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.