Well, I just had my best PLO session online tonight. I played almost exculsively 2/4 with one table of 3/6. I tried to use good table selection and never played more than four tables at a time and often was down to two or three. I played in the neighborhood of 550 hands and upticked around $2.7K or so. Nice to run and play well.

I am really happy with my decision to short-stack 5/10 for the previous month, even if I did end up a slight loser. I really learned a lot watching the better 5/10 players and feel that I am miles ahead of the average 2/4 PLO player. It's definately a swingy game, but it feels nice to have the swing hit me for a night.

So, I didn't finish out my challenge. I just couldn't find the motivation for grinding out NL cash I am over-rolled for. I've found that playing games I really don't want to equals poor results. Maybe I will get back to it someday.

I've been concentrating on the FTOPS. So far, I have cashed in 3 of the 5 I have played with the best result being a 7th in the $240 KO 6Max for a lil over $12K. I also finished 90-something in the $200 NL Turbo and 29th in the $500 HORSE last night. I am happy I am playing well, but soooooo frustrated not being able to close these out. Seems in the same way I have been able to close out live tourneys, I am the exact opposite online. Ah well, it will come with time......hopefully.

My new cash game obsession in PLO. I have been short-stacking 5/10 with some pretty good results. It is definitely very swingy, but I believe more profitable than NLHE at this time.

Played a quick session tonight. Played well till the end....where I present you with the dumb hand of the day:

No way 99.9% of the time do players at this level near min-raise in this spot w/o an A. In short, I'm an idiot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2932968

Profit: 367.35

Hands: 2,632

bb/100: 7.15

Didn't play any NLHE cash tonight. I decided to play two tables of 1/2 PLO after busting out of the Full Tilt $1K. Below are some more interesting hands from the session. I don't have a lot of experience in PLO, so please comment on any of these hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2928277

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2928307

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2928295

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2928301

2nd Challenge Session which much better. I played well, hit some hands and paid got paid off. In fact, I was a little unlucky with a 2-outer on a BI pot. Nice to be unlucky and win rather than last time where I was lucky to barely lose. I did two things much better this session. Read my opponents and probably even more importantly was game selection. The regulars at the .5/1 are actually pretty good. A little too predictable, but very solid players. Today, I took my time and made sure there weren't too many grinders at the table, rather than jumping in the first eight 6-max tables or so that looked ok. I did jump up to a 2/4 table when I was a red name. I will take shots at bigger tables even if my BR on the site isn't big enough. It was Morris Chestnut (of Boyz in the Hood fame) sitting at a 9-man table with a 12-man waiting list. The red names seem to attract the fish, so they can say they played with a pro. I even have the added benefit of the "pro" being a B-list actor.

Profit: 488.05

Hands: 1,791

bb/100: 13.63

Also, they came out with the WSOP Circuit schedule and they are in Indiana twice in October. I hope to play in the $1K and $5K Championship at both locations as the fields are super soft. Last time I played the $5K in April my AA went down AI pre for the chiplead. Wouldn't mind getting that taste outta my mouth.

Well, played pretty horrible in my first challenge session. I never got into any type of groove and never had a good feel for the tables. I ran two pretty horrible bluffs; once running into trips and the other time getting called down with 2nd pair. Kinda disgusted with my play and my game selection could have been better also. I guess I should be glad that I was lucky to only be down 15 cents.

Profit: -.15

Hands: 871

bb/100: -.1

Well...I am feeling kind unmotivated, so I figured I would some post some cash game results. I had to take out a big chunk of my money online for the WSOP, so I will have to stick to .5/1NL. I plan on putting some more money on in the immediate future, but even then I don't think I will jump past 1/2NL till I can put some hands in. This is my goal...put in about 10K hands 8-tabling .5/1 at 3bb/100. Not a huge number of hands, but a very attainable goal. This may take me a while, due to that whole "job" thing. But, I will post results every day I play.

Profit: 0

Hands: 0

bb/100: 0

Well, I finally decided to start a blog. Seeing as this last week was the by far the most exciting of my career. Now seemed like the perfect time.

Before, I get into that let me give you a quick background of my playing career. I started really getting into poker in 2004 when I returned from a deployment to Pakistan. After sucking for a little while, I began to study hard and slowly got better. I have had several online tournament cashes between $4K-$12K online. From their I switched my focus to cash online and tournaments live.

Which brings me back to the present. I just got back from Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker Main Event. It was a blast! I made it to Day 2 and busted in a large pot to John Hennigan as a 3-1 favorite. Overall, it was a great experience and I can't wait till next year.

But, the best part of the trip was taking down a $1K tourney at the Venetian Deepstack. We made a chop three ways and I took home $47K. Not my biggest live score money-wise, but we played it out for a little extra cash and I took home my first live win. It will always have a special place in my heart.

I'll try to update this blog when I can with poker-related posts, but I will also throw random thoughts in as well.

Tim