And Merry Christmas. I hope you spent some time with friends and family today instead of grinded at the poker tables like me. I just couldn’t help myself – games were real good today. This month has been just sick for me and I’m on pace to have my best month ever by a lot. I am running red hot at 6.5 BB/100 and my bankroll just broke $30k. Right now I am 9,000 VPPs short of supernova on stars so my main goal for the month is to finish that up so I’m hoping I can eek out ~13,000 hands before month’s end.
Since I got home to NC I bought a decent desk and I’m really liking my setup. I’ll try to get up some pics of it next time. I also got enough FPPs finally to order me a 40″ LCD tv from stars – shiiiiiipppp it(in like 4 weeks when it gets here lol). I’ve found with no obligations I can really devote myself to the game better, play longer sessions, learn the regulars and figure out their game and ways to exploit them.
Timing tells can be so huge when other people are playing like 16 tables. Here’s a big bluff I pulled off today that I was particularly happy about. He instacalled my flop CR so I was pretty confident he did not have AK or a set. The river was a pretty perfect card for me.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1854527
I’ve also been learning some card tricks in my free time. They are great to practice while watching tv or doing whatever. I think I’ve actually got a few blisters on my hands today from cutting the deck so many times. The jumping gemini trick is one I learned awhile ago and its very sick. Anyways, here’s a link to the guy I learned from, but there’s plenty of others if you just search youtube.
So I finally got done with finals (and hopefully college assuming I passed all my classes). The past week has been really brutal on me. I spent multiple days at the library for 12 hours+ and have been eating really poorly. I’m moving home to NC today to live with my parents LOL and I’ll probably be getting a place of my own around February – if you are a poker player and want to live with me let me know, I’m willing to relocate pretty much anywhere.
Yesterday I went to MGM Grand in Detroit to play some live poker because I hadn’t played live in a really long time. Overall I was pretty dissatisfied and have a number of complaints.
1. Highest game offered was $2/$5
2. Long ass wait times(I had to wait 4+ hours to get in the $2/$5 game. During the wait I had to play $1/$2. Awesome, I really drove an hour to play 1/2 the stakes I normally play online and 1/6 the number of tables.)
3. Absolutely no comps, nothing, nada not even a bad beat jackpot or anything.
I doubt I will ever go back there I give their poker room a C-.
While there I saw a number of pretty sick beats and interesting hands including a straight flush, a flopped boat lose to a 2 outer on the river and lots of ridiculous things like someone putting in 3/4 of their stack and then folding on the flop or river or something retarded like that. I ended up losing about $200 while there (all at $1/$2, I broke even at $2/$5). I was really card dead at $1/$2 and I basically just tilted off my last $100 there and then at $2/$5 I was getting some decent cards but just missing every single flop.
Hands like these happened ALOT to me at $2/$5, some guy straddles for $10, two people limp, I have AJs on the button and raise to like $50, sb coldcalls, straddler calls, one limper calls, one folds and flop comes K67 rainbow. It will get checked around to me and I check behind? It will get checked down to the river and then someone will bet something like $10 and I sigh and call with Ahigh knowing its no good but I can’t fold for $10 and they’ll show 64o for the win. Hands like these I really have no experience with and I’m unsure of how to play. These never occur online. I also was a little unsure of how to play at the first 3 positions at the table, I was raising PF but I think it was a mistake and limping live is probably better. I am just not used to seeing flops with 3 other people on a regular basis. I was also folding hands like A9o and KJo to raises which online is definitely standard but live I think is a mistake when they show Q6s like I saw. Sigh… basically live poker is a completely different game IMO and is going to take some real adjustments before I get good at or used to it I think.
In the coming days I’m going to try to grind a lot to get supernova status, but honestly I don’t know if its possible with Christmas and New Years and what not. I think I have to play like 20k hands in what will likely be 7 or 8 days of play. We’ll see. I’ll leave you with a monkey video and story cuz monkeys are awesome. So jealous of this chick and her pet monkey. Check out him beating her with his tail at the end. Awesome. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/12/11/intv.monkey.reunion.cnn
As you can see I’ve been running extremely well lately. I think people who use this EV software only look at it when their running bad, but if you’re gonna use it you ought to use it when you are winning too. Unfortunately I’m only up 4.5k or so total for the month despite my ridiculous luck lately so I’m going to look through ptracker and evaluate some of my play. I’ve definitely got it in bad a fair amount lately, but I’ve just been sucking out and profiting which has been nice.
I’ve really been enjoying my time at the tables lately. I have had a lot of schoolwork to do and its nice to get all done with class/meetings/work for the day and sit down and play some poker that I’ve been looking forward to all day. That is one thing I am going to miss about only playing part time. When you are playing full time like I was this summer you really just start to hate poker, find it boring, do it because there’s nothing else to do and overall get sick of poker but you’re forced to play because otherwise you are not going to be able to pay rent. It’s much nicer when its more of a relaxing hobby like it is now.
Anyways, I hope your luck at the tables is as good as mine is these days and if not just remember, it will turn around. Remember my last month?
I’ll leave you with 9 words that don’t mean what you think
My favorite quote from the articles is definitely
Should you care?
If your roommate says:
“The doctor called about your herpes test. He sounded nonplussed.”
Then, yeah, it’s pretty important that you know what he meant.
So I didn’t post any goals for this month because I pretty much just play when I can and try to get in as many hands as possible. It’s going well so far, I think up up about $2k or so. I’ve been playing on stars a lot recently because I’m trying to get supernova before the year’s over. I will have to play about 33k hands of 400NL if I did my math right in all, right now I’m at 10k hands so I’m right on pace.
Yesterday I played a very long session (about 3k hands long) and built up some real nice stacks. I had $2k and $1.6k on two of my tables by the end. I made some bad bluffs in some spots, but I also played some hands very well laying down AA twice postflop when I thought my opponent had a set of Ks or Qs. I ended the session up two buyins for the day. Here’s a hand I thought I played particularly well, going with my read and maximizing value.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1789874
I’ll leave you with the sweetest bear fight you will ever see in your life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7vvkloC-Ac
Let’s just say I’m glad November is out of the way and I’m looking forward to a big December. I’ll finally be graduating from college this month and I will be able to devote myself full time to poker. I’m really excited for January especially in which I am going to try to play a sick amount of hands to start ’08 rolling and because I will have virtually no other obligations. I’ve also got an idea for a poker business that has been tried by a few people before and failed – I may have a go at it myself in the coming months to try and supplement my poker income(or lack thereof).
I’ll leave you with an article on famous monkeys here
as well as a really sweet punt return by Johnny Gray from Northern Illinois
I know I haven’t posted in awhile and that’s because things have not been going well. I started downswinging a little bit and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and well… you can see the graph of november. Everytime I sit down to play now it is just sick – I’m not sure what’s wrong. I really hate complaining in poker blogs so I’m going to keep this entry brief. Suffice it to say that things are very SCAWWWWY right now tho.
Shiz like this all month long
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1750878
I’ll link anyone who links me for blogs. Just leave a comment with your blogname and address. Going to Wisconsin for the Michigan game so I’ll be back on Sunday to update – maybe even a trip report? Who knows. GL at the juicy tables this weekend, unfortunately I won’t be on them.
I’ll leave you with a link to Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Gregg Easterbrook is probably my favorite writer on espn and he always has great articles during the NFL season every Tuesday on Page 2. You should check him out if you’re an NFL junkie like me. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/071106&sportCat=nfl
andr3w321
A few things that have been on my mind lately
poker: going well so far. 600NL is very swingy, I’ve been down as much as $2k this month up as high as $5k, now I’m at about $4k. One thing I have noticed is that I REALLY have to adjust my play to the players around me at the table. Some players I will 3bet ATo all day long and others I will throw away AJo to their raise.
poker film: if you haven’t watched it yet you can at http://www.thepokerfilm.com/ To be honest I was a little disappointed in it. In part one and the intro there was a lot of poker talk and interviews but parts 2-5 were more about their party and drinking bet. Don’t get me wrong a $10k drinking bet is exciting, I just would have liked more interviews and drunken 200/400 🙂
poker opportunity cost: I looked up my hourly rate in ptracker since October first and it was $188/hr(Only over 26k hands or so). This was kinda sick and all I can think about during boring class where I’m not learning anything, group meetings that are wasting my time, or even people calling me to talk or whatever is “do you know how much my time is worth?” Obv I don’t actually say this(pretty much no one in real life knows how much $$ I gamble with) but it’s what I find myself thinking a lot. Check out law school dropout’s poker blog for a sweet entry on POC. Its pretty good. I spent a whole night reading his blog one time and found the whole thing very intriguing. If anyone knows what he’s up to nowadays I’d be really interested.
my future: I graduate in December and I really have no idea what I’m going to be doing. I interviewed with a trading firm about a week ago and still haven’t heard back. I’m interviewing with Allstate insurance Friday in Northbrook, IL. I don’t even know if I would take a full time position if I were given an offer. Some ppl say, well if you work you can still play poker on the side, but I don’t want to go through my whole life wondering “what if I devoted myself fulltime to poker what could I accomplish?” I’m seriously considering just being bum poker player for a year or so after I graduate and seeing what happens. If you are interested in renting out a place for a year or so and looking for roommates starting in January let me know I might be interested.
Now for some hands and funny vids.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1677241
Sweet bluff pickoff by me. His flop check behind is what gave him away here. I’m pretty confident on the turn he has a draw of some sort and the river he pretty much has to have Axd or 67 for me to be behind. After the hand I LOL’d at his comment
sweaterfee: pair of fives you got the hole card info
Sometimes I run into the nuts here, but I like the call overall.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1677249
Here’s a hand where I after the villain limpcalled PF I was pretty confident he had a small PP. I forget his exact preflop numbers but it gave it away and his timing on the flop call gave it away too. On the turn the bet is by no way standard but I pretty much manipulated him into getting his stack in there and I was pretty confident when I called that I was ahead.
If you don’t read http://www.digg.com you should. It has some really interesting stuff on there and I waste a good 45 mins a day there at least looking at things like pictures of the most loyal dog ever
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1774718
Here’s a video of the absolute best prank I have ever seen. It’s a little old, so you may have already seen it but man is it good. I can’t wait til prank 7 in the prank war, I really don’t see how this can be topped.
Obviously I’ve been on a bit of a heater as of late and its been nice. This is by far my best cash game month ever. I was really hoping to hit 10k on the month but it was halloween and I had partying to do. Here are some interesting hands.
In this hand the guy was 3 betting me nonstop and I decided to take a stand PF by 4 betting with my AQ. On the flop after putting in so much PF I thought I’d race against his 88 with my overs+backdoor FD, to my surprise I had the best hand and it held.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1650779
In this hand I had no intention of folding after I 3bet the flop initially, but the guy was like 23/2 and it was pretty clear to me at the time that he must have had pocket 3s(pocket 6s and 8s are unlikely since I hold a 6 and an 8). There’s just no way he is limping 36 or 38 preflop. Even if I’m up against 45d or something I’m still only a slight favorite. This is the kind of hand I used to just call off, but recently I’ve been able to get away from.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1650783
In this hand I obv put the guy on JT of hearts and knew the Q of hearts was coming on the turn. Good fold by me IMO.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1650787
Right now my bankroll is about 1 400NL buyin short of 20k. Obviously I’ve been running hot and it is unsustainable, but I think I am going to take a shot at 600NL in the next couple of days and see how it goes. Hope you have as good of luck as I have been having at the tables lately!
Look at how much money this blog is making me. You can officially call me a baller from now on. See those ads at the top? Plz click them k thx.
Not much poker updates cause I haven’t played much lately. Midterms this week has been killing me. Probably played about an hour of break even so far this week – down $600 and then recovered later in the day. Halloween is coming up. My costume? Puttin’ my dick in a box of course. Unless you have better suggestions that is.
Check out these giraffes fighting. Completely badass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7HCIGFdBt8
The effed up situation with the Texas House of Reps. Unbelievable. You have to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG6X-xtVask
Hopefully more poker this weekend. We shall see. Good luck in life/at the tables.
PS If anyone has any good ideas for what I should spend my $0.46 on do please let me know