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.

Having a good week...

There's a bunch of things that have happened in the past week that have been good, including 5/6 winning sessions. Shout out to my boys that kept the positive vibes going (Drew, Viet).

Also went out Monday night and had a good time. Got my favorite phone call "P is in town, we're goin out" and after that it was a wrap but I did spend the night next to the toilet throwing up throughout the morning.

I have noticed that the games at Hollywood Park are literally dying. It seems like they lose a table every month in their poker room. I'm guessing it's a combination of fish running out of money and players moving to other casinos where the service, staff, and games are better. For some reason Hollywood Park doesn't provide better service or food, they just bank on their prime location to keep them running but it's going to end soon if they don't make a change.

I did run horrendous in NFL picks. It was bound to happen. The last three weeks my buddies have asked me which games I liked in the NFL so I gave them my picks and was 16-0 over three weeks. So I decided it was time for me to start capitalizing on this and of course I go 1-5 in my picks. Brilliant!

Also saw a couple movies, Paranormal Activity, which I enjoyed a lot and Where the Wild Things Are, which I thought was so-so and somewhat disappointed with it.

The inside scoop is that if Ivey doubles up at the final table, he's gonna win it.

No Posts = Running Bad

Let's face it -- I'm a fair-weather blogger. I hate to come on here and tell y'all how bad I'm doing.

Basically I've made several mistakes in my young poker career and I'm not ashamed to say that I've made them, but I'm happy to say that I'm learning from them and growing from them (hopefully).

Let me outline some of the mistakes that I've made:

4. Went to the World Series under bankrolled and entered a few small buy-in events. While I was out there, I gambled on craps, sports and black jack. I probably broke even in these side games because I had a monster day in black jack and craps, but it changed my mentality. I was there for the month of June and stayed in the Bellagio, where they have conveniently placed the craps tables close to the guest elevators. I'm also not a tournament player but I played the first $1k buy-in event and busted on the bubble, which gave me some optimism for the upcoming tournaments, none of which I did any better in. Vegas crushed my bankroll and I was lucky to come back to L.A. and rebound quickly in the cash games in July.

3. Too much traveling at the wrong time. In August, right in the middle of my hot streak in the L.A. cash games, I went to Hawaii and then Seattle for over two weeks. There's nothing wrong with traveling, but in hindsight I would have much rather stayed in L.A. and continued to build my bankroll. That being said, I did manage to somehow make money in Hawaii when I won a small online tournament and another $1k at an Indian Reservation casino near Seattle. However, the problem with the traveling was it completely took me out of my 'grinder' mindset. When I returned to L.A., I still felt like I was on vacation. I took a few extra days off and never really settled back into a good routine in regards to poker.

2. Spending too much money. A lot of my good friends always tease me about my horrible spending habits. If there's a new pair of Jordans, I buy them. If we go to the strip club, I spend a lot. If I go out to the club, I spend a lot on drinks and bottles. When I'm running hot, it's great and no problem. But when I'm running bad and I'm looking at all these shoes that I never wear, I feel like a moron, which I am.


1. Bad prioritizing. I'm gonna be honest here - too much time with girls. If I'm not on a date one night, I'm going out the next night to check girls out. That means $ on drinks, then if I meet a girl, $ on dates. I've gotten (more) out of shape and lazier since I quit my job, which is the exact opposite of what I told myself I would do. I figured once I quit my job I would have much more time for exercising and the gym, but instead my attitude has become way too relaxed towards my own health.

And after all those mistakes it really hurt to run bad for the last month+. I would say I had two winning sessions out of about 15 at one point and also made several mistakes of my own.

The good thing is that I have time to make a change and improve on this. I have the right people around me as far as friends and family and I have plenty of opportunities to make it happen.

I'm thinking about (and probably will) working as a prop player for a few days a week (six hour shifts) to keep a consistent paycheck coming that will pay my bills. I definitely need to see if it's worth it because I would be playing a smaller game ($100-200 buy-in, $2/3 blinds) and making $24/hr. The people I've talked to think it's accurate to assume that at best I would make $25/hr. in a game that small. If that's accurate, I would be fine doing that for a while and playing my regular game at night. However, that's saying at BEST I'd be making $25/hr. + $24/hr. But it will definitely be a learning experience on this poker trail to see the inner-workings of a poker room.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try and post more often.

4 years...