its been awhile

dont worry im not busto

not robusto yet either though sadface


I read up on this old blog and decided I needed to post more again. A lot has happened in the last almost year. I live it Baltimore now! Also, I live with a girl. Well two actually but only one I'm in love with. And I'm mostly writing in sentences with correct grammar and punctuation now, which hopefully will last. Ty, gmat studying. (obvious, short fragments are okay)

I read over some of my old posts and realized that posting more will be good for me. It's great to be able to just write openly and see what happens. Seeing what you've written in the past is also fun and interesting.

Measuring poker talent is quite difficult, near impossible directly. But intuitively I realize that I've gotten aprox 300 times better at poker since my last writing. It's a bit sad to know if I was this good at poker 2 years ago I'd be a millionaire, hands down. However I am very fortunate to be in the place I am now. I am extremly confident in 99.95% of the plays I make and know now that I have the tools to become an even better player.

I don't have much else to say, but I do plan on writing again soon. I g2g as there is this massive fire in Bmore that I want to check out in the interwebs tomorrow. I smells quite profusely of the wood from an old townhouse in here, which from the view of the helicopters looks like it is about a half mile away. Its like a campfire smell but in my office.

ran good on election picks

made $1360 on elections, ty indiana democrats for coming through.



unfortunately thats it for good news.

list of things currently pissing me off:

insanely high taxes
regs in every game
inflation, inevitable crash of the dollar, etc.
im getting super bored with poker
its cold outside and there isnt snow



on a more seriously note i have gotten exponentially better at poker since going 100% pro jan 1st. unfortunately i still cannot crush 5/10+ nlhe or plo sigh (althought im pretty sure im good enough to beat the 5/10 of like 1-2 years ago). yet it makes me respect and apprecitate players and hands like thsi even more:


just kidding i dont have a hand but i think nvg has some good ones

blah

i have been pretty bored with poker lately so i havent been talking too much about it. its been going okay, i had expected it to be a little better, but mainly i should be playing more overall.

i havent played really in the last 10 days. one of my very best friends died 9 days ago. it has been pretty rough. ive been thinking a lot lately and trying to put things in perspective since then.

PokerEv graphs or it didnt happen!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapok45a4g ay5wphe o5 i6 rirn6 hwpp4n` <-- that, is what the title would look like typed on the wrong keys. also, i believe my 'a' key was broken. anyways, ive totally forgotten about this blog for awhile. sept ended up bad, down 4.5k. I made up for it this month though. up 6.3k ish. yes to cash games.

ok now the reason for this post. no more complaining about poker. dont tell me bad beats or any of that crap. just run the last session you had in pokerEV. as long as red line is okay you should be happy. and if pokerev says you are a losing player, then you probably are.

busted gf again

In another home game. But to be fair she did bust me first and then i re bought. We ended up heads up and I won.

Poker has been terrible. I haven't played much this month, less than 600 games but im down over $3800. My worst month before was down about $25. Its pretty frustrating because I know im playing well but the variance is just sick huge. I just can't imagine playing mtts for a living. ok im sick of talking about poker and about playing. ill probably be doing hw all weekend and wont get much chance to play. hpefully i can still get supernova * 2 by the end of the year.

busted my gf in a home game

$10 buyin. I staked her getting 50% of her winnings, pretty good deal for her considering she has no idea how to play. She doesnt know hand rankings or what her options are when its her turn to act.

Here is the hand:

BB t30 i have about 900 chips and limp Jd9d in the Co+1 after 3 other limpers. ave stack is like 700. button limps too and SB completes so 7 handed we see a flop of Qd2d8h (or something like that.) Everyone checks around, which is very impressive in a live donkey game. Turn is a 2 and it checks around again. River is Kd checked around to my gf who is to my right who pushes for about 300 into a pot of 210.

Now her being a n00b she likely has a big hand. maybe a 2, a flush, or a king, and possible a boat but she probably would have bet the turn. I finaly decide i beat most flushes and she could have KJ or something and i push. In retrospect i should have just called but it is fun going all in live plus i had a few beers in me. Especially since the girl on the button folded top pair. She might have called had i not pushed. I thought it was close but a call, now im not so sure. Jman was on my left and he says he would have folded so it was probably a fold. Oops.


edit: almost forgot the best part. she had As3s. which is a sick bluff for her. Its a decent bluffing spot but its even better for her since everyone knows she "must" have a had. Ok but the best thing is she thought she had a straight. AKQ, ya know? She thought it was a straight because it is in cribbage. And whats hilarious about that is that it isnt a straight in cribbage. A 3 card straight cant wrap around (Ace is low only)


Poker hasnt been going too well. Im down like $1200 this month but I havent play a whole lot. School is going ok but I just know writing a billion papers is going to suck.

The good thing about poker is ive gotten much better at not caring about results. I can usually just look at the hands that are all in and say to myself what my equity is and be done with caring. But obviously im not perfect at it yet because losing big pots still pisses me off.

didnt play for 5 days

oops. brewer games, weddings, partys, drinking at noon for badgers games all seemed to get in teh way this week. i played sunday for the first time since monday. i also was on a sick tear of drinking 8 out of the last 10 days. heading to bed now because we are tailgating early tomorrow for the brewers game. im gonna try and catch up and play a lot this week but it might be tough with school starting.

keeping it going

Ive been trying to play a lot lately. Gf went home and ive had a lot of time. ive played 44 hrs in the last 8 days. that a butt load for me. SSing cash has been going okay but I made a few mistakes recently. I only have like 8k hands logged but hopefully im just running bad because my results arent good. unfortunately pokerEV tells me im running good. but they way it works it can only analyze allin hands. so like if i didnt get AA for 2ooo hands straight its not going to tell me i am getting unlucky there when really i am.

im really tired due to drinking / going out like everyday this week. thats all for now

too much stuff!

is going on right now. i did not get to play as much as i had planned last week. moving out turned out to be like a 5 day process (and moving in another day). i believe i played less than 2 hrs for those 5 days. boo. however my gf came back which was absolutely amazing. it was really good to see her. as hard as it was to not be with her for 35 days i think that something like that will really strengthen our relationship.

anywho, i want to grind a lot to get supernova x 2 by the end of november. why am i not farther you ask? well i played a few thousand games on FT in the past and also basically didnt play more than 15 hrs a week all summer. also a gf really bogs down my playing time. so that is one of my goals for now. i also have a few shortstacking goals but sadly i wont be sharing those as it goes along with my thought process on how to beat games shortstacking.

and finally here is my last goal: http://curtainspoker.livejournal.com/118615.html

if i can ever have that attitude about poker i will be invincible. my hourly rate would skyrocket as i could play in the highest possible stakes to increase my hourly rate. obviously the swings would be sick and i would have lots of losing days but that wouldn't matter.

i know i am getting closer to that state each day but i want there all the way. playing mtts helps a lot. i always go in with the mindset of i wont cash big. honestly i think its terrible to go in excepting to score huge even though some might say im being pessimistic, but really its just realistic. if i was hoping to score huge everytime i would have runs of 100s where i wouldnt final table and that would just kill me. luckily when you go in just expecting to play well you can almost always be happy. well by you i mean me, because i am awesome at poker.

poker and life update

ive been playing the 45man sngs lately. they are quite the lesson in variance. i started out up about 60 buyins and then came crashing down 91 buyins. ugh. and i felt very confident in my play. i sharkscoped some of the other regs and it seems 60 buyin downswings are fairly common. cool. im giving them a shot for now until the variance kills me. i also want to try shortstacking full ring and six max. i feel id have a pretty big edge there. it would also be pretty fun because right now i hate cash games. they are sooo boring. this way i can play cash games and go all in alot, as well as get berated by the regs.



my gf has been in ecuador for 4 weeks now and i havent seen her in or talked to her 30 days :(
she is flying to new jersey on wednesday for a family thing and then coming home sat. so i can finally talk to her at least on the phone wednesday. so as fun as summer has been its said i havent seen her for 2/5 ths of it. also, fuck ecuador for having horrible phone reception


im gonna try and play a lot this week before she gets back. like over 50 hrs maybe?

ads on my blog

haha suckers. there is an add right above this.

obv im not doing this for money as im rich and no one reads this blog anyways. i am just experimenting with google adsense. in the finance forum and the old money making forum on 2p2 people were always talking about adsense and getting rich from it. this is my start. i just want to get an idea for how it works and play around with it. then in the future when i start my amazing business or think of a new internet idea i will be good to go. also maybe i can get lucky with this type of thing and strike it rich like this guy.

http://www.metaticle.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/hiresaugust.jpg

thoughts on rebuy mtts

so ive been playing some mtts lately. at first i didnt like rebuys just because i dont know the different adjustments. i still dont. i dont play crazy early or anything, but i do adjust to others playing crazy and thats about it. i just dont see why its +EV. if someone could explain it to me that would be great.

anyways there are a few other reasons why i like them.

less rake!! usually 1/3 less at least. thats hugely +EV right there. i dont know why they dont rake the rebuys and addons. i swear they used to.

addons are almost always +EV. ive only done the math twice on what chips are worth after the first hour. since everyone rebuys early most people dont bust in the first hour and chips have close to their starting value. so when you are offered 2000 chips for almost the price of 1500 its awesome. you are getting more than your monies worth.

bad players are deeper. in a $30r or a $10r most of the players are just as bad as in a normal tourney like that. except i think most of those low buyin mtts start out with only 75bb or something. in a rebuy then these bad players are 150bb deep at lvl1 if they rebuy and still cant get away from TPNK. yah

i think thats all i have to say. my thoughts were probably obvious to mtters but im just learning and making sure my thoughts are on the right track

read my blog

so ive been drinking a few beers and watching crappy tv when i decided to read my old blog posts. now im not a great writer like my pal omgclayaiken but ive liked my posts lol. i think ive had some interesting thoughts about poker that ive written about.

i believe i forgot to add that today (now yesterday) was my biggest cash for $6277 but really $6102 after the buyin plus I shipped my roommate $99.97 because of that sick bluff he helped me run. i tried to run the equities and extra value of being 2nd in chips on the final table that that bluff gave me and i think thats a fair amount of equity i shipped him. its ironic that the EV amount plus the 3 cents he had in his account equals $100. crazy, hun. i should also note that thats the EV of the situation, in case thats not obvious, lets not be results oriented. currently he is donking it off in O8 haha. oops plus i was up $104 in 50nl today so ...plus RB im at like $6215 for the day. my previous record was $4025 in a live mtt way way way back in the day about 2 yrs 1 month ago. good. i beat it. the sad thing is i dont really care. i dont feel different because im up 6k. but maybe thats good because im used to ~10k months? yes, i hope thats it. dont get me wrong i dont feel bad but its obviously not that big of a cash for most poker players and of course being an mtt player now its not like thats all "money." its just deserved equity.

anyways im gonna sweat the ME final 13 or w/e , go to bed, and grind some mtts and cash tomorrow. also, monday i need to invest, clean my room, and sort thru my PT data. bye



ps here are 2007 stats so far

jan 13.3k feb 2.1k mar 6.1k apr 9k may 2.5k jun 6.7k jul 6.2k. im expecting worse results for the rst of the year due to being new at cash games and playing lower stakes. but gl big mtt scores!

A new era

haha I typed "a new ear" but then I had to change it.

jun 12th I decided sngs are dead. my edge keeps getting lower and there is no creativity. i switched to cash games but unfortunatly ive had mixed results the last month and 3 days. but im okay with it. i havent played that much so its just variance. with vegas, camping, and some work at home ive played 5 days this month. speaking of vegas i shipped $4100 there going 2 for 2 with wins in sats. i run good live

back to cash games, i havent had a chance to import PT hhs in awhile but i think ive played like 15k hands almost breakeven. which is nothing. thats like 300 sngs plus cash games have more variance. and probably 6k of those hands i wasnt playing well. when i first started i was overvaluing TPTK and playing OOP was more difficult. also since 6max is so different than sngs i decided to start at full ring. which kinda sucks because today i realized you can only 8 table cash games. 8 tabling 6max would be much more difficult but i kinda like being a robot still even though 8 tabling FR is kinda boring

although ive been a robot playing cash i think ive gotten way better at poker. I am constantly analyzing hand ranges and optimal plays and what i am repping. sadly, and embarrasingly, thru over 20,000 sngs i never did that, nor had to. i have been more confident with basically everything.

one thing that still bothers me about cash games is how boring they are (yes i know im not playing 6max but hold up.) i feel like im only playing small pots. before i switched everyone always talked about stacking people like it happens once every 3 orbits. it is somewhat rare to get all in. i love pushing late game in sngs and i miss that. i understand that 6max is more action and hopefully i will get there soon. but for the time being i have discovered a solution. 1-3 mtts while playing 5-7 cash games!! mtts keep me playing just due to their nature, and i get to push more.

i developed this strategy yesterday and so far its working out. i played for 7-8 hrs straight both days and didnt feel burned out. granted playing that long is a rarity, its nice to play a lot after taking almost 3 weeks off. i obv wont be able to keep this up, or keep running this good at mtts. a big problem ive had with mtts is the time factor. once my gf gets back from ecuador when the f am i gonna have 6 hrs to burn on a tourney when i could be with her? i have no idea.

i guess every type of poker has its pros and cons. sngs were ideal timewise but are lacking the money. mtts arent any harder but take forever. cash games require much much more knowledge and experience but can be very rewarding. ideally i will be playing cash games exclusivly in a few months but its nice to know i am developing the skills to pwn sngs, mtts, and cash games for the rest of my life. if i ever randomly end up at a casino i can be 100% confident in all areas. (not that i wouldnt be anyways vs casino nits but im a huge variance/edge nit to begin with)

ive been kinda ranting but i just got 2nd in a 587 man 25k guar on FT and have been celebrating with beers. since i started my strat yesterday im like 5-8 on cashing in mtts lolol. props to my roommate runner4life7 for a sick (probably standard by mtt pros) bluff that gave me a good stack at the final table:

10 left so 5 handed at my table and it folds to SB who is good and aggro with a lot of chips like me. we are dead even in chips with ~20bbs i think. he completes???? its either a trap or he doesnt wanna mess with me. ive restold a few times already. i have 86o and contemplate a raise but i dont wanna get pushed on so i check. flop is J6x two hearts. he checks i bet 2/3 pot and he raises a medium size amount. i should probably mention we are like 3 and 4th in chips ish and there are about 4 stacks pretty short. i think for a bit and push. standard with a good read? probably. i wasnt sure but props to Evan for helping me out there.

opker sucks

Its been a really rough going. like 1700 games with a 3% roi over May and June isnt going much better, like 12% over 800 games. which is pretty horrible considering I moved down. Life has been great otherwise though. Classes are done and it has been going amazing with my girlfriend. Summer has been perfect so far. Vegas in 10 days so im super excited. Im probably trying cash games after vegas, go me

yah

ive almost fully switched to full tilt. after a 45 buyin slide at the 60s on stars i needed to. im just going to be going back in order to maintain supernova. you cant beat running good at full tilt, rakeback, and leaderboard $$$.

its been a good month, great month, considering a 45 buyin downswing. thats all im saying and i wont reveal my FT sn.

good month so far

im winning the 27s sng challenge lol. its 3 people from 2p2 and im running good. ive been trying to play the 60s more now, they were tough for awhile but now they have softened up a bit. same with the 114s. today around 130pm cst the 114s were the softest ive seen in 1.5 years. only 2-3 winning players at the tables in the ones i played. sick. hopefully that will keep up and i might have to start skipping more classes and playing mid day.

feb is over

made like 2k ish i think. i also busted in both WSOP champ sngs with greg raymer making me 0 for 4 in those. i dont think im gonna play them anymore. they are rigged and also take too long. i found a better source for Fpps to $$$ which im not gonna talk about.

march is going well. im in a small prop bet to see who can have the highest roi at the 27s over 1000+ games. sad that im playin the 27s only now but the games are getting sick tough. so many regs that i dont even know about. i can be sure if they are good so i dont know if i can loosen up pushing more,etc and also they arent dead money.

busted 9th in wsop sng with tom mcevoy

i made a thin push here, or raise whatever, same thing. villian is a winning player on sharkscope something sick like 10% over 1000k games buyin of $150. so hes running a little good. i thought he could be opening a little wide here.



PokerStars Game #8503177511: Tournament #41461031, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2007/02/18 - 13:44:12 (ET)
Table '41461031 1' 10-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Airmail26 (2785 in chips)
Seat 3: prayun (2930 in chips)
Seat 4: bearclaw66 (1115 in chips)
Seat 5: Sven Wilke (2010 in chips)
Seat 6: tfnc314 (1380 in chips)
Seat 7: Tom McEvoy (1875 in chips)
Seat 8: ienjoymoney (1425 in chips)
Seat 10: lilwinston44 (1480 in chips)
ienjoymoney: posts small blind 25
lilwinston44: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ienjoymoney [Qh Ad]
Airmail26: folds
prayun: folds
bearclaw66: folds
Sven Wilke: folds
tfnc314: raises 100 to 150
Tom McEvoy: folds
ienjoymoney: raises 400 to 550
lilwinston44: folds
tfnc314: raises 830 to 1380 and is all-in
ienjoymoney: calls 830
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8s 4c]
*** TURN *** [Jd 8s 4c] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8s 4c 7h] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ienjoymoney: shows [Qh Ad] (high card Ace)
tfnc314: shows [Ah Ks] (high card Ace - King kicker)
tfnc314 collected 2810 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2810 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 8s 4c 7h 9h]
Seat 1: Airmail26 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: prayun folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bearclaw66 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Sven Wilke folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: tfnc314 showed [Ah Ks] and won (2810) with high card Ace
Seat 7: Tom McEvoy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: ienjoymoney (small blind) showed [Qh Ad] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 10: lilwinston44 (big blind) folded before Flop


sngwiz says its close if he is opening with 15% 33+,A8+,A4s+,KTs+ and calling with 3.3% JJ+,AK+ its a breakeven play. this assumes the BB calls with JJ+,AK+and the CO overcalls with QQ+,AK only. so its close, probably a fold but of course i got unlucky that he had AK too. i also felt that he could be opening wider since he was running good. bah whatever

a long february

month is dragging on as i keep losing. everytime im all in i lose pretty much. im down like $1300 this month. it was much worse. the good news is will probably have a winning month due to VIP freerolls and the WSOP champ sngs. i have 3 more to play and its basically a $225 sng or something like that so first is $1000 plus the bounties. i played moneymaker and 8 other donkeys in my first one last sunday. it was at 10 am, ugh. and i got 6th.

ive been taking it easy only 4 tabling and watching lost this last week. i think im playing fine but i just need to take some time off from 16 tabling. and i moved down from the 60s because they are rigged. some quick stats

last month 800 games roi around 19% profit $13600
this month 800 games roi around -3.5$ profit -$1200

yea variance sucks. its just super scary that if i switched to cash games it would be like twice as bad