So it has been forever since I updated my blog, I haven't really felt the need and frankly nobody read it anyway. I was staked last year, so I kept it updated regularly so my staker could easily follow my results and we could discuss hands. Flash forward a year and we had ended the staking arrangment. Due to life stuff, he wound up going busto and I am now happily staking him, so what goes around comes around I guess.

I'm still playing poker, almost exclusively PLO cash games, although every once in a great while I'll take a shot at a big score in some Sunday MTTs. The results since the beginning of March (when I started playing quasi-seriously again) have been very good -- with the exception of two terrible tilt-ridden HU matches.

Here are the results since March:


Coupled with some nice profits from the staking arrangement, it has been a good couple of months. Thankfully the full time job has been a bit slow, so I've had time to put in like 5k hands per week. The games seem really good and really beatable, and I think that I am playing very well (with the exception of those HU matches). So now I'll obviously have to turn those red levels green while continuing to grind 1/2 and take some selective shots higher.

I bought some new golf clubs and I'm playing every weekend I can and loving it. I shot a 38 on the front 9 this past Sunday in the 45 degree weather and 20mph winds, so that felt pretty good.

That's about it for now, hope you all are well and good luck on and off the tables.

jbird

So I've taken a bunch of shots at bigger PLO MTTs over the past few weeks, including the $535 and $215s on FTP, as well as the 6 max $215 WCOOP on stars. Let's just say I'm really really bad at running remotely OK in big tourneys. I lost pretty much every 60/40 and 50/50 in each of them, which is frustrating.

The good news is the cashgame grinding has been going well. For the most part I've been crushing .25/.50 and taking the occasional shot higher. If not for the damn MTT shots I'd have nearly 40 bi for .5/1 right now but as it is the BR stands at $2k, so I'm going to continue to grind .25/.50 for the most part until i have $3k+, hopefully next month.

Still have not deposited, so it feels pretty neat to have created $2k out of $0, with the tourneys giving me a chance to get lucky and turn a big score. Imagine winning one of those and having like $80k from $0! Now THAT would be cool.

Here are my results from the last month (since 8/15), playing good, running smooth:

That's about it from here, gl at the tables.

jbird

since I have updated my blog.

I'm still playing, and have actually been playing a lot recently, albeit casually. With my job I just play when I can basically.

I have been playing HU SNGs and .25/.50 PLO for now, and playing the occasionally tournament. I only have about $1k online (never reloaded - built from zero) but I've loosened my BR requirments since now I have some money offline if i go busto online -- so its not really a big deal. I'd still LIKE to not have to ever deposit again and just run it up to $10k and play 1/2 PLO and that is still the plan.

These HU SnGs are addictive and a good way to work on your HUPLO game I think. I'm only breaking even in them so far but I plan on continuing to play them and adjust until they are also a nice source of profit for me.

I took a shot at the $535 FTOPS PLO even this past weekend. I was 10th in chips right around bubble time (it was $80k to the winner) and was playing really really awesome....like i felt I was in the zone or something. I truly EXPECTED to final table and thought winning was a real possibility. Then these two hands happened:

FullTiltPoker Game #7578798431: FTOPS Event #6 (54557701), Table 56 - 250/500 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 16:42:00 ET - 2008/08/09
Seat 1: HigHRolliN44 (36,930)
Seat 2: Hanahan (4,460)
Seat 3: chapsmagoo (38,194)
Seat 5: Duhglas (15,026)
Seat 6: jbirddog (44,384)
chapsmagoo posts the small blind of 250
Duhglas posts the big blind of 500
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jbirddog [8d As Qd Ts]
Hanahan: hee haw hee haw hee haw
jbirddog raises to 1,300
Hanahan: nh
HigHRolliN44 has 15 seconds left to act
HigHRolliN44 folds
Hanahan folds
chapsmagoo has 15 seconds left to act
chapsmagoo calls 1,050
Duhglas raises to 5,200
jbirddog has 15 seconds left to act
jbirddog has requested TIME
jbirddog calls 3,900
chapsmagoo has 15 seconds left to act
torden sits down
torden adds 46,894
chapsmagoo folds
*** FLOP *** [Ks Qs 5h]
Duhglas has 15 seconds left to act
Duhglas bets 9,826, and is all in
jbirddog calls 9,826
Duhglas shows [9d Ad 7s Ac]
jbirddog shows [8d As Qd Ts]
*** TURN *** [Ks Qs 5h] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Qs 5h 2c] [4c]
Duhglas shows a pair of Aces
jbirddog shows a pair of Queens
Duhglas wins the pot (31,352) with a pair of Aces
jbirddog: nh
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 31,352 | Rake 0
Board: [Ks Qs 5h 2c 4c]
Seat 1: HigHRolliN44 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Hanahan (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: chapsmagoo (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Duhglas (big blind) showed [9d Ad 7s Ac] and won (31,352) with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: jbirddog showed [8d As Qd Ts] and lost with a pair of Queens

Full Tilt Poker Game #7578987587: FTOPS Event #6 (54557701), Table 112 - 300/600 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 16:56:19 ET - 2008/08/09
Seat 1: meatball20 (9,605)
Seat 2: pipp8 (11,877)
Seat 3: MrJensen (44,010)
Seat 4: Biggest Donkey (46,045)
Seat 5: jbirddog (30,608)
Seat 6: bdubs3737 (23,854)
bdubs3737 posts the small blind of 300
meatball20 posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jbirddog [Qd 9d Ad Ah]
pipp8 folds
MrJensen has been disconnected
MrJensen has reconnected
MrJensen raises to 2,100
Biggest Donkey calls 2,100
jbirddog has 15 seconds left to act
jbirddog raises to 9,300
bdubs3737 folds
meatball20 folds
MrJensen raises to 30,900
Biggest Donkey folds
jbirddog calls 21,308, and is all in
MrJensen shows [Ks Kc 8c Ts]
jbirddog shows [Qd 9d Ad Ah]
Uncalled bet of 292 returned to MrJensen
*** FLOP *** [Qc Ac 7c]
*** TURN *** [Qc Ac 7c] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [Qc Ac 7c Kd] [6h]
MrJensen shows a flush, Ace high
jbirddog shows three of a kind, Aces
MrJensen wins the pot (64,216) with a flush, Ace high
jbirddog stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 64,216 | Rake 0
Board: [Qc Ac 7c Kd 6h]
Seat 1: meatball20 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: pipp8 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: MrJensen showed [Ks Kc 8c Ts] and won (64,216) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 4: Biggest Donkey folded before the Flop
Seat 5: jbirddog (button) showed [Qd 9d Ad Ah] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 6: bdubs3737 (small blind) folded before the Flop

sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, loldonkaments. If I could just win a fucking 65/35 I'd have been a big chip leader as it played down to the final table. Instead I bubbled.

FUN TIMES.

Anyway hope everybody is well and I'll update this more frequently as I can.

for lack of updates.

work has been insanely busy and i haven't played much poker. i also went on one of those sick downswings in PLO where you run like 20 bi below expectation over a 10 - 20k hand sample which nearly broke me. So for now I just have a few hundred bucks online and I'm only messing around every once and awhile.

I played a 1k hand HU match vs. One1 from 2p2 and had him on the ropes and was up a few BI until literally hand 800, and in the last 200 hands i ran 6 BI below expectation. Fun fun fun.

Anyway the bit I have been playing recently I have been running hot so I really really wish I had more money online, but i have so much other crap to pay for that I just can't dump a bunch online right now.

Lame update but that's bout it. Once I'm playing higher stakes again and playing more regularly I'll be better about updating.

GL all, and plz dont watch Wazz's, Gordo's, CMYR's or Stinger's PLO videos.

jbird

Boy this micro-grinding is pretty brutal. I have been tempted on more than one occasion to just dump $4k or so on line and start at .5/1, but I've fought the urges, mostly because I think free money is pretty damn cool. I'm not playing nearly enough, so it is taking awhile to make any sort of real money, but that's ok.

Results since 4/1:

So only 10k hands a month. I'm hoping to get closer to 20k hands next month. I'm not really rolled at all for that PLO50 HU game, but in the interest in trying to spin up a BR, I gave myself two shots (sat with 1/2 stack). If I lost a BI I was done, but my EV in that game is really big so if I could get on the right side of variance I figured I could spin the BR up pretty quicky. Unfortunately, I couldn't get on the right side of variance:

So this guy is a 2p2er I think, maybe even a CR member. Anyway I think he wanted to take a little shot at me since I'm pretty active on the 2p2 PLO forum and most ppl know I usually play higher than this. Honestly, he was playing pretty poorly and spewy. I went ahead and let him hang himself here, only to lose to the good old J hi flushdraw. Not sure if you are reading this or not, but your play here is really really bad (no offense):

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2543604

Anyway, I had one day (1k hands) where I lost 8 bi at .10/.25, which is why those results aren't so sweet as well. I just lost every 60/40, 50/50, and 40/60. Probably should have quit a little earlier, but whatever.

Anyway so I fell short of my goal for the month ($1k BR), but the BR is still pretty healthy (comparatively) at $600. The new goal is to have it to $2,000 by the end of May. Should be pretty doable if I can get in 20k hands.

Otherwise, things are great -- new job has me busy as hell, which I like, traveling all over the US. Playing a pretty juicy 2/5 NLHE game at a law office in downtown Boston tonight, hopefully that will go well.

gl everybody, thanks for reading.

-jbird

So I'm settled into my new job, which is going great. It is so nice to have things like Health Insurance, a 401k, and a regular paycheck again. It will be nice to just use poker money as "fun money" again for the first time in awhile.

I was going to make like a $2k deposit or something on Stars or FTP and start grinding away at .25/.50 PLO but then I noticed that I still had a bunch of FPPs on Stars (tho nothing close enough to getting any sort of good merchandise). So I started playing these 70FPP SnGs for some $11 Sunday MTT. I won a few of them an all of a sudden had some T$. I then played $2 HU PLO SnGs for a few weeks until I had a BR of like $100 real american dollars. Out of nothing. God Internet poker is so cool.

So i decided to take a few shots in small dollar MTTs to see if I could 2x or 3x my BR, and voila:

PokerStars Tournament #82982658, Pot Limit Omaha
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.50
85 players
Total Prize Pool: $1275.00
Tournament started - 2008/04/01 - 12:30:00 (ET)

Dear jbird75,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $293.26 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

So all of a sudden I had the makings of a BR again....so forget depositing, I'm going to see how far I can run up my BR from $0. So I started grinding away at the microstakes:

It's pretty painful playing these stakes when I'm so used to .5/1 and 1/2, but the feeling of creating money out of $0 is cool enough to overcome that I think. So the BR is now around $500. I hope to have it to $1k by the end of the month. I cannot play as much as I used to, but finding an hour a day or so is pretty doable. I'm going to be liberal with my step-ups in stakes until I get to .5/1, probably moving up at 20 - 25 BI for the next level, careful to move back down if I go on a bad run and hit 30 BI for the stakes below. Once I get to .5/1 (next month?) I will stay there until I have 50 BI for 1/2, then I hope to stay at 1/2 for a long time -- just grinding out an hour a day and taking off my profits once a month for fun things.

It's kinda nice to be playing again, and with this new job, not taking poker as seriously as I had been for the last year.

GL,

jbird

Hey All,

My company was absorbed into a much larger firm and I have taken a job working to grow the discipline as a new business unit. So I have basically not really played a hand of poker in a few weeks. I have returned the funds in my account to my staker and I'm not sure when I"m going to play again. I'm hoping I can get enough time on nights and weekends to put in a decent number of hands, but that probably wont happen for a few weeks until things settle down a bit.

Thanks for reading and best of luck.

-jbird

So I admit it -- I watch American Idol. And I gotta say, in spite of her craziness (maybe because of it?), I definitely still think Paula Abdul is pretty hot. I would defiinitly hit it.

Anyway, didn't she sing a song called something like "one step forward, two steps back"? I think she did, and that's pretty much the subject of this blog entry.

Since I last posted, I went on a pretty nasty downswing (I knew one had to be coming since I had been running pretty hot for a month or so). I had two separate minus 9 - 11bi days in one week along with a -4bi day. As much as I tried not to, I do think I tilted a little bit -- altough not nearly as much as I would have in the past. Overall it was pretty sick. Here's the overall PokerEV graph for the month:

So it looks like i hit the bottom right around hand 12000, or at least I hope I did. I've managed to recover about $1.8k or so (9bi) since then and I definitely feel like I am still playing well, although my sklanskky bux are still a good way off from my all-in expected winnings.

Here are some of the (notso) fun hands:

I didn't expect to be a 4/1 fav when I made this call of course, but I certainly had more than enough equity vs. his range here. LOL:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2122987

I was PRAYING he would raise here. Sometimes I guess you get what you ask for. LOL:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2122991

Its funny, people that start playing PLO see a wrap like his and cannot wait to get the money in, since they think that PLO is a game of draws. While it is, you have to understand when your draw looks a lot sexier than it really is...as it was he's a pretty big dog here:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2123003

I'm assuming twin-caracas was just down at 1/2 blowing off some steam for a bit, because the only other logical thing I could draw from this hand is that he sucks:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2123013

Anyway, I'm hoping the worst of it is over and that I'll climb back in the green by the end of the month. I really dont want to have a losing month. I'm playing a few less tables and focusing more until I feel like I've got it reeled back in.

GL,

jbird

So I've become pretty accustomed to the "move up, get balls stomped on" treatment in the past, but (knocking on some serious wood) so far that hasn't been the case this time. I've been playing well, running probably at about expectation, and feeling good in general about my game. The results so far:

Some fun hands:

LOL?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2046953

Bit of a cooler for him here, considering he had an A in his hand:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2046958

Never really 'love' getting it in PF in PLO, especially 150bbs deep, but this guy was a spewmonkey and I have aces!

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2046965

Nice river value here vs. twin-caracas:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2046974

And some losing hands:

I was SOOOO careful w/ my reraise size here so that I could effectively shove if/when the shorty 4 bet. Its sooo nice when a plan comes together................errrr, LOL? At least I managed to get him to put in 90% of his stack as a 3-1 dog.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2046990

Man I hate getting freerolled:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2047001

My draw is a 60/40 favorite here, but I'm still not sure about how I played this one:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2047005

Here his bet sizing REALLY made me feel like he didn't have the nuts and couldnt call a shove, so I decided to turn my hand into a bluff on the river. Bad read, jbird. LOL:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2047008

gl,

jbird

So my computer had been making funny noises and doing the random blue screen of death thing for like a week. I had planned on backing up EVERYTHING (I have a ton of work files + personal stuff (music / pictures /etc. + all my poker stuff (PTH, PHO, PAHUD, Saved Layouts etc etc) on Friday. Well, Friday morning when I went to boot up the computer, i got the blue screen of death. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the thing to boot up. It died. I'm going to try to get a computer savvy buddy to see if anything can be salvaged, I really hope so. So for now I'm just using my laptop and when I'm in the office I plug my monitor, mouse, and keyboard into it. So Rigged.

I was going to post my January results too, but` I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. I finished up the month playing about 9k hands (I think) of .5/1 6 max. My net profit was +$2,688 which was like 14ptbb/100 or something. I really felt as though I was playing great poker, although obviously it helps not to run bad.

I'm back at 1/2 now and have about 1500 hands in so far, up about 2 bi or so (5ptbb/100ish). I hope to continue to play well there and make some nice proift for myself and my staker :)

On the real world front I have to go to NYC next week for 3 days to deal with work stuff. If all goes well there I'll essentailly have a new job in 2 weeks, doing the same thing but with a much better salary + benefits + still a lot of backend upside potential. So I hope that works out.

PS. ZOMG Big Dave D made a video! Weeeee. Boo that it is O8 though, I want a Big Dave D PLO VID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GL,

jbird