Haven't blogged in months for the simple fact that I have really nothing exciting to talk about.

It's basically time for me to get my head out of my ass! I set a bunch of goals for this year and have not achieved any of them for 2 main reasons....1) Not playing enough 2) Not sticking to the rules/guidlines I set up for myself

It's easy to get off course but I have done just about everything wrong this year (my first year ever playing online poker so it's been a learning experience to say the least) from blowing my bankroll while being drunk to simple not concentrating as much as I should while playing.

I am surrounded by EXCELLENT players (CR members, guys in my home game, and guys I've known and played against for years) who continue to be very successful and it's pretty disheartening to not have anything to show for myself. One of my friends just chopped the WSOP Circuit event in Indiana for 35K and has won over 25K in online tourneys this year alone(for the amount he plays that is incredible). Another buddy of mine has made nearly 150K this year just playing 2/5 at local casinos(I guess the 105K bad beat jackpot he hit has a little to do with it..lol). I love poker, I want to be a great player, but wanting to be a good player versus doing whatever it takes to be that player is completely different.

I have set up a new set of guidelines for myself that are going to be crucial for me to follow in order to turn my online career around for the remander of this year and next year...

I have learned some of my biggest leaks, I have started to shadow a few players and even had talks of getting a coach with a very well known CR member who has a ton of respect, and I am not messing around anymore. With all the stupid mistakes I have made this year with BR Management it is truly amazing that I have only lost around 1K.

For the next few weeks I won't be doing anything exciting other than playing small $5 SNGs to grind my roll up to a decent level so that I can get back to what I enjoy playing, HU NLHE. I did very well playing HU but always managed to take stupid shots at bad times to blow my role.

On the bright side....I am VERY EXCITED about a new start because although I have made mistakes(as everyone has) I feel I have learned from them and I am reborn and ready to take on my challenges.

It is 100% obvious to me that the only thing stopping me from being a success is myself. I control my BR Management and I will be fine. I'll keep you updated in the next few weeks how the progress is coming. I am starting VERY small...$50....gonna grind to around $300 through SNGs(which should be very easy for me)....and then start playing HU again...if I take a bad streak I will put a stop loss at $200....SNGs back to $300...and hopefully go up from there.

I feel that I am solid enough at these very low stakes that although I will be underrolled at $300 for 50NLHU I can afford to take the game on and will build a role from there. I won't move up to 100NL until I have 3K. With my history, I hope to be at 100NL by January 1st of next year. I know I can do it and I believe that I will. Wish me luck!

Bob

Full Tilt Poker Game #7237776787: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (55022847), Table 3 - 120/240 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:06:36 ET - 2008/07/15

Seat 1: GODSHAMGOD (10,465)

Seat 2: Sherman13 (1,755)

Seat 3: Kameleon1 (7,680)

Seat 4: chemstar212 (3,305)

Seat 6: Hero (6,605)

Seat 7: Xnanna78X (2,920)

Seat 9: Thomas benny (2,700)

Hero posts the small blind of 120

Xnanna78X posts the big blind of 240

The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Hero [Ah Ac]

Thomas benny folds

GODSHAMGOD has 15 seconds left to act

GODSHAMGOD raises to 770

Sherman13 folds

Kameleon1 calls 770

chemstar212 folds

Hero raises to 2,350

Xnanna78X has 15 seconds left to act

Xnanna78X folds

GODSHAMGOD has 15 seconds left to act

GODSHAMGOD calls 1,580

Kameleon1 raises to 7,680, and is all in

Hero calls 4,255, and is all in

GODSHAMGOD calls 5,330

Kameleon1 shows [Qc Qh]

Hero shows [Ah Ac]

GODSHAMGOD shows [9s 9c]

*** FLOP *** [5c Ts Qs]

*** TURN *** [5c Ts Qs] [9h]

*** RIVER *** [5c Ts Qs 9h] [Ad]

Kameleon1 shows three of a kind, Queens

GODSHAMGOD shows three of a kind, Nines

Kameleon1 wins the side pot (2,150) with three of a kind, Queens

Hero shows three of a kind, Aces

Hero wins the main pot (20,055) with three of a kind, Aces

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 22,205 Main pot 20,055. Side pot 2,150. | Rake 0

Board: [5c Ts Qs 9h Ad]

Seat 1: GODSHAMGOD showed [9s 9c] and lost with three of a kind, Nines

Seat 2: Sherman13 didn't bet (folded)

Seat 3: Kameleon1 showed [Qc Qh] and won (2,150) with three of a kind, Queens

Seat 4: chemstar212 (button) didn't bet (folded)

Seat 6: Hero (small blind) showed [Ah Ac] and won (20,055) with three of a kind, Aces

Seat 7: Xnanna78X (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 9: Thomas benny didn't bet (folded)

What's up guys? I've definitely used CR as much as possible with the time I have, but one thing that I think is a HUGE advantage that a lot of guys may not do is having a "sweat session" with a fellow CR member. It really puts into perspective a lot about your play as well as how others approach situations. I had a session last night with a member and it was incredibly helpful in identifying some of my leaks and some of his as well.

I found that I may be a little too aggressive in certain spots, as well as making a few Hero calls that according to Joshua(whom I have my lesson coming up soon with) are -EV in the long run.

I made some nice plays with big pocket pairs and got paid, but also made some crappy calls when I KNEW what my opponent had. Ex. I have AKo CO raises, SB calls, I'm BB and 3 bet....CO calls SB folds.

Flop all rags...CO only has $10 left Pot is around $8.5 and I decide to put in $6 to commit myself even if called WHY?

I was on skype and basically called out my opponents hand pf to my fellow CR member and still did this move...of course my opponent shoves and I call to see exactly what I thought he had (JJ)....I lose.

Point is, I need to do a better job with trusting my reads, respecting 3 bets, and when the time is right I can make moves and outplay my opponents.

One thing that was brought to my attention that I think I have seriously been neglecting is not realizing who I am in the pot with. I just took a big pot off this guy and then raised pf in SB to his BB. Flop is KKJ and I CB with A7o....why????

This guy was probably steaming and was going to call with air anyway so unless I hit an A or 7 on the turn I pretty much donked him some more cash.

I obviously have a lot to work on but without the help of my CR buddy I probably wouldn't have seen half the things I was doing last night.

We are setting up a session for next week when I get to "critque" him...hahahahahahaha!!!!

GL! Bob

Well, still running real shitty. Dropped 3 BI last night, 2 1/2 BI on KK alone.

At work so I don't have my DB to post the hands, but here's what I got

25NL

HERO SB KK

Folds to CO who makes it $1, button folds, I raise to $3.50, BB raises to $10, CO goes All In for $74.00

I should have just dumped my KK right here but I kept having this thought in my head that CO had AK, I go all in for $45

BB calls

I flip over KK, BB flips over KK, and of course the CO flips over AA. Pretty much drawing dead and CO takes it down. Ouch!

25NL

HERO SB KK

UTG limps, folds around to Hero who makes it $1, bb folds, UTG calls

Flop 5 6 5

Hero bets $2 into $2.85 pot, UTG calls

turn brick hero bets $5.75 into $7ish pot....UTG goes all in for like $15 more..Hero calls and UTG flips over J5d...Jesus!

So, KK was my big loser on the night..lost around $65 alone on that.

Running like shit, feel like I'm playing well but I can't control the cards.

Hopefully tonight turns around or I think I'm going to start playing tourneys! bob

Getting crushed by the deck lately...especially last night. Ran KK into AA for a full stack pf.

This hand kinda sucked(sorry about the format)

HERO SB QQ (QhQd)

couple limpers Villian raise to $1, I 3 bet to $3.50, folds to Villian....

He thinks a bit and then 4 bets to $6.00 huh, I wonder what he has...(I'm being sarcastic...he obviously has KK or *AA)

I call to hit a set or some kind of draw.

MONSTER flop... A K 6 all diamonds.... I check and he bets $6 into like $13....this guy is completely transparent (I KNOW he has AA/KK but with the nut diamond I have to peel one off....I call..river is a brick...he goes all in...I fold.

Situation isn't so bad but I hate it when all I'm doing is calling to hit a set on him and I have to continue the hand with a nut draw only to brick the turn and give him more $.

So, on the night my 3 biggest loosers were KK, AA, QQ. On nights like this all I can do is take it right up the tail pipe and hope that tomorrow the deck is kinder to me.

Just give me half the shit I took tonight and I will turn a profit.

Rants over!!!

Bob

I'm at work right now so I can't exactly pull up my stats and some of the "fun" hands I had this weekend. By "fun" I mean, flopping the nuts and getting runner runnered....F*CK!!

Right now I am running around 19/16/4. Seems like my aggression factor is pretty high considering that I am playing pretty tight. Oh well.

Lately, I have only been putting in around 500 hands a day over the last week or so, which is well below where I want to be before my lesson with Joshua at the end of this month. I hope to be around 20K hands so that I can find some things I need to work on when we go through PT.

I'm excited because I FINALLY got PaHUD yesterday which I think will give me a much bigger edge now that I can see who the stations are and who folds to CBs. Seems like that is one of my biggest leaks for burning through cash. Overall, I have been playing well, running around 8BB/100 but my PT stats don't say that. I had one "fun" night where I decided to play around 4 in the morning after a late night. ALWAYS a bad idea!!! So, I dumped probably like $100 that day.

I was pissed at myself because I've done this in the past and the results are always the same. I lose and I wake up wondering how much I lost until I log back in. So, since then I have not fallen victim to my drunken weekend nights and I am happy about that.

One thing I want to do a better job of is becoming a more LAG player. It seems that I do open my game up at times but the most my VPIP has EVER been is around 22, where I see guys who are in the low 30s who are people I respect and know can play. I guess that is just not my style.

Overall, things are good. I've been playing some satellites as well to try and make it in the bigger weekend tourneys to try and make a nice cash, but have had no real luck yet. I won a 50/50 seat on FT last week finishing 306 out of 968. Not bad considering that I only had two real hands the whole time. QQ on button vs. AK that held to double up and then went busto on AQo UTG(I only had 10bb) vs a SB who called KJo and spiked a J...I'm out.

Anyway, hopefully things will pick up and next time I'll post some stats and hopefully will have a TON more hands.

Later, Bob

Been a little while since my last blog. I read over a few before this and it's funny to see how many players I come across that are CR members. Would never have known. I almost feel like every single player I am playing against is a CR member.

One guy in particular, I won't mention his name, has really inspired me to keep at it. He obviously puts in a lot more hands than I do per month so the fact that I have been running absolutely hellacious( I never get to use that word in a sentence) without the amount of hands that this guy plays makes me feel like I am not working hard enough.

Gotta say though, that it is incredibly difficult for me to put in the amount of hands that this guy has because I will start running incredibly bad and I know to get up and call it a day. Ex. Yesterday I only put in 400 hands but I honestly felt the tilt-o-meter coming into effect.

Lost AKo to QQ (standard..not a big deal)

Lost set of deuces to a flush K 2 9 (2 hearts) we get it in on the flop and the guy has KTh and hits a heart on the river

-Can't blame him because he hit the flop incredibly hard but it just sucks to lose a buy in when flopping a set.

Lost AA/KK/QQ all 3 hands

Total -4BI

Losing 4 BI in 400 hands is running something like -50BB/100 (not exactly the numbers I'm looking for)

Hopefully March will turn around because right now it's a bitch!

So I'm playing 25NL. New guy sits down (Danger_Man19) and has been raising the button a bit. I decide to steal w/A8o in BB. He raised to .85 I make it $2.75...he comes over the top for $10 and I fold.

I guess he takes 3bets personally because this is the rant he went on. Starts ripping on CR, talking shit about Peachy, and says we're all "ghey". What a loser.

Danger_Man19: nice 3bet ghey boy
JokerBlue: nope
Danger_Man19: lol yeah i have AA or KK
Dealer: JokerBlue wins the pot ($0.60)
Dealer: Hand #5437967166
ME: guess my JJ lay down was bad huh (of course I'm full of it....LOL!)
Danger_Man19: lol
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: u had K10 or some crap
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has requested TIME
Danger_Man19: u think ur so smart 3 betting light
Danger_Man19: ur an idiot
JokerBlue: depends if u wanted to gamble....u were ahead
though
Dealer: JokerBlue has 15 seconds left to act
ME: wow...angry
Danger_Man19: come on face it
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: ur a sucky cardrunners member whos an
idiot light 3 better donk
Dealer: Danger_Man19 shows two pair, Sixes and Fives
Dealer: Danger_Man19 wins the pot ($1.95) with two pair,
Sixes and Fives
Dealer: Hand #5437981116
ME: ?
Danger_Man19: idiot
Uizmebtch: cause CR preaches 3 betting light
Danger_Man19: keep on reraising with your 10 9 and suited
connectors
ME: what's cardrunners ( I like my comment here
System: The $26 Token Frenzy ($6+$0.50 NL Hold'em
(Turbo)) will be starting in 4 minutes.
Dealer: JokerBlue has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: RollaMag shows two pair, Aces and Eights
Dealer: JokerBlue shows two pair, Aces and Eights
Dealer: JokerBlue wins the pot ($4.25) with two pair, Aces
and Eights
Dealer: Hand #5437991955
Danger_Man19: yeah he preached it at 25nl
Danger_Man19: LOL
Dealer: JokerBlue has 15 seconds left to act
Uizmebtch: who did
Danger_Man19: peachy
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: face it he sucks
Danger_Man19: he is just trying to outplay people playing like
crap
Uizmebtch: peachy has never played 25nl seriously for like
ever
Dealer: JokerBlue wins the pot ($0.60)
Dealer: Hand #5437999786
Uizmebtch: let him
ME: lol...thx for the help guys
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Uizmebtch: y rip his ballz off
Danger_Man19: i know im tired of idiot 3 bettors from the
blinds'
Dealer: JokerBlue wins the pot ($0.20)
Dealer: Hand #5438005080
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: dont worry i make a lot of poker
Dealer: wins the pot ($0.20)
Dealer: Hand #5438010154
JokerBlue: ...mistakes
Dealer: RollaMag wins the pot ($0.60)
Dealer: Hand #5438012729
Dealer: has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: idiot
Dealer: deho wins the pot ($0.50)
Dealer: Hand #5438018452
Dealer: Danger_Man19 has 15 seconds left to act
Danger_Man19: i make 1 and a half K playing these ghey
stakes
Danger_Man19: monthly
Uizmebtch: y dont u move up
Dealer: wins the pot ($1.90)
Dealer: Hand #5438026723
Dealer: RollaMag has 15 seconds left to act
JokerBlue: I call BS
ME: lol

Anyway, you get the idea. I thought it was funny. I started thinking "what the hell is wrong with this guy?" He obviously thinks he is a God but still playing 25NL...huh.

Well, off to bed. Later, Bob

I started playing online about 4 months ago and played WAY OUTSIDE MY BANKROLL. Sure I did well, for a while, and then the swings come and kicked my ass. So, I put together a plan that I have been sticking to so far.

One thing that I am trying out, hence the title of the post, is a stop-win rate. I have read tons about this and have only heard the bad. BUT, once I hit my goal on the day, no matter how juicy the tables or well I'm playing, I stop.

So far I have been absolutely killing it and hope to continue my discipline and acheiving my daily goals. I seriously have been on a nice heater and I am averaging nearly 85BB/100 hands. Obviously this is taken from a small sample size but the last two nights I have made my goal in literally 20 minutes both times of +2 BI.

I am going to keep trying this method because what inspired me to do it in the first place was that I would always seem to go up pretty early (1-1.5BI) and then stay stagnant for a while and eventually lose some of my initial profits. Of course the obvious thing to say is, "well my opponents are catching on to me and loosing up their ranges and calling me lighter" but of course I am well aware of my table image and how they will be reacting but I would still manage to lose some profit.

I think that most of my profits come because I will sit down as an unknown and capitalize on my TAG ABC methods to stack donks.

After this month, if this method continues to work, I am going to develop it even more by playing 2-3 tables as I already am, winning my 1-2BI and then starting fresh at other tables with a whole new set of players to gain some more cash off.

I can hear people now saying, "Why don't you just play 4-8 tables will different groups of people so you can cut down the time?" Of course I have thought about that but it seems that I just play a lot better and read my opponents tendancies the less tables I play. I love to take notes on players and multi-tabling I can't take the notes needed to pick off betting tendacies, timing tells, etc.

Stick with what works,right?

If anyone has made it through the post and has any feedback I'd really like to hear your perspectives and things/methods you have tried in the past.

THanks, Bob

Hey guys. I started reading Tommy Angelo's book "Elements of Poker" after Verneer had mentioned it in one of his blogs. As soon as I read that he thought the book was "one of the best he's ever read" I was on Amazon. I'm through about 50 pages and I've got to say that it has already helped me tremendously.

What I'd like to do in my next few blogs is to outline the book for those of you who don't have the time to read it or haven't heard to pick it up. Of course I haven't outlined everything, just what I thought was helpful to my game and those of us who seem to struggle even at the lower limits.

-Take more breaks (every hour) Practice for when running bad or playing bad

-Quit when tired and can feel playing bad or not in the zone

-Sessions no longer than 2 hours at a time (practice every 1 hour break) by sessions/sets he means to get up and take a break...once you sit back down that is a "new session"

-When taking a break, take mind completely off poker

-Reciprocality is any difference between you and your opponents. When you and your opponents do the same thing money doesn't move. When you do something different than your opponents, money moves. (be careful because it might move away from you/use your head)

-Quiting is a KEY SKILL to be a great poker player

Personal Note: It's funny because I applied these methods last night, which I have never done and lost my 1st session. BUT, the great part was that I was not tilting, playing extremely well (reads were on), and I only lost 1/2 a buy in.

I took a break and started a new session and I literally went up 2 BI in 30 minutes. What was important about my 2 sessions was not that I made money but that I recognized something in my game that I had been doing but stopped. I got up and knew when I was running bad and nothing was going well for me. (I seriously had to lay down KK 2 times in 150 hands because I knew the limpers who don't fold were spiking an Ace on me on these ragged flops...A x x.

One last thing, for some reason(maybe because I am superstitious) I had a great 2nd session and I think this is why. I was watching the Karate Kid last night(LOL!), got all pumped and was in a "kickass mood" and literally kicked the crap out of my tables.

I'm starting to think that Daniel Negreanu may have been on to something when he said he watched Rocky before he played the Main Event last year. He was energized, in a good mood, and accumulated some chips. (we all know he donked them off, but that's beside the point)

Sorry this was a long blog...Part II coming soon.

Bob