WOW.....so I read the article on CR about 12 tabling and thought I'd give it a shot just to see how I like it. I couldn't 12 table, but I did pull off 3 sessions today of 9 tabling and I just have one thing to say.....MY BRAIN IS FRIED!!! Overall, I played around 3,500 hands today which is by far the most I've every played in one day. The results so far are a little choppy. I think I'm down maybe around 2-2.5 buy-ins which isn't much variance for 3K hands. i would've been even for the day, but I was the victim of two bad beats towards the end of the last session which put me in the red. Oh well....shit happens and we move on.

I did notice one thing though.....I played a lot more solid playing 9 tables than I do when I play 4. I was able to make laydowns I could never make playing 4 tables. I didn't easily pay off people in tough spots and felt like my game was much better playing that many tables. I thought that was weird, but I guess it makes sense that when there's so much going on, it's easier to lay down a hand and wait for another situation where you're dominating instead of being dominated. It kind of bring you back to the first rule of poker.....wait for the spots to put your money in.

Over the next two days I'm gonna try to play another 6,500 hands so I can see what the results are like after 10K hands. Hopefully that'll give me an idea of how I'm doing playing so many tables and if that's more profitable hourly compared to 4 tabling. I know the bb/100 will be much lower, but the added hands per hour combine with rakeback should make the hourly rate jump up a little.

Time to get some sleep!

Holla!

AK

Yesterday I went to Shreveport to play some poker and hang out with friends. Spending time and hanging out with my friends was tons of fun. Poker on the other hand was quite boring. Once you get used to playing 200-250 hand per hour playing online, it gets irritating when people just act so much in live games and take extra time so you only get like 30 hands an hour.

One of my friends suffered one of the worst bad beats that I've witnessed live. The board was 2Q446. My buddy had pocket QQ for Queens full and the other guy had 44 for quad 4's. It was a sick pot because both of the guys were 150bb deep and of coarse all the money went in.

Besides the poker, we did some shopping over at the Louisiana Boardwalk. I've been to shreveport many times before but had never visited the boardwalk before. It was a fun place to hang out.

I'm also back playing Cash games and SNGs and I like that mix compared to only playing one type of game. I'll update later as I have more hands logged.

Holla!

AK

Poker:

I took a few days off from poker because of the mental anguish my downswing was causing me and guess what? I feel great!!! I think I needed that break to get some confidence back in my game. It's true what they say: Poker has a way of making good players feel like they suck and make horrible players feel like they are amazing.

I've decided to take a couple of weeks off from my regular cash games and try playing some sit-n-go tourneys just to get a change in my game so I don't burn out playing just one type of game. I'm gonna try my best to play 1,000 SNGs by the end of November and analyze my results to see how I do. SNGs seem boring compared to the action of the cash games I'm used to because of how tight you have to play in the beginning stages, but it does get quite crazy later on. I used to play SNGs from time to time in the past, but I have noticed one thing. Even low stakes SNG players are much better now then they were a year ago. Thanks CR ;-)

Non-Poker:

This past Friday night I hit up this club called Tribeca and had a good time. It was my first time at this place and I was surprised at how good the music was. They played a lof of hip-hop that I like mixed with some old school stuff. The Vallet guys were huge poker fans so I got awesome treatment from them.

It's a little weird everytime I go to a club because I don't drink and people who don't drink usually feel out of place since everyone around them is drinking. I've been using a technique for a long time that does the job everytime in this situation. For those of you who don't drink, here's a tip: go to the bar and just ask for Pineapple juice with ice. It looks like it's an alcaholic beverage, but it's not so it works great for the image. It's all about the image at a club, right?

Holla!

AK

So I made my first big purchase from poker a few months ago.....got myself a new ride...a Lexus SC430 Hardtop Convertible.....it's sooooo freakin' sweet....bright red, black interior, fully loaded, and I hooked it up with some 20 inch Giovanna chrome rims....Baller!!!

I love the attention it gets....specially because my license plate spells "Poker Pro" and it makes me feel like a damn celebrity everywhere I go because people ask so many poker related questions....I think it's going to my head, but gotta enjoy the rewards of such a harsh and stressful game, right?

I'm finally in the black for the month so that feels good, but let's hope the remaining month goes well. It's just that I have never ran this bad and it feels like complete crap, but I know it happens and I accept it. That's about it for this blog entry.

Please leave comments if you like. Thanks.

Holla!!

AK

So I've been pretty deciplined and staying at a lower limit than I usually play because the downswing was really messing up my head. I'm gonna stay at this lower limit till I make about 10 more buy-ins and move back to my regular game. It sucks that I'm not making as much as I'm used to, but at least I know I'm making better decisions without thinking about how much money is at stake. The run of cards is still pretty bad so the losses aren't hurting as much at the lower limit too. The following hand basically sums up how the last 5 days of my 18 buy-in downswing happened:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: BiggieT3 ($155.55)
Seat 2: sandeh ($68.85)
Seat 3: AK4eva ($100.40) -
Seat 4: GonzalesInTexas ($57.85) -
Seat 5: sfxman ($115.35) -
Seat 6: HD Night Train ($18.90)


PRE-FLOP:

GonzalesInTexas posts small blind $0.50
sfxman posts BIG blind $1
Dealt To: AK4eva


FOLD HD Night Train
FOLD BiggieT3
FOLD sandeh
RAISE AK4eva ($3.50)
FOLD GonzalesInTexas
RAISE sfxman ($9)
CALL AK4eva ($5.50)


FLOP:

Pot: $18.5


BET sfxman ($18.50)
CALL AK4eva ($18.50)


TURN:

Pot: $55.5


CHECK sfxman
BET AK4eva ($36)
RAISE sfxman ($87.85)
CALL AK4eva ($36.90)
UNCALLED sfxman ($14.95)


RIVER:

Pot: $201.3




SHOWDOWN:
sfxman:

AK4eva:


sfxman collected $198.3 from main pot with two pair, Jacks and Eights

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $201 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: BiggieT3 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 2: sandeh didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: AK4eva button showed [As Ah] and lost with a pair of Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($-100.4)
Seat 4: GonzalesInTexas small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.5)
Seat 5: sfxman big blind showed [8s Jh] and won 198.30 with two pair, Jacks and Eights - Net Gain/Loss: ($97.9)

Seat 6: HD Night Train didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Even after a sick beat like that I was able to laugh it off, keep my focus, and still be up almost 3 buy-ins for the session today. I just felt good that I was able to continue playing well and make good decisions after that hand. It can be hard at times to keep focus after something like that and I'm trying my best to control it. I think that is one of the main qualities that can make a good player great. The fundamentals of the game are the same, it's just the mental control that makes the difference.

Tonight was also fun because one of my friends is making a new album so I got to hang out at the recording studio while he was recording with a few singers. That's always fun. Very baller!

It's almost 5am so time to hit the bed....got a busy day tomorrow....till next time....Holla!

AK

This month started off great with me being up around 15 buy-ins in the first 11 days. That felt great and then the downswing came. I've pretty much lost majority of big pots where I was the favorite when all the money went in. In the past 3 days, I'm down 18 buy-ins. I analyzed my plays and stats in poker tracking and about 5 buy-ins were me making bad plays and 13 buy-ins were just other people sucking out. PRETTY SICK!!!!

I know that's still just down 3 buy-ins for the month, but when all of the month's profit so far dissappears when you're playing great, but getting unlucky just plain sucks ass. I think I'm gonna take the next few days off from poker so I can just clear my head. I'll probably drop down a limit just so I'm not pressuring myself too much. Hopefully that will help! Ok, I'm done venting. :-)

Holla!

AK

I've been running well and have been playing great for the past week and the results have been great. Still, for some reason I just haven't felt like playing much.

I came up with a goal at the start of the month to play around 1500-2000 hands a day. I'd like to play around 50,000 hands this month. I'm breaking it down in sessions of 400-500 hands, but after I'm done with around 1000 hands, I just don't feel like playing. I really need to work on that.

I was bored with the 6-max games yesterday and saw my brother online and decided to challenge him to a heads-up match since we have a nice poker rivalry going. Long story short, he kicked my ass for 3 buy-ins in around 600 hands. That felt absolutely horrible!!!! It wasn't even the money....I just hate losing to him since I'm the one to coached him and made him a good player.

This post can't be complete without giving a shout out to the amazing DALLAS COWBOYS for a great win last night!!! Yes, I'm from Dallas so I have to brag.

Till next time....Holla!

AK

The last couple of days have been great poker wise. I feel focused and back on the top of my game. I've been running fairly well too which can create a false sense of security because when the cards turn, it can be hard to stay focused and not tilt.

I've been playing for quite some time now. I finally had one of those beats today that you don't hear much about. In the past 200K or so hands, yesterday was the first time I lost with a straight flush to a higher straight flush and we were both almost 200 BB deep. Even though it stung cause I've never had a beat like that, it added to my poker experiences and I took it pretty well. I didn't tilt at all after I lost that pot which really surprised me and I continued to play and had a great overall session.

Please provide feedback on what kinds of things you all would like to read about so I can put more emphasis on certain things.

Thanks and good luck at the tables!

AK

This past month has been a rollercoaster poker wise. Lots of players out there are too busy building their bankroll to actually enjoy the money they make playing poker. I follow strict bankroll management rules and plan to keep moving up as my bankroll builds, but I also like to splurge once in a while. Specially when on a horrible downswing. Instead of tilting away money, I like to take some out and spend it on myself. Brings back the motivation to work harder and enjoy the fruits of the hard labor all us grinders like to call poker. Where's this leading??? To the title of this blog entry........

While I was having my ass handed to me a few days ago, I decided to take a break and go get an Apple iPhone.....and I must say, it is one of the best purchases I have ever made. If you don't have one, I highly recommend you go out and get one ASAP. It does everything.....it's freakin' amazing! I've never been a big Apple fan since majority of my poker software doesn't run on macs, but now that the iBooks can run windows, I'm seriously considering getting one. The iPhone has made me a believer in Apple products. I think that's enough of me promoting a product for which I get absolutely no compensation.

Now for a little poker talk. Had a 5 buy-in downwing yesterday, but came back strong today and made 3 buy-ins. My brother was on two of my tables today when I was multi-tabling and I made some money off of him which was just so SWEET!!! It's feels much better to bust him than anyone else cause we have a poker rivalry going and a side bet each time one of us busts the other.

I'm gonna try to get some sleep and put in some serious sessions tomorrow.

Holla!

AK