for those of you that joined lock (merge), what is your plan? has any US player received a check that didn't bounce? i feel so dumb for depisiting some money there, even if it was only a small amount. i really knew better, but just wanted to hope that it would all be okay i guess.

i've been unwavering since the beginning that i would get all of my full tilt money back. now for the first time i'm really starting to wornder, and i'll consider myself very fortunate if i ever see my money from lock.

looking back i sure do feel dumb about complaining about running bad. i would give anything to be able to play normally like i was even though i ran like shit for 3 months. as soon as i started running/playing better we get shut down.

curious what people's experience has been at lock poker. i just created an account, but visa deposit limit is only 250. aside from the obvious answer of trying another deposit method and paying higher fees, is there any way you can still receive the max 1200 bonus if you just make multiple visa deposits or somehow bump the limit? let me know if you have found anything that works.

also, curious if there is anyone out there in the mpls area that would be interested in getting a live home game going. i imagine there are tons of players that would be interested in getting together on the weekends and playing a game where we didn't have to pay outrageous rake to canterbury. let me know if anyone lives in mpls and would be interested.

i have been thinking about stinger's 80K bet on the river with his j8 straight vs ivey and i still can't make any sense of it. ivey donked turn for about pot repping a straight and possibly the kj nut straight, and stinger just called, then when ivey checked stinger bet 80k into about 120k with only 40k behind. this bet makes no sense to me. the only hands that are calling are probably the same straight, and only the nuts will raise with zero fold equity. when ivey checks why not make a smaller vb which has a higher chance of getting called or give ivey the opportunity to bluff raise?

it almost seems like stinger's bet on the river turned his hand in to a bluff. maybe that was the point? did he want to make ivey think it looked too much like a bluff? i would be really curious to see what the thought process was there on the river.

So Taylor, what's the plan? I'm assuming CR is doing something with your much more wide reaching influence and financial resources to do something about the legal problems. maybe you are doing a lot, but i haven't seen any substantiative posts on the subject regarding politically active efforts, so I'm hoping you can post something soon.


Also, to anyone out there who hasn't visited the PPA action page please do so ASAP. We obviously have everyone's attention now that no one can really play, so let's do whatever is necessary to get the job done. i've done everything i can do electronically from posting on DOJ's facebook page to emailing obama, senators, governors, reps, etc. etc. hopefully if there is enough of a public outcry the government will have no choice but to act quickly.

does anyone know if this has been discussed yet? why haven't we as poker players filed a class action suit against the us government for messing with our right to play poker? i used my poker income to support a family, now, i don't know how i'm going to cover everything. if anyone actually believes the bullshit about poker sites laundering money it's a joke because it's just the government's way of making something stick to poker so they could shut down the sites. they couldn't pass the legislation blacking out poker for 15 months so they came up with another avenue to get it shut down.

we should have filed suit with that ridiculous uigea law was passed. i just don't think anyone cared because we could still play on reputable sites. i'm betting that now a lot more people care. bottom line is the us government needs to find a way to regulate poker in the US immediately as it is our right. it's absolutely ridiculous that things like porn and prostitution are allowed in the us but we can't play poker. you can die for your country but you can't play online poker.

seriously, no blackout period, no more illegal nonsense - just legalize it now and regulate it so you can get your cut. enough with all this under the table bullshit politics to further the agendas of the reservations and high powered vegas casinos.

all of this just demonstrates how truly powerless you are against the united states government. they can do whatever the fuck they want to you any time they want. you don't have any rights that don't benefit your local politician in some way. your local politicians don't get elected unless they have the support of some lobbyists who help put them in office, and then they just support those agendas, not those of the voters. it's worse than communist china. democracy is just an illusion. in the end, it just LOOKS like we have a vote. no one ever pays enough attention to what the lawmakers actually do once they get elected, and no matter how horrible their decisions are once they are elected they are never held as accountable as they should be for the mistakes they make or the cheap underhanded dirty politics they participate in to further the interests of their lobbists.

at some point we have to fight back. at least write your government representatives. ppa's website makes it super easy. i'd suggest everyone do this if you haven't already. if there was ever a time to mobilize together as a community it is now since we have been shut out of our inherent right to play poker. i know they made it look like it was a money laundering charge, but come on, anyone that knows anything about online poker and the unstable legal environment we have been in should know that this was just one way for them to get what they were really looking for.

just totally owning people lately. it's a great feeling. helps to stop running like death, but it's amazing how well i play when my head is on straight. there is such a subtle difference between winning and losing. just one or two really important decisions could mean the difference between you winning 2-3 buys or breaking even. when your mindset isn't in the right place, you are making the wrong decisions in those key situations. right now i feel like i'm playing as good as i've ever played. i just haven't felt lost in a hand for a long time and feel extremely confident in people's ranges. it's been pretty sweet. i feel in the zone for sure.

if you haven't checked out the poker after dark plo game it's a must see. those guys are insane and it's awesome action. definitely check it out if you can.

i feel like i've finally made some significant strides in my game recently. time will tell, but so far i've been very happy with how i've been playing. i feel over the past several weeks there have been so many situations where i wasn't sure what to do. i think the best sign of you playing at the top of your game is when the decisions seem very simple and easy. that's where i'm at right now. i've also worked tremendously hard on controlling my emotions since this is by far my single biggest leak, and it's paying off. i lost with aa vs kk and qq aipf for 300bb pot and was able to just shrug it off. some of the advice i've received in my blogs has been very helpful and i'm very appreciate of everyone chipping in as i read all of the comments.

i've just felt so comfortable at the tables recently and have absolutely owned some people, so i'm very happy playing poker again. i'm going to work really hard on maintaining some consistency as it's pretty obvious from my posts that i'm up and down emotionally, and i really don't have to put myself through all that.

one of my goals is to get myself over the 3k point rolling average so i can increase my ftp multiplier as it would be very valuable given i 8 table 100nl rush. my rolling average was all the way up to nearly 2700 before, but i took a bunch of time off when my son was born. i've finally been able to get back on a schedule and i like being able to make about $4k/month from rakeback and bonuses plus whatever i earn in poker. i'm looking forward to having a big month and really getting things going again. this year has been really tough for me and i'm looking forward to getting all the peices together again.

the biggest thing i've learned is to simply not take it personally. if someone wants to be retarded aggro vs me i just need to let it go and make the appropriate adjustments. i was making incorrect adjustments before because i was allowing my emotions to impact how i adjusted to certain players. now i'm actually using my brain to make the correct adjustment and it's working great. i've also realized that with me playing 8 tables of rush there are some things i just can't do, and that's fine because this produces the best hourly rate (as long as I'm not tilting). i can't watch a video of someone 4 tabling normal six max and expect to pull off the same kinds of plays with success.

anyway, i'm just glad i'm enjoying playing poker again. it's been a very long time since i've felt really happy about how things were going. it was nice to review a larger losing session last night and feel very confident that i could not have played any of the hands any better than i did. i also just have a confidence about me recently that having losing sessions is just part of the game and that i will be able to recover. i am constantly amazed at how poor the play is at my limit there should be no reason i shouldn't be able to dominate here again.

i love the 4b flat for 100bb play personally. no matter how horrible that play is, it continues to amaze me how often people do it. what is even more amazing are the hands people are doing it with. it's funny because you can actually see their thought process unravel during a hand. it's like they 3b just assuming you will either call or fold, so when they do it with a marginal hand like aj or 88 and they don't want to just ship pre all they can do is just call and "see what happens". it's actually very difficult to assign a range to this play as i've seen people do it with 34, j10, a6, 55, 1010, etc. what other spot in poker has such a completely wide range? it's laughable how a range can be this wide when people are sticking in 25% of their stack preflop with absolutely no clue how to proceed on virtually any board postflop. how can people screw up a spot so frequently that should be totally straight forward?

feel like im starting to stabilize finally. part of my problem has been playing sporadically with distractions. we just had our sixth child and my life has been pretty crazy with the addition of the baby. i think this has been a significant contributing factor to my recent issues. im an emotional person obviously, but when i have other stressors in my life poker never goes well. running bad over an extended period just aggravated everything. i feel like my approach the last few sessions has been really good, and i'm optimistic once again that i'll be able to turn things around.

if not, i'll still make money by grinding tons of hands and earning rakeback/bonuses, etc.

it's pretty obvious what my biggest leak is though, so as long as i keep that in check and keep working hard i know things will turn around. having a bad attitude doesn't do me any good, so i have to just let go of individual hand results and be happy that people play bad and it works out for them or they would just stop making those mistakes.

i saw a 15/15 guy over 100 hands cold 4b k9. funny thing is another reg actually flatted with kjo 200bb deep, then reg flats a flop of aq6r and calls turn king.

other hands that flatted 4bets for 100bb were kq and my personal favorite 34o. i had one guy 3b me every single time i opened.

of course i also was overset twice, once 160bb deep. thankfully, i didn't run kk into aa, but i also ran top two vs a flopped flush 170 bb deep vs prior mentioned fish who called 4b with kjo. oh yeah, and the mandatory kk vs fish/reg who limp calls pre and board is j434 when i crai on turn. he folds to cb 37% and bet turn ip vs cbet 88%. just stuff like this all the time. of course lost a couple flips and finished down over 350 in ev.

i don't care about how annoying it is to hear the beats/coolers, etc. i'm going to post after every session just to demonstrate how truly horrible it is going through what i am going through. it's indescribable. im down 300 on the year over 352k hands. am i playng perfectly, hell to the no. how could you possibly play your best when it's just beat after beat after beat?

i'm going to have to drop down in limits very soon if things don't turn around. i cannot believe i am on the verge of playing 50nl, but i'm out of options. i just can't handle this any longer, and my roll is lower than it's been in about 2 years.

i know people always say you can't focus on the beats, and i've done everything i can do to not think of it. what would you do if you ran worse than you ever thought possible for 3 straight months over 350k hands?

in december i won 70 buys over 157k hands which was the second month i had cleared 10k and made 70 or more buy ins. all at 100nl rush. sorry, but the players there are fucking terrible. every time i start to make a run or feel like im pulling out of this, i have a huge losing day or losing session and am right back at square one, and right now, im in another 20 bi downswing.

you can always run worse than you ever imagined, trust me. when i say i hope things will get better soon, i'd like to believe that, but i've been saying that for too long now to really believe it.

i really wish i could just quit poker all together, but i can't. i rely on the part time income, and you cannot beat the convenience of working from home on your own time, so i don't know what to do. i am definitely to my breaking point though. i simply cannot run well. i'm up about 16 buys this month, but am over 10 under ev and the coolers are just unbelieveably brutal. i've tried taking several days off, dropping tables, taking better notes, whatever. i just can't believe how it's just mandatory that every single session i lose with aa aipf, or run kk into aa, or get overset, or whatever blah blah blah.

i originally thought that if i took enough beats eventually i would just grow numb, but when it happens this frequently for months and hundreds of thousands of hands then it's a whole new problem that i have never had to deal with.

i have been saying "this can't possibly continue" now forever. i seriously don't actually believe that i will ever run well again. i honestly don't know what to do at this point. i can't afford to take a break, but i cannot stand playing and i'm not willing to go find some other loser second job paying 10 bucks an hour or whatever. i guess i just have to accept that it's never turning around and just hope i can scrape together enough from rakeback and bonuses to get by, but it's pretty fucking hard to play your a game when you just get ass raped endlessly with no end in sight.

and for those doubters out there that just think im a whiny fish bitch that really plays bad but just complains about running bad, these are the highlights from my last 3-4 sessions:

http://weaktight.com/3420296

http://weaktight.com/3420297 i can flop tptk in a 3b pot vs a fish who calls large 3b oop with small pairs like it's no one's fucking business

http://weaktight.com/3420335 82% with one card to come for 300bb pot no good; has to be 100....

http://weaktight.com/3420340 my other specialty of running kk into aa

http://weaktight.com/3420343 91% still no good

http://weaktight.com/3420347 this one really sucked because this guy is a complete fn retard and had coolered the fuck out of me in several hands recently. i finally get one my way and 88% is no good for 315bb pot

http://weaktight.com/3420351 aa
http://weaktight.com/3420354 kk

i totally understand that these hands are part of poker, but come on. i think i know a little bit about frequency by now after playing for 3 years and what's happening to me is absolutely ridiculous. i wish i knew someone else that has gone through something like this so i could hear how they got through it, but i don't know anyone that ran bad for 400k hands over 3 months.