Long Overdue Update

I have had a good year so far. I am up $1794. I made $800 with my old style. I changed my game up and made the $1100. First off I read both HOH cash game books. That really helped my game. Also I have gotten quite agro in late position. I downloaded the Poker Tracker 3 60 day trial. I will buy this for sure. I have also played a lot this month due to buying a laptop and being on a winning streak. Next month should be a profitable month also, due to Tilt having a mid-year Iron Man bonus. I will get a $250 bonus to work off next month.

Also I got rid of my EP and early MP limps with A-rag-suited and SC’s and gappers and sometimes KQ, which has helped my bottom line. This has helped greatly saving small amounts of money. I had a bad habit of limping in from any position and if it was raised to $1 or less I would call. As you know you don’t hit often enough to make this a +EV play. Plus, when you hit it is usually a draw, thus loses more money because I will chase the flop without odds due to OK implied odds and the small amount for the flop bet. I still only play the right odds for the river card. I fold KQ to a raise PF if the raiser is tight. Now I wait until LP position to either raise with these hands to make it less likely for a raise plus I with be in position on the flop. I don’t play too many gappers. I will cold-call PF raises with SC’s if there are a few callers.

My poker Tracker stats are awesome at the moment. I downloaded it 13 days ago and I have played every day so far. I am up $700. I am on a 13-day winning streak. 28 max buy-ins at the $25 NL tables. I have played close to 40 hours in that time. I have seen 16000 hands. My BB/100 is 8.74. I am averaging $18.48/hr and 53.90 a day. 2 buy-ins a day is very nice. I played a lot yesterday and made $175.

FT started having deep stack tables. At the $25 tables you can buy-in for $50. I always try to get on the deep tables to eliminate the short stack factor at the regular tables. I buy-in for $25 at the moment and with all the big stacks I usually have a chance to double-up if we get all-in. I will ride this streak out before I try to move up to the $50’s. The Hud stats are really helping me pull in some nice pots and fold some hands that I would normally play, not knowing how tight the raiser was due to playing so many tables. (8). I currently have $850 online and hope to not cashout any time soon.

Live I am up over $800 for the year. I have only been to a B&M casino once this year.

I am doing OK in the FT fantasy poker this year also. I have already qualified for 6 $2000 freerolls.

Update and a Free $15

I haven’t played that much this month. I will end up with Sliver IM status most likely. I am up over $600 so far this year. I’m not playing the best, but with bonuses and Rakebreak I have made this profit. I have cashed out $700 or $800 so far this year. My online roll is slightly less than $600.

Live, I have been doing well this year so far. We have played 8 times. I just lost my first session. That puts me at 7 wins and 1 loss. I am up or $300. I am happy about this.

I will go the casino for the first time on Tuesday. 4 of us from the Home Game are going to play in a $50 NL tourney. We also have a $10 prop bet going on for who lasts the longest. We plan on staying after and playing some cash NL $1/$2. I’ll keep you posted.

Also, I added an affiliate link on the side bar. I’ll hook anyone that signs under me with a free $15 on Full Tilt. If anyone is interested just e-mail me and we can set it up. Any questions shoot me an e-mail – subject affiliate.

2007 earnings* and 2008 supposition**

DISCLAIMER: What you are about to read in regard to one’s yearly earnings is only gratuitous nonsensical fiction only stated to make one seem validated and vindicated in one’s time spent playing poker. No real money was earned. All amounts of play money are approximations and likely stated well above one’s actual earnings of play money. All play money is worthless as US legal tender and thus holds no real monetary value.

I had a bumpy year. And here is the run-down. I started the 2007 with $500 in my online accounts. Throughout the year I cashed out $1578.94 in earnings. At year’s end I had an $836.72 online bankroll. So that sums-up to $1915.66 for 2007. That is over $3000 less than 2006.

My goal at the start of 2007 was to double the previous year’s total net. So 10000.00 was the goal. I only achieved 1/5th of that goal. I’m not real happy with that result, but after where I was at earlier in the year, I am happy about the comeback. Early in the year I was down $300 thereabouts. A $2200 comeback in the second half of the year is acceptable to me. So my goal this year is to double 2007’s total. So I want to make $4000 this year.

I got away from my winning game at some point early on. I took a few months off to cool down. TILT was palpable in my psyche. I went from UB and moved my roll over to Tilt. There I worked my way up and back down the ranks many times. Not to losing always, but to cashouts and also to downswings soon after sometimes. I also found that I wasn’t and still ain’t crushing the levels that I used to. I have maintained Iron man status for 7 months straight and am still going. (Not top tear every month.)

I also did my share of Live action over 2007. Most were local home games with my friends from work. I also played a few times with the Family in low buyin tourneys. And I only played at the casino once all year. I made a grand total of $1094 at live action play last year. That is a $327 increase from the previous year’s total. I’m happy here. My 2008 goal is $1500.

Breakdown:
Casino – 2007 - earned $22 – 1 win.
Casino – 2006 - lost $139 – 3 wins/2 losses.
That is a $161 swing.

Local home games – 2007 - earned $1064 – 45 wins/10 losses.
Local home games – 2006 - earned $821.00 – 18 wins/3 losses.
Increase of $243.
That is 34 more games.
My average went from +$39 a game in 2006 to +$19 a game in 2007???
I don’t really have an explanation for this. I will think on it.


Fam Games – 2007 – lost $40 – 1 win/5 losses.
Fam Games – 2006 - earned $85 – 4 wins/0 losses.
This is a $125 swing???
I can’t really explain this either.

There is a couple other live games that don’t fall under these 3 categories that I did play in also. I won most of those that brought my year total up.

My game has transitioned big time during 2007. My TAG, TAG-weak style has evolved into a TAG-weak, yet quite a late position AGRO style. LOL. I would love to get rid of the weak part for sure. That is something that I plan on focusing on in 2008. Also along these same lines, have just noticed by watching my hand stats, that I am especially weak on the river. I am missing out on a lot of wins on this street by not value betting and inducing more profits or wins without going to showdown. I have a bad habit of seeing monsters and check/calling in these situations. I am irrationally near always afraid of the dreaded check-raise if I don’t have at least the near-nuts. I have a lot of leaks that I need to find and work on one by one.

*Earnings: Figurative monetary units.
**Supposition: Estimate of future earnings*.

2007 Review Yet To Come

How romantic and full of shit I was. I honestly did just learn those things in 2006. Forums like this one did help me greatly. I just have to keep telling myself to keep an open mind to different strategies. I honestly think my game has digressed somewhat in certain areas. I will update with my 2007 year end results. It ain’t pretty. I lost myself somewhere.

2006 earnings* and 2007 Supposition**

DISCLAIMER: What you are about to read in regard to one’s yearly earnings is only gratuitous nonsensical fiction only stated to make one seem validated and vindicated in one’s time spent playing poker. No real money was earned. All amounts of play money are approximations and likely stated well above one’s actual earnings of play money. All play money is worthless as US legal tender and thus holds no real monetary value.

I had a great year. And here is the run-down. I started the year with $180 in my online accounts. Throughout the year I cashed out $4740 in earnings. At year’s end I have a $507 online bankroll. So that sums-up to $5067 for 2006. That is a far cry for what I started the year with. I am truly satisfied with my online cash game.

I also did a little Live action over 2006. Most were local home games with my friends from work. I also played a few times with the Family in low buyin tourneys. And I put a little time in at the casino. I made a grand total of $767 at live action play last year.

Breakdown:
Casino – lost $139.00 – 3 wins/2 losses.
Local home games – earned $821.00 – 18 wins/3 losses.
Fam Games – earned $85 – 4 wins/0 losses.

My monetary goal for this year is to double last year’s earnings. Online will be tough, but it is attainable. I started last year at the $10 tables and was hyper-conservative and anal about moving up stakes. Often I had more than 35 max buyins before I made the move because I wanted to crush the level before moving up stakes. I waited until I could consistently make money and know that level’s plays and moves. I don’t need to learn how to beat these stakes again because I already can. Plus I am starting the year at $500 and am playing the $50NL tables. I am willing to take greater risks this year, but I will move down if a downswing comes by. So $10,000. Man that’s a lot of money. Only $9,500 to go. Hopefully the government and sites leave us US players alone long enough for me to beat this goal.

*Earnings: Figurative monetary units.
**Supposition: Estimate of future earnings*.

The Creeper

I have been slowly creeping my way up this week. I couldn’t play much because I was working. I played around an hr to 1 ½ hrs a night, just enough to get my 200 points. Out of the last 5 sessions I have profited 4 times. Once was for $45 and the others were in the teens and 20’s. But I am getting my confidence back and that is always good. I didn’t play well overall, thus bringing in small wins.

I have a friend at work that I have been talking poker with and he has started playing online. He is very green (he had only played twice live a home games,) but it is nice to have someone competent to talk poker and online poker hands with. He is a smart kid and wants to learn and has the drive and intelligence to become a good player once he gets some hands under his belt. Plus, it is cool to help him on his way. He is playing every day like I do, so we talk hands and scenarios daily.

Last night was a roller coaster ride of bad play and coolers. I jotted some big hands down so I could remember them for discussion with him and to show how a few bad plays can effect your night’s profits and bankroll growth overall. I wrote them down, so I mind as well post them here so you can relive my crappy plays and lucky coolers, which turned me a meager profit for the night.

1st hand – I limp in from the Small or Big with K6ss. Flop comes T87 with 2 spades. I don’t remember how many limped but it ended with just 2 of us after our action. I bet-out and the guy raises real big. I push with my pair and 2nd-nut FD. He only had $50 to start the hand and asked for time before he finally called his last $27 with ATo. I whiff and lose $50 soon after sitting down. I normally wouldn’t play the hand that aggressively, but I figured if I did call I would be pot committed anyways with my FD on the turn. It was fold or push IMO, so I decided to do it while I had some fold equity. I probably played it badly by calling or pushing. But I ended up having the better odds of winning the hand with 2 cards to come. But obviously I had to hit a K or spade. I honestly didn’t know this at the time. I’m not saying that is why I did it; I’m just trying to figure it all out now. Weird thing is I actually had better odds if he would have flopped the nuts. Down $50 or so at this time.

2nd hand – A guy had raised PF 3 times in a row. This time he does it UTG. I am the BB. I call the other $2 with K6s. Flop – 987 rainbow. I check; he bets; and I raise. He pushes. I call. He had around $50 or so at the start of the hand. He has pocket Q’s and takes it down. I know that this was horrible on my part. I have been getting stupid like this since the tilt session. It’s like I have some residual after tilt virus invading my play. This is a play that I can honestly say that I never do. OK, almost never. Not only did he show strength PF, he showed uber flop power also. To top this off I was drawing to the dumb-end of a straight. Pathetic. Plus, there was no fold equity whatsoever to make this play; I called his all-in. I’m embarrassed to even show this tripe. These are the kinds of plays that donks pay ME off with. Another $50 dropped. Down $100.

I call a PF raise and a call with 44. Two 4’s hit the flop. I am in position. Aggressor bets $8 and other dude folds. I just call obviously. No legitimate need to worry about him drawing out. Turn X. He bets $20 for me and I smooth-call again. River X. He bets out $30. I only have $64 so I push. He calls. Hand ends and he mucks face down. I’m guessing that at some point in the hand he made a boat. Aces or Kings would have to slow down to my calls at some point in the hand with a pair on the board. I wish I had more at the table because he had $200 in his stack. Well, I can’t play that hand wrong so I can’t sit here and say how I out played this dork. The hand played itself. Position was great in that hand. No guessing. Oh yea, this was one of the coolers I was talking about. Poor bastard. Usually when you hit quads or a boat on the flop you have the board crushed and don’t get much action. I was lucky here. +$100 or so and I’m back to even.

4th hand – Raise from EP and I call from the BB with J-small-suited. Flop delivers 2 beautiful Jacks. I check and he bets and I call again. Turn X. I check-raise him this time, putting in a goodly sized raise. He folds and I scoop a $60 pot. I’m up $30 or so at this point.

I then play a lot of small pots and steal tons of blinds. I get up around $75.

5th hand – Raise from EP again and I call with 99. Flop - Q9x. Check/check. He bets the turn; I raise; he RR’s; and I push. He calls and shows QQ. My 1-outer doesn’t come and I lose a $200 pot. Kick-ass, I’m down $25 again.

6th hand - I get off the computer to sneak a smoke. As the tables are timing out because I didn’t hit the sit-out buttons because I was aggravated with me play. (I know, you hate players that hold up the game.) I am walking back by from the kitchen and see an Ace on the popped-up screen. I also notice that there are like 6 Lemurs limpers. I see that I have A9dd. I call just as it is about to time-out. Flop comes 3 diamonds and I am last to act. Everyone checks to me and I decide to give a free card and hope that someone gets a piece of the turn and also pray that the board doesn’t pair. Turn is a blank. Checks to me again. I bet $3 this time. (Around ½ pot, wanting to look like a position steal.) Folds around and a guy min-raises me to $6. Anyways, we reraise back and forth until both stack arrive in the middle. He shows the best hand possible. (For me obviously.) I didn’t have to worry about a suck-out because he was drawing dead with Kxdd. Hmm…up $75 again.

I mess around for a little while longer and end my session only up $26. It really just goes to show how a few bad or iffy plays can turn good day’s profits into mere change. I am going to get my points tonight and try to play with smart aggression and not just blow all my profits throughout the session.

As an aside: Full Tilt is being very magnanimous this month and is matching your year’s whole accrued Iron Man Points at the end of this month. (Just regular accrual though, not bonus points or anything like that.) So starting January I will have 1496 IMP. I always buy $100 bonuses. They cost 600 IMP’s apiece. But for 300 in one shot you can save 200 and get them for 1600. I really want to buy them as soon as Jan gets here, but I don’t want to just buy $200 and miss out on a 200 savings. Well, last month they started giving bonus IM Points that compound every 500FTP’s that you accumulate daily. Ex: 500 = 2 IMP’s - 1000/5 - 1500/10 - 2000/20 - etc. Today is the 14th so I have half the month left to get 104 points. I will need to put in a few long sessions to accomplish this, but hopefully I can. Damn I love free money for my bankroll to eat. I should have close to $300 currently coming from rake back also.

Wish me luck. Later, Ash out…

Quick Update and a Casino Trip

Ok, I revised the post. God was it horrid. I was writing at work and got busy, so I just hurried up and posted. I’m sorry for anyone that read it.

I played at the casino for the first time in over a year. After the Christmas party I got put on the waiting list. There was only one table going at that time. It was $1/$2. I was told that 5 dudes were on the list ahead of me, but they had called in ahead of time so I was essentially next up. After 20 mins of throwing quarters in hungry unproductive slots I checked back. He said that I was now 6th on the list again because they were in. I was chatting with the pitboss when someone left the table. He said fuck-it go ahead and jump in there.

I sat down in the 5th seat with a full table of regulars that I had seen before in my multiple visits to a different casino last year. Luckily a guy left and a huge chip-spewing fish took his seat in the 2 spot. I started mixing it up with him right off the bat. I won a few smallish pots from him. I then hook horns again with him. I reaise him with AA. He pushes and I call, making it a $120 pot. He shows AKo. He hits a flush on the turn. I reload $60, putting me back at the max buy-in of $100.

I get in with him again soon after and push for $35 more on the river, because he checks after being the aggressor on every prior street. It was a river bluff with AQs. He folded and I showed.

I later called $10 more from the BB with 43s to isolate against him again. I hit an open-ender and called a flop bet without the odds but hoping to hit. Turn brings me a pr of 3’s to add to my SD. I call another bet. River is a beautiful 3. He bets me on the river and I shove like the time before trying to portray the bluff again. He throws away his hand and says that he was trying to buy it with overs.

I also got lucky once. A guy to my left was short-stacked after losing a few hands. He pushes for $25 from UTG. Folds back to me in the BB. I have KJs. I decide to call. He shows AQo. I hit trip-jacks.

I also lost some nice bets when I got reraised preflop and had to laydown. I also had to drop a few hands when the turn got ugly. I only got to play 2 hrs because we rode with the in-laws and they along with my wife were ready to jet. I ended the session up $22. Ghey, but at least I didn’t lose. I wish I would have driven a separate car because my table got real juicy just before I had to go. 2 drunk guys sat down and it was obvious to most at the table that they were dead money.

Quickie

I’m still doing well. I am pretty manic at the moment again with poker. I am reading non-stop. I got a bootlegged copy of Super System because it seems to be at the top of everyone’s list: the Poker Bible if you will. I also bought 2 Poker books with my Tilt points that I will start reading as soon as they arrive. I’m posting on forums, although most people don’t seem to agree with my theorems. Sadly most HH posts are 6-max these days.

Full Tilt has a kickass promotion going for December. They are matching your Iron Man points accumulated for the year as a bonus if you achieve any IM tier in December. That is cool of them. That means that by January or February I will be able to buy 2 $100 bonuses. That is always something nice for the BR.

BR still climbing. Currently at $1200. I will need to have one hell of a December to catch last year’s earnings. I doubt I will, but at least I have something to strive for. I don’t plan to cashout much so my roll should keep compounding exponentially as I move up stakes. I have currently made $1900 YTD. That’s $2600 below last year’s mark. Come on Lady Luck. $1900 is great considering that 6 months or so ago I was down $300 for the year.

My game has really been evolving in the last month or so. I tightened up my starting hands a bit, but I have become uber aggressive from the Highjack on with any 2. This is getting a ton of action for my normal starting hand range. I’m currently taking down nearly as many pots on the flop as I do PF to my CB’s. I am winning a ton of small pots now. Another big change in my game is that I am usually only playing big pots with big hands. TPTK all-in on the flop is basically nonexistent any more. I know I am folding the best hand often, but folding to hyper flop aggression with 1 pr isn’t too weak IMO. Why risk it with so little invested on the flop. Big hands for big pots is my new maxim. Since I am now winning a ton of smallish pots with my aggression why risk losing profits on an iffy endeavor. Also when I get called with my steal attempts and I flop TP or 2 pr I often get paid off nicely with moderate holdings because they don’t give me credit for a hand because I’m bulling their blinds so often. Lets see how these days off go.

Plus I have a home game tonight. Hopefully I can keep my streak alive. I had 15 straight wins in the home games going. I then lost $17 one game and now have a 4 game streak going again. Plus, I now have been given the invite to a local Corrections Officers’ game. It kinda sucks though because they usually only play $10 buy-ins tourneys, plus they start at 10:30 at night after they all get off of work. I’ve only gone once as of yet because of my work schedule, but I did OK that night. I bubbled the first one due to a horrid suckout, but it happens. The second one another guy and I chopped 1st and 2nd $ because it was 3:30 am.

Rambling On

Rollin'

I’ve been rockin’ the last few days on Tilt.

After getting off work on the 19th I played for like 2 ½ hrs on the $25NL tables to get my points. I all-in 3 times PF with Rockets. First 2 times were for the whole buy-ins. Both times AA vs KK and they held up for some odd reason. The last time was a 3-way all-in extravaganza. AA vs AK and 99, but both had push-monkey money and I netted a full buy-in between both their stacks. I only lost a few mid-sized pots that morning. I played one bad and just kept calling his bets with bottom 2-pr. I know that you should always play them hard but I was trying to keep him in and be Mr. Tricky. River paired the board low and he spiked Kings-up to counterfeit me. My aggressive position blind steals, whether PF or to my CB, kept me up on most tables. I ended the session + $90 and change to put me at $708.

20th I gave $50 another go. I had a horrible session of bad beats and total donkary. I also made a few bad calls I guess. Also the set-up set over set in a 3-way on the flop and lost a buy-in in that shitty hand. I got smacked by the worst played hand that I’ve witnessed in a long time. I don’t know how this tard can have the money to sit at these stakes. He tries to limp from late early position. I bump it up to $2 from around the button with big slick and he calls. Flop comes a nice KJ2 rainbow. He checks, I make it $5 to go, and he calls. Turn 7. Same betting and calling on the turn, where I make it $15 and he completes. My Spidey Senses are tingling thinking maybe a slow-rolled set or something. I plan to check call the river at this point. River Q. This time he leads out for $10 into the $45 pot. Ghey steal attempt or value bet. I call and he shows-down AT for a total floating, cold-calling, gut-busting, Broadway piece of ugly no-playing crap fest of a hand. The chat box goes wild and I didn’t type shit. I X-ed off the table. A few suckouts later and I was down close to $100 and about to leave and start the next day back at the quarter tables. I was playing solid I swear and did win a few mid-sized hands or I really would have been down. I start un-checking the auto post buttons on my 8 tabs while I was playing stupid tilty hands. I call a raise with 54 spades because I was tilting and getting off anyways. Late position player reraises and the OR calls, so I say F-it and call also. Flop comes 9c7s2s. Checkity-check, and then a nice bet. We both call. Turn brings the 6s. Now first guy leads out and I raise. Flop aggressor pushes as does the EP guy. I go all-in also afraid but not real worried because what could they really have that could beat me at this point with a PR raise and a reraise and call. OR PF shows KK with no spades. PF reraiser shows a donkalicious TT with one spade. And just as my day’s fucking luck would have it a 4th spade hits the river to give this dude a ten-high flush and I get totally fuckin’ pissed inside at my plight, but can’t move and just stare at the screen in exasperated awe. And then something odd happens and I watch the chips slide my way and my $50 turn into $150. Only then do I look back at the board and see that the last spade was a 3 of spades giving me the straight flush and sticking it right to the dumb no-playing asses. So I log-off only down $5 for the session.

21st I got back on the $50 tables and was in a zone from the start. The basketball hoop looked like a swimming pool. I did make a few ify calls, but all in all I was spot-on with my reads. I was getting some nice hands also. A few mid-sized suckouts against me, but not too many. It was weird I was keeping my ok hands in small pots and playing big pots with my big hands. I was very aggressive also. Only once did I not follow through with a read and didn’t open-bluff the aggressor on the river with my call-stationed bust flush draw. He checked and showed down an aggressively played pair of ducks that took down a nice pot. I won $140ish. I only played for slightly over an hr. I didn’t want to get off while on a rush but I needed some sleep.

That put my roll at $840. I withdrew $100 for some hunting money so I could get Ash-boy out to hopefully get his first deer.

Hopefully Lady variance leaves me be these days off.

Later, Ash out…

Last 2 Sessions Were Nice or Back To The Top

OK, here we go again. I hope saying something positive doesn’t bring out the variance swing demons. My last 2 sessions have been nice. The 1st one was at $25NL and I took down 3 buy-ins. That equates to 12 Greb buy-ins. LOL. The last session I started with a roll of just under $650 so I decided to give the $50’s a shot. I knocked down over $80 as you can see in the screenshot. I made a few big laydowns in the 1st one and sucked-out when my PF Kings cracked my amazingly un-whiny opponent. That always helps. 2nd one I had 2 big hands and also had to lay down a few monsters when the board stuck it to me and they pushed on me.

Hand one I raise PF with AK and get 1 caller. Flop comes Kxxsmall. I bet and he smooth-calls. Turn comes an un-connecting mid-range card. He takes the lead and bets out and I pop him back. He then pushes. At this point it cost me around $30 into a pot $60 or so. I think about for a while and hit the time button. I end up calling and he showsdown KQ. No 3-outer and I drag a nice pot. What do you think of this call? I only had TPTK here. What do you put him on? Set maybe? I don’t know how I feel about this call. I have been dropping some of these kinds of hands lately in my winning sessions and waiting for my sets, straights, and flushes for big pots.

Next big hand was a no-brainer. I reaise PF with my AA and get fired right back at. I push and he calls and shows KK. Karma doesn’t intervene and I take this double-up.

I played for a total of 2 hrs in these 2 sessions. That’s around $80 an hr. God wouldn’t be great to be able to do that consistently. Yea, I know better. I have the next 4 days off and plan to put in around 2 hrs a day. Wish me luck at the $50’s.

My Roll is Slowly Growing But Swings Suck

As of 11/9 I my roll is $560. I got my Rakebreak and lost a few bad hands. I had $680 when my rake came in. I stepped up to the $50’s and took some horrible loses. 3 quick hands where I lost: 1 – Nut flush on turn with me the aggressor the whole hand. Board pairs the river and he pushes. I only have $10 left and getting 9to1. I obviously call and he shows-down a river boat. 2 – I have trips and the board 4-flushes and I have to lay it down with like $30 invested. And 3 – I have an AK for TPTK and the board pairs one non-ace card, I bet and get called. River then commences to pair the other non-ace flop card. He pushes and I have to drop. With some other bad plays and beats I go down $150 for the session. I drop back to $25NL and recoup some. I am still playing $25NL. OK, I’m done whining now. I’m going to get $650 again before I try again. I am still having some problems dropping on the flop with premium pocket pairs to massive aggression. A single pair is often in bad shape in these situations, but it is so hard to drop Rockets on a low board, because sometimes they show smaller premium pockets and are willing to rock and roll with an overpair. I will continue to work on this and watch my stats closely.

Where I'm At

It has been a good week. I have had 6 straight winning sessions. Halloween in 2 sessions I made over $200. That’s 8 buy-ins at the stakes that I have been playing. My roll is up over $550 now. I also have $100 coming from Rakebreak any day now. When I’m up over $600 I will give the $50’s a try again, but will drop back down if I hit $500.

I also changed up my game again and haven’t had a bad session yet. (Tightened up my starting requirements. I know I will lose eventually, but I think this change is for the best at these stakes. I got rid of my low/mid-end chasing hands. I dropped my suited-connectors 98 and lower and my Ax-suited A9 and below. This is keeping me from chasing so many straights and flushes and halting any urges for post-flop kicker fights. I am still rocking my position raises PF though; they are reaping nice dividends and giving me action when I have nice starting hands from my steal positions. You’d be amazed at the hands they will call you down with once they get tired of your steals. (2nd/3rd pair on the board.) I also have begun to lay down my PF monsters to uber aggression on the flop while I still have very little involved in the hand. (Most of the time anyway.) I was finding that I was often up against made hands in these situations. I know I am likely laying down the best half the time, but why chance it. I am playing 8 tables at a time and usually hit a set on the flop multiple times an hour. I am pretty confident that I have the best and when I call a goodly PF raise with my pairs and hit, they often will put it all-in on the flop. It seems to be working. I can dodge bullets baby! Lets see how it goes the rest of this week and I will have a better idea.

Five Sessions in a Row

Doh - Check Out The Red Highlight - Back to the $25NL Tables Again - Damn

Full Tilt owes me some damn bad beats. For that matter, I’ll just be happy with some good beats. 10/17/07 really hurt. I lost 5 buy-ins that day. 4 were beats and 1 was a bad call on my part. I played even poker other than those big hands. All 3 times I hit trips and someone wanted to play I got smacked. I did suckout once and the dude had the nerve to whine after I had seen so many that day. I just let him bitch.

Quick rundown:

Beat 1: AA vs QQ. I raise and he reraises. I pop him back all-in and he calls. Q on the turn. Nice 2-outer.

Beat 2: Trips goes down to river flush after money goes in on turn.

Beat 3: Trips on A-high board with 2 clubs. He holds A6c. We get all-in on flop. He flushes me. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have made this same play on his part with TPSK and 2 cards to come to a nut flush.

Beat 4: TPTK on turn all-in. Dudes middle calls. Hits second pair on river.

Bad call 1: 2 callers of my raise PF with my AA. Flop rainbow T87. BB Checks to me. I bet pot. LP folds. BB raises all-in for 4xpot. I call he showsdown 96s for a suited-3-gapper. Here I knew I should have folded but his overbet seemed fishy. CR usually means a set or straight here. It was a bad play on my part but I was steaming.

Suckout 1: KK vs AA PF all-in. K on turn.

Come on $25 tables be good to Ash. $325 BR now. It will turn around.

Quick Update of My Week

The last week hasn’t been too kind. I only played 4 days this week due to a business trip. Man I hate long rides. The guy that we were following took a wrong turn and turned an already long 9 hr drive there into an excruciating 12.5 hr ride. Back to poker. I dropped back down the $25NL tables for a few days, but now I’m back at the $50 tabs. I started the week with a FT Br of $335 after a proverbial ass-whooping at the end of the previous week where I sat at over $450. I dipped as low as $280 a few times during a few sessions last week. I had a ton of bad beats although I couldn’t fault some of their calls and pushes due to outs or them thinking that their sets were good at the time of the all-ins. I also had a lot of non-beat second best hands that anyone would put all their chips at risk with. 2 SOS, KK vs AA, flopped boats over boat, where I held JJ and they held AJo on a AAJ flop. Luckily I was playing at the $25 tabs during this time and my other winning hands kept me close to even. With my move back up in stakes yesterday and raking-in a $75 win, I actually made $40 for the week. Add in my $175 Rakebreak deposit and I currently sit at $550 again. During this last week I have only given one badbeat of my own in one hand. I think I deserve more. My PF raised QQ went all-in on an innocuous T-high flop. The other dude hit 2-pr on the flop when he called my PFR with 54o. I hit my bitch on the river. Good that felt good. I did figure I was behind when I called his CR, but just said screw-it and hit the call button. So here’s to hoping. Come on roll grow again.

Could someone check my spreadsheet and tell me if it is read only when you view it? It would really suck if someone could muck with it. TY.

My New Spreadsheet

A new feature that will be on my sidebar is a Bankroll spreadsheet. I robbed got the idea from Katitude while reading her blog yesterday.(Can you tell that I learned how to strike through. LOL.) She is doing a Chris Ferguson Challenge, with the exception that she isn’t doing the freeroll thing Jesus did to start out; she is starting with $100 on Tilt. You can read about the C.F. Challenge and her specific rules here. I basically copied her spreadsheet and did a lot of cutting and pasting along with adding additional categories and formulas. I have PT but I like this medium because all the info is right on one page. This spreadsheet will chronicle my online bankroll and live winnings. It will be updated daily or at least when I play. (Which is probably 25 or more days a month.) Since I don’t blog every day and if you’re jonesing to know how I’m doing, you can just click the link on the sidebar and see my day-to-day progress. It has different sections for Cash Games, SnG’s, and MTT’s. Also it has formulated online withdraw and Rakebreak deposit sections that will keep my BR accurate and up-to-date. I also have on the sheet two sections that display my FT points and monthly FT rake accumulation. And lastly I have an area for notes for online and live comments for that particular day. Steal it if you want and do some cutting and pasting of your own. It is online at Google Docs and I think you need a Google account to view it; but most bloggers and lurkers already have an account. Enjoy it, I know I will.

Upate, a Big Hand, and a Few Questions That I'd Like Your Opinion On

Well guys it hasn’t been a good week. I started with a Grand. I then cashed out $350 leaving my roll at $700 including $38 on stars. I lost a little under $300 due to bad plays and some of the most horrendous beats imaginable. 4to1 fav doesn’t mean shit these days apparently. I won’t go into them because I really don’t have the stomach to iterate them. I did make $60 last night though and with my Stars money thrown in I have recouped $100. So my FT account currently sits at $470. Man I really needed that win last night. I was feeling discouraged and felt like the RNG at Tilt was fucking with my resolve to the point that I didn’t even want to log-in. I started with $410 last night and really had a hard decision to make. Did I want to step down a level and play the uberdonks at $25NL or stick it out with the regular donks at $50NL. In the end I decided to stake at the $50 tables and if I hit $300 I would definitely drop stakes, but luckily I actually won a session. If I would stop with the withdraws I would even have to worry about this crap, but with the wife still off of work and Comp being dicks, sometimes I need to. But honestly being able to supplement my income with poker is pretty cool. As of yet I have added to our coffers a $1000 from online poker and $800 from my live local home games. I haven’t given the casino a try yet, but damn am I itching to.

Biggest hand of the week: I get 2 guys to put me all-in PF with my Bullets in the hole. I limp UTG and EP raises and then gets reraised by MP. I then elect to re-reraise to see where I’m at pad the pot. EP pushes the rest of his $50 and then MP also pushes, although he only had $30 at the beginning of the hand. I obviously call. EP shows AKo. MP shows JJ. I am totally stunned here. I don’t really know how these guys play because I have so many tables rocking at the same time. Are they normally donkeys or what? I will say that I had a pretty aggressive image at the time, at least from the cutoff on. Every time it was folded around to me I would bet the pot. In the Small or Big I would pot-bet if the Button and/or SB limped. No one improved and I took down a $130 pot, thus netting $80. That is one hell of a pot at the $.25/$.50 tables. I don’t know if my image had anything to do with their shit bad play in the hand. Me personally, I would be thinking I was dominated here with AKo or at least merely a coin-flip. But EP might have actually been pulling a squeeze play, thinking MP would drop all but AA or KK, and that I was full of crap (because of my image) and would also bail, leaving him a nice pot without ever having to see a flop. In my personal experience if UTG limps and then rearaises a PF raise he is almost certainly holding Aces. Maybe I’m weak, but I fold my AKo here every time. (1) How about you? MP is just plain stupid IMO. He obviously had to realize he was way behind with all that action, plus he only had his original $5 reraise invested here. I would drop for sure. (2) What would you do here you were him? If, and I mean If I also push, he will be getting slightly more than 4to1 here. (He would have to invest $25 to make $105.) And almost definitely he has to think he is a 4to1 dawg here. (3) Does the implied odds of me calling give you enough incentive to call here? Anyways, I think they played the hand poorly, but hey, that’s how we win our money. AK kills so many suckers.