Starting the year on a downswing

Well thus far the year has started out continuing the downswing I started in the end of 2k10. Before I get too involved, this is by no means a complaint. Merely an observation. If there is one thing I have learned about poker(and statistics), it's the existence of variance. I have been on my largest (and longest) downswing yet playing. So far it's close to 200 games and down about $75 Now granted this is by no means the largest or longest I will probably ever have, but at this moment and factored for my bankroll it is pretty significant. In writing about it though I hope I can formulate a plan to slow the variance down and eventually reverse it an upswing. I think one of my main problems is trying to "bite off more than I can chew" and playing stakes that are a little higher to test the waters. I've also been playing a lot more MTT's with higher entry #'s and while I can feel a big score coming with a lot of deep runs I've made, it just hasn't happened yet. So it looks like in slowing the variance monster down I may have to go back to what got me here, my bread and butter... the $1 45 man sng's. While I still mix in a good amount of the $1&3 45 man's, they definitely have gotten away from my norm. The main aspect in all of this is playing games I'm comfortable playing and know how to win, while still making the best decisions on the felt. Bad beats will happen, but as long as good decisions are made eventually they will pay off. I've read a lot on the variance forum on Pokerwit, and thru what some players say I've really examined the bad beats and downswing and view them for what they are. They are not "bad beats" unless I'm the one that beats myself with a bad decision. Sometimes I think people fail to realize that even thru all the glitz and money, that it is still just a game. And to me there is no point unless you are having fun and do your best to play your best. That is what all players should truly strive for and within that good things will happen. I guess what I'm really saying is there is no point in not being optimistic about poker, and life in general. You never know what each day will bring you, and sometimes you have a little bit of control over it too.

2k10 Summary and 2k11 Goals

Obviously I am not the most ambitious blogger as I had intended to be from the beginning of starting this. And obviously I did not nearly come close to achieving the goals I had set for myself poker wise this year. Perhaps my sights were set too high. However, with that being said I still managed to have my best year to date grinding (other than the lone $3k score back in 06) and hugely improved over 2k9 stats. I managed to move up in stakes twice on Stars and played really well overall IMO. Of course there is always room for improvement so that's more of what I will focus on this year. Overall I managed to play 129 games on FT and 638 games on Stars which gives me 767 games played for the year. I had total profits of $620 which amounts to winning about $0.80 per game played. Not bad when my average buy in is in the $2 range giving me an ROI of about 40%. Here are some visuals:




So all in all it was a decent year for me, but definitely leaves room for improvement. Moving forward this year my goals are mostly going to be volume oriented rather than monetary, because with volume will come money. My ultimate goal is to try to almost triple my volume from 767 to 2100 games which seems very reasonable, but will mean I will have to buckle down and play more. I plan to incorporate more MTT's as I've been getting close to a "big" score in the stakes I play and also continue to grind the SNG's that have built my bankroll to what it is. Also I was able to get slightly over 4700 tlb points on stars which was not too far off my goal of 6k. This year I am aiming to double that and get as close to 10k as possible if not more. So basically my goal in playing this year is just to play more and improve my game every time, with that the money will come. And yes perhaps I will try to blog more this year and make it a bit more interesting as I feel this has been very mundane and probably dry to read. Thanks for reading anyway for those of you that may check in every so often. GL in 2k11!

It's been awhile...

Since I have posted, but after talking to someone that actually pops in on this thing occasionally I decided I better get back on the wagon!

I've actually been playing quite a few mtt's lately sort of getting away from the sng's and see if I can put together a deep run. So far I've been doing pretty well and have been putting together some good stacks and coming oh so close to making a final table. There are 2 tournaments that stick out recently with about 1200 or so entrants I got a 19th place and then a 33rd on Saturday after losing a coin flip to a maniac for a top 5 stack. Variance is an ugly beast as any serious poker player can attest to, but you just have to keep on chugging and that successful tournament will come. So far I've been pretty break even with my results and I'm definitely trying to stay within my bankroll not playing any buy in over $4.40 for now. The only drawback to mtt's I see so far is my volume has significantly decreased since they take so long. I've only been able to play about 8-10 a session when my schedule allots as opposed to 15-20 sng's. But, I'm having fun with it and definitely using all the skills and knowledge I have learned to make some good shots and take down a big field tournament soon.

My goals and objectives have been so skewed this year for a variety of reasons from work to personal issues. However, I do feel that this year has been a success if even a small one. I've learned so much about poker, life, and just appreciating every day for what it's worth. Sometimes that means a lot of time away from the tables to regroup and refocus. I've managed to quadruple my bankroll on Stars and have played the best poker I ever have this year. There is definitely room for improvement though, and I'm looking forward to a new year and new goals. I do plan to push to end 2010 on a high note though and will be sure to "brag" about any big scores I take down.

I'd like to say thanks to the person that actually mentioned reading this (I won't name that person since this is the scary internet). Your impact on my life has been more than I could ever ask for, and I will carry that with me as long as I live.

Tryin Not to Ramble....

So let me start this post off with a re run of this particular game: http://bam-baminbedrock.blogspot.com/2010/08/some-help-with-prop-bet-please.html

Amir, the creator of pokerwit, posted this in a forum so I decided to give a run at showing the blogging community (even though I am partially part of it, but mostly a pokerwit member) how to play some cards. There were 31 total entrants and only 6 or 7 pokerwit members so we definitely had the odds stacked against us. Amir was kind enough to donate $200 of his own money to the prize pool which more than doubled it. So with the $5 buy in it was effectively an $11.50 buy in. I started out this game pretty aggressive and mixing it up approaching it in a "small ball" sense and trying to get a feel for how these bloggers play. I was getting some hot cards, but unfortunately getting outflopped and losing showdowns. So I quickly found myself short (30 of 31 people) in only the second blind level. That caused me to really tighten up for a bit as my image was somewhat loose and crazy. So I relaxed and picked up a blind here and there to keep my stack from diminishing any further and waited for a spot to bring me back to life. Bambam, the blogger captain, had been showing a willingness to open early with junk (he showed 39 suited and 72 off both under the gun after opening and no callers). I got pocket 9's in mid pos with the blinds starting to get closer (my M was about a 10 or so at that point, maybe less), and Bambam opens utg again so I 3 bet shove hoping to just pick up a raise and some blinds but he calls! Well turns out he has AK and we are racing, but luckily I won that race and that was the beginning of my upward climb to a second place finish. I quickly doubled up again after having pocket jacks and flopping trips to a guy with AQ and hitting his ace. That put me the chip leader at the table. So I continued to grind and eventually made it to the final table as 1 of 2 pokerwit reps left. The other was blind all in so it was up to me to try to win it! I was sitting about 5 out of 8 at that point. Well my true grinder instinct took over and I made some great moves stealing tons of blinds and even had a great soul read hero call with third pair on the river (it was second pair on the flop). My read was spot on there! Eventually I grinded my way up to being the chip leader and started to really dominate the table as everyone was playing really passive and just letting me walk on them. By the time they defended I had such a big chip lead I could gamble (I had over half of all the chips with 4 people left). Well I lost a few flips to double all the short stacks up and the table really started to even out. That was the beginning of a very long, but fun, grind. The chip lead kept flip flopping between the three left and there were quite a few split pots which some of worked into my advantage and others not. I don't think I've ever seen that many split pots short handed in a game ever! Well eventually it was shove pre time and I caught K 8 off on the button which isn't great but is above average. And the range the other two were showing was so tight I figured easy blind pickup and at worst I'm 60/40. Ehhh, wrong! Both called my all in, but I was in second. Chip leader had AK and third place guy had KK! Man I was dead to the water and looking at a third for sure! Well, AK hit the A to win the game in crazy fashion! It was a nice cap on a very fun game, but I know my skill factor was far above my opponents so it was slightly disappointing to not win. But such is poker! I'm just glad represented the Pokerwit team so deep with the odds being stacked against us (player wise). I also came away with my third highest cash to date on Fulltilt with $80 profit. The first highest also being a Pokerwit event. Thanks Amir for boosting my bankroll so much! :) But I'm now almost eclipsed the $1K mark with my bankroll and looking good on the games I have been playing on Stars. I managed to win two games simultaneously the other night on there for another big boost and my biggest cash of $42 on stars for a $3 45 plyr win. So it feels good to be moving up and making successes. It shows me that the time I spend thinking and studying poker is paying off on the limited amount of time I have to play. Well that was quite a ramble and I hope somewhat interesting. I was planning on delving into some personal shit that has been bringing me down lately, but I will spare the details of that for perhaps another day (if these problems still exist). Anyway thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Quick Update

So it has been awhile since I have posted anything. Since my last post I went on vacation and upon returning immediately had to do a stretch in the field again for work. Needless to say that has left very little time for poker since I last wrote. I have however been playing a few 45 man sng's this week trying to get back into a groove. I finally eclipsed the 1000 game mark on Pokerstars too! Not a huge accomplishment for say a pro, but pretty big for a small time player like me. I managed to make $275 profit according to Sharkscope in this time and my avg buy in is $1. So essentially for every dollar I invest I am getting back 27.5 cents, or a ROI of 27.5% (If I'm doing the calc right, sharkscope shows my avg ROI at 56% so I may be wrong). Looking at my grapsh, which I still don't have to post sorry, there have been ups and downs and even seemingly long break even stretch. Overall though it shows an upward trend in profit and there seems to be a huge inflection point where my profit starts to rise dramatically. I attribute this to stepping up my game and really trying to fix my leaks, as well as stepping up the stakes. As of right now I am close to breaking the $300 mark for my bankroll on Stars so I plan to really move towards the $3 45 man games as well as mixing in a few $2 180's. Hopefully this will show an increase in my $/game amount, but I do expect a slight decrease in ROI since the players are bound to be at least a little more competent. It's funny playing the $1 45 man games that even when I feel I am running bad or even playing bad I seem to run deep in at least 1 out of every 4 games I play. I would like to try to keep that in 1 out of every 6 games if possible when I move up fully to the $3 games. I'm finding the $2 180's to be challenging, even though good players seem to go on and on about how they are so easy. I just don't think I have enough sample under my belt to make up my mind about them as well as needing to adjust my strategy to keep from getting so short stacked and unable to make moves. I am comfortable with turbo structure though so once I figure it out I am confident I will make a good run sooner or later. Well that's about the happenings since the last time I wrote, nothing exciting but hopefully I can get back into the groove of grinding more and continue to make progress. Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

So close, yet so far....

The other night I decided to try my hands at some bigger tournaments, field sizes not buy ins, on full tilt. I loaded up a few including a $3 turbo, $5 knockout, $3 rebuy, and the daily dollar. Was grinding away steady, but something magical started to happen in the knockout. I found myself building a huge stack early as people were just giving me chips, although my cards were really hot too. There were 566 entrants when late registration was over and I just kept building my stack and knocking out people in the process. Was a top five stack for most of it when I started to slide off as the cards cooled down and I felt it was time to slow down a little bit. Well after that I picked up pocket kings being about 15-20th in chips and the other top twenty stack at the table decided to defend against my raise. There were probably about 200 people left at this point so it was definitely two huge stacks playing against each other. Well somehow we found ourselves playing the biggest pot of the tourney at that point and I ended up knocking him out with my trips on the river like the luckbox I am. He had a pair of aces after all. From there it looked like I was just going to dominate as I just kept running over the table playing great deepstack small ball poker. I was up over 20k chips against the second place player cruising into the money which 54 people got paid. That's about when things came to a standstill though and I ended up doubling up about every short stack at the table with what I felt were reasonable calls given the situations and odds. Granted I was gambling a bit, but I suppose I should have given them more credit for having tighter ranges close to the bubble. I soon found myself outside the top ten again and was determined to turn it around and make the final table and win! Well, there was one huge losing player at my table who kept making these off the wall huge preflop raises and calling super marginal bets. It was amazing he even made it that far to be honest. So down to two tables and I'm busto in all my other games so I'm focusing on this one only. Donkzilla raises and I reraise with AK suited on the button after there was one other caller to his raise. Well turns out to be a coinflip, but I catch a king and double up to be back in the top five in chips. So far in the field everyone I had sharkscoped were losing players except one who seemed to be fairly decent. Luckily I hadn't tangled with him. So I'm feeling good now cruising getting closer to the final table when I had an epic meltdown and donked all my chips off to someone who I knew was way ahead since he was playing so tight. End up going bust like two hands later to the semi good guy and go out in 11th. Ended up only cashing for $24, when first was $566. With knockouts that was probably more like $40.

Where all this was severely disappointing, I did learn a lot of things going forward. The first thing being more patient short handed. In turn with that ICM considerations should have been of utmost importance to me when I made a foolish call. I had almost 56 players chips, or 10% of the chips and only ended up cashing for about 1% of the prize pool. I know looking back I was trying to force the issue, and that can work when you are dominating a table but not when the stacks are very close in size as they were becoming towards that point. Sometimes hero calls with a t off are ok, but not against someone who has obv been playing tight.

It was really disappointing to bubble the final table after playing so well up to that point, but I will take everything I learned from the experience and move on to play better the next time. I can assure you all out there this is only a taste of the success I am driven to see and will reach another final table soon!

Fresh Start

I've finally not had to work long hours for awhile now! Oops, I probably just cursed myself....

Anyhow, I've been taking advantage by slowly starting to play more poker lately. I've been mixing it up trying to find a good niche again and even started to play a few cash games. That didn't live too long as I guess I don't have the patience, or maybe time, to grind out good results. I do realize you can sit and go as you please with cash games, but to really start to make some money you have to find those perfect spots which can take a long time to come. So I went back to playing mostly SNG's and have been having some ok results.

I've been playing on Full Tilt mostly as I just seem to be running a little better on there. I've been playing my regular MTT sng's and mixing in some step tournaments to try to win tickets to some bigger buy in tournaments than I usually play. The step 1 &2's are very soft and are pretty easy to exploit and at least come out of it with your original buy in. The people really play super tight it seems and don't realize you still have to get a decent stack to move up, even though they really do play like satellites.

I also tried my hand at some of the new "Rush" sng's. I was a bit weary of the concept, but really find them fun to play! It doesn't hurt that the very first 135 player game I played I got second place and should have had 1st as I was a much better player, but donked my chips off heads up. That gave me a nice little boost to my bankroll. The Rush concept is interesting as any time you fold your hand you are instantly moved to another table and dealt a new hand. This continues until you reach the final table where traditional play starts. I thought it would be chaotic, but really you start to recognize the field and can play some decent poker. It's sort of tough to get reads on people though since you don't get to see hands play out a lot. Good concept, but we'll see how it fits into my game long term.

I'm nearing the 4 figure mark on my bankroll too (total with stars and ft). I hope to be eclipsing the $1K mark by summers end, but we'll see how the variance Gods treat me. That is a vast improvement over last year. This year I've made almost $700 grinding out micro stakes. Granted $200 was a freeroll from pokerwit, but still I'm pleased thus far. Far from my original goals, but play wise I'm happy with my progress.

I still haven't put much volume in the last couple of months, but things are picking up this month so hopefully I'll have some graphs to show off soon too! Well that's just another quick update. Good luck at the tables!

No, I'm not dead!

Dear blog readers (if there really are any of you out there),

Not much has changed since the last posts. I'm still working away and haven't had much time for poker play. So I will leave my graph update for a later date when I have actually accumulated some volume. I think I've played a total of 30 games since May 1st :( When I have had the chance to play it hasn't been too bad and I'm still honing my skills by thinking a ton about poker and different situations while I'm out battling the 100 degree heat for 12-14 hours a day. Honestly the last two months seem like such a blur because I haven't been home much at all and sleeping in my own bed seems strange at times. I hope I can get back to my bankers hours at work and start grinding again soon. I have also been following the action in the WSOP when I can and it seems like some interesting things are going down. Most notably the side betting on Tom Dwan either winning or not winning a bracelet. He came damn close, and some people almost lost some serious money! Check out the forums and such for more details on that.

I did manage to get Memorial day weekend off and went to a casino not far from here to try my hand at some live poker. It was fun and full of fish, but was a limit only betting structure which makes it tough to really use leverage and pressure like no limit. It seems like it is really a lottery of sorts as there are a ton of people seeing flops with a huge range of hands, and they all play so timid and only call bets. So you really have to pick and choose which pots to go after and when to bet. It was fun, and I didn't really make or lose any money. I do think however I will stick to my online games as there is just so much more variety and there is definitely no shortage of fish there!

About the only good thing with all this work is the money I am making. It would be nicer making it at the poker table, but I will have back to back months of making the most money I have ever made in a month working. This should help me pay off all of my student loans and put a big dent in what I have left on my car and bike. Granted I'm not buried in those loans any more, it would just be nice to not have those bills to pay every month!

Well that's about a quick update of nothing new happening. Good luck to everyone out there and thanks for reading!

Work, work, work, and no play!

Well once again work has been kicking my butt. I have only played 5 games this month as of today and the rest of the month is not looking too good either. Working in the oilfield I am subject to being called out at a moments notice and can be gone or working long hours for lots of days. For example, I have only had three days off in the last 29, and have worked mostly 12 to 14 hours per day during those days too. And yes, I am complaining because it sucks being away from home and obviously has thrown me off track for my poker goals. When I get back to playing again I will most likely start back at the stakes I was really exceeding at although I was at the cusp of upping my 45 man stakes to the $3 games. I haven't even been able to think about poker lately and that sucks pretty bad because I really wanted to watch the main events of the SCOOP. But alas that is where my life is at the moment, making "good" money, but very unhappy. Obviously what "they" always say about money not bringing you happiness is completely true. Well until I am able to get back to the tables, good luck and thanks for reading!

April Recap

Well as mentioned in my last post earlier today, work made it hard to focus on my poker game. I started out the month pretty even carrying over from last month, but then started to go on a heater. I only played on pokerstars because I was getting pretty comfortable there and trying to even out my bankroll on fulltilt, which after my heads up win will have to continue to be the trend I guess. I played a total of 120 games and profited $74. That comes out to about 62 cents profit for every game or a ROI of about 61% since my average buy in is usually $1. I cashed 33 times and got heads up in 9 of those cashes winning 5 of those games. I set numerous records for my monthly tlb points on stars, but also ended up setting my new monthly best at 1056.62 points. My yearly total is already about 500 points higher than last year and I'm still shooting for that 6 k point mark or better.

Those stats to me seem pretty good and I'm really pleased with getting heads up a little under every four games and winning over half of those games. This is still a very small volume sample however so I'm not reading into it too much and just trying to keep making progress and learning something every game. I have yet to play a game in May other than the heads up match, but I hope to get a decent volume going here soon if work allows it.

That's a recap of really my best month to date, even though it really was 2/3 of a month of play. That just shows me I have made some great progress and there is still room for more. Hopefully I'll get some more time to update and start to make these posts a little more humorous and interesting rather than just the blah of statistics. Thanks for reading anyway and good luck out there!

Work... is a four letter word!

So April was a record month for me in a few areas (not profit or volume though). That being said, it still could have been the highest marks across the board had I not been summoned to the field for my job. This caused me to have to work two weeks straight, 14 days, of 12+ hour days and left no time for poker to be played. It disappointed me as I haven't had to go to the field in a long time, but hey it is still my job so it has to be done. I was also selected to play the monthly heads up match for pokerwit where the winner pads their bankroll with $200. Being a micro grinder that would be a huge chunk to my bankroll at the moment. Well, after not being sure if I would make it because of work and numerous emails back and forth trying to adjust times I was able to make it and actually won! I know the pro I was playing had at least 6 other games going on two sites, but it felt good to beat someone who is established in the game at a high level and almost double my bankroll (on FT) in the process. It was a great win and I'm definitely looking forward to those games, heads up and member freerolls, monthly. Well that's just a quick update on what I've been up to and why I haven't blogged for quite awhile. I will post my numbers for April here in the next day or two and elaborate on where my game improved and where I can still improve. Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck!

Mid month

April is almost half over already! I'm on track to have a new record in volume, and while it's still not nearly the volume I would like I'm happy that I am making progress. I must have been running really hot back in January though because my results aren't nearly up to where I was. I'm not focused on that though, just playing optimal poker and grinding out the games. I've almost set a new record high for monthly TLB points and with one or two more high placings should eclipse that. I'm also over my yearly total for last year as of yesterday. The games have been up and down lately, but I am on track to grind out even some profit for the month. I am still shooting to move up in some stakes by next month too, but will not force the issue and become a bankroll nit. Keeping focused and playing within the proper stakes is really what bankroll management and staying off tilt is all about. Sure tilt is bound to happen, but at least if you stay in your bankroll limit you don't go broke.

I also purchased 200 searches on Sharkscope which will allow me to refine my search results and give monthly graphs as opposed to showing my overall graph. Makes it much more interesting to analyze stats and really find the places where I make the most ROI.

Life has also been pretty good lately. Spring is in full bloom and the weather has been just phenomenal lately. Definitely allowing me to get out and play/practice golf, ride my motorcycle, and drive my garaged sports car. Good thing I have this full time job to make me live like a "balla" until one day poker does. Work is still work though no matter what it is you do and I'm sure the guys grinding the tables, while making a decent living, still get burnt out. As the old adage says about poker, it's a hard way to make an easy living!

Well that's about all my musings for now. The future is looking better every day, but I still don't need my shades all the time yet! Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables and in life.

On a roll

So far this month has been going great! I've already played almost 50 games, 48 to be exact, and look like I could be on pace for a record month for me. All the games have been on Pokerstars as I'm just trying to get into a good rhythm. I had been varying my game selection to include $1.10 45 & 90 plyr and $2.20 180's occasionally but seemed to be only break even at best. Granted 50 games is a very very small sample size, but I felt that if I stuck with one particular game my strategy could develop more. So the last two days I've played only the 45's. I have been dominating these it seems as I made it to heads up three times just last night. Was only able to win one, but really had a shot at all three just took some bad beats to lose. That's poker though and I know as long as I keep getting my chips in good I'll come out on top.

I still plan on trying the same scheme laid out in the link from the last post, but will be sticking with the 45's until my roll on stars hits the $300 mark. Hopefully by the end of this month I will be grinding out the $2.20 180's and can move up to the $3.25 45's next month too!

I've been in such a focused zone when playing lately too it just seems like the chips come my way and the decisions I make are falling into place. One key I have found is to not get yourself into tough spots and don't be afraid to fold to find a more sure spot. A lot of these donkeys think they can win the tournament in the first two hands, when in reality it will be at least 150 or so hands to win a 45 plyr sng. Patience really is a virtue!

I have also accumulated more TLB so far this month than any other month to date. I'm actually ranked in the top 20k players so far, which is way higher than I've ever been. To put that into perspective, lately the highest I've been ranked is like 60-80k. I've already almost accumulated as many points as my previous record and we are only 7 days into the month! Of course they only count the top 20 scores per month, but I still see my previous record (January) being smoked. I'm also nearing the total points I had for all of last year and should easily have that eclipsed this month. What does all this mean? Well it means I am actually starting to put in a decent volume for the time and setup I have. I can still only comfortably play four games at a time due to screen size, and my sessions are usually 2.5-3 hours long. This does allow me to keep a good focus though and thus keep making good results. Eventually I would like to get a nice pc and a bigger monitor to be able to comfortably play 8 to 12 games at once (gradually working up to that of course), but for now I'll just keep plugging away.

Well that's a quick, although long winded of course, update of April so far! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

March Madness

March is in the books! After starting out on quite a downswing I finished the month strong, but also on a little slide. I managed 131 games, which I originally thought would be higher, but for missing over a week of playing I'm not too dissapointed. On both sites I actually managed to turn a small profit of $16 which means I made about 12 cents every time I hit the register button. Quite a bit down from last month, but anything in the green is good with me! It is however important to not manufacture win streaks and still analyze my play and figure out where my leaks are and plug those bastards so the ship will continue to sail onward!

The above graphs are again my games on FullTilt and Pokerstars. As you can see I hit my stride late, but lost it again slightly on Stars. That could be because I introduced the $2.20 180 man games to my play and actually cashed in a couple, but may have to remove them again until I build back up. I managed to win a few 45 man games to boost me up back into throwing in the $1.75 18 player games again too. Progress son! On FT I had a hot streak at the end of the month as well to boost my bankroll up and I'm getting oh so close to actually playing on other people's money here soon! If only I hadn't been so foolish in the beginning, but hey you live you learn!

Moving forward into April, I'm focused on continuing to improve my game and I want to destroy that volume number (double would be nice to come closer to meeting my goal), which will in turn boost my overall profit. I've also found a nice little challenge a player on pokerwit is doing so I may incorporate that into my own bankroll building although it may take me a little longer time. Here is a link fyi-- http://www.pokerwit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=63

Spring is in full bloom here in the south too and I've also recently begun playing golf again after not playing regularly for quite awhile. There is a really reasonably priced course not far from my house so it's nice to get out and enjoy some beautiful weather before it gets sweltering out. It is nice to have some balance in life, but I don't want that to take away from my focus on poker either. Hopefully I'll have some good updates in the recent weeks and start to make strides in my play as I have continued to do this year. I really feel I'm playing my best poker ever and it is only a matter of time before the rewards really start to be seen! Until next time, good luck at the tables and thanks for reading!

Kicking ass and taking names... or at least trying to

I've been putting in a good volume this week playing at least a few games every day and will probably hit at least 100 for the week which is nice to stay on my goal. That being said, variance is still rearing its ugly head and I'm still in a slump of sorts. Actually, I've been playing pretty break even lately. Still looks like a down month though unless I get some wins in the next week.

While the results aren't there, my play is improving every time I sit down. That ultimately is what matters. I've become more adept at spotting mistakes I make in certain spots where I should shove or fold, and even bet sizing to maximize value from my hands. I've also been better at reading hands and knowing exactly when someone doesn't have a hand, or a big stack bully is just trying to push me around. Yes I've made a few stupid hero calls, but I feel I've made more good than bad. The bad ones you learn from and don't try to make again, and the good ones you learn from and can spot even more. I am finally really starting to see what all the pros talk about in playing the player, not the cards! Although monster hands don't hurt!

In other news since I've lost a decent chunk of my stars bankroll I have decided to cut out the $1.75 18 man games until I get back up a bit. While the variance is less in these games, two of those games can equate to three $1.10 45 or 90 man games so the variance/volume risk/reward is less. Say for example I cash in 1 out of every 4 (A very realistic percentage) 18 man games, that's at least $7 for buy-ins not counting any sort of profit. Well I can play 6- 45 or 90 man games for that price and would estimate cashing slightly less say 1 out of 5 games to be accurate. These cashes will however be more $ as there are more players involved. Essentially I get more games for my money at this point is what I need until my roll goes up some.

My bankroll on Fulltilt has remained about the same for the months so no adjustments are being made there in game selection just yet. I'm still grinding out the $2.25 27 and 18 man games.

Only one week left in the month and I'm determined to finish strong!

Back to the grind

The first week of March I put in decent volume for me. Played almost my original goal of 100 games. However, this encompassed my largest downswing to date. So part of that play was to get thru this run of bad luck. One of the key things I have learned from pokerwit is to not be results oriented, but rather evaluate your play and if it is a +EV move then in the long run things will balance out. Variance is a poker players worst enemy and downswings will happen. But so will upswings where you feel like you are just running like God. It does suck though when you are constantly getting two and three outted, but you just can't let it tilt you if you are making good moves and hitting good spots. I just keep reminding myself of this even though I've lost almost 25% of my bankroll on Stars. I'm not yet in the zone of having to go back to mini games though so hopefully I'll get thru it now.

So after running so bad last week was a welcome break with a vacation to Vegas where I didn't play a single hand of poker. It was a great break going to see my alma madder Wyoming Cowboys and the whole Mountain West basketball tournament. It was also great to get to see my grandfather and brother whom I haven't seen in a few months. That is one of the hardest things living so far from home, never getting to see the people you care most about. All in all it was a great trip with a lot of gambling and Vegas fun. I think I still may be hung over and I've been home for two days!

Well getting back to poker, I played a bit last night on FT. I had a mini winning session last time I played on there, but was also running bad until then. Last night I just sat down super focused and ready to dominate. I only played 7 games as it was late after working out, but I managed to win an 18 man SNG, third in 27 player SNG, and min cash another for a good winning session. I made some killer folds against some way better hands, something I've been working on more and more. I also made a nice comeback after getting 2 outted KK < QQ when a Q came on the river, but fell short of the money in that one. I'm feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to start getting out of the funk and evolving my game to start building my bankroll even more.

I also joined the Pro Hand section of Pokerwit and that has already provided some very valuable insight and new ways to look at hands. I'm looking forward to really learning a ton more on the site as the pros Amir got are some of the best in the world.

With all of this, I'm focused and committed to making March a good month for my game!

February recap, looking forward

February is in the books! There were a few ups and downs for the month, but overall it was good and I learned a lot. I ended the month on a terrible downswing losing about 10% (or about 15 buy ins at my current level) of my bankroll on Stars after a huge upswing early in the month. Although I fell short of my goal monetarily I still managed making $.62 per game average, which for an average buy in of $1 equates to an ROI of 62%. Not too shabby if you equate that to making other investments. If only my bank account would show that sort of return! The bottom graph is my games to date on Stars. Although I am running bad there still seems to be a slight uptrend, so I'm optimistic on turning things around this month. If you read my previous posts then you know obviously I didn't come close to my volume goal, but like I said... Poker is a second job, not my life at the moment. I still have to go out and have fun! I did however also begin to play more on Full Tilt as a few of my close friends are playing there more now too. Always good to try and take a friends money! Plus I have found the MTT fields are much smaller which can equate to less variance and hopefully a decent score sooner. So moving forward I plan to play more on FT as well and keep that in my stats. The graph on top is my games to date on FT and obviously I'm still in the black, but I plan on changing that this month and continuing in the future! Until next time, good luck and thanks for reading!

Gearing up for the weekend/end of the month

So I haven't played nearly as much poker this month as I had planned to for a variety of reasons; laziness, a ton of work stress, and a trip to New Orleans to try and drown my liver. Yes I know excuses are like assholes, everyone has one and they all stink, but I figure as long as I am making a steady living with my job poker can sort of be pushed by the wayside every now and then. That being said, I plan to hit the virtual felt hard this weekend. I'm on a mini downswing lately which can be blamed on variance, and probably a lack of focus from my trip to the big sleazy. I have however won a ticket to the sunday quarter million again (those satellites are jokes!) and plan to gain some more experience sunday along with mixing in as many SNG's and MTT's as I can handle. Before my downswing I had pretty closely made my monetary goal for the month so hopefully I can make that a reality this weekend. I will update after it all goes down on my monthly stats! Vegas in t-minus 2 weeks so I will also have to kick March off on a high note before that. Good luck out there and thanks for reading!

Pro's to the left of me, pro's to the right of me...

And I was stuck in the middle. After taking it easy saturday and only playing 4 tournaments with no success I wasn't sure I'd use my satellite ticket on Sunday as I was just too involved with the Olympics and the Daytona 500. Well, the race was postponed for quite awhile so about 45 minutes into late registration I decided I would give it a go.

Sat down at a table that didn't have any really large stacks and proceeded to grind my way up to average chips and held pretty constant toward the average for an hour. There were 31,000+ that decided to battle it out in the tournament, so obviously the field would have a big mix of donkeys and some pro's out there. As we got closer to the 10k left mark (5400 got paid) one short stack donkey on my table kept crying about people raising him and finally he busted out. Well then I got moved to another table and huh looked to my right only to see a huge name in the online poker world, Boozeorlose. My only thought was thank God I'm to his left and not right so I at least get to see what he does before I get to act. By far the biggest name player I've ever played with on a table, but luckily he was also about average chip stack. Well on goes the grind when another player busts and who get's moved to the table but a pokerstars sponsored pro, Leo Fernandez! Man, my poor micro grinder heart just about couldn't take it! And of course we were approaching the bubble so I knew those guys would be upping the aggression trying to steal chips.

Well my stack was dwindling when boozeorlose shoved all in and I looked at Ace jack. Not premium cards, but in the situation I was in made the call to gamble and try to stay alive. He turns over pocket Kings after everyone folds and I just think I'm out, but hit a miracle ace on the turn to stay alive! Turns out I only had two aces in the deck to hit as another player folded one. Well shortly after that hand our table was thankfully broken up so I didn't have to worry about those pro's anymore!

I managed to make some moves towards the bubble and chipped up nice, but lost a few pots to put me short stacked again and hit a bad spot going all in and 3 people called. Pocket tens held up and hit trips for a huge pot that would have vaulted me even higher, but I placed 2607 out of the 31,000 plus field for my largest cash of $26 on stars. Not huge, but some good learning experiences and I think I'll try to satellite into this tournament more often now. Other than that grinded a few SNG's and had a few cashes to put me up a decent chunk for the weekend. I'm looking forward to another week of putting in some time on the felt and coming away with new skills and knowledge!

Satellites, laziness, and adjusting goals

Just a quick update on February so far. I haven't put in nearly the volume I had been wanting to so far this month. However, the results I do have are pretty good. I'm over half way to my monetary goal for the month, but with only about a third of the amount of games I had intended on playing. I'm hoping to ramp it up the second half of the month as I'm going to Vegas for a week in early March and that will probably be pretty counter productive to online poker results. So a few adjustments I'm going to make on goals are to not focus on a set $ amount to win, but rather a $/game and maintaining that average or improving it in successive months. As soon as February is over I will have that statistic as I have been keeping track thus far. My average ROI is pretty high (much higher than is sustainable over a long period of time), so I expect that to sort of trail off as I attempt to move up in stakes. That however shouldn't translate into losing money, so long as my $/game increases and steadies.

I've continued to adjust my game daily and really feel I'm playing my best poker yet. This week I found a satellite to the weekly $11 buy-in $250K prize pool tournament on pokerstars that is well within my bankroll and is similar to the structure of games I've been playing so I played a couple and won a seat for the tournament on Sunday. I may or may not play in it this weekend as I am a big NASCAR dork and want to watch the Daytona 500. There are also a ton of other promotions going on right now for Pokerstars celebrating their 40 billionth, yes billionth, hand dealt on the site so I may try to take advantage of some of those too. Otherwise it will just be motivating my lazy self to increase my volume of play! I haven't decreased from January thus far so that is good, just need to realize the room for growth and move forward.

Hopefully that was more short and sweet! Thanks for reading!