Grinding One Hour at a Time

Starting August on a Heater

2009-08-05T00:58:00.004-04:00

I wasn't able to grind during the first two days of August, as I did not have internet. However, the 3rd and the 4th of August have been great, as I've gone on a nice heater to start the month!

Mostly 2/4 with like 200 hands of 3/6:

Here are some notable hands from today's session:

Vs a 90/12 megatool
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4547899

Same guy (the first one is one of my biggest 2/4 pots):
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4547891
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4547895

Just another gross one:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4547902

Overall I've been playing really well and running pretty well as well. Even with those gross hands, I still am definitely running well. You don't win 11 buy-ins in less than 2000 hands without running really well!

In non-poker news, I drove home early with Lina to attend the funeral of a family member, my uncle's life partner Ann Kelly. Ann was one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. While it was a sad occasion, it was nice to see family members again, meeting to celebrate Ann's life.

Finally, I'll be going back to Florida with Lina on Friday. We will be staying until the 18th. I'm looking forward to getting back down there again!

Brett

Another Bleh Session

2009-07-31T04:36:00.003-04:00

Today's session: 1305 hands, -878.20 (+52.10 rakeback).

Frustrating session as I was in a hole practically the entire time, despite playing fairly well at 2/4 all afternoon. Definitely could have been a lot worse though, as I was stuck around 1380 at the worst point. My biggest pot won was from triple barrelling top pair good kicker vs a donk and getting called by third pair for just over half a buy-in. I didn't win a full stack the entire session, despite playing over 3 hours.

The following hand was a really weird spot because donk's rarely lead very strong on this texture. His 3bet is pretty alarming but I felt like there was still value in a shove, especially as I felt he could be overvaluing an overpair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4531427

Set over set is pretty standard.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4531428

These two are vs the only fish I was owning.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4531430
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4531432

July Nearly Ending

2009-07-30T03:50:00.003-04:00

Need to catch up on a few things. May was a really good month. I can't remember exact numbers but I think I finished up around 13k to 14k. The entire month of June was essentially a vacation, as I spent 22 days in Vegas, staying in a house with a bunch of cool guys. It was an awesome trip overall, even though I didn't do much grinding. I didn't play much online or live, though I still made like 5k on the month I think. I also played my first and only session of table games, winning 300.00 (ship!) at Ultimate Texas Hold'Em at Paris on the strip. The trip was fairly expensive though (somewhere around $3500), and I definitely didn't break even on the trip, especially as I was paying everything for both myself and Lina.

It was my first time at the WSOP though, and I even made the rare decision to play a tournament, event 28, a $1500 event. I busted like 3 hours in. My first table was insanely soft, but somehow, in a 2600 person field, I ended up at the same table as RDog, who doubled through me after I had chipped my stack up nicely. I was up to 7k from 4500 chip starting stacks, when Rod doubled his 3900 chips through me to knock me back down to just under 3k. I was pretty card dead for the next hour before getting a double from ~2k up to 4500, and then knocking a player out with JJ vs KQo to chip up to 7k. Not long after though, I ended up busting in a weird spot vs an aggressive player at 75/150 blinds, where I squeezed AQo in the small blind to 1500 after a CO raise to 450 and a monster stacked fish button call. He tank shoved for like 5400 effective (~3900 more) and I had to call. My AQ failed to improve to his AK and I was out. I think I played fairly well for my first significant live tourney. I definitely played very well at my first table (which apparently had Alan Goehring sitting in the 8 seat, and I didn't recognize him and thought he was pretty bad). My bust-out hand might have been a bit rushed, especially for a weak field, and I will definitely learn from that in the future.

July is nearly ending, and it's been a long time since my last update. I'm having a pretty solid month, with two days left in the month. Not entirely sure what the results are though. We'll see in a few days.

My laptop's power connection finally shit the bed, so I had to get a new laptop (while I try to get the old one repaired, as it's still under warranty). New laptop is alright, but not amazing.

I've really attempted to increase my hand volume lately. I created a self-incentive plan to help me try to play more. Basically, once I reach 1300 hands played in a day, I start paying myself a certain amount of money based on the number of hands I've played. This money will be used to buy whatever I want. It might sound stupid, because I can buy whatever I want with whatever I make, but I'm trying to stick to this plan so that I can grind more, as well as feel less guilty for spending on luxuries. Ideally I want to be grinding 40k hands a month while playing no more than 5 tables, and I should be able to do it in August. I'll be going on vacation in mid-August, likely back to Florida, and I'll be attempting to continue putting in the hands while there.

I've really been in a nice groove at 2/4 the last few months, but I've begun to feel like I've become too complacent, and I need to take more shots. I've been mixing in a lot of 3/6, though it hasn't been a large sample, and I haven't ran great there. I'm sure I've made plenty of mistakes in the games, but I'm also taking a fair amount of coolers there this month, despite only playing in good games. I'm just going to keep mixing in good games from higher levels, rather than trying to plunge into 4 tabling a higher limit like I had in the past. Even if the shot taking goes poorly, I'll always have 2/4 to crush.

Here's a graph of my last two days grinding, as that's all I have saved on this computer until Full Tilt sends me my requested hand histories. The first day, I was on fire. Today was pretty frustrating, as I just couldn't win many pots:

Bleh Day

2009-05-11T01:45:00.003-04:00

I had an annoying session today. I started out really, really well. I was just crushing and running people over, making 2.75 buy-ins in like 30 minutes. Then, after losing a coinflip and another hand where my opponent misplayed his hand on every street, I find myself hovering around even, and then down a buy-in. I finished the session up just under 100 but I didn't feel that great about the result. There were a few hands I think I misplayed, despite playing amazing early on.

I'm going down to Washington DC this afternoon to hang out with my best friend for a few days. Should be an awesome time.

I haven't really linked many hands in a while, so I'll link a bunch from today's session:

Kind of a weird spot vs this donk, but he was doing a lot of this retarded stuff.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218608

Obviously calling here even if I don't improve on the river. This line is almost never a 6, and often some retarded draw or weird hand. Pretty funny that he turns K9 into a bluff for no reason.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218611

Another guy just clicking buttons.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218614

This one looks like a cooler but this guy was playing 96% of hands and firing at almost every one. I was extremely surprised he had a hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218615

I think I've won about 15% of my flips this month :(
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218618

Retarded hand that my opponent played pretty badly on each street imo.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218621

Two standard barrel spots that hit my range pretty hard:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218623
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4218624

Brett

Home for Mother's Day

2009-05-10T03:16:00.002-04:00

Spent today packing and driving 3 hours home for Mother's Day. Didn't get much volume in today - made like half a buyin. This was a fun/cool hand though:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4212841

Not much else to say. I should be going down to DC for a few days later this week after spending a few days at home. I don't really have any plans until Vegas next month, which should be awesome.

Brett

[ ] Superuser

2009-05-09T00:58:00.003-04:00

Played this hand the other day. Figured it was worth linking just for entertainment value.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4201227

May has started off well. Should have a solid month. If I stop posting for a while though, it probably means I'm in a downswing.

Breakeven to an End?

2009-05-06T15:48:00.002-04:00

So this year has been frustrating:

The good news is that I've already survived an 83k hand breakeven stretch which seemed insanely long. I'm also back at my peak in profits (excluding rakeback) for the first time since March 22 or so. Including the 4k or so rakeback I've received this year, as well as other random bonuses, it hasn't been that bad of year, even if it's sub-par for my expectations. 5/10, while starting out great in March, was pretty brutal over a 3 day stretch, dropping 7.6 buy-ins while running pretty horribly. I should be there to stay the next time I take a shot. Every difficult stretch I survive just makes me stronger.

Brett

More Coaching

2009-02-23T02:35:00.002-05:00

I was in a minor rut this week. I hadn't had a losing day all month before dropping close to 9 buy-ins over 3 days. The first day was pretty awful as I dropped almost 6.5 buy-ins in about 680 hands. The second day I actually made around half a buy-in, but it was a struggle, and I was not satisfied with my game. The third day I was pretty meh about my game and couldn't get much to go my way, dropping over 2.5 buy-ins.

The worst part was that I wasn't sure how much of the funk was due to running bad, and how much was to poor play. I was extremely satisfied with my play for the first two weeks of the month but this past week has left me in a state of discontent. I played a fairly short session on Friday night before going out and I made about 3/4 of a buy-in. I decided to take Saturday off to spend with Lina and to refocus. Taking a weekend day off is never fun, as I question whether it's worth sacrificing some amazing games, but it was probably for the best.

I had my second coaching session with Baluga today and I think it went really well. I've started thinking about the right things and I think it's been a huge benefit to my game. It also helped that I won almost 4 buy-ins today to get a lot of confidence back! Today's session was actually pretty standard, and I didn't have many interesting or difficult decisions. I just played solid poker throughout and made the most out of the many awesome situations I was put in.

In other news, I'll be back in Vegas in just over a week and I'm pretty excited. I'll be there from March 1 to March 6, staying at the Imperial Palace. I was intending on going with a friend from back home, Tom, but with some recent complications, that's TBD. Ross will be staying with me there as well. Live poker can be mind numbingly boring in large doses, but I haven't played a home game in a while and I've actually been looking forward to getting back to the live games in Vegas and pwning some live donks. I'm 10x the player I was last time, and I pwned pretty hard last time. Now I just need to grow some balls and play 5/10 or higher (unlikely lol).

Brett

Solid February IMO

2009-02-16T19:25:00.004-05:00

[x] $1/hand

I've played 12-13 days so far this month (entirely at 2/4 NL 6max on FTP) and my volume hasn't been to great. My results have been awesome though. Add in the 650 donkament profit as well as rakeback and I'm up over 13k on the month thus far.

Today's session was a bit frustrating as I had an early heater which I blew over the course of my first hour with a bit of spew. Eventually I bounced back even stronger and finished +1110.75 on the day.

My LOL hand of the day. No idea how he didn't have at least Qx here.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3869324

Here's to carrying my momentum through the last 2 weeks of February (and maybe a 20k month!).

Brett

February > January

2009-02-16T01:12:00.002-05:00

So I started off February even better than I started January. After the first 15 days of the month, I'm up about 12k. I've already taken 3-4 days off as well. I won't be hitting Ironman this month I guess (25 out of 28 days is tough). I made $830 today. I was up $1050 or so and spewed a little deep near the end. Played some pretty solid poker for the most part and I'm really happy with my game of late. Took a brutal beat when some overaggro, over hand valuing fish 3bet me in the CO to my MP raise (holding AK) and called my 4bet 1.5 buy-ins deep. I then bet 100 or so into a 260 pot on a Ah Jx 3h with the intention of inducing a spaz jam. My opponent obliged and I snap called. He showed TT and binked a T on the turn, shipping a $1200 pot. Poker is fun sometime. I only ran 1.5 buy-ins under EV today so I can't complain after running 4 over on Friday (I took Saturday off for Valentines Day). Graphs soon to come when I get home.

Updates

2009-02-14T23:54:00.003-05:00

So it's been a while since my last update. I ended December and began January with an awesome upswing. I then took Darlina to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida from January 2 to January 10. While there, I went on a really sick heater and I was up over 10k after the first 12 days of the month. Unfortunately I then proceeded to go on my worst downswing ever, somewhere around 13k (I think). I finished January with a losing month, my second ever. It was extremely demoralizing but I made a lot of changes to my game. I was autopilotting a lot before and just not hand reading enough. I feel like I'm a better player now and the results show it. I've gone on an 11k upswing since the pit of my downswing in 9 straight winning sessions. I also placed second in last night's Daily Double B on FTP for $1300, which I've been playing with my friends fairly often for fun. I totally dominated that tournament (and ran good), running over my opponents with a very aggressive style. I'm disappointed that I didn't ship it because my opponent was a drooler. It was an excellent day overall though as I made $3040 at 2/4 and also received coaching from Balugawhale, a sick HSNL player. Life is good.

Meh November, Sickkkkkkkk December

2008-12-03T00:43:00.006-05:00

So it's been a week since I updated. I had a rough Thanksgiving break pokerwise, and a pretty nice break familywise. Hung out at my best friend's house a lot and had a pretty great time, even catching up with an old friend I hadn't seen in years. I seemed to be unable to win in poker over break though, dropping about 4k in 4 days, including a -2800 day on Sunday.

December has started awesome though. Today was my best day ever, finishing +3305.98 in 1238 hands. These were all today:

Some loltastic hands:

Guy refused to fold anything at all. As soon as he raised UTG, I knew I was getting his stack.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532894

Same guy as above. Started spaz shoving every hand after losing that big hand to me.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532793

Villain has 8c4c and a bunch of history with me. Nice hero call sir!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532778

Weird hand. No real history though I knew he was fishy. Don't have a fold button though.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532780

Running good. Played this hand much differently than normal (have a lot of history with this reg). Should've just shoved flop but I decided to do something retarded instead, thinking his air was more air than it was.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532786

AA no good!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532789

AA no good for me! Can't always run good.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532797

Tough spot vs another reg. Couldn't figure out what he was doing.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532800

Making moves.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532877

Hand reading 101.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3532878

Feeling pretty good right now and hoping to finally have the monster month I've been waiting for.

Brett

Surviving the Swings and Pursuing My Potential

2008-11-25T06:18:00.001-05:00

994 hands, +794.45

Another day, another solid session. Got off to a huge start, +1500 or more, before having a few gross hands go the other way, sending me down about 1500 or so. I kept battling though and played really well throughout, finishing with a solid profit. Had two friends sweating me today and it went pretty well. I don't think I made a ton of mistakes and I'm getting a lot better at dealing with swings. I'm continue to play more and more 5/10 and I'd like to be there full time ASAP. I definitely have an edge in these games (assuming I game select) and I'm costing myself money by not playing higher.

Brett

More 5/10 Success

2008-11-24T05:38:00.002-05:00

950 hands, +2289.56

Put in a solid grind today. Was up a solid amount early but the tables were good so I kept on grinding. Put a really sick beat on a guy in a 3.6 buy-in pot at 5/10, though in my defense, I think I played it fine as well. I played really solid today for my 8th straight winning session. I'm really turning the month around and I'm getting more and more comfortable at 5/10.

Key to winning is running this good. In fairness he was pretty LAG today and he's repping a range that mostly includes draws. Despite the fact that I'm repping a strong range and he's still willing to put his stack in, I don't think I can get away from this here:

Sick Beat at 5/10

Weeeeeee Hand Reading

Weeeeeee Hand Reading Part Two. Repping nothing will not work vs me!

Do we like or dislike this? Obviously not for value (I never get looked up in this spot when I have a hand):
River Overbet

Brett

Consistency

2008-11-23T06:53:00.003-05:00

976 hands, +347.33

7th straight winning session, so I'm on a bit of a roll. While the profits haven't been extremely high each day, I'm happy that I'm consistently winning. I feel at the top of my game, and as such, have been taking 5/10 shots in each of my last 4 sessions. It's gone pretty solidly so far and I feel like I'm pretty close to taking my game to the next level.

As far as today's session goes, I definitely didn't run great on preflop all-ins, but I just kept grinding. Had some favorable situations occur and just avoided making mistakes, which has been the most important thing for me lately. I had a short bout of spewiness that lasted a few hands, but it wasn't anything extreme.

Quads at 5/10 helps:

Table 'Cake_ Copenhagen (6-max) 11482' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: lary*** ($685.70 in chips)
Seat 2: GDie*** ($1,419.00 in chips)
Seat 3: IIDM*** ($1,027.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Tila*** ($2,189.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Hero ($1,730.00 in chips)
Seat 10: Ilik*** ($1,000.00 in chips)
IIDM***: posts small blind $5
Tila***: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [7c 7h]
Hero: raises $25.00 to $35.00
Ilik***: folds
lary***: calls $35.00
IIDM***: calls $30.00
Tila***: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d Qh 7s]
IIDM***: checks
Hero: bets $80.00
lary***: folds
IIDM***: calls $80.00
*** TURN *** [7d Qh 7s] [9c]
IIDM***: checks
Hero: bets $195.00
IIDM***: calls $195.00
*** RIVER *** [7d Qh 7s 9c] [3h]
IIDM***: checks
Hero: bets $1,420.00 and is all-in
IIDM***: calls $717.00 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [7c 7h] (Four of a Kind, Sevens)
IIDM***: mucks hand [Td Th]
Hero collected $2,097.00 from pot

Brett

Making My November Climb

2008-11-21T01:45:00.003-05:00

419 hands, +1002.60

One of my shorter sessions this month (I've played a lot of 2-4 hour sessions, which has been an upgrade from the previous few months). Played a table of 5/10 today (a really good table) and 3 tables of 2/4. I've had a pretty rough month. I was breakeven until a few days ago and I've had 2 12 buy-in downswings already. I've recovered from both though. I was experimenting playing 6-7 tables and I've decided I'm going to stick to 4-5. I felt my game really deteriorated beyond that despite some initial success. Quality of hands > quantity of hands.

Today I played well. I hero called a fishy player (played 65% of his hands) down at 5/10 in a 3bet pot. I'd really been pushing him around and I could tell he really didn't want to fold vs me.

Fun chat afterwards:

Table 'Cake_ Copenhagen (6-max) 11470' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Hero ($1,559.50 in chips)
Seat 2: luck*** ($425.50 in chips)
Seat 3: ozio*** ($965.00 in chips)
Seat 8: schi*** ($1,175.50 in chips)
Seat 9: Timm*** ($1,062.00 in chips)
Seat 10: hatt*** ($2,248.50 in chips)
hatt***: posts small blind $5
Hero: posts big blind $10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qh Ah]
luck***: folds
ozio***: folds
schi***: raises $25.00 to $35.00
Timm***: folds
hatt***: folds
Hero: raises $85.00 to $120.00
schi***: calls $85.00
*** FLOP *** [4s 4d 5c]
Hero: checks
schi***: checks
*** TURN *** [4s 4d 5c] [3h]
Hero: checks
schi***: bets $122.50
Hero: calls $122.50
*** RIVER *** [4s 4d 5c 3h] [4h]
Hero: checks
schi***: bets $245.00
SteamySammy: calls $245.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
schi***: shows [Qc Js] (Three of a Kind, Fours)
Hero: shows [Qh Ah] (Three of a Kind, Fours)
Hero collected $977.00 from pot

schillaj: ****IN CALLING STATION DOUCHEBAG
schillaj: ****IN MORONS

I've been robusto 5 times this month. Hope it lasts.

Brett

Re-evaluating My Game

2008-11-19T03:48:00.002-05:00

So I had a rough patch late last week right off of a nice upswing. Dropped 3200 in 2 days attempting to 7 table. I ran pretty terrible but I'm sure a lot has to do with me trying to play more tables at a time. I think I'm going to go back to 4 tabling and just focus on playing optimally in a fewer amount of hands.

As for today: 643 hands, +512.60

Mostly 6-7 tabled. Was down most of the session after getting run over a bit early on at 3/6 and then battling back. I did a bit of review afterward and I'm just going to try to stick to 4 tables for my next few sessions. All of my great months have come while 4 tabling, and when I began to try to add more tables, my winrate definitely suffered. Coincidentally, the months I've struggled in recently - September and November - have both been months where I've tried to add in more tables and get more hands in per hour. Hopefully I can stick to 4 tabling and maintaining an optimal level of aggression and self-control. I would not doubt that the more tables (and the more 3bets and check-raises I inevitably face in a shorter period of time) turn me into more of a spewtard, whether it be a calling station or just trying to make too many plays. November is more or less break-even so far after about 14.5k hands. I have been playing more hours, which is something I want to continue. But my winrate has suffered greatly since August, and I'm going to improve on that.

Brett

Riding an Upswing

2008-11-12T03:16:00.002-05:00

654 hands, +1827.37

I got home really late today and didn't get to put in a session til 11 PM, after spending some time with Lina. The session was a bit shorter than I would have liked, but I did get to play for over an hour and fifteen minutes. I experimented some with 7 tabling and it went really well. I'm not sure if it's something I want to do often but I was feeling really good and didn't have trouble keeping up with the action or playing well. I've been a bit of a card rack today and yesterday and am riding a nice upswing (+11 buy-ins after a 12 buy-in downswing last week). I can't recall spewing at all today and just played a really solid session all around. After winning about 4350 the last 2 days, I'm back in the black for the month and playing with maximum confidence. I'm up about 1725 after rakeback, and should be up even more from my stakees (who seem to be playing very well fwiw). It's about time that I have another big month, and I'm ready to continue crushing faces.

Brett

Bad Marathon Session, Then Recovery

2008-11-11T05:09:00.002-05:00

Sunday's Result: 777 hands, +2536.70

Haven't reported in a few days. I had a few rough days last week where I started out really poorly and finished a few sessions with modest losses. I regained some momentum on Friday but then Saturday just crippled me. I played a total of 5.5 hours on Saturday, dropping 2k in my first session (almost 3 hours long) before deciding to play another. I felt like I was playing really well and had some huge momentum in my second session before losing a few coinflips and just being unable to win hands, ending the day down 2.5k after another 2.5 hours of play.

I ended up taking Sunday off to refocus and just take a one day break. I came back today ready to play and I absolutely crushed. The cards were certainly in my favor but I really put in a nice session. After winning a few buy-ins, my brain told me to quit and preserve a win to build momentum but I brushed off that thought and tried to build on the momentum of my session. And build I did. Ended up making over 6 buy-ins and could have kept that going even more if I didn't break to eat.

Here's a really weird hand from today. Villain loved to make plays and would overbet or pot sized bet bluff at every opportunity. I was ready to pick off a bluff here but his sizing here (4.5x the pot) really took me off guard. As the backdoor flush hit, I decided to give him credit and mucked and he showed me QT. I had suspicions that this was another bluff but decided the risk-reward wasn't worth it. I took a few hundred off of him throughout the session:

Table 'Cake_ Amsterdam (6-max) 11515' Seat #10 is the button
Seat 1: Neve*** ($400.00 in chips)
Seat 2: drag*** ($314.10 in chips)
Seat 3: vahe*** ($1,851.45 in chips)
Seat 4: Dran*** ($172.00 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero ($1,893.20 in chips)
Seat 10: Mr.*** ($921.00 in chips)
Neve***: posts small blind $2
drag***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9d Ad]
vahe***: calls $4.00
Dran***: folds
Hero: raises $14.00 to $18.00
Mr.***: folds
Neve***: folds
drag***: calls $14.00
vahe***: calls $14.00
*** FLOP *** [6d Ah Jc]
drag***: checks
vahe***: checks
Hero: checks
*** TURN *** [6d Ah Jc] [9h]
drag***: checks
vahe***: bets $56.00
Hero: calls $56.00
drag***: folds
*** RIVER *** [6d Ah Jc 9h] [3h]
vahe***: bets $777.00
Hero: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
vahe*** collected $165.00 from pot
vahe***: doesn't show hand

I'm back about even on the month, which makes me feel a lot better than I was coming into this session.

Feeling Better About My Game

2008-11-08T03:39:00.001-05:00

1037 hands, +643.06

After a day off I was back to the grind today. The two days previously to the day off I started both sessions horrendously (down 4-6 buyins) before playing a bit better and finishing with 2 smaller losses (2.5-3.5 buy-ins down in each of the two sessions). Today started off similarly. I don't think I was really out of control or spewing much, though there were one or two questionable spots early on. I lost a 55/45 and some failed aggression put me in a quick 3 buy-in hole. I grinded and battled for the next hour and a half and got a huge cooler in my favor (AA vs KK for a 3.8 buy-in pot), as well as beating up on a lot of players in medium sized pots. Unfortunately near the very end of my session I had a ridiculous cooler to get KK all in preflop versus a maniac's AA when his range was any two cards (he was playing 80% of hands, raising 45%, and potting at least 2 streets with any two cards). I pretty much just laughed because I expected him to turn over 84o and he turns over AA. I'm pretty happy with how I played today overall.

Brett

Nasty Session

2008-11-05T01:50:00.003-05:00

874 hands, -1142.47

Was down 2600 today, so I'm happy to have reduced that number a bit. Was spewing a lot and getting into a bunch of sticky situations. Overall a lot of spew though. Didn't play on Sunday (went out to a friend's house that night after eating dinner at Outback with Lina). Made just under 200 on Monday in 857 hands. So after today, I'm up slightly on the month but not by much, though I've only played 2163 hands thus far.

In other news, another 100 on my Finance test (giving me 100 on my first 2). I thought the test was one of the easiest tests I've ever taken - helped by the fact that we're allowed to use a one page cheatsheet with whatever we want written on it. Somehow, the class average was only an 83.9 which is quite ridiculous. More tests later this one, including an always difficult Art History test where I have to memorize a ton of information in addition to being able to explain what's going on in various works of art.

Brett

Starting November Strong

2008-11-02T01:33:00.002-04:00

453 hands, +1171.70

Tables were amazing today. Best I've seen them in months. I should have played a lot longer than I did. I ran pretty good today, sucking out on a reg when I 5bet shipped T9o into his JJ in a spot where I thought he was 4bet bluffing a lot.

This hand was pretty sweet (TT no good sir):

Table 'Cake_ Amsterdam (6-max) 11515' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: jsal*** ($566.40 in chips)
Seat 2: Simo*** ($265.77 in chips)
Seat 3: kart*** ($316.80 in chips)
Seat 8: Chri*** ($1,899.60 in chips)
Seat 9: Andy*** ($358.00 in chips)
Seat 10: Hero ($743.60 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind $2
jsal***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ks Kd]
Simo***: folds
kart***: folds
Chri***: calls $4.00
Andy***: raises $14.00 to $18.00
Hero: raises $44.00 to $62.00
jsal***: folds
Chri***: calls $58.00
Andy***: calls $44.00
*** FLOP *** [3s 7h 8s]
Hero: bets $134.00
Chri***: raises $134.00 to $268.00
Andy***: folds
Hero: raises $413.60 to $681.60 and is all-in
Chri***: calls $413.60
*** TURN *** [3s 7h 8s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [3s 7h 8s 3c] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Ks Kd] (Two Pairs, Kings and Threes)
Chri***: mucks hand
Hero collected $1,550.20 from pot

Also, soul read......only he had the same hand...

Table 'Cake_ Amsterdam (6-max) 11754' Seat #10 is the button
Seat 1: Poke*** ($427.00 in chips)
Seat 2: glin*** ($590.70 in chips)
Seat 3: Andy*** ($421.20 in chips)
Seat 4: Simo*** ($1,086.10 in chips)
Seat 8: Hero ($452.60 in chips)
Seat 10: tcal*** ($387.40 in chips)
Poke***: posts small blind $2
glin***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Td Kd]
Andy***: folds
Simo***: folds
Hero: raises $10.00 to $14.00
tcal***: folds
Poke***: calls $12.00
glin***: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h Jc Ah]
Poke***: bets $16.00
Hero: calls $16.00
*** TURN *** [4h Jc Ah] [6s]
Poke***: checks
Hero: checks
*** RIVER *** [4h Jc Ah 6s] [6d]
Poke***: bets $64.00
Hero: calls $64.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Poke***: shows [Ks Tc] (Pair of Sixes)
Hero: shows [Td Kd] (Pair of Sixes)
Poke*** collected $94.50 from pot
Hero collected $94.50 from pot

Went out to a party with Lina and her friends, then went to a club after (was decent, but I'm not a fan of spending a ton on alcohol). Here's to hoping I continue to run well in November!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T04:41:00.004-04:00

283 hands, +973.36 to close out the month. Here's my monthly graph:

Mostly 2/4 (15.5k hands), some 3/6 (4300 hands), 1/2 (2550 hands), minimal 5/10 (640 hands).

+1036 in rakeback and 215 in bonuses (as well as an IPod Touch in Cake points that deducts 332 from my MGR).

Overall +12,706 and the 16 GB IPod Touch in monthly profits.

Here are some pictures from Halloween with me (as Quailman) and Darlina (as a mafia woman):

We went to her friend's party for a bit. I'm usually not too into Halloween but I consented because she wanted to go. I ended up getting a ton of props on my costume but the real props go to my roommate for coming up with the idea.

All in all, October was a great month for getting back on track. Almost 13k in profits for a good rebound after a terrible September. My 100k goal for the year is still very much in reach. Here's to starting off November strong!

Swongy Sessions

2008-10-31T03:47:00.004-04:00

Here's the last few days, all at 2/4. Swonginess :(

Still, just over 3 buy-ins is pretty decent and I had a good week to almost wrap up the month.

Thursday: 688 hands, +256.05

Really swingy last few days but not a ton of profit. Made just over 3 buy-ins in my last 6 sessions in a fair amount of hands played (4500). A ton of ups and downs, though I think I'm playing decently, just a bit overaggressive at times. I'm closing out the month well - October reached 5 digits.

Wednesday I had a ton of bad beats and coolers, including TT < 44 on a AT44 in a big 3 way after getting check raised on the flop. QQ < 76o on T534. KK < QQ in 3bet vs aggro reg on 774TQ. I also developed a bad habit of paying off in a few spots where I knew I was beaten with TPTK and TPSK in a 3bet pot (after he cold called). I'll get things together and plug that leak for the future.

And in case you've been living under a rock, Phillies = World Series Champs! It's about time.

Brett

Swings and Slow Profits

2008-10-29T02:53:00.002-04:00

709 hands, +246.17

Played more than I expected to today. Got back around 6 PM from class and had to do some test review, though I ended up procrastinating a lot as I always do (and the test shouldn't be very difficult anyways, it's European History WWI to pre-WWII). Played for an hour and a half. Spewed a lot early, bricked off a few stacks, kept battling, and eventually pwned enough donks (and a few regs) to finish with a slightly positive session.

When I say spewed, I should say that plays just didn't work out. Maybe some slight overaggression but 5-bet shoving preflop in a spot where I felt he was 4-bet bluffing a lot isn't total spew, just acting on a notion. Even being incorrect there, I still had 35% equity which isn't bad at all.

I had a really gross spot today at 2/4, 2.3 buy-ins deep. There were mixed responses as to how to play this hand but villain is somewhat tight (18/14), though certainly is aggressive at times:

Table 'Cake_ Amsterdam (6-max) 11477' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: Hero ($1,230.80 in chips)
Seat 3: on_y*** ($410.00 in chips)
Seat 8: 100p*** ($817.05 in chips)
Seat 9: The*** ($142.00 in chips)
Seat 10: news*** ($921.70 in chips)
Hero: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qd Qc]
on_y***: folds
100p***: folds
The***: folds
news***: raises $8.00 to $12.00
Hero: raises $40.00 to $52.00
news***: calls $40.00
*** FLOP *** [2c 9h 7h]
Hero: bets $72.00
news***: raises $205.00 to $277.00
Hero: folds

I suspect that shoving might be the best line as my equity isn't absolutely terrible vs his range. I'm OK with folding here as well without too much history. Regardless, not a great spot.

I'm having pretty small wins and a lot of swings lately, though profit is profit and the month is still looking great. Should do decently on this test tomorrow and then I have another one on Thursday that should be easy. Finance is an easy major (and even my electives aren't too difficult).

Also, wtf @ the rain delay in Game 5 of the World Series last night. Honestly I'm hoping they don't play it for another few days so Hamels gets some more rest for a potential Game 7 (not that we should need it).

Brett

Didn't Play Much Monday

2008-10-28T04:00:00.002-04:00

I was pretty tired today. I played for about an hour and twenty minutes and had a pretty swingy session, climbing out of a 1200.00 deficit to finish +142.30 over 551 hands. I was hoping to get in more volume but homework tied me up for most of the night after watching some of the sports games earlier in the evening. I'm glad to have made a profit, though I'm not extremely happy with how the session went, though I did have a ton of crappy circumstances throughout. I really wanted to play more volume and I don't know if I'll be able to make it up tomorrow or Wednesday with 2 exams and some homework coming up.

The month overall has been pretty good. I've played 20,500 hands so far, which is the most I've played in a month since April. I'm at around 11k profit on the month, and hope to improve on that in the remaining days. While it won't be my most profitable month ever (so far it's looking like it will be my third or fourth), it's much better than September and for that I'm grateful. I'm beating 2/4 at an insane rate this month (10.5 PTBB/100) to pull my overall winrate at 2/4 up to around 6 PTBB/100 over 90k hands (lol @ my volume). The monthly graph is likely going to end up looking pretty interesting, especially after the sharp downswing midway through the month and a series of equally sharp upswings. Hopefully a few days from now I'll continue loving October and loving poker.

Great Day All Around

2008-10-27T04:25:00.003-04:00

Sunday's results: 1063 hands, +1302.80

Played 3 sessions today. The first one is where I made a majority of my profit, playing about a half hour before eating lunch and taking a few stacks. Unfortunately the tables weren't great so I took a break and watched some football. When I played later, there still weren't many good tables but I found a few and played them until they dried out. I made a few really nice plays today that I'm happy with but I also made two spewy calldowns that I'm not so happy with. The first was vs a poor player that was taking a line that is usually air so I'm not as upset with that one. The second was vs a regular and I knew I was beaten, yet still talked myself into a call after timing down and there was absolutely no reason to. I also took a minorly sickening beat early in my third session but it didn't faze me at all. I just went about my business and played well (for the most part).

Phillies won Games 3 and 4. PSU crushed Ohio State in football last night, setting up a very legitimate shot at the National Championship (we need Texas or Alabama to lose one, but they both have tough matches ahead of them). Eagles beat the Falcons today too, though my fantasy team did poorly again - oh well.

I'm almost up to +11k on the month which is nice after a dreadful September. I'm hoping to continue putting good hours in, hopefully getting in around 1000 hands a day. With exams coming up I might not achieve that goal but I'll see what I can do. I also hope to continue dominating the 2/4 games and making a few thousand more in the last 5 days of the month. Exams this week and next suck but school is pretty easy right now. Just sucks having to actually take the time to study and worry about them - I enjoy periods of time where I don't have to worry about anything (like all of October thus far).

Here's one sweet hand from today:

Seat 1: Hero ($703.30 in chips)
Seat 2: Gary*** ($626.50 in chips)
Seat 3: stru*** ($796.35 in chips)
Seat 8: Ligh*** ($496.30 in chips)
Seat 9: El T*** ($256.10 in chips)
Seat 10: Poke*** ($384.80 in chips)
Poke***: posts small blind $2
Hero: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ad Ah]
Gary***: folds
stru***: raises $10.00 to $14.00
Ligh***: folds
Poke***: folds
Hero: raises $38.00 to $52.00
stru***: calls $38.00
*** FLOP *** [7c 5h 9c]
Hero: bets $82.00
stru***: calls $82.00
*** TURN *** [7c 5h 9c] [6c]
Hero: checks
stru***: bets $100.00
Her: calls $100.00
*** RIVER *** [7c 5h 9c 6c] [Qs]
Hero: checks
stru***: bets $300.00
Hero: calls $300.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
stru***: shows [Jd Ac] (High Card, Ace)
Hero: shows [Ad Ah] (Pair of Aces)
El T***: mucks hand
Hero collected $1,068.00 from pot

Brett

Printing Money

2008-10-26T06:06:00.003-04:00

844 hands, +1852.80

I absolutely dominated in both of my sessions I played today. Most of my money came from good postflop decisions, and I seemed to be really on the ball. A lot of things seemed to be working out for me. Even when I was on the bad end of a cooler (AK < AA AIPF vs a good reg), I rebounded extremely well and just cruised for most of my session.

I'm also proud of a few solid reads from today, especially when I made a call with a weak hand to an unknown bad player's spaz shove when his line made no sense as evidenced here:

Seat 1: St..*** ($939.22 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($398.30 in chips)
Seat 3: Goph*** ($187.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Flam*** ($374.00 in chips)
Seat 9: wnr2*** ($388.80 in chips)
Seat 10: HiGh*** ($302.00 in chips)
Flam***: posts small blind $2
wnr2***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ac 9h]
HiGh***: calls $4.00
St..***: folds
Hero: raises $14.00 to $18.00
Goph***: folds
Flam***: folds
wnr2***: folds
HiGh***: calls $14.00
*** FLOP *** [Qs As 8c]
HiGh***: checks
Hero: checks
*** TURN *** [Qs As 8c] [Td]
HiGh***: checks
Hero: bets $32.00
HiGh***: calls $32.00
*** RIVER *** [Qs As 8c Td] [7h]
HiGh***: checks
Hero: bets $55.00
HiGh***: raises $197.00 to $252.00 and is all-in
Hero: calls $197.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HiGh***: shows [Tc Kc] (Pair of Tens)
Hero: shows [Ac 9h] (Pair of Aces)
Hero collected $607.00 from pot

Here's a pretty decent hand vs a very LAG reg (runs like 35/32):

Seat 1: Ogou*** ($420.00 in chips)
Seat 2: donn*** ($362.20 in chips)
Seat 3: gamb*** ($744.75 in chips)
Seat 8: ziig*** ($1,179.70 in chips)
Seat 9: futb*** ($72.30 in chips)
Seat 10: Hero ($511.80 in chips)
Hero: posts small blind $2
Ogou***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Ts 9s]
donn***: folds
gamb***: folds
ziig***: raises $10.00 to $14.00
futb***: folds
Hero: raises $38.00 to $52.00
Ogou***: folds
ziig***: calls $38.00
*** FLOP *** [Qs 9c Qc]
Hero: bets $72.00
ziig***: calls $72.00
*** TURN *** [Qs 9c Qc] [6d]
Hero: checks
ziig***: bets $96.00
Hero: calls $96.00
*** RIVER *** [Qs 9c Qc 6d] [7c]
Hero: checks
ziig***: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ziig***: shows [5d 5s] (Two Pairs, Queens and Fives)
Hero: shows [Ts 9s] (Two Pairs, Queens and Nines)
Hero collected $441.00 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $444.00 | Rake $3.00

I ordered a 16 GB iPod Touch from the Cake store and that should reach me within 2 weeks. Unfortunately it subtracts the retail cost from my MGR (approximately 333.00), so I'm going to lose about 100.00 in rakeback as a result, but that's still much cheaper than stores. Oh and in the world of sports, PSU beat OSU and the Phillies won Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the World Series! Pretty much just a sick day all around. I'm out of that nasty two day weekend downswing and I'm up like 9.3k on the month and am looking to finish the month strong.

Brett

De Ja Vu

2008-10-25T02:24:00.003-04:00

748 hands, +295.99

Both today and yesterday were very similar. I played an afternoon session both days and did pretty poorly. I felt that in both sessions I was a bit overaggressive, though in today's less so (just a few run bad spots). In the evenings of both days, things really picked up and I had some really great sessions.

Decent, albeit not great results each day. I'm pretty happy with how I played in my later sessions on both days, and a little dissatisfied with my early play. I think the dissatisfaction caused me to play a bit better in the later sessions.

Here's some interesting hands:

Villain in this first hand was definitely a poor player, but I didn't know it at the time. He was more or less unknown, though judging by his stack size and postflop actions, I was pretty sure he was a donk. I timed all the way down on the turn and I felt it was pretty close, but I decided he could easily have something like AJ/AQ/AK here and just try to bluff me off of my hand. He ended up having ATo (not really sure what he was doing here).

Seat 1: Gras*** ($106.30 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero ($400.00 in chips)
Seat 3: bigs*** ($199.60 in chips)
Seat 4: gamb*** ($508.50 in chips)
Seat 8: iCHK*** ($247.00 in chips)
Seat 9: JJLL*** ($361.00 in chips)
bigs***: posts small blind $2
gamb***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qs Qd]
iCHK***: folds
JJLL***: raises $10.00 to $14.00
Gras***: folds
Hero: raises $34.00 to $48.00
bigs***: folds
gamb***: folds
JJLL***: calls $34.00
*** FLOP *** [6d Th 7c]
JJLL***: checks
Hero: bets $75.00
JJLL***: calls $75.00
*** TURN *** [6d Th 7c] [9h]
JJLL***: bets $238.00 and is all-in
Hero: calls $238.00
*** RIVER *** [6d Th 7c 9h] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hero: shows [Qs Qd] (Two Pairs, Queens and Sevens)
JJLL***: mucks hand
Hero collected $725.00 from pot

Here's why you don't fold big hands to donks, regardless of his overbet. <3 his slowplay and river shove though. Again I timed all the way down, mistakenly almost giving him too much credit.

Seat 1: Pixi*** ($431.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Neve*** ($263.05 in chips)
Seat 3: Hero ($442.50 in chips)
Seat 8: Herm*** ($1,736.35 in chips)
Seat 9: BETB*** ($485.50 in chips)
Seat 10: IMPO*** ($426.59 in chips)
Herm***: posts small blind $2
BETB***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [6d 8d]
IMPO***: calls $4.00
Pixi***: folds
Neve***: folds
Hero: raises $14.00 to $18.00
Herm***: folds
BETB***: folds
IMPO***: calls $14.00
*** FLOP *** [5c 7h 5h]
IMPO***: checks
Hero: bets $30.00
IMPO***: calls $30.00
*** TURN *** [5c 7h 5h] [Tc]
IMPO***: checks
Hero: checks
*** RIVER *** [5c 7h 5h Tc] [9d]
IMPO***: checks
Hero: bets $74.00
IMPO***: raises $304.59 to $378.59 and is all-in
Hero: calls $304.59
*** SHOW DOWN ***
IMPO***: shows [5d As] (Three of a Kind, Fives)
Hero: shows [6d 8d] (Straight, Ten high)
Hero collected $856.18 from pot

Brett

Three Sessions Today

2008-10-24T01:49:00.004-04:00

Sigh at Phillies losing Game 2.

Thursday's Results: 1251 hands, +489.64

I played three sessions today. I woke up at 1235 PM, took a quick shower, and decided to play a quick session before class. I played a bit too aggressive and dropped 990 before heading to class at 210.

I played another session later for about an hour and a half and absolutely pwned. I slayed like 4 or 5 half stacks and made 1140 in the second session, bringing me into the black on the day. Unfortunately Cake's servers were having issues and I was forced to abruptly end a great session. This really sucked because my tables were great and I had built a lot of momentum.

I decided to eat and play a third session after an hour break. The tables were some of the fishiest I've seen on Cake in a long time. There was one normally nitty regular that seemed to be drunk, as he was playing 81/30 and refusing to fold ANYTHING. I stacked him early but he was on 4 tables with around 4000 between the tables (keep in mind these are 2/4 tables). I took a few sizable pots vs him before getting KK in a squeeze spot where I knew I was gonna get paid. Of course he predictably calls my 3bet, as does the third person. Flop comes down KQT, I cbet very strong, drunken? reg calls, third folds. Turn is a 7. I ship, he calls. He shows Jh5h for a naked OESD (lol) and the river A ships him the 1k+ pot. So a session that was looking to be like +1700 or more goes back down close to even. Then I get QQ to another fish's 44 on a J944 for another stack (vs this guy, there was no way I was folding). My nut flush draw cracks top set and I stack two half-stack fish before ending my session up 350 or so.

Overall it was somewhat frustrating as I felt like I could have had a much better day than I did, but I'm happy to have wiped out the early afternoon defecit, as well as yesterday's small loss. I'm also proud of the fact that I played 3 hours, 15 minutes today, which is a lot more time than I've been putting in recently.

Here's to a profitable weekend where I plan to dominate and bring in a nice profit!

Brett

Don't Play Tired

2008-10-23T04:15:00.001-04:00

I pretty much ignored logic today and did something completely dumb. I played while I was really, really tired (like 5 hours of sleep the night before). I'm pretty sure I played pretty awfully. I ran kind of bad early in the session but I ran really really good near the end, and I should have been down a lot more than I was. Recognizing this, I quit and I'm fairly disappointed in myself in even trying to play in the first place. I need to force myself to get more sleep on Sunday and Tuesday nights so that I'm OK to play in the afternoons.

Additionally, Phillies won Game 1 of the World Series. SHIP!

Brett

Moderately Swingy Day

2008-10-22T03:57:00.002-04:00

Interesting swings today. In 2 sessions, I played 847 hands, finished +1500.70

Session one wasn't very notable. Not a whole lot happened. I semi-donated a stack early and just took a lot of medium-sized pots throughout the session, not really winning any full buy-ins, ending up +293 on the first session.

I decided to play again later. Session two started out well, as I won a few sizable pots early on and then coolered another reg about 1.6 buy-ins deep at 2/4 with AA vs KK (first one this big to go my way in a long time, have been on the bad end of it a ton recently). I then got a tightish regular to 5bet shove AQo into my AKs at 3/6 and river a straight after I flopped top pair sending me back around even. A failed bluff where I ran into the very top of his range (a hand that really wasn't even expected to be in his range given the drawiness of the board) sent me a buy-in into the red.

Suddenly within a 40 hand span, I won 4 buy-ins between 2/4 and 3/6, including a 3/6 buy-in on my last hand where I cracked AA with QQ (flatted the 3bet preflop, called the cbet on a K73 and called his shove on a turn Q where I would have folded unimproved). Pretty standard spot for both parties, and a lucky turn card for me there. I dodged his flush redraw and ended up 1207 for that session.

Decent day overall. Another day like today and I'm out of the weekend downswing, which will be nice to forget because I was feeling pretty down Saturday after the second large loss in a row (especially as they came 2 weeks after I recovered from my worst downswing ever). I'm feeling pretty good now and looking for a big day tomorrow.

Brett

Tired Today - Didn't Play Much

2008-10-21T04:29:00.003-04:00

The title pretty much says it. I procrastinated on playing my session all day because I was really, really tired today. I told myself I was going to take a day off, but around 10 PM I decided to fire up a session, even if I wasn't going to play very long.

Results: 194 hands, +579.70

Not much to say. Some fishy halfstack spaz shoved into my two pair after minraising preflop. Coolered another fishy player with KK vs QQ, unfortunately only getting another half stack. A third fishy player didn't believe me and check called with TT on a JJ482 before spaz shoving his tiny, remaining stack on the river, donating another half stack there.

Hopefully I'll put in more hands tomorrow. I'm about 40% of the way through the 12 buy-in downswing from this weekend.

Brett

Partial Recovery

2008-10-20T03:56:00.003-04:00

481 hands, +1809.20

Looks like I'm on the road to recovery and I think I played really well today. I was fortunate enough to have a few things go my way but things definitely started off poorly today and I didn't let it get to me.

I got all in on the turn with 75% equity after making a really thin/good shove and lost that, putting me in a small hole. I raised ATs in the CO and got 3bet by an aggro reg in the SB that was just raising too many hands. I called, and called a cbet on a Kd Td 7x, and shoved over his double barrel on a turn 8x for just over 100 BBs. He called with Ad7d and spiked a river 6d unfortunately.

Eventually though, I just took off and made a lot of good bets (and got a few favorable situations, including stacking an overpair with quads).

Here's another interesting hand where I took a pot control line on the flop because we were deep stacked. Was fairly sure he'd make a move on the river, justifying a call:

Table 'Cake_ Amsterdam (6-max) 11657' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: flem*** ($238.70 in chips)
Seat 2: McBo*** ($434.50 in chips)
Seat 3: Hero ($710.90 in chips)
Seat 8: imno*** ($394.70 in chips)
Seat 9: Bubb*** ($1,803.06 in chips)
Seat 10: GuyL*** ($589.96 in chips)
GuyL***: posts small blind $2
flem***: posts big blind $4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [As Ah]
McBo***: folds
Hero: raises $10.00 to $14.00
imno***: folds
Bubb***: calls $14.00
GuyL***: folds
flem***: calls $10.00
*** FLOP *** [8c 8d 9s]
flem***: checks
Hero: checks
Bubb***: bets $27.00
flem***: folds
Hero: calls $27.00
*** TURN *** [8c 8d 9s] [7h]
Hero: checks
Bubb***: checks
*** RIVER *** [8c 8d 9s 7h] [Th]
Hero: checks
Bubb***: bets $65.00
Hero: calls $65.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bubb***: shows [5h 4h] (Pair of Eights)
Hero: shows [As Ah] (Two Pairs, Aces and Eights)
Hero collected $225.00 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $228.00 | Rake $3.00
Board [8c 8d 9s 7h Th]
Seat 1: flem*** (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: McBo*** folded before Flop
Seat 3: Hero showed [As Ah] and won ($225.00) with Two Pairs, Aces and Eights
Seat 8: imno*** folded before Flop
Seat 9: Bubb*** showed [5h 4h] and lost with Pair of Eights
Seat 10: GuyL*** (small blind) folded before Flop

Finally, my opponent in this hand must have been Jennifer Tilly:

Table 'Cake_ Halifax 12858' Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: thel*** ($289.74 in chips)
Seat 2: Half*** ($1,158.48 in chips)
Seat 3: SteamySammy ($600.00 in chips)
Seat 8: JUST*** ($810.96 in chips)
Seat 10: Kost*** ($852.20 in chips)
Half***: posts small blind $3
SteamySammy: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SteamySammy [Kh Ah]
JUST***: calls $6.00
Kost***: folds
thel***: folds
Half***: calls $3.00
SteamySammy: raises $24.00 to $30.00
JUST***: calls $24.00
Half***: folds
*** FLOP *** [6h Qh 2h]
SteamySammy: checks
JUST***: checks
*** TURN *** [6h Qh 2h] [2c]
SteamySammy: bets $50.00
JUST***: calls $50.00
*** RIVER *** [6h Qh 2h 2c] [5d]
SteamySammy: bets $132.00
JUST***: calls $132.00
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SteamySammy: shows [Kh Ah] (Flush, Ace high)
JUST***: shows [Qc Qd] (Full House, Queens full of Deuces)
JUST*** collected $428.00 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $430.00 | Rake $2.00
Board [6h Qh 2h 2c 5d]
Seat 1: thel*** folded before Flop
Seat 2: Half*** (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: SteamySammy (big blind) showed [Kh Ah] and lost with Flush, Ace high
Seat 8: JUST*** showed [Qc Qd] and won ($428.00) with Full House, Queens full of Deuces
Seat 10: Kost*** folded before Flop

Feeling a bit better today than I was yesterday and I'm glad I was able to bounce back with a good win. Looking to build on this rebound and finish out the month strong!

Downswing Again!?!?!?

2008-10-18T19:02:00.000-04:00

I don't think I've ever felt so helpless in my life. I had a few fish at every single table calling my cbets every single hand. When I'd try barrelling them, they'd minraise the turn (which is almost always a monster). If I bet the flop with the best hand, they'd be calling with overcards and get there (99 < KQ on 884KQ where I paid off his small turn and river bets because I felt like it didn't make sense and he'd bet every turn if I checked to him). If I flopped a set, the board would run out 4 flush. I had several second nuts into nuts (J9 < KJ on AQT8), and KK into AA preflop. Vs one mega station, I had Js7s on 8s7x3s, got all in on a 6s and lost to AxKs.

Then out of nowhere, a 12/8 nitty reg starts 3betting and 4betting like crazy (I actually fold JJ to him on one table, then he cold 4bets me on another). I have AcQc like 1.75 buy-ins deep and he's been acting super aggro and calls out of position this time. The board rolls out 7x6x2c, I check behind. Turn is Jc and he checks again, I lead 42 into 58 and he makes it 140. I ship in 500ish and he snap calls 77 (no idea how he checks this twice here).

The best hand of the session comes early on at 3/6 when a 440.00 stack in the SB 3bets my button raise from 21 to 106. I ship AK and he calls after like 2 seconds with 87o. T74T2 and he insta-leaves.

Down 5641.26 over the last 2 days at 2/4 and 3/6 to some of the biggest idiots ever. After a terrible September where I experienced my biggest downswing ever and a slow October start, I enjoyed a really nice upswing last week and looked to be pulling things around with a nice October. Not anymore, wiped out over 2/3 of my monthly profit and am back to feeling terrible.

Here's the graph to get a visual of the destruction (half 3/6, half 2/4):

Nasty Session

2008-10-18T04:01:00.003-04:00

Just had one of the worst sessions of my life. -3106 in 563 hands.

Here's the lovely graph:

Usually it doesn't get this bad because I hit a stop-loss but I was playing mostly 3/6 (and the rest was 2/4) so I guess 5 buy-ins isn't so bad. I got coolered about 30 times today. I didn't even get bad beat this session (except for one hand that was more of a cooler than a bad beat). Everyone flopped sets and turned or rivered full houses and straights vs me today, including 3 times in 3-bet pots. Pretty much one of the grossest sessions I've ever played because these games had a bunch of fish and I kept getting setup. I wanted to play for a while today but I felt tilt coming on as I continued to lose almost every single hand so I just quit.

Brett

Getting Lazy About Volume

2008-10-17T01:42:00.001-04:00

Today's results:

351 hands, +601.28

Fairly uneventful session today. I only played for an hour. Tables weren't bad but weren't great either - was battling with the same 2 regs on 4 tables for the fish's money and ended up clashing a bit more than I'd like (though I got the better of them, I really dislike battling regs when there's a lot less profit to be made there but they kept trying to play back at me today). The only thing worth noting about today is the fact that I haven't played much volume the last 2 days. I had class late and didn't get back til 7 PM. Then I played a one hour session before going out to eat dinner and didn't end up playing another session afterwards. I'll try to work on that more this weekend when I hopefully have a bit more time (and stop using lack of time as an excuse). I'm also procrastinating on an easy homework assignment and using that as an excuse as well. It's 1:41 AM and it'll take me like 20-30 minutes, yet I've been putting it off since 8:30 PM.

Brett

Short Session, Good Result!

2008-10-16T00:53:00.001-04:00

I was hoping to get in a lot of hands today but I ended up being rather busy and only got to play for around 40 minutes today. I had been promising my girlfriend I'd take her out for her birthday present (birthday was on Sunday) and I finally consented to do so today.

Played 223 hands, +920.85

Pretty simple session today without much to comment on. I caught a fish bluffing in a spot where I called a large river bet with T9 on a T5346 after he led into me on the flop and river (I had raised preflop). He was splashing around a lot and was playing way too many hands and was really just trying to win every pot. Additionally, usually when people take this line, they have absolutely nothing (poor players usually prefer check-raising!). I was pretty happy with that call as I made over half a buy-in due to my ability to hand read.

Other than that, I got a regular to stack off with JJ preflop into my AA in a spot where I don't completely hate his play, but I felt like it was too early in a session to not give me credit for a stronger hand. Easy buy-in there. Poker has seemed really easy recently, despite some rocky up and down sessions the past few days (after a really massive upswing last week). I think my decisions in October have been a lot more sound than in September and I'm really happy with where my game is.

Brett

Perseverence Despite Rocky Sessions

2008-10-14T04:25:00.002-04:00

After a large upswing midway through the week, I played a few rocky sessions over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday were kind of blah, and I'm not certain I was playing my best. I definitely had one spewy stackoff Sunday night that I'm not happy about, though I also encountered some annoying negative variance in the form of a 2 outter (AA < QQ all in on J435). I did lose a lot less than I thought despite the beats and poor play, finishing down only 721.35.

Monday started out almost as rocky as the weekend had been and I was getting coolered left and right (99 < QQ on Q93 rainbow, KK < AA to a semi-LAG AIPF, TT < AQ AIPF to a complete monkey). Nevertheless, I kept battling and after my first session I found myself up 278.10, which I was pretty happy with given the circumstances I endured. I played a second session later and made a solid 874.54, giving me a nice +1152.64 day, and capping off a great week in which I made about $8000 + rakeback (another 350 or so).

In other news, I'm getting increasingly lazy about classes. I had an insanely good series of good test scores, capped off by a 100 on my FIN 406 exam (which was ridiculously easy btw). When this happens, I tend to start skipping classes more under the assumption that I can get away with it and it always bites me in the ass later.

Finally, the DOW had a record gain yesterday of 936.42 (11%) which makes the world's financial outlook a lot better after the government's promise to invest in banks, providing liquidity for financial institutions. A ton of people were panicking last week and everyone was predicting the worst. I'm pretty excited to see how things develop from here as I haven't really begun investing yet and I'm trying to absorb all knowledge I can so I'm best prepared when I do begin.

Small Profit

2008-10-12T05:46:00.002-04:00

Played for over two hours today and made 275.76, which is decent, but seems substantially less than the killing I've made this week. Won this sweet freeroll though:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3311897

Bricked a bunch of draws in general at some extremely fishy tables.

Fish berated me in chat after this decent call. Had some notes on him and a pretty good read on his play:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3311902

As far as life goes, it's Lina's 21st birthday today (Oct 12) and we went out to dinner last night with some friends. We ate at Red Lobster and it was damn good. I had stomach issues earlier that day so I didn't eat much at the restaurant but I brought home a ton of leftovers and ate most of it later. Hoping to get in a fair amount of poker in later and finish up a very productive week. I also picked up a new stakee and I'm looking forward to seeing him progress as a player and put up some nice results!

UPPPPPSWING!

2008-10-10T04:11:00.004-04:00

So yeah. I spent a few days trying to plug one of my biggest poker leaks - quitting sessions early and just generally working on playing longer sessions. I spent 2 days at 200 NL and put in a good 3-4 hours each of those days and was pretty satisfied with that, making ~$757 in the process. Then I went back to playing 2/4 and 3/6 Wednesday and Thursday and absolutely CRUSHED both of those days. My goals were to play only 4 tables, to really focus on playing well and making correct decisions, and to hopefully play longer sessions. My sessions were slightly longer but not long enough. Ideally I want to be playing over 3 hours a day, and longer on the weekends if possible and I still only played 1.5 to 2 hours each of the last few days. My biggest leak is that when I run really good in a session, I want to quit and book a nice win. Instead I should continue playing and trying to improve on those profits, especially from the people I've stacked.

The last 2 days, I've made just over $4800 at 2/4 and 3/6. I won't be playing 5/10 for a bit hopefully, as I don't feel like dealing with the variance. Despite being up $8.5k at 5/10 lifetime (including $4.5k in September), I feel like playing 5/10 deteriorates my 2/4 and 3/6 games, especially when playing simultaneously. Perhaps I will be taking shots again in the near future, but for now I've decided to focus on what I've been doing for the past 6 months and just crushing 2/4 and 3/6. I'm up about $4300 on the month now which is just great and I'm hoping to get in a minimum of 25k hands this month, something I haven't done since April (hell, I haven't even surpassed 20k in months). While 25k isn't a lot for some people, it's somewhat of an accomplishment for me and it's something I should be able to achieve if I remain dedicated.

After finishing September down $1800, I'm extremely happy with how October is progressing. I'm officially out of my $9000 downswing, which is the largest I've ever endured, and I'm certainly a better player now that I've survived it. Being back in the black for the month feels great and I'm glad to be pulling in the profits for the first time since August.

September Funk Continues

2008-10-05T18:02:00.000-04:00

GO PHILLIES!

BOO Poker.

Could not win a single coinflip in my session (2/4 and 3/6)

Top two in 3bet pot < rivered straight when board ends up 4 broadway cards.

QQ < 77 to halfstack at 3/6 that called a large 3bet (51 to call on a 354 stack) and flopped 789.

AsTx < 8s7s on QsJs9s after I 3bet squeezed from BB after a loose button opener and a fishy SB call. SB fish called OOP and obv flops gin for both hands to get in.

JJ < KhQh in 3bet pot on 8d6h3h (standard)

Folded JJ to a double barrel in a 3bet pot on a 7c3h2h8d when he bet 280 in a 230 pot (my stack was 278) on the turn to put me all-in. Fairly certain he had KK/AA here.

Only significant stack I won (where the money went in by the turn having < 80% equity) was having AsKs vs a LAG who check/raised me on a AhQh6c and I shoved over his turn bet when the 7s fell. He called with KhJh and I held.

Blah blah blah standard variance but it would be nice to be able to string together some wins so I can get out of the funk that began in September. I'm already choosing not to play 5/10 for the time being because even though I'm winning there, the swings affect me too much mentally.

21st in Vegas!

2008-08-17T05:28:00.003-04:00

Been in Vegas since Wednesday, August 6. My 21st birthday was the 7th and I planned a 2 week trip around it with my friend Ross (infinite_loop on FCP). It's been going pretty well so far, though I haven't taken advantage of the many things people usually experience when they come to Vegas. I'm not much of a drinker or partier or degenerate so it's been a lot of live poker and fast food. At the current point in time, I prefer money over luxuries. I'd rather set myself up for life than squander my wealth away for pleasures in the present, but that's just me. So I end up being pretty nitty with my money, to the point where I've eaten most of the trip at McDonalds or Subway, and haven't spent much on really anything.

Two funny stories from my first night. In the first, I get carded at 10 PM on the 6th while I'm still 20 but the guy lets me play anyways. Well, one of the pit bosses realizes I was playing underage for two hours when I go up to get a players card made even though it was past midnight. She asks me to leave for 8 hours, but she was totally cool about it and I respect it because that's something that could potentially cost her her job. So yeah, I was pretty much kicked out of a casino for underage gambling despite being 21.

So we head back to our hotel (Bill's Gambling Hall and Saloon) and notice this weird $1 BB/No SB game running and decide to sit in. It has a 200 max and 20 min buy-in, so we say "what the hell" and sit. Pretty much no one is raising in this game and everyone is just having a good time even though the rake is enormous. A drunk Ron Rose (former WPT Season 1 champion) is playing, and he's clearly pretty drunk, although in a friendly way. Playing isn't the right word though, as he's shortstacking and holding up the game with his anecdotes and distracted, friendly belligerence. He tries to recruit students for the program he sells and gives us his card (not that we considered for a second though lol). Regardless, he was a genuinely nice guy. I finally busted his final buy-in with AK to his AA after flopping broadway.

As far as table play goes, I had no live experience heading into the trip (aside from occasional college home hames), so I played my first 2 days at 1/2 and have been playing the rest of the trip at 2/5, mainly at the MGM. I haven't tried out 5/10 yet and likely won't this trip, despite being overly bankrolled and overly skilled (from what I hear at least) for it. I've had pretty good success, netting around $2350 so far on the trip. With the trip costing me only around $1500, I'm pretty happy to be paying for it at the tables and then some. I've also played a bit online while I've been here. August started out slow in terms of online results, but it's picked up decently and should shape up to be a decent month (after putting up huge results the last 2 months).

Last night at a 2/5 game at the MGM, I made the best call of my life, especially given the circumstances. I was really exhilerated for the rest of the night and am extremely proud of how it went down. I'll copy the post I made on FCP:

I have Ah 4h in the CO and raise to 30 after 2 limpers.

BB is a 40ish year old guy that has been splashing around some. He's definitely not afraid to move his money around and he's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar once or twice but not really anything extremely noticeable. He seemed to be the type of guy that was sick of the young online players raising often as he had already limp reraised my friend's EP raise to 100 (from 25 after a caller) with ATo and showed. I had been pretty nitty throughout the night but just had won around 3 out of the last 5 or 6 hands with only one shown down. I was fairly certain he was going to raise me light.

BB ends up raising to 85 and it folds to me, and I choose to defend, ready to make a play if need be.

Flop comes Q 9 3 rainbow.

He checks fairly fast, as if he had hoped I would fold preflop, and I'm now pretty certain he missed this flop. I fire 115 in an effort to just take it down and he thinks for around 5-10 seconds and calls. At this point, I'm not entirely sure what to think, but I'm fairly certain he does not have a big hand here.

Turn is another 9 and he checks, and I check back pretty quickly.

River is a complete blank, an offsuit 6 I believe, making the board: Q 9 3 9 6.

Dude announces 200 pretty quickly. At this point, I was pretty certain he didn't have much of a hand, but I also felt like he was capable of bluffing something like AJ/AT (maybe even A8), without realizing he had the best hand.

I tanked for about 3 minutes, changing my mind about calling like 10 times. Eventually I decided he had something that looked a lot like KT/KJ and I finally just went with my gut and looked him up. He instantly announces King high. I stand up fast, fist pump, and table my hand. Ship the 800+ pot with A high. Half the table stands up in disbelief and the kid to my right (probably not much older than I was) just gives me this incredulous "holy shit" stare.

Life is pretty good right now. I move back into school in a week on the 23rd for my senior year. I look forward to learning more about finance and the markets and getting settled into my new place (moving is going to suck). I'm set financially for a while as my daily cash inflows constantly exceed my outflows by large margins and my net worth increases daily, which is more than most can say. I have a great relationship with my girlfriend of almost 15 months now as well. I just hope my prosperity continues.

Hand Discussion

2008-07-16T20:35:00.006-04:00

So I've played a lot of interesting hands over the past few months. Here are some of the better ones.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2903386
In this particular hand, I knew villain was really wanting to play back at me. I'm pretty sure he was feeling pushed around. His turn raise is usually fairly scary but there aren't a ton of Ax combinations he can have and I was fairly sure I had the best hand. The most important aspect of my hand is my plan on that turn card. I was never planning on bet/folding. Many players would bet here (or check behind), and then feel like they had to make a decision facing a raise or call. The decision was made when I decided to bet, that I was going to bet/call a raise, and then call down on any river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2903383
Another fairly interesting hand, only this time at 5/10. The villain was certainly one of the weaker players at the table. His preflop cold call set off alarms but there are many fish that are cold calling 3bets with very marginal hands (as seen here). I planned to check behind flop and call down on any turn, re-evaluating the river. Unfortunately his river-bet looks either insanely value-ish or some kind of blocker with something that I beat. Given the amazing odds I'm getting, I'm never folding what merits to be the best hand a large percentage of the time.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2902354
I played this hand today. It looks fairly standard, but I feel it merits some discussion. On this type of board, I'm going to be check/folding AK/AQ almost always. So I need to balance my range with made hands and draws. I would certainly check/shove flush draws/combo draws but I feel it's a great spot to check/shove an overpair. I can't see this flop getting checked behind very often. If villain has a flush draw, he's going to bet/call the flop almost 100% of the time. If villain has air, he's going to assume I'm check/folding often with AK/AQ because I would have bet to protect my overpairs. And if villain has a made hand, he's not going to want to give off a free card on this board, and probably will justify calling a shove by figuring I'm drawing a large percentage of the time. So, a great spot to check/shove and have him drawing to 2 outs (in this case he has 99).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2894562
A really weird hand with a very aggressive regular. This regular plays anywhere from 2/4 to 25/50 and is fairly LAG. He can't resist squeezes and just loves to make plays and push people off of hands. I will check back hands like this on the flop occasionally, but versus this particular opponent, it's a great time to do it. He'll put me on a weak hand like KQ/KJ or maybe a weak suited A and he'll often try to barrel me off of it. I feel like his turn check/raise and river bet are pretty terrible though, and I'm not entirely sure what he was doing. I'm never folding river to this guy because air (and apparently worse hands for value) are a large part of his range.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2894404
This honestly might be one of the best value-shoves I've made recently. The A is a great card for me to barrel, and I know he knows that. So I know he's capable of bluff raising it as well. I don't think he's ever raising this turn with a hand like AJ/AK that he floated with and I think he's making a move a fair portion of the time with both air and draws that he may have picked up. I shoved basically because he's never folding those draws and I don't expect him to bluff river with only 180 behind. Unfortunately he got there, but I'm very happy with my play.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2883372
Opponent is fairly LAG and is definitely one to make a lot of moves. My range is so ridiculously strong here and he rarely ever has anything strong enough to call me down. My only mistake here was not showing so I get him to pay me off more often in the future, as I rarely take a line like this.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2882825
Opponent is a fairly good regular that gets a bit out of line at times. He plays a TAG game for the most part but rarely folds hands in position. He also hates to fold. When he checks behind the flop, I figure he doesn't have a flush draw or JT as he would certainly have bet the flop with those. He could have something like KQ or QT but I felt like he would bet them based on the dynamics of the game at the time. When he shoved the river K, I know it's the perfect card for him to represent, and unless he has exactly 99 or KQ, I'm almost certainly good.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2684777
Pretty awesome hand here. This is another opponent that doesn't play a super-loose game, but gets out of line in the hands he does play. He hates to fold and loves to raise dry boards, as seen in the hand here. When he checks behind turn, I don't expect him to have a whole lot. When the river comes, he pretty much has the nuts or air, and I felt like he would try to represent it pretty much every time he had air as it's a really great bluffing card that does hit his range. Unfortunately for him, I know how much he loves to represent scare cards and I'm a calling station.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2693446
A similar hand to the last one. This opponent is a bit looser (probably around 27/20). He tends to be a station to bets and he loves making plays sensing weakness. He cannot resist raising dry boards. I pretty much made up my mind never to fold to him here because I don't see him valuebetting a Tx type hand on the turn and his range is so heavily weighted towards air. His flop raising range here is like 22/55/QQ/AQ/KQ and I'm not even sure how often he raises any of those hands. He doesn't balance his ranges well so I felt like this was a pretty necessary call down. I actually considered shoving the river because I felt like there was a fair amount of Jx type hands in his range that he would fold but I decided that he might be too much of a station to fold KJ/AJ.

Quick Update!

2008-07-16T20:12:00.002-04:00

So again, it's been a while since I posted. Here's a summary of how things have gone.

March ended well. The first half of April went reasonably well, at least until the 15th. The second half of April was probably the most difficult time I've ever faced as a poker player as I went into a fairly large downswing that peaked at 21 buy-ins. Everyone was hitting their 2 outters against me. Every time I made some buy-ins back, I would drop twice as many the next day. It was a difficult time. April ended up break even (or possibly down slightly).

I was inactive for a large part of May and only got in around 10k hands. I believe I made somewhere around 4k in May, which was a pretty good result.

I wasn't fully out of my downswing until June. June started out in April fashion, as I was having trouble winning on consecutive days. After the first 9 days of June, I was more or less break-even. But then I just went on a few good heaters and I've been winning ever since. June was a monstrous month for me and I topped my previous monthly high (March, 2008). I'm not going to get into exact figures but I absolutely crushed mid-stakes on Cake and I took some successful shots at 5/10.

July has been really good so far. I had a first week similar to my first week of June, where I was slightly under even after the first 7 days, but since then, I've been on an absolute tear. I'm playing 5/10 whenever I find a good table and I've been crushing 2/4 and 3/6. I should eclipse June profits, but for now I'm just focused on playing my game with high confidence and make a successful transition to 5/10. I'll get back and post some hands from the past 2-3 months that I found interesting and that I'm particularly happy about.

March Results/April Goals

2008-04-01T23:46:00.002-04:00

March was pretty awesome and I achieved way more than I expected, it was pretty surreal. I'm regularly having 4 figure days. Here's the graph and goals.

March graph:

March Goals:

-Make 8k+, with 10k as my reach goal.
Crushed this goal and had another breakout month. Made 13,230.22 after shipping a piece of my action, rakeback, and tourney stakes.

-Play 25k hands (this will be difficult as I'll be taking 5 or so days off for spring break with my girlfriend)
Played 20k hands, but missed 6 days at the beginning of the month.

-Take more shots at 2/4 and possibly move up by the end of the month
Achieved! Actually crushing faces at 2/4 now and playing 3/6 when the games are good.

-Continue posting regularly in my blog!
Somewhat achieved. I posted more at the beginning of the month but haven't made a post in weeks.

April Goals:

-Make 15k, with 18k as my reach goal.

-Play 25k hands

-Continue playing 2/4 and play 3/6 when the games are good. Maybe try some 5/10 at the end of the month.

-Continue blogging!

I'm also off to an awesome start to April, finishing +1750 today. I don't have hands to post today but I'll try to keep updating more regularly with interesting info. I'm way ahead of my expectations right now so each day just seems awesome to me.

End of Downswing

2008-03-19T23:20:00.006-04:00

So I had an extended downswing/break even stretch at the end of February through the first week or so of March. The good news is that I'm long out of it and back to crushing the games. I had spring break from Mar 7-16 which was very refreshing. I ended up spending a few days at home with my family before going to my shore house with Lina for a few days alone. We even made it out to Atlantic City last Friday and browsed the boardwalk (I'm too much of a puss to go into the casinos underage). Can't wait to do it again because a week off to relax is always awesome.

Unfortunately, having a week off cut into my poker time significantly and I didn't play for 4 days in addition to the 2 days I didn't play at the beginning of the month due to my downswing. That means I've really only played poker for just under two weeks that month. My results are decent enough, as I've made probably just over 2600 in March thus far, though I'd hoped to be making more. I've seemed to have picked up the pace recently and should be taking shots at 2/4 this week, perhaps tomorrow.

Here are some of the more notable hands since my last post:

The Good:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299072
Villain here was unknown with donkish tendencies. This might have been one of my toughest decisions recently and is a hand that tends to generate a lot of debate as all I beat on the river is a busted draw/pure bluff. He had the latter with KJo

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299088
Villain here is very LAG and I've played with him a bunch of times before. We started out playing headsup for 5 minutes or so before the table filled. I think this was an easy squeeze/shove for value. He had AJo.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299103
Owned a semi-reg that I have history with.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299098
Value-towned a donk. He had some rag ace like A5o.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299061
Villain had Kh9h. Both villains in this hand were absolutely terrible. It was suprising to see how many outs he had.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299065
Didn't know what to do here. Because he check-raised in a multiway, I think folding probably was best on the flop but I'm ahead of a lot of draws. He ended up having 44 and I sucked out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299068
Not ever getting away from this one, especially as the villain was a donk. He ended up having AA here and the short stack had 5h6h and I luckboxed a nice pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299137
Reg who I've played a lot of hands with. We have a lot of history and he definitely likes to 3bet me a lot so I decided to 4bet light here (ended up being for value). Obviously a gin turn and I got him to do something spastic. He immediately quit all the tables.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299101
LOL mega-donk had AQo, no heart!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299102
LOL more donk action. 77 no good sir.

The Bad:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299113
One of the grosser losses I've taken. This guy was just 3betting massively every hand and calling everything. I was just waiting for something marginally decent to stack him. AJ was certainly good enough and he called my huge 4bet shove with 75s. Can't really ask for a spot better than this, bad result though.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299120
How gross is this hand?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299118
Told myself I was going to bet/fold the river, but I convinced myself to call due to pot odds even though I beat absolutely nothing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299121
I need to fold to the 3bet here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299122
A very interesting hand. I have history with this reg. I didn't really know about his unwillingness to fold in 3bet pots, though I've found out since. I still think this is a good river bet, as I play a huge part of my 3betting range the same way and a Q definitely hits my range.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299126
Another interesting hand. This villain is very tight and generally won't make spastic plays and I didn't think there was a worse hand in his range that would call a flop bet, so I decided to play it tricky and hope he'd read me for JJ/KK and take a stab. I got 2 outted but I'm really not concerned about that. I'm more concerned about whether I played this hand like a complete donk or not.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2299132
An example of a tilt call vs a maniac donk who I just didn't believe (in retrospect it wasn't THAT bad).

I'll try to keep updating more regularly so I don't have these massive posts with an overwhelming amount of hands. I've also had a pretty stressful week as I had to do a speech for my speech class today. I always dread these kinds of things because I don't feel like taking the time to plan it out, even though we're given like a month, so I always put it off to the last minute. To make matters worse, I had an Economics test directly after my speech that I didn't have time to study for. Luckily, I knew the material well and I think I got a mid to high A on it. My speech was decent at best so hopefully I'll get a B on that. I have Supply Chain and Marketing tests next week and I've been barely going to any classes so that'll be interesting to say the least.

Last but not least, I'm finally taking a serious passion in my major. I've been constantly following Wall Street and the markets and watching CNBC whenever I get the chance to (I don't get it at school so I watched it practically nonstop over Spring Break). I'm going to be putting the money I make through poker into an investment account and get really serious about it. I'm very excited about it and can't wait to start and hope to start very soon (I'd like to get an IRA setup soon). I also hope to be posting more financial related news in this blog as well as it's extremely fascinating - for anyone who doesn't know, the market is in a very unstable period right now, though it appears to be getting better after JP Morgan and the Fed bailed out Bear Stearns, lessening some fears regarding the credit crisis.

Oh and I'm starting to plan my Vegas trip for when I turn 21 this summer. Ross, Kevin and a few others should be coming so it should be pretty sweet. Peace out.

End of One Month, Start of Another!

2008-03-01T00:37:00.005-05:00

Well February was overall a good month, despite a rocky final week. I made just over 200 in my final session of the month, bringing my monthly total to about 7200 in 24k hands, rakeback included. I'm also getting a bonus from my rakeback affiliate, probably another 200 dollars more. Here are some hands from my final session:

The Good:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192602
Drdonk is a familiar regular. Was fairly sure he had JJ by the end and would go for 3 streets of value.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192078
Villain seemed to be a retarded regular who got really spewy at times. I was planning to let him shove the turn and stack-a-donk but the river worked out better as he had Qh9h LOL.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192084
Another major donk. I'm pretty sure he had total air here, which is why I let him hang himself. This guy has seemed to play back at me a lot in the past.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192092
Pretty standard vs a huge donk. He typically would minraise any top pair hand or better. I think the river probably killed any action I was going to get.

The Bad:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192102
Same donk as the last hand. He raises top pair here so I was glad to get it in. Oh well, sometimes coolers happen.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2192106
WTF superuser???? No idea how he calls my triple barrel down here. I rarely make a play like this, he had no reason to believe I'm bluffing. Oh well, I'm value betting him 95% of the time here!

Here's my February graph (it's a bit off due to flaws in the Cake Hand Histories):

I'm looking forward to a successful March. My short-term goals are 8k in profit (10k as a stretch), 25k hands, and a successful progression to 2/4. I'm going to miss probably about 5 days due to Spring break so that might cut down on some of the hands, but I will be striving for it nonetheless!

Fixing My Game

2008-02-29T03:34:00.007-05:00

Well I've re-evaluated my game a bit and I feel like I was getting a bit fancy, out of control, and spewy this past week and I'm taking the necessary steps to maintain a solid game. I'm focusing on being more aggressiving with 3-betting in position, calling and 3-betting less out of position, and bluffing less postflop because I feel like I've been getting myself into some really unnecessary spots recently. And the Cake 200 NL players are all very weak and easy to crush using fundamentally solid poker.

Over the course of the last 3 days, I've put in about 7.5 hours of play and made only around 150.00, though today was the start of the revamping of my game and it showed in my results. Here's some hands from my sessions (Ignore the converter mistakes, it replaces the opponent's hand with AK often and I have to substitute the actual hand in).

The Good:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187039
I decided to 3-bet small in this one to encourage the donks to shove over me or to flat call. It worked beautifully. Donk#1 had As9s. Donk#2 had QsJs.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187047
I was really suprised at how light this guy looked me up here, as he really had no reason to suspect I was bluffing here. This guy is a multi-tabling regular with fairly TAGish stats. I expected him to turn over 87 after he tanked the river, but he called me down with Ad8d. He must have been on tilt or else I've worked a pretty nice image.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187066
I don't remember what this guy had, but he was a mega-donk. If I had to guess, it was something like A4 or T3, because I do remember laughing when he turned over his hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187070
Donkish regular that doesn't ever seem to fold vs me. Paid me off with 77 here.

The Bad:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187078
This hand was vs an absolute megadonk. At one point he was shoving in stacks with K7s and similar bad hands. I wasn't sure whether I should have 3-bet pre or not. I'm not too upset with the way I played this. Maybe a flop call would have been better but I don't have problems getting it in vs this guy. The good news is that I took a decent amount of it back from him later at another table.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187093
Obvious cooler vs a fishy donk.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187095
Another cooler. Why did I have to apparently get there?!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187099
Gross cooler vs another fish. This guy had a tendency to bet air on later streets so I wanted to let him hang himself.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2187105
Obviously the donk flops gin after calling OOP with JTo on a 1/3 stack.

Slight Recovery

2008-02-25T22:16:00.010-05:00

So I almost had 2 really ugly sessions today, as I was well along to a -6.5 buy-in day. Eventually I ended up recovering most of it though. It was just a really frustrating day and I was relieved to recover at least a decent portion of what I had lost. I also put in a nice amount of hands today, about 2900 in total, so the rakeback will be decent at least. Here's a few of the notable hands from today (hopefully I start posting hands more often).

The Good:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168305
Hadn't 3bet all session. Villain on button was insanely aggro so this was a great spot. Unfortunately I didn't expect the SB to call. Decided to value-shove river, as it looked much bluffier and he decided to look me up with KJhh. Really don't like his call there.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167937
Villain decided to hero call with QQ here lol. NH sir.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167943
I had a really poor image at this time (probably tilt induced) and this villain is a fairly aggressive reg. I was pretty sure I was making the right play here when I jammed the call button.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167948
Villain is a very bad LAG with spewy tendencies. He mucked KJo here lol. I don't know what he was thinking here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167952
This guy and I were definitely going at it. I think this shove here is fine vs his range. I hadn't shown much resistance to his 3bets/4bets previously and I really wanted to make a statement. Looking back on it though, this looks really spewy.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167976
Pretty standard.

The Bad:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167837
During this hand, Cake's software bugged out and I couldn't tell the size of the pot easily, and I accidentally bet a ridiculously small amount on the flop. Villain ( a fish) took an abnormal amount of time to call and I interpreted it as a very marginal hand that he'd try to bluff river with if I checked behind turn. Well he ended up having an absolutely monster.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167859
Guy was just a huge fish and I thought I had him. Variance felt otherwise.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167864
This hand really tilted me. Guy was atrocious and was practically giving money away but he ran like Jesus vs me and I didn't get any of it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167980
An unfortunate cooler.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167984
Hated myself for calling this as I don't think I'm really ever ahead here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167989
Another cooler vs an aggro reg.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2167993
I really shouldn't spew like this, and I rarely ever tilt, but here's a good example of when I do. I just convinced myself that his line didn't make sense (in reality, AQ/KQ make sense, JQ is more obscure).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168003
WTF make sense for him here? AA or AsKs???? Nothing else? I dunno, pretty clear fold I think though.

Ugly Session

2008-02-25T12:40:00.004-05:00

I played an early morning session from 12:30 to 3:30 AM. It was pretty much the worst session of my life and was driving me insane. At one point I had 4 bet preflop with JJ after a shortie 3 bet shove and some fish cold calls out of the SB and check shoves a T55 flop 100 BBs deep. JJ < A5s, nh sir. Way to call off 1/3 of your stack with A5s preflop. Then after a bunch of more coolers and suckouts, I felt like it couldn't get any worse. But boy it did. Q9 < Q7 on QQK2 board. Obviously a river 7 came. NH sir, keep playing that garbage. It was just gross throughout the night. Blind vs blind a guy calls with a gutshot to my top pair on an A hi board and gets there and I pay off his river bet because his hand just doesn't make sense (I definitely should have folded river in this one). Trips top kicker < straight, flush < fish's full house, trips < fish's flush - it really could not have gotten worse. I ended up down around 860 after that nightmare. I'll have to grind it back later today.

Best Session/Day Ever - In 32 Minutes!

2008-02-22T02:51:00.003-05:00

So I played today for 32 minutes. And what a 32 minutes it was. One of my first hands, I checked A5o in the big blind, flopped top pair and turned two pair. Button decided to turn middle pair into a bluff and shipped me a 200.00 pot or so. Then I hit 2 sets and got paid full on both (one fish decided to slowplay AA and double check-raise me lol). I also had some donk raise to 22 from MP (22 BBs lol) and I happen to have AA and know I'm getting paid. I raise it up to 66 and we get it in and I hold up vs QQ. Also had another guy try to force me off top pair on the flop for another nice pot. After all that, +5 buyins in around 200 hands! This came with perfect timing because yesterday I played for 4 hours and couldn't get anything going, finishing -757.48. Yesterday's session was pretty demoralizing as nothing seemed to go my way. I was determined to come back with a good session today and it was so. Running goot!

I'm also done all my tests for a bit so I get to focus a lot more on poker these next few weeks. I'm already having my best month ever (already a 150% increase on my previous best month) and I hope to continue this success. My ultimate goal is a 10k month, but I'm going to need to have a real good last week to accomplish that. I'll try to provide updates on how that goes!

Winter Formal Tonight

2008-02-16T16:46:00.003-05:00

I got in a decent amount of poker this weekend while staying with my girlfriend. The advantage of not using PT or PAHUD is that I am comfortable playing on any computer without stats. I've made around 600 since I've been here, which is decent. I had a pretty rough session today where I was down for about 98% of my session, as much as 3 buy-ins. I kept grinding back and eventually profited $81 on the session which is certainly better than a loss. There was this huge fish at one of my tables that had various betting tells that I picked up easily. Unfortunately I picked up the tells after stacking off to him with KK to 77 on a 752r flop, but that's just a cooler anyways. At one point he was calling my flop PSB with Q3 on an A72, so he was pretty much terrible. I eventually stacked him in a cooler hand for him (fittingly). I don't recall many notable hands played today and unfortunately I don't have the hands organized in PT here for me to sort through.

The one hand I do consider worth posting involved me raising QQ to 7 in MP and getting 2 callers from CO and SB. The pot was 23 on a flop of Th 9h 3s. SB donked pot and I was put in an awkward spot when I raised to 69 and got cold called by CO, with SB folding. At this point I really don't know the optimal way to play a blank turn. I think check/folding isn't really that bad but I decided to shove an offsuit 6 (120 into a 180ish pot) and got called by 33. His play is really opponent dependant and unfortunately I didn't have any reads on him. But it certainly looks like a set, as I'd assume most combo draws would be shoving that flop, unless he was a passive fish, and I doubt he ever shows up with AT/JJ here as his flop call was without much hesitation.

I'll be going to Darlina's winter formal with her tonight. We're going out to Red Robin first with a large group of people. Should be a decent evening although I can't really dance at all. Hopefully it will go well and I'll have a lot of fun. I also have a speech due Monday that I haven't started that I'm not really looking forward to but I'm great at BSing and it only has to be 4-6 minutes about Walmart so it should be pretty easy. I'll probably get distracted by more poker tomorrow.

I'm up about 5.5k on the month now with about 430.00 rakeback generated so far. I hope to have my first 5 figure month (8k was my initial goal) but really anything remotely close would be excellent as I'm already having my best month ever. Peace out.

New Year and Big Breakthrough

2008-02-12T02:00:00.009-05:00

So it's been a while. A bunch of people have been asking me when I'm going to update, so maybe that'll keep me motivated to do so on a regular basis. I know I keep saying I'll update more but I'm just so goddamn lazy. Anyways, I had a successful November, making around 2100, good for my best month ever. Over Thanksgiving break, I went home and played 100 NL HU for a week on an old, crappy computer without PT/HUD. I made 1100 in like 3 days before dropping almost all of it back. It was still a decent experience although I think it contributed to me developing some flaws in my game which I've since fixed. I was on pace for a 3k month, but 2100 was still great for me at the time.

December rolled around and was just a pretty terrible month. I played pretty breakeven throughout most of the month and I didn't get in a ton of hands due to finals. Also my computer broke Christmas morning while testing out a new monitor and had to end up buying a new one 2 weeks later, so I missed out on playing throughout the holidays, which is unfortunate as it's such a profitable time to play. I probably ended up making like 500.00 in December with rakeback included but I don't know the exact figures as my PT database and everything else was lost on that computer.

So January I started completely fresh - a new year and a new computer. I was still playing 100 NL on FTP, with occasional shots at 200 NL (I think I lost a decent amount shot taking 200 NL in December, cancelling out most profits from 100 NL). I made about 780 with rakeback included from Jan 9-21 which was a decent start, but nothing too special.

After some convincing from some buddies (mainly pt), I decided to give Cake Poker a shot, due to 33% rakeback and softer games. I moved 5000 over on January 22 and made 3800 throughout the rest of January there, including my first 3k week (keep in mind my best MONTH before was 2100). I've been absolutely crushing 200 NL there since.

Throughout my first 11k hands at 200 NL on Cake, I've been winning at an insane 16.65 PTBB/100. The players are extremely weak there and I feel like I'm playing very well. I've taken some shots at 400 NL, which have gone decently and seems promising, though it's going to be a slow moveup process. All in all, I moved my bankroll into 5 digits by the end of January, making over 7k on Cake so far. February has also started out excellently, with another 3k week. My goal at this point is an 8k month (looking good so far) and a 6 digit year (going to be hard to attain but I'm very ambitious).

I'll wrap this up with my 200 NL graph on Cake so far and I'll try to give more updates! By the way if anyone can tell me how I can get the entire graph to fit (if possible), I'd greatly appreciate it!

By Snamuh123

Moved to Full Tilt!

2007-11-09T00:46:00.000-05:00

So it's been a month since my last post (I know I said I wanted to post more. I really want to.) I moved to Full Tilt on Monday to take advantage of rakeback, better software, better datamining capabilities (more information), and (hopefully) softer games. So far, so good. I transferred $3500.00 over with the help of Jordan after a frustrating day wondering why Stars was holding my money waiting to confirm the transaction.

October was a good month overall but I struggled to move up to 100 NL for a while. I started off the month very fast, winning around 1300.00 in a week, mainly from 50 NL. Then over the span of two days I had my worst downswing ever while trying to move up. $950 = 9.5 buy-ins. I took some time off and spent a lot of time with Lina and recovered most of it by the end of the month.

October results:
50 NL: +$1430, 10.22 BB/100
100 NL: -$307, -1.42 BB/100
Overall: +1123

I was hoping for my first +$1500 month but still a decent month. Looking to improve on that for the future and I have so far. Since moving to FTP, I've made $608.85 + rakeback in 3 days at 100 NL. I also cashed out my Stars FPPs to purchase a Canon Powershot SD850 as well as a duffle bag (I really needed one).

November Goals:
-Play 30,000 hands or more at 100 NL
-Profit at least $2000 (including rakeback)
-Maintain a winrate of at least 5 BB/100 at 100 NL
-Post in the blog at least twice a week
-Take shots at 200 NL by the start of December (Reach)

Stars Roll: $79.59
Full Tilt Roll: $4108.85
Current Bankroll: $4188.44

Best Week Ever

2007-10-09T01:24:00.000-04:00

Well I went through a downswing last week where I tried to move up to 100 NL and ended up dropping 6 buyins to drop my BR to around $2200. However I started playing again on Wednesday and let's just say I'm back in business, and then some. I've played over 9400 hands in 5 days, running 11.2 BB/100 (90% of which is at 50 NL, with 2 tables of 100 NL today). I've made $1163 since Thursday. My bankroll now stands at $3412.24, easily the highest it's ever been. I've also quit my part-time job in order to spend more time with my girlfriend, and also get more time to play poker, which is now my main source of income while in school. Conservatively I hope to make $2000 this month and make it to 200 NL by the end of November. Also, it's Darlina's (my girlfriend <3 ) birthday Friday so I won't get to play much this weekend. My challenge goal is to get to $4000 by Friday, and $5000 by the end of October. We'll see how it goes.

R.I.P. Bella 9/29/07

2007-09-30T20:05:00.000-04:00

My dog, Bella, of the past 7 years, passed away late Saturday night at the age of 9. I went home Friday night with the intention of spending my last weekend with her as she's been fairly sick for a while. I really don't know how it got so bad but I was really upset about it. I'll always remember how energetic and friendly and cuddly she was but I think it was best that she went peacefully and didn't seem to be in any pain.

That said, I haven't played since Thursday, when I was taking shots at 100 NL and started up 2 buy-ins but finished down 2.5 buy-ins which was somewhat demoralizing. There's more important things going on my life right now and I'll resume playing when I can.

Moving Up!

2007-09-26T03:43:00.001-04:00

So I had decided to try and move up to 100 NL once my bankroll reached 25 buyins for it ($2500). I went into the day with my bankroll starting at $2374. All I can say is WOW. I had an excellent day, my bankroll finishing at $2701 (+327.05). I put in over 3300 hands today over an 8 hour period and ran at about 10 PTBB/100.

Here's one of the sickest coolers I've had in a while.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG ($77.80)

MP ($77.85)

CO ($64.10)

Button ($57.85)

SB ($25.25)

Hero ($79.20)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ah, Ac.

3 folds, Button raises to $1.5, 1 fold, BB raises to $6, Button calls $4.50.

Flop: ($12.25) 7c, Ts, 9d (2 players)

BB bets $10, Button raises to $20, Hero calls $10.

Turn: ($52.25) 7s (2 players)

Hero checks, Button checks.

River: ($52.25) Ad (2 players)

BB bets $32, Button calls $31.85 (All-In).

Final Pot: $115.95

Results in white below:

Hero has Ah Ac (full house, aces full of sevens).

Button has 7d 7h (four of a kind, sevens).

Outcome: Button wins $115.95. Hero wins $0.15.

So I will be playing my next session tomorrow at 100 NL and I am really looking forward to crushing it! I'll also try to get more hands up.

Resuming Posting!

2007-09-22T21:13:00.000-04:00

It's been five months since my last post and a LOT has changed. I'm not entirely sure why I stopped posting. I was going through a series of downswings, the worst of which was 11 buyins at the end of July. I took several breaks and I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked to over the summer. I did a lot of poker reading though (HoH 1 and 2, TPFAP, Ace on the River, etc) and kept my mind focused on the game. I dabbled a bit in tourneys with moderate success. Then I decided to try out the 4.40/180s on Stars and everything changed.

Almost immediately I knew I had a huge edge in this format and within a couple days, I had taken down my first one, winning $216. Not only that, I felt like I played excellently. I saved my Hand History in PXF and a friend decided to take a shot on me and stake me for the 22/180s in a deal that would help me improve my game and bankroll, and also allow him to "invest" some of his dead money. Within the first 5, I finished with a second and a third, for total winnings of around $1140, and self-profits of over 500. This was huge for me as my bankroll at the end of July had dropped to less than $800 after my incredible downswing at full ring 50 NL. After these three huge tourney cashes, I was up past $1600.

My friend also convinced me that 6 max was the way to go and this represented the greatest and most profitable change for me thus far. Being an aggressive player with a good postflop game, this suited me perfectly. I went on a tear and in only 2 weeks, I'm up to around $2380, averaging about 5.5 BB/100 over 13k hands, reaching Gold Star, which I've never played enough to reach before. I also am now extremely comfortable 4 tabling, so I'm getting in a lot more hands than I used to while I was playing mainly 2, sometimes 3. And this is while I was "learning" 50 NL 6 Max. I hope to be able to improve on that win rate. When I reach $2500 I will be taking shots at 100 NL and hopefully I will take off from there.

Overall, August was an incredible rebuilding month with some good profit on the end, and September has been excellent so far. My poker goals:

-Maintain the blog, updating at least 2 times a week, hopefully more
-Continue watching CR vids, at least one every 2 days
-Finish the month with 30k hands played and maintain that for upcoming months
-Reach $2500 by the end of the week and begin taking shots at 100 NL
-Increase BR to $2700 by the end of the month and take off from there

On a Tear at 50 NL

2007-04-22T16:20:00.000-04:00

It's been over 2 months since my last blog entry. I moved my entire bankroll to PokerStars. I dropped 4 buy-ins at 50 NL during the first week of March, then took the rest of the month off because of spring break, as well as to get my poker focus back. I feel like I fixed some huge leaks in my game and I've been on a tear ever since.

April has been excellent for me. My Stars BR is at 754.96 with my overall BR at 1297.81. I feel totally in control of my game, eliminating many stupid mistakes I used to make. I used to be very reluctant to give up pots for fear of being weak-tight, but now I've recognized the necessity to fold more often, especially due to reverse implied odds and the difficulty of playing OOP with marginal holdings. I've been c-betting less and it has paid off for me. I feel like the style of play I've adapted to is more cautious, maybe even a bit weaker, but it crushes the players at 50 NL. Once my Stars BR reaches 1000.00, I'll start taking shots at 100 NL.

In other news, college finals are approaching as the semester is unfortunately ending (I'll be leaving most of my friends to go to main campus next semester), but I was accepted into my major (Finance) so all is good. I've also always been a competitive Warcraft III player. Back in September I decided to become an FFA player and I quickly learned the ins and outs. In February I qualified for the biggest FFA league (FML) and after 3 games, I've won two and am in first place, so I'm extremely satisfied there as well.

Poker and life in general is going pretty good, and for that I am thankful. Hopefully my poker success will continue as it's become a very nice source of income for me thus far.

My short-term goals:

-Continue my poker tear and move up to 100 NL
-Stop lending out money and don't remove money from my poker bankroll
-Win FML (or at least make it to the finals)
-Do well on my finals
-Acquire a summer job

2007-02-15T04:59:00.000-05:00

Since my last post I think I've really improved a few areas of my game and it is helping me dominate 50 NL. I endured a short slump with several losing sessions in a row - aided by 2 sick beats. After one guy shoved for about 14.00, I called with KK and a third called. I shoved my last 30 on a 679 flop and the third called as well. Turn K made me very happy and I wasn't bothered by the river 5 until the donkey turned over Q8o. The idiot invested 15.00 PF and another 30 on the flop with Q8o. Sad that Bugsys paid him off as I welcome that play all day every day. I was stuck over 100 after running cold and getting hit with a few coolers. I continued to play my game though, and I made up my defecit and then some.

During this time I found 2 major leaks in my game and I'm investigating a third.

1) At these stakes I found that I prefer playing TT and JJ a bit slower, not getting too sold on these hands post-flop. When I treat them similarly to 55-99, I feel I get a lot more value on them and I tend to lose less. Recently I've encountered several situations where I'm facing a higher overpair or I'm just generally uncomfortable with this hand if I don't hit my set.

2) I'm still having trouble respecting reraises when I flop TPTK, especially with a hand like AJ, even if the flop appears safe. I find myself busted to a donk playing 78o or J9o because I overplayed my hand. I will still be aggressive with TPTK, but I need to be able to lay it down when shown resistance.

3) I'm still having trouble with this one. I've gotten stacked with AA and KK a bit recently and I'm not entirely sure it's even bad play. For example, I raised big preflop with KK on the button and the flop came down 876. My villain insta-shoved and I called and he turned over 87o. While I can't bank that someone will even be playing a garbage hand like this OOP vs my raises, when someone open-shoves a flop like that, I really need to be able to lay my hand down.

I know I am playing a lot better and this is surely evidenced in my results. My overall bankroll currently stands at $641.00 (+244.65) and I am very happy with my game. I'm taking advantage of good situations and making profitable decisions in general. I was a bit dejected during my slump but I wasn't tilting and I knew that as long as I kept making winning plays, I would eventually be paid off. My goal is still to reach a bankroll of $1000 by the end of the month and if I keep playing the way I have been (29.53 BB/100 on the day, 14.29 BB/100 overall), I should make it.

Oh and I decided I'm not going to move my bankroll just yet. For one thing, I decided to look into moving to Full Tilt instead of Stars but the problem is that I have no way of depositing onto Full Tilt other than EPassporte and I really don't want to lose that big of a % of my bankroll. Moneygram is available for Stars but while Stars has a great tournament selection, I'm not as impressed with their bonuses offered. I'm hoping a new deposit option will be available for Full Tilt in the near future so I'm going to wait for now.

2007-02-09T04:43:00.000-05:00

BR is at 396.35 after a few good days of 50 and 100 NL. I actually was up to around 440.00 before donking $40 away on a bluff (Note to self: Don't ever do that EVER again. I'm pretty sure I was just really tired and feeling good after a big day that I made a huge mistake. After my resteal failed, I should have just given it up.) Other than that, I've been doing really well. I bounced back from a terrible beat where a calling station hit a terrible 4% out on the river after calling 3/4 pot bets the entire way. Apparently QQ < Q5. I also made a nice read of a guy where I held TT on a 8877 board and shoved and got called by 99. That was a nice 60.00 pot. Just had a sweet party here after a dance and am off to sleep!

Oh and I will be moving my entire BR to Pokerstars this weekend. There just aren't enough tables up at Bugsy's (Seriously, the max at any time is 2 and the majority of the day there are ZERO!).

2007-02-04T23:43:00.000-05:00

It's been over a week since I last posted. I had increased my bankroll to about $250 but a few bad beats knocked me back down to about $220. For the rest of January I played break even poker, fluctuating between $170 and $220. It seemed like I would slowly build up my stack with good play, and then a bad beat would just destroy it. Eventually I became frustrated with 10 NL and 25 NL and moved up to 50 NL, playing a bit out of my bankroll (I buy-in for $30). I've been doing excellent since making this move. My bankroll is currently at $307.40 after picking up a monster pot today. I plan on withdrawing a good bit of this soon to pick up a Nintendo Wii but I hope to build this bankroll to over $500.00 by the end of February. I also hope to continue updating regularly. Oh and I'm very happy that the Colts won the Super Bowl!

Here was the monster hand:

$0.25/$0.50 Full Ring Table

Hero dealt A ♣ A ♦ in the BB.
4 calls. CO raises to $3.60. Hero reraises to $10.70. UTG+1 calls. CO reraises all-in to $22. Hero reraises all-in to $47.65. UTG+1 calls.

Flop: 3 ♣ 7 ♦ 3 ♥

Turn: 8 ♣

River: 10 ♣

UTG+1 mucks A ♥ Q ♥ . CO mucks K ♣ K ♥. Hero wins $116.05.

After the third raise I knew that CO had KK but I was very confused about what UTG+1 was doing. A badly played QQ or AKs were all I could think of and he really messed this hand up. I'm actually very suprised/happy that my aces held up as I had gotten them cracked quite a bit recently, including a $60 pot vs KK when a river king hit.

Monster Day - Doubled Bankroll

2007-01-23T03:20:00.000-05:00

I had a huge day at the $.02/$.05 and $0.05/$0.10 tables. I even broke my final table of the night in one monstrous hand.

Table: Full Ring NL $0.02/$0.05
I am dealt 5 ♥ 5 ♣ on the button. MP1 calls. CO calls. I call. SB calls. BB raises to $0.30. MP1 calls. CO calls. I call. SB calls.

Flop (5 players): 6 ♥ 3 ♠ 5 ♠
SB bets $3.60 all-in. BB raises to $12.30. MP1 calls $0.68 all-in. CO folds. I raise all-in to $18.20. BB calls.

Turn: 5 ♦

River: 9 ♥

MP1 mucks 3 ♦ 3 ♣ for a flopped set. SB mucked 6 ♣ 8 ♦ for top pair. BB mucks Q ♣ Q ♠ for an overpair. Hero wins $41.58 with quads.

I was 99% sure I had the best hand despite all the action. The BB had been raising with only high cards all night and I was positive he had an overpair. His reraise was way too much and put him in a bad position where he had way too much in the pot to fold. The SB was a terrible player who made a terrible play and I was pretty sure he was extremely weak. MP1 was a pretty bad player so I knew he could have had anything. Unfortunate that he only had $0.68 behind because he was playing poorly throughout the night and could have easily gotten stacked. When the quads hit, I cried in joy after a monster pot. 3 people went broke, one lost about 75% of his stack (he and I were the large stacks going into the hand) and the table broke a few hands later.

Really only three other hands to note from the entire night. The first two hands happened consecutively and both occurred against the same opponent (the second he was definitely tilting) and I managed to take his entire stack. Coming into the hand I knew he was a poor player who liked to push money around to intimidate his opponents. His stack was about 4 times as large as anyone else's including my own.

Hand 1 $0.05/$0.10 Full Ring

I'm dealt A ♥ A ♠ sitting UTG+1. I raise to $0.35. MP2 calls. SB calls.

Flop (3 players): 7 ♦ 8 ♠ 4 ♦
SB checks. I bet $0.75. MP2 calls. SB raises to $4.15. I call. MP2 calls $0.90 all-in.

Turn: 2 ♣
SB checks. I bet $5.30 all-in. SB calls.

River: 4 ♣

I had seen the SB a lot, and normally I'd be very worried about a flat call and then a check-raise in a raised pot but I'd seen this guy play and knew he liked to make moves. I had no problem smooth calling here either because I knew I was way ahead and wanted to get him to commit to my final $5.30 on the turn which he did. What did the villains turn over? I expected to see 2 diamonds from MP2 and A8 from the SB.

MP2 shows J ♠ 10 ♠ . SB shows J ♣ 9 ♣. Hero wins $20.65.

Terrible terrible play. I love it when people fish. SB immediately tilts as you will see on the next hand.

Hand 2 $0.05/$0.10 Full Ring

I am dealt Q ♥ K ♣ in the BB. UTG+1, MP1, MP2, Button, SB all call. I check.

Flop (6 players): 9 ♥ K ♦ K ♠
SB checks. I bet $0.50. 3 folds. Button raises to $2.10. I call.

Turn: 7 ♣
I bet $2.50. Button raises all-in to $17.25. I call.

River: 6 ♠

Button shows K ♥ 4 ♣ . I win $19.45.

I don't like playing KQo OOP and I see it more as a drawing hand anyways so I opt to not raise PF. Obviously I hit the flop pretty hard and there was a great chance I had the best hand. When I was reraised on the flop, I was 95% sure that the Button just had a King with a lower kicker. I could have reraised flop for more information but I already knew where I stood. I knew he was on tilt and would push turn and it was one of the easiest calls I've ever made.

Hand 3 $0.05/$0.10 Full Ring

I'm dealt Q ♥ Q ♣ in the BB. UTG min-raises to $0.20. MP1 calls. Button calls. I reraise to $0.50. UTG calls. MP1 folds. Button calls.

Some background info: Both UTG and Button are very LAG. They are fish, will raise with a lot of hands, button more notoriously raises with nothing, UTG will raise with weak hands and tend to call down weak hands as well.

Flop (3 players): 7 ♥ 8 ♥ 6 ♦
I bet $0.80. UTG raises to $1.60. Button calls. I call.

Turn: 6 ♠
I check. UTG bets $6.55. Button folds. I call.

River: 5 ♥
I check. UTG checks.

UTG shows 3 ♣ 3 ♥ and I win a nice $18.70 pot.

In hindsight I really showed have raised the turn or bet the river. I knew I was ahead on the flop and I only called his reraise in hopes of drawing more chips out of him. When he makes that huge turn bet, I knew he was trying to bluff me off my hand and had no problems making the call. The river scared me a lot because every draw hit but my hand held up.

Bankroll going into the day: $77.83
Bankroll at end of day: $154.54
Net Profit: +$76.71

I'll be able to move up in limits soon at the rate my BR is growing. Hopefully it keeps up!

Great Day

2007-01-22T04:58:00.000-05:00

Well I was way off on my result of the NFC Championship game and the Bears ended up winning convincingly. The AFC Championship game was simply awesome. Despite an 18 point defecit, Peyton Manning kept composure and made quite a comeback. I won't lie - I had large doubts about the Colts at the two minute warning in the first half, even at the half after the Colts had to settle for a field goal following the third down incompletion. The Colts certainly look like the better team going in and I will be rooting for them.

I had a pretty damn good day in poker as well. The day started out slow but I made a few dollars at a $0.02/$0.05 table and was playing well until I ran queens into aces and became a bit overconfident about my hand without analyzing the situation more. Of course looking back on it I can see why I should have folded and I hope to be able to lay those down in the future. That hand destroyed one buy-in and I decided to switch over to a $0.05/$0.10 table that was beginning to fill. My first hand I picked up Jacks and turned a set on a very scary board netting me a few dollars. The very next hand I flopped a set of 6s and was off to a great start at this table. I then encountered a pretty difficult situation:

I was dealt A ♦ 9 ♣ in the BB and saw a flop with 4 limpers for free.

Flop: 7 ♦ 9 ♦ 9 ♥

Out of position I bet about 3/5 the pot ($0.30) only to be reraised an additional $1.15 by the limper sitting MP1. I didn't know a lot of information about my opponent but I felt I had the best hand and reraised him his last $5.00 all-in. He called.

Turn: A ♣

River: 5 ♠

He mucked 7 ♣ 7 ♥ and I realized I had gotten lucky. Looking back on my flop play, I probably shouldn't have reraised this situation without some information on the player or I'll be losing in the long run.

Soon after that hand, I picked up A ♠ K ♦ in the SB. There were 5 limpers ahead of me and I hate playing AK OOP. I raised to $0.40 and UTG+1, UTG+2, MP3 and CO all called.

Flop: A ♦ 4 ♥ 10 ♣
I bet $1.45 (about 2/3 pot). 2 folds. CO calls.

Turn: 10 ♥
I bet $2.50 (over 1/2 pot). CO calls.

River: J ♣
I bet $3.25. CO calls all-in.

CO played this hand in such a weak manner than I really had no idea exactly where I was in this hand. There was some hesitation following both his flop and turn calls so I put him on a weak ace, maybe as strong as AQ, though I thought AK-A10 would reraise me on the flop. Since I didn't have a lot of information on this opponent, I didn't know if his smooth calls were signs of a monster hand or a very weak holding so I tried to judge based on his hesitation. When the river hit I was pretty certain I was holding the best hand and he mucked A ♣ 8 ♥ . That was a nice $15.80 pot.

There was one other notable hand from earlier in the day and I'm posting it to think about how I would get away from it if I were my opponent.

I was sitting MP1 playing NL $0.02/$0.05 full ring when I was dealt A ♣ A ♦ . UTG called. I raised to $0.18. MP2 calls. SB calls. BB calls. UTG calls.

Flop (5 players): A ♥ 2 ♠ 4 ♠
3 checks. I bet $0.50. MP2 calls. SB calls. BB folds. UTG calls.

Turn: J ♣
SB checks. UTG checks. I bet $1.50. MP2 raises all-in to $3.27. 2 folds. I call.

River: 10 ♣

He mucks A ♠ J ♥ for top two pair. I win a $8.97 pot. I was really suprised when I got 3 calls on the flop although with all of the callers, there were pot odds for the flush draw. I figured at least one person was in with a weak ace and after the turn reraise, AJ became the obvious hand. Personally I think MP2 really overplayed his hand especially with the signs of a strong hand being raised PF OOP. The flop is really where he should have been able to get away with it although perhaps a call is not so bad with the A ♠ for a backdoor flush option. Once that turn hit and with his chip situation, he was priced in and folding would have been -EV in the long run.

I made some great plays and some not so great plays today. The cards fell my way in several situations although in others I felt I made great laydowns (AQ on a Q 10 x board after I got reraised and re-reraised, same thing with KJ on a J 8 7 board).

My bankroll at the end of the day: $64.33 (+20.10)

Football Sunday

2007-01-21T15:25:00.000-05:00

Today is Sunday and that means one thing. Football. The NFC Championship just started and neither team has been very impressive thus far. I pick the Saints to advance with a score of 16-13. The game I'm really looking forward to is the AFC Championship later tonight. The Colts have had an up-and-down season but they're the favorites, but the Patriots shine in the playoffs. I'll go with the Colts in a close 24-21 last minute win.

My poker goal right now is to build my bankroll to $250.00 by the end of January and then go from there, earning a few dollars a day playing a few hours of NL $0.02/$0.05 and NL $0.05/$0.10 each day. Things are progressing better than I'd hoped, due to a combination of good play, luck, and patience. I've avoided making any real rash decisions (if anything I've been a bit more conservative than I've liked in one or two hands). By developing this patience and bankroll management, I feel like I'm really helping my game. Only time will tell but so far it has paid off.

BR up to $44.23 (+$7.73)

On to the hands:

Hand 1 ($0.05/$0.10 full ring)

Hero dealt Q ♠ Q ♥ sitting UTG+1. Hero raises to $0.35. Button calls.

Flop (2 players): 8 ♥ 2 ♣ 6 ♠
Hero bets $0.50. Button raises to $2.35. Hero calls.

Turn: Q ♦
Hero bets $2.00. Button calls.

River: A ♦
Hero bets $2.55. Button calls all-in.

Button mucks J ♥ J ♣ . Hero wins $13.95.

This hand pretty much played itself. I was a little concerned about the flop reraise but there were a lot of hands I was beating: A8, 88-TT, or even AK. Obviously the turn eliminated any of those concerns and I value bet the turn and river.

Hand2 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt A ♣ Q ♣ sitting UTG. Hero raises to $0.17. MP1 calls. MP2 calls.

Flop (3 players): 3 ♣ A ♠ 8 ♣
Hero bets $0.25. MP1 raises all-in to $1.76. MP2 folds. Hero calls.

Turn: 9 ♣

River: 5 ♠

Button mucks 8 ♦ 8 ♠ . Hero wins $3.95.

I loved this flop and really did not have a problem making this call. It was hard to put him on a hand here as many micro stakes players would make a large reraise with a hand as marginal as AT or AJ. Turns out he made the right play and it was just unfortunate for him that I hit my flush.

Hand 3 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt K ♥ Q ♥ sitting in SB. MP1 calls. Hero raises to $0.18. BB calls. MP1 calls.

Flop (3 players): 6 ♦ 10 ♣ J ♥
Hero bets $0.25. BB folds. MP1 calls.

Turn: K ♠
Hero bets $0.50. MP1 raises all-in to $1.18. Hero calls.

River: A ♣

MP1 mucks J ♦ A ♠ . Hero wins $3.23.

I liked this flop a lot and my opponent played this hand poorly. OESD, overcards, and the backdoor flush draw. Obviously the turn was a great card for me and I have no idea what my opponent was thinking. If he was going to push, why not do it on the flop. His all-in makes no sense here and it is hands like this that make me make more conservative calls in situations where I don't have at least TPTK.

Hand 4 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt 5 ♦ 6 ♦ sitting in CO. Hero calls. Button calls. SB calls. BB checks.

Flop (4 players): 3 ♦ 10 ♠ 4 ♥
SB checks. BB checks. Hero bets $0.12. Button calls. SB folds. BB folds.

Turn: 7 ♦
Hero bets $0.22. Button raises all-in to $0.93. Hero calls.

River: J ♣

Button mucks 10 ♣ 9 ♥ . Hero wins $2.19.

This hand was just a gift. Pretty good flop for my hand, and I wouldn't have minded if everyone folded. Button plays this hand very poorly as often happens in micro stakes and I hit a money card.

Hand 5 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt K ♥ Q ♠ sitting in SB. UTG calls. MP2 calls. CO raises to $0.20. Button calls. Hero calls. BB calls. UTG calls. MP2 calls.

Flop (6 players): 9 ♦ 3 ♦ Q ♥
Hero bets $0.55. BB calls. 4 folds.

Turn: J ♣
Hero bets $1.20. BB raises all-in to $2.38. Hero calls.

River: 6 ♥

BB mucks 9 ♣ A ♥ . Hero wins $6.71.

I decided to test the waters on the flop and if I was reraised, I was prepared to get away from this one. The smooth call worried me slightly. I read it as he wanted callers behind him. I bet the turn for information again and when he pushed, I thought there was a good chance I was behind to trips. The price was good though and I made the call.

Hand 6 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt Q ♠ Q ♦ sitting UTG+1. UTG calls. Hero raises to $0.18. SB calls. BB calls. UTG calls.

Flop (4 players): 5 ♠ K ♦ 8 ♠
SB checks. BB bets $0.25. UTG folds. Hero raises to $0.80. BB calls.

Turn: J ♠
BB bets $3.91 and is all-in. Hero folds.

I'm a bit puzzled about this hand and would really like some input. There were a lot of hands that beat me here and with the flush card hitting, I really didn't know whether he hit his flush or if he had something like A ♠ K and my flush draw wasn't even good.

Hand 7 ($0.02/$0.05 full ring)

Hero dealt 4 ♥ 4 ♦ UTG. Hero calls. UTG+1 calls. CO calls. Button calls. SB calls. BB checks.

Flop (6 players): K ♣ 6 ♣ Q ♦
6 checks.

Turn: 4 ♣
SB bets $0.15. BB calls. Hero raises to $0.70. UTG+1 calls $0.30 all-in. CO calls. 2 folds. BB calls.

River: 10 ♦
BB checks. Hero bets $1.35. CO calls. BB folds.

CO shows 7 ♣ 5 ♣ . Hero mucks.

I'm not sure what to make of this hand. I think I did a pretty good job not losing more than I did, and based on the way this hand was played, I didn't have much of a reason to think there was a made flush on the turn.

Overall, I had a great session, minimizing mistakes and maximizing profits.

New Poker Blog!

2007-01-21T04:36:00.000-05:00

I've always thought it would be cool to maintain a blog so I created one to share my poker thoughts. I'll give some updates on my bankroll grinding, share some notable hands, and just share random thoughts.

I've decided to attempt to start my bankroll on Bugsy's Club (though I would love to move to PokerStars given the opportunity). The catch is that I am not depositing any money. I'm creating my bankroll entirely from freerolls and micro stakes tables. So far so good. After placing well in several freerolls, I took about $4.50 to the $.02/$.05 and $.05/$.10 no limit tables (full ring). I've found that with a large amount of patience, these tables can be very profitable and are easily beatable. Playing a few hours a day, I've increased my BR to $36.50 (after transferring $10 to a friend) playing a fairly TAG style. At this level it is very difficult to make reads on people because of erratic play, and even when you make correct plays, suckouts are not uncommon. It's certainly a different game than I've seen at higher levels. I've learned to be patient and not discredit hands to profit as much as possible from other people's mistakes.

Unfortunately I can't find a hand converter that is compatible with Bugsy's hand histories. Until I can find one, I'll have to work with what I have with very basic hand descriptions without the cool formats.

Hand 1 ($.02/$.05 full ring)

Hero dealt A ♦ K ♠ sitting UTG+2. Hero raises to $0.18. CO calls. BB calls.

Flop (3 players): 6 ♠ J ♠ A ♥
BB bets $0.11. Hero raises to $0.52. CO folds. BB calls.

Turn: 4 ♣
BB checks. Hero bets $0.85. BB calls.

River: J ♣
BB bets $0.55. Hero raises to $2.18. BB calls all-in.

BB shows A ♠ 5 ♠. Hero wins $7.28.

I felt very comfortable with this hand. I had him on a draw or a weak ace the entire way and got him to pay off on the river when he missed.

Hand 2 ($.02/$.05 full ring)
Hero dealt Q ♣ Q ♦ sitting MP2. UTG calls. Hero raises to $0.18. CO calls. UTG calls.

Flop (3 players): 7 ♠ 10 ♥ K ♦
UTG checks. Hero bets $0.35. CO calls. UTG folds.

Turn: 4 ♠
Hero bets $0.55. CO raises all-in to $1.99. Hero folds.

I didn't have enough information on this player to be able to make the call here. Surely AK or KQ would have reraised flop and really the only way the turn helped is if the CO made two very loose calls with K4 (which is not entirely unlikely given micro limit play). Really the only hand I'm legitimately afraid of is a set of 7s and I decided to get away from it. More likely I was facing an OESD or a weaker pair like AT or 99. I think at a higher level of play I make the call here but low level play is way too erratic.

Hand 3 ($.02/$.05 full ring)

Hero dealt A ♥ J ♥ sitting UTG. Hero raises to $0.20. MP1 calls. Button calls. SB calls.

Flop (4 players): 5 ♣ Q ♥ 4 ♥
SB checks. Hero bets $0.35. MP1 folds. Button folds. SB raises all-in to $1.71. Hero calls.

Turn: A ♠

River: Q ♦

SB shows 5 ♥ 4 ♦. Hero wins $4.06.

I read SB has a pretty loose player and felt there were a lot of hands he would move on. I really didn't expect a preflop call from 54 but that's micro stakes! In the end I lucked out.

Hand 4 ($.02/$.05 full ring)

Hero dealt Q ♥ Q ♠ sitting in the BB. MP1 calls. SB calls. Hero raises to $0.20. MP1 calls. SB calls.

Flop (3 players): 8 ♣ 7 ♦ 2 ♣
SB checks. Hero bets $0.35. MP1 folds. SB calls.

Turn: A ♠
SB bets $1.30. Hero folds.

I would really love input on this hand. I really didn't know much about my opponent and I put him on something like AJ or AT or A ♣ x ♣ . Perhaps this was just a weak play on my part.

Hand 5 ($.02/$.05 full ring)

Hero dealt J ♣ 10 ♣ sitting CO. MP1 calls. MP2 calls. Hero raises to $0.18. SB calls. MP1 calls. MP2 calls.

Flop (4 players): 9 ♠ 10 ♥ 2 ♥
SB checks. MP1 checks. MP2 checks. Hero bets $0.45. SB folds. MP1 folds. MP2 calls.

Turn: 5 ♠
MP2 checks. Hero bets $0.75. MP2 calls.

River: 4 ♦
MP2 checks. Hero checks.

MP2 shows K ♥ 9 ♥ . Hero wins $3.02.

This was an interesting hand. The flop showed a lot of weakness so I thought I probably had the best hand and I really didn't know that the MP2 hit this flop as strongly as he did. When the MP2 kept check calling, I was almost sure he was drawing and missed. I didn't put in a river bet because I knew I'd only get called by hands that had me beaten.

I'll put some more hands up tomorrow.