may results

May was an interesting month overall.
After a really bad run during the first half, I came on strong at the end to book a decent profit.

Actually, it's my best month (profit-wise) of the year.

I won't break down by level, because I played 12 different ones this month (from 200NL to like 7 hands short stacking 5000NL).

Cash Games:
Totals: 61,169 hands for $3,891.01 [$43.83/hr]


Tournaments:
11 played for a profit of $17.50

Pokerstars Bonii:
$2000 milestone bonus
$1500 VIP bonus
$150 reload bonus
Total: $3,650

May Net profit: $7,558.51
----------------------------------------------

Year to date: $28,896.60

I really wish I had a chance to play more during the bonus period on stars, where they were offering double VPPs, but whatever, I had a good time.

My goals for June:
(first half)
Spend time with family/friends
Get back safely to Korea

(second half)
Win the fullring championships
Play 100k hands

I doubt I'll play at all today because I'm going to the BlueJays game, but if I do, I'll just update these numbers in an edit.

Best of luck to everyone next month, unless of course you happen to find yourself up against me. ;)

1st round down

Well, my matchup got bumped back to 5pm, and it just ended now.

Glad to report that I emerged victorious, winning the series 4-2.

RyanCMU played a great game, and it was a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to my next match, where I'll be facing one of best full ring players at 100NL. It's either gong to be Ianbarns (who I've played a lot with and is very very tricky and tough) or 1p0kerboy (who I've played with a bit, and seems very solid and gets tonnes of respect from the regulars at 100NL).

Either way, one of them is going to have thier hands full... :)

Round 2 will take place sometime next week.

Full Ring Championships

The Full Ring Championships on the 2+2 forums begin today for me.

I got a pretty tough draw, and I'm facing RyanCMU first. I havn't played with him before, but have read some strategy from him and it should be an interesting battle.

It's a best of 7 heads up series, and the bracket looks like this: The entire tournament is set to run about 5 weeks, and is more for bragging rights then it is for $$$.

Either way, I plan to win it all. :)

My first round match is in about 1/2hour, and we're going to try to get all the matches in today. I'll update with results as soon as it's over.

Winner!

Alright ladies and gents, we have a winner for my 'guess the book' contest.

Congrats to "makin4vegas" for guessing that it was:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon



It was a great story, and really well written. I'd encourage you all to check out when you have the chance.

basketball video

I came across this video and it's hilarious.
If you're into basketball at all, you'll enjoy it.

RSS Feed & Weekend

First things first.

If you're a regular reader of my site, or would like to be, click the RSS feed thingy that says SUBSCRIBE in the top right corner of my blog.

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed," "web feed," or "channel," contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually.

Basically, if you add my site as one of your feeds, you will be alerted every time I update, instead of just checking back here manually. So go ahead and add it to make your life easier.

Anyhow, my weekend was pretty cool

I managed to get away with some friends, and enjoy the great outdoors. Good times, boat rides, swimming, and of course, lots of boozing.

However ,the highlight of my trip was still ordering a double quarter pounder from McDonald's, and some how ending up with 4 patties, cheese and bacon. Pics forthcoming.

I played some poker today and won some good monies. Should end up being a good month, but I'll post the damage at the end.

Finally, no one has managed to win my contest yet, so 'll add another clue.

The author's initials are MH.

Good luck!

Prop Bet

My friend wagered me $1000 that I couldn't solve the rubicks cube in under 2 minutes.
See the action go down:



edit:
I also made $2k playing today in like 4k hands. holla

Oh, and I'm going away for the weekend to my friends cottage, back on monday.

new book

One of the best things about being back in Canada is that I can get my hands on good books.
I love to read.

ANyways, I was at the book store and picked up a new novel. I read through the first 20 pages and was absoultely hooked -- I just couldnt put it down.

So lets play a little game.

Guess the book!

Some hints:
It's a novel
Published in last 5 years.
Nothing to do with poker
Was a best seller
My favourite novelist is chuck palahniuk (but its not one of his books)

new hints:
The story is told in the first person.
The main character is 'special'.

If anyone manages to guess it, I'll send you $10 on stars or some other site.


1 guess per person please. I'll let this run until monday or tuesday, and then give another hint and re-open the guessing for all those who have guessed once. Anonymous guesses should leave a contact.

good luck!

Meh

Well, this weekend was sort of a bust for poker.

It was the long weekend, so a bunch of friends went up to a chalet at blue mountain. It was a relaxing weekend, but poker crossed my mind a bunch of times. With pokerstars currently offering double vpps until midnight on tuesday, I feel like I probably missed out on about $500 in additional expected value. Could've been a huge weekend for me.

But whatever, I got away and had a good time.

The highlight for me was getting a round of golf in at the Monterra golf club. The scenery was pretty awesome.







I went with my buddy, Brad, and neither of us had ever played a round of golf before. We'd been to driving ranges, but never a course. It was probably really funny for anyone watching us, but whatever it was a great time, and I'd love to play some more.



I planned on playing a lot of poker today, but I'm on tilt. :)



My day started off poorly, and hasn't gotten any better. The first thing I noticed when I got up was that a stock I own was way up, at the highest point since I've had it. So I decided to just sell it and be happy with the 40% return. So I set up the sale with my online broker, and right before I hit sell, my Internet craps out.


My dad disconnected the modem because he was getting it upgraded and had to take it to Rogers. So instead of reconnecting it, I just took it as an omen and decided to hold on to the stock.



I'm sure you know what's next...



Obviously it dropped like 15% and I lost $600. Yay me. :)



When I finally decided to play poker I got killed on some gross bad beats. In my three major all-in confrontation, I was a 91%, 85% and 70% favourite. I lost all three. What are the odds of that? And to top it off, the 91% hand was at $400NL. Here it is:

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $2/$4 Blinds - 9 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

Preflop: Hero is dealt J J (9 Players)

UTG folds, UTG+1 calls $4.00, MP1 raises to $10.00, Hero calls $10.00, 4 folds, BB raises to $40.00, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls $30.00, Hero calls $30.00

Flop: ($126) 4 6 4 (3 Players)

BB bets $92.00, MP1 folds, Hero calls $92.00

Turn: ($310) 5 (2 Players)

BB bets $156.00, Hero raises all-in to $246.00, BB calls $90.00

River: ($802) A (2 Players - 1 All-In)

Pot Size: $802.00 ($3 Rake)

BB had 5 A (two pair, Aces and Fives) and WON (+$421.00)

Hero had J J and LOST (-$378.00)

Now, I usually wont play jacks this strongly, but the guy was a total maniac, and I figured he had 2 high cards. There was no way I was giving him credit for a bigger pair than mine.

Here's a graph of my expected value and actual winnings from today:

The green line at the bottom is what I actually lost today (-$842) and the red line is my expected winnings (+$706). lol?

Pretty gross session overall... hopefully the next one goes a little better.

Oh and finally - for all the people who contacted me about coaching, I'll be getting in touch shortly. I think I have 4 or 5 students at the moment, so for those still interested that havn't contacted me, I can probably take 1 or 2 more so e-mail me at john(at)johnhartery(dot)com.

poker pros suck

Kristy Gazes and Chad Brown involved in a hilarious pot at the NBC heads up championship:



Her face is so priceless...

Today, I am a man

For the first time, I logged 10k hands in one day. I just finished and I'm really tired. That's like...oh... 15hrs of play.

The good news is I made $1300, cleared $1650 in bonuses and made about 30,000fpps.

So I'm up about $4k since I got home. Yay canada.

Mobile Poker Apps

I came across these mobile poker and gambling apps made by Concrete Software that are very cool. Check em' out.

http://mobile.concretesoftware.com/

Sklansky Bucks Calculater

If you've been following my blog, you'll remember a post I made about a sklansky bucks calculator called PokerEV. From the site:

PokerEV is a game analysis and session review tool for poker pros. It runs off your PokerTracker database and provides detailed EV statistics, advanced filtering, comprehensive graphing, a site skinned HH replayer with built in stats and range calcs, and other features. Includes support for Holdem, Omaha and Omaha Hi-Lo. PokerEV started as a pet project some months ago, and is free. I'm not accepting donations at this time.

Anyways, the developer has released a beta version of the software, which is much easier to use and has a graphical interface.

Here's the link.

Home

SOrry there havn't been any updates. I've spent the last two days making my way back to canada.

I left Korea on sunday morning, and it took just over 32hours to get here! I didn't mention anything on the blog, because I wanted to surprise my mom for mother's day.

She was.

I woke her up at 1am and i'm pretty sure she still thinks she dreaming.

I've got lots planned for the month I'm here, hopefully I can get enough poker in too.

happy b-day

Well, today is my birthday. The quarter century mark!

For this special occasion, instead of taking the day off, I gave myself $1,000 to play around with at $5/10NL. I lost it.

Happy b-day.

200k VPPs

I hit the 200K VPP mark on stars today, which only took about 320,000 hands. ;)

So I get a $2k bonus for reaching that mark. These milestone bonuses are really exciting, I can't wait to hit the 750k mark for the $7500 bonus.

It was nice to get this because the month hasn't been going to well. I ran a calculation on the hands where I hand over 80% equity when the money went in, and my expected value was $926 more than what I have. That's like five buyins I should have that I don't. Ouch.

Anyways, it's good to know that I'm playing well and just getting unlucky. It'll pass soon I hope.

Coaching and Mentoring

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I 've decided to get into coaching.

I am very confident that I can turn anyone into a winning player at levels up to and including $200NL ($1/2blinds). This can have you earning anywhere from $25-$50 an hour and more.

I have briefly returned to $50 and $100NL to see if anything had changed since I last played there. I'm glad to report that the games are pretty easy. So many players make the same mistakes, and are very easily exploitable.

While this sample is small, this is the damage I did while down there (click image to enlarge):

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you'll also know I'm a significant winner (4bb/100) at $200nl over roughly 400,000 hands.

I will also offer coaching for tournament play. While it is not my preferred game, I have shown ridiculously good results in small buyin tournies:


I have a great passion for the game, and love to talk about it. I have a honours degree in communications, and am very well spoken. I've also been a teacher in the past, though it was an English teacher.

I've been a pro player for about a year, but managed to put myself through university with poker. I've been through many ups and downs, and can certainly help get you on the right track to success. Whether you plan to turn pro, or are just looking to fine tune your game, I can help you devise a plan.

Classes will be held over MSN, AIM or Skype (any program really). We can chat or talk live, whatever you prefer. Video conferencing will also be available if there is interest. I will review your hand logs and stats, and give you advice from there. I will also allow you to watch me play, as I give you detailed insight into my moves. I can also watch you play, and coach as we go.

My rate is $125/hr or $1000/10hrs. For every hour I put in with you, I'm spending another hour+ prepping and revieiwng. This is a fair price, as most coaches charge $300+/hr (granted, they play higher stakes)

Please contact me directly if you're interested, and we can work something out. (edit: just leave a comment, i deleted my email)

lol donkaments

I went deep in a $100+9 tounry on stars this afternoon.
Kind of disheartening to bust out 9th with 1st place paying just over $6k.

Caught some rough beats in cash games, so after that I ended up about $200 on the day.

Fear me

You'll have to click the pic to read the chat. Notice the opponent is no longer there... ;)

Good weekend.

I spent most of it with friends, but still found time to make a bit of cash at the tables. I feel like things have sort of turned back around for the better.

My g/f took me to a really nice restaurant for my birthday. It was called Top cloud, and it's on the 33rd story of the Millennium Plaza (Chongno Tower). "Dining here is like eating in the clouds"! The view was really nice and the food was awesome.

My birthday isn't until thursday, but whatever. FYI, I accept cash gifts at all my poker sites. Thanks! ;)

Nothing else is really new, except I'm going to be getting into poker coaching. I'll have more details in my next post.

are you kidding me?

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $1/$2 Blinds - 9 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $40.45
Hero (BB): $279.45
UTG: $203
UTG+1: $191
MP1: $292.55
MP2: $186
MP3: $381.40
CO: $37
BTN: $208
Preflop: Hero is dealt (9 Players)

UTG calls $2, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls $2, MP2 folds, MP3 calls $2, CO folds, BTN calls $2, SB folds, Hero checks

Flop: ($11) (5 Players)

Hero checks, UTG checks, MP1 bets $8, MP3 calls $8, BTN raises to $20, Hero calls $20, UTG folds, MP1 calls $12, MP3 calls $12

Turn: ($91) (4 Players)

Hero bets $30, MP1 raises to $100, MP3 calls $100, BTN raises all-in to $186, Hero raises all-in to $257.45, MP1 calls $157.45, MP3 raises to $343.45, MP1 calls all-in for $13.10

Uncalled bet of $72.90 returned to MP3

River: ($1075.55) (4 Players - 3 All-In)


Pot Size: $1075.55 ($3 Rake)

MP1 had (a full house, Queens full of Aces) and WON (+$780)

BTN had and LOST (-$208)

MP3 had (a full house, Fours full of Queens) and LOST (-$292.55)

Hero had and LOST (-$279.45)


So yeah, a 4 way all in, and I'm an 85% favourite, but somehow manage to lose. There's another $1100.

SOrry that every post these days is a complaint but srlsy WTF is going on.

Today:

4 set over sets the bad way.

2 KK vs. AA

2 awesome coolers

Got my money in as AT LEAST a 60% fave and lost 5 times.

Also, my dishwasher broke and flooded my apartment.

Let the good times roll.

Someone shoot me in the face plz.
kthx.

I swear, ever since I made that post about being lucky, I have been on the worst downer of my poker career.

I humbly appeal to the poker Gods to forgive me for my insubordination. Please, I beg for mercy.

I share these histories from today with you, as I feel it will serve as a warning to those foolish enough as me to trifle with the Gods. These are not for the meek at heart:

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $1/$2 Blinds - 9 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $118
BB: $68.55
UTG: $209.25
Hero (UTG+1): $215.25
MP1: $197
MP2: $289.05
MP3: $387.95
CO: $175.30
BTN: $99.30
Preflop: Hero is dealt (9 Players)

UTG folds, Hero raises to $8, 2 folds, MP3 raises to $22, 4 folds, Hero calls $14

Flop: ($47) (2 Players)

Hero bets $24, MP3 raises to $82, Hero raises all-in to $193.25, MP3 calls $111.25

Turn: ($433.50) (2 Players - 1 All-In)

River: ($433.50) (2 Players - 1 All-In)

Pot Size: $433.50 ($3 Rake)

MP3 had (three of a kind, Aces) and WON (+$215.25)

Hero had (three of a kind, Sixes) and LOST (-$215.25)

Poker Stars - No Limit Hold'em Cash Game - $2/$4 Blinds - 7 Players - (LegoPoker HH Converter)

SB: $275.60
BB: $426.70
UTG: $518.30
UTG+1: $56.40
Hero (MP): $371.70
CO: $394
BTN: $392

Preflop: Hero is dealt (7 Players)
UTG raises to $14, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to $36, 4 folds, UTG raises to $108, Hero calls $72

Flop: ($222) (2 Players)

UTG bets $151, Hero raises all-in to $263.70, UTG calls $112.70

Turn: ($749.40) (2 Players - 1 All-In)

River: ($749.40) (2 Players - 1 All-In)

Pot Size: $749.40 ($3 Rake)

UTG had (three of a kind, Kings) and WON (+$374.70)

Hero had and LOST (-$371.70)


I am ready to be saved.

*cliffnotes* i should have 1200 more dollaz than i do