I'm up just a bit over 38K this month in just under 9.8K hands all at 5/10, winning at 19.43 ptbb/100. I suck and don't know how to/ am too lazy to post a graph, maybe one day tho. Just playing solid and running like God, don't know what else to say. Yea that's about it, i might find some interesting hands from this month and post them later.
I would say good luck to you all but I doubt there is enough for everyone, I'm taking it all.

-Kevin

So far I'm up $16,759 in 6853 hands in october at 5/10. I have been playing pretty well (minus a drunk session that started with me spewing left and right, but i refused to stop playing until i was at least even, resulting in a 5 hour session where i made 1.5 buyins) and obviously running hot.

Once again, I have no idea what to write about in here. Posting hands and writing my thoughts is ok, but i dont really get anything out of it, as I already knew my reasoning. Not sure what else I could write about, but write now i have no decent ideas so I guess I will just update my results occasionally until I have the urge to write about anything else. I'm always open to suggestions, so feel free to give me ideas.

-Kevin

I'm an idiot and don't know how to post images in the blog, but ended up winning $25,744 in 19,627 hands. Things are going well in october so far at 5/10 as I'm up $6388 in 3320 hands. Gonna keep trying to play decent and run good.

I have not played a lot of poker since my last blog, but when I have, things have been going well. I played a very short session at 25/50 the other day with a big fish, and ended up winning AK>KK all in pre when he had about a 3k stack. Ended up about 3800 in that session altogether. I have also played a couple sessions of 5/10 the last 2 days, and have won about 3 buyins exactly both sessions. Im going to attempt to move up to 5/10 even tho my online roll is small, as I have been taking out money recently to prepare to pay for my second semester tuition. Boston College is one of the most expensive schools in the country, so i need to make about 65k per year just to pay for school, the house off campus im living in, food and utilites at the house, and taxes. This has held me back in the past from moving up even though I think my skill level is high enough to beat 5/10, but I am very confident in my game right now and if I drop the 6 buyins I made the last 2 days I can just move back down to 2/4. There are always some interesting hands at 5/10, especially at the deep games, so I guess I will talk about one or two now.


As you can see below, this hand was played with pretty deep stacks (me and kikka both 240BB deep). I did not recognize this player but he seemed to be playing standard, so I did not label him a fish like I do with most random guys automatically.

I think the flat pre is standard with such deep stacks, nothing to talk about there. There are four to the flop and I bet after the SB checks and the initial raiser checks. Pretty obvious bet on the flop to protect my hand against the flush draw and potential straight draws, and get values from hands like KQ, QJ, etc. Turn is not too exciting either, just going for value from the same hands and protecting against the same draws.

The river is a strange spot. The flush draw does hit, but there could definitely be some value in betting against a stubborn KQ or AQ. I strongly considered checking to let him bluff a missed straight draw, but I would have to be more confident he would actually turn some tens or queens into bluffs to do this. I bet fairly small on the river, 625 into about 1080. He absolutely snap jammed for 1910, and put me in a tough spot.

Timing was crucial in my decision to call, along with my bet sizing on the river. Going street by street, he snapped called the flop. This looks more like a weak made hand (looking to stop me from barreling potential air or draws) than a straight or flush draw. I think he would take a bit more time with a draw, considering both a raise or call.

The turn timing is also important. He times down a lot after I bet about 3/4 pot on the turn. This could be a sign of a draw thinking about pot odds and implied odds, but along with the flop timing info, leads me to believe he still has a mediocre strength made hand. He is rethinking the strength of his hand against my range to bet into a four way pot on both the flop and turn. His hand really seems like QJ, KQ, or something along those lines.

On the river (with my estimation that a large portion of his range is QJ or KQ) I think a small value bet/inducing bet is the best option. If I make a large value bet (like 850) he will fold his medium strength hand, almost never turn any made hands into a bluff, and almost never bluff shove a bricked straight draw. If I check, he checks down his medium strength hand and I miss a lot of value. In hindsight, I like betting a little smaller, about 550 instead of 625 which I think might induce a bluff shove/made hand turned into a bluff shove a bit more, but its a pretty minor detail.
My timing on the river was important too. I used my time bank for a bit before betting the river, which I think he thought was a sign of me getting ready to make a thin value bet, turn a made hand into a bluff, or bet a bricked straight draw. His snap shove on the river has to be taken into account as well. He never has a higher set (would 3 bet QQ and TT pre a lot, and if not pre, would raise my flop or turn bet) and would always think on the river before making a light value shove after the flush hit. So all that beats me for value shoves are flushes, and he would almost definitely think before shoving a small or medium flush for value, as a nut flush draw or a hand like KJcc is a large portion of my flop and turn betting range. He would also most likely time down with a big flush, to induce me to call with a weaker hand.

The most important thing on this river is getting inside his head; I look like I am value betting fairly thin with the time down, meaning he should turn hands into bluffs and bluff shove missed straight draws here a lot because of how hard pressed it will be for me to call without a big flush. My timing down and small sizing also means I could be making a last attempt at winning the pot cheaply with a missed straight draw myself. I think I could say more about the hand, but I am getting bored and just rambling on, post any questions or criticisms about the hand in the comments section. And I know I am not the most eloquent writer ever, I am just getting the main points about my thought process down.

And for the real thought process on the hand:

Pre: a pair is good
Flop: OMG I HAVE A SET BETTTTT
Turn: PROTECT AGAINST THE DRAWS, NO CLUB!!!
River: FUCKING CLUBBBBB, MAYBE HE'S BLUFFING, BUT MOSTLY FUCK HIM FOR SUCKING OUT, CALLLL!!!!

After hand: I AM THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD!!!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


And there is now way Alex Yen (CR instructor Zaitzev) made a hole-in-one. He is prolly just writing it to get more blog hits and comments.

Full Tilt Poker Game #14995164671: Table Keifer (6 max, ante, deep) - $5/$10 Ante $1.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:30:14 ET - 2009/09/28
Seat 1: kikka66 ($2,395.50)
Seat 2: jvans ($1,000)
Seat 3: an_angel_girl ($691.55)
Seat 4: Quiness ($1,823.50), is sitting out
Seat 5: Piston_Honda_25 ($2,248)
Seat 6: Eagle314 ($2,577.50)
Piston_Honda_25 antes $1.50
kikka66 antes $1.50
Eagle314 antes $1.50
an_angel_girl antes $1.50
jvans antes $1.50
jvans has 5 seconds left to act
jvans posts the small blind of $5
an_angel_girl posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Eagle314 [2s 2d]
Piston_Honda_25 raises to $42.50
Eagle314 calls $42.50
kikka66 calls $42.50
jvans calls $37.50
an_angel_girl folds
*** FLOP *** [Tc 2c Qs]
jvans checks
Piston_Honda_25 checks
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 bets $120
kikka66 calls $120
jvans folds
jvans adds $44
Piston_Honda_25 folds
*** TURN *** [Tc 2c Qs] [4d]
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
kikka66 has been disconnected
Eagle314 bets $320
kikka66 has reconnected
kikka66 has 15 seconds left to act
kikka66 has requested TIME
kikka66 calls $320
*** RIVER *** [Tc 2c Qs 4d] [7c]
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 has requested TIME
Eagle314 bets $625
kikka66 raises to $1,911.50, and is all in
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 has requested TIME
Eagle314 calls $1,286.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kikka66 shows [Ad Td] a pair of Tens
Eagle314 shows [2s 2d] three of a kind, Twos
Eagle314 wins the pot ($4,887.50) with three of a kind, Twos
kikka66 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4,890.50 | Rake $3
Board: [Tc 2c Qs 4d 7c]
Seat 1: kikka66 (button) showed [Ad Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: jvans (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: an_angel_girl (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: Quiness is sitting out
Seat 5: Piston_Honda_25 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Eagle314 showed [2s 2d] and won ($4,887.50) with three of a kind, Twos

I was an idiot and played while drunk last night. I also played a few pretty tough 5/10 games which was not a good idea. I ended up about breakeven (up $200), but it was just a bad idea and showed a lack of discipline.

I played today and won a little over 6 buyins at 2/4, winning about $2425. I think i played pretty well overall, with some mistakes as always, but definitely played better than average today. I am just gonna keep doing what I'm doing now and hopefully keep winning 6 buyins a day.

There were a few interesting/tough spots against some good 5/10 players last night, most of them coming in very deep stacked situations.This hand was pretty tough but I will explain my thought process. Pre flop is obviously standard. Flop is a cbet most of the time because he can peel JT, KQ, etc. and I have to be balanced cbetting as I want to cbet with 57s or whatever other garbage I might 3 bet pre in this button vs. blind situation. Turn I double barrel after hitting the straight, and I also have the nut flush draw. Checking is bad as it lets him check back his 2 pair hands or pair and flush draw hands. River is a very weird spot imo. There is about $1350 in the pot on the river and after I check he shoves for $1665. One reason I check the river is I don't really see what I can get value from. I could shove and try to get him off a chop some portion of the time, but overall I think checking is the better option mainly because it looks like I am check/folding such a high percentage of the time. When I double barrel the turn my range looks like flushes, straights, and air mostly. I dont bet 2 pair or a set for value much on the turn, which I think my opponent knows. I think this guy realizes this and will shove tons of hands on the river he is turning into bluffs. I think he could turn Ax into a bluff here a fair amount because he knows once I check the river I rarely have a full house because I would not have double barreled 2 pair or sets on the turn often, and if i did, i would now bet the river with them to get value from straights or flushes. His overshove was also a big reason for my call. I think he bets half pot or so with his flushes to make me call lighter (straights or Ax occasionally) meaning the only hands he gets the the river with and overbet shoves are full houses (which are mostly AQ, AJ, A10, as he would either 4 bet QQ or JJ pre or raise the flop in the buttton vs. blind scenario with the aggressive dynamic we had). It was still a tough decision, but the more I think about it, the easier call I think it is.

Or maybe I'm just a station.

-Kevin




Full Tilt Poker Game #14770243253: Table Rachel Ann (6 max, ante, deep) - $5/$10 Ante $1.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:14:53 ET - 2009/09/18
Seat 2: NxtWrldChamp ($3,523.50)
Seat 3: URnotINdanger2 ($2,336.50)
Seat 5: Eagle314 ($4,626.25)
URnotINdanger2 antes $1.50
Eagle314 antes $1.50
NxtWrldChamp antes $1.50
Eagle314 posts the small blind of $5
NxtWrldChamp posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Eagle314 [Ks Kh]
URnotINdanger2 raises to $30
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 raises to $120
NxtWrldChamp folds
URnotINdanger2 calls $90
*** FLOP *** [Ah Qs Jh]
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 bets $160
URnotINdanger2 has 15 seconds left to act
URnotINdanger2 calls $160
*** TURN *** [Ah Qs Jh] [Th]
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 bets $390
URnotINdanger2 has 15 seconds left to act
URnotINdanger2 has requested TIME
URnotINdanger2 calls $390
*** RIVER *** [Ah Qs Jh Th] [Ac]
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 has timed out
Eagle314 checks
URnotINdanger2 has 15 seconds left to act
URnotINdanger2 has requested TIME
URnotINdanger2 bets $1,665, and is all in
Eagle314 has 15 seconds left to act
Eagle314 has requested TIME
Eagle314 calls $1,665
*** SHOW DOWN ***
URnotINdanger2 shows [Jd Qh] two pair, Aces and Queens
Eagle314 shows [Ks Kh] a straight, Ace high
Eagle314 wins the pot ($4,683.50) with a straight, Ace high
URnotINdanger2 adds $2,000
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $4,684.50 | Rake $1
Board: [Ah Qs Jh Th Ac]
Seat 2: NxtWrldChamp (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: URnotINdanger2 (button) showed [Jd Qh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 5: Eagle314 (small blind) showed [Ks Kh] and won ($4,683.50) with a straight, Ace high

I didn't play today and am not going to cuz im going out in a bit, but I am making this entry to punish anyone who saw this blog for not giving me a better title. I will comment on herofold's request (I will assume you meant 5 step instruction on how to be more like me as a poker player, not just in general).

1. Run Hot- Has been discussed before and everyone who has ever sweated a session of mine will agree I pull it off like no one else.

2. Don't be afraid to experiment and tweak your game- I do this a lot, especially whenever I feel like I am always second guessing myself during sessions and don't feel comfortable with my game.

3. Don't copy other players' games- We can't all be Raptor or CTS. Don't open 47s from the cutoff just because they do, do it because you think you can do it profitably (though I sure as hell will always open it).

4. Be honest with yourself- Don't automatically say "It's variance" everytime you are in a downswing. Critique yourself every single session and realize that you could have always played better. No one has ever played a perfect session of poker, so if Phil Ivey hasn't, then you know you won't.

5. Don't get lazy- This is the one I have recently realized and think I have eliminated. After moving back down to 2/4 after playing a mix of 5/10 through 25/50 for about 1.5 months, I thought I would absolutely crush and own everyone. I got lazy and played very bad by my standards for a long time. I just looked up my 2/4 results over time, and I have a lifetime winrate of 5.6 ptbb/100 over about 222,000 hands. This seems good to most people I'm sure, but I broke those hands in half and found I won at 7.5 ptbb/100 over the first 111,000 hands and just 3.7 ptbb/100 over the last 111,000 hands. This was not all variance. It was mostly based on my own poor play, and if there is one thing I do well compared to most players it is realizing that there is always room for improvement, and you should never ever be satisfied with your game. There is no reason to stop putting in effort to realize your full potential.


Time to go drink.

-Kevin

So things are continuing to go well. I won just under 6 buyins today, making about $2280. That puts the monthly total at $14,580, almost all at 2/4 with a little bit of 3/6 and 5/10. Played decent overall with the occasional spew, of course. Definitely made more than a few mistakes at the beginning of the session, but came back strong with decent play and usage of my never ending luckbox.

I dont really know what to write about in here, I like just putting a few thoughts on paper (well the computer) after I play, but i would definitely like suggestions or requests about what to write in here, as I would like to keep it updated at least fairly often. I guess from now on I will write about the best suggestion I see in the comment suggestion after posting results, and will also use the best title suggestion for my next blog (assuming it's at all appropriate). If I have to make the next title "The Comeback: Day 3" I might have to walk into oncoming traffic, so someone help me out here. Good luck guys, and just remember the number one rule of this stupid game: RUN HOTTTTTTTT

-Kevin

I am going to attempt to update occasionally here, not awesome entries like Raptor and DogisHead, but just keeping up to date on my progress in my attempt to become a great player. Day one went well as I won over 6.5 buyins at 2/4, or $2648.40. I feel like I played well except for about a 20 mintue lapse of concentration where I made a few questionable plays. I also made about 3 kinda big hero calls today that all were right, although it was obviously just variance that I was right on all 3, but I wont complain about it.

Im not sure how many people saw the videos I did with Zaitsev for Behind the Grind, but my style is quite different now then it was in those vids. Im not gonna go in detail about my game now just in case there are any 2/4 FTP regs that come across this, but i am playing a more aggressive style than I was at the time of the vids. This month im running a little over 31/26 while mostly 9-tabling, which basically forces me to focus the entire time im playing. I like 9 tabling lately because of this forced focus, I would get easily distracted while 6 tabling 2/4 and think it hurt my game a lot.

Not much else I wanna say except if there is any interest i might start throwing in some interesting hands in here, tho i am kind of undecided on that. Off to relax for a bit and then watch the Pats smoke T.O. and the Bills. Good luck at the tables.

-Kevin

2009 has been a pretty big failure pokerwise so far. I am not up nearly as much as I would like, but more importantly I got very lazy about poker, both with the amount of hands i have put in and the amount of effort I have put in to getting better. I really don't feel like writing a big blog entry about all of the fail so far this year, basically included a fair amount of run bad at high stakes, but also just overall bad play and laziness. I have found that I just do not get motivated by thinking about the money in poker, and luckily my competitive spirit has kicked in again recently with poker which basically means im gonna crush 2/4 for a few months and then move up to 5/10 permanently and crush some more. This type of attitude may come off as arrogant to a lot of people but its just how i feel about my game right now and its the attitude that i have always had when i am really on my A-game. The last year or so has been an absolute failure by my standards pokerwise (i swear im not busto people, i just have massively high standards compared to most 2/4 players) and i refuse to let it continue. I legitimately used to think about how long it would take me until I would be able to take shots at the 500/1000 games, which i understand sounds insane to most people when i was playing a mix of 5/10-25/50 at the time and barely had 100K online, but i was just so confident in my game and my ultimate goal was not to make a certain amount of money, but to be one of the best players in the world. Did i ever get anywhere near there? No, of course not, not even remotely close. It's not like im some fool with delusions of grandeur, but just having this type of intense and confident attitude got me to the highest level of poker I have ever played... to this point. I am ready to become a better player than I have ever been, and i refuse to settle for any less.

Good luck all 2/4 FTP regs you are sure as hell gonna need it

I keep reading about how the new CR blogs are better now and decided to start my blog back up. The last blog entry I wrote was in June, and I was thinking about moving up to 400NL at the time.

I have had an interesting 5 months since then. I moved up to 400NL, then 1000NL, then 2000NL by September. I was running well/ playing well and ended up having good months in July and August, and a HUGE September. I even played a little bit of 5000NL and a couple hundred hands of 10000NL when the games were soft.

Since September things have not gone well. I didnt play many hands in October, but when I did I got beat up at 2000NL and 5000NL. I decided to take out 40k from my FTP account around the end of October, and play 1000NL in November. I didnt play nearly the amount of hands in Novemeber that I wanted to, and ran/played bad when I did play. I tilt cashed out 20k at the end of November with the intention of playing 400NL for all of December.

December has been pretty bad also. I have done OK at 400NL, but feel that I am playing far worse than I was a couple months ago. I have also taken a couple shots at 1000NL, getting owned everytime by bad play/ running bad.

Overall I am down since the begginning of October, due to my own bad play, runnning bad at higher stakes (getting sucked out on at 10000NL is so soul crushing), and simply not putting in nearly enough hands.

I have a few poker resolutions for 2009, and I think writing them down might help:

- Never play more than 6 tables
- Play 400NL until I have full confidence in my game again
- 500K hands
- 300K profit


Not sure how often I will update this blog, but I will try to do it every few days. Good luck at the tables.

-Kevin