After the expiration of the current lease in L.A., I’ll be living in Las Vegas through the duration of the summer.  After that, I’ll be moving back to Kansas.  I’ve been around and about a bit since I graduated from high school.  I spent 1.5 years at St. Mary’s, .5 at home, 3 in Lawrence, 1 in Lake Tahoe and the next 3 will be spent in L.A..  Nothing that insane, but it’s still quite a bit.  In September, I’ll be in Overland Park, KS.  That’s where Crystal is and it’s where we’ve chosen to live for the foreseeable future.

The weather there isn’t favorable, but it’s more affordable than my beloved L.A. and it’ll be a great place to raise a family.  I’ll probably come back to L.A. quite a bit though, since it’s only a Southwest flight away.

Until then, I shouldn’t have a problem staying busy.  I have around 17 clients at the moment and been playing a lot myself.  Reed and I are going to either St. Louis or Houston to watch Kansas in the 3rd & 4th rounds in a couple weeks and I may go watch St. Mary’s next week depending on which location that they draw.  Crystal is visiting this weekend and I’m going to Kansas for Easter and hopefully for the Final Four as well.  After that, I’ll be pretty much dedicated to the chair and computer for the remainder of April and May.  It’s imperative that I’m in an appropriate financial situation before I leave for Las Vegas on May 24/25th.

It’s been some time since I last posted.  I only find it appropriate to continue where I last left things off.  So, that $2,600 that I miraculously have in Sports.com.  Actually, I didn’t use the appropriate tense.  See, I have this problem.  There’s  a reason that I quit sports betting.  It all went on USC vs. Ohio St..  And that’s how I lost $50.

Ironically, I’m watching American Idol at the moment.  There’s only one way to watch AI and that’s with Tivo.  I can’t remember life without it.

It all started about 5 years ago.  I was battling a problem with sports betting.  I really wanted to quit.  You could say that I really needed to quit.  Sports.com gave me a free $50.  I didn’t want to bet it because I feared it would catapult me into betting regularly again if I won.  Instead, I bet it on the democrats to win the 2008 election.  That’s right.  I bet on the democrats to win the election that was 4 years from the time that I made the bet.  So, I shipped that obv.  It felt kind of could.  The money didn’t matter.  It was kind of a cool thing to see that bet come in after I had successfully recovered from a sports betting problem in the previous 4 years.  I requested a cashout, but Sports.com required that I sent in verification.  Now that seemed like a lot of work for $100, so I decided to wait and just bet it on something.

Fast forward a few months.  Hailey and I had been watching American Idol every week.  I felt that the bet was to bet on the guys to win at -110 several weeks  into the competition.  The girls seemed pretty weak to me.  I didn’t make the bet in time and when the competition was down to 36 the line had dropped to something like -330.  There was no way I was going to bet 100 to win 30ish, so I decided to bet it on a person to win.  I scouted the bets for a few weeks.  I thought Kris Allen would be a good person to wager on.  Every 12 year old girl was going to vote for him like they voted for Jason Castro last year.  KA seemed like a lock to make the last 4 to me.  When he hit 25 to 1, I jumped all over it for my case money in the Sports.com account - $100.  It’s amazing how this has transpired.  I remember making large compulsive sports bets all those years ago.  In the end, I actually made money, but it was very bleak there for a while.  I was making 500 - 1,000 bets almost randomly.  I faded disaster then, kicked that habit and now somehow have $2,600 in my account.

Ah, it feels sooo nice!  I’d like to thank the supposed 38 million votes that came in from Arkansas out of the near 100 million votes made.  Yeah, you may have stolen most of your name from my beloved, but I sure as heck don’t care about that now.  Yes, I’m going to send my i.d. verification now.

May has been a disaster each and every year since I’ve gone to Vegas for the WSOP.  I just can’t seem to avoid it.  This is the fourth year in a row that I’m going to head into the WSOP on a significant losing streak in cash games.  I’m not sure what it is.  I’ve been playing alright and not playing above 1/2, so I’m not sure what happened this time around.  Whatever!  It’s not that bad…  I have lost 9 of the last 10 days that I’ve played.  I’m pretty sure that’s a person worst, but it’s onlya minor influence of my psyche.

Reed and I are going to live at The Pointe in Woodland Hills starting in a couple months.  It’s really nice and should serve as a very good home base for 9/10 months.  I’m moving things out Thursday and Friday, spending the weekend with Hailey - I think we’re going to the La Brea tar pits - and I’m off to Vegas on Monday!  Tonight, we’re watching American Idol and I’ll be voting religiously for Kris Allen.  I decided not to hedge and just go for it all.  He’s currently running at 12/5 on Bodog.  That’s a lot better than the 25/1 price that I got him at.  Gogogogogogogo…

No, I didn’t graduate.  However, I’m getting close!  Unless I go back to my old ways from a few years back, I’ll graduate in December.  My sister, Marla, graduated from LMU on Saturday.  She started at Colorado before she transferred there after one year.  She grinded like the 70-somethings at 4/8 LHE to graduate in a very impressive 3.5 years + summer school.  I have to say that is very impressive!  Mass was on Friday.  I hadn’t been to mass since I was in high school.  It was everything that you would expect besides the massive excess of incense that was let out throughout its entirety.  At one point, I thought they were going to have to call the paramedics.  This elderly woman was sitting in the handicap section and during prayer incense was shot out directly in front of her for at least 5 minutes.  My grandma, dad and I almost died of laughter as they very apparently struggled with the strong aroma.

Hailey and I concocted an alcoholic beverage for Saturday’s graduation.  She got the recipe from Cosmo.  The ingredients were cranberry juice, lemonade, 3 types of polmegranate and vodka.  It was quite the hit for those that drank it.  During the graduation, Marla made her way over to us before she was called up to get her diploma.  She was visibly drunk after having gone to a pre-graduation celebration at The Hacienda, a very good Mexican restraunt, earlier that morning.  Being the great brother that I am, I hooked her up with a bottle of it and she took it with her back to her seat.  Now if you know my sister, you’ll know that this is unlike her.  About 1,600 students were called to the stage and received a diploma.  Marla was the only student that ran up to the person that was to hand her the diploma and jumped into his arms in celebration.  They had 2 big screens showing the action from the stage so everyone saw it quite well.  It was hilarious.  And no, she didn’t know the person.  It must have been that extra kick of alochol that I had given her and probably a lot of bottled in excitment as well.  She was rightfully excited.  I’m very proud of her.

I played 2 sessions of cash games today and it didn’t go particularly well.  I lost 1,000 playing 100 & 200 NL.  I ran pretty terribly, but I’m very happy with one thing in particular.  In the last month, I’ve played 9-handed 400 & 600 NL when it’s running.  I was very cautious about game selection.  In doing so, I noticed that I was playing much differently at those tables and it wasn’t for the good.  I was playing overly cautious and at other times very stubbornly.  It didn’t feel very good at all.  I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and in doing so I’ve lost much of the desire that I had previously to play at those limits online.  This is a very good thing and especially after losing 7,500 at Commerce the other day.  Things are really starting to line up for me I feel.  At this point, I’m in a position of great comfort playing 100 & 200 online and playing higher only in live cash games.  Lately, I’ve been playing in the later evening hours and I think I’m going to continue doing that.  This will allow for me to have more time to play live during the day and early to mid evening hours.  I’ll have to wait until mid-August to see how this schedule will go.  As long as I play regularly at Commerce and play well of course, everything should work itself out with the rest of the business ventures that I take part in.  I’m going to try my best to practice this type of a schedule when I’m Vegas this summer.

Tomorrow I have the second charity golf tournament of the year.  This one if for the high school that Matt, Russell and myself graduated from.  We’re also golfing with another grad from Chaminade.  This tournament is a shamble.  Each player takes their first shot, the best shot is chosen and each member of the team plays their own ball out from there.  I’d rather it be the scramble format from last week, but I’ll do my best to contribute in this format tomorrow.

I regret not posting earlier in the week.  Instead, the content is not going to be that uplifting.  I did, however, make a 60ish foot putt on Monday in the golf tournament with a 7 footish breaker from left to right with about 10 beers inside of me.  I hit the ball better than I ever have before and made plenty of contributions to the team. We finished 1st in Net.  Basically, it was a way to do the scoring to award us 1st place instead of 3rd place.  Matt and I shipped the raffle for a foursome to Calabasas Country Club and received  a $45 gift certificate to the pro shop as well.  The beer was cold, the beer mom’s were hot and I obviously got sub burned.

So, I went to Commerce last night.  I started at 5/10 and made a terrible play that left me not wanting to leave.  I grinded out half my losses back there before I went to play 10/20 after the easy spots made their way to the exit.  The 10/20 was playing relatively slow which I liked until this Russian player sat down.  Boy, was he ready to play.  I’ve never seen someone get away with so many bluffs and continue to keep showing.  It was miraculous.  He went broke twice early and then went on a heater after the worst fold I’ve seen in a while.  Tight player raises in a straddled pot to 150 and 4 players call him.  The flop comes J73.  Russian check/calls 400.  The turn is a Q.  There are now clubs and spades on board.  Russian bets 500 and tight player calls (lol).  The river completes the flush and Russian goes ai for 800.  Tight player tanks and folds QQ face up.  Russian shows K3.  I have no idea what the other guy was thinking obviously and neither did he nor anyone else.

the Russian goes on a tear.  He built his 2,000 rebuy up to 8,000ish when Hand #1 comes up.  I’m really upset about this one and will be for a long, long time.  I’ve always wanted to be able to make this type of play and wasn’t able to pull the trigger when the opportunity arose.  It’s my straddle.  Action is folded to the Russian and he raises to 240 which he had been doing just about half the hands per round.  I call with ATcc.  We’re headsup.  The flop is 744 with 1 club and he bets 400.  I call.   The turn is the 5c.  He bets 600.  I deliberate for a little time and raise to 1,600.  Also, there was an A9 (no club) exposed pre after I had already called.  The Russian asked the dealer for no point on 2 occasions I believe.  Immediately after I raised, the Russian said, “reraise 2,200.”  So, it was only 1,100 to me.  It really smelled fishy.  He was bluffing so much and I just didn’t believe him.  To be honest, Iwas thinking more about trying to raise him off a better hand and not a bluf or AJ/AQ/AK.  The problem is that I only had 2,600ish after the 1,100.  I thought for several minutes trying to find more money (lol) to raise with.  In hindsight, I should have listened to my guy.  It was crying out to me, but I couldn’t think clearly because it was obvious to me that I at least had to call.  This guy didn’t have a 4 or a full house.  I was very certain of that.  I thought too much about the outs that I had rather than the merits of shipping it in his face.  I finally called.  The river was an 8 completing a backdoor straight.  He immediately bet 1 stack of 100s for 2,000 and said, “2000.”  I immediately felt that he was bluffing, but I just wasn’t thinking clearly.  I wasn’t prepared for this situation after awaiting it for 5+ years.  Here I was in a spot to make the HOF bluff for my last 600 and I was so confused I forgot to pull the trigger.  I thought for another couple minutes.  I knew that he could have me beat with AJ/AQ/AK, but I didnt’ put the pieces together and realize with confidence that he couldn’t call with those hands.  I even said, “I’m going to be so sick when you show AK” right before I threw my hand away.  He showed KJ and I wanted to throw up.  This was a terrible lapse of judgement on my part.  I genuinely felt that he was going to show a bigger A and for some reason I didn’t raise allin for my last 600.  I simply just wasn’t prepared for this one.

I regained my composure and battled back.  In less than an hour, I was a winner in the game again.  I kept chipping away at and the Russian.  Then, Hand #2 came up.  The Russian raised to 120 early, I called with KK.  This was really stupid looking back.  I was more afraid of him folding more than anything but I did have position on him and why I just flatted.  My friend Jerry called behind me.  The flop was JT5 with 2 hears.  The Russian cbet 240, I called and Jerry raised to 800.  The Russian thought for a few moments and called.  I backraised to 3,200.  Jerry folded.  Action is back to the Russian.  He has 6,960 left.  He thinks for a few moments…

TR:  “Will you check it down if I call?”

Me:  “No.”

TR:  “Ok, I’m all in.”

Me:  “I call”

I show KK.  He shows AJ.

Jerry:  “Don’t worry [Mike].  I had AJ.”

Turn… X

River… J

Today Hailey and I are going to Beverly Hills for lunch and to shop.  She has a dress that she wants to get at H&M.  We were just there the other night at Ruth’s Chris for dinner.  Dinner was great and even better was not losing credit card roulette for the tab.  Yesterday we took it easy.  I played online for a few hours at Hailey’s and nipped $1,500, watched the Kentucky Derby and then went to dinner a Alessio’s in Westlake Village for dinner.  Again, we were pretty tired afterward and hit the hay like an old couple as the clock struck midnight.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  I have a golf tournament in the morning until the early evening and have to write a paper that is worth 50% of  my grade that is due on Tuesday at 2:00.  I got a A-/B+ on the first paper.  Not sure what that means yet, but I’m not too worried about it.  I’m writing the paper on a pasttime of mine.  Television!  I choose to The Office to write my semiotic analysis on.  I also have an Anthro paper to write this week as well that I would like to get done by Tuesday afternoon, so I have the rest of the week to attend to more important things.  We’ll see how that going.

I’ve managed winning sessions each of the last couple days.  It isn’t anything spectacular, but like I say, “Small wins will eventually add up to a lot of money.”  I went on AIM earlier today to see if GBecks was online.  He’s playing in Monte Carlo this week and 58th place for 28,000 Euros.  While I was trying to track down Garrett, I saw that Titan Tom was in town for the week.  We had a little Pow Wow and lined up some evening plans.  We’re going to start at Ruth’s Kris for dinner.  Garrett’s future roommate for this summer, Dave, and his girlfriend will also be joining, so it’ll be six of us for dinner at 8:30.  Afterward, we’re going to a bar/club.  I don’t know which one and nor do I have any idea what’s there is to go to in Beverly Hills.

I’m just about settled with next year’s living situation.  Matt is going to live in Santa Monica next year, so it’s going to be Reed (badbeatme) and I next year again as roommates.  It should be a blast.  We’re trying to sign a 9/10 month lease at The Pointe in Woodland Hills.  It’s half way between Friday’s and B.J.s and right across the street from Morton’s.  The rent is the same that I’m paying this year, but I’m sure with such close proximity to the aforementioned places I’ll be spending a lot more money on food and drinks next year.

Although I would have been appalled if Adam went out last night, it would have been just what American Idol needed to experience to change the way voting is done.  It’s ridiculous that I could hypothetically vote for an opponent up the amount of text messages that I could send in two hours.  That’s stupid!  Also, I told Hailey at the moment of its conception that the judge’s save would be a disaster.  It should have been used only up to the Top 10 and maybe the Top 8.  Never should it have been used up to the Top 5.  Alexis should have gotten the save when she went out in 11th.  She clearly had a better chance of winning over at least Megan, Michael and Scott.  Also, it was much earlier in the game and would have been much better used then instead of saving Matt that all only comprised the integrity of the competition.  Even Simon said, “You don’t have a chance at winning.”  Then, they saved him and pretty much hung Anoop out to dry.  Obviously, voters are going to vote for the guy that way saved and in effect Anoop was the victim of that entire mess.

Anyways, back to the voting process.  AI needs to stop letting people vote an unlimited amount of times just so Seacrest can say, “We had 35, 37, 42, 47 million votes!  A new record!”  Adam almost got knocked off because people are voting for who they don’t want to get knocked off and not who is the next American Idol.  The only reason the save was necessary was because of this.  Here’s a solution to the problem

First, I think it would be better for voters to vote for who they want to be ELIMINATED rather than to stay on until there are 10 contestants remaining.  This will most likely never happen though since it will confuse people once you start to vote for the contestant that you want to stay.

Voters should have 6 votes with 11-16 contestants remaining, 5 votes with 9-10 remaining, 4 votes with 7-8, 3 votes with 5-6, 2 votes with 4 and 1 vote with 2-3.  Each phone number can vote for each contestantly only once per week.  The remainder of the votes can be used on the other contestants.  Lets get rid of the judge’s save and not lettle Paula babble on so that they run out of time every other week.

Until then things change, please vote endlessly on Kris Allen FTW!

I haven’t been able to get anything going in online cash games for just about the entire month.  I’ve stuck to playing almost exclusively 100 & 200 NL, but it’s just been a struggle throughout April.  Even still, I’m going to manage at least a $1,000 profit on the month in that department but that is far from what I expect to earn on average.  For the most part, the ponies have been doing quite well.  Some are doing better than others and some have taken it easy.  That’s how it seems to go in that department in the fours years that I have been involved with that.  School is just about finished.  I have only a few things left to complete and then it’s off to another exciting summer!  I’m really think that I’m going to have to start playing at Commerce once I get back from Vegas 30+ hours a week.  The results that I have are great, but I’m hesitant whether or not I can manage playing consistently for between 3 and 5 days per week.  We’ll have to see.  For now, I really want to get things back on track playing online.  On the days that I’m going to play 5/10, 10/25 this summer, I want to grind a 2-3 hour session online first.  It’s really important to me that I balance the different ways that I’m going to earn money.  I don’t want to concentrate too much on a particular area.  If I maintain a healthy balance, I’ll continue to play well and earn monies at a faster rate.

Today I have a practice round at Porter Ranch in preparation for the golf tournaments that I’ll be participating in.  The first is this upcoming Monday and the next is the following Monday.  I’ll be golfing with my brother, Russell and Unknown.  I hope to not be a complete hack and left to drink heavily throughout the tournament.  American Idol is only a few weeks away from the Finals.  Although it’s unrealistic, I hope that Kris Allen is able to somehow finish 1st.  If so, I’ll be $2,500 richer.  If anything, I’d appreciate to sweat it for another week.

I’m very pleased with the decisions that I’ve made so far in 2009.  In each of the last three years, I wasn’t satisfied with the way that I went into the WSOP.  Unless I do something unorthodox, that won’t be the case this year.  Certianly, things could have gone better, but I’m not going to find a reason to complain.  I’m content.  I’m going to continue to play 100/200NL just about every day and try to turn things around and start to play much more steadily.  In backing/coaching, I want to get a couple ponies to play a little more consistently and once I’m done with school I’m going to play a handful of sessions at Commerce.

I can’t believe that I’m 8 years removed from high school and now on the wrong half of the 20s.  I’m not going to say that I’m disappointed with where I’m at, but I had higher aspirations.  That’s alright though.  There isn’t much that I have to complain about.  For the most part, I’m pretty content.  I’m certainly a dinosaur compared to most of the poker players out there, but I still have plenty of youth in me.  I don’t have any resemblance to an old nit and probably won’t for quite a while.  There’s plenty of gamble circulating throughout the body that I reside.

Hailey and I went to the zoo yesterday.  I hadn’t been in about a decade when I went with youth group to Santa Barbara.  It’s one of those events that changes a lot when you’re no longer a child.  Lets start and finish for that matter with the giraffes.  It didn’t have anything to do with height or that there was a baby giraffe walking about why they were so popular on Sunday.  It was for far more immature reasons.  Mr. Giraffe had a mission to accomplish and Mrs. Giraffe didn’t want anything to do with it.  That didn’t stop him from trying time and again.  Hailey and I were on the rail that didn’t have an available place to stand while Mr. Giraffe failed to enter Mrs. Giraffe every few minuts for about an hour.  We couldn’t help but root for him a little bit.  He was very determined, but she was as well.  In the end, Mrs. Giraffe stood tall and ate some celebatory hay.

When we got back, Hailey and I played Rummy 500 for a couple hours.  We had a really interesting hand that left me speechless.  Hailey held (1) Ace, I held (1) Ace and there was (2) Ace in the discarded pile.  She couldn’t scoop since she didn’t have a discard, so she had to draw.  The drew an 8 which obviously played and discarded an Ace to end the game.  It was sooo weird!

This was a routine quote that I had delivered when I attended Kansas and was exclusive to the first year that I went there.  Often, I would go to lunch with friends and then ask, “Where should I be right now?”  The answer was always the same - class.  Today, I asked myself that same very question and the answer is still the same.  I’m in no way bragging or making light of the importance of an education.  When I’m not motivated to do something, I won’t do it if I see there that there’s a way that I can fade any significant consequences.  I’m currently playing hooky (sp?) to Anthropology 300ish.  I don’t like the teacher at all.  In fact, I hated him from the first day, but I didn’t want to bother to find another class that fit the same criteria.  I will, on the other hand, be attending class at 2:00.  It’s an English course on popular culture.  It’s a great class and taught by a professor that you’d expect to have as a tour guide of  the old mine at Virginia City.

This semester is quickly coming to a close and I’m very, very busy for the next few months.  Marla is graduating from Loyola Marymount.  Yes, my sister is graduating from college a semester before me and after transferring from Colorado inf act.  Very impressive!  I have (2) charity golf tournaments in May.  Matt and I are moving out of the apartment and I have to go to Vegas prior to an annual Father/Son Mono Hot Springs trip in the last weekend in May to prepare for the summer in Vegas.  Tonight, I’m going out with family to Roy’s for an early birthday celebration and Hailey and I are going to the zoo on Sunday.  Busy, busy, busy…

I’ve always been a sap for inspirational stories.  Lately, I’ve been browsing through YouTube to find moments that are truly special.  I’m a huge fan of Family Feud bloopers, but I’ll save those for another day.  Last week I came across videos of those that won the 100,000 Pyramid.  The reaction shots of those that just won $100,000  twenty-five years ago are pretty amazing to me.  During American Idol last week, I heard about this contestant, Susan Boyle, that tried out for Britain’s Got Talent.  It wasn’t until today that I searched for the video on YouTube.  Let me say, it was truly amazing.  There’s something about the underdog to the greater public.  Every March, everyone stands behind the unlikely as they try to defeat the favorite in March Madness.  This was one of those moments to me.  There wasn’t a person in that room, nor a person that was viewing, that didn’t think she was going to tank.  We’ve all seen it plenty of times in which a contestant thinks that they have talent, but don’t, are front and center before a large audience and fail miserably.  If you haven’t seen it yet, search Susan Boyle, watch the video with 35 million + views and remember that dreams do come true.

I remember this story Patrick told me back in 2006.  It was the day of the Big 12 Championship.  I was still in Lawrence at the time and went to watch the game with Patrick and a bunch of his friends from high school.  Kansas won obv.  The story is not about the beer tower that Patrick and I put away but the way in which the day began.  Lawrence experienced a microburst that morning.  I had never heard of such a thing at the time.  In the wee hours of the morning, our apartment began to shake a bit and Reed pounded on the door to wake me up.  We went outside and saw a pretty dismal sight.  Next to the apartment complex was a pretty large vacant piece of land and for a minute I thought I saw a tornado coming right at us.  However, after wipping the sleep out of my eyes, we realized it was just a really bad storm or so we thought.  We went back to bed but when we awoke we realized it was more than just that.  There was a lot of damage around town.  Apparently, a microburst is an event in which vertical wind occurs.  It certainly did its damage across town.

Again, Patrick had friends in that weekend and they were on their Spring Break from I believe Creighton.  This girl that I can’t remember the name of apparently came outside early in the morning and with evidence of destruciton surrounding her said, “Whooooooo Spring Break ‘06.”  The way Patrick told the story really made it seem like it was quite the moment, but he was obv embarrased.

Marla and I are going to visit mom this weekend in Tahoe.  I’m currently on Spring Break, but other than school, it seems like any ordinary week.  I’m going to visit friends at the Fox and Hound that I used to be a reg when I lived in Tahoe a couple years ago, probably go play a session at Harvey’s on Friday night and spend a lot of time with Marla and mom.  We’re going to church and brunch on Sunday and then I’m going to play in the SCOOP M.E.s $1,000 & $100.

Hopefully, I wake up on Monday yelling, “Spring Break ‘09′ prior to starting Day 2 of the $1,000 SCOOP M.E.

I got off to a good start in the SCOOP series.  Granted, I won’t be playing that many tournaments, but it was nice to cash 2/2 today in the 2x Chance Turbos.  I grinded a bunch of 1/2 on Lock during, but it didn’t go particularly well.  I lost about 1,o00.  Hailey and I are going to City Walk tonight at Universal.  We’ll grab a couple drinks, sushi and maybe some candy from that awesome candy store at the end of the night.  She has work tomorrow, so I’ll spend most of the day grinding away.  Probably not going to play any SCOOP events.  Instead I’ll likely grind the 107 Triple or Nothings on Stars and watch the Final Four games as well.

The WSOP is getting ever so close.  I’m getting pretty pumped.  It’s going to be a full schedule of responsibilities until then, but I’m looking forward to getting it all done in preperation an awesome summer.  I’ve really got things going nicely in terms of the poker playing side of things.  If I can somehow manage to earn another 20,000 by the WSOP, it’ll be a truely awesome summer.

I’ve been on fire this week.  Monday was the day that it began.  I ran a few errands with Hailey and went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch before I got home to play poker.  For some reason, I felt GREAT.  I decided it was time to break the “I’m not going to play above 1/2 NL online” streak.  Usually, that would lead to many disasters, but it was not this time around.  After finally being able to input all my hands from August into Holdem Manager, I realized that I’m terrible at HU up through 5-handed.  I decided it was time to go back to my roots and play ONLY (we’ll see how longt this lasts) 9/10-handed.  I played 100 up to 600 NL for a few hours and won 2,300ish.  Before I had even really started, I decided to play the 1K on Tilt.  This is very, very unlike me.  I’ve only played a couple 1Ks online and those were WCOOPS and FTOPS, but I was just feeling really confident.  I’ll keep it short since it wasn’t anything too spectacular although it was a decent sweat.  I finished 27th and in the money for I’m pretty sure my first cash in a 1,000+ buyin online.

Tuesday I decided it was time that I went back to Commerce.  I played 2.5 hours and won a couple thousand.  There weren’t any spectaculare hands.  I won a decent size pot against Jack Haley after I was able to induce him to bluff the river and had the courage to call with a flush on a double-paired board.  I also ran a nice bluff on a 99x flop.  I overcalled on the flop 3ways with 87 for a flush draw.  I called quickly with an evident hesitation mixed in to buy the opportunity to bluff at the pot potentially later in the hand.  I made a smallish $300 bet on the turn (K) after it was checked to me and bet a measely $500 on the river (X) which was less than 1/3 the size of the pot.  Villain check/folded and I shipped.

Yesterday I scooped about $800 between Poker.com and Lock Poker (a skin on Cake) and today I played only on Lock and shipped another 1,700ish playing only 100 and 200 NL.  I’m on a stone cold heater and feeling great.  I’m probably going to grind mostly on Lock tomorrow.  This site just may be the site that I was looking for.  We’ll see how things continue to go.

Well, after losing a half dozen games in a row, I’ve been mathematically eliminated from each of the 4 pools that I’m in.  I still had a chance to win the $250 pool on 2+2 if Mizzou met either Oklahoma or Villanova in the NC.  Oh well, it’s all over.  It could have been worse.  Mizzou could have beat North Carolina in the NC and crushed my spirits while leaving me just short of 1st in a handful of pools.  Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I can now go back to hating on Mizzou until the next time I take them deep into the NCAA Tournament.

Poker has been a bit of a struggle since I won the 22.5 on Tilt a couple weeks ago.  I just can’t seem to get anything going.  I’ve been grinding a lot of 100 & 200NL, but I just can’t scratch anything together.  Because of this, it’s unlikely that I’m going to play tournaments tomorrow.  I’ll most likely go to Commerce and grind a session of cash games online before I go.

Hailey and I are going to her dad’s for dinner tonight and then meeting up with friends at the Copper Bucket.  It should be a fun night, but I’m going to take it easy on the booze.  I want to wake up tomorrow refreshed and put in a good day of poker.  I really want to grind out 20,000 of earnings by the time I go to Vegas for the WSOP.  This is a bit of a stretch, but I should definitely be able to do so if you add in backing and coaching.  I’m really going to put in a lot of volume on Poker.com and go to Commerce at least 2 times a week up until I go to Vegas.  This should be a good mixture and insure me the best possible chance of reaching those goals.  I don’t have a lot of room for error considering I want to play 20kish worth of buyins this summer.  I’ll have to stay on my best behavior and wouldn’t mind a little bit of good fortune along the way.

Well, Duke played terribly yesterday.  Even if they had won, I wouldn’t have felt that great.  They just didn’t have the pieces to put together a NC run.  I’m still in each of the pools that I’ve entered but with less scenarios to won obv.  This is a rough estimate and applies only to the HSNL pool.  I need at least the following to happen for me to win that pool.  I need Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga to win today.  I don’t think it matters which team makes the F4 out of the Midwest so as long as Missouri beats them.  Villanova needs to beat Pitt which isn’t unreasonable after watching them play yesterday.  As long as Gonzaga and Syracuse wins tonight, I don’t think it matters who makes the F4 as long as Kansas wins but if Gonzaga were to make the NC they would have to lose to Missouri.  I’d say I have about a 4% chane of winning.

For today, I want Louisville to get upset, but there is a scenario in which that could potentially backfire and must have Gonzaga win.  I’d like Kansas & Syracuse to both win, but I think I can settle for 1 of them to do so to still be mathematically alive.  Unfortunately, you can’t plug in scenarios into CBS like you could using the site that I used when I ran Jensen Madness, so I’m not sure if I got this thing down right.  It’ll be much easier to figure out my winning scenarios after tonight, but first I need to win a few games.

Last night I had a unique dream.  I’ve never had a dream in which I won a poker tournament.  There was an occasion that I finished 3rd at the LAPC M.E..  I dreamed about winning a satellite into the WSOP M.E..  If you know my track record in satellites, you’ll probably laugh just as I did when I woke up this morning.  Other than winning a WSOP M.E. seat 3 years ago via freroll, I’ve never won a satelitte into a live poker tournament with a minimum buyin of 10,000.  I’ve won a couple single tables into 1,000s, etc..  I figured what the hell.  Lets see if it can happen.  I played a 216 DS on Tilt this afternoon.  I got off to a great start, but I was unable to draw out in a 40/60 with 4 players remaining for about 60% of the chips.  It’s alright.  I’m used to losing those.  I’ve played a coupld DSs so far, but I won’t go overboard and end up playing the M.E. for 15kish like I did last year.

I decided to wager my last $100 on Sports.com.  I tried to cash it out after winning a $50 free bet that I made over 4 years ago.  They wouldn’t let me cashout until I sent in some info, so I decided to put it back into action instead.  I’ve thought about the wager for a couple weeks and decided to bet $100 on Kris Allen to win American Idol at 25/1.  It’s not the best bet by any means, but I think he’s the top sleeper in AI.  Eventually, I think everyone is going to get sick of Adam Lampert, but it’s going to be tough to beat out Danny Gokey.  Obv the girls on AI are pretty much zero chance at least imo.  We’ll see how it goes.

Tomorrow I’m going to sweat the games after I get back from class.  The first 2 games are freeoll games.  I want the underdogs to pull through even though I have the favorites.  Losing those games won’t hurt me whatsoever since I have each of them losing in the next round anyways.  Also, everyone has those teams making the Elite 8.  The last 2 games of the day are pretty much must wins.  I have to win Duke.  If they lose, I’d be pretty much eliminated from HSNL March Madness pending unlikely circumstances in future games.  Even still, I’d have to run like Gbecks in DSs.  Mizzou is pretty much a must win, but I still have somewhat possible chances of winning if Duke were to still win it all.  If they both win tomorrow, I’ll be sitting pretty good.  I’ll also need Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga to win on Friday.  Gonzaga is a huge game for me if Thursday works out.  It’s a must win if Kansas and Syracuse lose and it’ll open up a lot of doors for me to scoop 80kish if they all somehow win.  Only a handful of people have Gonzaga over NC.  That shouldn’t come at too much of a surprise.  There’s an outside chance that I may make a sports bet on Friday.  If I get Duke, Mizzou, Kansas and Syracuse, I think I have to hedge the Gonzaga game.  It’d be more of a gamble if I didn’t.

I entered the $1,000 HSNL March Madness bracket pool on 2+2.  I had to fade quite a few sweats, but I managed to hit 15/16 for the Sweet 16.  I have Louisville, Mizzou, Duke and Gonzaga with Duke beating Mizzou in the NC.  This isn’t the most likely outcome, but I have a lot of possibilities given that I tore it up in the 1st and 2nd rounds.  Besides Duke and Mizzou, I need to win 2/3 of the following:  Kansas, Syracuse and Gonzaga.  Gonzaga being one of those 2 is just about a must.  If I can manage to get Duke, Mizzou and Gonzaga, I’ll be sitting very, very pretty.  There’s a backdoor chance that I can just about clinch this thing by the start of the weekend but that’d take a miracle and a number of upsets.

Either way, this definitely calls for a “One time please dealer!”

It finally happened.  After 500+ attempts across a handful of sites, I finally finished 1st in a poker tournament.  I won the 22.5k on Tilt for 15,000ish.  Although I’m still stuck a couple thousand since September [in online tournaments], I’m elated to have crossed the finish line in 1st.  I made a really nice play inside the money to chip up after I raised the button with AQss that really got me going.  The sb called and lead for 6,000 which was a little more than half pot on an 842 board with two clubs.  I had a little more than 20,000 left and shipped it ai after a little thought.  I decided that he had sized up my stack and was just taking a stab at it.  Thankfully, I was correct.  The first really big spot came up after I made a really nice comeback after having been crippled with three tables remaining.  I had just been moved and decided to flat a raise with KK from UTG+2 after the player to my right had opened.  We were both among the chip leaders with two tables remaining.  The flop came KQx.  He checked and I checked it back.  He bet the turn (A), I small raised and he shipped it ai.  I called, he showed JT for the straight but I got a Q on the river for a full house.  Phew!  I cruised into the final table and was amongst the chip leaders.  I couldn’t get much going early and pretty much sat back for a while and let the others fight it out.  I was low man with a bit less than 250,000 with the blinds at 10/20k with 3 players remaining.  The other two players had about 1.25 million each.  It all went so fast from there.  I doubled with AK v. KT.  Against the same player a few orbits later, I completed from the sb with TT after he had shipped ai for a massive amount a few orbits before.  He raised ai for 600,000ish, I called and held against his AT.  He was knocked out a couple orbits later.  HU didn’t last long.  I raised K8hh to 72k at 12/24k and villain called.  The flop was J7x with 2 hearts.  He checked, I bet small, he raised and I just stuck it ai for a million+ more.  He snapped, showed AJ and I caught a K on the river to cripple him.  I finished him off a few hands later with K3ss v. ??.

With 2 tables remaining, I was called an “Idiot” twice once being after the KK hand and one obviously after the K8hh by said villains in those hands.  I could really care less.  I’m ecstatic and finally something to show for in tournaments on Stars/Tilt.  I’m still a little stuck since I sold half my action in September, but I’m actually a small winner if you include the time that I accidentally played in the 100 R on Stars.  I don’t plan on playing any tournaments until next Sunday.  I have a huge paper due tomorrow that I obv haven’t started writing, class all day on Tuesday, going golfing on Wednesday and hanging out with Tom and watching March Madness (obv).

I’m very bummed for St. Mary’s who didn’t make the tournament.  I don’t feel that the selection committee made a mistake in doing so.  Unfortunately for them, there were too many upsets in the conference tournaments and they haven’t to get squeezed out.  Other than that, Sunday was a great day.  I won another prop bet!  After losing 2,000 to SpaceGravy over a year ago, I won 4,000 against SG last month and 2,000 v. Hodge05 after he threw in the towel late last night.  I promised myself that I wouldn’t make any more of these bets a few days ago but that was when I thought I was a near lock to lose 6,000 in the one I ended up winning somehow.  Therefore, I’m probably going try to parlay those winnings.  I’m not going to just bet against anyone.  I decided to pass on a prop bet that a player couldn’t turn 100 into 10,000 in 15 days playing only SNGs as high as 16s.  It seemed sooo impossibled I decided to not bet.  Good decision on my part!

There’s finally a converter for Merge.  I’m sooo excited to actually be able to use PT for myself and to assist players that I back/coach.  I’m converting a couple hundred thousands hands at the moment.  Also, I wanted to post another hand history from the other day.

10/20 Commerce

Villain raises late to 80 with about 4,000ish behind.  I called out of the big blind with 55.  The flop came 754 with ALL spades.  I lead into him for 120.  He instantly indicated that he was playing and raised to 320.  I thought for a bit and reraised to 720.  He quickly indicated that he was playing and reraised to 1720.  I thought for a few moments and reraised for his last 2,000.  He thought for a while and folded.

I was very surprised that he folded, but I was obv satisifed.

Matt and I went to Commerce yesterday.  I hadn’t played in nearly a month.  This visit was obviously overdue.  I had complete control of the action until Jack Haley, formerly of the L.A. Lakers, sat in the game.  JH is the table captain.  If you’ve played with him before, I’m assume you consider that an understatement.  He’s gives a lot of action and is very fun to play with.

Anyways, here’s the hand of the day.  I was about done playing when JH put up the live straddle.  He convinced a player that had to play a hand at the table but whom he had played with at the must move table to put up a live double straddle for 80.  It didn’t end there.  He asked the next player who obliged and put up a live tripple straddle for 160.  I picked up JJ on the button and the action was folded to me.  I was sitting with about 9,000 and raised to 400.  I wanted to play a big pot and raise a small amount to induce a lot of hands to come along and/or 3bet me.  The sb went into the tank.  He had 3,000 and I was obv going to play against him if he were to ship.  He thought for a couple minutes and folded.  The big blind almost instantly raised to 1320 with 1,500 back.  JH folded and the player in the double straddle raised ai for about 5,000.  I genuinely thought for several minutes before folding.  I shouldn’t have thought that long because the ai player had to have a good enough hand to play for 3,000 since the 3better wasn’t going anywhere.  However, it was his first hand, was in the live double straddler and was anxiously waiting for 20/40.

The big blind thought for a while and was visually very annoyed.  He called and lost to AA.  He said he had QQ but he never showed.   When I folded, the player to my left asked instantly what I had which indicated to me that he had a pretty strong hand.  But why would he if he folded after my raise?  After the hand was over, he said he had AK and folded because the live double straddler made a comment while he was in the tank that lead him to believe that he was very interested in the hand.  I agreed that it was a good read unless he hadn’t looked at his cards.  Neither of us confirmed that we saw him look prior to the action reaching him, but it was one heck of a hand regardless.

I really need to start going more regularly and especially with the WSOP coming up in preparation for playing cash games about half of each week throughout, but I’ve been doing well online and don’t want to overdue it playing live.  I’ll maintain a healthy balance and see how the next couple weeks go.

Of those in the generation that I belong, I’m certainly amongst the oldest.  I’ve been playing poker since August ‘01.  It’s been quite a run I must say.  7.5 years is a lot for a person in this profession.  Of course, I haven’t played professionally for even half of those 7.5 years, but it’s quite accomplishment to have made it this far and especially with only having a lone brief hiatus from the game.  During the second semester at Kansas, I quite (lol) online poker for a few months.  After I moved from the dorms to my apartment, I quickly realized that I should stop kidding myself and start playing online again.  I jumped right back on Party Poker (RIP) and the rest is history I guess.  Last summer I took a 1.5 month hiatus from online poker during the WSOP.  It was a very good decision considering I was struggling immensely with playing at reasonable stakes.  Unfortunately, the lifestyle has its consequences.  I recently spotted several white/gray/grey/whatever hairs scattered sparsely throughout my beard.  I wasn’t upset, but it was a little bothersome.  Lets just agree that it gives me some character.

I haven’t blogged in quite a while.  Life has been fairly eventful since the last post.  I’ve been dragging through the semester with pretty close to no motivation at all.  I haven’t played at Commerce in a couple weeks and have been playing splitting my time between cash games and tournaments across three sites.  I’ve yet to play above 1/2 since I posted that I wouldn’t do so.  I’m actually a bit surprised and haven’t even had the urge to do so for that matter.  This has allowed me to stay in the groove at 100 & 200 NL.  I’ve been grinding away, but I’m going to start going to Commerce again starting on Wednesday.  Today I grinded the tournament for about 14 hours.  It was a drag.  I played well and built stacks in a handful of tournaments, but I couldn’t manage to get to the final table of any of them.  The closest that I got was a 10th place finish in the 20 Rebuys on Tilt after I got crippled with AK v. K9.  I’m going to go back to the grind and probably not playing any tournaments until next Sunday.

I haven’t played above 2/4 in a couple weeks now and the results that I’ve had at .50/1.00 and 1/2 have been spectacular.  This week I earned ~3,300 and have earned ~6,500 in the last 3 weeks.  Hopefully, I’m able to continue grinding these limits and resist temptation and not play any higher.  Hailey and I are going on a cruise this weekend, so I’ll be playing a lot from now until Thursday evening.  Tomorrow we’re going to dinner with Jerry and Jolean (sp?) and Hailey will be sweating me a little at either 5/10 or 10/20.  Hopefully, she’s not completely bored.  I should play 5/10, because I hate going into a vacation after having a bad week at the tables and probably shouldn’t risk that happening.  The 5/10 is amazing anyways and is very profitable and obv worth playing.

I’ve also been sweating SpaceGravy’s prop bet.  I declined to bet until a couple days into the wager.  I wagered 2,000.   I sensed that this was going to be much more difficult than he had thought and wagered 1,500 v. 1,000 against McShove and bugstud.  After 4.5 days, SG is +15 after 2,316 games played.  His prop bet is to earn 40,000 in 30 days playing only $60 SNGs.  At this point, I’m certainly a favorite, but it’d also be very painful if he ended up coming out ahead.  He’s a phenomenal player.  I lost 2,000 last time around when he demolished a prop bet to earn 25,000 in 30 days.  That was playing only STTs.  In this prop bet, he’s permitted to play STTs, 18s, 45s and 90s.

For now, I’m going to sip on a few Coors Lights and sweat DubbleStuff, a friend from high school, at the final table of the $55 (70) on Stars.  Glgl Ali!

Although it’s not that wet outside, the few drops that I heard from my bed were enough to keep me from going to school today.  This will be the first day of school that I’ll miss this semester and obv won’t be the last.

I’ve gotten into a really good groove on Poker.com and have beaten 1/2 and a little .50/1.00 for a shy north of 3,200 this month.  Yesterday alone I beat it for about 2,000 across three spot session.  In the last session, I was down 700 fairly quickly, but I was able to grind it into a 850 winner.  I played this session alongside the FTOPS.  I played the tournament very well until I got crippled a couple tables out of the money after I reshipped w/ A7hh after a player with a chip stack slightly less than myself raise/called with 99 from the hijack.  He turned a full house and left me with less than a big blind.  I went broke the next hand when I called ai from the button with Q6cc.  I was hoping that the small blind had the fold button already clicked, but he didn’t.  I actually had the best hand until the sb rivered a flush.  In retrospect, I should have used the time bank, folded till we were in the money and then hope for a miracle.

Nick and I are going to grind the day away over here.  He’s going to head back to Kansas tomorrow.  I’m probably going to Commerce after I drop him off at the airport.  A lot of my friends are in town and I’m craving to play a little too.  Hopefully, I’m disciplined enough to stick with the online regiment that I’m done so well with this year.  I didn’t play until after the first half of January on Poker.com and have managed a 6,200 winner thus far.

Personally, if I were to wager on the Super Bowl, I’d lay the 7 points for the Steelers at +105.  I’m not completely ruling out the Cardinals, but they’re going to have a lot of trouble winning if it’s a low scoring game.  Matt and I are having a little Super Bowl party at Avalon at Warner Center.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t allow us to use the community room which is directly below our apartment.  It would have worked out very well since we could run a long cable line from our apartment to the community room in order to watch the game in HD.  Obviously, if that wasn’t a possibility, I’d rather cram everyone into my bedroom than watch it on the regular station.

Nick and I didn’t fair to well this week at Commerce.  I could’ve played better and lost a couple thousand than I did, but I didn’t do anything particularly terrible.  We’ve been doing very well online which has been motivating through the difficult part of the week playing live.

I’m also backing ER in 2-10 spread in Minnesota and Matt and I are backing Richard in 5/10 400 CAP at Commerce.  We’re trying to get the horses ready to go for the next and also the shortest month of the year.

We have a couple potential horses in the stable that I’m going to look into in the next couple weeks, but I want to be certain of them before we subject ourselves to theft.  Hailey and I are going to Duke’s in Malibu tonight and we booked a weekend cruise to Mexico Valentine’s Day weekend.  I’m very much looking forward to that.

A historic event occurred the other day.  It was January 20, 2009 and will forever be a day I won’t forget.  A payment was made to reimburse the money they had stolen through a staking arrangement with myself or through RPT Staking.

I met with an advisor on Tuesday.  Apparently, I’m closer to graduating than I thought.  Usually, if I’m inaccurate with calculations, I have longer to go than I had thought, less money than I had counted, etc..  I’m going to graduate next semester.  I’m not in the mood to write even though I have a lot to say.  Until another day…

Last week was outright among the worst that I’ve experienced.  It’s the type of week that I dread, but those weeks are inevitable if you consider that the career that I have chosen.  I got back from Friday’s.  They were out of Crown Royal, but I didn’t sweat it and ordered a couple rounds of Sea Breeze instead (don’t laugh… please).  As much as I hate it at times, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Poker isn’t the easiest way, but it’s the route that I have chosen for myself.  Whenever I experience something terrible, I remind myself that something special is just around the corner.  I’m not among the most talented poker players, but I’m certainly among the strongest in the mental aspect of the game.

Tomorrow I start another semester at CSUN.  If I calculated it correctly, I have (2) more semester before I graduate.  The LAPC begins in the next couple days.  I’m excited to play a lot during the LAPC and see a lot of friends that I only see on occasion since I went back to school.  I have a great life.  It’s been a difficult year.  A lot of things [in the non-poker aspects of life] haven’t gone the way that I wanted, but I still have a lot things to be thankful.  This year has just begun; I can’t wait to attack it.

“The way in which a person responds to adversity is the measurement of his/her mental strength.”

Cheers Lawrence!

This week has been miserable.

[x] player that I back with 8,000 in makeup won’t pay back any of the 2,000 that I loaned to two weeks ago after he scored 2,000 playing live poker and obv didn’t return the message that I left for him

[x] fraudulent charges on credit card

[x] scammed by Player A that was backed through RPT Staking for the tune of 2,000ish

[x] scammed by Player B that was backed through RPT Staking for 3,900

[x] Player B claims that it wasn’t him although the funds were transferred to his Full Tilt account and sent the following message via email…

“Out of respect for you and my small personal responsibility in this matter I am willing to offer you my live action for awhile, as I have kept good records and know that while I may be a break even or losing player online, I am a winner to the tune of 20-25/hr live.”

At the least, I’d say the message was moderately insulting.  I spent 3 days figuring out the situations with Player A and Player B and wasn’t able to play at Commerce.  Fortunately, I was able to play online at Full Tilt and found myself something to the tune of a $3,000 loser.

Hailey and I have enjoyed ourselves thus far in Vegas.  This is our last night before we reenter reality.  Other than playing a set of Super Turbos, I haven’t played any poker.  This is the fourth or fifth visit to Vegas that had poker absent of the daily routine.  I’ll be back in action for the Sunday tournaments.  After that, I’ll have a revised schedule that I’m hoping to stick with throughout 2009.  It is certain to be a busy year.  I’ve struggled to find consistency in the post-PP (Party Poker) era, but I’m confident that I’m going to have a successful year.  I have high expectations that I’ll illustrate in a later blog entry next week.  In short, I’m reverting from online poker to live poker, increasing the amount of clientele that I back/coach and [hopefully] experiencing a breakthrough in online poker tournaments.  For now, though, it’s back to Vegas!

I played quite a few tournaments on Sunday and was overall satisfied with the way that I played.  I finished 125th in the Sunday Brawl and captured (5) KOs for an additional $200.  I’ve played this tournament on only a few occasions and this accounted for more KOs than I collected in the previous attempts combined.  I held KK v AQo in the last hand that I played.  It would have been for a sizable stack, but I was unable to do so.  I played in the $11 tournament on Stars that had 35,000 entrants.  That, the $55 (125), the early $26 on Tilt and the Tilt major were the other tournaments that I managed to finish in the money.  It was still a losing effort for the day, but I was satisified nevertheless.

Today I spent most of the afternoon with clients.  I’m backing Erik Ryland again and RPT Staking brought Gronnie aboard.  ER will be playing 100 NL 6-max and Gronnie will be playing 50 NL 6-max.  Brad is now playing 200 NL FR and Andrew and Jake are now playing 100 NL FR.  I’ve also began coaching a player that is in pursuite of Super Nove Elite (SNE) on Stars.  Mike multitables NL FR and hired me to help him along the strenuous journey to SNE.

Hailey and I are leaving for Vegas on Wednesday for New Year’s and in celebration of her 25th birthday that is on Januray 1st.  We arrive in the afternoon and going to have a late lunch and sweat the Kansas v. Minnesota.  We don’t have plans for the 31st yet, but that’ll be figured out by the time that we arrive.

It’s been quite a while since I played tournaments.  I’m playing ~$1,500 worth today.  Lets see how it goes.

I had an incredible session at Commerce yesterday.

Hand 1:  This hand was toward the beginning of the session.  Villain, a LAGish player straddled, I limped w/ JJ, villain raised to 240, I quickly raised to 640 and Villain instantly raised to 1440.  I was about to muck before I realized the action that Villain had taken.  The 4bet was made almost instantaneously and eventually I just didn’t believe Villain’s range contained that many AA/KK/QQ .  I decided that he wouldn’t raise this quickly w/ AA or QQ.  He may w/ KK.  If so, he’d also would with AK and I thought there was a good chance that he could have air.  I shipped the last 2,600 in after a few minutes of deliberation.  He sighed, called w/ TT and I held.

Hand 2:  This hand occurred at the main game.  The other was at the must move table.  I limped w/ 33 and a hyper-aggro Asian player raised to 110.  I called.  The flop came T43 w/ mixed suits.  I checked, he bet 260, I quickly raised to 600 and he immediately raised to 1,800.  I wasn’t going anywhere, but we were really deep and I needed to consider the options.  I thought for a minute or so and called.  I had a little shy of 10k remaining and Villain had me covered.  The turn was a J.  We had a little history from a few hands before in which I raised w/ AA, he instantly raised an additional 400 on the flop (743), I check/called 1,000 on the turn (9) and he checked behind on the river (J).  I really sensed that he hand nothing after the way that he checked on the river and was disappointed that he didn’t follow through with another barrel.  Anyways, I pondered for about a minute  w/ the 33 on the T43J and eventually checked.  He bet 5,000 and I thought for a few moments before raising ai for another 4,500ish.  I wasn’t going to fold, but I wanted to wait a little bit before going ai.  He asked, “How much?” and I was relieved.  I thought I could have been beat but after he overbet the turn I wasn’t going anywhere.  It’s still a little nerving though that I could have lost a 25kish pot.

These hands were each respectively the biggest pots that I have won in my career playing live and this was the best session I’ve also ever had.  It demolished my previous high of 6,500ish at 5/10 NL at the Wynn over the summer by about 12k.  This was a very pleasant surprise.  I ran very well, but I also played extremely well.  I didn’t lose more than 500 in a single hand that I played and made a handful of good laydowns throught the 7hour session that I could have easily just reluctantly called in.  My reads were pretty spot on and I’m thrilled that I had the courage to go with my read at the beginning of the session with JJ.  I’m excited, but I know that the swings that I’m soon to experience could be volatile.  We’ll see how I’m able to handle them.

I haven’t been able to stick to one particular form of poker for a lengthy amount of time in quite a while.  After a successful trip to Vegas the previous weekend, I decided to start playing live again and went to play 10/20 last Saturday.  I didn’t play that long, but I was able to have a moderate win that felt very good.  Yesterday, I decided to play instead of study.  This turned out to be a very good decision.  I didn’t do particularly well on the exam today, but I managed to have a steady session that left me a 5,100 winner.  Unfortunately, I misplayed a couple hands in which I had the nuts or the obv best hand.  That’s okay though.  These mistakes will not be made with such frequency in the future.  There was a huge fish that dropped 15ish across the session.  I didn’t extract as much as I would have like, but I’m still pretty satisfied with the session overall.

I haven’t played much FT lately, so I decided to start Friday with a session there.  It only took about  406 hands before I had enough.

Strike 1

Strike 2

Strike 3

I should have started this process a while ago, but it’s better late than never.  I’ve coached a lot of poker players, but they have all been players that I backed originally.  I’ve wanted to coach other poker players and now I’m finally going to.  I offered a couple (1) month free trials.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m very excited to embark on this adventure.  It’s always a thrill to work with new players and have an integral role in their development.  We’ll see how it goes with them.  I’ll update shortly.

This is the second day in a row that I’ve gone without Adderoll.  To say the least, I’ve been very edgy and anxious.  I guess it wasn’t a good idea to give a few away.  Now, I’m left without them until the doctor authorizes another refill.  Sigh…

It was the dominate variable that lead to me not going to school today.  Instead, I got off to an early start in poker.  That didn’t turn out to be a good decision.  I ran terrible and lost nearly 2,000 in 1,500ish hands played at 2/4 on Tilt.  I was about finised when I lost the last of a few key hands.  I raised, Villain 1 reraised to 48, Idiot called 46 from the small blind, I reraised to 150ish with KK and Idiot called.  Idiot held 77 and caught gin after the flop came J74.  In another hand, I reraised pot w/ AQss from the big blind after there was a raise and 4 callers.  The original raiser folded and the first caller insta backraised pot to 256.  I hesitated for a moment and then raised ai.  He showed JxTc, the flop came JcXcXc and that was the end of that.  Yawn…

I’m a bit annoyed, but I’ll relax a bit and get back to work later.   Marla is walking in the San Diego Breast Cancer 3-Day this weekend.  Last year I told her that she should train for the SDC3D, but she didn’t have any of that.  That she regrets.  Mom and I will drive to San Diego on Sunday for the closing ceremony.  Therefore, I won’t be able to play the Sunday tournaments, but there are plenty of opporunities throughout the year.

It’s always a thrill to get deep in a major.  I got off to a great start after I doubled with AA v. AT in the first level (lol) and stacked another player shortly after with AA v. KK.  I reshipped 95cc short of the money bubble after the small blind opened for a raise.  If I were to double through him, he’d been left crippled, so I decided to shove it in his face and was very relieved when he folded.  I got lucky with TT after I limped in early/middle position and called the ai from the big blind.  Although I lost a couple key pots w/ AK v. A8 and AK v. 99, I was able to stay afloat.  The key hand came with 150ish players remaining.  I just doubled the hand before w/ AJ v. KQ against muchaka.  UTG raised, I decided to just overshove QQ and muchaka went into the tank.  He eventually called with JJ and caught a J on the flop to scoop a ~360k pot at 5/10k.  Ironically, this was pretty much the same type of beat that I took in the last FTOP M.E..  Both hands were about the same point in the tournament, would have put me inside the top twenty and chips and left me with about 10 bbs.  I eventually doubled and chipped up a couple times, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I raised ai w/ A6 and wasn’t able to improve against AT.  It wasn’t a bad showing at all.

I got away with murder last week, as I earned (lol) an 85% and 92% on the exams that I had on Thursday.  Also, the class that I skipped after having those exams ended up being cancelled. Bam!

Also, I’m back on track after playing well in each of the last two days across Tilt and Poker.com.  Going to a bar to meet up with some friends a little later and going to grind a late session after I get back.  Cheers!

P.S.  Thank you to those that sweat me in the FTOPS M.E. and especially to Mrs. Hensel and my mom.  

I got into a really nice groove today right from the start today and felt that it was going to be a very productive day.  I washed a handful of satellites/tournaments along the way, but I played pretty well throughout the entire session.  I managed to have a winning session in cash games, but I was disappointed nevertheless.  I found myself ai against AA on three occasions.  I could have folded the time that I 4bet cold sb v. button, but the others were very standard.  I also managed to lose the biggest pot that I played after I got ai with a set v. top pair and a flush draw with one card to come.  Most of the money got ai on the turn and wasn’t pleased with the result in the hand obv.

Tomorrow is the FTOPS M.E..  I’m looking forward to it, but I’m not sure if I’m going to play a lot of tournaments tomorrow.  Lately, I’ve been getting pretty much destroyed in them and it’s beginning to sting a bit too much.  We’ll see how I feel tomorrow when I wake up.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the rest of the night, but it’ll be a relaxing night regardless of what I decide upon.  I have Atlanta and Jacksonville tomorrow.  Reed has NYG and Tampa Bay.  Garrett and Matt don’t deserve to have their picks mentioned until they are at least a competitive.

Classes were canceled on Tuesday for Veteran’s Day, so I only had Thursday to deal with in terms of the scholastic part of the week.  I had (2) exams on Thursday each of which I procrastinated to the maximum degree.  I got a bit of studying in prior and probably did mediocre to average on both of them.

Poker has been a struggle for a couple weeks, but I’ve gotten accustomed to dealing with it in the last couple years.  I’ve been working closely with a couple clients.  There are certainly financial implications in doing so, but I’m also searching for something for myself.  I’ve learned a lot through the instruction of others.  I’ll find something in the next couple weeks, but a little bit of luck wouldn’t hurt either.

I finally got back on track in NFL Pick’em last week.  In the previous 9 games, I lost 8.  Last week I went 2/3 and got a little bit closer to Reed in the standings.  After Week 10, Reed is ahead w/ 54 points.  I have 48, Garrett has 39 and Matt has 33.

I played very poorly to start today, but I managed to get things back on track.  Even still, I wasn’t able to get anything going.  I built a stack in a handful of tournaments, but I just couldn’t string a few big hands together in the same tournament.  I lost a big race with QQ v. AK in the 50 1+1 on Stars a couple tables short of the money.  In three other tournaments, I lost pair v. pair.  In each of those, I was the big favorite, but I wasn’t able to hold.  I grinded a small winner over a few thousand hands at 1/2 while I was playing the tournaments.  Matt and I went out a couple minutes apart in the 650 PCA Mega Sat. on Stars with 30ish players remaining.  A top 12 finish in that tournament earned a 14,300 PCA package.  I’ve yet to taste victory in that satelitte in nearly a dozen attempts.  I cashed in the FTOPS 322 today.  It was the only cash of the day and the last tournament that I had running.  I lost with AJ v. 99.  865J… and a 7 on the river…

I don’t even know why I play tournaments.  I lost w/ AKs v. A7o in a 75 on Tilt w/ 50ish players remaining for a decent size stack.  I also played in a 33 on Stars.  I managed to finish in 10th.  It’s only fitting that it ended the way that it did.  Good night!

Yawn…

I don’t understand.  I played 1/2 today instead of 2/4.  I played pretty well throughout the afternoon and early evening, but I played terrible in the late night session.  I can’t be too critical though.  I had a miserable run of cards through that last session.  I got into a complacent mindset and wasn’t willing to fold anything.  I really want to stop playing for the night, but I have a couple tournaments still going. 

I’ll be back to the grind tomorrow at 1/2, but it’s not going to be easy to forget today.  I had a winning session in the books prior to the late night session in which I got destroyed.  I’m embarassed about it and can’t afford to play this poorly for much longer.  This is a very difficult profession.  Thankfully, I have other sources of income.  If I didn’t, I probably would have quit playing.  Well, that’s a lie, but it wouldn’t have been much more difficult.  What am I to do?  There’s only one thing that I can do.  Play the best I can tomorrow and replicate that again on Saturday.  

At least I wrote a killer article today during school.  I get a lot of work done during American Government.   The class in between two classes that I want to attend, so I spend most of the time writing about poker.  Today I wrote about T@P.  It’s a concept that applies primarily to live poker that I came up with a couple years ago.  I’ll post the article on the website in the next couple weeks.

Today’s session got off to a very rough start.  I was very motivated today and was prepared to play a very, very long session.  It didn’t take long before my computer froze.  In fact, it only took 4 dealt hands.  I restarted the computer and resorted to a short break to regroup.  After that, I was ready to go.  I raised with 99, I was called by a reg behind me and the flop came 955.  I checked, he checked back.  I chumped the turn, he called, the river completed the flush.  I chumped it again, hoping that he made a flush and would raise.  He raised, I 3bet and he 4bet ai.  I was losing to only 55 and that’s exactly what he had!

I played very well for the most part.  I got stubborn against an aggro reg that I should have just left alone.  In total, I lost 800ish against him.  That about covered my entire losses for the nearly 5,000 hand session.  I’m pretty certain that I played poorly across the other tables that I was playing when I was getting involved with said villain.

Overall, I ran pretty poorly.  At least that’s what I’m telling myself.  No, I definitely ran below expectation today, but there’s no reason that I couldn’t have salvaged a win today.  While I was playing, I watched the coverage of Election ‘08 on CNN in HD (obv).  I was planning on watching it throughout, but I turned it off once CNN basically said it wasn’t practical for John McCain to have a chance.  I don’t impose my political views on others that much, but I think this is a very good step in the right direction for the better good of the United States.  That’s not to say that John McCain couldn’t have done the same.  This is a historic day in the history of the United States.

it’s back to the grind.  I had a tough day of tournaments yesterday that was especially annoying considering that I was feeling miserable Friday and Saturday.  Hailey, Matt and myself drove down to San Diego for a  Halloween party.  We met up with Matt’s friend, Tyler, for dinner and that’s when I began to feel sick.  We had a bite to eat that wasn’t that appealing and went to get dressed in our costumes.  Hailey was a sexy stewardess, Matt was Quail Man from Doug and I was a generic sailor.  At this party, I may as well been the sea sick sailor.  We had to call it an early night and that was Halloween.  Blah!

I felt about 100% on Sunday for the tournaments, but I just couldn’t seem to get anything going.  I pretty much washed everything besides a couple 26s on Tilt.  Again, blah!   Today, I felt that it was most important that I get things off to a good start for the week.  Of course, as I’m writing this entry, PT3 is lagging.  That’s pretty standard considering that I spent a couple hours setting up a new work station and working with PT3 before I began playing.  Since I began playing on Tilt again, I’ve been quite successful, but I know that I can do better.  I’ve lost about a few thousand playing 3/6 and 5/10 and done very well in 2/4 [at least according to my standards].  I don’t regret playing 3/6 and 5/10 since I left the game immediately after the fish left.  That may not be the case 100% of the time, but I was pretty good about doing so most of the time.

PT3 is ready to go and I’ve since been playing on my desktop and utilizing my laptop for the ‘Watch Immediately’ feature on Netflix.  I had a good session today, but I was left moreso craving to play another.  I’m excited and going to have a very good week.

I played 5 tournaments tonight while grinding a session of 2/4 FR on Tilt.  I busted a table short of the money in two tournaments.  I ran KK into AA in the 20 Rebuys on Tilt and ran J2 in AJ from the big blind on a flop of AJ2 in the 77 6max on Stars.  I tried to bubble the 50 1+1 on Stars but I managed to make it into the money for a change.  The tournament only had 99 players, but it was nice to make a final table.  I lost w/ AK v. A8 for a decent pot to go out in 6th.  Villain managed to river an 8.  I got off to a great start in FR but bleeded for a couple hours and ended up being a small loser after 2,500 hands.

This is the second time I’ve done this in the last month.  I registered for a tournament that I didn’t intend to play.  Three weeks ago I played the Mulligan on Tilt and finished just inside of the money after I ran AKs into AA.  This time, I accidentally registered for the 109R on Stars.  I played the tournament for myself in this one and played very nitty in the first hour.  I had a modest stack after I purchased the add-on.  Although it was very early in the tournament, I decided this was a postworthy situation.  I figured if I happened to go deep in this tournament, it’d be a nice little story and I may as well post it early in the tournament.  I could have limped into the money, but I decided to raise ai a couple time in an effort to build up a playable stack.  I stole the blinds twice and locked up a min cash.  Considering that I was in for 2089, 900ish is pretty good.

I had a couple exciting hands.  I raised ai w/ AQ, moorman called w/ A9, he turned a 9 and I rivered a Q.  Oh!  That felt sooo good.  In the other hand, I 3bet shipped AQ w/ two tables remaining and caught an A on the river against moorman.  I stole the blinds a couple times although I’d rather have been called esp. w/ QQ.  I had 77 the other time, but I was at the bottom of the chip count and desperately needed a double-up.  I finished 14th after I lost w/ T8s v. 66.  I caught an 8 on the flop, but my opponent flopped a set.  I managed to turn trips, but I failed to complete the full house on the river.  That would have been quite an exciting way to win a coinflip.

I played a bunch of tournaments today, but I couldn’t manage anything deeper than the 109R.  I got 49th in the 109 100k.  Ironically, that’s the tournament that I thought I was registering for when I accidentally registered for the 109R.  I grinded a few DONs and may play a bit more before I go to sleep and of course a congratulations is in order to GBecks for winning the 150R on Tilt for 57k.  Holla GBecks!  And thanks for the sweat in the 109R everyone that was watching!

Phew!  I’ve recovered nicely in the last couple days.  I didn’t play Tuesday, but I was able to put in good volume on Wednesday and Thursday.  I also played a few dozen of the DONs (Double or Nothing’s) on Stars last night as well.  I played mostly 104 Turbos and a few 52.  I managed a 7% ROI for a 200ish winning session.  They are different and it’s always nice to book a win on Stars.  Many players lacked common sense when it came bubble time.  On a few occasions, a player would go broke w/ 7+ blinds when two players had between .5 and 2 bbs.  It was fairly comical.

The last set of players didn’t go to well.  Jack is haning in there and getting things back on track, but of the 4 players that began playing cash games in the last month only Jack is remaining in the stable.  I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t work out.  We were scammed by one player, another player just couldn’t get anything going and the last thought I was out to scam him.  He was doing well too, so it didn’t make any sense that he spazzed out.  Oh well…  We began with Brad today.  He’ll be playing 50 NL FR for a couple weeks and begin playing 100 NL after that.  We have another couple prospective players that we’ll likely begin with in the next couple week, but we’ll have to see how things go.

I managed a 77.5% on an exam last week that I was not prepared for and though there was a very good chance that I bombed it.  That wasn’t the sweat I was looking for.  It was like getting away with a big bluff for your tournament life when I was called up to get my exam.  Phew!  I’m taking the rest of the night off.  It was a very long day that began at 7:45 A.M. and was jam-packed with school and work up until 6:00.  I’m going to play tournaments at least 2 of the next 3 days with Sunday being a lock for a tournament day.   After 63k hands played, I’m running at 2.61/100 with a speed of 17.3/13.7.  So tight!  I have a 12 buyin downswing and haven’t lost mind!

Hailey and I had a great vacation, but all I can think about right now are the negative things.  I’m slightly bipolar and I tend to get really stressed out every once in a while and feel like I’m losing control and spinning out of control.  I lost (2) players this week one of which lost confidence in me and the other lost confidence in himself.  They are both quite a blow.  It’s never fun to lose a client that you would have surely profited nicely with for both self and client and with the other client we had to stomach decent sized loss.  I’m more disappointed with the former.  The things that I was told were very discouraging to my psyche.  I’m not posting this to make a statement or to call this player out.  Rather, I’m pointing out that this one of the parts of poker that I didn’t realize would have such a great affect on me emotionally and psychologically prior to playing poker professionally.

There are so many different variables that one cannot account for.  You lose a little bit of yourself as you go about your career in this industry and you become a different person.  I can feel my bloood temperature rise in my veins.  I begin to think of past experiences that were not favorable and those things that have happened, both in the past and recently, that have had a great impact on my current situation.  You can’t help but feel sorry for yourself for the times that you were taken advantage of.  Sometimes, though, you feel like it was yourself that lead to that problem and you have yourself to blame.

I recently made a deal with a person that ran up a credit in excess of 13k at one point.  It had a great affect on me.  He didn’t care about me at all.  He only cared about himself.  The thing that people don’t understand is that when they cheat, scam or steal from another it costs more than just the money that took.  My mental state has taken many blows in the last few years.  There are so many people that hurt me in a way that I was forever changed.  With the player that I previously mentioned, the situation is resolved but it didn’t come without any consequences or risks.  He got the best of me and I had to end the situation before my poker was affected any more.

I feel pretty miserable right now.  I shouldn’t because if I look at the larger picture I should be content, but it’s hard to forget those that hurt you financially and mentally along the way for their selfish endevours when you did it the right way from the beginning and didn’t cheat, scam or steal from others to get to the point where you are at today.  This happens in many professions I know, but this is something that is just so difficult for me to handle.

Tonight I’m going to make myself a drink, relax a bit and then go to sleep.  Tomorrow, I’m going to wakeup and feel confident and motivated to do the best I can for myself and my clients.  That’s all that I can do and I know that I can do that knowing that I did it well.

I did what I’m best at.  Every time that I go on vacation I seem to lose a small fortune right before leaving.  There isn’t much worse than having that sour taste in your mouth when you’re about to have a vacation.  I had this great idea tonight.  Instead of playing on Tilt, I decided to grind Poker.com while watching the Dodger game.  I’m not sure what was worse.  They were both pretty dismal.  I tilted quite a bit during the session and seemed to lose every time that I was ai w/ the best hand.  I haven’t seen many players lose lately on there.  It was only fitting that I play for the first time in a few weeks and lose 3k after losing 2k on Tilt yesterday.  Poker was going smoothly a few days ago.  It’s amazing how quickly things can change.  I’ll play a bit in Vegas, but I won’t be able to dedicate the amount of time that I would normally after such an experience.

With six weeks in the books, I’m currently 13-5 in NFL Pick’em.  Although it’s a very small sample, 72% at this juncture is still pretty amazing.  I have a two game lead over Reed and poised (lol) to take back the title.  I watched the Dodger game w/ Hailey and her dad tonight.  It was quite disappointing to say the least.  I used to be a big baseball fan up until college, but it just doesn’t seem to interest me any more.  Poker can definitely be attributed to my loss of interest in baseball.  Baseball is a huge time commitment and there just isn’t enough time to fit it into the schedule.  I watch the playoffs but that’s about it.

I’m not sure if I have school tomorrow.  The fires are pretty bad and they’re spreading rapidly.  I have an assignment due tomorrow morning, but I’m not going to do it unless I have to.  They’ll post by 5:00 A.M. if there will be classes.  That’s a procrastinator for yah.  I booked a short session Tilt and now just about ready to wrap up the day here.  Hailey and I are headed to Vegas on Thursday for a few night and will be staying at the Imperial Dump - I mean Palace.  It should be a good time.  If I don’t have class tomorrow, I’ll dedicate the day to poker and Wednesday will be quite busy as I’m running some errands w/ Hailey, need to get a much needed oil change, watch the Dodger game and play some poker obv.  After the exam on Thursday, we’ll be off to Vegas!

I built stacks in a number of tournaments this afternoon, but I just couldn’t scratch it.  Overall, it was a great day of poker.  I had two good sessions in cash games and was only a small loser on the day in tournaments.  Matt, on the other hand, had a very good Sunday.  He had a deep run in the 750K on Tilt.  To date, it’s his deepest run, finishing inside the top 100.  His shining moment on the evening, other than further damaging his door, was a first place finishing the 75 22.5K on Tilt for 11Kish.  After his main event satellite wins, this is his biggest cash to date.  Man had quite a heater today.  He also won both his football games for the first time this year heading into MNF.  I went 1-1 and hold my lead over Reed while Garrett picked up a game as well after going 2-0.  I’ll have a 2 game leading heading into the next week and can only increase and can only increase my lead over Matt w/ a win tomorrow night.

Hailey came over and watched the Dodger game w/ me in between sessions.  The game was pretty much over after the 1st innning but we sweat it until the end.  Other than the ruckus early in the game, it was a little on the boring side, but that’s alright if your team has the big lead.

After playing 2/4 for three weeks, my confidence is continuing to increase.  I’ve been able to bounce back nicely from (2) 3K losing days.  In fact, those are the only losing days I’ve had since I started playing 2/4 on Tilt this time around.  With 45K hands played, I have an earning rate of 3.31BB/100 before rakeback.  It’s good to have things going well on a major site again.  Everyone knows it’s been awhile.

Hailey and I went w/ her mom and boyfriend to the St. Bernadine’s fair last night.  I’ve played in their annual golf tournament each of the last years and although I didn’t particularly play very well I was quite consistent in the amount of alcohol that I drank.  Anyways, Tom decided to brink these packages that contained a frozen alcoholic beverage in them to sneak in the fair.  Of course, they sold alcohol anyways, but I ended up drinking one of those.  It wasn’t that good, but I guess it wasn’t terrible either.  Even though I ate shortly before we got there, I suddenly was hungry again.  It’s probably just part of going to a fair.  You just have to eat.  There was a variety of different types of food.  We opted for Filipino food, which I had never had before, and it was definitely a good pick.  We browsed the alumni section.  I didn’t go to SB’s, but Hailey and a bunch of my friends from high school attended.

It wouldn’t be a fair if it didn’t have any rides, so we went over to that section and went on a couple.  Tom and I went on two of the larger rides.  The first ride is difficult to describe, but it was a good experience.  The other ride, however, was not that enjoyable.  The ride went in a circle and took you in a variety of different directions.  Sometimes we would go up and then fall back from where we came from and others we went full circle or vice versa.  If the ride were about a minute, it would have been fun.  This ride seemed to go for several minutes and I began to feel it in my stomach and head a bit.  Thankfully, I only had a couple drinks otherwise they may have had to bring out the mop.

I ralled late in my session yesterday afternoon to book a small win and put in another solid session today.  I’m looking forward to another Sunday.  I’ll play a handful of tournaments including the FT 750K and Stars Million.  It’ll be a long day of poker regardless, but I hope, as I do every Sunday, that it completes w/ a deep finish in one of the majors.

I have a comfortable lead in NFL Pick’em and taking NYJ -6, Chicago -3 and Cleveland +8.  I have a 9-1 record in non-MNF games and am 2-3 on MNF.  Reed is 2 games behind, Garrett is 4 behind and Matt is 6 behind and bringing up the rear for it looks like just may be back to back years.

I pwned both of my exams last week.  I didn’t do well in an exam in my third class a couple weeks ago, but I got off to a great start in my other classes after I received A’s on both exams.  Bam!  I got a lot of work done prior to playing a rather lengthy session this evening.  I was motivated and was satisfied w/ how I played.  Unfortunately, today was a repeat of last Friday and I got beat up pretty badly for a 3.1K loss after I 9-tabled 2/4 6max for 3K hands.  I reviewed the biggest hands that I lost afterward and couldn’t find many mistakes in those hands.  I just couldn’t seem to get any action w/ my big hands today.  It’s alright.  I’m not sweating it.  The variance will be stiff at time, but I’m going to persevere.  Back to the tables tomorrow morning…

I’ve really gotten into a really a nice groove on Tilt.  I 9tabled 2/4 6max for about 4,300 hands today and played pretty well.  I finished up a small net winner which is really a shame.  I lost w/ 76cc on a 985K board w/ two clubs.  I rr pre, bet the flop and villain check raised me ai on the turn w/ an open ended straight draw.  That was an 1,100 pot and it went the wrong way when he caught a ‘7 from Heaven’ on the river.  I ran KK into AA on another hand.  We both slowplayed our hands.  He flatted my 3bet pre in position, I checked a 44T flop and he checked it back.  The turn was an insignificant card and we got it all in.  It’s just annoying that he min raised my near potsized bet on the turn and I had a good enough hand to hand him over the rest.  The last annoying hand of the day came on the last hand of my session.  I was only playing one table at the time while I was playing my last tournament.  I busted out of it and flopped a straight w/ 65 after I raised pre from under the gun.  The board, however, was all spades and villain check raised.  I decided to take a card off instead of put it in there.  I was looking for a non spade and non board pair on the turn.  That wish was granted and I called the $300 all in.  He tabled a set and paired the board on the river.

Even still, I was very happy w/ this session, as I was able to maintain very good play for a long period of time.  In the last two weeks, I have played 29K hands and have a 3.75BB/100 which I’m very happy with obv.  I don’t think this is sustainable for the amount of volume I plan on playing, but I’d be very happy w/ 2BB/100.  We’ll have to see.

It’s off to the school grind tomorrow morning…

I haven’t had a post in a couple days and it’s fitting to post after the Sunday tournaments.  Here it goes…

I’ve been crushing FT 2/4 6max the last couple days.  I lost 3K on Friday, but I came storming back w/ 3K wins on both Saturday and Sunday.  I ran really, really well, but I definitely played quite well.  I’ve been trying to avoid getting in autostack off mode and I’ve been able to stay in a groove longer than normal.  I’ve only had one losing day since my return back to Tilt and thankfully I’ve avoided going on Tilt as well.  Other than playing a little too fast on Friday, I’ve been playing pretty steady.

I fired up a handful of tournaments today and booked only a small loss on the day.  I finished 8th in a 26 KO on Tilt after losing w/ AKo v. KJs for a top three or four stack.  The other cash came in the Mulligan.  I didn’t even mean to play this tournament and must have thought it was the 750K when I was registering earlier today.  Right inside the money, I ran AKs into AA and QQ.  That was a doozy…

I’m very happy w/ how poker is going right now.  I’m going to keep working hard through the week here and probably going to Vegas this weeked to visit friends and meet my end of the bargain on a Stars for cash transfer that I made for the WCOOP.  That money obv didn’t go to much good!

I also pwnd NFL Pick’em again this week.  I went the standard 2-0 and have NO -3.5 tomorrow night.  That leaves me 11-3 for the year.  Yawn… If I win tomorrow I’ll have a 4 game lead of Reed,  6 over Garrett and 7 over Matt.  I suggest they start hedging their bets by taking taking my picks against the house.

My computer wasn’t functioning to its fullest capabilities today.  This has been a frequent occurrence on Sunday in the past month.  I’d been better off taking it as an omen.  Today it really distracted me and I decided to not play the tournaments.  I played a couple and washed both.  Instead I played two separate cash game sessions and booked a nice win over 2,500 hands played at 2/4 on Tilt.  It was a rather pleasant week on FT and a pretty needed motivational boost after a tough start to the week and a long list of failures playing Tilt cash games in the last few years.

I also spoke w/ a couple players that will begin playing for RPT Staking this week.  Brad is going to play SNGs of some sort and Chris is going to play 6max.  We’re going to start w/ another player as well.  It should be a busy week, but Matt and I are very excited.  Speaking of excited.  I was very excited today as I watched the Chargers backdoor a cover against the Raiders when the game was tied w/ four minutes remaining.  Matt had his best week so far.  It’s not a surprise considering that he picked the same games as me somehow.  Hopefully, Pitt covers tomorrow.  He’d go 3-0 for the week and not pick up a single game on me.  I’m currently 9-2 in the pool which is pretty damn good.  I’m running really hot and have nothing to complain about.  We’re laying 6 tomorrow vs. Baltimore and we’re starting up w/another players as well.  Just another day in the life I guess…

It’s been a successful week at FT.  Hopefully, I don’t jinx myself.  If I’m able to maintain the discipline that I have shown thus far, I will surely continue to have success.  Yesterday I played three separate sessions.  I moved from the living room into my bedroom.  This is the first time since I began playing that I’ve played in the solitude of my bedroom.  The blinds are open and the door is left open so I can hear Matt bitch from the other room.  It’s a comfortable setting and the television is only a quarter turn away instead of a half.  After the last session, I went w/ Newman to B.J.s to shoot the shit, eat and I had a couple drinks.  He settled for water because he had work in the morning.  Lol!  We came back my apartment and watched television and lounged for a bit.

Hailey and I are going to the LA County Fair today.  I haven’t been in several years and really looking forward to going again.  We’re going to stop by a pub on the way back to see one of her friends that works there and then crash for the evening.  I haven’t played tournaments since Sunday and look forward to playing them tomorrow.  This will be the first Sunday that I’ll play in this new work environment.  My football picks have been submitted and plan to sweat those to victory while I go deep in a poker tournament or two.  Cheers!

I’ve played about 4,700 hands so far in 2/4 on Tilt and am thrilled with the results so far.  It isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s a sign of good things I hope.  I feel a lot more comfortable playing with the aid of PT3 and HUD.  As long as I can prevent myself from playing to fast, I should be alright.

Last night I watched the USC lose to Oregon St..  I can’t say I was too surprised since they shown a tendency to lose these types of games in the last few years.  I’m sure they’ll bounce back and destroy the opponent they plan in the Rose Bowl unless they happen to playing the NCAA Championship instead.

I’ve pretty much never had success playing 2/4 or above at Poker.com in two years.  The experience has been unbearable.  Yesterday was ridiculous.  The session was without a doubt the worst series of situations that I’ve experienced in a session since the reset.  I had KK v. AA, multiple set under set and ran into a seemingly infinite number of sets.  I got pounded into the ground and lost about $4,000.  I sat there in disbelief.  I’m still in shock.  This has become a regular occurrence and I’ve had enough of it.  I’m not going to play 2/4 and above on Poker.com.  This is a nearly impossible goal, but I’m going to try.  The experience has just been to painful.  In order to play in those stakes competently, I must have a number of games to choose from and be able to use PT3.  This simply isn’t available and possible on Poker.com.  Therefore, I’ll play 2/4+ on FT.  This is probably going to be a terrible decision, but I’m not going to stick with 1/2 forever.  It isn’t possible.  I can’t concede.  I must persevere.

I played a short session of 2/4 on Tilt prior to a lengthy sesson on Poker.com.  I booked a $346 win on Tilt and lost about $450 on Poker.com.  It was another frustrating day and I only have myself to blame.  I should have stuck with 1/2 instead of submitting to temptation, but I’m going to figure out a way to grind Poker.com and transition into becoming a consistent winner in 2/4 on FT.  At least I hope that I’m able to.

Fuck you!

Since I wasn’t in the mood yesterday, I want to recap Hailey and I’s weekend venture to Santa Barbara and Solvang.  I decided against playing a session before we left on Friday.  Instead, I lounged a bit and prepared for the trip.  I always forget something, so I spent a few hours packing w/ several long breaks spread about those three hours.  In the end, I forgot to bring my FT chair for lounging on the beach Friday evening for the sunset.  It obv could have been a lot worse.

We left at 1:30 and enjoyed the beautiful drive along the coast.  We stopped for gas and a 12 pack of Corona and two limes and had launch at Joe’s prior to checking in to our hotel.  From the outside, it didn’t look like it was going to be a very nice place, but the rooms were surprsingly very nice.  They had been recently renovated and had a very modern look to them.  A flat screen television was also at the front of the room which was a very nice feature.  We sipped on a couple Coronas and relaxed before we made the short walk to the beach for the sunset.  We sat on a wall that sat between the street and the bike path on the beach.  We watched an elderly couple pan the sand w/ their metal detecors and discussed the fascination behind such a hobby.

We got back and got ready to go out.  We went to a cafe that had a band.  It wasn’t anything special, but it was cozy and a fun place to hang out.  We had a couple appetizers and a drink while we wathced and listened to the band that consisted of a saxaphone, cello and guitar.  After a couple hours, we went to Joe’s for another drink before calling it quits for the night.  The next morning we were out right at check out time and took the 101N up to Buelton/Solvang.  We went to Anderson’s Pea Soup for breakfast/lunch.  I hadn’t been there in several years and was craving a bowl of split pea soup.  The food was a little bleh overall, but the soup was very good.  We tried to check in at Motel 6, but the room wasn’t ready.  Normally, I don’t like staying at the crappiest place in town, but most of the places were sold out for the weekend and the only places left were very expensive.  We drove toward Lompoc in search for the Sanford Winery.  I think it was once of the wineries in Sideways but I’m not sure.  It was our first wine tasting experience and we had a great time.  We discussed the importance of pretending what we knew we were doing.  Of course, the guy that ran the joint knew we were noobs but that didn’t mean would couldn’t come across as regs to the other persons wine tasting along with us.  We practiced swishing our wine in the glass while we tasted six different types of wine.

We had planned to go to three wineries but one was enough.  Instead, we bumbed it at the luxurious Motel 6 before going to an early dinner.  It was during this time that I made my picks for NFL Pick’em.  My time was well spent as I went 2 for 2 on Sunday.  At 5, we headed out for dinner.  We were planning on going into Solvang but decided to go the Hitching Post instead.  We split the duck, quail and a filet.  It was a very a good dinner and we went for a bottle of wine since were in the mood after tasting earlier in the day.  Then, it was off to the Chumash Casino.  This was considered my hometown casino several years ago.  It’s a beautiful casino, but casinos don’t really do it for me since I don’t like to gamble much there.  I went to the poker room to see a friend and we chatted for a bit.  We weren’t in the mood to do that much gambling so we went to the only bar in the casino first.  You have to order food to drink so we got the goat cheese appetizer and had two drinks.  We watched a hooker play her A game with a definite noob and a woman hit on a guy half her age only to storm out of the bar w/ her friend running after her.  It’s amazing how much entertainment is out there if you just look for it.

Hailey hit 3 7s on a quarter machine and booked a $70 win and I managed a $10 loss after I was dealt a full house on a 5-play machine.  We stopped by my friend Zac’s place for a bit and shot the shit w/ him and Nick for a bit before crashing for the night.  It was a nice, relaxaing trip absent of poker.  I really felt great going into the WCOOP yesterday.  I felt that I played pretty well.

Hailey is coming over tonight to watch MNF.  I’m trying to teach her the game a bit.  She said that many have tried and failed.  We’ll see if I can teach her a few things.  There’s no doubt I’ll teach her a bit about picking winners.  If only I wasn’t a compulsive gamber.  I’ll just have to settle for $2,500 for the NFL Pick’em bet instead!

Thankfully I didn’t play poorly like last year, but the result was still the same.  I finished a couple hundred spots out of the money in the WCOOP M.E. and lost w/ AA v. QQ ai pre a couple hours into Tilt’s Million Guarantee.  It’s back to the grind on Monday.

I won both games today in NFL Pick’em w/ GBecks, badbeatme and my brother.  I’m currently 6-2 (yawn) with a 2 game lead over GBecks and badbeatme and have San Diego -9 in MNF.  I’m the only believer in SD, so I have a chance to take a healthy lead.  Matt has lost 5 in a row, obv.

I didn’t grind that much this week.  I didn’t play any tournaments and didn’t play enough cash games.  I had an exam on Tuesday that didn’t go particularly well and spent long hours with clients.  Hailey and I are leaving for Santa Barbara in a couple hours.  We’re going to spend the afternoon and night there and head up to Buelton on Saturday for wine tasting, dining and a trip to the Chumash Casino.  We have to leave fairly early on Sunday so that I can prepare for the finale to the WCOOP on Stars.  I can’t wait.  I’ll be taking Friday and Saturday off and will be ready to go on Sunday.  It’ll be a memorable day regardless.

Have a great weekend!

I’m currently procrastinating at 3:00 A.M..  I have a test at 9:30 and I obv am not motivated to finish studying.  In other news, I’m reporting from my bedroom instead of the family room.  It only took 12 months, but it’s completed nevertheless.  I have a lamp and a desk absent of the clutter that filled it for the last year.  I grinded Poker.com today and lost a few hundred.  Then, I decided it was time that I tried Full Tilt again.  FT hasn’t been kind.  I haven’t had success in FT cash games in about three years.  Unfortunately, it’s probably been longer than that.  I’m not sure what it is.  Eventually, the lack of success became a complete lack of confidence.  Although I’m a winning poker player, I didn’t feel that I could win on Tilt.  However, I’ve been very successful staking players on FT and I’m inspired a couple times a year.  This time I think I have a chance at success.

Through the instruction of others, I often learn things that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise.  I’ve learned a few things in the last few years from a handful of clients.  That’s obv an understatement.  I’ve learned a lot.  This time around I have Jason to blame if things don’t go well.  I won’t mention the reason that I decided to play on FT again.  I don’t think Jason could figure it out either.  I played a few thousand hands across two session at 1/2 6-max.  I peeked at +500 and settled for a $160 loss.  FT plays a lot differently than Poker.com.  As a results, I have a lot of adjustments to make.  I’m going to 9-table 1/2 on Tilt after I grind a session on Poker.com every day that I play.  We’ll have to see how it goes…

Hailey and I are going to Santa Barbara and Solvang this weekend.  We’re leaving Friday after I finish working and we’re going to spend the first night in SB.  We’ll have dinner and browse the bars at State St..  On Saturday, we’re going to the wine country in the afternoon, dinner and shopping in Solvang and a trip to Chumash Casino to cap off the evening.  I want to play the $5,200 WCOOP on Sunday, but I’m having my doubts.  I’ve surpassed the goals that I set a few weeks ago, but something doesn’t seem right.  That money could be spent on something more important, but I really want to play.  We’ll see how the week goes, but I doubt I’ll pass.

Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann would agree.  “They can only hope to contain him!”  I’ve been on fire.  This week has been pretty amazing; the online felt has been easy pickings.  I’m going to grind again tomorrow and play a bunch of tournaments on Sunday.  It’s going to be a special week regardless.  Hopefully, it’s a week to remember for a while.

It’s finally happened.  Oh, how long has it been?  To be honest, I have no idea how long it has been.  In a few instances, I thought I was there.  However, in those instances, it didn’t feel quite the same.  If you want to discuss the concept of flow, please visit the ‘Flow’ thread in Mind Management.  Flow is an inner peace with oneself and the work they perform.  What sets the last couple days apart from the hundreds of sessions that I’ve played in the post-Party Poker era?  Although I the results have been phenomenal in the last couple session, it isn’t necessarily dependent upon earnings.  It began Sunday.  I arose from a deep slumber with a feeling of confidence that I don’t have often.  It was a great feeling.  After a terrible session on Sunday, I didn’t feel any different.  This was a great sign.  I wasn’t affected after a pretty brutal day.  The feeling was still ingrained inside of me.  I also didn’t feel any different after another brutal session on Monday.  Tuesday, however, was a different day.  It was perfect.  I played two sessions on Tuesday and I played another session today.  In each session, I never looked at the cashier.  I finally didn’t care.  I didn’t have the strong impulse to see how I was doing.  Simply, I only wanted to play.  Flow!

I played marvelously.  No, I didn’t play perfect.  Not a single player can play perfect, but I played very well.  I saw things I hadn’t seen.  It had been a long time, but you can’t forget those things.  They disappear for what seems like an eternity.  It’s only a matter of time before you see the light again.  The light has tried to breakthough, but I had to help.  It’s different now.  In ~3,000 hands played, I’ve earned about $2,600 in 1/2 in the last couple days.  It’s important that I don’t change anything in the near future.  I’m where I need to be.

Phew…

I chrushed 1/2 today across 2 sessions.  I played for a few hours and then took a break to watch the WSOP.  That fold by the player w/ JJ on a board of AKJTT was very impressive!  Chuck Liddell made me lol.  The 62o hand was played marvelously!  Did I mention CL made me lol?!?  GBecks was at Ivey’s table, but you couldn’t really see him.  He’ll make a few more appearances on television in the next few weeks.  It won’t be long till he’s at a televised final table.  He’s that good.  Maybe he’ll have a deep finish in Aruba at the end of the month.

I sipped on a few Corona’s and played another quick session after the poker.  Tomorrow I’m going to play in the morning and spend the rest of the day with Hailey.  We’re going to make kabobs for dinner.  I really want to stake more players.  If you’re interested, please begin posting in the forums.  Every player that I stake must be an active participant in the RPT Forums before they’re eligible to be staked.  Good luck!

I ran pretty terribly today in cash games.  Again!  I played a couple thousand hands.  I somehow managed to not check the cashier a single time.  That was a huge accomplishment considering I’m addicted to knowing where I’m at in the session.  There was much to look at besides the cashier dropping a couple hundred at a time.  I lost set v. pair and flush draw, set v. straight draw and full house v. straight flush.  That was a doozy!

Hand

I played 3 tournaments and am currently in the money in the 55 80K on Stars.  Matt is grinding a session on his new computer and I don’t see any reason not to eat lasagna and watch 2 MNF games tonight!

I was really excited to play today.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but I was ready pumped.  Certainly the NFL had a little to do w/ it.  Reed & I have continued our annual NFL Pick’em.  Last year Matt joined.  He’s playing again for $500 and Garrett has joined as well for $1,000.  The format is the same.  Each contestants picks 3 games per week.  Other than the mandatory pick of MNF, each player can pick any other 2 games.  I never have gotten off to a good start in this thing.  I wasn’t that thrilled w/ my picks this week.  I went w/ three favorites on the road.  It’s pretty risky, but I didn’t have any other choice.  I went w/ Cincy, NYJ and Denver.  Cincy was obv terrible and the NYJ squeeked by to cover.  Garrett, Matt and I each went 1-1 and Reed went 0-1.  He has Minnesota tomrrow and we all picked Denver for MNF.

While I was watching football, I began playing tournaments at 10:00, starting w/ the 109 on Stars.  I played 16 tournaments today and grinded a few thousand hands in cash games.  Again, I felt great, but I just couldn’t scratch it today.  I cashed in 3 tournaments  and ended about a $1,500 loser for the day in tournaments.  The cash games were very frustrating today.  I had very good equity today, but I just couldn’t scratch it.  I have a headache and I’m tired.  Can’t wait to play again tomorrow.

Good night!

I played a few tournaments yesterday.  I finished 22nd in the 109 50K, but I ended up a small loser on the day in tournaments after washing out of the 216 6max and 55R.  I booked a good session in at cash games and was satisfied w/ the day.  Brandon finished 1st in the 26 16K on Tilt for 5Kish and Matt finished 4th in the 75 35K on Tilt for 3Kish.  I’ve very happy for both.  Brandon had it coming and Matt seemed much more relaxed and confident after finally having a deep finish for the first time in several weeks.

Today Hailey and I went shopping.  It had been quite a while since I had gone shopping for myself.  I think it’d been a year and a half.  Anyways, we went to Chilis for lunch.  There was no reason not to get the ‘Old Reliable’.  This is quite a great order.  I recommend the readers to try it.  Steak fajita quesidillas w/ extra cheese and loaded mashed potatoes instead of beans and rice.  We also split a caeasar salad and boneless buffalo wings.  We lead off w/ Mervyn’s.  Everything is 25 to 50% off, because they’re going out of business along w/ a decent chunk of the population during the current recession.  I nipped shirts, pants, socks and a couple belts.  I also got a couple shirts at Kohl’s as well.  It was a hot one out there today and it was nice to get out of the apartment and get something done.

I came home and played a bit while I watched the Kansas v. Louisiana Tech football game.  We dominated and I won a bit on Poker.com.  Eric has been tearing it up on Poker.com and Tom is back in the stable again.  Erik Ryland had a losing session and ranted a bit on the forums.  I knew it was going to happen eventually, but he’ll be just fine.  I have a  4.68/100 over 39K hands at 1/2 since the reset.  The converter doesn’t work very well and it’s off ~2K of 1/2 profit.  I’m not sure how many played hands its missing, but I don’t thing it’s more than 10K.  I’m basically crushing the site into pieces and I’m very happy about that.  Brad also beat the 100NL game today for about 8 buyins.  I sense tomorrow is going to be a good day.  I fee good, I’m playing good and it’s about that time to have a decent showing in the WCOOP!

Thursday is essentially my Friday, so I have a few days off before the next day of school.  I was pretty motivated and played a lengthy session on Poker.com this afternoon while I watched the Giants v. Redskins.  Unfortunately, I didn’t play very well.  I got off to a great start, but I just couldn’t concentrate.  I spewed a bit and got in that “I’m not in the mood to fold” mindset.  I ended a $500 loser and left with a bad taste in my mouth.  I should have fired up a couple tournaments to pace me, but I decided to just grind cash.  Tomorrow, I’ll be playing the WCOOP and a couple other tournaments.  I’ll play the normal 4-6 tables of cash games simultaneously instead of the 8 tables I played today.  I can’t be too disappointed, as I really need to be able to discipline myself better to be able to grind solely cash effectively.  It’s something I’m going to have to work on.  I concentrated far too much on the cashier throughout the session and instead need to just play and not worry about it.

I’m starving and craving an alcoholic beverage or too.  I think Hailey and I are going to B.J.s in a little bit.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back into the groove tomorrow and shake off the disappointing day that I had today.

Phew!  I finally made it through to the final table!  I got lucky against dabest247 (Davin Anderson?)  after I rr pre out of the blinds w/ AQ.  He called w/ QT and called my shove on a JTx flop.  Other than that, I mostly chipped up until I danced a bit with two tables remaining.  I reshoved w/ 33 from the sb against the hijack w/ 12 players remaining and then I raised the next hand w/ TT.  Bdbeatslayer instashoved from the big blind and I snapped.  He showed ATss.  He flopped a gutter, turned a flush draw and missed.  Again, phew!  I lost a decent chunk of my stack w/ QQ after I tried to value the river.  I went to the final table fairly short, but I took my time and didn’t rush into things.  I held w/ 55 v. AJ w/ 5 players remaining which felt incredible, but it was over shortly after then.  I raised to 20K at 4/8K out of the sb, the big blind snapped shoved and I snap called.  We were 4th and 3rd in chips respectively and far behind the other two players.  He showed 82 and flopped a 2.  I was very happy with the tournament overall and it covered most of my losses in tournaments in the last month.  It’s back to the drawing boards.

For the moment, I like tournament poker

It was not my intention to not update from Lake Tahoe, but that’s how it went I guess.  Hailey and I arrived at LAX yesterday afternoon after a weekend in Tahoe.  She had only met the family on a single occasion and this was an opportunity for them to get to know her.  On Thursday, we went to a steakhouse halfway between the airport and the house.  Hailey and I split an enormous dinner that included salad, steak, lobster, crab legs, potato and mixed vegetables.  Yes, we were stuffed afterward.  Since I had school that morning, I was pretty tired and we relaxed the remainder of the evening.  On Friday, I played a little bit while we watched television for a couple hours.  This was the first time Hailey was around while I worked, so I was on my best behavior.  I also played a short session Saturday afternoon.  In both sessions, I booked a win.

We went to Camp Richardson for lunch on Friday and to The Improv at Harvey’s that night.  The host a bit corny and has a raspy voice.  I guess he wasn’t that bad, but the other two comedians were very good.  The showcase was an elderly black woman that was absolute hilarious.  She was a bit racy (obv) which didn’t accomodat to the older crowd, but those that still had a full tank of oxygen in there lungs were entertained throughout her bit.  On Saturday, we went to Virginia City.  VC used to be a large prodecer of gold and silver in the late 1800s into the early 1900s.  We used to go to VC when I was younger on family vacations.  We ate ate BBQ for lunch, had a beer at a saloon and took the tour of a mine.  I’d been on it before, but it had been a while.  The biggest difference was that I had to duck throughout the tour this time.  Lol!

I played the latter half of the tournaments when I got back yesterday.  I really like how I played, but I couldn’t seem to scratch it.  I got off to a very good start in the 30R on Tilt and it was my only cash on the day (22nd).  The most annoying tournament was losing a 25 outer w/ one card to come in a 50 on Stars a few tables shy of the money.  I can’t recall ever having that situation before.  I held AQ against 22.  I had the Qh and villain had 22.  We were ai pre and the flop came JhTh9h.  I turned the remaining outs after a T came off.  It was to no avail.  An offsuit 4 came on the river.  I booked a small loser in cash games and called it a night.  I didn’t see any reason to extend myself and try to book a winning session.  It’s always nice to have a winning streak, but they have to come to an end at some point.  I also booked a loser today for around 600.  I lost an annoying hand in which I donked w/ 66 on QQ6.  The pf raiser overshipped ai 8 to 260ish w/ AQ and caught running 8’s to counterfeit.

I bought lucky Stars money this afternoon from a friend that shipped a nice nip recently on Stars.  We’ll have to see how lucky it is in the next few weeks.  I have school tomorrow and plan to grind it pretty hard this week at the tables.

I want to try and wake up at about the same time every day during the week.  The alarm went off at 8:00 A.M. but my body wasn’t ready to go.  After a one hour snooze, I was semi-alert and set to the start the day.  I had a couple errands and got those out of the way first.  I played for a few hours and booked a smallish win.  It would have been a small loss if it wasn’t for a decent pot that I won on the last table I had running.  That makes it 12 winning sessions in the last 13 fwiw.  I’m not to concerned with winning streaks after I’ve already had one to boost my confidence.  For now, I’m working on maintaining a balanced mindset and not to anything stupid.  After tomorrow’s classes, Hailey and I are off to Lake Tahoe.  Our flight leaves at 6:20 and we’re going to a really good steakhouse half way between Reno and my parent’s house in Genoa.  We’ll get the car and head up the hill for a couple drinks before we crash for the evening.  We’re planning on spending Friday night at the casinos down by the lake.

This marks the second day in a row I’ve been in a very good mood in regards to business ventures and poker.  Everything seems in line and I’m now in the process of starting with a couple more clients in the next couple weeks.  I can’t settle.  As soon as I have everything going well, I like to add a couple more to the stable.  It may seem like I’m pressing my luck, but when I get a player rollin’ I have a chunk of time that frees up.  I may as well spend it w/ another and keep building the stable.

I failed to mention in the last couple posts that school was rapidly approaching.  Today I woke at 7:40 to prepare for school.  Yes, 7:40!  I made breakfast, prepared my things and made the drive over to CSUN.  I’ve decided to park in the overflow parking lot that is about a mile away.  If I didn’t do so, I’d have no exercise, so it seemed like the necessary thing to do.  In between classes, I purchased a parking permit for the first semester that was $18 more than last year.  I can’t believe parking will cost in excess of $300 this year.  I also bought my books that ended up being about $300.  If you combine it w/ tuition, I’ve spent about $2,500 so far, but it’s obv well worth it.

I have (3) classes of 1:15 in length that are back to back to back.  The day will come to an end at 1:45 on Tuesdays and Thursday for the next four months.  Afterwards, I caught up w/ a couple clients and played a session on Poker.com.  I’ve been simply on fire.  With today’s win, I’ve won 12 of 13 sessions for a decent chunk of loot.  I’m very happy that I’ve stayed on track w/ grinding 1/2 and a little .50/1.00 rather than gambling with variance and the uncertainty of a higher limit on Poker.com or other sites.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been very successful in the last two years in accomplishing many poker goals.  It seems like I’m on my way this time around.  Hopefully, I am able to scratch together a decent showing in the WCOOP next month.  I’m not going to play many tournaments for the next week.  Hailey and I are going to Lake Tahoe, so I’ll only have to time to plug in a few cash game sessions Thursday through Sunday and I’d rather keep building the bankroll before the WCOOP.  If I stay on task and play well, I should be able to scratch another couple grand together by September 5th without much of a problem.  I’d be satisfied with that, but I think I could actually do about 3K.  If only the Poker.com converter worked efficiently.  It’s missed a majority of my earnings from each of the last (3) sessions, but it still has me at 7.87/100 in 27K hands at 1/2.  And remember that’s before rakeback.  I’m in a really nice groove and think that I could near the consistency I had playing 1/2 through 5/10 full ring on Party Poker back in the good ole days.

I’m going to Hailey’s a little later tonight.  We’ve been taking full advantage of our Netflix subscription.  In the last week, we’ve watched English Patient and Casablanca.  I can’t remember what else we have and the next movie is on it’s way.  Maybe we’ll watch a movie tonight or a 48 Hours or Dateline.  In all, I’m pretty happy right now where things are at.  I’ve had a solid month of poker prior to the beginning of the school year and I found a game that I can expect consistent results in.  It also helps that the money is sufficient too.  The stable has been performing well and I’m just a tournament score away from being overall content with poker.

It was another rather normal day in poker.  I book another nice win on Poker.com and lost every tournament I played.  In a 75 on Tilt, the sb completed, I shoved 12bbs w/ T8cc from the bb and he snapped for half his stack w/ J9dd.  Standard I guess.  Meanwhile, I was grinding a 163 on Tilt and was very close to the money.  Close is the key word here.  I lost a decent pot w/ KQhh v. A4hh after I raised utg and villain rr ai w/ zero fold equity.  Then, I made a speculative shove sb v. bb w/ 86o when the bb had 5bbs left.  It wasn’t an optimal play, but I wish I had a chance.  He showed K6o.  I raised ai for my last 3.5bbs the next hand w/ A3o, the same player reshoved and showed AA.  It’s always nice finishing a few spots in a few spots out of the money to end the day and having knife stabbed right in my back.

I still have the same stance on tournaments.  I hate them.  They’re fun to play, but I just can’t get anywhere in them.  I hoped that I would have a decent run of cards in the FTOPS M.E. after a pretty miserable run in tournament the few weeks prior.  I got exactly what I wanted.  I sucked out twice for my tournament life and eventually lost a huge pot w/ KK v. JJ.  It was only fitting the J came on the river.  At least I’ve been doing well in cash games.  I’ve built a 3K cushion between my cash game earnings and tournament losses.  Remember that I sold 50% of my tournament action to GBecks.  Sorry Garrett.  I’m trying my best.  I’m going to keep grinding, because I have about 10K in entries for the WCOOP alone next month.

I hate everyone that jumped into tournament poker and didn’t encounter the variance in the beginning.  I haven’t done a single thing that is noteworthy in 2.5 years in online tournaments.  I wanted to get something going prior to WCOOP, but it looks like I’m going to be that idiot that ran like God in a WCOOP event if I have a big cash.  They’ll talk on the forums how lucky I am.  Of course, as of right now, I’m that person.  I know I’m running far below expectation.  Even a play money player would cash for more money in the tournaments that I have been tracked for on Poker DB.  Oh well.  Like I said, “What a shocker.”  I don’t recommend any cash game player to put themselves through the same.  Stick to what you’re good at.  Play a tournament every once in a while, but make sure you only do so sparingly.  If you don’t, it’s likely you’re going to be very sorry that you tried.  Tournament poker really fucks with your head.

I’m going to start preparing myself for the worst.  I won’t allow Stars or Tilt to put me on life tilt when I finally final table a big tournament and get two outed on the river for the chip lead to go out in 8th.  I have the mental strength to persevere, but eventually I’ll just get sick of it and not enjoy poker as much.

I didn’t have the time to play the full schedule today which I didn’t really mind that much.  We’re having a graduation party at Dan’s (Hailey’s dad) this evening, so I just played a couple tournament as well as a handful of smaller satellites.   I went on a nice little rush in the Stars 109 after blinding down to 7bbs.  I doubled through PearlJammer, restole and reshipped again w/ 66 v. the same player and snapped by the sb.  He showed AJ and I held.  Yada, yada, yada I was up to about 15K at 150/300 and flatted an early raise from a player that had me covered.  He insta bet the flop and I quickly called.  The turn was a repeat.  He checked on the river quick, I bet ai and he called w/ KK.  I was a little confused that he would check/call at that point.  The board was 863JX.  It seems like there’s no reason to check unless he thought I needed to bluff to win the pot.  Oh well.  I didn’t last long in the 50/80 which has an enormous field btw on Sunday.  A couple players limped, I limped AJ, another limped and a player raised ai for a little over 2bbs.  Two limpers called and I reshipped.  The player utg called w/ TT and flopped a T.  The ai player had J5 fwiw.

Tournaments have been more of the same recently, but I have been crushing Poker.com.  The converter for Poker Tracker isn’t that efficient, but it has me at 7.86/100 through 25K hands played at 1/2 since the reset.  This is quite impressive at least to my standards.  On Friday, we went to McSomething in Westwood and Qs in Santa Monica via limo for Amanda’s bday.  We boozed for an hour beforehand at Amanda’s and obv continued in the limo.  I started w/ Corona’s and changed to Crown in the limo and at the bars.  Other than a couple semi-dramatic moments, we had a great time overall.  At Q’s, I ran into a close friend my high school that I haven’t seen in a few years.  He was with Andrew ‘Goof’ Dickinson (sp?) and brother’s Bean.  I chatted a bit w/ them a bit.  They are among the few people that became poker players from our high school.  Apparently, horryclutch took down the Nightly 100K on Stars Thursday night.  Nice!

I heard from a few folk that Tropic Thunder was a must see.  It’s not that I was disappointed, but I was expecting something a little better.  Robert Downey Jr. was absolutely hilarious and Tom Cruise had a few interesting dance moves, but I wanted more!  Hailey’s graduation was nice.  It was held at Venice High School in the an old school auditorium.  She hated the outfit she had to wear, but I thought it was pretty cute.  Afterwards, we took the 405 back to her house.  That freeway is an absolute disaster.  I can’t remember the last time they weren’t hacking it up and it still requires a few decades worth of work.  I don’t know.  At least the graduation was at 1:00, because I’d have serious health implications if I had to drive back during rush hour.

We went to P.F. Chang’s w/ her mom and boyfriend before the movie but after the graduation.  It seems I didn’t illustrate the best time line so far.  I got home around 9:30ish and watched the Olympics for a bit and grinded for about a half hour and called it a day for +350.  My brother and I have Pirates of the Carribean Dead Man’s Chest on and I’m probably about to hit the hay.  I would have played the 109 35K on Stars but the Stars transfer was obv denied from Matt.  He has to send in verification that more than likely relieved me of a little tournament stress.  I’m planning to grind tomorrow before we got out for a friend’s birthday Friday night and grind again Saturday before we go out w/ Hailey’s friends to celebrate there graduation.  Cheers!

The summer is about to come to a close.  When I wasn’t attending school for the two years prior to this past, it didn’t make much of a difference.  However, since I’m back in school, I have till Monday before the next term begins.  I decided to stay at the same pace to avoid burnout.  Lol!  I’ll be taking (3) classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I’ll be taking the rest of the week off of course. 

I grinded for a few hours today on Poker.com and played a 109 on Stars.  I chipped up from 3,000 to 7,000 in the first level and played an enormous pot in the second level.  Villain opened early at 15/30 to 150, I rr  to 450 from middle w/ KK, he called and we took the flop heads-up.  The flop came J9x w/ two spades and villain check raised the flop.  It was a chumpish raise and I decided to call and reeval the turn.  He jammed an insignificant turn card and I snapped.  He showed AKss and rivered a flush to scoop at 14Kish pot.  I finished up a couple hundred at cash games and spent the next few hours w/ clients.  RPT is proud to welcome the legendary Eric Ryland.  He’s a bit of a nut, but he also has a very bright poker mind.  He’ll be playing 50 NL full ring and shouldn’t be too long before he’s playing 100NL.  Tomorrow, I plan to arise fairly early and get a few things done before I got to Hailey’s graduation in the mid-afternoon. 

Matt and I went golfing at Valencia today.  Dad was in town for a couple days and we decided we may as well tear up the course a bit.  While we played $5 skins, I played pretty miserable.  It’s amazing that I can’t play and consistently choke when I bet in anything but poker.  I destroyed the ball of the tee today.  However, I couldn’t get anything else going from the fairway or green.  I scratched together a few pars, but I pretty much threw away any chance of a decent round after hacking it to the green after a scorching drive. 

We went to Sisley’s afterwards and had a feast w/ a handful of my dad’s business partners.  Everyone else was going to stay for a while longer, but I wanted to play a session tonight.  I got home and entered the 109 35K on Stars and a handful of tables at Poker.com.  I got off to a great start on Poker.com only to watch it dwindle away.  It was quite a doozy!  There was a player that refused to fold and I obv struggled against him.  I lost a race w/ 55 v. J9hh after I 4bet him ai for an additional 100 and we went back and forth for a bit.  I lost one particular hand in amazing fashion.  He raised to 18 and I for some reason called from the sb w/ QJcc.  The flop came AJ7.  I checked, he bet pot (40), I cr ai for an additional 120, he deliberated for about 10 seconds and eventually called w/ T4.  He didn’t have a pair, he didn’t have a draw and he didn’t even have a backdoor flush draw.  Nevertheless, he caught a 9 and an 8 to make a straight.  Meanwhile, I was grinding the tournament a bit and eventually got a healthy stack w/ about 100 players remaining.  I blinded off a bit and eventually jammed 11bbs from the cut w/ A9o w/ 53 players remaining.  It’s been a reoccuring event in the last week.  I always get snapped off by the last player.  This time I got snapped by AQ and was sent packing.  I ended up losing a few hundred in cash games.  I’m very disappointed with that considering I was up 600 after about 15 minutes.  Oh well…

It’s back to the drawing boards tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I’ve just about drained my Stars account, so I’m going to have to look for a swap tomorrow if I plan to play anything above the small stakes and micro tournaments. 

I went camping last night with a group of friends in Malibu.  Basically, it was a drinking event.  We had a good night, but Hailey and I didn’t bring anything to cushion ourselves from the ground.  Needless to say we weren’t very comfortable.  For the first time in a lifetime, I was the first to awake and walk around the camp site.  Since it was Sunday, I had to get going.  We cleaned the camp site, packed our things and grabbed breakfast at Jerry’s Deli.  I choose the Philly, so it wasn’t exactly breakfast or anything. 

I played a couple 109s on Tilt and finished a winner in one of them for 535.  I washed a handful of tournaments and only had the FTOPS ME left.  I ran 77 into TT somewhat early on and squeezed out a 4flush to double and ran KQo into KK 150 shy of the money and rivered a straight to double again.  After I got into the money, I doubled through and then knocked out that player in back-to-back hands and was sitting above average for the first time in the tournament.  I chipped up a couple times and had 130K at 2K/4K.  I raised to 12K w/ KK, a player in middle position rr to 44ish, I jammed when it got around back to me and he called after a short deliberation for his last 30K w/ JJ.  I faded the flop and turn, but the dreaded J fell on the river.  I was left 40K.  I raised ai sb v. bb and took 50K into the break.  I chipped up to 63K.  Rizen raised the hijack to 11Kish and I raised ai from the sb w/ A9o.  The bb thought for quite a while and called ai for 15K less.  Rizen folded and I lost to AQ.  I went w/ ATo for my last 3bbs from the button on the next hand after it was raise utg and rr by Josh Arieh in the cut.  The sb reshipped and JA folded.  Villain had KK.  I flopped a double gutter but was unable to catch.

I wasn’t that upset., but it would have been nice to hold w/ the KK and have a top 30 stack w/ less than 200 players remaining.  However, I have to have a little perspective. I did get really lucky twice.   I grinded a couple thousands hands at Poker.com and netted about 1K!  Although it could have been better, I finished the day a small winner in tournaments as well.  I cashed in (2) FTOPS events and will grind the heck out of Poker.com and Commerce in the next few weeks prior to the WCOOP on Stars.  I’m going to stick to with the day job.  It’d be far too miserable playing tournaments for a living.   

I finally cashed in an FTOPS event.  I got off to a very good start, but I had to back into the money in the 216 6max.  I doubled w/ AQ v. A6 inside the money, chipped up and ran AQ into AK for a majority of my chips after I reshipped on an opening raise and villain called ai a couple seats behind me.  I lost the remainder w/ J9o v. A7hh after villain flopped a flush.  Matt finished in the top 3%.  Hopefully we can get put something together on Sunday.  I also cashed in the 50/50 on Stars.  I went broke after I reraised ai for 15bbs w/ A9o after the player utg shipped ai for 3bbs.  Of the three players left to act, two players had 7.5bbs and the other had a big stack.  He reshipped w/ KK and that was that.  The utg player had J9o fwiw. 

I grinded 6 hours on Poker.com and only managed a $50 winner.  Oh well… 

I’m usually able to keep my emotions under control.  After yesterday’s rant, it’s obvious that I’m not perfect.  I’ll often use the blog to vent, but I’m going to try and keep it to a minimum.  I wouldn’t want to be known as someone I’m not due to the content of my blog.  It’s very important to express yourself.  Without doing so, these emotions will build until eventually the person implodes.  Although I’m not happy w/ my tournament results, I have to look at the things I could have or should have done differently.  This isn’t a difficult task.  With the steady success I was experiencing at 1/2 NL, I shouldn’t have began playing 2/4 and played 5/10 CAP on Tilt.  Basically, by playing in these games, I was gambling w/ variance.  I wasn’t going to allow for a long enough trial to w/stand variance, so I had no business playing in those games to begin with.  This is something I preach constantly to clients.  In fact, I believe it’s very imporant although it’s rarely discussed. 

After today’s session, I have a rate of 6.78/100 across 15.5K hands played.  This also doesn’t include rakeback.  I’m more than satisfied w/ this earning rate and should continue to play as much as profitably possible.  I’ve been playing about 4 tables compared to the usual 8 since the reset and have spectacular results.  Also, I’ve been able to play the cash games more efficiently w/ the addition of playing tournaments simultaneously.  I’m not concentrating on how much I am up or down on the session nearly as much as I have in the past.  Instead I’m just playing and that’s how it should be.

The tournaments were quite a drage again today.  I’ll watch my tone, but there were few highlights.  I played the FTOPS.  The event was a 216 HA which is half PLH and half PLO.  I lost a decent pot early w/ AQ54 v. A964 in a limped pot.  I check minimum raised the last player to act on a AT4 flop.  He took a while and eventually called w/ scraps behind.  I put the rest in on the turn K and he rivered a 9.  Blah!  I chipped up and then doubled w/ AJ v. T9.  I raised early, he called in the middle, I check raised on a J9x board and snapped when he 3bet ai.  The disaster occured at PLH.  I called a standard raise in the middle from a player two seats to my right at 80/160 w/ 88.  We took the flop hu and eventually got ai after the flop came 987.  He showed 76ss for pair, bottom open ended and a backdoor fd.  The 5 came on the river and the 12K pot went the other way.  I had about 2K left and folded the small and big blind in PLO and went w/ AJT8 w/ a single suit, but not the nut flush draw after a player raised early at 100/200.  A player in the blinds gave up w/ a hand worse than mine but w/ the nut clubs and the other player had AA.  I was drawing completely live to the middle of the deck, but I missed.  I don’t know if I should have gone w/ the hand and nor do I really care.

In the 50/80 I completed w/ 64 and the big blind checked.  I lead on a flop of 764 w/ two spades and he merely called.  The turn was an 8, I check raised ai, villain had 98ss and caught a 7 on the river to counterfeit.  In the 50/50, we were about a table and a half from reaching the money when disaster struck.  I had about 20bbs, bigegypt shipped ai for 10bbs from late position w/ KJo, I reshipped from the button w/ 88 and the small blind reshipped w/ KK.  That was the end of that.  I also played the 50 1+1 and 2 out resucked w/ 55 v. QT on the river which was nice but then ran 22 into KK for 12bbs a little later and was out. 

I lost 88 v. KTcc on a flop of 732 w/ two clubs.  I overshipped ai and villain check/called.  It was only a 26 so not big deal.  Finally, I made it inside the money in the 129 KO.  I doubled shy of the money w/ AKhh v. JJ and chipped up nicely before the bubble until I finally got caught.  I layed myself 3 to 1 w/ K4o after I tried to resteal from a late opener and he had AA.  The flop was K43.  Turn 2.  River A.  I chipped up again w/out showdowns and limped AKo in middle position w/ a 20bb stack.  I was hoping one the players w/ 10bbs to my left would ship it, but they decided to pass.  The small blind (JohnnyBelow) overshipped and I snapped.  He showed TT and I couldn’t catch.

I guess it’s nice to at least feel like I have a chance, but I’d like to have a deep finish sometime in the near future.  My PokerDB is unimpressive and I’d like to improve on it a little prior to the big score that I’m going to have in either the last few FTOPS events I play or the WCOOP.

I watched swimming and gymnastics last night and I shall do the same tonight w/ at Hailey’s.  Phelps’ will surely win another gold and hopefully a sweat for the U.S. in gymnastics. 

It was a pretty standard day.  I lost nearly every time I was all-in in a tournament today.  I managed to double w/ ATo v. QQ inside the money against AJKHoosier.  The turn was a Q that gave me a straight.  I pretty much was expecting a board pair on the river, but I somehow faded the 10 outs.  Thankfully, I ran KJ into AA on a J22 board after I called a raise pre button v. cut.  Then, I lost the remainder w/ KJ v. A7.  There wasn’t really a need to have a live hand going into the river and that was that.  It was my only cash of the day.  I particularly enjoyed losing w/ KTss v. 76ss ai on the turn on a KJ53 board w/ two spades in a 75 tournament.  I despise tournament poker.  I’ve felt the same way about it as I did several years ago.  This time, however, I’ll lose every dollar to my name before I quite playing them.  It’s only a matter of time before I catch a break. 

If things weren’t bad enough, I ran 3,000 under expectation in 5/10 NL CAP last night.  That was quite a doozy.  And since I didn’t get enough of running terrible in 2/4 the other day, I decided to get another dose today.  Again, I booked a winner in 1/2 and lost 700 in 2/4.  Apparently I can’t beat anything above 1/2 NL.  At least I finally got a new dishwasher today.  Now I can do the dishes that haven’t been cleaned in a few weeks.  I didn’t see the need to wash dishes by hand obv. 

I’m not going to play anything but .50/1.00 and 1/2 NL at Poker.com in regards to online cash games till at least October 1st.  I probably shouldn’t play above that limit for the next few years, but I for some reason think I’m a better player than I should give myself credit.  I’m looking forwarding to busting of the last few FTOPS event that I’ll play and washing every WCOOP event as well.  Therefore, I’ll need to grind Poker.com to hopefully break even. 

I played 2/4 on Poker.com today.  I didn’t do anything stupid, but I wasn’t given the warmest welcome either.  I seemed to get a lot of walks w/ premium hands and miss practically every flop.  It’s alright.  At least it wasn’t a complete disaster.  I lost about 1K in 2/4 and won a few hundred in 1/2.  Thankfully the server went down and broke every game.  I can’t manage a break.  I guess things could be worse.  I also played a bit of 5/10 NL (Cap) on Tilt.  I probably ran close to expectation and lost a couple hundred over a thousand hands. 

Of course, NBC has been terrible thus far in its coverage.  I’m sure it’s great for those in any other time zones, but it’s been really annoying for those of us on the west coast.  We’d like the same opportunity to watch the Olympics live.  They make us believe it’s live, but we aren’t idiots.  We realize that we’re watching the live broadcast that is delayed two hours.  Anyways, the 4 x 100 freestyle relay last night was incredible.  It was amazing! 

I haven’t taken such a brutal beating since the last time I played a decent size schedule on Sunday.  From start to finish, today was pretty miserable.  I played in 11 tournaments across 4 sites and cashed in exactly 0.  I nearly cashed in the 50R 1+1 on Stars, but I decided to run AQss into AA a few spots shy of the money for 11 big blinds from utg.  The Stars Million was pretty typical.  I did get pretty lucky to stay alive w/ 84cc v. TT after I reshipped big blind v. small blind.  Of course, it was only a short-lived victory.  I played a 70K pot w/ QQ v. JJ and lost which would have been 2x avg. w/ a couple thousand players remaining.  In total, I lost nearly 2K in tournaments.

The cash games were a drag as well today.  I lost AA v. AJhh after I called a check raise ai on a board of AQJx w/ two hearts after a heart came off on the river.  I rr w/ QQ and I bet ai for 2x pot on 99x.  I was called by JJ.  Villain turned a flush draw and rivered a J.  I also lost ai pre w/ KK v. AK after  an A on the river.  At least I managed a small win for the day in cash games.

I really despise tournament poker at the moment.  Other than a terrible call in a 109 on Stars big blind v. small blind w/ AQ after I was 4bet ai, I played at least decent and didn’t give up.  Thankfully, I sold half my action to Garrett.  That will prevent me from giving up on tournament, but I pray I don’t go broke and become bitter in the next couple months.  I’ll probably be back in action tomorrow online and play Tuesday and Thursday at Commerce.  I won’t play in the FTOPS tomorrow.  If I had a better weekend, I might have, but I wasn’t very happy w/ my perforance in the FTOPS 6max this morning and shouldn’t play it regardless.  Hopefully, I sleep well tonight and don’t have any nightmares. 

I got off to an optimistic start in a couple tournaments today and decided to play the 100R FTOPS.  The entire table took the initial rebuy.  I chipped up to 3,400, knocked out a player w/ JJ v. 77  and knocked out another w/ KTdd v. 63dd on AJ7 w/ two diamonds.  It was a limped pot.  I bet and the next player raised nearly ai.  I shrugged my shoulders and prayed he somehow had a flush draw.  He did and I held.  I played very snug for the remainder of the hour and took the add on.  I had roughly 9,200.  I didn’t do much for a while and then got fairly active.  The player to my right was an idiot.  He called a 3bet cold from the bb and the initial raiser called.  The 3better bet ai for 4K into 6K on 345, idiot called and the opener called.  The hands were AK, QJ and A2!  A player opened early, the idiot called from the sb and I 3bet w/ AQ.  The idiot called and he check/folded on QJT.  Then, I picked up the magical AA!  The cutoff raised ai for 5,300 at 200/400, idiot called and I reshipped for another 2K.  Player 1 had 66, idiot had 74ss and I held.  The next hand I picked up QQ.  I was pretty ecstatic since idiot was probably about to lose his mind.  Another player raised ai for 7Kish, idiot folded, I called and held v. KJhh.  Then, the idiot went crazy.  He raised ai for 20K and doubled the big blind up w/ 75o v. AK.  A couple hands later he raised ai again.  I called w/ 77, he showed QTo and caught a T on the flop.  It was the most +EV call but I still had 15K to play w/ and wanted to give myself a chance to get a big stack.  I raised KK early, the player behind me called and the small blind reshipped.  I reshoved and held against 99.  After a couple other small wins, I was up to 27K.  The cutoff raised 1,663 at 300/600, I rr to 4,800 w/ AA from the small blind and he called.  The flop came Q85 w/ two diamonds.  I bet 6,600 w/ 16,015 behind, he raised ai and I snapped.  It sure would have been nice to win that pot especially w/position on the doink w/ 21K.  Sigh…  He showed J9dd and caught a T on the river.

I had a good day at the cash games, but I busted out of 4 other tournament short of the money.  I had stacks in each of them but I was unable to win the race at the end of each of them.  It was a rather cruel finish in two of the tournaments.   I found myself w/ AJ & AQ v. 77 & 44 respectively.  The hands had identical outcomes.  In both, I turned a pair and got two outed on the river.  I have a good stack 109 75K on Tilt.  Please!

I’ve been watching the Olympics throughout the day and can’t wait till the evening session which features Phelps v. Lochte in the 400 IM.  After that, alcohol is likely in the forecast.

I have a feeling my posts will have a bitter tone at least once a day.  That’s what tournament poker will do to you.  Garrett bought 50% of my tournament action for a while.  I started off by playing in the 300R 1+1 FTOPS event.  I limped KK early, the player right behind me raised and the small blind raised ai for 1,100ish.  I decided to flat w/ 3Kish behind and the original raiser called.  The flop came T86.  I checked, he bet ai and I snapped.  He had QT and the other player had AQ.  The pot went the wrong way after a T on the turn.  It was a pretty big pot (8K) and I was left crippled.  We started w/ 2K btw.  I raised ai sb v. bb a few hands later and lost 76hh v. K8hh.

I played in 7 other tournaments and cashed in 3 of them.  I made a speculative call w/ K9 on a board of J95 after I limped the button and was check raised by the big blind.  He had J5 and I didn’t improve.  I cashed in (2) Tilt tournaments as well, finishing 25th and 21st in a 55 and 75 respectively.  The day ended miserably.  The small blind completed, I jammed w/ 99 and he snapped called for his last 9 blinds w/ QJ.  He caught a Q on the turn that gave me a flush draw but I was unable to improve.  I lost the last 3 blinds to Zach after he raised from early position.  I rr ai for the remainder w/ K2dd and failed to improve against his KJ.

I lost a little bit on Poker.com today, but I’m happy w/ how I’m playing.  Hailey and I are making dinner at her house tonight and then we’re going out for a few drinks.

I played 8 tournaments today and 1/2 cash games.  I finished in the money twice, including 0/2 in FTOPS events.  I don’t have much experience playing PLO/8 but I played it nevertheless.  I ran A288 into AA2x and then A2xx for the remainder into AA3x.  In the shootout, I got off to a great start doubling w/ AK v. AQ.  I ran AJ into AQ but chipped back up w/ 88 after 3betting ai.  I lost a chunk of chips w/ AT v 88 on AK8xK.  I called pre, c/c flop and c/c river.  I limped the button 3handed w/ AJ and 3bet ai against the sb to take a small chip lead.  Then, I raised to 600 at 100/200 w/ Q8 sb v. bb.  The flop came 876 w/ two clubs and I decided to cr ai.  It was quite an overbet but I was going to go w/ the hand anyways.  He snapped and showed T9.  I put the lst 1,600 in the next hand w/ A8s and lost to KTs.  No immunity against Lawrence this time.

I played 6 tournament on Stars.  I cashed in 20R 1+1, losing w/ AJ v. AK.  I could have easily raise/folded pre but I went w/ my original line and paid the price.  I also made it deep in the 50K.  I was very happy w/ how I played, but it wasn’t meant to be.  I 3bet ai from the button for 120Kish after the hijack opened to 20K at 4/8.  He showed KK and that was that.  I’ve never played tournaments consistently in fear that it would take 10K before I got a big score.  I’ve played well, but it’s going to take another day.  I pray that it won’t take 10K.

I had a really good day at cash games and have built a 1,200 cushion between cash game earnings and tournament losses since this past reset (July 27th).  I’ll continue to grind cash games and play a handful of tournaments.  I want to play the 300R 1+1 tomorrow, but I’m going to have to see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow.

I booked another loser yesterday at Commerce.  I played alright for the most part.  Other than betting two streets w/ K7 on 7d6d4dQ board w/out a diamond, I played somewhat nitty.  I didn’t get out of line and probably should have changed tables, but I was comfortable and played a majority of the session at a relatively tightish table w/ a few auto stations.  I had a fairly unfortunate hand w/ 99.  I raised to 40 in early and took the flop heads up against the blind.  The flop was magical.  983 rainbow.  He lead 50 and wasn’t very comfortable doing so.  I decided to flat.  He bet 100ish on the turn (J), I raised to 260, he raised ai and I snapped for low 500ish total.  I victory ripped and he trumped w/ QT and I was unable to fill up on the river.  I moved to tables and quickly noticed the player two to my right didn’t like to fold.  I didn’t have much time left in the session, so I began to rush things a bit.  The rr was atrocious on my part, but I rr nonetheless w/ J5o out of the big blind.  He called.  The flop was Q55r.  I chump lead 80, he raised to 300 and I quickly called.  I chumped 160 on the turn (8) and he quickly called.  I bet 440 of his remaining 700ish on the river (4) and he pondered and folded.  He said he hand nothing.  Other than the terrible rr pre, I like my flop and turn lines, but I failed miserably on the river.  He most likely would have bet a Q himself if I had checked, so I probably should have checked the river or at least chump bet the river to give him room to do something stupid on the river.  I got cute and hoped he had some middle pocket pair.  He probably would have checked behind with those hands, but I certainly gain more equity w/ a chump river or even a check than to fire this much to take the bluff away and possibly fold out pocket pairs.

I’m a bit frustrated w/ the last couple sessions.  Overall, however, I can’t be too disappointed though.  I’m going to take a couple days off and grind online.  I may have thought otherwise, but I had a quick 700 win in 1/2 this morning in less than 200 hands played.  It’s back to the online grind for a bit and back to Commerce probably early next week.  I’m playing well for the most part, but I need to continue to improve upon table changes and not paying off a player I don’t have any history with.  That information can be derived from hands that play with other opponents and don’t need to be learned through the loss of  a chunk of my stack.

FTOPS begin this evening at 6:00 (PST).  I can’t say that I’m too excited.  I’ve donated a hefty sum in the last couple years in FTOPS and WCOOP, but I feel I’m more prepared this year than I have been the last couple.  No guarantees obv.  I may lose more than in any year past in these tournament mostly because I’ll be playing more, but I like my chances this time around.  I’m not sure if I’m available to play Event #1 this evening, but I may potentially play 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 10 by the end of the week.  I’ll have to have success in the earlier events or cash games to play them all but I’ll played at least half of those event at the minimum.

Gubii recently joined RPT Staking for Turbo SNGs.  He’s a micro stakes grinder that’ll begin playing 6.50s and hopefully be at 12s in a couple weeks.  We’re also looking at a few more potentials in the next week and may have another couple players by next week.

I played terrible on Saturday. It was embarrassing. I was unable to throw my cards into the muck on a couple occasions through the session. I would have been a loser regardless on the day, but I didn’t need to lose as much as I did. I began the session w/ a hero call and was unable to turn things around. That’s what I get for getting greedy. It finally came back to bite me after getting away with it in two prior sessions. I decided to take a couple days away from Commerce and have been playing online the last couple days. I won about $1,000 on Poker.com playing 1/2 and lost a bit playing tournaments on Stars and Tilt. At least I managed to cash in 2 Stars tournaments!

Lastly, Dark Knight was pretty incredible.  It’s a must watch imo and the best comic film I’ve seen.

Although I haven’t lost a session at Commerce 5/10 yet, I’ll surely book a loss in the near future. It wasn’t meant to be this week as I booked another couple wins. On Wednesday, it was a bit of a battle. I didn’t have any donations and had to really earn it. I convinced the table we should do a few rounds of blind $20 raises utg. Every player but one agreed. A player raised to 65 and I rr to 115 two seats behind him from middle position. I had the T5dd. He called and the flop was 983. I bet 140 to set up a bluff on the next street but I turned a 5. I checked it back and villain bet 400 on the river 2 that ran hearts. After a few minutes of thought, I called and he said, “Ace high.” The big hand came the next round. Two players stood up and we didn’t have a blind raise on this hand. I raised to 60 w/ 88 and the big blind rr to 160. It was a cutsy raise and the first time he 3bet me in a couple hours after flatting on several occasions. I called and dreamed of an 8 on the flop. The flop was J98. Hmmm! He lead 150, I quickly raised to 430 and he thought for a bit and called. The turn was an ugly 7 for a 4 card gutter on board. He quickly bet 400 and I called in a few seconds. The river bricked and he quickly announced, “all in.” Hiyah! I wanted to call but had to give it some thought. It was about 1,300 to call. I went into the tank and eventually someone rightfully called the clock on me. I ran through a bit of calculations and probed him for quite a while and eventually called w/ 10 seconds remaining on the clock. His head dropped to the table and scooped a monster. He showed AQ.

Yesterday I went again. I got off to a great start. I moved tables and rr from the button on my thirdy hand w/ T5hh. It’s only a coincidence. T5s is not my favorite hand. The flop was magical! KTT. Villain grabbed chips and then checked. I bet 160 and he cr to 400. There were suits on board but I didn’t want to blast him off a K. I decided to flat w/ remaining effective stacks of 1,100 and jam any turn bet that he would make no matter what the card was unless it was a king. The turn was a third diamond which I was not too thrilled about. He bet 400, I raised ai and he disgustingly folded and showed K7 w/out a diamond. I gave it back to him a couple rounds later w/ KJ on a flop of KT9. I weak lead and cr ai on the turn when the flush got there. He had a baby flush. It wasn’t that spewy a play I feel as I’m pretty sure he would have raised me w/ any two pair+ hand after my weak flop bet. I’m not going to get called by worse probably on the turn but I didn’t see any reason to risk get outdrawn and just go with my read. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The biggest hand of the day was quite a doozy. I rr to 80 pre out of the blinds and got 3 callers. The flop was T63 w/ suits. The player after me had quite enough of me at that point and I decided to weak lead/3bet ai. I bet 140, he raised to 400 and I raised ai for his last 1000ish. He snapped! I asked if he had a set and he shook his head before the J came on the turn. He was still very attentive as the river came up even though he knew I had top set and mucked at the river. I’m almost certain I had the best hand considering he said he didn’t have a set and it’s unlikely he could have two pair on that flop. He rr a round before w/ 99 to 300 pre against another aggressive player and jammed on the flop and beat out the other player in the pot so I think he would have rr me w/ a bigger pocket pair. He must have had a flush draw since he was eyeing the to be river card with much intent. I was very happy with how I played this hand.

I’m absolutely crushing this game at Commerce. It has quickly become my new bread and butter game. I’m taking today off but I’ll likely go again tomorrow and maybe Sunday. I can’t win every time but as long as I keep doing my thing I’m going to have a lot of success over there. Hailey and I are going to dinner and a movie tonight. We recently got Netflix and watched Batman Begins last week so he could go and watch Dark Knight. I’ve heard very good things and looking forward to going tonight.

I caved last night and began playing online again.  It’s been an alright start.  I’ve been on my best behavior in cash games.  After (2) sessions of 1/2, I’m up about $500.  Of course, I don’t have anything to show of it after playing 9 tournaments.  It’s been real annoying as I haven’t found myself in the money yet.  I have several finishes in the top 20% but have failed to get a deep finish yet.  Along with 9 washes, I collected a $20 bounty, 10% of my brother in the 163 on Tilt and have a little more room to work with to improven upon my Stars and Tilt ROIs.

Saturday was a blast at Medieval Times.  Hailey and I left a little later than the rest of the crowd but we arrived just in time to go in with the rest of group.  We had a couple beverages prior to the start of the festivities.  MT is probably most enjoyable for the younger ones but it’s also offers plenty of entertainment for those that are drunk, especially those in a large group.  We were in the yellow section and our knight didn’t disappointed.  He earned his right to compete in the finals but then he was stabbed in the back by the green knight.  It was obv rigged.  Actually, it really was but we were a bit annoyed that our guy wasn’t able to compete for the championship.  Instead the prince fought against the green knight and his (4) apprentices.  We obv booed the green knight.  Karma played its special part and the green knight lost.  Of course, the night wasn’t perfect and the way in which it ended was very annoying.  I accept that LA has terrible traffic but I’ll never accept it at 11:00 at night on a Saturday night.  It took nearly 1:20 minutes to drive 41 miles which was more than it took to drive to MT earlier that day.  I was very tilted and had to make a couple phone calls to vent.

I played a short session at Commerce this afternoon.  I played in (2) key pots and then ended the session after only a couple hours.  I raised to 40 w/ AJ and received 2 callers.  The flop came KJT with two clubs.  I had the Ac.  I checked without a plan and the player that had already lost (3) $500 buy-ins in a short amount of time bet 100.  The other player folded.  I considered taking a card off and then decided I may as well go with it if I wanted to play since villain only had 400 left.  I raised ai, he thought for a bit, shrugged his shoulders and called.  The turn was an Ace and the river was a King.  I rolled my hand over and said, “You got it.”  However, he shook his head and mucked.  Unless, I counterfeit his JT which I think is unlikely considering his mannerisms he must of hand a flush draw.    In the second hand.  I raised to 65 from the small blind after two players limped in the middle and the button limped as well w/ A9o.  They all called.  The flop was J97 and I planned to cr the first two players ai as they hand about 500 and 400remaining respectively.  It checked around and I bet 220 on the turn (2).  The second player called and left himself about 125 remaining.  I bet it ai dark before the river and he shook his head and flashed a 9 to me before he threw his cards into the muck.  The game was good but I just wasn’t in the mood to play.  I’ve made the mistake to often in the past and didn’t want to regret it later so I racked up and left.

I only have a few more days before my online hiatus comes to an end.  I decided today that I’m going to use my online winnings to fund my entries into FTOPS and WCOOP so I have plenty of motivation to grind the smaller limits.  I would like to play about 10K worth of buy-ins so I have some serious work to get to and I’ll start up on the 1st doing so.  This won’t conflict with playing live however.  I’m going to play Tuesday, Thursday and possibly Wednesday during the middle of the week.

I’m starting to be recognized by a lot of the regulars at Commerce.  Thankfully it’s not for getting into any fights and I’ve been on my best behavior.  A few of the regulars figured I was here on vacation and staying in the meantime at the hotel attached to the casino.  I informed them that I’m a local and that’ll be playing here fairly often.  They mentioned online poker a couple times, but I think it was because they prefer I go back home and play on the Internet instead of at Commerce.  Anyways, I doinked through $1,400 on the second hand of the day.  I was prepared to c/f the turn after I raised pre and check raised 60 to 180 w/ J9 on Q93, but I fell for the trap after villain bet pot + 200 on the turn.  I put the rest in and was drawing dead against his set of 3s.  I made another thin play w/ 99 against an middle-aged Asian player in the big blind.  I raised to 50, he raised to 250 and I insta-jammed.  He had KK but I caught a 9 on the turn.  I wasn’t a very good play at all, but I’m not just going to include the hands I played well.

Other than those to missteps, I played quite well.  In a key hand of the day, I raised to 60 and the player to my right defended  his post.  I bet all streets with KK on J6432 for 110, 240 and 300.   The hand concluded with a victory rip and muck.  The biggest hand of the day was an interesting one.  I called w/ 54cc from middle position.  I flop was A37 with one club.  We checked it to the button and he bet 25.  4 or 5 of us saw the turn (9c).  Now I had a double gutter and a flush draw.  The first player to act bet 125.  He was playing pretty well and hadn’t gotten out of line.  I had a lot of outs now and I popped it to 400.  The bettor on the flop had rougly 600 and the bettor on the turn had about 400 left.  I was obv committed against both of them but the math was right so I made the play in hopes to take it down right there.  The player that bet the flop folded and the other player called.  The river was a 2s completing a spade flush from the flop.  He checked, I announced ai and after a couple minutes of deliberation he said, “… I’ll pay you off.”

I’m very comfortable in the game but I need to stop making these rather large hero calls.  There’s just no reason to do so when half the table is there to pay the rake and dust off the money they brought with them.  I’m taking today off and may or may not play tomorrow afternoon.  Hailey and I are going with a group of friends for our friend Jim’s birthday at Medieval Times tomorrow night, so I may just relax and hit the felt again on Sunday night.

Also, a little congrats to my brother.  He made 3 final tables last night and got 11th in another.  He managed a 2nd in the 77 6max on Stars.  Zach finished 3rd in one of the same tournaments Matt final tabled.  He also doubled with Q6 v. AA ai pre.  It’s not that big of a deal but after the flop came TT4 it’s safe to say he was prepared to exit the tournament.

I obv slept in this morning.  I either turned the alarm off while I was asleep or didn’t properly set the alarms.  It’s a coinflip if you ask me.  Luckily, mother called shortly before 9:00 and I was able to make it to Westchester a little before 10 for breakfast with my grandma and cousin.  We went to a very good breakfast and lunch place called Dinah’s.  If it were Monday or Thursday, I may have gone for the all you can eat chicken but I had to settle for the standard breakfast special instead which is always an excellent choice.  Afterwards, we went to work on the garage.  Grandma is worse than myself when it comes to throwing things away, but we managed to thin her collection by a bit.  I’m sure it won’t last but it looks a lot better than it did a few months ago.

I went straight from there to Commerce.  It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I got lost.  Shocker!  Eh, not really unfortunately.  I dusted off about 900 on the second hand.  I 3bet out of the blinds to 140 w/ K4dd after it was opened to 40 by an elder Asian gentleman in middle position and flatted by the sb.  The original raiser and I took the flop hu and I cr ai 200 to 700ish on 432 and failed to improve against QQ.  I played a hand very well against a middle-aged guy that had been seat hopping until he was in his luckily seat.  I 3bet to 90 pre w/ AQhh in position and he called.  The flop came Q66 with two spades and he lead 240.  I was quite startled.  This guy wasn’t frugal with his money up to this point.  I was never going to fold, but I couldn’t think of the best line to take.  I thought for a minute and a half and eventually set him in for his last 400.  I contemplated on flatting but I wasn’t completely sure as to what I would do if a spade came off.  Flatting was probably the best line and just not fold to anything on turn and/or river because I’m pretty much flipping my hand face up by shipping the flop.  He said he had a queen and was running down my obv range out loud.  He was just about to fold when I asked if he wanted to look at a card for $100.  I realized that was too much and gave him a discount to $50.  After a little bit longer I said, “You’re not calling” gave him a quick look as I creeped my cards toward the muck and became dead silent.  He called, I victory ripped AQ, he showed QJ and rivered a 6 to chop.  I was really happy with how I played this hand.  Against a decent thinking player, this never would have worked.  I barely got the question in before he was set to muck his hand but he obv didn’t pay attention to that.

I managed a medium sized win, had dinner at the table and booked it.  I may not play till Sunday as I’m pretty busy the next few days, but I’m very optimistic as to how I’m going to fare in this game over the course of time.

It’s heaven here on earth in the poker world.  Well, maybe not for everyone.  However, with the addition of the 5/10 NL w/ 500-1,500 buy-in, it’s certainly going to be my safe haven when it comes to live poker.  I had a great session last night that lasted 6 hours until 4:00 in the wee hours of the morning.  Early on I made a mistake in a hand with KK.  The game is a bad beat jackpot game which is obv ridiculous for that limit.  It’s 13,000 and to qualify four aces [or better] need to beat AAATT [or better] in which both hands play both cards.  Villain 1 never raised pre and liked to call a lot.  Villain 2 didn’t have a fold button.  They both limped as well did a couple other players and I raised to at least 70 pre but it may have been more w/ KK.  Villain 1 and 2 were the only callers.  The flop was AAT and it checked around.  The turn was another A and Villain 1 bet 45, Villain 2 folded and I called.  This where I made the mistake.  I should done something a little extra that’ll I’ll get to in a second.  The river was a baby card and I went into the tank.  I tried to make it look like I had a qualifying jackpot hand and eventually checked.  Villain 1 bet 400.  This is where I made the next mistake.  I should have made it obvious I had TT+ and gage a reaction off of him.  Instead, I pondered a bit and literally kissed the chips good bye.  Villain 1 showed A9.  No jackpot.  I was so paranoid about nullifying the jackpot with inappropriate table talk that I didn’t allow myself the chance to accurately read my opponent.  I should have gave him a look on the turn as to say I had it.  Therefore, he would never make such a large bet on the river in fear that I may fold and cost him a piece of the jackpot as well.  Even still, I should have folded because villain would never bet this large with a qualifying jackpot hand as long as he was aware that it was a jackpot situation.  Again, I could have made him aware of it and gaged his reaction.  It was a weird situation that you can’t really prepare yourself for unless you’ve been in the situation before or at the table and witnessed another player in a similar situation.  I hate that the game is a BBJ game but that’s just how it is.  Since villain limp called a raise, I gave him credit for a wide range of hands that consisted of AX with X being equal to or greater than T.  Oh well.

The key hand of the night came against Villain 2.  I had made 2 mistakes shortly before in which I bet to big on the river.  Both times I had the nuts or second nuts.  He was a calling station but liked calling smaller bets.  In the hand of note, I very hesitantly called w/ T2o after everyone limped in front of me.  I was either on the button or cut.  The flop was KT2.  Villain 2 was the preflop raiser and he raised to 25-35 very often.  The raise this time was to 25.  I bet 140 or 160.  Villain 2 was the only caller.  The turn was a 9 and he check/called 280.  The river was an ace and he checked again.  I would auto check this online, but I had a very good read on villain and learned previously that he’s a calling station but won’t call excessively large bets even if it is warranted by the pot size.  He liked getting attractive pot odds for medium sized bets for the game we were playing in the 200-300 range.  I bet 320 and he called.  He was not very happy with himself after I rolled my hand over but I was very happy with the way I played the hand.  He unraveled a couple hands later.  I limped 96 in a multi way pot.  I bet on T87 and he called.  I bet the turn for 140, he raised ai for 400ish and I snapped.

It was a very satisfying session and the game was still very good when I left although the previously mentioned player left.  However, I was a bit tired and was just happy enough to book the session.  I could have only stayed for another couple hours, as I have to leave Commerce before rush hour starts up.  I’m going to my grandma’s Tuesday morning for breakfast with my cousin, sister and a very good family friend.  Then, my cousin (David) and I are going to help my grandma clean the garage a bit.  I’ll help out for a few hours and then going to the Commerce for another session.