Time heals all wounds, but it doesn't take much to re-open them...
When I flew to Hawaii from Chicago about 4 years ago it was one of the most miserable times of my life as I sat in the middle of 5 seats in the middle section of the plane for 7 hours. Now all I really remember is how much fun I had in Hawaii and the flight is hardly a memory anymore.
Now I am on my way to Prague somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and we still have 2 hours left in our flight. My neck, both shoulders, both knees, and my back all hurt and I can't understand why anyone ever chooses to take flights this long. This feels like the longest 7.5 hours of my life...by a long shot. Nevermind that we already flew from Evansville to Chicago before this flight and we have a 4 hour layover in London and another 2 hour flight from there to Prague! Oh ya, we had to sit in our seats for an hour and a half while they de-iced our plane before we started on this wonderful journey.
I know that I will forget how much it sucks to be on flights like this and I'll be pumped about my next vacation to a far away land, but right now I'm making a completely empty promise to myself to never go on a flight this long again....it's the worst!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Lasik and poker....
My Lasik surgery went smoothly as expected. I did manage to stay up the entire night before so that once I was done getting my eyes lasered I was able to sleep through most of my recovery. Thanks for the tip Landon! Getting the surgery done wasn't painful at all, but it was a rather uncomfortable experience watching and being totally aware that someone was about to cut my eye and basically make me go blind for a few moments while he shot lasers into my eye. About an hour later the numbing medicine started to wear off and my eyes felt scratchy and really sensitive to light, but like I said I was able to sleep through most of that part. The tough part about sleeping now is that I have to wear some stupid goggles WHILE I SLEEP to make sure that I don't rub my eye throughout the night. I also have to wear those same goggles in the shower, because I am not allowed to get any water in my eyes for two weeks.
The next morning and about 20 hours after my surgery I was able to see 20/25 and they said there was still some swelling so hopefully my vision would still improve over the next week or so. I also see some decent sized halos around lights at night which they said should be gone within 6 weeks. It doesn't seem to me like my vision has gotten any better (maybe even a bit worse, but I am not sure) since I had my checkup the next morning. It is kind of annoying to only be able to see "good" and not great. I was used to not being able to see perfect when I wore contacts all the time, but that was because I wore each pair for so long I usually had an old/dirty pair in. It didn't bother me so much then, because I knew it could be fixed by cleaning them or getting a new pair. I don't think I'll be too happy if my permanent vision is always just ever so slightly out of focus.
Anyway, I'll try not to worry about that too much until it hasn't gotten better after the amount of time they say it should take to improve all the way.
Poker has been ok lately. I am really working hard on trying to figure out the CAP No Limit games. There are tons more fish that play in those games compared to the regular No Limit games and I am trying to take advantage of the current state of the games. Ideally, I will get really good at the CAP games just as Pokerstars adds CAP games to their site and the games are extra juicy! I don't know of them having any plans to do that, but surely they will have them one day.
I think I am gonna go take a quick rest and then maybe put in another session for the day.
TTFN.
The next morning and about 20 hours after my surgery I was able to see 20/25 and they said there was still some swelling so hopefully my vision would still improve over the next week or so. I also see some decent sized halos around lights at night which they said should be gone within 6 weeks. It doesn't seem to me like my vision has gotten any better (maybe even a bit worse, but I am not sure) since I had my checkup the next morning. It is kind of annoying to only be able to see "good" and not great. I was used to not being able to see perfect when I wore contacts all the time, but that was because I wore each pair for so long I usually had an old/dirty pair in. It didn't bother me so much then, because I knew it could be fixed by cleaning them or getting a new pair. I don't think I'll be too happy if my permanent vision is always just ever so slightly out of focus.
Anyway, I'll try not to worry about that too much until it hasn't gotten better after the amount of time they say it should take to improve all the way.
Poker has been ok lately. I am really working hard on trying to figure out the CAP No Limit games. There are tons more fish that play in those games compared to the regular No Limit games and I am trying to take advantage of the current state of the games. Ideally, I will get really good at the CAP games just as Pokerstars adds CAP games to their site and the games are extra juicy! I don't know of them having any plans to do that, but surely they will have them one day.
I think I am gonna go take a quick rest and then maybe put in another session for the day.
TTFN.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
So I was doing some thinking in the shower...
...btw, lots of great thinking can be done in the shower.
Anyway, I had yet another epiphany about how lucky I am. I don't mean lucky in that I get luckier than most people (although that may be true as well), I mean that I am so lucky to have the "job" that I do and also to have the mental capacity to be successful at it. While I realize how lucky I am I realize what a shame it is to not try my absolute hardest to maximize my ability. People all over the world work much harder than I do to make way less money due to some or many different circumstances. Some of them aren't as smart, weren't lucky enough to have their passion to be as profitable as mine is, are smarter and work less hard than I do, or any other excuse you can think of. None of that should concern me. The only thing I should be worried about is maximizing my potential.
Anyway, I motivated/depressed myself thinking about how many great things I could accomplish if I put max effort into improving myself/poker game. I have an amazing head start on lots of people and I hope I can continue to progress at a pace that I know I am capable of.
I suggest you do the same.
Anyway, I had yet another epiphany about how lucky I am. I don't mean lucky in that I get luckier than most people (although that may be true as well), I mean that I am so lucky to have the "job" that I do and also to have the mental capacity to be successful at it. While I realize how lucky I am I realize what a shame it is to not try my absolute hardest to maximize my ability. People all over the world work much harder than I do to make way less money due to some or many different circumstances. Some of them aren't as smart, weren't lucky enough to have their passion to be as profitable as mine is, are smarter and work less hard than I do, or any other excuse you can think of. None of that should concern me. The only thing I should be worried about is maximizing my potential.
Anyway, I motivated/depressed myself thinking about how many great things I could accomplish if I put max effort into improving myself/poker game. I have an amazing head start on lots of people and I hope I can continue to progress at a pace that I know I am capable of.
I suggest you do the same.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Trying to keep pace...
Blogging breeds more blogging and I'd like to do a better job of updating my blog so I am going to force myself to write this entry while I can't sleep....also it will allow me to waste time instead of packing and doing a bunch of other crap that I need to get done before I get on my flight in 8 hours.
Anyway, it is almost time to re-write new years resolutions and re-examine my old ones. I'll save the details for a later blog once my year is complete and a new one starts. Just rest assured that I failed pretty miserably again in achieving my goals. It is so hard to stay motivated for an entire year and I had way more swings this year than I have had in years past. I also ran about as much below all-in expectation this year as I ran above it last year. The games have gotten tougher, I didn't work on my game as hard as I could have, and I struggled with playing by best poker throughout a big part of the year which doesn't usually happen to me for extended periods of time. Whatever the causes may be I have no problem admitting that I am fully responsible for my results not meeting my expectations.
I am in a pretty good mindset right now and I have been working hard at improving my focus and attempting to improve my game at a rate that is faster than the learning pace of the rest of my competition. I feel like I am a better player than I was a year ago, but I also feel like my competition has improved more than I have in the past year. It is very important to be ego-less when it comes to this battle of improving vs. the competition. It does you no good to get better if everyone else is getting better faster than you are....although that is better than not improving at all, because it is a FACT that your competition will be getting better and even people that used to not be able to compete with you will outwork you and pass you by.
I am not yet writing my goals for 2010, but they will be geared around me vowing to outwork my competition. I know I don't always stick to my goals, but it is so important to do this that I don't really have any other choice.
Good night and get to work before your competition passes you by.
Anyway, it is almost time to re-write new years resolutions and re-examine my old ones. I'll save the details for a later blog once my year is complete and a new one starts. Just rest assured that I failed pretty miserably again in achieving my goals. It is so hard to stay motivated for an entire year and I had way more swings this year than I have had in years past. I also ran about as much below all-in expectation this year as I ran above it last year. The games have gotten tougher, I didn't work on my game as hard as I could have, and I struggled with playing by best poker throughout a big part of the year which doesn't usually happen to me for extended periods of time. Whatever the causes may be I have no problem admitting that I am fully responsible for my results not meeting my expectations.
I am in a pretty good mindset right now and I have been working hard at improving my focus and attempting to improve my game at a rate that is faster than the learning pace of the rest of my competition. I feel like I am a better player than I was a year ago, but I also feel like my competition has improved more than I have in the past year. It is very important to be ego-less when it comes to this battle of improving vs. the competition. It does you no good to get better if everyone else is getting better faster than you are....although that is better than not improving at all, because it is a FACT that your competition will be getting better and even people that used to not be able to compete with you will outwork you and pass you by.
I am not yet writing my goals for 2010, but they will be geared around me vowing to outwork my competition. I know I don't always stick to my goals, but it is so important to do this that I don't really have any other choice.
Good night and get to work before your competition passes you by.
Monday, November 16, 2009
1st Video Blog
I realize I mumble and I even tried extra hard to enunciate, but you'll see how well that worked. ARGH!!!! The sound is off with my video and nothing is more annoying than that. I don't know how to fix it and I am not saying all of that again. Just close your eyes and listen...sorry.
I don't know why some of these pictures are so small, but I am running out of patience so just deal with it!
John and Janie holding Conner, Jan's youngest kiddo:
Here is a picture of our crew from Florida:
Our fishing crew posing with our catches:
Landon and Scott during cornhole:
I never got any pictures from the lake this year, but this picture was from the previous year's annual trip to the lake and Patti's (the home of the best 2 inch pork chop ever as well as other super delicious food)...sorry Anne!
A group photo from our golf scramble in Bakersfield:
Carter Ethan Steinback:
Here is Eric's dog having a party with himself during my visit:
In case there are any wives, girlfriends, or mothers that are worried about all of the bad things guys do while they are away at bachelor parties here is a glimpse at what really goes on....For some reason Matt enjoys faux having his way with an innocent helpless friend on occasion. This time it just so happened to be poor Andy that was the sacrificial lamb for everyone else's laughter. Highlights of the video are my younger brother laughing at the very beginning and then Zach saying "look how bad he wants it" about halfway through.
Here is the map of all the traveling I did during my trip...roughly 8018 miles in case you were wondering.
View Larger Map
I don't know why some of these pictures are so small, but I am running out of patience so just deal with it!
John and Janie holding Conner, Jan's youngest kiddo:
Here is a picture of our crew from Florida:
Our fishing crew posing with our catches:
Landon and Scott during cornhole:
I never got any pictures from the lake this year, but this picture was from the previous year's annual trip to the lake and Patti's (the home of the best 2 inch pork chop ever as well as other super delicious food)...sorry Anne!
A group photo from our golf scramble in Bakersfield:
Carter Ethan Steinback:
Here is Eric's dog having a party with himself during my visit:
In case there are any wives, girlfriends, or mothers that are worried about all of the bad things guys do while they are away at bachelor parties here is a glimpse at what really goes on....For some reason Matt enjoys faux having his way with an innocent helpless friend on occasion. This time it just so happened to be poor Andy that was the sacrificial lamb for everyone else's laughter. Highlights of the video are my younger brother laughing at the very beginning and then Zach saying "look how bad he wants it" about halfway through.
Here is the map of all the traveling I did during my trip...roughly 8018 miles in case you were wondering.
View Larger Map
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Boring poker blog.....
My blog started out having almost 100% poker related content and in the last year or so I have really not enjoyed writing about poker so I try to write blogs that are entertaining to read and about stuff other than poker. It gets kind of monotonous to write about poker day after day...good day, bad day, blah blah blah. I also have noticed that anyone who reads my blog must think I am a bagillionaire, because I really don't like to write about big losses. Its not like I am trying to make myself look like a better player or that I never lose, I just don't like dwelling on negative stuff and I doubt anyone that reads my blog does either. It hasn't been a particularly good year of poker and I suppose it is possible that it could be somewhat attributed to me getting away from thinking about my game during blog writing sessions. That is what I intended for my blog to be for in the beginning. I wanted something to make me responsible for my results and also a place to write down thoughts or ideas I was currently having about poker. An obvious benefit of doing this was that I could go back and re-read old blogs to see what I was thinking whenever I wrote them. However, just the simple act of typing out your thoughts makes them much more clear cut in your mind and makes them much easier to remember and apply in the future.
I read another poker player's blog and someone he respected had suggested that he keep a notebook on his desk so that he could record notes after each session and then review them before starting his next session. It seemed like such a novel idea to me that I began to keep one myself...and then I thought "wait a minute, I am already supposed to be doing that in my blog!"
So, I apologize to any of my readers that get bored by the poker content, but I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to writing about poker. I have been playing PLO lately and my results have been pretty awful after having just looked at my stats filtered for PLO only. After 57,000 hands I am down $859. My all-in EV is +$11,308, but that doesn't really make me feel any better. I have learned quite a bit about the game since I have been playing it, but I still make tons of mistakes that are the reason for my poor results. It does make me feel a little better that I have an overall win rate of 3.98bb/100 and the reason I am losing is because I have had such horrendous results at higher limits. I might be able to make more if I would switch back to no-limit, but I know how much of an edge is possible with the current state of the PLO games compared to the NL games. Even if I am not good enough to have a bigger edge in the PLO games yet I know that with some work I can be.
This has gotten pretty long and I have some more to say, but I don't want to get burnt out writing this one blog so I am gonna call it a night and hopefully I'll be blogging much more in the near future.
I read another poker player's blog and someone he respected had suggested that he keep a notebook on his desk so that he could record notes after each session and then review them before starting his next session. It seemed like such a novel idea to me that I began to keep one myself...and then I thought "wait a minute, I am already supposed to be doing that in my blog!"
So, I apologize to any of my readers that get bored by the poker content, but I am going to make a concerted effort to get back to writing about poker. I have been playing PLO lately and my results have been pretty awful after having just looked at my stats filtered for PLO only. After 57,000 hands I am down $859. My all-in EV is +$11,308, but that doesn't really make me feel any better. I have learned quite a bit about the game since I have been playing it, but I still make tons of mistakes that are the reason for my poor results. It does make me feel a little better that I have an overall win rate of 3.98bb/100 and the reason I am losing is because I have had such horrendous results at higher limits. I might be able to make more if I would switch back to no-limit, but I know how much of an edge is possible with the current state of the PLO games compared to the NL games. Even if I am not good enough to have a bigger edge in the PLO games yet I know that with some work I can be.
This has gotten pretty long and I have some more to say, but I don't want to get burnt out writing this one blog so I am gonna call it a night and hopefully I'll be blogging much more in the near future.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Things are good?
I am going to try and buck my latest trend of every day that I have a good day or stop for just a second to pat myself on the back I follow it up with some ridiculous downswing or horrible day. So I am somewhat reluctant to say.....I had a very good day of poker. I thought it might be my most profitable day of cash game poker ever, but upon referencing an older blog I fell just a tad short. I won $2,444 online yesterday playing about 4-5 hours of PLO and then I was bored and decided I would go play some 5/10 NL at the Bellagio since I was a little short on cash. For the second straight time I couldn't keep myself from playing in the 10/20 game. The game was absolutely FANTASTIC and I ended up winning $9,020 in about 9 hours despite only buying in for $2,000. It didn't really matter how much I bought in for since I was never all-in anyway. I didn't mean to play that long, but I just couldn't let myself leave such a good game. That is 1 day total of $11,464 which is apparently my second best day of cash game poker ever....I set my record in this blog with a 1 day total of $11,578.
There was only one hand that I did anything other than what I consider straight forward ABC poker and it resulted in one of the biggest hands of poker I've ever won. I made a quick note on my phone after it happened so I could re-evaluate my play later. Here is my homemade hand history:
Ad5d in SB w/$4,800 starting stack
Raise to 80 + 2 callers
I Raise to 440 + 1 caller (cutoff)
Pot:$1050
Flop Ah 9c 3c
I tanked and check called $1k
Pot:$3050
Turn 5c
Check call $1600
Pot:$6250
River Js
Check call $1k
Pot:$8250
Insta muck from C/O
New stack $8800
He just played the hand so strange that I couldn't put him on anything that made any sense so I just kept check/calling like a donkey....oops!
Here are some examples of how good the game was. Some kid was short stacking for $800 and I knew he was just looking to gamble and get it in at some point and I had already made up my mind I was going to try to bust him before someone else did. I ended up getting it in with my 77 vs. his AKs and I won. We then allowed him to rebuy for his last $785 even though the min buy-in is supposed to be $800. Next hand he tripled up with two overs and a flush draw against someone else who had a bigger flush draw and some other random hand when he hit one of his overs. So, he should have been busted for good there, but he continued to run super hot. He played a hand soooo bad where it was obvious he was pretty much drawing dead when he got it all-in 3 ways again for about $3500 on an Ax As 2s board with AK. He was up against a flush draw that was drawing dead and Ax 2x for a full house. Anyway he hit a King on the river for an $11k pot. Finally, Jean Robert Bellande joined our game and he is beyond bad. He was upset that he had somehow just lost $2,000 and his bankcard from his pocket and he suspected that a stripper he had just gotten a lap dance from was the culprit. Anyway, there was about $300 in the pot when the following mind boggling hand went down. The flop was Qd 8d 5h and JRB and short stacking kid (now with about $7500 in front of him) both checked and the button bet $100. JRB called and SS Kid made it $600. Button folded and JRB re-raised to $1600. The SS Kid thought forever and kept asking JRB if he had a set of queens...eventually JRB said "I promise I don't have a set of queens" to which the kid snap declared that he was all-in....for $7,200! JRB obviously insta-called him and then they started talking about making a deal and the kid offered to just chop the pot evenly before either of them knew each other's hand. JRB said there was no way he could give him an even chop, but wouldn't tell the kid what he had. The floor came over and told them they couldn't make deals anyway and JRB got all pissed and to try to get a deal done more quickly he finally showed the kid his hand....he had Kc Qc?!?! The kid then announced that he couldn't chop with him anymore because he was "owning him" and he turned over his hand....AQo and told the dealer to "run em"!!! The turn and river were both bricks and some how this kid just won a $15K+ pot with one pair after rebuying for $785 about 3 hours earlier.
This is way too long. I'm done.
There was only one hand that I did anything other than what I consider straight forward ABC poker and it resulted in one of the biggest hands of poker I've ever won. I made a quick note on my phone after it happened so I could re-evaluate my play later. Here is my homemade hand history:
Ad5d in SB w/$4,800 starting stack
Raise to 80 + 2 callers
I Raise to 440 + 1 caller (cutoff)
Pot:$1050
Flop Ah 9c 3c
I tanked and check called $1k
Pot:$3050
Turn 5c
Check call $1600
Pot:$6250
River Js
Check call $1k
Pot:$8250
Insta muck from C/O
New stack $8800
He just played the hand so strange that I couldn't put him on anything that made any sense so I just kept check/calling like a donkey....oops!
Here are some examples of how good the game was. Some kid was short stacking for $800 and I knew he was just looking to gamble and get it in at some point and I had already made up my mind I was going to try to bust him before someone else did. I ended up getting it in with my 77 vs. his AKs and I won. We then allowed him to rebuy for his last $785 even though the min buy-in is supposed to be $800. Next hand he tripled up with two overs and a flush draw against someone else who had a bigger flush draw and some other random hand when he hit one of his overs. So, he should have been busted for good there, but he continued to run super hot. He played a hand soooo bad where it was obvious he was pretty much drawing dead when he got it all-in 3 ways again for about $3500 on an Ax As 2s board with AK. He was up against a flush draw that was drawing dead and Ax 2x for a full house. Anyway he hit a King on the river for an $11k pot. Finally, Jean Robert Bellande joined our game and he is beyond bad. He was upset that he had somehow just lost $2,000 and his bankcard from his pocket and he suspected that a stripper he had just gotten a lap dance from was the culprit. Anyway, there was about $300 in the pot when the following mind boggling hand went down. The flop was Qd 8d 5h and JRB and short stacking kid (now with about $7500 in front of him) both checked and the button bet $100. JRB called and SS Kid made it $600. Button folded and JRB re-raised to $1600. The SS Kid thought forever and kept asking JRB if he had a set of queens...eventually JRB said "I promise I don't have a set of queens" to which the kid snap declared that he was all-in....for $7,200! JRB obviously insta-called him and then they started talking about making a deal and the kid offered to just chop the pot evenly before either of them knew each other's hand. JRB said there was no way he could give him an even chop, but wouldn't tell the kid what he had. The floor came over and told them they couldn't make deals anyway and JRB got all pissed and to try to get a deal done more quickly he finally showed the kid his hand....he had Kc Qc?!?! The kid then announced that he couldn't chop with him anymore because he was "owning him" and he turned over his hand....AQo and told the dealer to "run em"!!! The turn and river were both bricks and some how this kid just won a $15K+ pot with one pair after rebuying for $785 about 3 hours earlier.
This is way too long. I'm done.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Jurasic Poker: Part 2!
Whenever you finish a great day of poker there isn't anything much more satisfying that staring at your graph for a bit and patting yourself on the back. Sometimes after you have played too long of a session you can start to see some very strange things if you stare at your graph long enough. I did this once before and the things I saw inspired the wonderful artwork that appeared in this blog: http://thakilla.blogspot.com/2009/05/jurrasic-poker.html
This time while staring at my graph and patting myself on my back a T-rex jumped out at me and I immediately knew that I had to create another masterpiece.
Without further adieu I give you Jurassic Poker:Part 2 (the T-Rex).
It felt very good to go from stuck almost $2200 to up almost $4700 in about 1700 hands.
This time while staring at my graph and patting myself on my back a T-rex jumped out at me and I immediately knew that I had to create another masterpiece.
Without further adieu I give you Jurassic Poker:Part 2 (the T-Rex).
It felt very good to go from stuck almost $2200 to up almost $4700 in about 1700 hands.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
The evolution of a mustache...
So Josh dared me a while ago to grow a mustache. We discussed some type of prop bet, but I wanted to be able to shave it in case some type of situation arose that I really didn't feel like being embarrassed in. Therefore I decided to do it just on a dare. I chose a time when I thought I would just be staying around the house and playing poker without seeing too many new people that I would have to either explain why I had a horrible looking mustache on my face or just swallow my pride and pretend like I really preferred to have a mustache. I planned on shaving it before I went to caddy for Jeff, because I didn't want to run the risk of being on TV with a mustache or even worse having Jeff win and me being forced to keep my mustache forever due to its good luck! Once Jeff decided not to play I decided that I would wait until Matt and Brooklyn came in town and I would show it to them before I finally shaved it off.
Anyway, here is the progression of my Mustache via some crappy quality pictures taken by my webcam. Enjoy!
As you can see by the end of my expiriment I had really turned into a full grown man with a Burt Reynolds quality mustache....actually you can see that I officially grow the worst mustache in the history of mustaches and for some reason I grow ZERO hairs on what my little brother tells me is my philtrum. Believe it or not I could put my index finger on my philtrum and not touch any hair on either side!
I hope all 6 of my readers enjoyed the evolution of my mustache as much as I didn't enjoy letting it evolve on my face!
Another interesting fact about my mustache...I won about $9,000 and ran pretty well above expectation over the course of the 2 weeks or so that I had that hideous thing so maybe there was a little luck oozing out of the stash. If I start running bad again he may have to come back. So if you know what it good for both of us do your little rain dance to the poker Gods or whatever it is you do that you think will help to keep me running well.
Until the next mustache experiment.....this is me saying Adios Senor Mustache!
Anyway, here is the progression of my Mustache via some crappy quality pictures taken by my webcam. Enjoy!
As you can see by the end of my expiriment I had really turned into a full grown man with a Burt Reynolds quality mustache....actually you can see that I officially grow the worst mustache in the history of mustaches and for some reason I grow ZERO hairs on what my little brother tells me is my philtrum. Believe it or not I could put my index finger on my philtrum and not touch any hair on either side!
I hope all 6 of my readers enjoyed the evolution of my mustache as much as I didn't enjoy letting it evolve on my face!
Another interesting fact about my mustache...I won about $9,000 and ran pretty well above expectation over the course of the 2 weeks or so that I had that hideous thing so maybe there was a little luck oozing out of the stash. If I start running bad again he may have to come back. So if you know what it good for both of us do your little rain dance to the poker Gods or whatever it is you do that you think will help to keep me running well.
Until the next mustache experiment.....this is me saying Adios Senor Mustache!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Well that didn't last long....
I totally didn't stick to my goals...I immediately saw a fish playing 3/6 PLO and jumped right into the game like an idiot. The good news is I crushed it! I am up $5440 in the last two days and it feels pretty good. I played an 11.5 hour session (really 3 small sessions with short breaks in between) of only PLO which is WAY longer than any other PLO session I have played. It is also could be the most hours of any kind of online cash game session I have ever played...if its not then it is really close. I have played 75 hours this month which is pretty good considering I was gone for 7 days and Justin and Kevin both visited this month. I still have one more day to play a few hours, but Matt and Brooklyn are coming in the morning so I doubt I will play much tomorrow. It was a much better month this month. I didn't make what I lost last month, but I am headed in the right direction at least.
Playing PLO really slows down my pursuit of a 1 million hand graph, but I will get there eventually. I only played 20,000 hands this month in 75 hours. I only play about half the hands per hour when playing PLO as I do when playing NL. I am currently at 676,314 hands in my database. I just did the math and that puts me about 1100 hours away from getting to 1 million hands if I continued to play PLO the rest of the way. That makes me pretty sad, but it really isn't all that big of a deal.
In some other sad news, Jeff decided not to play in the Reno/Tahoe Open this year so my caddying career has been suspended until the Vegas tournament in Mid-October. His wrist is bothering him quite a bit and he wants to rest it before he plays in the PGA Championship the following week. That should give me plenty of time to grind out some mortgage payments next month, but I still intend on taking a vacation somewhere.
Playing PLO really slows down my pursuit of a 1 million hand graph, but I will get there eventually. I only played 20,000 hands this month in 75 hours. I only play about half the hands per hour when playing PLO as I do when playing NL. I am currently at 676,314 hands in my database. I just did the math and that puts me about 1100 hours away from getting to 1 million hands if I continued to play PLO the rest of the way. That makes me pretty sad, but it really isn't all that big of a deal.
In some other sad news, Jeff decided not to play in the Reno/Tahoe Open this year so my caddying career has been suspended until the Vegas tournament in Mid-October. His wrist is bothering him quite a bit and he wants to rest it before he plays in the PGA Championship the following week. That should give me plenty of time to grind out some mortgage payments next month, but I still intend on taking a vacation somewhere.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
I haven't done this in a while (goals)
I used to be very proud of how I used to make, write down, and reach lots of goals, but I haven't done it in a long time for some reason. Writing down goals makes playing poker have much more of a purpose and keeps you from getting careless which I have been very guilty of lately.
I just got really sidetracked while writing this and I really don't feel like writing anymore. I was going to say why goals are so awesome, but you get the idea anyway....
Goals:
1. Play only $200 PLO until I win 15 buy-ins.
2. Play $400 PLO until I win 15 buy-ins.
3. Game select and mix in 3/6 with 2/4 until I win 15 more buy-ins.
4. Take some shots at 5/10 PLO
5. Win millions.
Hopefully, this will get me to update a little more frequently since I will be reporting back on my progress.
I just got really sidetracked while writing this and I really don't feel like writing anymore. I was going to say why goals are so awesome, but you get the idea anyway....
Goals:
1. Play only $200 PLO until I win 15 buy-ins.
2. Play $400 PLO until I win 15 buy-ins.
3. Game select and mix in 3/6 with 2/4 until I win 15 more buy-ins.
4. Take some shots at 5/10 PLO
5. Win millions.
Hopefully, this will get me to update a little more frequently since I will be reporting back on my progress.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Everything is getting back to normal....
Shew! I have been a busy bee the last couple of months and I was way out of my normal routine. Finally,things are starting to return to normal. Buying a house was way more work than I bargained for, but I am very happy to have put in all of that work and finally being able to enjoy my new house. I didn't have a losing month for the entire year of 2008, but I have already had 2 losing months this year. I lost in April, had a good May, and then had my worst month ever in June. It wouldn't be so bad if I just had my worst month ever, but to lose about 4-5 times what you have in any other month is pretty disheartening. I have always thought all that stuff about "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" was a bunch of crap and usually just a a way to not take responsibility for something that you failed at or didn't handle as well as you could have. Usually, people say that when they feel beat down or overwhelmed from something they are having a hard time dealing with.....I feel like I am not doing a very good job of explaining why is dislike that saying so much, but it almost seems that when people say it they are basically conceding that they can't deal with something and saying that makes them feel OK about it.
Anyway, I think a lot of people would take the "since it didn't kill me it will make me stronger" approach to dealing with my poor results from June. However, I prefer to take responsibility for those bad results and try to fix whatever problems/leaks were the cause of it.
I'll go ahead and say it.....I played the worst month of poker I have ever played.
There can be many reasons that someone doesn't play their best poker, but the most dangerous reason I can think of is if you are playing poker when you can't focus on it because you are stressed/worried about something else in your life. The reason this is so dangerous is because it is very hard to notice that you aren't playing your best in this situation. I had a lot of stuff out side of poker on my mind during the month of June and it really, I mean REALLY affected my poker. I knew in the back of my mind the whole time that all of this was probably causing me not to play my best poker, but I wasn't able to get myself to take time off. In fact, I played more poker last month than I ever have in any other month of my career. Great, huh?
Now I am feeling very focused on poker and am much more in tune with how outside stresses could possibly affect my play. I was out of town until about the 10th of this month and despite only having played about 40 hours of online poker I am having some great results.
I feel like I am lucky in that I don't get rattled or stressed about hardly anything in life and I can honestly say that is directly attributable to having such consistent success so far in my poker career. I had a small hiccup last month, but I think that kind of a breakdown happens way more often to other people/poker players than it does to me and I am thankful for that.
Jeff asked me to caddy again for him in the Reno/Tahoe Open and I think it will be perfect timing to give myself a break from poker. I used to do a better job about forcing myself to take vacations when I needed them and I think I might need to go back to planning them out ahead of time rather than just taking them when something pops up.
It feels good to finally get back to being in a great state of mind for playing good/winning poker and I look forward to staying in this mindset for a while....maybe even forever?!?! Muahahaha!
Anyway, I think a lot of people would take the "since it didn't kill me it will make me stronger" approach to dealing with my poor results from June. However, I prefer to take responsibility for those bad results and try to fix whatever problems/leaks were the cause of it.
I'll go ahead and say it.....I played the worst month of poker I have ever played.
There can be many reasons that someone doesn't play their best poker, but the most dangerous reason I can think of is if you are playing poker when you can't focus on it because you are stressed/worried about something else in your life. The reason this is so dangerous is because it is very hard to notice that you aren't playing your best in this situation. I had a lot of stuff out side of poker on my mind during the month of June and it really, I mean REALLY affected my poker. I knew in the back of my mind the whole time that all of this was probably causing me not to play my best poker, but I wasn't able to get myself to take time off. In fact, I played more poker last month than I ever have in any other month of my career. Great, huh?
Now I am feeling very focused on poker and am much more in tune with how outside stresses could possibly affect my play. I was out of town until about the 10th of this month and despite only having played about 40 hours of online poker I am having some great results.
I feel like I am lucky in that I don't get rattled or stressed about hardly anything in life and I can honestly say that is directly attributable to having such consistent success so far in my poker career. I had a small hiccup last month, but I think that kind of a breakdown happens way more often to other people/poker players than it does to me and I am thankful for that.
Jeff asked me to caddy again for him in the Reno/Tahoe Open and I think it will be perfect timing to give myself a break from poker. I used to do a better job about forcing myself to take vacations when I needed them and I think I might need to go back to planning them out ahead of time rather than just taking them when something pops up.
It feels good to finally get back to being in a great state of mind for playing good/winning poker and I look forward to staying in this mindset for a while....maybe even forever?!?! Muahahaha!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
New House before and after pictures....
Stairs-after
Stairs-before
Kitchen
Backyard-before and after, but I intend on putting a pool in for next summer
Ping pong room-after
Dining and ping pong room after
Upstairs-after
Upstairs-before
Living room-after
Living room-after
Living room from upstairs-after
Living room-before
Living room-before
Living room from upstairs-after
My Bathroom
My office in my bedroom-after
My new TV and dresser
My bedroom-after. My bedding hasn't arrived yet so I am having to make due with queen sized stuff on my new king sized bed...most comfortable mattress ever! I also have not gotten around to hanging my mirror yet.
My room-before
My room-before
New homeowner
View from the street
I did not include any pictures of Josh's room, Josh's office, Josh's bathroom, Kevin's room, Kevin's bathroom, or the guest room because I took all of the the after pictures at about 1am and they were sleeping, but they are all pretty standard rooms that you wouldn't get much excitement out of anyway.
5 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, 3550 Sq. Ft., 3 Car Garage, $268,000....and I'm pretty proud of it :)
I intended on including all of the ridiculous stuff I had to do in order to buy the house and get it in the shape it is in now, but just reliving all of that stuff will surely just put me back on life tilt. Just rest assured that owning a home is WAY more work than any human should have to do. That leads me to another point...how in the world do normal people find the time to buy a house? Almost everyday since I have moved in I have had to be at home (usually for a 3-5 hour window chosen at their discretion) in order to meet someone that had to do some work at my house. It has really sucked spending so much time waiting around for all these different people, but I don't understand how someone with a regular job would have been able to be available for all of these different scheduled time slots.
Stairs-before
Kitchen
Backyard-before and after, but I intend on putting a pool in for next summer
Ping pong room-after
Dining and ping pong room after
Upstairs-after
Upstairs-before
Living room-after
Living room-after
Living room from upstairs-after
Living room-before
Living room-before
Living room from upstairs-after
My Bathroom
My office in my bedroom-after
My new TV and dresser
My bedroom-after. My bedding hasn't arrived yet so I am having to make due with queen sized stuff on my new king sized bed...most comfortable mattress ever! I also have not gotten around to hanging my mirror yet.
My room-before
My room-before
New homeowner
View from the street
I did not include any pictures of Josh's room, Josh's office, Josh's bathroom, Kevin's room, Kevin's bathroom, or the guest room because I took all of the the after pictures at about 1am and they were sleeping, but they are all pretty standard rooms that you wouldn't get much excitement out of anyway.
5 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms, 3550 Sq. Ft., 3 Car Garage, $268,000....and I'm pretty proud of it :)
I intended on including all of the ridiculous stuff I had to do in order to buy the house and get it in the shape it is in now, but just reliving all of that stuff will surely just put me back on life tilt. Just rest assured that owning a home is WAY more work than any human should have to do. That leads me to another point...how in the world do normal people find the time to buy a house? Almost everyday since I have moved in I have had to be at home (usually for a 3-5 hour window chosen at their discretion) in order to meet someone that had to do some work at my house. It has really sucked spending so much time waiting around for all these different people, but I don't understand how someone with a regular job would have been able to be available for all of these different scheduled time slots.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Attitude adjustment....
So being a home owner is way more work than it should be and hopefully all the stupid extra work will slow down a bit since I think I have taken care of almost everything I had planned.
Anyway, today my errand of the day was to go to the post office to get my mailbox re-keyed since I didn't get a copy of it from the bank when I bought the home. Google maps gave me incorrect directions to the post office nearest to my house and after running into a few different dead ends and no outlets and I got out my GPS to search for a post office. My GPS mentioned nothing about there being a post office anywhere near where I was looking. Oh well, I just decided to go to the nearest post office listed on my GPS. Guess what? There was no Post Office at the address it gave me and when my GPS lady said "you have reached your destination" there was no Post Office in site. I ended up finding that one, but it had moved a couple blocks down the road from the address my GPS gave me. Once I got inside and waited in line the lady told me I had to go to the Post Office for my zip code located at "Rainbow and Russell". Oh geez, that was supposed to be the first one I tried to find, but I was looking East of Rainbow on Russell and not exactly at the intersection. Guess what? When I got the the intersection of Rainbow and Russell there was no Post Office in site. Eventually, I found the Post Office I was supposed to be at, but it was about 4 blocks WEST of Rainbow on Russell. Google maps AND my GPS lied to me on different occasions. What should have been a 10 minute trip to the Post Office turned into about an hour and a half and I could feel the steam coming out of my ears.
So on the way home I stopped by Jersey Mikes Sub Shop and the worker was very friendly and asked me what I was up to today. Feeling sorry for myself I said "(sigh)....just out running errands". He said "Ah, you must have the day off today then, huh?" That really made me smile and I told him that I kinda had everyday off. It made me realize how much I would prefer doing an errand for 1:30 than I would to be making subs in a sub shop like this guy was and I immediately was in a much better mood.
Anyway, today my errand of the day was to go to the post office to get my mailbox re-keyed since I didn't get a copy of it from the bank when I bought the home. Google maps gave me incorrect directions to the post office nearest to my house and after running into a few different dead ends and no outlets and I got out my GPS to search for a post office. My GPS mentioned nothing about there being a post office anywhere near where I was looking. Oh well, I just decided to go to the nearest post office listed on my GPS. Guess what? There was no Post Office at the address it gave me and when my GPS lady said "you have reached your destination" there was no Post Office in site. I ended up finding that one, but it had moved a couple blocks down the road from the address my GPS gave me. Once I got inside and waited in line the lady told me I had to go to the Post Office for my zip code located at "Rainbow and Russell". Oh geez, that was supposed to be the first one I tried to find, but I was looking East of Rainbow on Russell and not exactly at the intersection. Guess what? When I got the the intersection of Rainbow and Russell there was no Post Office in site. Eventually, I found the Post Office I was supposed to be at, but it was about 4 blocks WEST of Rainbow on Russell. Google maps AND my GPS lied to me on different occasions. What should have been a 10 minute trip to the Post Office turned into about an hour and a half and I could feel the steam coming out of my ears.
So on the way home I stopped by Jersey Mikes Sub Shop and the worker was very friendly and asked me what I was up to today. Feeling sorry for myself I said "(sigh)....just out running errands". He said "Ah, you must have the day off today then, huh?" That really made me smile and I told him that I kinda had everyday off. It made me realize how much I would prefer doing an errand for 1:30 than I would to be making subs in a sub shop like this guy was and I immediately was in a much better mood.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Very proud day of poker....
Pretty much anything that can go wrong in poker has been going wrong for me lately and it has been taking a toll on my mental stability. It is just one of those ruts that any poker player has been in many times...every time you get all your money in the middle you just get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that whatever card your opponent needs will be the next one off the deck. No matter how strong your hand is you can never be comfortable when you are in all-in situations. Josh and I often talk about how we "know" or we can "feel" sometimes when we are going to lose and it does seem uncanny how often that horrible feeling turns out to the correct. However, we also talk about whether or not we actually get that feeling or if we only notice/remember it when we end up losing the hand (this is the most likely case). I always try to maintain a really positive attitude when faced with all-in situations. Some people root against the cards that their opponents need such as when they say "No Ace, No Ace!". I advocate all of my friends to try to change their attitude and be more positive when they are all-in and to choose a specific card that they want to see and cheer for that one. After all, it is more fun to root for something than against it and this could help to keep a positive mindset. I usually choose one that will make me win the hand, but doesn't improve my hand (assuming I got my money in ahead) For example, if I have pair of Aces and they have a heart flush draw I will choose the 7 of clubs to root for. Just so you know, I am only talking about online poker. One thing you will never see me do in your life is to audibly root for or against a card while playing live poker unless I am jokingly doing so. Also, if you are one of the people that do that you can assume I think you are very annoying to play poker with, especially if I am having a losing session. None of this really matters in the grand scheme and I am not sure why I wasted so much time writing about what boils down to being nothing more than stupid poker superstitions. However, if you can do anything to help keep your thoughts positive while you are playing it will serve you very well in your decision making and tilt control. I suppose if you have to be superstitious to stay positive then go for it.
I digress...I have been getting the horrible feeling that I am going to lose during all-ins ALOT lately and I have been losing WAY more than my fair share of them. I am about $16,000 below expectation this month and it REALLY messes with your confidence to run so poorly. However, today I fought very hard and refused to let running badly stop me from having a losing day of poker. I lost my VERY first hand of the day for a full buy-in at $600 PLO...what a great way to start. The bad news is it went down hill from there. Before I knew what hit me and about an hour and a half I was down over $3600 and my confidence was reeling pretty badly. I took a short break to regroup and got back to the grind determined to out work the bad luck I was having. I got to within $500 or so of being even, but ended up losing about $950 in a 5 hour session. I then went to meet Clint, Charlie, and Tyrone for dinner at Noodles. After dinner I came home and got back to the grind. Somehow after 8 hours of playing today I ended up winning $1434 despite running $1200 below expectation. I have had much bigger winning days than today, but staying so focused and determined makes this win feel sooo much better. I look forward to continuing to crush their faces tomorrow.
Here is what an 8 hour day of determined playing looks like in graphical form:
I digress...I have been getting the horrible feeling that I am going to lose during all-ins ALOT lately and I have been losing WAY more than my fair share of them. I am about $16,000 below expectation this month and it REALLY messes with your confidence to run so poorly. However, today I fought very hard and refused to let running badly stop me from having a losing day of poker. I lost my VERY first hand of the day for a full buy-in at $600 PLO...what a great way to start. The bad news is it went down hill from there. Before I knew what hit me and about an hour and a half I was down over $3600 and my confidence was reeling pretty badly. I took a short break to regroup and got back to the grind determined to out work the bad luck I was having. I got to within $500 or so of being even, but ended up losing about $950 in a 5 hour session. I then went to meet Clint, Charlie, and Tyrone for dinner at Noodles. After dinner I came home and got back to the grind. Somehow after 8 hours of playing today I ended up winning $1434 despite running $1200 below expectation. I have had much bigger winning days than today, but staying so focused and determined makes this win feel sooo much better. I look forward to continuing to crush their faces tomorrow.
Here is what an 8 hour day of determined playing looks like in graphical form:
Sunday, June 21, 2009
That's it Mr. Anonymous, you've done it now...
This comment was left after my last blog about how I had been running poorly in tournaments by none other than "Anonymous".
Anonymous said...
Last confrontation of tournament means little -- shouldn't you be focusing more on hands prior to your last coin flip?
What caused you to be in such a desperate situation?
I have ranted before about how anonymous comments drove me crazy, but I just now got around to making it so you have to be logged in to leave me comments.
I don't know who this person is that left it, but if your purpose was to needle me about running poorly in tournaments and poker in general then you played the game well, and I tip my hat to your creativity. If you were being serious and trying to get me to re-evaluate my play leading up to my "desperate situation" then you failed at the game. Afterall, it would be very counter-productive for me to try to learn how to not be card dead for hours on end.
In other news, I played another $1,500 event yesterday in which I once again did not make it out of the second level of blinds. I have also been getting my face smashed when I play poker online too. I am trying my best to maintain my sanity, but that is not coming as easily as it normally does for some reason. I am looking forward to the houseboat trip at Kentucky Lake over the 4th of July weekend....it will be a much needed break from poker. Until then, I will continue to grind my life away and hopefully start playing and thinking about poker in a little more positive manner.
Anonymous said...
Last confrontation of tournament means little -- shouldn't you be focusing more on hands prior to your last coin flip?
What caused you to be in such a desperate situation?
I have ranted before about how anonymous comments drove me crazy, but I just now got around to making it so you have to be logged in to leave me comments.
I don't know who this person is that left it, but if your purpose was to needle me about running poorly in tournaments and poker in general then you played the game well, and I tip my hat to your creativity. If you were being serious and trying to get me to re-evaluate my play leading up to my "desperate situation" then you failed at the game. Afterall, it would be very counter-productive for me to try to learn how to not be card dead for hours on end.
In other news, I played another $1,500 event yesterday in which I once again did not make it out of the second level of blinds. I have also been getting my face smashed when I play poker online too. I am trying my best to maintain my sanity, but that is not coming as easily as it normally does for some reason. I am looking forward to the houseboat trip at Kentucky Lake over the 4th of July weekend....it will be a much needed break from poker. Until then, I will continue to grind my life away and hopefully start playing and thinking about poker in a little more positive manner.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I lied....
I wasn't going to get luckier in my next wsop tourney or the one after that. I have played 3 tourneys and lost all 5 coinflips I was involved in.
I lost 33 vs. K9 (52.5%)
I lost AK vs. QQ (42.6%)
I lost QJ vs. 33 (48.6%)
I lost K9s vs. QJs (56.2%)
I lost open ended straight flush draw vs. one pair (49.9%)
Winning any one of those could have greatly impacted my chances in any of the tourneys, but it wasn't meant to be. The odds of me losing all 5 coinflips are 3.04%.
I really don't think I could have done anything any better than I did in the tournaments I played and that is why tournaments REALLY suck. I will not be playing the main event this year. I don't feel like wasting $10,000 and being at the mercy of being card dead and/or being unlucky in another forced coinflip situation. The good news is I won't have to leave my houseboat trip a night early like I thought I would to make it back to play in the main event.
Josh and I talked about a possible prop bet of some sort where I have to grow out ONLY a mustache and no other facial hair for at least one month. I have never had any facial hair other than whatever grew during lazy periods of not shaving. I think it would be pretty awesome if I grew a Jim Dangle style mustache, but I am not even sure if I am capable of it.
If you guys are lucky maybe I'll grow a sweet mustache and take a picture for you wearing some shorts like his too.
I lost 33 vs. K9 (52.5%)
I lost AK vs. QQ (42.6%)
I lost QJ vs. 33 (48.6%)
I lost K9s vs. QJs (56.2%)
I lost open ended straight flush draw vs. one pair (49.9%)
Winning any one of those could have greatly impacted my chances in any of the tourneys, but it wasn't meant to be. The odds of me losing all 5 coinflips are 3.04%.
I really don't think I could have done anything any better than I did in the tournaments I played and that is why tournaments REALLY suck. I will not be playing the main event this year. I don't feel like wasting $10,000 and being at the mercy of being card dead and/or being unlucky in another forced coinflip situation. The good news is I won't have to leave my houseboat trip a night early like I thought I would to make it back to play in the main event.
Josh and I talked about a possible prop bet of some sort where I have to grow out ONLY a mustache and no other facial hair for at least one month. I have never had any facial hair other than whatever grew during lazy periods of not shaving. I think it would be pretty awesome if I grew a Jim Dangle style mustache, but I am not even sure if I am capable of it.
If you guys are lucky maybe I'll grow a sweet mustache and take a picture for you wearing some shorts like his too.
Monday, June 1, 2009
So I finally figured out how I am going to do better in my next WSOP event....
I finally figured out what I have been missing from my tournament game....I need to start getting luckier! This is not a bad beat story or even a bad beat story disguised as a regular story. This is just a story about how much luck is involved in tournaments. I played in the $1,000 NL WSOP Event #4 and busted sometime in the 5th or 6th hour. I didn't make any mistakes or do anything that I wish I would have done differently and I still didn't win or even cash, but that is the nature of tournaments. It is possible there were a few spots that a really great tournament player might have squeezed out a few extra chips here and there, but I played to the best of my ability.
Twice at my table people had pocket aces while their opponent held pocket kings. Both times the aces held up. Its not like either player did anything wrong or even anything well in either one of those hands. When two people happen to get dealt those two hands all of the money is going to go in the middle (barring some extreme/weird situations) and either one of them is going to go broke or someone is going to double up. When you get dealt AA or KK you are prepared to hopefully win a big pot, but you at least want the chance to play a big pot with those hands.
I got dealt Kings once and Aces once. Both times I happened to be in the cutoff and it was folded to me. Both times I made my normal raise and both times everyone folded behind me and I won the blinds. Its not like I played my hands any differently than the people that doubled up with aces at my table would have played them. I just wasn't lucky enough to get involved in the same situations that they were.
There are other times in tournaments where action is forced in ways that it wouldn't be in a cash game. For example: I raised on the cutoff with 33 and the short stacked Pokerstars pro Dario Minieri raised all-in just like I suspected he would be doing in the near future. I already knew he would be doing this with a very wide range of hands and that eventually I was going to end up in some type of race situation with him. This time he had K9o and he caught a 9 on the river in about a 4k pot (when the blinds were 75/150). Then about 45 minutes later I raised with AKo and Dario re-raised me...we ended up getting all in preflop again and he help QQ this time and he won again and this time it was for an 8k pot and I was eliminated. There was nothing I could have or would have done different in either spot and I don't think many other people would have either.
That is just the way it goes in tournaments. In the next tournament I play in hopefully I will have some better luck and these unavoidable situations will end up going my way, because when they don't there is little you can do to help your chances to succeed.
My next tourney may be tomorrow in the $1500 NL and if not then it will be the following day in the $2500 Half Pot Limit Hold'em and Half Pot Limit Omaha.
Twice at my table people had pocket aces while their opponent held pocket kings. Both times the aces held up. Its not like either player did anything wrong or even anything well in either one of those hands. When two people happen to get dealt those two hands all of the money is going to go in the middle (barring some extreme/weird situations) and either one of them is going to go broke or someone is going to double up. When you get dealt AA or KK you are prepared to hopefully win a big pot, but you at least want the chance to play a big pot with those hands.
I got dealt Kings once and Aces once. Both times I happened to be in the cutoff and it was folded to me. Both times I made my normal raise and both times everyone folded behind me and I won the blinds. Its not like I played my hands any differently than the people that doubled up with aces at my table would have played them. I just wasn't lucky enough to get involved in the same situations that they were.
There are other times in tournaments where action is forced in ways that it wouldn't be in a cash game. For example: I raised on the cutoff with 33 and the short stacked Pokerstars pro Dario Minieri raised all-in just like I suspected he would be doing in the near future. I already knew he would be doing this with a very wide range of hands and that eventually I was going to end up in some type of race situation with him. This time he had K9o and he caught a 9 on the river in about a 4k pot (when the blinds were 75/150). Then about 45 minutes later I raised with AKo and Dario re-raised me...we ended up getting all in preflop again and he help QQ this time and he won again and this time it was for an 8k pot and I was eliminated. There was nothing I could have or would have done different in either spot and I don't think many other people would have either.
That is just the way it goes in tournaments. In the next tournament I play in hopefully I will have some better luck and these unavoidable situations will end up going my way, because when they don't there is little you can do to help your chances to succeed.
My next tourney may be tomorrow in the $1500 NL and if not then it will be the following day in the $2500 Half Pot Limit Hold'em and Half Pot Limit Omaha.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
What downswing?
I always have prided myself in having great self control and never really allowing myself or my play to become too affected by losing. The reason this is so important is because it is very easy for losing to breed more losing if you let it affect your play. Recently, I had my biggest downswing ever in terms of money lost, but thanks to some serious grinding in the last 15 days I have almost completely erased my downswing in online poker (I didn't keep track of my live losses, but those need some recovering as well, lol). I would show you my lifetime graph so you could see for yourself how drastic my downswing and subsequent upswing were, but I am holding off showing my lifetime graph until I have reached the 1,000,000 hand milestone. I am almost at 600,000 hands right now and hopefully I will make it to the million hand mark sometime around the end of this year or beginning of next.
Anyway, since I have been back in Vegas and really had grind on the mind I have won around $14k in about 15 days and I am not stopping here! I did however notice when I was looking at my graph that following every sharp upswing there is usually a semi-sharp downswing. I don't know if I get cocky and/or complacent or lose that feeling of my back being against the wall, but somehow I always seem to have a small downswing after big upswings. I guess you can't just win all the time or there wouldn't be any upswings...it would just be, well....winning all the time! Makes perfect since, huh? Regardless, I am going to work hard at staying focused and not lose my money making work ethic this time and hopefully I will go on my biggest upswing of all time!
Time to go watch the Lebron show in game 3 against the Magic.
Here is my tentative WSOP schedule....there is no way I will actually play in all of these, but these are the ones I have interest in:
WSOP Schedule
Saturday May 30th $1,000 NLHE
Tuesday June 2nd $1,500 NLHE
Wednesday June 3rd $2,500 PLHE + PLO
Tuesday June 9th $1,500 PLHE
Saturday June 13th $1,500 NLHE
Saturday June 20th $1,500 NLHE
Saturday June 27th $1,500 NLHE
Monday July 6th Day 1D of Main Event $10,000 NLHE
Anyway, since I have been back in Vegas and really had grind on the mind I have won around $14k in about 15 days and I am not stopping here! I did however notice when I was looking at my graph that following every sharp upswing there is usually a semi-sharp downswing. I don't know if I get cocky and/or complacent or lose that feeling of my back being against the wall, but somehow I always seem to have a small downswing after big upswings. I guess you can't just win all the time or there wouldn't be any upswings...it would just be, well....winning all the time! Makes perfect since, huh? Regardless, I am going to work hard at staying focused and not lose my money making work ethic this time and hopefully I will go on my biggest upswing of all time!
Time to go watch the Lebron show in game 3 against the Magic.
Here is my tentative WSOP schedule....there is no way I will actually play in all of these, but these are the ones I have interest in:
WSOP Schedule
Saturday May 30th $1,000 NLHE
Tuesday June 2nd $1,500 NLHE
Wednesday June 3rd $2,500 PLHE + PLO
Tuesday June 9th $1,500 PLHE
Saturday June 13th $1,500 NLHE
Saturday June 20th $1,500 NLHE
Saturday June 27th $1,500 NLHE
Monday July 6th Day 1D of Main Event $10,000 NLHE
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Jurrasic Poker
So poker has been going less than fantastic lately, but I finally had my first great day in a while yesterday. I played over 5,000 hands and won over $6,600 in about 9 hours worth of playing. When I was finished playing I obviously had to spend sometime admiring my fantastic looking graph. I couldn't help but notice the resemblance to a brontosaurus. In case you aren't as creative as I am I have done you a favor and filled in the rest of him with some of my amazing MSPaint skills. It was nice to run so well for such a long session and it was really awesome to top it off with such a crazy heater at the end of my day. Enjoy.
Here is a more realistic picture of a brontosaurus in case you didn't pay attention in 2nd grade.
Here is a more realistic picture of a brontosaurus in case you didn't pay attention in 2nd grade.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Horse Handicapping 101:
Tip #1: Go to the $20 minimum so you don't have to wait in the long lines since you will definitely be making $20 worth of bets. Then, once the lady tells you it is a $20 minimum bet for each wager (as in only $20 exacta boxes and not a $4 exacta box totaling $24) pick one of the horses at random that you had planned to use in your exacta and place a $20 straight wager on the horse to win. Therefore, you will still avoid waiting in the long lines at the regular window and its not like you knew what you were doing in the first place. Here is the result:
The horse went off at 4:1 and paid me back $100 :)
Tip #2: After you make all of the bets you are going to make on the derby and the last race of the day ask yourself if you have enough action on the race. The answer will almost always be "No!" so march right back to the window and pick a number of very random horses and put them in some sort of exacta or trifecta box. I went with the additional $1 exacta box with 3 horses totaling $6. Here is the result:
Just like I knew it would happen; the 50:1 longshot, Mine that Bird (edited to the correct name of the horse thanks to "anonymous"), won in convincing fashion despite having speed ratings much lower than the rest of the field. Also, the two other random horses I picked somehow managed to run in 2nd and 4th position giving me the exacta for $1,030!
**Disclaimer: I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to handicapping horses and these tips should not be attempted with real money, unless you are a degenerate like myself and don't mind losing a few hundred dollars about 95% of the time.**
Here is the obligatory picture of me and Jessica in her derby hat complete with transvestite/cross-dressing/shemale in the background!
Here is the view of the derby from our seats as the horses ran by the first time.
Here is our view as the horses are being loaded into the starting gates.
I am still in Indy for now and have Derek's graduation to attend on Saturday, but I am looking forward to getting back home and back on the grind.
The horse went off at 4:1 and paid me back $100 :)
Tip #2: After you make all of the bets you are going to make on the derby and the last race of the day ask yourself if you have enough action on the race. The answer will almost always be "No!" so march right back to the window and pick a number of very random horses and put them in some sort of exacta or trifecta box. I went with the additional $1 exacta box with 3 horses totaling $6. Here is the result:
Just like I knew it would happen; the 50:1 longshot, Mine that Bird (edited to the correct name of the horse thanks to "anonymous"), won in convincing fashion despite having speed ratings much lower than the rest of the field. Also, the two other random horses I picked somehow managed to run in 2nd and 4th position giving me the exacta for $1,030!
**Disclaimer: I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to handicapping horses and these tips should not be attempted with real money, unless you are a degenerate like myself and don't mind losing a few hundred dollars about 95% of the time.**
Here is the obligatory picture of me and Jessica in her derby hat complete with transvestite/cross-dressing/shemale in the background!
Here is the view of the derby from our seats as the horses ran by the first time.
Here is our view as the horses are being loaded into the starting gates.
I am still in Indy for now and have Derek's graduation to attend on Saturday, but I am looking forward to getting back home and back on the grind.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)