Holiday hit

Well I've spent a ton of money in the last week on xmas gifts, birthday gifts...and shopping for myself as well as a plane ticket and other expenses.

So my bankroll has definitely taken a hit but I'm estimating that I'm at about $8k or $9k. I have money in a few spots so I need to take a tally.

I haven't played in a week and I'm going back tomorrow night, hopefully my game will be on point.

I hope everyone had a good holiday.

4years.........

Monday Night Curse... ugh

It's official. I'm not playing on a Monday for a while.

Last night I dropped about $1140. $1000 on the $200 game and then another $140 on the $500 game.

When I was driving to the casino I was tired and lethargic and thought to myself 'I should just go home, pack and run some errands..." but obviously the little devil on my other shoulder told me to hit the casino and try to come up.

After I lost I remembered that I had lost last Monday as well. I just checked my records and it's a lot worse than that. Here's a look at my last

11.24, 200, 9, -800
12.01, 200, 4, +605
12.08, 200, 3.0, -880
12.15, 15/30L, 0.25, +30
12.15, 200, 1.0, -80
12.15, 400, 2.75, -695
12.22, 200, 2.0, -1000
12.22, 500, 0.5, -140

Wow.

So in the last five Mondays I've lost $2960.


In December I've played on 17 days and had only five losing days. Four of them were Mondays. It's kind of crazy and I don't really understand it but it's enough to keep me away for the next few Mondays. I can definitely attribute some of it to being tired on Monday from a long weekend of playing and then waking up early Monday morning for work. Monday is the first day that I work eight hours and then sit in traffic to go play at the casino. Maybe by Weds/Thurs my mind and body has adjusted to that schedule but not on Monday.

I'm taking a break for a while unless my flight gets cancelled tonight. I'll probably go back on Saturday or Sunday when I'm back in Los Angeles.

Happy holidays.

Been on my grind

I have been grinding a lot lately as you can see by the session log in this post. Most of my sessions are not marathon sessions but somewhat quick hitters in a few hours or so, although I did pull an all-nighter on Friday night-Saturday morning. I've been running pretty well (mostly avoiding bad beats) with the exception of one hand where this idiot got lucky as hell on me after I had set him up nicely. Let me explain.

There's a guy, who is a skinny white guy with his hat pulled down low to cover his eyes that just sits there and doesn't say a word and rarely ever has to show his hands. He always raises ridiculously high amounts. Like if the pot is $100 and I bet $75 with top pair, he'll raise it $400 more or just go all-in. Believe me after a few sessions playing with this guy I've noticed him constantly doing this and I've been waiting for him, continuously folding decent hands to his huge raises.

So I've already actually told my boy (who's at my table) about this guy and that I'm just waiting for him. I have a pack of Trident on the table and I've put two short $45 stacks (nine chips) on top of the pack of gum. I told my boy I was going to raise blind with the Trident pack of $90 on my button. But when it's my button I notice the big raiser limp under the gun, so I know he's just waiting for me to raise on the button. I tell my boy I can't do it because big raiser limped UTG so I look at my hand and what do you know? Two black aces.

So I laugh and say "raise" and slide the pack of Trident into the pot with the $90 on top. The guy in the small blind calls my $90 (suprisingly) and then I get even more than I expected. The big raiser announces "all in" for $900!! I have about $2000 at this point. I can't believe it and I call immediately. I'm assuming he also has aces to go all-in for $900 like that pre-flop but he has jacks. Of course he spikes a jack on the flop and takes down the $2000 pot.

11.21, 200 (2/5 blinds), 3.0, +230
11.22, 200*, 2.5, -900
11.22, 200, 3.5, -200
11.24, 200, 9, -800
11.28, 2-40 spread**, 2.75, -100
11.30, 200, 5.5, +1140
12.01, 200, 4, +605
12.04, 200, 5, -220
12.05, 200, 3.5, -340
12.06, 200, 0.5, +150
12.06, 400, 6.5, +1955
12.06, 200, 3.5, +935
12.07, 200, 0.75, -510
12.07, 400, 1.0, +2045
12.08, 200, 3.0, -880
12.09, 200, 1.0, -750
12.09, 400, 3.5, +755
12.09-10, 200, 7.0, +600
12.10, 400, 3.25, +1460
12.12, 400, 2.75, +1300
12.13, 400, 1.75, +280
12.15, 15/30L, 0.25, +30
12.15, 200, 1.0, -80
12.15, 400, 2.75, -695
12.17, 400, 8.25, +1740
12.18, 400, 5.75, +1500
12.19, 200, 0.5, +315
12.19, 60sat, 0.25, -60
12.19, 400, 9.25, +250
12.20, 500(no cap), 0.5, +190
12.20, 200, 2.5, -360
12.20, 400, 3.0, +375
12.21, 200, 0.5, -60
12.21, 400, 2.5, +700

BR: 15500 (+500)

Kind of ridic that I'm 11/12 in winning sessions at the 400 since I started playing the 400.

The +500 is because they called my name in the drawing on Sunday for $1000 (chopped it with my boy that I had made a deal with). Also at this point I've spent a good deal of money on xmas gifts and other stuff and I have about $12000 ready to go. I'm going to continue playing the $400 nl until I run up to $20000 (which I can hopefully do) and then I may start taking some shots at the $500 (no cap) nl game, where I'll be buying in for $1000.

I have to say that things are going really well for me and I've tried to leave when I thought I was getting tired or that I wasn't playing my sharpest.

4years!

Tired

I'm tired.

I had a long weekend and only played two short sessions, both wins. On Friday I got off work at 2 pm and drove straight to HP. I played the $400 for about four hours and came up about $1300.

After the session I had to go to my company Christmas party. It was confirmed that I'm running hot this month when I won an employee award that came with a $1000 bonus check.

On Saturday I didn't do shit until about 4 p.m. when I went to HP for like two hours and came up $280 on the 400 table. That was solid. After that I hung out with my girl for the night we smoked trees and drank champagne.

Sunday I went to the Lakers game. We had some great seats for a boring game (Timberwolves) in the fifth row. Good looks to my boy T for that one.

However I ran into some trouble yesterday almost as soon as I started playing I got a phone call letting me know that my old roommate got evicted from my old apartment. Unfortunately my name is still on the lease so this morning I had to go to court and file a response. They're going to withdraw the eviction but it's a headache. Obviously I tilted and lost $695 last night at the 400 and 80 at the 200.

I'm just tired.

Sorry for the boring and lackluster entry, I'll come back with some ammo next time..

BR: $10075
Fri: +1300
Sat: +280
Mon: -745
NEW BR: $10910


4 years................

Session Logs

Didn't play last night but here's a log of my sessions from 11/21/08 to date (there were a bunch of winning sessions before 11.21 that I did not record):

Date, Game, Hours, +/-
11.21, 200 (2/5 blinds), 3.0, +230
11.22, 200*, 2.5, -900
11.22, 200, 3.5, -200
11.24, 200, 9, -800
11.28, 2-40 spread**, 2.75, -100
11.30, 200, 5.5, +1140
12.01, 200, 4, +605
12.04, 200, 5, -220
12.05, 200, 3.5, -340
12.06, 200, 0.5, +150
12.06, 400, 6.5, +1955
12.06, 200, 3.5, +935
12.07, 200, 0.75, -510
12.07, 400, 1.0, +2045
12.08, 200, 3.0, -880
12.09, 200, 1.0, -750
12.09, 400, 3.5, +755
12.09-10, 200, 7.0, +600
12.10, 400, 3.25, +1460

*Commerce Casino
**Club Hollywood Casino (Seattle, WA)

2-40 spread Results: 1 session, 2.75 hours, -100
200 Results: 14 sessions, 51.75 hours, -740
400 Results: 4 sessions, 14.25 hours, +6215

Gonna play mostly the $400 this weekend. Good luck this weekend everyone, get some xmas shopping done.

4years........

Did I find my gravy train?

I played the $400 again last night and was smart enough to completely bypass the $200. Within 90 seconds of sitting down I was up $500 and five minutes later I was up $700. My first hand I sat down and had AdTd in the cut-off so I call the $10. The BB makes it $40 and under the gun calls the $40, as do I. The flop comes something like 4-8-T with one diamond and they both check to me so I bet $80. The raiser folds and the UTG player thinks for a minute before calling. The turn is the queen of diamonds and he checks to me. At this point I'm pretty certain I have him. I put him on a smaller pair than the tens. I bet $100 and he thinks for a while and then goes all-in. I consider folding until I realize I have the nut flush redraw so I call. The river is a blank and he says he missed and I'm up $440 after one hand.

The next hand I get AQ and limp. Flop comes KTJ rainbow and I bet $35. One caller, turn is a blank and I bet $80 and he folds.

Anyways I won $930 before our table broke. I went to a $200 game for two hands and got moved back into the only $400 table where I won $530.

Last night was the first time I played and really feel like I didn't make one mistake, which felt extremely ... great. Didn't make one bad call, raise or fold.

There's definitely a hand I played that I could have played differently (better) right before I left. A tight player UTG raised to $35 and there were two callers before me. I called with 99 and there were a few more callers. The flop comes 883 and the SB, who is a loose donkey (see picture) bets $110. A good player calls his $110. I know the good player could be calling the $110 with any pair seeing as the donkey was making an obvious stab at the pot on the paired flop. So now I have position and I raise to $250. The donkey insta-folds and the good player goes into the tank before calling reluctantly. We check it down the rest of the way and he shows Js8s for trips. Thanks to my table image he said he put me on a higher 9 and I'm not mad at the play that I made to see the free turn and river. In hindsight I definitely should/could have re-raised preflop to at least see where I was at. I'm pretty sure the J8 suited would have folded also and the only callers would possibly have been the donkey and the original raiser but I had position on both players.

This is the donkey, who gambled hard as soon as he sat down and ran his stack up to about $1500 before losing it all back (I only won one relatively small pot from him). He was a nice, overweight guy who was just there to have a few beers and gamble to put some players on tilt. He played every single hand and raised half of them preflop, never failing to bet on the flop. He also offered one of the asian chick dealers a free trip with him for a few days. For some reason she refused.



Yesterday's big day was great for the simple fact that I was really just hitting the casino to kill a few hours and eat dinner while my girl was at her workout class. I was there from 6pm to 945pm and ended up $1460. The session took my bankroll over $10k to $10075. I would have to go back and look at my old blog but I think this is the first time I've been over $10k and I definitely have a better handle on the money management this time so things are looking good (at the moment).

Poker is a beast and I don't want to get too cocky. My good friend who plays for a living is in the middle of a huge downswing and I know it can go either way i.e. he flopped two pair when one player flopped a set and another player flopped top two. Hopefully I'll keep capitalizing while the cards are hot.

4years.

Back to the REAL reality

Won $600 last night in an 11 hour marathon session. Basically it went like this:

Lost $750 on a $200 while waiting for the $400 game.

Won $755 on the $400 game before it broke.

Won $550 on a $200 game before it broke.

Won $50 on a $200 game before I left at 6 a.m.

I probably tip about $50 during the course of a session like this to floormen, waitresses and porters. Kind of sucks but it's part of the routine.

Sat with a really nice and way too conversational middle-aged asian dude who apparently usually plays MUCH bigger games and is buddies with Phil Laak. I got so damn tired of hearing him tell his stories about how great Phil Laak is and how sick of a player he is. I wanted to clown him and do some bigger name dropping but I didn't, I just listened to the stories of how awesome Phil Laak is.

One story is that apparently before he even played poker Laak was a big motorcycle guy and was riding on some narrow road and was about to crash into a truck head-on. He knew he had no time to get out of the way so "he did a hand stand on the handle bars, did a flip over the car and landed on his feet running." This guy was dead serious when he told this story.

Honestly last night was such a grind that when I was done it felt like a losing session. I think that's a good thing.

BR is now at $8615.

Back to Reality

Well that was fun while it lasted.

I played on two sorry ass $200 tables last night and ended up down $880 in a short time (three hours).

I made one terrible decision when I called an extremely tight player's all-in with KQ on a king high board and he obviously had AK.

After that I had 52 in the big blind and the flop was 5-2-3 (with two clubs), I bet $40 and got two callers. The turn was a 5. I checked and a guy bet out $60 so I called hoping he would catch a flush and the river was a jack, filling him up with J-5 and I called his $150 on the river.

Then I got my kings cracked by A-7 offsuit after being all-in preflop. I limped UTG with KK and everyone limped to the button who shoved for $120. He got one caller so I went all-in for $300 and he flopped an ace.

So it was just a bad day, hopefully I'll do better next time. I also lost like $34 of my $44 on Full Tilt in two tournaments ($24 17k guaranteed and a $10 KO tourney).

I think I'm going to play the $400 next time I go because it forces me to concentrate a little harder, which hopefully will help me avoid donkish plays like the KQ play.

BR is at $8015 now.

4years.

Strong Weekend

I have good news and bad news.

Bad news first: I lost $340 on Friday night when I played from 640pm to 1020pm. I didn't play very well and was up $150 early only to lose that and then some. After that I went out with some friends to a club in Hollywood that was off the hook. I wasn't expecting it to be what it was.

Now the good news: Saturday morning I went back to Hollywood Park around 11:00 a.m. Before I left I thought about just playing the $400 game but then decided I should try to win a little bit on the $200 before jumping into the $400 game. By the time they started the first $400 game of the day I was up $150 in my game so I decided to just move to the $400 game. I like playing the $400 game because I tend to play a bit more solid and focus more due to the money involved. The problem is my bankroll is not really strong enough to play that game regularly. I played strong, got a few lucky flops and my stack ended up looking like this:




When I left the $400 game, I was up $1955 after six hours. I joined my guy at a loose $200 game and made another $935 on that game in 3.5 hours before I had to leave to go hang out with my girl. My boy couldn't believe that I was leaving with the way that I was running but sometimes you just gotta go.

I drove home at about 5 a.m. on Sunday morning and contemplated going straight to the casino but two weeks ago I did the same thing and went to Commerce only to lose over $900 in a few hours on a Saturday morning. So I decided to go home and take a nap before I went to play, hopefully around 10 a.m. because I was planning to see my girl again at 3:30pm.

Of course I woke up late at 11 a.m. I took a quick jog before I realized that my running shoes were cutting into my ankle and my fucking leg was bleeding so I walked back home with a gangster limp and took a shower. At this point it was almost 1pm and I was losing the motivation to go play since I only had a couople of hours. My guy texted me asking me if I was going. I told him 'I don't think so' and he said I should just go because I was running hot. So I went and sat down at the $200 game. I was really just planning to get some lunch and watch some football but before I knew it I was stuck $500 and in for $800. The floorman asked me if I wanted the $400 game so I moved to that game for the simple fact it would be easier for me to recover $500 in the hour that I had.

The minute I sat down at the $400 there was an Asian guy with blonde hair in seat 5 going all-in every hand. He was straight up gambling and this old white guy in seat nine was asking to see his hand every time. The Asian guy loses his stack and leaves and another kid tells the white guy that he's an idiot for asking to see all the hands because that's what caused the gambler to leave. The old white guy takes offense to this and they start yelling, threatening to fight each other and the white guy gets kicked off the table. As soon as he leaves, an older black guy tells the kid he needs to respect his elders and then they start arguing and acting like they're going to fight. This is within like five minutes of me sitting there. I had also caught two winning hands and ran my stack up to $700 (once with AA).

About 25 minutes in I'm in middle position with Jd9d. I call the $10 and the big blind makes it $40. There's four callers to me so I call and the button calls. The flop comes Ad10d2h. Everyone checks to the guy before me (the old black guy who is pissed and ready to fight) and he goes all-in for $200. My first reaction was to fold because I didn't really want to give him a bad beat at this point. But I thought about it for a minute and the odds were there for me to call, especially since I wouldn't face a bet from him on the turn. So I called. Then the button calls the $200 as well. I have him on a smaller flush draw. The turn comes a 9h so I bet $200 into the button to get a side pot going in case I miss my flush. I don't have him on any pairs. He's doing all this math in his head and then all of a sudden goes all-in. Hmm.. wtf? He has me covered for my remaning $300 and I'm looking at him like he's crazy and he says "I have a set, I just got lucky on the turn." I know that's bullshit because there's no way he smooth called that flop with 99 so I call his bet and the king of diamonds hits the river. He shows a smaller flush and I stack the chips.

Very next hand I hit the nut flush on the turn for another $200 pot and within an hour I was looking like this:



When 2:50pm rolled around I was up $2045 in the $400 game and I left, leaving me up $1535 on the day in two hours.

Good thing my boy told me to go up there.

After this weekend my BR is looking like this:

$4580 (before weekend)
-$340 (Friday loss)
+$150 (Sat $200)
+$1955 (Sat $400)
+$935 (Sat $300)
-$510 (Sun $200)
+$2045 (Sun $400)
= $8815

Things are going well so far, hopefully I can continue to improve my play and avoid the coolers.

4years.

Lost $220

Had a very swingy session yesterday. I played well but just ran into some bad hands and could have played one hand better... before I know it I was in for $1100.

My first buy-in was lost when I got KK under the gun and attempted to limp, then re-raise. So I call the $5 and sure enough a guy who has late position raises to $40. Everyone folds to me and I decide to just call and play the flop. The flop comes 777. I check and he bets $25. I raise to $100 and he calls. At this point I'm putting him on a hand like JJ or TT. The turn comes a 9 and I bet out $100. He smooth calls. Now I put him on aces. If he has a hand like QQ, JJ, TT or even KK, I think he's going to put me all-in on the turn. The river was a rag and I checked to him. He put me all-in for my last $80, I call and he has aces.

Next buy-in I make it $20 with Ac7c. Two callers by two good players. The flop comes A-K-7 with two spades. I bet out $35, one guy goes all-in for like $85 and the other guy just calls. So I make it $185 and the guy still calls but doesn't raise so I don't have him on AK or better. The turn is an off-suit 10 and I go all-in for about $160 more. He thinks for a while and calls and hits his spade on the river, but he was also open-ended with 8s9s so I don't blame him for the call. Not much I can do there.

My next buy-in is the one where I deserve some blame. I have 66 and limp. A guy who is tight-weak makes it $30. The small blind calls and I call in middle position. The flop comes K-6-9 with two spades and we both check to the raiser, who starts to bet but then checks brilliantly. That's where I mis-played the hand, I should have come out firing. The turn is an 8 and the small blind comes out and bets $200, which covers me. I call for my last $180 and then the original raiser shows his 5-7 straight face-up and actually thinks about folding before moving all-in. That's when the guy who bet $200 folds and I miss the river full house.

After that I went on a semi-heater and ran my stack up to $1080 and changed tables, down $20 at this point. I changed tables and continued to play well, going up about $500 or $600. Then I made a bad call on a guy and caught the nut flush draw on the turn and called another $100, so I lost about $250 on that hand, lost some more and then lost my entire buy-in before leaving, leaving me down $220. Now my BR is at $4580.

Going to try and play a bunch between Sat night and Sunday this weekend.

Thanks for the comments on the pro revelation.

4years!

I just had a revelation

Not that I'm close at to going 'pro' in poker, but I have always wanted to and considered what it would take to stop working a 9-5 desk job and play poker full-time.

Do I think I'm good enough? Yes. And I could very well be wrong about that, but when I sit at the table I'm pretty sure I'm better than at least seven of the other players 95% of the time, if not all of them. But then again, that's probably what everyone thinks.

Do I have the money saved up? No. This is what I had always felt was the biggest obstacle and I have determined that I want at least $80k behind me if I stop working.

How much would I need to make to be a pro? This is the revelation that I just had. If I make more playing poker then I do at my desk job, then I should play poker.

I've been having a lot of feelings lately that I only live once and I (and you and everyone in the world) only have one life to chase my dreams. Twenty years down the road I won't have the same opportunities that I do today. Even five years from now I won't. I won't be the same person that I am today and I will be older and probably more reserved and resilient to taking risks.

So at this moment in time, I feel that if I can make more money playing poker than I do at my job, I might as well play poker.

I just need to determine how many hours I need to log before I can make a decision on how much money I make with poker per hour or year compared to my job.

4years.

Bankroll Increasing

Played another session last night and won $605 in about four hours. So many donkeys it's great. Well I shouldn't say donkeys, but I should say so many average players. Some guys just don't get it, they play tight all night and then they lose their stack because they flop top pair or just continuation bet their stack off.

So with Sunday and last night, I'm now at $4800 with my bankroll. For the past three weeks I've been incredibly streaky. When I first started this blog, I won six straight sessions. Then I lost four sessions in a row that was -2k. Now with the two wins, I'm feeling good again and back on the up and up. The great thing about poker is that I feel like I'm playing well but I know I have a lot of room for improvement too.

The bad news is my Cougar Bait team had our championship game and I played like absolute shit with about six turnovers (our team probably had 30-35 turnovers) and we lost by five points when we were leading with about four minutes left in the game.

---

Thanksgiving cost me $4k

I flew out of town last Wednesday night for Thankgiving with my family. As soon as I got off the plane and turned my phone on, I had two text messages waiting for me letting me know that they called my name for a drawing at Hollywood Park Casino. Had I been there, I would have won $3900. I had gone there like 13 days straight until Wednesday. Just my luck.

On top of that $3900, I played a game of $2-40 spread at Club Hollywood casino in North Seattle. I didn't pick up one decent hand in about two hours and just bled out for the loss. The game was so boring that I didn't even attempt to recover the $100.



I went out every night I was in Seattle so I guess that's Weds., Thurs., Fri., Sat. and I have some good stories to share.

Yesterday I got off the plane, dropped my stuff off at home and went to HP to play cards. I won over $1100 in about five hours. It was a much needed winning session after losing four straight. My table was the best because it was a bunch of good players but no great players and maybe one donkey.

I have a good thanksgiving story that I'll put up later when I have more time.

4years!!