The month is over. Since the last post -- I got sucked out on horribly once in a $400 pot, missed a big draw (50/50) in a $400 pot, and someone hit thier draw (60/40) in a $400 pot. This all happened in the span of a few hours. Lots of fun. The result? Grossness.

THE MONTH:

10,352 Hands in 60hours (2.95 multitable ratio)
$149.90 profit

$2.48/hour!!!

If I didn't somewhat enjoy playing, I'd probably cry.

It a new month and I'm in a new country, so I'm ready to rock and/or roll.

Hopefully my casino bonuses treat me right this month and I can rake in a couple hundo.

Folding KK pre-flop gives me a hard-on. There's something so satisfying about making the hardest flod in poker.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP2 ($139.35)
MP3 ($522.15)
CO ($63.25)
Button ($290.60)
SB ($296.80)
Hero ($206.90)
UTG ($107.25)
UTG+1 ($239.15)
MP1 ($216.45)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ks, Kd.
UTG calls $2, 1 fold, MP1 calls $2, 2 folds, CO calls $2, Button raises to $10, 1 fold, BB raises to $25, UTG folds, MP1 folds, CO calls $23, Button raises to $290.6, Hero FOLDS KK!, CO calls $38.25 (All-In).

Flop: ($383.85) Qh, Kh, 7s (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($383.85) Ah (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($383.85) Tc (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $383.85

Results in white below:
CO has As 4s (one pair, aces).
Button has Ac Ad (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: Button wins $383.85.

It was a pretty obvious fold to me, as I had a read on the button. This is the only real positive I can remember from my session.

It was a sad day of getting cold decked. I had another flush over flush where I got stacked (lost a $400 pot). I flopped a flush which got smoked by a full house (villain made it on the river and bet pot out of position -- he was capable of bluffing the scare card, and I paid him off like a donkey-- $200pot). I also ran my QQ into KK for a sizable pot. No fun.

There was another hand of note I'd like to share. I totally mind-fucked this guy and... well, you'll see:


MP2 ($103.95)
CO ($186.30)
Button ($303.35)
Hero ($319.45)
BB ($194)
UTG ($338)
UTG+1 ($209.55)
MP1 ($132.75)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ad, As.
UTG raises to $6, 1 fold, MP1 calls $6, 3 folds, Hero raises to $25, 1 fold, UTG calls $19, MP1 calls $19.

Flop: ($77) 5d, 8s, Tc (3 players)
Hero bets $50, UTG folds,

I bet $50 so I could get MP1 to commit his stack (if he calls 50 now, he'll call the other $57 on the turn). Anyways, he thinks and thinks about it and runs his whole time bank down. I know exactly what he's thinking, and I'm pretty sure I know what he has. I figure he has 77 or 99 or some other medium sized pair. He's sitting there thinking that "maybe he raised with AK or AQ and missed the flop and is bluffing". When he took that long, I knew I was winning (he doesnt need to try to trick me, as even if I did have AK, I'm calling his all-in). So with about 5 seconds left I type "AK" into the chat box. RIGHT away he acts:


MP1 raises to $100, Hero raises to $150, MP1 calls $7.75 (All-In).

Turn: ($334.75) 3d (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($334.75) Js (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $334.75

Results in white below:
MP1 has Jc 8c (two pair, jacks and eights).
Hero has Ad As (one pair, aces).
Outcome: MP1 wins $292.50. Hero wins $42.25.

So I totally mind-fucked him but ended up mind-masturbating? I don't know.

It was a bad day, I dropped nearly $400 which puts me about -$250 since my last post. Lame.

I've made it here alive in S.Korea, with a little time to pad my July stats. I haven't played any poker as of yet, but I should get a fair amount of time. I'll be starting a different blog to track the adventures I have here over the next year.

Hey! A good day! I played for a few hours and booked a nice win. Over the last 500 hands I won $566 bringing the month to $1185 over 7268 hands.

People say a lot of things about poker. Two of my favourite sayings are; 1. It's a hard way to make an easy living, and 2. It's a great job... if you can forget about it. The latter is the focus of my post.

I couldn't sleep very well last night. Before I fell asleep I was mulling over why I was having such a lackluster month -- even while I slept I kept dreaming of poker. And it wasn't anything exciting like playing in the WSOP, it was a boring, tedious dream of me grinding away at my computer (and doing poorly, at that). I wish this wouldn't occupy my mind - I'm smart enough to know this is variance. But whatever, I need to justify this month to myself, so here goes:

There have been 15 hands this month where I've won over $100. In all of these hands I got another player to put a lot of money in once they were behind. In not one do I put my own money in with the worst of it (the closest was getting all in on the flop as only a 52% favourite with the nut flush draw and a pair vs. an overpair). I'd say about 3 of them were tough spots for my opponents to fold (One flush over flush, and two full houses vs. straights).

There have been 10 hands this month where I've lost over $100. Two of these were flush over flushes (My K high vs. and Ace high, and my J high vs. a Q high). Both times the money went in on the turn, and both were against pretty bad players who could've had a much worse holding. Both of these were also $400 pots. Another big pot had me turning a flush and a solid player semi-bluffing me all in with the nut draw ( He was about 15% to win and did). That pot was $300. The worst one was a $400 pot where I got all in on the turn with AQ vs. AJ on a 8-A-2-A board. I'm a 90% favourite, and unfortunatley the jack hit the river. The last (barely) mentionable one had someone hitting their flush draw versus my set in a $200 pot (all in on flop). Three or four of the other hands could've been avoidable in retrospect.

This really illustrates the variance in poker. I mean, two huge hands where I was over 85% to win went the wrong the way and my month has been shitty. If those hands hold up I have at least doubled my take for the month (both hands total $700). And if one of those flush vs. flushes goes my way, thats $800 more!

This has been theraputic for me, and I hope my luck swings in the right direction soon.

I put in a huge session today, nearly 2k hands. Lost about $130. Awesome. Hourly rate for July is now just below $15.

This is all of July so far- as you can see I've been break even for about the last 5700 hands.

Its a sick up-down-up-down cycle right now and its frustrating. My goal of $2k is still doable, but I don't think I'll be getting much more playing time in this month. I'm leaving for south Korea in less than a week and the preperation +adjustments will eat up most of the rest of July.

Quick Update:
Played about 800 hands in the last 2 days - +$250

My records now show July being at $771 over 4,777 hands, but I think I lost $50 profit somewhere while transfering hands to my laptop. Whatever, an extra $50 is always a good thing.

I finally got my laptop back today. It seems to be running well, which is better than I can say for myself. Not to say that I'm running horribly though - for the month I am at $534 over 4k hands (or roughly $18/hr). All this month's profits came in fast and I've been breaking even ever since, which is never very enoyable. This is especially frustrating because I have been forced to play fewer tables which in turn has made me feel less productive (less hands per hour = less money per hour). Hopefully I can squeeze out $2k for this month and I'll be happy.

On a more horrible note: on sunday I spent 6(SIX!) hours playing a satellite tournament to the world series of poker. Over 1600 people entered (for free) and the top 5 finishers got the WSOP package (valued at $12,000). Long story short, I finished in 7th place and made a whopping $0 for my efforts. 6 more hours of breakeven poker I guess. Its just always been a dream of mine to play in this tournament, and it was horrible to come up short.

I know I said I'd write about playing draws but I've changed my mind. I did some serious thinking on the topic and came up with a bunch of insights which I don't think I'm ready to share just yet.

I'll check back in next week.

I'm really fed up. My computer is still in for repairs and I havn't been able to play much. I finally caved and tried playing a few hundred hands from my ancient basement computer. At times I thought it was going to blow up, but it got me through about 1000 hands. Glad to report that 'I still gotz it' as I booked a $371 win over 4 or 5 hours. I played mostly 2-3 tables which was really slow, but I opened up and played ~7% more hands than I usually do. This was because I had more time to devote to reads -- if I can incorporate a few more hands into my normal game (playing 5-6 tables) I think I can increase my winrate (and probably my variance too :S ). Should be a fun tradeoff.

I've been giving a lot of thought towards how to profitably play draws. I'm going to sleep on it and give more of a strategy based post tommorow.

So June is over and I guess I really slacked off near the end. It was sort of inevitable, but I still (almost) hit my monetary goal. Really, it could've been one of my best months ever. Anyhow, I have enjoyed my 2 week break from the game, and hope I can come back more focused than ever.

I read Sklansky's 'no-limit theory and practice' on my time off and thought it was pretty basic. I was really disapointed as this was suppsoed to be the most advanced book yet. Everytime he got into something interesting, he would state that it was too complicated to get into. WTF? I thought that was the point? The only thing I got from the book was the feeling I should play a wider range of hands from late position. That's it.

June results: (numbers arnt exact because I don't have my laptop with all the specifics)

Cash Games: $3300 over 10k hands
Casino whoring: $550 (my post on June 1st was wrong, it wasn't $650 as I was counting my original deposit)

Total: $3850

For 2 weeks, I'm extremely pleased with these results. I also designated $100 at the start of the month for sports betting (nba playoffs and world cup), and I've run that up to $330. I don't like including these numbers in my bankroll b/c sports betting is just entertainment for me, and I fully intend to lose it all eventully :)

So anyways..... on to July! Should be a slow month too, as I wont have my computer back for another week. Also, I'll be moving half way around the world, so the transition might be slow. Hopefully, I can match last months numbers.

I also did my casino bonuses this morning and lost them both, so I'm down $1 for the month so far ;)