September is not quite over, but I'm done. What a month! I couldn't have asked for any better. The numbers:

Cash games:
29,635 hands at $200NL -- $4,200
3,640 hands at $400NL -- $2100
115 hands at $600NL - ($492) FU!

Total: $5,813.70 ($64.24/hr)

Tournaments:
$4,015.01 (all from that one big score)

Bonus from Pstars:
$120

Sports betting:
$100

I included the bonus and the sports bet because I needed them for this.....

GRAND TOTAL:
$10,048

This is my first 5 figure month and I'm really proud. I ran super hot at the end. While most people would attribute this to excellent play and skill, I will attribute it to satan and prehaps this korean mask I bought.

Allow me to explain. I bought this ceramic face that is filled with alcohol. He sits on my TV, smiling, watching me play. Since I got him, I've been on a sick hot run. Nearly $3k this week.

I know, I know... it's bad luck to be superstituous, but I can't help it. Look at this graph for the month:



Ok, so what does satan have to do with this? Well not much, maybe only a few hundred dollars. I was just playing a session, listening to some music. I was doing well, ina good mood, and singing along with the songs. The particular song in question was "Satan, lend me a dollar" by Hill of Beans. It's off the soundtrack for 'Weeds' season 1. ANyhow, so I'm singing "satan, satan, lend me a dollar....satan, satan, lend a dollar now" and this hand comes up:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (7 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP2 ($198)
CO ($46.85)
Satan's Child ($359.65)
SB ($178.10)
BB ($202.05)
UTG ($58.30)
MP1 ($51)

Preflop: Satan's Child is Button with 4h, 6h.
UTG calls $2, 2 folds, CO calls $2, Satan's Child calls $2, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: ($10) Kd, 5h, 7h (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, CO checks, Satan's Child bets $6, SB folds, BB calls $6, UTG folds, CO folds.

Turn: ($22) 8h (2 players)
BB bets $20, Satan's Child calls $20.

River: ($62) Qs (2 players)
BB bets $60, Satan's Child raises to $331.65, BB calls $114.05 (All-In).

Final Pot: $567.70

Results in white below:
Satan's Child has 4h 6h (straight flush, eight high).
BB has Th Ah (flush, ace high).
Outcome: Satan's Child wins $567.70.

Oops. Soul sold.

Anyhow, I wont get much playing in for the first week. My buddy Andrew is visiting me here in Korea. There is a lot of anticipation in the nation, and they're giving everyone three days off. So we're gonna be pimpin' it out with my new balla bankroll.

holllla.

Well I've worked hard to implement a couple of the things from my last post and things have gone well. I can also attribute this to running fairly well over the weekend.

(past 7 days)

This puts me around $8650 for the month and it's shaping up to be my best ever.

I'll post specifics at the end of the month, but I've been doing well at the $400NL games, and nearly half my cash game profit is from this level.

All I can do is keep plugging away and hope for the best.

Midish month update:

26,430 hands for $2,372
$1,500ish from 200NL
$655 from 400NL
$158 from 600NL
Hourly rate is ~$35/hr

Tourny winnings = $4006

Total = $6,300ish -- This is coming off a nice $600ish downswing at $200NL...

Hopefully things get a bit better with cash games, and I cash my 2.2k check from work and den.......$10k month!??! Keeping my fingers crossed...

Anyhow, on a more strategic note, here are some things I want to improve in my game:
1)bluffing
2)inducing bluffs
3)tilt control

1)I really don't feel I've been agressive enough with my busted draws or pouncing on opponents when I sesne weakness. I keep waiting for spots where I'm stronger and feel I'm being a weak tight nit. Bleh. So I've been giving some thought to the theory of bluffing, and trying to actively find spots to pull off bluffs. Getting into my opponents heads and finding the scary boards and putting them to tough decisions.

2) I'm noticeing too many people are folding to my river bets. Its not that I'm betting too much or something, its just that they have nothing to call with in a lot of cases. I'm talking about when I'm first to act, and I'm betting the whole way. I think I have the best hand and keep betting for value... the river blanks off and I fire another bet hoping for a call from a worse hand.

So anways, I'm going to start checking the river a lot more with decent hands. This is so that those hands that can't call a bet (because they missed a draw) will take a shot and bet at the pot. They know the only way they can win is by betting, so I'm going to let them hang themselves. Ths also saves me from getting raised huge on the river when an opponet is slowplaying. I may miss some value here and there, but hopefully I'm smart enough to pick the right spots.

3) See 2nd last post. I have to try to maintain my killer instinct throughout a session. I'm not sure how exactly to do this, but I'm working on it.

Until next time......

Its like 4am but I need to post this:


I actaullly chopped this three ways as the chipleader and took in $4085. I didnt even have to pay for the buyin. I played a $36 satelite and won $215 tournamnet dollars. I used $109 to enter this... awesome. So on my $36 investment... i made $4155

I htink this puts me near $7k for the month

Holla.

Another solid weekend, and I don't think I'm done yet. I might log another session tonight, and then definitely one in the morning. I'm feeling really good with my game right now, I'm making good laydowns and also flopping pretty well. I am still making mistakes though, and I have to cut them out of my game. When I get up a fair amount on the day, I start to get alot more passive -- limping with hands I might raise with, and calling with draws instead of raising when I see a good spot. This is a form of tilt (though a far less destructive kind) and I shouldn't be a victim to it.

I've continued to take shots at $400NL and the results have been better. Nearly 10% of my hands this month have been at this level and I'm up $414. I've been table selecting very well, and only playing in the games when the bad players are in (weekends/evenings). I can definitely compete at this level, though there are alot better players here.

So the month has been good overall, and I'm up $2900. I'd love to keep this pace and lock down $8-9000. But that's wishful thinking, and I would be really happy with 5k. I'm planning on taking a vacation in october, so this would be a nice cushion.

Quite the recovery from my downswing to start the month. I've had almost no hitches in my ride since.

10,877 hands so far this month and I'm almost up $1800. This works out to about $62/hr. If I can run like this for the rest of the month (4.5bb/100) then I will be happy. That would be somehting like 8K? That would also require me to play 45k hands this month, which is a little much.

The bad news is my shots at $400NL havn't gone well. I've dropped almost $400 there, but whatever. I'm not going to get gunshy, if I see a good game I'm going to jump in. I'm properly rolled for that game, but I'm just comfortable where I am. I have ~60buyins for NL200 which is ridiculously overrolled. Whatever -- if I can somehow pull 8k/month from a mixture of games, thats almost 100k/yr. I'm not greedy, that'd be more than enough for me (obv.).

Sidenote: If anyone is interested, I've paid close to $7000 in rake($ taken out of pots) to these sites over the last 80k hands. Thats just one player. Imagine how much these poker sites make.... wow.

NICE TRY SEPTEMBER

I got off to my worst start of a month ever. Dropped nearly $1300 in my first two sessions. $900 of the downswing were off sick sick beats. I got my money all in on the turn as an 80% favourite twice and lost both (one $500 pot and one $400). Those two go my way and I'm robusto.

But anyways, I guess this is what saturdays are for:


Ahhh, the long road back. Feels really satisfying to climb back without having gone on serious tilt and losing a lot more money. Now I have a clean slate to work from and pound out a sick month.