The end of February + the start of March has really been a blessing. After the incredibly stressful and chaotic February, March so far has been more than I had hoped for.

In February I almost went busto again after only being off the stake for 2-3 weeks. I had a ton of bills to pay, school to pay for, and things were looking dismal. I went on an almost 30 bi at 50nl after a failed 100nl shot. I was honestly on my last leg at this point and almost withdrew everything I had left in my account and look for a stake again. On a last minute decision, I decided not to throw in the towel yet and deposited the small amount of money I had left in my bank account to give 50nl one last run with 17~ bi’s. In hindsight this may have been a stupid move to put almost my net worth onto a pokersite in an attempt to go robusto, but I knew I had just been running extremely bad and I definitely have a decent edge at 50nl. I was on lifetilt at this point and everything around me seemed to be going wrong as well; my relationships with family, friends, and even Michelle seemed to be standing on edge. This may be due to the amount of stress I was under, confidence I was losing, and my pessimistic attitude at the time. I resolved to start over the next day fresh and with a clear mind, determined to turn everything around.

Things seemed to be going better from there on and I began a very nice healthy upswing. I was extremely elated, to say the least. Since then I have tried hard to play a decent amount everyday and stay really fixated on my goals. My resolve seems to have given me new life and for once things look better than they have in months.

This has been the fruit of my work (since my lowest point in February):

This almost exclusively 50nl except for the last couple hundred hands where I moved back up to 100nl and a failed shot at 100nl in the middle. I am very happy with my results so far and hope they continue. I know I’ve been running good lately, and am trying not to let my pride/ego and results get in the way of my growth as a player. After the soul-crushing downswings I’ve had, I know variance can turn around and screw me over pretty hard, so it is imperative I am always playing my best and staying as ahead of my opponents as I can.

I haven’t put in as much volume lately as I hoped (3-5k hands a day), but I really plan to grind the rest of March out. Spring break is close at hand and oh baby it’s going to be lockdown grind heaven! I am also excited to spend more time with Michelle since I’ve only been seeing her on weekends due to her living at CP.

I’ve recently joined a SSNL study group that a 2p2 friend started on DeucesCracked. Our first meeting is tomorrow and I hope this study group will help me grow as a player and make more connections in the poker world.

This post is getting longer than I thought, so I think I should wrap it up.
Shoutouts to Danny, Tom, and of course Michelle for continually giving me the confidence and motivation I need to be a successful grinder. The fact that you guys care about my results and growth really helps.

Here are some quick March Goals:

-Stay at 100nl
-5k+ profit
-Pay off all debt
-Study more for school
-Move in to new house w/ friends!

2 Sessions @ 50nl:

Today was a pretty successful day. It’s been awhile since I was able to win 10+ bi’s in a day. Playing poker never felt better, not just for the obvious reasons, but because I was ripping apart regs and fish alike. I’ve transitioned from 6tabling to 9tabling back up to 12tabling now, and it feels pretty good. Before I wasn’t able to concentrate on 12 tables well and I never picked up on a lot of table dynamics that I am now sensing and using to my advantage. I’m happy about this because now I can put in more volume in the limited amount of time I have to play everyday.

I found this hand pretty funny:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (6 handed) - Poker-StarsConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

CO ($23.20)
Button ($81.90)
SB ($9.85)
Hero (BB) ($59.45)
UTG ($76.05)
MP ($68)

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, J
1 fold, MP bets $1.50, 3 folds, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3.25) 3, 9, 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

Turn: ($3.25) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $2.25, MP raises to $6.50, Hero calls $4.25

River: ($16.25) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $12, Hero calls $12

Total pot: $40.25 | Rake: $1.95

Results:
Hero had J, J (two pair, Jacks and nines).
MP had A, K (two pair, nines and threes).
Outcome: Hero won $38.30

Here, villain plays his hand in a very lol way. When he checks the flop he almost always has air. When I donkbet turn I am aware I am folding worse almost always, but he’s checking back so often that I don’t want some random 2 overs to get an extra card on me. He decides to raise, and I decide that he may have picked up a flushdraw with his overs or just decided i’m FOS. I’m crushing his range here so I call and the river is a complete blank. He never has a 9 here and when he bets 80% of the pot, he never has a 3 either. I superinsta-called him and got shipped the pot. The call button literally appeared for like 1/5th of a second before I had already called and wondered how dumb he must have felt.

I ran pretty hot early in the day, but not so much during my evening session. I felt I was playing well though, and only made a couple mistakes. I made a pretty lolbad call in one hand for stacks, but I think I’ve been getting better at finding the fold button recently.

My fortunes seem to have turned around recently, and hopefully all of you are running good too!

I’ve planned to come back to blogging for a while now, but it hasn’t been until now that I’ve really been motivated to do so. I’m not going to explain everything that happened from the last time I until now, but I’ll just say it hasn’t been good lol.

This blog will mainly be to post updates on my path to robusto. I will try to post daily after sessions with graphs, hands etc, and hopefully this will help me evaluate myself and my game on a regular basis. This is also where I will be posting my dumb beats so you all don’t have to hear it on AIM anymore. I know it gets annoying lol.

So I got off a stake at the very end of January and I was grinding along winning at a good rate of ~5ptbb/100 or 10bb/100. I think this winrate is sustainable @ 50nl, as long as I’m not running like shit lol. It started off very well for me until I ran into ~3obi downswing. I didn’t think this was possible for me since I feel like I crush 50nl, but it happened. I ran very below EV and was basically losing every all in imaginable. I just recovered from that brutal downswing, and here is my graph since I got off the stake:

This is almost all 50nl, and a tiny amount of 100nl. I’ve off the downswing and still winning, but still running under EV and I always hear I’m supposed to eventually regain my lost EV. It’s hard to imagine I’ll ever run as good as I ran bad in the last week, but let’s hope so.

Here is today’s session:

I felt like I played pretty well this session, but ran 4 Bi’s under EV…as usual lol.

Here are some hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $0.50 BB (5 handed) - Poker-StarsConverter Tool fromFlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($65.45)
BB ($54.95)
UTG ($135.65)
MP ($92.30)
Button ($50)

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero bets $3, BB raises to $9, UTG calls $8.50, Hero raises to $24.50, BB raises to $54.95 (All-In), UTG calls $45.95, Hero raises to $65.45 (All-In), UTG calls $10.50

Flop: ($185.85) 9, K, 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($185.85) J (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($185.85) 2 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $185.85 | Rake: $2

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
BB had Q, Q (one pair, Queens).
UTG had J, J (three of a kind, Jacks).
Outcome: UTG won $183.85

Now I usually don’t complain about these, but I’ve had this happen several times to me recently. I get it all in with AA vs 2 smaller pairs (usually QQ and KK) and have always lost (fullstacks). These huge pots @ 50nl and I’ve lost every single time. Sigh.

There are a couple other beats that I don’t really wanna post, like AK<AQ aipf, and JJ<k9 on J9x9 vs a drooler.

I’m actually really tired right now and meant to post some more interesting  hands and talk about them, but I’ll save it for another time.

Thanks for reading.

July has kind of been meh in terms of grinding on stars. 100nl so far has been pretty easy, but I started running like shit near the end of the month, and considering I only started July ~22nd, my downswing came rather quickly. I have been getting pretty good at not tilting due to beats lately and just brushing beats off, but I still get tilted from swingy sessions. I can take losing 3 bi’s within the first 10 hands of a session, but spending the next 3 hours recouping my losses only to have all that work getting erased by another 3 beats/coolers moments after I break even for the day is so incredibly tilting. I have been reevaluting my play lately and I feel I’m having a tendency to autopilot and play horribly. My non-showdown losses have been building up day by day when it’s usually breakeven or better when I’m playing well, and it kind of tilts me when I look at my graphs.

On another note, I am happy to say that I’ve made my set up in my room so much less tilting. I’ve bought a new 24″ monitor, a new leather office chair, a mousepad, and a shitload of AA batteries for my mouse (it tilts me so hard when my mouse dies on me in the middle of a session).

My stakes WERE doing very well and making good money for me considering they’re only playing 10nl, but one of them went on megatilt and shipping almost his whole roll. He also moved up to chase losses behind my back and obviously this angered me. I am making him pay for the loss (part of the initial agreement) in addition to the substantial amount he already owes me. I felt like the stake was -EV for me before I gave it to him, but he was in debt and didn’t have much money and pitied him. Sigh. I hope my other stake listens to me more.

July has been a pretty brutal month to me outside of poker. It’s been very lonely without my girlfriend Michelle around and I miss her greatly I spend so much time everyday just thinking about what we’d be doing if she were around. I watch her facebook videos on my wall daily and am just praying for her trip to be over so I can see her again. I take comfort in the fact that she misses me just as much as I miss her. I hope the next 2 weeks go by quickly!
Thankfully, one of my good friends from HS came back to town from Taiwan recently. We’ve been spending some time together catching up and playing a lot of basketball (i’ve been getting so fat sitting on my ass lately). I’m really glad he’s back since I’m out of contact with almost all my HS friends. I hope to find an apartment with him at CP in the fall.

Overall, I’m glad with where my life is right now despite how the rest of my post seems to suggest. Things seem to be heading in the right direction, but I have to keep in mind the road will not be easy and I can’t get discouraged. Below are my August goals:

Poker:
-Make 5k at 100nl and move up to 200nl permanently. This is a pretty lofty goal considering my results so far, but it’s doable if I work hard enough and learn fast enough.
-Put in at least 60k hands
-Review my sessions more/Look for leaks/badly played hands and just try to learn more from my mistakes.
-Don’t wait until the day is almost over and I’m all tired to start a session.

Non-poker:
-Stop wasting my damn time looking at dumb videos online or reading worthless 2p2 threads and spend more time with friends and my toki, especially the latter .
-Stop going to sleep when everyone is waking up and stop waking up when everyone is eating dinner.
-Play more basketball and start using my newly purchased gym membership!!
-Save more money and stop spending money on things I don’t really need.
-Eat healthier.

Alright everyone, here’s to a great August!

Ah…poker is fun again! Haha.

So, I haven’t blogged in awhile. Poker for me hasn’t been too enjoyable since the last time I blogged, but definitely not unprofitable. For those who don’t know, after I restarted a roll on stars and crushed 10nl-50nl I ran into a sick breakeven stretch while running waaaay below EV that tilted me to no end. This caused my breakeven stretch to turn into a huge downswing and almost destroyed any enjoyment and money I had made from poker. At this point my entire net worth was only a couple hundred dollars, I had not paid rent for 2 months, and I was in debt. I was no longer confident and sure that I was a winning player. I cursed my luck. I was feeling extremely depressed and could not gotten through it without my always positive, encouraging, and motivating zibunny.

I took a break from poker for a few days to find a stake because I was unwilling to place my entire net worth (and more) on pstars. This worked out for me when I luckily binked a stake on 2p2. I received about 1k to play 50nl (20bi’s) and from the first session, things were looking better. I immediately went on an upswing and destroyed 50nl. As soon as my BR reached 2k I moved up to 100nl, ran hot, and made over 2k. It was really heartbreaking when I was forced to part with half of my hard earned winnings, but then again I had taken no risk. At this point I can honestly say that my game had not improved too much since my earlier disaster at 50nl and was still unconfident in my skills. I was worried that variance was deciding whether or not I won at this game. If that was the case, I could never truly call myself a pro, and more importantly a winning player. I was playing like a robot and played the same against almost every opponent. A recipe for disaster.

I count myself very fortunate for being allowed to run well and make some money because it was at this point that I feel my game started to take off a bit. I began to play less poker and read/chat more about poker theory and certain hands. My staker set me up with a coach on 2p2 who had receieved many positive reviews (and sounds like your standard 2p2 arrogant douche that tilted me to no end but let’s not get into that). Everything from the threads and articles I was reading to the coaching I was receiving helped improve my thought processes during every decision. Everything at the tables felt better and I felt I had a nice edge over my opponents.

I amazingly finished 4th out of 1608 players in the nightly 70k on stars and took down a 5.6k prize. I still think it’s funny how depressed I felt after winning 5.6k because I got banged out in 4th instead of 1st. This win opened up a lot of doors for me and I feel so incredibly fortunate I was able to luckbox my way into a 4th place finish. I was able to pay off my rent, pay off some debt, buy car insurance, replace my busto computer with a nice new laptop+speakers, and spend without having to worry so much about how much I was spending. Life without all the financial burden I was feeling felt amazing. At this point I had split profits with my staker and started playing again with only his money. I went on an immediate downswing and fistpumped at the fact that I had just split profits and didn’t lose any more of my hard earned profit (lol @ my staker, who is also a douche, but a nice enough douche to stake me). I had enough money to start playing again on my own and I couldn’t wait until the stake ended.

Thanks to my donkament ‘win’, I had a nice enough roll to start playing some 1/2 live home games. I managed to crush these every night I went except for the last night when i shipped 600…lol. I ended up somewhere in the ballpark of 1.5k in the span of 2 weeks and could easily afford my own BR on pstars.

Due to still being on the stake at the time and winning so much live, I didn’t play much online because I had no motivation to.  My girlfriend Michelle also left for Korea for a month at this time so I was also a little depressed. I didn’t feel like staying home by myself and grinding out money for my staker. This changed after Tom returned from Vegas and the WSOP. I began spending days at a time at Tom’s and he managed to reinfect me with his addiction to all things poker. I was on a new poker high and it felt good! During my time at his house, I talked a lot of poker with him and watched him crush 600nl.  Just being around Tom, listening/watching him talk/crush poker seemed to help my game many times over. I credit Tom’s friendly and insightly coaching to be the main source of my improvement. His skill+discipline during his sessions is amazing and I was constantly feeding off of it and trying to make as much of it my own as I could. I was eager and ready to play online again after Tom invited me over again one night. I decided I wanted to play 100nl with my own money asap and requested to be released from the stake. I got off the stake that night, and at Tom’s I had my first winning session with my own money online for over a month. Poker was fun, and easy! 100nl feels like cake right now and the players are so easy to play against. I can see myself moving up to 200nl by the end of summer and definitely meeting the monetary goal of 10k in profit I made in the beginning of the year. Things seem to be turning around, and I’m definitely feeling a lot better and less stressed. I know I haven’t played too many hands yet, but just from what I have played so far I have a better feel for my opponents and I seem to be able to exploit them well without fear. I am very glad my confidence has returned.

After seeing how staking can be profitable, I decided to stake 2 young friends of mine who are still in HS: Simon and Xin (lol who happens to have the exact same name as Tom, wtd). They’re both playing 10nl with 20 bi’s each and I hope they do well! Making money without having to do anything and at the same time helping them with their game is fun. I will be working them hard and hopefully moving them up in limits to 25nl asap so they can start playing for a little more.

Sigh, the only thing still keeping me a little down is the fact that my amazing girlfriend Michee is still in Korea! I miss her so much and it pains me that I won’t be seeing her for another few weeks. I will be working hard and spending the gakloads of freetime I have now wisely!

So this summer has been a HUGE turnaround for me in many ways. I hope everyone else is enjoying their summer as much as I am!

Cheers

Ah, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated. I’ve had chances to update, but I didn’t really feel like I had much to write about, or wanted to write.

As a couple of you know, on January 14 this year, shortly after I had my Fulltilt roll transferred to PokerStars and started making money again, my account was frozen. Apparently I had made a huge huge huge mistake trusting a poster on 2+2, and made a trade of 602.83$ of FTP cash for the same amount on PStars. I had researched him, looked at past posts, and past transactions, and he seemed to be a very reputable poster and trader. He has had many transfers for months that were completed without any trouble, so I decided to trust him. We traded funds, and everything was fine for a couple days. Then 1/14 rolls around and find my account frozen. After ~2 weeks of agonizingly emailing PStars and FullTilt every damn day trying to somehow retrieve my money, I receieved this message 4 days ago:

Hello Perry,Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately our decision on this matter is also final. The funds you
received from ‘hootie nugs’ have been seized as they were fraudulent.

We have contacted full tilt on more than one occasion regarding this matter
and they advised us that they are still investigating this matter.

In the meantime, I suggest you read through our terms and conditions
regarding our transfer policy. This can be found at :
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/tos/ section 5.3 and I would like to
emphasize on a particular section which clearly stated :

“The following terms and conditions also apply to the Real Money Transfer
facility:

1. PokerStars reserves the right to decline any account transfer requests
or to overturn any account transfer upon suspicion of breach of any of the
Terms and Conditions by the sender or receiver.”

And in your case, the sender was in serious breach of our Terms and
Conditions and the money has been seized due to the fraudulent activity that
occurred.
What a bad beat.

Anyways, that left me with 131$ left in the account (originally 231, but I owed someone money and sent them 100 before I lost anymore). It was a huge blow to my BR (I was left with ~15% of it) and I felt absolutely crushed. I was depressed, but tried my hardest to take comfort in the fact that I still had something manageable and playable. Many thanks to my wonderful Michee and Tom for keeping my head up and optimistic at all times.

So began the 10NL grind w/ 13 BI’s.

In return for getting screwed over like I did, Pokerstars has graciously allowed me to run well after the incident. Over the next few days I played what I felt like was my B/A game coupled with the ridiculously bad players at 10NL, I’ve made HUGE HUGE progress and ran it up to over 500 in just a couple days. Today I took my first shot at 25NL and made almost 6 buyins. The roll is back up over 600, and I my confidence is just bursting. Haha after reading Joe’s recent entry (which can be found here: ohboyohboi.wordpress.com), I guess I shouldn’t let that get to my head, and always always always keep thinking and striving to improve my game. One big thing I’ve noticed recently is that I have no brakes and need to remember to change gears. I’ve been trying to value bet waaaay too light, and a couple players have picked up on that and I’ve gotten my ass pwned by checkraises on the river.

I have only made the first step forward towards my goal for the year of being rolled comfortably for 1/2 and 10k profit, and have a long long ways to go ahead of me. My passion for poker never ceases, and I ache to play much higher and much, much better. I have been downloading deuces cracked videos lately, reading forums, articles, going over my hands over and over again, talking to friends about hands and all things poker in general, and having a blast learning + playing.

One thing that has been on my mind lately is how I am allocating my time. Recently I have become very busy and am pretty positive my time management and prioritizing is askew.
I am taking 5 courses at MC this semester (16 credit hours) and have loadssss to study. I also have loadssss of poker I want to play, loadssss of time I want to spend with my lovely girlfriend Michelle, and loadssss of time I want sleeping. I wish I could operate on 4 hours (or less) of sleep like Tom, but I can’t. I’ve never tried energy drinks, any pills, and I hate coffee so I’m not sure how those would help. I haven’t been working out at all lately and my stamina has gone down the tubes (not to mention muscle mass) and have been requiring much more rest. I am very uncomfortable when running on 6 hours of sleep a day, and it bothers me how I need so much rest because I want to spend more time doing the things I want to do. Not that I don’t want to sleep…I love sleeping, and I love dreaming, but I just don’t seem to be able to find enough time in a day for what I want to get done. Hopefully I get a working schedule set out for myself.

On a side note, I’ve begun playing live again. It’s refreshing after spending so many hours online. I am currently getting staked at the Yao House playing 1/2. I can only play Friday+Saturday nights at school, so I pretty much only play once a week. I ran horribad on the first night and dropped 300$. The next week I managed to be +200$, and I hope to erase the rest of my deficit the next time I go. It’s fun playing live, but not as many friends go to the game anyways. I often find myself with nobody to talk to, and that’s not fun. Most of the people that played there last week were old chinese luckboxes with loaded pockets. Hopefully I can convince some more friends to attend to make it more enjoyable

So, after running well and playing well, variance decides to bite me in the ass.

I’m currently on a 19 bi downswing, and it really really stings. I haven’t had a winning session in daaays. None of my hands hold up, and it’s tiring. After the BS fulltilt gave me i decided to move to stars, but i haven’t been running any better. I’m still not giving up though. I’ve got a workable roll and still want to play.

Here was today’s morning session:

Just pretty standard beats today, getting set on each time I play aces, missing OESFD’s, getting outdrawn left n right…not much i can do.

Lol funny I look at how much money I’ve won and lost with different hands, and the top two hands I’ve lost the most with are #1 AA and #2 KK. Poker sucks right now…

too bad i’m a freaking degenerate. oh well i’m be giving it another shot tonight. hopefully things turn up and the downswing ends! gl everyone

Ah, what a nice start to the new year! Everything is moving along very nicely. I’m very excited for this year, as so many things I’ve been waiting for are close to fruition.

Okay, so after grinding it out on the 25NL tables @ Full Tilt 6-tabling for 4 days, my BR has finally just peaked over 1000$ after winning 650$ in a freeroll on Saturday.

I think I have and am continuing to improve and learn every session play, including losing ones. I think I’ve really got a feel for 25NL at this point. Let’s hope it continues and I can make a move up to 50NL once I reach 1500$.

This is a big step for me as I’ve been wanted to cross this mark since I started playing online poker.

I really think this is all because of the newly found discipline I’ve developed lately, including tilt control and bankroll management. I’m also getting really comfortable with playing big pots postflop, and I really feel like i have an edge there now (at least over my current opponents in 25NL…I’ve had so many oooh ahh lightbulb moments lately which is very good). I’m not sure how big table selection is at my level, but I’ve been doing it these 4 days and I feel it’s been profitable.

With this, I’ve reached 2 goals since I started only 4 days ago: 1) Moving up over 1000$, and 2) Making my “$ won without showdown” stat positive. I’m kind of a stat freak so just looking at it in pokertracker makes me feel good It’s still kind of flat though, so this means I need to find better spots to bluff and take down pots. I find myself getting checkraised a little more than I’d like.

I didn’t include my New Years Resolution/Goals in my last post, so here goes:

New Years Resolutions/Goals:

Poker Related:

• Build my bankroll to 10k$ and play 1/2 comfortably by the end of the year.
• No withdrawals or selling chips in my account until I’m AT LEAST rolled for 1/2.
• Start a cashout system once I’m playing 1/2 comfortably and keep to it.
• Start playing in some homegames again.
• Take a trip to AC for the first time after I turn 21 at the end of the year.
• Continue reading/watching videos and always strive to improve my game.
• Always remain optimistic. ALWAYS.
• Teach Michelle how to play poker

Non-Poker Related:

• Get back into tip top shape. This means 1day calisthenics, 1day cardio, 1day lifting, 1 day rest, repeat.
• Stop eating so much junk food and pay attention to my diet/nutrition.
• Spend more time with friends, especially with Michelle
• Ace my classes this semester (ugh 16 credits over 5 classes T.T) and actually faithfully attending all my classes haha.
• Transfer back into a 4-year University (most likely UMCP)
• Build a better relationship with my family.
• Stop wasting so much time when I’m bored at home by myself.
• Last but most importantly, build a better relationship with God/read my bible more/stay connected with my Church.

It’s just about 2:30, and I’m getting pretty tired. I’ve probably left so much out that I will want to add in later, but oh well.

Like I mentioned above. I’m really excited for this year. I have a feeling this year will be the start of the rest of my life.

Cheers!

Okay, so  my friend Tom (badbanana07) has motivated me to start a blog. This blog will mainly be about my adventures on the felt (online felt lol), but I will try to make it more. I hope and think updating this blog will help keep me motivated with my goals, my desire to continue learning the game, keep me off tilt (poker-related or not), and strive for greatness (cheesy i know).

After grinding it out for months and months (no idea how long) on pokerstars and fulltilt, switching back in forth between sites after going on horrible tilt and blaming each site for my misfortune, I managed to turn my bankrolls on both sites down to zero. I was even considering giving up the game until after I had completed college, or even for good. I thought I had developed good bankroll management, but looking back now I see that I ALWAYS deviated from the plans-for-anti-broke-ness I had set out for myself. I switched back and forth from cash to sngs, to mtts, looking for my niche but never really finding much success. I never blamed myself for losing and constantly bemoaned to anyone who would hear me out about how bad my luck was (mainly my girlfriend, sorry michelle!).

Well it’s a new year, and after having a brief but very motivating and inspiring conversation with Tom after reading his latest blog entry a day or two into the new year, I have decided to not give up on my dreams of poker greatness and was hungrier than ever.

2 days into the new year i busted the 100$ i had deposited on pokerstars (playing way higher than what I was rolled for) after I had busted my entire FTP roll. I deposited another 100$ (I could only deposit 100$ at a time due to the limitations of the echeck option) and started playing 10NL. After playing badly along with a rough run of cards, i managed to lose 42$ of what I had just deposited. This was very disheartening for me. I had just finished talking to Tom, ready to take on the world and I only had 58$ in my pokerstars account. I dreaded the thought of grinding 5NL. Just the thought of a winning 2 cents at a time was incredibly unmotivating. Pennies were just too attractive. Luckily, I was saved from having to experience 5NL any longer a day later.

I am a member of rakeback.com (for my FTP account) and they had a 10k freeroll for select members that earned enough fullt tilt points. It started @ 1:00 PM yesterday (1/3/09). I was DETERMINED to do well in this tournament and get some extra cash for myself. The field only had 519 players and I felt I had become a better than average MTT player these past months, with many deep finishes, but only a couple final tables. Well, even starting the tournament was rough. The previous day I had gotten into a huge argument with my mom about poker. To her, playing poker is pure gambling and is just as bad as snorting cocaine. My computer was relocated to the room right next to hers so that she would have an easy time keeping an eye on me while I was on. There was no way I’d be able to play the tournament comfortably and play for the necessary amount of hours an mtt requires, so 20 minutes after the tournament had started I grabbed my brother’s laptop (without pt3 and any kind of hud) and sped to the library. After having a rough time connecting to the free wireless the library offered, I finally got on fulltilt and saw that I had about 1200 chips of the initial 1500 chips remaining. I was not disheartened and was still determined to do well. I played what I felt like was the best tournament poker I’ve ever played, and after the 2nd break, I was in first place. I continued playing well right after the break and had about 54k in chips. I calculated the avg number chips at the final table to be around 67k and was close. I felt that I could guarantee myself a final table if I reached that number. This probably isn’t a good mentality to have, but I don’t know. Anyways, after the bubble popped and only about 70 people remained I took a huge hit. This one dude was 3betting me everytime I raised, and I just let him for a bit. By playing his style, his stack had reached about 3/4 of my stack. I picked up AKs in MP and raised, and as expected, he 3bet me. It folds back around to me and I 4bet him pretty big. Looking back, I should have just pushed to take away his next move but I didn’t….obviously he thought I was just fed up with his 3bet and 4bet him light so he decided to shove. I reluctantly called because I didn’t want to get into a confrontation with a stack of his size yet even though I felt I dominated most of his range. I prayed he had AQ. Not so lucky….he had 77 and flopped quads on me. hahaha. It’s pretty funny now that I think about it. Anyways I was now pretty shortstacked and had about half the avg number of chips. At this point I deeply regretted not 4bet shoving on him. I felt like almost all hope was lost and i was destined to finish close to the final table again. If not for Michelle, who was there watching me while she did some work, I definitely would have finished outside the final table. She cheered me up and boosted my morale greatly. My confidence grew again and as my confidence grew, so did my chipcount. I played a pretty good shortstack, and eventualyl got back to average number chips before I doubled up through another midstack 77 vs 33. We got it in preflop and he flopped a 3 (at this point I jawdropped lol), but I luckboxed a 7 on the turn. WOOT. I was back in it and before long I had reached the final table. I continued to gain chips until it was 4-handed. The payouts at this point was 1.9k for 1st, 1.2k for 2nd, 850 for 3rd, and 4th for 650. I had played with my 4 remaining opponents all day (1 was my 3betting nemesis who owned me with quad 7′s) and felt I had good reads on all 3. First or 2nd place felt inevitable, but sadly disaster struck. It was 5, and the library was closing. As soon as the library closed, I called my friend Simon (thanks a lot dude) to get on for me and stall while Michelle and I rushed over to starbucks only to find that they required us to subscribe to some kind of internet service before we could get online. At this point I was panicing and rushed back to the library hoping they had not turned their wireless off. I found that they had not, so I got back on in the middle of Simon playing a hand of kings for me. I was oop against the chip leader with my stack half of what it was before I started running around looking for internet access, not to mention the board being A82…so it went check check on the flop because I had no idea how the hand played out preflop and I was scared of that ace on the board. On the turn I bet about half the pot which turned out to be a mistake, because the chipleader called and rivered another 8 (he held 87) and shoved on me after I checked. I reluctantly put the last remaining chips I had in the middle and finished 4th for 650$. I was on megatilt after this because I felt if I would have played the hand differently if I was not forced to run around finding internet while 4-handed, and not finished 4th. How ironic is it that I just won 650$ for free and was complaining about it lol? Anyways, like the trusty and loving girlfriend she is, Michelle cheered me up and congratulated me on my finish. We proceeded to get wingstop and I was feeling better in no time.

When I got home, I was happy because I had a new roll and a new start. I got on and started 6-tabling 25NL, with new plans for success. I decided that I was NOT going to break my BR management rules again and bust my roll..AGAIN. I subscribed to DeucesCracked for their free 7-day trial as well. I haven’t started watching but I will very soon. I played pretty well and here are the results of my first 2 sessions of 25NL.

It’s a pretty small sample but I felt like it was good start. My roll on FTP is now running at 835$ and I plan to continue at 25NL until i reach 1500$. I just need to work on my bluffing and get that red line positive.

So far I’m running at:

Limit	VP$IP	PFR	W$WSF	WTSD	W$SD	AF	AFq
$0.25 NL (6 max)	19.49	16.02	44.41	22.98	59.46	3.71	51.29

3Bet	Fold 3B	Att To Steal	Fold BB to Steal	Fold SB to Steal	CBet F	3Bet PF	Att To Steal
7.87	55.41	26.04	76.67	92.31	77.21	7.6	26.04

BB/100	Call F CB	Call PFR	CCPF	Fold BB to Steal	Fold SB to Steal	PF AF	River AF
18.94	18.6	8.42	9.71	76.67	92.31	3.13	2.4

AF	Turn AF
3.71	2.73

I’m not sure how good this is, so I’m hoping my friends like Tom can help me out, and hopefully plug some leaks.

I felt like I’ve played well at 25NL including running well. The hands where I lost the most were coinflips preflop. All with me holding AKs in the BB and the button 4bet shoving me with QQ or JJ. They flopped a set on me each time too =/. Oh well.

Another couple of hands confused me too, such as this one:

Full Tilt Poker Game #9855048519: Table Early (6 max) – $0.10/$0.25 – No Limit Hold’em – 15:59:30 ET – 2009/01/04
Seat 1: Royal Jah ($60.65)
Seat 2: DJ boy56 ($32)
Seat 3: boxingcritic ($10.60)
Seat 4: TheZionLine ($27.15)
Seat 5: pwncakery ($26.10)
Seat 6: ponDragon ($30.90)
Royal Jah posts the small blind of $0.10
DJ boy56 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ponDragon [8h 8c]
boxingcritic folds
TheZionLine folds
pwncakery folds
ponDragon raises to $0.75
Royal Jah has 15 seconds left to act
Royal Jah folds
DJ boy56 raises to $2.85
ponDragon has 15 seconds left to act
ponDragon calls $2.10
*** FLOP *** [Ts 4s Ac]
DJ boy56 checks
ponDragon checks
*** TURN *** [Ts 4s Ac] [4h]
DJ boy56 checks
ponDragon has 15 seconds left to act
ponDragon bets $4
DJ boy56 has 15 seconds left to act
DJ boy56 calls $4
*** RIVER *** [Ts 4s Ac 4h] [6c]
DJ boy56 checks
ponDragon has 15 seconds left to act
ponDragon bets $10.75
DJ boy56 calls $10.75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ponDragon shows [8h 8c] two pair, Eights and Fours
DJ boy56 shows [Jh Tc] two pair, Tens and Fours
DJ boy56 wins the pot ($33.55) with two pair, Tens and Fours
ponDragon adds $11.70
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $35.30 | Rake $1.75
Board: [Ts 4s Ac 4h 6c]
Seat 1: Royal Jah (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: DJ boy56 (big blind) showed [Jh Tc] and won ($33.55) with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 3: boxingcritic didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: TheZionLine didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: pwncakery didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: ponDragon (button) showed [8h 8c] and lost with two pair, Eights and Fours

(I can’t seem to get the hand converter thing to work. It just keeps showing the html stuff even when I do it HTML)

I felt like he was just restealing from the bb (like he was) but didn’t follow through with a 4bet. I showed weakness on the flop which induced his hero calls with midpair on the turn and river. I got hero called quite a few times this session, maybe they’re just looking me up…

Oh well. I felt like I played well and never tilted so that’s good.

That was a longer post than I intended on making, so I’ll save the New Year’s Resolutions for next time!