The Dumbest Thing I Did Today

2010 Poker Wrap-up

2010-12-31T00:21:00.004-05:00

Well it was a not so great year overall. I ran bad for a bit. Played bad even longer. Managed to turn things around near year's end and all told with RB and bonuses I earned just over $9K.

Here is the year in graph form:

As you can see, I ran pretty meh a couple of times but managed to end the year ~$200 over AIEV. Total luckbox ldo. My hourly on the year with everything included? $22.90! Hell yeah ship the unskilled laborer pay!

Also lol at my "volume" under 240K hands? Pathetic! I've actually upped the amount I've been playing over the last couple months (more tables and longer sessions) so hopefully I can add to that next year (more later).

I have also recently (last ~4 weeks) started getting some coaching from ChuckTs. It's amazing to talk to Taylor about poker and realize just how poorly I currently play in a lot of spots. Honestly I'm making a ton of mistakes and still winning (ok barely winning) so I think the demise of the game may be greatly exaggerated (if the government doesn't kill it that is).

So let's get to goals for 2011:
1. Continue coaching with Taylor. I have payed for another ~12 hours so I'll continue at least that long (couldn't pass up his rate).

2. Play at least 340K hands. That's 100K more than this year but it shouldn't be too hard honestly.

3. Win more than I get from rb + bonuses. It was close this year but rb + bonuses was greater by about $120. Sad really. I'd be a rb pro but I don't even play enough to be that :( .

4. Take on a protege (for free of course). Yeah I know, why would I want to screw up someone else's game right? Well I plan to find someone, likely a CCer, who REALLY REALLY sucks and turn them into someone who just really sucks. See the difference. ;) I think that by helping someone along I can elevate my own level of thinking and thus help my own game, so it's totally selfish.

Anyway, guess that's about it for poker goals. Oh yeah guess I'll throw in one more: Update this PoS blog at least 6 times! Yeah that's right bitches bimonthly updates in your face!

So that's all. See you in a month or so with another update.

Happy New Year!

O hai there

2010-12-03T00:19:00.004-05:00

Well it's been so long since I updated this thing that I don't even remember what we were talking about. Oh well I got new shit going on so let's just start over.

Life
Still getting the biggest thrill being a Dad. The kid is the awesome. Seriously when people talk about having kids being the greatest thing I know all you people without them are like sure kids are fucking brats. And they are. Especially other people's kids. Your own kid though is the greatest person in the world.

Here is a recent pic of the boy.

Poker
Been playing 100nl for a bit now. Seem to be running well and playing OK. Recently started getting some coaching and after only 1 session I'd say we've identified a pretty significant leak. I'm working on plugging it now. It's kind of hard because well it involves betting too often and I LOVEEEEE betting. Anyway I'll get there.

I guess I'll throw a recent hand up here too just to make this like the most cliche poker blog ever.

Figure the flop raiser has to have folded 44 there because if he had any sort of draw he'd certainly have to call since he only needs like 15% equity to BE.

Anyway I'm out. I'll lie now and say that I'll be back to write again soon but realistically I'll see you guys next year around June! :)

Feb. Update

2010-02-28T23:24:00.004-05:00

Wow, can't believe I haven't posted here yet this month. Things have been going really well. All's well with the wife and the baby is awesome. He's getting so big. It seems like he does something completely new and incredible every day. The pic above is one of my favorites from this month.

Poker has also been treating me very well. After my last post here I had my session with mpethybridge which I though went great. He really helped me to see some really basic spots were I was spewing $$s. Since our session I've played ~21K hands at 100nl with a running hot WR over 5BB/100 (it's actually over 7BB/100 this month). Now I'm not dumb enough to think that WR is sustainable but I def. think, just by eliminating the spew mpethy pointed out, I'll end up with a very nice bottom line.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend his service to anyone. He really knows his stuff and I'd be willing to bet that he can save you the cost of his session very easily.

I also was challenged to a HU match (best of 3 HU SnGs) by PokerChild69 at CC. I tried to get some real trash talk going to build up to it, but he took things a bit too seriously so basically it was just us playing some poker (how boring). We played yesterday and I ended up luckboxing my way to a 2-1 win. We both had some major suckouts in our respective matches. PC actually played OK but he was a bit too willing to get AI with some pretty weak holdings. Oh well at least I won and now I get to give the proceeds away for people to play in the charity tournament that has been set up to honor MrMuckets. He was a CC reg. and genuinely good human who passed away last year due to complications from heart surgery. He'll be missed.

As for March, I'm in a small volume prop bet with some of the kids over at CC. I'm supposed to play 25K hands or I owe $25. We'll see how that goes. My guess is that I'll end up paying out $25!

Guess that's about it. Good luck to all in March.

Crack Poker

2010-01-27T01:15:00.004-05:00

Just a quick update to say that my wife's surgery went well and she's feeling better every day. It took her a little longer than we expected to recover but she seems to be getting closer to 100% now. It was pretty tough going there for about a week with her being unable to lift or hold the baby. She had different friends here with here each day after the 1st day (when I stayed home) since I had to return to work. I was then responsible for all the evening/overnight duties. Very tiring to say the least.

I actually ended up postponing the session with mpethybridge because she just didn't feel well enough on Saturday for me to leave her alone for 5 hours. I look forward to rescheduling it very soon. God knows I need it.

As far as poker goes everything was going well until Full Tilt unleashed crack poker upon the world this past Tuesday. It's very much like a drug in that I can't get enough even though I know it's not good for me. I've dropped many buy-ins sitting at the crack tables and I didn't even mind because it made me feel good. Just needed to see 1 more hand, to hold AA (and have them cracked) 1 more time, to be set-mined OOP in a 3bet pot yet again. I just needed more. Quick fold. Quick fold. Raise. 3bet. Quick fold. The buy-ins blurred by so quickly. I was losing AND having fun. But I think I'm on the mend now. No more crack poker for me. Honest. Well maybe just 1 more hit!

Funny How Something So Small Can Cause So Many Problems

2010-01-18T01:35:00.002-05:00

Poker is going well. Winning a little and play decently. I have scheduled a stats analysis session with mpethybridge from 2p2 on Saturday. Supposedly this guy knows his shit when it comes to finding leaks (not that a blind man couldn't find mine) so I'm excited to here what he has to say. My guess is that he'll look around at my stats for a minute or two, tell me to stop being such a spewtard and take my money, but we'll see.

In other news, my wife is going in tomorrow to have her gall bladder removed (hence that horror show of a pic at the top). She had gall stones (again see the pic) and they're causing her fits of pain. It first cropped up the Sunday after Christmas when she woke me up at 4:30 AM complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath! Scary shit right? So I called the ambulance and they took her to the hospital, gave her nitroglycerin (which helped), and ran a litany of tests (cardiac enzymes, cat scan, stress test) to rule out heart problems. After being in the hospital for 24 hours or so they said it was probably an esophageal contraction and that it would likely never happen again, no worries.

All was fine until this past Wednesday evening when the exact same thing happened. Again I called the ambulance (fast entry to the emergency room and I can wait for someone to sit with Harlan before going in). Again they gave her nitro and again they wanted to run the same basic tests. This time however my wife mentioned her gall bladder to the Doc (someone had asked her if they checked it the previous time) and though he was skeptical he said it wouldn't hurt to check. Fast forward 5 hours and they're releasing her with orders to consult with a surgeon the following day, they had found the stone and the gall bladder needed to come out. So that leaves us where we are right now with her surgery scheduled for 11:30 today. I'll be staying home with the boy and her mom is going with her. If all goes well it will be an outpatient deal and she'll be home early tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, that's it. I'll update her condition next time.

I'm Back Bitches!

2010-01-13T15:40:00.003-05:00

Yeah, you read it right, I'm back. Since my last post I had my son, plenty of pics of him at His Blog if you're interested. He was born a month early and spent 12 days in the NICU but he's great now and growing like a weed (18 lbs. at the Dr's office today).

I'm just now getting back into playing any real amount of poker (12K hands so far this month). I think from the time he was born (Oct. 7th) through the end of the year I played ~25K hands. It just seemed like there was always something else to do or that he needed to be fed/held/changed/whatever. Don't get me wrong I'd never trade any time with him for a few thousand hands but it really did put a slow down on my pokery time.

So what's changed? Well he's sleeping a little better now so I have some time to play when he's down. So I've been taking advantage and actually putting in longish sessions for me (2-3 hrs per). I think a lot of it springs from reading LeatherAss's book "Treat Your Poker Like A Business". It's really quite good at the motivational type stuff.

I also made the jump back up to 100nl FR this month. As many of you know I've been attempting this move for WAY too long now (50>100>50>100 repeat until your head spins). I'd been dicking around at 50HUNL in December and toyed with the idea of playing that through the start of the year but despite winning at a pretty huge rate the swings were brutal and I just didn't think I wanted to subject my fragile little brain to that (I'll leave the HU to eNTy's fragile little brain). So when I decided to go back to FR I figured it was time for another 100nl shot. So far it's been OK. I've won a couple hundred despite taking some beats (8 BI's below AIEV whatever that's worth). Biggest thing is that so far I've managed to play without tilting too badly. So no super spew just yet but when I do I'll be sure to post it here.

Well that's it for now. If anyone's still out there I'll be back to posting at least semi regularly now. I'm never going to be an every day blogger but I might try to put some random crap up at least once a week.

Oh yeah, I have no idea about the video at the top but it was the 1st thing that came up when I did a search for this post's title.

It's a.........

2009-06-17T20:54:00.002-04:00

Went to the Dr. for my wife's 20 week ultrasound earlier today. You know the one where if baby cooperates they can determine the sex. Well I'm happy to say that baby cooperated (mostly) and it's a boy.

I'm pretty excited and watching him roll around and give the tech a hard time was great fun. Can't wait to meet him in early Nov.

PS - I'd post the ultrasound pics but I'm afraid eNTy would use them in one of his fetus fetish posts. Damn weirdo waffle-eaters!

As for poker, we the last 2 days have sucked but whatever. Life's GREAT!

Pokery Update and Other News

2009-05-19T09:35:00.003-04:00

Well let's see it's been 2 months so I guess a big recap is in order.

March was basically spent entirely at 50nl and ended up being decent. I won at 5BB/100 but only got in ~14K hands. Still it was a solid winning month and I hadn't really been having those so very positive.

Unfortunately April didn't see the trend continue. Well I did end up for the month overall (barely) my graph for April basically looked like this, V. It was an interesting month because I decided to start the month playing 6-max. The problem is that I ABSOLUTELY SUCK AT 6-MAX!!!! After I realized this and moved back to FR 50nl I won at a little less than 5BB/100 and recovered my loses for the month.

I guess the FR parts my past 2 months led into the perfect storm that has been May thus far. I started the month with a fairly small BR because I cashed out (via transfers to friends) about $1200 to pay for my WVU football tickets. In the 17 days I have played since I have more than doubled my BR! I began the month at 50nl and won at 13BB/100 for 5K hands. I also started staking KingCurtis from CC at the beginning of the month and he had a big cash to pad my roll by about $180 so far. Anyway after 1 week of play I was rolled to take yet another shot at 100nl. Predictably it started a little down when my first 2 sessions I lost 2 buy-ins but then things turned around in a HUGE way. On the month I have played 9K hands at 100nl and I'm winning at 9BB/100 (including a 7BI downswing in the middle). It's been pretty sick. I'm running better than expected in all-in pots (about 2 BIs better) and I just think I'm playing better poker than I have for a long time. I'm seeing lines, making great reads and more important than anything else I've stopped tilting my $$ away!

To help with the tiling, I've been following the breathing techniques espoused by Tommy Angelo and Jared Tendler. I've started reading books on meditation and practicing it away from the tables. I'm trying to play (and live) in the moment and focus completely on whatever it is that I am doing at the moment. Being able to instantly forget (or clear) a bad beat, or even more importantly for me a bad play, has made a huge improvement in my game. Taking control of my breath is what's helping me to return to the moment and concentrate fully on the hand I am currently playing. I know it sounds like hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo but it works for me, so I don't care. It's also helping me to play longer sessions and at the same time quit just at the time when I'm no longer able to play my best. It's a really great feeling.

And now with all that out of the way, I come to the biggest news of all; I'm going to be a Dad!!! My wife of 10 years, as of a few days ago, and I have been trying for years. We've (well mostly she's) gone through fertility treatments and we were getting set to pay serious $$ for invetro-fertilization when she got pregnant the old fashion way! I like to tell people that I actually got to be in the room during the conception because we just didn't think that was possible. It's such a great feeling and I'm so excited to be a Dad. She's due in early November (she's about 15 weeks in) and so far she's doing great.

Well there it is, a great (big) update. Things are really great at the moment and that's all I can ask for.

See you in a couple months???

Hey, Anybody Here?

2009-03-16T00:00:00.002-04:00

Wow, looks like it's been a while. I'm still around. Still playing poker. Still doing dumb things. Only thing that's different is that I stopped updating this blog. Well I guess technically this post means that I haven't stopped, I've just slowed WAYYYYY dawn!

Anyway, there be no further BR or goals type posts here. Just random hands,a few stray thoughts, and maybe a life update or two.

The purpose of this update to to post a video I did about a week ago and posted to blip.tv. It runs about 45 minutes and it's only 2 tables so it's rather boring but enough of me trying to sell it. :)

Please feel free to comment here or in the CC thread I started for the vid.

Running With The Devil

2009-01-24T23:53:00.002-05:00

No, not the Van Halen song, I'm referring to my current dalliance with 6-max pokers! I know, I know, I vowed to never go back because the variance and tilt inducing suckouts were too much for my fragile brain. So what made me change my mind? The Charlie Daniels Band! You see I was listening to The Devil Went Down to Georgia a few weeks ago and I realized that the Devil (is it proper to capitalize Devil like you do with God?) is beatable and the reward for beating the Devil is a golden fiddle! Now since I don't play the fiddle, I'll have to sell it but I figure I can get a good price for it by sending it to Cash4Gold! So beating the Devil has become my new goal.

In addition to the golden fiddle I realized that most of the players at 50nl 6-max are horrible AND 6-max seems to have virtually zero short-stackers (short-stackers are the current plague of FR poker IMO). An example from earlier tonight:

Note that the shortest stack is 70bbs deep and we're able to get the villain to put ~120bbs into the middle with TPNK. This craziness of course leads to some sick variance but I think the overall horrible play should make 6-max more profitable overall especially since I was never able to play more than 8 tables of FR anyway.

Anyway, only 5500 hands at 6max so far, but I'm running at a respectable 5.7BB/100 thus far. We'll see how it plays out over a larger sample. Oh yeah, and for all you young children who have no idea who The Charlie Daniels Band is, here's your YouTube video.

January Mid-Month and 100th Post

2009-01-16T22:45:00.005-05:00

Just realized this is my 100th blog post (according to the blogspot software anyway but the numbers on the front page say it's only 97???) which is about 87 more post than I ever thought I'd have. Anyway just thought it worth noting, now on to the update.

Well if you've read my posts this month you know that the month started out rough (-$600 in the 1st 6 days). Since then I'm up $1060 which means I'm up a little more than $450 overall. Add in rakeback and the portion of my Full Tilt year-end bonus that I have cleared thus far and it's just about $700 profit thus far in just about 15K hands (a HUGE number of hands for me).

I'm conflicted overall on the month. On one hand I'm up and, running / playing good. On the other, the start of the month really was the suck and even though I'm certainly rolled for 100nl I've been playing 50nl almost exclusively because at 100 I play horribly and bleed $$! I'm working on it and I really believe it's a mental thing but it tilts me that I haven't been able to move up successfully.

Graph (wish it wouldn't hold so much water but whatever):

Oh and there you go Ice, someone else doing a mid-month! :)

Above the X-axis!

2009-01-10T23:16:00.006-05:00

Well we're 10 days into January and after my oh so shitty start, chronicled below, I've finally made my way back into the green!

I've played a ton of poker for me (almost 10K hands or an average day for Zachvac) thus far and I guess the start of the month was just some bad variance that led to some pretty bad tilt. The last few days I've been generally on the good side of variance and I'm playing better as a result. I did make a few small changes, upping my flop cbet by about 7% (57% first 5 days to 65% last 5 days) and I've just been more aggressive overall. Some of the number changes are surely attributed to just running well and hitting more flops but I really have made a conscious effort to cbet more. There is a really good cbetting discussion over on CardsChat right now. Check it out here.

I'd like to thank those who left words of encouragement after my last rant. They are always appreciated.

I'll leave you with my favorite hand from tonight's session:

January SUCKS!

2009-01-05T00:56:00.006-05:00

Ok so far this month, I've played 4300 hands (trying to get that $100 Jagsti bonus). In those 4300 hands I've won 3 full stacks. In those same 4300 hands I've lost 12 full fucking stacks. It's set over set. It's KK v. AA. It's AA v villain's flopping fucking sets in 3bet pots. It's villains slowplaying fucking KK and AA preflop every fucking time I hold QQ. It's all this shit adding up to me fucking tilting and shipping stacks with weird random shit when the villain holds the immortal fucking nuts. It's the fucking bonus chasing bullshit. It's running bad and playing worse. It's the fact that when I do take somebody's stack they are a fucking short-stacking POS!

Here now for your viewing pleasure is every full stack hand I've played the first 2 days of the year. I'd show them all but they get pretty repetitive after a while. Besides you get the point, I suck at the pokers.

Day 1:

Day 2:

End result is that I've dropped almost 11 buy-ins in 4 days. I'm dropping back to 25nl for a bit while I see if I really can play this game. I'm actually starting to think that I had the world's luckiest bout of beginner's luck when I started playing cash and this is just the universe righting itself. Guess we'll see.

All that was. All that will be.

2009-01-03T03:17:00.005-05:00

Little late on the whole reflecting back on the year that was / looking forward to the year ahead post but here it is anyway.

2008 Summary
I moved $200 of my online BR to Full Tilt at the beginning of last year and after delaying several months I finally started playing there in March full time. I started out above my BR at 25nl and thanks to a nice little heater never looked back. I had never really played a lot of cash games prior to the move but thanks to the fine posters over at CC I learned quickly and the first few months were nothing but profit. I managed to stay profitable until November and I lost modest amounts (with rakeback and a few tourneys included) in both November and December. Here is the obligatory cash graph:

And my monthly summary:

As you can see from the above chart I netted about $1850 profit from ring games and another $1225 from rackback for a total ring profit of ~$3075. I also manage to clear just over $1000 in tournament winnings (thanks largely to a ~$1K 4th place in the rakebreak freeroll). Throw in another $600 from bonuses and my total yearly winnings are a little better than $4500.

Not too shabby considering where I started (not to mention how I finished) and the fact that I really didn't start playing any real volume until June.

2009 Goals / Dreams / Why the fuck not

1. Play well
2. Tilt less
3. 500K hands*
4. $40K profits*
5. Have fun
6. Study
7. Post here more than I have been for a few months

Well that's it. Here's to a safe, happy and prosperous New Year for everyone. Good luck all.

* All numbers are inflated, see ChuckTs blog for the reason)

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T23:29:00.001-05:00

*Video contains foul language and maybe offensive to some. If that's you don't watch.

The Night I Saw Jesus (No Poker Content)

2008-12-14T02:31:00.002-05:00

Hey, been a while. Poker sucks or more specifically I suck at the poker. Not sure why, but maybe that's why? Hmmm...anyway, in an effort to let you know more about me I thought I might do a series of posts on some of the more interesting, entertaining, or just plain messed up shit I've done through the years. Tonight's post centers around the 1st time I ever got really drunk.

I was just 17. Staying over at a buddies house on the Monday before Thanksgiving. I remember so much detail because we watched Monday Night Football (Raider vs. Denver I believe) that night and we didn't have school the next day because in WV schools are out that entire week for deer season (actually they don't get the full week anymore but back then we did). Anyway, we're in my buddy's basement just watching the game when he decides to raid his mom's liqueur cabinet. So for my 1st time really drinking I jumped in with both feet, right into some horrible scotch whiskey and a handful of shots of tequila. By half-time I was done, just completely wrecked and about 10 minutes from throwing up for the 1st time!

The rest of the night is a bit hazy. I remember puking several times. I remember the Raiders lost. I have hazy recollection of my friend's mom getting home and being pissed (our plan had of course been for her not to find out) but also laughing at my completely wasted ass. She made sure that I was helped (dragged) upstairs and put into a real bed. I remember I was never so happy to be in a bed in my life and then I passed out.

Now normally a story like this doesn't continue until you wake up with the world's worst hangover, hating life and cursing the light, but my story picks up several hours later when I rolled over in the bed and opened my eyes just enough to see Jesus staring back at me! He was bathed in light and looked disappointed (presumably in my choice to get drunk). I remember thinking that I must be dead or dying (I sure felt like it), deciding there was nothing I could do about it, and then I passed out again.

Next morning (late) I managed to mostly avoid the terrible hangover although I felt by no means great. As I walked through the hallway at my friends house glad to be alive, I noticed that his Catholic mother (yeah that explains the alcohol) had one of those "His eyes follow you" pictures of Jesus hanging directly across from the door opening to the room I was sleeping in. On either side of the picture were small lamps. Apparently my buddy had left those lights on that night because he thought I might need to make a quick run to the bathroom if I got sick again. What I actually saw was that picture surrounded by those lights reflecting in the wardrobe mirror in my room, but for a few brief moments on the first night I got drunk, I was a believer!

Time For A Change

2008-11-04T13:26:00.003-05:00

No, keep reading I promise this entry has nothing to do with today's election. In my October update I said that I was going to move to FR NL100 and I did, for about 260 hands. Over that small sample I lost nearly $1/hand and realized, despite what I thought, I am not rolled to be comfortable playing (more specifically losing) that high. So I decided to move back down to NL50 but not FR. No not 6-max either. That's right I'm officially declaring November my Heads Up Only month.

I dabbled with HU at the end of October with very positive results, so when November started out horribly I turned back to it to try to recoup my losses. I then realized that I really liked playing HU and I think I can make a few $$ playing it (at least at the lowest limits). "What about tilt?" and "How will I handle the swings?", you say? Well actually not sure about the swings yet as I haven't had any huge losses to date but I think that HU may actually be good for my tilt. You see, if I lose a stack and start feeling the warming glow of tilt overtaking me, it just seems easier to get up from the table when playing HU and on a single table. So I'm quitting instead of sticking around to lose even more and since a dollar not lost is the same as a dollar won it should help my bottom line.

There are a couple drawbacks related to playing HU. First I'm only comfortable playing a single table at the moment so getting in a ton of hands is impossible. As a result, I won't be getting a lot of rakeback this month and I'll have to pay for Stox in December (some great HU vids there BTW). The second drawback is that Full Tilt points accrue at a snails pace playing HU (despite the fairly high rake taken) so I'm almost certain to lose my Iron Man status. I'm hoping that my increased winrate will offset both of these items and that I'll be a better player overall as a result of my month of HU play. I definitely think my hand reading abilities are already getting better and HU is nothing if not a lesson in playing position well. Both of those skills should prove very beneficial when (if?) I move back in December.

So wish me luck and maintained sanity. I'll be posting progress at least a couple times a week throughout the month.

I'd also like to thank all of you who expressed your sympathies for the loss of my friend as well as those who just congratulated me on my October (C9 wtf were you drinking?).

End of October Update

2008-10-31T22:40:00.003-04:00

When it comes to poker, October was good. I ended up increasing my BR by $1900. I made my 1st withdrawal from Full Tilt (6 days from request to check). I played decently well and didn't tilt too often or too bad. I did have my share of losing sessions and you can tell tilt was still present because my losing sessions were usually quite large 3+ buy-ins on average, so I still have plenty of work to do. My winnings breakdown for the month looks like this:

NL50 FR (18K hands) = $550.00 (3 BB/100)
NL50 HU (493 hands) = $153.50 (31 BB/100)
20K FR + misc. tourneys = $940
Rakeback + Stox sub. = $175
Iron Man Bonus = $80

Obligatory cash graph:

Let's looks back at my goals for the month and see how I fared:

1) Play well - Check
2) Tilt less - Check (still plenty of room for improvement)
3) Recognize when I am losing that I might also be playing well - Never had this opportunity this month as I actually ran OK all month
4) Understand that when I am winning I may also be playing poorly - Same as #3
5) Quit better - Check, I actually managed to stop fairly well both when winning and when losing.

I guess I'm going to start November at NL100 and see how that goes even though I haven't played any FR since my buddy passed. I just haven't had any desire for that sort of grind. The only poker I've played since was some HU and a $1 CC buy-in tourney. I guess it's about time to get back at it.

As far as November goals, I think I'll just stick to the same ones I had this month as they seemed to work out fairly well.

Loss

2008-10-26T01:40:00.002-04:00

No poker update here. I haven't been playing for a few days now. A great friend of mine, Kevin, was killed in an automobile accident on the night of the WVU-Auburn game. He decided to leave our tailgate early (pre-game) because his girlfriend got too drunk to be able to go to the game. He decided that he would leave, get a hotel room and spend the night near Morgantown. He left at approximately 6:30 PM and at 7:19 he was declared dead.

Apparently his SUV left the roadway and when he jerked it back on it rolled over. It ended up rolling 60' down an embankment. Kevin was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle. He was killed instantly. His girlfriend, Devon, remains in the hospital and her prognosis is uncertain.

Kevin was a great friend. I first met him in HS and we'd been close every since. He has a personality that everyone loved to be around. I've never known anyone who had a single bad word to say about him. Truly one of the best people I've ever known. I'll miss him immensely.

The best thing about Kevin's last day was that he spent it enjoying the little things. He decided to take the afternoon off of work to drive to Morgantown, despite not having a ticket for the game, simply to tailgate with friends and enjoy the big game atmosphere. We drank a few beers (his BAC was under the legal limit), ate some great Del Monaco steaks, played some cornhole, and just enjoyed a beautiful fall afternoon. Twice I heard Kevin comment that he was so glad that he decided to come along because there was no where else he wanted to be. His last day was truly great and I was fortunate enough to share it with him.

When Kevin decided he was going to leave to find a room, I helped him to get his car out around the other tailgaters in the lot. When his car was clear he stuck his hand out the window to shake my hand. As he grabbed it he said "Love ya brother" to which I replied "You too man" and he pulled away. Those words were the last I will ever speak to my friend and I'm so grateful for them, yet I wish with all my heart there could be more.

Kevin leaves behind 3 children (ages 2, 4, and 13), 7 brothers and sisters, both parents, and more friends than I could ever enumerate. He will be missed by all but his spirit and love for life will always live on in those of us that remember him. I'll never forget you brother.

I Thought I Had QQ....Woops

2008-10-17T00:13:00.002-04:00

Ok, I know I just posted yesterday but I did one of the dumbest things I've ever done today. I misread my hand. I have no idea how, but I honestly thought I had QQ here:

I didn't even notice as the hand played out. I just saw him turn over AK and then I went on to the next table (I cascade so I can only see 1 table at a time). When I came back to this table I saw that I had won by my doubled stack, no biggie. But then the AK guy kept saying how sick it was and I responded by asking why it was sick that the best preflop hand won a coin flip. He then politely mentions that I'm a fucking retard if I think AK v QJ is a coin flip. QJ, I think, maybe he's talking about another hand, but now several people are jumping on the call MrsPauls a stupid POS bandwagon so off I go to look at the HH. Well you can imagine my shock. I actually apologized to the guy. Oh well, at least now I can be know as the suckout idiot who 4bet/pushes QJ soooooooooooted! Unreal.

October's Been Good To Me So Far

2008-10-15T23:37:00.004-04:00

(No video)

Well as you may have surmised by my posts thus far this month things are going really well. I've yet to tilt (Sweet)! I'm bluffing much less. I'm not doing all those horribly dumb things that I used to post here so frequently. I know I am running good (1 buy-in over all-in EV) so I'll temper my excitement just a bit until the bad times hit, but for now I'll just enjoy the ride.

I've also been playing a ton more poker this month than usual. I'm at 13,200 hands played and I've only missed playing completely 1 day (WVU game), so I'm earning a good bit of rakeback as well (~$120). My winrate so far is just over 7BB/100 or just north of $1000 total. When you add in the $980 I won in the rakebreak.com free roll, you can see I have nothing to complain about. October sure seems to be trying to make up for how shitty September turned out to be.

Anyway, here the obligatory graph:

Note the NSD winnings are actually just below break even. As I posted earlier I think for me a relatively flat NSD winnings line is the tell that I'm playing my best poker, although having it be slightly positive wouldn't hurt.

Also since I don't post as much as I used to I guess I should throw in a hand here at the end to remind you and myself that I do still do some dumb shit even when I'm winning:

I choose this hand because this should be a auto fold to the BTNs (20/10/1.5) 3bet (6%). Not because his range has me crushed but because it's too hard to play AQ OOP post flop in a 3bet pot. This is the basic stuff that I know I shouldn't do, yet there I go calling his 3bet and donking into him on a nothing flop. Bad play on me.

Today Was A Good Day

2008-10-13T00:32:00.002-04:00

Today was my rakeback site's, rakebreak.com, monthly 20K free roll. It's available to all RakeBreak and ThisIsTheNuts users who rake more than 500 points on Full Tilt in the previous month, which is the easiest thing in the world. I've played it several times before, when I remember to play, but have never cashed in my previous attempts. Well today that changed when I took down 5th place for a really nice bankroll boosting $980.

Here's my major suckout that occurred just before the bubble burst:

I really don't think my push was a mistake here as the villain was raising with a WIDE range (42/22/3), but it did take a major suckout to make the $$. It was the only time I won a hand the entire tournament when I wasn't at least a coin flip.

So after I completed the tourney I played a few cash tables and continued to run extremely well, in fact, I never lost a full stack in over 900 hands. Since my cash winning were well over $20, today was my 1st $1K day ever! So despite cashing out $500 on Friday, I'm now rolled to take my shot at NL100. I think I'll stick to NL50 for at least the remainder of the month and will evaluate the state of my game before moving up.

My next update will be my mid month review. Also if anyone is interested in joining RakeBreak contact me for my referral code, if you don't mind.

Back To My Basic Premise

2008-10-09T00:07:00.002-04:00

Ok, so in getting back to my mandate to post horrible, stupid, and idiotic plays, I offer you today's most excellent example:

Villain is tight and solid (10/9/3) so unless he has AK we're likely behind from the flop. Probably flatting preflop with AQ was a mistake, but the river call? The absolute worst.

Overall still doing well, but the hand above scares me that I might be getting back to my calling station ways. I hope not but we'll see.

Gonna Be A Showdown!

2008-10-06T23:42:00.009-04:00

Love that movie and my topic today just reminded me of that clip. I'm of course talking about showdown (SD) versus non-showdown (NSD) winnings. Now I've always had positive NSD winnings which isn't all that common but it's not really rare either. It means that I bluff a bit, maybe bet a little more often on the river, perhaps make slightly larger bets than some other TAG players. Nothing wrong with any of that. In fact, I'd say on a whole those things are good, if used in maderation.

Here is my PT3 graph from the 1st half of July when I was playing very good poker.

My stats for this period were: 14/11/5 with a WTSD of 24%

Now here is the 2nd half of the same month when I was still winning but not as much.

My stats over this period were: 15/12/3 with a WTSD of 29%

Just for a little more proof, here's my horrible graph from last month.

My stats for last month were: 17/14/3 with a WTSD of 28%

So what can we take away from all these pretty pictures? Basically that becoming a bluffy, calling station is BAD for your (and my) bottom line. So this month this is my focus. I want to keep my WTSD % right around 25% because while winning pots with big bluffs is fun (I mean who doesn't like a good bluff), winning money is even more fun.

So far this month, I've been able to do just that and I'm really playing well. Of course I still get caught bluffing occasionally, but if you don't you're not doing it enough. I'm also still making some mistakes, here is a couple of my worst on the month thus far (note that these occurred on the same table with the same villain all within 15 minutes of each other):

Very 1st hand at the table but we have stats on our villain. He's 52/33/3 with an ATS of 85% over 50 hands. I obviously felt that I was WAY ahead of our villains stealing range and I like to make big raises when I first sit down to keep these pesky blind stealers at bay. Of course this time he has AK and we're down a stack!

Hand replayer is displaying the result of this one incorrectly. I lost another stack to the maniac with AK yet again. Hey, he can't have it every time can he?

This time I'm given good odds to call the shorty's push to see the flop but I was gun shy. I'd see this movie one too many times and of course he's still holding AK. He left the table shortly after this hand, I would assume to go buy lottery tickets. Oh well, sometimes bad players get good cards. Maybe someday I'll let that sink in and not get crazy with my AJ+ hands. Then again maybe not, I mean what's 200 bbs among friends?

Sucking In September

2008-10-01T01:12:00.005-04:00

The month started bad at 6-max and ended bad at full ring. In the middle I played some decent poker, some bad poker, I got lucky a few times, and got shafted a ton. Overall September pretty well sucked.
So there it is, I lost ~ $70 at the cash game tables this month in a little over 16,000 hands. I did have the KO tourney win for $230, so the month ends up ever so slightly. With rakeback thrown into the mix my BR increased by ~$320 overall. Pretty disappointing.

My plan for October is to cut down on the number of tables I'm playing slightly to 6 and to try to avoid tilting quite so bad. Oh yeah, winning a few more hands when I get my $$ in good would be nice too.

In an attempt to detach myself from individual session results, I plan to update here only a few times each week and not update any dollars until mid-month. I'm going to attempt to avoid looking at and obsessing over my BR in general so posting those updates here would be counter to that.

Official goals for October:
1) Play well
2) Tilt less
3) Recognize when I am losing that I might also be playing well
4) Understand that when I am winning I may also be playing poorly
5) Quit better

Bring on October!

Well At Least I Earned Like $10 in Rakeback

2008-09-24T01:25:00.002-04:00

Nice long session tonight. 1090 hands for a total profit of..... 35.....cents! I really had to work to get back to even, even though I had no idea where I was while I was playing. I shipped 2 stacks with AA and 1 with AKs early and then scratched my way back. Here is my biggest win of the night thanks to a LOT of luck:

Shorty was tight but the original raiser's range was pretty wide here. He actually started giving me shit in the chatbox about shoving with QQ saying how much his opinion of my play had changed (like I care) and how he was "changing my color" in his notes! I told him to make his note say won't fold QQ preflop to a 4 bet from me and that was that.

Since IceMonkey's comment yesterday I figure I should add a hand that I have a question on:

Can we value bet this river? If he has the flush he would have bet the river right? If you're value betting here, how much?

The Downward Spiral

2008-09-23T00:36:00.003-04:00

Haven't posted lately because basically poker sucks. In my last 3,331 hands I'm down $321.40 or -9.65BB/100. Sucks. I've essentially given back all of September's ring profits once again. Up and down. Up and down. Never gaining. Just moving ever up and down. I guess it could be worse and just be down and down.

Here are the most horrible hands from the bunch:

Unknown raises from MP and I flat from the worst position at the table. I then proceed to "slowplay" (basically because it's hard to play OOP) and ultimately I play off the big raise on the end. Horrific from start to finish. Don't play like this kids.

Here I make a serious mistake. I try to never call a AI preflop against a tight player (12/8/3) with AK. But a little tilted call now and then slips through. This is invariably the result.

Villain here wasn't very good but on the river what do I really beat? Answer not a whole fucking lot but my calling station ass calls anyway. I just had to "see it"!!!! It's an illness (and an expensive one).

Bluffing is fun. Bad bluffing is expensive. Piss poor play is expensive. Tilting is expensive. Shoving 3rd pair as a check-raise on the river. Priceless, as long as by priceless you mean expensive!

My entire bad run hasn't all been crap like the hands above but these type of hands don't help. I mean having 3 villains in a row hit 3 outers on the river sucks, but then when I give away another 3 stacks due to stupidity it just compounds the issue. Oh and since I see so many using all-in EV to "prove" how bad they're running, I'm $290 below all-in EV over these last 3330 hands and I'm over 8 buy-ins below EV at nl50. I'm sure it'll all even out soon.

Fingers crossed chin up.

Keep Firing A$$holes!

2008-09-17T01:24:00.003-04:00

Love that movie and it so perfectly describes today's dumb play.

No idea why I decided to lead out with 2 Kings onboard. Basically I'm turning my hand into a bluff. Oh well at least he was short. Speaking of that, what kind of self-respecting shorty fails to get AK AIPF? Whatever.

Tonight session was actually very good once again. I ran at 18BB/100 for 520 hands for a total profit of $93.10. Still loving playing with FR nits. I really think that my play works best when I am playing as the loosest of the tight players, rather than the tightest of the loose player.

Mid Month Update And A Bad River Call

2008-09-16T00:52:00.003-04:00

Just a little quickie update here. FR is going well, probably too well. I'm running at over 11BB/100 over a small sample of 3600 hands. I'm definitely more comfortable at FR than 6-max. I seem to be making mostly good decisions with only a few mistakes. Catching a good run of cards hasn't hurt.

Anyway here's some pretty pics:
nl50 FR only
With the failed 6-max experiment included:

Add in the $220 I'm ahead after winning that bounty tourney and the month is going very well thus far. Had I not started with 6-max it possibly could have been better but I think 6-max taught me a few lessons that I am now figuring out how to apply at FR. So I guess the 6-max time might have been good for something after all, just not my mental health!

Here is a ugly pic:

What could he have on the river here that we beat. Got to stop throwing these bets away.

Anyway, hope your September is going well and I hope mine continues to stay on track.

Inauspicious Beginnings And Flopping Quads

2008-09-12T00:16:00.005-04:00

Tonight's session started rough. Really rough. Here are my 1st and 5th hands of the night:

First hand. No prior hands. Not sure if I should be calling his river bet here. I guess with this board I almost have to. Then, moments later, this:

This one sucked. I actually went on to another table and didn't see the suckout. Wasn't till the table came back up that I saw what happened. Oh well.

So after that beginning to the night things could only get better right? Sure did.

It's nice when AA decides not to push preflop, well as long as your QQ flops well. Actually I was certainly stacking against this guy preflop had he pushed. He was 38/9/3 so my QQ was likely good against his range. Just not this time. At least until after the flop.

And then a few hands later the definition of flopping good:

This guy (41/21/3) was loose preflop but generally gave up to aggression postflop so I slowplay my absolute monster and just wait for him to start throwing money at me. Wish he had a bigger stack, then I could have raised the turn and likely still have got it all. Oh well he ended up donating $105 to my cause before I left the table. Nice guy.

All total since my last post (2 sessions) I've won $98.55 over 900 hands (10.9BB/100). Certainly running so much better since switching back to FR. Flopping well helps.

6-Max: It Ain't Me Babe!

2008-09-09T23:24:00.002-04:00

My only real goal for September was to play 5K hands at 6-max. I will fail at this goal. 6-max is just a short-hand way of saying tilt-inducing, mindfuck poker. I can't take it any more. It brings out the worst in me. I tilt. I tilt hard. I tilt more often. I tilt to the point that the any 2 carders are justified playing pots with me. I'm done. 6-max totals: $-149 over 3325 hands (mostly NL25 with a 350 NL50 6-max hands thrown in).

Tonight started with me opening 4 NL25 6-max tables. Within 31 hands I was down $22 and I was steaming, so I just shut everything down (literally just held the fucking power button down til the PC shutdown). After taking a few minutes to breathe and calm down I restarted the PC, reopened Full Tilt, and sat down at 8 NL50 FR tables. Ahhhhh, just like home. For whatever fucking mental ass reason my brain was happy again. I just played my normal FR, tight-ass, nitty game and I cruised to an easy and unrealistically good $260 session over 550 hands (48BB/100). Now the deck did run me over quite a bit and I did have one major suckout go my way but even when I got sucked out on it didn't matter. I never felt rushed or confused about my next action despite playing twice the number of tables. I never felt the need to defend my blind with total junk. I never tilted. I never shipped away a stack with Ace high. I never pushed all-in on the river praying for a fold that I knew wasn't coming. I never want to see a 6-max table again.

Having said all that I can see where 6-max could and would be very profitable for those with the mental game to withstand the sick beats. I don't have that yet and I'm fine with that. For me 6-max is definitely -EV and fortunately there is something I can do about it without having to work on my brain; Play FR. So that's where I'll be. Damn and I so wanted to be a cool kid.

Here's a horrible hand just because I haven't posted one for a while:

Just couldn't pull the trigger on the end. He was fairly passive (AF=.7) and may have folded TP here but then again he might have looked me up because I'm not sure my turn bet fits with a flush draw and it would have meant that I raised preflop and didn't have the Ace. On second thought not firing again here was probably the right move. The 2nd barrel was probably pretty bad though.

It's Been Awhile

2008-09-06T14:37:00.003-04:00

Not in love with 6-max like so many fellow CCers seem to be. The main problem seems to be that I turn into a giant spewtard (yes, even more so than when I play FR). My aggression goes through the roof (current AF over 8) and I stupidly try to blow my opponents off pots with huge, stupid overbets. These work just fine when my opponents have nothing or small hands. The problem is that when my opponents have big hands, I'm losing BIG pots. So I'm winning small and losing big. Hard to make any $$ doing that. Here's how the NL25 6-max 5K experiment stands thus far; 1900 hands, -$15.85, -.85BB/100.

After last nights 6-max session (-$100) I'd had enough so I did something I haven't done for quite some time, I loaded up a $11 KO tourney on Full Tilt. End result:

Yes, that's right, I ended up winning the thing for a total profit (with KOs) over $235! Nice little pick me up. I had some really nice hands when I needed them (you know won flips, stole blinds, etc.). In the end the defining hand played itself (the 1st hand of HU BTW):

3 hands later and it was all over. I haven't won a MTT in over 3 months, not that I play many, but it was still nice.

Donk v. Donk; Donk Wins!

2008-09-04T01:11:00.004-04:00

Crazy ass session tonight. Basically I played break even poker except for 1 hand. That hand happened to be the craziest, stupidest, most stats based thing I've ever done at the poker table. Without further ado I present it to you here (names hidden to protect my future earnings):

Looks bad? Insane perhaps? Well perhaps it was. Villain here is a genuine 95/65/2 nut-job that I followed to this NL50 table after I stacked him at a NL25 table (albeit with a MUCH better hand). The UTG raiser was solid (17/12/3) but had definitely figured out the villain here (he'd taken over $100 from him thus far) and was trying to isolate him every chance he had so I didn't think his raise necessarily meant super strength. When the horrible player min-raised and the UTG raiser called, I thought it was a good spot to 4-bet bluff, but then I remembered the maniac would likely call with any 2. When I hit the 3 on the flop I figured I might as well carry through with the bluff and hope to fold any hands I was behind (obviously this would be impossible). When he called I figured I was done (oh yeah this was a snap-call as well, no thought required with QTos on a King high board!). When his cards were exposed I couldn't believe it. Not only had I 4bet A3 soooooooted, but I had somehow won said 4bet pot with bottom pair! Insanity.

Overall I ended tonight's session up $56 over 550 hands (don't know how to figure BB/100 since the session was mostly NL25 but the bulk of the $$ were won at NL50). Not sure what to think of 6-max thus far. I think I may be getting a little to crazy-aggressive against some opponents (maybe that explains the madness above) and I think that's costing me $$. I do find the number of near 100 VP$IP rather amazing at these 6-max tables. If I could just control my own game I'm sure they'd be very profitable.

6-Max Action At Two Different Levels

2008-09-03T01:24:00.005-04:00

Ok, so in my last post I mentioned that my only real quantifiable goal for this month was 5K hands of 6-max poker. So to work toward that end I fired up 4 tables of NL50 6-max Monday night and promptly got my ass handed to me. I dropped $95 in 310 hands (-30.5BB/100). I was really letting myself get pushed around and when I did pick a spot to make a stand I was usually crushed. An example:

The BB here was a total fish (86/64/18 over 60 hands). SB is bad as well at 35/21/.05 over just under 50 hands at the time. The BB had shown several bluffs where he pushed with little to nothing. If the SB hadn't stuck around I would have called the BBs river shove here with TPTK and felt pretty good about it. With the SB still in the hand though, I knew when the flush card hit someone had gotten lucky and it wasn't me. I suppose I should have called the BB here even if I thought the SB got there because I could have won about $4 overall on the hand (a $34 swing) due to the stack differential with the SB, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Here is an earlier big hand with the villain from the previous example to prove my point about his willingness to get it an with not a whole lot:

Anyway after last night's terrible outing I decided that NL50 may not be the best place to start playing 6-max. So tonight I when I fired up Tilt I opened 4 Nl25 6-max tables instead. Let's just say that things couldn't have been anymore different. I ended the session after 515 hands up $120 (46.5BB/100). I did have a great run of cards when I needed them but I also for whatever reason just felt more comfortable. I made some pretty decent reads on my opponents ranges and generally acted accordingly.

Here is a hand where I'm just unsure I played correctly:

I'm OOP with an overpair on a board that nails my LP opponent's (38/3/1, 50 hands) range. Is check-calling my way to SD appropriate here? Can we find a bet on the river to possibly get more value? Just not sure here.

Overall my 6-max experiment is up so far. Not sure I like the way NL50 is going so my plan is to play at least these 5K hands at NL25 and then reevaluate from there.

End Of August Update

2008-09-01T11:01:00.002-04:00

Well, I've played zero poker in the last 2 days. I went to opening day for my Mountaineers on Saturday to witness the offensive display put forth by Pat White and the boys. It was a great day of tailgating and football. I love Morgantown in the fall. Then I all day yesterday was spent with fantasy football drafts, 3 of them to be exact. It's the same basic group of core friends in each league but each league is slightly different (keeper, redraft, and auction). Draft day is always a full day of beer drinking, trash talking, football fun and yesterday was no exception. Good times.

Now to sum up poker in August; SHIT.

Graph:

Rackback again added just over 1BB/100 to the total above so August ends up a total of $377.94.

My goals at the beginning of the month now look stupid but here they are:
August Goals

1) 15,000 hands at 50NL - Failed (14,060 total)

2) Withdrawal 1/2 of my August profit (or $500 whichever is less): Hahahaha No!

3) Maintain a win rate of at least 5.5 BB/100: Not even fucking close

4) Grow my bankroll by $500 after withdrawal: Not even without a withdrawal

5) Quit spewing chips pushing with under pairs and crap draws (they're not going to fold): Nope still stupid

6) Tilt less. Uhhhhhhh.....No

7) Post at least 5 hands for analysis on CC: I think I only managed 4

8) Watch a ton of videos over at Stox. : Some but not enough

So now it's time to post some simple goals for September:

1) Stay positive (in every way)

2) At least 5K hands at 6-max because well everyone else is doing it and seemingly having great success.

A Little 6-Max To Get Right

2008-08-29T01:09:00.005-04:00

I played 2 sessions tonight. The 1st was my standard 8 table NL50 full-ring session. It sucked. I ended up cutting it short at only 300 hands and while down $58 (-19.5BB/100). I closed Full Tilt and realized that I might not have made the required points for the day to hit gold level Iron Man (I needed 1 more day over 100 FTPs to hit it). So sure enough I logged back in to check and I was 10 points short! Well that meant I HAD to play again but instead on NL50 FR I decided to sit down at 4 NL25 6max tables since I've seen all the cool kids over at CC playing 6max! Anyway I killed. These guys were stacking with any pair it seemed. It's like if you take away 3 seats the collective IQ drops to an average of 60! Anyway I played 300 hands there and finished up $75 (48BB/100). So net profit over 600 hands of $17. Better than if I'd quit after session 1, but I will admit that sitting back down to hit some stupid number may be the dumbest reason ever to play.

Anyway here's a little 6-max stupidity:

Villain (70/13/6) and I here have a bit of history as I've taken his $10 buy-in twice in ~45 hands. I've also 3bet him several times thus far and he's decided he's had enough. So when he min raises me here I decide he's got nothing and I'll try to push him off with nothing. Unfortunately he doesn't want to cooperate and I have to fold with a bit of $$ in the middle. When he makes the 4th min bet he could have anything from JT and the nuts to complete air. I would catch him a bit later for another $20 so I guess I got this money back before I left the table.

I'll give this month's final numbers on Friday night since I won't be playing again til Monday.

Mental Bankroll Barriers

2008-08-28T00:37:00.003-04:00

Ok so with my recent ups and downs, I've been looking at my game and I know it's far from perfect but I've also noticed other times when I've hit these type patches. The 1st was as my BR neared $500, then somewhat at $1000, and now $2000 seems to be the sticking point (how I breezed by $1500 is beyond me). Come to think of it, it was exactly the same when I played at Bodog. It's like I hit these invisible barriers that I have to get through before I can get back to playing good winning poker. Is it self-sabotage? Well from some of the hands I post here, it's a definite possibility, but I don't think so. I really think it's the money!

I don't want to think about poker that way, but I do (especially lately). If a pots large and I missed whatever draw I was chasing or I think my opponent outdrew me on the river, I don't do what I should and give up. I either bluff if I missed or I call down light if my opponent bets. It's like I don't want to give up the pot because it's soooo much money. Crazy I know. I also know that if I did play better in these spots, I'd win more money! This month my BR has been fluctuating (just using that word reminds me of this brilliant Tommy Angelo quote) between $1600 (when I was down for the month) and $2200 (those 2 wonderful days when I was way up) and it currently sits just $40 shy of $2000. Here's to a barrier breakthrough coming real soon.

I did play some poker over the past couple of days. Some good, some bad, ending up $80 over 1250 hands (6.35BB/100). I can certainly live with that. Here is the worst:

Villain here is 20/0/.5 over 40 hands. I can't even explain to you why I didn't get the rest of my stack in on the turn. Had I pushed there I would have turned a stupid river call into a bad beat. Basically I needed to take BW's advice on this one. This guy is NEVER betting that river without a hand the beats my kings. Just bad and a prime example of my issue with folding in big pots even with weak hands compared to the board. Maybe one day I'll get it and break on through.

Oh and if you'd like to read more from Tommy Angelo check out his blog, and pick up his book, Elements of Poker for a great read.

Finally A Good Run With Only One Real Mistake

2008-08-26T00:36:00.003-04:00

Really good run tonight. 600 hands, $170 profit (28BB/100). I feel I actually played well, although I do think I'm way too results oriented when it comes to my perception of my play. Anyway, I did get a bit lucky to have AA vs KK and I also won a stack with AKs v 88 AIPF. So I do realize, had the cards fallen slightly differently, the end result could have been much different. Either way it feels good to book a solid win and get back in the green for the month (although still just barely).

Here is the one hand I feel I made a serious (read expensive) mistake on:

Wow, that looks really bad! The villain here had decent TAG stats (13/9/3) but I had seen him lose a stack with AK in a very similar spot (he 3 barreled that pot from OOP as well). So when he bet the river I used all my time and decided to make the "hero" call. Let's rename it the sucker call shall we. Whenever a villain turns over a boat and you have to show 2nd pair on a paired board, well let's just say dumb is about the best thing that I felt.

Had a couple of great fantasy football drafts yesterday and managed to stay relatively sober. I have 3 drafts to go and they're all this Sunday! Looks like it's going to be a long day. Good thing Monday's a holiday!

You'll Only Get Called By A Hand That Beats You Or Me

2008-08-24T02:34:00.003-04:00

Few sessions since Friday's post with no real BR movement one way or the other. Total profit of $6.75 over 850 hands. Meh, at least I didn't give away too many stacks. I'm really beginning to wonder if I have what it takes to play this game for any kind of real money (not for a living but for some decent fun money). I mean I've been playing so much more than my usual over the last few months and I really felt I was improving and my BR agreed. Now when I look back at some of the horrible mistakes I've made this month, I wonder if I hadn't just been lucky for a few months and this month is closer to my real expectations? I hope not, but I'll admit I have been considering that possibility.

Anyway you know the poker cliche that says that in certain spots you shouldn't bet because you'll only be called by a hand that beats you? Well that obviously doesn't apply when you're playing me:

So we hit our set on an Ace high flop and get a caller to our check-raise, great! Why then do I fail to bet the rest of his stack on the turn? Then when the board gets amazingly scary our villain turns his very strong hand into a bluff but gets lucky because he's playing my dumb ass. This is a hand we beat no where near enough to call when he pushes here. Folding the river should be pretty standard (especially to a loose/passive player like this villain 36/2/1), but I just can't fold my incredibly weak, for this board, hand. Ugly.

Anyway tomorrow marks my first fantasy football drafts of the season. The first is for a keeper league I have been the commissioner in for 4 years (I'm not in that league I just run it) and it will be held at a friend's bar. I'll have my laptop with the software (Fandraft) connected to the big screen and I'll just be running the draft while enjoying a few beers. Then a few hours after that draft ends I'll be participating in the draft for my longest running (7 years) league. It's an online draft but I'll be hanging around the bar and doing it from there (the owner of the bar is in that league as well). I can't wait to get going. I love this time of year. Even better yet it's only 6 days to opening day for my beloved WVU Mountaineers!

Oh No, We Suck Again

2008-08-22T21:19:00.004-04:00

August sucks. I haven't posted in days, because well, there just nothing good to say. Since my last post I've dropped $301 in just under 1900 hands (-16BB/100). On the month I'm down $45 before rakeback. In my largest losing session since my last post (-$180) I had not 1 but 2 full houses beat by quads! And then I started tilting and bluffing away stacks. Just really, really ugly.

Worst hand? Hell there all bad right now. Here's a random one for you:

Horrible. This was from the session where I dropped the $180 and was one of those tilty, make no sense bluffs I was talking about.

Well, it's Friday night so I guess I should go see if the fish are biting. Hopefully, I don't get eaten.

3 Good Sessions, 1 Bad Bluff

2008-08-17T23:24:00.003-04:00

I've played 1300 hands over 3 sessions in the last 2 days. I ended each session up and won a total of $146 (11.3BB/100) proving once again there's nothing like a weekend to turn things around. I don't know when I last saw so many horrible calls and bad plays, probably last weekend.

Well it seems that www.pokerhandreplays.com (the site I use for the cool hand replayer) is not converting at the moment so it looks like my bad bluff hand will have to wait. Sorry you won't get to see me do anything stupid today.

Running Backwards and Mid Month Update

2008-08-15T23:39:00.004-04:00

I've figured out my current problem, I'm running backwards. What the hell does that mean you say? Well it means that when I get my $$ in as a big favorite I'm getting beat and losing stacks
and when I'm getting in with the worst of it, I'm sucking out (sometimes pretty hard)

The 1st hand above is from a session I played late last night. I finished down $77.60 over 570 hands (-13.7BB/100). I never mind getting AI with KK and when he turned over Queens I figured I was good, but then I forgot I was running backwards.

Hand #2 is from tonight's session (up $62.15 over 357 hands) and looks much worse than I thought at the time. The villain here had pushed KK earlier into an Ace high flop and was called but hit a King on the river to win. She's also lost more than she gain with A-rag several times and I thought I had her range crushed with AJ here. When she flipped AA I nearly shed a tear, but then I remembered that I was running backwards. It's hands like these that make me glad I turn off chat when I play.

My mid month update is somehow uglier than hand #2 above! Here's the graph:

My goals are in shambles and I doubt any of them are realistic now other than maybe the number of hands goal. What I really need now is a heater like I had for the 1st 2 days of the month!

Here's to hoping that I at least get turned around and start running forward for the rest of the month.

My Bad Play Gets Rewarded

2008-08-14T00:24:00.003-04:00

I had an overall good session tonight with only a few mistakes and some really big hands. I ended up $113 over 500 hands (23.9BB/100). I had some luck (a little bad and a little good) but generally I played good poker overall. I focused on putting my opponents on hands and then bluffing, folding, or value betting accordingly. At micro stakes online poker, that's really all that's necessary to be a winner.

I mentioned a few mistakes and a little good luck. Well today dumbest thing illustrates both:

Calling his 3bet preflop is a real loser. Even if I can count on stacking both players (almost impossible) I'm not getting the odds I'm looking for to set mine. This hand came on the heels of winning a big pot on another table and sometimes when that happens I get a little winner's tilt and go crazy. It's nice to win these but it's horrible to know I made a pretty big mistake to get there.

Anyway, I'll post the ugliest graph you've ever seen tomorrow for my mid month update. Just a little preview, so far this month I'm running at just under 2BB/100! I don't even want to think about my monthly goals.

Couple Of Sessions With Very Little Luck

2008-08-13T00:59:00.005-04:00

Well 2 session with a total loss of $39 over a total of 800 hands (-4.9BB/100). I've played decently and actually have won a few stacks but it seems like I'm losing just as many and quite often, at least recently, it when I'm getting my $$ in VERY good. So I'm not going to beat myself up over this loss. I know that if I keep getting my chips in this good things are going to turn sharply upward sooner or later. :)

I had bigger losers today but I think this hand illustrates a real issue I have too often:

Our villain here is pretty laggy (29/23/3) and will likely bluff raise this turn often enough to make my second barrel very -Ev. We likely only get a fold from this villain if he holds a pocket pair under 99 and even then he'll bluff raise sometimes. Check/folding here saves us a bet and occasionally we'll get to SD without putting any more (or at least much more) money in the pot. Bad turn bet.

I also decided to join the Cardschat Tuesday Full Tilt night free roll tonight. Man I hate tourneys any more but it's always nice to play with the great people from CC. It's the only time I even turn on my chat anymore and I really enjoyed it even though I busted out around 50th when I pushed with AQ v AT v AK and AK held. So rigged. :)

Finally...I Luck Into A Winning Session

2008-08-11T12:39:00.002-04:00

So early this morning I played a 415 hand session ending UP $76 (18.25BB/100). I played ok, but I probably could have done better. It just feels good to win again.

I did get extremely lucky in one hand:

The villain here is tight (11/10/3) and 3betting preflop probably should be my standard play. I of course decide to just call and then we get all-in when he hits his set (I'm not down on the all-in call because he would have done the same with a SD, FD , QQ, and maybe AJ with the A of clubs). The turn of course saves me $25 and makes the session look $50 more profitable.

Undoubtedly the worst thing I did during this session was this hand:

I have no business flatting the bbs 3bet. I'm not getting any kind of odds to set mine and the cutoff could still 4bet me out of the hand. Plus I'll be in horrible relative position postflop no matter how favorable it may be. It all adds up to being a horrible call.

3 Sessions, Still No Winners!

2008-08-10T15:40:00.002-04:00

Well since my last post I've played about 1500 hands for a net loss of $68 (-4.65BB/100) over 3 sessions. I ended each individual session down. I feel though that I actually played better than I had been overall. I've just hit a horrible bad luck streak and I think my opponents can smell the blood in the water. It's just been sick. I'm actually down ~$22 overall for the month despite starting the 1st 2 days up ~$450! I've so far stuck at 50NL but still may move down before BR would dictate.

Here are a few of the worst I've played over the past few days:

This should have been an easy fold when the button 3bet. AQ just doesn't win here enough when called and it's an auto fold to the all-in. Just a poor decision to 4bet light OOP.

Just a bad bluff against a player with a broken fold button (WTSD over 35%). Note to self: Looks at SD stats before doing anything too stupid!

I raise preflop here with ATs to try to steal the blinds because of the extra money in the pot because of the UTG poster. Anyway when the cutoff flats and then raises my cbet, I decide to get cute (again OOP). Just giving it away really.

Anyway, I've decided that today is a poker free day. I'll see what happens when I hit the tables again tomorrow. Can't be much worse than the last week (at least I hope not).

I Officially Suck

2008-08-07T01:08:00.002-04:00

Another day, another huge loss. Down $174 in 538 hands (-32BB/100). I haven't won a stack in days. Seems like every time I get my stack in, it gets pushed to my opponent. Whether it be by suckout, cooler, or just a bad play by me, I'm just taking a beating at the moment. It's starting to effect my play (and probably making the losing continue). I'm playing more passively. I'm failing to cbet. I'm still bluffing. I'm just playing horrid poker.

I'm really thinking about dropping back to 25NL for a bit just to get some confidence in my play again. I don't know.

Sorry no horrible hand today as I can't bear to look right now.

Does Playing Bad Lead to Running Bad

2008-08-06T00:54:00.003-04:00

Something I've noticed for a while now. When I'm playing bad (I mean at my worst), I end up taking more bad beats than when I am playing well. I think it may have to do with table image. People, even at micro stakes NL, notice when you say call down with an underpair or push on the turn with a OESD with little chance your opponent will fold and they tend to stick around long enough maybe catch those hands that beat you.

I unfortunately noticed this again tonight. I played horribly tonight dropping $157 in just over 600 hands (-26BB/100). Along the way I made terrible plays and bluffed entirely too much. But I also had people calling me down with middle pair and catching their 2nd pair on the river. These are players with decent stat too, not just the calling stations. Basically my horrid image had made it right for them to call me down with little to nothing because well let's just say they had plenty of implied odds :( .

This one's bad. I think I had some major tilt issues by the time this hand rolled around and damn it I was going to keep betting till he folded. Of course that didn't happen. Good thing I didn't have a deeper stack here. I wouldn't have stopped. Please take my $$ sir.

Woops...What A Bad Bet

2008-08-05T00:04:00.002-04:00

Tonight session was a roller coaster ride that ended with me being up $19.50 after 550 hands (3.5BB/100). I was fairly fortunate to get back to positive numbers when I took my only stack of the night with my KK beating AJ that flopped a J.

The absolute worst play of the night was also my only lost stack. For your entertainment:

Villain here was 11/8/1 and I knew when he bet the river I was beat but I figured he had a J and might fold it to an AI. I don't know if he would have or not but he's certainly not folding a set. My line here is horrible and he probably calls with KJ or better anyway. Just very poorly played on my part.

Calling 3 Street Against A TP = Dumb = Me

2008-08-04T01:01:00.005-04:00

We'll I've played 2 small session since my amazing run on Friday with mixed results. Saturday's session ended with me being up $115 in 500 hands (23.5BB/100), while Sundays session cost me $91.50 in 580 hands (-15.75BB/100). So the month so far is still VERY far above expectations but there has been a bit of a correction. I guess 53BB/100 wasn't sustainable after all!

Anyway here's a hand that I think I misplayed totally postflop:

The villain here is Tight-Passive player (12/4/1 over 150 hands) who's probably never double barreled in his life, yet I decide that calling 3 bets against him is smart. I'm actually a little surprised he bet on all 3 streets with "only" TPTK. I expect to win this hand almost never. Definitely a losing play against this type of player.

I also played for about 5 hours at a friends home game Saturday night. I ended up losing $40 (AK < 75) but the real interesting thing was that I decided to keep track of the number of hands we managed to play, using chips as a makeshift abacus. This is your typical pass-the-deal home game and we managed only 72 hands. Yes, just under 15/hour. I knew it was slow but I never realized how slow until last night. It's no wonder it seems like I only play about 2 hands/hour there, it's because I do!

God, I LOVE Friday nights!!!

2008-08-02T00:20:00.003-04:00

First off let me start by saying that this is not going to be my normal blog posting. This post is a celebration. You see I just had my biggest single session ever finishing up $335 over 625 hands (53.75, totally sustainable, BB/100). What a way to start the month.

So anyway what I'm going to do tonight is show you every stack I won. I knew the night was going to be good when this was my very 1st hand of the night:

I know I rail against slow playing your monsters but with so many limpers here I figured at least 1 of them would bet the flop or that maybe someone would make their flush. When we were raised on the turn I knew he had a Queen and wanted to get it all-in before a flush card came out to scare him off. 1 hand, 1 stack! Next!

At the time made the call (well raised by $4 technically) I didn't feel great about this one, but I honestly thought he was on an overpair with a single spade. Needless to say I was thrilled when he turned his cards over.

This hand is a little different. Our villain here is like 6/5/.3 over 125 hands, so I knew going in I likely didn't have the best hand but I also knew that I could probably take the pot away by just showing max aggression on a scary flop. Well then I went and flopped good (that's the secret of poker kids) and he never bet or raised but he did call all the way, including the over the top push on the end. I noted that I couldn't steal pots from him but that he would pay off value bets all day long. :)

Villain here was a total idiot (85/17/4 over 60 hands). I knew he'd call the flop bet with nearly any pair or even a weak draw but even I was surprised how light he called down. Thank you sir. May I have another?

Yeah I know it's not technically a stack job but it's basically a full buy-in so I'm counting it. :) Anyway, out villain here is nitty and normally very aggressive (10/9/5.5 over about 300 hands), so calling with any pair is a no brainer. He checks into 3 callers, I'm sure hoping to Check-Raise, only to have everyone check behind and allows me to get that beautiful turn card. I debated raising the turn but honestly I was scared that if we got our stacks in my boat wouldn't be the winner (yes, I played a FH for pot control!). I was very glad to see him just call on the river. If he had shoved there, I would have shit myself.

So those are the big ones. Yes there were other stacks taken but mostly from horrible short-stackers and I won't bore you with me getting AIPF with AQ vs a horrible (90/25/1) shorty who had AT and taking his $10 for the sixth time in the session.

I think I love August (at least so far)!

July Wrap-Up And August Goals

2008-08-01T00:47:00.006-04:00

Ok, all I'll say about the last few days is they sucked hard. I've dropped a total of $70 since my last update and I've been all over the place on a huge rollercoaster ride. Tonight's session for example stared with dropping 2 full BIs in 10 hands! QQ less than JJ when he flopped a set and KK less than AA when I didn't get my set!

Here's how my goals played out:

1) Play 15,000 hands - Passed easily (21,307)

2) Clear my mid-year $100 bonus - Done with ease

3) Maintain a 6BB/100 win rate - Managed all month until my last session (5.9) :(

4) Grow my BR by $450 - Yes. Total BR gain with rakeback and bonus - Stox fee = $909

5) Be ready and rolled to play 50NL by the end of July (BR > $1500) - Started at 50NL on 7/18/08

6) Make finding hands to post here everyday harder for myself - Failed miserably.

So a mixed month all told and the end of the month really put a bit of a damper on things. Here is the graph:

August Goals

1) 15,000 hands at 50NL

2) Withdrawal 1/2 of my August profit (or $500 whichever is less)

3) Maintain a win rate of at least 5.5 BB/100

4) Grow my bankroll by $500 after withdrawal

5) Quit spewing chips pushing with under pairs and crap draws (they're not going to fold)

6) Tilt less.

7) Post at least 5 hands for analysis on CC

8) Watch a ton of videos over at Stox.

Some 6-Max And Fighting My Way Back To Even

2008-07-30T21:57:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday I've decided to play at least 1000 hands of 6-max for c9h13no3's break out of your comfort zone challenge. So last night was my 1st session. I ended up playing 264 hands and winning $25.80 (19.5BB/100) on 4 tables in about 40 minutes. I actually recorded the session and I plan to add commentary and make it available this weekend. My stats over this shortish session were 23/21/4 with 11% 3bet. So still pretty tight but it seemed so loose to me since my usual stats are like 15/12/4. I hit a few big hands and only made one major mistake in my opinion. Here it is:

Calling his river bet here is pretty spewy. I was very surprised to see him play QQ this way. Had he 3bet preflop, we would have flipped for stacks because there is no doubt I would have pushed. Oh well, can't be expected to play them all correctly.

So after that 6-max session, I opened 8 FR NL50 tables and went into extreme freefall. At 300 hands into the session I was down ~$90 but I stuck with it, quit doing everything wrong and managed to turn the session around actually finishing up $6,85 after 553 hand (1.25BB/100). I guess considering the way I started the session I can't really complain about the end result. Here is the worst hand I played (warning this hand should not be viewed by women or children):

What can I say other than dumb. To my opponent in this hand I say you're welcome.

In better news, I did cross the $500 MGR threshold this month which means I'll get an extra $25 from my rakeback site for my monthly Stox Poker membership. I've been doing a ton of studying on there lately and I really think the videos they produce over there will help my bottom line. Maybe there will be a video about not pushing with pocket eights.

What Goes Up....

2008-07-29T01:51:00.002-04:00

... must crash back to Earth with a sickening thud! After I posted last night I decided to play a long session to try to earn a bunch of rakeback and maybe get my MGR up to $500 to pay for Stox this month. I ran insane. I finished up $215 over 1000 hands (21.5BB/100) and felt that I played very well throughout the session. I had my month's winnings up over $1000 and I was feeling great. Then today happened. I played 718 hands for a total loss of 186.05 (-26BB/100)!

Yes, some of the losses were standard cooler type hands. Some were suckout losses and some (most) were just bad play. For whatever reason I was back to calling down everything (WTSD over 33%) and I just kept spewing chips all over the place (W$SD under 35%). Here is the worst of it:

When I called the villain's 3bet preflop I said to myself that it was set or fold postflop and then I go a 3 barrel when the board is all unders. Just as I was about to throw the last of my stack away I though to myself that he probably had QQ and that I should just check fold but I didn't. Just couldn't do it. Spewtastic!

So thanks to this post by c9h13no3 on CC, I've decided that for the last couple of days of the month I'm going to try my hand at 6-max (I'm thinking 25NL). We'll see how it goes. I've always heard that 6-max has more horrible stacktastic donks per table than FR so I should fit right in.

Back On Track And Getting Stupid With A Pair Draw

2008-07-27T20:20:00.002-04:00

Well I managed to quick;y lose $50 at my buddies live game Friday night. I just never had cards and when I did they were always 2nd best. In the time I was there, about 3 hours, I won only 3 hands and the biggest of those was with 35os in the bb, that flopped trips. Fortunately one of my opponents had decides to limp with AA from EP and he paid me off. Other than that I played rather poorly and was too impatient the whole night.

So when I returned home I managed to get in a session on Full Tilt so I could keep my gold medal dreams alive for the month. I actually managed to win about $58 in 275 hands (21.1BB/100). This was the dumbest play of the session:

The biggest mistake here is of course calling the initial raise from the shorty. We're getting almost no implied odds and we really should just be mucking our hand here.

I also had a winning session this afternoon, finishing up $86 in just over 700 hands (12BB/100). It was a very swingy session which started down $20, then I went up $100, then back to even, and finally working my way back up to where I finished up. The following is what I consider my worst hand of the day:

Our villain here is a very bad 54/22/3 who I thought might fold to my all-in (I figured him for a draw or a weak made hand). I'm not sure why I thought he would fold anything he would bet here and of course just folding and waiting for a better hand to take his stack would have been the better play. Although he did give me action in a later hand (this time he only had TPGK to my set) and I took it all back (with interest) before he left the table.

Running Bad Makes Me Play Even Worse

2008-07-25T20:39:00.002-04:00

Well since my last totally up beat post I have yet to book a winning session! All told I am down $125 over 1000 hands (-12.5BB/100). Now some of this loss is certainly due to some variance (twice I've had sets of deuces lose to bigger sets) but a very large part of it has actually been some sick need I've had to make hero calls on the river. Trying to catch your opponent bluffing gets VERY expensive and I'm not sure why but I just can't keep my cursor away from the call button. A particularly bad example:

My God I'm like the biggest calling station on Earth. I have bottom pair on a flop that's all over a button raisers range and end up calling all the way. I beat nothing here but a bluff so I guess I put him on a bluff. Just bad.

I guess some of the cooler type hands had to be expected as I was just running too good for it to last long. Even with this horrible 1000 hands I'm still running at 6.5BB/100 at 50NL, although after paying Stox my BR is just above where it was when I moved up.

Well I'm getting ready to head out to a friends for some cash game poker. He's actually having a tourney tonight that started about 2 hours ago but since I hate his structure I made up an excuse to go late and just play cash with the early losers! Also tomorrow is Mrs. Hillbilly's 15th class reunion so who knows if I'll get a chance to update tomorrow or even play. Maybe I need a day off.

Joining Stox And A Bluff All-In Takes A Big Pot

2008-07-23T21:37:00.005-04:00

Ok, so after running hot for the 3rd day straight (up $130 over 465 hands or 28BB/100) I decided to go ahead and join Stoxpoker today. As I mentioned in a previous post my rakeback site, rakebreak.com will cover the monthly fee ($25) for Stox for every month that I have a monthly gross rake of $500 or more. Not sure I'm going to get there this month but since I'm positive I will beginning next month, I went ahead and joined. So the math works like this; I paid $189 to Stox for 6 months. For that fee I pay the sign-up fee ($75)and get 6 months access to all their videos ($150) and 2 books ($30 Theory of Poker and NL Holdem Theory and Practice). I'll get at least $125 back from rakebreak.com, so it seemed like a fair deal. It will only get better each month after 6 when the monthly fee ($25) is an added benefit from rakebreak.com (basically free $$). Hopefully I'll be able to pick up enough advice from Stox to make the time spent watching the videos worthwhile.

So anyway, like I said I ran great once again last night. When I reveiwed my session afterward I really didn't find too many mistakes and certainly no big mistake until I looked at my winners (I normally look at my losing hands first). Then I noticed that my biggest pot of the day was essentially a bluff CRAI on a monotone flop.

Not sure what our villain (43/12/2) was thinking here other than I had a single club and was pushing with a draw. Of course I figured he may be doing the same and that's why I pushed. I was very pleasantly surprised when his cards were turned over. Not sure this play is profitable against most players because I think it generally limits his calling range to hands that have great equity on us.

Good Run Continues And I Miss A River Bet

2008-07-22T22:13:00.002-04:00

Good fortune continued to smile down upon me yesterday as I ran at 9.25 BB/100 over 1045 hands for a total profit of $97. Along the way I found my new best friend. My new best friend gave me $125 in just 81 total hands. My new best friend was 93/30/3.5 over that time and WTSD 25% of the time (often with WAY less than top pair). Here is an example (note my new best friend shall remain anonymous for my own benefit):

I know he could have had me beat here but his calling range is literally middle pair and up. Note my stack at the start of this hand. Almost all of it had come from my good buddy. I hope he wasn't just drunk last night.

Now on to my big mistake and in this hand there are actually a couple:

The first mistake in this hand is made by our villain, not 3betting JJ out of position is just not smart. When our villain donks and then calls on a dry flop, I should be worried about an over pair. Then when the Ace hits the turn we get bluffy again and try to represent. After he called my turn bet I actually checked the fold to any bet box (really dumb) thinking there was no way I would call a bet if he decided to throw chips in on the river. I then went on to the next table and didn't even realize I'd made 2nd nuts on the river until I reviewed my session! I really wish I had seen it during the hand so I could have bet the river, not because I think he would have called but because I wouldn't have had to show my cards and give away free info. Live and learn.

Running Hot Makes Me Crazy

2008-07-21T22:36:00.003-04:00

Quick update on Saturday night's live session; I killed it. I had cards most of the night. When I didn't have cards, I was aggressive and stole a few pots. I caught cards when I was WAY behind (my QQ > AA AIPF ~$45). All told I ended up over $200 (this is a .25/.50 cash game with 8 players). We ended up breaking up the game at 3AM after playing for 8 hours. It's always fun but when you're running as well as I was, it's amazing. Great time.

So I woke up late on Sunday and took the wife out for a great sushi lunch and then came home for a nap (what a tough life). After my brief rest I decided to jump on Tilt and play a little and again I ran insanely well, ending up $115 over 485 hands (24BB/100). I was running so great that I got stupid, here's proof:

This hand started as a bluff (I raise JTs from UTG almost never) and I got crazy with how far I was willing to take it. Of course I catch 1 of my 3 outs on the river and actually win a just under $70 pot (the replayer incorrectly shows the amounts so you'll just have to trust me). I guess this type of stupidity is a form of tilt (too successful tilt?). I can't even guess to explain my play here. Just one of those I'll push you off this pot spots, I guess. Really just bad play.

First 50NL Sessions And A Really Bad Bet

2008-07-19T15:43:00.004-04:00

Well after I posted last night's entry I logged on to Full Tilt and loaded up 8 50NL tables and played 560 hands ending up down $43 (-7.7BB/100). I was a little disappointed in my play (I got crazy bluffy for some reason) but the bottom line wasn't too bad and the level of play was as bad, maybe worse, than 25NL. An example:

So after I woke up this morning I decided I needed to jump back into it and I played pretty well (still a few to many bluffs) and after catching a few cards I ended up winning $92 after 430 hands (21.4BB/100). So this makes my 1st day at 50NL a winner being up $49 at a winrate of 5BB/100. I'll take that. Another "benefit" is the increased rake. I've never seen FTPs add up so fast. It should allow me to qualify for a free Stox membership through rakebreak.com (they pay the monthly $25 fee as long as your MGR is over $500) next month certainly and possibly this month.

Now let's see what stupidity looks like at double the stakes.

I call with decent set mining odds and hit bottom set on a possible straight board, so I bet out and get 1 caller (58/8/1.5). When the 2 hits the board this gives any 3 the straight, yet when our villain checks I inexplicably push all-in. Overbetting the pot and essentially ensuring that I only get calls from the hands I fear most (bigger sets and straights). Just a horrible play on my part and one that I plan to try to avoid from now on. We'll see how that works out.

Tonight I'm playing at a home cash game so no more online till tomorrow.

Soul Read Illiterate

2008-07-18T23:32:00.002-04:00

Couple of decent sessions since last post. Up $34 over 900 hands (7.5BB/100) and it really should have been about $40 more. I played well and finished clearing my mid-year bonus, so with just under $1500 in my BR I plan to start playing 50NL immediately after posting this entry! Wish me luck.

Today's example of bad play has me misreading the strength of the villain's hand by about a mile!

I really thought his bet was a missed flush draw and I had NO IDEA how strong he really was. Oh well at least I didn't raise his river bet.

Bottom Two; Rarely Good In A Big Pot

2008-07-17T23:44:00.004-04:00

Well, today's 1st session was more of the same for me. Down and no where to go but down. Then a strange thing happened when I played today's 2nd session, I started winning and winning big. I caught cards, I hit sets, I made soul reading calls, I folded in all the right spot, and I managed to hang on to the profits. Total for today is +$72 over 910 hands (15.8BB/100). This erased my loses from yesterday and got me back on track to start 50NL VERY soon (I'll be within $70 once my bonus clears tomorrow). Should be interesting cause then you'll get to see me do stupid things in even bigger pots! Yay!

Anyway this is a hand from session 1 (the loser).

I make my standard opening raise from the SB (I open for 4x from any other position) and get a call from the BB (40/15/7). The flop is good for us giving us a pair and the flush draw. When the turn makes my second pair I think I went a little crazy with the check/raise all-in. It pretty much eliminates most hands we beat and gets called by hands that we fear most. Having the flush draw actually gives us some equity here but when that misses we've lost a 130bb pot.

Just Plain Ugly

2008-07-16T22:16:00.003-04:00

So last night didn't go so well. I dropped $65 in 950 hands (-13.8BB/100)! Just gross. I only lost 1 full stack when my AIPF KK ran into TT that flopped a set, but it seemed like I was bleeding chips. Of course I didn't help myself out any when I started pushing weak holdings and bluffing badly. I know I shouldn't do it but I started tilting pretty badly and I did the worst thing possible, I kept playing. Here is an example of just how bad it got:

You think maybe our villain here had seen me show up with nothing before? Calling down with TPNK is usually a reciept for disaster but against me last night it was as good as gold. Man, I haven't played that spewy in a while. Hopefully it will be even longer before I post a hand quite that poorly played again.

Mid Month Update And I Should Have Bet The Turn

2008-07-15T19:27:00.004-04:00

One session last night before bed and I ran very good. I finished up $43.50 over 480 hands or 19.75BB/100. My big bets on my big hands were being called with seemingly any two. It was really nice. Even my worst plays weren't very costly and I made relatively few of them. Here is last night's worst:

I check the flop to play it as a wb/wa hand (either he has the A or he doesn't). After he checks behind on the flop I should bet the turn for value but I check again for no real reason. The river of course is a horrible card for us and we're forced to check/call his little bet. No real huge loss here but if I had bet the turn it would have been a small gain.

Updates

1) Play 15,000 hands - Ahead of pace (9,600 thus far)

2) Clear my mid-year $100 bonus - $80 of $100 cleared so far

3) Maintain a 6BB/100 win rate - So far so good (7.96)

4) Grow my BR by $450 - Ahead of pace ($392)

5) Be ready and rolled to play 50NL by the end of July (BR > $1200) - Modified this one to start when I have a BR > $1500. Currently at $1250 with $100 bonus and $110 rakeback to come, so looking good.

6) Make finding hands to post here everyday harder for myself - Mixed. When I'm playing bad it's WAY too easy.

7) Don't make plays that I am embarrassed by - So far so good.

Monthly graph to date with SD and NSD winnings included for Jagsti (click to see full size):

Stacking Preflop With AK

2008-07-14T23:59:00.002-04:00

Since my last post I've played 1200 hands over 3 sessions for a net gain of $29 (4.75BB/100). Sessions 1 & 3 were swingy up/down affairs that barely showed $5 profit each. Session 2 was a little more steady and less stressful with $19 profit over 300 hands. The hand I'm going to highlight today is one that I'm not sure is a mistake. It's something I'm generally willing to do against most opponents on most occasions. I, of course, am referring to stacking preflop with AK. Here is the hand:

The table had been fairly loose and the 4bettor is a LAG (36/26/5). I guess with as wide as his range is stacking here is probably pretty standard but I wonder if our push 5bet pushes his calling range to the 2 hands we don't want to see? If we had flatted his preflop raise we're getting the rest in when the King hits the flop.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll give my mid month update and see how I'm fairing meeting this month's goals.

Mini Cash Session, A Live Game, And a CC FR Cash

2008-07-13T19:08:00.004-04:00

Only played a brief online session yesterday. I ended up losing about $16 in just over 400 hands (-8BB/100). I didn't play particularly well and was really just trying to rush through a session before I left for my buddies home game. Here is the worst hand of the session in terms of dollars lost and in the way I played it:

I'm not upset with losing this hand, just with the raise and subsequent call on the turn. Our opponent here is a little loose but I have yet to see him push a weaker hand than we have here. Calling his turn bet and then his bet of the river (assuming no club fell) would probably be a much more profitable line. Our equity drops on the turn a ton because we only have 1 card left to see. My entire session basically went from small winner to medium loser based on my play with this hand.

After ending my online cash session, I went to my monthly league game. I went out on the bubble (4th of 13) of tourney #1 and then followed that up with a horrible 1st out performance in tourney #2. I then played a .25/.50 cash game for 4 hours and won my tourney loses back but not much more. All in all a good night out with the boys with no money won or lost.

Earlier today I managed to take 5th ($13.50) in the CC OFC Freeroll. I played really tight and managed to find decent cards when I needed them. I won a few coin flips on my way to the final table and managed to bust one player out when I got there but in the end my 10 10 ran into a set of deuces and I was out. Many thanks to CC and Irexes, who's 3rd in the OFC Challenge ME, made the FR possible. I recorded the final table and plan to add commentary and post it to CC later this week.

A Tale of Two Sessions

2008-07-11T23:27:00.004-04:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Now flip it. Two sessions since last update. 1st session was -$37 over 466 hands (-16BB/100). Just over 1 hour later I started session number 2. Ended after 560 hands up $126 (45BB/100)! I didn't play any differently in either session (neither was bad) but in the 2nd group I couldn't miss. Sets, flushes, Aces, Kings, Set over Set, you name it I had it. It's very easy to win $$ when the deck is running you over like that.

Honestly I had trouble finding a truly bad play for either of these sessions, but I decided on this one:

I just didn't put him on a King from the way he bet (or rather didn't bet) the hand. I thought that if I didn't bet the river I was losing value but I probably should have just checked behind and showed the hand down. Oh well, I can live with these errors.

Oh and yeah, I did just drop some Dickens puns. Pretty sad huh?

A Good Bad Session Or Was It A Bad Good Session

2008-07-10T18:53:00.004-04:00

I'm not sure which is proper so let's just spell it out. I made money. $67 over 922 hands or 14.5BB/100. That's great. I needed a winning session. Now comes the bad news, I was incredibly lucky (as you shall see) that I didn't lose $40. I didn't play particularly well but I experienced the good (for my BR) side of variance.

Probably my worst play of the day:

Villain here is decent 17/14/5 over 100+ hands and the only thing he has here that we beat preflop is AK (1st time I'd seen him 3bet preflop). I KNOW that stacking here is wrong. Thanks to a great catch my stack doubles. Horrible.

Next one's not much better:

I 4bet small preflop (no idea what I was thinking) and then stack holding AA with KKQ on board. The only thing I have going for me here is that this villain (33/14/1.5 WTSD of 32% over 200 hands) is bad enough to stack with AQ. Of course this time I need to hit another 2 outer to win.

So even though I booked a good winning session, my all-in EV over the session was only +$4. In other words I was a lot more lucky than good. What do you think Good Bad or Bad Good?

Ever Downward But I Think We're Slowing

2008-07-09T01:13:00.002-04:00

Since my last update I've played 1000 hands and dropped another $22.55 or -4.5BB/100. I haven't won or lost a stack over that period and I haven't done anything to be ashamed of (which is something). I really don't feel like I'm playing bad and believe me I know what that is because I was just recently there. It just seems like when I hit a set no one has anything to call any bet with or when I hold KK and Ace falls with 2 callers and I have to try to get to SD cheaply or fold before I get there. I think I have run bad over the past couple of sessions but if I continue to play solid poker that will turn around.

Let see what was my dumbest play today? Probably this:

I failed to cbet with only 1 over (mistake #1) and then I make a bet that commits me to call the shorties shove on the turn (mistake #2). Oh well.

Glad to see that everyone, so far at least, thinks 30 buy-ins is the right number, now hopefully I can get there someday. Maybe it'll be before I have to drop down to 10NL. :)

Tomorrow is rakeback day! Just over $110 last month including my affiliate bonuses (couple of buddies). If anyone is interested in getting rakeback feel free to contact me here. I'd be more than happy to point you in the right direction. Hell I'll even give you my referral code (see what a nice guy I am)! Seriously though if you're thinking about adding a new site to your mix you need to at least look into getting rakeback. At 25NL it has added ~1BB/100 to my overall winnings (that's not paying the bills but with a small BR it's nothing to sneeze at either).

Giving Back

2008-07-07T23:13:00.002-04:00

All good things must come to an end and today was the day my July winning streak ended. Before today, this month I had not booked a losing session but toady I dropped exactly $50, 2 buy-ins, over 972 hands (-10.25BB/100). The worst part is that it didn't needed to be nearly so bad. I started playing badly, getting overly aggressive with not much, trying to buy pots, and generally just spewing chips. I know better. I know that when I see a player pushing too much and getting caught too much and just playing too much, I'll look that player up lighter than I normally would and that's exactly what was happening to me today. I was the spewtard. I was the giving tree. I was giving back.

A word of warning the following replay is not for the squeamish:

and again (only slightly better I guess)

I'm sorry you had to witness that.

When I make these hyper donktastic plays I often want to run away from the table but I seldom do and I'm wondering if I should. Do I start playing different after these plays? Do I play tighter, looser, more aggressive, less aggressive, do I fold to more cbets, float more flops, make better or worse decisions? In other words how do these big mistakes effect the rest of my game and should I flee after I make them? I don't know.

One thing I do know is that I keep chat off so the flight response I get after I do these things is not because anything anyone is saying. I also don't think it's really about losing the $$ (yes that's how we keep score but I'm properly rolled and I can afford to lose it). I honestly think it's more shame than anything. Shame felt for making the -EV play. Shame for disrespecting my opponent and what their bets should have been telling me. I'm embarrassed by these plays and I don't want to be. Specifically I don't want to make mistakes but when I do I want it to be for the right reason. I want to know that if I push 55 it's because I thought it was the best play to make the most $$ long term, not because I was just praying my opponent would fold.

So my new goal is to make fewer plays that I am ashamed of. We'll see how that works out and how it effects my bottom line.

Didn't Mean To Do That

2008-07-06T02:16:00.003-04:00

Another 1076 hands for a $44 profit (8.25BB/100) between last night and today. I'm happy to be running so well (almost 13BB/100 so far this month) and clearing my bonus. I've cleared $26 of the $100 total thus far. I'm actually making fewer big mistakes and that is really the goal. Make fewer mistakes than your opponent and you win. Simple as that.

Of course fewer mistakes doesn't mean no mistakes (the unattainable goal imo) so I humbly submit today's example:

This was just a misclick that turned into my biggest winner on the day. I use an AHK script to auto call time and one of the things it does is cause the hand to pop to the front of screen. This time it happened just as I was clicking on another table. Very fortunate result but had the 4 not hit I would have simply folded the turn (I hope!). When you're hot, you're hot.

I would like to point out a GREAT blog post on Fredrik Paulsson's blog. The basic premise is on how far you plan / can / hope / intend / want to take your poker game. The post really deserves to be read and I wish it were posted permanently on CardsChat because it's the type of thing that nobody talks about but everybody should. Do yourself a favor and read it now.

Also as regular reader's know I'm hoping to move up to 50NL at the end of this month and I'd like your opinion on the number of buy-ins you feel comfortable with before you move up. So take a second and vote in the poll please.

A Quick Update And Happy Independence Day

2008-07-04T11:25:00.002-04:00

Let's see since I last updated I've played 1000 hands for a total profit of $101 (~20BB/100) and I dropped $70 in a friends tourney last night. I busted out of the tourney one off the bubble with my AKs losing to AJos when I was the 3rd biggest stack of the 6 remaining. A little frustrating but oh well. As for my online heater I've never hit so many sets in my life! I could do no wrong.

I sucked out in creative ways:

I found idiots willing to call down with almost nothing:

And sometimes I caught just the right card on the river:

Toward the end of my run I started getting WAY too overconfident and made a stupid play or two and gave away some profits:

This last one is particularly bad considering the villains stats (16/5/3) and the fact that I'd never seen him 3bet in 200+ hands. JJ probably should have been mucked preflop but God only knows what I was thinking calling his pot-sized flop bet. Well actually I do know. I was thinking I'm sure I'll hit my set on the turn here and double up. No such luck of course.

I'm getting ready to play today's session right now and then I've got to get ready for my big 4th of July shindig tonight. We're having about 20 friends over for too much food and too much alcohol. I'm sure I'll be a wreck tomorrow. :)

Must Have Been A Good Session ...

2008-07-02T21:01:00.002-04:00

... because I can't find a single hand to write about today. Seriously I went through every hand of my 558 hand session and the worst thing I did was try to limp from MP with A5os at a loose table and then folded to a raise from the button. I didn't make huge profits ($19 or 6.75BB/100) but I really didn't make any real errors. I only lost 1 stack and that was with AA to a flopped set (standard). I couldn't even find a decent example of missing a value bet.

Something I did notice tonight when taking a peak at my monthly stats after my 1st 1500 hands is that my AF is currently through the roof at 8 with an Afreq of 60%. Not sure if being that aggressive is profitable long-term and I'm not sure why it's up so much other than my desire to bet the river more often when I think I'm ahead to maximize value. My cBet % is also up slightly at 70% which I know is a little too high.

I'll be back at it tonight and hopefully I'll have nothing to write about tomorrow either. :)

July Starts Off As A Winner Despite A Horrible Play

2008-07-01T19:23:00.002-04:00

So my 1st cash game hands in 4 days started down but ended up. Total winnings for the session were just under $60 on 533 hands or 22.2 BB/100. Sounds great except it could have been so much better had I not given 2 stacks away at nearly the same time to the exact same opponent (a 50/22/2 who will limp call with nearly anything). Yet as bad as he is, I'm sure he put me on his buddy list!

The first hand was rather standard with me flopping top 2 with AQ while he hit his set of sevens. Against his range stacking there certainly seemed appropriate. But then on another table this hand occurred:

I can't even explain what I was thinking here. Not betting the flop was a mistake. Pushing all-in on the turn was even more costly. So in 2 hands in the span of 1 minute I gave this guy $57. Luckily I was able to turn it around but saving myself even 1/2 of that amount would have made the night that much more profitable.

June Results / July Goals

2008-06-30T20:44:00.003-04:00

My goals for June were:

1) Play 10,000 hands - Passed with flying colors (17,133)

2) Maintain a 6 BB/100 win rate - Failed (5.39 BB/100 although it was just over 6.5 with rakeback included)

3) Grow BR by $300 (6BB/100 for 10,000 hands) - Passed (+ $413.20) because I played so many hands

4) Achieve a gold medal in the Iron Man Challenge - Failed (Silver) because RL got in the way.

5) Get better - Mixed. I still feel like I make horrible mistakes that cost me huge chucks of cash. I have learned to play 8 tables during this month which has really helped my $/hr.

Here is this month's graph (click for full size):

July Goals

1) Play 15,000 hands

2) Clear my mid-year $100 bonus

3) Maintain a 6BB/100 win rate

4) Grow my BR by $450

5) Be ready and rolled to play 50NL by the end of July (BR > $1200)

6) Make finding hands to post here everyday harder for myself

I'll be starting the month out at midnight tonight. Good luck all!

A Few Days Off (Mostly)

2008-06-30T11:00:00.002-04:00

Well, I've finally recovered from Saturday night's festivities. What a great time. Nothing says God Bless America more than getting too drunk in and on the water waiting for someone to explode thousands of dollars worth of pyrotechnics. Oh, the delicious excesses of it all!

I did manage to play an $11 tourney yesterday afternoon and finished 2nd for $16 profit (although I got my money in good but lost to a 3 outer HU). So yet another day without the cash game grind. I doubt I play at all today but I'll be back at it tomorrow when I start clearing my $100 mid-year bonus.

Anyway, just wanted to write something here now because I didn't want anyone thinking I'd drown on Saturday. I'll post my June results and July goals here later tonight.

Live Report and SnG Bubble Stupidity

2008-06-28T14:03:00.003-04:00

Last night went OK. Busted out of the tourney pretty early down $35 ($40 entry but I collected one $5 bounty). So as I sitting there waiting for a cash game to get going one of the guys I play with regularly asks if I want to a play heads-up .25/.50 game. I say sure, but then he only buys in for $20, so I do the same. Third hand of our little game I pick up 99. Brad (pronounced B-Rad) calls the blind and I raise to $2. He glares at me but calls. Flop is 4, 7, 8 rainbow. I bet $3 and Brad raises to $6 (in our games a min raise is actually called a Brad and he'll do it with anything) so I push and he calls instantly showing 47os for 2 pair. I'm sick. Turn 10. River 6. He starts to rake the chips when I ask him what he thinks he doing while pointing out my straight. He starts saying how sick it is and on and on before I remind him that he's the one who was lucky enough to flop 2 pair with 47. He buys another $20 and we continue.

When all was said and done around 3AM this morning I was up $20 on the night having erased my tourney loses and won a few bucks playing cash. I got back home just before 4:30 this morning and slept till just after noon. I'm getting ready to head to my parents river lot with the wife and a few friends to drink the night away on their boat while watching a local fireworks display. America...Fuck Yeah!

So without any real time to play a cash game session I decide to play a $24 turbo donk and go on Full Tilt. Things were going ok and I'd been up and down a little when the following hand occurred.

This is my lack of SnG prowess coming through. I should have never pushed this preflop. Accepting a coin flip for my tourney life on the bubble with a medium pair is just bad play. I'm short but there is one player in worse shape. I think if I'm going to continue to dabble in SnGs I really need to study up on ICM.

Since I won't be playing a cash session today I'm going to finish the month just shy of a gold medal. That means that I'll have a $100 mid-year bonus to clear next month instead of $125. No biggie but gold would have been nice.

I'm Dumb Even When I Double Up

2008-06-27T01:56:00.002-04:00

Another OK session tonight. I ran just under 5 ptbb/100 over 550 hands for a total profit just over $14. Yay. I played decent for the most part and hit a few big hands. I did stack with AKs preflop and lost the coin flip when the villain (a total lagtard) showed QQ. Meh. I did run into icemonkey9 tonight as he sat at 1 of my tables for a bit. He was only at the table for about 44 hands and he played extremely tight playing only 4 hands the entire time at the table.

Tonight's chosen hand really doesn't look dumb at all at first glance. I call a bet set mining and get all in when I hit. Pretty standard really.

Do you see why this hand was the dumbest thing I did today? Notice my stack size. I started the hand with only $18.40. I had just lost a decent pot with AK and failed to reload (I normally use a script for this purpose but forgot to start it tonight). This mistake likely cost me $6.60 or 13 big bets. That's a fairly large mistake to make considering it really had nothing to do with the way I played the hand itself.

Playing live tomorrow night at a friends house. Should be interesting as I haven't played live in 3 weeks (a long time for me). I'll let you know how it goes.

Blind Aggression Can Be Expensive

2008-06-26T01:46:00.003-04:00

Well I somehow managed to stay awake through tonight's entire session and ended up just slightly ahead of where I started (+2ptbb/100 over 800 hands). Before I started playing tonight I looked back through my last few sessions and noticed that I was going to show down a little too often (~26%) over my last 2500 hands and my SD winnings were suffering because of it. So tonight I made a conscious effort to avoid calling those ever so expensive river bets without BIG hands (Well there was 1 exception but we'll discuss that hand shortly). My WTSD stat was 23.5% and I seemed to be making better decisions overall.

In other news I also broke down and purchased Holdem Manager tonight (thanks Chuck for pointing it out and I wonder if HM gives you commission on all the sales you made at CC). Although since I didn't get the key until a few minutes ago I had to play with PT3 which oddly enough only crashed once tonight. A new record! I need to import all my hands into HM and I think I'll still keep importing to PT3 as well because I'm fairly certain that once they get their issues sorted I'll go back to it. I really just like the interface so much better, but it's the HUD that wins the $$ and it's the HUD that's broke in PT3. Sux. I did only buy the Small Stakes version of HM which only works up to 50NL because it was slightly cheaper ($55) and can be upgraded for an additional $25, so there is no penalty costs associated. Since I'm still playing 25NL at the moment and I likely will be moving up to 50NL next month (that's the plan anyway) it should serve my purposes, for a while anyway.

Now on the stupidity. This hand is one of those blind v. blind hands where 1 blind is trying to rep a big hand while the other actually has it.

I hate villains who flat call with AK! I'm too dumb to see it. Calling his min raise of my cbet here is fairly bad but could someone please explain what my dumb ass was doing on the turn AND THE RIVER?? I really have no clue what I put him on that might call 2 bets but fold on the river because almost nothing does. Just a really really bad play by me here.

Nothing Dumb? No I Just Fell Alseep!

2008-06-25T14:17:00.002-04:00

So I'm playing 8 tables on Full Tilt last night at around 1 AM. I'm down about $40 and I don't think I'm playing particularly bad, just running into the nuts with 2nd best hands, KK v AA, the usual cooler type stuff. I'm probably 550 hands into what I think will be a 750 hand session and that's when it happens, I fall asleep on the couch. I wake up 2 hours later, tables still open (I've timed out long before), feeling stiff and sore. I shut everything down and stumble off to bed.

What does this tell us? That the dumbest thing I did yesterday was playing poker when I'm too tired to stay awake at the tables. I'm often fond of playing these late night sessions but I think I need to wrap my games up before passing out. It also shows that if the body needs sleep we're helpless to fight it.

I'd also like to mention that FPaulsson has decided that he no longer has the time he feels is needed to write the Cardchat Blog. His insights and analysis will surely be missed, but he has promised to post to his own blog, Fredrik Paulsson, more often. I know I'll be looking forward to reading anything he posts there.

Maybe after I play tonight, I'll post an actual hand. That is if I don't fall asleep first.

Only Donks Stack With Top Pair

2008-06-24T01:58:00.005-04:00

Well finally a winning session, albeit a modest one (3.5 ptbb/100). It certainly could have been better if I could only learn to stop stacking off with a couple pretty cards that make top pair or an over pair against mildly competent player. It cost me a couple of times today. For whatever reason I always think that TP is the shit right up until the point where I see that how shitty it really is.

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 8 Players

Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

BB: $18.90 (75.6 bb)

UTG+2: $13.10 (52.4 bb)

MP1: $25 (100 bb)

MP2: $8.95 (35.8 bb)

Hero (MP3): $27.65 (110.6 bb)

CO: $13.50 (54 bb)

BTN: $14.15 (56.6 bb)

SB: $25.35 (101.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is MP3 with J A

2 folds, MP2 calls $0.25, Hero raises to $1.25, 3 folds, BB calls $1, MP2 calls $1

Flop: ($3.85) 6 2 J (3 players)

BB bets $1.75, MP2 calls $1.75, Hero raises to $10.85, BB raises to $17.65 and is all-in, MP2 folds, Hero calls $6.80

Turn: ($40.90) 8 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

River: ($40.90) 8 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results: $40.90 pot ($2 rake)

BB showed K K (two pairs, Kings and Eights) and won $38.90 ($20 net)

Hero showed J A (two pairs, Jacks and Eights) and lost (-$18.90 net)

I don't know why I can't let this hand go (although my foolish pot-sized raise of his flop bet pretty much commits me). I always think this is a flush draw when it's more often a set, 2 pair or an over pair. I also stacked off with TT on a unders flop to a set of fives and I really should know better.

(Sorry I couldn't get the replayer to take the above hand).

1 Wedding, 1 2NL Session, 1 Hangover, and 1 Bad Run

2008-06-23T02:10:00.002-04:00

Saturday was spent at my buddies wedding. Outdoor affair and more than a little hot in my tux. It was a little disorganized but everything went as well as you can hope aside from running a bit late. When we got to the reception it was clear that they had invited a very old, boring crowd. Basically there was never a line at the bar and there were very few of us drinking. Since he had brought a keg from the reception hall in addition to the open bar I had to drink more than my share of beer so it wouldn't be wasted.

So when my wife and I got home around midnight I was feeling pretty drunk and decided to sit down with a bunch of CC's finest for a crazy 2NL cash game. I ended up winning $4 or $5 but I should have won more if only I'd remembered we were playing seven-duece. Here is the hand.PokerStars Game #18299516662: Hold'em No Limit ($0.01/$0.02) - 2008/06/22 - 02:44:26 (ET)
Table 'Philia' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: KingCurtis67 ($3.85 in chips)
Seat 2: aloevera ($5.60 in chips)
Seat 3: dsvw56 ($12.16 in chips)
Seat 5: KyleJRM ($3.94 in chips)
Seat 6: icemonkey9 ($4.16 in chips)
Seat 7: Munchers94 ($13.23 in chips)
Seat 8: sindri_93 ($2.68 in chips)
Seat 9: WVUHillbilly ($4.09 in chips)
Munchers94: posts small blind $0.01
sindri_93: posts big blind $0.02
Munchers94 said, "from each"
KingCurtis67 said, "ok"
muck__you123: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WVUHillbilly [2h 7c] <--Note the hand
WVUHillbilly said, "just win the chippies and show the hand" <-- Note me talking about how to collect with 72
WVUHillbilly: folds <-- Note my drunk ass folding it
sindri_93 said, "damm chaser;)"
KyleJRM said, "okay, I'm in."
KingCurtis67: raises $0.06 to $0.08
aloevera: folds
KingCurtis67 said, "ittl make the game so fun"
Munchers94 said, ":D"
dsvw56: folds
KyleJRM: folds
icemonkey9: folds
Munchers94: raises $0.16 to $0.24
sindri_93: folds
KingCurtis67: calls $0.16
*** FLOP *** [2s 5d 2c] <-- Note the flop
Munchers94: bets $0.30
muck__you123 said, "was funny watching that dude on hsp lose 100grand"
KingCurtis67: calls $0.30
*** TURN *** [2s 5d 2c] [9d]
Munchers94: bets $0.66
KingCurtis67: calls $0.66
*** RIVER *** [2s 5d 2c 9d] [4s]
muck__you123 said, "with the 27"
Munchers94: bets $1.70
KingCurtis67: calls $1.70
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Munchers94: shows [Ac Td] (a pair of Deuces)
KingCurtis67: shows [Tc Ah] (a pair of Deuces)
^^^^Note the fact that they both had the same hand (AKA Nothing)
WVUHillbilly said, "damni I just folded it ther UTG and I would have won it all" <-- Note me telling everyone that I'm an idiot
Munchers94 collected $2.79 from pot
KingCurtis67 collected $2.78 from pot
KingCurtis67 said, "knew it"
Munchers94 said, "wow"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $5.82 | Rake $0.25
Board [2s 5d 2c 9d 4s]
Seat 1: KingCurtis67 showed [Tc Ah] and won ($2.78) with a pair of Deuces
Seat 2: aloevera folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: dsvw56 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: KyleJRM folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: icemonkey9 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Munchers94 (small blind) showed [Ac Td] and won ($2.79) with a pair of Deuces
Seat 8: sindri_93 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 9: WVUHillbilly folded before Flop (didn't bet) <-- Just to confirm my stupidity

A few hands after this Icemonkey actually called Aloe's all-in with 72, which made me laugh pretty hard. You can read all about it on his blog.

I left the table @ 3AM and passed out rather quickly. When I got up this morning (anything before noon is technically morning right) my head was absolutely pounding so I downed a few advil and crawled out to the couch. A few hour later my wife left for the evening to go to a play with a few of her friends and I was feeling well enough to play some poker. Looking back I wish I hadn't. I played 1300 hands and dropped anothe $44 (-6.75 ptbb/100). So now I've almost lost all my gains from late last week and I noticed at the end of the session tonight I was playing very tentative poker and hoping not to lose too much money. That's never good but hopefully now that I've identified it I'll be able to stop the bleeding. This is probably my worst played hand of the session and it's a fine example of getting it in with a draw that isn't nearly as big as it looks.

Ok I hate our villain's slow play of AKos preflop and throughout the hand but when he gives us great odds to call his turn min raise we need to take it and not push our chips in and hope for the best. We do pick up 8 outs on the turn but out equity is actually slightly less than it was on the flop. We are however getting odds to CALL his bet and see if the river makes our hand. I don't know how often he'd have to fold here to make our push +EV (maybe Zachvac will answer that one) but from his stats (32/4/2.5 and WTSD 34%) I should have known he isn't folding even TP here let alone top 2.

The Gods Must Be Angry

2008-06-21T02:46:00.004-04:00

Dropped $110 tonight in ~750 hands (-30 ptbb/100). Some BIG suckouts and some dumb play. I'm fairly certain I've offended some higher power with my brag post yesterday and for that I humbly submit to your awesomeness. I had to go to our DC office again this afternoon to fix that same damn server (hopefully permanently this time), so the whole day sucked. I missed the rehearsal for my buddies wedding tomorrow. I had to fight DC traffic for the 2nd time this week. The seatbelt in my car won't come out, so I'll likely get pulled over and ticketed soon. Then to top it off I come home and drop 4+ buy-ins! Actually now that I think about my last horrible session was the last time I went to DC. Hmmmmm...coincidence?

I'm going to do 2 things I've never done thus far on this blog. 1st I'm going to post a bad beat (I think this one fits any definition of bad beat) and 2nd I'm going to post 2 hands. Both hands will feature the same villain (59/24/2.5).

Yuck! I get sick just looking at it. We're about 92% to win after the flop and 18% after the turn. Of course it's the 0% on the river that counts! I guess you could say that I should have folded to the buttons 3bet but I called only because I knew he would have a wide range because of his past history with the villain (basically the villains huge stack was taken from the button on some vicious suckouts). The button in this hand starts talking about how mondaymonkey is cheating and that he knows what's coming and blah, blah, blah. I hate when people tap the tank so I just told him I thought it was a good push by the villain and that most of the time everyone will just fold and he'll win the pot. Of course I believe none of this but I really do want this guy to keep pushing with air.

Ok now ~35 minutes later again with the same players as last hand.

WTF am I thinking? I don't know. I know that the best I can hope for is a flip. I know that occasionally the worst players get the best hand. I know that I wanted to "beat" this lucky SOB. I know that I wasn't going to be pushed around. I know that I stopped playing good solid poker the minute this guy hit his runner-runner in the previous hand! This one's all on me.

So there it is. More than half of tonight's losses in 2 hands all to 1 very bad player.

No poker tomorrow due to the wedding, so no post. I'll be back again late Sunday / early Monday. Oh yeah and thanks to IceMonkey9 for stopping by this table in the middle of the madness just to say hey. Make sure you check out his blog (he should really be a writer or something) :)

I Run Goot But Can't Fold TT

2008-06-19T23:26:00.004-04:00

Ok, still using Holdem Manager as described in yesterday's post and still running hotter than a half-fucked fox in a forest fire (a favorite saying of my father-in-law). I played only 1 hour on 7 tables for a total of 350 hands and ran over 55 ptbb/100 for a total profit just over $95! I'm still not sold on HM but I must admit I like the results! :)

In tonight's session I won BIG pots. Three times I won a 100bb+ stack and only once did I give a stack away (nut flush to rivered FH on paired board). Winning big pots is the #1 key to playing profitable poker. If you're afraid to get all your money in without the immortal nuts you're undoubtedly losing value. I'll often overbet pots on the river with really goods hands because you just never know what your opponent may just call with. I probably lose a few $$ now and then when my opponent may have called a small 1/2 pot bet but I more than make up for it when some yo-yo calls my 6x pot bet with top pair.

Now that I'm done telling you how wonderful I am (cough...lucky...cough), let me show you a horrible calling station at work.

Ok, I have no problem with my play up to the river. We make our cbet on the flop that isn't raised so we call a bet on a turn that could easily be a bluff or a hand worse than ours, but when our villain bets this river we need to let our pretty pocket pair fall into the muck. I'm basically calling here just to see what he has, when I already know what he has; A better hand than mine.

On yet another positive note my roll on Tilt has now gone over $900 (should be more but I financed a friend a few months ago) and it's looking like NL50 isn't out of the question by the end of the month. I plan to move up at 22 buy-ins ($1100) and back down (if necessary) at 18 buy-ins ($800). I've never played beyond NL25 (nope not even once) so there certainly could be some adjustment period. I hope I'll find out before too long.

Edit: 2 hours after the above post I'm up another $98+ on 550 hands and the roll now sits at over $1000! Yay me!

Stacking Off To A Set

2008-06-19T01:51:00.003-04:00

Good day today which managed to make up for yesterday and then some. I finished +$70 over 1150 hands (12 ptbb/100) while trying out Hold'em Manager as an alternative to the constantly crashing Poker Tracker 3. While HM worked as advertised and the HUD was rock solid, I just didn't really care for the overall look and feel of the program. I would however recommend that if you're in the market for current generation tracking software you at least test both products. I'll be the guy waiting for PT3 to get fixed. :(

So even with a good day overall there were actually several hand that I played pretty badly tonight. I stacked off once with 88 v. KK on a board of all unders and again with the following hand.

Paying off sets is something that I seem to do fairly regularly and often it is the correct play (because they're just so hard to spot) but this one I think I almost knew before I called his shove that I need to hit another Q to win. Our villain here is 14/8/1 over 250 hands and he's likely never pushing this flop without a hand that beats us. Still can't bring myself to fold big overpairs. Need to work on that.

The Perfect End to a Horrible Day

2008-06-18T00:59:00.002-04:00

What a terrible day. 1st I called in sick this morning because the installer was coming to hook up my satellite internet access. I had been on dial-up before (what can I say I live in the woods). He was supposed to arrive between 8 AM - Noon. He got here at 12:30 (so just a little late. Anyway my work called me at least 10 times before he arrived so when he was done and my phone stopped ringing I thought it was time to get in some hands. Wrong. I fired up Tilt and before I had picked my first table my cell rang. It was work. Our content filter / rules based firewall had crashed in our Falls Church VA office. All internet connectivity to the internet for that office was cutoff. After an initial attempt or 2 to "fix it" over the phone I had to accept the fact that I was going to have to drive 2 hours into DC to resolve the problem myself. So after a quick stop y my local office for some utilities and software, I was on my way to DC. I fucking hate driving in DC. People who do it everyday should be committed immediately.

So I pull into our offices down there at 5:30PM and finally get the problem (corrupted software registry hive) resolved at 9PM. After getting everything running smoothly again and testing it all I pulled out of the parking lot at 9:45 and got back home just slightly before 11:30 and I still hadn't played a single hand of poker today! And from the way that worked out looks like I should have kept it that way!

I dropped 160bbs when I got all-in preflop with QQ to villain's AA. Normally that would qualify as dumb but the guy with the rockets range was HUGE (74/34/7) so I still feel it was the right play, just a little unlucky this time. Total loses on the day of nearly $35 but after reviewing the session I couldn't really find anything too dumb! I guess maybe this post is the dumbest thing I did today?

God Loves A Donkey

2008-06-17T01:31:00.002-04:00

Up and down day today that ended up about +$15 on almost 950 hands (~3 ptbb/100). Standard beats mostly with a few really costly losing sets thrown in for good measure. Whenever I lose with a set it, of course, sucks but it doesn't tilt me because I know no matter what I'm almost always going to be willing to stack with them. I figure I'll win more than I lose and that it is a play with positive expectations.

Now for a play with negative expectations! I'll try to explain this lunacy away by saying that the villain had been stealing quite a bit (50% over 60 hands) and I really just thought this was another steal attempt.

So I don't hate my preflop call or even my flop raise (remember I think he's stealing and that my fours are likely good) but my bet on the turn after he's called my raise on the flop is bad. He's checked to us and is willing to allow us to see the river for free so we need to take it. Luckily, and surprisingly, he's still slowplaying those rockets and just calls my turn craziness thus allowing me to catch my set on the river. Honestly though when he pushed the river I really figured a bigger set was likely, but, like I said before, I just don't fold sets.

So once again dumb gets rewarded and someone else gets to type "spewtard" into their notes on me! I hope someday you'll see my face next to that word on Wikipedia. Until then I guess I'll just have to be happy in the knowledge that I can play horribly yet there is just enough chance involved (4% in this case on the river) to get me through.

Mid-Month Update and Success Makes Me Stupid

2008-06-16T01:20:00.004-04:00

Ok, still a little hung-over from last night. Not your traditional bachelor party (no hookers or blow) but still a good time. Ended up being 10 of us there. All high school buddies, just sitting around by a fire at the river, drinking keg beer, and telling stories from our wasted youth. Great memories.

Now for a little mid-month poker update. I'm set to meet or exceed all my goals for the month. I wanted to play 10,000 hands at 6 ptbb/100. We so far I've played 8700 hands at 7.9 ptbb/100! Playing to hit the gold medal level this month really has me playing a lot more hands than I normally would. Adding tables (currently 8 at a time) to do it in the time I have available should really help my $/hr (currently $11.50) from now on. It's just too bad my 1st 2000 hands where break-even or I might be playing NL50 by now (originally a goal for next month). Anyway here is my graph thus far.

Ok, now on to what makes this blog, something dumb that I did today! So I'm running like Apollo tonight (+$90 on the night on 1000 hands) and everything is going my way when I run into the following hand. I've got a good number of hands on the villain and I know he plays tight and passive (14/7/1) so my flop check/raise here accomplishes nothing but giving away $$. I should have just cbet and then thrown this one away if he raised and moved on. Oh well, if I didn't do anything stupid I'd be out of things to write about and I might get bored just counting my money! :)

Getting All-In With Five Duece Offsuit!

2008-06-14T02:01:00.003-04:00

Decent session tonight. Got back yesterday's loses and then some. Up ~$50 in 880 hands (11 ptbb/100). I figured out that the weekend crowd can't be bluffed but they will pay off when we hit. So I don't know that I made more than a couple of bluffs all night (I'm including things like double barreling here) but I did value bet any time I had TPGK or better. Need to remember to loose a little of my normal aggression when I don't have a hand against the drunker than usual weekender's.

Tonight's dumb play has us getting all-in crazy on the flop in a limped pot with bottom 2. I don't know how often our villain here (50/4/6) gets all-in with a hand that we beat (probably not too many in a limped pot) but I do know our deuces are very vulnerable to being counterfeited even if we are ahead on this flop.

Tomorrow (well today) is a good friend's bachelor party so no posts. I'll be very drunk and asleep in a tent at this time tomorrow. I'll check back in here with some other stupid move on Sunday, no doubt.

I Guess I Can Finally Post This

2008-06-13T20:25:00.002-04:00

Last night was bad, really bad. I dropped $30 (-11 ptbb/100) in just 533 hands and it could have, probably should have, been much worse. I played many, many, big hands last night. A lot of my hands were for stacks. I won a few but I lost more than I won, obviously.

This hand was my biggest loser and I have no idea what I think he might have here that I beat. I'm just really throwing chips around at this point and probably should have quit before this hand even occurred. I recognized that I wasn't playing my best earlier in the session but I kept on playing to reach 100 FTPs for the day to reach gold medal this month. If that's not the dumbest reason to throw money away, I don't know what is.

Hopefully tonight will be better and I know it will if I play better. These hands that I post here are not bad beats, they are just dumb plays. So if I eliminate the mistakes (especially these huge mistakes) I know I can continue to build my bankroll. Speaking of bankroll, despite yesterday's loses my roll got bigger because yesterday was rakeback payment day. Last month it was only $50 but that's 1.25 ptbb/100 over that time.

We're Absolutely Crushed By His Range

2008-06-12T00:05:00.002-04:00

Another terrific day at the tables. I ran amazingly well and finish 641 hand +$80 (25 ptbb/100)! I had great cards. I hit sets. I sucked out when I needed to in some huge pots (My KK v villains AA was my biggest winner when I flopped a set). Truly easy money when even your dumb plays get rewarded. Such is the case with tonight's entry.

Our villain is well-known to us as a very tight aggressive short-stacker. We've got 700 hands on him and his stats are 7/6/4! He always buys in for 20 big blinds and leaves when he doubles. So basically he plays the short-stack well. So when he pushes over our raise here we can narrow his range to something like JJ+/AK. Our AQo doesn't fair to well against that range (something like 25% equity).

So of course with our 28% equity (actually slightly better than against his whole range) we make a dumb call and get rewarded. Basically we've made a $3.75 call with an expected value of $2.85 (EV -.90). Pretty dumb.

Call Me Station, Calling Station.

2008-06-11T01:10:00.003-04:00

First, just a quick update on yesterday's post. Seems everyone over at Cardschat thinks we need to bet for value on the river, so maybe it wasn't the dumbest thing I did yesterday after all! If your interested the discussion thread is here.

Another very solid day today. +$40 in a little under 650 hands (12.5 ptbb/100). Few big hands but mostly small gains with the occasional loss. Recently I have been adding more tables to my normal game (played 8 tonight) and I have found that so far my bb/100 has gone UP! I think the main reason is that I'm playing a slightly tighter game and not getting myself into as many sticky situations with trouble hands (KJ,KQ,AT,AJ) because I'm only playing them in late position. This hurts the blog but helps my bottom line (screw the blog!).

On to today's stupidity. After our villain calls our cbet we really shouldn't ever call his bet on the turn without VERY strong reads. We're drawing to at best 6 outs and none of them can be considered clean, so at best we have about a 12% chance of winning after the turn. We could also be drawing dead.

Even with hitting the ace on the river we should probably still fold this because there are almost no hands that bet this river that we beat. That's just another reason to fold the turn, because now we've hit our hand and we're still almost always behind. Of course the calling station in me pays him off on the river because I just had to see it (very dumb).

Bad Bet?

2008-06-10T00:13:00.003-04:00

Another decent night tonight. Up a ~$25 over 600 hand (8ptbb/100). Could have been much better but got hit with set over set once and had top set lose to a rivered straight, but such is poker. Whenever I get sucked out on I think of a time when I did the same or worse to someone else and I quickly put it aside (generally anyway!).

Anyway tonight's dumb play is really more a questionable play than anything. Our villain here is 35/13/1.5 (we don't know this at the time of the hand as we just sat down) so basically he could have almost anything here including the dagger card (any ten). We have tons of showdown value and if our villain decides to bluff all-in on the river we basically have to fold. So I think the real mistake I make here is reopening the bet on the river.

Our opponent folds this time but checking behind to see the SD probably makes the most sense, although if we think he might call with 2 pair betting for value could be correct. As you can see I'm still torn about the best play on the river here. I think I'll post this one on CC for some HA.

Being Stubborn Get Expensive

2008-06-09T00:49:00.004-04:00

No post yesterday because I was playing live (not very successfully). Went out rather early in our monthly $40 buy-in MTT (42 players this month). I then went to the cash table and played till the wee hours of the morning and only won $11 there.

Today's dumb thing has us once again trying to bluff the unbluffable. Our villain here is 60/53/.08. Players like this (very loose preflop and very passive postflop) are generally good candidates to bluff but when our villain bets out here we need to fold unless we have a real hand. After we raise the flop, betting the turn is just throwing money away. The only good thing about this hand is that he bets again on the end (confirming we are beaten) and this allows us to muck without showing our trash.

The Most Overrated Play in Poker

2008-06-07T01:43:00.002-04:00

The Slowplay. It's likely nothing has ever caused more loses (by allowing suckouts and losing value even when we hang on to win) in poker than the slowpay. Another problem with the slowplay is that often when someone draws out on us because we let them get there for free it causes us to go on monkey tilt and give away even more money. It's also so overused that against many bad players you can use it as a tell; They slow down (checking and calling) only when they have a big hand. This hand wasn't tilt inducing nor did I slowplay here because I though my trips were a lock. I just simply made a mistake and thought one of my opponents would bet and allow us to raise. Bad assumption on may part.

On a positive note I had another good night tonight (10ptbb/100 over 500 hands) and it could have easily been much more if Tilt hadn't timed out when I had a bad player on the button 3bet me (I had AA). By the time the screen unfroze my cards were in the muck! Folding AA preflop is a VERY dumb thing but nothing I could do about it in this case.

I Guess I Could Have Beat a Bluff

2008-06-06T02:00:00.003-04:00

Really great session tonight. I ran +$163 over 530 hands! I made a brag post on Cardschat here: Brag Post about my run over the last 30 days. Still made few mistakes though. Nothing too costly but the hand I picked out today has us calling a bet on the river with top pair that we rarely can win. Basically the only hands that our villain bets here are hands that beat us or bluffs. Unless he's completely horrible he's never showing up here with a worse ace.

Not the most costly mistake I've ever made but as I've said before all these little mistakes really eat into our bottom line.

I Guess 4's Are No Good???

2008-06-05T01:56:00.004-04:00

Ok, long session tonight. Trying to maximize my mid-year bonus from Tilt so I'm playing a lot more than usual. Tonight's dumb play is really only one street's worth of bad. Total cost for this "one street" mistake? $9 or 18BBs. I like my call preflop (the implied odds are huge). I like my bet postflop even with 3 others still in the hand. But leading out into the 2 remaining players on the turn is just suicide. But hey at least I didn't throw the rest of my money away and call!

Overall not as many dumb plays today but still a few too many. At least now I'm starting to think about plays and how dumb they'll make me look here before I act. It's not much but it's something.

I Still Haven't Learned

2008-06-04T02:24:00.002-04:00

Just a horrible day today. I've dropped nearly 3 buy-ins in just over 600 hands. Both pathetic plays and bad beats. Today's DTIDT is another example of overplaying TPTK. Villain was hyper-loose VP$IP over 60% but when he put serious $$ in he either had better than TP or a complete bluff. He was very willing to limp/call with ATCs preflop but I really should have known I was beaten when he raised to $12. The shove by me is just spewy.

Tomorrow can only get better.

Ohhhh, You Have a King?

2008-06-03T01:17:00.005-04:00

Got in a lot of hands (667) hands today. I'm trying to play 10,000 total this month while maintaining my 6ptbb/100 win rate. Up $35 overall or about 10 ptbb/100 on the day. Should have been a lot more. Took a bad beat for about $20 when my Queens full of sixes ran into quad sixes which is absolutely standard and just part of the game. The real huge mistake I made today actually cost me more (~$28) and I had so much less.

Alright I'd like to say this hand isn't as bad as it looks, but it's close. I had a good read on the villain here and really thought he was bluffing. He'd been caught earlier (maybe 40 hands prior) in a similar pot. He 3 barreled that hand as well and showed an unimproved AQ. So this was my chance to make the hero call! They call it a hero call because just like running into a burning building can be dangerous it's totally worthwhile when you save the kid. They never mention the times the kid escaped unnoticed and you burn up looking for the little bastard.

This hand did have some good side effects because everybody want to pay with the idiot who though TT was good on a K high board. I got no lack of action after this one and made a few bucks back, but nothing close to what I lost on this hand. I MUST eliminate these huge loses with only a single pair if I hope to continue building both my bankroll and my game.

Nothing Dumb for Me Today

2008-06-01T22:48:00.002-04:00

Only because I didn't try! I ended up going to see today's NASCAR race in Dover DE. Has a good time, drank a bit, a sat in the bright sunshine. Boring race but well worth going. Might play some poker tomorrow.