CardRunners

I had a big post written out but it got deleted.  I've been playing PLO the last 2 days and that game has some insane swings.  I lost 3200 the first day, then turned around and won 4800 the next day.  I even sat in a 10/20 plo game and won 700 vs a big fish w/ a 5k stack right before he quit.  I feel like i'm trying to play as loose as possible, but i'm only play 29/21.  It might be the fact that i'm playing 8-12 table at once because there are so many awesome tables going, but i might have to cut back to 4 tables and try to play every single button and see if i can get myself into some cool situations. 

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3677479  Here i win a flip really deep heads up.  I considered calling flop/shoving a blank turn, but i mean it's hard to know which cards are safe.  what am i doing on a 8d turn?  Obv villain's range is more than just big pairs, he's got good rundown hands, double suited crap hands, and just whatever else he decides to 3bet.  I just felt like there were a lot of turn cards that would put me in a weird spot so i just decided to ship flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3677486  Here i get it in with like 70% equity 3 way which is awesome.  I had a pretty maniacle image going on at the time so i'm sure that played into their deicsions to stack off so light. 


http://www.pokerhand.org/?3677489  Last but not least, this hand.  I get it in as a 60-40 dog.  I was certain he had AAxx here, and versus a hand like AA56 i'm a 60-40 favorite getting it in on the flop, but unfortunately i ran into one of the worse possible AAxx combos for my hand.  Meh it happens.


Thats all for now.  Gl,

TJ

I played about 1600 hands of 2/4 and a bit of 3/6.  I played 30/26.  I had a few interesting spots, but really just didnt get a whole lot of action on my hands...also didnt make that many.  I think i definitly did a good job at avoiding huge 3betting wars vs good players, but still played pots against them while using my positional advantage. 


This was my biggest 3/6 pot of the day.  I'm not sure how i like my play.  I feel like calling flop might be better than shoving, but villain with the stack is pretty bad so i felt like he might come along with some hands as weak as 98 even if i do shove.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666630 


Villain is like 22/13, a newer player to the game.  He seems decent, but probably not a big very big winner.  Here i have no idea what he's doing.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666641


Villain is the fish at the table.  I hit a nice turn but i decide to just call and deicde on the river if i want to raise or not.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666650


I had been 3betting this guy pretty often and i felt like he was ready to play back so I decided to just stack off on the flop here.  I wasn't very happy doing it though.  I lose the flip.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666655


This hand i thought was pretty interesting.  I think flop+turn is very standard, but i feel like with his river bet size and timeing that he has some kind of hand here.  At the time i put him on 44/draw becuase i didnt think this player would make this play with AQ 200x deep.  Anyways, his river bet really felt strong to me but i leveled myself into calling vs his 2pr.  I feel like i should have just put him on 7c6c and folded but meh.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666664


Villain is a big passive station.  I really put him on TX with a club or 99c so river was a super thin value shove which backfired obv.  I was so suprised to see him turn over a set.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666683


God this hand made my head hurt.  I felt like his range was Qx or air...maybe he was trying to get me off a better pair?  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666691


This hand im pretty sure my image just paid me off.  I was running like 38/30 on this table and i had raised the last 4 pots prior to this hand.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666695


Quads obv.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666704


God this hand just bugged teh crap out of me.  I misclicked the river cuz i was almost out of time and i just clicked a spot on the bar and hit bet forgetting it was a nl table not a pl table.  Obv he 5 outs me when i decide to do that...He snap called which made me chucle.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666706


Ya so thats about it.  Ended up a little over a buy in.  Not a great day, but not bad by any means.  Something i really want to do the next few days is start looking into plo.  Ill probably start off 4 tabling 2/4 and just taking it from there, but i really need to spend time watching guys like phil galfond, durr, and stinger play.  4 months ago when i did that really improved my plo game significantly and i feel like those 3 guys are the top plo players online right now so i might as well learn as much as i can from watching them. 


In other news i went ice skating with my mom and 3 of my brothers today.  It was fun, I've been ice skating once in my life before this, but i've always been a natural at it.  At first it took me a few minutes to get it down, but now i got the hang of it pretty quick.  My mom was so impressed i got invited with her and her boyfriend to go snowboarding with them in March which I'm absolutely exstatic about.  I love snowboarding but i havent gone since like 4th grade so this should be really fun.  

Until next time,

TJ

I've had the flu for the past 5 days and i'm just now starting to feel better.  My new years sucked pretty hard, it was basicly me sitting around watching tv with my 2 little brothers till 2am, then spening 2 more hours trying to fall asleep shivering with achy muscles and a stiff neck.   I also haven't even put in a single hand yet this year(saw verneer had 11k which made me feel like a bum)  Im going to start out on sunday after i make all of my withdraws.  I plan on starting off w/ a br somewhere around 40k and just grind out 2/4 all month. 


Anyways, i decided to write out my years goals with in 3 seperate catagories:  Personal,Work,Financial.  Work is basicly poker stuff and Financial is more like owning a house, buying a new car, starting new investments etc.   So here it is.


Personal:
-Workout Regularly:  I've been off for about 1.5 weeks since i started feeling sick.  This year i want to make working out a top priority.  It helps out all aspects of my life and is a great stress reliever.

-Cut back on drinking:   I almost want to completely eliminate it, but that basicly eliminates the majority of my social life so i cant do that.  But i do want to say no more than 2 days a month of drinking. 

-Meet New People:  My plan is to move out to Vegas in May/June and stay out there untill then end of auguest.  So i want to meet a bunch of people in Vegas if that ends up being where i decide to stay.  Regardless i feel like my social life has slipped some given how often i spend playing poker on the weekends, so i think getting out and meeting people will be good for me.

-Have 1 Real Relationship:  I dated a few people this year, but nothing really ever clicked like it did when i met Gail in highscool.  I was with Gail for almost 2 years, and it really was great.  I dont think i was matured enough to handle an actual relationship then....I'm not sure if i am now, but i feel like i'm a lot closer than i was before.  Even if it's only for a few months, i just want something that feels real.

-Read 1 book per month:  I decided that i wanted to decrease the ammount of TV that i watch and this is 1 of the things i want to substitute.  So each month i'm going to pick a book and finish it.  January i'm going to re-read the power of now because the first time i read it, it was over like 2.5 months and i dont think i remembered everything.

-Make 1 full CD of music:  I've been practicing guiar a lot the last few days and I think this would be an awesome experience.  My brother Matt plays the drumbs, and I know a few guys who play bass, so hopefully we can jam a couple times the next few months and see what we come up with by the end of the year. 


Work:
-Be a winning 10/20 nlh player:  This is my absolute minimum goal for the year.  I feel like if i continue working hard and improving at the pace that I am this will easily be achieveable.  I think it's a goal that will take some time, but is a very easy goal for me to get to.

-Learn PLO:  So there's no doubt that PLO is going to be the next big game, and it's a game that a lot of people are still learning.  I think if i can really spend a few good months learning PLO it could be a great asset.  I'm going to spend more time sweating the big PLO games that run on FTP and spend more time watching PLO vids and posting on Omaha forums.  My PLO goal will be to be a winning 5/10 PLO player by the end of the year.

-Start a poker site/Write a poker book/Start some kind of business:  I mean there are so many people doing this right now, that if i can come up with some sort of creative interesting idea that seperates me from everyone else i see no reason why it cant be successful.

-Play 500k hands this year:  I'm not sure how many i got in last year, but this is my year goal for 2009.  Thats a little over 40k hands/month so i think i can reach this pretty easily.

-WIn 1 major MTT(6 fig+ win):  Last year i really never played any bigger MTTs but this year i'd like to spend more time playing the big sunday MTTs.  Also given that i'll be 21 i might try to play a few live events and hopefully i can get far.


Financial:
-Own my own house

-Own a nice car

-Max out my Roth IRA

-Start some other investments:  Im looking for things that wont be directly effected by the stockmarket.  If i do have to be in the market, i'd look for low risk with a solid yearly increase. 


That'll do it.  I love the start of a new year becuase it's like a new beginning and it lets me put the year before behind me, and start off with a clean slate.   This is where I'm at and here is where I'm going.


TJ

     October was my first really huge winning month for me.  In September i must have had a pretty tiltfilled session, because it was around this time that i bought elements of poker, and the power of now.  Those two books were able to completely eliminate tilt from my game and my life.  The changes i've made in the way i think and react and precieve life have just been amazing.  I used to be such a negative person(the drugs just added to that).  I used to always feel like life was out to get me, and that i was the unluckiest person in the world...who does that remind you of???...I really just changed the way i looked at everything.


      In october i made over 20k in 45k hands.  I had a 22.8hmbb/100 winrate over that sample size with the majority of those hands coming from 1/2 and a few from .5/1 and 2/4.  I think this was around the time i started really thinking about my game.  I played a 50hu session with another CR member on here, and we recorded it and went over the video afterwards, discussing eachothers play.  That was one of the most informative things i have ever done with my game.  Getting another player's perspective on this stuff really helped me see things from a different perspective.  I also noticed a lot of things that i was doing in heads up matches that were really -ev.  This also was around the time that i started thinking about hand ranges and using pokerstove non stop.  I also started posting hands on 2p2 again.


    I would say these steps of reviewing sessions, using poker stove and EV calcs, posting hands on 2p2, and just discussing hands with friends who play the same limits with me(tiltasaurusrex/youplabloom(sp) and a few other guys)  really helped me in just verbalizing things i had been thinking about.  At first i was paranoid about giving to much away cuz i figured they'd use it against me(teh weedz obv) but eventally i realized that it would just make  me a stronger player in the long run.   It also definitly adds some fun metagame like me c/r bluffing the river w/ 7 high in a 3bet pot oop for 250bbs. 


     So ya October was a great month for me.  In November i had a good winning month, but not as good as Octover.  I played about 33k hands, making 12k with a 15hmbb/100 winrate. The Majority of my hands coming from 1/2 and 2/4nl and a bit of 3/6 mixed in.  I was on vacation for a week where i won my first real live tourney.  I also won a lot at the 1/2 cash game which was cool for live experience. 


     And heres December.  December i finally made the move to 2/4, which is where the majority of my hands came from this month.  I few from 3/6 and 5/10.  I've played almost 40k hands, winning just about 40k with a 14hmbb/100 winrate.  I need to put in 1 more day of play just to get qualified for iron man, then ill be done for the month.   I've been putting even more effort into studying hand ranges, and working out equity calcs on hands, reviewing sessions, and just looking for spots to improve.  I feel like my game is getting better and better every month and i'm just looking for more places to improve.  So overall this year, i managed to make over 6 figs, including all rakeback and ironman bonuses.  It's just unreal considering last year i barely made 10k.


     Finally, i just want to thank Raptor, Tiltasaurusrex, Youpla, Berkey11, and everybody at cardrunners and 2p2 for helping me improve my game.  I would not have gotten to this point without your help.  I hope everyone else had a year of improvement, and i wish everyone the best of luck in 2009.   Lets hope we can get some positive poker legislation through this year.



TJ
 

     Im gonna try to recap Jan-June of 2008.  I was on a different computer so i dont have a database for that time.  It's on my laptop probably.  Anyways, here we go.   Around January i was grinding the old deep stack tables .15/.30 and the monster .40/80 w/ a 160 dollar max buy in which was huge for me at that time.  My br was hovering around 5-8k.  I had almost finished my first year of cardrunners, and i was making slow progress at imporving my game.  I was still all about being the laggiest lag i could be.  I think my stats were like 38/34 durring this time, just being a complete money, and way too loose oop.  Also at this time, i was smoking some magic pixi dust, and that definitly affected my play in a negative way.  I was constantly having days where i'd win 1500 then the next day lose most of it back.  I didnt quite have the br management down yet.  I also had a lot of tilt issues and just a ton of personal issues. 

     So I basicly followed this patern of play for a lot of the beginning of the year.  Any improvements i was making in my game came directly from watching videos.  I didnt really review hands, i didnt talk poker w/ other people, i didnt post on forums much, and i didnt really understand hand ranges all that well.  So i played through february and march, making some money, but mostly relying off of rakeback and the occasional mtt final table which boosted my roll.  I was consistantly withdrawing atleast 1500 a month at this time.  I had a pretty consistant break even/slight winning style going and i thought i was great at poker.  I also was doing a lot of partying at this time and that took a lot of my attention away from poker.  

     Around late april/early may i hit a pretty big downswing and tilted off a lot of my roll playing 100hu.  I'd get stuck like 12 buy ins to a guy and just keep on spewing and spewing hoping to get some momentum back.  I also played a bit of plo at this time, and that game owned me pretty hard.  By May my roll was down to around 2k and i was pretty fed up.   Around that time i decided that i needed to completely relearn the game and basicly start from scratch.  Thats exactly what i did.  I withdraw all but 1k of my roll and started playing 50hu.  I told a friend of mine Arnz that i was going to run that 500 up to 10k by the end of the summer and thats exactly what i did.  

     I dont have hands from this time on this computer but i remember i had a sick winrate at 50hu over a 25k+ sample size.   I felt like i was playing really good heads up poker and getting into a lot of interesting spots.  I still wasnt really learning the game, but i was playing better, dealing with tilt a little better, and definitly making some progress, even thought it was small.  By July i had built up a 10k roll and i was starting to play 100 and 200 6 max games.  (This is also when i became a huge BR nit.)  Around the time, a guy named David Benefield joined Cardrunners.   Before this, sbrugby and cts were my prime sources of knowledge for poker, but once david joined, my game made a change that literally transformed me from a break even/slight winner to the player i am today.  I'd have to say, out of all of the pros on cardrunners, david has probably been the most influential to me from his videos.  His out of the box approach to poker really just opened up a whole new world of poker for me that i never knew existed.  Basicly, he opened my eyes to postflop poker. 

     I remember reading supersystem, and the 1 thing that doyle preached over and over was position and aggerssion position and aggerssion.  I read it, i knew what he was saying, but i never really applied it fully to my game untill I watched David's videos with him going on and on and on and on about how important position is.  It literally made me disect my game and changed it to letting position and game flow dictate how i play,  not the cards themselves.  I was only beginning to understand what he meant around July/August time.  

     So from June to September i put in about 96k hands at 100 and 200nl with a 5.41ptbb/100 winrate.  I definitly wasn't playing that great, or really examining and thinking about my game yet, but i was applying position and aggression now more than ever and it really jumpstarted my game.  


     So July, August, and September were all winning months for me, probably the longest streak of winning months i had up to this point.  I had actually run my 500 dollars up to 20k by the end of the summer, which was way above what i was shooting for.  I was really starting to feel like i could do this.  Around this time, i also got off the magic pixi dust and really dropped out of the partying scene.  I still make the occasional appearance and have a few beers, but i really have slowed down on that part of my life.  I've been happier because of it.....to be continued tomorrow.

So today i played about 2k hands of 2/4, winning about 9 buy ins.  I think i've been playing absolutely phonominally the past few days.  The games are also extremely soft which is also nice.  This was going to be a really chill poker week since it's the holidays, but god the games are good right now.  So many soft spots out there that i might have to put in 1 more good week of grinding then take some time off.  Anyways, i have 1 hand i just want to vent on.  I'm extremely impressed with my play in this, and my read, but unfortunately i just couldnt hold.  Here it is.



2/4nl 200bbs stacks.

Co (gauchobluffs) raises to 14, btn folds, sb folds, i 3bet to 56ish with Ad9d he calls

Flop 854r, i bet 2/3 he calls.

Turn A(255)

I bet 172 and he shoves.  I think for a bit and decide he can be turning a hand like 66/77/56s/87s/ etc into a bluff, definitly has floats in his range, and really only has like sets/76s and a few suited aces in his value range, but thats even more unlikely considering have an ace.  Also, given my bet size and his timeing, i really felt like he saw a spot where it looked like he had fold equity and decided to make a semibluff shove w/ 66.  I snapped him off and obv rivers the 7 for a 400+bb pot.  But meh such is life. I sucked out with TT vs AA all in for a 400bb pot earlier today so it all evens out. 


I played quite a few other interesting hands, but i'm really tired and cant think of them right now...So my 2008/2009 post isn't even started yet.  I think i'll start writing the 1st half of 08 tomorrow, then finish up w/ the rest before newyears eve. 


In other news, i'm considering giving in and buying CTS's rediculously priced book.  I've just heard way to much positive feedback from that thing to not get it.  I figure i can just spend my rakeback on it, and i think it's an investment that will pay off.


Oh, also, i ordered a touch ipod with my fpps which is pretty cool.  It was like 85k points i think.  Im gonna give my brother the one i have right now cuz he always bugs me to use it and he likes it a lot.  So ya life is really good.  I've started looking for a few places to buy in vegas.  I talked to my dad and he said he'd co-sign with me if i have to get a mortgage.  I looked at a few houses that were really nice and they were only like 200-250k because theres so many forclosures and property devaluation doing on in vegas right now.  I'm hoping in about 6 months they drop even more so i can get a sweet deal.  I think i'm going to spend the summer down in vegas, see how i like it, and then either get a house down there, or find somewhere else that i'd like to live.  Possibly out of the states even.

Well thats all i've got, it's late and i need to get some sleep. gl,

TJ

Played about 800 hands of 2/4 today.  Some HU some 6 max.  Ended up winning about 6 buy ins pretty quicky which was cool.  I got into a few interesting spots.  I dont have any HHs but ill write out 2 of the ones that i liked.

Hand 1 2/4 eff stacks 100bbs

MP limps(lp fish), folds around sb calls, Hero is bb with black 8d8h.  I raise to 28, MP calls, sb folds.


Flop JT4cc i bet 40 he calls

8c(132)  Hero bets 92 villain raises to 184.  So here i felt really sick and wanted to puke everywhere.  I thought about calling and folding a non paired river which might have been the best play, but i decided to say forget it and i shoved and ran into Q9o and bricked.  


Hand 2- 2/4 eff stacks 30bbs HU

I know this seems like a boring hand w/ 30bb eff stacks, but i thought it illustrated a thin value bet that i think a lot of ppl miss.

sb limps i raise to 12 he calls. 

Flop AT6r i bet 16 he calls

Turn 7 I bet 36 he calls

river Q i shove and he calls with 87s and i win.

So basicly i think this is a spot that is an extremely easy bet-bet-bet spot that a lot of people miss on.  I mean his range is weighted sooo towards Tx/6x/78/79 type hands.  I feel like Ax is such a small part of his range, obv 67 and 89 are possible but i think i get raised on the turn a lot.  On the river the queen doesnt really change anything.  I mean QT gets there, but other than that there just isnt much else that card really improves so i feel like it's a really easy 3barrel spot for value.


So in other news i spent the rest of the day cooking burgers for dinner which were absolutely amazing.  We took 3 lbs of ground beef, 2 eggs, bread crumbs(enough to keep it sticking together), green peppers, onions, salt, and pepper.  Mixed it all up in a bowl and got 10 patties out of it.  Covered with some american cheese and i was in heaven.  My brother and dad made some Banana cream pie and Chocolate pie which looks awesome.  It wont be ready untill tomorrow though.  I might have to sneak a bite before i go to bed tonite. 

Tomorrow for christmas.  I love holidays on my dad's side of the family.  It's awesome waking up to the smell of lamb, turkey, mashed potatos, green beans, and biscuts.  Im gonna eat a ton of food and then pass out for a few hours. 

What else what else...oh ive been watching a few christmas movies this year, and i've decided my top 5 favorite christmas movies are...in no particular order...

1.  Elf
2.  The nightmare before christmas
3.  It's a wonderful life
4.  scrooge
5.  family guy/simpsons christmas episode

Well thats all i've got for today.  Im writing up a big post about how 2008 was for me and my goals for 2009 so look for that in the next few days. 


Merry Christmas,

TJ

Well this Christmas isnt starting out to fun.  I got the flu yesterday and i've been sitting on the couch watching the James Bond marathon on spike all day.  Sean Connery is definitly the best bond in the old movies.  I think goldfinger is one of my favorite bond movies ever.  Odd Job is an animal.   I think Pierce was the best ever though, he just really played the part awesome.  I liked all of his moves.  I'm not a huge fan of the new James Bond though.  He doesn't really have that James Bondishness and doesnt really look like a bond.  I have seen the new movie yet, but i do want to see it just becuase i've seen every single 1 ever made and i cant stop now.

So today i stil felt pretty crappy.  I took some amoxicilin and that helped me a lot.  I wasnt going to play today, but i gave in and decided to play 3 mtts.  I think 200th was my best finish.  I was trying out some different things like 3betting preflop w/ a really wide range and just using raptor bets postflop, but people were floating me and c/ring me a ton and i never really made a pair so that kind of sucked.  I feel like it's a strategy that could work pretty awesome, but i think 3betting to like 2.5x would be better than pot just because the stacks are a lot shallower. 

Tomorrow i might put in some heads up if i feel better, but i'll see.  I dont really mind taking the week off just cuz of christmas coming up.  But meh, we'll see.  Right now i'm gonna finish watching some family guy and get to bed early. 


gl,

TJ

Yesterday i played a pretty long 2/4 and 3/6 session, and ran at like 66hmbb/100 over 3k hands.  I played 32/28 and had pretty nice results.  Im only gonna post 3 or 4 hands cuz i'm slightly hung over and i need to shower and clean my house. 


This first hand i was particualrly proud of.  A week ago i would have just shoved the turn, getting the majority of my stack in with 34% equity and praying that i'd hit.  In this hand i elected to just call turn.  I felt like i have plenty of pot odds right here to call, and i didnt think i had much fold equity because i put him JJ+ and people just dont fold that vs me.  So i called turn, then got the rest of my money in on the river w/ 100% equity which is always a good thing.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3612566


This hand was pretty gross.  SB is a complete lagtard, playing like 65/35 with a 26% 3bet%  Postflop he just potted everything.   I really feel like flop was a fold in all honestly when it goes bet/call infront of me.  But i didnt pay attention and lost a giant pot.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3612577



God hands like this just tilt the hell out of me.  I go for what i think is a pretty easy river value bet and obv he 1 ups me.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3612586


Here gamble4you owns me.  I really wanted to fold on all streets as he kept betting into me but i suck.  http://www.pokerhand.org/?3612592


And last hand.  Here i just completely ruled out sets from villain's range and put him precisely on the NFD or 3c4c.  Here i got it in pretty dam good for 400bbs and i held.  yaay.   http://www.pokerhand.org/?3612595


So ya there were a few hands i think i could have played better.  Im going to spend time today reviewing my entire session because i feel like in these deep stack games, it's 10x as important to make sure your getting your stack in good. 

So after my session, i had my friends Nic and Jake come over to drink some beer.  My brother also played in our game of circle of death.  We ran out of beer mid game (only had 13 to begin with) so i had the bright idea of making a death cup for if someone breaks the circle or to drink out of when we have to drink for the game.  Obv i filled the cup up half way with vodka and covered it with O.J.  So we finish up the game and decide to split the death cup 4 ways....well Jake took a decent swig, i drank half of it, then my brother and Nic drank the rest. 


After that we headed upstairs and my brother made a giant pan of scrambled eggs which were awesome.  After the eggs we all had another shot or 2 and went in the hot tub where i smoked my last cuban cigar from my cruise.  My friend Jake wants me to coach him at poker.  He wants to start at .5/.10 and he wants me to teach him.  I told him i would but to be honest i dont even know if i could beat that game right now.  So we got out of the hot tub at 4am and eventually passed out around 5. 

So today i have a slight hangover, but nothing bad. My house is a complete mess so im going to spend a lot of the day cleaning it up and watching college football.  I might throw in a session later, or i might not, it'll depend on how im feeling. 


Take it easy,

TJ