Update

As usual it's been a long time since I've updated my blog. A lot has happened in the last month and I've just been to lazy to post on this blog. The biggest news is that I took down the 40k gtd on pokerstars for $7,650. That is my biggest win to date, and I was very happy to finally take that tournament down. It was number one on my "hit list" and I just never seem to run good in that tourney. So, I now have rebuilt my bankroll from the sick down swing I experienced during the last part of 2008. My tournament game has really been improving lately and I credit that to the SNGs I was playing for the month of January. Playing a lot of SNGs drastically improved my short stack, and my push/fold game. These skills are critical for tournament poker. I've been working very hard on improving my mid-tourney game. I really believe this part of the tournaments are where you separate the good players from the bad players. It's such a huge grind and I see a lot of players make some big mistakes, including myself. So, that is my personal goal right now. If I can really beef up my mid-tourney game it will make me a very dangerous tournament player.

Here is the link to my win in the 40k. I would be happy to answer any questions anyone has about hands in this tourney.

http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA182427/5154_20090212_184337/5154

If you really want to see some great end game play this is the hand history to watch. I feel I played really good at the last few tables (ran pretty good too). So if you want to see how to really open up your game and play super aggressive this is a good watch. I really just recommend the last few tables as I played pretty tight up to that point.

Something else I wanted to touch on is cash games. I've gotten back to playing 100NL and have been doing pretty well. I'm not going to make the switch to full ring as I find it EXTREMELY boring. Playing 6max is just more my style. It plays well to my laggy style. The one major change I'm making is to set a loss limit for myself. This was my biggest leak in my cash game in 2008. I would lose a ton of buy-ins, start to tilt, and then lose more. So now, if I lose two buy-ins in a session I will sit out, analyze my mental state, and decide to play on or quit. I'm hoping to get a small study group together of players with similar limits and styles to get together once or twice a week to go over hands and discuss cash game concepts.

Another one of my projects is going to be making a few videos. Camtasia gives a free 30 day trial to test out the software. So, I'm going to try and make a few videos in the next month starting with the Sunday tournaments tomorrow. Hopefully anyone who reads this blog will enjoy my videos.

One last thing, this is for anyone who reads my blog. Please leave me a comment, say hi or whatever. Just let me know that I'm not talking to myself here. It would give me a lot more motivation to keep this updated more if I knew that people actually read it.

Thanks to all! See you on the felt.

2009 Goals

I finally decided I needed to make a few goals for myself in the new year.

1. Make $1000 every month.
2. Win at least 5 tournaments.
3. Build a 2k live bankroll.
4. Build a 10k online bankroll.
5. Make the switch from 6 max cash to full ring games.
6. Win a seat into a major event.
7. Improve my skill in PLO/PLO8.
8. Practice better bankroll management.

Seems simple enough, but nothing ever is when it comes to poker. I think all of these goals are obtainable, but certainly no cake walk. I also don't think I will start on PLO for about six months or so, I've got a lot of bankroll building to do still. Anyhow, I just wanted to give an update and let any readers know where I was at.

Goodbye cruel online world...

I was all set for a good finish when this devastating turn card hit me.

PokerStars Game #23110149526: Tournament #127000824, $50+$5 Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (400/800) - 2008/12/21 0:17:33 ET
Table '127000824 18' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Sextantinn (20230 in chips)
Seat 2: Seb-musashi (2753 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 3: SirSwish6 (8335 in chips)
Seat 4: BigDennys (8535 in chips)
Seat 5: ShadowCat (13272 in chips)
Seat 6: Illinifan10 (15575 in chips)
Seat 7: BammBamm (11377 in chips)
Seat 8: bd3109 (15264 in chips)
Seat 9: Adog26 (8641 in chips)
Sextantinn: posts the ante 75
Seb-musashi: posts the ante 75
SirSwish6: posts the ante 75
BigDennys: posts the ante 75
ShadowCat: posts the ante 75
Illinifan10: posts the ante 75
BammBamm: posts the ante 75
bd3109: posts the ante 75
Adog26: posts the ante 75
bd3109: posts small blind 400
Adog26: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Illinifan10 [Kd Ah]
Sextantinn: folds
Seb-musashi: folds
SirSwish6: folds
BigDennys: folds
ShadowCat: folds
Illinifan10: raises 1200 to 2000
BammBamm: folds
bd3109: raises 4000 to 6000
Adog26: folds
Illinifan10: raises 9500 to 15500 and is all-in
bd3109: calls 9189 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (311) returned to Illinifan10
*** FLOP *** [Ts 9c 5d]
*** TURN *** [Ts 9c 5d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 9c 5d 8s] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bd3109: shows [Jd 8d] (two pair, Eights and Fives)
Illinifan10: shows [Kd Ah] (a pair of Fives)
bd3109 collected 31853 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 31853 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 9c 5d 8s 5c]
Seat 1: Sextantinn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Seb-musashi folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: SirSwish6 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: BigDennys folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: ShadowCat folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Illinifan10 showed [Kd Ah] and lost with a pair of Fives
Seat 7: BammBamm (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: bd3109 (small blind) showed [Jd 8d] and won (31853) with two pair, Eights and Fives
Seat 9: Adog26 (big blind) folded before Flop

How could I have played it any better? Nope, I couldn't. As usual. So I guess I'm out for a few months, years, whatever. I'll post my live results on here once in a while. Thanks to anyone who has read my blog.

I could be done online...

I just can't seem to break this bad slump and it's making me almost sick. I just stare at my screen in disbelief as another big pot gets pushed away to the donkey who should have never been in the pot. I firmly believe that I statistically run worse than the average player. I know everyone will tell me this is not true but I watch it happen time and time again. Sure, I've won a few big tournaments but everyone has to have a bone thrown to them sometimes. It's just that I have never gone on a good run ever in my life. I've ran good for a tourney, or a cash game session, but that is it. I've never ran good for more than one day in a row. I know I have a lot of skill, more than most that I play with. I just can't beat the variance. So with that said, tonight I am playing in four tourneys. The 30k, 10k, 40k, and the 40k $3 rebuy, and if my account has less than 1k in it when the night is done I will be taking all my money offline. There is a new casino open close to where I live and I will go there to rebuild my bankroll playing the 1/2NL game. If I do well in that game over a period of time I will re-deposit money online. I will not be depositing on pokerstars anymore. I will be playing on full tilt as I seem to do better there. So I will give the verdict later tonight.

Somebody kill me!!

Yikes! I continue the worst run of my life playing cash games. The combination of beats, coolers, and bad plays have left me in a state of shock. I'm down $2100 in the last couple weeks. I don't feel I'm playing too bad, I'm just stuck in a bad downswing. But, what goes down MUST come up sometime. So, I will continue to grind it out until I get out of this bad swing. As for now I will be putting in less volume and playing a few more tournaments and just see what happens. I'm playing the 40k gtd and the $3 rebuy tonight. I will be tracking my progress at the beginning of each hour in this blog just to see what happens.......it worked last time!!

7:00pm: Both tourneys just started and of course I don't know anyone. More than likely they are all weak players. So I'll just try to play small pots and get it in with my big hands. GL me!

8:00pm: Not much worth noting. Haven't picked up too many hands yet. I've tripled my stack in the $3R and I have a little less than my starting stack in the 40k. The table in the 40k is super juicy so I really hope I get a hand.

9:44pm: So as usual the table donkey who plays 80% of his hands picks up Aces when I shove my jacks on him. So fucking typical of how I've been running lately. Out of the 40k :(. Out of the $3R 99 is no good on a flop of 9 J 2. JJ of course. I'm really about to take all my money offline and say fuck it. Go and play at the casino against the super donkeys. Whatever.

gross....

Been running pretty horrible. I'm still making money, just not nearly as much as I should be. I've been very patient and I know a huge upswing is on the way. It's only a matter of time. I need to start doing a little more review of my play to determine where I'm leaking money. I think when I hit 50k hands I will have a big review session and then adjust my game accordingly. On a side note, I will be playing the Sunday Million this weekend so hopefully I can get a little, if not a big, boost to my bankroll.

Sunday update

I have been absolutely crushing 50NL and now I'm rolled for 100NL. So tuesday I will start playing at the higher limit. I've played there and had success before and I feel I am a much better player now. I know there isn't much difference in skill between 50 and 100, the players will be a little tighter and there will be more regulars. I don't see this being too much to handle for me. The thing is, I've been doing very well lately without running overly well (with the exception of last night) and I know I can be making a lot more money in the bigger games. Not too much of an update but its something. I'm going to try to write up an article of what I feel makes a good cash game player sometime in the near future. Mainly because I just want something to refer back to when I get in a rut or a bad run. So we shall see what this next week will bring at 100NL. GL me.