The Resurrection...

...is coming.

I know I've been bullshitting about posting on here but it's been a hectic four months since going broke and going rich and so on...

Gonna get on this shit. If anyone's out there still.

Tonight going out for Halloween in L.A. then flying to Vegas to do it real big with P and the fellas. Will try to put up some pics next week of the breezy outfits that will be present.

Quick update on poker: had a real bad two weeks after running good for pretty much three months so I took it easy the last couple weeks. Going to start playing 40 hrs/week minimum in November.

4 years.

Weekend Goal

Setting a weekend goal of $7k.

Also mock betting the NFL games to see how I would do, so far I pushed the Saints game.

Good luck to everyone.

Improving

I'm running much better now and playing pretty strongly with the exception of two big missteps during my last session.

I've been traveling like crazy and figured out that beginning with the second half of May, I've been home less than 50% of the summer. Not the best plan when there's no such thing as paid vacation. Granted, about half of that travel time was to Vegas where I work as well. But half of the time in Vegas I partied too hard, which probably resulted in some poor poker results. Anyways I'm drifting here.

After this last weekend's visit to Vegas (no poker, -800 craps, +900 black crack, +3000 bacarrat, -1200 bottle service) I think I finally have some time to settle in to my digs in Los Angeles and get my routine grind going again. The only problem is that I'm now sick, but hoping to get over it in the next two days because I feel like I've been playing some strong poker lately.

I hope to get back to blogging more regularly and sharing some life stories as well as the poker results, I think that's when my blog is a little more fun. Lord knows I have the stories to share.

So here's the update on my numbers so far, trying to get it get it get it get it...

Day 1 7/27/2010: +$2240 6.75 hrs.
Day 2 8/2/2010: +$240 2.75 hrs.
Day 3 8/3/2010: -$2605 9 hrs.
Day 4 8/4/2010: -$500 8 hrs.
Day 5 8/5/2010: +$3830 9.25 hrs.
Day 6 8/7/2010: +$905 2.25 hrs.
Day 7 8/12/10: +$1835 7.5 hrs.
Day 8 8/13/10: +$9910 11.25 hrs.
Day 9 8/14/10: -$1900 3 hrs.
Day 10 8/16/10: -$500 5.25 hrs.

Total: +$13,455 65 hrs. ($207/Hr.)

You might notice the ridiculous amount on Day 8, which was actually three sessions. I showed up to a home game at about 1 a.m. and won $1200, then decided to head to Hollywood Park because my boy said the game was good. I was at Hollywood Park for only 30 minutes before the game broke and I won $700. Then I went home, went to sleep and went back to Hollywood Park in the afternoon to have a crazy +$6k session. Unfortunately my last two sessions have both been losers. I'm particularly disappointed in my last session, which was Monday night after I came home from Vegas. I was feeling sick and told myself I really only wanted to see if the game was juicy and grind up a few hundred.

I got up $200 and thought about leaving but stayed a bit longer and ran my stack +$1200. Solid. Then I bluffed off $1k. Then I bluffed off another $600 and left down. Must...stay...away...from...the...dark...side...

Listening to some of my old music and I forgot how much I liked what I did with this song...

"My vision is a mystery cuz pleasure brings misery...
I'm in it for the history, the losses and the victories...
The legal and the evil, the money and the people...
The mice and the men and the women and the weasels...
I big time, I small ball, I ride until we all fall...
And I don't have a clue where I'm a end up when God calls...
My phone busy, ain't even in my own city...
I don't trust shit, so I gotta keep my dough with me...
Just roll with me, kick back and smoke with me...
There's no pity for nobody, its all bloody...
And y'all lucky I ain't him cuz we all ugly...
It's all nutty, everybody got a bad side...
And to make matters worse we got a anti...
Somebody waitin for your place, they in standby...
Bad guy, good guy, good try, you would lie...
I never understood why, you wouldn't if you could die..."

4 years.

Life in L.A., Update

Even though the floorman at Hollywood Park fucked me over in front of my face when I was there, today was a good day. I thought I was pretty cool with him but he basically gave someone my seat in the game and moved me down the list thinking I wouldn't notice. This really pissed me off so I bounced without playing a hand.

Got back from Oakland on Sunday night and I've played a few sessions this week, I think I'm probably up just a little bit but now I'll find out.

Anyways I got a lot done today, it was a real "L.A." day. Woke up at noon, wrote some lyrics, went to the barber shop, went to the car wash, ate, went to the casino, went to record music and now I'm writing this blog before I go see "The Other Guys" at Century City. I'm looking forward to it, Will Ferrell is one of my favs.

Here's the update on the mission:

Day 1 7/27/2010: +$2240 6.75 hrs.
Day 2 8/2/2010: +$240 2.75 hrs.
Day 3 8/3/2010: -$2605 9 hrs.
Day 4 8/4/2010: -$500 8 hrs.
Day 5 8/5/2010: +$3830 9.25 hrs.

Total: +$3205 36.75 hrs.

Day 1: Success

Day 1 was good. Yesterday I showed up and had to wait around for about an hour. After my shitty session on Saturday that was basically a result of me playing a hand I shouldn't have been playing, I tried to remind myself of the basic fundamentals that have helped me get back on the winning track.

Unfortunately as soon as I sat down I ran my pocket tens into AK on a king high flop (only lost about $100) and then ran my queens into aces and only lost about $200 because the board ran out a flush as well as a one-card straight so the guy slow-played his aces and then couldn't get paid because the board was so strong.

Didn't make it to the casino. I covered the $2k that I was hoping to win in the two days combined yesterday and had a lot of stuff to take care of today. I'm flying up to Oakland for a few days and then will resume working next Monday.

So here was my day 1 of this new plan:

Day 1 7/27/2010: +$2240 6.75 hrs.

Total: +$2240

Good luck, have a good weekend, 4 yearz.

New goals for the remainder of 2010

Here are my goals that I've come up with today for the remainder of the year:

For the final five months, I'm hoping to make $10k each month. I'm hoping to get in about 25 sessions each month and will look to win $1k each session.

I have two remaining sessions left in July before I leave for Oakland so today and tomorrow my goal is to win $2k combined.

Then once August gets started, I'll start working towards $10k for that month. July has been a GREAT month but I did drop a large amount on Saturday in just two hours.

We'll see how it goes, good luck to everyone.

4 years.

What a week...

It had to be about a week ago when I predicted on twitter that I'd have a great week and it's come to fruition. It's about to end where it started: Vegas.

Okay that's a lie, my good week actually started last Tues when I took the scraps that were left of my bankroll and played the $5/10 no cap game at Hollywood Park. I ended up winning $6k, which basically tripled my bankroll. Since then my sessions have looked like this:

7.6 +$6625
7.7 +$1160
7.8 +$540
7.9 +$2515
7.13 +$2700
7.14 +$1870
7.15 +$3200*

You might've noticed that there's an asterisk after the last session. Why? Because I haven't received the monies yet.

Last night I went out to an ESPY party in Hollywood, got drunk as fuck, spent too much money and then went to an all-Armenian home game in the valley. I'm disappointed to say that I was truly the only player that wasn't Armenian at the game. This was my first taste of the infamous home games that L.A. poker players hear about all the time. I've been to several home games but never anything like this.

The players are all spewy and deep stacked, they turned a 5/10 game into a 10/20 game with a straddle every hand of at least $75 from any spot on the table, so essentially it was a 10/20/75+ game. They only spoke Armenian to each other and they spoke english to me. I had no idea what they were talking about 95% of the time so I just ignored it. The players were all completely easy to read but at the same time, many of them didn't play against each other or gave money back when they won a hand. So basically, all of the other players were playing against me, while every one of them had probably two or three allies at the table. It was an interesting experience that I don't think I'll revisit. And here's why: I won $3200 and didn't get paid. They give out a shitload of markers in the game and told me that once they pay the markers they'll pay me, no later than tomorrow. I could write probably five blog entries about this game. The players were terrible, they were pissed when I won, they were pissed when I left. At one point they told me that I was required to play another 30 minutes because you're not allowed to leave shortly after you win a big pot. I wanted to say "Well why don't you tell his dumbass not to bluff off $1200 on the river with airball," but I just agreed with them and told them it wasn't a problem for me to play another 30 minutes.

Speak of the devil. The guy that runs the game just called me as I was typing this. I answered expecting to hear "Hey I have your money when you're ready to pick it up," but instead he says "I just wanted to let you know that they're still playing if you want to come back." Right. I'd love to come back to a game that hasn't even paid me out yet. As soon as they said they weren't ready to pay, I knew that they were going to use that to try and get me back to the game.

So here's where I stand on the issue: I want my money, but I'm prepared to chalk it up as a loss. They gave me my $2k cash buy-in back so there's no way I'm taking a loss on this, but it will be extremely disappointing if they don't pay me.

So much more to write about this but...

Some of you might know that Phil Ivey made the final table of the WPT Bellagio Classic today. He's a friend of mine so I'm heading to Vegas in an hour to sweat him for the final table and hopefully celebrate the win tonight. I was there when he won the LA Poker Classic, two of his WSOP bracelets (see side pic) and also when he busted out of the WSOP ME final table last year. Hopefully he takes it home.

Then gonna fly back tomorrow to watch the Angels play my home team, the Seattle Mariners. It's amazing how three weeks ago I felt like I was in the gutter with no way out and now I'm feeling like life couldn't be much better. It's all due to one hand that turned it around last Tuesday, which hopefully I'll have time to write about.

Take care, have a great weekend.

4 years.

July Update

So far July has treated me much better than the first half of the year.

Spent last weekend in Vegas for a friend's birthday and didn't play any poker but had a great weekend... Tao and Vanity, XS tried to shit us with a shit table so we headed to Tao, which actually seemed like it was more fun anyways.

As far as poker, things have been going a lot better and I'm trying to keep it going at the 5/10 game at Hollywood Park. The best thing right now is that I'm looking forward to getting big hands as opposed to a month ago whenever I looked at aces or kings I knew I'd somehow find a way to lose my stack. Momentum is everything.

Also been recording some music that I'm happy with.

I'll come back to give some more detailed posts.

Good luck, I hope everyone is winning big.

4 years.

Email to my sister's friend...

Just wrote this to a friend of my sister's who asked me about going pro....

Hey Santiago..

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to you. To be honest right now I'm in a huge downswing and I guess it's a good time to let you know about the bad side of playing professional poker.

I haven't really expressed this to anyone but the hardest part about what I'm going through right now is the fact that I told my family and friends that I'm a "good" poker player and that they can believe in me. Now everytime I have kings, someone has aces, if I have a set, someone has a higher set. Anytime I'm in a big pot, I find a way to lose.

And to be honest the hardest thing is not the money. Obviously losing money at a constant rate is terrible, but the hardest thing is acknowledging that I'm failing at what I told everyone I could do. It's very hard to deal with.

I'm not sure what type of person you are or what type of lifestyle you live, but money management is the key to being a successful professional poker player. This is something that I've failed miserably at.

When I have a session where I win a lot of money, or if I'm on a heater, I will spend the money like it's nothing. Then when I go through downswings I think about all the ridiculous things I spent money on and just get pissed at myself.

So I would say if you feel like you can manage the money when you are doing well, go for it. I'm definitely glad that I tried professional poker and I've definitely been a winning player since I started, but I've failed to manage my bankroll properly and now I'm facing some major decisions about what to do with my future.

That being said, I've traveled more than I ever have the last year because of the freedom that poker gives me. I've met hundreds of great people through poker and had some truly amazing experiences through poker.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Kevin

Cougars

Watched the Finals final last night with a cougar that I met playing poker. She was great company and much better conversation than most chicks that I go on dates with, but I have to say it's a bit awkward being out with someone who's probably 25-30 years older than me. Definitely a lot of situations where I would have made a move on a chick my age but I felt weird doing it in front of people considering she's visibly older than me. I was in the valley though, land of the MILFs.

Fuckin' game killed me. Pau Gaol's missed rebound when the Lakers were up six with 20 seconds left was a dagger to my heart. I covered my losses with a bet on the under, but today USA and Germany both failed me ridiculously and my sports account is now maxed out. I'm gonna stop sports betting and focus on poker. Definitely a good thing.

Going to HP today, peace.

Day 1: The Great Get Back

Day 1 of the "Great Get Back" was a success.

I flirted with the idea of going to Hollywood Park all day long but I opted to do laundry, get my car washed and go to the batting cages. Traffic on the 405 was horrible so I decided if I was going to hit HP, I'd wait until traffic was over.

Early in the evening my boy that recently started his home game hit me up and let me know that he wants to improve his game by adding house players, which would include me. He also wanted ideas from me on how to improve the game.

So I went over to his condo at the W hotel around 9 pm to play in the game and talk to him about improving it. When I got there, he was there with the dealer. No one else. They were sitting around playing some first-person shooter game on x-box.

For the next two hours we talked about improving his game, which basically meant adding more girls that would flirt with the players and getting more action players, less grinders. The entire time I was wondering 'Is there even going to be a game tonight?' Didn't look like it. It was already 11 p.m. and I was still the only player there. At this point, I was actually getting a little impatient. One of my boys was telling me how good the action was at Hollywood Park and another friend was requesting my help to recruit strippers from the strip club for his birthday party on Saturday. Instead of doing either, I was sitting in this empty condo watching video games.

Finally around 11:30 p.m., a guy called and said he was coming with two friends. That makes four players. Throw in my boy who owns the condo and that's five players. Then the second dealer decided he would play. Six. Then my boy told the security guard to buy in for $100 house chips and play. Seven. We have a game, $5/5 blinds and I'm in for $500.

I told the security guard that I was going to put pressure on him because he's so short stacked. My first button and his small blind, I raise to $20 with Ad8d. He shoves all-in and says "That's for picking on me."

I know he's scared to lose the money and plays super tight. He probably even has AK, minimum. I'm 100% positive that I should fold and I'm way behind. But it agitated me that he said I was picking on him. He deserves a bad beat. So I called the extra $75 and he turned over kings. I told him I needed an ace. Flop: J-4-5. Turn: 3. River: 2. I didn't even think I made a hand but I looked at the board three times and then realized I had the wheel. Goodbye security guard. He was pissed.

Later in the game I won a big three-way all-in pot. My buddy straddled to $10. One of the three other players min-raised to $20. I was in the small blind with QQ and I had been the main aggressor the whole game to this point. I made it $110. My buddy who straddled called. The min-raiser re-re-raised all-in to $250. I went all-in and my buddy called for $280 more. I told him "You idiot, I have queens." He says "You want to just chop it up right now?" I said, "Hell no, you're trying to suck out on me. $100 rebate either way." This is the benefit of home games, you can do shit like this. My buddy tabled J9 of spades and the other guy turned over A-9 off-suit. The flop came jack high to give me a sweat but it bricked out and I won the pot. Finally, after a month of running like dog shit, I have a hand hold up in a big pot.

We only ended up playing for two hours and I won $1300, which was nice. After everyone left I played Chinese poker with the dealer and my buddy and broke even after an hour. Overall, it was a good night for me and the $1300 is a big boost right now.

I'll start tracking my winnings and where I'm playing.


Day 1 (6.16) Home Game: +1300 2.0 Hrs.

Ground Zero

"Throw dirt on me, and grow a wild flower...
But it's fuck the world, get a child out her...
Yeah my life a bitch, but you know nothin' bout her...
Been to hell and back, I can show you vouchers..."
Lil Wayne

From this point on I'm taking no prisoners and offering no sympathy to anyone in the way. Time to rise up and rebuild. Welcome to my version of every against-all-odds movie that you've ever seen.

"And you can never break my stride, you'll never slow...
The momentum at any moment I'm bout to blow...
You'll never take my pride, I'm killin' the flow...
Slow, venom and the opponent is gettin' no...
Mercy mark my words, ain't lettin' up relentless I smell blood...
I don't give a fuck, keep givin' em hell...
Where was you? When I fell, and needed help up, you get no love..."
Eminem

I'm on Twitter

What up you can follow me on Twitter here ... I'll be mainly posting new music downloads (hip hop) and updates on life, a lot of which will be poker and my fight to get my bankroll back.

4 years.

Bust. Oh.

I hate to make this post but I just went through hell and back in a gambler's hand basket.

Running pretty bad for most of the year was the beginning of the storm and the past two weeks in Vegas brought the hurricane in.

The timing is bad but when is the timing for going broke good? Never. After it's all said and done, I really can't complain at all. Shit sucks and it's heavy on the brain but I've learned a hundred lessons in the past year, many of them time and time again. Some lessons I failed to learn and ultimately that was probably my downfall.

I'll add the numbers up over the past year and see what happened, which months hurt me the most and how much money I made and wasted. I know for sure that I was a winning player but my money management is right there with the worst of them. At least I have a lot of nice kicks to wear to my job.

I will definitely keep the blog going.

Right now the plan is to get a job and rebuild my bankroll. I need to find a job pretty quickly and once I find one, I'll look for one that I would rather be at. So if anyone has any job leads in the L.A. area, feel free to let me know. Journalism degree, lol.

4 years, keep going.

Today's Wagers

I'm opening myself up to some embarrassment here because it's very possible I lose every single bet.. I'm going with all underdogs today. I like all the straight bets (and love them with the odds) and the Angels and Astros have a decent shot at winning.



4 years. damn we're in year 1.5 right now!!

L.A., Paris, Vegas

In an ideal world I'd tell you that I'm on some wonderful poker tournament tour, but that's not true.

However, I'm on my fourth day of a great family vacation, which is actually better than a poker tour. My immediate family is spread out on the west coast so we don't see each other as often as we'd like and we're taking advantage of my mom's airline miles to visit France.

But enough about that.

When I get back to the States next week, I'm heading straight to Vegas to celebrate my birthday over Memorial Day Weekend. Once that's over, I'll jump into the 1k WSOP Stimulus Event on Monday. I'm basing my stay in Vegas pretty much solely on that event. If I make a decent cash in the tournament, I'll continue to stay in Vegas and play some more small buy-in events and cash games every day.

The truth is I've been getting low on my bankroll. What started as poor bankroll management turned into running bad and playing bad. I'm hoping that some time in Vegas can kick-start me in addition to clearing my mind here in Paris. If June goes badly I might consider looking into working a normal job again in sports and/or writing.

Basically I'm gonna get my partying out of the way Memorial Day weekend and then buckle down for grinding the rest of the month until I'm comfortable again, which would take at least two months of winning. I've been actually winning more in sports than poker.

I started to put together some wins last week, which was nice because I wanted to have some decent money heading to Vegas next week. Then I decided to get one last session in on Sunday. I had two options (1) Hollywood Park, which was a great game as reported to me by a reliable source or (2) a big home game in Brentwood.

I decided to check out the home game first and if it wasn't good I would head to HP. I got there and three tables were full: a 5/10, a 10/25 and a 25/25. I jumped into the 5/10 game and immediately went up 1k within about 15 minutes. My first hand I raised with KcJc and flopped the nut straight. All the home games in L.A. usually have 2-3 cute girls walking around in bikinis or short skirts or even topless. This game had about 15 girls walking around in bikinis. I'd be lying if I said I didn't lose my focus. There weren't even that many good players but I just bled chips away in a game where there were constant blind raises and overbets. Long story short: I ended up dropping $3500 in a game where I was up $1300 at one time and I completely erased my previous three sessions of profit.

As for the home game, it was juicier for players that have bigger bankrolls than myself. Jamie Gold showed up to play in the 25/25 game and one of my boys told me that they had a $100k pot in that game. Pretty sick.

I'm still regretting going to that game though and I'm desperately trying to make some money betting on sports while here in Paris. I'm up about $1900 this week, here's the reason why:
Today I have:

Cardinals -1.5
Parlay: Red Sox, Mets, Cardinals -1.5
Parlay: Cardinals -1.5, SF Giants -1.5

It's funny... I don't blog nearly as much as I should, then everytime I do I have so much to write.

I'll save some for later. Hope everyone is doing well.

four years.

Current Playlist

Here's the songs I just burned to a CD to listen to in the whip...



I might be the hottest sports bettor in America right now.

If you looked at my picks yesterday, they all hit. Today I hit 2/2 bets and a four-team parlay.


Last night I played a long home game session in Hollywood at a new game at the W condos...a few B list celebs there like Mekhi Phifer, Chris Millz and Omar Gooding. I won $800 in about nine hours. Game was good but not incredible...

...however, today I was card dead for two hours at Hollywood Park until they told me I was next to go to the main game and I was to take one last hand on the button.

I look down at two red aces. I raise to $45 and get two callers.

Flop: AQ3, two clubs. We all check the flop (mistake #1).

The turn is another rag club and they both check to me. I bet $90. First guy folds. Second guy thinks for a while, checks his cards again and calls the $90.

River: king of spades. Guy checks to me and I bet $200 for value (mistake #2). He thinks for a minute and says "raise." He min-raises me and I call, basically knowing I'm making a bad call (mistake #3). He turns over AcTc. F#ck.

About to go on a date at Sherman Oaks Galleria, then I might head out to a club or something. Feel like I need to celebrate all this sports bet winning.

Let's get it.

4 years.

Ran Good for a Day...

...and it felt fantastic.

Check out these bets (click image to enlarge):


I meant to hedge the Lakers/Jazz bet because it was the sixth leg of my parlay and all five were in the books, but I didn't get it in before the game started. So the Lakers took a 12 point lead into halftime and I decided to hedge it at halftime, Jazz -0.5. This actually worked much better because it gave me a huge window to win both the parlay and second bet. As long as the Lakers won by 6-11 points, I win both bets and they did it. I also got lucky as fuck with the Giants, who managed a homerun in the 9th inning to send the game into extra innings.

During the day I was playing the 300-500 buy-in game at Hollywood Park. This is a $5/5 blind game and for some reason it tends to suck but I've recently been playing lower because of my losing. Anyways I played tight as fuck partially due to myself trying to play tight and partially due to never getting anything. I ended up losing $500 in this game when it broke. Somehow the donks are just dominating this game recently.

I put my name on the list for the $200 game and decided to jump into the $500 minimum buy-in game because it was soft and ended up winning in that game too, after realizing all my sports picks had hit and feeling lucky.

Been running shitty for about two months so the change is nice. At least while it lasts. Now it's 6:50 a.m. and I'm about to crash if I can figure out what to do with all this clean laundry on my bed.

Here are my picks for today if anyone wants to ride with me:


P.S. I didn't go with Halladay last week and he was a beast, throwing a shutout. Doh!
4 years.

Follow him to the promise land

I really like Roy Halladay and the Phils today against the Giants in San Fran. I took the Phils -1.5. The Giants have been struggling and put up zero runs yesterday against the Cards. Halladay is 4-0 with a 0.82 ERA.

Heading to Hollywood Park.

4 years.

Baseball Bets

Made a shitload of baseball bets today... To the last guy who bet 2k, don't bet 2k on these games, I don't love them like I loved the Jazz. But here's a head's up, there's a guy on the covers forum that has started the baseball season on fire, so I've gone with all of his picks today and the Phillies pick is my own. The link to the guy's picks are here. Thanks to V for the tip.

Today's picks:
Diamondbacks ML
Giants ML
White Sox ML
Red Sox -1.5 (cancelled - rain)
Twins ML
Brewers/Nats over 9
Phillies -1.5 (this is my big bet)

and this parlay:
Phils
Cards
Yanks
Red Sox (cancelled - rain)
Mariners

I'll revisit this and highlight the ones I won/lost.

Gonna go play at HP today also. Had a disaster date last night.

peace.

Pick of the Day

I love the Jazz -7.5 at Golden State tonight.

Poker has been going better. I've tightened up and tried to stop bluffing as much but it's so hard not to. Just playing less hands in general. Boring but gotta do it until I get back into my zone.

4 years..

Dealing with Bullshit: 101

The following is an AIM conversation I had with my "bookie" after I had texted him requesting my payout for the week:

xxx620 (11:58:38 AM): yo
xxx620 (11:59:14 AM): you should text your boy xxx. he owes me money and some of that money he owes me is what i owe you
ME (12:48:04 PM): yo man.. do you realize how unethical this is on several levels?
ME (12:48:24 PM): i understand it sucks that he owes you, but i have people that owe me money and i'm not gonna tell you that once i get paid, you get paid
xxx620 (12:50:57 PM): i don't have any money. i had to spot him 2 weeks ago for not paying
ME (12:51:23 PM): so you have no one backing you?
xxx620 (12:51:30 PM): everyone else pays on time and i can pay the winners, that's how its supposed to be
xxx620 (12:52:39 PM): i've already had to take out my savings because ppl have jipped me before. i'm supposed to get a check in the mail for a few hundred bucks so if its there i'll cash it and pay you the rest tomorrow
xxx620 (12:53:07 PM): i'm sorry about this and i try to make everyone happy but its hard when ppl don't pay me for 2 weeks and i owe ppl.
ME (12:54:24 PM): i dunno i assumed you were working under someone and had a plan worked out, that's how a lot of bookies do it. i mean what happens if you get hit hard and everyone has a good week?

...and that's when he completely stops replying.

Just to educate you guys in the world of professional gambling, the way a lot of bookies and their "affiliates" work is this (and this is based on my rough understanding):

If you can book all your clients wins/losses, you get the full profit.

If you can't, you can make a deal with the bookie over you that he covers the losses and you get 10-20% of the profits, assuming you are making a profit. If this is the deal you have worked out and you have a week where you lose to your clients, you don't start making your 10% again until your clients have started losing again and you're making a profit again for your book.

Apparently the guy I'm dealing with has nothing of the sort and is running a bullshit operation.

Not only that, but according to my short convo with him, he wants me to track down the money that my friend owes him as if that's my job. This is where I have a big problem with the way he's handling the situation.

He should never be revealing how much someone else owes him or how long they have owed him, I don't care if it's my brother or whatever, it's supposed to be private.

This concerns me greatly because if this guy has a week where all of his clients win, he's going to be assed out. I mean, even if he has a week where his clients end up + more than he can cover, what is he going to do?

You can guess what my next move is.

Leaking

I was sent home early from work today for losing too much money. I've been playing pretty bad. I'm that guy at the table that has flashes of brilliance but overall is playing losing poker. I know this and it's not a good thing. I'm playing well enough to beat the game right now but I'm not adjusting and others are and basically it's leaving me with SEVERAL leaks in my game. And while I'm on the subject, I have several leaks in my life.

Unfortunately this post won't be as long as it should be but I'm going to list my poker leaks for not because it'll help me refocus by putting them down here. It'll also be interesting to revisit this list in the coming weeks.

Leaks:

1a. Leak: Playing too many hands. A friend of mine at the casino called me "Somalius" or something like that because it's a famous online player who is known for playing 50% of hands dealt and still is a huge winner. I don't play quite that many hands but you get the point. I realize no one reading this really knows me but my style would definitely be considered "action player" so the more pots I get in, the more I try to outplay, outdraw and out-bluff people, which many times results in unnecessary big hits to my stack. The benefit is I definitely hit people from the blind side many times but I think I'm just opening up way too much. Today I lost a huge pot with 5-6 offsuit when I turned a missed OEFD (open ended flush draw) into a big river bluff after I check-raised the turn when an overcard hit. Another hand I lost a big pot with J-9 two-pair against T-8 straight. I made a horrendous call on the river when the villain check-raised me huge.

1b. Fix: Limit myself to playing hands in late position and restricting my range to suited cards so at least I'm picking up redraws.

2a. Leak: Calling too many bets and making too many big payoffs. I have now established a reputation as a calling station, which is mainly because I'm in so many hands so I'm also sniffing out a lot of bluffs. However, a lot of players are starting to bet a lot bigger at me when they have made hands and I've been making some bad payoffs. I can think of several occasions where I knew I was beat on the river but I still paid off...kind of by habit. I just couldn't bring myself to make the laydown.

2b. Fix: Develop the discipline to recognize when I'm beat. I have to narrow down my opponent's range and capability to bluff against me. I need to take more time to think about the strength of my opponent's bet and the fact that they know I'm a tough person to bluff.

Alright those are my main two leaks and I'm going to work hard on them. Another leak that really has to do with the first leak is my patience. I've noticed that I've become very impatient at times. I've never been one to blame dealers but now I catch myself looking at the dealer as if it's his/her fault that I'm not winning. I definitely need to be more patient.

Good luck, my March so far has been just like february.. up, down, up, down, up, down. So tomorrow should be up.

My weekend goal is +$6k.

I might head to the Bike because they have a big 150k GTD tournament this weekend so there should be a lot of people there. Not sure, I'm going to hit the home turf at noon.

4years..

February 2010 Numbers

I'm happy to say that I had a productive month during February at the poker table despite a few disastrous days. However, I'm ashamed to say that I spent all the profits on shoes, sports betting, strippers, and bottle service. I'm going to plug this leak this month by eliminating bottle service from my bad spending habits.

Day of Ugh

The drive home is the worst part after playing some horrible poker and losing my ass off. Unfortunately it's a drive that I've had many times. Getting lost in thinking about how horrible I played against some pretty bad players (and some good ones) and then noticing that I'm going 95 down the 405 south. Hate it.

I sat down at the Commerce tournament and immediately got a card rush. AA, KK, AK...all held up. I built my stack up then got JJ and the flop came 4-6-7 and I doubled some guy up by the river when his 3-5 was good as gold (obviously). Good play by him since I proved he had the implied odds. The problem was I knew he was playing any suited cards from what he had shown earlier and the flop had two spades (he had diamonds) so I was betting big at him. Anyways that led to my downfall. I played too many hands and got in too many weird spots where I was bluffing too much for a tournament. Exit.

Then I went to another casino and got in a cash game and played horrendously. So bad I don't even want to replay it in my head. Basically made some bad calls on a guy who is a good and extremely aggressive player. First time he made a flush on the same card I made top two with AJ, second time he rivered bottom two pair when I had top/top and sent me on a vacation to value town both times. After this, I resorted to shoving with a flush draw and then giving my money away with middle pair when someone had an overpair. Dusted and disgusted.

Today I made a few sports picks, here's what I have (you can probably make money if you take all the opposite picks):

$100 Celts/Knicks under 197.5
$200 Cavs/Hornets over 200
$200 Suns/Thunder over 204.5

4-Team Parlay
Hornets +11.5
Grizzlies +5
Suns/Thunder over 204.5
Warriors +1

4 years. Refocus.

Playing LAPC Event today

Today I'm heading to Commerce to play the $200k guaranteed tournament. Hoping the field is small because it's on a Monday.

February has been going pretty good really up and down but more up. I haven't put my numbers together in a week or so so I can do that later.

Been spending too much loot also! Faded T's birthday is this week and we went out on Saturday night. I'm sure there's a good story in there but I gotta get to the tournament. I'll post a better update later.

Peace, 4 years.

Dear San Antonio Spurs...

First of all, just to get it out of the way: Fuck you.

Due to your lack of productivity and general mediocrity over the past couple seasons, I had completely forgotten my deep hatred for your franchise. I always admired David Robinson for his hard work and solid fundamentals, but I could never respect him. He never had the heart to really give it to Hakeem the Dream. It was like he was satisfied with the stats and didn't care about the fact that he was second best.

Then came Tim Duncan after Robinson was injured for a season and you essentially robbed the NBA of the #1 overall pick in the lottery draft at the best time possible. So obviously you lucked up on your first championship due to an injury and a robbery.

You got lucky when Shaq and Kobe grew jealous of each other and parted ways. You went out of the country to find a French homo and a wild man from Argentina (who is actually the only person on your team that I respect) and you followed a fruit cake named "The Big Fundamental" to a couple more NBA titles.

However, you never showed any heart. Ever. Let's not get it twisted. Your band of crafty old veterans and cheap shot specialists (see: Bowen) never had me convinced.

But today I forgot for a moment. I went through the games of the day:

I knew that Lebron would lead his team past the Miami Heat, even when they were 9.5 point favorites. I believed in my alma mater, USC, to win a pick 'em game against Cal at home. Portland was no match for the Zags in Spokane and I felt good enough about Gonzaga to cover 8.5.

Then there was you vs. Portland. Portland. Brandon Roy, out. Travis Outlaw, out. Greg Oden, out. Joel Przybilla, out. I'm not sure if you knew this, but that's four out of five starters that aren't even in uniform for the Blazers. Your entire roster is healthy. Even old ass Michael Finley suited up tonight.

So I unwisely decided to include you as a two-point favorite as the fourth team in my parlay.

You headed into halftime with a two point lead. This is solid for me and I actually thought you might be able to pull it off.

Nearing the end of the third quarter, you looked to be giving in to the Blazers when Manu hit two three-pointers to close out the quarter up eight points. Eight.

At this point I was happy. USC had just won and I told my friend "Wow, I never thought I'd be rooting for the Spurs." LOL @ me.

In the fourth quarter, you extended your lead to ten. But then, some moron named Popovich decided to bench Tony Parker for George Hill. I know, not even you know who George Hill is but believe me he's on your team. So Andre Miller goes to work and abuses Hill. Martell Webster, essentially the only three-point threat on the court for Portland, is left wide-the-fuck-open in the corner and drains a three-pointer.

Everyone on your shit squad looks at each other with a "Were you guarding him?" expression on their face while old ass Popovich slams his hands on the scorer's table.

Portland takes the lead with a minute left. Then they call timeout, killing all of their momentum and giving you the option to insert TP into the game. Basically they did you a huge fucking favor, you fucking imbeciles.

Coming out of the timeout, Portland and it's crew of second stringers hand the ball to... YOU. And what do you do with it? You give it to Tim Duncan, your all-world "super star" so he can turn it over. Manu does the same and I realize why I have hated you forever.

You have no heart. I made the mistake of betting on you. I woke up from the dream that I could win a four-teamer with you after all my other games easily covered and you led by 10 in the 4th. Not only that, but fucking Miller misses a free throw to give you yet ANOTHER opportunity to tie the game, but you obviously miss a wide open three to tie it.

Fuck you, San Antonio. I knew it was a curse when I realized I was actually rooting for you. Shame on me.

Never again will I bet on you. I don't give a fuck if you are 60 point underdogs to my daughter's YMCA team, I will never wager one fucking dollar on your horrid piece of shit franchise.

Dead games, took an L

Today I was bored in some dead games. The action was slow and I tried to create more action, unsuccessfully.

Straddling constantly and c-betting into check raises and raises all night long.

Was too bored and unfocused. I can take something out of this session tho. The only saving grace is that I was down $2500 at one point in the 5/10 game and managed to make 1400 back.

Also my poker buddy and I have been playing red/black on the flops for $100 every now and then and I'm up $400 on him so that's a bonus. Good to run good in red/black for $100 per flop.

Some dude that plays the game regularly hit the jackpot last week (like 2k) and left the casino with $8k, then got robbed at a stoplight. Someone followed him, then rear-ended him at a red light. They somehow convinced him to get out of the car in the middle of Inglewood at 4 a.m. to discuss the accident and then robbed him at gunpoint. It's fucked up and has me considering buying a piece or something. There's a lot of riff raff at the casino and they know who's winning and shit and they know I win.

Just trying to get rid of these motherfugging monkey bites so I can go do something. Had to cancel on someone today cuz of it.

February Results
02.01.10 +$4480 (6 Hrs)
02.02.10 +$2700 (7 Hrs)
02.03.10 -$1555 (11.5 Hrs.)

Total: +$5625

2 for 2

Had another good day at the casino boosted by a set of 4's vs. AQ and J2 off in the BB vs. an ace on a A222 board.

Caught a bad beat last night when I went to the strip club with my boys and got a stripper hickey. WTF.

Cuatros Anos cabrons

February Results
02.01.10 +$4480 (6 Hrs)
02.02.10 +$2755 (7 Hrs)

Total: +$7235

Great Start

Today I got to my home field casino and it was dead as a graveyard. My normal game was going but there was only one real action player and he always leaves at 4 p.m. I got there at 3 p.m. and was on a list. I decided to drive to Commerce because they have the LAPC going there so there's bound to be a lot of players there. At least I could catch some kind of action.

I took off and was literally 100 feet away from the 105 on-ramp when my boy called me and told me that a big fish just showed up at HP. So I drove back, jumped in the game with him and ended up winning $4480 today. I was happy when I was up $1200 just because it looked like a good winning session to start the month, then I caught a couple hands that I won big pots in and should have won more. I played the rivers soft both times for no apparent reason.

First, I was on the button with Jh9h. Six players called to me and I limped. The small blind raised to $45 and everyone called. Flop: KcThQc. Nice. The SB bets out $75 and gets two callers. I raise to $250. SB calls and one other player calls with only $95 left in his stack (obvious draw). The turn is the 6h and they check to me. I bet $600 and later realized that I should have bet something more like $750/800. The SB called and the other player put his final $95 in. At this point I had the SB on either AK or JJ. The river was the 9d and the SB checked to me. For some reason I thought that we were chopping this pot so I just checked. He turns over TT and I missed a big value bet on the river because he's a player that doesn't give up on his hand.

The next big pot that I won I have Ad7d. The player in front of me raises to $45 and I call before five others call. Flop: 7c7s6c. I decided to slow-play this one. Everyone checked to the original raiser and he bets $75. I call the $75 and so do two others. The turn is the 3s, giving 45 a straight. Everyone checks to me and I fire $250. The fish behind me quickly raises to $500. This is a player that never raises me (he's the same player that flopped a set of tens and only called), so I'm worried about either a straight or full house here and I call. The river is a great card for me, the 6h, giving me the second nuts. My dumb ass checks and he checks behind me. I show my hand and he shows me a 6 and mucks. Another spot where I could have gotten at least $600-1000 on a value bet because he's a huge station.

I'm upset with myself about those two missed value bets but overall I played well and am more than satisfied with the session.

Below is a song my boy and I did a couple months ago, I have the first and third verses... we're on myspace, our site is http://www.thefocusgroupmusic.com ...

"Then a little more sex and I'm back in the lex...
On my way to the game where I'm crackin' the vets...
Raisin' the price up, then waitin' to light up..."

"The Life That I Live" The Focus Group


Good luck, four years! Damn.. we are already on year #2... get it in..

February Results
02.01.10 +$4480 (6 Hrs)

Feb.Forward

This year I forgot about how dreadful January has been for me in terms of poker. I believe that two out of the last three years I've lost a lot of money every January. The end of 2006 was when I started playing winning poker and that January I had a tailspin. Then 2007 I had a great year in poker, only to buy everyone great Christmas gifts with my winnings and then lose a shitload in January of 08. 2009 was much different as I won $14000 in what was probably one of my best months ever. And... this month I somehow managed to lose only a little over $1k. Although it's never fun for a professional poker player to have a losing month because when you factor in bills and daily expenses (not to mention a shoe fetish and a horrible habit of dropping money on bottle service at clubs), the bankroll looks a lot worse.

So I'm relieved to say that tomorrow (or today) we head into a brand new month.

Besides losing overall in live cash games, I also dropped $200 on Full Tilt messing around in PLO and bought into the first LAPC event twice for $335 each time.

Here's what my month looked like this month:



As you can see, I was pretty much in the hole the entire month. I'd also like to note that this past Thursday I had one of my worst sessions ever. I was up $3k and left down $4500. It was like a hurricane hit me and I was completely baffled by it and tilted for at least 20 hours after. The final nail in the coffin I was the last to call a raise preflop with J9 after there were already five callers (seven people to the flop) and the flop comes KQT rainbow. Obviously I'm worried about AJ but the player that re-raised me on the flop was the donk of the table so I shoved on him and of course he tables AJ and proceeds to talk shit to me.

My goal for each month this year is $15k/month. That will average to $700-800 profit per session, which is doable in my opinion. Obviously I'll have some losing sessions and some bigger wins but I'd love to make it happen, January excluded.

Good luck to everyone.

Revisiting my 2009 resolutions

As I head into 2010 with a shitload of resolutions, I think it's a good idea for me to revisit my 2009 resolutions so that I can recognize my successes and failures of last year. So here we go, from this post:

1. Get in shape: Fail. I'm in much worse shape now then I was last year.
1a. Eat healthier: Somewhat.
1b. Work out in the mornings: Fail.
1c. Play ball at least four times a week: Fail.
1d. Light weights: Fail.
1e. Run and/or play tennis on the weekends: Fail.
1f. Get my six pack back: Fail.

2. Poker: Success.
2a. Make at least 50k in poker for the year: Success.
2b. Manage my money better: Success.
2c. Win a tournament: Success.
2d. Finish in the money at a WSOP event: Fail.

3. More music: Success.
3a. Make better music, songs with content and direction and at the same time widespread appeal: Success.
3b. Start producing my own beats: Fail.
3c. Start performing regularly: Fail.
3d. Get on a track with a big name: Fail.

4. Money: Success.
1a. Conserve my money and manage it better: Success.
1b. Get a new car this year (Cadillac CTS?): Success (although not a CTS).

5. Family/Friends: Fail.
5a. Keep in touch with more friends: Fail.
5b. Make a better effort to see my family and take a couple trips: Success.

6. Manage my time: Fail.
1a. Keep an agenda/schedule: Fail.
1b. Don't waste time watching tv, on the internet: Fail.
1c. Be punctual: Fail.
1d. Get sleep so I'm more efficient: Success.

Overall I have to say that 2009 was an incredible success for me, both professionally and personally. Besides becoming a successful professional poker player (keep in mind this is only for seven months so far), I learned so much along the way. I spent a lot of time with some well-known poker pros and heard great stories about their experiences together and making it as young poker pros.

I got some traveling in to Vegas about eight times, Seattle a few times, and Hawaii. This year I'm looking forward to more trips but more trips means making more money so I can pay for them. The one definite problem with playing poker for a living is that there's no such thing as paid vacation. Luckily while I was in Hawaii I won a tournament on Full Tilt and that paid for the trip and knocked out one of my 2009 goals to win a tournament. I didn't cash in three small buy-in events that I played at the WSOP although I bubbled in the first event. It really sucked ass. I was walking out of the room and they announced "congratulations players, you've made the money."

As for my music, I'm very happy with what I accomplished in 2009. I probably made about ten songs and have taken a bit of a new direction with my boy that I'm working with and we're still improving and learning how to shape our style. I'm excited that we're working on it and improving.

I'm disappointed in myself as far as my time management and exercise. I'm just not doing anything with either and I need to. Those will be my biggest goals for the year.

But other than that great things happened for me this year - I quit my job to play poker, I bought a new car, and surprisingly I've made it as a finalist for an entrepreneur grant that I have to present for in Chicago this month. Exciting for me and it will be another great learning experience.

That being said, I have so much growing to do. I told myself that 2009 was my year to "make moves" and I did. Quit my job, bought a car, started a new company.

Now, 2010 is my year to "Arrive."

2010 is Here

Yo yo yo yo...

Sorry about the absence.

The good news is I'm not busto, so we can leave those assumptions alone.

I finished 2009 very strong, had one of my best months ever (or maybe the best ever) in December. I came into the month hurting and set a goal for myself to win $750 per session for 20 sessions and ended up surpassing my goal by a lot. I was running so well that I stopped going to my prop player job to go to my regular 5/10 game and keep playing there.

The prop job actually sucks balls but I'll write more on that in a different entry (how many times have I said that lol).

Anyways I have a ton of resolutions and one of them is to blog regularly so I wanted to make sure I get an entry in here before the end of the day.

Went to a mansion party that was nuts last night in Hollywood Hills. It was a mess getting in and getting seated at our table but by the time we finally did it was a great time, although some purses and shit got stolen but shit happens.

So I'll post my resolutions tomorrow because there's a lot of them, I plan on having a big year. 2009 was my year to "make moves" and I definitely did. I'm tagging 2010 as my "arrival" so I have high hopes for this year.

Happy New Year and peace.