after being stuck about 150 and not being able to get anything going i managed to grind out a $131 win on the day over 1100 hands. i didn't get in anywhere near the amount of hands that i wanted but since started a new level i'm only 4 tabling at the moment and had a lot of errands to run and things like that today. hopefully my game continues to progress and i'd like to get in a solid amount of hands tomorrow. i made some good adjustments based on the flow of the game but i made some mistakes as well.... til tomorrow.

p.s. as i go through the HH's for today tomorrow morning i'll try to post some of the bigger pots here.

so day 1 of cash has concluded.. after coolers and some tilt issues and being down about 230... i finished 2055 hands and was down 136.75. i'm happy to get back what i did. people think of running good in terms of whether or not you win after all the money is in. i think of it in terms of the situations that favor you relative to the one's that don't and what stakes they happen at (i.e. i've been set over setted for full stacks twice and haven't done it to someone else yet and when it happened in my favor it was only for a 1/2 a buyin.) someone could have the same situations at 50NL, run at expectation and then go to 100NL and have the same situations at 100NL and run like trash for 5 BI's. then have to go back to 50NL and grind back 10BI's until they can take another shot.

i did get to the gym today and did a decent workout and then played some sports outside. so i got my legs going too which is good. i think tomorrow should be more of the same and I had no problem putting in that many hands. i look forward to the task ahead and achieving the goals that i've set.

on a side note... does anyone know how to setup Pokerev with PokerTracker3? I can't seem to figure it out :/

PM me with any suggestions....

thanks,

ok i just played a terrible session at 50NL... glad i set that stop loss at 4BI... i hit that in about 1k hands... some spewy play on my part and i just tilted a lot to be honest... this could have been only a 2 BI loss and i'm pretty embarrassed... i'm going to take a break and come back to it with a fresh mind...

so today was the day that i'm moving into my new place and a new phase of my life begins... it's been very rough and tomorrow will be a month since my mother passed. i think about her everyday and it doesn't seem to get easier and i just keep this numb feeling. so i'm officially a resident of my new place. i'm having some bed issues in that i can't get the boxspring to fit in the house so i need to figure out what to do with that. it's weird moving from having a house to basically just having a room. i like the simplification and the lower expense as well. so being that i feel tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life i figured i should make some goals.

1) Play 40k hands for the month. that would be like 20 days of work at 2k hands a day which i think is easily doable.

2) I don't want to be results oriented but i would like to increase the PTBB/100 stat from last month. i'd like it to be at least .5BB higher. if i move up in levels i'd like it to at least stay the same.

3) hit the gym at least 5 days a week. i did this for well over a year straight i would say and saw great results. the results haven't really gone away but i'm not as toned as i was and lost a small amount of size.

4) limit myself to one night of drinking a week. i don't see the point of working my ass off at the gym only to weaken the results b/c i have no self control. quite frankly come summer time i don't like to waste the nice days staying in and sleeping off hangovers. one night a week is more than enough and i always was the DD and don't mind it at all. if i'm going to play poker as a career, i can't be wasting brain cells and be fried all the time.

5) Every two months I'd like to take a shot at the next higher level. Meaning if i'm playing 50NL now... i'd like to be playing 100NL by Aug. 1st. whenever i can successfully beat a level over a 50k sample size i'd like to move up provided i have at least 30 BI's for the shot at the next level.

6) I will set a stop loss for a session at -4 BI's. I don't see a reason to stop if i'm playing well and winning and the game is still +ev. i do know if i drop more than 4 BI's it will probably tilt me.

I will be playing MTT's as well... probably almost all of the MSOP events on FT. i like the concept a lot. i played one yesterday that had 5k people and i finished 1400 or so. couldn't really get anything going and was pretty card dead

Also another goal is to get some sort of study group or at least a few people to discuss hands with. i have a couple trusted people i talk to but i wouldn't mind expanding on that.

i think these are solid goals and very attainable... it helps for me to put my thoughts down and it just gives me some strange way to hold myself accountable.

i just got back from a jersey shore bar and i'm definitely on multi-tilt... now what's multi-tilt you ask? it's when different aspects of your life negatively affect you but manage to be interrelated. for example... i got hammered last night in NYC and wasn't much in the mood for even going out tonight. but one of my buddies was coming down and i said i would go out. i tend to be a man of my word and not flake out. i told him i wanted to have an early night. keep in mind i'm normally out until 3 or 4 on friday and saturday nights and an early night for me is to be home by about 12:30-1 am. he lives about an hour away and says he'll leave between 7 and 8 pm to come down which means he should be in the area by 9pm at the latest and then a 1/2 hr to where we're going we should get there at the latest 10pm... that would give us a few hours to hang out and have a good time and then i can go home. he doesn't leave until 830 and i say why don't you just meet me there b/c he has to still "get ready and freshen up" (which could take over a 1/2 hr) he asks me to wait and then we'll drive together meaning we won't leave my place until around 10pm. i'm aggravated b/c it's just really inconsiderate but i reluctantly oblige and realize i have at least an hour to play a session until he gets to my house.

so i fire up 4 tables of NL50 and run like trash for about 20 minutes... i get in a set over set spot for 120BBs and have some other hands get run down so i drop 2 buyin's quick and then he calls about 10 minutes later saying to just go on
my own b/c he's going to be a while and now i'm super fucking pissed. now if i would have just been able to go meet my friends i would have never played... never lost $100 in 30 minutes... and wouldn't be on multi-tilt. it's obvs. not his fault that i ran into shitty spots and got unlucky, but it was just a bullshit snowball effect.
so i drive to the bar steaming and he doesn't show up until about midnight and doesn't have his license and he can't even get into the bar. so he traveled all this way and was not able to even get in... he tried sneaking in a backdoor but got caught and was asked to leave. i at least got some +ev out of that part of the night.

i've played 13 MTT's this week since my score last week and bricked out of ALL but 1 of them. i think i've played pretty well, made a couple of marginal plays in one tournament and just ran like trash or got coolered. i got ITM in the 15k $50 buyin and ran KK into AA when i had an avg stack. pretty disappointing there.

to tell you the truth i haven't checked my week stats for 50NL for this week until right now and....

i've played about 3k hands and only won $38. I've won $2 with AA in that stretch and don't have many regrets about the way i played. i did make a couple of bets that were a little thin in value that got me raised off the hand. that sucked. i misplayed a set against someone holding KK and only won a 1/2 a stack instead of getting the whole thing... got a little greedy and should have c/r'd the flop instead of waiting until the turn. so i leaked out a little money in this stretch but haven't run well either. i'm at about 8k hands through my 10k reevaluation plan. i should be done by the weekend and then i can see if i'm ready for 100NL. i'm looking for a few people that what to go over HH's and replayers and things like that. basically some sort of study group or just people to talk strategy. i really want to work on my game and improve. i've already been working with a coach and i feel it's been a tremendous help. you can hit me up on AIM: mikez7... or PM me. GL at the tables.

i'm disgusted right now at the terrible effort of latroy hawkins... there was no good reason to sign this guy... he's worse than kyle farnsworth which is a task all in itself. and let's take joba out of the pen so that these two can setup Rivera.... this yankee team gave up two separate leads of 4 runs each and then blow an extra inning lead. this is beyond pathetic.

Not a ton of poker... bricked out of a couple mtts... played pretty well in them overall. got down to 300 in last nights 32k and then J9 utg takes down my KK. oh well... cash games i think i broke even over about 1k hands over the entire weekend. i played ok. no big pots won but was disappointed in my play in medium pots. i may have leaked off a little money that wasn't necessary. i'll look through my weekend hands again to see where i could have saved myself some money. hopefully i can start getting at least 7k hands a week. i'm about 5k hands away from reevaluating whether or not i should move up. i know i still have leaks but they're nowhere near as bad as they were. i'm not making nearly as many calls i know are -ev just for information. i'm still having a little trouble with the 80/20 type player who i just never know where they're at. hopefully it'll be a solid week for everyone... good luck

elzino

well here in NJ the weather hasn't been great yet... normally by memorial day you hope for some 80+ degree days... at this point we'll take 70 with some sun. today so far seems like it'll at least fit the latter. i didn't play at all yesterday after the nice MTT score on thursday night b/c i was exhausted. i was playing til around 430 in the morning and my schedule has been a disaster since staying at the house where i grew up. i need to get back to a good poker schedule and that'll happen when i move for good i believe. my weekend will probably not involve much playing but i will be spending today watching Rex55 pwn the field at the 25k HU championship. probably hang out in the back yard with my laptop and catch some magic.

today i was thinking about how i've improved and looked through some old HH's last night of the first 27k hands i played at 50NL. I made some terrible calls in there and really cost myself some money and can see why the stats for my last 4k hands are pretty good. i've made some better laydowns, chose better spots to double barrell and when to check behind. granted i still need some work in 3bet pots postflop but i came across one thing today in reading a new poker book. i've been doing it more consciously lately but didn't realize how little i was doing it before until really thinking about it and that's anticipation. i noticed it looking back at my HH from the 28k that even before i made my decision i was thinking about how people would react to it. i didn't make my decisions until i knew what i would do if they made certain decisions instead of making my decision in a vacuum (of this is correct given my position and blind structure). i guess this goes into the idea of game flow a bit. it's definitely helped in my 6max games as well. my choices of flops to cbet has improved drastically and i feel like i don't spew as much money cbetting every flop. granted if you cbet every flop no one is going to know what you have ever but i didn't need to cbet 90% of flops to convey that image. overall i'm happy with some of my improvements and will probably play about 6k more hands at 50NL and evaluate my game again. i have the bankroll to take a lengthy shot at 100NL and have played many hands there already but unsuccessfully previously (i was 10 buyins under expectation over 20k hands) . hopefully but the time i move in to my new place i'll be winning in the 100NL games. :)

GL everyone this weekend... be safe over this Memorial Day weekend and have fun.... and NY bennies, try not to cause too much traffic and stay out of the left lanes unless you're going over 75mph... if people are passing you to the right... there's a problem :)

so here's how it all went down:

i've been working very hard on my 6max game and had played 500 hands or so earlier in the day and lost about 1/2 a buyin. i wasn't happy with some of my plays and really felt like at worst it should have been break even. i made two calls that i should have easily laid down in small pots. so i quit for the day.

i knew i was going to hang out with some of my friends later in the day to celebrate one of my closest friends graduating from the academy. we had a couple of beers, played some horseshoes (when it decided not to rain), and ate some good food. around 9 or so i left after being there about 7 hours. i only had i think 4 beers over the course of the day and had stopped drinking entirely by about 6 so i was fine to drive home. i got home at about 9:40 or so and looked up one of my close friend who's made 3 FT's this week (Rex55). I see that she's registered for the 25K HU tournament on FT and i see her registered in a satellite for the 25k so i was a little confused. Did she make a huge scored during the day and buy right in? did she get a backer? did she tilt buy in (about .1% chance there but i guess it ran through my mind)? so i hit her up on AIM and i asked her if she was playing in the 25k.... she got all excited and said yes that she won a $500 HU satty to get her entry. this is a big step for her if she can make some noise in this tournament not only financially but for her reputation as well. she recently was interviewed for cardplayer but for her to win or even finish in the final four for that matter will skyrocket her for sure. i'm so proud of her not for just the results... but the way she has handled adversity and stayed steady and focused. this game can crush you, especially if you are an MTT player and running bad without any big scores, it can cause a panic. she handles the ebbs and flows of being a pro better than anyone i know. so good luck to her on saturday :) anyhow, since i got off track a bit. while i was IM'ing her she asked if i was going to play tonight. i said i wasn't going to but now i was all pumped up to play. i built up my smallish online bankroll from $100 all the way up to around $1400 playing $10 sng's til i had about $600 or so and started playing some $10 MTTs and winning a couple of those. so i definitely have some experience and some +$700 wins under my belt. i've made the blue lights of full tilt a few times but never in a buy in over those $10. I've been playing a couple MTT's a night for the last week or so and have been going over a couple hands with her and i told her two nights ago that i feel like my game is really solid and am ready for a score. i think amping up the aggro in me from playing the 6max games has definitely helped both pre and post flop. so i registered for the $24 28k 10pm event. i chipped up to around 4k by playing some small pot poker and then doubled up at the 50/100 level when i 3bet an utg raiser with KK and the button 4bet shoved me and i held off Ak.

i now had about 8500 in chips. now in the past when i've gotten chips early in these things i tended to spew a little bit and get over aggressive trying to build a bigger stack. i promised myself i'd stay away from that this time. i played 99 from the BB and lost about 600 in chips (happy b/c it could have been a lot more and i played the hand perfect against his range) and lost about 1400 with AQo after a cbet and turning two pair but getting shoved on. my bet should have been a little less and saved myself 200 but that was a small error and something to correct. then i was ice cold all the way to the antes... i'm pretty comfortable in these things when i have 20 BBs or so when the antes kick in. i had about 5200 and donked off about 7BBs in a steal attempt with a cbet. at the 150/300 level... a guy id seen open shove KQo earlier shoved for about 9BBs so i called with AQo for my tournament... i held off JTo and got up to 6k... with 4300 at the 200/400 level i picked up AK and shoved OOT of a player with TT and won that flip. from that point a couple steals and i hovered around 11k for a while and then shoved A6o at the 500/1000 level on the button and won a race against KJ. i don't really like the KJ call by him for that many chips especially considering i haven't been that active. back up to 20k. an uncalled reshove with TT and some other PFR's got me up to 35k. then at the 1200/2400 i had my best level. down to 22k my KK held against TT. then i raised ATs flopped an over and a FD. the BB bet pot and i thought he had enough to fold and that it was a stop and go move... i shoved over the top.... he called with TP J-kicker and i won a huge race to get me to 96k. at this point i thought it was my tournament. he berated me from the rail and i kind of laughed it off. telling me the f my mother (who had just died may 2nd) but i didn't let it get to me. i was then ice cold until the 4000/8000 level and played my usual SS mode. the table dynamics wouldn't let me steal raise so i just chilled and didn't spew. this was the true lucky hand of the tournament with 75000 chips utg i had KK and shoved into the BB who had 52000 who woke up with AA. uggggg. Bink* King on the flop... Bink*King on the turn.... and i just about double up. i just kind of survived the rest of the way... i had about 8BBs on the button at one point with 3 limpers i shoved 22 and got no callers which i loved. 88 won a race vs KJ. at the FT it seemed like every SS (shortstack) survived no matter how far behind they were. i doubled with AJ v AT. QQ beat Ak after an Ace hit and River Q sweeeeeeeet. i lost an AJ vs. KK pot.. it had gotten to 4 handed and i open shoved AQ for about 13BBs and got called by QQ in the BB and couldn't get lucky so i picked up a $2300 payday. aside from two deep finishes in ironman freerolls this was the only time i got this deep in a 1000+ person event. my previous best was 16th. the eventual winner who i lost my last hand to was part of the two bad breaks i had gotten. for his tournament he reshipped his blind over the top and was dominated and we chopped. the other bad break was an Ak vs. Aq hand that was chopped too. i was very happy with my play and never got spewy or tilted. i felt i was a HUGE favorite when we were 4handed. i just happened to run into a monster :/ . not bad though for not going to play at all. other funny thing is I NEVER play when I've had 1 drink at any part of the day. this just felt right... go figure.

This was a long post... If you read it all congrats to you and GL. back to 6max for me today.