Okay, so I've hardly been able to play any poker because of school this month. I only got in ~11k hands of cash games this month (compared to 36k in Jan, and 24k in Feb). At this rate, I'll play 0k hands of cash next month. This corresponds to about 30 hours of play this month.

I decided to try $5/10 LHE for the first time this month. As you can see from the PT pic below, it didn't go so well as I lost 150BB. I don't think I ran great but looking at my aggression factors, I definitely wasn't aggressive enough (although I didn't feel uncomfortable playing it or anything). I did since then realize how bad I play on the river. My aggression factor is definitely way too low. I believe this is due to two things: 1) after the two 500BB downswings that I've had in LHE so far, I think that I sort of started playing suboptimally due to the incessantly long strings of losing every single pot no matter how strong my hand was. I believe I used to actually player LAGgier preflop and make very think value bets on the river before these happened; 2) I try to induce a lot of bluffs on the river (either OOP or checking behind in position on the turn).

Some things I have observed regarding cash games are: 1) after I have a 2k+ cash in a tourney, I normally lose close to $1k in cash games the next day, and 2) when I move up in limits, if I don't do well, when I move down, I seem to crush my original limits. I would guess #1 is partially due to the psychological aspect of the game, that is I might not play my best as even if I lose $1k, I'm still up $1k+ recently (subconscious psychology). As for #2, it could be a coincidence, or it could be that I've adjusted somewhat at the higher limit against tougher opponents and so playing lower limits is much easier (more profitable). So, anyway, I don't have a large enough sample size this month in anything to make too many conclusions but I did run well at $3/6 LHE 6max and at HU 50NL.

Note that I was much more aggressive at $3/6 (even on the river) and played closer to a 30/20 style (which I was playing by the end of the month). I find 30/20/2+ suits my game better as I like to play lots of marginal spots and try to outplay people (which is sometimes hard to do in poo-flingin' limit games). Anyway, I'm kinda pissed I've gone this long playing so poorly on the river when it is the easiest street of all to play (seeing as no other cards have come) and just depends on the opponent's range, tendencies, and our hand. One really nice thing about $5/10 concerns the rake. I believe you play less rake in terms of BB/100 at $5/10, but I also get more rakeback (in terms of dollars). 4-tabling for about 7 or 8 hours produces something like $200 in RB. This month, I generated $797.63 total in rakeback (whereas I made less than twice this in January while playing over 3 times as much) .

In terms of tournaments this month. According to OPR, I made $4580 in winnings with $2509 in profit, a 121% ROI, with an average BI of $23 (why does it decrease every month even though my roll increases?), and ITM of 13% over 92 tourneys (MTTs and MTT SNGs). I finally took down a $26 MTT after so many 2nd place finishes. One thing I did was try to play smaller pots (esp. in position) and chip away at my opponent even if this meant limping (Ack! I know...). I got this idea from watching Matt Matros videos on www.stoxpoker.com and read in online forums that Bill Chen and the other Mathematics of Poker guys suggest this as well because then you have larger stack-to-pot ratios and thus have more decisions later in the hand (which is obv. a benefit for good players as they generally make better decisions). My previous HU strategy was very high variance and didn't really allow me to use as much skill, it was basically to raise and 3bet and shove more often but this ends up closing in the skill gap and allowing bad players with equal chips close to 50% equity against me as it normally ends up in a coin flip or cooler hand for all the chips with such small stacksizes. Obviously, this is a horrible result for me against weak passive players. Anyway, I've learned my lesson, I think I would have done much better in the past with deep stacks but the truth is, you very very rarely have deep stacks HU in MTTs (I could probably safely say almost never). So, yeah, here are links to the MTT final tables on PXF for this month:

$26 $9.5k gtd., 1 of 688 for $3371

$12 Daily Double A, 9 of 1409 for $206

I also forgot to post those from last month:

$26 $17k gtd., 2 of 759

$11 Midnight Madness, 3 of 2081

$2r, 1 of 106

$2r, 5 of 113

I also played a bunch of MTT SNGs and won two 45mans ($11 and $26) although I probably lost money on the month in them overall.

I watched this really awesome MTT video from sheets on PXF the other day where he went through all the math of restealing (in this case, from BB against LP raiser). I was super surprised at how much we can resteal in that situation with like 15bb stacks. He used an excel spreadsheet (with range percentages taken from PokerStove and had the spreadsheet solve for 0EV pushes and how much equity we need when called and stuff like that). Seeing that video has rekindled my interest in MTTs (which can be annoying at times due to their variance). I want to write a program to do the calculations he had in his spreadsheet (without the need of pokerstove) as well as 4bet shoving and maybe some SB vs. BB shoving (like using Sklansky-Chubukov numbers to shove unexploitably from SB).

In terms of poker programs, I recently purchased SNG Wizard, SNGEGT, and Tourney Manager which are all SNG programs (first two are for analysis and the last one is for management, like PT). I eventually wanna master SNGs and really learn the differences between chipEV and $EV which would be great for MTTs in the areas of bubble aggression, restealing, stealing, and final tables. I think it'd also give me a better sense of people's ranges and my equity vs. their ranges. SNGEGT is pretty cool (like SNGPT) but you can do stuff like assume all opponents have same calling range (on shoves), can calculate optimal ranges (using game theory), I've heard it can read data from realtime games (while playing) and is legal, and it also comes with some side programs to work on short stack HU games and such (where you can test whether it's a push or a fold). I don't know if I had this program last month or not but I also got SpadeEye which is a datamining program which I've found very useful. I've begun trying to table select games now (finding games with fishier players at them) and I find it much better. I didn't realize before how much of a super big difference it makes playing against tough solid/tricky TAGs vs. loose weak passive fish. It's such a huge difference (and esp. nice if you have position on the fish and can isolate him). I'm also a beta tester for two programs at www.stoxpoker.com, one is called StoxEV written by a member there (scylla) and it calculates the EV of all players at all points in a decision tree for a hand with a nice graphical display. The other is a program to count combinations (called Combolator by MysteryHand, another member) of hands fitting in certain groups given a certain range and board cards (such as: how often does my opponent hold a FD on K72hh flop given a preflop range of 22+, broadway). Both of these programs are really awesome and useful for analysis (along with Pokerazor).

In terms of poker books, I just received four books in the mail recently: the three mentioned as ordered in my previous blog entry (Kill Phil, Harrington 2, NLHTAP) and the one ordered with FTPoints Tournament Poker for Advanced Players by Sklansky which has been rereleased with 100+ pages on NL Hold'em. I also have Harrington on Cash 1 and 2 ordered from amazon.ca but they may take a bit before they get them (even though the books have recently been released). I would guess this puts the number of books I own at ~50ish which means I need to start reading more of them. I find it hard to read just one though, I probably have 20+ that I've started and I go back and forth between them all depending on how I'm feeling.

Bankroll:

FTPoints: 118,850.55

IronMan Medals: 796

Ooh, sweet, I used a Cardrunners table (see above).

k, so in terms of non-poker related stuff (what? there is a life outside poker?). Melissa and I just got our fouton (from Ikea online). It ended up coming with no instructions but that should be no problem right? Wrong! I ended up putting it together in about every possibly permutation that is physically possibly except for the right setup. Anyway, after a few days Melissa called Ikea and they emailed us the instructions. I had it set up shortly after that. You don't realize how important a couch is until you live without one for over 6 months.

Anyway, it's nice to sit on when playing video games on my sweet multipurpose monitor (which I use to dual monitor my computer). I recently got Super Smash Brother Brawl (for the Wii) which is really awesome along with Diddy Kong Racing DS for the Nintendo DS. I also preordered Mario Kart for the Wii (along with an extra wheel) and Wii Play (moreso to get an extra Wiimote). I've been using rakeback to get Amazon gift certs through www.pokersourceonline.com where I get Melissa and myself books along with video games (yes, they sell them).

I also recently got some other books I ordered from Amazon. "Body for Life" and "New Dieter's Cookbook", I feel really horrible about not doing anything active and not eating too healthy so that is a sort of goal for the summer. Body for Life has a 12 week program that you follow where it also gives suggestions for eating properly and such. There's just no reason why I shouldn't be taking better care of my body (esp. when I have no classes in the summer).

So, school finishes in about 3 weeks or so. I really can't wait. I wanna have free time to do whatever I want: spend time with Melissa, cook, work out, play poker, program, play video games, etc. Also, Melissa's parents will be coming out in the summer, her friend Erin (maid of honour) might come visit, and my sister is trying to find a cheap flight here. I have two projects due near the end of the semester (one related to poker for Machine Learning and the other related to the game NeverWinter Nights for my game scripting course). I also have one more assignment for ML and one exam (in the game course).

This summer, I will be starting research for my Master's and I just got a supervisor and topic. I will be working under Dr. Duane Szafron (prof teaching my Game course) in the Computer Poker Research Group (CPRG) and my topic will be on multiplayer (6max, probably) LHE cash games (which kind of suits what I play online). So, I'm pretty excited to actually get into research (I'm so sick of classes after so many years of school now).

Anyway, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables,

- Nick

As you might be able to infer from the title (RE: Rounders), I reached my $10k goal early.

Instead of ending the blog with the bankroll stats like I normally do, I'll instead start it off with them:

FTP points: 101,446.75

FTP Iron Man Medals: 706 (Silver status)

BR:

Full Tilt: $9230.80

Staking: $1745.90

rakeback: $105.77

------------------------

Total: $11,082.47

Goal: $10,000 [celebrate here!]

I was at or very close to $10k near the start of February, then dropped a bit, then FT'ed a tourney and shot up to $11k-ish. I was pretty excited as I [over] doubled my BR in a month and met my 3-month goal close to two months early.

This month (February) was pretty good overall, I ran much better (relative to last month being a losing month) in tournaments.

I played 200 tourneys with an average buy-in of $25 (WTF? Lower than my average buy-in overall my tourneys), had an ITM of 14%, $7k in winnings and $2k in profit for a 41% ROI. My final tables include a 3rd in a Omaha Hi PL $3r, a 5th in a $2r, a win in a $2r, a third in the $11 Midnight Madness, and a 2nd in a $26 $17k guaranteed (plus a bunch of SNG MTTs, 45- and 90-mans).

[add PokerXFactor links to FTs later]

Some things that I tried to work on in my MTT game recently are paying more attention to the games to get reads and find exploitable/weak players to get chips from and also to move my style a bit closer to the LAG-axis (although still a TAG in general). I find playing more pots and seeing more flops fits my style better. I'm trying to find a happy medium such that I can take advantage of tight (and preferably fit-or-fold) tables yet to not open myself up to exploitation by good players at the table.

Here are my cash game results from Poker Tracker:

I played 2/3 the amount of cash game hands as last month but made slightly more (minus rakeback). For rakeback, I made $1,151.11 this month. Notice that I tried some NL/PL cash games. LOL, the 10NL was a $3 capped game that I joined for fun and shoved most of my hands. At first I was up over $10 and then went on a losing streak, so sick, haha. For the PL, I didn't mean to sit in PL (tried to sit in NL) but that was fun. I called up my friend [Evan] Theriault and he sweated me while we were 6-tabling. I was super surprised at how much of a preflop game it was, not getting into many tough spots postflop (which is what I'd prefer). So I decided to try to 50NL HU, that was much more fun that 6max as I got to play more hands and play postflop. I still have many leaks in it though, specifically playing OOP and showing down too light (probably carried over from LHE, I don't like folding). I also tried some PLO 50 HU and 6max (4-tabling). Even though I don't know how to play PLO at all, I think the players were very weak in general (I think I probably made ~$100).

Here's a graph:

What else... how about books and software? I just ordered "Tournament Poker for Advanced Players" by Sklansky using 9100 FTPoints. I also ordered three books from pokersourceonline (my rakeback affiliate): "No Limit Hold'em Theory and Practice", "Harrington on Hold'em: Volume 2", and "Kill Phil" (I own the first two books but have lent them out to people on the Island). In terms of software, I got HoldemManager (another database program like PokerTracker) which is pretty neat. It has a builtin HUD which provides a ton of useful stats organized in a cool way (and another window that will tell how what shown-down hands someone has had). I also got SpadeEye which is a datamining program (which I still have to find out how to use properly). Also, I am using the beta version of Pokerazor (free right now). This is a really REALLY amazing program which can do all sorts of range calculations/explorations and EV calculations (preflop and postflop) for HU analysis. The guys writing the software are really taking all the suggestions to heart and working a lot on it. It's released with an updated and much better/nicer version every week or so. The biggest fallback, however, is the interface for the HU strategy analysis, it is not very intuitive and somewhat limited in some senses. They do promise, though, that they are thinking of and will release a more intuitive/natural interface for it in the future. There is a similar program that a member of Stoxpoker (scylla) has developed and will be released soon. I know that this has a more intuitive interface. TheBryce claims that it's much better. Software that I still want to get: SNGWizard and PokerTracker 3 when it comes out.

Other than that, everything is going well. I just got off from Spring Break (school will be keeping me busy over the next month+), we ordered a couch (turns into bed) from Ikea online yesterday, I got Donkey Kong Barrel Blast for the Wii today and it's pretty cool. Congrats to Phil Ivey for taking down the LAPC (can't wait to watch this episode, with Phil Hellmuth at the table)!

Oh, I might look into getting a LHE 6max coach from Stoxpoker. His name is Yertle Terle, he charges $150/hr which seems like a lot but if he helps me plug some key leaks, this'll pay for itself super quickly. I've heard a ton of great things from his present/past students.

Peace!

Okay, so I haven't updated this blog in quite a while.

We went home (PEI) for the Xmas break and it was a lot of fun. I didn't play too much poker while there (played two home games at a friend's) and maybe one day online. It was nice to relax though (no school, no poker, etc.). I got to see mine and Melissa's family a ton and got to hang out with friends (including finally being able to go out partying/drinking/dancing).

Within the first few weeks back, I put in a ton of volume (for me anyways) but I haven't been playing too much now that courses started up with work (what's with that?). I am taking two really good classes, Machine Learning (an AI course) and a Computer Games course (where we learn about programming languages and scripts used for video games). The main game we are focusing on in the course in Neverwinter Nights (I believe based on D'n'D). It's pretty cool because a Toolset comes with the game so you can do a lot of stuff including creating your own modules and playing through them. I bought the game so I wouldn't have to go to the U every time I wanted to work on it but I had some trouble getting it. I called about 6 different video game shops before I found one that had it and since our car isn't working, I called a cab to take me there. The game was about $25 but I payed twice that for the cab!

Edit: I added these horizontal lines below (they are not the end of the blog but just a break in topic).

So, last year, my only New Year's resolution was to record my live poker results for the year. I don't play much live but would occasionally play $5, $10, $20 home games, as well as a few cash games here and there. I actually kept my New Year's resolution (except for a few smaller games that I forgot to put in). I used the www.cardplayer.com Poker Analyst to input these live results and a picture of them are shown below. I ended up ~ +$842 for the year.

So, I have to come up with some new New Year's resolutions (yes, I know it's kinda a month late or so but my first resolution is related to that).

* 1 * Reduce my procrastination significantly (I am a very bad-- or good, depending on how you look at it-- procrastinator). Although I've done well (school-wise) in the past, I can't really do that for my Master's.

* 2 * As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I want to have a $10k bankroll online by April 4 (3 months from when we got back from our Xmas trip).

* 3 * Get into the top 100 on the tournament leader board (TLB on Full Tilt) for at least one month.

* 4 * Have a tourney score of over $5k

* 5 * Be a winning player at $10/20 or higher at 6max LHE

* 6 * Start playing and winning at NL 6max cash and SNGs as well as some more HU LHE and possible HU NL.

* 7 * Get into better shape

* 8 * Have a BR of > $25k by the end of the year

* 9 * Spend more time studying/calculating/reviewing hands and situations

* 10 * Always use proper BR-management

* 11 * Take a break/quit when I'm (a) tilting or (b) not playing well

If I've forgotten something important, then I'll edit this later.

Below are my results for last month (January 2008). I actually played ~36k hands which is a ton for me (and I don't know the next time I'll be able to do this). This is also just in cash games, I played over 200 tournaments as well which I'll discuss later.

Notice how I ran well for my 12.5k hands of $2/4, ran breakeven (pretty much) over 23k hands of $3/6, and ran superawesome over 21 hands of $50NL (lol, notice infinity as my AF over PF, flop, turn and river). I was only playing one table and it was so mind-numbing, I had to stop (not just because I was ahead by a whopping $4.50). So, overall I only ran at about 1 BB/100 but it was good because I found some leaks in my game which I have either fixed or am working on (note: I am in no way saying that I still don't have any leaks). Some of the things that I've changed are: tightening up preflop (I generally like the 30/20 style more but since the games have gotten even more aggressive and people absolutely love to 3-bet all the time, I decided to tighten up especially in early position). It's kind of interesting, the more and more I play poker, the more and more I realize how bad I was (and thus am) and the more and more I despise playing out of position. Position is a word that almost seems overused today in poker, but it actually isn't, it's probably actually under-used/-emphasized. Another leak was that I used to give away WAY too many free turn cards, this is something that I should have fixed a long time ago. While this is a good way to get free turn cards myself, and induce lots of bluffs on the river, the pros DEFINITELY do not outweigh the cons for several obvious reasons. This is because I: give out free cards, have no fold equity with a check, it kinda polarizes my turn-betting range to double-barrel bluffs and very strong hands (so I normally check behind with marginal-to-OK hands in the middle). This obviously lets an observant opponent who is a good hand-reader to play much better against me while I have no more information about their hand. I have also started playing a bit more fit-or-fold and less spewy (I still get spewy at times but nothing like I used to be). I still probably spew a bit more in BvB than I should. Another thing that I've tried doing a bit more is using the PAHUD stats to play better against certain opponents.

Below is a graph (in BB vs. hands) of last month. Notice how much variance there is in limit (compared to the nice NL graphs you usually see). Even breaking even over so many hands in $3/6 (two thirds of my hands played this month), it's not horrible as I'm up 347BB and to move up a limit, you need <1000BB. If I had actually run half-decent at $3/6, it would be a lot nicer. Also, I think when I noticed my leaks, it was already most of the way into the month so I think my new results (whenever I get a chance to play) should be better.

In terms of tournaments last month (January 2008). I have not been doing well. I put in a huge volume (for me) with 262 tourneys/SNG MTTs with about $7k in winnings but overall a net loser. I had a 19% ITM with a -7% ROI (really bad). There are several things that I believe contributed to this bad month.

1) playing both tourneys and cash games simultaneously (I originally thought this was a good idea but I don't believe it is as cash games and tourneys take very different mindsets and tilting/playing poorly in one type still affects the other).

2) Not paying enough attention to the games (i.e. autopiloting). I believe my best tourney game is playing a LAGgier style where I take advantage of exploitable tendencies of opponents but when I don't pay attention (browsing the internet or whatever), I don't know how ANYONE at the table plays, I just play my cards in a TAGgy style. I find that I do MUCH better when I pay attention to the games (which obv. should be a given because you have more information to make decisions).

3) I really believe that I ran really bad when ITM and near the final table (2nd or 3rd table). There was one night where I finished 15, 16, and 16 where the sum of the first places in each would have been $14k or so. I busted with KK < A9o in one after losing a HUGE 3way allin with QQ < AK and AK (which would have made me a dominant chip leader) and TT < A3 in the other. Anyway, not to put in standard bad beat stories here since it happens, but even one of the deep tourneys going well would have changed the month drastically.

4) Playing too many tourneys above the BR. If I follow the standard 100 BI MTT BR management rule, I should not have played $20r's and $75's but I still did.

I had two 2nd place finishes last month, in a $33 deepstack and a $12 Daily Double B for about $940 and $1600 respectively and have included PokerXFactor (PXF) links to them below. I think I might start putting all MTT final tables in my blog (moreso so I can easily review them later if I ever get around to doing some reviewing, which is one of my NY resolutions so I better).

www.pokerxfactor.com/HA112485/doublestack33FO_08jan12/22751

www.pokerxfactor.com/HA110279/DailyDoubleB/22751

For last month, I got 3262.2 chips in the MTT TLB (tournament leader board) and was 275th for the month. The top 200 each month are entered into a Winner's Choice WSOP/WPT tournament (where you get a $12k package to play in a major).

I recently met Bryce Paradis (aka TheBryce or "Freedom25" on FTP). It was really cool. He's one of the lead instructors at www.stoxpoker.com (an instructional site I'm a member of) and he just wrote an article at 2plus2 found here:

http://twoplustwo.com/magazine/issue38/paradis_0208.php

He's easily one of the top (probably top 2 or 3) HU LHE players in the world. Last year alone, he made $2.5 million and played David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius, and others at $1k/$2k. He actually lives here in Edmonton and I ran into him randomly in one of the computer labs.

I suggested that he try playing Polaris (UofA's top heads-up bot) in one of his instructional videos and he thought that it was a good idea. He's been in contact with the Computer Poker Research Group at UofA (and he's supposed to be attending the meeting on Monday with me).

So, to the bankroll stuff.

FTP points: 86,425.70 (enough to get a 22" monitor).

FTP Iron Man Medals: 545 (I still don't really understand these)

BR's:

Pacific: empty (withdrew remaining $132 or so and probably won't put in back onto FTP)

Duplicate: $60.84 (haven't played there since)

Full Tilt: $5110.77

Staking: $1245.90

rakeback: $240.16 (transferred a bunch of rakeback to FTP and used $100 on a BestBuy gift certificate for my bro)

------------------------

Total: $6,657.67

Goal: $10,000 (two-thirds the way there)

Deadline: April 4, 2008

All right, I see that I haven't updated my blog since September 30, 2007.

Since I want to go to bed soon, I'll give a brief overview of poker happenings since then (I don't get to play too often due to school).

Okay, so from www.officialpokerrankings.com, it says that I have:

$19,997 in MTT/SNG winnings with $6142 in profit, 44% ROI and 16% ITM with an average buyin of $30.

www.thepokerdb.com says I have:

$17,542.86 in MTT (not SNG) winnings with $5,155.68 in profit, and 41.62% ROI, 15.8% ITM with an average buyin of $31.21

These are both for Full Tilt (since July 20: first tournament played/cashed).

Sharkscope (SNGs) says:

$542 profit in 112 games with an ROI of 26% and an average stake of $12 (on Full Tilt)

$160 profit in 20 games with an ROI of 178% and an average stake of $4 (Poker Stars).

The stars result is from winning a $4/180man SNG after trading $90 FTP money for $90 PStars money with a friend.

Note that there is overlap and missing tourneys between Sharkscope, thepokerdb, and OPR.

So, I got my dual monitors working on my new computer. Here is a picture of the setup (didn't realize until this picture import thing make the picture super huge that I had Aces and was about to stack someone):

I love the setup and don't think I'd be able to go back to one monitor ever again.

Okay, so I also got some more software, subscriptions, and poker books: I am now subscribed to www.cardrunners.com, www.stoxpoker.com, www.pokerxfactor.com, and www.realpokertraining.com. I got a bunch of books from Amazon using rakeback (and a few from Melissa's work: Chapter's with her 30% discount). I got some SNG books, the Full Tilt Poker Tourney book, rebought Ed Miller's Small Stakes Hold'em, got a TJ cloutier book, etc. I think I now own about 43 books. I never read one straight through, I have like 12 on the go. I just feel like reading about a specific variation or by a specific author and open that up. I don't get around to reading poker books too often anymore.

Okay, so concerning limit hold'em, I have played 34,517 hands of LHE on FTP. I had a really bad downswing at $3/6 last week and probably lost close to $3k. I really should have stopped playing (I think I'll incorporate a stop-loss or something). I was running really really bad, I either would flop the nuts or a really good hand and I'd end up losing to low-outers or runner runners or whatever. Also, my draws wouldn't come in, I wouldn't flop pairs, or if I did, they'd always be no good or get sucked out on. There were a bunch of coolers too. Anyway, enough complaining. I didn't help the matter by: 1. continued playing when losing; 2. played more tables than I normally do (up to 8 and 9 instead of my comfortable 4); 3.probably tilty at times; 4. didn't move down to $2/4 and $1/2. Anyway, over all of these hands, I'm down $2291 (0.98 BB/100) overall (up in $1/2 and $2/4, down in $3/6). Anyway, I'll grind it out and make it back. I plan on being a lot smarter about it this time (stoploss, moving down if running bad, etc.).

Okay, so aside from that: my friends Arlo and Leon came to Edmonton for an Engineering conference and I met up with them at a local bar. We all got pretty trashed and I decided to play on my Pacific Poker account when I got back, I made about $50. I also joined this site called www.duplicatepoker.com because they give you $5 to signup (I read about it in a poker magazine). It's pretty neat, they reduce the amount of luck in the game by dealing the exact same hands across several tables and then you aren't judged by how much you win or lose at your table but how much you win or lose compared to the people who were dealt the same hand as you. I played 4 things and won in each of them. They also gave me another $10, so I went from $5 -> $60. I also checked out the West Edmonton Mall casino (Palace) this weekend. I got to join the $35 tourney late but final tabled it and cashed in 7th (for like $72). I lost two key coinflips: AJ < TT and 55 < KQ. Had I won the AJ hand, I would have been in much better shape to take down the tourney (for close to $1k) as I would have been the chip leader and there were a bunch of weak players (also the stacks were very shallow: push/fold mode). I then played some full-ring $3/6 LHE which was so mindnumbing. Those degens play like 80%+ of hands and go way too far. I didn't enjoy it much because you basically have to make hands, and you can't really isolate, or bluff, or outplay. I actually raised for a free card and got it to work once (then ended up with 5 high and had to give up on the river). The only thing I could really take pleasure in was: saving a bet, getting a nice valuebet in, or getting a good checkraise in (basically anything to heighten my winrate). I feel that I really have to work on a more optimal preflop strategy though. If I continue to go back, I'll probably use the guidelines from "Small Stakes Hold'em" (which is such a great book). I ended up making ~$127 (21 big bets). I like how they have a kill there (stakes double to $6/12 after someone wins two pots in a row). They also charge low rake and have fun dealers in general. I wish they had a 6max game, that'd be great.

Holy [censored]! I hate the Cardrunners hand converter. I'm just going to use pokerhand.org.

Here is a fun hand where I almost lost the maximum possible here with a full house and I flopped trips:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1784443

If I could find some of the hands I played against him right before this, you would understand why I want to cap every street here. We played a hand earlier where I capped an A high board and lead the turn and he called down with KQ (turns out I had the same hand and we split on river after c/c).

Oh, I'm also staking a good friend of mine for $1k. He's a great tourney player, has great bankroll management skills, and initially taught me how to play the game. We've gone to school together since forever.

Oh (I probably use that word too often), Melissa and I were having a finance conversation tonight and we were talking about how I only have classes next semester on Tues and Thurs and I'll be able to put in a lot of poker hours (for once, thank God!). Anyway, she wanted me to set a 3-month goal. So here is my goal:

***** to have a 10k roll by April 4. ******

I'll probably come up with a bunch of new year's resolution type stuff related to poker: goals/rules/etc.

Update:

FTP points: 53,201.65

BR's:

Full Tilt: $3245.60 ([censored] 3/6 downswing!!!)

Pacific: $141.69 (might reserve this as the drunk poker site; they also have a java applet that lets you play in a browser)

Duplicate: $60.84

Staking: $1245.90 (tranferred PS money: $245.90 tonight)

rakeback: $44.93

------------------------

Total: $4738.96

Goal: $10,000

Oh, Melissa and I will be home (Prince Edward Island) from Dec. 17th to Jan 4th. I can't wait!!! Just one project and one exam left.

Okay, so I'll try to keep this blog updated (when poker things are happening anyway). I played 1268 hands of strictly $2/4 6max LHE today. I won about $136 (2.68 BB/100) which isn't too bad (even though I should have won a lot more). I played a 32/23/1.8 style. My Attempt to Steal % was 52. This seems pretty high but it was profitable as people didn't play back at me often enough. I also think my postflop game is improving. I can make better reads now and like to put others in tough situations. Playing a LAGgier style really accelerates this learning process as you are constantly put in really tough situations and to profit, you must learn how to play those situations better.

There are several things that I want to work on in my game: I want to stop my spewtardiness (or for the most part) although I get a lot more action when I 4bet the turn, 3bet the river and fold to a cap (extreme example but I'm sure I've done it before if I don't believe them). I also want my aggression factor to be larger although this isn't too much of a concern of mine. If I was playing a TAGgier game, I'd definitely have a higher AF. The reason why it isn't as high is for several reasons: I steal a lot, I defend my BB a decent amount, I float fairly often, I induce bluffs often.

I just got my new computer last night. It's a Quad Core 2.4 MHz with 3GB RAM, 640GB hard drive space, nVidia GeForce 8400 GS 256 MB and has a TV/radio tuner with remote. I got a 22" WS LCD Samsung that has builtin speakers, 2 MP webcam, microphone, headphone jack, and USB hub. It's pretty sweet (sitting alongside my other 22" WS LCD). The problem is that I don't know how to hook up dual monitors with this graphics card (only one DVI slot and no VGA slots). I might have to go to FutureShop and get the other Samsung with HDMI/DVI/VGA/AV/Component inputs. I think that monitor was actually cheaper anyway. I'd have to get some HDMI cables and hook it up through the graphics card. I also got a new desk and printer. I really like my setup (will like it more once I have dual monitors). The computer has Windows Vista which I actually don't mind too too much (except for the damn administrative privileges needed to do anything, I'll have to figure out how to change this).

Okay, so I have to start getting caught up with school (OR ELSE)! I just can't seem to focus recently (not too too interesting). I just want to work on my Master's research (almost certainly will be in poker research).

So I can finally run PT and PAHud simultaneously without my computer freezing. It's so nice to actually have: statistics on players (I've customized my FT 6-max stats), and to be able to see mucked hole cards with PAHud (without going to "Last Hand" every time (as this doesn't work too well when 4-tabling). I feel very comfortable playing 4 tables (still able to steal and defend and everything). I find that if I play 6 or 8, I must play very ABC TAG as I can't keep track of the action on all tables (sometimes I raise and end up not firing c-bets b/c I forgot what happened). i think I could probably do 5 or 6 all right if I get some more practice with that many. Anyway, I believe that having the new computer (with dual monitor capability to come) and actually using PT and PAHud will increase my winrate by a large amount (I would get 1 BB/100 or more). This seems like a lot since winning players strive for 1-2 BB/100 often but these games are pretty soft and I used to play without the HUD or knowing people's stats (while still playing 4 tables). That is, the $2/4 games can be beaten without even putting too much effort into it (just playing fairly straight forward and stealing and defending a bit).

Below is a graph of today's sessions. Notice the big drop at the start. This was a function of both not being into the games, Melissa having the TV on really loud beside me, and the fall of the cards. She asked me how I was doing (just so happened to be at the minimum of the graph when she asked about it) and I said I lost over a hundred. She then asked when I was going to stop playing because I just lost over $100. It's so tough to talk to her about bankroll management or variance or anything like that. She sees the values as absolute while I see them as relative (relative to BR and relative to bet sizes). $100 = 25 BB @ $2/4. A 25 BB downswing is not that big at all. I've had a really horrible horrible streak where I lost about $1k at $1/2 which equates to 500 BB or so. I didn't tell her about this. I really don't believe I was playing too bad during that streak at all. It was just ridiculous how many bad beats/coolers/flop misses occurred. It seemed impossible almost. Anyway, I'm still alive and playing so that's good.

Update:

BR: ~ $4400

rakeback BR: $655 (for some reason they haven't updated it in a few days).

FT points: > 26k

Okay, so this is my first ever blog entry (EVER)! I've never used a blog before so hopefully I can figure it out.

So, today I didn't complete most of my assignment for my Algorithms course. This is not like me at all. Okay, of course I procrastinated the assignment (until the last night; given to us two weeks before) just like I always do but this time I didn't finish. Normally, procrastination has a direct correlation to my success (as I feel like I can get much more work done when I HAVE to). Anyway, I just had poker on my mind and didn't even bother finishing most of it (I probably completed half). The assignment is only worth 6% of my final grade so I'm not too worried about it (is this Nick Abou Risk actually saying this? yes, it is). I really wish I had done a double major in math and computer science instead of the major in physics with minors in math and CS. The other way around would have helped me a lot more in my CS Master's here at the University of Alberta.

So last night was my first payday (from the Master's scholarships). It was pretty nice. Since Melissa and I got married and moved to Edmonton, we were living off of our wedding gift money (which was plentiful, thanks to all who gave). Anyway, I'm going to get a new computer (mine is about 4 years old) with another 22" LCD (preferably the same Acer widescreen) and multiple processors (I think quad) with much more RAM. This will be really nice because I will be able to actually run programs like PokerTracker and PAHud and multi-table and not have my computer freeze. I will probably be able to import hands into PT much more flawlessly. I've basically been playing for several months without a HUD or analyzing PT. This isn't such a big deal as I have focused more recently on MTTs (which I did really well in). One thing I noticed about the MTTs was that I had a fairly high final table percentage but relatively low Top Three percentage. I think I really need to work on my endgame. I plan on learning SNGs really well as these involve a lot of high-blind short-stack endgame situations which are very mathematical in nature. I have SNGPT and I might purchase SNGWiz as well. The thing that seems really cool about SNGWiz is that you can take quizzes (which are customizeable). This program is $99 but I'm sure that it would easily pay for itself in a good day or week of SNG play. I also plan on reading a book I just got on SNGs (the new 2p2 book) by Colin Moshman. These seems like a pretty decent looking book. I'm only on page 40-some, I believe. Okay, so aside from that book, I've also received 7 more in the mail and one more is on the way (Tournament Poker for Advanced Players). My poker book collection will now probably be in excess of 35 books (I still have to read many of them).

Concerning software and poker sites... I recently bought Poker Office and Poker Indicator from PokerSourceOnline with my FullTilt rakeback money. I love the whole rakeback idea. I've already made over $1500 in rakeback (have $655 left). This money can be used for software, magazines, donations, chips, books, iPods, gift certificates, or even put back on a select number of sites (including Full Tilt and Poker Stars). I haven't tried Poker Indicator but Poker Office seems pretty neat. It can do some pretty cool stuff with Tracking (such as displaying the betting sequence so far). It also has a built-in HUD. I'll have to try this a bit more when I get my new computer set up. I also signed up for PokerXFactor.com last night which I think will be a huge aid in my tournament (MTT and SNG) game. They also have a cool hand viewer which allows you to replay a hand and even a whole tournament displaying important statistics and allowing you to do filtering and just look at certain hands. They also added this really cool thing, called a "hand search" or something, which looks for hand situations which are almost the exact same as the one you are in. You can then see how pros, MTT winners, and/or everyone has played this hand.

So now I have memberships to: thepokerdb.com, PokerXFactor.com, StoxPoker.com, and CardRunners.com. I think these sites (all normally $25/month except the db) are well well worth their price (and easily pay for themselves). They are very useful for the poker student. I might consider signing up to realpokertraining.com or wherever it is that Lil Hold'em (Chad Batista or M8kingmoves) has some videos. I REALLY REALLY want to learn how he plays. I'm also excited to see how BeLoWaBoVe and apestyles play (featured on PXF).

So... the parts of my game that I am focusing on now are SNG, MTT, LHE 6max, and LHE HU. I will eventually work my way towards NL cash and PLO.

So, today I played some $2/4 LHE HU and some $2/4 LHE 6max (4-tabling) as well as one $26 MTT (busted: AJ < 77). The LHE went very well. I felt I was playing my "A" game and wasn't as much of a spewtard as I normally am. I got in 1378 hands with a profit of $546.50 running at a fantastic 9.9 BB/100. I don't know how much this is affected by the HU. I really like HU but it can be quite painful when you aren't running well or playing well (or if your opponent is running well or playing really well). What I like is the opponent modelling and exploitive aspect of it. I find that after playing with an opponent for a while, I often find leaks in their game and start exploiting it. The last HU match I had tonight was quite the rollercoaster (ahead by $70, then down by $90, then finished up by $110 or so (cleaned his stack out). One thing I noticed about this opponent was that if I limped in SB (OTB), and he checked, then he would normally check and I'd bet with any two and he'd always fold. However, if I raised or he raised PF, he almost always floated the flop. It was really really weird (and I normally don't like limping in SB unless I think it has higher EV for marginal hands).

I was also raked about $150 today meaning that I'll get about $40 in rakeback.

Bankroll is over $4200 now, rakeback BR at $655.

Here is a graph of today's LHE games (both 6max and HU):

This graph was created using Poker Academy Prospector. A new database program developed here in Edmonton.