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.