Sorry for the vacation but just hadnt had much to blog about. basically just swingy standard poker.

For whatever reason when i put a blog entry in w/ safari there is no formatting so i hope that this one works cuz its on ie.

After i went on a heater and withdrew some money for my wife and to get a new monior (its sick btw). My br is at about 4.5k and i was hoping that my heater would continue. well i made about 200 then had a blow up day trying to use my 23" monitor w/ 9 tables which is def the most i ever tried playing at one time. dropped a bunch and since then i havnt returned to 100nl fr. i continued to play poorly and run bad and swund down to 2500. i was discouraged and took a week off. spent time with my wife as she was out of school for the week.

She went on a women's retreat with our church after my week off and i sat down to do some more pokering. the first night i play a 30+3 tourny and end up taking it down. it was pretty crazy, on the bubble i was one of the shortest stacks and had all mymoney in the middle on the bubble. i won the flip and proceeded to do well picking spots and didnt steal too much. I felt like one reason i did so well in the tourny was just the position i was on the table. aggro guys were in the right spots and the tight/weak guys were in the right spots. a lot of hands like TT or 99 that i rr all in w/ versus an opponent didnt get called and i also think that was a key part too. i picked up a lot of chips with those plays and i didnt have to fade a flip. when we got to HU i decided to chop for 2k- 1st was 2.4 and 2nd 1.6k. 2k would have recouped all my cash game losses and i thought that 1.6k would piss me off and 2k was not that far off from 2.4k in my mind.

I was back to even after some nasty cash sessions. I thought i had some serious momentum going andcontinued to play. HU i ran and played particularly bad and when i sat at 100NL 6 max i would have a day where i would win a buy in or a little less then the next have a blow up day and drop 5 buy ins. My head was spinning and on a whim i got a subscription to deuces cracked. I didnt even realize that they had the format for ipods. I was so juiced that i would b able to d/l the episodes to my iphone and listen to them while i worked out or was at my job. it worked out great and their teaching methods are sooo good. I went to college and some grad school to become a school teacher so i saw a lot of concepts they used that are classic methods to teaching. They really do a great job creating a foundation and then building upon it. their series are sick and their production quality is awesome.

They explained a lot of PAHUD stats and moves and ways to play these different player types really well and i decided it was manditory finally that i get PAHUD. i talked previously about just being lazy about PAHUD and just never getting around to it. Well i got it and wow. what a difference. my reads that i have have so much conviction in them. I am 4 betting the right ppl. i am value towning ppl that its appropriate to do. staying out of the correct ppls ways and set mining against the right ppl.

Today was def my biggest cash winning session in terms of buy ins and just under my biggest cash win. playing 100nL 6-max i won 6 buy ins in about 1k hands. I ran really well though. I ran my QQ into AA and KK and spiked sets on both of them. one was for a buy in and another 1/2 buy in. I made a rr play against a laggy player with J9 and a guy who limped that had a vpip of like 60 had ak and shoved it in for a 1/2 buy in i spiked a 9 and was good. another time a guy who was maniacal squeezed my UTG open. i was running at 13 vpip at that table and he seemed somewhat intelligent in his craziness so i thought i had a lot of credibility so i shoved w/ 67s he had ak and i spike a 7 and was good, i got pretty pissed but what evs. i gave 1/2 a buy in back when i rr him i flopped the nut flush and an over, i paired my under card (J) and slowed down cuz we were really deep, i ddint hit an A or a flush and he showed me KQ for top pair to take down a 120bb pot.

gtg season finale of the office is on peace!!!!!

Well my hot streak went quite well. I gave my wife 500 to do what she wanted with. She bought close entertained some friends and went out to eat. She was pretty happy and that made me happy. I bought a 23" Display from Macintosh. Needless to say it wasn't cheap. I really like it though and can easily fit 9 tables on it with just a touch of overlap. now i just need to master that many tables. To be honest ever since i withdrew money from my account i have been running extremely horribly. It has definately been a combination of bad play coupled with some unluckiness. I look at my pokerev graph and i am still above expectation. i really dont feel that lucky right now though. The disparity may have subsided a bit lately i took some sick coolers where i was playing HU get it in w/ AK versus KT on a K high board and he rivers a T. The thing that makes me the most upset is that he immidiately sits out and leaves. I had a couple of sessions HU where i felt i had the edge considering i had an opponent that called 60% of my raises in the bb and vpip 50 on the button, yet i dropped like 4 buy ins on him. I would battle back and as soon as i got involved in a big pot it would get shipped to him. Another guy i dropped 4 buy ins to we were playing pretty aggressively and every rr pot he got the better of me, whether it was because of better cards or a suck out. i rr out of the bb w/ 34s flop two pair get it in on the turn on a two tone board and he spikes his flush draw from something like 135bb. I know i am just lamenting about bad beats and no one wants to hear em but this blog is for venting:) I had set under set and the like. Just no fun set ups. I have been doing really well in the sng's though. i play a number of sunday mill satellites and am doing quite well. Unfortunately i can't turn that sng tourny bucks into big bucks. twice i just used the sunday mill money on smaller tourneys like a 100 dollar or 50 dollar or some other small tournies i play all the time. Two of the tourneys were really close to big scores. i played a 50 6 max and got 9th when i was middlish in the pack and limped in the sb w/ A9s. I was hoping that the guy would raise and i shove but no luck. flop comes 245 with back door of my suit i check he bets and i was in an awkward spot, i decide to shove which was a tad on the big side for the bet and the pot size. he reads my soul and calls with one of the worst hands for me 43. GG me i really had a shot in that tourny. Another one was the 27.50 tourny got 11th when i was again short to middle stack and decide to try and pick some chips up in the sb v bb battle. i am sb w/ 68o and raise it up 3.5x he calls and flop is AAQ 2 spades. I should shut down here and i decide to check, he checks behind. next card is a J of spades and i decide to bet, why i dont know i didnt want to give up on the pot. he calls, next card is the T of spades..... i check he betsbout half my stack which would leave me with 6bb if i called and lost, it was a small bet compared to the pot. I tank and fold, though in retro spect i cant really think of what he would have had that wouldnt ahve shoved on me preflop but has me beat on this board, i was probably beat though. I end up getting it in when i push the button with JT and get call w/ A8 and i dont improve. 2 tournies w/ big score potential. I also got deep in the 20k guarentee with a huge stack when i made some really creative plays that i really liked but ended up dusting off my huge stack in really stupid spots and busted out in 50th. Basically every game i am playing right now is frustrating to me. I am really trying to tightnen up because i felt like after watching the video that had peachy and somebody else commentate on a subscribers fr game i have become too loose. Like i said before i have created this weird dynamic witha lot of the 100 fr regulars and it make playing hands in a standard fashion really weird. i really feel like they know exactly where i am at the whole time and i have to guess what ways they are trying to manipulate me. my bb/100 has fallen quite a bit. in 100 fr i am running at something like 2.2ptbb/100 which i think i could do much better than that. in HU i had an average of 12bb/100 and now it has fallen to 2bb/100 as well. played around in 25nl 6 max and ended up being too aggro and tried to tighten it down hardcore in 50nl 6 max and got coolers left and right............. poker is frustrating with its constant ebb and flow. i wish i knew whether some of these decision i am making are good or not. I feel like possibly my base approach to some of these games could be flawed. but of course its mostly a question of confidence. last time i wrote i had tons of confidence and was able to trust my decisions and make good lay downs and good aggressive plays. Now that my cards arent cooperating i keep second guessing myself. Not sure what it will take to switch that confidence switch in me again. I just want to win damn it and make tons of money. is that so much to ask??? and i also feel like the games have been getting tougher. the money online is getting shorter and all the regualars are slowing scooping it up and breaking a bunch of fish. I feel like one of the fish sometimes.... I'm ranting but whatevs.... Peace

Success!! Success!!! My Poker Confidence is at an all time high. Playing tons of HU cash is so much fun and I feel like I am in so much control of the majority of the matches. According to my PT I have made over 1k at 50NL HU running at 20ptbb/100 over 6k hands. I finally got myself unstuck overall in the 100NL HU and had a really nice winning session today. I pwn newbs hardcore lolerz. An interesting hand that went my way and swung an aggro match into my direction was as follows: Villian has VPIP of about 55% 3-bets rare enough where I give it respect and has called EVERY SINGLE reraise of mine. 2nd hand in the match I had TT rr he called flop was Q33r I c-bet he pushed and I smelt bologna and called he had KTo. Since then every single rr pot had gone his direction. I was missing every single flop when I would rr and the one time I had AK and hit the K he folded the flop. After being up a buy-in really quickly I was back to even or down just a bit. I was really frustrated and trying to swing things in my way.... He 3x I have AJo and 4x his raise amount for value. He calls as i expected and was just hoping for a kind flop. Flop was 78x r I c-bet and he calls.. not happy as usual. Turn was a T giving me a gutshot and two overs. I planned on c/r all in thinking this would finally really show a lot of strength. I check and he... Shoves, damn it. I tilt call cuz I hadn't seen any of his hands in these rr pots that he had been taking from me over and over again. River: A ooohhh yeaaa. He had... T6s Pretty sure that tilted him pretty hard core and took two more buy-ins from him one being my AA getting it in on the turn for stacks w/ him on a flush draw and the other my AK>JJ Back in November my wife and I agreed that when my br finally gets to 6k I would give her $500 to do with whatever she wants. Kind of like saying thank you for letting me play so much. Well almost immediately after that promise I went on a nasty downswing. Today I finally got to 6K and she is pretty happy about it. I am going to buy a 23" Display as well so I will be dropping a decent amount here. I am going to get an Apple display which I know is the opposite of cheap but their resolutions are just as high as anybodies and their 30" is the highest (which will be my next purchase) and they are just so sick. I am one of those Mac heads I suppose. I have an Ipod, IPhone, and MacBook Pro. Now with PS being available for Mac I rarely have to use my Parallels program for Windows apps. I hope I can get PAHUD to work with the Mac Poker Clients. I have been sticking to the no tournies except for WSOP qualifiers. I got a 5th and a 2nd into super sats to the 650. The second was pretty brutal, He started with a 2:1 lead and I ran good/owned him till he was down 11:1. Got him all in with my Q9 v J9 he survived of course and then mounted a comback to eventually win when I hit my straight but he hit his flush.... In months past I would have been livid but my cash results are so good right now I can just shake it off no problem. Welp I'm out Peace

Again, I am getting this feeling that I should just stay away from tournaments. My results are nothing to brag about especially in the past 4-5 months. OPR has me at about a -5% ROI over the last 3 months and thats with a 1.1k score and a 650 score. I had a crazy heater last June where I made a lot of money in tournies but since then I have not had results that make me lean towards concentrating on tournies. Last night was another night where I killed it at the cash games playing great poker IMO as well as running good. The tournies, however, were all big fat wiffs. I may have made a mistake when I wanted to 6 table a combo of cash and tournies. I may have to concentrate more on my tourny strat because I am not super proficient at it and thus need fewer tables. But the reality is my most consistent results have been cash and tournies have essentially been a complete waste of time judging by the -5% ROI. Thats basically break-even poker and it is taking away from the number of tables I could be playing of cash or just doing other things. Yesterday I made over 400 bucks in cash yet my net profit on the day was about 250! Yea i ran disgustingly on a 8+r WSOP sat which was a big drain but also played the 20 HU, 27.50, 20k guarentee, and a 20 sat to the 50K guarentee. Tournies have their moments where they are a ton of fun but to get to that point on the regular you have to put in a ton of volume. I dont have time of tournies I need flexibility. So I think my decision is to abandon all tournies for the rest of the month excluding WSOP Qualifiers. I really want to have a go at going to LV this summer. I've already dropped probably 400-500 bucks trying to qualify and i can't say i really want to spend more than 1k trying to get there. I haven't even got close to a seat yet either which is discouraging. I think its likely that i will travel to Colusa to try their satellite again and will be trying some of the satellites on PS. I am batting around the idea of getting a good chunk of my br over to FTP. I hate trying to hunt down someone willing to transfer, maybe I will just figure out whether I can use a card for the transaction. I'm tempted to try and create a new account to get rakeback as well. Whatevs Peace

I've continued my play at 100nl fr 50nl 6-max and 50nl HU. I've been concentrating on HU and really enjoying it. Watching the cr vids and doing my best to apply what I've learned. An observation I've made from 50nl HU is that the vast majority of my 3 bets get called. I definately have to adjust and make surey hands have good value and flopabilty to be profitable in these games. I think I am starting to run into many of the regulars and noticed a pattern. For one if my hand doesn't have great value I am folding to their 3 bets and notice that they often up the 3 betting a ton. So I have two ways to fight this attempt at three betting either call and try to hit on flop or make a play or 4 bet. I find that if u call of course ur going to miss the majority of the time and have to float or raise with air. 4 bets seem to be welcomed with equal parts 5 bet shoving or calling. I did some experents that were reflective of cts and if I'm lucky enough early in a match my first 4 bet is with a hand I am willing to call a shove with. Right now it really seems like AQ+ and TT+ should be my calling range for shoves, player dependent of course. They have really shown me some trash too. One thing I have been having trouble with is flop play when I hit mid pairish type hands on a raggy flop. I don't like raising there because if they push I can't see myself calling and calling gives them a chance to hit or a scare card to come and making it difficult for me to proceed. Another is when I hit lightly on flop the bet I call and the turn is a brick and they check. Do I bet to protect my hand or check behind for pot control/induce bluff. I've found myself facing c/rs and kinda being in no mans land against a goofball. Sometimes its a semi/bluff or a pair. There was a really agreesive match I had where there was tons of 3 betting and calling-floating on flop. I started off really hot getting up 6 buy in through a combinations Of suck outs and great plays. Well the cards started to break even and he mounted a comback. We got 2-300bb deep and he made some good adjustments to me. I started calling to much in big pots when he had tightened up because how deep we where. I was still calling his rr too loosely and got bled down. Match ended when he was able to battle back 3 of the 6 buyins he dropped to me which I thought was a good idea for him. I was disappointed that I allowed him to battle back so much because on the small to medium pots I thought I did a good job of controlling the action. Live and learn I guess. Right now I think I am really just going to try and use these over aggro tendencies against them and see how I do. HU is just so much fun. Br over 4k now but havent hit the 200nl fr tables yet. Not quite up to it but likely dabble in a bit either this week or next. I also think I'm at the point where I can play 6 tables of 100nl fr quite profitably and will be doing some major grinding there. Happy pokering Peace

I love the new cardrunner vids that are focusing on HU cash games. I feel like I am absorbing so much info that i can directly apply at the tables. I've been hitting up the 50NL HU tables on stars for the most part I have just over 2.5k hands and am up over 350! HU can really tilt me but on the other hand I have been able to make others tilt as well and stack off quite light. Many of the peeps down at 50NL are uber passive so i Have a great time just bet-bet-betting my hands for value. I have really tried to get thin value and so far I've done alright.

Ever since aba's HU video, where he discussed trying to 3 bet anytime you vp$ip in the bb to just put extreme pressure on you opponent and basically try and run them over, I have tried to add it to my game. I must say 50NL is probably not the best place. People love calling rr and if I am opening up my range post flop gets sticky sometimes in a big pot oop. LJ seemed to advice against this approach because bad players aren't going to respond the way competent competition would. I had a HU match that probably lasted 10 hands max with each of us trading a buy in pre flop and then he quit me where we were basically even. It went like this, he folded all 3 first hands then he raises otb and I repop with AQs he folds. I think i probably raised everyone of my buttons with legitimate holdings for HU :). He then raised a couple more buttons and i repopped him again and again, the 3rd time he 4 bets all in and I am holding AQs again. With the tempo of the match I really thought he had a larger range than expected I type, "eff it heh" and call just for information and whatever, get a crazy image, I spike an A and when we get to showdown lo and behold he has AQs as well. probably 2 hands later i repop yet again with QQ and he again 4 bet shoves i insta call cuz i knowhe is really responding to aggression. A K on the flop and an A on turn and I am thinking I am probably not a winner, he had A7o. 2 hands later he raises i repop with 88 he 4 bets but not all in probably about 2.5x my bet. Here is where it is tough, in a vacuum you fold ur 88 to a 4 bet, hell you probably should just be calling oop with 88 and see what develops. I really thought that with the way the match was going 88 might be ok to push. I do and he snaps me off I spike an 8 on the flop and his AA goes down in flames lol. He quits immidiately after that as a 1.75 loser woohoo. At least I now know that when this guy 4 bet shoves it is weakness and the 4 bet not all in is strength.

So I've been killing folks at the 50NL HU and have had some great results in 50NL 60max I am running at 9bb/100 and jsut gettingin the groove. My roll is now over 4k after a couple of crazy rollercoaster rides the past few days. I plan on moving to 100NL where i am actually -400 lifetime. Hopefully i can turn that around. I really dont have a desire to jump up to 200NL fr right now so i am just going to chill on that. Hopefully I can get my roll to 5k or higherand I will start dabbling in 100NL HU.

Bay 101

I'll be heading down on Monday morning to sweat the action. I am going to see if I can get some final table tickets so i can come back on friday again and see it. Hopefully the FT will have some big names with some excitment. If anyone is heading down to Bay 101 on monday say hi to the tall hairy guy that will likely be me. I am planning to hit the tables as well and see how the the skillz of all the san jose peeps are. I went to bay 101 before about 2 years ago and there is some serious gambling that goes on there. All the asains go nuts there. tens of thousands of dollars being bet at a time on the pai gow tiles and huge blackjack action too. I can only assume the poker action will be nice as well.

Peace

Not gonna lie. This week has been good. This month in general has been good.

The last 3 months I have actually had a negative ROI in tournies and this is with the 1st place in the 30+3 Deepstack for 1100. Yesterday I got myself unstuck. I first sat down at some cash tables dinking around had about 4 tables of 100NL fr going but the games seemed to get bad kinda quick so i was jumping tables a bit. Things were going standard but pretty quick I lost a buy in when a $200 stack raises from mp, I had no read too early, and I bump it up from 3 to 12 with QQ. Something in the way he hesitated made me think there definately could be a possibility that he had a big hand. Well flop comes KQ9r and I say to myself if he has KK or JT God Bless him he deserves my stack. I c-bet for 2/3 pot he practically min raises and I ship. Turn is A and I knew it was a bad card, he flips over AA grrr.

Well nothing I could do there. Rest of the session I just tried to battle back but didnt spend too much time just wasnt feeling it after that so i walked away from the tables down $50.

Take a break and come back just wanting to have fun I play 2 HU sngs and a 4.40/180 none of those go as planned and I am sitting kinda steaming that this night isnt so hot and I still want to play to boot. Surf the internet for a few and sweat the LAPC updates. Reg. for the $10 6-max and off we go. Well built a stack made good plays and got lucky with my draws. This time around I felt like I did a good job of identifying ppls stack size and their likely tendencies with that size stack. On my flopped draws of 8 outs+ Most of the time i intentionally bet a size where if they did c/r me it was an easy call. Luckily i hit more than my fair share of draws when peeps c/r me. vast majority of flips were for 20% or less of my stack and i think i got my money in just once as a 4:1 dog pair over pair and got lucky when it was for prob 15% or less of my stack and I was easily priced in against his range after I raised it w/ my TT

Made it to the FT at i think 3rd or 4th when just after I lost about 1/2 my stack when the chipleader was directly to my left and i was #2 and he applied some pressure and I had to laydown hands like 3 times in a row. StudMaverick was there and I OPRed him and damn.... he is playing a $10 tourny and in the last 3 months he has made over 200k wow. So i knew i had to look out for him but was just going to play my game. 6th-4th went out relatively quick they were pretty short and we were three handed me 110k Stud at about 230kish and CL guy at about 600k. either the first or second hand I am sb with A5o and Stud raises on the button to 15k at 2.5/5k and i shove he calls with ATs and holds gg me i get about 660 for my troubles.

br at approx. 3.8k and now nearing the 4k mark which has been my line to transition to 200NL fr two times now. This time around I dont think i am going to jump immediately to 200 when i cross the 4k mark. Right now i really want to dive into 50NL HU and start dabbling in 50NL 6-max and 100 6-max. so far 50nl 6-max has gone very well right now i have about 2k hands at 37bb/100 which doesnt say much cuz of the small sample size but on the tables I feel decently confident that i am a winner. I think when I start hitting the 100 6 max tables i will try my best to exercise good table selection and be very cogniscent of my level of tilt. I found myself getting decently tilty at the 100NL 6 max tables my last go around.

Peace

I think my luck has changed recently. My constant losing has subsided quite a bit and my roll has grown a modest amount. I am trying to plan on how i will approach 200NL again. I really think i should dive into 6-max 100NL though and really try and get the hang of it.

Lately, I have been doing some decent sessions of 100NL fr and also exploring 50NL 6-max when I want to play but dont want to play as many table as I usually play 3 6 max tables. the difference between 50 and 100 is so great sometimes it is shocking to me. In 50 you def. have a lower number of "good" players and everyone is just soo much more passive. They are really playing fit or fold poker and c-bets work charms on them. I have been upping the iso. raises on limpers lately and for the most part it has been successful. Some fish will run hot against me sometimes which is frustrating when all they are doing is check calling all the way down with their mid pair on an A high flop. Luckily for me I finally had a real hand later in the session and did a great job of value betting strong all the way and getting some great value.

I made a relatively big bluff on a guy I didnt have a strong read on where he showed his true 50NL mentality. Dude raises $2 in HJ and villian cold calls otb I am in sb with J7 (cards are irrelevent really) and I decide good squeeze spot with the game flow and everything and I pop it up to 10. Initial raiser folds and villian calls, confused by his play not completely sure what to put him on but at these stakes usually this means 77-99 and they are getting stubborn. Flop comes 8 high all hearts, i have no heart. I dont especially like this flop but really think this guy does not have much of this board likely. I decide to check andhe lead for about 1/2 pot, I truly believe if i put in a big c/r on this board there on very few hands in his range he is calling. I shove and he tanks for a good long time and finally calls with... AQ with the Q of hearts I wiff and he rakes a good sized pot for 50NL.

At another table I made a very similiar play where I got caught bluffing, with the best hand. I was lagging it up quite a bit evidently because dude raises in CO and he is about 150bb deep and i cover and decide to call with 59s thinking if i hit this flop just right i might get a good payday. and if not a good flop i will try and outplay the mf'er :) flop comes 458 w/ two hearts and a spade i have spades. he c-bets and I call turn is a 4 of hearts completing the flush draw. I dont particularly like this card because if he has an overpair for me to draw out its only 2 outs instead of 5 but I really thought i could run abluff on this guy. He again leads for about 1/2 pot I pop him up about 2.75x his bet he tanks a bit and puts ina third raise leaving himself with about 35-40 bucks behind. I really thought he had enough behind where he wasnt committed and really thought it unlikely that he had the flush so if i push and put him all in he is going to have a hell of a time calling. I push he thinks for a moment and calls and I am hating life.. oooh wait he had AT w/ the A of hearts. Pretty sure he wasnt priced in on the turn but whatevs the river was a blank and I got a 300bb pot raked my way when I thought for sure I didnt have the best hand.

Later I stack off pre flop in a b v b battle w/ KQo I told myself just this one time against an unknown who was getting pretty active. This was at a 100NL fr game too, well he insta called and showed KK guuuhh. So that sucked but about 7 minutes after that hand on another 100NL fr table dude in mp/lp min. raises, i have no read I call in the bb with T9o flop comes AT9 I c/r big because i figure either he has the A or not and he calls I make a great turn bet of about 3/4 pot that enabled me to push for just under pot size on the river and he called me down with A8 one pair... So I was back even in that regard but if i just didnt make that stupid move i coulda been up 90 bucks....

HU has been going well too. Played one session recently against a Norwegian who was a typical crazy Scandi. Real quick in the match he tilts me by his extreme aggression and i end up calling AI on the flop w/ an open ended straight draw and possibly overs that were good for a really horrible price. He had a set and I luckboxed the straight. Soon after that the aggression was still insane. I start loosing up and 4 betting, I 4 bet JT, He calls instead of shoving which was strange I thought. Flop: QTx r I am really stuck on what to do, if i push (which my stack was just over the pot now) I am only getting called by hands that have me beat. I know I cant just check behind really... So I say eff it I am 1/2 potting and calling the rest off if he pushes cuz i am just pot stuck. This is exactly what happens and I am hating life... oh wait he c/r w/ 33 oh but on the turn he spiked the 3.... that was shocking. I wasnt tilting though.

We continue our match and it was one of the most aggressive games I have ever played in. We were being friendly and talking in the chat a bit too. I start to get the better of him and soon get all my money back plus almost a buy in, End up losing an $80 pot when i have the ass end of the straight. The match was getting along to be about 45 min. probably and i was thinking of wrapping it up cuz i knew the variance with this guy could get pretty nasty. Luckily for me the last hand I have KK with 90 in front and he covers I'm otb and 3x he re pops smallish which is what he had been doing and the flow of the match I felt that a 4 bet was definately the thing to do i repop to 15 and he shoves on me I snap call and my KK>JJ. That match felt really good to come out winner on.

Might be able to play a ton of poker in the upcoming weeks because my job will likely take me out of town overnight and I will just bring my cpu with me and spend my nights in the hotel rooms pokering away. Maybe I can make some serious cash which would be fun. Right now my biggest obstacle to playing is my wife sad to say. She is supportive of me playing but doesnt like it when i play long sessions. She feels neglected sometimes and I definately need to show her that she is way more important to me than poker. Its just frustrating when she knows I am playing poker, maybe a tourny which u just cant walk away from and she is wanting some attention or bothering me so that I start noticing her. I want to show her love but i also want to do well at this activity that i am doing right this minute. The moment i am done with the tourny I will give you your due but let me just finish this thing..... I am just bitching now heh. I love her, what am i gonna do?

If i can make some serious headway in my bankroll I am going to give my wifey 500 to do what she wants with and also try and buy some monitors and set up a multi screen display for maximum pokering. I play everything on my mac and am kinda a mac freak so i am looking to get some refurbished 20" monitors facing portrait style with a 30" in the center that would be insanely baller. with refurbished monitors it would still likely cost around 2.5k but man... that would be soo sick.

Peace

Seriously, I am ridiculously sick. 103 temp hacking up a storm and getting cold sweats. It really sucks. I feel delirious because of this nasty flu. I am pretty sure I got the flu from going to the indian casino and just touching all those chips and who knows what all the other ppl have.

Let me tell you a bit about my session. Well before I left for the casino I had a short online session and boy I was on a heater. Up about 4 buy ins in less than 300 hands. 2 buy ins were off of one dude who was seriously tilting hardcore against me. My first tangle with him that set the tone for us was when i was in the CO with AKs and raise it up and dude who sat directly to my left 4x's my raise. Just through intuition I really felt like he was full of it but since this was my first entanglment with him I decided not to 4 bet and just flat called. Flop: Q57 w/ two of my suit so my plan was to c/r all in. I check he bets and I shove he pretty quickly calls and the turn gives me my flush and a blank river cha-ching!! Oh by the way he had... QT of hearts.... kinda surprised he pretty much snap called when I c/r all in, especially cuz in 100NL fr usually that is AA KK like 90% of the time or more.

So he was at two of my tables and we got an interesting dynamic going where i felt like he was just trying to get back at me. Well my calling range subsequently became looser and he ended up rr me again pretty big and i called with AQs hit the A and took a decent pot there. A few hands later I pick up TT otb with about 2 limpers in lp i pop it up and dude calls out of the sb. flop comes 6 high and its checked to me i c-bet and dude c/r me I didnt like it but felt like i had to go with the hand and shove he snap calls which i obv dont like but the river brings a T and i am like oh boy.... oh yea what did he call with..... a pair of sixes with a gut shot.

Well I go to the casino and play bj for a short while basically breaking even and go sign up for both 3/6 limit and 1/2 nl. I did this cuz the last time i played limit in a casino i had a lot of fun and won some mobney. I get called for NL and sit with 200. First hand I am involved in I have 99 in mp and raise it up douche bag otb calls and flop is J82 r and I c-bet just under pot. he calls and turn brings a Q i decided to check cuz the flop was just soo dry so i thought there was a good chance he had me beat. He puts a largish bet on the turn and I decide to fold without reads. After I fold he makes a comment how he just totally stole that pot and what not. Whatever, If he is making retarded plays like that with air i am getting money in the long run. Take down a good sized pot with AA when tight chick raises and I decide to put in a big rr preflop cuz i was confident she was basically calling any bet. flop comes Q high and i c-bet and she folds. near the end of the night hands comes up bunch of limpers i call in CO w/ 86s flop brings two diamonds on an all broadway flop. chick bets smallish i call hoping for a bunch of callers to improve my odds, i get just that then dude min raises which makes me kinda chuckle but whatevs i call. turn is an 8 but i know that doesnt really change anything and it gets checked around. river is a diamond and dude that min raised open pushes for 40 i call and he flopped a straight and decided to push when the other draw got there lol. left up 225 from the casino. so the day was a 625 day and i was pretty happy about that.

Superbowl was amazing. I was rooting for the Giants just cuz everyone hate the pats and i wanted to see an upset. oh man what a game. It was great hung out with a bunch of friends and just had a good time.

Well just recovering right now and hopefully this fever breaks

Peace

Things are still going in the downward direction pokerwise. I have been continuing playing some 50NL 6 max and some 50NL HU. While they started out good I had a blow up session in 6-max not too long ago and really haven't been back. 50NL HU has seemed to even out a little bit variance wise and while i havent; looked at my PT stats I am probably pretty close to even in HU.

I have been dabbling in the $10 HU sngs just cuz i like HU but have no desire to get stuck a lot lately. My average buy in whether it be cash or tournies has dropped significantly lately. Just cuz i dont want my brain to deal with a -200+ day. I started out really hot in the HU sngs and like cash HU has evened out a bit. Stil a winner though. I have been playing the 20+2 HU tournies any chance I get. I love em. Couple nights ago I got 8th. Felt like a played great except for the last match i rr light at a point in the match where my stack just was not in the right situation if i just happened to have bad timing. Well it was bad timing and it left me a shorty and I just couldnt recover. +150 for that tourny and close to a 1.3k score. oh well. Tournies have been weird. I seem to be getting big stacks and then running horribly right around the bubble which results in a small cash. If i dont run it up quickly usually i have like 1.2k at 50/100 and end up trying to resteal with something like A9o from a late position raiser and almost everytime I get shown AK and it holds.

Had a session of 100NL fr which I hadn't had in awhile and early to mid stages was just grinding along felt like i was making good decisions. I stack a guy when i am in the bb with KK and he raised in lp and I flat called. I did this cuz i noticed him to seem to be quite competent and very aggro. I figured ifhehad top pair with a decent kicker i was definately maximize value. While an A on the flop would suck i was willing to risk it. well flop comes down Jxx with 2 hearts. I check he bets 6 into 8 and i raise him up to 20 he pushes and because of the way i played the hand it is a mandatory call. blanks for turn and river and he shows me A5 of hearts. Which means he had tons of outs but I still like my play cuz i rr pre and I only get his raise amount.

Well I am feeling good at that point and there is a guy at a few of my tables called melbournejim or bob or something. Well he showed he was a pretty tight dude and we made some history w/ each other when an ep raises he flats and I rr from the CO w/ AKs raiser folds and mel calls. I put him on a mediumish pair. flop comes something like 774 w/ two suits that aren't mine. He check calls a 2/3rd pot bet. ehhhh I really know he has something like TT, 99, 88 or potentially a monster. I just dont know if he is going to lay down the hand to an all in on the turn. or like a please call me bet on the turn as well. I decide that I will just check behind on the turn and see if i can hit. i dont and we check down the hand and he shows JJ nh dude. Well at one of our tables i am plugging along being decently aggressive but really trying to reign it in and not get out of line. Quickly our fr game turns into 6 handed with the CO posting the bb and sb I am utg with KTof hearts i raise 5x folds to melbourne in the bb who repops me. Ok in a vacuum this is auto muck probably a fold pre flop anyways. Well my stupid ass brain says he knows it got short handed he will be playing back at me more lightly I think i can call this. Thinking back to either taylor or brian saying when lots of rr starts happening HU call with hands where he will be c-betting the flop a lot Kx Qx or Jx type boards....flop is ten high with two clubs he bets the pot I am still not sure where i am at but call turn comes another club and he shoves on me for a pot sized bet. Obv he wants to deny me the ability to bluff the clubs. So i am thinking what hands doeshe try and shut me out with...... AK with one club? i knew JJ QQ maybe KK with aclub or not would do this . well i was up 100 on another table and jsut decided to say eff it and call and he shows me QQ no club and i dont suck out grrrrrr. I suck at poker. stupid fancy play syndrome over thinking myself a huge amount of the damn time gaaaahh.

So i think i will make a return to some cash games today later tonight.... going to really try and buckle down. instead of playing on my couch like a usually do i think i will play seated upright and try and be 100% focused and if i am not i will quit. Things aren't super fun in the poker world right now for me but I am hoping to turn that around. It feels like I am close to another big tourny win or cash and I just really need to plug the leaks in my cash game. I think the key is to tighten up for the most part and to start believing ppl more. meh

In other news my wife and I have been diligently going to the gym 4 times a week. It has been very satisfying and not as unbearably difficult as I thought it would be. I can almost guarentee that i have lost weight but i havent been jumping on the scale. When i did a personal trainer the first week they weighed me in at 258lbs. (dont freak out I'm 6'4" with a big frame) while still definately overweight its not unbearable. My goal is around 200. When i was much more active i was usually around 205 and looked decently lean. I always wanted to get to 190 but never could. at this point now that i have gained all that weight, before, the most i ever weighed was 235 and usually when i got to that point i would go on a strict diet and rollerblade a ton and go back to 205 usually within 2 or 3 months. If i get close to 205 which close is being within 5 pounds of that I will be really happy. A friend that i dont hang with much joined the gym recently too so i hope he and I can lift together and get a little bit swoll heh.

I have to keep my head up and just keep being critical of my play. What a struggle. I am hoping and praying I can get to a point where I can grind up to 200NL and stay there and move upwards and onwards. The potential opportunities that poker can provide are very exciting to me. I really feel like I could potentially be one of the higher limit players who makes a solid hourly rate that demolishes my current job's rate. I love my job but would love to explore thisthing called poker to its fullest. Peace.