so here i am bored at work once again hating my job and my life. don't worry..... im not on suicide watch or anything but 6 months ago things were so much better. but im optimistic about the future though. i got my free sunday million buy in for tomorrow and ill be running all of the fifty dollar tourneys and small mtt buy ins. so feel free to say hey..... assuming anyone even reads this blog.... so i proposed a few prop bets to my good friend corey. since im stuck probably $1500 lifetime to him in prop bets, he of course pounced on these bets immediately. prop bet #1: no fast food (besides subway) for 3 months (ending halloween). initially this bet was for $100. but then one day i found myself eating at taco johns. so now we are going double or nothing on that. i set the line at myself bring a 4.5 dog because i start school next week and there is a mcdonalda across the street and you can actually smell it during class. prop bet #2: weight loss bet. this is going on between me and my brother. the wager is if i lose i give my brother 500 dollars and if i win i only get 350 dollars. this is because im the favorite to win because i have more weight and time to go to the gym. he started at 202 and has to get to 180 so he has less weight to lose too. we started this one a while ago and we both have kinda stopped caring about this one. i REALLY need to get on this one cause im at an impressive 280lbs. i started at 288 and i was at 176 at one point. so my goal is to drop down to 254lbs. i am a pretty big guy and at one point i was 306lbs and borderline diabetic. so i need to do this not only for the money but more importantly my health. lucky for me, corey does not have ant action on this bet or i would be done for. the one thing i got going for me though is that he just got rid of him gym membership. ship it! prop bet #3: $50 bet with corey that i cannot profit $1000 next week. i REALLY like this bet because if i end up losing my only netting 800 bucks, we both win since i have not had a winning week in some time. this is also the last week of summe before i go back to school so i will be totally focused and in the zone. i figure it would be smart to take it this week specifically because my sunday million buy in is free this week because i got a ticket with my fpps. so if i cash the minimum, i wil net $280 and if i go bust, it won't cut into my losses for the week. out of the 3 prop bets, this is easily my favorite one. so just like any poker does these days, i also love golfing. i have been Golfing for a long time now but im still mediocre at best. some holes i do awesome on, other holes, i tilt badly. so corey and i went Golfing yesterday after busting some mtts. so we played from 6-845. i wish they had lights cause i would have played all night. so when i am with corey, there are always side bets and wagers flying around. so basically what we do is we keep track of overall score and skins. so its $5/skin and $5 for winning each 9. so after it was all said and done,we played 11 holes and i lost ten bucks to corey. i had a great shot on a par 3 hole where i hit the green and was about 20 feet from the pin. i 2 putted for par. we also have a 5 dollar birdie bonus and a fifty dollar hole in one bonus so that always makes for a nerve racking birdie putt. and now onto poker. probably the only thing people on here care about. but i like throwing in other things too because i like adding personality to the blog. so ever since my 4 day break, i am down about $300. this is a much better losing pace than before. so that's a plus. its funny too because i can count up about $750 in tilted cash game play. so if not for those sessions, i would be up money. i easily crush the .25/.50 no limit games (where i usually play 9-12 of those at a time.). i can also beat up on the .25/.50 pl and no limit deuce seven games on stars. im kinds hoping that this game becomes the new fad. this game is so fun and the players are so bad. i have been called by more pairs and ace highs in the last week than ever before. i wish i could upload the hand history from my phone on this one hand i played but ill try my best to explain what happened. so i had 50 bucks in front of me and he had me barely covered with 52 so effectivley we are each at 50 bucks. so pre draw i am dealt 2 3 5 j k. a pretty reasonable drawing hand. so iits folded to me on the button and i open it up to $2. only the big blind calls. he ends up drawing 3 (not a play i recommend opp). before i go any further, i cannot stress enough how important position is. its probably the most important concept. but anyways, i end up drawing 2 cards. and i get an 8 and another jack. so right now i have 2 3 5 8 jack. a pretty good hand with 2 draws remaining against a guy who drew 3. so at this point if he draws 2 or 3 on the next draw, i will draw to my 8. so now he checks to me and i make a $4 bet. he calls pretty quickly. so now he draws 2 cards and i of course draw to the 8. i pick up an ace. ugh. so now he leads into me for 5 dollars. at this point i am really surprised. its unlikely he hit perfect, perfect but its happened before. but for him to lead into me for 6, it did not make much sense. i say that because the pot is 12 and he is betting only 5? i felt like he caught and 8 or a smooth 9 he would bet more like 8-pot so that i would have to pay to draw 1. this bet is either nothing or a 7 and he is trying to milk me. but again, he drew 2 and i felt like calling was best to see what happened after the last draw. so on the last draw he ends up drawing 1 and i drew one. if i had a smooth jack or a 10 i would stand pat. so i catch a 6 on the end for a 8 6 5 3 2. not bad. now the pot is 24 bucks and i have 38 behind. the action is on him first and he just shoves in on me. now wtf is going on? on the last draw he was repping a pretty good hand and if he stood pat, i would have believed this all in on the end, over betting with a seven, making it look like a bluff. but since he drew one, this play makes no sense. maybe in a higher stakes game, calling with an 8 is easy but in the micro stakes, people usually have it. so i eventually called and i won the $100 pot. later on i looked and he ended up having a pair of 4s and was drawing to only a 9. so pretty terible play. like i said before, if he stands pat on the last draw, i very well might fold. but i gotta get back to work before i get fired.... mason00

im currently doing this blog on my phone with time to kill at work so i apologize ahead of time for typos. so the last few days have been interesting in poker and real life. ill start with the real life stuff. well a few days ago i started talking to this girl i met one night when i was working. she is friends with this girl i work with. unfortunately its only been facebook chat so far. im still waiting for a text.... or should i man up and shoot her a text? im really bad with these things, to say the least. so of course there is always a catch.... she lives in boston.... i mean really? im not really surprised by much these days (thank you poker and the countless river cards) so the other night, my good friend corey and i went up to the new casino in forest lake called running aces. it is a nicer card room than canterbury park but its not as busy. i like this place because they run a really juicy 4/8 omaha hi lo. i actually prefer omaha 8 over plo. a lot less variance in the game and people do not understand starting hand requirements for split pot games. so i sit down at the table and there was this kid around my age who had probably 350 in front of him where you usually buy in for 200. so he seemed like he knew what he was doing. i got to talking to him and he actually goes to at cloud (where i use to go) so that was cool. i got to talking to him more and we exchanged wsop stories. so he obviously is a good player. i got to talking to him more and his handle online is acequad. so i looked up stats on opr and he is about 100k winner or so. so we exchanged numbers and screen names and hopefully we keep in touch. lol as i say that people suck at what hands to play in split pot games, i played one hand poorly pre flop but very well after the flop in the omaha 8 game at running aces. again, im not on my computer so this is already a lot to type so ill shorten this up. basically it was a kill pot and i threw in 3 bets with 101077 double suited. this is a pretty good plo hand but a marginal at best omaha 8 hand. so acequad actually 4 bets it from the small blind so im giving him probably aces with low cards so like ace ace 2 x. so three of is call and i flopped tens full and won a big pot when the third diamond came on the turn. but of course i found myself in a 2 10 spread game and lost all of that back and then some. ugh. i got more to talk about but i should get off my phone before i get fired.... mason00

What a fast month that was! There's no way I could go a month without playing! Let's be honest, I'm a complete degenerate (to say the least).

So I started out the day playing some MTT's with my buddy on his account. We got pretty deep in the 30k Gtd, $10 buy in on Stars. The blinds went up every 10 minutes instead of 15 minutes so it was a little bit more of a crap shoot. We ended up busting out in like 43rd place for $87. Pretty upsetting finishing to say the least. The last hand we played was pretty sicknening. The player who limped on the button for 16k (with the blinds being 8k/16k obv) had 50k in his stack like 8 hands earlier and now was stacking 500k. So its folded to him and he limps the button. I know he is doing this with a very wide range of hands with his newfound big stack and his posistion. So I complete from the SB with J5o and the BB checks. Sometimes if I sense weakness from the button, I'll raise it up from the SB and even if I get called, I can generally take it away on the flop. But the only reason I didn't do it is because the player in the BB only had 60k in his stack and didn't want to committed or close to committed with a hand like Jack 5. So that handcuffed me.

Flop (3 ways):

Js 5h 2s

Basically the best possible flop. We are going to be ahead here almost 100% of the time. But I knew the guy on the button will probably lead here after me and the BB check so I figured I would just go ahead and check. So the button of course leads for 32k. So now it's up to me and I started the hand with 260k so now I got roughly 240k behind. So I just go ahead and check raise him to 97k right away and he instantly calls. I obviously know I'm in the lead at this point and I'm rooting for anything but a spade to peel off.

Turn (Heads up)

9d

So now I've got 146k behind in a pot worth 250k or so. So now I have only one play in the book and that is to shove. So I make the play and the villian instantly calls me with 9 10 spades.

River

9h.

So besides playing that tourney well, I did play one tourney like complete garbage. It was early on in the $50 buy in, 80k Gtd. I have AKo and I raised to 150 from 30. The player on the button makes 350 to go. This early in the tourney, I always like just flat calling here. My instincts told me I should re raise because I felt that his raise was too small and it could be with a lot of marginal holdings. So I of course elect to just call.

Flop (Heads Up)

Ah Qd 7c

So now it's up to me and I know I should always bet here to see where I'm at. So I of course play the hand like shit and check. He bets 3/4 pot, I call.

Turn

4d

So NOW I should lead out to see where I'm at. So of course I check once again. Now my opponent bets 888 into me. Generally one tell I pick up from online betting patterns is whenever people make it some stupid bet with the same number in it (888 in this case), they almost always have it. I don't know what it is, but they almost always just seem to show up with a monster. So NOW I should either be calling or folding (realistically calling is a poor choice too because the pot will then be bigger than my stack and I'll feel committed when he shoves the river). So folding is the best option (besides leading out on the turn of course) One play I HATE making here is check raising all in. This play is just attrocious because you are basically turning your hand into a bluff at this point. You are only going to get called by a better hand. I'm not even beating AQ at this point. So of course I decide to make the worst play possible and check raise all in and my opponent shows me a set of 7s.

Bye $55!

As I was typing out this blog, I found a way to go broke in another tourney. $33, $20k Gtd. I should not have played in the first place at 330am. That's mistake #1. Mistake #2 is getting it all in with 9 7 from the SB in a limped pot with a baord of 7 7 8 6. He of course flips over the 9 10 and I miss my full house and I'm gone within 20 minutes of the tourney. I lead the flop, which I like. Then I lead the turn when the 6 peels off and I lead it again (which I don't mind but I actually prefer checking there for pot control). So I should have check called his bet and if I dont boat up, I can dump. But I lead the turn and he raised leaving himself no chips so I felt compelled to get his last 400 in behind. So of course I find another way to stick my money in as a big dog.

Overall, I'm not happy with my play lately. Besides the $10 tourney, I feel like I played the rest of my tournaments like complete shit. I got my money in bad in every tourney besides the $10 one I got outdrawn in. I felt like if my hand holds up in the $10 one, I got a good shot of making the final table and snagging the $6500 first prize which would have been MUCH needed after the horrid run of cards this summer. I gotta stay positive though, I got many more days of poker ahead of me. I know if i find a way to have a hand hold up and occasionally get my money in good, I'll be able to take down an MTT sooner than later.

I have about a 16k roll at this point and I'm feeling confident and I want to take my shot in the WSOP. I figure I'll play 1, $1500 tourney and if I go bust, then whatever, I still have $15k or so in my roll so either way, I'll be happy with the experience. So I get down there and I decide I want to play in the $1500 PL Hold Em tourney instead of the NL tourney. I feel like with out the antes in the mix, it may workout better for me (actually now i look back on it and realize that all of my MTT scores were NL tourneys so that really makes no sense...., again, another lesson learned!)

So I get in the touranment and I'm registered and ready to play the next day. I got a good 10 hours of sleep in so I felt ready to go and I also felt like I was due for a deep run, especially in the WSOP. So I get to my table with my 3k starting stack and I do not reconize anybody. So I quickly get to 4k in my stack. Then JJ Liu sits on my left. I really was not too worried about her, to be honest with you. So she ends up going broke level 2 with 10 9 diamonds on a 8 high flop, 2 diamonds. She was up against KJ diamonds (so only king high but a higher flush draw).

So after she busted, I got moved to a different table. This was a fun table to be at, maybe not the softest table by any means, but fun nonetheless. Seat 1 we have Thay3r Rassmussen. Seat 3 we have Matt Sexton. I am in Seat 4. Seat 5 has a 12k stack so he wont be getting pushed around. Sucks to be OOP against that stack. Seat 6 was Aditayah Agarawal aka Intervention. Seat 7 was a guy in his mid 20's who had a 10k stack and had a good idea of what he was doing. Seat 7 was a terrible asain guy. Seat 8 was in and out a few times and so no real read on those players. Seat 9 was this guy in glasses who was pretty much a donk.

So now it's time for some interesting hands.....

But first, some things to note about the table:

My table image at this point: I have been playing uber tight. I have played at this table for maybe an hour and a half-2 hours and have only played maybe 6 hands. Everytime I raised, everyone folded.

Other Players/Recent Big Hands: Matt Sexton had a 6k stack when I arrived at the table. When it was folded to him, he would generally pot it. So he was playing aggressive. The guy in the glasses in seat 9 was in too many pots. Intervention was playing tight, as was Thay3r. Seat 5 and Seat 7 were the most active at the table, along with Seat 9.

Hand 1: My stack: 4200. Blinds 100/200.

Everyone folds to Matt Sexton on the button. He makes it 600 to go. So not quite pot. But he has been so active, I figure his range is wide. I look down at 2 black Kings. I figure this is a good spot to re raise pot. Or is it? My perception of Matt is that he was raising ATC on the button and when the tighest asshole in the world raises him (me), he will simply just fold to my OOP re-raise. So I wanted to play for stacks and I knew the only way that could happen is if I played it tricky. So I decide just to call. I also did this because the monster stack was in the BB and maybe he would make a move thinking Matt was raising ATC and that I was playing uber tight. But he folds :(

Flop: As 7s 9c.

Ugh, WHY DID I JUST FLAT CALL??? Lol, I still like flat calling even though the Ace flopped. For 2 reasons. A: Matt is raising ATC from the button so he probably has an Ace less times than not. B: If the Ace doesnt flop, my plan will have worked.

So no matter what flopped, even if it was a King, my plan was to check raise him and get him committed. So I check and he bets out $1400, which was pot. So now at this point I've got 3600 in my stack. I was obviously concerned about the Ace but I felt like it was still a spot to CR my chips with. So after he leads out I go for my chips and I'm about to make the play when suddenly, he leans forward. The entire time he was slouched in his chair, talking to a buddy. Even on C-bet's he was just slouched back and chatting it up. So as soon as I go for my chips, he pops up iin his chair and is suddenly interested in what's going on. It was at this point where I decided I had to let the Kings go and fight another day. This may be a -EV fold but I just had a read on him and went with it. So I ended up folding my Kings and told him what I had. He of course does not believe me and I asked him what he had. But before I tell you what he had, I had a little plan setup when I first got to the table. I figured if I got on his good side (which I would have anyways because he was a nice guy), that if I needed to get some info from him, like now, he would be nice enough to tell me. So he ended up telling me he flopped a straight and flush draw. So I guess I still don't know what to think of my fold, considering he told me he was going the whole way with his hand. So at the time, I was happy about getting away from Kings.

Hand 2: My stack: 3200. Blinds: 100/200.

I feel like telling Matt I had KK really help setup this next hand. So like I had said before, Matt has been active when it's folded to him. So the blinds are still 100/200 and he raises it up to 650. I look down at the KQ clubs and I know my hand is going to be favored over his range. So I go ahead and re pot him up to 2250, 1600 more. Besides doing this with what was probably the best hand, I only had 3200 chips in my stack so I wanted it to look like a MONSTER hand so that he will just fold and get out of the way. It may also make a hand like 8s fold behind me. So Matt thinks for about 30 seconds and he ends up mucking AJ face up to me and says "nice hand." So that worked out pretty well. Even though I was "making a move" that hand (even though I felt like KQ suited was better than what he had), I still love my play cause I know he will be folding a lot of hands he wouldn't against other players. So it was probably a good thing I told him I mucked KK to him.

Hand 3: It really did not involve me, but it helps setup my next hand. So Matt Sexton raises it up with Jacks, the guy in Seat 9 re raises. Matt should have just flat called to take a flop but he set the donk all in and the donk insta calls with Aces. Matt loses all but 1800 of his chips so I know he is tilting/shoving (errr potting/shoving) a wide range. He was very upset with himself but he knew right away that he made a mistake. I actually mucked a Jack that hand too but didn't feel like upsetting him since we had become table buddies. If I wanted to tilt him for meta-game purposes, I would have told him I mucked a Jack even before the flop was dealt out.

So 2 hands after that and the hand before hand 3, I pick up AQ suited and raised UTG+1 and everyone folded. Which leads me to hand 4.

Hand 4: My stack: 3800 chips. Blinds 100/200.

I am now UTG with pocket 8s. Again, I have a super tight image at this point and everyone has respected me up to this point. I'm in a spot right now because if I raise to 700 and I get re-raised, what do I do with 8s? I know that I'm going to be dominated more times than not because everyone else percieves me as a tight asshole. But I ended up raising to 700 anyways. I felt like I needed to make a move at some point. Also, the blinds were jumping up in a few min so I almost felt compelled to play the 8s for my stack. Now the guy on my left, the one who had monster chips when I sat down, he has tightened up considerably and is down to about 8k after losing a big pot about a half hour ago. So now I raise to 700 and this guy just flats me. Now after he flats me, I do not care what everyone else does, I can worry about them if they are invovled. But what I'm looking at right now is what is he flatting me with? Also, I'm studying him so I can get some sort of read on the situation. Like I said earlier, he has tightened up so his range is not as big as it was before, not to mention he's calling from UTG+1 so he has to have something pretty decent. At this point, I was not able to get a read on him by a tell but just logically, I figured that he has probably a pocket pair 7s-Jacks. QQ+ would have re raised, even a tight guy like me. AK would have also re-raised. I also felt like he could have AQ, probably suited. AJ he would probably just fold. So after he flats me, I'm basically flipping against 1 hand and I'm crushed by the rest of his range. So it now rolls around to Matt Sexton in the big blind who ships all in.

So now at this point, I got some thinking to do. So now that we know what UTG+1 has, we now have to put Matt on a hand. Like I said before, the only Ace hand UTG+1 has that he is flatting me with is AQ. So the chances of Matt having an Ace in his hand are more likely. He also only has 1800 in his stack, 200 of which was already in the Big Blind. He is getting short so he is probably not doing that with a hand worse than A10 or AJ. So I gotta figure that I'm racing against Matt. Obviously Matt could have an overpair or even 77. But I finally concluded that Matt had overcards, even hands like KQ or KJ suited. So I felt like that if I wanted to play the hand against Matt, the only thing I could do is move in over the top against UTG+1. This is a risky play because like I said, he has tightened up and I'm almost 100% sure that he is going to call Matt's all in if I fold. But the problem is for me, is that I only have 3100 in my stack if I fold and I will be in the blinds the next hand. So at this point, I have to start figuring out when the blinds are going up (which was within 10 minutes). So I felt like that if I wanted to cash in the tourney, folding may be the better option but if I wanted to win the whole damn thing, I felt like I needed to take a chance here and move in over the top. Like I said before, I'm probably a 4:1 dog to his hand, but I made the push because I felt like he was a good enough play to fold a hand like 9s or 10s in this spot. Like I said before too, he lost 4k of his chips in a pot and was probably off tilt from that but if he calls and loses, then he is down to about 3500-4k in chips and he is suddenly hurting. So after realzing he would be hurt badly if he lost to me, I felt like shoving 88 was the best play. So I went for it!

So now this guy is just sitting there thinking and just complaining about my shove. He obviously has no idea what I have but once he starts talking it up, I knew he either had 10s or Jacks. If he folded, it would be a great push by me and if I ended up beating Matt, I would suddenly have chips and a chance of making a run. So after a few more minutes of debating, he finally decides to muck Jacks face up to me. I then flip over my 8s and Matt flips over AKo. The board ran out King high on the flop and the river was a Jack so this obviously tilted the guy next to me. He then berates me for shoving 88 into him and him saying "what do you think i cold called you with?". It was pretty funny actually. I say that because I complain quite a bit at the table so to see it happen to me was a nice change of pace. It also made me realize how much of an idiot you look like when you actually do berate someone. So that is something I am trying to change in my game. Anyways, so after Matt more than doubles up, I'm down to 2000 chips and now I'm in the Big Blind :(

Hand 5: Stack: 2000. Blinds 100/200.

So I am now in the SB 2 hands after the 88 and Intervention raises it up to 700 preflop. I am just disgusted because he has been playing uber tight and from UTG, there is no way I can play this hand.....oh wait! Mason00 looks down at the AsAd! Now we got a game........that is of course until after Intervention calls my shove with AK clubs and flops a gutshot and turns it on me. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. I am absolutely NOT berating Intervention at all (So I hope that's not what people are thinking). No matter what, he has to go with AK suited and with my 2k stack, there is no way on god's green earth he is ever folding for only 1300 more with the 3rd or 4th best hand in poker. The hand just played itself out..

The part that made me laugh the most is how I just busted a $1500 WSOP tourney and shook everyone's hand and was in a GREAT mood! What??!?! If I lose a $50 tourney online when I lose a race, I get upset. But when I lose $1500 with Aces vs AK, I'm Happy??? It really was weird but I felt like I played some of the best poker of my life. Not to mention the fact that if that guy doesn't fold his Jacks, I'm out anways so I was basically freerolling after that.

I felt like I played out of this world and I cannot be too mad at myself. I am probably more upset with the fact I should have played event #2, the $1500 NL with $800+ for 1st. That probably would have been a more +EV move for me.

Mason00

So to continue on from my last blog, I had some early success. I have a TERRIBLE cash game leak in my game. I feel like I can break even or slightly beat live cash games. But something with online cash games, I start out the session good and end up broke by the end. So I'm sure you'll be hearing me say this over and over again but I REALLY need to stop playing cash games! I seriously have probably lost 8k in my poker career to cash games, it's just sickening. Not to mention I've probably missed out on thousands of dollars not playing in MTT's while in those stupid cash games. Another leak of mine is cashing out too much. I end up getting the money and blowing it up stupid shit in no time so then im strapped for cash when I need it for a poker game. That is something I REALLY need to work on. Oh well, cant only learn from past mistakes.

So I end up losing $4k over the next month and a half after my $10k score on stars. That of course was mostly attributed to PLO cash games. Ugh, what a FUN but SICKENING game at the same time. So then I played the $50/$50k Gtd. tourney again and take 2nd for $5500. So now I'm all stoked for Vegas....

I ended up losing about $2300 or so in Vegas :( $1500 of was the WSOP Buy In. I am actually going to post another blog after this about my WSOP experience and hands I played. I really feel like there is some interesting stuff/thought processes so I would highly recommend giving that a read/PLEASE comment and let me know what you think of the hands I played.

The next day I played the $340 Caesar's Palace Deep Stacked Extravaganza tournament. That is something I will leave for another blog because I made a deep run in that tourney. I unfortunately busted 19th place for only $725. Pretty disapointed to say the least but I played my heart out. Again, there is some interesting hands that show up there so I would again recommend giving those a read and feel free to make comments, it's the only way I'll ever learn.

So I ended up playing in a $500 PLO game the first night down there. I had been playing tons online and I felt like it was a soft game, for sure. So I get in, I buy in for $500 and I'm feeling good. I had an interesting hand early on where I flopped an open ender with Kc 10c 3s 4s on a Qd Jh Xx board. The first guy bet out $45 and the 2nd guy called. Now it's up to me and I FOLD. This is the reason why I should have not been in the game. I'm use to playing $1/2, at the most. So for me to play in this game was just stupid because it was scared money at this point. So I ended up folding an on the turn, the Ace came. Both donks got it all in with only Aces and Queens and I would have won a $1500 pot. So at this point, I am just SICK to my stomach. It was at this point for sure, I should have taken my $45 and walked. But me being a cash game dumbass, I decide to stick around and play. I don't want to bore you with every hand but my final hand I had Ah9hAs8s and I was all in against 2 guys. 1 guy had the other Aces and he was double suited the other way. Then the random asain guy in between decides to stick in $400 more after our raises and re raises with only Jd 10d 7d 6c! and flops bottom 2 with 76....just so fucking sickening. I really hated myself after that. I was mad about the guy playing that awful hand but at the same time, i had NO business being in the game and I was pissed. So then we went to dinner and I hopped in a $1/2 NL game with my brother and I dusted off $140 there where again I KNEW I was tilted and gave away some money because I felt like being a nice guy :)

So then after my Caesar's run and the WSOP, I was stuck over 2k on the trip. Kinda sucked but I knew I had more thatn enough online to make it back.

So of course I get home from Vegas and I am playing monkey idiot cash games like the monkey idiot that I am. So between that and not hitting a MTT final table, my bankroll is down to about 7k (I've had about 3k in cash outs so I'm now down AS much, but still having the worst poker swing of my life). I have to say I am very disapointed with the way things have turned out the past few months.

So now I have decided to take off a month of poker and just focus on my game. I may go to a buddies house here and there and play in a $50, .25/.50 cash game but thats just for fun, I don't take that too seriously. It's pretty crushing to be up so much and lose half of it back in like 1/7th of the time. It hurts but it's called gambling for a reason so I have to just deal with it. I figure this month off of online poker will do me a lot of good. I have school starting up in less than a month so I will be studying my ass off for poker. Between watching CR videos/forums and 2+2 non-stop, I feel like when I get back into the game come September, I will just have a great end of the year in MTT's. Who knows what the future holds....this is me trying to be optimistic during pessimistic times!

So if I do not blog much in the next month or so, you now know why. But when I get back into the game, I will be blogging non stop about poker. So until then....

Mason00

So this is my first blog here on Card Runners. I have been a member now for about 6 months or so. So a little bit about myself personally and from a poker aspect. Well, I have been playing poker online for about 4 years or so now. I would consider myself a winning player throughout the 4 years...except when I tilt! I started out with a $25 deposit on pokerroom.com. I ran that up to about $800 in a few months playing $5 and $10 sit and go's. I then found cash games and my bankroll started to rollercoaster. There is something about cash games that keeps bringing me back for some more, even these days (which is a large sum of the reason why I have ran so bad this summer).

So then back last September I had a breakthrough on Full Tilt with only $600 in my account and I took 2nd in the $17k Gtd. tournament that runs at midnight everynight. I ended up taking 2nd place for $2700. After that, I just went on an absolute terror. I was CRUSHING $30-$100 sit and go's on Full Tilt. At about the same time, it felt like I was making an MTT FT once a month (which was amazing considering i maybe played only 20 a month) So yeah, kinda a sick run. This went on into early part of this year. I ended up taking down the Poker Stars $50 buy in, $50k Gtd. tourney for $10,500. My bankroll was suddenly at $13k. So 7 months earlier, I had $600 in my account and was upset that nothing was happening for me in poker. So to have this success out of nowhere felt so good.

I will get to my recent slump/bad decisions in my next blog!

Mason00