March Sadness

Tonight at midnight this beautiful month of March will finally come to an end. I just added up my sessions and I wasn’t nearly as big of a loser and it felt like. I guess the tournament win paired with my last session on Sunday kept me afloat. Without those two big wins I’m looking at a $-6k month. So basically I had so many losing sessions that it felt like I was getting my ass kicked all month long. Actually I was getting my ass kicked.

I finally ran bad taking some ugly beats. One particular in the $5/10 unlimited buy-in game at Hollywood Park. My aces ran up against KJ. Flop comes K-3-4 and I’m sure one of the two pre-flop callers has a king. One guy had made it $40 pre-flop, the button called and I made it $170 in the small blind. Both players called. On the flop I bet $250 to get a call from the king and he did. The turn was a 2 and I went all-in for $800 and he called to river the king.

I had some good luck as well in my last session so I’m not complaining. One hand in particular when I called with 8s4s on the button. The flop comes J-8-3 with two spades. One loose player bets out $50 and another loose player calls. I raise to $170 and they both call. The turn is the 4 of hearts and they check to me. I bet $350 and the initial bettor calls, then the second player puts her last $200 in the middle. The river is the 4 of diamonds and I put the player all-in for his last $400 and he insta-calls with QcJd. The other player claims she flopped two pair but she was blatantly lying. I put her on one queen or 9-10.

Anyways, with some investments such as my car, a new business and some untimely splurging, my month stung financially. I’m looking forward to getting my taxes out of the way and jumping back on the horse in April. Two months until the WSOP kicks off and I’d like to have my bankroll around $30k heading to Vegas that last weekend of May.

Outside of poker I’m playing in three basketball leagues and my game is slowly coming back, although I hate playing the post on all these teams. I never thought I’d be playing down low so much at 6’0” but I’m one of the tallest guys on all three of my squads. My high school program finished #7 in the country overall and ran away with the Washington state title so that’s always nice to see. Somehow I think I’m one of the only people ever to play for my high school and not play in college. Yes, I’m a donk. Or an idiot for quitting my junior year. Or both, obviously.

I was in four bracket pools and had Memphis. I was in first in one of them until Memphis got their asses ran. GG fellas.

I got back in the studio last night and we recorded two of my verses for some tracks that I’m feeling. I haven’t recorded on original beats that I actually own (along with my boy) in a long time so that felt good. All in all, I’m feeling real good heading into April even though March was a hit to my pocket.

Peace and good luck bruddas.

March



2009

The ship is sinking...

Sorry about the ridiculous lack of updates in the past week+, I've been busy losing money.

Ever since I ate shit in that tournament I've been going downhill but I salvaged the month with a nice win yesterday.

I'll add more detail and updated numbers later today.

Hopefully everyone else is doing better.

peace.

206

"206" seems to be my number today. I checked one of my bracket standings (the only one out of four that I even have a hope of winning) and I was in first place with a score of 206. In that one I have 13/16 of the remaining teams including Arizona. I had USC and Washington in there as well so I was unhappy about them losing (as well as being a fan of both teams).

Then my doc calls me and tells me that my cholesterol level is 206, which is high. Time to cut down on the fats and salts and increase the exercise. GL to me on that one. I'm pretty infamous for eating horrendously (horrendous is two levels worse than horrible with horrid being the middle level for those that don't know).

And the kicker? I lost 10x206 at the poker table on Saturday. If you're any good at math, that's Pretty Shitty (not to be confused with Pretty Ricky, not sure which is worse in this case).



I'll get around to updating my numbers when I have a few minutes to add them up, but I'm definitely down for the month of March, probably down around 1k-2k this month.

Hope everyone else is doing better than that.

Peace, 4 years!

I'm in the Player of the Year race

However this was the most frustrating table EVER. I was 2nd in chips when we were down to five. I have two donks in it and two nits. Easy picking for me.

We decide to chop it and I'm due $12k when the worst player (obviously the guy who ended up winning it) says he wants $500 from everyone to chop. All of us are like "pffft you're the fish here and you want money from us?" so we don't chop. I double him up on a bad call by me, then when I'm about 11x the big blind I move in with ace high and he calls me with 6-7 from the small blind and makes two pair, gg me.

Ugh. The upside of this is that I'm not quite the tournament donk that I thought I was (0-2 in tournament cashes this year), although to be honest I should have easily won this tournament when it was 6/5 handed.

(P.S. the POY race statement was a joke for those that missed the sarcasm)

March Madness

So far March has been up and up and down and down and up and up and down. Should have been up and up and up but I was really in "action mode" a bit too much on Sunday and paid off this horrible player by trying to get her off her pocket ten's on a board that was Q-8-7-7 (flop Q-8-7 and I had check-raised her on the flop).

Sometimes it happens, I made the wrong move on the wrong player.

So now I'm about a third through the month and only up like $900 or something around there.

It's time to refocus because I've been spending some money and I need to conserve it right now.

Last night I had a 'home game' at work with some co-workers. I was playing extremely loose and gambling just to keep the action going because it would have been too boring otherwise. We played $.50/1.00 blinds and for a few hands I was challenging this guy to raise blind with me. So I raise my button blind to $9 and he re-raises all-in from his big blind. I asked him if he looked at his cards and he said "no," I asked him "So you're going all-in blind?" and he said "Yeah." So I say "Okay" and call his all-in blind. Then he goes "Well I looked I have ace-high," and I'm like "Uhh... ok." Then two aces and two kings hit the board and I'm a little hot because it was a dirty play but he can still take the money since I knew I was gambling but he refuses to take the money so I'm not sure what the point of him lying about it was. Everything was cool but it completely changed the complexion of the game and playing for fun with the blind raises. I either won or lost $20, I have no idea because I rebought about three/four times and have no idea how much money I had in my pocket. I did buy everyone pizza and soda so I guess I ended the night down money.


It was nice to see Huck Seed take down the NBC Head's Up Championship, it's amazing how well he plays in that tournament. I can't believe Rousso beat Ivey but she was obviously playing well and went all the way to the 'ship.

I want to know wtf is up with the Antonious/Durrr challenge because it seems like it was a huge publicity stunt at this point. Once April/May comes around there's no way they'll be able to finish it. I think Durrr wanted to achieve living legend status and figured this would be a way to do it and I gotta give him some credit, it worked.

I also read this whole Shaniac/Shannon Shorr shit that was going on between two poker (pros) and I thought it was bullshit. Obviously I don't think Shorr deserves to be in the NBC head's up tournament but at the same time his own blog is his space to vent about whatever he wants so who really cares if he does? Shaniac obviously has nothing of his own to talk about. I have no idea who Shaniac is but he's a name on the internet and has a lot of followers who are happy to co-sign with him. I say get your own life.

My hoop game is going downhill and I'm not sure why. My room looks like it just went through Hurricane Katrina and my new car needs new brakes, not to mention my old car needs a new front bumper because I let my boy borrow it and he casually mentioned that he ran over a cone that ended up being stuck on the bottom of the car.

Time to grind!

2009 Numbers: 218.75 hrs., +$24,543; BR2: +$700
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520

March: 23.50 hrs., +$1150
03.02.09 0.75 hrs., +$105
03.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$900
03.03.09 5.0 hrs., +$1145
03.05.09 1.75 hrs., -$1900
03.06.09 3.0 hrs., +$1730
03.07.09, 6.5 hrs., +$785
03.08.09, 4.0 hrs., -$1615

4 years

I'm Getting Old + Big Loss

Last night I had a terrible session in poker. I dropped $1900 and left and it was early. Usually I finish playing between 1 and 5 a.m. but last night I lost so quickly that I left at 11 p.m. and was in the mood to lift my spirits, which meant either the strip club or the club club.

I hit my roommate first and to no surprise he was not down to kick it. He's an auditor and works 10 hour days so I don't blame him for wanting to sleep.

I hit up my best friend from college aka Tweezy aka Marky T the Beast and he was wifed up and after a long conversation I got him to admit that he is now only available to kick it about one night per week.

I hit up my other guy who didn't answer the phone, probably because he was asleep at 11 p.m.

I hit up my boy Oogie and he is nowhere to be found. Oogie is usually reliable in these situations but he's a jazz musician that doubles as USC's street pharmacist (he's been an undergrad for 14 years and running now -- no lie) and his life is like one big party. Yet, he's still nowhere to be found.

Next I went with my boy Tony G., who is a well-known perv and would be down fa sho to go to the strip club. He answered on a half-ring but said that he was too tired to go out. At 11 p.m.

I call Big Bank Frank and his phone is off. Ugh, that was my ace in the hole.

My other guy Faded T has his chick in town from Seattle so he's a wrap; My old reliable right hand club guy Ike is engaged and moved back to Wisconsin to be with his fiance; My other guy Big Time is in business school also in Wisconsin (I'm going out there in April to the UPN guy who goes there, I forget who it is); my #1 poker homie was also out for the night with his chick.

So I decided to sit on my couch, smoke a blunt and wait to see if someone would hit me back.

No one.

At this point I realized that I am so old that I can't find someone to go out with. I remember in the glory days when boys were eager to get out and see the world. Now, it is like a chore to go out.

So I'm wondering, what do I do? Do I need to find new friends? And if I do, do they need to be 21-23 year olds?

I still love to get out and see the L.A. night life (believe me it's great) but it's getting increasingly harder for me to get my boys to go out with me. The ones that really did like to go out have moved away or are just too worn out to go out on weeknights when the best venues are having their best nights.

Anyways, this is a rant that last night I realized that I'm getting old.

---

As far as the session last night, it was frustrating and I had a bad vibe right away.

I had a basketball game and was completely out of it. I just couldn't get into the game; my energy was low and I wasn't excited to play at all. With the exception of a quick eight-point scoring binge in less than a minute in the second half, I played shitty. I was fouled to end the first half and missed both free throws while the other team talked shit from the sideline. Ugh.

After the game I knew I was planning to go play poker but I wasn't in the mood. I went anyways and picked up a Q-high flush draw against a lady that appeared to be bluffing and trying to steal the blinds from the BB preflop. She made it $65 and I was her only caller. The flop came A-K-2 with two hearts. I held Q-5 of hearts (I know a shitty hand but this lady is a complete donk so I was trying to get involved with her). She bets $80 looking real scared and I call. The turn is a four. This is where I screwed up (besides not re-raising on the flop). She checks and I make it $130 with about $120 left. I should have gone all-in or checked. The river comes another four and she bets out $160 looking like she is trying to get me out of there. I'm trying to put her on a hand and I really can't with that bet. If she thinks I have an ace why would I fold? If she had a made hand why would she play the turn like that? So I call with Queen high and she says "Nice call, I want to see your hand." So I show the Queen high missed flush/straight draw and she shows KJ for a pair of kings. When she said "Nice call" I really thought I had her but I failed and played the hand terribly.

Then food service fucks up my order when I'm starving and I have to wait for that for an extra 30 minutes.

Then I finally pick up jacks and get caught in between AK and QQ and fold pre-flop after putting $70 in already.

Our game breaks and I move to the $500+ table. I bleed down to about $700 and this Indian character is a known gambler/action junkie makes it $60 on the button. I'm in the big blind and I call him with 4s2s figuring it's a hand I can either crack him with or get away from easily. The flop comes 53T with two spades. I check raise him and he goes all-in with KT and I call. Turn T, river K and I'm out.

I'm gonna play a lot this weekend, I think I'm gonna try to hit up Commerce and play the $500-$1500 game to see how it is. Plus their waitresses are way hotter.

2009 Numbers: 205.25 hrs., +$23643; BR2: +$700
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520

March: 10.00 hrs., +$250
03.02.09 0.75 hrs., +$105
03.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$900
03.03.09 5.0 hrs., +$1145
03.05.09 1.75 hrs., -$1900

FOYEAHS

Second Session in One Day

On Tuesday after work I went back to "The Park." I was planning to play a game with co-workers after work but a few people flaked so we cancelled the game and I went to HP to make some better money.

I played the $400 game only and made a nice $1145 come-up in five hours. My table had only one bad player but I was able to pick off a couple bluffs and win a lot of the dead money, which is something that I've been doing a lot more frequently. I'm at the point where I hate to see someone else win the dead money because I know I should have taken it down.

One piece of advice that Phil gave us when we asked him about what we need to be doing is he told us to play micro-stakes with the sole purpose of trying to win every hand. Obviously you can't win EVERY hand, but if you're trying to win every hand, you're going to win a lot more than you would if you're sitting around waiting for cards. I never did this but I think that I do try and figure out ways to win every pot that I'm in. A lot of the time I know that someone has a real hand and I'm not going to be able to win the hand, but other times even if they have a made hand like top pair/top kicker or two pair, I can get them off the hand when a scare card hits or if they are a nit/rock. Anyways, the dead money that I've been stealing has really improved my sessions because it gives me more room to call raises and not be the short stack if I can pick up $35-200 here and there. That's also what P was saying, that the dead money helps to take the hits and coolers when you get them. It's an obvious statement but to hear the best in the game say it, you realize that it really does make that much of a difference.

I've surpassed $25k in 2009, which is monumental to me, especially to do it this quickly.

I've actually been thinking about writing a book about my life and relating it to small stakes grinding (I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure that $3/5 and $5/10 NL is considered small stakes) and what I believe has helped me to be successful. I'm not saying that I will be a huge winner in the end but I've been doing this for several years now and I definitely have a lot to say. In terms of my life, it's nothing special but I think with my writing and emphasizing some experiences it would make the book a better read. In my opinion, it's very boring for me to read most of the poker books that exist about strategy and tournament strat and mathematics. The only poker book I ever read all the way through was "Ace on the River" and that was about Barry's life. Plus I just love to write for myself. Eh, who knows.

Last night I had a bball game that we won somewhat easily and then I decided to take the night off from everything. Just smoked a blunt and chilled out.

This is my stack from my last session:


2009 Numbers: 203.5 hrs., +$25543; BR2: +$700
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520

March: 8.25 hrs., +$2150
03.02.09 0.75 hrs., +$105
03.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$900
03.03.09 5.0 hrs., +$1145

Four years, get it done.

Biggest Suckout of the Year + 2009 Numbers

I definitely made my biggest/worst/best suckout of the year early this morning to start off March. After the hand I was embarrassed although I'll take the money. My opponent completely outplayed me and got me to put my money in with four outs.

Here's how it played out.

The table is loose-weak with a ton of action. As soon as I came to the table I began raising to isolate the bad players and won a couple hundred right off the bat ($200 buy-in). One player complained about me betting with king high on the flop and hitting the king on the turn in one of my early hands and my table image is loose-aggressive.

I'm under the gun with 77 and raise to $30. I get one caller on the button. It's the same player that I beat with the king. He bluffed on the river when he missed his 6-high straight draw and I called him with a pair of kings.

We see the flop and it's 3-4-6 with two clubs. This is a good flop for me and I bet out $50. He makes it $150 and I call, knowing that a 5 makes my hand and he could also be trying to bet me off my hand. The turn is the queen of diamonds. I check and he moves all-in for $300 and I have about $230 left. I can't figure out why the queen didn't slow him down as I obviously could have AQ. The all-in bet felt like he was trying to get me off my hand. I don't think he put me on a flush draw because I was the pre-flop raiser. Anyways I put him on a pair and a flush draw or a straight draw with a flush draw, etc. I call, the river is a 5 making my straight and he shows pocket queens for the turned set.

Yuck. I'll take it.

Here are my charts/numbers so far this year. I ended up playing an additional session on Saturday because I'm starting a separate bankroll for a different cause, I'll probably play with this second bankroll every third session or so. Basically myself and two other friends put together $3000 for me to play with for a specific purpose. I won $700 in a few hours in the first session with BR2.

2009 Numbers: 198.5 hrs., +$24398; BR2: +$700
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873
February: 77.75 hrs., +$8520

March: 3.25 hrs., +$1005
03.02.09 0.75 hrs., +$105
03.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$900

Four! Years!