Yeah, I know that's not many for most of you, but my schedule has been ridiculous this past week. Our chemistry professor is from Sri Lanka, so it's very hard to understand what she says (and most of the class suspects she has no idea what she's talking about anyhow). We have several labs due Tuesday, and with how bad our tests are (class average of 49, she's a REALLY bad prof) labs are going to be crucial to passing this damn class. I'd like to come back for a fourth semester, so I need to keep that GPA up.

Poker has been pretty good, although it's only been three full sessions, with an extended session the second day. The goal is to play 200 hands a day except Monday, since I'm on campus from 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. that day) which puts us at 1200 per week. I've got 786 for the past four days, so we're right on target. Currently sitting 1.5 BIs up, dropping half a buy in the first day and winning one apiece the second and third. Watched another Verneer video on crushing micros, more solid information there for sure. What's really caught my eye is Zaitsev's "Myth of the Redline" series where he talks about winning more without showdown, which for a guy playing 18/16/3 is great information. Stuff about floating monotone boards and watching tendencies on players that c-bet too often and how to exploit it. Will probably watch the second part before crashing.

So, poker hands. Here's a few of the bigger wins/losses over the past few days.

www.pokerhand.org/

Fun hand vs. a shortstack. He'd just sat down and posted OOP. Min raise, called in two spots, so I repopped it to a 10xBB. He calls, other fold, flop an ace, and take his massive 43o to valuetown.

www.pokerhand.org/

I played this one terribly. I should have led the turn to build a pot, and since it's a multiway pot someone is likely to have an ace in this spot. The river shove was because I ran out of time and wasn't sure how much to bet here. If he had something like A7/8/9 then more power to him, but I wanted to get the money in here all day long.

www.pokerhand.org/

Another hand I was confused about. I kind of want to chalk it up to a cooler, but somehow, I feel that when he donk leads me on a relative brick that he's likely got something better than AT or a drawing hand. I'll post this when I can get around to it on the forums.

www.pokerhand.org/

Absolutely golden. Hit my set on the flop, he donk leads, I oblige and hand him the rope to hang himself. Raise him on the river, and he shoves with air and drawing dead for his stack. Doesn't get much better that that.

Been a couple of pretty good sessions, hoping to keep it up. I'm wishing PokerEV worked on PT3, as I haven't been able to find something new compatible with the software that functions like PokerEV did. Not that it matters until I'm sitting on something ilke 20k hands anyhow.

Good luck at the tables,

J.

So I've decided to play again, and I couldn't be more excited. I stopped playing due to just ridiculous variance and semi-bad BR management. I was playing 25nl, and after a number of bad beats, I started playing bad, weak-tight poker. Now, I'm back, starting with $300 and going by Inspiron's BR chart. DiceyMike and I are going to be railing/sweating/competing with each other, to help push ourselves.

Played a bunch of the Double or Nothing SnGs, they're incredibly easy to place in and competition is poor. Unfortunately, the $1 SnGs have a 10% rake, and wihle the $5 SnGs only sit on 4% rake, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the possibility of a 20 BI downswing at $5 buy ins(which, at SnG's, will definitely happen at one point).

Current BR for cash games is $300, and I have ~$357 on Stars outside of this roll for SnGs and MTTs, and ~$70 on FTP. The idea is to play on Stars for 10nl due to the insane rake on FTP until I move up to 25nl. No rakeback at the moment, but hopefully that'll change after a month or two with the rakebackpro's site. Definitely going to keep myself accountable this time, try to make it as fun as it used to be.

Good luck at the tables,

J.

So it's been a while since my last post, about a week or so. Been trying to get at least 500 hands a day in, which really shouldn't be too troubling if I just plan out my day reasonably well. Got Monday off, which is awesome, since I still haven't gone out and purchased any books that I need to. Hopefully buy a wireless router, but damn, I didn't know those things run you $60+. I'll probably just purchase one off of Ebay and wait it out for arrival.

Been playing a fair bit of poker, not running fantastic, not running badly, just grinding. I'm up $45 or so since my last post, but only at ~2ptbb/100 :/ Would like to work on maximizing that win rate, but I guess I'm going to need to stop tilt-calling some hands, such as AQs on a AK2 board for a veeeeeeery tight/passive villain. Still working on opening up my range and 3betting a bit lighter so I can maximize profit and hopefully loosen my image.

I'd post hands if I had any to post, but when you're grinding, there aren't many tough spots. So far this month (and remember, this is AFTER PT had a heart attack and lost tons of hands) I've played 5,323 hands, and I'm up $112.50 running at 4.23 ptbb/100. I've also got 567 VPP to go if I want to make Silverstar by the end of this month (which I reaaaaaally do) because otherwise, I might as well withdraw and take advantage of Full Tilt's rakeback, which I'm pretty sure would cover the fact that the games are supposed to be tougher. I may make a FTP rakeback account if I think I can manage both FT and maintain Silverstar at PS. It's not that easy at 25nl, when you only get a VPP at .40c rake, which I think is like an $8 pot, so it's not like 200nl where it's every hand you enter you get one.

Overall, it's been a good week and I'm working on getting my conifidence and roll up. Still following Inspiron's chart, as well as the cashout method before I'm allowed to move up to 50nl, which is a way off anyhow. I really wish PokerEV would work for me though, I have no idea how I'm running, be it hot or cold. I think I'm below expectation with two pretty big bad beats I took in two 85%+ equity pots, but I think my game is solid enough along with my confidence that I don't need to check the damned thing every session to feel good about my play.

Hope everyone's doing well at the tables. Peace,

J.

Trust me, the title makes sense.

College started up again today, so I actually had to go to bed reasonably early last night so I could head back on time. Went to two classes, my Intermediate Billiards class (I know, tough right?) and my Art History Survey course with the quirkiest teacher I ever met. He basically said he made the syllabus just to throw upper management off the track to look like he was actually taking. Since we did nothing all period, I may believe him. I need the A, but if I'm learning nothing I might swap proffessors. Hung out with roommates at lunch and would have played some Halo 3 (which has no equal...that's right Call of Duty 4, SHOVE IT) but the old TV is having problems run the video component cable so I sat down and played 600 hands of poker or so.

Was a pretty good session, Up 1 and 2/5ths of a buy in, had some good play, most of it was pretty standard except one scary calldown and one set hand I think I could have extracted more value out of.

Stacked off with trips vs a total nutjob, was running 95/40/3.5. His river lead seems scary, but to me it just seemed to mean he missed his flush draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1941149

I really need to find some way to better play sets OOP. Check/raising shuts a LOT of players down, so I'm thinking maybe start donkbetting into the better players at the table so they can raise my lead? Anyhow, in this hand I think I should have checked it back to him on the turn, since the turn (unless he had AK) is probably scary as hell to him and lets him get out of the hand with J/x, QQ and AA.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1941158

I almost never 3bet AQ, suited or not, but decided it was time to at least ATTEMPT to open up some of my play, since I know flat calling AQ and AK is almost never the correct play, but it sure is damn hell OOP when you bet, whiff, and you c-bet the flop and they don't go away. Then what? Anyhow, this hand seems standard to the most of you, but for me it was tough to do. Probably because I was up for the session I got the kahones to do it, usually when I'm winning I play optimal poker, but I definitely need to start doing it regularly.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1941170

This hand made me think. I'm definitely always c-betting here, but when he calls and I'm OOP on the turn, what can I do? If I bet here $4 or so and he comes over the top, I'm definitely not getting the odds to call, and if he does call and I whiff the river, I think check/folding seems like eventual spew. I'm not really sure, and I'm honestly too tired to think about it properly. I probably should've bet the turn and then just folded to a shove, but I just felt he was going to shove too often here to that kind of move. Idk.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1941190

Pretty good session, going to sweat Sal when he gets back from...wherever the heck he is.

Good luck at the tables,

J.

So I had a small run with DiceyMike (or GeneralSal, depends on what forum you know him from) 4 tabling 25NL and having him sweat me. We had some good discussion over various hands, and he helped me from going on tilt after losing a 75%'er to a donk for 120BB's. Had some good discussion over RIO (reverse implied odds) on hands like AQo on a board of Qc Th 7c when deepstacked.

Couple of hands: One was where I had AQ, bet into a half-stacked loose passive player, cbet into the flop, he calls, turn is another scary card, we both check, he fires on the river. I think you'll laugh when you see what he called the flop with.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1936721

This hand made me cry. I had such a strong read on the player since he was running 40/22/8 over 30 hands, cbet every flop, and was manically agressive. At worst, I figured I had ten outs, and possibly a backdoor flush. Always sad when you make the correct play and get gutted.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1936866

I really liked my play here, and I'd set myself up for him to bluff on the river, since I'd taken this exact same line earlier and c/f the river after double barrel bluffing. Obviously the money was getting in anyways, but when I get to stack players like this, I think it's the poker gods punishing drawing with hands like that after the flop. Checking the nuts on the river and having them fire a little less than half their stack to you is just priceless.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1936872

I'd post more, but during the sweat session I think we went over eleventy-billion different angles at hands, so I'm talked out. BR now at $740. Hope to keep it swinging up, no more monkey tilt!

Good luck at the tables,

J.

So, I figure I'm going to start posting what my stars BR is at now, it'll help me be accountable with myself. Last night I had a flat even BR of ~$800 (it was a bit higher, but I transferred $30 for CR tournies to FTP). Decided to play some microstakes PLO at 10NL, went up a buying, took two sick beats including losing the nut straight and redraw to clubs to a backdoor flush draw. Ended PLO at $765 or so. Looking to earn it back, i sat down and tried to play more tables of 25NL than I'm used to, which made me drop a buyin reaaaaaaaaally quick when one player called almost every bet of mine, then check/raised the minimum.

After that, I decided to go blow ANOTHER buy in on various donkaments. So now my BR is sitting at $713. Since I'm following Inspiron's BR chart, if I drop another $63, I have to drop down to 10NL to rebuild for 10 BIs. My confidence just got shot, one because my play was atrocious, and two because I seem to have no accountability with myself. I would LOVE a coach, just a few lessons to try and get back on track, but obviously $50-200 an hour would severely cut into my winrate, if not demolish my BR. I'm not really sure what to do at the moment, I'm just frustrated.

I'm probably just stressed out since I have to go back to college tomorrow, and have to do a couple of things that are necessary, but aren't going to be recieved well. That, and I figured that since I had so much time off for poker, I'd get some real progress, but I feel like I took a few steps back. Now I won't be able to play as much. I'm not sure, I may get a part time job up there JUST for the sake of paying a coach. I'm not really sure.

Hoping ya'll are doing better than me. Good luck at the tables. Peace,

J.

So ever since I started importing hands on more than one site, PokerTracker has thrown a fit. It's only recognizing hands played since three days ago, deleting several hundred thousand hands of mine, but it didn't delete any other players hands. I guess it's a good/bad thing. Good, because now I can literally treat 2008 as a fresh start and another long session, and bad because now I can't learn from some of my old sessions. Plus, since 2008 started I'm "technically" down $7 or something, but I've only played like, 4,000 hands. Running breakeven FTW!

Hopefully I can get PT totally reset and working, most of the numbers are on players on 25NL, and I already have notes on all the regs so I'm not worried about losing numbers on them. Fish will make themselves apparent shortly anyhow. Couple of hands from today's session:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1917820

Coolering someone else FTW, gotta love when a loose player min reraises you with AA and then goes with it. Hitting quads didn't hurt either.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1917829

This is a spot where I'm debating cold calling the second raise and playing hard against him on the flop. I decided to raise since it was my first hand at the table and I was hoping my image as an unkown would get someone to stack off light, but that didn't happen.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1917837

Here I was concerned and afraid I played this too passively preflop. I know I had to raise on the flop to see where I was, but after he cold calls the only draw I can put him on is QT, and with numbers like 9.8/6.5/1.5 I put him on AK after he calls. I checked OOP on the turn, and he checked as well. After this, I DID put him on a draw like QT and wanted a free card, so I checked to him on the river to induce a bluff, which I got.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1917858

Standard vs. two shorties.

Hoping to get PT fixed up soon and work on loosening up my game. I'd like to run higher than 18/16, it's just tough for that to be profitable at low stakes. Good luck at the tables,

J.

So the PLO tournament was pretty fun tonight, took a suckout with AA84 vs KK84 when I was shortstacked, but it was worth the price of admission. Still railing GeneralSal, two tables left to go. Haven't played too many hands in the new year, not running so hot, something like .5ptBB/100, but I'm also running $450 below expectation over the past 12k hands, which at 25nl is a fair amount, I think. But hey, think about the heater that I'm going to get to ride out soon ;)

Anyhow, I have to head back to college soon, five days or so. Kind of sad, but a month vacation is pretty damn long in the first place. Hopefully going to do better than my first semester, it was pretty sick how bad I did. I guess focusing on poker TOO much is definitely detrimental to my grades (and my health, depending on how my dad reacts).

Hoping everyone's doing well at tables. Peace,

J.

Unfortunately, I can't really make this a very long post, as we have company coming over shortly, but I just wanted to get back in the habit of maintaining a blog. Christmas is distracting!

Had a pretty reasonable Christmas, went up to Houston to see family. We had 15 people or so pile into a veeeeeery small house, and though we had a few arguments (c'mon, half the family is redneck and the other half lives in the city) it was a nice, cozy family-oriented Christmas. I know, I know, try not to gag.

Played session where I was down one buyin, up half a buyin, down to even, and back ot half a buy in again. I really would like to move up stakes at some point, ABC nittery is putting me to sleep.

This hand I lost about a buy in. I wasn't giving WPT33-whatever any credit, he'd been shortstacking it and had busted multiple times. PiS I was a little more worried about, but if he's got a set, gg me. I wanted to make flush draws pay and smaller pairs (TT-QQ, which I thought PiS was capable of having) get sucked in. When the heart hit on the river, I internally cringed.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1877832

I think this was standard vs. a min stack, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't expecting him to flip up THAT, though. TBH, I didn't even notice he had a min stack until he called.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1877842

This looks like a really tight laydown, and perhaps it was, but it was RIGHT after the beat with Kings, and I've seen so many players play AA-KK like this (especially AA) that I gave him credit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1877847

I'm not sure I like how I played this...he's only running 19/2/0.59, so do I classify that as someone that's simply a calling station or someone that traps postflop? I think this is correct, and it was my biggest winner. Would love for someone to clarify.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1877851

The other big winner was a super-standard boat situation where I simply coaxed the calling station to get all in, so I won't even post it. I may post that JJ hand on the forums later, see was people think.

Hope everyone has a good New Years, next post I'll try and define a list of poker resolutions.

Peace,

J.

Had a pretty good day today, especially since it didn't start until noon :D Had a lot to think about over the last couple of days being home, a lot of it being about my future in poker. Since I don't really have any desire to make poker a career (life is stressful ENOUGH, tyvm) I wanted to find out what I wanted out of poker, and was able to sum it up in just a few points.

1. Have a side income for life.

While I certainly don't think I should drop out of college, I feel that I have a solid win record at 25NL that I can at LEAST play that to bring in a few thousand a month (my win rate over 100k hands is 7ptbb/100) so I think I can use that to put into a savings account or high yield CD for extra income. I think this is the main reason I play poker, followed very closely by....

2. I'm extremely competitive and love the challenge of outplaying others.

Since I've been little, I loved to WIN. It's hardwired in my DNA, and I get a thrill playing poker. I used to play varsity tennis, but it didn't get my blood pumping like poker does, and I'm willing to put considerably more work into poker to get better.

3. I think there's positive "side effects" from playing poker.

Since playing poker, I've become a more logical, reasoning person, I tend to get upset considerably less upset when something negative affects my life. Plus, I like the people I've met through poker and talking to them.

As for actual play, I went up a buyin, half of it came through this hand where my opponent was running 78/52/1.5. It was the wierdest stats I'd ever seen.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1831841

It wasn't as hard a call as it may look , since villain was LITERALLY playing any two cards and I was likely to be ahead. I'm not sure if I would have done the same without the Jack of diamonds, but I still feel that this kind of play vs. ridiculously loose players is +EV in the long run.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1831852

Wasn't sure about this hand. There's no way I'm folding to his mini-reraise, but I certainly understand that at these stakes it means QQ+. When I flop the draw, I was tempted to reraise and play for stacks, but I don't think he's ever letting go anything but QQ, KK has my equity crushed, and AA as well, so I just decided to peel. When I hit it on the turn, and he weak leads in, I'm not sure I like my call. If I raised, I was worried I would push him away, but in retrospect any river raise will likely do that (unless he sticks in a large percentage of his stack). So I'm not really sure how to extract more.

As to the title of my blog post, me and a friend on military leave went up to our local pool hall and played roughly two hours of pool.

After he won the first three games in a row, he suggested we play a dollar a ball, the 8 ball being worth $5, and with the overall loser also having to pay the cover and the drinks we ordered. I made $72 on the night, the most notable of which was making a jump shot into the dead center of a clump of three of my solids and making each go into an individual pocket and then take down the 8 ball in the next shot, when my opponent had been down to the 8 ball solely. That, plus $25 in drinks and the $10cover apiece made it a pretty good night.

Hoping everyone's doing well at the tables. Peace,

J.