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

THE MONTH:

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

$2.48/hour!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Pot: $383.85

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Final Pot: $334.75

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'll check back in next week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Total: $3850

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

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

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

Well, I'm back from LA but I'm currently computer-less. I brought my laptop in for repairs so it will be in good shape when I move to Korea (2-3weeks). It was acting up and overheating, amongst a few other problems. I should get it back next week sometime. Until then I will probably do very little playing, if any at all. If I get really bored, I might fire up a tournament or two. I'm really not in a bind to play, so I'll likely make use of the free time to spend it with friends/family before I leave the country.

I doubt there will be another update for a week+. Going to the cottage this weekend, and then I graduate on the Monday I come back. Right after that I'm off to California for a week (I might play some live poker at Commerce or the Bike when I'm there). I'm back on the 20th. See you then.

I'm +$3300 over 9313hands now for the month. That's very little progress over the last 2000 hands. But I'm actually feeling pretty good about it. I lost some really big hands, but was able to fight through a deficit. At the lowest point I was down $670 (~3.5 buyins), which is relatively small compared to the stakes I'm playing (10 buyin downswings are normal, which is why they suggest always have 15-20 buy-ins in your bankroll). I'm not sure how I'll handle dropping $2000, but it should be fun finding out one day. Ahh variance, you sexy beast.

BONUS: Pokerstars gave me a bonus of $120, on the condition that ~1500 hands on thier site. Any current player can get the bonus. This is to reward current players and to encourage players to redeposit. It's a good marketing technique. I'm nearly 70% through that bonus, so that will be nice to get.

I havn't played as much as I expected - Only 800 hands since my last post, but I'm +$365 in them. Sometimes I wonder how much I could make if I ever put in a real workday (8hrs).

I have to share a hand with everyone. Poker is a lot like business: to be successful, you have to maximize profits and minimize losses. Over the long run, every one of your opponents will get the same distribution of cards. It easy to play the best cards, but its what you do with the 2nd best hand that makes or breaks you. This is how you can make folding a weapon in your arsenal:

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

Button ($206.15)
SB ($418)
BB ($198)
UTG ($35.05)
UTG+1 ($198.60)
MP1 ($214.60)
MP2 ($545.65)
Hero ($239.95)
CO ($154.60)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Ks, Kh.
UTG raises to $4, UTG+1 raises to $12, 2 folds, Hero calls $12, 4 folds, UTG calls $8.

Flop: ($39) 4c, Ac, Kc (3 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 bets $186.6 (All-In), Hero FOLDS, UTG calls $23.05 (All-In).

Turn: ($248.65) 3h (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($248.65) 9h (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $248.65

Results in white below:
UTG has Jc Qd (high card, ace).
UTG+1 has Ad Ah (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins $248.65.

So what happened here? How was I able to fold 2nd set on the flop? Its not even that difficult if you think about it logically. The villain in the hand raised pretty large pre-flop, so you assume he has a big hand. When the flop comes down with three clubs and he moves all in, you have to assume he's protecting a hand. What I mean is that if he had a flush, he would play it slower and try to draw you in. This is an obvious betting tell. So now that you know you're not agianst a flush, you have to ask 'what hands would he do this with?'. And really, there is only one answer - two aces. Hands like QQ or JJ are scared of the two overcards, and AK is unlikely as you have 2 of the other kings (and one ace is on the flop). I did have a read, and the guy was a fairly tight player, so this made the play easier to make.

I think most people call here without thinking too much about it. I put him on the exact hand he had, and saved myself $200. The power of folding.

June goals update:
+$3161 in cash games over 7122 hands

$4000 is the goal - I should be able to make this, but I have a VERY busy month ahead and I will be away from a computer 10 of the next 17 days.

I've had a busy weekend and havn't played much at all. Except on friday, when I came home throughly trashed and decided it would be a great idea to play poker. It wasn't. I dropped about $200 before realizing I just might not be playing my best game.

I should be able to play a lot this week, so updates will follow.

Moving up quickly is a tricky thing to accomplish. Generally, if you're moving up fast, you are running well and won't hit too many downswings. But then, when you do finally hit one, it's amplified. This is obviously because that downswing is going to come at a time when you are playing higher stakes than your previous downswing. Emotionally, this is a tough thing to deal with.

For example : You have a bad day at $50NL and end up down $200 for the DAY. This happens and you recover, and don't hit a bump in the road until you're all the way up at $200NL. And then the inevitable happens, and quickly you lose $200 in one hand. And then another one - and all of the sudden, you've lost $400 in a few minutes. While this is a smaller downswing relative to the stakes, emotionally the loss is harder.

This is a point where many players lose thier patience, and go on tilt. Thier emotions begin to affect the way they are playing. This sub-optimal play fuels more losses, and the downward spiral continues until busto.

I hit a bump today. I had been running so hot, and then all of the sudden I dropped $200 in one hand. I shook it off quickly, because I had a big hand on another table. That hand I overplayed KK, and instantly dropped another $200. Looking back calmly at the hand history, I should've folded and saved myself $150. But I let the other hand affect my judgement and paid for it.

So now I'm down $400 in about 60seconds, when my biggest loss had been $200. I guess it was the speed as much as anything that got to me.

I just had to stop for a minute and reassure myself that this was normal and bound to happen. In fact, I hope to lose a lot more one day. I took a quick peek at my stats/graph and saw what a small bump this was overall. These things together helped me to calm down very quickly. I'm really pleased with how I handled it, and that I managed to play well afterwards. I hope when I hit my next little downswing (which will be bigger) I can look back at this and be reminded.

For what it's worth, I ended the session +$753 over ~1500hands. Still 13.88bb/100.

I got in just over 1000hands today for ~$500 profit. This is dispite blowing $60 or so in a 2+2 game with some friends. These are basically private tables where a lot of high stakes players get together and play for very low stakes. Usually this is done to blow off some steam, socialize and have some fun. The buy-in is typically $25, which is meaningless for a lot of these guys . I enjoy the games because there is a very interesting dynamic. Essentially, you have a table full of very skilled players, who are playing sub-optimally and goofing around. It's a different level of thinking which is really stimulating.

I'm actually still playing on one table as I type this (painstakingly boring). It's late, but there is one horrible player left on the table throwing money away. He was up to $1000 at one point, and has since blown threw that and rebought twice ($400 more). It's been facinating to watch, as the more he loses, the looser he gets. Pure gambling problem. But whatever, I guess as sad as it is, this is the kind of person I thrive on. And just as I write that he loses his last $200 and I'm off to bed.

Played about 1000 hands today for close to $600. I'm running sick good at 13bb/100hands which has led to $130.20/hour over the last 10 hours. I severely doubt this is sustainable, and would expct my true rate at this level to be anywhere between 6-9bb/100hands.

Sick June graph:

Quick update:
$200NL is treating me well, and it looks as if I won't be stepping back down any time soon. I've already pulled $720 from the game over ~1400hands(including the $281 from last post). So far June kicks ass, and I'm on pace for a $15,000 month. lol, doable?

So the bad news is I'm home on a friday night. The good news is that I took advantage of it. The games were really good tonight, so I jumped up to $200NL for the first time. I 6-tabled it for the most of the night, and after a rough start, eventually got up about $400. I played for some more and ended up +$281 for the night.

Some thoughts from the session:

First, I know I can beat this level (Even if I ended down $300, I'd still know this. The play was just as bad, and worse in spots, as my lower limit). So that feels really good. I felt like some people were putting moves on me in spots, but didn't make a re-raise. I decided to play cautiously and avoid the curse of overthinking. What I mean is that when you play higher than you're used to, you tend to think the players will be better. So all of the sudden, you start seeing things that arn't there and beating yourself. An example would be if someone raises your bluff, instead of folding and giving him credit for a good hand, you instead raise all in because you think "He knows I'm bluffing, and he's bluffing with that raise because he knows that". So yeah, I played cautiously to make sure this wouldn't happen to me tongiht. I played straight-forward, aggressive poker and it paid off.

Last thing I want to mention is a great hand I played. I played it OK, but my opponent played it expertly. Check this out:

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

MP3 ($413.10)
CO ($164.60)
Button ($19.65)
SB ($191.10)
Hero ($234.80)
UTG ($209.70)
UTG+1 ($106)
MP1 ($213.80)
MP2 ($247.70)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6s, 6d.
5 folds, CO calls $2, 1 fold, SB raises to $4, Hero calls $2, CO calls $2.

Flop: ($12) As, Th, 8d (3 players)
SB bets $2, Hero calls $2, CO calls $2.

Turn: ($18) 6h (3 players)
SB bets $2, BB raises to $8, CO raises to $22, SB folds, BB raises to $50, CO calls $28.

River: ($120) Qd (2 players)
BB bets $178.8 (All-In), CO calls $108.60 (All-In).

Final Pot: $407.40

Results in white below:
Hero has 6s 6d (three of a kind, sixes).
CO has Jc 7s (high card, ace).
Outcome: Hero wins $407.40.

Yes. He called my all in -- for ONE HUNDRED more dollars -- with JACK HIGH. I mean seriously, WTF? Where do these people get money?

Anyhow, hope you enjoyed that one. I know I did!