Bad Beat Day

Played in quite a few tourneys, always getting beat up before the $. You know it's a bad day when you have pocket 7's and get beat by 67o pre-flop for all your chips 1 spot before the $.

Ending Bankroll: $5,725.00

Placed 3rd in a MTT $69+5 for $2,500

Played real tight, not making any crazy moves or bluffs. Just played the cards. I got "lucky" a couple of times, and look what happens! The key is very tight/aggressive play. I've reached my monthly goal again!

Ending Bankroll: $5,969.00

Weekend Update

Had a bad day, lost about $600. The next day I won a $500+35 entry into the $750,000 tournament. Didn't win. Main mistake? Playing marginal hands early in the tourney from late position. Like calling with KJo for a raise from the button.

Ending Bankroll: About $3,700

Unlucky? Not Overall...

Played in a $150 MTT and had JJ board came 9 high, bet big (1 other opponent in-loosest at table), turn came 2, bet even bigger & lost to trip 9's.

Played a ST S&G and lost after going all-in preflop with JJ and losing to pocket 9's.

What the F#*^?? Twice in a row, got knocked out with the same hand, to the same hand, and supposedly a monster favorite in each.

I won most of it back receiving 1st in a $50 STT.

I played in a 200 and some person tourney for $69+5, placed 23rd, making a little $. How did I go out? I had 67o in the BB, the button raised to 3x BB. With all the blinds, antes, and his bet, there was over 50% worth of my stack out there. I really thought he would fold to a reraise, so being the short stack, I went all-in. He reluctantly called at the last second and I lost.

Ending Bankroll: $4,378.00

Lost a Few Hundo

Played in a big tourney & made it real far. I got moved to a new table and had Q5h on the button. The cutoff raised 2x BB (1,000 or so) and I for no apparent reason except to protect my button moved all in for over 8,000. Of course he called and of course I was knocked out.

Afterwards I lost another $200 in a $1/2 6 person cash table with KK to pocket 8's quads.

Bummer.

BOO-YAH-KAH-SHAW!

After a big slump, I've finally made it back to the big time. I played a 209 person tourney for $69+6.....and WON! That's $3,750.00 in monetary terms. While I do credit the win to pretty solid play and good reads, I must say I did suck out twice. The biggest and almost rediculous one, I'm ashamed to even talk about. There was about 50 people left, the $ started at 27 people, and the button kept raising my BB every time. So, I decided to take a stand and reraised him with garbage. What I should of done is reraise all-in, but I reraised an amount he would call with an "above average" hand, and then pot committed myself by betting 2/3 of my remaining stack on flop. In my mind I did atleast 2 things wrong here.
1. Not reraising huge preflop (all-in) at that level.
2. Essentially pot-committing myself. I should have either gone all-in or bet a smaller amount I could get away from on the flop.

Needless to say, I caught runner-runner and never looked back. I was in 1st place from when there was about 25-29 people and kept it for essentially the rest of the tournament. Usually with a 2x or 3x second place lead.

I was lucky today! Finally, I was winning all my big pots and getting sucked out only on the small ones. Hoo-rah!

Ending Bankroll: $4,771.00

Starting Off Another Day Dropping $100

How on earth did I end up going all-in for $83 with A7o pair of 7's??? Bad play. I'm apparently in a long process of learning how to fold to a reraise. That's it for today - just frustration with myself.

Trying New Stuff

In an effort to drastically improve my game, I decided to pony up some dough. I bought into the Poker XFactor club. I spent $200 for the initial fee + 3 months @ $25. They are video recordings of real good online pros playing (and winning)... This is just what I think I need, to get into the mindset of the pros. I'll be providing good commentary on whether or not I think it's worth it, and we'll be able to tell by my bankroll.

I also invested $50 in another 17" monitor. Now I can play split-screen which is kick ass. Now I'll be able to play two or more tables with ease.

Overall, I'm pretty excited with the changes I've made and money I've spent today. I'm looking forward to the big payoff!

Ending Bankroll: $1,118.00

Good Plays, Crappy Calls

I'm STILL calling off most of my profit. Twice today I lost $50 & $65 to pocket kings. I have been making some laydowns, but overall I need to recognize I'm beat. I should easily have known I was beat.

I've been playing on 2 tables consecutively today. This works out well. On the 9 seat table I play tight, and on the 6 person table I play loose. I can do this pretty easily if I rely on Poker Tracker & Game Time's Overlay Stats.

After pissing away most of my profit, I'm left with....

Ending Bankroll: $1,315.00

First Day at Full Tilt

Well, I felt I was playing so badly I forced myself to quit. I was doing what I consider to be great in several key areas, but easily made up for it with crappy amateur calls. I was stealing pots, and playing aggressively adding about 25% to my bankroll at every table I sat down at. Then I would get in a big hand, with a great hand. First it was KK in a big raised pot with the board JJx. Of course he had a Jack and of course like a fool I doubled him up. Next time, and in a monster pot I had AA on a Qh Jh Xs board. I overbet the pot and of course he called. On the turn came the Th making a flush if he had hearts and a straight if he had AK. Not only did I lose over $100, I check called the turn for $25 and check called his all-in for $50 on riv. What an idiot! The only hand I could really beat here would be AQo or maybe AJo. Worst yet, if I'm going to check-call, I might as well bet out. Despite these horrible plays I ended up about $30 due to some good aggression.

Ending Bankroll: $1,185.00

Devestating Day for the Bankroll

As a U.S. player, today was the last day to play at Doyle's Room. I felt pressured to earn my bonus of $300 which was only a few thousand action points away (80%) there. So I started playing on the $1/$2 tables with $200, and lost big. AND didn't get to the bonus either. I made bad bluffs in big pots, and lost pretty much all the large pots I was in today over $200.

I ended up a big loser today, and transferred my money to Full Tilt poker. Better luck there I hope!

Ending bankroll: $1,151.00

Cash Games it is

After losing two $50+5 STT S&Gs in fourth place, I decided to mix it up and play at a cash table. It seems I have to lose $30-40 before I become actively involved (mentally). I ended up making back the initial $40 I lost + $110 I lost from the tourneys + about $250 more! I was in the zone at a 6 person .50/1.00 table. If I wasn't so greedy I'd have about $60 more from not reraising when I had the nut straight and there was a pair out there. (of course he had the boat on riv) I did well picking out my victims, isolating them, and picking them apart.

I find cash games are better than tourneys in several areas.

1. Cash games have less overall luck involved. In the STTs, the blinds get so massive with 3-5 people left, you're required to go all-in repeatedly in a sort of round-robin fashion until the end. This translates into you HAVE to get hands in the endgame, and they HAVE to hold up (whether or not they are beat, i.e. you get 88 raise to 3x BB making you pot committed and someone wakes up with AK, AQ, AJ, AT, or any pair and you end up winning).

2. In STT you can play great for 45 minutes and then be put in spots dictated by the blinds where your forced to put your money in and go out in 4th or 5th - Losing $55. Where in a cash game if you play great for 45 min you could be up $50-$150 and your play isn't forced by the blinds. So, if you lose a couple big hands your back down to +$50 or even. Using my gorrilla math, that's atleast a $50-$100 difference. As you can tell there is a lot of easy money to be made in the STT, but I believe there is a much bigger luck factor involved after the initial 30 min.

Ending Bankroll: $1,700.00

Playing on Another Level - Yet Not Winning

I'm playing way better, however bad things keep happening. I keep crapping out. I hate 50/50's (Two overcards vs. under pair - or vice versa). Try to avoid them at all cost! Look for spots to get your money in for max reward with the least amount of risk. However, with the damn blind structure rising so fast, they are bound to come up.

I need to work on my endgame. I used to almost always win when it was down to 3 or less people. Today there was nothing but several 2nd and 3rd place finishes. Remember on the 6 person single table S&G, only the top 2 places win $!

Back to the drawing board yet again.

Ending Bankroll: $1,445.00

Back In The Saddle Again

Finally playing solid poker again. I realized I was playing too loose and my observational skills sucked. I now try to continually guess what my opponents have/what they're thinking. As of yet, I don't have any big bankroll boost to show for my troubles, but I took some horrendeous beats. I continuously lost all 50/50's today. Plus I lost with AA vs. JJ, 99 vs. 66, etc, etc. Rediculous for playing only 4 or 5 tourneys!

Getting frustrated (as you can probably tell) again about losing many of my big hands. Must stay in control -even when lady luck is kicking me in the balls.

Ending Bankroll: $1479.00

Blocking U.S. Customers

Well, found out today that Doyle's Room is blocking U.S. based poker players. They know your from the U.S. based on your ip address........unless you change it. Download free proxy tools and you are on your way to being from any country you want in about 15 minutes.

Pulled my head out of my ass for an hour or two today and made a couple hundred back.

I went to Barnes and Nobles and bought Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book. I figured the green book is so good, why not? It does not disappoint. Phil goes through TONS of actual hands he has played and his thought process during each. Helps me out big time. While playing I easily get distracted or worse yet bored. Phil's book gave me a healthly kick in the ass by reminding what the hell I should be thinking about while playing/watching.

I also downloaded Phil Helmuth's Play Poker Like the Pros. Sifting through that as well.

Ending Bankroll: $1400.00

Revamped Gaming Conditions

Today I started at 1630, with the TV OFF! I won't be searching amazon for poker books, checking my email, or updating my blog during game play. Today is all about focus.

1st $50 tourney played soft, played bad. Reflecting on this while playing in a $100 -6 person table. Took 2nd. In another $50, made a horrible call with A6s all-in against a crazy, who happened to have AJo.

Lost a couple other tourneys, made $65 on live table. Back to the drawing board!

Ending Bankroll: $1137.00

Mediocrity

Today was another crappy day. Besides another dry run in cards, I did many things wrong. I stuck to single player tourneys and did poorly. Talk about autopilot. I have to stop playing Single Table Sit and Go's with the damn TV on. I could babble on about how many 50/50's I lost (and I probably should because it was rediculous), but I'll focus on the crap I can change.

I'll focus my next day and a half strictly on poker. I'll reread Slansky's NL Theory and Practice as I need a swift kick in the ass.

I've also decided I need a poker routine. 10-15 min prep time before each online session dedicated to reviewing my notes.... What's the use of playing for 6 hours if I'm just going to give away $200? As I'm just getting back into the mix, I need to keep my skills sharp and make sure I'm putting myself into a position to excel.

Unfortunately Poker Tracker only works for cash tables on Doyle's Room. No stats are collected on tournament players so I'm basing my reads on half ass information picked up during commercial breaks. This will change.....

Ending Bankroll: $1243.00

Donk

Today is the first day I've thought that I played poorly overall. I played in one $315, and many more $100 and $50 tourneys today, and managed to donk my money off in all of them. I recovered slightly and won a 50 single table tourney to bring me back up (and allow me to quit for the day). For some reason it is incredibly hard for me to quit after losing. So I just keep losing $, losing $, and losing more $, until I finally win one. This is a bad habit I'll have to work on.

I was getting cold cards today and combined with my impatience when I finally did get a hand, caused me to play predictably over-aggressive. I'll probably just stick to $50 max rebuy tourneys and $100 regular tourneys until I get my bankroll back up to $2000-$2500.

Time to start boozing. Time to regroup. I will force myself to go over my notes for 2 hours before I play tomorrow.

Ending Bankroll: $1400.00

Reached 2k!

Pretty stoked I reached the $2000 mark today. I'm risking another $220 for a chance at big $ again, we shall see. Made it to 11th place, but the $ starts at 6th. Lost in a 50/50-AKo versus the dreaded 99.

Tourneys

I have rediscovered today the joy and quick profit of tourneys. Today I made and lost over 2k. I played in a couple tourneys costing $220 & $315 each. Those didn't work out so well.....BUT the good news is I was able to make all that up and more. I dropped down to $540ish and after winning 2 $50 single table tourneys, 2nd in a $20 ST S&G, and 1st in a $50 buy-in 50+ player tourney paying over $915. Whew, what a crazy day. All in all, I made $ and played well, so it was a great day. I do need to work on controlling my poker emotions during the big $ tourneys. I recovered, and ended up winning quite a few 50/50's towards the end of the day.

Ending Bankroll: $1730.00