I'm posting this response to a hand I recently played because I think it emphasizes a good point in both poker and in life. Knowing what to do, and actually doing it are two separte things, and the latter is always the harder part. In poker, this is an area I have struggled with as it relates to folding correctly. Turn and river decisions are where I need to get better and I need to separate my emotions from my decisions in poker.

In selling or any other act of persuasion you need to get the emotions of your prospect involved, but you need to do so without getting your own emotions involved. You can be empathetic, but you can't be sympathetic. You can sell with your prosepct's emotions involved but you need to do so while completely separating your own emotions from effecting your ability to make good decisions for your prospect. You need to have an enthusiasm for what you are selling, and you need to transfer that enthusiasm...that emotion...to your prospect. But that emotion should propel your motivation, it shouldn't effect your decision making.

In a lot of way poker, and many other things in life, are like selling...you are selling an idea to get your opponent to act in a certain way. Is it okay to consider your opponents emotions when playing poker? Yes, and, you should. It's amazing that you can sit "across the table" from an opponent thousands of miles away on another continent. While the distance is real but not obvious, the "connection" that you are able to make when playing poker against somebody for awhile is there if you look for it. How does he react to aggression, does the money be played for make him nervous or is he a seasoned regular whom it won't bother? Is he dumb enough to literally call any sized bet with a draw, or with any pair? Has he been playing for awhile and is on autopilate? How is he emotionally involved in the game at this time, right here, right now, this hand?

As far as you own emotion is concerned, I think when you play you should be in the state of mind where you can separate all emotions from you decisions while still considering the emotions of others. This is ideal, and if when you see players playing mid to high stakes successfully, this is something they have probably become really good at for the amount of money they are playing for.

I need to reach a point where I can play the game completely based around logic and my opponents emotions and do it for at least a $400 buy-in. This is my goal. And I need to work extra hard analyzing hand like the one below so I can gain that logic.

This is from the poker forum discussion on a flush on paired river:

Thanks guys for your responses. after looking over the hand myself and reading what all of you wrote, I agree that bet big/fold is the best option. After playing this hand I am fairly sure this player is competent, but I didn't know this at the time. I think against an unknown (we don't know for sure what he would limp), the best play is a bet big/fold because we are not sure if he will bet, bluff, or call a c/r and we need to tailor our hand for value here.

Villain has a King very often and this is a tough fold, even for a good player, until he really analyzes my range here. After doing that he will realize I would usually only take this line with 33, 44 or a flopped flush and will rarely have KJs+, KJ+ here, and will haver have AK, (I would iso with these preflop). Therefore I rep an A hi flush draw, maybe a bad King (and I might not bet this), K3, K4, 33, 44, and a flopped flush. Needless to say my range is strong here and even on the rare occasion that I would bluff, he really can't call against my range profitably, even with K10o.

A check/call protects you from a better hand but I think it risks losing too much when the opponent doesn't bet. It also allows him to bluff his missed A hi flush draws but he won't do this as often as he'll call with a King.

Another option here, to possibly get more value from a King, is to CR the river, when/if he bets his King here. I think the problem with this is that too often he 1) won't bet a worse hand that would call (a passive player might actually check back a king here, so would a good player when he considers my calling range), 2) won't call a CR, and 3) will have better and take our entire stack. With shallower stacks I think a c/r is a safer option, and against the right player (we know he will bet all his kings and bluffs), a c/r AI would be alright because he we lose less when we are crushed and he is more likely to call when he is beat.

I think a point Nomad brings up makes sense and is very relevant. Opponent has competent VPIP and PFR stats and will rarely have AKs, AKo, K10o+, K10s+ here, leaving him with a higher flush, pocket pairs that either have us crushed (33, 44) or aren't very likely to call a bet. And by check/calling we get information on how he plays by seeing his cards, which is very valuable. I want to point out that this is sound strategy if you use the info, but you might be gaining more immediate profit by bet/folding.

The main reason I posted this hand was because I did bet, but I was unable to fold to a raise. It eats away at me inside and the only way I can feel better about it is to look over the mistake. I was unable to seperate logic from emotion and I made a glaring mistake. Well you know, he could be bluffing a missed A hi flush draw...NO...you dipshit he isn't and wouldn't be doing that. And if he would it would't be nearly often enough for you to call profitably. He has 44 or 33, K3, or K4, or an A hi flush. HIS RANGE CRUSHES YOURS!!!! HE WOULDN'T BLUFF!!!!!!!

The thing for me o be excited about is this an easy fix and one that will be tremendously profitable for me to fix. I do a lot of things well in poker I think, but bad river and turn decisions (here a bad call) need to be improved for me to reach my goals. Analyze more hands to gain logic, work hard to play a lot of hands, play without emotion, and make sound decisions always.

Anothe leak of mine is trying to bluff complete idiots but I'll get to that later.

I have been having trouble taking poker seriously lately and I think new goals will help motivate me to do something with the poker skills I have worked so hard to learn. My bankroll is at a low of $950 and it's hard grinding when the money is so low. My previous goal was to reach a $20,000 bankroll before I withdrew any money from poker but I think another goal is more realistic and will also be more motivating due to my newfound obsession with investing: I will use all this year's poker earnings to invest in income producing assets and I want to purchase AT LEAST one investment property by the end of this year with poker money. The better I do at poker this year, the more I will be able to invest in real estate, and I will be spending the entire year becoming an expert on local real estate so that my investments will be sound when the money becomes available.

Not tapping into my potential to make money at poker, after all the hard work I have put into the game,is kind of a waste of my previous efforts. This new goal will do two things for me: 1) It will give me to motivation to keep my game sharp and move up to a level where I can make good investment money, and 2) by not allowing myself to use poker money for expenses, I will be forced to stay focused on building a successful career where I can eventually make a good income. This will also make simply finding a job, which I could have probably been working a little harder at (despite this shitty economy), a much more urgent matter, and basically a necessity. I've quickly found in the last 2 months of looking for a job that, especially in a down market, finding a job is A LOT of damn work and requires a lot of effort. So I need to definitely work harder. And smarter too.

My 3 year career goal is to be making at least $100,000 a year. My best bet at acheiving this goal is to become a damn good business to business sales professional as soon as is practical. I say practical because I have no previous sales experience and, as I've been finding out, I'm going to have to start at the bottom of the sales barrel to get to where I want to go. This is fine. My ultimate career goal is to sell medical devices, and being realistic, this might take more than 3 years. However with my degree in Biotechnology, with some sucessful B2B sales on my resume, I shouldn't have trouble finding a job in this field. In hindsight I see I should have had some sort of job in sales the last two years. I decided to play poker instead, which I could have been doing part-time, and this was kind of a mistake.

My career goal for this year will be to find ANY kind of a job in sales as soon as possible. I don't really care how much I'm making, as long as it's enough to get by. If I'm doing good at poker I won't have to worry about making enough money through my job to invest. The sales experience I will be getting will increase my earning potential as I will be more marketable for a business to business position after 6 months to a year in sales.

I'll try and review these goals, and possibly change them, as the year progresses. If anything, it feels good to write them down because now I have a reason to get to work on them.

I haven't posted in my poker blog for quite some time now. I've been very busy in the job hunt process and have had no real motivation to play poker for the last 2 months or so. I sit down, play within my bankroll, but just don't care about the money. Because of this I haven't lived up to any of my poker goals I set awhile ago. This is fine, I have been very busy with other things in my life; like starting a career. So far...unsuccessful.

I've been reading like a mad man since I graduated college this August. Think and Grow Rich, Maximum Acievement, books on real estate investing, books on selling, Malcolm Gladwell, and many others. I have a plan and I think it's a good one. Where poker fits into this plan I still have yet to determine, but I think it could be a great help in the investment part of my plan.

I've learned that the first best step is writing down clear, long-term goals, committing to them, and then letting the details sort themselves out.

All I got for now. Peace

Well tournaments have been just a barrel of fun the last couple of days. I'm 0 for 20 in cashes since my 2nd place finish the other night and I got a tournament riding right now going for 0 for 21. The good news is that people at lower limits play SO SO SO bad and I'll have all of their money eventually.

Like just now, this guy cold calls with K10 from the BB with about 26 BBs effectively. He has me slightly covered. Flop comes AKxss and he donks into me for pot and then calls it off when I reshove AQ for an additional 10 BBs. He is never going to have the best hand there, and furthermore, donking into me for pot is probably the last way to get the most value from the worst of my range, if any of my range at all. Maybe donk lead smaller if you are expecting me to bluff, but potting it with so shallow of stacks and basically shouting at me that you are pot committed is probably never going to get me to bluff raise worse.

Cash is going decent and I have been grinding 50NL with some pretty good results. I'm making mistakes but I like what I'm doing with my redline. I do need to eliminate my mistakes though. I think that my ability to read hands has improved over the last few days since watching VitalMyths video series on the differences between the great and the good. This video, by the way, if fucking amazing. If they had annual awards for poker videos I'd put this one up as a nominee for Best Poker Video Series of the Year. It has completely changed how I look at things.For example, I used to project really bad when thinking of what players are doing. A good example is the fact that very rarely will you find players at 50NL pulling off advanced moves, triple barreling, bluff raising the river especially. Don't get me wrong there are a few players who will do this so you need to spot them out, but they are RARE. If he is reppin it he probably has it (for the most part).

My problem before was I'd say things to myself like "Wow this would be a great spot to turn my pair of aces into a bluff and reraise this scare card here", but the fact of the matter is the competition at 50NL just won't do that. They won't think that way. Now I'm trying more to get into my opponents head and figure out what my opponents are thinking, not what I would think if I was in my opponents shoes.

On the whole I was a little frustrated with my play tonight. I picked a few bad spots and wasn't patient enough overall. You can minimize the amount of luck in MTTs if you can pick spots well and build up your stack with no showdowns. This is obviously easier said than done, but a small-ball approach seems to work for me and tonight I got away from that. I also didn't run very well so I should work on improving that also. I made some good plays but there are still areas I need to improve on before I become a top-notch tournament player.

Here is one hand from tonight I butchered all to hell. My play after getting 4bet all in is atrocious. I'm not too angry with my 3bet because it should take it down a fair amount, but I need to fold after getting 4bet. It was also the first time the guy had opened a pot in awhile and this makes me hate the 3bet a little. His range has me crushed unless he's a mad man, which as I was saying before, nobody is at low limit tournaments.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4850464

I like my play here. Villain is fairly weak yet he might be smart enough to realize that neither of us has a thing right here and push over the top of a cbet. So i let him cbet for me and then I check raise all in to get him to fold what we both have and that's nothing.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4850484

Anyway, I'm making a run at the last tournament I'm in right now. I'll update the blog later after the tournament if anything cool happens.

Ended up "running AA into QQ" all in preflop as it seems like it should be phrased lately for like 5th in chips with around 65 people left. Q came on the turn. I then reshoved with J3s with around 14 BBs to a late raise and ran into QQ in the big blind. It was a bad play in hindsight. I still need to work on being more patient in tournaments but overall I think I played pretty well in this one. This shit get's old, but nothing good comes out of dwelling on it. Made the $$$$!!!

Bankroll: $2,957

So I played in a couple of tournaments tonight, from the $50 freezeouts on both Stars and FT and a handful of $10 freezeouts on FT. No luck really, took a couple of bad beats and didn't cash in any of the tournaments. There are a couple of hands I know I misplayed, a couple of hands I think I could possibly played different (and thus better), and a few I'm unsure about.

I can't get pokerhand to convert my hands correctly, I'm probably doing something wrong or there might be something wrong with the convertor, I'm not sure but I'm going to have to write all these hands out individually. I'll try and post hands as links in the future so that my blog posts don't run so long.

- Level IV (50/100) -
Seat 1: I_Dnt_Know_U (3830 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (4360 in chips)
Seat 3: igordo111 (3345 in chips)
Seat 4: SonofCount (1725 in chips)
Seat 5: hughster11 (6320 in chips)
Seat 6: jm18 (3405 in chips)
Seat 7: berserkpz (4850 in chips)
Seat 8: LifeLongLove (3000 in chips)
Seat 9: retsam45 (8208 in chips)
SonofCount: posts small blind 50
hughster11: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Tc Ad]
jm18: folds
berserkpz: folds
LifeLongLove: folds
retsam45: folds
I_Dnt_Know_U: folds
Hero: raises 144 to 244
igordo111: calls 244
SonofCount: raises 1481 to 1725 and is all-in
hughster11: folds
Hero: folds
igordo111: folds

This first hand I think I need to be calling SonofCount's squeeze AI. He had been snug and I"m not sure whether or not he knows that I should be calling here with a light range. I'm getting about (2363/1481) 1.6 to 1 on my money so I need about 38.5% equity (1/2.6 x 100) to call and break even here.
Versus all broadways and all pairs I'm easily getting enough equity to call. In fact it's a snap-call scenario.

Even versus a fairly tight range (77+,ATs+,KTs+,QTs+,ATo+,KQo) I'm getting the odds to call here, about 39%.

The one other reason I hesitated to call was because of the cold call from igordo111 behind me to act. But in hindsight I don't think his range is very strong here. I think he is very likely to fold if I reshove and if he does call I can't be in that bad of shape getting 2 to 1 for a very large pot.

Second Hand:

- Level V (75/150) -
Seat 1: kiprosoff888 (6965 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (4341 in chips)
Seat 3: igordo111 (9202 in chips)
Seat 4: SonofCount (2163 in chips)
Seat 5: hughster11 (10375 in chips)
Seat 6: jm18 (2729 in chips)
Seat 7: xMrNIZEx (4409 in chips)
Seat 8: LifeLongLove (1983 in chips)
Seat 9: retsam45 (7333 in chips)
LifeLongLove: posts small blind 75
retsam45: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Kc Kd]
kiprosoff888: folds
Hero: raises 238 to 388
igordo111: folds
SonofCount: folds
hughster11: folds
jm18: folds
xMrNIZEx: folds
LifeLongLove: folds
retsam45: calls 238
*** FLOP *** [As 4c 2s]
retsam45: bets 600
Hero: calls 600
*** TURN *** [As 4c 2s] [Td]
retsam45: bets 600
Hero: raises 2753 to 3353 and is all-in
retsam45: folds

I'm really torn on this hand. This is also in the $50 $70,000 Guaranteed on PokerStars. On the flop setsam45, whom I have no real reads on, seems semi-loose taggish donk leads into me for almost pot on a terrible board. I decide to call and re-evaluate on the turn. His range here makes no sense to me but I don't see him donk leading with a very strong hand.

On the turn he makes a really small bet into the pot and I really think it shows a lot of weakness. There is also a flush draw out. His line makes really no sense to me and I'm torn between another call or a shove. If I call turn though I basically have to call any non-spade river.
I decide to push because 1) I think I am ahead of some of his range and some of these can catch up on the river, so for protection 2)there is a slight chance that if he has me beat he doesn't really like his hand that much and I might have a little bit of fold equity (hands like Ax). I'm not 100% certain on this but the play worked out in my favor.

Third hand:

- Level V (75/150) -
Table '209011081 94' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: kiprosoff888 (5765 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (5779 in chips)
Seat 3: igordo111 (11365 in chips)
Seat 4: SourDz (4769 in chips)
Seat 5: hughster11 (9900 in chips)
Seat 6: jm18 (2954 in chips)
Seat 7: xMrNIZEx (8993 in chips)
Seat 8: LifeLongLove (558 in chips)
Seat 9: retsam45 (8745 in chips)
kiprosoff888: posts small blind 75
Hero: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [4c 3s]
igordo111: folds
SourDz: folds
hughster11: raises 300 to 450
jm18: folds
xMrNIZEx: folds
LifeLongLove: folds
retsam45: folds
kiprosoff888: calls 375
Hero: folds

Here I want to squeeze. The stack sizes are perfect for it and I had been playing fairly tight. The only problem was I felt that most players at this table (The $50 on PS) were pretty decent and would see right through my squeeze, reshoving with hands like A10, low pairs, etc. so I passed.

It's probably a play that might be profitable if your never flat called, which I would be sometimes, in which case i would want a more playable hand to squeeze here. I don't think it's bad but I also don't really think it would be necessary at this point in the tournament.

Hand four:

Seat 1: gregwild (3,575)
Seat 2: IncataS (9,588)
Seat 3: newjerz05 (7,143)
Seat 4: Big3Banner17 (2,255)
Seat 5: sasquash (3,437)
Seat 7: Hero (8,504)
Seat 8: sbbytor (6,550)
Seat 9: yuz31j (9,063)
gregwild posts the small blind of 80
IncataS posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qc Qs]
newjerz05 folds
Big3Banner17 folds
sasquash folds
Hero raises to 444
sbbytor has 15 seconds left to act
sbbytor folds
yuz31j raises to 1,150
gregwild folds
IncataS folds
Hero calls 706
*** FLOP *** [9d 3h 4d]
Hero checks
ktcasino72 sits down
ktcasino72 adds 13,741
yuz31j bets 1,500
plznoflush (Observer): qk
Hero raises to 7,354, and is all in
yuz31j calls 5,854
Hero shows [Qc Qs]
yuz31j shows [As Ac]
*** TURN *** [9d 3h 4d] [Tc]
newjerz05: focus
*** RIVER *** [9d 3h 4d Tc] [2h]
Hero shows a pair of Queens
yuz31j shows a pair of Aces
yuz31j wins the pot (17,248) with a pair of Aces

This hand really sucked, nothing much more you can say than that. After analyzing it though, I think I out-leveled myself. About four plays earlier the guy had opened UTG + 1, got 4 callers behind him, leaving about $1,300 of dead money in the pot. I pushed with 1010 and about 25 big blinds, he called and showed KK. On the river I hit a 10 and sucked-out.

Next hand I get QQ, I open, everybody folds. Next hand I get AJ late, I open, everbody folds. Very next hand I get QQ open and somebodies has to be catching on that I'm either full of it or am having a rush of cards. So I get 3bet by this guy and I hate 4betting/getting it AI b/c I have around like 45 BBs. Had I had like 20 BBs this spot would be much easier. So I just call.

Flop is about as good as it can get. I'm ahead of AK, AQ, JJ, and 1010 (and not even sure he would 3bet these hands deep). Literally 100% break-even versus 1010+ and about 59% if you had AKs and AKos. His cbet is also very strong and quick. In hind-sight I think I hate my c/r AI a lot because I'm only getting called by worse. Whether or not he cbets AK here and whether or not he 3bets light at all, 1010, and JJ I really have no idea.

I think I should have just flat called the flop and then probably c/folded the turn if he double barreled. I don't know though. With my image he could have been making a light 3bet but without more history there is no way to know, and now with history I see my c/r is kind of spewwy.

I would love feedback on this hand BTW!

Second to last hand I'll post is utterly and completely garbage. I absolutely hate this play and it makes me sick that I made it. Why I made it. Tilt? Boredom? Lack of patience? Probably all of those and I hate it. I'm posting this so I can go back and analyze a hand where I literally make about as bad of a play as I can make in poker.

Whether or not I should have isoed with 89hh to begin is highly debatable and probably bad. A fold is probably best in this scenario with loose players at the table. Suited connector have a lot less value in tournaments because you are unable to play on multiple streets with shallower stacks. Top pair hands become more valuable and people are less willing (or able really) to fold them. Combine all this and I think suited connectors are better to be used in late position in blind steals, in late position as limps alongs in potential big pots early, or just folded in all other positions without other situational things leaning towards a play.

Me and villain had mingled earlier where I c/r J10 on a xxJ10 bored that had flushed on the turn and then pushed a Q river. That play itself was very marginal but I think with that history I have absolutely no fold equity here ever. Regardless, and even after telling myself this at the time, I still c/r AI with no fold equity and a gutshot.

I'm better off making a standard cbet about half of pot or just check/fold.

This play makes me sick.

Seat 1: Mad Ukrainian (1,259)
Seat 2: yvoncita666 (3,010)
Seat 3: busker32 (3,335)
Seat 4: A-FELON (2,350)
Seat 5: Hero (1,754)
Seat 6: Klick4 (730)
Seat 7: Catfish66669 (1,491)
Seat 8: smithers777 (4,121)
Seat 9: flyfreeZ (1,605)
flyfreeZ posts the small blind of 30
Mad Ukrainian posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [9h 8h]
yvoncita666: the nine was right next to the zero
yvoncita666 folds
busker32 folds
A-FELON calls 60
flyfreeZ: nice hand
Hero raises to 188
Klick4 folds
Catfish66669 calls 188
yvoncita666: ty
smithers777 folds
flyfreeZ folds
A-FELON calls 128
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6h Js]
A-FELON checks
Hero checks
Catfish66669 bets 360
A-FELON folds
Hero raises to 1,566, and is all in
Catfish66669 calls 943, and is all in
Hero shows [9h 8h]
Catfish66669 shows [Qd Jd]

Once again, sick. I have no fold equity after he cbets and leaves himself only like 943 in chips. A Q and a J make up a large part of his range. If I want to bluff I should just cbet. It's cheaper and it folds out the same portion of his range than a c/r AI, a play which puts my tournament life in jeopordy and can be described no better than dumb.

Last hand I'll post I like:

Basically just a double barrel where I don't think villain can handle much heat. His range is a lot of lower pairs here, and possibly even some floats. Earlier he opened A4s from UTG +1 full ring which leads me to believe he is loose, further reason to double barrel here.


Seat 1: kiprosoff888 (5415 in chips)
Seat 2: Hero (8333 in chips)
Seat 3: igordo111 (14996 in chips)
Seat 5: hughster11 (9900 in chips)
Seat 6: jm18 (5758 in chips)
Seat 7: xMrNIZEx (8193 in chips)
Seat 8: PokerEmpire7 (9679 in chips)
Seat 9: retsam45 (6283 in chips)
PokerEmpire7: posts small blind 100
retsam45: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [Qc Ks]
kiprosoff888: folds
Hero: raises 288 to 488
Harry2 is connected
igordo111: folds
hughster11: folds
jm18: folds
xMrNIZEx: calls 488
PokerEmpire7: folds
retsam45: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c 6d 7h]
Hero: bets 685
xMrNIZEx: calls 685
*** TURN *** [7c 6d 7h] [6h]
Hero: bets 1245
xMrNIZEx: folds


K, for sure last hand.

Seat 1: WeeeJustin (3,269)
Seat 2: nm_21 (4,706)
Seat 3: norajean (11,417)
Seat 4: Hero (3,670)
Seat 5: itsonlymoney3 (2,357)
Seat 6: Emily Bell (4,874)
Seat 7: footwork (8,505)
Seat 8: WeTawd (5,020)
Seat 9: Avril Sharapova (1,933)
Hero posts the small blind of 60
itsonlymoney3 posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Hero [As Js]
Emily Bell has 15 seconds left to act
Emily Bell calls 120
footwork folds
WeTawd folds
Avril Sharapova folds
WeeeJustin folds
nm_21 folds
norajean raises to 505
Hero folds
itsonlymoney3 folds
Emily Bell calls 385
*** FLOP *** [8c 4d 7s]
Emily Bell checks
norajean bets 799
Emily Bell folds
Uncalled bet of 799 returned to norajean
norajean mucks
norajean wins the pot (1,190)

I think against norajean here I can 3bet for value. I had a note on her from a cash game that said she called a 3bet IP with 57os and made a play at an A24 flop. She had also been fairly active so far in the tournament. I let my time bank run out and folded because I was unsure what to do at the time.

Earlier I had 3bet norajean after she opened late with KQ and she insta folded. I think with Emily Bell, who didn't appear to be a very good player, limping, norajeans iso is pretty light. Probably hands like K10, KQ, QJ, small pairs, maybe a few worse aces, and others which I'm ahead of and which she can't stand much heat with.

I have like 30 BBs, so a call here isn't terrible to keep worst hands in the pot. But I think my range is ahead of both players here and I'll be OOP on the flop and unlikely to hit the flop so I should just 3bet and end the pot right there. If I'm 4bet AI it's close I think. Depending on whether or not norajean would 4bet AI with a lot of pairs and as bluffs, which I don't think she would, I would probably have to fold.

If I were to 3bet it to $1,270 that would make the pot about $2,075 and had norajean pushed it would have made it $4,475 effectively and I'd be left with a call of about $2,400 more. I'd be getting about ($6,875/$2,400) 2.8 to 1 on my money and so I would need about 35.7% equity to call here.

I've been looking around for an equation to figure out how often nora jean needs to fold to make this profitable but this post is getting too long so i'll carry on with this discussion tomorrow.

So yah, I wrote down some goals today for what I wanted to accomplish in the next 6 months at poker, and they seem to be working in a good way so far. I scored a 2nd place finish in a MTT tonight for around $1,300 and I'm pretty happy about it. I think I played exceptionally well in the tournament and the results obviously show. Much, much, much, much better than probably like the last 250 MTTs I have played. I play focused, I felt poised, and I played much more patient, using time as my best friend. I really zoned in on my opponents and I think I made some really good read-based plays. For me the way I played was greater than the score itself. If I can continue to play this well good things will come.

As good as I feel about my performance, which I really am, I still unfortunately continue to run like absolute dogcrap at final tables when it get's down to 3-4 players.. It's out of my control so I'm not going to let it bother me or my game but I should have won the tournament. Kinda BS.

Down to 2 handed I had a 3 to 1 chip lead and felt I would for sure win the tournmanet. The guy had the button and limped, which was strange and I felt very strong for his tendencies, but luckily I woke up with AA. So now the ultimate choice is whether I wanted to straight push (the guy had like 14 BBs or so) or if I wanted to just raise. I decided to raise and he flats. Flop comes down QJx I bet about 1/2 pot and he pushes over the top of me and shows a slowplayed KK. The turn brings a King and I hate life. But... I was still positive I was going to win the tournament.

A few hands later I get KK and he min-raises his button, which was standard for him. I had previously 3bet him about 2.5x his initial open like two times and both times he folded. So I see KK and I make my standard 3 bet. He shoves over the top of my bet with A8os and I insta-call obviously. Flop brings A10x and I don't suck-out. Fuck, right? No, I'm going to win.

So I was down about 3 to 1 and was just looking for spots to push. The guy min-opens his button I push with A4s, he calls with K10 of diamonds. Flop 747. Turn x. River 10. So yet again I get my money in good when it really counts, late in the tourney, and I lose. Oh well.

My favorite hand of the tournmanet:


$400000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, November 02, 01:13:55 ET 2009

Seat 1: Hero ( $45774.00 USD )
Seat 3: Ms Beam ( $109676.00 USD )
Seat 4: Sleepwalkers ( $79728.00 USD )
Seat 5: Hacker40 ( $52427.00 USD )
Seat 6: Banshee2212 ( $9191.00 USD )
Seat 7: PrimoMM ( $106186.00 USD )
Seat 8: amud ( $42078.00 USD )
Seat 9: phil champ ( $22616.00 USD )
phil champ posts small blind [$2000.00 USD].
Hero posts big blind [$4000.00 USD].

** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Hero [ 5d 2d ]
Ms Beam calls [$4000.00 USD]
Sleepwalkers folds
Hacker40 folds
Banshee2212 folds
PrimoMM raises [$14000.00 USD]
amud folds
phil champ folds
Hero raises [$41274.00 USD]
Ms Beam folds
PrimoMM folds
Hero wins $31274.00 USD

I like this hand not because it's some sexy looking bluff, but because I had a good read and I had the courage to pull the trigger. There have been numerous times in the past when I would say to myself this is a perfect spot to repush but I don't do it. On the other hand, the other reason I like this hand so much was because it was basically the only time I pulled off a bluff any time in the tournament. Times before I get impatient and re-push in spots where I have no fold equity and where it looks like I'm restealing, not shoving for value. Patience is so crucial in MTTs. If you can get folds in these spots, finding one, maaayybee two of these spots in a tournament can help tremendously in getting to the final table.
Here PrimoMM isolates a limper (Ms Beam) who had been making a habit of limping weak hands. PrimoMM was playing very active the last few orbits, opening a lot of pots preflop, and I think his range is really wide here. Probably like A9s+, K10s+, Q10s+, J10s+, A10+, K10+, Q10+, J10+, all pairs and probably even more garbage. Even better is I have a solid, solid image at this point. He isn't risking his tournament life by calling but I'm repping a strong range here the way I have been palying. He can call light and lose and be down to around 10BBs or he can fold still have a real decent stack (25ish BBs).

I really like my play here, especially the timing.

Here is a hand I think I misplayed. Not sure though. It was my "got lucky" hand of the tournament.


$800000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, November 02, 01:39:32 ET 2009

Seat 9 is the button
Seat 1:Hero ( $153424.00 USD )
Seat 3: Ms Beam ( $151836.00 USD )
Seat 5: Hacker40 ( $12023.00 USD )
Seat 6: DrewAce34 ( $190259.00 USD )
Seat 7: Helena Padilha ( $53502.00 USD )
Seat 8: amud ( $91058.00 USD )
Seat 9: fccfromnc ( $115674.00 USD )
Hero posts small blind [$4000.00 USD].
Ms Beam posts big blind [$8000.00 USD].

Dealt to Hero [ Ac Js ]
Hacker40 folds
DrewAce34 folds
Helena Padilha folds
amud raises [$24000.00 USD]
fccfromnc folds
Hero raises [$148424.00 USD]
Ms Beam folds
amud calls [$66058.00 USD]
Hero shows [Ac, Js ]
amud shows [Ks, As ]
Hero wins $62366.00 USD
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, Qh, Jd ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9s ]
Hero wins $195116.00 USD from main pot

I'm not sure if a push is good here but I'm pretty sure it's too loose against this particular villain. It was down to last two or three tables I think, and amud was playing really snug. I don't use HUD so I don't know what his stats where but I think it's safe to say I have no fold equity with a push here and I'm either flipping or I'm dominated too often. I don't really like my push here the more I think about it especially with how big of a raise (3x) he made.



Hand 0: 43.689% 39.75% 03.94% 90530646 8964017.00 { AcJs }

Hand 1: 56.311% 52.38% 03.94% 119277752 8964017.00 { 22+, AJs+, KJs+, AJo+, KJo+ }


Before I leave I'm going to add a personal note and a suggestion. If you have made it this far and appreciate music in general, art, and creativity check out Kid Cudi' new CD Man On the Moon: End of Days.It's very hard to describe it, it's not really hip-hop, it's something really new and different. It's a great CD.

I loved all Kid Cudi's mixtapes and am thoroughly impressed with his first CD. The lyrics are so real and the CD has so much depth to it.I heard it described somewhere as a hip-hop version of Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd, and this couldn't be more accurate. The CD has dark, light, raw, and many other tones. And the guys got crazy good beats too. Great CD. Check it out.


Bankroll: $3,042

So I used to have a blog going on here but I deleted most of it because the content wasn't so self-marketing savvy. I'll be starting a new blog to keep track of my personal goals in poker and to help myself reach them. One of the most important things I will be doing is analyzing hands that I find interesting and always finding ways to improve. Session reviews are something that I seem to avoid, and also, i'm not very good at them. If I do look over my hands after a session I do so very quickly and without any form of analytical analysis on individual hands that I probably could be playing better.

Besides a few comments here and there, this blog will make no reference to any of my personal or professional matters. One thing is important to note however, as it will effect the way I approach my poker goals drastically. I will be getting a part-time job (20-30 hours a week, we'll see) as an outbound sales rep and the money I generate from this job will be the only money I use to support myself until I reach my poker goal of having a $20,000 bankroll. Without having to worry about cashing out until this point I should be able to move up much quicker and treat poker more like a game, not a job which makes it stressful and less enjoyable.

My goals for poker for the next six months, November 1, 2009 - May 1, 2009, are:

1) Devote much more time to hand analysis.

2) Table select much better.

2) Have a $20,000 poker bankroll.

3) Settle into 200NL as my main game and be taking shots at good 400NL games. 4 bb/100 hands

4) Get some more coaching, with at least half of it focused on MTTs.

5) Play a minimum of 40,000 hands a month.

6) Play tournaments and have a 5 figure score (I'm being realistic to the fact that this probably won't happen, but I want to make it a goal because it very well could happen).

If I reach these goals my reward will be moving to Sacramento, California. I have a couple friends that live down there and I'm young and want to see the world.

Current poker bankroll: $1,822 (As you can see I have a lot of work to do).