Movin On Up

Well, since my last post I've been playin a lot of 6max and I recently made the jump to 200NL. I've tried to move to 200NL (FR twice) and I've run absolutely horrible each time. Well, I'm happy to report that I have run very good since my move this time at 200NL 6max. Im up $1500 over 3700 hands and now, after an absolutely horrendous start to the month, I'm up almost $5000 in November including bonuses. 6max is just so much more interesting than FR and I think I'm going to be staying there for quite awhile. The only reason I might play FR again is to try to grind out Supernova next month. I still have quite a bit of VPPs to get (~23k) so I might need to just sit around for hours 16 tabling 200NL FR next month when I'm on Christmas vacation. I also am getting 6max coaching from a guy named Terp on deucescracked.com and I just had my first session today. Terp definitely knows what hes talking about and is only charging me $100/hour for 200NL 6max coaching. I definitely think that when i get 4-5 hours put in with him I will be a much better player.

I'm definitely going to take a shot at playing for a living after I'm out of school. I will be graduating with a B.S. in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Economics, but to be honest, none of that excites me at all. I am so sick of classes and schoolwork this year. Every class I am taking just seems so tedious and boring that I almost can't stand it anymore. I absolutely dread the thought of sitting through even an hour long class. I've stopped going to one of my classes completely since I have all the old tests from the class and the teacher never changes them so basically I just have to memorize the old tests to get an A. I can't really ever see myself being happy working any type of 9-5 job. Whether it be in an office or a lab or whatever, I just don't think I'd ever be happy doing it. I really hope this poker thing works out and that I can play for living next year. Its so depressing thinking that if I got a job next year I'd probably be making 30-40k a year working 40 hours a week considering I'm pretty sure I could make well over 50k playing ~20 hours a week at 100NL. Hopefully i can be beating 400NL by the end of May, which would mean well over $100k a year playing part time.

So, after all that rambling about how jobs suck and what not, I'll give you an update on my month so far. After an absolutely horrendous start to the month I've bounced back nicely and am extremely pumped. If I could post two $5000 months in a row that would be absolutely amazing.



Btw, here's a couple interesting 200NL 6max hands:

Villain here is an ultra aggro reg and I decide to look him up



Just to show theres still plenty of donks at 200NL

Halftime Report

Alright, I've been seriously neglecting this blog lately, but what can I say, I've been busy with schoolwork/playing poker lately. I've really had no time to hop on here and post updates. I also can never think of anything to write on here, so I just don't post. A couple things happened earlier this month that really put my life into perspective and made me kind of stop worrying about poker so much. I think I finally realized that poker is just a game, and losing a few hundred dollars here and there is absolutely no big deal. I've won so much in the past that I can't complain about anything that has to do with poker, ever. Even if I lose my entire BR tomorrow, I will have still cashed out well over $10,000 from what is essentially a fun hobby for me. I still do enjoy playing. After everything that has happened to me in real life this month, I actually feel like a total fool for ever complaining about being -EV, running badly, taking a bad beat, etc.

All that being said, I have played a lot of poker this month. I think part of it was that I needed to take my mind off of everything going on and poker was one thing that I could do which would take my entire concentration. I try not to think about anything other than playing well when I am playing a session and although I get distracted sometimes, I usually stay totally focused. Alright, now for the part you've been waiting for: how I've been doing this month.

The month started out extremely rocky. Took a shot at 200NL, ran absolutely terrible and decided to move back down to 100NL. I started playing 100NL FR again and just found myself bored as hell for some reason. I couldn't just sit there and play a TAG game on all my tables. I started trying to make plays at every pot, calling regs just to try to outplay them postflop and generally just spewing chips. After spewing for a little while I decided to get my shit together and start playing good poker again. I knew I was bored with FR so I started to play 6max again. 6max has gone pretty well even though I've still run pretty terrible. At least I'm not totally bored with it and I feel I am playing optimally. I also started playing some HU again (with great success). A lot of my profit this month has been from 100NL HU. The play at 100NL HU is just so utterly bad that I keep considering switching full time. Problem is that VPP/FPPs suck at HU and I am going to try to get Supernova next month. I've got ~28,000 VPPs to go for Supernova and I think I will 20-table 100NL FR til i get SN next month. I will be on Christmas vacation for a lot of the month, so it will definitely be doable.

Here's the graph for the month so far. I'm ~$2000 below all in EV. It sucks, but I am not whining about it. I know that its going to happen at times and it will eventually even out in the long run. Just kind of sucks knowing that I should be up a lot more this month, but whatever, I have still won a good amount. Like I said, there are more important things to be worrying about in life than poker EV. I've been pretty happy with my play (only a couple small tilty sessions mostly due to boredom) and my volume of hands. Hopefully I can get another 20k hands in by the end of the month. I've also placed in two 5400 sattys for $214 each, so all in all I guess its a pretty good month so far.

Monthly Report aka I Run Good

Wow, what can I say, I can't believe that I'm posting this right now but I have a total profit this month over $5000. It has been by far my best poker month since I started playing and if I could keep it up I'd be making $60,000+/year working less than 20 hours a week which is a pretty good number :). Too bad my winrate this month wasn't sustainable at 100NL playing less than 20 hours a week. I played a lot of HU and 6max this month compared to almost all FR for the past couple months. HU was super profitable and half of my ring game profits this month came from 100NL HU. I ran super hot while playing HU and it was an interesting to switch it up a little bit, but I can't see myself playing HU regularly. The swings are absolutely ridiculous and not good for my mental stability atm.

I am debating whether or not to stick to FR or 6max or play a little of both next month though. If I play FR I'll most likely move to 200NL as I currently have over 40 Buy-ins for that level. If I play 6max I will most likely stay at 100NL for at least half of the month since I am not totally comfortable there yet. The only problem is that 6max seems to send me on life tilt every time I play so if that is the route I choose I will need to learn to control that. Right now I'm kind of leaning towards playing mostly 200NL FR and just grinding out hands/VPPs while 12 tabling (Maybe I'll get a new monitor and try 16). I think that will end up netting me the most total profit next month.

Alright, well I've got to go study a little bit. I'm gonna be too busy the next couple days to play any poker so that's why I'm posting my monthly report a little bit early. I've included my Graph and Winnings Summary for the month for your enjoyment. I didn't include a couple limits in my winnings summary, that's why the numbers don't match exactly. I also placed in 3/5 5400 FPP sattys and won $150 in tournaments to bring my grand total for the month to $5531.31.

Halftime Report (Sort Of)

Ok, so its not exactly halfway through the month, I'm a few days late. I wasn't gonna post one of these, but I am bored and decided why the hell not. I was waiting to post a report from my trip to Washington DC but I'm too lazy to upload all the photos from my camera/phone. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll put a full trip report up with photos, but for now I'll just let you know that it was a blast.

I know I haven't been updating frequently at all lately and its partly because I'm kind of busy, but also because I'm kind of lazy. Also, I don't really know what the hell to write about in these posts. I've been playing a bit of HU lately and loving it. Its so ridiculously fishy that I cant believe it. Took $320 from this guy today who never folded a pair ever. I just waited til I had top pair and 3 barreled. Called me down every time he had any piece of the board. It was nice. So far this month has been another great one and I'm on pace to beat last month so wish me luck. One thing that I have been pretty proud of myself for is that I haven't tilted in quite awhile (with the exception of one hand vs a shortstacker). I still do get angry sometimes which is my biggest problem with my whole poker experience. I wish that I could just keep a cool head the entire time I played no matter what happened. At least the anger hasn't been affecting my play and it doesn't happen too frequently. I've even had zach review some hands for me during downswings when I'm angry and he thinks that I play perfectly fine.

Here's the graph for the month so far. I have ~$500 more in bonuses/tourney wins so add that to the total. Also, I just hit over $10k total in ring game profits yesterday and went over $11k today. So yea, its been a good last couple days :)

7639 Hands, $348.46 + BONUSES

Alright, I started off October playing some 100NL 6max and lets just say it didn't go too well. Actually, I'll rephrase that, I played really well (for the most part) and ran terrible so I actually have no problems with how 6max went. I know for a fact that I can beat 100NL 6max and I'm sure I'll venture back for a little while before the month is over. After being -$700 in EV last month, I've started this month -$300 in EV, so even though I'm running pretty bad I'm still doing quite well. As you can see i had a nice 6 Buy-in downswing on the 2nd and 3rd days of the month followed by a very nice comeback at 100NL FR (which is easily beatable by playing strictly TAG btw). I also played in two 5400 FPP sattys and won them both for a nice extra $428 in profits. So even though I've ran slightly bad this month is still going real good so far.

I've also decided to start withdrawing half of my profits every Sunday since I'm kind of getting tired of seeing my Poker BR increase while my bank account balance continues to decrease. I feel like there's no real reason to play if I'm not at least seeing some of my profits show up to use in real life. Also, its not like I will be blowing money stupidly after I take it out. I've always been pretty good at saving money and I am really going to need a new car in about 4-6 months or so. My current 1992 Honda Accord is on its last legs and I'm hoping it can last a few more months when I hopefully have some nice poker profits to purchase a new one. This may delay my move to 200NL, but whatever, I'm fine with that. I know that I will be there eventually.

On a school note, this is the first week that work has started to really pile up. I just took a test this morning and I have 2 tests back to back on Thursday in my two hardest classes. As soon as I finish writing this post I am going to study for probably 5 hours the rest of the night. I don't think I will be able to put in any hands of poker until Thursday and my 40k hand goal is looking like it might not happen, but whatever, school has to come first. I'm also leaving for Washington D.C. on Thursday night for a little vacation and won't be back til Sunday afternoon so that's another 4 days I won't be playing. The more I think about it, 40k hands this month is going to be totally unattainable. I really haven't taken more than a couple days off from playing poker for the last few months. I know I've talked about it before, but I've never actually done it, so a full week or so off from poker might be good for me.

Here's the graph for the month so far.

Slightly Sour Ending to a Really Nice Month

Overall, just a super solid month of poker and I couldn't be happier (Ok, if I didn't drop $500 right at the end of the month I might be happier). But really, its just a little blip on the radar and a reality of poker that you just have to accept. I had decided to take a shot at 200NL a few days ago and ended up with a $150 profit over 3200 hands even with that nice little slide right at the end. Even though I feel like I can beat 200NL, right now I just don't know if I can handle the swings there. I'm a college student and $200 is quite a lot of money to lose on one hand of poker. I actually thought of the fact that 5 Buy-in downswings are fairly common, and I don't know if I'm mentally prepared to handle $1000 downswings regularly yet. I know one day I will (hopefully sooner rather than later), but for now 100NL will be fine for me. I plan to play a mix of FR and 6max next month and I will probably be staying at 100NL for the whole month.

I'm to the point where I am making some pretty good money playing poker and it is starting to cross my mind that it might be feasible to play for a living when I'm done with college. Whether I really want to do that or not is still up in the air, but I think it's definitely an option. My hourly rate at 100NL so far (without bonuses) is $65/hour. I only have 26k hands at the limit, but I think that figure is at least close to sustainable. I am actually ~$700 below all in EV in those 26k hands, but I have probably been running well in other aspects. If you figure in bonuses, then my win rate is even higher than that. I'm pretty sure that $65/hour is better than any job I could hope to get right out of college, so its kind of tempting. If I could continue to beat 100NL for a good win rate and eventually start beating 200NL or even 400NL I don't think there would be any way I could not play for a living as the profit would be just too great to turn down. I'm really starting to speculate here as I have no idea how I will react to playing 200NL let alone 400NL. Whether I would ever be able to beat 400NL is another uncertainty by itself. I can only hope that one day I may be playing 400NL comfortably.

The thought of going out into the workforce and working a 9-5 job is just mind numbing to me. Lately I can't stand any of my classes and I really just want the classes portion of school to be over with. My classes this semester just bore the crap out of me. Seems like every day I have to read a primary research article and then either summarize it or prepare a class discussion on it. These research articles are so ridiculously boring to read that I feel like shooting myself every time I sit down to read one. Not to mention that the material flies way way way over my head and is almost impossible to understand unless you have a doctorate in the field that the article is about. So yea, seeing so many profits coming from poker, and the potential for even larger profits is really uplifting to me. Its something that I love to do and I think I would love doing it for a living. I've never put in a 40 hour week playing poker though, so I would have to try that a few times too see if I could handle it. I plan on playing a couple 40 hour weeks during Christmas break this year, just to see what its like. I can't really do it when I'm in school as I'm just too busy and I'm lucky if I can get 2 hours to play in a day.

Anyways, enough of my ranting about how much school sucks and how I basically don't want to get a job and just be a lazy bum playing poker my whole life. Here's the graph of my ring hands this month. Along with this, I also won 2/5 5400 FPP sattys and had some tournament winnings. My total profit for the month with the tourneys and sattys included was $3270 which makes September my most profitable month. I also played less hands than the last 2 months, ran worse (in terms of all in EV), and feel like my game has improved a lot.



P.S. Made a trip to Boston last weekend and it was an absolute blast. Going to Washington D.C. in another week. My roommates and I are actually gonna try to make a visit to a different major city on the east coast each month for the rest of the school year.

Solid Week

So school has started to get busy lately and I'm a little pissed that I haven't been able to put in a ton of hands this month, but I am still winning a decent amount of money and will easily achieve Platinum Star by the end of the month so I guess I can't complain too much. I could probably play more, but this is my senior year and I'd much rather be out having fun than playing poker. Also, graduating and getting my degree is definitely the number 1 priority in my life right now so I have to make sure that poker is not getting in the way of me getting work done. So far its balancing rather nicely. I'm averaging 1-1.5 hours a day playing poker and still accomplishing everything I want to. I feel like I am playing some of the best poker in my life and perhaps its because I'm not playing for hours and hours at a time every day.

I'm going to Boston this weekend with my roommates so I won't be playing at all Friday-Sunday which is fine. Breaks from playing are always nice and I love coming back to the tables feeling refreshed after a couple days off. I can't wait to get to Boston. I've always wanted to go there since I was younger and I'm finally going this weekend. We're staying with one of my roommates friends so the only expenses I will have are gas money and whatever I want to spend money on there. I was hoping we might be able to go see one of the Red Sox Yankees games that weekend, but I'm guessing it will be $200+ per ticket. I would actually have no problem paying up to ~$300 for a ticket, but I don't think anyone else I would be with would want to. I was just up in Toronto on Saturday and only payed $9 for a ticket to a Blue Jays game. Hard to believe that prices differ so much between certain teams. Anyways, Boston should be real fun anyways.

Even though I didn't put a whole lot of hands in this week, I still managed to get a nice sample in and did great (Thanks to a nice $600 swing today). Looks like I'll have another really solid monthly report to post in the next week or so. I'm loving 100NL FR right now and hopefully by the end of October I will have a roll big enough to take a shot at 200NL. I've heard that 200NL FR is pretty hard to beat for a decent win rate though, so I will have to see. I might need to switch back and play some 100NL 6max and learn that way in a little while as 200NL 6max is definitely beatable. I really feel confident that if I apply myself and continue to get better I will be able to beat the mid stakes games (FR or 6max) eventually. One thing I want to do is to be able to excel at both FR and 6max. So hopefully, by the end of October I'll be playing 200NL or at least learning 100NL 6max.

Here's my latest graph of the last 7 days.

Looking Back: A Little bw07507 History & A Brag

Was just screwing around with HEM and looking at different graphs of my play and decided to look at my FR career. As some of you know, I started out as a S&G player. I played quite a few S&Gs over the last couple years and had only dabbled in cash games up until March of 2008. In that month, I cashed in a big tourney, giving me a BR for 25NL.

I started playing 25NL 6max and ran super hot for ~30k hands. Given that I was only playing at max 4 tables, this is a large sampling of hands. I would constantly bring my BR above $1000, try out 50NL 6max, either run terrible or tilt crazily and freak out and withdraw half my money so I would go back to 25NL. After one particularly bad run at 25NL, ChuckTs got me to try out a little FR. This happened in early/mid July and since then I have played very little 6max (under 7k hands to be exact). I started 6 tabling FR and am now 12 tabling very comfortably and occasionally 14 tabling. As soon as I started playing FR, I hit another heater and my roll skyrocketed. I was playing 25NL at the time and quickly decided that it was time for 50NL again, but this time FR, not 6max. Again, downswing ensued and I withdrew in a panic, afraid I wasn't good enough to win anymore.

After this incident, I decided, enough is enough. I've withdrawn a healthy amount from my BR (way way way more than I deposited) so I need to take the next downswing in stride and not flip out and withdraw most my roll. So from then on, any time I hit a downswing I didn't withdraw. I have withdrawn since then, but it has mostly been for purchases/spending money. I have vowed to never withdraw so much that I will not be fully rolled for 50NL (40 BIs) and now that I am fairly comfortably at 100NL, it would be great never to go back below those stakes. I'd have to say that my switch to FR has been one of the most pivotal points in my poker career. It has taught me to heavily multi-table effectively and to handle swings better. Since I'm playing so many hands at once, one or two or even a string of bad beats doesn't set me off like it used to since I know I can make it all back easily. Although I'll probably be moving back to 6max at some point in the future, I can't see myself totally giving up FR any time soon.

Anyways, here's the brag portion of the post. Here is a graph of my FR profits since I started playing heavily in early/mid July. I really can't thank ChuckTs enough for introducing me to FR and getting me on track after that one horrendous downswing at 6max. Some words of wisdom to anyone who is trying to get really good at poker and make some decent money. Just try to learn everything you can and just keep at it. I've been playing for years and its seriously just starting to pay off now. I spent a good year single tabling S&Gs and doing ok, winning a few bucks here and there, but now, playing cash feels so much better. Alright well I'm slightly drunk and I've got to go to bed. Sorry I rambled on for so long, here's my FR graph.

School is in Session

Alright, sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been pretty busy as school just started up again last Monday and I've been pretty busy. Well, I really can't say that I've been really busy, since most of my days have been just me hanging out with my roommates drinking, watching movies, etc. Classes really haven't gotten into full swing yet since it was just the first week, but I will probably be busier in the following weeks.

I've actually played a fair amount of poker in September. I am currently 12-tabling 100NL/PL FR and so far I'm doing pretty good. I'm surprised how beatable it is. I really don't see too much of a difference between 50NL and 100NL. I think I could probably legitimately run at at least 3 PTBB/100 while 12-tabling. I'm up $256 on the month and I haven't even been running well at all. I'm $250 below all in EV and I have been coolered quite a few times. I'm also loving how fast the FPPs are flowing into my account while playing 100NL. If I can manage to run decent the rest of the month and not hit a huge swing forcing me to move back to 50NL, then I should easily make platinum for the 3rd straight month. Unfortunately, there was no Sunday Million this week so I didn't get to play any 5400 FPP sattys. I hope they come back soon as they are my favorite way to spend FPPs. For now I'm just saving them up til I can start playing them again. I'm planning on making a video of myself 6-tabling 100NL FR in the next few days, so watch out for that one. Right now its bedtime since I got 8am class in the morning :\

The graph is mostly 100NL, but some 50NL mixed in aswell

August Results & Break Time

Alright, well I've decided that its time for me to take a nice week off from playing poker (for the most part anyways). I will still be playing in the CardsChat HU Championship and I may play some S&Gs/Tourneys just for fun. I will also still be studying poker during the break period by watching stox videos as I don't want to lose my edge over the week. I played over 50k hands in August so far and over 60k (I think) in July and its just time for me to relax for a week and not think about poker. To be honest I'm starting to feel a little burned out lately and I think its causing me to make some stupid plays. For example I used to just stay away from certain 50NL regs since I knew they were good and there's no point playing hands against other good players when there are plenty of fish to feast on at the table. Lately however, I don't know out of boredom or just because of ego I feel like I have to enter every pot with position on one of these regs and play back at them, usually with poor results. I want to try to prove I'm better than them or something. I don't really have a logical explanation for it, but yea, its stupid. I've also been kind of stressed out lately feeling like I have to be playing constantly (to try to make platinum) or some other stupid reason. And since I've been playing so much, the way I'm running at the poker table is affecting how I act in other aspects of life which is not good at all.

So after all of these things I just wrote about in the previous paragraph, I just decided that a break was in order and there's no better time for it than now. I'm going back to school next week and I don't want to be cooped up in my room playing poker for hours and hours a day when there is so much more interesting things to be doing around campus. I absolutely cannot wait to get back. I've been waiting ever since summer started to get back to school, lol. I'm going to be a senior this year and although I know I will have lots of fun like I always do at school, I really need to get my shit together and figure out what the hell I want to do when I get out of school. I think poker is definitely going to be an option, but is it the best option? I will be graduating with a Bachelors degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Economics. I was planning on being a pharmacist when I was in High School but I really don't want to do that anymore and tbh, have no idea what I want to do. Hopefully I will figure out something I like to do this year.

Ok, so here's what all you readers have been waiting for, my official results for August. August was a great month. My best month so far (Actually every month since March has been my best month compared to previous months). Started out a little rocky and ended a little rocky but the upswing in the middle was just crazy. Hopefully this month has taught me a little bit about variance and I will be able to keep myself controlled at all times at the poker table. The graph below is all the cash game hands I played in August including 25NL/PL, 50NL/PL, 100NL/PL with mixes between FR and 6max. Along with the winnings from ring games on the graph below, I won three 5400 FPP satellites which I took cash of $208.15 each and I cleared a $240 deposit bonus for bonus winnings of $864.45. I probably lost ~$40 playing tournaments so that puts my total profits for the month at ~$2814 which is just absolutely amazing and I couldn't be happier. Considering I made $8.50/hour at my part time job this summer those numbers are astonishing.

Anyways, even though I will be on a break for the next week or so I will still be active around CC and reading some other members blogs, so don't think just because I'm taking a break you won't see me around for awhile.

10,541 Hands, $203.85

Well I'm still running pretty good in August even though I hit a nice $450 slide over the last few days. I won another 5400 FPP satty, so if you count that towards my winnings (which I do) I've only lost ~$242 the last few days. I can't really complain about that since I've been running so hot lately and including bonuses/FPP sattys I'm up over $2500 this month which is real nice. I played a couple 100NL sessions and did quite well actually. I think I was up ~$350 in 2 sessions, but I wasn't really comfortable there. $100 is a lot of money to me and I don't really like ever putting it all on the line for one hand so I've decided to stay at 50NL for awhile. Atleast until September is over anyways and then I may reevaluate my goals. I also withdrew $1000 to help pay for school/repair my car so even though I am technically rolled for 100NL (24 BIs), I feel much more comfortable playing with 50 BIs at 50NL. I've only got ~1700 more VPPs to clear to get Platinum Star status again this month so I should be able to do that. Once I get the 1700 more VPPs I will have enough to play another 5400 FPP satty so hopefully I can get my profit up to ~$3000 before the end of the month which would be quite nice.

Well, I don't really have much else to say so I guess it will just be a short update today. I'm off to school in a week and I cannot wait. Here's the graph:

5,016 Hands, $924.70

So, I'm still running like a god at 50NL and my upswing continues. Since my last post I've made over $900 which is pretty crazy. I've been playing 50PL along with 50NL with good results. I used to table select for only NL, but I've noticed that PL has some extremely juicy tables and theres no reason to sit at a NL table that isn't as juicy if there is a better PL one availabe. Basically the only difference is that I can't 3bet as high as I would like preflop, but other than that postflop is very similar to NL. I sort tables by % of players to the flop and there always seems to be quite a few PL tables in the mix. I've accumulated ~5800 VPPs this month so I'm a little behind where I want to be to make Platinum. I'm going to really have to grind some hands out over the next couple weeks to make it. I won't be working to much so I definately am expecting to reach my goal.

I ordered The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor and Matthew Hilger a couple weeks ago with FPPs and I am about halfway finished. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is basically all about the emotional aspect of playing poker and how to control your emotions/deal with tilt. I thought it would be pretty basic stuff that I already knew, but it has really been more than I expected. I have learned a lot of new things that I hope can keep my tilt/anger problem in check the next time I hit a downswing. Obviously I've been fine during my upswing, but I really am hoping that during my next long downswing I can control myself.

Anyways, here's what you've all been waiting for, the graph of my last 5k hands

Upswings Are Nice

Well, August is going much, much, much better since my last post and I am up ~$730 at ring games this month. If you count a $240 deposit bonus I cleared and a $208.55 FPP satty I won, this month is now going great with over a $1000 profit if u count bonuses/FPPs. I managed to get GoldStar yesterday night and should be able to get Platinum by the end of the month as I am back at 50NL again. I have been trying really hard not to get angry and tilt much and I have been doing better. Whether that is because I am on an upswing at the moment is not clear, but hopefully I can keep up my tilt/anger control. I played a 5400 FPP tourney the other day and lost when my AA lost to 89s and then AJ lost to A9 both all in preflop and I really didnt feel angry whatsoever. Just shrugged it off. Usually tourneys/S&Gs tilt me badly so that is great news that I didn't get angry when I suffered two horrible beats to lose. My BR is currently slightly under $2000 and I am hoping not to withdraw for a little while so I can stay at 50NL permanently and never have to worry about going back down to 25NL or god forbid 10NL. I plan to take a shot at 100NL when my BR reaches $3000 but I will move immediately back down to 50NL if my BR ever drops to $2500.

In non-poker related things, I have been playing quite a bit of golf lately and have been getting better. I work at a golf course so I can play for free and have actually been taking advantage of it lately. I love the sport, but have never really played all too often so I was never good. Earlier today I had my best round ever. I shot 14 over par for 18 holes which is very good for me. Granted, it was a fairly easy course, but I did play from the blue tees, so I was very proud. I only had 2 bad holes really. Anyways I plan on playing a lot before I have to head back to school so I might not be able to put in quite as many poker hands as I would like, but I have been playing a ton lately, so it will be good for me.

Here's the graph for August so far.

August is Here

Well, its the last month of summer and I absolutely cannot wait to get back to school again in September. I will be a senior this year and it will be my last year of school :(. I can't believe how fast the last few years of my life have flown by. I almost wish this last year would last forever, but I know the reality is that after this year I will most likely have to join the workforce. Hopefully I can find a job that I enjoy doing and isn't too boring. After having a discussion with zach the other day I have contemplated whether I would be able to play poker temporarily right out of school so I didn't have to look for a job right away. I think that if I could reach 100NL and log ~200k hands there b4 school ends I might consider doing it. I'd have to win a substantial amount of money during the school year to do it though, just so I could have something to fall back on.

Anyways, August started out pretty rough at 25NL FR and 6max, but Ive rebounded quite nicely the last few days. I finished July with ~$2000 profit after bonuses and everything, my best month yet. However, I hit a pretty bad downswing/break even stretch of 35k hands the last half of the month. I think the downswing was causing me to get angry and tilt. I have been reading The Poker Mindset and so far it has been helping my tilt/anger problem quite a bit. I have only really gotten angry once this whole month when it used to be at least a once a day occurance. I really hope that this month I can get rid of my anger/tilt problem above anything else b/c it will just make me so much a better player. Also, if I plan on playing for a living for a year after school theres no way that I could tilt ever. If I was still tilting or getting angry it just wouldn't be an option to play for a living. Here's the graph for August so far. As you can see I'm still 4 buy-ins below expected, but it will turn around eventually.

12 Buy-ins Below EV

Yup, thats right. Over my last 11,271 hands I am a whopping 12 buy-ins below EV. I withdrew a bunch of money to buy a TV and decided to drop back to 25NL for awhile. What has happened over the past few days has disgusted me and pretty much made me want to give up on poker yet again. I just cant stand making good plays and losing to fucking retards over and over again. It sounds like I'm being a bitch since I haven't lost that much money, but I should be up $250. I can't believe I have kept relatively cool over the past few days and not made any stupid decisions to put my whole roll on the line at 100NL or something. I know it has to end sometime, and I actually thought it did for a second earlier today, and then BAM!! KK vs AK loses, KK vs AA loses, guy draws out on the river my TT vs his KQ. There goes $70 in about 5 minutes.

On a happier note I made platinum for the first time ever at PS and I also took advantage of a 40% deposit bonus. I deposited 600 for a free $240 which I am ~1/3 of the way to clearing. I have also have over 10k in FPPs accumulated in my account for the first time in awhile and I am hoping I will be able to save up enough for the platinum $650 bonus next month sometime. If this downswing ever ends and I can get back to 50NL I should be able to get the $650 bonus by the end of August which would be great.

Anyways, sorry for the rant, I just absolutely hate poker right now. Here's the aforementioned graph.

July is Half Over

Well, its halfway through July and I have played really well for the most part. For the beginning of the month I was playing amazing and running great too. I even won a couple sattys to the Sunday Mil and just traded the T$ for $208.55, so Im really up even higher than the graph suggests (by around $380 or so). So yea, July has been by far my best month up to now. I tried to jump up to 100NL a few days ago and that didnt go so well. Like always, when I try to move up limits I just start spewing, although I didn't play that bad and I was like $400 below EV at 100NL I did run a few stupid bluffs. Whatever, I took my shot, it didn't work out, I'll try again a little bit later.

I also withdrew $700 (panic syndrome kind of) after my $600 downswing, but I still have over $1500 in my BR which is enough to stick with 50NL for awhile. I also want to buy a new TV and I have a $300 gift card to best buy which I won from a Guitar Hero competition. I figure whats the point of playing poker if I'm not gonna withdraw anything to use in real life. So I'm actually about to hop on down to best buy and look at some LCD TVs. Hopefully I can get a nice 32 or 37 inch HD for around $1000. Hopefully after this I'll resist the urge to withdraw funds for awhile since I really do want to make it back up to and be successful at 100NL. Hopefully sometime next month I will be able to take another shot. I also am only 1300 VPPs away from Platinum and should easily attain that status this month which will be nice.

Anyways, here's the mid-month graph

Graphs Galore

Ok, well maybe not galore, just 2 actually, but I know how everyone likes looking at graphs so I thought I'd make my title appealing to draw more people to my blog :)

Ive been doing super good at 50NL the last couple days as you'll see in the graphs and I just had to come on here and post about it. I am almost up $1000 in July already and loving my decision to switch to FR instead of sticking with 6max. I love being able to play 12 tables at once and I am not tilting nearly as much as I was with 6max. I think its partly b/c the game is slightly easier to play and I am in a lot less pots/bluffing a lot less so it is more stable. My BR is currently over $1500 so I should be set to stay at 50NL for awhile as long as I don't hit a massive downswing in the next couple weeks.

There was an interesting post at CC about moving up in limits that started to get me to think. I'm not sure if I would ever seriously consider moving up to 100NL over the next year no matter how big my roll got. I just don't know if I'm comfortable ever playing for 100 dollars at a time consistently like that. I would never really take a shot w/o at least 3k in my BR, so I'm still quite aways off anyways. It's just something thats been in my head lately. When I was at 25NL I wanted to take shots at 50NL all the time, even when I first started. I just don't feel that way now that I am actually at 50NL. Maybe my mindset will change once I get a few more hands in.

Well anyways, since the title of this entry is graphs galore, here you go.

First one is a PokerEV graph of all my hands at 50NL (To showcase my mad NSD skillz).



Next is all my FR hands from 10NL - 50NL

Taking a Shot at 50NL

Ok, for the past couple of days I have played ~5500 hands of 50NL FR and I am up $80 for a whopping 1.43 PTBB/100. I ran really good making over $500 in 3 days at 25NL to start July off and decided to take a shot at 50NL. I started out the first couple thousand hands just totally spewing with crazy bluffs/floats. I don't know what happened, just me feeling like I need to start making moves at least once an orbit since I am at a higher level. After I got past that I started playing more solid poker. ChuckTs did another sweat session with me which proved very informative and useful as always. I am so appreciative for all that he has done to help me improve my game. He is probably one of the biggest factors that has helped me take my game to a new level and has been helping me out since I started playing the $3 turbos on Stars a year or so ago. Anyways, my BR stands at $1210 right now and unless I drop to $900 I will be continuing at 50NL. Hopefully I can run well for a week or so to get fully rolled and not really worry about ever dropping back down.

I am really liking how fast the FPPs come rolling in while playing 50NL. Much faster than 25NL. Since it was Double VPP week at PS from the 1st-6th I played quite a bit and have already accumulated ~4300 VPPs this month. Hopefully I can achieve Platinum by the end of the month but I'll have to put in quite a bit of hands at 50NL to achieve this. I tried my luck at two 5400 FPP turbos to the Sunday Million and finished 5th in both of them right on the bubble. These caused me to get pretty angry so Ive decided not to play in them anymore and I will be taking the cash bonuses when I can get them.

Here's some of my more interesting hands at 50NL

How not to play 77


Took my whole time bank deciding here. Still not sure if this is a profitable call or not


Not really quite sure what villain is thinking here

2 Days + 5000 Hands = Profitz

Ran good the last couple days, netting a $200 profit at 25NL. Also won $10 playing 10NL PLO for a little fun last night so things are going nicely. My Bankroll currently is at $615 and hopefully I can grind it up to $1500 in July so I can move up to 50NL. I have a decent amount of free time so I don't think my goal of $1500 by the end of July is unattainable. Its nice to finish July on an upswing running well after how terrible I ran all month. Overall Im up $300 since I moved to FR from 6max playing 10NL and 25NL.

Anyways, here's a few of my nice hands:





Anyways, so I get lucky to hit my Ace on the second hand, but wtf is QQ thinking here after the Ace flops?

Here's the graph, look forward to another exciting post in a few days.

So Far so Good at Full Ring

So as a lot of you know I made the switch to FR from 6max and started 12-tabling. So far things are going nicely and Ive been running at 4.75 PTBB/100 and Ive gotten set under set 3 times (once for 200BBs) and I feel that I am playing very well. Can think of maybe 2 or 3 hands off the top of my head where I was displeased how I played them. I've noticed that I am much more relaxed playing FR than I was playing 6max, even though I'm now playing 12 tables instead of 4 or 6. I'm playing tighter, so I'm not in as many hands, and when I am I usually have a good hand and decisions just seem easier. I can't explain why, but they do. At 6max I was constantly involved in pots and having to outplay my opponents a lot. At FR I pretty much just play straightforward and bet for value. I don't bluff nearly as much since pots are multi way a lot more often and all in all its just more relaxing and easier it seems, lol, I've said that about 5 times now.

I also haven't tilted once since switching to FR which is great for me. I only even got mad once (KK losing all in preflop to JJ right after my set under set for 200BBs) and I just took a few deep breaths, reassured myself that I was making good decisions and the feeling immediately passed. Tilt has been a big problem for me in the past and is probably the biggest part of my game that I am working on. I'm not sure if its the switch to FR or the fact that I've tilted so much in the past and I just realized how stupid it is finally, but whatever it is, its working. I hope to conquer 6max sometime in my future, but right now FR is working good, I'm getting more FPPs (more tables), and I'm tilting less so I don't see myself switching back any time soon.

I went to Buffalo a few days ago for my roommates birthday and had a great time. It was nice to take a break from poker/working for a couple days and just relax. Anyways, enough rambling from me. I've got to get to bed now. Here's my graph so far at FR for you're enjoyment.

Moving to Full Ring for Awhile

Alright, so after running terrible again at 6max I decided to make the move to FR for awhile just to see if I can get back on track/switch up my game a little. I did a sweat session with ChuckTs where I 6-tabled 10NL and it helped a lot as I haven't played FR in quite some time. So, the past couple days I have been playing 10NL and 25NL FR between 6-10 tables. Hopefully I can get it up to 12 tables soon. Its a lot more relaxing playing FR as I'm not involved in nearly as many pots and decisions just seem to be easier to make overall. Ive also been running pretty good which is a change. I'm about 0.5 Buy-ins above EV over ~4700 Hands.

Anyways, I'm going up to Buffalo for a couple days for my roommates birthday so I wont be playing any poker during that time. I've been waiting for awhile for this day, it should be a fun night. Nothing much else going on, will post again when I get another decent amount of hands played at FR.

First Day Back

Alright, first day back playing. Deposited $500 this morning and played two hour long sessions. I was up $38.70 over 1052 hands and still ran like piss. I played very good and I think I only misplayed one hand. I think the best part of this whole thing is that I didn't once get upset at all and was calm and relaxed during both sessions. Might play a little bit more tonight, but Ive got a graduation party to go to this afternoon and I want to finally finish GTAIV aswell. Anyways, following are some of the big hands of the morning/afternoon.

Here's a few of the good hands for you:

Villain here is a complete donktard and I was just praying a diamond didnt fall on the river since I knew he would shove anything. He checked river OoP whenever he had a monster and shoved every time he missed. His hand actually threw me off, but guys, this is definately not how you want to play KK.




Here's a sick river bluff :). Villains bet here just looked so weak I couldnt resist. Obv after his comments I had to quickly go uncheck automuck winning hand and show him.



And I guess my image payed off




Here's some that didnt go my way

First Post

Alright, since it seems to be the cool thing to do now I decided I should make a little blog. The main focus of the blog will be on my poker playing career. Hopefully I will be wowing you with my mad 25NL 6max skillz and keeping the bitching and moaning to a minimum. I'm currently on a short break from poker and will be playing again in a few days.

Here's a short history of my poker career so far:

I started playing online poker a couple of years ago for a little fun. Played some 5 dollar S&Gs, was terrible and didn't like losing, so I decided to read up as much as I could about the game. I found a nice little site called CardsChat and have been improving my play ever since. I deposited on Bodog and played $5 S&Gs and $8 Beginner S&Gs like it was my job for a few months. I won a few hundred dollars and cashed out, very proud of myself. I liked the profits, but I wanted them to come quicker so I started playing 25NL (Under rolled and playing it basically like a S&G, which is bad). I went on a big heater to start and won a few hundred in a couple weeks. Then, my bad play started to catch up to me and I started losing it all. I decided to cash out what I had left and go back to what I was best at, S&Gs. I deposited on Stars and played hundreds of S&Gs, profiting small here and there, but it eventually added up and I was up around $1400 since I had started playing poker online.

After seeing ChuckTs and a few other CC S&G/Tourney regs switch to ring I was hooked and just had to do it. I started playing 10NL 6max and was running great, then I got a nice MTT win and jumped up to 25NL 6max where I started out on a 50k heater, running at 11PTBB/100. Since March I am up $3250 dollars from mostly 25NL/10NL and a few random tourney placings. I hit a big downswing in June and decided to stop playing for a week and this is where I'm at right now.

In a few days I'm going to deposit $500 and 4-table 25NL 6max. Even though I will have 20 Buy-ins I am not really happy with that BR to play 25NL 6max, but it is all I can really afford as I have spent some of my winnings and don't feel comfortable depositing any more than that. If my BR at any point drops to $300 I will have to go back down to 10NL and grind it back up but hopefully this doesn't happen.

Anyways, thanks for checkin the blog out and I'll post an update in a few days when I deposit and start playing again.