Not much to update with. I pretty much took the weekend off to relax and enjoy myself.

Friday night started off slowly, but eventually got a little nutty. I wont go into great details, but I've since had to make a few repairs around the house.

Saturday was awesome. I took my g/f to this african musical called Umoja.

It was incredible, as it took you through the evolution of african music. Tickets were a bit on the expensive side, but we both had a blast.

Sunday, I played some soccer with the other foriengers in my area. Decent game, but poor turnout b/c a lot of people were out boozing hard the night before. Then we went into seoul for some awesome greek food.

Interesting weekend overall.

I played a bit of poker this morning (3k hands) and won some cash. I'm probbaly gonna play a bit before before I sleep. I should have a nice $1500 bonus cleared by the end of the week.
But for now:

$955/$10,000

$650/$10,000

The perfect way to end a session!

So today I ran pretty badly. One of those days where nothing goes right. Draws don't come in, people flop better sets than yours, and of course, your KK runs into AA preflop. The latter happened twice over the session, and I lost stacks on both occasions.

Anyhow, I'm down $600 or something for the day, and down $400 for the month. SO I'm feeling like crap, it's 5am, and I want to sleep. So I start closing down all my tables, waiting for the big blind to come my way before I leave.

If you don't want to automatically post your blinds, you have to click off a button. Well, I must've missed one on a single table, because up pops a table. And on that table, I have two black kings.... and everybody covered (more money than anyone involved).

I had bittersweet feelings about seeing these sexy cards, because I've been killed wth them today. Anyhow, a loose-ish player raises to $6 from middle position and gets 3 or 4 callers, including the maniac in the small blind. I just want to take down this pot now, because I'm tired and just want to end the session. I got to put in a huge raise, but realize I'm at a pot limit table, and not no-limit. Great. So I pot it. About a $26 raise.

Instantly, the original raiser makes it $90, and my head sinks into my chest. I close my eyes and curse my luck for having ran into aces AGAIN.

When I look up, I see somehting I didn't expect. The maniac in the small blind called this $90 raise. What the fuck?

So it's time to try to figue out waht people have.

There is no way the small blind has me beat. He wouldn't just call twice with aces, so he must have AK, AQ, or a smaller pair, which I'm a huge favourite against.

The original raiser's range is much smaller. He likely has aces, QQ, or maybe AK. Even less likely, but also possible is that he has KK too.

If the original raiser has AA, and the maniac has a small pair, I'm still about 20% to win this hand. So with, ~$200 already in the pot, and the chance that the original raiser has QQ, I close my eyes and push all in.

Original raiser insta-calls, and maniac thinks.....thinks......thinks...... and calls his last $110.

$623 in the pot ($50 side pot between me and original raiser).

The board comes out lke this.

Td - 4d - 3s - Jd - 5h

Decent board for me, as the only thing that I'm worried about is AA(obviously) and maybe AK with 2 diamonds.

Oh yeah, and of course 5-5.

Yes, the maniac in the hand had 55, and hit a set on the river to scoop up the pot. The original raiser had QQ, so the pot was mine until the river.

I was about 66% to win this hand before the flop, and instead of being even for the month, I'm now down $600.

:(

-$600/$10,000

go me.

sick, wicked, nasty hand from the last esp. of high stakes poker. enjoy



i would've shown

I put in a man-sized session today of like 8k hands.
I was down ~$800 for the month, but I booked a $1k+ win today.


So I'm at $232 for the month, with some serious bonuses to be cashed in if I put in enough hours.

$232/$10,000

March Results

Cash Games:
$200NL - 54k hands for $3,536.25
$400NL - 400 hands for $605.65
$200PL - 1k hands for $378.70
$200NL(6max) - 30 hands for $46.50

Totals: 55,154 hands for $4,567.10 [$54.99/hr]



Tournaments:
Totals: 16 tournies for $201.44 [roi of 50.06%]

Bonuses:
Stars bonuses: $1500
Rando bonus from stars : $76.57
Total: $1576.57

March Net profit:$6,345.11
----------------------------------------------

Year to date: $19,335.59

Some thoughts....
I'm lazy. I only played 83 hours this month. This might sound like a lot, but I played 187 in janurary.
There is only one way to right this, and that is to do a marathon month in april. I am going to play so many hands, it's going to be sick. My goal is to hit $10k for april, which is very doable. If I do hit the 10k, im going to do a freeroll tounry for 1% of my winnings. That's right. My loyal readers will have a chance to share in some of this money. More details will be forthcoming, but you will need to sign up for pokerstars to take advantage of it. There will also be a bounty on my had for an additional sum of cash, as I'll be playing in the tourny.

Party at the Playboy Mansion

So my buddy lives in LA and his girlfriend is promoting a party at the Playboy Mansion coming up in June. I planned on going because it's on 'The List' of things I gotta do before I die, but now I'm leaning towards saving my money for a condo instead. If any of my VIP readers are interested I can probably hook you up with an invite (see below for details). Just send me an email at themainsdomain[at]gmail.com


"Hi All,

There is a private party happening at the Playboy Mansion June 23rd!!!!!! Get ready to start off the summer with the biggest three day party ever.

Since I’m part of the marketing team for this party I can invite my friends for $1000 so if you are interested in going….

Kandyland is $1500 and goes up to $2000 for a guy ticket (only 600 guy tickets will be sold). All 1000 girls will be cast and hand picked. The ticket includes admission to Kandyland at the Playboy Mansion, full open bar all night, food, desserts, live entertainment and a donation to Marconi Foundation for Kids. We also have taken over an entire swanky Hollywood Hotel so that all Kandyland party goers can play all weekend long. Friday evening (6/22) will be the Kandyland weekend kick off party so you can mingle and meet people before the party, Saturday (6/23) is Kandyland at the Playboy Mansion followed by an after party at the hotel and Sunday (6/24) is the Kandyland Pool Party at the hotel.

Expect Kandyland to be the ultimate sight and sound experience- think Willy Wonka meets Alice in Wonderland. The Karma Foundation is transforming the Playboy Mansion with dazzling extreme lighting effects and visuals, 6ft Lollipops, giant mushrooms, gum drop trees, cotton candy pillars, the Kandy Forest, they will be transforming the pool and grotto with lighting, hanging things, projecting things, etc….."




See below link of last year’s party

www.KarmaKandyland.com

This has nothing to do with poker, but whatever:

Some rando korean pics!

me and my girl:

me and some of my boys:

Stay tuned though, I'll have a big annoucement and my monthly numbers in 2 days!

fun hand and some good news

first, the fun hand.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (8 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

MP1 ($89.20)

Hero ($388.75)

Preflop: THE_MAIN is MP2 with Kd, Kc.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls $2, MP1 raises to $8, THE_MAIN calls $8, 4 folds, UTG+1 folds.

Flop: ($21) 4d, 6c, 5h (2 players)

MP1 bets $10, THE_MAIN calls $10.

Turn: ($41) 9c (2 players)

MP1 bets $30, THE_MAIN raises to $80

SO i put him all in, and he stops to think. I know exactly what he has at this point, and I know I'm winning. So i tell him what he has.

THE_MAIN says: "JJ no good"

Right away he calls.

MP1 calls $41.20 (All-In).

River: ($192.20) 4c (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: $192.20

Results in white below:

MP1 has Js Jd (two pair, jacks and fours).

THE_MAIN has Kd Kc (two pair, kings and fours).

Outcome: THE_MAIN wins $192.19.

So did I tell him exactly what he had? Yes.
Did I tell him I had him beat? Yup.
Did he still call? Naturally.
Was his mind blown? Obviously.

I'd have given anything to know what was going on in his head when I called out his hand. Awesome.

Hand number is #9125933605 in case someone wants to verify that this actually went down.


Now, the good news for canadians on stars. I had a long chat with one of the members of support, and they assured me I could use echeques to deposit/withdrawl directly from my account. All you have to do is deposit once ($25USD min) and then you can withdrawl from there. This actually makes withdrawling easier for me, but I can't move money on as freely (for other bonuses and stuff). C'est la vie.

A link to more info on eChecks (only available for canadians)

why neteller, why?

In a recent move, Neteller has decided to cease all transactions to and from online gambling companies for all of its canadian customers. This is coming after already shuttin out the US. I really don't understand why they are doing this, especially because the canadian government has yet to show any opposiition to online gambling.

Here's a link to a FAQ that addresses a few of the issues:
http://content.neteller.com/content/en/member_businessupdate_canada.htm

This is going to be the biggest hassle to deal with, espeically with me being in asia, and all my accounts being canadian. Oh and of course, the games will undoubtedly suffer in the short run (at least).

Ah poker... don't die on me yet. :(

getting lazy

I havnt played any cash games since my last post. I guess I've gotten a bit complacent.

Today I played a bunch of small tournaments and had no success at all. I''m probably down like $100 for the day. (i have one still going, a super satelite to the world series of poker)

I think its pyschological... when I'm winning, I don't play as much. In my head, this is probbaly to protect winnings. When I'm losing, I want to play more to get even. It makes total sense, but has got to be counter productive. Generally, you play better when you're winning, so I should try to reverse this pattern.

Whatever, it came at a good time, because I had a busy weekend planned.

One of my friends in korea, Joe Pineault, got married on saturday. He's a pro boxer here, and he threw a really nice party for everyone. It was a great time, but eventually, all the booze led to a bunch of fights btwn friends. I wasn't directly involved in anything, but it turned an otherwise great night pretty sour. So I spent most of sunday helping things get smoothed over.

Happy to say everything got worked out eventually.

I will probably post some pics from the wedding when I get a chance. But I'll leave you with the main reason you dont want to pass out in a bar:

In an interesting development, I somehow managed to "out-do" my best day at cash ever.

It's so weird that I've been playing at this level for so long, and have my two best days so close to one another. Maybe I'm getting better? Probably just variance :)

I made exactly $2399.05 today in 3341 hands, which barely eclipses the great day I had last week. I also did it in 2 less hours, so it was that much sicker.

It was pretty sweet to have a big day, because this week has been pretty bad poker-wise. Just lost a few key all-ins where I had a huge edge in equity.

But anyways, this day puts me at exactly $4k for the month, excluding bonuses. I also have big plans for April, which I will announce next week. lol cliffhangers

Good news for any of you that got screwed by NETeller

"NETeller Plc announced this morning that it signed an agreement yesterday with the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO), allowing the firm to create, within 75 days, a plan for repatriating frozen funds to its U.S. customers."

Full article here

Raymer Gets Hacked!

2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer was temporarily victimized by an account hacker who used brute force and repeated attempts to guess Raymer's Poker Stars password and gain access to his account on Sunday. The hacker then opened up several heads-up sit-'n'-go tournaments in larger amounts and began dumping the contents of the account into that of someone screen-named "Ikeyrson," apparently oblivious to the fact that Raymer's play is typically watched by dozens of onlookers every time
he logs on to the Stars site.

Naturally, some of these onlookers recognized the bizarre chip-dumping as highly suspicious behavior, and contacted Stars security, who in turn contacted Raymer about the incident.

Because of the very public way in which the theft was attempted, Stars was able to freeze the accounts and move the money back into Raymer's possession, as Raymer re-secured that account with a stronger password. The hacker had not yet had time to move the money into third-party accounts, which may have represented a more difficult challenge in having funds returned. Raymer reported that Poker Stars was unable to identify the culprit to him, likely due to European laws regarding Internet confidentiality.

What's the lesson here? Make sure you have a strong password on your poker accounts and if you're going to hack a poker celebrity at least do a direct cash transfer!

Here is an interesting article from pokernews.com that makes the conclusion "there is no such thing as luck in poker".

"Ask any good poker player if they are willing to risk their tournament on a 10 to 1 draw and they will say: "Yes!" Every single time. The question is simple, do you say yes to this propostion every single time? If you do then you understand variance and you reject the fuzzy logic of luck. Furthermore, you understand that sitting down at a poker table engages you in a game that is, in fact, gambling and you are doing this voluntarily."


Click Here For the Article

Well, if you read last post, you'd know that I have a new lucky mouse. Well, I took it for another test ride today.

I'm still buzzing from the excitement of this sick session, which ended with an even sicker series of hands.

Where do I begin?

Ok, my girlfriend left my place early this morning for school, and woke me up in the process. So I'm up a lot earlier than I usually am, and decide to put in a marathon session.

It went really well, and I was up $1400 after like 6hours. I was feeling great, as this was one of my best sessions ever. Everything seemed to be going my way, which is the way I like it.

Anyhow, I was feeling a bit tired, and wanted to end my session... but there was this one fish floating around this one table. Slowly I started closing off my other tables, and focusing on this one particular player. At this point, he has about $600 in front of him, from his originally $200. He made that $400 playing like an idiot -- I had noticed, and planned to exploit it. As luck would have it, I also happened to have $600 on this table.

He has making ridiculously large raises preflop (raises to $50, when normally its $6 or $8), and I happened to pick up KK . He raised to something stupid like $70, and I reraised to $200. He folded.

Damn. There goes my big chance to bust him. But I decide to stick around for a bit.

TWO HANDS LATER, I get dealt AA on the button. This time he raises to $36. Again, I raise to $200. But now, something I didn't expect develops. The next player, a good player, raises all-in to $270, and the player beside him calls $131 all in!!! WTF!?? The crazy dude folds, and obviously I call with the best hand in a $700 pot!

Thankfuly, my aces hold up.

The good player had QQ. Now, normally, he wouldn't go all in, but he knew that I knew that the 1st player was an idiot. So he knows I will try to isolate him with hands worse than QQ. He got unlucky that I had 1 of the 2 hands that beat him. The other guy called with AK which is just dumb. But anyways.

THE VERY NEXT HAND. I get dealt 66 and limp in for $2. The pyscho, who is still here and has lots of money, raises to $28. Usually this is an easy fold, but against an idiot with this much money, I have implied odds to call and hit a set. And guess what.... I did.

*** FLOP *** [6h 3d Ah]

This is beautiful, because if he has an ace, hes not folding. He bets $34, and I make a risky play and just call. I'm just hoping he will bet again on the turn so I can raise him.

*** TURN *** [6h 3d Ah] [Qd]

Nice card for me. If he has a Q in his hand, he's now less likely to fold. He does indeed bet again, this time $44. I can't wait any longer, I need to build this pot so I can get all my money in on the river. I also need to charge flush draws. I raise to $150. He stops and thinks for quite a while.

FInally he calls the $150 bet.

At this point I have him on an ace, or some other random pair... maybe even two pair. I don't think he has a flush draw, because he would play it harder, and also wouldve called my raise much faster.

*** RIVER *** [6h 3d Ah Qd] [Kd]

This card completes the flush draw, and also made him a stragiht if he happened to have a HORRIBLY played JT. He thinks for a few seconds, and finally puts all his chips in the pot. All $314.55 of them.

Sick. What a huge bet, what a huge pot. This is the biggest decision I've ever had to make, and if I call and win, it would be my biggest pot ever. But there is no way i can lay this down now.

There is like $400 in the pot, and if he hit runner runner for flush or straight, then so be it.

I call.

*** SHOW DOWN ***

djphilippine: shows [4d 5c] (high card Ace)

the_main: shows [6s 6d] (three of a kind, Sixes)

the_main collected $1054.10 from pot

Styranger said, "lol"

Yeah, he didnt even have a pair. He had a busted straight draw, and a lot of heart! Too bad it wasnt enough. And with that, I ship the biggest pot of my life, and also the most winningest day at cash games ($2400).

And finally, here's me at a $200NL table with $1600 (SICK!)

i love it

I have some good news, and I have some bad news.

What do you want first? Bad news? Ok.

I lost my temper today for the first time in a while. It was a culmination of things, but it was a poker hand that set me off.

I started the day off on the wrong foot. As I was playing, I got into an argument with my girlfriend. It went on for a while, but I kept playing while she was crying (good boyfriend, I know).

After I got off the phone, I thought I could focus.

I couldn't.

I made a bad misclick in a big hand, and cost myself a $400 pot. Misclicks have happend before, but never for that much. It was from a clear lack of focus. This was added to having already been down about $500. So yeah, I snapped. I whipped my mouse across the room, and it shattered in a few peices. Well, thats one way to end a session when tilting, right?

Anyways, here the session, visually:

And here is the mouse, visually:

Ok, enough bad news. Time for the good news.

AFter this little incident, I cooled off and took a shower. I called my girlfriend and worked everything out (good boyfriend, I know). Then I took a nice long walk to the computer store and bought a new mouse. I came home, feeling much better and focused, and decided to fire up some more tables and play. Well, the real good news here is that my new mouse is lucky:

Ship it.

Anyways, I'm pretty dissapointed in myself that I flipped out. I try to pride myself on being emotionless with poker. I'm posting this as a reminder, and also to publically embarass myself for acting like a 12 year old.

If anything, maybe something can be learned from this. I guess my advice would be to keep a clear head any time you're playing. If you have something you need to deal with that's bothering you, do that first. The tables will always be waiting when you get back.

Numbers, numbers, numbers.

Well, it's the middle on the month and time for a little update.

I know I said I was breaking even, but I had a good last 5k hands.

24,158 hands for $1046.75 ($29.86/hr)

Graph:

Nice spike at the end, eh? And yeah, almost all of this is at NL200.


As for bonuses, I havn't cleared any yet, but should hit 2x$1500 by the end of the month. So this month might be pretty weak. Hopefully I can actually earn some $$ playing. :)



Next month should be better, because I'll hit my first milestone bonus when I earn 200,000 points. That will be good for $2k. So in april I should get between $5000-7500 in bonuses alone. Mmmm mmm mmm.

When I woke up this morning, I could barely imagine that I would even make it out of bed, let alone be involved in the biggest pot of my life.

Allow me to elaborate.

Last night, we drank.
Lots.
Stories were told, drunken phone calls were placed, insults were hurled, promises were made, but mostly, good times were had. This morning, however, was no fun at all. There is something about wine which gives me killer hangovers, and this was one of those times. I felt horrible all day, and spent it eating pizza, drinking water, and watching TV on my couch for like 12hours with my buddy.

The thing I love about poker is that I don't ever HAVE to play. I want a day off, a week off, a month off, whatever, I can do it. So I did. That is, until my buddy left.

I innocently checked my email to find that my old friend PartyPoker had decided to give me $25 dollars for free, just to try to lure me back to thier site (where I used to play quite a bit). I had no intentions of playing poker with the money, because the amount is almost neglible. So I logged on, and sat at the blackjack table with all of it.

$25 bet. I get dealt some a 13 vs. a ten. Blah, this is gonna be quick. I hit, and a magic 8 rolls off giving me 21. Up to $50, so I let it ride. I get dealt a 20 and it holds. Nice. Nothing else to do at this point but LET IT RIDE. $100 bet, and I get dealt a 13 vs a dealers 5. I stand, and the dealer turns over a jack, followed by another one. BUST. Sweet, so now I'm up to $200 and can probably do something with it.

That something is, of course, shortstacking $1000NL. The first hand I'm dealt is Ace-Ten, and some dude raises to $40. He gets a caller, so obviously I raise all in b/c it's fun. Everyone folds and I'm at like $300. I pick up another few small pots and find myself at ~$400. WHat now? Move up to $2000NL, obviously (10x my normal stakes).

Some dude opens to $75, and I have 44 on the button. I push all in, and everyone folds, so I'm up to $500. And then, it happens. The biggest pot I've ever been involved in. Enjoy:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em, $ Hero (5 handed) internettexasholdem.com

SB ($726.50)
THE_MAIN ($497)
UTG ($2755)
MP ($5820.50)
Button ($2541)

Preflop: THE_MAIN is BB with Qs, Kc. SB posts a blind of $10.

UTG raises to $75, MP calls $75, 1 fold, SB (poster) calls $65, THE_MAIN raises to $497, UTG calls $422, MP folds, SB raises to $726.50, UTG calls $229.50.

OOPS!!!
Ok, so why did I move all in with KQo? Well it wasn't because I thought it was the best hand, this is somehting we call a squeeze play. When the intiial raiser puts in $75, he gets called by 2 other people. So, when I raise, I put tonnes of pressure on him. Not only does he have to worry about me, he also has to worry about the 2 guys who called behind him, who could have monster hands they are playing slowly. I also know that the guys calling behind could have anything as bad as suited connectors or small pairs, something that can not stand an all in raise. My goal is to just win the pot here, and take $250 in the middle. So yeah, ARRRRR IN BABY!!!

Flop: ($1950) 5h, 8h, 8d (3 players)
Turn: ($1950) 2c (3 players)
River: ($1950) 8s (3 players)

Final Pot: $1950

Results below:
SB has 9c 9d (full house, eights full of nines).
Hero has Qs Kc (three of a kind, eights).
UTG has 6s 6d (full house, eights full of sixes).

Yeah whatever, I lost. But wow, I had a tonne of outs!! (I should win this hand 38% of the time)Hahaha... I've lost more in one hand before, but this is the biggest pot I've ever played in. This short experience was a lot of fun, and very different from the day to day grinding I'm used to. If I had turned nothing into $1500 in those 30mins, that would've been pretty damn impressive. As it turns out, I was highly entertained at no cost to myself. :)

I'll check in with a mid month update in the next day or so with my numbers (spoiler: I'm breaking even)

Here's an article written by Huckleberry Seed of Poker Lab Rat

“If you’re attuned to your opponent’s moods, you’ll find opportunities to profit from their weakened states.”

I’m best known in the poker world for my tournament success. I’ve won four World Series of Poker bracelets, including the World Championship in 1996. With as much success as I’ve had in tournaments, however, I still prefer to spend most of my time in cash games. If I were to limit myself to tournaments, I’d miss out on some of poker’s most interesting aspects.

In tournaments, you’re constantly moving. The tournament director may move you so that he can balance tables, or your table may break. So, even if you’ve been attentive to your opponents’ tendencies, there’s a good chance that you won’t be able to exploit the information you’ve gained. In a cash game, however, you have far more time with a set of players. When I play a cash game in a casino, I might spend eight, 10, or 12 hours with the same group, so I have a longer time to study my opponents and exploit their weaknesses. If I’m going to be playing with the same people for hours, I can create a table image that will benefit me over the course of my session. For example, when I first enter a game, I might make a series of unprofitable plays - some strange bets or bluffs. These plays may lose me a little bit of money, but they affect how everyone thinks of me for the rest of the session. Even if I shift to a more solid mode of play, some players will retain the idea that I’m a nut case. In a tip I provided a few weeks ago, I showed how developing this sort of table image can be used to great effect by representing a bluff.
In a tournament, however, it’s tough to profit from that kind of persona. You can spend an hour getting everyone to believe you’re a maniac only to be moved to a table of complete strangers. At that point, your stack will be decimated and your image will have disappeared.

In cash games, you also have the chance to track your opponents’ mood shifts over time. At various points in a session, a player may get tired, frustrated or just go on tilt. If you’re attuned to your opponents’ moods, you’ll find opportunities to profit from their weakened states. In a tournament, you rarely get a chance to take advantage of someone else’s tilt. Usually, the hand that gets a player steaming also busts them from the tournament.

While tournaments can provide for some great action, playing them exclusively can limit your game. By branching out and playing cash games, you’ll develop a completely different set of poker skills and be able to explore some of the more interesting psychological aspects of the game.

The Poker Shrink - Vol 31 - Absolute Threshold and Signal Detection Theory

March 09, 2007
Dr. Tim Lavalli

Absolute threshold is a very specific psychological and sensory term. Absolute threshold refers to the smallest intensity of a stimulus that has to be present for the stimulus to be detected. The most common example of this involves sensitivity to heat. Think of an electric burner on a stove. You place your hand on the burner and then turn it on low. At first you won't feel anything because it is takes time for the coils to heat up. Eventually it will get warm enough for you to detect heat; there is some temperature that is just hot enough for you to notice it. In this case your absolute threshold is the point at which it is just hot enough for you to detect the presence of the heat. Now for someone else the absolute threshold could be higher or lower; sooner or later. In psychology such a variation in perception or feeling is referred to as a threshold.

A threshold simply implies that there are different levels of response or perception to certain stimuli, which varies among people. We all have different levels of response to heat, light, sound, color and dozens of other sensory inputs. Your particular response or perception of a stimulus is your threshold. It is possible to measure when you become aware of something and often your awareness precedes your conscious recognition of the stimulus. You know when someone says: "The noise from those fluorescent lights is driving me crazy." You hadn't even noticed the annoying buzz but now that someone has mentioned it, you can't stop hearing it. Did you actually not hear the noise before? Or was your absolute threshold for the noise reset?

OK, what's the application of absolute threshold to poker? Very simple. Your skills of observation at the table not only can be improved but can actually be reset. This means that you can detect and utilize more vital information from your opponents by resetting your threshold of awareness.

There is another interesting concept in psychology called signal detection theory which says that our ability to observe is not an absolute quantity but rather depends on situational and motivational factors. Simple example, you learn more about your poker table opponents when you are paying attention and are not tired, distracted or drunk. Seems obvious but wait there is something much more subtle and valuable to your game and your bankroll going on here.

Let's say that you are looking at the player in seat two when he tables his AKo to pick up a pot, which is to say you are watching the action instead of the cocktail waitress as she walks away from the table. Because you are watching the table, you also hear the player in seat seven say: "Played big slick a bit faster that time." And the seat two player responds: "Well I was in early position this time." Now you have three pieces of information instead of one and you have also reset your threshold to a higher level to receive more information. How?

Here is the point. Absolute threshold can be reset to receive more information ("to feel the heat sooner") simply by paying attention. Signal detection is enhanced by paying attention to more information and the ability to remember the information and access it later in the game is also increased by both paying attention and having more information available. Notice that nowhere have we mentioned remembering the information or storing the memory. In fact, studies have shown that with absolutely no attempt to increase memory or use any memory tricks whatsoever, an individual will recall more information simply by paying closer attention to events as they unfold. The additional information actually makes you more sensitive to more subtle clues you would have missed previously.

By resetting your thresholds higher, you remember more of what you see and hear even with no conscious effort on your part to save those memories. It is a proven function of threshold behavior that as you make more refined observations, you simply retain more information. The simply truth at the poker table is: 'Paying Attention Pays'.

Very proud to be a poker player at the moment:


Local charity cashes in on wager
'Robin Hood' of poker turns a dare into a way to help Children Inc.
BY BILL LOHMANN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Mar 3, 2007
Without playing a card, Children Inc. hit the jackpot.

Online poker players around the world have donated more than $20,000 to the Richmond-based charity this week, paying off a friendly wager among themselves. The money was still coming in yesterday.
"We are amazed and overjoyed at the response from the poker community," said CI spokeswoman Liz Sauer.
To some, the situation might seem a paradox: a charity founded by the daughter of a Presbyterian minister that distributes $4 million annually to more than 16,000 needy children around the world receiving money from gamblers. But CI officials said generosity is generosity and money is money -- and poker is legal -- so they are gladly accepting the contributions and will put them to good use.
"These people want to do something good, and we are happy to help them do something good," said Sauer, who noted the $20,000 would enable CI to sponsor 60 children for a full year.
The ringleader of this wave of bigheartedness is Barry Greenstein, a well-known poker player who has been dubbed the Robin Hood of poker for his custom of donating his tournament winnings to charity. Greenstein is no stranger to CI, which has been one of the beneficiaries of his generosity in the past decade. He's donated more than $1.5 million to the organization, according to his Web site. He also sponsors seven children through CI, said Sauer.
Greenstein's most recent largesse directed to CI began as a wager -- sort of a double-dog-dare-you -- among the 2+2 Forums online poker community (www.twoplustwo.com). If other players promised to make contributions to CI, Greenstein vowed to say "LOL donkaments" during a televised poker tournament. The phrase is an online expression that, according to a discussion board on the 2+2 Web site, pokes fun at the poor skill level of some tournament players by combining the words "donkey" and "tournament." In Internet lingo, LOL means "laugh out loud."
In an episode of "High Stakes Poker," aired Monday on GSN, Greenstein uttered the phrase. The money started rolling into CI on Tuesday morning.
"One of the [donation] process- ing ladies asked me, 'What's going on? We're being inundated with these donations, and they're all referencing Barry Greenstein,'" said Sauer. "I asked her how many did she have, thinking maybe five or10, and she held up a stack of papers."
So far, more than 200 donations have come in this week, ranging from $20 to $2,000, from across America and other places as farflung as Australia and Slovenia.
"We're just thrilled these people want to help our children," she said.
In an interview at www.pokerlizard.com, Greenstein said he got involved with CI as a result of "bad parenting."
"I had spoiled my kids and I was trying to show them that other kids aren't as fortunate as they are," said Greenstein, 52, a father of six who lives in California. "I wanted to sponsor a boy and a girl the same ages as my two youngest children."
He didn't care for the overtly religious approach of many charities feeding, sheltering and educating poor children around the world, but he liked CI, which, though clearly guided by Christian principles, is not religiously affiliated.
CI has "many religious people working for them, but that isn't their agenda," Greenstein said on Poker Lizard, adding that more people need to realize "you can have good morals and ethics even if you're not religious"

Source:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149193496884

The total is now something sick like $35k

What it do, bbv?

I wanted to share a quote that I came across this past week. I think it was from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, but I could be wrong. Anyways, it's not important.

I was a quote about life, but can definitely be applied to poker. Here's the gist of it:

If you can manage to not get too excited about your successes, you will be able to handle your failures with greater ease.

It's just about trying to stay neutral and expecting nothing so that you are unaffected by results. This is a great mentality for handling the ups and downs of poker.

A week without poker

I'm back from japan... and, well.... it's no Korea.

It was a really cool country from the little I experienced of it. We visited nara and kyoto, but spent the majority of our time within osaka.It was pretty easy to get around, using the subways and trains. Most signs were in english so it made things simple, for the most part.



The food was awesome, and probbaly the best thing about the trip. I stuffed my face 2-3 times a day, and all of it was delicious. From traditional japanese dishes to thier takes on western dishes, it was all great.



We had the actual illegal absynthe (legal in japan) with a high worm wood concentration. We ordered the most expensive one which was like $25 a glass because we figured we might as well do it right because we won't get another chance (I think it was French Absynthe). It's a wierd buzz... kinda like being high on alcohol, weed and caffeine all at the same time.




The clubs and bars were pretty weak in osaka, I have to say. Lonely planet led us to the most happening nitelife area there, and it was pretty dead. MInd you, this was a weekday, but still. On top of all this, drinks are super expensive and you'll be spending like $8/drink in most places. There are a lot of all you can drink places which ends up being much cheaper, but most are on weekends I think. This is what we did on friday night.

The night was just... weird. I wont go into details, but, there was a group of crossdressing foreingers there. Add this to some other drama, and it was...well....a weird ngiht.



Anyhow, on to better things: the best part of japan.... the women.

Oh.My.Lord.

I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with somehting that I've always said. There is no such thing as ugly women, only lazy ones. And these women are the furthest thing from lazy. The effort and attention to detail that goes into thier appearance is mind blowing. All the women get done up fully just to go to the convience store. Add this to the fact that they're generally more curvy then most korean girls, and you have a good combo. Even the punk or goth ones work so hard to pull of thier looks, it just works. I can't do them justice, so I'll stop. It's just something you have to experience.



The only other cool thing in osaka was the red light distrcit. It was fun to walk through, but is nowhere near as interesting to see as korea's.

Saturday was miron's bro's wedding. Unfortunatley I couldnt go to the ceremony, but the after party was great. Miron's bro found a good girl -- her and her parents took great care of us all while we were there.

I'm not sure what day we visited nara, but the place was cool. There are literally deer everywhere. I think some king or something 'imported' a few a long time ago and think just multiplied. I don't quite remmeber the story. It was fun to hang out with deer that were so tame though.




Kyoto was interesting too. One of the more unusual places we visited was adashino nembutsu-ji, which was a graveyard temple. We saw a lot of other little place there, but I wont go into details b/c you can all just research if youre interested. Kyoto was a very rich history. Most people just want to see the pics anyways, which I'll upload soon.









My biggest dissapointment was not getting to hang out with geisha. It was like $3k to hang out with a few for an evening. They are pretty scarce these days, and the number of them are really dropping. And the day we were in kyoto, it was raining, so there werent any wandering around. Oh well, next time I suppose.

I'd defintley visit again, especially because i still havnt seen tokyo. I may post some pics in a day or two.

And now I'm rested and ready to start grindin out these hands. Hopefully I can run good and play my best this month, and book a nice profit. Let us gogogo

This is an article written by Phil Gordon from Poker Lab Rat

"Pocket Pairs - Know You Odds

When you hold a pocket-pair preflop, it's nice to know the odds of whether or not someone behind you holds a bigger pair.  This article offers a "quick and dirty" method for making that calculation.

I was playing in a sit and go tournament at Full Tilt a while back with my fiancée looking on. We were down to three-handed, all the stacks were about the same, though I was the short stack. The blinds were very high the average stack was about 12 big blinds. I had 2-2 on the button. I raised all-in and was called by 6-6. I went broke.

"That was a really bad play, Phil. How can you go all-in there?" she said.

I protested vigorously: "Honey, it is well against the odds that either of my opponents will have a higher pocket pair. With only 12 big blinds, I'm either all-in or I fold in this situation. Doing anything else is just crazy, I think. Especially because we're already in the money, and the difference between second and third place isn't very significant."

"Well, I think it's much more likely for them to have a pocket pair. What are the exact odds?" she asked.

I didn't know off the top of my head, which just seemed to give her more ammunition for her argument. It is hard to argue odds when you don't know them. So, I set off to do some math so I could "prove" to her that I was right. In the process, I "discovered" a general mathematical formula that everyone can use when arguing with a significant other.

I'm calling this rule the 'Gordon Pair Principle' (GPP). I've always wanted a theorem named after me, and so here it is. A few years back, I got zero credit for naming the 'Rule of 4 and 2' and I'm a little on tilt about it. Now, I'm not claiming that I discovered the “Rule of 4 and 2,” but I do claim naming it and referring to it in print as such for the first time (see my book 'Poker: The Real Deal').

So, here goes.

The Gordon Pair Principle

Let C = percent chance someone left to act has a bigger pocket pair Let N = number of players left to act Let R = number of higher ranks than your pocket pair (i.e., if you have Q-Q, there are two ranks higher. If you have 8-8, there are six ranks higher)



Some examples:

You have pockets 10s and there are six players left to act. Someone will have a bigger pocket pair about 12 percent of the time.

You have pocket kings under the gun in a 10-handed game. You'll be up against pocket aces (and probably broke) about 4.5 percent of the time.

Now, this formula isn't exact, but it is a damned close approximation. It's definitely close enough to use when arguing with your significant other. Of course, I showed her this calculation after about an hour of work and she still thinks I made a stupid play despite the fact that my 2-2 is the best hand there 88 percent of the time.

Good luck at the tables!"

Harrah's Announces World Series Of Poker Europe

The World Series of Poker announced today that poker's most famed tournament institution will expand into Europe this September, with several events hosted across three separate London Clubs International casinos in festivities that will, once the final schedule is released, span eleven days. The London festivities mark the first time that WSOP champions' bracelets, perhaps the most treasured baubles in pokerdom, are awarded outside of Las Vegas.

Hmmmm...

Here's a snippet from a Poker Lab Rat article that I thought I'd share on here.

You’re a fish if…

…you’re unable or unwilling to ‘work’ your opponents.
Unlike other forms of gambling, poker is not a simple, straightforward game about who has the better cards. Instead, it relies heavily on the skill of reading opponents’ subtle and not-so subtle cues (tells), and acting on them accordingly. Do those trembling hands mean that they’ve got the nuts, or are they simply nervous about making the bet? Was that slow call due to indecision or just a bad Internet connection? How should I proceed with these little snippets of insight? Strong players have learned not only to read between the lines of what people are saying and doing but also how to take advantage of that information to yield the best results.

…you let emotions overwhelm your ability.
The stereotypical poker player is a stone-cold, unrelenting and rigid fixture, seemingly devoid of anything that even remotely resembles emotions. While for many aspiring champions that may be the ideal style on paper, in reality, even the best players are not above expressing themselves when it suits them. Indeed, some world-class players have even made boisterous eruptions a part of their table image (think of serial whiner Mike Matusow, or over the top Poker Brat Phil Helmuth - but sponsors love players that stand out from the crowd early in big tournaments!).

But what separates the pros form the soon-to-be-fish-paste is the ability to explode in one instant and rein in those emotions the next. So it’s OK to recoil at the sting of a bad beat at a critical stage of a tournament. That’s natural and even justifiable. But it becomes a real problem if you let that little sting fester and infect the rest of your play to the point of causing some real damage that you can’t recover from.

february results

I think I'm calling it a month. I leave for Japan on tuesday, but I'm not at all prepared. So I'll spend most of monday tieing up some loose ends.

The month was OK, but I didn't play close to as many hands as I wanted to. I only played 1/4 weekends, which killed me. Hopefully after my vacation I can come back fresh and ready to grind.

The numbers.....

Cash Games:
$200NL - 62k hands for $1,987
$400NL - 1k hands for $96
$600NL - 8 hands for $66 :)
$200PL - 3k hands for $113
$400PL - 30 hands for ($208)

Totals: 65,911 hands for $2,056.10 [$19.72/hr]



Tournaments:
HeadUP: $256
SNGs: $44
MTTs: ($303)

Totals: 48 tournies for ($2.90) [roi% of (.16)]

Bonuses:

Stars bonuses: $4500
Casino bonus : $291

Total: $4791

February Net profit:
$6,844.20

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

So I guess I can't be upset with these numbers. I made more than I did in january, and played about half as much (104hrs in Feb. vs. 187hrs in Jan.). Still though, I really feel my hourly rate should be close to twice what it is.

Year to date:
$12,990.48

I'll be back in a week.

Daily Hand Quiz

This is a pretty cool site that offers a new poker quiz everyday: DailyHandQuiz.com

"DHQ offers a new poker quiz every weekday. Vote for a play to see our answer and praise or knock us in the comments."

Edit: youtube is working, but I had to cut the video in two parts. This is me playing a $35 SNG:

PT.1


PT.2

I realize I started a few thoughts and didnt finish them, but I'm easily distracted.
Anyhow, I don't play a tonne of headsup, and am by no means an expert. I'm still new to it and learning, but I enjoy it.

In a publicity stunt last week, PokerBandits.ca faked its own shutdown - supposedly at the behest of U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officials. The site has some info about a technique to get around the US poker site ban.

How to Bypass the US poker site ban:

PokerBandits.ca

Another Online Poker Closure - Doyle's Room Succumbs To UIGEA

Another blow was dealt to the online poker world late on Monday night as the Doyle Brunson Poker Network, the home of the very popular Doyle's Room (among other sites), decided to close its doors to American players.

"U. S. online poker players are not permitted to sign up for real money play or deposit funds into existing accounts. Commencing March 1, 2007, all U. S. players
on DoyleRoom.com will be blocked and…will be able to access
only the withdrawals page."

An e-mail was sent to all players affected by the shutdown, with a rather interesting proposition given to the American customers. Doyle's Room players will be able to transfer their accounts to Full Tilt, with all action points accrued going along as well.

Just saw a hand history from one of the sickest hands I've ever seen online:

$135,000 pot

Also, I recorded myself playing a head up sit n' go tourny. I'm just working on gettin it up on youtube and I'll post it tommorow or somehting for you all to check out.

This dude is hilarious:




He's got a bunch of videos, and they get progressively better. Here's his youtube profile:

LINK

Not much in the way of updates. I havn't made any progress since I last checked in, except that I've logged about 28k hands of breakeven poker. Well, I'm actually down a buyin, but whatever -- it's been a frustrating weekend. I can't wait for my vacation to Japan next month.

OH, I wanted to say -- I found out one of the things I need to work on to improve my game. I need to get better at winning huge pots where I'm like an 80%+ favourite. I really suck at that.

Monthly graph :




sigh...

WHatever, my 3rd $1500 pokerstars bonus should be cleared in the next few days, which will put me over 10k for the year. I'm behind where I want to be, but still hopeful that things will turn around.

lol - I hope for his sake he's joking. An example of why poker is profitable:

By far, my favourite poker show on right now is High stakes poker on GSN. This is one of the biggest pots ever, as far as I know. Close to $600,000 of REAL money in the middle here. Check it out then read some of my comments below.

So sick. I'd like to think if I were Daniel, I could've gotten away from that hand. There are only 3 hands that are check/raising that river, and all of them beat him.
I actually had a hand sort of similar to this occur last month... I'll run you through my thought process.

A pretty regular player in my game raises to $6 preflop from an early positon. I've played a lot with him, and know he's got a good hand to be rasing so early. He gets one caller, and I call on the button with 55. Very standard, and I'm looking to hit another 5 to extract some money.

*** FLOP *** [5c Ah 2h]

Bingo. Exactly what I'm looking for. He is first to act and checks, which right away signals to me that something is wrong. He would usually bet this flop and try to represent an ace. So, he is either scared of that ace, or has hit a huge flop and has three aces. Because of the two hearts on the board, I would think that three aces would bet here and make a flush draw pay, so I make the assumption that he has JJ, QQ or KK. In order to not scare him away, I check also. You might wonder why I didnt bet to protect against the heart draw, and its because he obviously doesnt have it. If he raised with AK, or AQ, he cant have two hearts because the ace of hearts is on the flop. SO i'm safe to check behind here, and hope that he bets his KK or QQ on the turn.

*** TURN *** [5c Ah 2h] [2s]

Beautiful card for me. I now have a full house. He checks to me, and I can't check any longer. I need to put some money in this pot. I bet a very weak $8 into an $18 pot. This is meant to look weak, and also get him to call with KK or QQ because the price is good. But then he does somethign that surpirses me. He puts in a minimum raise. He raises to $16. Now what is he doing? One of two things -- 1) picking up on my weakness and trying to take the pot away from me, OR 2) he has a better full house or possibly quad 2's (unlikely as I dont think he would raise this hand preflop from that position). I just call the bet wearily.

*** RIVER *** [5c Ah 2h 2s] [8d]

This is a meanigless card. If I was winning on the turn, I am still winning now. And my friend pulls a Gus, and checks the river to me. I assume I must have the best hand. He must have KK or QQ, or maybe a very strangely played hand with an ace in it. The pot is about $40, so I bet $30, hoping to get a call. Well, I got more than that. He raises me again. This time to $100. Now I have all the pieces to this puzzle and can put it together. The only hands that checkraise me here are AA, 22 or 88. All have me beat. I have a history witht his opponent -- he knows I'm in korea, and he's korean. We've talked before. So I got into the chat box and tried to elicit some info. Chat went somehting like this after he rasied:

the_main said, "AA?"
LM said, "yea"
the_main said, "will ushow?"
the_main said, "FOR KOREA?"
(he wouldnt answer, but I was sure)
the_main: folds
LM: shows [As Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Deuces)
the_main said, "nh"
LM said, "for Korea"

So basically, I was right, and saved myself a tonne of money where a lot of people go broke. And, oh yeah, I'm better than daniel negreanu.

A lot of people have asked how I can earn as much as I do with these bonuses. A lot of people are just baffled as to how I'm getting this 'free' money. Its actually really simple, and once you understand WHY a site gives bonuses, you'd be less skeptical.

As poker has boomed in popularity in the last couple years, smart players have learned how lucrative bonus whoring can be. Playing full time, you can easily earn 75,000USD just in bonuses. That's the beauty of it. If you are a breakeven player (dont win anything, but dont lose), you still end up making a huge amount of money. Now, if you're good, you can add all that extra profit to your income as gravy. Sites are happy to oblige because even BonusWhores (people who play strictly for bonuses) usually generate enough rake to make a card room at least break-even on a bonus, while they still get the chance of permanently retaining that player.


Some of the best to get started with:

AbsolutePoker.com (easily the best):
Sign-Up Bonus
100% up to $750

ESTIMATED YEARLY RELOADS
96 reloads, valued at $39,770

PokerStars.com:
Sign-Up Bonus
100% up to $50

ESTIMATED YEARLY RELOADS
6 reloads, valued at $710

Full Tilt
Sign-Up Bonus
100% up to $600

ESTIMATED YEARLY RELOADS
5 reloads, valued at $1,700


Give bonus-whoring a try.

Are you a donkey?

Think you're a good NL hold'em player? Take this test and post your results in the comments -- should be interesting to see some results.

Donkey Test

(set aside about 20mins, its a timed test)

Technorati Profile

Not a tonne of progress since my last post. I'm definitely not working hard enough. I've only played 27k hands this month, whereas I had played 56k in the first two weeks of January. I'm enjoying myself a lot though, so it's a good balance I suppose.

I'm gonna work my ass off this week b/c I'm leaving for Japan on the 27th for a week long vacation. I have to, have to, have to hit 100k hands this month, which is like 5k/day until end of month.

On to the numbers --

By the end of tommorow, I should have $3300 in bonuses earned. These things are really saving me. For those interested in how I'm earning so much, it's just because I play so much. It's essentially just Pokerstars giving me back a percenatge of the fee I pay them to play there.

To put it in presepctive, so far in 2007 I've paid $9300 in rake (fees) to pokerstars, and theyve given me back ~6k so far. I get a high precentage back because I'm such a high volume player. It's just a loyalty program thing, but I love it.

Anyhow, add the $3300 to the $1215 I've earned in cash games and I'm sitting at ~$4.5k at mid month.

In other news, I've added a co-author/admin to my site. It's a good friend of mine, Miron, so if you notice any changes around here in the coming days, its all him.

New layout, plz enjoy.

First week of february has been OK. +$800 in cash games, +$1750 in bonuses. So yeah, like $2500. I'd really like to hit $10k this month. Fingers crossed.

I played some live poker at one of the casinos here and forgot how much fun it was. Oh, and more importantly, how bad all the other players are. I was destroying the game 3-handed and then caught some rough beats. I made one bad call vs. my friend in a $750ish pot and lost, which was pretty much all my profit gone. Whatever, I was hammered.

I only left the casino up $10, but I got to drink and eat for free. Plus, my friend paid for cab rides (obv) so it was all good. I think I should try to make it out to that casino more often, because there is a lot of moniez to be had.

Lastly, there is apparently some korean poker tour thing going on soon. I'm gonna look into and then probably win the whole thing outright.

Month is starting off right -- finally booked a win in my casino whoring monthly adventures. Book a $291 win at zero risk.

Ok, I'm off to play my first 8 hour session of the new month.

January Results

Well, I made it through january alive. It was the most trying month of my poker career. I never really expected I could get such a cold run of cards. I hope this will end up being my worst month of the year, and that I can just put it behind me.

The month ended pretty well, and I crawled back to net a decent profit.

Anyhow, here are the numbers:

Cash Games:

$200NL - 112,570 hands for $2237
$200PL - 4,442 hands for ($196)
$400NL - 2,923 hands for ($1,090)

Other lower games make up the difference, but:

Total:
120,238 hands for $969.51 [$5.34/hr]



Tournaments (SNGs mostly):

71 tournies for a net of ($203.23)

Bonuses:
$5380 [$4500 + $880 milestone hand bonus]

Net:
$6146.28


Overall, I think this month has had positives. Going through that massive downswing has made me a much stronger player. I have experienced just about as bad as it gets, so nothing else should be able to phase me. My goal remains the same... 200k in 2007.

My other goal of supernova elite status still stands, but I'm a bit behind this month.
72,188/1,000,000
If I fail to reach this goal, I'm losing about $25,000 in value --I need to get motivated.

I'll check back in next week.

"One Day, you will run worse than you ever thought possible"

Well, for me, that day has come. This month has been absolutely GROSS. Coolers, suckouts, and some tilty play here and there has left me with a negative earning for the month.

So sick, plz enjoy:

$200NL = 72,104 hands for $875
$200PL = 3,221 hands for ($235)
$400NL = 2,600 hands for ($834)
$400PL = 219 hands for $119

Total = 78,157 hands ($90) OR ($0.77/hr)

Yesssir, thats like an 80k breakeven stretch. Well, my winrate is .08ptbb/100, so thats a slight positive.

Oh and I'm stuck an extra hundo betting flop colors with another player (who is a lucksack, btw).

ON THE BRIGHTSIDE -- I cleared a $1500 bonus, and will probably be clearing another one this month b/c the France EPT was cancelled. I'm still looking into germany, but the flight is like $2.5k roundtrip.. wtf? pokerstars only covers $1,000 of the flight, so yeah... I'm currently looking into alternatives .

bottom line is I'm still up like $2,200 for the month.

Brightside pt.2 - raptors are playing awesome. when they win the championship, i will win $22k and none of this will matter.

The weekend is coming up, and I plan to put in marathon sessions. Hopefully the go well *fingers crossed*

fuck off

taking shots at $400NL, this beauty comes up

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $4 BB (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

saw flopsaw showdown

BB ($249.20)
UTG ($170.20)
UTG+1 ($410)
MP1 ($439)
MP2 ($202)
MP3 ($353.90)
CO ($220.60)
Button ($468.15)
SB ($408.60)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Ks, Kc.
2 folds, MP1 raises to $12, 1 fold, MP3 calls $12, 1 fold, Button raises to $32, 2 folds, MP1 calls $20, MP3 calls $20.

Flop: ($102) Js, 5h, 5d (3 players)
MP1 checks, MP3 checks, Button bets $50, MP1 folds, MP3 raises to $100, Hero calls $50.

Turn: ($302) 2s (2 players)
MP3 bets $24, Button raises to $336.15, MP3 calls $197.90 (All-In).

River: ($860.05) Jc (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $860.05

Results below:
UTG doesn't show.
MP3 has Qh Jh (full house, jacks full of fives).
Hero has Ks Kc (two pair, kings and jacks).
Outcome: MP3 wins $745.80. Hero wins $114.25.

96% fucking favourite

shoot me /// i'm down 6 or 7 hundo for the day.

BBV

beat:
I've now played 48,274 hands, and I havn't made a cent since my last post. I went on a $2k downswing (my biggest ever, yay)which messed with my head a bit, but I've grinded back almost everything. Still, like 20k breakeven stretch.

brag:
I've earned 105k fpps from pokerstars this month alone, which are worth ~$1676.30.

beat:
EPT France is cancelled. awesome. I was totally on pace and excited about it too. Not sue why it was cancelled, but it is. I guess I can go to the EPT event in Germany, but I have to find out if pokerstars is goign to let you buyin with FPPs. We'll see.

beat:
I'm going for supernova elite. This means I'll be pokering my eyes out every day. I'll probably have carpal-tunnel by the end of it, or be totally insane. 1.7million hands of poker in a year is not human.

brag:
I'm going to be 3L337.

variance:
girls are retarded.


until next time.....

I've played 25,707 hands already, earning ~$1300. This puts me on pace for about 100k hands for the month, which should easily send me to france. I put in nearly 8000 hands in today, which is like 11 or 12 hours. I'm a sick man. I ran well in my short stint at $400NL and booked a $725 win overall.

I've been throwing around the idea of shooting for pokerstars elite level of VIP. Essentially, I would have to play ~1.7million hands this year to achieve it (works out to about 7hrs a day, every day). Basically, by doing this, I assure myself about $70k in bonuses and about $30k in trips and big tournament buyins (WSOP and WPT events). So that is about $100k value, including what I would make for the year. And who knows, I may make a big score at one of those tournaments (I'm talking a couple 100k or somehting). Also, assuming my hourly rate is $45/hr, that's another $115k/yr (based on 200k hand sample at $200NL).

So basically, I'd be working my ass off for the whole year, with the hopes of pulling $200-220k. I'd also have the added benefit of a crazy vip status for a large portion of 2008 (means i earn more bonus cash).

I really have to think this through.... but its quite the oppourtunity.

Anyhow, EPT update is 314k/500k -- should be no problem, I hope.

3rd update today but whatever -- just got dealt into a millionth hand at pokerstars. Ship me $880 for absolutely no reason. The funny thing is I had no idea I won. I just checked my balance to see if I was unstuck yet, and saw the nice surprise.

I played 2k hands and dropped $40. Feels good to be up over $800. holla.

BTW, the dengue rash is starting to develop on my ankles. PICZ AND UPDATEZ TO COME.

Just heard some good news from pokerstars. They added a new event to the EPT schedule this year in Dortmund, Germany. While I really wanted to go to France, and will still make the effort, chances are I will end up in this tournament. This will be March 8-11th, 2007.

Also, I guess I could mention some numbers from my 2006. All numbers from the year are included, but I didn't play much prior to April 12th 2006, after my graduation. I've pulled $27,955 from cash games and $4,860 from tournies. So that's a total of $32,682 for the year. That's not including bonuses or casino whoring adventures, which I would estimate puts me somewhere closer to 36k. I don't keep great details on those numbers....

Cashgame graph:

Holy crap, I'm sick. I think I have dengue fever from cambodia. Its not fatal, but I should feel like shit for about a month or so. awesome. I'm in so much pain, it's sick. The disease is called 'bonecrusher disease' because of the extreme pain it causes. holla. I can't really sit at my computer for an extended period of time, so I'm kind of fucked for poker. The fever set in yesertday, and apparenlty it goes away soon for a day-- BUT, then i get a rash all over my body and the fever comes back with twice the intensity. I'm really excited about that, obv.

Not sure if I'll be able to put in enough hands to make the EPT in feb, which is dissapointing. Not giving up though.

December Numbers

Cash Games

35,515 hands for $3610 (2.35bb/100 or $66/hr)

Breakdown
NL4oo: 221 hands for $547
NL200: 33,422 hands for $2200
PL200: 1,872 for $862

Tournies

Played 3 for a net return of ($0.81)

Bonuses
$150 from pokerstars

Total
$3759.19


Thoughts on the month: I played really well. I wish I played more, and thats about it. I slacked but really enjoyed myself. I made enough to pay all my bills, and take a sweet vacation. Didn't bank much cash though. WHatever.

EPT update has me at 260k/500k. Slowly becoming a stretch....

I'll check back next week....

Week 3 Update (sort of):

Just over 47 hours of work so far this month. So I guess I've only worked 17 hours in two weeks. Oops.
30,558 hands for $2,381.35 ($51/hr)
Winrate is 1.72bb/100hands which is easily sustainable and is actually lower that my overall average.
I've made some small tweaks to my game, and am playing like a zen master. I lost a $400 pot yesterday where I got it in as 94% favourite. I didn't even flinch... I sort of just gave the computer a dirty look and kept on keeping on. holla.



EPT Update:
250k/500k

Getting there.... slowly. I really need to play a tonne in January if I even want a shot at this. Its really hard to get a lot of play in during the holidays. I'm trying though...
It's not like I'm gonna have a lot of time to play until the new year, because I have a friend coming to stay with me next week. So we'll be going out and partying a lot, etc etc. I'd love to get to 270/500k by the end of the year.

Hahaha, I'm gonna need to play like 100k hands in January....

Well, I'm back from the land of guns, girls and ganja... happy to say I enjoyed all 3.

No real poker updates, I'll check in with a better update soon.

Week 1 update:

Well, my first week as a pro, and well... it could've gone better. I've run really badly, but I'm still up, so that is encouraging.

I played 20,670 hands this week (i only played 26k all last month!) and I'm up $853.10 for ~$27/hr. It hasn't really been a grind at all -- some frustrating moments, but nothing I can't handle. I'm putting in 2 sessions a day, and spending the rest of the time hanging out with friends. So I've played 32hours this week, and will probably put up another seshion tonight.

EPT Update:
228k/500k

Originally I thought I only needed 400k total to get the package... but its actually 500k.
I've earned 44.5k in points this week, and I only need 272k more by feb.10th to go to france for the EPT. It's gonna be close... but I should be able to pull it out.

I'd rather not even talk about this month, lol.
I ran like shit at the end of the month, and am currently on a big downswing. I havn't played in a few days, and I'm not going to play until december.
Go december I'll go balls out, and try to make a sml fourtune. I'll be missing a week mid month because I'm visiting Cambodia, and maybe some days at the end b/c some freinds are coming to visit me in korea.

Oh, if I manage to come up with 400,000 points by mid february, I'm going to France to play in the EPT event there. Getting that many points is totally doable if I play enough. Heck, lets make it a goal. Done.

Here are my awesome totals:

Cash games:

NL200 - 24,000hands for $673
PL200 - 1,400hands for $175
NL400 - 1000 hands for $145
PL400 - 33 hands for ($200)
NL600 - 18 hands for ($45)

Totals: 26,420 hands for $757.66 (.94bb/100 or $14.13/hr)

Tournies:
36 tournies
$350 invested for a return of $199.97

NET: ($150.63) with an ROI of (42.96%)

Add on a bonus from poker stars of $400 and.....

TOTAL : $1007.03

So I fell really short of my hand goal, but I think its better, because I hate playing when I'm running bad. I just wanted to wait and start fresh in December.

Here's my graph for the month.... talk about some swings! (the plunge at the end is two set over sets which I was on the wrong end of... not exactly tilt)

So today is my last day of real work... I'll check in next week, and hopefully I'll already have 15k hands in for the month. Go, John, go.

holla

This month has been so swingy so far. I've already had $1200, $1000 and $800 downswings. I've grinded through it, and I'm up $2k over almost 20,000 hands (not including bonuses).

After my school closes in ~1week, my korean visa will no longer be valid. Being canadian though, I can get a 6month visitor visa.... BUT I have to leave the country first. So in the next few weeks I will be taking a vacation to Tokyo. It will probably be for about a week, and I don't intend to play any poker while I'm on it.

I've been thinking about monthly goals, as far as hands go. In 38hrs this month, I've played 19ish hands. So lets just say 40hrs=20k hands (or 500/hr). So if I play 30hrs/week, I can get 60,000 hands in. This should let me make about $6k/month (assuming my winrate is accurate). This will be my base goal... but I'm hoping I can go above and beyond. I also want to get more $400NL in during the weekneds. Its been decently profitable for me, and will hopefully continue.

umm... big news.
I just lost my job. School is closing down due to bustoness.

I guess its time to see how much I can actually pull from this game.

December will be my first month as a pro.

GL ME.

I'm slacking... but hey, I'm enjoying myself.
I havn't played a hand over the past 2 weekends and I'm way behind schedule. Instead, I've been out galavanting with scantily clad korean women. Whatever, its been a good trade off.

I started back on monday and went on one of my biggest slides ever. $1.2k down the tubes in like 2500hands. This was 4buyins at $200 and 1 at $400, so no big deal relative to the stakes.... still hurts though. The blow was softened howveer, by the $400 pokerstars bonus.

Altogether I've played just under 11,000 hands and won $577. With the bonus, thats almost $1k. I don't know if I can hit my hand goal this month.... I have plans for sat. and sun., so it will be close. Whatever. Maybe I'll hit a big tourny score?! haha. I'm gonna try to play a bunch today from work, hopefully that goes well.

Ugh. I'm having a really frustrating start to the month.
I guess things are just balancing out a bit, because I'm running like shit. I suppose I was due for some bad luck.

I"ve played 6000 hands this month and I'm up like $200. I guess this is OK considering how many sick beats and coolers I"ve had laid on me (and an $800 SUPER-cooler). I've been getting my money in a favourite most of the time -- I know if I keep it that way, things will eventually fall in my favour.

I'm gonna keep on pluggin away, and shoot for 8k. Maybe I'm setting the bar too high, but whatever. Bleh, I shouldn't even set monetary goals. How about I just set a 35k hand goal? Thats what I did in september and I think it was my most hands/month ever. Still managed 6k in cash games with a fair winrate. Thats about 1100 hands a day for the rest of the month, whcih shouldnt be too tough b/c I've started playing at work (holla'!).

I'll check in next week...