CardRunners

As you guys know I've been currently feeling as though my game is the best it has ever been.  I've been playing smart, running well, etc.  As a result of the success I have been playing a lot more HSNL (mostly 10/20, but i've been sitting at 25/50 quite often waiting for action).  And today, I got the action I was looking for.  The results of the day are very painful, it just seems as though no matter what I do, the dreadful stake that is 25/50 will never let me run anywhere near expectation.  I can't tell you how many times I've gotten the money in good, or been in favorable situations and seen the $10,000 pots be shipped to my undeserving opponents.  Why can't i just run terrible at 3/6 or something??? WHY 25/50!!!!  (apologies...i'm pretty angry :)).  Anyway, let's get to some hands.

First hand is vs. regista8....a player who i think has an absurd amount of leaks but is apparently regarded as a solid HSNL player (pretty lol imo).  He generally plays pretty tight, but I have some pretty good reads on him.  First off, he abuses his button wayyy too often.  He srsly 3bets my CO opens around 80% of the time, if not higher.  As a result of this, I 4bet him with a pretty high frequency.  IME he has not folded to ONE of my 4bets.  In the past after he would call my 4bets he would fold to my half psb cbets, but thats not all too relevant.  What is relevant in this hand is that he never folds to 4bets....lol.  here's the hand:

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: lowprofile9 ($9,077) -
Seat 2: Barabeck ($5,083) -
Seat 3: thaaj2004 ($5,675)
Seat 4: Triko ($3,392)
Seat 5: SilentAssassin3 ($5,000)
Seat 6: regista8 ($4,633) -


PRE-FLOP:

lowprofile9 posts small blind $25
Barabeck posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: SilentAssassin3


FOLD thaaj2004
FOLD Triko
RAISE SilentAssassin3 ($150)
RAISE regista8 ($555)
FOLD lowprofile9
FOLD Barabeck
RAISE SilentAssassin3 ($1234)
CALL regista8 ($679)


FLOP:

Pot: $2543
   

CHECK SilentAssassin3
BET regista8 ($3399)
CALL SilentAssassin3 ($3399)


TURN:

Pot: $9341
     



RIVER:

Pot: $9341
      



SHOWDOWN:
regista8:

SilentAssassin3:


regista8 collected $9338 from main pot with a straight, Jack high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $9 Rake: $3

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: lowprofile9 small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-25)
Seat 2: Barabeck big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 3: thaaj2004 didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: Triko didnt bet folded - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: SilentAssassin3 showed [Ah Ad] and lost with three of a kind, Aces - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4633)
Seat 6: regista8 button showed [Ts Js] and won 9,338 with a straight, Jack high - Net Gain/Loss: ($4705)
  


2nd Hand: The next two hands occur against a villain who is pretty much a donk, but is pretty hard to stack. I had been battling him for a while, and was up around 7k or so for most of the match until he started just god-moding me. My reads on him are pretty important as they dictate how I play each hand to maximize value. He has been veryyy aggressive IP, especially when i either show weakness by checking, or going into c/c mode. He's basically been barreling a ton and not giving up too often on rivers. So here I'm obviously just going into c/c mode to let this monkey barrel off his chips to me, but of course he hits the unnoticeable gutterball:

Seat 1: SilentAssassin3 ($5,225) -
Seat 2: Triko ($9,947.50) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Triko posts small blind $25
SilentAssassin3 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: SilentAssassin3


RAISE Triko ($100)
RAISE SilentAssassin3 ($300)
CALL Triko ($200)


FLOP:

Pot: $600
   

CHECK SilentAssassin3
BET Triko ($450)
CALL SilentAssassin3 ($450)


TURN:

Pot: $1500
     

CHECK SilentAssassin3
BET Triko ($950)
CALL SilentAssassin3 ($950)


RIVER:

Pot: $3400
      

CHECK SilentAssassin3
BET Triko ($3200)
CALL SilentAssassin3 ($3200)


SHOWDOWN:
Triko:

MUCK SilentAssassin3

Triko collected $9799.5 from main pot with a straight, Six high

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $9 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: SilentAssassin3 big blind mucked [Kd Td] - a pair of Kings - Net Gain/Loss: ($-4900)
Seat 2: Triko small blind showed [4s 5c] and won 9,799.50 with a straight, Six high - Net Gain/Loss: ($4899.5)
  


Last Hand: This hand just shows how retarded this donk can be...and of course at 25/50 he will spike his 3 outer in my grill!

Seat 1: SilentAssassin3 ($5,699) -
Seat 2: Triko ($15,420) - -


PRE-FLOP:

Triko posts small blind $25
SilentAssassin3 posts BIG blind $50
Dealt To: SilentAssassin3


RAISE Triko ($100)
RAISE SilentAssassin3 ($400)
CALL Triko ($300)


FLOP:

Pot: $800
   

CHECK SilentAssassin3
CHECK Triko


TURN:

Pot: $800
     

BET SilentAssassin3 ($580)
CALL Triko ($580)


RIVER:

Pot: $1960
      

CHECK SilentAssassin3
BET Triko ($700)
CALL SilentAssassin3 ($700)


SHOWDOWN:
Triko:

MUCK SilentAssassin3

Triko collected $3359.5 from main pot with two pair, Aces and Queens

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $3 Rake: $0.50

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: SilentAssassin3 big blind mucked [Js Jc] - two pair, Aces and Jacks - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1680)
Seat 2: Triko small blind showed [Qh 9h] and won 3,359.50 with two pair, Aces and Queens - Net Gain/Loss: ($1679.5)
  

 

That's all i got for the day...in summary I basically could've had a +25k day at least, but instead i have to settle for a nice -10k day. For the next day or so I'm not gonna play higher than 10/20 and hope to make 10-15k back, and then take another shot at the ol' 25/50. One of these days i shall break through!

gl guys

Hey guys,

I just wanted to apologize for not updating my blog for so long.  I've been very busy moving back to school and getting situated back in denver.  I realize that a lot of you read my blog so I've decided to make it up to you guys (well, to the best of my ability i guess).  A lot has changed since I last blogged:  I got a new car, moved into a new house, got new furniture, and most importantly, i feel my poker career is really starting to take off.  To make it up to you guys, I'm going to take pictures of the new car, the house, and post a bunch of graphs and PT stats that should be pretty interesting.  

I'll first talk about poker....more specifically the changes that I have made that I feel have helped me become a much more successful player.  My last entry ended with my month of August, which if i remember correctly was a pretty shakey month for me.  All throughout the summer I severely struggled with tilt....the major point being that I was actually tilting without realizing it.  Everyone knows and is aware of the major spewey tilt that occurs during everyone's career....but I feel that most people dont realize (myself included until recently), that you can be tilting without knowing it.  In my case, I started tilting pretty often during the summer.  I feel that the tilt really impacted my game as a whole, not just the times of "tilt."  For the last 5 weeks or so i have really honed in on my tilt problem, and have really tried to work through the rough patches during sessions and maintain focus.  These instances were most prevalent in heads up matches.  5 weeks ago or so if I lost a couple buyins to a player HU, i would start playing strictly emotionally as opposed to logically (this is why my stats in the HU department in the last 5 months are pretty abysmal compared to my overall HU results).  However, lately I have been trying to maintain focus as long as possible, and when it becomes impossible (lol), I get myself to quit.  

Anyways, enough with all that shit....lets get to some stats.  Below are the stats since May 1st - which i believe is about 5 months.  I really couldn't be happier with my 6max results as I feel my game is at the highest level it's ever been.  My HU results however are pretty abysmal, which is pretty much due to a couple matches where I just completely spewed 10-20 buyins out of frustration.  I'd have to say i'm by far most excited about my 10/20 results because it's always been a dream of mine to be a regular winner at the 10/20 level.  I thought about making yet another argument for how I'm not a super nit (which everyone still views me as btw), but instead I'll just leave my stats up to interpretation because I know my argument would just get flamed anyway :).

Here are the pictures of the new car which is an '08 335i coupe (sparkling graphite ext./black int.).  I'll post some pics of the house and my computer setup in my next entry.  Anyway, it feels great to be back blogging again, so look for much more consistent updates!

Here are the links to the images (Seeing as though they are not being posted properly):

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/10/5/f_Sin...

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/10/5/f_Pic...

http://www.picoodle.com/view.php?img=/3/10/5/f_Pic...

It's been a while since I last blogged.  I've been very busy with school starting in two days (Monday).  Last Tuesday I drove out to Denver (where i go to school) and it took two days (about a 20 hour drive).  It was a pretty long and grueling two days, but it was all worth it once i finally got my new BMW up here at college.  I just got finished moving into my new house with a couple buddies.  My room is almost completely done (I'm going to try to post pictures as sooon as i get a camera lol) and it turned out pretty nice.  Because of the moving I haven't been able to play any hands at all this month until today.  Today was my first day playing for september and it couldn't of went much better.  My game feels really strong - I'm hand reading well and being patient, but most importantly I'm getting in favorable situations and HOLDING.  It feels great.  Hopefully this run good can continue for a while and i can have a 50k+ month.  To rewind a little bit, I went on a pretty nice heater towards the end of August and was able to finish with some decent results (despite spewing a bunch on the last day of august :)).  They certainly weren't the results I was targeting for, but making money is nothing to complain about.  I'll post the PT stats of my first day of september with PT stats, followed by a complete graph of August. 

So its been a while since a last blogged.  I stated that I had high expectations for August after a grueling July.  Well, right from the get-go i was reminded why poker can be the most fucked up, gay, retarded game in the world.  I could've sworn I lost around 20k on August 1st, but my PT says otherwise (which is awesome btw).  I had lost around 6k in 1k hands or so (i think), and I was so pissed off at the ridiculous start to a month that I lost control for one of the first times in my poker career.  I decided to sit at 2 of McMaaaaath's HU tables at 10/20 and I was tilted as fuck.  Before long I was open shoving ATC pf....and when called i unfortunately lost every single one of them.  Heres some of the hands that are just lol tiltaments....

www.pokerhand.org/

www.pokerhand.org/

So after that escapade i was ready to throw myself out the window seeing as though I had lost around (what PT states to be) 15k in 1200 hands.  August was off to just a terrific start.  And to make everything better, I had been so excited about this new car (335i coupe) and cant seem to win/nor control myself in this game anymore.  Since then I decided that I needed some serious discipline.  I restricted myself to only 2/4 and 3/6 for a solid 7k hands or so....and the results were pretty abysmal in my eyes.  I was winning at each level for about 2ptbbs.  Its pretty damn frustrating when your playing at a stake where you know you have a significant edge over 95% of the players.  I'm not trying to knock 2/4 regs that hard, some of them are actually very good and give me trouble, but the majority of them just have a ton of leaks and seem to be 1st level type thinkers.  Also, the 2/4 games have so many games running and so many fish that the games should just be super profitable.  But for the 7k hands or so I just wasn't catching any breaks - the same old stuff from July continued into August: suckout after suckout while me being incapable of hitting the biggest possible combo draws.  Although I was slightly winning, I was really frustrated with my results (and as a result, my game).  This specific hand comes to mind when describing those 7k hands....

www.pokerhand.org/

Anyways as you guys all know, this kind of shit happens to everyobdy.  It's the nature of the game; it's simply inevitable.  Being a pretty disciplined and somewhat experienced player (nearly 2 yrs under my belt woot), I always knew that things had to turn around for me at some point or another.  It would just be a matter of time.  Fortunately, that time came recently for me as (thanks to the past few days), I have managed to climb out of this hole and back into the green.  I have won over 10k over the last few days, and I can't tell you how good it feels to finally be winning again.  I can tell that I'm getting in a lot more favorable situations (aka running well).  Things are starting to go more my way and i fucking love it.  However, I can't help but remember that this is almost exactly how July (last month) went.....and after i got back up in the green (to +10k or so)....i went back into a big downswing.  I have to make sure it doesnt happen this time and that I can pull out at least a 20k+ month.  I will be sure to keep this updated to let you guys all know how the journey is going.

Here is the graph of August so far:

So I've decided to wrap july up. I'm going to see "Pineapple Express" tonight for an early showing with 4 other friends. One of my buddies works california film institute so he got us some passes. We're gonna go blazed so it should be awesome. I played quite a bit of poker last night (stoned) and some this morning. Last night tenking and I played again....and this time he actually kinda owned me. I was stoned off my ass so I was paying too much attention and was too stubborn to adjust. He coolered me a few times and left with like 2,000 profit. I then 2 tabled Pechorin, a solid HU reg that plays up to 50/100 apparently. I've talked with him before so we respect each others games. I thought for the most part I played pretty well and overall outplayed him a bit, but unfortunately he won a lot more flips than i did and picked up some very timely hands. He ended up quitting me after a good 2 hours or so on this hand: www.pokerhand.org/ I ended up telling him what I had and he told me he laid down KK. lucky me :). Overall i finished up 1k vs Pechorin, and look forward to playing him some more in the future....our matches are always pretty intense and fun.

On another topic - I went car hunting a couple days ago. I went to the audi dealership to look at the A5/S5....and they don't have any S5s for sale and it would take a long time to get one. So i test drove the A5 and I really wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong, I think the car is absolutely stunning, and the interior was pretty nice as well - i just felt that the engine was pretty weak (only a V6, not very responsive). After that I went to the BMW dealership to look at some 3 series coupes. I would like to get an M3 but I kinda need all wheel drive seeing as though I'll be in Denver. So i test drove the 2008 335i coupe and i LOVED it. It felt a ton more powerful (290hp, 0-60 in 5sec), and its got great looks and comfortable interior. If i get the car I will be ordering it very soon. I will get the 335xi in dark gray.

Now back to poker....I need to lay down some serious goals for august. Judging by my stats for July.....I clearly need to be playing a lot more HU. My HU game has really come a long way and I need to start sittin my ass down at 3/6 - 25/50 HU tables and making some good bank. So my goal is to play primarily HU in August and turn a profit of 50k+. I will of course continue to play some 6max, I just really think that there might be more money to be made in HU at the moment for me.

Below is the final graph and stats for the month......pretty horrible month, but Ship the $29.75!

(also, im having trouble using pokerEV with PT3....if anyone uses it successfully and wouldn't mind helping me out, plz let me know!)

So as i stated in my previous entry, I really wanted to get myself out of the red for the month.  After tonight (Monday night), I've accomplished the goal.  I actually started out running pretty bad at 2/4 and 3/6...losing about 2k within a half hour.  After that I was able to focus a bit more and lessen the amount of suckoutage.  I played primarily 3/6 and 5/10.....including a great HU match vs. the infamous tenking.  tenking has been a FTP donk for a long time now, and for some reason he has always enjoyed playing me.  I feel like I used to berate him a little bit - and theres always the fish that respond in a positive manner (in my eyes at least :)) when berated.  Just to preface the match...I was actually kind of impressed with his HU play given that he is a legitimate fish.  He switched gears often and drastically, and played a very very passive style that was difficult to attack at times, while being able to throw in some very aggressive moves with somewhat balanced ranges.

Here is the story and hands of the match:

I got him on one of my tables at first and he bought in for 400.  I busted him within 10 hands and this was the hand that did it: www.pokerhand.org/  After this hand he started playing very very aggressive, but only bought in for another 400.  I'm pretty sure he ran  his stack up to about 600 or so before i ended up stacking him here: www.pokerhand.org/.  That's the thing about tenking....he may play relatively solid for up to 45 minutes or so, but he rly just is a time bomb.  After this hand he started playing super tight and UNBELIEVABLY passive...he srsly would not bet unless he had some kind of hand, and would fold to any kind of action without a pair.  This made it literally impossible for me to extract any kind of value out of my hands, so I had to pick up small pot after small pot.  Unfortunately he was making hands here and there so he was keeping even.  After about 30 minutes i got tired of it and told him to buyin for at least 600.  He stayed there for a good two minutes, then joined my other HU table wiht 400.  I now had him at tow tables with 40bbs on each.  Seeing as though he probably has no idea how to two table a reg HU, i instasat in on both and really started owning him.  I took both his stacks and he sat out on one table and rebought on only one for 40bbs.  I told him to rebuy for 600 this time and he decided to put 600 on both tables....lol.  I busted him on one of the tables after a good 30 minutes or so, but on the other table he was massing chips after winning a flip AK vs QQ and frustrating me like crazy.  He continued his weak/passive/nitty approach but was making hands at a high frequency - there really wasn't much I could do but wait until cards turned around for me, or he blew up.  Fortunately for me, when i started chipping away at his stack he indeed blew up and heres the final hand of the match:  www.pokerhand.org/

After the match was over I was quite relieved as i had to take a piss and get somethin to eat.  He really started to tilt me, so i may have been pretty fortunate to have busted him then.

The rest of the night went well...I sucked out pretty badly vs a good reg at 5/10 here: www.pokerhand.org/
This was by far the worst beat i put on someone for the month and i hated that it was vs. this player - we've talked on AIM a bit and hes a solid/smart player for sure.  Unfortunately for him I think it tilted him a bit and it lead to this hand: www.pokerhand.org/  I had never seen him get it in like this before so i thought it was pretty obvious he was tilted (and i also cant believe i survived the riv given how gay this month has been).

Thats all i got - other than I have to be aware that the month certainly isn't over, so hopefully the numbers can stay green for the next couple days.

Heres the full month graph (lol swongz/horrendous month) and PT stats for just today:

Ok so since my last post i've been playing a lot of 3/6 and 2/4 6max. And I was still struggling. It wasn't until yesterday that I discovered what the problem was: I was so amped up to grind and get back into the green that i started playing anywhere from 8-12 tables. I almost never play more than 6 tables, so 8-12 was just flat out crazy. I found myself in countless spots where I was rushed and needed more time to think. This inevitably made my play far less profitable, so I was barely turning a profit over 4k hands or so. Since I have made the change to a maximum of 6 tables, I have gotten back to killing the game. I playing very well and think I am making all the right decisions. I have also played some 5/10 and 3/6 HU, and despite one match I have been doing very well. I am making one final surge to try and get back into the green for the month of July, and hopefully I can get there. Im in the red for only a bit less than 4k, so unless variance acts up again I have to believe I can make it happen.

I made a nice profit of 2.5k today playing 2/4 - 5/10 6max, and now im going to roll with a bunch of friends to see the dark knight for a second time. I'm pretty excited about life in general, and can't wait to get back to the tables to get this month back in the green.

oh I also wanted to thow something out there....im looking to get a new car for a 2 year lease while im back at school in Denver, CO. I'm looking for a car that can handle the snow so preferrably all wheel drive. I also don't want an SUV, so the only cars I can think of are Audi's....so im leaning toward maybe the S5. If someone else have other ideas plz let me know by PM or leavin me a comment. Thanks.

I had a great weekend. I saw the dark knight on thursday night (erm friday morning) and it was spectacular. Heath Ledger truly stole the show in my opinion and made it one of the most entertaining movies i've watched in a long time. I actually can't wait to see it again on imax. On Friday night me and 6 of my buddies went to a coldplay concert in San Jose (call me gay, but it was an awesome concert). Im not a HUGE coldplay fan in general, but definitely like some of their songs. The concert was really good though - it seemed like every song they played was a hit song and the crowd was always going nuts. After the concert we all went back to one of my friend's house at Stanford and got pretty hammerred. I dont remember how many drinks/beers I had, but i got pretty fucked up and had a great time. The following morning we all went to santa cruz to just relax by the beach. We stopped at this little mexican place right in santa cruz and it made my stomach feel like shit. I had to go to the bathroom twice for an hour each which kinda ruined the whole trip. Needless to say I really didn't think santa cruz was anything special and I doubt I will ever go there again. I'd rather just go to a local beach instead. When we got back saturday night we were all tired as hell so we didn't go out or anything. Tonight I just got back from playing some good pickup basketball which I need to start getting back into. I used to play a ton in high school and was actually go to the state championship my junior year, and then win it for the first time in our schools history my senior year. Since then I really wanted to just relax and lay off the grueling training of competitive sports, but now I feel its time for me to get back into shape and on the court.

In poker news - things have just been going awful for me lately. This month has been a rollercoaster in general - starting off terrible, grinding back to even, getting into the green, etc. And now after the last 4 days or so I find myself back deep in the red for the month. Since July 16th im down about 18 grand - playing a lot of 10/20, some 5/10 and 3/6 - mostly 6max and some HU. The good news is that its not that i think im getting outplayed (altho sometimes at 10/20 i think i do), but rather im just running like ass. Getting it in as a favorite/slight underdog isn't working, and in general my timing has been pretty bad. For the remainder of the month I'm making myself play 2/4 and 3/6 6max playing 6-8 tables. The purpose behind this is 1) to grind out the bad stretch at lower limits and 2) get my confidence back and 3) have a less stressful life - its summer, i dont wanna be stressed out :).

Anyways thats all i got, hopefully things can turn around for me poker-wise in the next week or so and i can get back in the green! I'll keep this updated to see how my pursuit of crushing MSNL goes.