Ok, So I'm pretty much done for the month. It was another juicy one, and my best month for cash games ever. The breakdown:

$200NL -- 21,774hands for $5,537 (6.26bb/100)
$200NL 6max - 109hands for ($87)
$200PL -- 654hands for $1,066 (40.76BB/100) lol
$400NL -- 1,695hands for $822 (6.51bb/100)
$400 6max -- 208hands for $552
$600NL -- 200 hands for $1
$600NL 6max -- 16 hands for $95
$5000NL - 24hands for $219 --- Yeah, that's right... $5000NL

Cash Game Totals:

$8258.45
56hours ($147/hr)



Tournaments are teh ghey, as I mentioned:

$689 invested for a $853 win =

$164.86
(24% ROI)

+
$337 in casino bonuses

Grand Total:

$8760.31


Very good month, consdiering my goal was $5k. And I still made 10k...if you count my teaching job. :D

In other news, I finally got a 2nd monitor. 20inch samsung widescreen (will post picz later). Now I'm dual monitoring like all the cool kids, and it makes my life that much easier.

In more exciting news, the basketball season starts today. To celebrate my good month, I dropped ~$100 on the raptors to win the NBA championship.

SHUT UP, THEY WILL.

STOP LAUGHING.

Whatever, you're not invited to my party when they ship me my $22,000 (220:1 odds).

I AM LUCKY AT CARDZZzz

example: free look with J7 in the BB. If the JJ7 flop wasnt good enough, why not just give my opponent 77 too? kthxpkr. ship it.

up $6730 for month now.

This is all mr.face's doing... I know it.

HA HA HA! HOLLA'!
/

Poker tournaments are possibly the most emotionally draining thing ever. There's nothing worse than playing for 5 hours and then getting shafted on a coinflip. Ugh. And nobody understands my frustration.

Today I woke up just in time to register for a tournament. It's an $11 rebuy tourny with a 55k gaurantee (1st place is usually 15k these days) . I won this tourny about 2 years about, and it's still my biggest win to date. So anyways, I hadn't planned on playing this, but this was the first chance I've had to since I got to Korea, so I did.

5 HOURS and 1600 players later, I bust in 13th place. I invested $33 and won about $500. I should be happy right? No.

Tournaments pay offs are so top heavy, the $500 win is laughable. 9th pays $1000, 8th $1500, 4th $4500, 2nd $10,000, 1st $15,000. And I come away with $500. Bleh. But no one gets it...

"YOU WON $500, STFU!"

But I can't help but be upset.... its so dissapointing. I hate tournsments... you're never satisfied unless you win the damn things.

I can't believe I'm up $1500 over the last 24hrs and feel bad. Die tournaments, die.

late night edit: I just hit 5k during my last session -- $5200 for the month so far... goodnight

Still doing damage...
$3,600 over 12,300hands for the month ($125/hr)

I'm closing in on 30k profit I think... too lazy to look up all numbers.

I'll update at month's end. 5k or bust - gogogogogo

Phase #1 - Run hot
Phase #2 - ?????????
Phase #3 - Profit!!

Mid-month update

Up $2,100 in cash games over like 4,000 hands. $188/hr, no big deal. Plus the ~$300 from the casino and I'm clsoe to 2.5k for the month in less than 13hours work. Sometimes this job is pretty sweet.

For you number guys:

12.74bb/100

$1,575 at $200NL
$280 at $200PL
$320 at 400NL (over only 90 hands)

I dropped some money trying out 6handed, and didnt like it -- Full ring is much easier IMO. I also made a bit of cash playing some low stakes games for fun with friends.

I'm sticking to my 5k goal for the month.... This will hopefully materialize if I play another 20k hands. If I can manage that, and still keep having all this fun outside of poker, I'll be a v. happy guy.

I have hardly played since my last post. I did play about 500 hands yesterday and about 1500 today.

2,500 hands so far for $600.

I intend to kick it into gear for the rest of the month... about 1000hands/day. I want to crack 5k.

And I'm off...

Ok, I lied. I played some more for the month and booked another nice win ($600 or so).
September cash game totals are now $6,300.

Oh and I'm up $50 for october so far. ship it. ;)

I have a lot of work to do this month if I want to pull in another 10k. I'll check in soon with updates.

edit: casino bonus good for $337

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

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

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

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

Bonus from Pstars:
$120

Sports betting:
$100

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

GRAND TOTAL:
$10,048

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Pot: $567.70

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

Oops. Soul sold.

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

holllla.

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

(past 7 days)

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

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

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

Midish month update:

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

Tourny winnings = $4006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time......

Its like 4am but I need to post this:


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

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

Holla.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NICE TRY SEPTEMBER

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

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


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

The month is over and I feel very meh about it. I rode a monster wave of variance near the end. Here's the graph:



I totally forgot about that huge downswing at the start of the month... pretty weak.

#'s

Hands: 27,009
Moniez: $2751.55
Hourly rate: $35/hr :(
bb/100: 2.61 :(
mt ratio: 5.74

At least its better than last month. With all those big swings down (One for $1500 and a few nearing $1000), I guess I can't be dissapointed with the month. I'm proud I got so many hands in. Next month will be better, and will include calulated shots at limits as high as $600. I plan to mix $400NL games in on the weekend and nights that are juicy. I'll play up to $600 if I'm following a fish up. This will be good for multiple reasons. 1) More money to be had and 2) it will desensitize me to $200NL. For example, now if I play $100NL, I play absolutely fearlessly. My bankroll is huge for these games and can make plays with less concern for the money. At $200NL I still get that uneasy feeling when I lose a big pot. Hopefully winning and losing at higher stakes will give me that fearlessness at $200NL. I mean, I used to feel this way when I played $100NL, so it only makes sense.

I'll check back in and let you know how september is treating me.

Well, it took 77,056 hands, but I finally hit 10k profitz since I began this quest.

Cash games:
62,781 hands/ $8974.09 (270.13 hours)

Tournies:
14,134 hands/ $1,447.84 (146 tournies, with a ridiculous 226% ROI)

That ROI is pretty sick, I should really play some more tournaments. I think I'm going to try and get into the WCOOP and win some big moniez.

All is well on the poker front. I'm at $2580 for the month, but more importantly I'm really close to hitting $10,000US in profit since I ended school a few months ago. Looking at the numbers, I'm on pace to do ~$30k this year, but I'm thinking 50k is attainable. Combine this with the fact that I actually work a real job now, and I should have a pretty profitable year.

All I can do is put in the time and the hands, and hope everything goes well.

I'll let you know when I hit 10k (~$225 away from it).

Month is still going pretty well.

Today is Idenpendence Day in South Korea, so I got a chance to log 1500 or so hands. Booked a nice session, despite running my KK into AA on the flop (when we both flopped sets) and running my K-high flush into an A-high flush (where I feel I managed to only lose the minimum).

Mid-August Results:
12,509 hands
$2,143 profit
$53.60/hr

I love that I've alreayd played 20% more hands already this month than I did last. Finally I'm on pace to get a lot of hands in, and there is really nothing to stop me.

Feel free to check out my blog in Korea -- I've added a link to the side bar, but it's located at:
www.wevegotseoul.com

peace

9554 hands - $1475 profit
My winrate is still ~4. I'm begining to wonder if that is my actual winrate at this level or just bad negative variance. I guess I can't complian, b/c it's leading to about $50/hr, but I really think/wish it should be up closer to 8. Only time will tell I suppose.

<\3 variance.

8290 hands already for the month. And I'm down since my last post? $1288 profit with a staggering 3.97bb/100 winrate. My multitable ratio is waaaay up though, so my hourly rate is a 'happy time' $48/hr. I also won the biggest pot of my poker career yesterday. $798.15. There was a moron giving away money at the table, and I took a lot of it (then gave some back when I had a full house trumped by his quads). All in all, I probably took $500 off that one guy. Anyhow, that hand he paid off my set with his two pair and another guy had an overpair. It was a very sexy pot. It was the biggest I've ever seen at 200NL by over $100.

Anyhow, I'm on pace to do some damage this month -- hopefully I can crack 5k... that would be lovely.

rock on.