Bend me Over the River

Well Sir River Rape-My-Ass was in rare form tonight. I really got set off and threw away a little more money than I would have if I was not getting killed. It started off well. Aewsome table. Loose and Passive fish calling everything to the river. Except I could not get two cards to play. I then hit a few pots and wow! I was up over 150! Yay! Then I got BAD BEAT up the wazoo. Rivered 5 times in a row including my favorite AA vs 78, with a 7 over 8 boat on the river! What the hell! What the fuck do I need to do to win? Anyway.. Bad night. Tomorrow is another night. Fuck all of you assrapers! I am coming for you tomorrow!

Stuff

You have got to check out Acoustic Shadows. He seems like a cool guy. Very interesting question on Pot Odds in his latest Blog. No possible worldly use but a very fun mental exercise. Crap, and he is probably the only other person on the planet who likes Samurai Jack! Go man go!

Just a sentence on Stripper By Night. Talk about being a catty bitch! I think you have the right to your opinion and it is great you are expressing it. I also have the right to mine, and you totally miss the point with Felicia. So stick with stripping and Poker, things you know about.. well, stripping, and army guys and leave the rest to the real pro's. 'Nuff said.

Talking Poker Forum (www.talkingpoker.com) is still fun. For all of you small stakes players out there he is offering $25 for signing up and posting 200 meaningful comments. Ok, Only 182 need to have any meaning, but that was a great offer by him. I like the forum alot. It is a friendly, small group of people, just shooting the shit about poker. If your looking for 2+2 advanced hand analysis go somewhere else but if you want to throw stuff out there and get some different opinions this is a great site. Also he has many Bonus Whore Opportunities. Cmon.. you know you want some you whores.. there you go..

I meant to write this up before I went on the downward spiral in my Bankroll. The wife forced me and the kids to go to a Christmas Light show at the Shrine of her Lady of ImustabeenonshroomsbecauseIamseeingsomeweirdshit. Now I am not a very religious person and will probably insult everyone out there but here goes.

The light were pretty. They had this one display that caught my eye. You climbed up this steep set of steps to the top of this shrine. You then, if you were righteous enough, finish the climb on your knee’s and receive favor from your God. It was one of those places you bring sick and crippled people to. So why is it that everytime you want to be healed you have to hurt yourself? I just do not get it. I have not decided yet if I believe in a deity that created this whole mess we have but I sure as hell hope he doesn’t want me to drag my crippled ass up a few dozen flights of stairs, and then pull myself up the remaining flight on my withered knees to be miraculously cured – unless I am not faithful enough, then tough luck. What a bunch of garbage we humans have interjected into our religion. I think what we have here is a failure to communicate. If not then I hate to see what hell is like!

We then got the treat of going around the pond of hell. Ok, maybe more like the pool of heck. It actually reminded me of the doldrumns in some kids book I read a long time ago with a dog who had a clock in his body. They had these signs every ten feet that were letters of the alphabet describing some great Christian thing, you know:

[B] Baby is
Born in the great city of
Bethleham
Bringing salvation to all

My wife has the great idea of going around to each and every one of these and having my son tell us what the letter is and reading each and every one. I felt my mind numbing away and being converted to Christianity so I had to make my own poems in my head:

[L] My Lady
Love is
Licking me
Lusciously and
Laviously oh how I
Long for that sweet release

You get the idea. BTW – There is no fishing in the holy pond. Not sure why there are fish in there but do not try to fish for them!

Well how's that for a disjointed mini-Iggy like post? Nobody can do it like the Blog Father though. I must still be confused after seeing that picture the other day. I still am trying not to blink because the image is burned into my retina! Jeeeeezzz!

ITC ya you know me!

Hey, Welcome back to ITC, the Intrepid Card Player. Great Blog! Glad he is back in the game. He had a bad stretch and had to bail for a while. I respect that alot! It is nice to see him again. You can get the link to his blog in my full Blogroll.

Welcome back 3/6! I love you! I had a small night tonight. Up fifty. I am much happier about that than losing every single day! Two good nights and I am feeling good again. I made a few BIG mistakes tonight, missed alot of draws, and caught some good cards on a few hands. All combined to the small profit you see. The biggest mistake I had was calling a LAG down to the river! Damn! I know it was stupid. He had been bluffing his ass off and raising every hand pre-flop! Sometimes that throws me off. I ended up getting it back from him. Jackass.

Iggy needs to not post porn on his site! God, I hope that is not really Hank! How the hell do you fit that much hair in such a small space. yeeessssh. I thought my wife was mean to me!

Sweet Jesus! I have been re-rated as TAN! Sweet! Sir has Neutral Aggression! OMG! I am aewsome! Watch out tables I have been burned by the fires of the 5/10 level and come out reborn like a Phoenix of Death for the 3/6 level! I am coming for you!

Aggression, What does it mean?

I am sure many of you have heard that your aggression factor needs to be improved. I am guilty of a low aggression factor and I have seen it getting better. The last nice game I had it even capped 2.13! Now most of you are thinking “Hell Yeah, Aggression! I am going to go splash the pot! Bluff like hell! Raise anything!”. Ok tough guy, that is a small part of what goes into your aggression factor, but here is the key: FOLD. WHAT! That is wimpy! How can that be AGGRESSION! I want to be AGGRESSIVE! The key verb in aggression is ACTION. If you call someone’s bet you are being passive. Either you have a hand worth playing or you do not. You have Q7, the flop is J74 with two hearts. Do you really want to call the guy with the J trying to spike a Queen? No way, Especially if the pot is small and you are heads up. What is the point? Fold. Your aggression factor will appreciate it. So go out there and take action! FOLD when it is warranted. Put money in the pot when you have the odds on your side. When do you call? When you have a monster and want to keep people in the pot or when you’re drawing to an unlikely hand like a gutshot straight just because you have the pot odds to do so. Bluff a little, Fold a lot, and have a good time. Soon you too will have a good aggression rating.

Building Back Up

The Bankroll is back in building mode. The 3/6 game is weak. I like it. I feel safe and snuggly. I almost trippled up on one table, busted out playing too aggressive on another, and made a few bucks on a third. Two tabling. Having fun winning again. I have no idea why I suck at 5/10 but I am almost positive it is something in my game. Iggs might know, he has played with me a bunch of times. So slowly I crawl back up the ladder. Thanks to Asphyx from F-Train for the good advice. I think I need to get back on the horse though. I really need to work on not going nuts with variance. I always want to play until I am even or up a little. Not good.

I am dissapointed by my first try at the "real" money levels. I am not happy with what I let it do to me. I think my bankroll was not ready, and it opened up alot of old bad habits. I have really been on a slight tilt ever since I went up. I was playing solid, tight, Poker. However I was losing and it was driving me crazy. Now that I am back to the kiddie pool things should get better.

I still maintain that the 5/10 players are REALLY loose pre-flop. However I am willing to concede that they are good at knowing when to fold. At least most of them. Perhaps this is what I need to fix in my game in order to win at those levels. We will see. I am going to stick to my guns and wait until 4K or so until I try again. 2K left to go. Going to try and just have fun again. Its been a long couple of weeks..

I Give up!

I hate Poker sometimes. You freaking play the best cards and get you ass handed to you with crap. How the hell does a runner-runner straight call to the river and make it every freaking time? How come my trip 8's never stand up? What the hell do I have to do to win this game? Jesus! I have had it! I am going to go back to 3/6 while my bankroll is still intact. I am sick of 5/10. I am not sure if I was having a slump or what but I have burned off enough money in this experiment. I have had it! The Cards suck!

UPDATE: Well at least 3/6 seems good again. Decided to try it for an hour
because I was so mad at Poker. I had a modest win which makes me feel a little
better. I have decided to stay at 3/6 until I get up to 5-6K or so and then try
5/10 again if I feel like it is worth it. #*&$*($*( Poker!

Auto Rating Rules for Players

I just thought I would post two of the most commonly used Auto-Rating systems for players in PT. The ICONs are nice to have when you want to backup your read on someone. If you want to use either of these sets of rules please right click on the link and choose save as. You can then import them in the Auto Rate players screen.

BisonBison

I think this is the standard and most people either use it or a modified
version.

Drivett

He used BisonBison rules and modified them slightly to catch more fringe players stats that were not capture using the Bison rules.

Not sure if any of these are good but I use them and they seem to match my initial reads on players. On the good side my Aggression raiting in PT has gone from an all time low of .88 to an all time high of 1.4 now! I think this might be why I am losing more often but when I win I take larger pots. Interesting stuff to think about.

How to Play my Pairs

Anyone with PT, do you lose ALOT of money on TPTK? Here are my stats to date. Are they abnormal? If I am losing with TPTK does it mean I am playing it alright, or should I just always fold these? It seemed like I was making money with them but the stats say differently:

High Card: -7K
Pair: -6K
Two Pair: +2.8K
3 of a Kind: +3.5K
Straight: +3.2K
Flush: +4.1K
Boat: +2.9K

It seems like I win like 9% with High Card. That one is easy to fix. Some of it is chasing TP, It also probably has alot of missed flush draw's in there.

How do you fix one pair though? Stop playing them? Stop betting them? Just deal? If I removed all one-pair play from my game I would be much higher now. However it seems like I win with a pair also. Very weird! 38% Win Rate on Showdown. So I do win my fair share of pots with them. Any suggestions?

Another day another dollar..

I do not understand 5/10. Once night I lose 60BB, the next night I win 30BB. Is it me? I don’t know. I am done over analyzing it. I am just going to play my best and see what happens.

So I make my 30BB and decide to play a 25/2 5K guaranteed tourney.

Level 1:

Lose some blinds.

Level 2:

I take it easy for a few orbits and then spike an AA. I raise the 4BB amount and get one caller. The flop is J72. So I bet just under the pot to try and take it. I get raised by a guy who has been going all in all night. So I re-raise him all in. I mean who is going to play J7 against a raise? Damn! He has J7! However I spike a 2 on the river to cripple him and give myself a nice bankroll of 1980.

I then raise pocket 9s, the flop has a K, so I bet the 170 the guy I just crippled has left. He folds and I take a little money. Next hand The_masta finishes him off. 195 Left at this point.

Level 3:

Not a lot of action. Raised AQ to 200, called by the blind. He calls two more fifty bets and folds to me on the turn with my A high. Sweet. I have 1865, and 150 players are left and it is break time.

Level 4:

Folded A-10 and the flop comes AA7! Yikes! Two guys are fighting over it. One dropped out. I wish I could have seen the showdown. Oh Well!

Raised my AK to 200 and took the blinds. I am soooo tight! You would be proud Venetian! Heh. 118 left at this point.

Level 5:

Here we makes some moves. Someone raises me in a blind steal attempt. I have KJ clubs. Flop is red, but no flush and a Jack! Sweet. He bets another 100, and I call. Trip J’s!!!!! I win! I may have over bet here, but did not want to give a flush a chance.

I then call with A-10 s000ted and hit my 10! Bet 100 and everyone folds! Nice. Scary flush draw board made everyone fold I think. I am now at 2865! Average is 2400 and 106 people are playing. This has been my level! Bad Blood started watching me and I started kicking ass!
Raised AJ in the blind, and got 1 caller. Small cards and he folds to my turn bet. 3100 and feeling good.

Level 6:

AKs, call a 300 raise. The flop has an A, the guy bets out 300 and I raise him and take the pot! 3815 baby! Best I have ever done in an NL tourney!

Raised AK to 400, got one caller. Flop missed me and it was 545 to play. I decide to wait for another chance. 3200 left.

AQ .. small stack makes it 450 to play. I call. He flips A8 and I hold on against a straight board that almost helped him. 3785! AJ takes the blinds. Pocket 6’s bring me back to 3360. 75 people left. Top 30 make a small profit.

Blinded down to 3K. I played the last hand WAY too weak!

Bet Ajo to a blind steel attempt. Flop sucked and I am down to 2200 now. I tried a weak bet on the flop and got raised back and had to fold.

Level 7:

Nothing yet. Blinds are 100/200 and I am getting a little concerned. I need to make a move I think. Running that off of BB to see what he thinks. He says I am moderate. Not too bad yet. I do need some playable cards soon though.

Stole a blind or so. Nothing much happening.

Level 8:

Limped with Pocket 7’s, hit a seven, and bet 400. Nobody wanted a piece of me. Up to 2800 now.

AK s00ted and I am up to 3500 and rocking and rolling back into this thing! My temporary bummed out feeling is gone. I am owning this tourney!

Level 9:

Small stack. Large blinds. I have made the money though.

All in with A-10, and two people. AK and KQ flip over and I hit my 10’s! The KQ made a straight so I just doubled up.

A9 for a blind steal! Sweet! I am up to 4298 and looking good. There are 27 people left and they are going out slowly. Just hit the break. Bad Blood is leaving me alone now. He has been great moral support in this thing!
Level 10:

Waiting to come back. Need some coke. Brb. AK and I blind steal. Up to 4598 now. 27 People left. Average stack is 9K. Nothing on the blinds so back to 4298. At least it didn’t cost me anything this orbit.

I screwed up. AK, and got into a raising war, and I am out. 77 Flopped trips. I should have folded. I am not sure what I was thinking. Damn! I am stupid. Oh well, it was fun, and I made a few bucks. I think BB should have stuck around longer. I would have won then! Out 25th of 247 for a grand profit of twenty something dollars. I really am not sure what I was thinking. Sometimes when I hit raise once it gets stuck. I should have put more in pre-flop, and then the sevens would probably have folded. Dummy.

Bad Habits Rear

Damn! I thought I was over this. heh. Well I had a REALLY bad night. The first hour of play I was dealt AA,KK,AKs,AQ,AA,QQ,JJ, etc.. and all of them were cracked by things like 84o! I think this set me off. Then I went and played a little 10/20. Bad idea! heh. I did win. I do not understand these people. In the 10/20 level everyone plays every two cards the same way. I mean A3 is calling to the river if he makes the 3! Bad Play abounds. I am surprised all I could make was $300. The trick is
you never know if they are bluffing or not! They do it so much! Crazy. I think that play becomes worse as you rise in the levels so stay at .50/1!!!!

I played a little NL with the Bloggers. Only good point of the night. I ended up quadrupleing my buyin. At least my 25/NL stats are a little less horrible. Pauly, Maudie, and Studio were great!

So I really need to watch myself with the level jump. That sucked. I am getting really fed up with 5/10. I am not sure if it is my play or what. The people playing these tables suck! I mean any two cards! Here is the deal though. I am not so sure any two cards is a bad thing anymore. I am not of that school, but I can see how it might work if you are good at post flop play. Being able to lay down. Knowing when your beat, pumping the pots your ahead on. I think my post flop play leaves alot to be desired and probably contributes to me not smoking the 5/10 level. Not sure.

What am I going to do? I am going to give 5/10 one last chance to be nice to me! It better get on it's knees, because my ass is getting a little sore. If I can do well tonight I will keep at it, if not I am going to go back to 3/6 for a while and see if I can beat that anymore. Again, I am not sure if it is a slump that corresponds to my move up or if the game is that much harder at 5/10. I am going to play my usual tight game, and make sure I never chase anything unless I am getting some AEWSOME odds to do so. We will see how it works. Until tomorrow. Enjoy your Turkeys!

5/10 Working it Again

Not much content in this post. I think I burned out with the life story. heh. It was good. I posted it for myself more than anything. It's good to get the junk out every once in a while, and it was mildly Poker related. Thanks for all the nice comments! Maybe I should take up writing again.. hmm. I think I would describe my style as blunt and readable.

I beat the tables tonight for the amount I want to. I have a goal of making 1 buyin a night. I just barely cleared it tonight. I would like to see more like 40BB a night, but we will see. Up 25BB and feeling good about 5/10. Staying away from the short tables. Having fun. The one hand that won me the most tonight was 73o. Flopped a gutshot, got a free card, hit my straight, slowplayed, KQ connected and 4-BET the river for a nice 130+ hand. I beat his butt with two pair the hand before too. He should stay away from me. heh. I called things down alot less. Always something I need to fight against. Glad to be out of my slump and hope to make some money for the end of November. I am going to start taking cash out. I figure I will take something out at the end of each month. I still want the bankroll to grow at a steady pace so I can play 10/20 and 15/30, but I think seeing some of my winnings in my savings account is worthwhile.

Hope everyone else is doing well. Predator from Poker Quest keeps hitting those Bad Beat Jackpots! Man I hate him. heh. Just kidding. He is aewsome! We have a friendly rivalry going on and follow each other nightly. I really enjoy having some peers at 5/10. Seeing how they are growing, etc.. Go Read Riding the F-Train (link on right), he has some great tips on Low-Limits (6/12 and below I assume). He really sums up some of the things I have been seeing at the 5/10 tables, and alot of the things I need to fight against nightly. Worth reading for anyone!

Weird Night

I am gaining confidence in my 5/10 game. Going up to this level really put me on tilt and I think I am getting back to center. I did blow $500 tonight before bringing back $430 of it. The reason for this was I played some 6-Max and really played badly. At least ten sided slows me down a bit. heh.

One thing that is has been hard for me is getting a 5/10 table! They are always full. So I figured out a secret tonight. Put your name on the waiting list, set the min players to 9, and wait. It does not take very long for you to be seated. I will now stay away from the 6-MAX tables until I learn to play that game right. To be fair to myself I got some odd beats. Trip 8's beaten by trip 8's with a higher kicker! I mean how unlucky is that short handed?

I played a few hands VERY poorly tonight. Especially high pocket pairs. Calling them down to the river with and Ace on the board. Hey guess what, a JJ is the same as a 22 when an AK is on the board! Idiot! At least it did not cost me too much. I have been focusing on my game even more lately. The slight downturn (mostly due to 6-MAX) has caused me to evaluate my play even more. I am now paying ALOT more attention at the tables. I hope to get things rocking now.

The stats are doing well. I have 2.40 BB/100. The aggression numbers are still far too low but higher than they were at 3/6. I am playing a really tight game too. All in all I am thinking I can beat 5/10. It just takes a little adjustment.

Days of my Life

I decided to do a “Days of our Lives” installment of the Blog. I am sure most of you could care less about me as a person but too bad. It is a cathargic experience and I feel like doing it. So the question is why is it so hard to pull away from the Poker tables for a weekend? The answer is rooted in my troubled past and not so great present.

I started off life on a pretty decent track. My parents worked all day to keep us in our roach infested projects. Now these projects were not as bad as say Compton. In those days you did not have to worry about gangs killing you or things along those lines. I was generally a happy kid. My dad drove trucks for a living and was hardly ever around. My sister and I took care of ourselves from a very young age. We would come home from school and between that time and when my Mom got home for work we were on our own. I am not sure my parents were ready to have kids. I was born premature and lost hearing in one ear because my parents did not treat an ear infection with antibiotics. My mother had never told me this before my 34th birthday. My wife thought her story was kind of fishy that I was born deaf. I confronted her and she finally came out with the truth.

I tended to not give school a lot of thought. I was fairly bright, but very un-motivated in public school. I preferred to horse around with my friend Mark instead of study. Not a big deal pre-sixth grade. The one exception was writing. I loved to write sci-fi and fiction stories. The whole class LOVED to read them also. I remember one story I wrote. It was the best story of my life. I still remember it. It had to do with a boy who transferred from his world to “Candy Land”. Complete with a mean candy queen and her candy cane soldiers. It was really good. I submitted it to the teacher and somehow it ended up getting lost. I swear I read a published story that sounded like mine years later. Conspiracy abounds!

I never remember being really sad at this point in my life. I was fairly happy. Somewhat bored. I was not very close to my parents but too young to really understand this. I wished my life would change. Little did I know what I was asking!

Just in time for seventh grade we decide to move. The parents get up enough money to move us out of the projects and decide to go to Winchester. In our state this is a very affluent town. We rented a side of a duplex. The rest of my teen years are sort of a dark, blank, mystery. I really never like to think of them. Pretty much years of hell interspersed with a little minor pain. It encompassed several towns and never really got any better. I guess I had a sign that said “Pick on me, I like it!” on my back. On the good side when you only have a few friends you tend to have time to study. I also had motivation. I could get straight A’s for half of the year in school, skip the second half, and end up with C’s! No school was a good thing! I am assuming many people had the same experience as me. It is kind of a sad statement on humanity that whenever a group of people gets together there has to be a lesser group. We see it everywhere in our structures. Rich vs. Poor. Smart vs. Dumb. American vs. Foreign. Someone has to be the bad guy.

The one bright point of all these years was my Computer hobby. I remember working for various places like McDonalds, K-Mart, Caldor’s, Stop & Shop and saving my money. I was always into the saving thing. The first computer I saved up for was a C64. It rocked. It has build in basic. Sixty four megs of memory. I quickly learned how to program this beast. Doing sprite manipulation with peeks and pokes was excellent fun! I graduated to the Atari line of computers eventually. These were the most technically sophisticated machines of their day. Unfortunately the game title stuck, and business never embraced them. Much like Apple for different reasons.

The computer became my lifeline to the world. I loved programming and playing games. I could talk to people on chat lines. Participate in bulletin boards. I made some of the best friends of my life online. These are people who I still hang out with and consider some of my best friends ever. I could immerse myself in the virtual world. I would spend every hour either doing something on the computer, reading books, or, well some other teen boy thing. I think it is during this time that I set up a bad pattern in my life: Escape your Problems via the PC.

Eventually as all things do the High School years ended. It turns out that the one thing I did well, the thing I defined my life by, the computer would become an even better friend. I drifted around for a few years trying to break into the business world without a college education. Not easy. I finally decided to take a 9 month tech course and see if I could make it in the computer industry. Tech School was a lot more fun than High School. I will spare you the gory details of the DEC machines and Cobol classes. Our teacher hated us though. There were two very good reasons for this. First off I was constantly correcting him. He would put some code on the board, and I would be like “Mr. P, I am sorry, but you have the loop incorrect, you need to increment i for that bubble sort to work”. I actually had a brain that functioned back then and would constantly correct his grading of my papers to maintain my 4.0. I know it was not MIT but I was having fun.

The second reason I loved school was my arch enemy. We both were really good students and enjoyed hacking the schools DEC. He was a night school student and I ruled the day. One evening he noticed my tampering and changed my password on the DEC. I could not stand for that! The nice thing about the DEC is the operating system was all interpreted. I.E. You could rewrite it! Bahahaha! So of course I had several back doors at that time and quickly got in and kicked him out. After a few weeks of messing with each other the sysadmin (I.E. My Teacher) kicks both of us out and restores the OS from tape. Thus is formed the Triad of Evil! We joined forces with another friend of mine and spent a whole night hacking the teachers password. What could it be? School name. Girlfriend. Machine name. Nope. It was hot blondes. We caught that one last because we remembered he liked blondes and were getting desperate. We are now hyped on caffeine and pissed as hell that he would lock us out of OUR system. So we patch the OS again and kicked our teacher out of the system. It was our greatest triumph!

I came in the next day and the principle of the school is asking me why nobody can get into the system. It turns out that one of the triad decided it would be fun to lock everyone out instead of just out teacher. I put on my best Poker face, which is not very good, and say “I am not sure what happened but I could probably help you out”. He gets very angry and threatening and accusatory and I repeat my denial. He finally asks me nicely if I could help him out. I give everyone back access to the system and all is well. Now this principal is very smart. Instead of trying to blame us or expel people he decided if you cannot beat them you have to join them. The Triad of Evil goes legit and become the new sysadmins.
Once I finish school life takes a nice upward spiral because of computers. I land a job making 28K a year! Can you believe that! It is mad money! Remember, I had been working at Caldor’s up until now. Like 4 bucks and hour! I get to travel to a lot of different places as a consultant in EIS/DSS systems using a proprietary 4GL language. Huh? You do not understand what that means. Me either. I hate computer terminology. Pretty much means making pretty pictures for CEO’s and CFO’s and other types of O’s. EIEIO and I am on my way. I keep learning more relevant skills from my jobs. I teach myself RPG and land a job with a hospital. I learn Visual Basic and SQL server while there and land a consulting gig. I figure out working for someone fulltime sucks when I can make 40% more consulting and go that route. It really was a great time. I loved what I was doing. I was making good money and things were looking good. It was this period where I think defining myself in the context of computer really settled in. All of my worth. All of the praise and good things I get from life come from the PC. I am good at what I do and all is good.

Eventually as all things do things changed yet again. I fell in love. It was probably the first time in my life I was actually ever happy. I got married. Had a few kids. Got really out of shape. Not that I was ever Arnold but I was in decent shape. Now I am lucky if the stairs do not tire me out. The defining object of my life: my computer is suddenly not as fun. I work to pay the mortgage and support the kids. I worry about being outsourced to India. The tech bubble has burst. The marriage is not going well. My energy level is at an all time low. It took me 8 months to get enough momentum up to do my taxes this year! It is hard to keep up with the Kid’s, which pisses them off. Life basically sucks. So here I go again clinging to that one thing to define myself. Poker! It has all of the characteristics I need. I am good at it. It is at the computer. It has a nice Blogger community. People to talk to. So I have immersed myself into the Poker world. Escaping the crap I have to deal with in real life and only dealing with who is going to hit their runner-runner straight to suck-out on me again.

So that is why it is so hard to put the game away sometimes. I guess it is the perfect storm of depression, self-esteem, and money. I need something to cling to until I get my life under control again. I think it is as simple as getting outside and exercising and getting some momentum going. Once I pull my head up out of my problems a little I think I could become functional again. However nothing is ever simple in life and the last page of this book has yet to be written. It seems to be moving towards heart attack at 40 but we will have to wait and see. As in any good novel there are twists and turns and our hero is not out yet. Will it be Grims Fairy Tails or Happily ever after? Stay tuned and find out.

Dismal Failure

Well.. the no weekend experiment was a dismal failure. I might have to call Gamblers Anonymous. I can see the conversation:

"GA, Do you have a gambling problem?"
"Yeah"
"How Much have you lost"
"Well, Actually I have made $3400."
"WHAT! You don't have any problem! Stop crank calling us!"

I am going to try to be a good boy next week. I had a good session finally. After a bunch of down 500 up 500 session I finally went ahead and stayed there. I am up 200 bucks. Not a huge win, but it feels good. I just need to trust my play and keep a reign on my play.

I could have been up alot more tonight except I made a stupid move. I had a flush draw, and I hit 2nd pair. I was getting raised from the two spots in front of me. I figured they were both on a flush draw and decided to play. First mistake. I ended up with my pair being beaten by two pair, and the AK of the flush draw missing his flush. So basically I was drawing dead. Need to walk away from that on the first raise.

On a fun note, I made a nice hand with The Hammer. I am not a devote, but I like winning with it:

***** Hand History for Game 1207407769 *****
$5/$10 Hold'em - Sunday, November 21, 22:33:08 EDT 2004
Table Table 12834 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 6: adamlegate ( $319 )
Seat 8: michaelbech ( $403.5 )
Seat 10: SirFWALGMan ( $131 )
Seat 1: Lwoodward ( $236.5 )
Seat 7: DT_mules ( $348 )
Seat 5: nalonsolc ( $407 )
Seat 4: kinglax ( $275 )
Seat 9: dokan111 ( $215 )
Seat 2: Jesus408 ( $245 )
Seat 3: rgds7 ( $495 )
dokan111 posts small blind [$2].
SirFWALGMan posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ 7h 2c ]
Lwoodward folds.
Jesus408 folds.
rgds7 folds.
SirFWALGMan: well played
kinglax calls [$5].
nalonsolc folds.
adamlegate folds.
DT_mules folds.
michaelbech calls [$5].
dokan111 calls [$3].
SirFWALGMan checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, Jh, 7s ]
dokan111 checks.
SirFWALGMan checks.
kinglax checks.
michaelbech checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ]
dokan111 bets [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
kinglax folds.
michaelbech calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 2d ]
dokan111 bets [$10].
SirFWALGMan raises [$20].
michaelbech folds.
dokan111 raises [$20].
SirFWALGMan raises [$20].
dokan111 calls [$10].
SirFWALGMan shows [ 7h, 2c ] a full house, Sevens full of twos.
dokan111 doesn't show [ 7d, 5s ] three of a kind, sevens.
SirFWALGMan wins $127 from the main pot with a full house, Sevens full of twos.

So I will probably get a few days in this week. I have Friday off of work and might play because I do not get paid when I miss work. Not sure. Might just enjoy myself and make it up to the family.

Ooops.. Don't tell..

Wired Aces (Poker Quest) caught me playing today. I was stressed out with the kids and Poker is a great release! Well that lasted one day.. lol. I had my usual session at 5/10. Down a buyin, then win it all back and some more. One hand that helped alot is as follows. I think I played it perfectly. After getting crushed with killer hands against flushes earlier tonight, this felt good:

***** Hand History for Game 1201641665 *****
$5/$10 Hold'em - Saturday, November 20, 16:08:31 EDT 2004
Table Table 10775 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 5
Seat 3: Strono ( $454.5 )
Seat 5: Molecul0 ( $331 )
Seat 6: GotSomeTilt ( $204.5 )
Seat 8: rwc777 ( $111 )
Seat 10: SirFWALGMan ( $193 )
Molecul0 posts small blind [$2].
GotSomeTilt posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ 8h Kh ]
rwc777 calls [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
Strono raises [$10].
Molecul0 folds.
GotSomeTilt calls [$5].
rwc777 calls [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Tc, 6h, Jh ]
GotSomeTilt checks.
rwc777 checks.
SirFWALGMan bets [$5].
Strono raises [$10].
GotSomeTilt raises [$15].
rwc777 calls [$15].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Strono raises [$10].
GotSomeTilt calls [$5].
rwc777 calls [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kd ]
GotSomeTilt bets [$10].
>You have options at Dashing Deal Table!.
rwc777 raises [$20].
SirFWALGMan calls [$20].
Strono calls [$20].
GotSomeTilt calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ Ah ]
GotSomeTilt checks.
rwc777 checks.
SirFWALGMan bets [$10].
Strono raises [$20].
GotSomeTilt calls [$20].
rwc777 folds.
SirFWALGMan raises [$20].
Strono raises [$20].
GotSomeTilt calls [$20].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Strono shows [ Kc, Qh ] a straight, ten to ace.
GotSomeTilt shows [ As, Ac ] three of a kind, aces.
SirFWALGMan shows [ 8h, Kh ] a flush, ace high.
SirFWALGMan wins $320 from the main pot with a flush, ace high.

Day 1 without Poker

It is only the afternoon and I am already having Poker withdrawals! I think my wife might have a point. All I can do is read other people’s Blog’s and different forums. It is like going to the cute blonde’s house and sniffing her panties after she had sex with your roommate. Not that I have ever done this, but it is just not the same.

I have to say for all the times we flame 2+2’ers, they can sometimes be really helpful and extremely nice. I have asked a few questions about the feel of the game at 5/10 and got interesting, well thought out, and informative answers. A lot of people have told me that they did not adjust well to the 5/10 game and went back to 3/6. I think I am too stubborn to do this unless the bankroll dictates it. Other comments were to the effect of variation is the norm at 5/10 and you should not be too worried. It was nice to bounce things off of people playing my level.

I have to smoke Poker Quest! It seems every time someone posts a “Ha! I am at 7BB/100! I am doing so well!” it backfires on them! Well.. WiredAces .. it serves you right for taunting me! Heh. Go see his Blog if you do not know what I am talking about. All kidding aside I really am enjoying reading his Blog. I admit to some jealousy that the game was treating him so well while I am slow to get out of the gate. It is so great to have someone else playing the same limits as me and sharing his experiences, which seem to be a lot like mine (minus the 15K bad beat jackpot!). Keep up the good work.

While I am talking about Poker Blogs.. I should apologize to the Commish for becoming a rabid Bush hater! It is one thing to make valid points and dislike everything the guy has done to this country. However using any excuse to say something bad about him is a little too far.. man he puts me on tilt! Funny side story: I was watching the Clinton Library inauguration and saw Bush standing beside all the women with umbrella’s.. What was up with him pushing his wife's umbrella up? What a doof! Anyway I could not help but to wish someone would poke him in the eye with their umbrella! I am turning into a rabid Democrat! Damn!

I have no desire to play in a VIP NL WSOP entry tourney. However I might be willing to give up my 2000 VIP points and let someone else play for me. I am not sure how it would work out. I probably would not be comfortable letting someone login to my account, so we would have to work via the phone or something. If we won the entry I would let you play in it. I would be your backer and we could work out a percentage split before hand in writing. So if you’re an NL guru and want a free shot at this let me know.

I played a guy from Iggys home town last night. He was the kind of player I want to be. His aggression levels were through the roof. He just took over our table. He was NOT a maniac. When he had a hand that should be raised he was there. If he had a great draw he was pounding the pot until it bled. He would also bet the same way if he had made hands. He knew when to fold even if he put twenty bucks into the pot pre-flop. I really respected this player. I have not checked PT yet but I am sure it has him down as TA-A! After he beat me in one good hand I asked him “Are you related to Iggy!”, he wanted to know what an Iggy was.. I’m not sure either..

The Slump Continues.. Sort of..

Well, been playing again tonight and followed the same pattern. Dropped 1 buy-in, and then won it back and some more. I ended up about 6BB. It is better than being down, but I would still like to have that monster night I am waiting for. If you lose a buyin and then win one and some more what does that say about your game? Does it mean you are average and do well on some tables? Variance at 5/10 is a bitch? Bad Luck? Bad Choices? Hard to say. Ideas?

I will have to wait for a while. I have agreed with the wife to cut down on the Poker a little. She is getting a little pissed. *sigh*. I am going to play Mon-Thu and leave the weekends for her and the kids only. We will see if I can show restraint from the game I love. heh.

One other note for those of you who are married: Do not let your spouse know anything about your Poker Bankroll. I was letting the wife know how I was doing, but she really doesn’t understand variance. Hell, I have a lot of problems with it! Hearing I lost $400 of my Bankroll seems crazy to her. She assumes the worst. So keep it all a secret, and just surprise the wife when you make withdrawals or something.

That is all for now. I might not Blog until Monday. If I do then it will probably be something profound at least to me. Good luck to you all!

Interesting

Wow what an UBER post filled with emotional toil, victory, defeat, and all kinds of weird stuff. Iggy would be proud at the length alone! Crazy night! I think part of my trouble lately is the amount of money we are dealing with at 5/10. I am having trouble adjusting. If I see I am down $250, that means much more than when at the 2/4 level I was down $50. It is actually a decent amount of money. However in 5/10 it is one rack! People would snear at me if they knew I was getting upset about a single rack. Go ahead and snear. You know you want to. I also am making less in comparison at the 5/10 level than 3/6. Here are the BB/100 figures:

3/6 level 3.52!
2/4 level 4.89!
1/2 level (Short) 4.39!
1/2 level 2.22
.50/1 level 1.42

All the levels before 5/10 I seem to be crushing. Now I get to 5/10 and over a
smallish sample size I am 1BB/100. Much smaller margin. Not crushing the game.
I hope to adjust to 5/10 soon. I really feel like the turmoil is causing me to evaluate my game alot more and try to make some deep changes. It is also tough to take some nights.

On to the good part of last night. Now here is something really positive that makes me want to be more aggressive. My stat's for the table I trippled up on:

Aggression Factor: 1.93! I owned this table. It showed. I won many hands because of it.

The table I was winning at was really fun. Not just because I was winning, but some tool came on and started talking about how she was going to destroy one of the other players, and how everyone was playing so badly, and they were all going to lose to her. I spanked her ass while taunting her. I know.. I know.. bad move. She really was annoying and teasing her was fun. I lost one hand all night against her, excluding blind folds, I think.

Right after that she goes "See, bad players like you are going to lose"
"Yeah right, I am $608 bad"
"You are going to dribble it back to me!"

So every big hand I won after that I typed in chat:

"dribble.. dribble.. cmon.. say it with me C4.. dribble dribble". heh.

I also got influenced by Snoop Dog on Howard Stern and asked if she wanted to be my Hoe, she would make more money than she is being my Bitch! Ha! She loved that one!

Ok.. So I have to work on the whole make people want to stay at your table aspect of the game. I got time. At least I was having some fun!

A night in the Life of Sir

I never really have shared a full night in my Poker life with you guys. I whine about loses, and brag about the wins, but I do not tell you how I play. So I decided to record the major moves. I am not doing it as hand histories, because that really bores me when I read them on other Blogs. No wonder I cannot figure out this game!
Please feel free to give any riddicule, advice, scorn, or whatever else you might want to send my way.

So here it is:

Was reading stuff and discussing hands at TalkingPoker.com. Less “high” level guys than 2+2, but at least they speak English and seem to make sense. The Forum owner is paying people for posts so go on by, and you Bonus whores can get a whole lot of deals from every known site to man. He said this to me when I was telling him about being a calling station one night, and having aggression problems:

“If it's not worth raising it's not worth calling.”

He said for the most part this is true. I agree. If I am too scared to raise I should just fold
the hand and wait for the next one. What do I lose? Sometimes I will get played by someone with a monster hand. However, when I win hands they will be larger.

======================
Rhino raise pre-flop every time! With A6o! LAAAAAGGG! Do not need
PT to tell me that! This could be a nice night.
=====================

Called KJ on Pre-Flop Raise after I was in, and stayed in when a K hit.
and I was raised. ($50) vs KK. Bad all around.

Had two pair. Played it aggressive. The other guy got Q3, and made a boat by the river.
Not sure I played this badly, but when the second Q came I should have folded
instead of calling one more bet. 2-Pair sucks when a pair comes on the board. I also
could have raised post-flop, not sure Q3 would have folded though.

Bet out QJ with AQx on the flop and a bet before me. Probably should have
folded since my Kicker was weak. The opponent was not showing strength, but
had KQ, which was enough to beat me. Also my straight draw was a weak thing to pin
my hopes on. Fishy play.

KJ diamonds. Forgot to raise pre-flop. Got beat by 10-2. Lol! looser!

Bet 9-10s too early, yes it was raised, and no I did not improve. The mistake
was calling the raise. I checked the rest and maybe should have bet when
an Ace flopped. Not sure. I probably could have taken the pot. Other hands
were J9 and QJ.

A-10, Flop has K. Bet. Enemies folded. +10
K-J Did same thing with 1 caller. A on flop. +10.

QQ pre-flop raise. K on Flop. Bet. Raised. I folded here and lost 40. QQ is killing me tonight so far.

AQ. All small cards. Raised Pre-Flop. Call First Bet. One on One.
I raise against 2nd Bet. Made nothing. He had nothing either (KQ). He Folded
on the River.

AA- Raise pre-flop capped. Raise Again post-flop. I re-raise because of
flush draw. 3rd card of flush comes. I have the 4th Heart Ace, so I raise the
turn even though someone *could* have a flush. I am called to the river and
I win with AA.

AA- Capped Pre-Flop. I am vs QQ. QQ gets a Q on the flop. I do not respect it
and he is ahead until I river a flush Ace High! I bet and raised every card and
$214 pot. Should I have slowed down? He bet into me, but never 3BET it to tell
me he had trips. My Bad or his? Should he 3-Bet me when I am making money for him?

AJ s000ted. Pre-Flop raise. Flop has a K. I bet. Everyone folds. +40.

Folded 10's on the flop, would have made trips and there was trip 9's! Good fold though.

KK. Ace on flop. Bet it out twice, and folded it because A on flop. Beat by A9! Lol!
I love that guy! I think Pot was worth betting flop and turn for the steal, but not
calling the raise on the turn. A9 was smoking crack. I think this was played well.

K5s - Bet it with a straight draw, AQ10. Then a K came, and I bet again and took
the pot. Woulda probably folded if I saw any resistance. Aggression helped this time.
+40.

AQs against the LAG. I raise. Flop I Hit the Q, he hits Q10. I bet, he raises.
I check the turn, he does also. Ace on the river, I bet he raises, I win. Not sure If I
played this right or not. +50.

9-10, Flopped open ended straight draw with like 8 people in. I also had a runner-runner flush
possability. I get a 10 on the turn, and a K on the river to make the bottom end
of the straight. 1 Bet in a 100 dollar pot to go. I decide to call even though I think
there is a higher straight out there. It turns out I was wrong and I split with
the LAG. +60.

Hit bet with Q9h on a raise by accident. Oopsie. I compounded the problem by calling a raise after that, and when the flop gives me a gutshot I even call the turn. Lol! Twenty bucks lost for nothing. I screwed up by hitting the wrong button, but then I compounded it by calling ten bucks more. STUPID!

QQ pre flop. Raised again by AK, hits his K on the flop, I raise him pre-flop. He thinks about it and then calls. I think up to this point I played well. I then called him to the river even though I was pretty sure he had AK or better. Bad! Down $50 on that move! Stupid!

AA next hand. Nobody bites on my raise. Damn! I hate that. I made like $17.

I am down to $340 now from $400+. Still up almost a hundred for the night so far. Not too bad. I think this is probably normal variance because of two bad plays, which I need to remove, and playing more aggressively. Poker tracker says I am being more aggressive than I normally would be at 1.03. I usually hover between .80-.90. Ouch! The LAG has left the table. This is a shame.

Tried to get aggressive with two overcards. The guy made a straight. He was the BB so I cannot blame him. I gave up 40 on that move. Probably should have folded the river or the turn raise. This was a stupid move. KQ high sucks! Lol. Needed to raise this pre-flop. BIG mistake!

Time to buckle down and only play the good stuff!

AQ and 99 back to back folded pre-flop by everyone against my raises. I will take it. I need the $14! Lol.

QJ. 882 flop. I bet it on the flop since I have two over cards and take the $20 pot.

AK. Pre-Flop Raise. 994 is the flop, 3 on the turn, I bet both and the other guy folds. +40.

Folding a lot. Blinded down to $295. No fun. Bah! Waiting for something to play or something good enough that a fake could take a blind. Patience.

Blind steal with K9. Man I have a tight persona.

Straight on the board. Guy has a gutshot straight draw. I 3Bet the flop before he hits his card on the turn with J4. Asshole makes it. I paid him off to the river. Not good. Pissed me off big time. I am now back to $250, the buyin. Great. Two hours of play for nothing. Actually down about $22 from playing a tourney. I think I played the flop alright with TP. Not positive. The calling to the river for an additional $20 was wrong though. Looks like I am going back to 3/6. *sigh*.

Called Q9 and made 4 to a straight and flush by the turn, but never made anything. Lost a few bucks and folded on the river. Do not think I played this bad by betting the turn and trying to get it. A possible boat was on the board and it might have been better to get away from this pre-flop. Things keep getting worse. Down $30 now.

Ok. I think I am going south fast. Called a capped pre-flop with Q9! What the heck was I thinking. Only 4 guys in the pot. I folded it on the flop instead of going for my runner-runner straight draw. Lol. I am going to calm down now and win some pots.

Q-10 pre-flop. Hit a Q on the turn. Bet it. Beaten by QJ. Sucks! Not sure I played it wrong. Had a flush draw to a 10, one guy, and the TP bad kicker. *sigh*. $144. I think I am pushing too much maybe. 3/6 here I come!

Q High flush beaten by K high. Only one guy in. Bad bet? Great. Down to $74. Nice. I quit. Fucking hate poker now! Folded J2s and flopped a flush. My Night is going to hell really fast.

Well last hand went out pre-flop raise KJ s00ted, made jacks, and 7-5 breaks me with 755 as the flop, turn, and river. Great! Gonna blow some more cash down to 2500 and then lick my wounds and go back to 3/6 unless I make a killing! Heh. I should just play every hand and call everything to the river, I will make more money that way.

** UPDATE: Ok. Made over 400 bucks playing 6 handed. I do not understand the Poker Gods! One minute they hand me my ass with good play, and a few dumb moves, and the next they get my bankroll back over 3K to 3042!! I was playing with a LAG, a sLAA, and a Calling Station! Damn that is a good table!

Help!

I need your help faithful readers for I have a difficult decision to make. I have gotten my Empire VIP Account to 2000 VIP Points. Which means I can do one of the following things:

A. Get a 25$ Cash Credit
B. Get an Olive Khaki Polo (http://80.244.161.53/shop/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=41)
C. Entry to the VIP $10,000 WSOP Freeroll.
NL Holdem
Date: November 26th.
** REMEMBER: I SUCK AT NL! CHANCES OF MAKING THE MONEY HERE ARE
SLIM TO NONE AND SLIM JUST LEFT THE BUILDING
D. Save up for a $50 Credit (5000), or a Porsche Entry (8000).

So let me know your thoughts. I know I am a tool, but I am leaning towards the Polo! I can wear it to work, and it will generate conversation and maybe referrals to Empire! heh.

What a Day!

I should have known it was probably not a good night to play Poker. Especially after the day I had at work. I work in an IT department for a medical company. The job is pretty simple. It is a nice contract deal that has lasted for the past year. It is up for renewal this December. So what do I do before renewal? Well.. we were SUPPOSED to make some DNS changes to make our website rebranding go public. Instead there was alot of miscommunication and we sent the DNS changes to the wrong IP! Ouch! So the site was down for most of yesterday, and finally was fixed early this morning. I am sure we are going to have a great meeting today! Yikes!

I then decide it is a good idea to hit the tables. However -40BB later it does not seem so good. heh. I am having a REAL bad run of cards over the past few days. One example. I am dealt 88, and play it against a few people. The flop is and 829 rainbow! SWEET! The turn is a nice 9 to make my BOAT! Toot! Toot! The river is a lousy 10. Now you might ask why this is lousy? I will tell you, because it made someone's nine over tens boat to beat my eights! Doh! Flushes trumped by larger flushes. Lion's sleeping with lamb's! You get the idea. I do not think 40BB is a particularly HUGE number to lose. It does have me a little bummed though. I also stayed up pretty late playing, hoping to get some of it back. Not a good idea. I do not think I played poorly. I rarely got any cards and when I did they ended up dominated. I did have a few HUGE pot's which was encouraging, but they were few and far between. One nice one was with 10 people in pre-flop. Everyone capped the betting. So we start with $100 in the pot. I had Q-10 clubs and only played it because I was getting GREAT pot odds! The flop was three clubs. So I am made! People dropped out on various streets and finally at the river the A of clubs guy called me, having missed the 4th club. The pot ended up being $242! Still I lost 40BB that night! Wow!

I basically can afford to do one more night of 5/10. I will single table, and if I fall below $2500 I need to go back to 3/6. I am going to try and focus on my one table again and hope this bad streak ends. On a good note the cold cards I have been getting really brought my VP$IP down and now I am a TAP again. Not sure what that buys me, but it should help. Especially since the 5/10 tables I have been on seem really weak. A3 to the river, that kind of stuff. We will see how it goes!

Calling Station

I realized tonight that playing 6-sided has put me WAY off my game. I have become a calling station. I started playing that way tonight and dropped alot of cash. I then told myself to stop it, and ran up one buyin to $650. I was at $730, but gave a little back. So for hours of play I am up a whole $20! Whoopie! Better than being down. Once I settled down to play right everything clicked. I only won like $20-$40 in a hand for the first hour or so. Made small gains. Did not get much to play. Folded alot. I then hit a nice run of cards, and played tight, correct Poker and walla! It took a while, but I was not giving things back. This is how I want to play. Ram-And-Jam when I have the cards, fold when I do not. If I start playing like the fish I will become one. I have to regain my patience and be willing to make money slowly.

I have also decided that I should not play 2 tables of 5/10 yet. I am going to play a single 5/10 and one 3/6. I want to bring the bankroll up to 4K before doing two tables of 5/10. The variance is too much at 3K!

Why Can I not win Every Single Night

Well I have composed myself after last night. I must have really let the LAG get to me!

My wife calls me today and says “So, how did you do last night”
“Not too bad. Was not a very good night!”
“Did you lose everything!” .
“No, Just $150”.

My wife would be happy if I blew my Bankroll. She does not share my enthusiasm of Poker, and does not believe I can make 4K a month playing 5/10. I have no proof yet, but I think it is probable. She may change her tune if she sees this happen.

Now back to me. The world revolves around me you know. I am disappointed about two things from last night. The first is letting the LAG get to me. It is REALLY hard to control yourself when a LAG goes on a 1K run taking a good chunk of change from you with 43o vs AA. Sorry. It happens. I need more restraint. Cosmic justice was good last night as be busted out. This does not always happen.

The second is how bummed out I was with losing. I am over it now. I cannot stand to lose though! I figure I should never have a losing night. Right? . It was a good run for 5 days, but it is inevitable that bad days will come. In the scheme of things this was not even particularly bad. I know I am going to have weeks where I cannot win. It is part of the game. So be it. I have grown a lot in the area and yet have a ways to go. One day I hope to get away from results oriented sessions. I intend to go out there tonight, play my “A” game on some ten-sided tables, and win a lot of money. Tomorrow’s headlines: Best Day Ever! If it does not happen then so be it but that is my plan for each and every day.

First Losing Night

I had a REALLY bad night. It was however improved by Logan9. Name changed to protect the stupid. The guy was up to 1K on a run of 10 hands where his LAG ass hit EVERYTHING! I on the other hand was getting my ass handed to me with good cards. I basically was almost down 2 buy-ins at one point. However Logan helped me out a lot. He bet 74o to the river, and my 10 high beat his 7 high! Ha! Give me that eighty bucks! He did it a few more times too! It was fun. As I type this he is down to 200. He really put me off my game. You really needed to become a calling station against him, but sometimes that sucks! I really have decided I hate playing short handed. You have to loosen up, but how much? It is really tricky to figure out sometimes. I hope in the future I can find 10 sided tables more often, and stay away from the six sided. WAY too much variance when any two cards are in. You also need to be VERY aggressive which is hard for me. Anyway I ended up down $150, the LAG busted out. A very disappointing night in general. I am more dissapointed by some of my play during the night than anything else. Some bad hands really set me off. Need to control the emotions! Sleep time. Tomorrow is another night.

Short Play

It has been hard to play any Poker this weekend! The wife had us go to a Car Show tonight. It was pretty good. Too much like car shopping though. I looked at a sweet BMW. I could never drive a BMW. Why? Because everyone who drives one is an ass-hole! The only reason people buy them is to say "I drive a beamer". I equate this to SAAB and a few other brands also. Althought BMW is the height of the list.

** DISCLAIMER: IF you drive a BMW and are not an asshole then I appologise, every model has a small amount of variance.

The wife want's a new car I think. I told her to wait a year and we can go buy one for cash out of my Poker winnings! Now that is a goal!

I played two short sessions. I had trouble finding any free tables at 5/10. The_Venitian had mentioned this as a problem. I had not seen it until today. So I played two tables of 3/6, and ended up a little. I was playing how you are supposed to play: AGGRESIVE! I went down to $44 on one table, and then brought it all the way back to about $75 profit. The other table was even all night, went down a bit, and I ended up even.

I then played some 5/10-6 Handed tonight. It was fun. It threw my VP$IP stats out the window, because you cannot wait as much, but I made a few bucks. The six sided tables move fast. You lose alot quickly and you win alot quickly. I may be forced to learn this game because it is WEAK! Everyone playing A3! Jesus! Do these people not know why we do not play J3? Because when you get outkicked you lose ALOT of money!

I have set a goal for myself of making $250 a night once I start playing two tables of 5/10. I think it is reasonable. It is also a nice paycheck! It is not the kind of goal where I am going to tilt off trying to make that much, but it will be my yardstick for judging if I am beating the game on a nightly basis. I think it is VERY possible to do, and I may need to reasses this later. Going to catch an hour of TV with the wifey and get some sleep. Good cards to you all .. unless your on my table!

** UPDATE: I just checked my Aggression stats and I am becoming less of a wimp. It does not seem like it, but my 5/10 stats so far have me up .30 from my normal .89 rating to a whopping 1.1, and my 5/6-6 Max stats are 1.39! Yikes! Perhaps I am learning how to play this game right! Nahhhhh.

Incredible Night

Quick update. Saw the Incredible’s last night! Brilliant! If you are married and especially if you have kids, and even if you are not and do not this movie is awesome! I got home at 11:30, so did not have a lot of time to play. So I fire up a 3/6 single table and figure either I make a little money or try not to lose too much.

I was at the WORSE table I have ever seen. Three people with crippled stacks playing scared. I stole so many pots. Two guys with what might have been their entire bankroll’s on the table. Over $600 for one guy, about $400 for the other! Anyone who knows me will tell you this make me drool. Almost anytime I went to a showdown I won also. It was fun for a change of pace before bed.

One other thing I noticed. Going back one level is fine. You tend to crush it even more than you did when you played. Going back more than one level makes the game boring and costs you money. I can never play ½ again! Unless I lose my entire bankroll!

Night Two: Two Good to be True

I love living in “Bush’s America”. I know I said I would forget about the politics but this really pissed me off. I was getting all set to watch Private Ryan on primetime American Television and then the Marxist overlords came on and said “Private Ryan will not be seen in some markets because they are afraid of FCC fines!”. God Bless Free Speech, it was great while it lasted. So hopefully that is it for the rants.

I played some 5/10 again tonight. It went a little better. I was beaten down to around $170. Now this is eighty dollars down. You know what? Keep your mind on where you are playing.. eighty dollars is warming up for the night! I think this is what puts most people off when progressing to 5/10. In 3/6 it is almost out, in 5/10 it means nothing. I am not saying I want to start down but I need to keep my head about me and realize what I am playing. So finally the cards come to me. Walla! I am Big Dog! BMOCT (Big Man on Card Table!)! Up almost my entire buying of $250! Sweet. So I break it down and savor another night of 5/10.

It was much less fishy tonight. A lot tighter. However the fishies came by, and became my midnight snack at the right time. A3 calling a pre-flop raise to the river! Cmon! Dummy! Ace high nothing calling the final bet against my flush. Trip Kings was the hand of the night. Flopped it.Played it slow against 3 players, then raised the turn when one guy folded before me, and bet the river. I had it vs either AA or AK. Hold on I checked. Against QQ! Ouchie. Sorry dude, but thanks for the $174 pot! Woo hoo! I think that is what made my night. I also busted out of a 20/2 tourney. Screw those though, who needs the aggravation!

House Keeping

I was getting a little fed up with the look of the site. Too many Blog links on the right hand side. So I decided to remove all of the links. If you want to get to one of the over 100 Blogs that were listed there, I have provided a link. I will update the list every week or so. I moved the archives down, streamlined the current account stats, and was going to put Maudie's Image in, but I had some issues, so I will get that up once I get it worked out.

I asked BB about statistical sample size and as usual he came through. So to get a real feel against many opponents you need to play about 25K hands! Yikes! I have close to that in my whole Poker career!!! Here is the problem with that. Since the .50/1 days I have changed my play ALOT! Hell, about midway through the 3/6 level I started playing slightly differently.. and I would be surprised if my game did not change in the 5/10 level. Buckle down a little and become more serious perhaps! So chances are I will not get a sufficient sample size until I decide to stay put at a level for 3-4 months. It might be time for that.

I may be a little over sensitive here, but do people think I am coming on a little too strong? Arrogant? heh. I do not mean to say 3/6 or 5/10 is easy. I am just playing well and having fun and getting really excited. I see bad players at every level so far, and these are the people I am taking money from. I am sure better players than me roll there eyes when they read my Blog, but so be it. I write what I see, from my flawed perspective. I only have what I have experienced to go on. So if I get too cocky slap me down, bear with me, and I am sure variance will rear it's ugly head and put me in my place. Until then I am going to enjoy the experience, learn as much as possible, and hopefully keep beating whatever level I play at. Wish me luck!

These guys are good?

First of I want to thank everyone who replied. I took everything into consideration and decided to play a little 5/10. Single table. Playing mostly my game. It was hard to raise a few times when I should have.. but I probably would not have done so at 3/6 either.. I am really happy to have people who will take money out of there boss's pockets to help me with my Poker game.

My stats for my first game were as follows:

VP$IP: 14.29 (Was not getting anything playable)
4.51 PF Raise
Aggression Factor: 1.03! Nice!

Here are my notes for the first night of Poker. I started playing. Here are some hands people showed:

-- Against a raise: 53o, Makes straight? Are these players really better?
-- A4 in EP wins. lol! I wouldnt show that! I would fold just to not show.
-- K9 Bluffing against J10o, why did K9 raise, and why did J10 call? A on the flop,
and K9 is raising 3-Bets!
-- J7 S000ted against a raise? What are these guys smoking?

Was I on a crazy 5/10 table or do they play more questionable hands at 5/10, and bluff there asses off when they miss? The night was pretty good. I started the night losing twice against 78, once with a flush vs his boat, and the other time with AK hitting my K on the river against his two pair.

Someone named Phish called me a fish! She said she was just joking after I ripped into her! I wonder if Phish is a blogger we all know and love? Hope not or else I will feel bad. Here is the hand for the hell of it. Names changed to protect the innocent. Inserted my thinking for you to review:

***** Hand History for Game 1163877639 *****
$5/$10 Hold'em - Wednesday, November 10, 22:26:37 EDT 2004
Table Table 11674 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 7: tp95 ( $489.5 )
Seat 5: SirFWALGMan ( $243.5 )
Seat 9: phish ( $244 )
Seat 4: pr ( $756 )
Seat 8: Ice ( $179 )
Seat 2: tru ( $260.5 )
Seat 1: many ( $318 )
Seat 10: rags ( $182 )
phish posts small blind [$2].
rags posts big blind [$5].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to SirFWALGMan [ 5h 5s ]
many folds.
tru folds.
yardley folds.
pr folds.
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
JNazzer calls [$5].
tp95 folds.
Ice calls [$5].
phish calls [$3].
rags folds.

>>>>>>> Nobody is betting this up. 55 is playable in Middle Position. So
I am in.


** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, 8d, 9s ]
phish bets [$5].
SirFWALGMan calls [$5].
JNazzer folds.
Ice calls [$5].

>>>>>>> From what I can tell any scary straight draw flop,
or a real straight draw is going to call this. Yeah, someone could
have 10-J, but someone could also have 77. I decide to see another card.

** Dealing Turn ** [ 3c ]
phish checks.
SirFWALGMan checks.
Ice bets [$10].
phish calls [$10].
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
** Dealing River ** [ 3d ]

>>>>>>> Nothing has really changed here. If I was losing before, I
am still loosing. Nobody wants this pot except ICE now. I have been
playing with ICE and he is a total LAG in my estimation without
looking at PT. (Checking PT I am probably right. 44% of the time in the pot. Agression rating of 1.15!) He bought in for $94. Caught some lucky hands and built
it up, and then busted out over $260. His bet does not scare me, and
phish is now checking showing she missed her overcards. My read on this
hand is my 5's are going to hold up. I could be wrong, but it's not costing me
huge money.


phish checks.
SirFWALGMan checks.
Ice bets [$10].
phish folds.
SirFWALGMan calls [$10].
Ice shows [ 2s, 4s ] a pair of threes.
SirFWALGMan shows [ 5h, 5s ] two pairs, fives and threes.
SirFWALGMan wins $87 from the main pot with two pairs, fives and threes.

>>>>>>> Now here is my only mistake. Phish is out. I respect Phish. She is a rock.
If she hit her overcard I would have folded. Ice could have ANYTHING at all! My mistake was not raising him and maybe getting another $10. I had this good of a feeling on my read, but chickened out.

So did I way over play this? I think my reads were correct and it paid off. I understand I could lose money doing this, but I trust my instincts. Sometimes they are wrong but that is the game.

So my take so far playing one table for 84 hands. Not better than 3/6. VERY loose! Alot of bluffing going on, so it gets hard to read people sometimes. Alot of turn raises to knock people out. Could get nasty in a multi-way pot! heh. I am up $73 which is modest. I have my first taste and I like it. I do not think every table is going to be this bad but if it is then I can make alot of money!

Iggy popped in around 11. If I did not know better I would think he has me tagged as a fish and is tracking me down. heh. I was ready to go by 11, so I said goodbye and left the fish to him. I wanted to leave feeling good about the night, so I decided I would pack it up a little early. All in all a nice introduction.

Up another one?

Ok Readers. I hit the magic number to go up to 5/10! Sike! 3K! I gave a little back, but I went over my bankroll number, so I am going to consider myself sufficently bankrolled. So does anyone thing I should go up? Stay? Comments?

Here are my stats for the 3/6 level. I do not have enough hands to really judge if I am killing 3/6, but it looks good so far.

VP$IP Down to 18.47.
BB/100: 4.15. This is considered doing EXTREMELY well.
BB/HR: 2.81. Again a nice number.
4504 hands. Smallish sample size, but not so small that it says nothing.
Probably means I am beating 3/6. My BB/100, BB/HR will probably normalize around
2-3.

Anyone see any reason for me not to go up? I am going to ask this on 2+2 so I can get flamed, and also on Talking Poker. It is a nice new forum. Go see Bad Blood for the link. I will put it up here later.

It Depends

I think my game has become a little strange. In a good way. I never was a huge math guy, so I wing Pot Odds and things like that already. However I think I have a REALLY good intuitive feel for the game. I really think this is more important than figuring out if a certain call is +EV or –EV sometimes. For example I have mentioned before that I can sometimes tell when someone is on an AK draw. Last night I was in a large pot against someone on such a draw. Everyone else folded by the turn because she was betting out. I however KNEW my 55 WAS good against her. If I had seen an Ace or King I would have folded. What I should have done is raised her on the river. If I trusted in my reads then I would do this more often and make more money. I have not yet been able to do this. I play way too scared which I need to break myself of if I ever hope to have monster nights.

I think the ability to read an opponent is a big reason why it seems like every answer to any Poker question is: It Depends. Was my 55 call to the river a good play? Odds wise probably not. You could dissect that play many ways and most of the time I lose. Was her play poor? Not really. She did what you are supposed to do. Try and make them buy it to the river. Most people will try and make there draws until the last card, so if you check at the end, you are saying “I did not make it either”, instead of showing strength and inducing a fold.

I am starting to see how Poker is a HUGE mind game more so than a statistics class. Can you make money just playing the odds? Sure. I think you have a lot more fun playing the players though. If you are lucky enough to tune your senses into the game you can win with any two cards. This is especially true if you have shown yourself to be tight and strong for a period of time. People are afraid of the unknown, and those two hole cards are hidden away for a reason.

I actually think playing one or two tables can be more profitable than three or more because of the ability to key into the game. Usually I can put my head totally into one of my two tables and play ABC at the second one. So should you throw all of your statistical knowledge out the door and just play the game? It Depends.

I HATE NL

Level 3: Been folding my ass off. Hurts my pride. Made one move on this level. A lag raises me all in after he bet, so I call with a pair of 10’s. A classic AQ vs 10-10 situation and I double up.

Level 4: Back from the break. Pre-flop raise. Two players. One calling station bets it down to the river. I only have A high, but I win the pot. Nice! I was reading the player and made $800.

AK again and get the Ace on the flop now. I limp in with 4’s and pickup a boat! Up to $3005! Sweetness. Nobody believed I had the boat. So I got into a fight with some guy. It was awesome!

Jerk: You did not have a boat
Me: if you say so
Jerk: so
Me: So-So Suck my Toe, You don’t have enough dough.


See I am an asshole! Heh. So now I have like 2 people at the table who hate me. I am not going to get into the first guys problem.

Level 5: Some one is all in when I have TPTK. It was $1000 to call him. I figured he was bluffing and was right. He has second pair and a straight draw. I am up to $4200 now. I made a rude comment because he went all in except $145, I say “You should go all in if your gonna do that”.. he said the button slipped. I felt bad because I had thought he had left. Sorry dude!

We are now down to 99 players and I am doing well for this NL crap. I am almost the Big Stack and can ride the 25/50 blinds where others cannot for a while. I might make the money if I am not stupid.

Been riding out the rest of the 5th level.

Level 6: KK. It is raised slightly before me, I raise again, and the guy across from me raises all in. He covers me. It’s the classic KK vs AA. Out 58th place! Should I have folded? I don’t know. I hate NL! Bah!

Off the ropes and punching hard

Not much Poker on Saturday. The wife dragged me out to something called a “Progressive Dinner”. As far as I can tell it means going to Progressively nicer houses and eating food! So I get to feel bad about my house, but at least I get stuffed! Not a bad deal.

I decided to shave my Goatee for the weekend. It had been getting a bit thin on the left side, and I wanted to shave it and try and grow it in again. I hope it works! So I look really weird. I mean nobody has seen me without a beard since way before my wife married me. I think it has changed my luck on the tables, like Johnny Damon, so I might have to keep it shaved! Heh.

The first stop – Appetizers! Zang! I love them! I love sushi. It is a whole meal made of appetizers! How can you beat that! Now I am not a very social person. It is hard for me to hear in loud situations because I am deaf in one ear, so I never really became social. Besides that I am a nerd and we are generally not very social. Something about people bigger than us picking on us. Well FU Mr. Football Jock turned Highway Department Garbage Man! Watch me drive by in my BMW! Ok, So I do not own a BMW, but you get the point. BTW - No offence to any garbage men reading this. The first person my wife decides to socialize with is a republican. Now this was probably a given as our town is 99% republicans. Our idea of “Affordable Housing” is about 700K right now. Lucky I bought in a few years ago! So I just bite my tongue and nod every once in a while. Maybe I smiled too. Maybe. He was actually a nice guy for a republican! Ok. Ok. A lot of republicans are nice. The apps were great. We then swapped houses for soup/salad, dinner, and desert! All in all it was a nice night. Not too many trophy wives. I think I am disappointed.

Sunday consisted of a trip to the zoo. We finally got there late in the afternoon and had a good time. Elephant, Bears, and Pigs oh My! Finally I was able to hit the tables. I have kept to the really tight style and it has finally paid off tonight. Not sure if it is just the cards hitting or my selections, but I am doing well. Dropped my VP$IP to 19.20, a few decimal points lower.

Some nice hands. Been playing a table for a while. Got J-10 s000ted in Middle position! I own this table. You know, what I was describing last night. The flop was a nice QKx. I bet it out instead of being a wimp. I bet it down to the river even thought I missed my straight. The wimps all folded on the river! Scary! But yeah, gimme my $50!

Anyway pretty solid play. Nice tight pre-flop. Some aggression post-flop, but not enough, as usual. It will be along time before I get my .89 aggression rating over 1.5 or 2.0. *sigh*. Chased a couple of hands. Over all solid play for me. A personal best $190+ at a single table. In addition a personal best night of +$507 playing two tables! Sweet! Hmm.. Maybe Venetian was right and I just did not see it. Either that or it’s the beard!

Tighter..

Well.. I decided to play tight again. I was playing two tables. The night started out REALLY badly. I mean I raise pre-flop with QQ and a guy calls me with 92o and rivers trip 2's!!!! Man! I also played some hands badly. I need alot of work post flop. So I get down to $0 on one table with my last hand and river a straight to beat slowplayed AA! DO NOT SLOW PLAY PRE-FLOP! So I am down to like $34, and I GRIND my way back. I was also down to about $70 at my second table. I GRIND my ass off and make that table back up again also. So NET for the night after a REALLY long session is $3! I am happy with that since I could have been down another $200! Easily! I brought my pre-flop VP$IP down almost a full point this night to 19.81 in 3200 hands. Getting closer to becoming a TAP again. I also see why I am rated passive post flop -- I check/call alot! Not good. I do fake it sometimes, but usually only if I have raised pre-flop and an A or K shows. I guess I will be working on that next.

One thing I have noticed lately. When I have played at a table for a while, people start folding to my pre-flop raises ALOT! They also fold on any bet I make post-flop. The table suddenly will not pay me off. Is this a good thing or is it time to leave? I kind of like my tables to be trained.. but I am not sure if this is a good thing. Am I being too predictable? Comments?

Last thing: The hand that put me up $3 for the night was -- you guessed it -- The Hammer. I am the SB. I get 72o. I raise. The BB calls. The flop has a K, I bet out, he thinks.. and folds ! Go Hammer!

Stages of Advice

I want to thank Poker Nerd AKA The_Venitian for his advice. I am going to take it to heart. Please visit Missives from a Degenerate Underachiever (his Blog) also. I do not think I am THAT loose – VP$IP: 20%. It was 21% at 2/4 and 25% at ½! So please do not worry toooooo much for me! Heh. Like Poker Tracker says I am SLIGHTLY loose over 20,000 hands and getting tighter all the way.

I want to say something about advice. I am the type of person, like many I think, that wants to become an AEWSOME Poker player. The way you become better at the game is to play, to read, and to get advice from people. I also go through stages with advice.

Initially the advice might hurt a little. You might get defensive. What do you mean I am not playing WSOP level Poker! Screw you! What the hell do you know loser! I mean I am winning, right? I must be doing something right. I will set him straight! (Two Blogs and six messages later you are done ranting, heh)

The next stage is the doubt stage. Well, maybe he is right? Oh my God! I Suck so badly! I know nothing! When they talk about fishies they are really secretly talking about me and snickering behind my back! I am the comedy break portion of their Blog reading for the day! There is a reason I am on their buddy list!

The final stage is looking at what the person is really saying. The people who read this Blog, and the people who have been playing this game A LOT longer than me actually do know something. After 2600 hands at a level I know a little, but probably not as much as I think. At the very least there is some nugget of wisdom to retrieve out of the advice.

I do think I could benefit from going back from sLAP to TAP and even the dreaded TAA when I figure out what that last part really means! I was always saying that once I get to a level where the competition is tight I would tighten up again. I am going to experiment with it for the next 2000 hands or so and see what happens. At the very least I will probably lose less on the bad nights. I REALLY appreciate Poker Nerd taking his time and making me think. As always I will keep you all up to date on my progress.

Playing Slightly Loose

I want to clarify my question about playing looser. I am not saying I am playing A3o or really loose hands. SSHE has the very tight play which makes you play almost nothing in EP because the chances of a raise afterwards make the small pocket pairs and lower (T9) s00ted connectors less attractive.

I have been playing the looser suggestions. The looser suggestions are basically moving most of the hands you would play in middle position into EP. On the tables I am playing on there is not alot of pre-flop raising, people are calling A3 to the river if it hits an Ace, and it seems like there is more money to be made playing a wider range of slightly loose hands. I am not saying I went crazy and played every flop. That would just be stupid.

I am thinking about going back to the really tight suggestions and playing more tables as a way to make the same amount of money, and try and avoid some of the nastier hands I have been involved in. I am not sure if this is the right move or not. Playing tighter obviously is not going to HURT anyone's game, but you could be leaving alot of money on the tables. Money not taken is money lost! So anyway.. I am pondering and will probably do some experimenting.

GOD DAMN MF*(#@*(#*(#

Well I had my worse night since the blowout. I lost around $400. Basically two buyins. I do not really want to look right now. I will update my template tomorrow like a good Blogger. At least it is not a hell of a lot of money. It was a bad night. You know the kind. Two pair losing to trips, people spiking straights on the river like crazy.

It could have turned around on one of my last hands but instead puncuated the fact I needed to leave. I have KQ in EP and raise. I get everyone out except two people. I flop a perfect rainbow straight and all three of us are betting it out. I mean I am just calling, but the pot is getting capped on every turn. The turn brings a meaningless 4th suit card! So the board has no possible flush!! I hit the turn still having the NUTS! Ya Baby! When the river pairs up. I know I am beat by a Boat because nobody is going to bet that hard without trips. I call just to make sure. Sure enough AA hit his boat at the river. I have no idea why he was raising or what the third guy had. I have to assume some sort of straight.

Here is a question for the 3/6 and above people who have read SSHE. I was thinking about this before my bad night, but I am wondering what other players think. Do you think the 3/6 game is more suited to playing the loose game reccomendations or tight? It seems like loose would be prefered since everyone and his brother is playing A3o like it is AA, but maybe playing less hands is better? Any comments?

I am fed up tonight. I think it was good I could leave the game down the two buyins plus a 22/2 tourney. It shows some growth in discipline. I am also not TOO hurt by the loss. It sucks, and it is going to suck to make that back, but I am ok with it. Sort of surprises me as I pay lip service to "One Long Session: and beleive it, but I tend to want to make a little profit every session.. and will play a little later to do this sometimes. Go figure. I am going to watch Drawn Together Now! Gotta love a show with an Octo-pussy monster!

All I got

Best hand of the night. Really made my night after a few suckouts. I decided to leave after this. I am in the SB. I am dealt 8s10s. I get to limp in for a SB, so I decide to play this hand. It is a little weak but within SSHE guidelines for the table. I have two callers in the hand.

The flop is an AEWSOME Td9sTc! Sweet trips baby! It is checked all around. I figure I can slow play this. Next card is the wonderful 9h giving me a BOAT! YES! I decide I can also slow play this. Everyone checks. The river is an AEWSOME Th for my 4 of a kind! I decide I cannot afford to slow play this. I bet $6. Suddenly the table goes wild! The 2nd seat raised me and the 3rd seat raised again! I raise it one more time! I get called. I beat the hammer [7c/2c] who must have though everyone had the boat. In addition I beat a SLOW played AA! This is a good lesson on why you should limit the field pre-flop with monster made hands! I would probably have not called a raise pre-flop. The AA was like: What the $*$*$ why is the money not coming to me? My asshole persona kicks in and I say "Nice hand". He says "WTF! You won the money!!!". "Yeah, I had 4 of a kind 10's. Your hand WAS nice, mine was just NICER!". lol.

I played with predator tonight also. He lost again. He can afford it, and besides, I am always willing to take Bush Republican money!!! He is 0 for 4 at my table so far. I sweet talk him and he comes back every time. heh! Cracked 2600 for the first time with the monster end pot. I decided to leave well enough alone. I should probably try to 3 table 3/6 now. I think I need to do more tables to make money. Although I am doing alright.

2266 Hands
5.45 BB/100
$3.72 BB/Hr (ug!)

I think I played well tonight. Got sucked out on a couple of times. Called people down to the river when I should not have a couple of times but for the most part was able to fold flops that missed. I doubled up again on one table, and was down slightly at the other for a nice profit.

The worse hand of the night lost me $39. I had trip Aces and bet them hard right out of the gate, and all the way down to the river where my opponent spiked a straight! Only bad move I made here was trying to re-raise him after he raised me. Some people bluff, but I should have known with this player he made his gut shot straight.

The worse hand of the night as far as how I played was JJ. Predator raises pre-flop, the flop is 87Q. Predator bets. I call. A five was the next card. Predator bets. I call. The river is a 4. Predator bets. I call. He beats me with KK. I guess I thought he might have AK. I was also beaten if any Q was out there. In hindsite I could have let this go. The final pot was not that large. I have trouble folding sometimes. If I have a read on someone it is one thing, I was not sure here, and should have folded.

America the Confused

It is a sad day here is Massachusetts. Even the skies have opened up and shed giant tears of sorrow. Even if Kerry is not willing to concede defeat it is pretty much statistically impossible for him to take Ohio. So here is to you America. Here is to $15 per gallon for Bush’s oil buddies. The new ISLIG-3 Visa (Indian Slave Labor is Good) that allows you to stay for as long as you want as long as you are willing to shack up with 50 other Indians and work for five cents an hour. See you later free speech, who needs that, Bush will tell us what to think. Let’s hear it for invading Korea and Taiwan, they all look the same to me. Have to do something to show up Iraq! Here is to oil slicks in Alaska, this one is for you Mr. Nader, good job. Finally here is to Bush’s third term – Martial Law ain’t it a bitch! At least we won’t have gay marriage. Long live the Lord of the Flies! Long Live Piggy!

The Redskins streak has ended. It was soooo much easier when I was 27 and did not even vote. *Sigh*. Perhaps a new streak has started: On Days that a total loser wins the Whitehouse Sir loses at the tables. I only lost a little. It was however a real rollercoaster of a night. I think I was chasing a little much. I was sucked out on so many times last night that my eyeballs receded into my head. I mean some of these guys with their gut shot straights should have been my boyfriends! Jesus! I did have a great time playing with the Iggster. He ended up a bit ahead. He Almost ended up having sex with a Giant -- few more Guiness and it would have been a done deal. Long story. Iggy is great to play with and I am glad he came down to my puny levels to have a little fun.

Oh yeah, and go see Sideways Poker and Skitch-o-Rama so I can collect my money! heh. I read you guys! Keep up the good work.

Pimping the Blogz

I figured I would do some Blog pimping today as well as adjusting the Blogroll and adding a defunct category. What the hell. I never normally pimp Blogs but I read all of you guys. So let’s start with the top. I have REALLY been enjoying the Card’s Speak lately. I normally like the site, but it has been outstanding lately. So go by and read the latest fiction story. It kind of creeps me out because I do not want to event think about that kind of thing happening.. shudder. It is almost like a Halloween Horror Story for Poker Players!

I have been playing a lot lately with WiredAces/Predator. He says he never wins when he sits at my table. I checked Poker Tracker and he is right. So I figure he has paid for a promo. I originally thought his site was Wired Aces which is a good site, however it is Poker Quest. His original quest was for 2K, but he has already hit that. He is setting new goals for the month of November. Tune in and see how he does. Congrats to him on hitting the BB Jackpot on Party Poker for 15K! Guess he really will need to re-adjust his goals!

StudioGlyphic is another great Blogger to play with. We usually do not meat at the 3/6 level but I will always go and play some 25NL or ½-2/4 with him! A lot of fun!

Diary of A Poker Slut! The name says it all. Probably a 13 year old boy but an old guy like me can dream, right? Heh. Just Kidding Amanda! She has a nice writing style. Very refreshing. Playing the 5 cent micro limits and crushing them! Heh. My favorite line in her recent post

“Despite a bad run this weekend (four losing sessions in a row) I've still come out ahead 13 of my last 24 sessions. Over 675 hands, I've posted an average of nearly 3c/hand. Not an amazing total, I have to admit, but just think if I could take that to the $5/$10 limit tables and I might start to make some real money.”

Take it slow sister Blogger! The 5/10 limit tables are NOTHING like the 5 cent tables. I wish you the best of luck. If you do not go crazy playing the five cent tables you might make it to the real money.

Welcome Chris Halverson’s friend Drac into the Blogger fold. Only one post so far but we will see if the bug bit deep. Another guy I keep taking money from (heh) Under a Blu Moon. He plays 3/6 like myself and is pretty good! At least that is what Poker Tracker tells me. If you want to know how to beat him send 19.95 and a SASE to me and I will send you the manual!

As always there are the usual suspect in Anisotropy, Bad Blood, Chris Halverson, The Commish, Tao of Poker, Guiness and Poker, Poker and Poker, you get the idea! Always a lot of gems out there! They are all out to the right there so keep reading and keep winning.

1-800-BLG-ADCT

Thanks for all the feedback. I am now going to make you all suffer through my bad grammer and spelling, and my "Hey loosers, I made $50 last night.. nahh nahh!" stories. I might put in a gem or two every once in a while but do not count on it. I think I need to call Bloggers anonymous cause I am addicted! The number is above for anyone else suffering from this affliction.

I only got into three fights tonight. I really think I am an asshole when I am winning. People who have played with me can verify this. I am not sure if it is a bad thing or not. Sometimes it really sets people on tilt against me! They REALLY want to get me!

The first fight was because in the SB I played 92 S00ted! The flop was two clubs and I raised the initial better. He called me. The third club appeared and walla.. I won and he started crying. Since he paid for it, I tried to give him some advice on playing flushes, but he would not listen! You try and help people!! I have been called an asshole at the Iggy Bloggers tourney. I think someone tried to bluff me off of a pot, I won it, and said "Nice Bluff". I sincerly meant it. I was going to fold! Oh well. Another Blogger mentioned if I played live I would probably get punched in the face! Lucky I do not play live!!!?!?!!?!

I guess it is possible I am an asshole when winning. I never really got a chance to win as a child. So I do not know how to handle it. I really enjoy it alot! Hence my enjoyment of Poker! So you all can hate me like Howard Lederer but at least were competitive! heh.

I need to tell everyone out there that the fishies are spawning and swiming upstream to the 3/6 game. I was in no less than 3 games where people were calling pre-flop raises with K2o, etc.. and hitting them! I got a few suckouts applied to me before I took it to them and came out ahead. Not fun! I really hate being rivered! Of course if I am the one doing it..

Blog News

I am thinking about updating the Blog a little less frequently. It excites me to be winning and having fun at 3/6, building the bankroll at the best clip yet. It is VERY exciting to see numbers that are meaningful to me. When your making over 100K a year a fifty-buck win just does not mean much. However seeing possible earnings of 3K a month becomes significant. At least 3K is my goal right now at 3/6 playing two tables. However mentioning how much I win a night HAS to be boring to my readers. I am thinking the Blog is going to go through different stages. It will be interesting at times, when I am growing in my game, and learning a lot about Poker. At times I will hit plateaus where my game is not growing and things are less interesting to outsiders. I am really interested in taking the next steps and becoming a far better player. I have not made moves in that direction lately however.

I think my game is good. Not great, not awesome but good. I play a very good pre-flop game. Extremely aggressive. I have a wide range of starting hands that I raise with. In accordance with SSHE loose rules. I like this because you will never know if I have AK, KK, or 99 when that K hits the board. NEVER! Bahahahaha! I think re-evaluating my pre-flop selections was the last leap in my game. I have improved my post-flop aggression a lot but not to the point where I get an aggressive rating in PT. I am at least comfortable with my play here. I win a lot of pots straight out with flush draws. People get really nervous when you raise them on a fairly passive board. I think most people assume trips immediately! I like raising with my 4 to a flush hands. I keep getting people yelling at me for it so I must be doing something right.

I would describe my game now as a loose, somewhat intuitive game. I try and figure out what the other guy thinks I have and bet accordingly. I usually will not throw money away chasing things. I roughly calculate things like pot odds and the like. I generally enjoy myself.

I think the next step in my game is going to come from one of two ways. I will either get a new book about middle-stakes Hold em and learn something new. It would probably be a good peek into a higher level game, but honestly I still have a lot of work to do in the low limit arena. The next place to improve is in my study habits. In both reviewing my hand histories more diligently, and calculating the real odds, etc.. for a given hand.

Anyway in the vein of keeping this thing somewhat interesting I am soliciting feedback in two polls. Vote clearly and often! In both this and the Nov 2nd elections:

A: Should I update the Blog a little less frequently.

1. Yes Dude! I am getting sick of reading ten updates a day!
2. No way! What the hell am I going to do at work!
3.

B: What content in the site keeps bringing you back?

1. Love to hear about Al kicking your ass in very nearly anything he does.
2. Waiting to see you bust out again! I could not stop laughing the first time.
3. Excellent to see your Bankroll rise, if a moron like you can do it then I should quit my .50/1 game and start playing 3/6 right away!
4. I love to grade your Blog from a Grammatical and spelling perspective, it gives my 5th grade English class a great example of what not to do.
5. I keep waiting for those gems of Poker knowledge to seep out ever few months, if I can wade through the sewage than I actually pick something good up on occasion.
6. Your such a big looser it makes me feel better about my life.
7. Want to see how your going to spell Hold’em this week.
8. Waiting to see how you react when the Patriots lose.
9. It is interesting to follow along with someone who is (Ahead, Same, Behind) of where I am in Poker and figure out how to progress.
10. Want to see if you score with Rainbow Bright! (heh, just kidding, I am a really faithful husband if your reading this honey!)
11. I cannot die until I know what the hell SirFWALGMan means! (For those of you who want to know you will have to wait for the 1 year anniversary. John knows but he is not saying!?!?! I will give you a tease it is broken down into the following word groupings Sir F W A L G Man. Each portion signifying a different word. It is very anti-climatic so you might just want to stop reading now.)
12.