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!

January, February, Check

Good news, I hit the goal for the month with a $1010 profit last night. The stack above looks like a lot more than that but I was in for $1200. Early (really early, like first 30 minutes) I pushed with a straight flush draw with 3s4s on a board that had As5sX. I hated pushing like this with the low flush but I was in the mood to gamble and try to double up. Like two hands later I flopped a nut flush draw with Ad7d and pushed again and bricked. It was fun.

So just like that I was in for $1200 but made a nice comeback, most notably bluffing a guy off of his KK when there were two aces on the board. He showed his kings so I showed my K6 just to put him on tilt and it worked like a charm as he proceeded to unravel and lose the rest of his big stack plus another buy-in.

Then with about $600 I raised to $40 with QT of hearts on the button. The small blind re-raised me to $80 and I called. The flop came out three hearts. He bet $80 again. I raised to $160 hoping he'd push with a high heart or high pair and that he did. He went all-in, I snap called and he missed with AK and the ace of hearts (no pair on the flop).

As for my hoop game last night, it was a disaster. We were up 10 points with about five minutes left and lost in overtime. I shot poorly once again and was frustrated with the refs because the other team was gang raping my arms every time I had the ball (I run the point on this team) and I didn't get one foul call. A couple times I had to just pick my dribble up and start swinging elbows which I got a good LOL from because the other team started whining even though they were all over me and reaching in.

This weekend I'm planning on relaxing and staying out of the casino until Sunday. I might mess around on Full Tilt if I have time.

I've put up a new poll on the right sidebar. Basically I'm thinking about paying back my $401k loan in full ahead of schedule (I'm about four months into the cycle) and was wondering what people thought I should do.


Good luck and have a great weekend, 4 years..........

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 75.0 hrs., +$7820
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555
02.23.09 14.25 hrs., -$775
02.24.09 6.0 hrs., -$485
02.26.09 3.5 hrs., +$1010

Interesting I ended up with exactly 75 hours.

Work

I'm really starting to struggle. My responsibilities at work have changed and I'm doing entry level work all of a sudden and that's probably giving the level of difficulty in my work too much credit.

I'm attempting to tough it out but when I'm making four times the rate when I play cards, it's really tough to sit here and read text messages that say "great 400 game going on."

It's agonizing actually.

Anyways I'm hoping to get to HP and hit for the $200 I need to surpass $7000 this month. After that, I think I'll take a break until Sunday, which is the first of March.

Today I'm really feeling burned out. I'm tired and data entry combined with a shitload of copy and pasting just doesn't get the adrenaline going like flopping a set of fives or bluffing a scare card on the turn.

I need to reset my focus. I'm pretty sure I know why I lost the last two sessions: I'm getting lazy and somewhat sloppy; I'm playing too many hands, which means I'm chasing more draws and trying to crack more opponents with ugly two pairs and inside straights. I need to sharpen up.

I'm not the best player and never claimed to be and I have to realize what makes me better than others. I need to sit at a table and evaluate each player and come up with a strategy on how I can beat each opponent because everyone plays uniquely and thus everyone loses uniquely. To me.

Let's get it done.

Hopefully if you're reading this and you play, you're winning right now or winning tonight or whenever you play again, you win.

I didn't play yesterday. I had a basketball game and we got our asses torched. By 20. And we're supposed to be the best team. It was actually a team of Hollywood promoters (mostly ex-college players) and every one of them caught fire sometime during the game. I played terribly and so did our other two main scorers.

Tonight I have a game in a different league at Bev Hills HS and hopefully I'll hit for 20+ because we're playing the first place team (we're second). Something about the Beverly Hills HS gym that just makes me shoot badly. I hate it but last game I did better so I'm optimistic. My friend feels the same way about Commerce Casino and his poker game. Just one of those things, there's no level of comfort there.

After my game I'm hoping to get to Hollywood Park around 930 pm and hit them for a few hundred. Can't be too greedy.

I realize this is pretty much a ranting entry but I also realized that all my posts were getting so one-dimensional with the poker shit.

Peace and good luck.

Back to back L's

It was bound to happen sometime and happen it did. Monday I dropped $775 in the $200 game, which I really am starting to hate, and Tuesday I dropped another $485 playing the $400 and $200. Tuesday I actually lost $755 in the $400 and won $270 in the $200.

I had a combination of some bad (not terrible) beats and was really card dead. Yesterday when I sat down my very first hand I bet a guy off of his pocket aces when the board was 6-T-Q-9 all clubs. I had QJ with no club and he had aces with no club and folded on the turn. The very next hand I pick up QsJs and it gets limped to the flop. The flop comes three spades. The guy in front of me bets $40, I call him and the guy after me goes all-in for $400, which I call. He shows pocket aces with the ace of spades and turns the nut flush. I thought it was a bit crazy that I got QJ my first two hands and went up against pocket aces both times. I won the time that I had the worst hand and lost the time that I had the best.

Anyways here's an update on the numbers. Unfortunately the two losses sent me under my monthly goal of $7k so I have some work to do before Sunday.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 71.50 hrs., +$6810
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555
02.23.09 14.25 hrs., -$775
02.24.09 6.0 hrs., -$485

Here's a couple pics of the car I bought:





4 years!!

The Winning Streak is Alive

I'm aggravated because I keep my records on an excel spreadsheet on my phone and it erased everything from the last month. I've played three sessions (well really three days and four sessions) since I last posted. All were winning sessions but I don't remember the exact count on the first one, which I think was last Thursday. I think I won about $200 but I'm not sure so I'm just going to leave it off the records. Went to Hawaiian Gardens again, that place has some serious calling stations and sick suckout artists from what I've seen. I actually lost $65 at HG but won at Hollywood Park right before I went to HG so that day I won even though the session at HG was a loss.

The LAPC Main Event is currently running and the team favorite is still in it so hopefully he'll make a repeat performance from last year. I think I'm going to go up there tonight to check out the end of day 3 and see if Phil is on his way to the final table.

With Sunday's profit I've surpassed my monthly goal of $7000 for the second month. I'm getting closer to finishing the month without a losing session/day and I've had some sessions where I thought I was taking an L fa sho. But this year has gone incredibly well for me so far and I bought a car last week with some of the extra money I won in craps. It's a 2007 Lexus GS350 with 19k miles on it. I got it for a good price and it's a lot nicer than any other car I've already had so I'm feeling good about that.

2009 Numbers:
January: 120.75 hrs., +$14,873.00

February: 51.25 hrs., +$8070
02.03.09 2.5 hrs., +$150
02.06.09 5.5 hrs., +$60
02.07.09 3.25 hrs., +$540
02.08.09 11 hrs., +$2410
02.10.09 4.5 hrs., +$75
02.12.09 1.5 hrs., +$315
02.13.09 8.0 hrs., +$2390
02.17.09 4.0 hrs., +$205
02.21.09 6.5 hrs., +$370
02.22.09 4.25 hrs., +$1555