middle guys hand.. I'd raise his hand on the turn. Also cant beleive it took him so long to call.. given the fold equity I have with this move I think it is profitable.

So I lost 1500, money doesn't bother me a bit though it actually hurt my pride to lose to those guys haha. Dunno why I feel like I got something to prove though, its better if they think I am coming in with mommy daddy money everytime. That said I guess I realize why I enjoy live poker versus being bored by online poker... live poker puts the competition back in it for me. Online I am all about the bottom line, its no competition, its just a grind. Maybe a balance of these attitudes is what I am lacking in online poker. I suspect that competitiveness is what allows you to develope as a player.

On the online front I have been mostly fishing for good games since I don't feel like playing much. Up 22k over 9k hands this month. Can't complain about that, its a nice end to the year.

Here is my favorite hand of the month : )
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1858152

Don't mind getting it in 3-way here ever, even when I am sharing cards I am 30% to win 4.5% to split. And normally you see two hands dominated by high cards flip up in these scenarios.. like a KQJT and AAXX. Lucky me.

Thats all for now, gl at the tables

I love live poker

2007-12-23T12:18:00.000-05:00

More info to come.

Christmas break is great, I'm back to my summer schedule of doing exactly what I want when I want.

I owned the 2/5 game last night at Soaring Eagle, the table hated me by the time I left... good stuff.

I have made roughly 14k this month online over about 7k hands. I am happy with these results and am just trying to decide whether to take the rest of the year off to start fresh in 08', or whether to lock down and put some hands in while I can.

Post coming in the next week, gl all and merry christmas.

The Set Theory

2007-12-10T17:14:00.000-05:00

Quick post from my study carrel.

Finals are here, not alot of time for play or posting.

I have had time to implement the set theory I talked about before, and to be honest I think it is realllllly increasing my expected value from sets.

Consistent with what I predicted, unless the pot is very large, people don't seem to raise any flushes on turn. The Q and K highes are scared, and the A wants to get value.

I have also got paid off almost every time I hit the boat too. Betting all three streets or even just betting a flushed turn then a paired river are such odd lines that they seem to put me on a bluff everytime.

I really want to start improving my game more with ideas like these. I believe I have become too complacent, and it is affecting my winrate. I need to stop trying to play like a machine and start adapting to the dynamics of the games, and the climate of omaha as a whole.

I may put myself through a heads-up poker challenge to get into this mindset. HU forces you to adapt and consider unconventional plays.

I want to make some goals for 2008 both on and off the felt. Wouldn't mind hearing some input for my poker goals from readers.

I also want to do more travelling this year, preferrably with some ties to poker so I can deduct my expenses/losses. I'm open for ideas on that too.

I still feel like my play is rendering my results stagnant in cash games. I don't know if I am just running very dry as far as good situations or if I am not extracting value as well as I used to. I have been playing more 5/10 these days and I can definately tell I have a sizable edge there, so if I find out my time is better spent away from 10/20 I know I still have a profitable home there.

Plus after 300 hands of 50/100, 15k hands of 25/50, and 100k or so of 10/20 10/25... I am really really unaffected by losing 5 or 10 buy-ins at 5/10. So its nice to know there will defiantely be no tilt factor, and less stress.

Maybe in 08' I will try to put more hands in at stress free levels. I am not saying I explode or steam at 10/20, its just that its obviously mentally easier to lose a $2000 pot than a $4000+ all-in.

Thats all for know, posting more hands on twoplustwo.com if you want to see less talky and more pokey.

GL at the tables guys.

Owned Tourney/Stagnant Cash

2007-11-27T19:28:00.000-05:00

Hey

Been awhile since I have posted.

Part of this is due to school, other part is due to an assignment I have in my Business Information Technologies class. This assignment calls for a topical blogging on the University website through the semester. So I have been doing that.

Cash games haven't really gone too well for me in the past few months. I've averaged a few grand a month for the past few months so I can't complain. Things have been really up and down though, and streaks are only exacerbated by the fact that I can't put in many hands. So downswings seem to last longer as well as upticks.

Swings this month have taken me from +21k to -20k and thanks to a little rush on Sunday night back to roughly even.

I only have like 5k hands in for the month so its funny that I was able to swing 40k during that time.

I have no complaints, swings are part of the game, I just would like to finish strong in December with a winning month at least paralelling my average for the year.

Now on the plus side.

I played Event #14 of the FTOPS. This was a $100 + Rebuy event. I ended up buying in 6 or 8 times or something like that. Just gambling at the beginning. I really feel gambling it up is the optimal play during the first hour of rebuy Omaha tournaments because you are never getting yourself into very bad spots preflop.

Anyways, I staggered through the 950 or so players just picking spots. I did get lucky around the bubble hitting a 7 outer to knock out two players.

After the tables went shorthanded with like 15 players left though I was able to just own. I hit two good flops in 3-bet pots to double through Tom "Durrrrrrr" Dwan and knock out another player.

I also eliminated Max Pescatori and Clonie Gowen. Here are those hands, they both really played their hands terribly. Ok i guess I didn't post their hands to pokerhand.org so they were something like this

Clonie:
OK well I am trying to remember the blinds and stuff and just can't.

So basically it folds around to Clonie on button
She raises pot
I repot with QQ78 suited, I thik the repot was to like 210 and she had 350 or something to start hand
She pushes over the top with JJxx....

That really is a terrible play, I don't think i was playing remotely close to aggressive enough to warrant that push.

Max:
Copied from someone else's post, I am Rollover2k not automatique
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1747360

Again, can't imagine him calling the the river. For his call to be right he has to put me on K5xx no pair, or A34x, 346x no pairs.

What can I say, I guess thats his logic.

Anyways, I went from like 150k to 1 mill by the time final table hit. Kavin86 the guy who eventually took first cleaned out the table. At three handed I got outdrawn from a 1.2 mill pot which would have put me at about 2:1 chip disadvantage when it got down to two players. This is as opposed to the 4.5:1 disadvantage I had to deal with.

Anyways, I busted 2nd for close to 50k which was cool. I was happy with my play.

So despite being roughly even in cash games, I am up about 50 on the month putting me over my goal for the year.

In other news, my local casino is spreading 2/5 no limit now. The buy-in is 1k cap, but if you drop below 500 then you can add-on $1000. So essentially the buy-in is 1,500.

I played about 7 hours there over break and loved it. I have never felt I had such a strong edge in a game in my life. Wow, I was happy to straddle every round even though noone else was because I knew how big my edge was.

I would liken the skill level to that of a .25/50 game online, maybe .50/1 at best, unbeleivable.

The best part is they all think they are good. Anyways, first night I lost 390 or so, which was amazing given the heater this one guy was on. Then Friday I won 1200 without winning any big pots really.

Just amazing the difference in live and online poker, at least in my area. I am sure at some larger casinos the play is better, or there are some much tougher regulars.

I finished all my work up till next tuesday already. Pretty sick I know. Now I just have some poker club stuff to organize, and some hours at the tables to log (if the games start running)

Its like the calm before the storm here, second round of midterms just ended but in two weeks finals start.

Looking forward to getting some hands to share with you guys, I post some on twoplustwo.com under the name "4CardGrind", so you can look at those for now.

That's all for now, I'm sure that post is pretty boring to non-friends/family so I'm trying to get back to analyzing hands for you guys but I am pretty lazy.

Oh one more thing anyone have thoughts about the World Poker Showdown, http://worldpokershowdown.com/ , I am thinking about going down to their Puerto Plata tournament in the Dominican Republic. It is like right after school gets out for me, itd be a nice tax-deductible break.

Also I am still looking for investment oppurtunities, let me know if you guys have business ideas.

I looked into restaurants because I am really getting into cooking and enjoy it. However, the success rate is soooo low, I've read around 8%. Franchises are better, but that defeats the restaurant purpose.

Land of course is always interesting, but I definately not well versed in real estate.

I don't have much time during school to focus on the market, so I don't feel comfortable investing my savings like I used to.

Anyways, enough with that tangent, GL at the tables guys. Thanks for reading.

Little Theory Post

2007-11-08T10:03:00.000-05:00

I am not sure how most of you play sets, and of course you default on different boards is going to be different. However, regardless of whether I lead or check raise I think I have a new way to play the turn.

Often, when the flush hit, who am I kidding.. almost always when the flush hits I check fold. You have no way of determining a steal from a value bet in this situation.

It just occured to me though that the optimal play might be to bet half-pot. In doing so you eliminate the possibility of being bluffed because the only time you will get raised is either by a nut or second nut flush or by the dry A... then its a simple fold right.

If these are the only times you get raised, then all other flushes will call. When they call a half pot bet you effectively laying yourself 3:1 which is what you need to draw to your set. Not to mention in the 25% of river a weak flush calls, and you boat up... your river bet looks like a bluff.

When your opponent calls and you don't boat up... well then you have options that you can adjust to your player. If your player is likely to fold a low flush... then you can fire the third barrel here given the texture of the board.... if not you can simply check... some flushes will check behind, any hand less than a flush that didn't beleive you on the turn will check behind.. most of which you beat.

At the 10/20 games most competent players will not check behind twice with busted straight draws or two pair hands. So when the flush hits the turn... if I check my set I am simply giving up more or less.. This way you force those two pair/ straight hands that peeled the flop with u to fold and even if they hit a flush.. they are forced to raise you to gain any equity as you are pricing yourself in.

Feel free to poke holes in this theory, but I think its how I will play sets from now on in these situations.

Poker this month has been fun, I have won some big pots 11k and 12k... losts some big ones, but generally running better. Haven't made very much yet but I only played about 1k hands.

Looking forward to booking some hands during thanksgiving because I have midterms again right now.

Got a good hand to post later. Cya.

Ignore this post.

2007-10-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

Just posting these so I can use them somewhere.

Ran bad most the month, coming back to normal, didn't make much in bb/100 terms but I think I spent most my month just minimizing losses.

Couple Hands

2007-10-19T14:19:00.000-04:00

Hey thought I post a few to see what you guys think of them.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1601730 Ok. Pretty simply, what kind of hands do you guys call 3 bets with. I am trying to limit my calling 3-bet call range now to hands with alot of potential... hands like FromAbove's. This one is on the fence to me, what you guys think.. fold/call/push because triko obviously has a weak hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1601325 What's you play on the river with no info on opponent except she is kind of splashy. I mean.. I am getting better than 3:1 on my money, but this card also hits most hands. I hate to call of that much when equitys are 100 or 0.. but I also hate to just leave the 1800 i got out there. The more I look at it... I am thinking its a fold, I just can't think of hands he check calls two barrels with that I can beat now.

This is a leak in my game. After I get alot of money in a never fold to river push... when really I probably should be more otherwise I am making it profitable for people to call with those 2:1 draws.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1601202 Ok.. so this is kind of standard 3-bet for me in posis blind verse blind. The 3-bet leaves quite a bit of play when blind vs blind. Smaugs and I have alot of history, he is a good player. I think a full pot bet on flop helps him rule out AAxx for me as I would be looking to get paid off. Now on turn do you guys like another bet. I mean I am thinking he can't go with the hand without A8 or better.. and even A8 is tough. Still 40% on turn so I think I like this line.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1598647 Really tempting to play flop, but I didn't know if I had 33%. Verse random aces though I am 40% so I definately cant call there. My mistake.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1598380 In hinesight. I think this is kind of a bad fold, not because he won't a set sometimes and we won't be splitting often. But because I have close to 33% of my stack in. So my thinking that I won't be ahead often and when I am not by much is right. But with that much in I gotta go with it. Not to mention I think my raise looks weak so that probably opens his repop range some. I think his range is fairly clear here being all sets, ATxx, low wrap + flush draw, and high open ender + flushdraw, I added the BBBsBs to incorporate 4 high cards with spades. That will include your AKQJ w/ spades and JQKsJs type hands. I am actually behind his range like I thought, but with 450 in I can't fold when I have 38% equity verse his holdings.

board: As6sTc

Ad9d8cTh
38.21%

AA**,TT**,66**,AT**,789s*s,JsQs**,BBBsBs
61.79%

Thats all for now. Been trying to get some hands in, played 1700 yesterday.. biggest sess in long time. Still running like 14k below equity over this month, about 10k hands, and still down about 12k on the month.

Super Tilt.

2007-10-13T21:39:00.000-04:00

I am on extreme e-mail tilt. The poker club is doing an interview with PokerNews.com. I just typed up everything, went to save it as draft, and my session had timed out. Nothing saved.

It's a crying shame...

Other problems... my phone is dieing.. it is beeping from somewhere on, around, or inside my bed... i cannot locate it though. Its like looking for your glasses for an hour before realizing they are on your head... I feel like an idiot hah.

I played for a couple hours today because of the Saturday $215 PLO. I won that for 1800 without too much trouble. Just had to survive 2 all-ins basically. I think I lost a couple grand at the 5/10 tables while I was playing though so yepppp pretty uneventful.

I am looking at credit cards right now since paying in cash or with my debit card isn't helping me with my credit at all. If anyone has reccomendations they are welcome. Thinking about getting one for personal use and one for business so I will have a real clean record of expenses to deduct on my taxes.

I have only earned 2k this month according to PokerEV, I am down roughly 16k I think. So that means that the cards are falling about 18k below expectation for the month. That sirs.... is pretty unlucky.

I am on fall break right now until Wednesay with I am really enjoying. I wish I had heard earlier about the poker tournaments going on at Turning Stone this weekend, I would have liked to go.

Hand analysis coming in next post after I get some more hands in this week.

GL at the tables.

Up or Down?

2007-10-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

Hey guys,

Still down on the month, but Saturday I stayed in and played a sess. Finally had a good session, had 2 suckouts for stacks still but I made around 10k. I feel like I am up.

Its almost like someone flipped a switch I could just feel my luck change and the game started flowing like normal. Its giving me some confidence back which allows me to play better. PokerEV says I am stilling running about 12.5k under expectation for the month though.

That reminds, someone asked about PokerEV. Just google it and you can download it. It runs all your shown down hands for whatever period and calculates the luck factor basically. It figures out how much you should have made vs what you have actually won.

I appreciate the other comments on my hands as well.

FTOPS happens 5 times a year.. who knew.... I am excited to play the omaha events again next month.

Going home this weekend for first time. I need a break from this town, so I am pretty excited.. just gotta make it through this week.

I don't even know why i am taking the time to post, I have alot to do.. I guess it is kind of relaxing though.

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570052 Nothing to special here.. I'm just proud of this hand. Normally I hang my head and dump my hand here. I figured this particular player would smooth call aces pre and play posis. I dunno... just had a feeling.. I hate to chalk it up to that but thats mostly what it was.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570070 How do play this flop boys. My initial thought was bump it up!!!! But then I was thinking about how easy it would be for him to have the A w/ heart if not AA in early posis. I am also thinking with those hands he will slow down if any of the straight cards hit which will either make my hand or save me money against the dominated hands so I call. The turn is my golden out. So question two.. how do you bet turn and why?

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570092 Tough tough hand. FromAbove is a really good player, reallll aggresive picks up tons of pots. So when the turn hits I am thinking bet strong and it;ll look weak because I am in steal position for the way this hand played. So when From Above raises I am thinking great he is playing right into what I am trying to sell. How could he check a nut flush draw on flop right? I am thinking my full pot bet gives the dry A the perfect motivation to steal. Then he waits like 2 seconds and pushes the river too.... can I fold do you think? I mean.... I thought for sure I was good on turn.... but I also know he is a real good player... would he push 1000 into the 1700 pot?

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570118 I think this is one of those rare times when a minraise is in order. when I 3-bet the flop especially since my reraise is substantial it allows him to fold even JJJ on this dry board. That said I dont want to flat call his raise because A) it is very suspicious B) i don't have iniative in the hand and I don't want to check and then have him check behind on turn ..... which is likely since my call would be suspicious. Now the minraise is suspicious as well.. .but lets face it.. its very hard to fold much of any hand on the flop to a minraise in omaha. I think he can still put me on as little as AJ if I minraise. Thoughts on getting max value?

5. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1570151 I thought I played this great till the river. I can't beleive he calls the flop. I rarely make a move like this, but its a great spot. If From Above jumps in after my race its so easy to fold. And I have a pretty good idea what Sealey has/is representing on flop. Even when he calls I think I am in good shape to win the hand...instead of making a big push I bet smaller to try and make it look like I don't wanna blow him off the hand. Can't beleive he called turn. On river I feel like I got 3 outered for the pot. I mean I know what he has.. I know he is gonna call when I push now.. but I still pushed... dumb dumb dumb. But really I feel like almost any other card he has to fold, especially like a 2,3,6,8. I obviosly won't be running bluffs on him anymore. That said I think this is a good spot to raise.. its so tough to play an overpair when I am raising with a guy left to act... just looks so strong like i'm not afraid of what he has.

This weekend I am gonna try to get 3k hands in.

Back to the business school grind.

September, October, and Some Choice hands

2007-10-03T19:36:00.000-04:00

September:

I played 13k hands and had really poor results. I made like 8k and that was basically all from the 4 or 5 tourneys I played.

October:

I've got 2.2k hands in already, but I am down 20k. According to PokerEV I am running about 15k below expectation for the month. Still means I have made -5k EV plays.. but I am not entirely concerned with that as sometimes maximizing EV means minimizing losses. I mean.. your coolers are gonna be very -EV... yet they are a necessary evil.

I did PokerEV on my hands from Jan-June ~100k and June-Now ~100k... the results were suprising. I had no idea I ran so well during my first 100k hands. I mean at the end of June I was like 100k over EV. However over the second period I am running over 120k below EV. I really wasn't prepared for these swings. I had always thought variance evened out around 50k hands. So anyways, my online bankroll is playing somewhat thin and its so disheartening to have broke roughly even for 100k hands or 4 months, but this is the game.

I have been lazy on hand analysis so here we go again. I decided pokerEV can provide the most interesting hands as I can check out the net Sklanksy bucks to really determine which decisions are big in the game.

1. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1548278 No analysis here. Just wondering if you guys ever fold this. Super player dependent obviously, but whats a good default.
Looking at it again I feel like I can confidently fold this actually. If I am wrong I am always drawing dead. If I am right villian is still going to have 25 percent equity because he is only making this move with nuts or a set. Yeah.. maybe thats a fold.

2. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1548284 OK lol.. this one is dumb too. Villian was playing alot of pots I felt like he would does this with some desperation hands. Basically I don't like my hand against ANY other hand. This was actually a really terrible play by me.

3. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1548288 here is a pretty interesting one. I don't see many hands paying me off on river, but I also can't imagine the 8 completing his hand so naturally I bet. A check raise on the river is such a strong play usually.. but the whole time I am thinking.. you already stacked him once..... he'd lead if he hit that miracle riv. Anyone think there is ever a bluff here on the river.

4. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1548316 Whats your default play in this situation. Given my play I am pretty postive this is the right play. He gets it in with any two pair on flop and so I only have to worry about him mkaing something like a KT** hand.

I am having a hard time finding hands like I used to. Maybe that means I am a better player now and haven't out my style... hopefully. But from now on I will just make draft posts while I am playing. Some of the more interesting hands are smaller pots which are difficult to find.

I have an accountant for the upcoming tax year now. His name is Russ Fox, he is one of only a handful of CPA's in the country who specialize in professional gamblers. By his estimates its looking like 40% will end up leaving me come April... about 5% state income tax, 13% self-employment, and 20-25% (effective rate) for federal. My bracket is going to be like 30%+ but
I guess dollars up to ur gross income are taxed at the rate they fall in. So my first 50,000 will cost me less than my next 50,000 type thing.

Anyways, it really seems to me that the games are much worse than they have been in the past. Maybe I am just more choosy now that I know all the players. But it sucks. Anyone share this sentiment?

More hands to come I promise. I am staking a kid I know from high school. He is playing tourneys for 50/50 standard deal. So far I have only had to invest 500 bucks and he is off to a good start with a 1500 or so bankroll. Obviously a bad patch and I may have to reload him, but so far so good.

I posted in alot of forums asking serious cash game people to post their stats for last year or thus far this year if they felt comfortable with it. I got flamed hardcore for asking lol Obviously I am not trying to impose on anyone. I expect 90 of people to be private about that kind of thing, but I also know there is a percentage that are very loud and proud. I wouldn't mind hearing how much they make. Personally I am very dissapointed with my results for the year this far. Hopefully I can break even this month lol after such a dismal start. Then maybe I can string together a 50-100k run to end the year.. thatd be great.

GL at the tables guys.

Update

2007-09-24T22:41:00.000-04:00

Hey guys,

Been real busy as can be expected. I am currently trying to work my way a little ahead on school business for a couple reasons.

A) its nice to be ahead if u run into any snags u got time to work them out
B) I wanna get some freaking poker time in, I hate not making money
C) I wanna go to Canada for some live play and fun nights
D) Midterms are approaching and its not optimum to have homework on top of studying.

Anyways on the pokerfront I've got to get back into posting hands here and really anaylzing them. I guess I haven't been as motivated to do so because I have really developed a style over this year and pretty much know how I am playing every hand as it occurs.

That said I also haven't been playing as methodically as I used to. I used to walk away from 2-3 hr sessions and feel like I made zero mistakes. Now it seems like I make one or two glaring errors everytime I sit.

While that may not sound like a big deal let me give this anecdote. I played about a 1k hands the other day..... I had 12 all-ins.....I lost every single one, some ahead some behind...... regardless these 11 all ins happened to all be hands I am pretty sure I played correctly.. thats why I checked the EV for all of them and I came out with -500 EV for the first 11... then I made a marginal/bad decision on the last.. kind of tilting and quadripled the EV to -2000..

It is really a testament both to the variance in this game, and how to make money. Its ok to push all those hands that you know you are going to be no worse than a flip or or 5-8 percent dog because when someone makes a glaring error in this game it is huge. Seriously... 11 all-ins in 1000 hands no win lol.. this game is ridiculous. I couldn't beleive that I even though I had lost soooo many thousands that day that for the most part I broke even.

Anyways, that is some perspective on variance. So this month I went from -5 to +12, to +25 + to 7 to -6 to +6 to -3000 from what I can remember. Only played 8500 hands. Really frusterating because I just want to sit down and log hands but I have to take 2-3 day breaks all the time for schoolwork.

I'd be lieing if I said I wasnt jealous of the online guys I know who get in 50k + hands a month. I'd love to see relatively consistent monthly results and I am definately sad I can't be sitting down and getting rich like them.

This is tourney type.

I had a couple chances for big scores this month. I played 2 WCOOP events thus far and 2 of the second chance events.

In the first I made the final table of the 6th handed event. I built chips from 370,000 to 1 mill with only getting all-in once. Now I am second in chips with the chip leader to my right. Then I ended up pretty much flipping with Jalla79 for a 2mill chip pot. That would have given me 2:1 over the next stack and a great chance to take it down. But unfortunately I came up short and went out 6th for 5500. It may have been a strategic error on my part with another stack at 200k chips. But honestly I expected the hand to end on flop, no showdown. Sucks I always seem to blow my big chances, but I guess I played to win

Then I bust out 13th in the second chance of the same event, dont even remember how but that sucks.

Next tourney is 300+R, I get screwed and bust in like 2xx place of that thing. But in the 200+R second chance I final table. I get in a pot with Thayer who is pretty short and get it in with a 90 edge on flop. 2 outer hits river he wins pot.. Very next hand I pick up double suited mid connectors, its raised utg by chip leader and very aggro player. I just call.. thayer repots. I know he has aces but I dont feel like I can afford to fold at this point.. I get a dry pair on flop he has less than psb so I have to call. No luck and no I am critical posistion.

I wait one round then pot with AK73 nut clubs. I know its weak but I didn't have much of anything left and this was actually the strongest hand Ihad seen in the last 15. Anyways guy isolates, which is ok with me. Then flips up AA73... very unlucky for us to be sharing... EVERYTHING!!! So i bust out first again f or 2.8k

Tournaments are ridiculously frusterating they put me on tilt like no cash game ever will hah.

So if i had taken first in either itd had been 43k or 70k, even seconds for either would have been great.

I dont feel like I ran even the slightest bit above average in the tourneys though which is awesome. I hope in the 530 tourney coming up I can catch some cards. Then it should be real easy to make a big payday.

At the house we had just a sick party for a house party. We went through a keg and 10 gallons of jungle juice by 12 oclock.. people had only been there for like 1.5 hrs tops. There was probably around 80 people here at one night, who knows how many throughout the night.

I am looking forward to putting together some wins again, it seems like forever since Ihave sustained any winnings. I mean in the last 5 months I have made 25% of what I made in the first 4 months, and thats about 85k hands for the first period and 105k hands for the second. Obviously alot of that has to do with the lack of 25/50 in the first 5 months haha. But still, I feel just terrible about that inconsistency. I really want to at least be able to match my winnings for the final 8 months of the year with the first 4 months of the year. If I can do that I will be happy with my post tax earnings on the year I believe.

I am already thinking of goals for 08 and hopefully I can really stick with the plan and make bank as it will be the first year I will have a real established bankroll and can just sit and grind 10/20 and 10/25... I definately need to improve my focus too, I mean I am like a kid with ADD. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to play 20k hand/month during school and I dont even know how much during summer. I play about 350 hands an hour so thats like 15 hr/week during school. In the summer I should probably average 20-30 hrs a week. Thats 28k-42k hands per month at my current rate. For that year that would be 8 months x 20k hands + 4 months times 28k-42k hands.... so 272k-328k...

And to be frank for a professional player that is a fairly lazy schedule hah, Good2Cu had what like 560k hands for the year in a month ago. I dunno I really wish I had some concrete stats on how many 6 max tables I can play at what bb/100. That would things alot easier. I feel stressed above like 5 tables... but I can pretty well keep up with up to 8.

And it would be easier if I played every game at my level I can find.... but is that optimal? I mean playing regulars regularly can't render the same winrate as when I am choosy I dont think.

Eh, who knows... I should just relax because I am already above the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year to have saved at the END of college. Frusterating work, don't let anyone ever tell u this isnt work..

If anyone has info on long term winrates at 5/10 or 10/20 and wants to share let me know. I am really curious if my game needs strengthening or if I just need to log hours.

Perspective Back Intact

2007-09-08T20:40:00.000-04:00

Hey thought I'd check in before I head out tonight.

Lately I have played very little. Obviously, moving in, welcome week, classes starting and all that business takes alot of my time up. I am pretty settled in now so I should be logging some more hours.

I've got 2k hands in so far this month and I am up about 12k (14pt/bb). Not luckboxing really at all just hitting some positive variance really.

I appreciate comments, they give me ideas on what to write and stuff.

I especially appreciated the comment from 'the don'. "You're a fkn balla so just relax and clear your head."

I dunno why but that really broke through to me I literally laughed out loud and thought to myself yeah this is not a big deal.

Especially getting back into a college town and seeing how thin money is spread here helps.

I don't have time to put up any hands right now but I swear I'll get back into that soon. I'll check out those HU hands you have too Burd.

Thursday was Festifall here at U of M which is like when all the student organizations gather in the middle of campus to advertise and recruit. Lots of people go all out with performances and what not. The club I started last year, MPL, Michigan Poker League, had a table this year. We had nothing but a sign, some cards and a few chips sitting there. Yet by the end of the day we had just shy of 300 names on our sign-up sheet. Before this our average game was like 9-14 players. Now one semester later we explode. I'm really happy that I will be able to include poker on my resume in a constructive way. I mean what employer is gonna condemn me for being involved in poker when I have founded and led an organization with 300 constituents.

We should be able to have some real good games this year, and hopefully we will be making some Canada trips soon as well.

On a negative note, E-trade has frozen by accounts with them and the accounts which I used to fund them. Basically I have been getting the run around, they won't deal with me by e-mail and it takes 30 minutes to ever get a rep on the phone. Then they tell me that it is because of 'suspicous activity'. I don't know how they can call any of my transactions suspicious when I have only had an account with them for 3 months, they have no clue what my business entails.

Anyways, I am extremely frusterated with this because they want me to write up a lletter with a ton of info, get it notarized somewhere and fax it in. I don't have a lot of time for this kind of thing, the purpose of doing business online is so I can deal with it quickly and from my house. If I wanted to run around I would keep it in a bank.

This is my 4th major snag with the U.S. Banking system and to be honest I am losing faith fast. I am about ready to withdrawl everythign and stuff it in a grocery bag somewhere.

Thats all I got for now, more updates to come when I get a little ahead on my school shit/club stuff/ and get some hands logged. Thats my priority hierarchy right now.

I am actually really enjoying myself so far this school year, surprising I know I have always always hated school.

Running out of Mental Angles to Take

2007-08-28T04:05:00.000-04:00

I played more 25/50. My thinking being that... well that I wasn't really thinking. For a span of about 30 minutes... things went good for the first period in the past 5 or so days. I should have just quit with that feeling despite being down on the day yet.

Anyways, I lost alot more.. alot more.

I dunno why I constantly do this to myself when I can just sit and make a good consistent wage at 5/10 or 10/20.

I am now down about 12k for the month that a few days ago I said would be my best ever.

I haven't busted my accounts, I'm not the kind of guy who puts his whole bankroll down EVER. But I am playing pretty thin right now given I am spread across three sites and have cashed out 25k this month.

I kind of feel like I went and screwed up the whole year. When I made this mistake in June it was like.. hey there is 6 months to build more cash. But now its like... 4 months.. and I won't be playing much. Just really disappointed in myself.

I have said it before and I'll say it again, despite such a huge downswing (and this thing is freakin huge) I should be happy with the money I have made to date.

I dunno when I will play again or what stakes. I'd like to play 10/20, but like I said my online roll is not so fat as of late and its not like I dare to keep 30 buyins on each site so that could lead to me going broke on a site. I have more than enough to play 5/10 but I am greedy... and don't really want to. But if I have to I will because this shit is still better than a day job no matter how choppy it gets.

I have now lost 57k to one guy who I only started playing this month lol. He is one of the worst Omaha players I have ever encountered for these stakes. Yet he is running over me like I'm only being dealt 3 cards.

I don't really know what mental approach to take to soften this. I mean if I keep thinking about playing to 'get back to where I was' its gonna be really shitty.

Maybe its time for that 100k goal, Bill Ivey did it playing 5/10 if I'm not mistaken.. hopefully a little break with me moving into Ann Arbor and welcome week and stuff will kind of refresh me or something karmic and spiritual like that haha. I'll try to share some good stories or other stuff in the blog in the posts to come because I don't have any positive poker news.

Poor Timing Award

2007-08-26T05:11:00.000-04:00

Before I get to the title I just wanted to answer comments from previous post.

how did the 50/100 shot go? hands?

See two posts ago. I won the biggest pot of my life by about 3x the previous and had just a good run there. This is the one time I ever had success moving up in my life.

Come do your Business School in the UK. Then you'll pay 0%, yes ZERO percent tax on your poker winnings. Ok, the weather sucks here but only a short flight from most of europe. and then there's always the WSOPE coming up soon.

That sounds like a ridiculously good deal to me.

Hey so how did you get up to playing 5/10 and 10/20, 10/25 plo? did you grind it out at 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, or how did you start out? Thanks!

Yeah in the truest sense of the phrase, I have paid my dues. I won a NLHE freeroll on a site called Play4FunPoker a couple years back. This gave me 100 to start with on Neteller. I put $50 on PStars and started learning. I went up and down up and down, cashing out to much then tilting off alot, redepositing, etc. I never tapped into any money that wasnt initially earned from that freeroll though. But I yoyo'ed anywhere from like .10/.25 NLHE to 3/6 lol.

After about a year I found omaha. I started at .10/.25 on Stars. Omaha was alot easier for me to keep consistent on largely because you can begin with nut peddling as a base strategy and slowly expand from there. Thing is I nut peddled so long, now I have to fight to keep myself from reverting to my nitty personality. The hardest jump for me was getting into 5/10. At least 4 times I had run good and played well and built up my bankroll. Went to 5/10 got outcarded.. and no doubt outclassed and had to back down. Sometimes as low 1/2 again. This really stressed me out, anonther thing I have to fight really hard to keep in control.

Anyways the last time before I became able to stay at 5/10 I took a 30 buyin downswing at a time when basically all the money in my life minus a grand or two was online. This sucked hard and I almost quit poker and just cashed everything else.

Moving to 10/20 was reeeeeallly smooth and that game has now really become my bread and butter... too bad I don't just play those games because I have a great track record over a statistically significant sample size.

Basically over 2006 I went from 1/2 to 5/10. So 07' was supposed to be just a grinding year for me 5/10 and 10/20 till my eyes bleed.. but I don't always stick to the plan like I preach.

Will be interested to hear about your experimenting with KKxx hands. Short-handed at low limits like 1/2 I've been 3-betting in position when I had good sidecards, but tried to do it with nice runs as well and it's gone well for the most part.

I think for a lower limit game I like 3 betting KKxx.. its one of the few hands you can dump pre mathmatically when 4-bet I guess is why I like that.

In the past few months I have seen a huge increase in the number of 3-bets at every level of omaha I am playing. Personally I think that 3-betting should be hinged not just on a range of hands but catered to specific situations. There are some tables I would only raise or 4 bet never three, and others I'll three bet about half the hands I am raising.

Another thing I have seen, and it really pisses me off even though its good for me, is people 3-bet minraising in the blinds and sometimes in position as well.

As far as in the blinds goes... this has got to the stupidest play you can make in my opinion. I have no clue what benifit it gives a player. If they have a connected ds type hand pre... fine...you are still inflating a pot out of position and doing so in a way that your opponent has plenty of stack left to pick their spots. If you have KKxx or AAxx... cool.. same thing as the drawing hand really.. the only plus is that maybe you can put a pot sized bet out on the flop and fold to a push.. whereas with a full 3-bet pre you probably cannot. But honestly if I know someone is using the minraise for that purpose I can just make their lives horrible by repotting a pair and kickers even. Its like handing over a pile of fold equity to your opponent.

The other reason I hate it is because it opens the game up to a new dimension, something you'll find in NLHE more and more often these days, and thats 4-betting pre. And right now in the current state of Omaha... 4 -betting is almost exclusively Aces. This allows the original raisor to 4-bet fairly small. Now the player has position, has cemented a representation of Aces, and the oppurtunity to hit a hand. You're screwed minraiser.

So to some that up.. with either type of hand their is a good counter strategy. I suppose maybe if someone mixed these ranges up it would be tougher to counter... but your still inflating a pot out of position while leaving your opponents tons of stack depth to work with. Not an ideal situation no matter how tricky your range may be

POOR TIMING AWARD
- To be presented to a Mr. Rollover2k -

So like I said I made a ton at the beginning of the month. So once again I am plenty rolled for some 25/50. And once again I start playing 25/50 right after a spell of running good. And once again I run quite terribly. This time I am confident I was beating the games I was playing. That said.... I didn't beat the games. On a real big downswing currently. I really wish I would have followed my plan and never played over 10/25 this year. 2 5/50 has really just sucked out so much money from my earnings. I'd probably have made about twice as much. Its funny though, I have only played 10k hands there but I am at negative 10+ptbb/100. So its like... even if I am the worst player in those games (I actually expect I would be about a 2-3ptbb/100 winner long term) I should be able to expect to make some money at them in the future. I mean even if I am a losing player there it wouldn't be by more than a few ptbb/100 so I am just so far below my expectation. Really depressing to go from such a good month to still up... but super mediocre month. Namely what gets me mentally is I had erased the downswing I had earlier in the year only to be shoved back into it.

I hate to bitch and moan.. but uhhh... this my blog and I reserve the right to do so now and then hah

I have made in the area of 15k in what I think are questionable calls over the past few days so I may post some of those.

I played a number of hands with Mike Matusow or alongside him past few days. I gotta say I pictured an entirely different player. He is not the least bit LAG. In fact he is one the tightest full stackers I've played at 25/50. We played some interesting pots which will probably be up tommorow as I am taking a break. Anyways I don't know why everyone thinks he is so bad, maybe he tilts alot at higher limits? But he really was grinding it out at 10/20 and 25/50 this week and took some beats in stride I can see why he manages to stick around the poker community.

For the first time... hmm actually I think in my life, I lost a hand and instantly closed all my tables and shut down the poker programs (Stacked by Zigmund at 25/50 with a marginal hand.. but I was 40/60 vs. his crazy ass so its fine I think) . It was one of those things where I knew I wasnt going to bounce back tonight and I just needed to get readjusted to my losses for the past few days. Yeah so this isnt going to be my best month ever anymore lol... serves me right for jumping the gun.. but I am still up bout 3 ptbb/100 over 20k hands.(EDIT: less now lol).. I have definately played better than that though. The sad thing is if I catch a rush now it won't be at 25/50... and thus I'd have to run and play like one sick puppy to recoup everything at 10/20.

Honestly thats the main thing that keeps me from dropping down till I really hit some kind of bottom. I just keep thinking like a degen.. if my luck turns around down there I wont make as much back lol. This is stupid thinking hah.

I just gotta stop trying to get filthy rich in one year. I'll be playing cards alot for at least the next 3 so I should probably just chill and put in the hands. I have only played like 180k this year... which makes lazy even on poker player standards. I know a number of guys who got 500k+ in already. On the other side of the coin.. I haven't seen anyone with ptbb/100 levels comparable to mine who plays a pile of hands (guarentee there are plenty who surpass out there though). I think pacing yourself and not burning out is definately EV+ as well as my normal standards of game selection.

Its funny seeing the results of one guy on a blog. This is a guy I once e-mailed to try and get him to come speak to the poker league I run at school about being a pro lol. Here I have played about 1/3 the amount of hands and I'm making the same or more and I definately don't consider myself a pro (cept on the tax return).

Anyways.... I'm not even talking about anything anymore I am just bored and cooling down. I will play again when I can look at my current results for the month and year and be happy again. Thats whats its all about for me, I need to be comfortable with what the PTO says before I can play my best.

Final Thought: I think I am going to start a goal, I have never really operated like that before. I want to make it something managable with conditions for a dollar amount and number of hands. The first one that comes to mind is 100k in 100 days as made famous by Bill Ivey. Thing is he had alot more time not being in school. Maybe I will do like 100k playing no higher than 10/25 by the end of the year. Not exactly shootin for the moon but I will probably only play like 15k hands a month during school.

Lets see 60k hands at 3-8ptbb/100 is about 72k- 192k... sooo if i run real bad for a while maybe I dont get there. But by all means I should be able too.

I think segmented goals might allow me to concentrate less on the big picture which makes things less stressful I think.

Alright the rambling is over, if u got any comments.. wanna tell me to stop complaining.. ideas for goals... or anything else post that stuff. Also.. if anyone sees me at 25/50 the rest of 2007 (barring some tiltfest that I must partake in) assert your cyber authority so I go back where I belong.

GL.

Busto......

2007-08-22T22:28:00.000-04:00

Such a bad run ugfhghh

Haha.. just kidding. Bet you guys thought I was losing because I havent been posting.

Actually I am a few grand shy of the richest I have ever been. I have played very little this month, like 13k hands so far.

Part of this is because the good games I have been talking about have all but dried up. Now I have to go back to really working for a buck if I want to play. And rather than do that, I'd like to take it easy enjoy my last few weeks of freedom and just pop in if I see something crazy going on.

This is going to be my best month to date. I played both the FTOPS omaha events and both were really disapointing. I busted out of the first in 20 minutes lol. I'll spare any beat stories, its poker. The second one I made it pretty deep like 140/8xx. I ended up stacking off to YellowSub, aka Jeff Williams. I think he more or less outplayed me I'll put the final hand up next post.

PokerStars WCOOP is coming up. I am really excited about that becaus ethey have 3 omaha events. I feel like I have a big big edge in these big omaha tourneys because there are so many hold'em players in them. I'd really like to make a big tourney score like 10k plus so far my biggest is only 5.5k.. But I did beat Scott Fischman heads up for that 1st place.

I have been doing a bunch of reading about taxes. If anyone has questions I can probably answer them. I also ordered 2 books on filing as a professional gambler, which I really have no choiced but to do.

Anyways, I never really thought about taxes because I didn't make nearly as much last year. But holy shit, by my estimates I'm going to end up shipping about 35 percent of my winnings for the year.

This truly is the worst beat I'll take as a poker player. Like my uncle said though, better to have this problem than not.

Anyways if anyone has clever ideas for deductions or some experiences with taxes feel free to comment. Basically I'm loooking into whatever I can find to legal reduce my taxable income.

Some good stuff to read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion Kelly Criteria is not a real talked about theory, or rather equation, but it is actually the subject of a former bestseller, Fortune's Formula. I was reminded of it by a 2+2 post. Take a couple minutes to read this, its relatively simple but is pretty widely applicable to poker and investing.

http://www.pocketfives.com/3EEA2BCA-A7CE-471A-A0BC-5535A8FDAD4F.aspx And of course Grapsfan writes another great article. Cliffnotes: The way to not be disapointed with your play, is to stick to a premeditated course of action. This is sometimes easier said than done, but utimately its a real important mental concept in poker. I felt like this especially applied to my play this month because I 'took a shot' with the 50/100 game. When I sat I didn't make any resolution to change my gameplan from what normally yields me success. That means I wasn't leaving just cuz I got a stack, I was staying as long as the game was good. That means I wasnt going to play shortstacked. That means I am not going to my a fold I normally wouldn't just because the gravity of the cash in play is too powerful.

Basically... no matter what you are doing its best to know where your headed and how you want to get there.

ALLLLLLSOOOO I am adding two good blogs to my links in case you guys ahvent caught them.

The first is Patrik Antonious's. This is interesting just because he is probably the coolest man alive. Seriously, dude was a tennis star, model, and is now one of the most feared pro poker players... did I mention filthy rich?

The second is for an Austrian named Nikolaus Jedlicka you guys probably know him by now.
Plays as KaiBuxxe on FTP and RealAndyBeal on stars. Here is a little writeup on him.
http://www.pokerkingblog.com/2007/07/25/who-is-kaibuxxe-on-ftp-realandybeal-on-pokerstars/

Some may also recall I wrote about Kai a couple months ago when I lost a ton of money at 25/50. I had known what I was dealing with. Really he struck me as a good player that gambles too much. Which is somewhat true... but he is sick! Up like 3-4 mill in the big PLO games as of late. Maybe I should ask him for my 16k back when he is running good again.

Anyways, when I have some more interesting things to write about I will. right now though I have very little to say. I have just been reading alot about taxes and studying the games more since they arent good enough for me to be playing alot.

Ohh forgot, I have been experimenting with KKxx hands alot. I think I found a new standard way to play them which should yield alot better results at the games I play. I dunno if others play and have been playing KK like I am right now, but either way it'll increase my profitability which a hand that can often get you into trouble. I may or may explain what I have been doing (dont get excited its not any new poker discovery, just a new default play).

Good Hand.

2007-08-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1369761

Someone posted this in the comments to discuss. This is the kind of hand that I felt the decisions were fairly easy on... but when looking back its actually a pretty interesting hand.

Preflop: Pretty standard, I am not looking to inflate the pot my repoping an aggresive player with a 200bb stack.

Flop: I am pinned a little bit here. I know my hand is ahead of Nio's c-bet range for sure... namely because he is a holdem player and they tend to c-bet alot more. That said its not a good idea to raise here I don't think because almost every turn card is going to make my next play verrrry tricky because his range will have become stronger calling the bet, yet I'd still have no real information about what draws he has. I also dont think I can fold JUST because Midora is behind me. To just assume that Midora has hit the flop is a mistake. So i opt to call, clearly I have to call the push by Midora. Now when Nio flat calls there is no doubt I have the best hand, and I can eliminate alot of draws from Nio's range. He knows that my flat call is weak, so if he has anything of strength he is going to repop on the flop to isolate the pot.

Turn: So the turn fills a straight, and also adds another flush draw. There is two reasons I dont fear the straight A) i think he leads out with it because given my action he can expect me to be drawing most the time, if u look at it from his seat.. I would never put me on Aces. B) Most 4/6 combos he will be raising up pre will have other pieces or this board. Whether it be a top pair, a flush draw, etc. So I expect that if he had the 4/6 in his hand he would have raised on the flop. If that makes sense, I am basically saying I dont think the times when he has a 4/6 with another piece he raises flop.. and the times when he has the 4/6 dry he leads turn.

So what hands does that leave for him? I dont know exactly. But I cannot figure out a way he can have me beat here without raising the flop or leading the turn. So I bet pot fully expecting to take it down right there.

River: He makes a quick call of the pot size bet. If I made a mistake I feel like its on the river.. or perhaps I make a smaller bet on the turn so I have room to manuever on river.

Anyways, I am pretty sure he leads a flush on the river. So maybe I should have just pushed, but I was pretty sure I had the best hand if he didn't hit two pair on the river. That said I am not sure he would fold any two pair on the river after getting in so deep. My read was that he was not an easy fold (which was confirmed later). Anyways there is only a few two pair hands in his range and I'm not positive they fold. So I think this was played ok.

This could be a flaw in my game though. I rarely put people on call down hands when defining a range. This is probably because my own tendency is to bet/fold... I dont like to call down many hands so I guess I dont expect people to be doing that usually.

That hand was a little aggrivating because I reeeeallly thought I was raking the sidepot on the river. Good call by Nio on the turn, although I dont know why he doesnt just push the last 1600 on the turn. Pretty odd.

If anyone sees me play a hand they think is wrong/weird/etc. feel free to put it inthe comments and I'll go over it. Like I said these decisions seemed fairly obvious to me at the time, like I was pretty decisive. But maybe this isnt the best way to play it. Maybe I should just check it down?

Heh, followed some of the 10/25 guys, up to 25/50, then up to 50/100. The games were playing good which is when I should be taking a shot, not when I am stuck.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1369854 Finally I don't make the deep stacked mistake I always make and 3-bet the aces to 5k only getting 20 percent in pre. Its like I got rewarded for finally learning. Pretty standard hand except I don't know if I will ever be in a spot where I cold call $25,000 again. If this was live play I probably would have just started crying when it came back around to me... then I'd run away from the table.

Always I have a pretty dominate hand for the main and sidepot.... cool.

I didn't cash anything out for the past 2 months until now. I am in the process of wiring alot of money off because I won't need hardly anything on there once school starts.

I'm Pretty Lazy

2007-08-12T21:56:00.000-04:00

No hands yet because I have such a poor work ethic.

Hmmm whats been going on.. I got moved in, my room is going to be pretty cool.

I had my biggest winning session ever.

Won the biggest pot of my life by far.. actually like 3 times the next closest pot.

Continuing disapointment about school starting soon.

Anyways, eventually I will get to some hands but rightnow I got nothing.

Since that big sess I played twice. Made 5k, then lost about 5k today.

Pssh... All over the Board

2007-08-09T23:23:00.000-04:00

Swing Swing Swinging.

I have a feeling my SNG game is a little subpar. I know how to play all the hands based solely on hand value and everything. But I don't necessary play hands correctly when I am a big chip leader, or really outchipped. Situational type hands you know.

Been playing alot of 10/20 and 10/25 with very little 5/10 mixed in. The 10/20 on FTP is where I have the highest BB/100.. and by far. (over a statistically relevant sample size).

The games have been just awesome this month. I don't know where these guys are coming from.

I played a 12 hr all night session yesterday and got 3k hands in. I slipped down 7k, then rocketed back to 7k in the green, then I spent the next few hours slipping back into the red by what was eventually 17k. But all the while I was finding great games on UB and ok games on Full Tilt. Anyways I packed it in at close to 6 AM after I swung back into the green by close to 10k.... Thats was a 27k swing in a couple hundred hands near the end there.. Ridiculous. Anyways I am up the same up amount this month as I was at the end of 2.5k hands. But now I have about 6k in for the month.

All that means is what was once a hot streak at 25ptbb/100 is now more or less on pace at about 6.5ptbb/100.

Anyways even thought I am close to expectation ptbb wise. I feel like I have actually run a little poorly only because I have played suuuuuuuuch weak games this month that I would expect my expectation to be higher than normal.

Anyways, highlights from last night... I saw a 25k pot at 10/25... ten buyins.. pretty crazy.

One table I bought in for the normal 2500, ran it to 13k, and eventually lost all that plus 5k more... so like 17k swing at one table.

Lost 15k at another table through the course of the night.

PimpOwnage.. who many of you may have watched playing the 200/400 NLHE games busted his roll at the 10/20 PLO tables yesterday. And by the way I mean no disrespect here he is by no means busto from poker. The guy is rich rich rich and just needs to reload his account.

But I have talked about him in another post playing crazy at 10/20.
He ran his remaining 2k up to like 18k early in my sesssion... much of it from me : (
Then he lost everything back to the 10/20 games at the tail end of my session.

Great player when he wants to be though, talks alot of trash to so its fun.

Played a bunch with Stevie Z. Talked to him a fair amount, nice guy good conversation at the tables.

Some good stuff to read. CTS's blog right now, he is doing a PLO challenge and analyzing all pots where he is plus or minus 80 BB or more. This is kind of what I do here, except I am lazy and dont do them all. But yeah there is some real good analysis in there. Its crazy how easily the higher stakes players can adapt to a new game. Its like they just have their minds trained to understand things inherent to all of poker.

So on cardrunners, Phil Galfond, CTS, Taylor, Brian, Andrew, and Stinger are all playing a fair amoutn of PLO. And most of blogging about it. This is great for the game, I'm real happy about it.

I am moving most my stuff into the house tommorow so I am not doing hands tonight. But there are some good ones finally so I'll get those up soon.

I also talked to a regular I play with alot today. He always gives me a ton of trouble. But we were talking about jobs and what not last night and I told him I went to the b-school at u of m.

Today he asked how much I have won/lost this year. I told him I tell if you tell.. I'm always up for information but I dont like to give mine freely.

Anyways he is up a little more than me this year, including a big loss at 50/100 kind of similar to my losses at 25/50 a few months ago. So its nice to know I'm more or less on par with the good players in my games. I played alot of 5/10 and 3/6 at the beginning of the year while he almost never plays those games. So even though I have played more hands I suspect our winrates are comparable.

Thats all. GL at the tables.

SNG's and Impending Doom for August

2007-08-04T22:50:00.000-04:00

Hey

So I played another 500 after posting on the 1st, and then another 500 on the 2nd.

I continued to be fortunate, running into good easy to play spots. Havent really been luckboxing persay just having my 2:1's hold.

Made a few more grand on the 1st, then about 9k on the second so up around 21-23k for the month. I hope my regression to expectation comes slowly so I dont have to dump 15k in a sess and beat myself up over it.

Anyways I have also been checking the SNG's on stars and tilt when I don't really like the lineup at the 6-max games.

Bigger buy-in Heads Up turbos, and even regular sng's, are like crack. I won my next three after losing three on the 1st. Oddly enough they were the exact same stakes too so I am even for them on the month. I look forward to playing more although its hard to find players in Omaha and I would expect to be realllly dogging it if I played $500-2000 hold'em ones.

Regardless they are kind of a reprieve for me, its a form of poker I still find somewhat fun.

I also took 3 buyins of 500 to short stack the other night on the 10/25 game just for fun. I have a bit of experience with shorting but I when I do it now I am not really looking to grind out 1-2 ptbb/100. I was just looking to gamble it up maybe make a few quick bucks or whatever.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1334803 Just a big one almost 600 bb's. With alot of players I opt to call the bet and try to check raise turn. But sunnysue was looking to play big pots lots of 3 bets etc. So hey... just get it in and gooooo.

GAME SELECTION!!!!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1334809 I have talked about game selection alot and beleiving it to be essential to the success of your 'average' grinder. I mean guys like CTS and Rugby don't shy away from any games, but they know when they are playing your Antonious's and Ivey's that there isn't easy money to be made.

Like I said SunnySue is looking to play big pots and generally just throwing cash around, Miss Sassy is down a number of buyin's already. Of course neither of these players are just pushovers, nobody at this level is....but they werent playing their best at the moment so thats a game I wanna be in.

I will give someone $25 bucks if they got a pokertracker hand like this. 3-way all-in with top and bottom on unpaired board and 70% equity. Its just ridiculous and would never ever happen in a young game.. meaning if this table had just started we'd never see this hand.

Game Selection.. so key.... I really need to keep following this advice myself.

On that same vein I played another game on Full Tilt where a hold'em turned omaha player at 10/20 had been just killing the past few days. He said he was up something like 40 buyins over 3 days. But he had stacks of 11k and 20k at the 10/20 tables.

Well I watched for a bit while OMGclayaiken (Phil Galfond see his cardrunners.com blog) lucked a 10k pot off him (though neither played the hand wrong) and hustled quite a bit of him. Now I see mr. big stacks 3-betting pre about 33% of hands and raising probly 66-75%.

Of course I am gonna get in. Stacks get deep quick then we play this hand.

Best Play/Call I ever made I think. Bad result.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1334834 Preflop is pretty standard I raise hoping for a 3-bet as advertised. I actually thought about 4 betting it as I am sure this is ahead of his range right now. But then I would have to call a push, and if we went to the flop I have to get it in pretty light (which he will be doing as well). However, he is willing to get it in light no matter what size the pot so I have more leverage if I just call I think.

On the flop I my first thought is RAISE. But then I can't get off that K of Clubs. Because I am at best flipping with any King high flush draw hand. Also I know in his current state he isn't folding KJ or K2 or the Ace high flush draw. All of which I dont have a ton of equity over, if at all.

So I opt to call, again I know if I hit my hand he is stilling willign to get it in light. On the turn he instabets pot and I almost instafold.. kind of a habit/fear reaction. But I get to thinking, this guy is down so much he isnt going to be blowing me off the pot with something KKxx, JJXX, or even K2XX, orJ2xx. Now I am trying to figure out if he could have AA or KJ. These are possibilities yes. But as I have said before... when a guy playing fast has a hand like this and a two flips up he is gonna pause for some thought. Its almost inevitable I think that their will be hesitation here with any type of moderately strong hand.

So now I am thinking most of his range is draws, especially with the king of clubs still glaring out. I just think his snap bet is gonna be weakness almost always so I kind of just have to close my eyes and push. I cant really formulate an exact hand for him being there is alot of draws.

Anyways I am in for most my money with almost 70% equity. I am proud of that call because normally I lack conviction to wrangle in big bluffs and power plays, most my call downs are small.

A couple of other hands I am not sure about are a 3600 pot HU when I flop the second nut flush verse nuts. Getting it in on turn. I really don't know if i can fold it.

I stacked of at 10/25 trying to bluff AA on a J8774 (two diamonds) board. My mistake was checking the flop after he 3-bet pre then checked to me. I started my bluff on the turn... proably not smart.

Also I lost 4800 in a 3-way 12k preflop pot. I raised got 3-bet by the big stack who had just lost a big pot before the hand and a crazy player 4-bet in blinds. I came over the top and the big stack called probably thinking we were both playing AAxx. he had J67T ds and actually had plenty of equity 41% pre. So I guess if u are rolled to handle that its probably not a bad call (if both players have AAxx that is). In this case only I did.

I also lost a 300bb pot with JJxx on a J422 board. I really felt like the guy had 22 and wnated to fold sooooooooooooo bad. But the other part of my head says... u know he probably plays 44 the same way.. u gotta go with it.

Thats all folks. Gotta start packing up for school soon we are moving my shit in on the 10th cuz my sis is moving that day anyways.

GL everyone, and if anyone wants to play let me know I can make private tourneys of any type on stars.

July in Review and a good start

2007-08-01T22:20:00.000-04:00

I got the books recorded for last month on my spreadsheet. I ran about 6.5 ptbb/100 over all my limits last month. Nothing to scoff at but I can do better. I only ended up playing about 16k hands over 75 hours.

Today I played about 500 hands and made about 10.5k without playing many big pots. The spots were just right today. After that sess I played a 1000 HU match vs. YellowSub86 (Jeff Williams) on Stars.

He got me down 2:1 after I 3 bet from bb with j87T ds and fired into a 224 flop, he flat called. Turn is a 9, check check, river is an A....

now I think I have to bet because it seems like his most likely holding is an over pair to the flop. I'm thinking he has the overpair like 60-70 percent of the time it goes call, check. Or a very weak 2 the other times, and my line looks alarmingly like aces.

Anyways he snap calls with A2. Final hand I get 33% in pre with AA63 ds and c-bet into a 244 flop.. hes got K469. So yeah he played pretty well but I think I was unlucky for him to flop those dirty trips in the only two pots i 3 bet pre.

Later I played two 220 turbo's HU verse same guy. Lost both but I feel like I played real well as far as adapting to the levels. I picked up a huge number of pots. Ultimately I lost the first one on a 70/30 hand which would have left him with 200.

The second I ran into AAxx with my KK24 ds with 800-900 chips left and blinds at something ridiculous.. No getting away I dont think.

Anyways, I am liking these HU sng's despite the results so far. Its funny cuz I had like a 40% percent roi on sharkscope from back when I used to play $11 45 man turbos. And my big 1700 in profit is all gone haha.

I think I will continue trying to play these because I am a decent HU player but my issue is tilt when the game is playing fast. But hey I can only lose a buy in right. Not 5 or 10 lol.

So subtract that stuff and I am up 9 ish on the day. Obviously running over expectation for the month but it still feels good, and I feel I had my worse batches of cards during the SNG's which let me get out cheaper than a cash game would.

Plans for tommorow, get a new birth certificate because I put mine through the wash like a true genius. Then apply for a passport.

I still want to go get some new clothes soon and drop some money because I really dont spend that much.

Other things to do before this summer starts wrapping up... obviously pack, new muffler on the Mav, wax my dad's care cuz we made a deal.. I get garage if I wax it..., wax my own care

Anddddddddd finally... relax realllllllllllly freaking hard and see alot of friends because school really darkens my days.

And I will be working out harder for the next 3 weeks. I havent quit by any means but my workouts have been fairly light as of late and I wanna work a little harder.

Thats all for today, I really want to get back to more in depth hand stuff but I am really not finding anything of interest.

Pushaments, quick post, HHs Later

2007-07-30T23:29:00.000-04:00

Hey,

I haven't been playing too much lately, I took something like a 4 day break because I just didn't feel like playing.

When I got back on the horse I made about 12k over a few days which was all lost and then some the other day.

Surprising I was playing mostly 5/10 when this happened, with a little 10/25 off and on, and one table of 10/20.

I stacked off a few times when I really didn't need to on dry boards. But it was just so hard to put the guy on a big hand on a dry flop when he is three betting pre. Anyways.. this guy.. did.. always ran into his top set vs my top pair kicker draw combos 3 times ha.

Ahh well this month had been going pretty well, due for a correction I am sure.

It'll still be a decent month all things tallied, but still doesnt erase my july from the depths of hell.

School is coming up really fast and I am not excited. I have always done well in school... but me and formal education have never gotten along on a very fundamental level.

I'd probably quit school if I didn't know the value of security. Probably a lesson learned from my dad. he is a pattern maker at GM but he also took the time to get a teaching degree which makes him more valuable for training at the plant but also gives him something to fall back on.

I think everyone can agree poker is not a stable arena. Not to mention its really not what I want to do, it just allows me to live how I want. I really just want to be a businessman on an individual level. Just want to be able to pursue aveneues and ventures that interest me... gotta have a healthly chunk of capital to work with though.

Anyways today I play a 50 dollar tourney at Soaring Eagle in Mt. Pleasant, MI. Starting stacks were 2k with 50/100 blinds to start ha. And they doubled every 20 minutes. So it was a crapshoot.

I played about 5 hands before going broke in what was probably the biggest pot of the tourney at that time.

I raised utg+1 with kings.... blinds 250/500 I make it 1400, guy to my left pushes for 2100 over the top, guy behind him calls with some random amount 1800-2600ish, this terrible lady who has no idea what shes doing cold calls. I push for like 1500 more.

Guy to my left has AA, guy to his left has AJ, crazy lady.. 78 off.

Well as soon I saw the 7 on flop I knew I was toast. 8 peels off turn.

Its really not very much fun at that poker room because the tourneys play as stated, and the only NLHE game is 1/2 100 max. I really crave some live deepstacked poker. It really brings out the players and is a real challenge I think.

I will post some hands later when I dig out some of interest.

I can't wait for the FTOPS and WCOOP omaha events, I would really love to make a big score. I almost never play big Holdem tourneys because I dont feel as confident in NLHE anymore.. but in tourney Omaha I feel like I have to get really shafted to be beat. Thats pretty cocky, but what I am saying is I feel I can make a very high percentage of good decisions in Omaha tourneys and the players are usually much weaker than in my cash games.

I am trying to get a trip to Turning Stone organized for this month but I dunno if I'll be able to swing it. I am almost willing to go alone if my friends cant come, hopefully it doesnt come to that.
PLANS for tommorow

Get up before 12.. ugh 930 actually, to mow the lawn.. I should really pay some kid to do it

Go get some cchicken breast

head to grillin tuesdays for grilled chicken panini

Possibly go out to the mall or movie after that

Go home and workout

Watch WSOP yeah yeah

Run at 12ish

NOTEEEEEEE

SUPERBAD looks freakin hilarious and I cant wait to see it

I love the bourne movies, and I am really excited about the 3rd this friday

Finally... someone made a comment about my writing in the blog being unintelligent.

Forgive me if I don't wish to proofread and edit during the summer on a document as unimportant as this. I actually write very well on projects that matter and have never gotten less than an A on a paper in my life. Its really the thing that is supporting me at school haha

I have a feeling this would be quite a bit less interesting to read if I wrote it as meticulously as I do my school work.

Alright that's that. I was a little offended alright.

OTHER NOTE:

I have driven by somewhere around 8 cops as of late and gotten no tickets. Eat it Johnny Law.

Stacking Up and Stacking Down

2007-07-19T22:35:00.000-04:00

So I played alot of hours this week, no exactly a TON of hands though.

I am playing now more than 4 tables nowadays. I really am noticing a difference in the ease of my decision making when I play 2-3 tables.

I beleive 3 tables is my point of diminishing returns for 10/20 or 10/25. I can probably play 4 of 5/10 and maintain a high level of play.

Anyways heres the recap, played 5.5k hands since I got back from Canada. Made about a dollar/hand for that period. I should probably be happy about that but I blew through a 16k stack at 10/25 one night which I feel I could have somewhat avoided. Here are the two big hands.. I hate to post such weak plays by myself but hey gotta be honest.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281111 Ok looking at this again I think its actually kind of standard. I am able to get nearly 50% of Ohio's stack in pre and Midora's action pre flop is negligible. The flop is about as tricky as they come. I decided I wanna check the flop because I see him pushing every set or two pair there and I feel I can't fold given the way these type of pots play. Usually with 50% in the villain pushes absolutely any piece. Given that thought.. perhaps I could fold on the turn.. I dunno I can't really analyze this much.. I just called because there was so much in and I could see myself having the best hand a percentage of the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281122 I entitle this one.. how not to play deepstacked omaha.

My main error was reraising preflop. I am going to be out of position I know Ohio is coming in.. as shown in previous hand. Of course as advertised I pound the dry flop with my low quality aces out of position knowing full well Ohio calls big raises with low rundowns. All in all.. bad bad play.

I played lower the next day and got pounded at 5/10 despite playing what I thought was my best in a long time. My main opponent is 75/50 over a substantial sample which is just insane. Basically a player like this is impossible to beat when they are hitting because they are always in the pot.

At this point in the weak I am down about 15k since coming home.. though I feel that number could have been something like 7k.

Hey I found Colors.....
And other stuff.

Anyways, I sat 5/10 later that same day and the 75/50 came back. I was able to get all in preflop with AAxx twice and KKxx twice as well as win some other pots and in short work I had a 3k and 5k stack at 5/10.

Now my 75/50 is on tilt and feels the best place for him is 10/25.

I get seated on his left. First big pot I play is verse a different player.. but is standard in my opinion. I had a wrap verse his set on a no flush board and made my hand on the riv.

Second big pot is verse the maniac, I flat call a button raise after limping aces and the flop is A24.

Maniac leads.. I flat call. Turn J.. maniac pots I push. He has 35 ha.. good hand.

After that I hit a big rush of cards and I stacked up to 11k from a few all in's and just picking up the bleeding from my 75/50.

Then I played this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281152 So yep.. this seems familar ha I felt better about raising aces pre here because A) they were fairly premium. B) Lolimon is ready to play verrrrrry light in these big pots.

Anyways I should have spent more time sizing my bet on the flop. I am 95% sure gimme had a seven and that he is only pushing a seven on this flop. Lolimon on the other hand will call/push a bunch of smaller overpairs and crappy straight draws. So the optimum bet would have probably been like 2k ish. Now I can smoke out gimme nutz if he has a seven and entice Lolimon in with a plethora of trash. As it was I had to fold because I beleive I need like 10 to 1 to call the flop there cuz I think I had 2 outs.

Note: PLAY ACES BETTER IDIOT, namely in deepstacked poker like the 10/25 often is I need to reevaluate hand values. I should be playing hands that will perform well to the river. Because with deep stacks the hand usually starts on the later streets... by that I mean expect mindless raises pre and c-bets on the flop a large percentage of the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281173 Now we go to a lesson in bluffing. Now at which point you are bailing out and why. Also avoid desperation.

On flop I make a raise I don't always make. Here though I know Rob Hollink to be an aggresive player who will make this bet with all overpairs to that flop as well as air sometimes.

So I make a smallish 'I got me a four raise'. I make another odd sized bet on turn to look like I am extracting and I was really convinced he had aces or kings here because I'd seem him play an overpair this same way.

Now when he calls I've got to know I am in trouble. Rob is a strong player and if he thought his pair was good now he is pushing on this drawy board. So up to this point I like my 'semibluff'. On the river though I've got to give up. If he had a super weak 4 somehow I think he gives it up on the turn or pushes there. That simply leaves the monster.. I can't make any kind of boat fold here... shoulda saved 2k on riv.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281198 Alright this one is tough.

Whats your play here, I honestly have no clue. I have same of his check raising hands noted from playing in raised pots. He was willing to raise light when someone was repping aces. So I figured he was willing to check raise here with his overpair thinking I was on a steal.

Basically I got real lucky but what do you think? Can/Should I fold this on the flop?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1281227 Hmm dunno bout this one either. But as it happened I like my play. I end up with 38 percent equity in the side pot with Sapster and 35 in the mian, which is just fine for the amount of money in the pot. Given my equity if I checked I would have to call sapster anyway... yada yada always getting 2:1 exactly on a pot sized bet.. I am less than a 2:1 doggg... yada yada. As it happens though I think I like leading because I am pretty sure Muckem doesnt have an overpair. I have seen him 3 bet a number of hands in the blinds and 1) I think he three bets aces less in the blinds than other hands which will play better/more deceptively on flop 2) I think he c-bets the flop w/ overpair given its essentially 3 handed.

So i am just betting to close out the pot and draw against reena (whom i assume will call) for the preflop cash.

I dont really have anything else. Most of my hands where less than interesting and fairly standard imo.

I came into alot of good spots yesterday night and made 20k playing 5/10 and 10/25 on UB with mr. 75/50.

I'm really happy about my switching to less tables. The play is less stressful and I am able to make better/easier decisions.

In nonpoker news: Bear Grylls of Man vs. Wild is more or less my hero. If you don't ever catch this on the discovery channel.. get on that shit

I took today off to study this week's hands a little and just relax. I may play a little tommmorow but I have some stuff to do later. Saturday my cousin is getting married and I have a grad party to go to at night because I promised so looks like a little vacation from cards is in the works.

CHECK out this blog thisguyistheman.blogspot.com very entertainiing.

Other than that I am gonna enjoy the fruits of another 20k day and just relax. I love posting positive news I'm not looking to have an emo blog... that shit is for myspace.

Blog Tilt -See Post Below-

2007-07-15T17:55:00.000-04:00

So I can't get the last half of that other post to space.. Tried 3 times.. and they just disapear.. I gotta get out of here I am on blog tilt.

Read up if your eyes can handle that mess. Cya

Trip Report

2007-07-15T13:20:00.000-04:00

Canada trip went pretty well. I caused a couple problems with my buddies' girlfriends by bringing other girls which I feel pretty terrible about, but I also think they had a good time. For me it was great, had 5 of my best friends there.

We stayed in my house in Ann Arbor thursday which was alright on its own. Partied a little got to bed at 5, up by 10. My friends didn't want to wait for the other girl to drive down so they took off, me and the other two went out to eat and to the mall. Pretty fun, Ann Arbor in the summer is way less busy which is more my style.

It took forever to get to Windsor despite taking what was supposed to be about a 45 min. route. We caught in traffic and stopped at customs where I had to explain all the cash.

The room was pretty nice I think, the picture below is the view out of the bedroom window. Never has Detroit, MI looked so nice. I found out later I probably could have got the whole thing comped which blows because it was like $487 total. Ah well.

Played 10/25 on UB when I came home and lose everything I made at the casino but it didn't bother me I think I played pretty well. That vacation really motivated me I needed a break.

Here is what I think is the only questionable hand I played.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1266797 No read on Ohio yet but Peppe just comes in with a ton of hands and will ditch the flop so often I feel good reraising here. I probably should not have made this raise without quality aces though.. ah well

Top and bottom on flop with 1000 in the middle... my options are pot... check fold to peppe as my two pair is even money with even alot of trashy hands he'd bet. Or hope it checks around then checks on a safe-ish turn card so I can pot...

The first or later are best I think. I decided to pot knowing if the money went it I wouldn't be in great shape but he there was 40% of a buyin sitting out there on a board that can be consider fairly dry.. just the flush draw out there.

Eh I dunno any thoughts on that one?

Sickly long post, gl at the tables.

What do they call that?... o yeah, A HEATER

2007-07-09T23:05:00.000-04:00

So in my past three sessions I have absolutely torn it up. Going back through all the big pots there was only one that I came into at worse than a flip and I still had 30% equity, one set over set I am not folding, and one iffy play which I may discuss later.

Session 1: +5k in less than hour after sitting at a wild late night table, no doubt guys chasing losses. Ok thats cool finally a winning session, this felt real good.

Next Day
Session 2.1: The game from the night before is still running inthe morning on UB so I jump in pull two more buyins = 5k. Now I am real happy to have linked two winning sess together since the horror that was June

Session 2.2: I select a few of the better 10/20 games running and pick up 6k more

Session 2.3: I take a brief break, come back and see some 1k stacks at the 10/20 table that I am unfamiliar with. Thats the kind of table I like. Here I fold for a while picking up small pots then hit a 50 hand rush like no other and make about 6 or 8k more on the day... up about 17 ish now.

Session 2.4: It is now early in the A.M. and I am just facebooking and talking to some girl on aim about to go to bed. Then I open UB to see two 10/25 tables each w/ average pot over 1000 and very deep stacks.

So I pop in, there are 2-3 real strong players at each tabler, then 2-3 donks at each table who are taking shots or god knows what.

I jump in and proceed to lose 5 all-ins to the same player. Granted I may have been able to escape 1.5 buyins worth I had 75% equity or over on the flop of each hand I lost. And bets were made on each flop, I didn't just check him into a hand. So with some other hands I won I have dumped back 10k of this glorious days profits back. I'm bummed but I dont want to leave because the game is sooooo live the average pot is sustained at over half a buyin, sick game.

I am playing my hands fairly aggro now because I know I am getting zero credit after I see a few showdowns. Then I get into this fantastic hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1249324 Maybe not a great hand to play out of posis but my thoughts preflop were specifically on the power of a nut flush at this table. On flop a very good but super aggro player c-bets and my donk flat calls. Now I know my hand is ahead if not good against each of there ranges. The nut flush draw pair combo is so powerful in an aggresive game because the flush cripples other draws and the pair is there if we are both drawing.

My other thought on flop was, I know Nio is drawing he has shown he does not fold from our earlier experiences, now if Deerchaser does have a strong hand like a set and moves over the top of my raise, I expect Nio to come in as well. Now I have greats odds for my hand.

As it happened the turn was great for me after both flat called, Easy pot. The river even better as Nio no doubt thought that he hit gin.

So that was cool I netted 11k for that pot and ended up winning about a buyin in the crazy games ending the day at about plus 20k.

I am really regaining confidence even though I know I am on a big rush I also know I am playing well again.

Session 3: This morning I pop on to check out the games at about 12 and see a regular who has been running bad and is a little prone to tilt and 1k stacker at 10/25. I love this setup for three handed play, the third player takes the heat of the very aggro player off me while not posing much of any threat, good stuff.

Anyways I stacked shorty in a few hands, then ended up playing the regular intending to only stay a short while regardless of what happened. I got into a reraised pot, flopped the nuts on a 789 and my guy gets it in with the 56 and two pair of which I had one pair. Thats only 15% equity then.

So now I know I am staying as he/she continues to reraise out of pos. I wait, catch some hands stack stack stack.. all ahead when we got it in. Also he opens another table to play the shorty from earlier I jump in.

Sick thing is he finally got it in good with top set vs. my pair, gutter, flush draw (with what i thought were kickers) and I sucked out from 30/70.. cooooool. Then we are flipping on the next all in. I won.

So under an hour of play and I make 12.5k on UB.

about 37k in a couple days, yeah thats a heater. I will try to find some interesting hands but honestly the decisions have been fairly cut and dry.

Regardless of how much it feels great to be winning again, refreshing.

Trip to Casino Windsor in Canada coming up this week I'll post about whether I find some good games, if not I will post about how I lost xxxx.xx playing roulette.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1249352 Ok and here is one more because there has been little analysis lately. What's your play on the flop, push over the top and just accept that he'll have a set sometimes/fold sometimes/ call w/ his two pair and hold sometimes.

Or do you advocate calling. On the turn I can fold to a paired board and feel good about it I think, but I am still easily getting odds to call the turn.

I think it comes down to deciding how often I am being checkraised with a hand that folds to push and how often Peppe has a set. I think I like calling the flop because I can think of very few hands that check-raise/fold the flop. Yeah the more I think about it it seems to be a situation where I am going to be getting it in like 70-30 or 50-50 always. So I think I save money by getting the rest in on turn even though my equity is decreased...

Math experts... articulate my thoughts with numbers... GOO!

This is how good I am.

2007-06-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Reasons why I am awesome

A) Dumped half the years profits in less than a two week period

B) 25-30k Hands w/ roughly break even results

C) This hand. http://www.pokerhand.org/?1207959
So just to really establish my weakness, I had a .3 percent chance to win main pot... that is 3 tenth of a percent for those that can't see the decimal. Pro.

At least I scrounged up 33% for the side pot. Basically that pot went as poorly as possible, dunno what the best line is. If I get called or pushed on by Lord Erik obviously I am in bad shape... Jonathon had been discussing how he was tilting off 2k before dinner after losing two buyins.. so calling at least is a must verse his range. Almost had a nice winning sess at 10/25 for first time all month too, ahh well.

D) Crohn's Disease for rest of life

E) Going to a school I kind of hate, on the plus side I got into the Ross School of Business

F) No girlfriend since beginning of summer, thanks allison if you are reading this.

G) Got my dad injured pretty badly skydiving now he is off work for a long time and I feel terrible

... ha I didn't know where I was going with this post, but I ended up in a very depressing place.

So let me ship the plus side

A) B-school = secure future w/ six figure income shortly after I get out.. probably

B) Low Stakes Omaha = iffy future, but six figure option number two

C) Friends are getting off their leashes w/ the ol' battle axes and we are hanging out alot

D) Getting in damn good shape with the 3 mi nightly runs, lifting, tennis, etc.

E) I live a damn good life compared to some people, specifically in other parts of the world and I should never really complain

F) My dad is ok... could have been much worse

G) Omaha is growing from the bottom up as all games do. I can see it happening, and after some of the WSOP events air.. payday is going to start.

G.1) many crossover players have just enough knowlegde of card playing to get themselves into trouble with overconfidence in their play, amen to that.

H) I can afford to lose a sizeable game show prize, then break even for 30k hands and still not be in danger of busto. God bless proper bankroll management, curse 25/50 though.

I) Both speeding tickets were partially marked down helping me to avoid a couple hundy and a couple points, thanks smokies... sort of.

J) Live is what you make of it, so anything I dont like I can blame myself for.

More poker posts to come, possibly some hold'em as... I have been dabbling in 2/4 and 3/6 for short periods...which you guys can really criticize. If anyone wants to play a mix with me let me know.

Also.. I have been perusing forums looking for good omaha player stats. I feel like I am very aggresive and have been told so by many yet I play aboue 32 VPIP/ 13 PFR shorthanded. These forums label me as pretty much a nit? I wonder if they know what they are talking about or not. Lot of guys talk about playing 50/25 and similar.

I thought the bible, Rolf Slotboom's book, mentioned the best full stackers at 35 VPIP (Could be for ring) but maybe I misread and this is wishful rationalizing for my stats. If anyone has input fire away.

Played a fair amount today

2007-06-21T23:57:00.000-04:00

I played alot of hands today, I wont be posting any because they are all very boring. I set pokertracker to show my session stats and made sure I wasnt playing to lose when things got rough, actually my vpip was real low around 22% and pfr only 10%.

I played a ton of 200bb pots, or capped pots in the other games, and basically I feel like I spent the entire day flipping coins. Only this is I lost all the flips minus about 10k today playing what I feel was at least A- game at 10/20 and 5/10.

Bout ready to start winning money again, makes summer seem really dumb if I play for 4 months and have nothing to show that I didn't have at the end of school.

Trying to play less hands, and get back to standard betting like I used to do. By that I mean a standard raise rather than pot.. so like to 24 at 3/6 to 35 at 5/10 and to 70 at 10/20. Also I am reverting to pot sized bets I think after experimenting with making 3/4 pot my standard bet after a raise. I find that the 1/4 makes a huge difference in fold equity. Feel free to disagree thats just been my experience.

My hand reading is really getting strong, but my conviction is not, I need to follow through with a few more double barrels and such when I know they have to fold.

Basically I think I play all my strong hands and draws optimally or close to it, its the marginal hands and bluffs that I need to my medium with again.

Tommorow I find at whether I made it into the business school which will be kind of a relief either way. If I get in, I really don't have to worry about poker at all as I will be a valuable product when I graduate. If I don't I will be double majoring in Econ and poker. Econ is supposed to be a pretty easy major, and it kind of comes easily to me so I'll have much more time to grind which will in turn allow me to be at ease with small stakes.

So I guess I have a positive outlook on it, but I really think I deserve to get in after aceing the prereq's, managing a 3.8 at u of m, starting a university sponsored club there, and being a part of their investment club (MIIclub.org really unique group, real money portfolio).

Looking forward to good weather, no more stomach problems, and some winning sessions. Gl everyone

Couple Hands from Before

2007-06-20T17:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some hands from before. Don't worry still detoxing at 10/20 and below.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193275 Main problem with this hand is.... why am I playing Daniel Alaei? Just plain stupid... play a high stakes pro when you are running bad... yeah. Other than that, I check a flop that connects with alot of his hands. My hope to win the hand is a scare card that will not allow him to bet or call with a small piece out of position. Lucky spike on turn. He probably could have folded, but I had appeared to be spewing the way I was losing at other tables.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193280 Standard line for this level. Kai is obviously finding it hard to give me credit given the amount of money I was losing. Anyways, he had a 5 percent chance to scoop... ouch. Kai is a really good player in my opinion, can be found as high as 200/400, but I like playing at his table becuase he does the laggy work for me and really keeps things lose.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193283 I can;t really make acase for folding here as I a was the aggressor so you can't rule out him moving on this pot. In addition, he could be playing lower two pair in the same fashion as well as pair with kickers/ or a draw because I am repping an overpair.. which he probably didn't even give me credit for.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193292 Kai continues to kill me, do you guys bet this turn. I feel like against a lose opponent I have to, but I can fold the extra 3,250 for sure. Definately cracked here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193302 Flat call flop since I have position on a drawy board aggro player I think I can get it in with a clean turn easily w/ higher pot equity. Little bit of a loose call on turn but his timing was way too quick, like if you have a set here or hit a straight u need a bit of time to decide whether to bet into this card, or wheher u made your hand. So I actually should have raised here, but nobody is perfect... but the river was.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193312 Again nobody wants to give me any credit. Simply had the hand and got paid because of my image.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193317 Woo big hand, very tough to play. Optimally I think I push flop... given the width of Kai's range on the flop and the fact that Mango flat calls. I have 42 equity w. all in on flop so that would have been a good move. On turn I drop to 25%. Without figuring it out the turn push is probably not -ev by that much given the 2500 I already have invested. Either way, its not a hand that is ever going to be dominate, or play well verse other strong preflop hands so I should stay away from these kinds of pretty looking hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193333 Man, i think I played this hand pretty well. I'm holding ace killers getting 2:1 from a player I know is commiting EVERY flop. I really mean every too. Plus he still has 5500 back, about 65 percent of his original stack (plus a little extra money from other player). I get my flop make my push, get called by the dog, and poker happens. But i am satisfied with the hand as a whole.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193347 WARNING: this hand not for the faint of heart. This is just a bad beat. I flat call Juanda's raise knowing full well Kai is pushing a large range. I beleive his weakness is what I will call artificial pot odds. He overestimates his equity and thus plays on shorter odds. I also believe he overestimates implied odds. Still a strong player though.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193357 Tough hand, made a stand with what I figured to be the best hand. I also like second nuts here more because seeing a turn allows for people to bluff you more when a card like the A w/ diamonds comes.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1193359 Some peolpe say you gotta go with this hand on the flop. But right after the hand I went to my notes on this player and found a very specfic note in big letters saying LEADS STRONG INTO RAISED POT W/ TOP TWO OR COMPARABLE DRAW. I think given how many times I have seen this I could have just dumped it had I read that on that day.

Anyways those are some of the bankroll bruising hands from the tables I shouldn't have sat in at the limits I should have stayed away from, whether I have a technical edge is negligible it wasn't in my game plan and I should have stuck to my game plan.

In other news, I went skydiving last weekend which was pretty fun but not the thrill I wanted. I really like a good rush, dunno what to do to find it though. I used to be pretty into skiing for the air but that isnt doing it anymore either.

Still working out, got 5 miles in last night with 7 min 30 second pace which was pretty tough. Still eating pretty well. Weather is great, and I am clawing my way back to where I was.

GL at the tables, if anyone wants to see anything new or different in the blog let me know.

Ahhh Kinda Embarassing

2007-06-15T22:26:00.000-04:00

So I have been playing a ton of hands (for me). I am at like 23k hands for the month already, I havent gone over 30k a month this year.

Anways, I started a little downswing, pushed myself to hard to play and win... exacerbated things greatly and now I have taken a very big fall.. around 40-50% from my peak this year.

Needless to say I am really disapointed in myself, specially since I had a guy come to one of my tables and say how he admired my bankroll management. I didn't even wanna post about my 'downswing' after that.

I should look on the bright side though. Still have a sick hourly booked for the year, and a respectable winrate despsite these figures being roughly halved. I encourage everyone to check out Andrew Wiggins blog.

He just wrote about two different kinds of winning players. The guys that will forever be pushing limits to rise to the highest stakes, and the guys that settle in where they are content.

He is resonating the philosophy that I have adopted but sometimes forget. Especially at my age I should be perfectly content with anything over $10/hr which is a faaar cry from what I am making.

Basically, I dont play to move limits in the forseeable future... I dont need the stress and complication of 25/50 and above. Do I think I can beat those games... yeah... am I going to try again any time this year... no chance.

Say a solid player multitables 3/6 for a year. I give him a winrate of 5 ptbb/100 which is manageable even if our hypothetical grinder tilts now and then.

And he plays 25k hands a month.. which I can tell you from experience only amounts to about 80 hrs a month.. 20 hrs week.. or a measly 4 hrs 5 days a week.

That would be 5 ptbb/100 = 10 bb/100 = $60/100 hands x 25k hands per month x 12 months = $180,000.....

180,000 part time...playing a game... at unstressful stakes....

Um... yep thats pretty ridiculous.

Soooooo basically.. I need to prioritize... I am not looking to be CTS (gotta put that in here since I know he checks in ha). I am looking to graduate college with a bundle of cash I saved up playing stakes that don't affect the rest of my life at all. 3 more years of school.. I could feasibly bank half a mil just playing 3/6 till I'm done.

When I look at it all like this I have no clue why I would ever want to push about 10/20, maybe I will even stop at 5/10.

Anyways on the advice of a player I know decently well, I am detoxing at lower limits playing for the slow the steady.

Just the same I am going to post some hands that are big and/or interesting.

Eh Graph Numero Dos

2007-06-06T23:20:00.000-04:00

Finally got PTO fixed up so I can make some accurate graphs. I am happy to see on my total BB won that the slope doesnt falter in the spots where I played mostly 10/20, 10/25, or 25/50. This is just a running total won graph though with some comments because its Wednesday night and I am bored.

This through about 108k hands.

Played in some juicy games for a short while today, hands coming later, 8k and change session. Got lucky on a few but I will run them against ranges on ProPokerTools later and I think my logic holds.

Just posting a winrate graph so I can put it on 2+2

2007-06-03T15:18:00.000-04:00

This is by session because pokergrapher doesnt work with PT Omaha and for some reason my Game Notes section on PTO has some kind of error too, nothing shows up and it crashes when I press anything.

I am actually surprised at the lack of extended variance on this graph, specially considering its mostly 5/10 and up, 6-max, and omaha, and 105k hands.

The 4 Card Grind

Slideshow

Short new post at CR

New Post at CR

New Post

If only the homeless were better looking...

Read More...

Hey Doods.

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Sorry CardRunners!

Read More...

Moooving Locations

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Novembering

Read More...

October and beyond

Couple Hands because this is a poker blog.

Whew, relief

Interesting Attitudes in the forums

Welcome to International Biz

Balanced

August in Review: Yum.

Coaching Software & Plans

Crazy Hand, and checking cake converter

Cake Poker

UFC

Edit: mark def not MrSweets

Mmm TV

Meh soso sess's, movies, +CR

Quick note

Month in Review, Nxt Month, Movies

Movies + CR

Off Topic doods

Cool Stuff

Meh Swing Swing

uhhh yes sir, i'll have one more like june please

Luckbox

End of month slowdown

EDIT: That game got out of hand quickly.....

Sports

Epic Fail

Crack of Dawn

Oh yeah and movie reviews for the week

Good Day?

Alarm

Grinding it out

Get outta my way FTP Pros

Hey Hey MAY MAY

A Good Month All Around

Hands as I play Round 2

Hands as I play...

HPT ~ Harris, MI

Good Catch Mr. Moneymaker Sir

Just a graph

Still Kickin

Feb. Review - and crappy internet

Pwned!!!!!

$1000 a Day

Mid-month Update

Tell me I Wear the Tin Foil Hat.. I don't care.

New Format & Resolutions & Theory Question

Little more Live, 07' Wrap up coming

Took my pride back.

A Big Blow... but only to my ego

I love live poker

The Set Theory

Owned Tourney/Stagnant Cash

Little Theory Post

Ignore this post.

Couple Hands

Super Tilt.

Up or Down?

September, October, and Some Choice hands

Update

Perspective Back Intact

Running out of Mental Angles to Take

Poor Timing Award

Busto......

Good Hand.

I'm Pretty Lazy