Back, and Nothing Changes (6/30/2011)

I played an 8 hour session last night for the first time in over a week.   I was happy with the way I played, but ended up down -$500.

One pot ruined any chance I had of profit.  A decent regular limped EP, I limped behind from MP+3 with A9s.  You can definitely isolate here, but the regular really wasn’t my target, I didn’t want to bloat the pot and get all of the bad players out.

The casual player from the button makes it $25 to go.  Regular calls, I call.  Casual player and I both have about $700 stacks.

FLOP:  A 9 7 (two diamonds, pot $80)

Regular checks, I check.  Button makes it $50, reg folds, I make it $175 total.

The dude instantly snap SHOVES his entire stack all in.  I thought about a minute, but I’m never really laying this down here.  Pretty much just thinking about how I’m going to get sucked out and lose the additional $500 I’m about to put in here.  I really have him on something like AK or AQ.  If he has a set so be it.

Anyways, I call.

He confidently flips over AK.  TURN brick.

RIVER KING (as he fist pumps and screams YESSSSSSSSSS).

And here we go again.  Another $1500 gone that should be mine.  I really need to learn how to hit the lottery when playing poker, because that's exactly what my opponents have been doing the past few weeks. The month of the four fucking outer.  I can’t hold in a meaningful situation.  Obviously the king has to come here.  We can’t run normal one time.

Thanks to the mega-coolers last week and shit like this I’m in another impossible 80 hour break even stretch.  If the month ended today I made enough to pay bills and survive, but still one of the more disgusting months experienced as a pro (see previous posts).

Going Forward

July is going to be a war.  I’m sick of running like shit, it’s a powerless feeling.

I’m going to push myself a lot harder than I did in May and June.  I can’t control what I win.  But I can control busting my ass and putting in 40+ hours per week no matter what happens.  I can control my emotions and discipline during every session.  I guess my main goals are something like:

1)  Play 40 hours+ each week.

2)  Study at least 5 hours per week.

3)  Work-out at least twice per week.

I also want to get back into setting a certain amount of time aside for studying each week (I was bad at this in June).  I’d like to dodge one 4 outer, but who knows.  Maybe I’ll get sucked out/ mega-coolered 15 buy-ins and drop to 1-2.  It sucks because my bankroll is at a point where this is stressing me out some.  I don’t want to drop back to 1-2, but I would if I needed too.  I’m sort of a bankroll nit.  I have about 42 buy-ins set aside for 2-5 right now.  I could draw from other accounts and get it to about 50 some buy-ins if I really wanted to.

I know this is plenty for a bankroll.  The worst live downswing I had playing live since I’ve been pro was around 6 buy-ins.  I made it all back and something like that isn’t going to happen often.  I’d really like my bankroll to be around 100 buy-ins for 2-5.  And I mean 100 buy-ins JUST for 2-5 (not included accounts for savings and living expenses).  So I have a lot of work to do.  Who knows if I’ll ever get there, I just have to take it one session at a time.      

I’m not going to lie, I’ll do everything I can to stay playing 2-5.  Dropping back to 1-2 would be devastating and undesirable, but I would do it if that was the only feasible option to survive.

I’m off to play basketball and get ready for play tonight.  I will try to keep Thursday’s session at 8 hours max because I don’t want to burn out before the weekend.

-bag

Leaving Town (6/21/2011)

I've decided to leave town today and head back to Maryland for a vacation.  It's a shame I'm leaving because the action at the tables are completely ridiculous right now.

However, I haven't taken a week break from poker since Christmas and haven't been home for more than 3 days since December.  I think a break will be good here.  I've already made what I've needed for the month of June so that's it.

The past week on the tables has been brutal.  The last two nights in particular were quite insane.  Sunday I built up a $1700 stack in about 4 hours.  Then I lost about $800 of that in one hand:

Psycho game I complete from the SB with 96s.  There are already 6 limpers in.  Pot is $40.

FLOP:  5 7 8 (rainbow, I flopped the nuts wow.  I forgot 96 could even flop the nuts)

I lead out $25, UTG+1 calls, the BTN raises to $75 total, action is on me.....

UTG+1 is a casual player with about $800 effective.  UTG does not understand the game well.  He limps in with a lot of very trashy hands, he likes to see flops.  He sometimes makes plays on reads that don't make much sense.  BTN is an asian nit regular ($300 effective), but he will get super-aggressive with 2nd best hands in big situations, especially when he senses weakness.

So I have a re-raise on me against this asian reg and I can either re-pop or flat.  9 out of 10 times here I probably re-raise and just let the opponent make a mistake.  But I decided to play it tricky and flat.  I thought UTG had something like two-pair, maybe even weaker since he just flatted.  And if I re-raised the regular would escape.  My plan was to check shove any turn that didn't pair the board basically.

So I flat.  UTG+1 also calls.

TURN.  T

There could be worse turns.  I didn't really think this changed anything.  I still beat all two pairs and sets.  And the likely draws of 9T or 46 do not get there.  I checked, UTG+1 chceks, regular shoves $200 all-in as expected.  I re-raise to $500.  Now is the time to shut UTG+1 out of the hand.

He tanks for about 5 minutes and goes all in $700.  It's only $200 more so I'm obviously snapping

RIVER brick

UTG+1 turns over J fucking 9 off-suit and drags the 2k pot.  I did not even imagine such a hand being possible.  I still thought I had the nuts on the turn.  I was completely mind-fucked.  I should have puked all over the table.  But I did get myself in trouble by flatting the flop.  Despite the brutal aftermath I don't hate mixing up my play here sometimes, 9 out of 10 times he's going to not four-outer me on the turn but oh well.  So I finished that night up only $700, instead of $1700+ if I re-raise the flop.

Then Monday night we have another psycho game.  I built up to a $1400 stack at one point.  I then proceed to dwindle down to $700 on a mind-fuck span of nothing going right.  Which included mega-coolers and a few suck-outs.

It's then 5:00 a.m and I'm leaving after the blinds do one more rotation.  I'm in the SB and get dealt JJ (best starting hand in like 3 hours)

There are 3 limpers in.  I re-raise to $30 from the SB.  3 callers (UTG+2 MP+2 and CO).  UTG+2 is a complete station.  MP+2 is an unknown, he just sat down from a broken game, enormous black guy must weight 600 pounds.  Cut-off is a well known donator.  He's one of the biggest fish in the entire casino,  and he's a regular.  I've seen him call $130 pre with K4o.  When he's in the right mood he could be playing 100% of the deck.  Him being on the table causes crazy lines to go around everywhere.

FLOP:  As 9d 9h

I sometimes stab at the pot here, but I elected not to.  With the station and CO there are tons of aces in their range.  Also I have know idea what MP+2's range is like.  Chances are I'll get two callers on this flop.  Pot is $125.  I check and everyone checks around.

TURN Js

Now I have what seems like the nut full-house.  I lead out half pot $60 like I'm trying to steal.  MP+2 calls.

RIVER Qs

Pot is $240.  I make it $160.  MP+2 takes about 2 minutes and shoves all in $300 more to me.  I think about it about 2 minutes and then call.  I mean I'm never really folding this.  I'm thinking two minutes because I'm trying to consider what un-imaginable bull-shit actually beats me here?

maybe quad nines?  I beat A9, I beat any flush, I beat any 9x, I beat Ax.

I call and he turns over pocket aces for the better full house of course.  I stand up, slam my remaining $160 chips down, puke on the table, and immediately leave.  I guess the only good thing is he didn't have me covered?  But honestly go fuck yourself.  I'm really hating the game right now.  My emotions are not 100% in control after the last two nights.   

It just never ends.  And this is why I scrape by at barely winning 3k a month if things go decent, while I know regulars on the same stakes that normally win absurd amounts.  So that was a nice -1k pot to ruin my week on another mega-cooler.

But I'm not going to let it ruin my week.  I'm going on vacation and getting out of this fucking city for a while.  I already made what I need for June.

When I come back I'm going to stay focused and always be looking for spots to improve.  I'm not going to give up.  It's all going to be about staying mistake free and controlling my emotions each session.  I also need to be looking for spots to improve during each session.

-bag 

I can't win on Fridays (6/17/2011)

I go into tonight with the realization that I can NOT WIN on Fridays.

I'm not sure what the deal is here.  The last Friday I won over a buy-in was 3/25/2011.  Friday is supposed to be a great action night, but if you're baglife during the past two months you would have been better off just partying on Friday like a normal person.  check out my last five Friday sessions:

5/6:  8 hours, -$880

5/20:  9 hours, -$1150

5/27:  9.5 hours, -$60

6/3:  8.5 hours, -$285

6/10:  6 hours, -$25

I really don't have a great explanation with regards to how this is possible.  I'm quite convinced it's just a bizare statistical anomaly.  I've always gone into Fridays really prepared and ready to play.  If I take a look at my notes there have been a lot of huge suck-outs during these last 5 Fridays. 

There is usually decent action.  However, the games really haven't been that great during Friday nights.  The last two sessions I had to switch tables over 4 times.  I think the night is getting saturated by weekend warriors who really aren't losing that much.  The type that are probably playing around 15% of their hands, and losing around -2 BB/100 if they ever played 100k hands.  They have some basic understanding of the game and will make money if surrounded by droolers.  Sure I have a skill advantage over them, but a table with 6 of them on it is horrendous.  They are there to win money just like me, if they lose their night is ruined.

So what am I doing this Friday?  Playing poker.  Yes I guess I just don't learn.  If you take detailed notes I think strange "streaks" like this will just happen.  The sessions above only make up 41 hours total.  That's just over a thousand hands.  Much can go wrong in a thousand hands.  I used to play 3,000 hands in 5 hours online.  I certainly didn't win 90% of those sessions.  I know this, but it's still a strange when compared to my other nights.  Especially considering my Saturdays have been absolutely phenomenal.  You think the two nights would be comparable, but it hasn't even been close.

Anyways, i'll be updating later.  I'll do my best to avoid 6 losing Friday nights in a row.

-bag    

Good June so Far... (6/14/2011)

I'm off to a great start on the tables this month.  I've played 70 hours and won over $50.00 per hour during that stretch.  That makes up for the break-even disaster that was May.  I've been trying to keep a clear disciplined focus during every session.  I'm not doing anything differently from May, just running better.

I've only ended up playing two small tournaments and I missed the money in both.  I was going to put together a grueling tournament schedule and aim to play in the $2700 championship event, but now I have sort of lost motivation to do so.

I feel tournaments are just such a waste of time for me.

Normally the buy-in and structure is not great.  For example, last night I could have played in a $180 buy-in tournament.  But instead I just decided to play a cash game and win $500 in 4 hours.

If I played the tournament there was a good chance I could have ended up playing 8 hours with no return on my investment.  Or 8 hours and finishing just outside of the final table with a profit of what?  +$300 maybe?

I was going to play a lot of these small tournaments to prepare for the championship, but not anymore.  I can just be making more on average playing the cash tables.  My job is to prey on the tournament players who bust and come to my cash world.  Why go into their world?

Also, I decided I don't want to get backing for the big buy-in tournament.  If I don't feel comfortable putting up the full buy-in on my own just screw it.  And $2700 to run bad and bust out is just not something I'm interested in right now.  It would be a great experience, but meh maybe next time.

That's about it right now.  I'm super happy summer is here.  It's great living a few blocks from the beach.  I'm looking forward to visiting home a week after the open is over.

-bag

Event #3 Recap (6/8/2011)

Buy in:  $450

Event:  Deep Stack No Limit Hold'em (Re-Entry).  100,000 Guaranteed.

Entries:  800ish

Finish:  200ish

Net:  -$450

Just finished up the deep stack re-entry today.  The only good news from a net-loss perspective is I didn't need to use a re-entry.  I ended up busting out well past the re-buy period around 200th after about 9 hours of play.  Started at 11:00 a.m, busted around 8 or 9 p.m.  My stack began to dwindle after I was situation dead for a while.  I lost a coinflip against a short-stack TT < AJo, all in pre.  That took my M to around 5ish where my only move was then to shove.  Two  hands later I picked up 88 and shoved all in from the CO over a late MP open.  He called and I couldn't have asked for a better situation, 88 < A8o all in pre.  That ended my day.  Two aces ran out to rub it in, ok I get it.

Anyways the tournament was a good experience.  I had fun and was happy with my play.  I enjoyed the change of pace.  I didn't feel at a skill disadvantage in comparison to any opponent encountered during the day.  Even the two better players (I noticed) made some pretty spewy plays in bigger situations.  Any player who accumulated a bigger stack pretty much luck-boxed a big situation to get them there.  Either a massive cooler, or a fish busting a stack into them obviously behind.

You had a lot of casual players open limping, even when the blinds got deeper and some b.s like that.  Lots of big fundamental mistakes.  Letting M's fall below 5 without making a move, defending with pathetic holding, and people calling 3-bets waaaay to light.  There wasn't any pure psycho spew-boxes.  The table was very tight a large percentage of the time, especially in the middle stages.  But then all of the sudden you would seem some dude take a heroic stand holding KTo getting 3-bet OOP, call.  Then commit all of his stack on a draw?  Uh ok? Where did that come from?

I never ran into a big situation to get myself in a position to build a lot of chips.  I was sort of hanging around all day, just working with what I was given.  I'd often steal a pot here and there to keep my M around 15-20.  But as the blinds increased I couldn't hold up in one meaningful situation.  I never gave up and fought hard.

I would consider throwing in a tournament into my schedule every once in a while.  I also want to keep studying MTTs.  It's just crazy how top-heavy the structures are.  I couldn't imagine playing tournaments for a living and losing 20+ in a row without a score, blows my mind how people do it.  I guess it's sort of hard to do that without online now.

So I was planning on playing the upcoming $450 tournament this Friday (standard structure).  Then perhaps the big-stack on the 15th.  After that It's the main event (6/19), which I'm still trying to get some money together to take a shot at.  I don't want to put more then 5% of my working roll in play at any time, so I would need some backing for the $2700 championship event.  I'm aiming to put up around 25% myself and get some backing from some family members.  Maybe I should just sell some stocks, not like they ever do shit anyways.

My cash games are going to take a hit this week, and my body is very confused by my current schedule.  It was extremely hard for me to get up and make the 11a.m tournament today.  I forced myself to wake up after 5 hours of sleep the night before so I would be tired Tuesday.  Tuesday night came around and I forced myself to go to bed at 12:30 a.m.  I woke up around 4:00 a.m starving and sweating (thanks for turning off the AC roommate).  I made something to eat and turned the AC back on, but I don't think I fell asleep again after that until 8:00 a.m.  So I am damn exhausted right now.

Schedule for the next few days:

Thursday:  Basketball, grilling with friends, having fun.

Friday:  $450 tournament event at 11a.m.  If I bust early I'm going to take a nap and play cash later.

Saturday: All Cash if I don't make it to day 2 (around 8 hours)

Sunday: All Cash (around 8 hours)

Monday:  Depends on how I feel, but at least a 4 hour session.

As always I question if the Friday even has enough value to bend my schedule around.  Probably not, but I made a commitment to play a few tournaments and I want to stick to that.  Also the brief change of pace is good I think.  Also practice is good if I stick to playing the main.  This has a similar blind structure.