Hand #1
5/10 Rio
4h 5h
6 way limp
J45 rainbow
BB leads out 50
I raise to 245
Button shoves for 410
BB calls 360 more
I call 155 more.
Turn K
BB shoves for 1k (i cover him)
I fold.
River 3
BB 44 set of 4's
Button 67 rivered straight
This was a pretty standard gross spot that you can end up in a pot that is multi-way and unraised. I didn't like calling the extra $155 on the flop, but I was getting such a good price it was just be ridiculous to consider folding. I thought that it was also possible that the BB could have had a draw because he knew I was not going to be able to re-raise since the button's raise didn't re-open the betting. If he goes crazy on the turn (like he did) I can be relatively sure that he isn't on a draw and was just trying to trap. It was a pretty easy fold, but it is never fun to put so much money in the pot and then just give up on it. When I put most of the money in I had no way of knowing that my hand wasn't the best so I think I played it pretty close to perfect.
Hand #2
5/10 Rio
2h2c in cut off.
6 way limped pot.
Flop Ad 2d 4c
Checks to me I bet 40
Button calls
SB calls
Utg shoves for 240
I call 200
Cut off makes it 800
I have 1200 left.
I fold
Cut off has 53o
Utg has 6d 9d
Turn Ah
River Qd
:(
Even though I felt like I had the utg player beat I still elected to just flat call the extra $200 on the flop because I had zero fold equity vs. him and I still had players left to act behind me. I planned on leading on any blank turn card for a large bet if any of the players behind me called the $200 flop raise. I assumed they would both be folding most hands and possibly peeling with some of their draws. I did not expect the button to be re-raising here. I just decided he was never doing this with a hand I was ahead of. I suppose he could have A4, 4d5d, or 4d3d sometimes, but I just felt very strongly that he smooth called my flop bet with a set of 4's and it was very likely that I was going to be drawing to only one out.
It turns out I made a good fold, but I would have made LOTS more money had I called, because I would have ended up filling up on the turn leaving them both drawing dead.
I really feel good about my live play. I have been very patient and made some really good folds and have only been on the fun side of a cooler once (my AA vs. his KK). Despite all that I am up about $3,000 in 4-5 sessions. That is nothing outstanding or anything, but I don't think everyone would make some of those folds and I have managed to turn what could have been a break even stretch into a +$3,000 stretch.
It's getting late and I am supposed to play golf in the morning....nighty night.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Live session: thoughts on a hand.
I think it is very important for me to avoid getting burnt out on poker in order for me to stay sharp and play my best. I used to play for a month or so straight and then go on a mini-vacation somewhere for a few days or a week to help me recuperate. Lately I have been playing tons of online poker with no vacations, live poker, or really any days off mixed in. Not surprisingly my results have been really stagnant for a while now and I am starting to realize that I may be a little burnt out. Being burned out makes it soooo much easier to play auto-pilot style poker which is really just a mild form of tilt that is very hard to self-diagnose. It is so hard to diagnose that you usually don't realize you aren't or weren't playing your A-game until after you have taken your break and it has fixed itself. Also, I used to use live poker as a tool to keep myself fresh for online poker. Just mixing it up by doing anything other than the same grind everyday can be beneficial.
Anyway, today I decided to take the the day off from online poker and decided I was going to go to the Rio to sign up for the first $1k WSOP event. It seemed like I went about this early last year and they were open for registration already. However, I went tonight and all the doors to the registration were locked up with no one around. Ironically, these locked doors were directly under banners that read "Tournament Registration is open 24 hours a day". I guess this 24 hour openness doesn't start until tomorrow. Since I was near the strip already and I hadn't played online today I decided I would go play some live poker at the Bellagio.
Sometimes, you will play a hand that will totally crush your spirits and send your game/confidence in a downward spiral and it can take a while to recover from these types of hands. However, there can also be hands that can have opposite effect. I am hoping I played one of those hands tonight. Here is the self made hand history and then I will explain some of my thoughts on it.
5/10 NL Bellagio
I have 2h 2d utg
I limp,
utg plus 1 raise to 40
Call 40
Call 40
I call
Flop 2s Ah 9s
I Check
Bet 80
Call 80
Fold
I call 80
Turn 5d
I check
Bet 220
Raise to 580
I cold call 580
Bettor folds
River 4c
I check
Bet 1200
I have about 1250 in my stack left, but he thinks I have more than that behind.
..........???
I took quite a long time to think on both the turn and river (which I almost never do), no one called the clock (I can't ever remember having the clock called on me) and I eventually folded the river and showed my set of twos. I usually wouldn't show, but because I took so long to make my decision I wanted to at least show people I had a legitimate decision and I thought I might increase my chances of the guy saying or showing what he had. I realize not everyone is going to tell the truth in these situations, but I had a very strong feeling the guy was being genuine/honest when he told me "nice hand" and confessed that he had a set of nines.
I am not crazy about my turn play, but truthfully, I just didn't know what to do in this spot. Something just told me I didn't have the best hand on the flop, but it seems crazy, super nitty, and very exploitable to be folding bottom set on the turn here. In fact, it is pretty darn nitty to fold on the river in this spot.
I am not big on physical tells really, but this guy was VERY comfortable with his bet on both the turn and the river and I was certain he wasn't bluffing. I don't think he is value betting top two pair for this much money in this spot, because it is pretty much impossible for him to get called by anything he could beat. Also, when the original bettor folded on the turn he said "well, I can't beat both of them" before he folded which led me to believe he was folding some kind of big ace....if true that decreased the chances that the raiser had an ace in his hand. The hands I could beat on the flop/turn were top two pair or a pair of aces with a flush draw. I don't think this guy is capable of turning either of these hands into a bluff on the river after I have shown so much strength (or that I have a draw that would have missed and wouldn't be calling his value bet anyway or need to be bluffed out of the hand for him to win). It also crossed my mind that he could have had a 34 of spades (A4s and A3s are also possible) type hand and turned a gut shot making him a wheel. These hands would fit with all of his actions in the hand.
Basically, I am pretty sure and proud that I made the correct fold and it kind of boosted my confidence since I have had some trouble folding pretty much any kind of hand when I play live poker for quite a while now. It also helped my confidence when I picked up AA vs. another player's KK and doubled up about 5 hands later, haha. I felt like I had been immediately rewarded for my solid fold.
I am hoping this hand and a small break from poker will get my confidence going and I can put an end to this brutal break even stretch.
I will be playing event #3 of the WSOP, a $1K buyin, starting on Saturday May 29th, but probably not much poker until then.
Sorry this was so long, but it kinda felt good to get some actual poker content written down.
Anyway, today I decided to take the the day off from online poker and decided I was going to go to the Rio to sign up for the first $1k WSOP event. It seemed like I went about this early last year and they were open for registration already. However, I went tonight and all the doors to the registration were locked up with no one around. Ironically, these locked doors were directly under banners that read "Tournament Registration is open 24 hours a day". I guess this 24 hour openness doesn't start until tomorrow. Since I was near the strip already and I hadn't played online today I decided I would go play some live poker at the Bellagio.
Sometimes, you will play a hand that will totally crush your spirits and send your game/confidence in a downward spiral and it can take a while to recover from these types of hands. However, there can also be hands that can have opposite effect. I am hoping I played one of those hands tonight. Here is the self made hand history and then I will explain some of my thoughts on it.
5/10 NL Bellagio
I have 2h 2d utg
I limp,
utg plus 1 raise to 40
Call 40
Call 40
I call
Flop 2s Ah 9s
I Check
Bet 80
Call 80
Fold
I call 80
Turn 5d
I check
Bet 220
Raise to 580
I cold call 580
Bettor folds
River 4c
I check
Bet 1200
I have about 1250 in my stack left, but he thinks I have more than that behind.
..........???
I took quite a long time to think on both the turn and river (which I almost never do), no one called the clock (I can't ever remember having the clock called on me) and I eventually folded the river and showed my set of twos. I usually wouldn't show, but because I took so long to make my decision I wanted to at least show people I had a legitimate decision and I thought I might increase my chances of the guy saying or showing what he had. I realize not everyone is going to tell the truth in these situations, but I had a very strong feeling the guy was being genuine/honest when he told me "nice hand" and confessed that he had a set of nines.
I am not crazy about my turn play, but truthfully, I just didn't know what to do in this spot. Something just told me I didn't have the best hand on the flop, but it seems crazy, super nitty, and very exploitable to be folding bottom set on the turn here. In fact, it is pretty darn nitty to fold on the river in this spot.
I am not big on physical tells really, but this guy was VERY comfortable with his bet on both the turn and the river and I was certain he wasn't bluffing. I don't think he is value betting top two pair for this much money in this spot, because it is pretty much impossible for him to get called by anything he could beat. Also, when the original bettor folded on the turn he said "well, I can't beat both of them" before he folded which led me to believe he was folding some kind of big ace....if true that decreased the chances that the raiser had an ace in his hand. The hands I could beat on the flop/turn were top two pair or a pair of aces with a flush draw. I don't think this guy is capable of turning either of these hands into a bluff on the river after I have shown so much strength (or that I have a draw that would have missed and wouldn't be calling his value bet anyway or need to be bluffed out of the hand for him to win). It also crossed my mind that he could have had a 34 of spades (A4s and A3s are also possible) type hand and turned a gut shot making him a wheel. These hands would fit with all of his actions in the hand.
Basically, I am pretty sure and proud that I made the correct fold and it kind of boosted my confidence since I have had some trouble folding pretty much any kind of hand when I play live poker for quite a while now. It also helped my confidence when I picked up AA vs. another player's KK and doubled up about 5 hands later, haha. I felt like I had been immediately rewarded for my solid fold.
I am hoping this hand and a small break from poker will get my confidence going and I can put an end to this brutal break even stretch.
I will be playing event #3 of the WSOP, a $1K buyin, starting on Saturday May 29th, but probably not much poker until then.
Sorry this was so long, but it kinda felt good to get some actual poker content written down.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Another May goals update....
1. Play 120 hours of online cash games.
I have played 66 hours so far so I am a little behind pace here. However, I got some super virus on my computer which caused me to miss a few days of playing. I ended up having to pay someone on the internet $85 to remotely access my computer and cure my computer of this virus. It is almost all better, but he still needs to fix a few things he wasn't sure how to fix the first couple of times he tried. He emailed me telling me he talked to one of his nerd friend/colleagues and he is confident he can fix the rest of the issues.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
I have played 32,017 hands so I am slightly ahead of pace to reach this goal.
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
I suck. I have still done zero. Having to admit this sucks, but I could definitely be working on my game away from the tables much harder than I currently am. (Note to self....really do this!)
4. Make $12,000+.
I am up $1422 in cash games for the month so I am definitely behind pace for this goal, not to mention I am down about $2,000 in tournaments this month :( To make this even more frown worthy, I am actually running way above expectation for the month!
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher.
I have actually played a little bit of 10/20 (368 hands), but only because there were super big fish in the games. I am up about $1400 in 10/20 so it has worked out so far, but it really bugs me when I don't play the same in these games, because of the monetary difference.
Its not very much fun to update about NOT achieving the goals I set, but it wouldn't be very cool of me to only report goals being met. Anyway, there is still time in the month to turn things around.
I have played 66 hours so far so I am a little behind pace here. However, I got some super virus on my computer which caused me to miss a few days of playing. I ended up having to pay someone on the internet $85 to remotely access my computer and cure my computer of this virus. It is almost all better, but he still needs to fix a few things he wasn't sure how to fix the first couple of times he tried. He emailed me telling me he talked to one of his nerd friend/colleagues and he is confident he can fix the rest of the issues.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
I have played 32,017 hands so I am slightly ahead of pace to reach this goal.
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
I suck. I have still done zero. Having to admit this sucks, but I could definitely be working on my game away from the tables much harder than I currently am. (Note to self....really do this!)
4. Make $12,000+.
I am up $1422 in cash games for the month so I am definitely behind pace for this goal, not to mention I am down about $2,000 in tournaments this month :( To make this even more frown worthy, I am actually running way above expectation for the month!
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher.
I have actually played a little bit of 10/20 (368 hands), but only because there were super big fish in the games. I am up about $1400 in 10/20 so it has worked out so far, but it really bugs me when I don't play the same in these games, because of the monetary difference.
Its not very much fun to update about NOT achieving the goals I set, but it wouldn't be very cool of me to only report goals being met. Anyway, there is still time in the month to turn things around.
Friday, May 7, 2010
May Goals update....
1. Play 120 hours of online cash games.
I have played 28.5 hours so far and I missed the first couple of days of the month so I am on pace to meet this goal.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
I have played 13,610 so I am also on pace to reach this goal.
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
I have reviewed about half of one player so far, while I was also playing a session so this goal has been a big fail up until this point.
4. Make $12,000+.
I am down $446 so I am certainly not on pace to reach this goal. However, I do have a 2.47bb/100 win rate this month I am just getting crushed at 5/10. If the variance evens out at the different limits I still have a shot at this goal.
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher.
I failed this one today, because there were TWO huge fish in the games (both lost at around 15BB/100 over a decent sample size). But I won so who cares!!!
I have had two solid winning days in a row so hopefully this is the start of my epic run I predicted a couple of blogs ago.
I have played 28.5 hours so far and I missed the first couple of days of the month so I am on pace to meet this goal.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
I have played 13,610 so I am also on pace to reach this goal.
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
I have reviewed about half of one player so far, while I was also playing a session so this goal has been a big fail up until this point.
4. Make $12,000+.
I am down $446 so I am certainly not on pace to reach this goal. However, I do have a 2.47bb/100 win rate this month I am just getting crushed at 5/10. If the variance evens out at the different limits I still have a shot at this goal.
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher.
I failed this one today, because there were TWO huge fish in the games (both lost at around 15BB/100 over a decent sample size). But I won so who cares!!!
I have had two solid winning days in a row so hopefully this is the start of my epic run I predicted a couple of blogs ago.
Monday, May 3, 2010
May Goals...
I have been reading a pretty cool book, recommended by my buddy Blake, about psychological influences on people in all kinds of different situations. It confirmed some stuff about goals that I have known for a while, but gotten away from as of late. Basically, goals have a much higher probability of happening if you declare your goals and especially if you write them down. I used to always use this blog to write down goals and then use it to monitor my success. I had very good success doing this in the past and I am going to try to get back to doing that this month.
Goals for May:
1. Play 120 hours of online cash games.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
4. Make $12,000+ (I don't really like monetary goals since they are out of your control a lot of times, but I am pretty good about it not affecting my focus/play. However, it will still feel good once I achieve it).
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher. Its not that I can't afford to play in these games, but I can't play my best in them and the losses affect me more than they should. 10/20 killed me last month and I don't need to play that high to win the amount of money I am trying to win. I feel stupid having to write this down, but hopefully it will help me to not play in those games.
Thats all for now, I hope to keep up with progress reports at least a couple times per week.
So far (after one session):
1. 3 hours
2. 1687 hands
3. 0 players analyzed
4. -$536
Goals for May:
1. Play 120 hours of online cash games.
2. Play 50,000+ hands
3. Review/analyze at least 10 regular players games to help me improve and exploit them.
4. Make $12,000+ (I don't really like monetary goals since they are out of your control a lot of times, but I am pretty good about it not affecting my focus/play. However, it will still feel good once I achieve it).
5. I will not play 10/20 or higher. Its not that I can't afford to play in these games, but I can't play my best in them and the losses affect me more than they should. 10/20 killed me last month and I don't need to play that high to win the amount of money I am trying to win. I feel stupid having to write this down, but hopefully it will help me to not play in those games.
Thats all for now, I hope to keep up with progress reports at least a couple times per week.
So far (after one session):
1. 3 hours
2. 1687 hands
3. 0 players analyzed
4. -$536
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Even a beaten man can still ride a bike....
So, I worked SUPER hard this month to climb out of the hole I started off in and even harder to overcome the terrible luck I had as well. It looks like poker is going to win and I am going to lose this month, because even though I still have a few days left in the month I won't be able to play because I will be traveling. I started off down about $7500 within the 1st two days of the month and I made it my personal goal to get winner by the end of the month no matter what it took. However, this is a difficult task when I seemingly ran under expectation every single day! I made a valiant effort and if I count rakeback I actually did have a winning month.
I ended up losing $884 (I also made about 2400 in rakeback) playing poker and ran about $13,000 below expectation for the month. There is nothing that can be done about that and it doesn't mean anything will be turning around in the future, but it sure doesn't seem fair. Actually, it is fair, because I have run good in the past. However, that doesn't make it seem any more fair!
That being said, I feel really good about my game and I am fully expecting a fantastic May....one where I do something crazy like win every day or put some crazy long stretch of winning sessions together. I haven't done that in a while and I feel like I am poised to have one of these runs.
So poker has left me a beaten man after the month of April, but in some good news some things are just like riding a bike and I proved that I can still bowl decently even after not having bowled in a year or so.
Me, Anne, Matt, Jeremy, Adria, Len, and Luchie went to Olive Garden for dinner and to Red Rock to bowl afterwards. Somehow I managed to bowl a 185 and a 210. I started off with a gutterball and everyone had a good laugh, but I got the last laugh :) Bowling seemed pretty easy tonight...the guy in the lane next to us suggested that I should join a bowling league because I was so awesome. Ok, I made up the awesome part, but he really did suggest I join a league. I am pretty sure this was his weak attempt to recruit me for his team. Sorry Charlie, I've got poker to play and can't be bothered with bowling for 30 weeks in a row or however long those crazy leagues are.
Its 8am and I have to get to bed....we leave for home tonight at 12:45am and I have to do some stuff to get ready to leave once I wake up. Nighty night!
I ended up losing $884 (I also made about 2400 in rakeback) playing poker and ran about $13,000 below expectation for the month. There is nothing that can be done about that and it doesn't mean anything will be turning around in the future, but it sure doesn't seem fair. Actually, it is fair, because I have run good in the past. However, that doesn't make it seem any more fair!
That being said, I feel really good about my game and I am fully expecting a fantastic May....one where I do something crazy like win every day or put some crazy long stretch of winning sessions together. I haven't done that in a while and I feel like I am poised to have one of these runs.
So poker has left me a beaten man after the month of April, but in some good news some things are just like riding a bike and I proved that I can still bowl decently even after not having bowled in a year or so.
Me, Anne, Matt, Jeremy, Adria, Len, and Luchie went to Olive Garden for dinner and to Red Rock to bowl afterwards. Somehow I managed to bowl a 185 and a 210. I started off with a gutterball and everyone had a good laugh, but I got the last laugh :) Bowling seemed pretty easy tonight...the guy in the lane next to us suggested that I should join a bowling league because I was so awesome. Ok, I made up the awesome part, but he really did suggest I join a league. I am pretty sure this was his weak attempt to recruit me for his team. Sorry Charlie, I've got poker to play and can't be bothered with bowling for 30 weeks in a row or however long those crazy leagues are.
Its 8am and I have to get to bed....we leave for home tonight at 12:45am and I have to do some stuff to get ready to leave once I wake up. Nighty night!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Not much to report...
I haven't blogged in a long time, because it is no fun blogging about doing nothing special. Poker has been really slow for me lately. I have been running poorly (both in EV and in cooler situations), but continuing to work very hard on my game. It is pretty disheartening to put so much effort into it without getting the same return I would like to see. I know the games are much tougher now than they used to be, but as much attention as I put into game selection I should be winning at a much higher rate than I am. Oh well, more hard work and staying focused will end up solving the issue eventually so that is what I intend to do.
While there haven't been any poker successes to write about lately it is the time of the year that makes me feel most like a professional poker player....tax time. I went yesterday to get my taxes done and I'll be sending them off tomorrow. While I hate having to pay taxes it does make me feel pretty good about myself for having done so. It seems like people always want to know how you decide when you are a professional poker player. I think that a pretty definitive answer to that question is if you pay taxes as a professional poker player then you are one. If not, you aren't. If you do pay taxes as a professional poker player and continue to stay in action then I would say you are wildly successful. Think about how much of a rake that is to overcome! First you pay actual rake and then the government rakes what is left...that hardly seems fair. So even though I haven't been doing as well as I would like, I can hold my head high knowing I have paid my taxes and I am still plugging away.
While there haven't been any poker successes to write about lately it is the time of the year that makes me feel most like a professional poker player....tax time. I went yesterday to get my taxes done and I'll be sending them off tomorrow. While I hate having to pay taxes it does make me feel pretty good about myself for having done so. It seems like people always want to know how you decide when you are a professional poker player. I think that a pretty definitive answer to that question is if you pay taxes as a professional poker player then you are one. If not, you aren't. If you do pay taxes as a professional poker player and continue to stay in action then I would say you are wildly successful. Think about how much of a rake that is to overcome! First you pay actual rake and then the government rakes what is left...that hardly seems fair. So even though I haven't been doing as well as I would like, I can hold my head high knowing I have paid my taxes and I am still plugging away.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Phone Blog...
So, I was planning on playing a long session throughout the night, but full tilt is shutting down their servers for maintenance for an hour in about 45 minutes so I decided to would write a blog instead. It is no fun talking about poker when it hasn't been going very well so I decided to just go through all the random pictures on my phone and share some of them with you instead. In case you are wondering about the poker I already failed my new years goal of having zero losing months by having a losing February...that didn't take very long, huh? Oh well, on to the pictures in no particular order of importance. Enjoy.
This is how the people that showed up from Craigslist decided they would haul away our old love seat. Unfortunately, they brought a van back to get the couch and it didn't make for nearly as exciting of a photo op.
Now I will show you all of the awesome stuff Anne has cooked since moving in :)
Spaghetti Pie.
BBQ Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes, and Green Beans
Chicken and Ritz Casserole (I actually made this using my sister-in-law Sharon's recipe).
Sloppy Joes, Homemade Mac n' Cheese, Green Beans (this lucky meal was served to my desk while I was busy winning a tourney for $18K!).
Italian Chicken Strips, Greenbeen Casserole, Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Meatloaf, Greenbean Casserole, Homemade Mashed Potatoes with corn on top (just like it is supposed to be).
Buttons & Bowknots, the most awesome breakfast food ever...special thanks to mom for passing along the recipe to Anne!
Chicken Enchiladas, awesome.
Baked Ziti and Garlic Toast
Italian Chicken, Loaded Baked Potato, Garlic Cheese Bread (made by yours truly), and salad.
In LA I searched my phone for the nearest barber shop and went to "Frank's Barber Shop". I spoke more Spanish than "Frank" did English and we silently decided that "Frank" would just cut and style my hair however he decided he wanted to. He cut about 1/4" off my hair (I was well overdue for a haircut, btw) and this is how he chose to style it. Thanks Frank!
Anne and I during our 10 minutes stop at the Hoover Dam en route to Phoenix to watch Jeff play in the Phoenix Open.
Hoover Dam...at least the water at the bottom of it.
Anne and I after exploring the old Gypsum mining caves near our house.
Matt's friend Andrew, who was drunk enough that we were able to convince him the pool cue chalk smelled like blueberries. He had no idea why I was taking this picture and had to be shown this picture before he realized he had chalk all over his nose.
This was taken halfway through the window guy replacing my "vent glass". I had just loaded up all of our luggage in my trunk when Anne handed me some more stuff she wanted to go in her suitcase. I re-opened the trunk, placed my keys on my suitcase, put Anne's extra stuff in her suitcase, then shut the trunk...with the car doors locked! Thankfully, I have a spare key to my car...unfortunately it is in Evansville, oops! Our flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half after me shutting the trunk with my keys in it so I didn't really have many other options except to SMASH out my own window with a hammer so that's exactly what I did!
Anne kissing the Elvis bust in Aria outside of the new Elvis-themed Cirque show.
The whole Steinback Family: Eric, Kelly, Carter, and Mulligan.
Carter and Eric during breakfast at the Cracked Egg.
Carter stretching.
My Ms. Pacman machine I received as my best man gift from Justin.
How all of Anne's crap...I mean precious belongings looked upon arrival after being shipped across the country. I kid, I kid of course ;)
Anne and I at Justin's wedding...yes I wore a top hat, gloves, tails, and even had a cane...as did the rest of the groomsmen/groom.
The players shaking hands at the end of the hockey game I went to in Prague
All the Euros I won playing poker in Vienna.
Tom Brady shops at Wal-Mart!
So does G.I. Joe!!
This is how the people that showed up from Craigslist decided they would haul away our old love seat. Unfortunately, they brought a van back to get the couch and it didn't make for nearly as exciting of a photo op.
Now I will show you all of the awesome stuff Anne has cooked since moving in :)
Spaghetti Pie.
BBQ Chicken, Cheesy Potatoes, and Green Beans
Chicken and Ritz Casserole (I actually made this using my sister-in-law Sharon's recipe).
Sloppy Joes, Homemade Mac n' Cheese, Green Beans (this lucky meal was served to my desk while I was busy winning a tourney for $18K!).
Italian Chicken Strips, Greenbeen Casserole, Homemade Mashed Potatoes
Meatloaf, Greenbean Casserole, Homemade Mashed Potatoes with corn on top (just like it is supposed to be).
Buttons & Bowknots, the most awesome breakfast food ever...special thanks to mom for passing along the recipe to Anne!
Chicken Enchiladas, awesome.
Baked Ziti and Garlic Toast
Italian Chicken, Loaded Baked Potato, Garlic Cheese Bread (made by yours truly), and salad.
In LA I searched my phone for the nearest barber shop and went to "Frank's Barber Shop". I spoke more Spanish than "Frank" did English and we silently decided that "Frank" would just cut and style my hair however he decided he wanted to. He cut about 1/4" off my hair (I was well overdue for a haircut, btw) and this is how he chose to style it. Thanks Frank!
Anne and I during our 10 minutes stop at the Hoover Dam en route to Phoenix to watch Jeff play in the Phoenix Open.
Hoover Dam...at least the water at the bottom of it.
Anne and I after exploring the old Gypsum mining caves near our house.
Matt's friend Andrew, who was drunk enough that we were able to convince him the pool cue chalk smelled like blueberries. He had no idea why I was taking this picture and had to be shown this picture before he realized he had chalk all over his nose.
This was taken halfway through the window guy replacing my "vent glass". I had just loaded up all of our luggage in my trunk when Anne handed me some more stuff she wanted to go in her suitcase. I re-opened the trunk, placed my keys on my suitcase, put Anne's extra stuff in her suitcase, then shut the trunk...with the car doors locked! Thankfully, I have a spare key to my car...unfortunately it is in Evansville, oops! Our flight was scheduled to leave an hour and a half after me shutting the trunk with my keys in it so I didn't really have many other options except to SMASH out my own window with a hammer so that's exactly what I did!
Anne kissing the Elvis bust in Aria outside of the new Elvis-themed Cirque show.
The whole Steinback Family: Eric, Kelly, Carter, and Mulligan.
Carter and Eric during breakfast at the Cracked Egg.
Carter stretching.
My Ms. Pacman machine I received as my best man gift from Justin.
How all of Anne's crap...I mean precious belongings looked upon arrival after being shipped across the country. I kid, I kid of course ;)
Anne and I at Justin's wedding...yes I wore a top hat, gloves, tails, and even had a cane...as did the rest of the groomsmen/groom.
The players shaking hands at the end of the hockey game I went to in Prague
All the Euros I won playing poker in Vienna.
Tom Brady shops at Wal-Mart!
So does G.I. Joe!!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Ahhh, feels so good :)
It doesn't happen too often in poker where you get total satisfaction. In cash games you could have always have done something different or better to squeeze out a few extra dollars. In tournaments you rarely win, but when you do win you forget about any mistakes you made or any small edges you could have pushed harder. If you win the tournament (without chopping) you accomplished the best possible result. Even if you would have played better you could not have made anymore money for that given tournament.
What I am getting at is....I won a tournament today! Matt was sweating me online and once I got down to heads up he suggested I mention making some kind of deal with my opponent because he felt like he was a pretty good player. He was a good player, but since I had been doing so well lately and I really wanted to just win something out right I opted not to mention it and just played him for the whole shebang. I caught some decent cards, played well, and made quick work of him to take down the $55 tourney with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on for a cool $18,665.
That was a fantastic cap to an already good month of poker for me and hopefully February will be just as productive. I doubt I will win as much money in February as I did in January, but if I can stay motivated and work just as hard I will consider it a success regardless of my results.
BOOYAKASHA!
What I am getting at is....I won a tournament today! Matt was sweating me online and once I got down to heads up he suggested I mention making some kind of deal with my opponent because he felt like he was a pretty good player. He was a good player, but since I had been doing so well lately and I really wanted to just win something out right I opted not to mention it and just played him for the whole shebang. I caught some decent cards, played well, and made quick work of him to take down the $55 tourney with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on for a cool $18,665.
That was a fantastic cap to an already good month of poker for me and hopefully February will be just as productive. I doubt I will win as much money in February as I did in January, but if I can stay motivated and work just as hard I will consider it a success regardless of my results.
BOOYAKASHA!
Newfound work ethic :)
Who knew I had it in me? I managed to reach my short term goal I posted in my last blog of getting to 100 hours played this month. That is doubly impressive for me, because I didn't get to play any poker until January 8th.
I also worked really hard on my game this week by working out some more situational math for the CAP NL games and having a few discussions with poker friends whose opinions I respect. I am really starting to make progress in my quest to learn the CAP games. I know this because I have managed to win money not at showdown over my last 25,000 hands (I know you non-poker players have no idea what that means and I don't feel like explaining it either. Just rest assured, it is hard to do and took me lots of work to get there.)
January was a really successful month for me and I look forward to working just as hard in February.
I reached both of my short term goals from last blog and I am on pace for every one of my new years resolutions! Booyakasha!
I think I might take tomorrow off from the cash games to play tournaments, unless the CAP games look amazingly good when I sit down to start playing. I am not going to mix cash games and tourneys because I think that hurts my results in both of them. Maybe I'll win a house tomorrow??
I also worked really hard on my game this week by working out some more situational math for the CAP NL games and having a few discussions with poker friends whose opinions I respect. I am really starting to make progress in my quest to learn the CAP games. I know this because I have managed to win money not at showdown over my last 25,000 hands (I know you non-poker players have no idea what that means and I don't feel like explaining it either. Just rest assured, it is hard to do and took me lots of work to get there.)
January was a really successful month for me and I look forward to working just as hard in February.
I reached both of my short term goals from last blog and I am on pace for every one of my new years resolutions! Booyakasha!
I think I might take tomorrow off from the cash games to play tournaments, unless the CAP games look amazingly good when I sit down to start playing. I am not going to mix cash games and tourneys because I think that hurts my results in both of them. Maybe I'll win a house tomorrow??
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Year progress report...
So far, so good! My results have been very good so far this year and I have definitely been on the fun side of variance lately winning more than my share of all-in pots. I didn't get started playing until the 8th and my playing time has been hit and miss since Anne and I have been doing so much stuff for the house. We also just had Eric, Kelly, and Carter stay with us for a few days so that cut in to my playing time a bit as well....not too much though...thanks Anne :)
I've managed to play 47 hours and 22,000 hands so far this year and I am up almost $7,000. I had a great session today and then another great late-night session where I won $5,300 all total. Hmmm, so I guess I wasn't doing all that great before today, but now I am!
I have been doing better working on my game outside of playing and I definitely need to keep that up. It is a very good thing when I get in a groove where I am working on my game...it kind of builds on itself and makes me want to work even harder.
Some short-term goals:
-I would like to make a push to get to 100 hours for the month so that would mean playing over 50 hours in the next 10 days. That is basically impossible for me I think, but if I can get in at least 30 more in I won't feel like a total turd.
-Continue to work hard every day and don't get cocky with my results. I want to focus everyday as if I hadn't won in a month straight and I on the verge of going broke. I am going to try not to use AIM or surf the internet while I play and I am going to really concentrate on making the best decisions and exploiting other player's leaks.
Its time to go wake Anne up (its 5:45am and she has to go to work)!
I've managed to play 47 hours and 22,000 hands so far this year and I am up almost $7,000. I had a great session today and then another great late-night session where I won $5,300 all total. Hmmm, so I guess I wasn't doing all that great before today, but now I am!
I have been doing better working on my game outside of playing and I definitely need to keep that up. It is a very good thing when I get in a groove where I am working on my game...it kind of builds on itself and makes me want to work even harder.
Some short-term goals:
-I would like to make a push to get to 100 hours for the month so that would mean playing over 50 hours in the next 10 days. That is basically impossible for me I think, but if I can get in at least 30 more in I won't feel like a total turd.
-Continue to work hard every day and don't get cocky with my results. I want to focus everyday as if I hadn't won in a month straight and I on the verge of going broke. I am going to try not to use AIM or surf the internet while I play and I am going to really concentrate on making the best decisions and exploiting other player's leaks.
Its time to go wake Anne up (its 5:45am and she has to go to work)!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Failblog.org
In case you have never been to the site failblog.org you should definitely check it out...you can't count on it to waste a few hours of your life for sure.
Promoting that website isn't the purpose of this current blog, but it is definitely an appropriate title since I am recapping how I did on my goals for 2009.
Here were my goals from 2009:
1. Improve my poker game on a daily basis as much as possible.
Result: FAIL. I pretty much abandoned working on my poker game and took my ability for granted for most of 2009. I did start working really hard on my game towards the end of the year and my results showed it with great results to end the year.
2. Buy a house.
Result: WIN! I did by a house and while it was much more work than I bargained for I am very proud of it now.
3. Play 1300 hours of online cash games and log 600,000 hands.
a. This equates to playing about 31 hours per week for 42 weeks per year and averaging around 6 tables at a time.
b. At my current lifetime win rate of around $118/hour I would make around $150,000 and I think I can realistically expect to make over $220,000 at the limits I plan on playing (3/6 and higher) with the potential to make $300k+
Result: FAIL. I played a little over 800 hours and only manager 357,155 hands online. I did play PLO for a good portion of the year so that can explain some of the decrease in hands, but so few hours in an embarrassment.
4. Weigh 200 pounds or less by 2010, I am currently around 225 pounds after an astronomical surge in weight gain caused by my week in Cabo.
Result: FAIL. I am currently 235 pounds...awesome huh?
5. Save a minimum of $10,000 in some form for retirement and $15,000 in other general investments.
Result: Minor FAIL. I don't think I saved this much, but I did max out my ROTH IRA and save a little bit extra on top of that. It isn't quite as easy to save when your results aren't what you planned on and I spent a decent chunk of change on the house.
6. Prepare to buy a second house sometime in 2010.
Result:This seems a bit far fetched, but I would love to do it provided a good year of poker.
7. Get married and have kids….GOTCHA!
Result: While this seemed totally impossible and was an obvious joke at the beginning of 2009 my girlfriend's dog is sitting on my lap as I type this because she is scared of the vacuum Anne is running in OUR bathroom in OUR house....crazy, huh?
Overall recap: Poker was not as successful as I had hoped for 2009, but it was a good year overall for sure.
Goals for 2010:
1. Play 1200 hours of online poker (more wouldn't be such an awful thing, but my history suggests that is nearly impossible).
2. Max out my ROTH IRA ($5,000)and accumulate another $5,000 to be saved and used for future money making opportunities.
3. Work very hard to not only stay ahead of the poker learning curve, but excel more than I have in years past (I have no excuses not to work as hard as I possibly can, but that is very tough to maintain).
4. Put in some type of effort into learning more forms of poker, because I am certain that poker will continue to move in that direction.
5. Have ZERO losing months (as I did in 2008).
6. Sigh...get in better shape. Who doesn't say this around new year? It should help having my dietitian girlfriend around though.
7. Set lots of short term goals throughout the year to help me get to the above goals.
These goals are a little more vague that past goals. I don't really like the idea of goals being vague, because it is hard to measure success. The reason they are vague is because I had not put too much thought into goals for this year until now. I just wanted to get something written down before I got started playing for the year. Yes, January 8th is my first day of poker in 2010...in fact I have only played about 4 hours of poker since December the 15th! On a side note, I did manager to dominate the leader board on pokertableratings.com for 3/6 CAP NL games for the month of December despite only being able to play half of the month :)
Short term goal:
Play 12 hours of online poker and win $1,000 before we have to start unloading and unpacking the moving truck on the 12th.
Promoting that website isn't the purpose of this current blog, but it is definitely an appropriate title since I am recapping how I did on my goals for 2009.
Here were my goals from 2009:
1. Improve my poker game on a daily basis as much as possible.
Result: FAIL. I pretty much abandoned working on my poker game and took my ability for granted for most of 2009. I did start working really hard on my game towards the end of the year and my results showed it with great results to end the year.
2. Buy a house.
Result: WIN! I did by a house and while it was much more work than I bargained for I am very proud of it now.
3. Play 1300 hours of online cash games and log 600,000 hands.
a. This equates to playing about 31 hours per week for 42 weeks per year and averaging around 6 tables at a time.
b. At my current lifetime win rate of around $118/hour I would make around $150,000 and I think I can realistically expect to make over $220,000 at the limits I plan on playing (3/6 and higher) with the potential to make $300k+
Result: FAIL. I played a little over 800 hours and only manager 357,155 hands online. I did play PLO for a good portion of the year so that can explain some of the decrease in hands, but so few hours in an embarrassment.
4. Weigh 200 pounds or less by 2010, I am currently around 225 pounds after an astronomical surge in weight gain caused by my week in Cabo.
Result: FAIL. I am currently 235 pounds...awesome huh?
5. Save a minimum of $10,000 in some form for retirement and $15,000 in other general investments.
Result: Minor FAIL. I don't think I saved this much, but I did max out my ROTH IRA and save a little bit extra on top of that. It isn't quite as easy to save when your results aren't what you planned on and I spent a decent chunk of change on the house.
6. Prepare to buy a second house sometime in 2010.
Result:This seems a bit far fetched, but I would love to do it provided a good year of poker.
7. Get married and have kids….GOTCHA!
Result: While this seemed totally impossible and was an obvious joke at the beginning of 2009 my girlfriend's dog is sitting on my lap as I type this because she is scared of the vacuum Anne is running in OUR bathroom in OUR house....crazy, huh?
Overall recap: Poker was not as successful as I had hoped for 2009, but it was a good year overall for sure.
Goals for 2010:
1. Play 1200 hours of online poker (more wouldn't be such an awful thing, but my history suggests that is nearly impossible).
2. Max out my ROTH IRA ($5,000)and accumulate another $5,000 to be saved and used for future money making opportunities.
3. Work very hard to not only stay ahead of the poker learning curve, but excel more than I have in years past (I have no excuses not to work as hard as I possibly can, but that is very tough to maintain).
4. Put in some type of effort into learning more forms of poker, because I am certain that poker will continue to move in that direction.
5. Have ZERO losing months (as I did in 2008).
6. Sigh...get in better shape. Who doesn't say this around new year? It should help having my dietitian girlfriend around though.
7. Set lots of short term goals throughout the year to help me get to the above goals.
These goals are a little more vague that past goals. I don't really like the idea of goals being vague, because it is hard to measure success. The reason they are vague is because I had not put too much thought into goals for this year until now. I just wanted to get something written down before I got started playing for the year. Yes, January 8th is my first day of poker in 2010...in fact I have only played about 4 hours of poker since December the 15th! On a side note, I did manager to dominate the leader board on pokertableratings.com for 3/6 CAP NL games for the month of December despite only being able to play half of the month :)
Short term goal:
Play 12 hours of online poker and win $1,000 before we have to start unloading and unpacking the moving truck on the 12th.
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