Is this the job I went to 7 years of school for?

- It's been awhile.

2010-08-09T19:26:00.001-07:00

Sorry, things got kinda busy. I'll try to update in installments since the last month or so has been exciting and hectic.

- moved into a new place
- started practicing again
- recorded/produced album in Brooklyn
- gigged in NYC
- went home
- threw a sweet bbq

Ok, I'll be back.

- What a dumb game.

2010-06-18T17:18:00.001-07:00

It's good news, don't worry. I'll stop whining and being a prissy little girl now. Things turned around starting about 3 days ago and have gone well. It's not so much that the beats ended, it's the placement of the beats. I virtually stopped losing all 80/20s once we were down to 4 or less players. Nearly all 70/30s on the bubble and heads-up held up while standard races (66 vs. AQ, etc.) started falling more in my favor. I'm not back to the profit total I was at 5 weeks ago, but at least it's nice to know it's done.

It's also reassuring to know it will happen again. Without a doubt, actually. About a week ago during the swing, I made a comment to a reg while heads-up that I thought I'd just gotten lucky over my first 14000 games and now this was everything readjusting because I was actually not a good player at all. Turns out he has been experiencing a downswing that would make any professional cringe. Now, I'm sure he has flaws and some leaks in his general game (like most people do), but he's certainly not a losing or bad player.

While talking to him a few days ago he showed me some ROI simulations and a ton of graphs that many regs have compiled into a database. It came down to the fact that if you average between 4-5% ROI you are going to experience some MASSIVE downswings. Long-term comparisons of most of the regs indicate that 4-6% is attainable, but if you hold at 6% you're one of the rare fortunate ones (excluding rakeback, obviously). He showed me that it is absolutely possible to run just awful for extended streaks and why (I'll spare the details as I only really grasped about 4 of them). This would explain why there seem to be many temporary regulars in super-turbos. Guys come in, hit the up-side of variance and win. However, the first big downswing hits and they're done. Either they bust out because proper bankroll management isn't followed or they can't handle the game itself. He pointed out that if it wasn't for his "adjusted EV" graph showing him at about 4-5% over 14k games he would've quit looong ago. The guy's not down, but the swift kick of negative variance has hung around for way longer than expected. Over just about 5k games I certainly felt that pain and frustration, but luckily I managed to put a decent amount of volume in to combat it. Yeah, it waned in the last 2 weeks, but a little over a month long downswing isn't awful when coupled with 5k games. Last May I had a terrible month, too, but only played about 1500 games (granted they were different games and limits, but you see the point).

Result of all this frustration - play more games. Math, reasoning, and keeping your head on straight are crucial, but without the volume, none of it will matter. It's coming around at a pretty good time, too. I have a few trips coming up over the next two months and I'm kind of nervous about the playing time dropoff.

My security token finally came in yesterday! Yardle got his about a week ago, but ordered it after me. So, I sent a message to support and they said they'd send it immediately. Maybe the key to improving full tilt's support is to tell them that you requested something a month ago because it came about 5 days after I e-mailed. I know it'd probably be difficult for someone to hack into my account since I'm playing on a mac, but it's a good confidence boost to know my money's protected even better now. I mean, if someone actually did get into that account my life would be in some trouble.

Alright, I'm going to go to work. Yay for the long-term grind.

- Stop it, emo kid.

2010-06-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

I watched several videos on Cardrunners site recently - all on the topic of "brain fail." Essentially, the instructor covered a bunch of concepts about how the human mind reacts to various situations/stress. It's incredibly well put together and was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, a few videos don't translate into jack squat financially. Maybe long-term, but in the short term I'm still getting my face punch-a-sized.

Honestly, it's beginning to really feel like I'm lying to myself. Like I was just lucky before and the results I'm seeing now are the way it should've been all along. I'm constantly checking and re-checking my bust hands to see if I actually did the correct shove/call AND to see if I didn't completely misread the cards and shove something ridiculous (nope, still shoved JJ and lost to 44...again). I know this is just variance. I know it will turn around. I also know that, just like the last 3 weeks, I again lost 11 of my 28 80/20s. I shouldn't have looked b/c I just get more frustrated seeing those results.

The worst of it, though, is that it's definitely having an effect on my mood. When this started, for probably the first 2 to 3 weeks I could shake it off and no one could really tell how the day had gone. Now I find myself not wanting to do anything except sulk or study more hands and late-game scenarios (ok, that's not entirely true...it just takes a lot longer than it should to get my head right again). My sessions are getting shorter b/c I can't seem to take the frustration. My last session tonight lasted 15 minutes (pathetic city) only because I couldn't handle losing KK to AK on two bubbles and QQ to AQ on the last - with the shorty having no more than 150 chips on any of the 3.

Anyway, I'm going to Orange County for the weekend. Yay. Then I'll come back and play again. Maybe Emo kid will go be emo somewhere else by then.

- May's over. Yay.

2010-06-03T13:10:00.001-07:00

Even though the last 3 and a half weeks of May sucked completely, I still profited plenty and actually improved a great deal. It won't show on the stat sheet, but at some point the math will even out (maybe this month will be a 4k game upswing...). I really hope it does soon, because I'm leaving near the end of the month for a wedding in Missouri and then getting back just in time to move to a new house! Sweeeeeet! Hello trombone. The excitement is palpable.

I'm still pretty disappointed that the swing affected me as much as it did. I mean, I've gone on some ridiculous swings before, but nothing that lasted 5k games and nearly a month (without playing losing poker for some of it). The real frustrating part is that I took a two day break right at the end of the month to get my head straight. While I definitely liked the time off, I missed two bonus cutoffs by the thinnest of margins. My rakeback provider runs a monthly "rake chase" with the top 25 spots getting a cash bonus for how far on the leaderboard you finish. I finished fourth which is good for $425 bonus. Normally, I'd be happy, but I missed 2nd place by less than $100 in rake paid. That means if I'd played 50 more $50 games in the month I would have gotten an $850 bonus. Sure, I could've lost over that last 50 games, but a $400+ jump would've been nice even if I hadn't won much over that last 50. The other bonus came from full tilt's leaderboard system. By placing on the high limit board, you get a % multiplied by your finishing place's average buy-in. So, I played more $50 games this month than anything which means I would get my finish spot times $50 as a bonus. I missed 5th by less than 1k points (don't know how little that is, but probably could've taken as little as 30 games) and finished in 8th instead.

The goal for this month is just to relax and not worry about when this will turn around. I'm super-rolled to play these and have enough in my bank account to cover the move/bills/rent/food/burritos/pizza parties/monkey bars. Oh, I just got my new matrox dualhead2go system set up so my monitors work perfectly with my laptop now! I know that might not seem like a big deal, but I'm excited.

- The breaking point

2010-05-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what qualifies as the point where I kind of flip out after weeks of run bad. My table selection is light years beyond what it was 3 weeks ago, end game shove ranges have improved dramatically (sure, still shoving wide, but doesn't have to be any two 100% - especially at the bubbles with low blinds), and I can snag sharkscope notes on a player faster than I've ever done before. Yet, still I lose. Well, more like break even again and again and again. It's been just about 4000 games and I'm even if rakeback is included.

Quick rundown:
- 1st 1k games just ran like pure crap. No major adjustments.
- 2nd 1k games continued to run pretty awful, but learned a great deal about table selection and color coding my opponents to make sure I was selecting only the best games.
- 3rd 1k games tried to adjust my bvb/bubble/heads-up shoves after Yardle pointed out that my bvb's and hu play might be costing me some money (he was right, I think...I watched him play some and ran about 800 hands to make sure my math was improving. Still, though, no results to back any of it up). I dropped limits and # of tables played at a time, too.
- 4th 1k games is reaching the point of breaking stuff. I bought a new mouse (you can guess why) and it's fantastic. *side note* if you're thinking of getting one of the apple "magic mouses" I'd say it's a good investment. I realize the fact that you absolutely can run this bad while playing good enough to make 2-3 dollars per game, but it's still incredibly frustrating.

70/30s are genuinely not 70/30s anymore. I'm not even kidding when I say I haven't had an 80/20 (my 55 or whatever against opponents' JJ, etc.) suckout for 4 or 5 playing days. I realize this sounds like a lame bad beat saga fraught with hyperbole, but without a doubt, I am running worse than I ever have in my life. Yes, every downswing is the "worst" downswing, but this one is very different. I've packed about 4k games into 2-3 weeks and still no turn around. I've made adjustments that are absolutely +EV fixes and still no turn around (all the while, doing my best not to perform a complete overhaul of my shoves...aggression won money in the past and it will do so again). I've dropped limits and tables. Still nothing.

I read an interview of the owner of Zappos.com today where he was talking about the difference between poker and gambling. Using a quarter as an example, he said (and I'm paraphrasing) that the biggest difference is that a skill edge in poker can take the heads side of the coin and force it to come up 2 out of 3 flips. In the short term, I will take heads every time, but can still lose heavily due to the luck involved. However, in the long term I will obviously win. The difference being with blackjack, craps or roulette is that you are forced to bet on the tails side and will eventually lose. While comforting in theory, it still doesn't make you feel all warm and cozy inside when you're running bad.

- My head is broken

2010-05-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

Started legitimately celebrating only being down $500 today. Genuine excitement. So dumb.

edit: only down $150 on the day by the end of it. I'm seriously giddy. Haven't had a real winning day in almost 2 weeks (outside of 1 day) and this feels amazing. Not even kidding.

- Not easy the 2nd time around either

2010-05-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

The first week of the month I made money. Since the 7th I have lost money. It has sucked.

I've experienced this type of variance before, but it was a few months ago while I was still learning the 6-max supers. I'm really not too concerned bankroll-wise, I just hate the loss of confidence. For about the first 8-9 days of the swing it really wasn't all that bad. Running hands/ranges/bubbles was an absolute necessity and I genuinely feel like I've improved because of it. Lots of other regs are experiencing similar swings at the same time, which is somewhat reassuring.

The good things that have come from this include: more attention to heads-up, early game blind-vs-blind shoves, and late game bubble play. The bad things: not knowing how all the "fixes" will actually play out in the long run. I can't put it out of my mind that for about 5k games I was running above average in certain late-game spots (things like shoving too wide from the button on a bubble at a low-ish blind level) and now it's readjusting somewhat (note: I have studied this spot over and over now and am 100% positive this has improved). I also can't discount the fact that my overall aggression in these games definitely allowed me to make as much as I have in just a few months.

No one likes a good bad beat story so I'll spare any major details. However, this last session - and the 3 before it - looked like things were going to turn a little bit and I could possibly break-even for the day. Then 7 games later (and 3 70/30s, 3 80/20s, and 1 1-outer) I was still down. That's gotta be the suckiest part. Constantly thinking it's turning around or something's about to readjust the way the math says it must, but doesn't.

In other news, I'm moving into a new place at the end of June (haven't found it yet) with an old buddy from Kids from Wisconsin and yardle. Should mean more practicing without a mute! Score.

- Shoves vs. Calls and a little more about the table selectins...

2010-05-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

I just saw two games go off at the $50 level with 5 regs and one go off with 6. Sure, two of those regs are definitely better overall players than the other 4, but there is no way anyone in that game is +EV. I know at least two of those guys know better than that, too. I've adjusted my sleep schedule so that I'm up by 7 and playing by 8, thus avoiding a huge amount of regs for most of my day. I got about 300 in today and managed to be fairly reg-less up until the last hour when I could only load a 6 or so before I had to unregister because of all the dumbasses. Oh well, like Yardle told me the other day, with any luck most of them will go on some major swings and either go bust or quit playing these games. Yay!

From about Friday until yesterday I ran badly. Really badly. Races weren't races and dominating hands were crushable almost non-stop. I managed to keep my head on straight for about the first 1000 games of it, but couldn't find any reasoning for the run once it hit Monday night/Tuesday morning. So, I spent about 4 hours yesterday running (and re-running) shove/call ranges. Particularly focused on the regs, but even general spots as well. I know that most of the 1500 game swing was poor luck, but there were many spots that I could've avoided a call or making a shove.

For example:
Full Tilt Poker Game #20805585077: $50 + $2 Sit & Go (Super Turbo) 25/50
Seat 1: me (585)
Seat 4: royalflush1529 (340)
Seat 5: APAT33 (565)
Seat 6: Top Reg (310)
me posts the small blind of 25
royalflush1529 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to me [Ts Qd]
Top Reg raises to 310, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 260 returned to Top Reg

This is a spot that I know 100% of the time I'm ahead of his range. He has approximately 6 blinds on the button (both huge reasons for an any two card shove). For the past couple days, I'm pretty sure I was taking this flip, but it's not worth it. If it was suited, I'd be in the top 25% of hands and probably try to isolate, but since it's not, it's only a top 35% hand and isn't worth half my stack on a race. Spots like this and blind-vs-blind confrontations have been especially painful lately so checking these hands has helped tremendously.

Many regs that I see are still calling me thinking that I'm pushing anything...which I'm absolutely not - at least not in every spot. One crappy reg that I don't mind sitting with refuses to believe that my shoves aren't insanely wide all the time and, for the first time in a few days, I think I won all but 5 or 6 of our all-ins between the two of us (not bad considering we probably had 30+ today and I think I was either ahead or absolutely crushing him around 75%). In the long run, they will surely pay the price and go on a massive swing (just like the one I did or bigger), but probably won't figure it out...at least I hope not.

- Yeah...I'm not gonna do that.

2010-05-10T20:23:00.001-07:00

Sorry, peeps (mainly Angie), I'm not going to publish what I typed when flying off the handle at that guy. Some of it was pretty awful. I'll e-mail it to you instead :)

So, after a hot start to the month things have cooled off a ton. Since Friday I haven't been able to get anything going over a fairly substantial game amount and am still pretty stuck. I can't really chalk it up to anything except the frequency of poorly timed beats. Things like losing with AK to A4 don't hurt in the first level or two, but on the bubble or in the money they can start to drive you nuts. Today, for example, I've played about 250 games so far and have over 30 more 3rd places than 1sts and 15 more 2nds than 1sts. You just can't be up anything with those results. I honestly wish I could attribute it to something more than luck, but I can't. Which sucks. Big time. Sucks so bad I'm not even using proper sentences.

The regs are starting to show up a LOT more, too. Some will table select, but most don't (several are losing or break even grinders, so it's not too bad) and all of them seem to think I'm pushing any two cards non-stop (which I'm almost never ever ever pushing any two into them now). Anyway, I'll go back to it now and see if the tide has turned.

- Streaky streaks and table selection

2010-05-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Got my chat banned again. New site. New opponents. New game. Same old me. All of the comments for which I was banned (for only a month - I'll be back. Mark my words) were aimed at one player. It wasn't for bad beats; it wasn't for frustrating results; it was solely for the fact that he refuses to table select.

Table selection (something that to this point I rarely needed to do) is important for games where your edge is already low and regulars show up a fair amount. In these super turbos, due to the speed of the game and the high blinds, my edge is already reduced due to the brief game length. So, if I'm in push/fold end-game mode for the entire sit-n-go and no one at the table has much of a clue how to handle it, I make more money. This should be fairly obvious. When another decent reg is in the game and he knows how to avoid me (and vice-versa), we can still be profitable. However, once another reg (even if he's not all that good) gets in the game, the luck factor really kicks in because there's really no way to avoid wide shoves/calls that all work to increase the variance of the game. I could still be the best player in the game and have virtually no positive equity. No bueno.

So, this idiot reg refuses to make any attempt to avoid other regs and will jump into games where there are already two regs sitting. Thus, the only way to let him know that he's being stupid is to tell him so. Repeatedly. With objectionable language. Bannable objectionable language.

Am I proud of this? Am I happy that I fly off the handle at some of these regs? No, of course not. No one's excited to e-bash others. No one wins in those situations. It's like salting the snail. I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it.

- Whine. Whine. Whine.

2010-04-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

Basic rant for a few paragraphs - skip if you don't want to hear some complaining.

Why is there such a stigma about all of this? I applied to get an increase on my credit card so I could take care of my taxes in one fell swoop. (note: when first finishing college, sometimes you're not given the option of "paying quarterly for your taxes" since you have no idea what the hell you're going to earn, thus you're jacked once you owe it all at once) Talked to the lady today and she said since I was self-employed (see: musician) that they would need to check over my tax documents. Normally that would be fine except as soon as they see that all of my earnings this year were from "gambling" I'm not going to get it. (note: I filed as a hobbyist instead of professional since I did do some gigs) Thus, I had to cash out half of my online roll to cover my taxes. Result? Panic. Massive panic.

I didn't want to bust down that roll since I've been working so hard to get to the upper limits (where you'll just pull in rakeback like money falling from trees - money doesn't fall from trees, but you get it). Unfortunately, the govt doesn't give a damn. Thus, the last few days when I didn't have a single chance to work and the next several when I'll be in Eau Claire for the jazz festival are absolutely going to kill me. I'm literally contemplating readjusting my sleep schedule again to try to run it back up as fast as possible. God, it's like you take 3 steps forward and something punches you in the face and you're back doing it all over again.

In a nut shell: Govt doesn't want to tax the industry where I make my money which is trying to give them BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO REGULATE IT; govt wants to tax the f out of me so that I either A) stop making money online or B) find a more respectable career (read: I'm gonna go on f'ing unemployment/welfare or whatever, you dumbasses); I'm trying to pay my taxes and not kill my bankroll so that I can afford to pay quarterly for next year, but am finding this incredibly difficult since people just assume I'm a massive degenerate; I'm being forced to write horribly constructed, grammatically improper sentences to try to express outrage. I'm screwed.

Rant's over. Start reading here if you skipped down.

Poker's been fine lately. I'm getting closer to the $/gm I was expecting (up until the fiasco that is tax season...see above) and the games are still very selectably soft. I'm leaving tomorrow for Minneapolis and heading to Duluth for a couple days then going to the EC Jazz Fest for the weekend. It'll be cool to adjudicate and actually do some music stuff again. The only truly sucky thing is that I'm not going to get practically any work in - which, considering my current situation, is making me increasingly nervous.

Oh, I've started getting some work with a salsa band in town, too. We played a gig last Sunday that had more security than I'd ever seen before. I think I got patted down by 2 security guards and the Army searched my gig bag (ok, not really, but it was crazy in there).

I'm rambling and can't think straight anymore.

- Beating frustration

2010-03-18T23:16:00.000-07:00

So, I've gotten a solid amount of volume over the past several weeks and made pretty much nothing except rakeback. Every day that I play more then 30 games (which has been everyday except 2) it's some combination of up several hundred, down several hundred. Not to belabor a sob story, but I've already had 7 $800+ downswings this month. Psychologically I'm stronger than ever, but the constant thought of the next 30-50 game bad stretch is getting old. Sitting and playing for 5-7 hours per day is all well and good if you have some kind of idea what your expected profit is going to be. Unfortunately, as of right now, I have absolutely no clue what I'm earning as an hourly.

I've been running more and more hands and I'm pretty sure that my B-game is still better than 90% of my opponents' A-game. Eventually, I'm going to run well for 3-5 days and make my entire months profit (note: the term "run well" implies that 80/20s [i.e. 99 vs. 55] will hold 70% of the time and 70/30s [i.e. AQ vs. A7] will hold 60% of the time on bubbles). The only silver lining of all of this continuous volume is that I stand a good chance of making an extra rakeback bonus at the end of this month. Yay volume.

- Feb's almost over

2010-02-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

To the few that read this -

Hi. The games are still soft. The players in general have no clue what they're doing. The swings are absolutely insane. I loves it. That is all.

- Taxes = suckage

2010-01-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

College was great. Didn't really have to pay squat on taxes. Jobs that can cover 1/2 of your taxes are great. I don't have one of those. I need to play more games than I've ever played in my life this next month if I'm going to have enough to cover the amount the Fed has to have. Odd side note: I find it funny that even the gov't is doing everything it can to stop me from making money at a skill game they still want a huge cut of my income. Here's a thought - regulate it. Make your money from it, too. That way, more people come back to the games I play and we're both happy. Gov't and Fatty can both be happy together.

In other news, I just started listening to Randy Pingrey's trombone blog (google it, people) and it's got tons of great sound clips from his gigs and personal recordings. Nostalgia aside, I really miss that guy.

Oh and one last thing - some dude accused me of being a bot today. "Bots" are programs set up to play a solid push/fold strategy and basically allow the person that designed it to make money without doing anything. I don't know who the guys was or why he assumed I was a bot (to my knowledge we'd never played against each other before, but I could be wrong), but it was kind of funny.

- Comin' at you with crazy fists!

2010-01-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

Good news! All that sucking over the last 400-500 games has caused a very nice leak to pop up - light shoving went bye-bye. That is to say, that I was allowing myself to get waaaay too close to blinding off (really easy to do if with only a 10 blind starting stack) and not shoving nearly wide enough in late position in mid-blind levels. Was kind of getting tired of just blaming the bad beats (of which there have been many) and read a few late-game shove articles and tried to figure out what was going on. It's been tough because normally I could check the majority of my plays in an ICM calculator, but since I don't have Windows on this Mac I can't run any of the programs. Boo hoo.

Gonna really plug for the rest of the month to try to turn it around. With some luck I might have enough $ to purchase the Windows software. Really didn't want to pay full price, so if someone knows of a good way to skirt it w/o actually stealing, I'm all ears.

- These are still fun!

2010-01-22T20:08:00.000-08:00

Hey yo -

The hyper-turbos are still going well. Well, not financially so to speak, but they're a welcome change to last year's grind. I really need to get some Windows running on my Mac so that I can start running hands in SngWiz (ICM program) and check my shove/calls.

The variance is certainly a kick in the chops, but it's a lot easier to stomach knowing you have to really run bad to lose your shirt. I mean, I'm not the greatest player to ever play these, but if I wasn't having so many key bubble hands get cracked for the last few days I would be at least break-even. The average players (and regs) are just so weak it's awesome. Plus, I can hammer out about 100 games in 4 hours or so. With any luck, I can run 2-3 hour sessions and shoot for 150 per day...that way I can (random aside - I've got Diana Krall's rendition of Ellington's "I'm an Errand Girl for Rhythm" playing and it's distracting the hell out of me) keep up the grind without as much as variance as year's past (I hope).

Ok, that's all.

Two posts in a week?

2010-01-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

Hi. I like Trader Joe's. Just sayin.

An open letter to the $28 super-turbo regs on full tilt:

Hi guys,

If you're all playing strictly for rakeback, congratulations on getting a bit more volume than me. We're all impressed with the fact that you can eke out a 3-5% profit. Here's a quick tip from someone that hopes to make a bit more than that per game - play a few less tables and avoid sitting with every other motherflippin' reg at the level. Now I'm not talking drop down to less than 8 tables, but something more reasonable than 20 at a time should help. Also, think about NOT signing up for a table that has 4 regs (and only 4 regs) in the lobby. I mean, you're just pissing equity to each other.

On second thought, do what you want. If I compile enough stupid stuff from all of you, I'll just become a contributor to Yard's new blog involving all the stupid crap reg's do.

Weeee.

January already?

2010-01-10T21:55:00.000-08:00

Hi. You don't read this blog for the consistent updates. You don't read this blog because it's even the slightest bit interesting. You don't read this blog because you want to stay "in touch" or something. You read the blog because potatoes are cool.

With that said, let's move to the new year.

I got pretty burnt out on the whole 180 man grind thing toward the end of the year. It wasn't like I suffered a huge massive downswing or anything (it was pretty small, really). I just kind of got tired of getting so deep consistently and following it with a blunt smack upside the head of crap variance. What can you do to counteract that? Would you answer it by switching to a game with even more variance? Why not!

I'm playing on full tilt instead of pokerstars because they've got these sweet super-turbo sngs. You start with 300 chips (10 blinds) and 9 players. Bad ass. People fly out of them so fast it's crazy. Most of the low limit guys have no clue about shove/calling ranges so it's just a game of analyzing general shove spots w/ 5-10 blinds most of the time. Plus, it's easy to squeak into the money if you're really short (most guys just think it's worth their time to poke that KTo into the pot after the big stack has already pushed and the shorty has 50 chips. sweet action jackson)

I'll try to update as the volume increases, but right now I'm only playing 4 tables at a time and reloading (average around 16-18 tables/hr). With the rakeback kicked in, I should make somewhere around $2/gm at the $28s and more as the roll increases. I figure if I can slog through 2k games this month, I should be grinding 45s exclusively by Feb. Let's hope, at least.

In other news, the holidays were freaking amazing. I was home for a week and a half (with a lot of snow), had a 3 night gig (about damn time I got some more trombone work), and enjoyed seeing the family. My girlfriend bought us tickets to a St. Louis Blues hockey game in St. Louis just before New Years and I got to go to another Blues game here in LA just last night. New Years in StL was pretty sweet, too. Oh, and I worked the World Series of Beer Pong tourney in Vegas again this year. We worked a lot more hours this year, but it was a complete blast (and I ended up chopping the $150 Caesar's nightly for about $1300 with my buddy Brian).

Anyway, thank God the holidays are over. As fun as they were, I'm a total fatty again. Let's work on that...I hear they have this new Taco Bell diet.

- Quick update

2009-08-01T13:28:00.001-07:00

Since that last update, life has been good. I've taken more time off (had a little 2.5k downswing) and didn't really feel like playing for a few days. Yeah, it'll set me back on my 20k for the year goal, but I still should be able to get it.

Anyway, got to see Earth, Wind and Fire and Chicago do a joint concert at the Nokia Theatre (by the Staples Center) on Tuesday and went to a Dodgers game last weekend. Been killing terrorists and general citizens on my new Playstation. Other than that, I'm pumped for this camping trip next week.

In preparation for the trip, I'm going to try to get 1000 games in the next 8 days before I leave. 125 games in a day is not impossible, but with how much time I've taken off I'm not sure how well I'll play. Meh, I'll update as the week goes.

- New Goal

2009-07-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

After looking at my stats for awhile, I think it's easily attainable for me to reach 17k games played this year. There are about 5 and a half months left in 2009 and I really didn't play too much in Jan. and May. With about 9500 games already in the bag, I'm going to shoot for 20,000 total. I won't get much volume in August because of an awesome chance to go camping at Zion Nat'l Park in Utah for a few days with some buddies (who are then hanging out in LA with us for a few more), but Sept on should be good (sans a wedding in October).

I figure if I get 1k more in July that'll leave me with only 9500 or so for the last 5 months. Admittedly, 1900 games per month will be a definite stretch - especially when I hit the inevitable "run bad" streak - but I figure having a game oriented goal in mind will be better than a profit one. Now that I'm mixing in $60 18s/45s, I hope to average somewhere between $4-5/gm for the rest of the year (I'd love for it to be closer to 6, but let's be realistic and happy with the low end, fatty). Maybe we'll say goodbye to these student loans by Christmas after all. Maybe.

- Vacation #2

2009-07-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

I was expecting humid, muggy Wisco summer weather, but it's been perfect since getting back yesterday. There are actual clouds in the sky (not smog or haze) and seeing grass/trees/flowers that can grow naturally without a massive aqueduct/reservoir system is refreshing. LA is a great place to live for awhile, but there's not way in hell I'll live there for the rest of my life. Besides, the DQ up here has some Girl Scout Tagalong cookie blizzard special going on. Random win? I think so.

My website should be up and functional relatively soon as I'm spending much of my time here figuring things out and annoying Yardledoo. Not having to play poker for awhile is awesome.

- The Jazz is all about the Swings.

2009-07-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

And so is the poker. So, after the terrible frustration that was May (yeah, yeah, we all know I ran bad for about 1/2 of it and played profitable, but not nearly stellar poker for the rest of it), June became a welcome surprise. Without a doubt, it was the best month of results I've ever had. I played really well, but definitely ran very well in important spots for the majority of my playing time. I mean, when you're on the final table of a 180 man w/ 65k stack and you shove KQs at 3k/6k blinds from the button and get called by AA and AK and still win? That's special. Did nothing wrong, just got lucky in some key spots AND held when I had the best hand in many places, too. I'm not going to really talk numbers on the month, but I will say that I made more profit-wise in June than all of 2008. Sweet.

Still wish I could've gone to South Carolina, but by deciding to stay in LA, I earned enough to get a sweet new laptop and an awesome bed. I feel like a big boy now. Seriously, I've been sleeping on a freakin big air mattress since I can remember (grad school...2006 to present). Last night was the best night of sleep I've had in years. No kidding.

I think the 180s will continue to be a pretty nice cash-cow at these stakes. It's weirdly relaxing to play games that are so far within your bankroll that there's .01% chance of going broke (arbitrary stat for the blog post: check). I mean, I'm still gonna keep playing $12 180s and $27/35 18/45 mans for quite some time. Inevitably I'll have another month like May again and hopefully it'll be less of a psychological drain as it was last time. Just looking over my sharkscope graph from when I was playing 9-man games (notably less high-variance than mtt-sngs) I noticed several 500-1k game break-even/losing stretches. So, I figure if I can at least play decent poker through the next one, it should last no more than that. Ok, no more talk of May from now on. Good riddance to that bastard of a month.

4th of July is tomorrow. Sweeeet. Note: it's actually referred to as 'Merica Day by James and me. PBR and brats and blowing stuff up. Be sure to celebrate the birth of your country by blowing up a small part of it.

- New computer. again.

2009-06-26T01:08:00.000-07:00

You know what's better than a Dell that doesn't operate properly with your external monitor? A Macbook Pro. You know what's better than a Dell that has a video card that forces fuzzy lines/broken screenshots across tables while you're trying to play? A Macbook Pro. You know what's better than a Dell? You get the picture.

This thing is freakin sweet. I mean, I didn't have to install drivers or anything when I plugged in my external monitor, mouse, or secondary hard-drive in for the first time. Just wow. So much more powerful and easy to maneuver than my old (read: month and a half old) Dell. Luckily, I'm selling it to a friend that really needs a reliable laptop - which, for the record, that Dell will do perfectly for what she needs. It's not like it's junk. It's just not what I expected or needed.

My sleep schedule might finally be coming around. I'm getting closer to being able to stay up for most of the day without having to take a nap. For those that don't know, Yard and I made the mistake of playing through the night a few weeks ago and it's been a complete disaster ever since. I suppose when you have no real obligations or work to focus on this is what happens. I like the daytime, though.

We've got a keyboard and a couch now. Our living room is actually starting to resemble a living room. Finally.

Probably going to polish off that Stars bonus I was mentioning earlier. Should take about 70 games or so (1750 vpps) which will be about 4-5 hours of work. It's nice to know that they're doing these full "supernova elite" style fpps gifts this month, too. Weeee! $2400 bonus! That'll buy several beds.

- Ego checkins...

2009-06-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a story I found interesting from the other day. James and I both witnessed it happen and were both surprised at the audacity and stupidity of some of the pro players.

On Sundays, all poker sites run what are called "Sunday Majors" which are basically just large-field multi-table tourneys with big buyins. The mother of them all is called the "Sunday Million" on pokerstars that has a 1.5 million guaranteed prize pool (I think, unless they upped it again recently). Our story takes place in the weekly precursor to the Mil called the "warm-up" (pretty fitting, eh?).

It involves a player that I do not know personally. We've played against each other on several occasions and he is, without a doubt, a very good player. He sticks to the low limit buy-in multi-table games because he crushes them for more than most guys at the higher buy-ins beat their respective levels. Although, he's not without faults and leaks, overall he is certainly within the top .01% of players at his buy-in level. (side note and brag post: I'm currently beating the levels he plays for more than he's averaging...but that's over a considerably smaller and insignificant sample size. So when the 'readjustment period' from my 'run like God period' is over, we'll have something to discuss)

This past Sunday he ran well/played well (whatever you want to call it - when you're up against a HUUUUGE tourney field, you have to have both) and made the final table of the Sunday Warm-up (750k guaranteed prize pool). 1st place was worth 135k, 2nd was 100k, and 3rd was 71k (rounded numbers obv). When the table got to 5-handed, one of the players requested a deal to which the player I'm referring declined. Once at 3-handed, the players had the tourney paused and discussed the deal. Player 1 (the guy we watched) initiated the deal and asked for the break.

Player 1 (guy we were watching) was in first and, according to an even chip-chop ratio, was due 107.5k since he was currently in first. Player 2 (not a good player at all) was offered around 102k and the other guy somewhere around 92k. Whatever the numbers added up to, there was also 10k left on the table for the winner (pokerstars rules). Player 1 (from hereon referred to as "idiot hero") said that he was the best player remaining and deserved 115k or no deal. Bravado. I'm sure he was assuming both players would roll over and accept a 2.5k loss to ensure at least a huge score better than 3rd. Instead, the guy in 3rd typed something along the lines of "BWAHAHAHA" in the chat box and said no way. In all honesty, if the idiot hero hadn't stated "I'm the best player here so I should get more" he might've been able to talk his way into it. Unfortunately, the 3rd place guy (who was just as cocky) said no deal and to play it out. Idiot hero immediately rescinded his comment and says "ok, let's just go with the first deal, then." To which cocky 3rd place dude goes "nope," Now, that should've just been the end of it and they started playing, but idiot hero just HAD to fuel the fire a little bit more by saying "Fine, then. I don't care. I'll just ship the sucker and you can suck it." (something to that effect - probs a little more vulgar, but I can't remember exact wording) The game resumed.

A few hands into the action, idiot hero and cocky dude are involved in a huuuge pot and idiot hero makes a loose call and loses the monstrous pot (not going to debate the call or the hand, since this post isn't about how the hand was played). He's completely crippled with about 4 or 5 blinds - considering the fact that they were deep stacked with over 40-50 blinds, that's insane. So, to recap:
- idiot hero offered 107.5k
- shoots off mouth and offends cocky dude
- retracts demand but is refused
- pours drano on his tongue
- loses huge pot and now is virtually guaranteed 3rd

Simple math - 107.5 - 71 + potential 10k = 46.5k

Yes, that's right. By stroking his ego he jeopardized more than most make in an entire year (and yes, 46 thousand is a HUGE amount of money to this guy - he still plays the low limits remember). As it turned out, the guy in 2nd place ended up suffering a bad beat to the chip leader and our idiot hero luckily squeaked into 2nd for 100k. BUT, that doesn't change the fact that he wanted a deal, blew the deal discussion, and nearly screwed himself big time.

Maybe this isn't that big of a deal to most people. However, why on Earth would you want everyone at the table to know - let alone believe - that you're the best player left? I mean, when pro sports teams "guarantee" a win in a Game 5 or 6, they so often put their foot in their mouth. Anyone remember Hasselbeck in Seattle against the Packers in overtime? "We're gonna take the ball and we're gonna score!" Picked off by Harris. Game over. Shut your freakin mouth, idiot.

Competetive spirit is huge in these games just like in sports. Jabbing at someone's ability - especially someone that doesn't CARE about 3rd place is a death sentence. In my opinion, if you ask for the deal and want a little more, fine. Ask for it. Talk your way through it. Don't be a giant pos and tell everyone that you're the best and deserve it (even if it was true, which it was). Use your brain, dumbass.

- Putting on big boy pants

2009-06-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Obviously things have rebounded. One of my former roomies at Eau Claire and a fellow poker player that will remain nameless (I'm not sure if he even knows/reads this blog, but all the hilarious stories involving him from the past could come swirling back if we're not careful) has been grinding the $2 180 man sng's on stars for the past couple months with decent results. Now despite his success, he knows that there are many leaks he needs to plug and that he will make a ton more at them soon. Seeing his consistent success even without A+ poker got me to thinkin:
Me: You know what, Fatty?
Me: What?
Me: I think you should probably try to play a bunch more 180s and see how they go.
Me: Yeah, but I haven't had any success at them yet this year.
Me: But you've only played around 200...could just be running bad. Plus, if you get a lesson and really check out some of your shove adjustments, you could make some serious cash in a short period of time.
Me: You so crazy, Fatty.
Me: True that, yo. Let's go get a burrito.
Me: Greek style?
Me: Nope, just regular type.

That was actually excerpted from my head. Sweet.

So, since June 1st I've added 180s to the usual fare of 18s and 45s. Mid-month result-fest? Let's do it.

509 $12 180s (yeah, real high roller over here...) with 92% roi and $5395 profit. Yes, it's impossible to keep making $10.60 per game at these, but it feels great to get a good jump on them. Kind of like the feeling you get when you see a cat jump from a telephone pole like Rocky from the old Bullwinkle show. Go look it up on youtube. Seriously.

I'll forgo the other results thus far since they've just been rebounding from the May crapfest. However, I will drop the subtle fun-bomb that yesterday was the best day of poker in my entire life. I made more in a 12-hour stretch than I've made in any tourney and more than in several winning months. James watched for awhile and will vouch that I really didn't do anything wrong - just everytime I got my chips in a spot that they had to go in, I would win. Sure not every time, but nearly every crucial all-in I took down whether racing or crushingly ahead. The 3 180 wins alone accounted for $1800 of the profit which was barely half of the day's total. Pretty incredible to have a day like that (but I doubt I will have another day like that for a very long time, maybe ever again).

On to other news -

Had to make a really tough decision this month and, to be fair, I'm still not sure it'll be the right decision in the end. My Mom's side of the family goes on a major vacation every other year. For the past several trips, they've gone to Kiawah Island, SC and rented a huge four-story beach house (just south of Charleston, near the Georgia border). Since I've had theme park gigs and KFW, I haven't been able to go for 9 years. After looking forward to this trip (starts June 21st) and hyping up the fact that I would be there, I had an awful May (as already discussed). Thus, my bank account here and back home was too depleted to get a plane ticket early.

It really isn't an issue of "not enough money." I mean, Mom and Dad offered to cover the trip knowing that I'd pay them back. The problem is that I'm living in LA, wanting to play trombone, sleeping on the floor, and having to pay a lot of student loans. I'm tired of it being a massive monthly struggle that I can't overcome. I figure if I go to Kiawah, I'll have a buttload of fun that can't be measured in dollars (my uncles and cousins are just a bunch of college kids at heart - beach parties and getting kicked out of go cart tracks for a whole week). But, if I stay, I'll not only save the 4-5 hundo plane ticket. It'll also guarantee another 6-700 games (even if they don't run great, it's still an average profit of 3-5/game...call it a min of $1800) plus a $2400 'cash incentive' bonus that pokerstars is just offering this month. I guess I can't shake the feeling that 2400+1800=all the soundproofing stuff I've wanted to get so I can start practicing again+a bed+a keyboard so I can get the composition stuff going again. By not going, it's a $4500-5000 difference. Frankly, that's just too much to pass on right now. The tough part is that I have a lot of disappointed relatives now and there's no good way to explain this. Mom and Dad understand, but are still sad. I mean, I don't lose sleep over too many things, but I've had a rough couple weeks over this. Oh well. I don't know.

Colingilliland.com should be fully functional within a week or so. I'm planning on spending some more time setting it up (read: Yardley is pretty much the best teacher at this stuff...I'll probably just annoy him with all my stupid questions). Might be moving this blog over there. Will keep you posted.

- It was the best of times

2009-06-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

False. May sucked. Definitely the worst of times. Kinda felt like I was going crazy for several different parts of the month. Let's go through a "hit-list" of all the awesomeness that was the not-so-merry month of May.

- Kicked the month off with a four day losing streak (not even a single winning session...bizarre to say the least)
- Had 4 different $1000 downswings within the month (at buy-ins of $27 and below, that's more than just variance, but really didn't play bad enough to have that massive of swings)
- 18 mans - 997 games with a loss of 198...pretty surprising considering I'm still averaging $3/gm for the year. Maybe it's just a readjustment period I was due for, but I'm sure I shouldn't have actually lost money at these for an entire month (actually just 3 weeks)
- 45 mans - 463 games with a profit of 213. The lone bright spot has to be the $27 with a profit of 570 over 183 games. Of course, that means that the $12 45's were abysmal. Weeee.
- To top it all off, the computer I finally bought really doesn't work too well with the Pokerstars client, but Dell won't let me return it because it just past the 21 day policy period. Son of a monkey crap.

Hokay, now that that's over, we can move on. Toward the end of May, I started to pick apart a few of the leaks. While I can't attribute the entire month to bad play, there were definitely several days where I lost every other overpair/underpair all in pre-flop situation (as a reference point, I should win those 80% of the time, but it was certainly closer to 50-60% - over the course of 200 games, that will kill you). Fortunately, after discussing several spots with Yard, I'm pretty sure I was sometimes taking unnecessary risks too early.

The players in these low stakes games are terrible (in general). It's not uncommon for someone to go all-in on the first hand with KTo or to call your utg raise w/ 84s, flop bottom pair, and call through the whole way for pot-sized bets. So, I found I was compensating a little heavy by really trying to get too much value in spots where I figured I was not best - just under the assumption I was because of the copious amounts of donkish play. To complicate things, when the cards continue to beat you down like a kitten leg punching a bowl of grapes, you kind of have a tough time delneating borderline/unnecessary aggression from stupid beats. Anyway, that might not be too cut and dry, but May was the painful combo of variance mixed with confused, overly-adjusted poker. Winning mixture? I think notsies. Nazis? No, just sounds the same.

In other news, Cone-zone is back! I know he was saying it for weeks, but I'm really glad he hasn't adjusted his show to account for the blue-hairs. They tweaked the band's opening arrangement (still sounds great), but they should make sure to keep getting full band shots whenever possible (yes, I'm biased, but sweet jebus they're funny).

- Great start...

2009-05-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

Pretty much the worst possible start for the month. Just under 750 games on the month and I've made absolutely nothing. Weee. First 250 games kicked off with an enjoyable 3 days of losing. I think it was the first time I went literal days without a winning session (sessions usually go between an hour and 3 hours...and it's pretty rare to play 4-5 sessions a day and lose each for 3 days). Next 400 games went fine and made a lot back to at least be break even over 680 games or so. Then lost the profit today.

Online poker sucks. I want to play my freaking trombone. Of course, that would pull in even less than the nothing I've made this month :).

Welp, that should do it for melodrama and whining. Let's see how the next 750 go.

- Time for work.

2009-05-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

Vacation's over. I had a blast in the Midwest. Didn't realize how much I missed seeing a lot of my old friends and family (I use "old" to indicate that our relationship's started years ago - not the "old" in the sense that they are not my friend's anymore or "old" in age...that should adequately clarify or confuse).

The first couple days I was in Bloomington, IN to finish the last requirements of my Master's Degree. I guess the 7 minutes I spent playing scales, transposing, and sight-reading piano music indicates that I am, in fact, worth getting a TROMBONE PERFORMANCE DEGREE. Stupid freakin random requirements. At least it's done and I never have to worry about Db major arpeggios for the piano again.

On the 6 hour drive from southern Indiana to Wisco, I was lucky enough to stop just outside of Chicago in Munster to see L0bsta for lunch (unlike the crustacean, lobster, l0bsta is bearded human that plays poker). We got pizza. His mom made us a veggie tray. We made memories. Incidentally, the pizza was from Edwardo's (awesome Chicago-style stuffed pizza) which has a chain no more than 5 minutes from my friend's in Milwaukee...small world, L0b.

Wisco was great. Gained probably 50 pounds. Everytime I go home, even if the kitchen isn't over-stocked in preparation for my arrival, I still manage to run up the grocery bill - partly because the food is free and partly because the food isn't stuff I normally buy. Result? I eat waaay too much, but it's vacation so who cares? The grandparent's 60th anniversary party was a lot of fun, too. I've got a huge extended family and whenever everyone gets together, it's pretty much food and drink and stupid jokes for days (my idea of a good time? I think so...). Plus, my uncle's hunting lodge (where the parties usually happen) now has a sweet ATV that he bought for his kids. Nothing really beats a 5 year old flying way too fast barely missing trees and creeks through farmland.

Welp, now I'm back and need to play about 75 games per day to get 1500 for the month. Yard has been here for a few days and seems to like the apartment (except for the lack of hotties lounging by the pool).

- April Results and Vacation

2009-04-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

I promised to give an update on the previously noted "banner month" of April. Since poker is a high-variance game in general, the way the month started really couldn't continue for a whole 1500 games. I was averaging around 5.50/gm for the first 850 or so, then went on a stiff 1250 downswing for a few hundred games. The last couple hundred of the month turned around and got an average of about $3.75/gm for 1500. Really was hoping to average 4 or over, but there's always May. As I get closer to decent sample sizes (around 2k games) for the individual 18 and 45-man games, I'll include stats for them, too.

Since no one can control the way the cards fall, I decided to start rewarding myself for monthly game quotas rather than how much profit I earn. Figure 1500 games for months that I can't play more than 3 weeks is a solid goal. April's reward? New lappy. Hopefully it'll arrive in LA around the time I get back from the Midwest. Like April, May will probably just be a 1500 game month since I won't get back to LA before the 10th. If I reach the quota, I'm buying DDR for my Wii. Yard thinks that's stupid...and I think he's stupid. Boom. Roasted.

Welp, I'm fried after playing piano for 7 hours each day for the last two days. The piano exam is at 2 pm Friday...say a prayer for me. See you on the other side.

- Vacation. Sweet mother of crap, vacation.

2009-04-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to get 1500 games in April. 1500 games are done as of a few hours ago. Result? SPRING FREAKIN BREAK, bishes!!

- SCOOP results, other results, and fast-approaching trip plans

2009-04-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

Hi people,

The SCOOP tourneys and p5s OT prop bet are done. We deeeeefinitetly didn't win that one. Disappointing that the one night my team got really deep was the only night I really should have been with my buddy that was fixing my car. All the other events were pretty standard tourney bust-outs. The one silver lining is that I've started to take an interest in some of the non-HE games around. While playing one of the PLO events I realized how much I suck at anything other than nlhe. Maybe I'll pick up a book.

Even though the internet sucked causing me to miss the entire first week of April's sngs, I'm having a pretty huge month. Yes, the lethal combo of decent variance and playing well help a lot, but I can't discount the "vacation time" I got from March 30th-April 8th. Sngs with a clear head are much easier (duuuuuh). We'll see how much the pseudo-vacations help over the next couple months (gone for a week in early May and a week in late June).

Like I said, it's been a banner month. I'll post the results at the end of the month when there's a sample size worth discussing, but for the time being, I'm just happy to have rent/food/airfare/etc. covered. Hopefully I can get enough socked away this next week to really soundproof the crap out of James and my rooms.

Angie, I know you read this - if Jake's got spare time over the weekend, I'll try to give him a call to talk for a few mins about some stuff I'm looking at (by the way, I hope the baby's not giving you too much trouble. Boll and I always love pickle-mango-pizza-tacos-ala mode, too - and we're not having kids yet).

Alright, I'm all hopped up on Mountain Dew! It's actually a workout supplement called NO-xplode (basically "healthy crack"). Once it kicks in I start to bounce of the walls a little bit...which means it's time to go to the gym.

Fatty time.

- internet suckins

2009-04-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

Y'know, I really have got a lot to be thankful for. This is not meant to be a "haha, my life is sooo great" ('cause it's really not), but I really only have 3 things that consume my general life right now: music, poker, and my health. So when one of those 3 (poker) gets it's cheerios peed on (maybe that expression doesn't transfer well) life can get frustrating.

I finished the move into the new place and started buying all the random necessities that every new home requires: dishrack, cookware, gunrack (maybe the bloods and crips need a new member); the internet situation, however, sucked. AT&T couldn't turn my internet on until the 7th. Why? I went to Best Buy and got the modem I needed. I had all the necessary cables. Maybe they knew that I'd already socked some money into the SCOOP tourneys and just wanted to force me to use the random crapalicious wireless connections I could get through neighbors that weren't smart enough to password protect their routers. It's not like I'm some random kid that just needs the web for surfing/homestarrunner/theonion.com/espn etc. Bah. Anyway, it's up now and I can resume playing.

The rest of this month had better be stellar. Daddy needs a new pair of shoes (and plane tix, piano, new computer...).

- updates galore

2009-03-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

While I sit here listening to the uplifting and reflective big band stylings of the Maria Schneider Orchestra, I realized that no blog entries have been made for awhile. Wipe your tears and get ready for news.

Poker is going fine. I've dropped most 180-man and upper 45-mans from my daily routine, but will probably add them back when my confidence returns. $27 18-mans are absolutely getting crushed (probably due for a downswing, but maybe I'll just stay lucky forever). I really didn't play nearly enough this month mainly b/c of the combo of not feeling like playing, getting angry over a couple day downswing, and going to Vegas last weekend(which turned out to be one of the worst vacations I have ever taken - didn't even gamble or play poker...not going into detail; just need to forget about it). Turns out the 6-day break I had towards the end of the month was just what I needed, though. I'm pumped for April.

One of my IU bud's and another poker guy from PocketFives are playing the SCOOP (spring championships of online poker) on Pstars for a week or so during the month. I've played so few tourneys lately and these will give me ample time to grind more sngs. I believe we all payed 100 bucks each into a prize pool through PocketFives that will pay out 9k to the winning team (3 players/team) over the course of the SCOOP. There's a points system and it's based on all of our results. Plus, the guarantees for the different sized buy-ins are ridiculous. Maybe I'll get lucky and run well (20 or 30k wouldn't be a bad way to kick off the new apartment...wait, whaaat?).

My last day in this apartment is tomorrow. Managed to find a sweet split-level, 2 bed/bath apartment just a few blocks from here (walking distance to gym/grocery store/restaurants) for less than I'm paying now. The best part is that so few people are renting in this area right now b/c of the economy which makes for some cool incentives (like the option of 1 month rent free or 2 weeks free + 42" plasma tv...we're taking the TV). Now I can actually buy a bed (no more damn air mattress) and get some furniture going. Anyone that's reading this is welcome to come visit. Anyone that's not reading this can bite me.

One last note - I'm thinking of playing a couple of the smaller WSOP events this year. I'll put more info up the closer it gets, but I'm going to offer shares of myself if you're interested. Wouldn't you like to risk $100 bucks for a chance at splitting a $500k finish? I thought so.

- gotta figure out a way to retain supernova and some life nuggets

2009-02-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

The games overall have been pretty standard. Had a couple day stretch where I ran like a drunken hobo, but if I stick to the lower games, I should keep avg'ing 3-4 dollars/gm. The problem that arises, though, is the fact that I'm not getting enough vpps during my sessions to retain the 10k vpps/month necessary for supernova.

*note* Supernova is a sort of ranking system used by Pokerstars to reward high-volume players with more rakeback or "fpps" that can be exchanged for money and tvs and stuff. Basically, by keeping it, it's costing me a lot less rake to play on the site.

Right now we're 10 days into Feb and I figure I'll be around 4k vpps by the end of it. If I don't get at least 10k vpps by the end of the month, I lose my status and all the benefits. Not good. I'm probably going to have to start mixing in 10-15 9-man games during the day to make sure I push over the mark.

Other than that, life is pretty good. Going to the DMV tomorrow for (hopefully) the final time in CA to finish off my car's registration. Kinda pathetic, though, because I'm probably not going to be out here too much longer. Trombone has been getting better for the most part. My flexibility had completely gone to crap over the past few months and I finally have been sticking to my lip slur material enough to see some substantial progress. During my Junior/Senior year of undergrad, my general flexibility was probably at its best. While my overall playing ability has improved a ridiculous amount since then, it's disappointing that I've gotten so relaxed on one of the most important parts of brass playing.

- Milestone bonus

2009-02-04T15:06:00.000-08:00

Even with the inevitable bad swings, you can always count on pstars to provide a little extra. Unlocked the 200k vpp bonus and got a sweet $2k in my account. That is, until I immediately withdrew it all to pay for stuff.

- changed it up

2009-02-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

I know I said I'd post about all that cool stuff over late Dec/Jan, but you should probably know that I fib likes it's a part-time job. If you're really curious, maybe I can give a summary of the Bpong and Vegas stuff to you through facebook or whatevs.

Had a poker discussion a few weeks ago with someone who's poker opinions are among the best in the world. Basically, she pointed out reasons why I suck and things to improve, but the main thing I took from the discussion was that 9 man sngs (the game I played 10k+ sngs last year) just isn't as profitable as it used to be. This is actually a very good thing - I felt like throwing up the moment I sat down to play 9 mans at the start of the year. Assuming I was succumbing to a heavy amount of burn-out, she suggested I start playing the multi-table sngs. Although there's a lot more variance in these games, I'm having a buttload more fun playing them then 9 mans at any point last year. The math isn't as easy (or as readily available to the general public) as the stt (9 man) math and the player quality is substantially worse.

So, even though Jan for total profit was absolutely terrible, I did make a good deal over a fairly small amount of multis:
- $25/35 18 man; 245 games; 19% roi and $1150 profit ($5/gm)
- $15 18 man; 310 games; 21% roi and $1052 profit ($3/gm)
- $12 45 man; 351 games; 51% roi and $2135 profit ($6/gm)

That is, first of all, a very insignificant sample. Won't really know much about them until 1k games (probably much more) have been played, but it's a good start and looks promising at least.

Just to show how much variance can affect the total outcome (b/c it probably looks like I made around $4k over 1k games (approximations...duh), here's the stats for $25/35 45 mans:
- 196 games; -36% roi and -$1899 profit (-10/gm)

Pretty great, huh? Honestly, those are not any harder than the 25/35 18 mans...just more variance, a few more regs, and a whole f'ton of bad beats. Hopefully this month will be better and I can get rid of the little fishbowl icon next to the mid-stake 45 man stats. I'll just stick to the low stakes 18/45s and see how this month goes. Maybe I'll post more, too. Maybe I'm just lying again.

fire up the poker

2009-01-08T15:14:00.000-08:00

What a great break! Can't believe I haven't played for a couple weeks. Finished the year on a very nice 2k downswing, but at least unlocked the 200k vpp bonus (2k) - so, once it's released into my account it'll be even.

Lots to write about: the holidays, Vegas' WSOBP (world series of beer pong), and goals for the year. I'll probably just break them up into separate entries so that you can pick and choose which life-crap to peruse.

On the flight back to L.A. from Vegas a couple days ago, I was seated in between the two sickest members of the flight so I've been chugging tea and vitamin C like it's going out of style. Feeling better now and should get 50 games in today! First 50 of the '09!

- Vegas musings and stuff that didn't cost money

2008-12-19T05:42:00.000-08:00

I was pretty awestruck getting into Las Vegas late Friday evening. The skyline is amazing (even though our hotel was less than expected). My roommate's Dad goes gambling a lot so we got two free rooms (one in Caesar's and one in the Imperial Palace). The Caesar's room was huge, had an extra couch, flat screen, mini-fridge, walk-in shower and a tv in the bathroom. The Imperial Palace room was considerably less than that...but it had a dirty bathtub, so I guess that's good. Not a big deal, though, I wasn't planning on spending much time in the hotel anyway.

After dumping my stuff, I immediately pulled $300 and went to a $1/3 table in Caesar's. It was only midnight and there were a bunch of games going. Since it was my first time there and I really haven't played live in a while, it was probably a good idea to start at the low limits and figure out what some of the competition is like. Within 20 minutes, I saw a guy fold (and show) 66 on a Q63 rainbow board when he got reraised all-in for about 150 bucks. He claimed that "the other guy probably had QQ." I was stunned (only about half the table even noticed). Drunks filtered in and out of the poker room (which is absolutely beautiful, by the way; plenty of space between tables, comfy chairs, well-lit, and very aesthetically pleasing) and dropped off money here and there. I made about 150 at that table before it broke around 3 AM.

My plan was to try to make 300 or so before calling it - thus making it easy to jump up to 2/5 the next night. Hung around the other table for quite awhile picking up little pots here and there. One guy on my right was a local who chatted up the whole table and played pretty much any hand. He bluffed me out of a nice pot early on when he raised to around $11 from the cut-off and I reraised to $ 27-28 with AK. I forget the exact flop, but I know it was something like AJx with two hearts (I didn't have a heart). He checked, I bet a little over half-pot. Turn was either the Q or T of hearts (probably the worst card to come for me). Check, check. River was a baby heart putting a four-flush up. He bet half-pot immediately. I tanked it and folded, just not able to bring myself to call off that much with A high and no heart. He showed K-rag with no heart to me and said "you look like you know what you're doing so I figured you'd lay it down if I pushed hard enough." I probably have so many tells that I don't even know about. I'm sure he picked something up. Oh well.

A little later these two Spanish or Mexican guys came in (both drunk and still drinking). Within 5 minutes, one has tripled up and the other has busted. The one that tripled up was extremely cocky and kind of fun to watch. His English wasn't that great and at one point, he started saying that he's not a "Texas freak." The dealer had told him that he had to show both of his cards after shoving all-in and the kid argued for a minute. Finally, he turns them over explaining that he doesn't know all the crazy rules because, after all, he's not a "Texas freak." Anyway, he had the few good players at the table licking their lips for a chance to take some of his stack. I didn't get any of it, but did manage to give him some of my chips. Not going into detail because it still pisses me off to think about it.

Around 6 AM most of the table had split. We were down to our last 4 players (me, a local, and two not so good players). I was sitting on about $250 (down 50 bucks on the session, but it could've been worse). I actually got a read on one of the two weak players - he said early on that he knew poker was much more bluffing than people think. He'd bluffed a ton of small pots and shown his hands. Basically, every time he got reraised, he'd lay it down, but say something like "I'm in on the next one. No more bullying" or something like that. Finally, I pick up AQs in the small blind. He raised from the cut-off to about $15 bucks (standard for him, but waaaay more expensive than it needs to be for a 4-handed 1/3 game) and I reraised to $40 even. He goes "I told you I was going to get in there next time and I don't mean to be an asshole, but I reraise to $90." From someone that knows what they're doing, I'd probably think about that reraise (live min-raises sometimes encourage action, but he'd been playing so bad, I didn't think much of it). I went all-in and he called with ATo. No problem, right? Colin ends up around 200 on the night, right? No. Ten on the turn. To make matters worse, as soon as the ten hit, he puts his hands up over his face and starts into this "Thank you, God! Thank YOU!!! OH Thank you!!!" over and over like he's just won the lottery. If the money was that important to you, I'm glad you have it (oh, the local guy that I'd been talking to all night leaned over and told me he folded the other ten...which was just great). So, no profit or initial buy-in for me. Went back to the room and slept for a few hours.

Ate at this fantastic Asian restaurant in the MGM. Probably the best shrimp tempura I've ever had. Sorry, Shanghai Bistro. The group that I went with to Vegas got ready to go to Jamie Foxx's birthday thing at Tao in the Venetian (apparently it was incredible - particularly if you're a guy...lots of scantily clad women walking around). I didn't have nice shoes so I figured the bouncer wouldn't let me in and I sure as hell wasn't going to give him any money to let me through. I guess we were all on a list, but I didn't want to risk it. Thus, poker tournaments! Yay!

Played the 7 pm $150 at Caesar's and went pretty deep. It had a really good structure and nice mix of locals and tourists in it. Picked up some hands and managed to make it to the final two tables (10 places paid - something like 4k for 1st). The blinds just went up to 1k/2k with a 200 ante and this Asian kid that looked like (and sounded like) Aunch from Paris Hilton's "BFF" show or whatever (I don't watch that show, I just remember Joel McHale from the Soup ripping on him/her constantly) raised to 7k from the CO. I've got about 34k chips in the small blind and have A9o. He'd been pretty active, but I figured I had a perfect reraise stack against his (he had something like 50k left). Wrong. He snapped off with KJo and spiked a K on the river. Once again, someone started thanking the Heavens for getting him some chips. Yeah, forget the fact that you made an awful call, sir. Oh well.

Joined the midnight $70 shortly thereafter and decided that, since this buy-in was basically the same as a single game that I play on pokerstars, I might as well have some fun with it. Food service brought me a 7 bite quesadilla (which was delicious, but cost waaaaay too much). Only two tables worth of players joined and the structure was such that it was going to be an all-in fest within an hour, so I figured I'd be much looser than usual. Tripled up early when I flopped a set of threes and guys were willing to put chips in without any effort. A few hands later, a guy raised in early position and I called with A8s on the button. Flop came AJT with two of my suit. He checked, I bet and he reraised. I figured him for AK or a set, but wasn't really going anywhere with the flush opportunity. Turn and river faded for him and he scooped it. Little bit later a kid around my age had been 5-6x raising constantly in late position and I was waiting for a spot to throw a reraise in. He bumped it 5x on the button. The small blind was this old, kind southern gentleman wearing a really loud yellow striped shirt. He flatted and I reraised huge with AK. Aggro button folded, but the small blind guy says "Sorry, son, was trying to trap the button guy" and flips over AA. By now the table is having a good time and I'm talking to as many of them as possible, not because I think it'll give information (which I wouldn't know how to use anyway), but we were actually having fun.

Since I was knocked down to about 900 chips with pretty big blinds already, I told everyone that I wanted to get through 3 coronas before i busted. I hadn't had anything to drink at the tables until that point - considering I knew it was time to get crazy, I figured why not get the drinks for really cheap? I made it through 2 before I busted. Sigh.

The next morning we ate at the buffet in the Mirage. Holy crap. Heaven. That's what it will look like for me. One of the chefs said to my friend when she asked about the desserts, "We change our dessert menu 4 times per day. You're in the Mirage; you're in a completely different world." It probably wouldn't have been so funny if he hadn't used the snootiest accent available.

I remember telling one of the guys that I'd be disappointed if I didn't make $1k while there. Complete lie. I can't wait to go back in a couple weeks (working for the World Series of Beer Pong - yes, you read that right) even if I don't win.

- Vegas tomorrow

2008-12-12T02:39:00.000-08:00

Had a good day at the tables today and ended up getting some good volume in, too. Really couldn't come at a better time since I had to buy a plane ticket home and get ready for the holidays. Made another solid decision to put off getting that plane ticket until prices would be expensive (right...like people are supposed to expect flights to cost more around Christmas? no way...). So, now I've only got 4 days to get enough volume in to make 200k vpps. Why so little time, you ask? Your flight to Milwaukee isn't until Thursday?

This weekend I'm finally going to Vegas. I'm not into shiny lights and hookers like everyone that usually goes there - just the fact that cash games allegedly run like the online games of 5 years ago is really enticing to me. Since the majority of my friends here in LA are in the entertainment industry, I guess we're on the list of some clubs and Jamie Foxx's birthday party at the Venetian or something. Apparently it's also a CD release party - I guess he's going to sing. Maybe I'll skip out before then (honestly, why does he have two "x's" in his last name).

5 years ago when the online poker industry was still in it's infancy (or adolescence, I guess), huge schools of fish circulated an insane amount of money up the food chain on various sites. Unfortunately, the same methods that I used to improve are now so readily available that the learning curve is dramatically reduced for beginners. Thus, harder games all around. I really wish I knew what I do now 5 years ago. Honestly, I would be a very rich dude right now. Very.

Quick hand from today:
PokerStars Game #22836408323: Tournament #126444962, $55+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2008/12/11 21:39:51 ET
Table '126444962 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: litlleWop (2200 in chips)
Seat 2: fattymcbones (3700 in chips)
Seat 5: slipperily (3730 in chips)
Seat 8: Nevermine (3870 in chips)
litlleWop: posts the ante 25
fattymcbones: posts the ante 25
slipperily: posts the ante 25
Nevermine: posts the ante 25
fattymcbones: posts small blind 200
slipperily: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fattymcbones [3d Jh]
Nevermine: folds
litlleWop: folds
fattymcbones: raises 3275 to 3675 and is all-in
slipperily: calls 3275
*** FLOP *** [3s 2s 2d]
fattymcbones said, "omg"
*** TURN *** [3s 2s 2d] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [3s 2s 2d Ad] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fattymcbones: shows [3d Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
slipperily: shows [6s Ac] (two pair, Aces and Deuces)
slipperily collected 7450 from pot

This is a spot 5 years ago people would constantly fold. The threat of losing the hand and bubbling the sng would be too much for most people. After the guy made the call, he typed "make a note" - probably because I was berating him (dumb move on my part) in the chat box. His call was so incredibly bad it's hard to describe. With a small stack like this on the bubble, I'm making an unexploitable shove (basically, I could have the worst hand possible, 27o, turn my cards over before I pushed all in and he still can't call with very many hands in that spot). After plugging the hand into my ICM calculator and reversing the situation, he made a -1.99 ev call. Normally, the goal is to avoid even the slightest -ev pushes (like, say, 0 to -.3). The fact that he made that huge of a mistake is just crazy. Even if he was trying to send a message to me about pushing any two cards in that spot, it's still incredibly dumb.

Rant over.

Well, I guess I'll update after we get back from Nevada. Time to dust off my cash game chops.

- Stupid regulars...

2008-12-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Started playing around noon today after a couple hours of trombone practice and it seems like every regular is playing today. To counteract the loss in equity, I've tried to only register for 4 60s at a time and see who else joins - then get out if too many regs are around. Unfortunately, I didn't unregister from one such game and ended up with 8 regulars at the table. Only 4 of them were decent/good regs, but still.

With all those guys at the table and me only playing around 10 games (since it was impossible to get less than 4 regs in every game down to the 16s...), I decided to alter my play a little bit and mix up some situations.

Here's a hand with one of the better regs at the table. It's the first hand of the sng and we've played probably around 500 in the same games. Because of our history, he knows without a doubt that I'm limping a pocket pair here (early position, early game, etc.) and he's usually aggressive against me pre/post flop (since I'm unlikely to put up much resistance early in the game).

This was a $60 -
Seat 1: dumb reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: good reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: fish (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: fattymcbones (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: dumb reg (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: vgood reg (1500 in chips)
good reg: posts small blind 10
reg: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fattymcbones [5c 5s]
fish: folds
reg: folds
fattymcbones: calls 20
reg: folds
dumb reg: folds
vgood reg: folds
dumb reg: folds
good reg: raises 80 to 100
reg: folds
fattymcbones: calls 80
*** FLOP *** [7d 4s 8s]
good reg: bets 146
fattymcbones: calls 146
*** TURN *** [7d 4s 8s] [Kd]
good reg: checks
fattymcbones: bets 250
good reg: folds
Uncalled bet (250) returned to fattymcbones
fattymcbones collected 512 from pot
fattymcbones: doesn't show hand

His range on the preflop raise I figured was somewhat wider than what I would raise in this situation, probably TT+ and AQ maaaaaybe AJs+. Since he knows I'm set-mining, he figures I'll miss the majority of the time and he'll pick up some early chips. However, his lead out bet seemed somewhat strange to me. Normally, this reg continuation bets pretty often (even though he's out of position) but not with strange amounts. If he had a big pair, it would make sense for him to bet 2/3 - 3/4 pot to get me off of a drawing hand - BUT, he knows that I don't play suited connectors in those spots (especially limp-opening the pot) so there's no real danger that I've got something sneaky like 56 or two medium spades. The only real danger for him is if I have 88, 77 or 44 which are all very possible holdings for me.

The rest seems pretty obvious: I float the flop, he checks the turn, I semi-bluff and he folds what was most likely a stronger hand. My question is whether or not that play was worth it? Sure, it's early and I made the conscious decision to deviate from my everyday play, but I only picked up 250 chips (half of which were mine anyway). I guess there was a chance I'd flop a 5 and he'd stack off to me, but that seems unlikely in hindsight. Most of the good regulars will at least notice that another good regular is involved and toss their AK and QQ/JJ in that situation. I could've folded pre, but he was giving me ok odds (would've preferred 80 chips) and I was in position. Eh, I don't know. The more I look at it, the more I wonder if alterring your game is worth it in early sngs. Most of these guys pay less attention than they should anyway. Suggestions are welcome.

- December's gonna be good to me

2008-12-03T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting at my friend's house in Milwaukee looking out at several inches of snow. My flight leaves for LA in about 5 hours (where it's about 67 degrees right now) and I can't really play any poker because the batteries in my mouse died. The last week up here was completely relaxing - probably because I didn't need or want to play poker. Can't wait to get started again tomorrow, though.

I figure there will only be about 16 days that I'll be able to play once I'm back home. I'm coming home for Christmas (not a song-cue) around the 20th and the weekend of the 13th I'll be in Vegas (was supposed to play a gig backing the Temptations, but it got changed at the last minute...lame). Only 20k vpps shy of the 200k mark which, since the 4k bonus is released, will only take about 800 $60s to complete. Really, though, these bonuses will play out in a pretty fortunate pattern for me:

- I'm about 38500 fpps from purchasing the 1.5k bonus that I wanted to release before Jan. 1st (roughly 440 games at the $60s)
- 1.5k bonus will take 10k base fpps to release (400 games at the $60s)
- 400 + 440 games = 840 games (yay, simple math is all I'm good at) which puts me over 200k vpps and releases the 2k milestone bonus into the bonus account
- 10k base fpps later, or 400 more $60s, and the 2k bonus will be released

Unless I'm completely off-base here, if I can play 1240 60s this month I should be able to release the remaining bonuses I'd planned on in November. Plus, now that the break-even month is over, maybe I can get back to 6-7% roi at the 60s and get ready for some student loan payments!

Hopefully that will serve as ample motivation to play 75+ games per day until I go home.

- Back in Wisconsin. Weeeee!

2008-11-25T23:46:00.000-08:00

Got back to Fond du Lac on Monday around 6. Flight left LA at 8 AM, slight lay-over in Phoenix, then home to Milwaukee. When we descended through the cloud cover over Lake Michigan and all I could see was snow on the ground, you probably could've punched me in the face and my smile wouldn't have gone away. Yeah, that's a lie. A punch in the face would make playing trombone difficult and I'd be pissed about that. It was only four inches or so on the ground, but I'm freakin pumped to be in a place where there are actual changes in the weather ("oh, it's cold out today." "how cold is it?" "about 60 degrees." "go screw a dog, you dumbass." - actual conversation I overheard in the Valley).

Played all Sunday night since I didn't feel like trying to wake up for a 5 AM cab ride to the LAX flyaway. Still finished about 2k vpps shy of the bonus, but up about $650 on the day which gave me some more reasons to smile. Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I played after my parents went to bed around 10 until about 1:30 AM to try to release the rest of the bonus. So, even though I'd been awake (sans a 20 minute nap on one of the flights) from noon Sunday until 10 PM Monday, I still played about 30 games until I felt like I'd fall asleep at the desk. Plus, I didn't have my 30" monitor to help tile/cascade tables so it was mostly done on the lappy and my parents' monitor. Got another 1k vpps taken care of, though. Weeeee.

Finally plowed through the rest of it tonight in between dinner (my Dad grills the best damn pork ribs in the world) and my sis' rehearsal (she's directing a community theatre show in town) then went out and drank with some friends - partly to celebrate my sister's birthday and partly to, at least internally, celebrate the end of that freakin' 4k bonus.

November's poker is over and it's time to be honest. I wrote down a goal that I wanted to get 10k profit and 7.5k in bonuses prior to the new year, but I just don't think it's possible. This month really wasn't all bad - I got 4k in the bonus column released...BUT, I lost $151 dollars from November 1st to today. It's really not all bad though, I lost 3k over the first 2 weeks and then won it all back over the past 5 days or so (yes, after I realized that I needed to readjust and get back to the poker I'd played in Sept/Oct). In December I will definitely get the last 20k vpps I need to release the 2k vpp milestone bonus given for reaching 200k vpps in a year and will release another 1.5k bonus during that time (completing the 7.5k bonus goal), but I don't think it's likely that I can play enough games to get 10k profit in that time. Especially because one of the 3 weekends I'll be back on the West Coast will be spent in Vegas. It's just not likely, but maybe that'll be ample motivation for January (maybe many regs will take the month off to relax, too).

Since getting back less than two days ago, it's kinda weird to talk to people you know and have them ask the same two questions at some point in the conversation: "Have you gotten any gigs in LA yet?" and"So, what are you doing for money?" I'm able to diffuse the first question easily - "Yeah, TONS! It's like I walked into the LA area and everyone just said 'Wow, we've never had a trombone player out here before'." At which point, it's understood that it takes a long time to get legitimate, solid work playing music in any major city in America. Yes, I've taken lessons with some fantastic players here, but I probably won't see any great gigs for several more months...it's just the nature of the beast. The second question, though, is a lot more uncomfortable to discuss. My parents don't feel all that comfortable with me playing poker for a living and most of my friends think that I could "lose all my winnings in one hand." If it's someone that I don't feel will understand or accept my current financial situation, I drop the old "I saved a lot before moving out there [blatant lie] and some of my friends can get me some side jobs at E! or in production work when things get tough [very possible, but probably won't come up]." Usually, though, I just try to avoid talking money with people altogether. What's the point?

Is it worth trying to explain how much time I've spent working on sngs? Is it worth trying to explain how long it took me to make a paltry 30k at sngs? Is it worth trying to explain how I made absolutely no physical profit over 1500 sngs in November? Is it worth trying to explain (again) why someone should not even think about trying to start playing poker for a livign? In a word, hell no (yeah, that's two words. Bite me). The next four days will give me a lot of time to practice avoiding that question, I guess. My extended family is huge and we're all close (not proximity-wise, just that everyone gets along really well), so it's gonna get asked a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all, shut the hell up. It's an adapted Family Guy quote, sue me.

- Beer and tacos for all!

2008-11-21T03:10:00.000-08:00

I owe a huge thank you to 1mikeand1 and l0bsta for helping me during this downswing. Took more than just a change in luck to get things rolling again. Turns out there were a lot of missed opportunities and bubbles that I completely shied away from just to avoid bad beats - which meant I was forfeiting tons of equity and allowed myself to get crippled really easily.

Mike had some especially solid points to turn my suckometer off. First, I dropped my table volume back to 12, but did it in a way that wasn't mindless. He said to start with 4 tables, then once the blinds hit 25/50 bump in another 4 while keeping the high blind tables at the top of my monitor. It's pretty ridiculous how much you miss in early game situations when you just rev up 15-20 tables every time. Note-taking, spotting the fish within two or three hands, and taking minor risks to stack a fish early became so easy it's sick.

So, we were also discussing the difficulties posed to sng grinders and how tough it is to become one of the best at a game that, more or less, is a solved one. Obviously there are the endless variables of who's pushing what in which position and can I call based on his most recent action or has he adjusted to my range, etc. etc. etc. Most of the regs at the 38s and 27s are actually very easy to read and call against (I guess many of the 60s regs, too). With everyone push-botting so well, Mike said it's probably within our best interest to try to pick up chips in the early levels without risking much, if anything. If the last 3 days have been any indication, he's absolutely right. Just because you double up early in a sng does not guarantee you'll win (or even cash), BUT it definitely gave me 3 or 4 opportunites in my last two sessions to survive in spots that I would've busted earlier in the month.

Example: A fish donked off his stack in the 3rd hand of a 38 this morning when his A7o (that he limped utg) hit top pair, but couldn't beat my flopped nut flush (KQs) on an As4s8s board.
--brief aside -- Now, I am totally not advocating playing any two sooooted cards or baby-aces or pocket pairs that don't have good implied odds, but there are definitely spots that are +ev for the most part. A.) There were 4 limpers (before the blinds) in the pot making the odds favorable for me. B.) I was on the button making it easy to get out if one of the blinds raised or there was a rough flop. C.) I'm not a complete freakin moron when it comes to reading boards/opponents. Yeah, there may be players that will limp AK in early position in one of these so I'm obviously not going to turn into Jo-jo, the idiot circus boy, when I hit a king. However, when I do hit a very strong hand against someone I've pegged as an fishdonk, I'm going to do everything I can to take him to the cleaners - and, fortunately, many of them oblige. --aside over--

Anyway, because I had the good fortune of stacking a guy early in the game, once we got to 4 or 5 handed (can't remember exactly), I called a reg's shove with a K7s blind vs. blind at 100/200 with antes (he had about 1600 chips). After losing to his J5 (obv), I'd normally be either on the rail or very close to it. Managed to chip back up with my remaining 1800 and took 2nd. True, the early KQs will not hit very often and most of the time I'll forfeit 20 chips or play down a very small pot, but this time it worked out and got me some money.

If you completely disagree with that play and think it's stupid to risk any chip you don't need to early in a sng, settle the hell down because you very well could be right. I'm just trying some new things to see what works and make improvements where possible.

Trying to finish off this $4k bonus before I leave for home on Monday...really don't know if I can make it in time. Have about 5800 vpps left to release (about 360 games at the 38s) and only 3 days to do it. Still, it's good to figure out that my luck is turning around because I was bubble-sucking, not because Stars hates me.

L0bsta, come to LA so I can get you some beer and Chipotle with Mike.

- To describe the indescribable

2008-11-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

Got what I wanted. A winning session! It was the first one of the day and the first in several days...sadly, the rest of the 100 games on the day were standard and I lost all the profit plus another 200.

There were several hands I felt could aptly demonstrate the day of poker, but I'll just spare you. Honestly, my 80/20s and AJ v. AT on the bubble just need to hold up. I'm glad I didn't keep track of the number of times I bubbled after abusing the table and losing three hands to bust me (at least two of which I was crushing).

- very confident in one thing -

2008-11-17T23:37:00.000-08:00

At the end of this "Stars era of pain," I will be an absolutely fantastic push/folder. It may come when my bankroll reads "0.00," but it will come.

Played one more session tonight. 20 games. AA all in pre won 1 for 5. KK all in pre went 2 for 7. Not bad, not bad at all. Figured I'd have one winning session in the last 3 days. Maybe it'll come tomorrow (even a +5 dollar session please). I'm going to go drink and eat oreos alone on the couch now.

- Strongly debating quitting

2008-11-17T16:46:00.000-08:00

This downswing has reached a point of being completely ridiculous. 7 times this session (45 games) did I get to heads-up with a substantial lead. In all 7 I lost 2 flips or was dominating and then took 2nd. At the 38s that's a loss of almost 450 dollars for those 7 - even if I only won 4/7 that's still 250 dollars more than what I won. I honestly feel like my push/fold has improved exponentially these last few days, too.

Example:
PokerStars Game #22132584470: Tournament #121207819, $35+$3 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2008/11/17 19:30:40 ET
Table '121207819 1' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 4: arturopr (2187 in chips)
Seat 5: wc kid (4135 in chips)
Seat 8: superfamous (3392 in chips)
Seat 9: fattymcbones (3786 in chips)
arturopr: posts the ante 50
wc kid: posts the ante 50
superfamous: posts the ante 50
fattymcbones: posts the ante 50
superfamous: posts small blind 300
fattymcbones: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fattymcbones [Js Kc]
arturopr: folds
wc kid: folds
superfamous: raises 2742 to 3342 and is all-in
fattymcbones: calls 2742
*** FLOP *** [9c 5c Kh]
*** TURN *** [9c 5c Kh] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [9c 5c Kh Ad] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
superfamous: shows [5s 9h] (a full house, Fives full of Nines)
fattymcbones: shows [Js Kc] (two pair, Kings and Fives)
superfamous collected 6884 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6884 | Rake 0
Board [9c 5c Kh Ad 5h]
Seat 4: arturopr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: wc kid (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: superfamous (small blind) showed [5s 9h] and won (6884) with a full house, Fives full of Nines
Seat 9: fattymcbones (big blind) showed [Js Kc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Fives

This is a spot I wouldn't have called a week ago. Noticing the shortstack and the note I had on superfamous (knowing 100% of hands would be shoved by him) this was a no-brainer call. He told me in the chatbox when I typed "obv" that I made a very poor call considering the shorties stack. Wrong. In sngwiz, this says I can call down to K9o (26%) and it's still profitable against his any two cards.

This genuinely might be variance, but I'm feeling more and more like I pissed off pokerstars. Yeah, that's probably a stupid thing to say, but they did have the software installed to see which internet sites we visited last week (i.e. sharkscope) so it is absolutely possible for them (even if it is completely unlikely) to pinpoint a single player on their site that continues to use that site and punish them accordingly.

- look, Stars, we gotta talk.

2008-11-16T15:40:00.000-08:00

If I'm going to win back the money that you've screwed me out of this month, you have to stop doing this. I can't keep playing well if you ram it down my throat to ruin session after session.

This particular guy shoved continuously heads-up post-flop. I'd caught him twice with top pair and checked to double-up to even stacks (both times he'd shoved with air or bottom/mid pair and weak kicker).

Level VIII (200/400) - 2008/11/16 18:37:52 ET
9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 5: fattymcbones (6621 in chips)
Seat 8: (champion of life) (6879 in chips)
fattymcbones: posts the ante 25
(I hate this guy): posts the ante 25
(still hate this guy): posts small blind 200
fattymcbones: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fattymcbones [9c Qs]
(idiot donk): calls 200
fattymcbones: checks
*** FLOP *** [2d Tc 9h]
fattymcbones: checks
(crapshow): bets 6454 and is all-in
fattymcbones: calls 6196 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (258) returned
*** TURN *** [2d Tc 9h] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [2d Tc 9h 2s] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fattymcbones: shows [9c Qs] (two pair, Nines and Deuces)
(yay, stars wins): shows [2c Js] (three of a kind, Deuces)
(suck it, fatty) collected 13242 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 13242 | Rake 0
Board [2d Tc 9h 2s 3c]
Seat 5: fattymcbones (big blind) showed [9c Qs] and lost with two pair, Nines and Deuces
Seat 8:(phil helmuth) (button) (small blind) showed [2c Js] and won (13242) with three of a kind, Deuces

Admittedly, winning this hand would not have caused my bankroll to magically regain the month's net loss, but these situations just keep forcing break-even or slight losing sessions. I've only got a week left before my flight home for Thanksgiving. Maybe, just maybe, pstars will forgive me for whatever I did and let me regain at least some winnings.

- bought a car

2008-11-14T00:34:00.000-08:00

Don't freak out, it's just a '94 Saturn...yeah, really balla. Btw, I hate the term "balla." It reminds me of the unbelievably stupid frat guys at IU running around with their pink polo popped collars. Granted, I was a stupid fraternity guy when at UW-EC, but still (and never, ever with a popped collar - unless it was to mock the Chad's and Kip's).

Dropped down to the 38s to try to get some confidence back and curb the animosity towards poker. Gone are the days when I would break a mouse because of the 40th bubble in a row (really only happened once and the new mouse I bought was totally worth it). Since this is pretty much my job until the music stuff starts to hit big, I've got to sack up and avoid any negative emotion for as long as possible when I'm playing.

From the 1st to the middle of the 13th I dropped about 50 buy-ins at the $60 9-mans and, if you add in the steps, that goes up a little more to about 55 or so. I thought I was either going insane, playing absolutely terribly, or the games were just becoming impossible to beat. Kept checking hands and situations and have come to the conclusion that I still like to call people lighter than necessary. Just because I see a player pushing a proper spot for any two cards obviously does not mean he's pushing that light. The variance was probably caused by a combo of my erraticly wide calls and some pretty stupid luck (almost went back to see how many 80/20's I lost, but probably would've just started crying). You know, overall I think I could improve my value-extraction skills, too. Was watching one of the best regs at the 38s (and probably across most of the sng levels) Goldneagl while we were playing against each other tonight and he seems to always get the most from his hands. Not saying I suck at it, but I think while playing 15-20 tables at a time, I certainly don't get maximum value from all situations and hands.

Oh, yeah, also the fact that I was playing against 4 regs in nearly every $60 killed me. A few of them really know their push/fold well while others just know general guidelines. Example: Ok regular pushed into me with 1490 chips at 75/150 from utg (I was BB). I was expecting something along the lines of 77/88+, AJs+ (which if run for a 7-handed table in sngwiz would be a correct range based on the majority of the table's calling range), but he obviously flips over KQo when I call with QQ...guess who won? The good thing about him turning his King, though, is that he'll probably make the same mistake again.

The goal from here on is table selection. Late at night and early in the morning there usually aren't many grinders at all. I'll probably just try to aim my playing around the decent hours or move down to where they're not playing at all. After all, what's the point of playing for practically no equity at the 60s when I can move down and still average $3-4 per game? Hopefully I can get back on track to make 10k profit and 7.5k in bonuses before Christmas. Probably won't get much playing once I leave for Indiana in a week, though.

- good mindset doesn't equal good results

2008-11-11T11:34:00.001-08:00

Got up early this morning to get some random things done and play before many of the regulars hit the site. Unfortunately, even with fewer table regs, my ridiculous streak continues. I haven't had a win in my last 45 games or so and only 3 in my last 75. When you think about it, that's absolutely ridiculous. Since the payout scale on Star sngs is so heavy for 1st place, it's really crushing me to not get many (or any) wins across these last sessions. I think I'm down about 2500 on the month so far (not including about 300 on step tourneys...I'm done with those things. They're cake to play, but I always seem to get a couple step 5s and then poof. Done.) and about 750 on the day. It's still before noon, so maybe things will turn around this afternoon.

It's easy when running bad to just assume variance and bad luck (and maybe Lee Jones) are punching you in the kidneys. Managed to run about 10 hands from last session and 2 bubble situations and really can't see any glaring mistakes. I don't know, but as far as I can tell I'm really not playing any differently than I was for the last couple months. That stupid helpless feeling isn't a real solid motivator to play more, which is exactly what I need to keep doing. I suppose I could try to look at the positive from the last few table hours, though - I've managed to let the random swearing and donk berating slowly subside into an awestruck, confused head motion. Maybe that'll stick and I won't feel like "chat hating" anymore.

- sometimes I wonder about the doom switch...

2008-11-10T15:51:00.000-08:00

This blog (and this post) will not turn into a bad beat saga. I really get tired of listening to beats and no one enjoys the guy who constantly tells you about his latest tale of sadness. But, the month of November has really been the worst month of good poker I've ever played. I'm only down about 1k over 450 games or so, but it's been absolutely infuriating. I mean, like punch a whole through your monitor type of infuriating. By the end of sessions I'm pissed off and don't feel like doing anything except hunting down the idiot opponents I run into with a sharpened MacBook. Fortunately those feelings really only stay for about 10 minutes at the maximum and then I can get other stuff done.

I've had my chat back on Pokerstars for a couple months now and am kind of regretting it. It's nice to make some friends with a few of the decent regulars at the tables, yes, but mostly it just gives me an opportunity to freak out when some idiot snaps off on the bubble with A6o from the small blind. If you somehow find this blog (and you know who you are), yes, I do push things like J5o when I'm the big stack at 200/400 because there are so few hands you can accurately call with - especially when there's a microstack at the table that has already folded. Trust me, A6o in the small blind is one of the worst plays and you spew your equity all over the place. But, no, I'm not bitter that my AK went down to your A-rag for the 3rd time that game and about the 50th of that session. Now I'm angry again.

Through the last couple months I've had my chat blocked a couple times (once by me and once by stars) and been warned a couple times. Reasons varied from insulting a foreign player (he was German and bragged that English was his 2nd language...he'd also sucked out on me 4 hands in a row and I couldn't deal with it) to insulting another foreign player (he was French - not going to explain further) and arguing with regulars about someone's poor play. I don't know, but it felt like I played a more level-headed game without the option of the chatbox. Not saying I'm prone to tilt, because honestly, I'd stop playing so much if every session ended in vicious cycles of tilt. But I definitely stop paying as much attention to all my tables when there's some idiot (fish or not) that needs my verbal ramblings. My angry rant serves no positive purpose either. The fish or regular that I'm pissed at isn't going to apologize or transfer me money because of how awfully they play. The only logical result would be that they they celebrate at how furious I am or they make a slight adjustment next time and play the hand better (exactly what I don't want).

I don't know. Maybe if I get my chat perma-banned from stars I can just click out the table when I bust to an idiot and leave it at that. If anyone has suggestions for how to get perma-banned, I'd appreciate them.

- swings and streaks

2008-11-10T02:51:00.000-08:00

I only really became a pro sng grinder starting in late August when I moved here to LA. In these few months, I've actually been relatively successful and consistent. Was grinding mainly 38s for the first month and then shifted up to the 60s in early October. I guess I was really fortunate for the first two months because, although there was plenty of variance, it never hit like it has at the 60s.

There's a real difference, I think, between the 60s and the 38s that I've seen. Sure, at any level of sit'n'go you have guys that know they should push/fold, but at the 38s, there seemed to be more players that knew less about it. At the 60s everyone and their mom knows they should push when the blinds have started to become bigger. The games are still profitable because so few players push/fold accurately - or even know how to figure out what is an 'accurate' push. Obviously, with all of these players pushing (instead of a few more of them folding at the lower limit), there's increased variance.

A couple guys at the 60s absolutely crush the game. I've only played 2k of them since September, but feel like I should've made a lot more than I have and I can't quite figure out why. Sometimes, I make glaring mistakes like calling someone waaaaay too light when they're not a regular (most of the time these guys are pushing legit hands, but I still talk myself into a poor call), but mostly I think my 3-handed play has suffered somehow. Suppose I'll just have to plug more hands into my broken sngwiz program.

- introductory comments and general procrastination

2008-11-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Welcome. I'm not sure how many people I will inform about this blog since the majority of the material presented will be of little interest to most. However, I feel like I need an outlet for poker discussion on the internet (considering I no longer frequent pocketfives, 2+2, or pxf for various reasons). Maybe this will just turn into a daily/weekly account of my poker life and the general twists and turns of variance. Maybe I'll discuss my thoughts on certain situations within the games that I play and offer suggestions to myself (and anyone else who feels they could work). Most likely, though, it will end up being an accountablity tool to keep my poker goals on track.

Right now, I should be either purchasing plane tickets back home for Thanksgiving, taking care of my car insurance, going to the gym or practicing piano (in anticipation of my final requirement for graduation from Indiana). Instead, I decided to start a less than rewarding poker blog and will probably update again before I take care of any of the important things in my life.