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.