Taking a 5/10 Shot (3/29/2012)

After almost two years of being incredibly disciplined and perhaps a little over conservative with my poker bankroll I've decided to take a shot at 5/10 starting tonight.

It's going to work like this....

My total poker bankroll is about 37k right now.

If I lose 7k I'll drop back to 2/5 with 30k and a 60 buy-in bankroll.  Either way I will pretty much be in the same situation as I am now.  This is a good time to do it because the higher games in Florida seem much softer.  A few factors have made me decide to take the shot now, rather than waiting 4-6 months to build a 100 buy-ins at 2/5.  It was a noble goal, but not really that logical.  I have the bankroll and the skill set (I think) to sit on higher games and win more money.  I'm only hurting myself being over-conservative following some random guideline to move up that I made over a year ago.  A few other things have sort of lit a fire under me to move up as well, which I will discuss later.  Anyways GL bag ... will update soon...

Solid Night in Florida (3/26/2012)

Just finished off a solid session tonight.  Up +$975 in 7 hours.  I was beginning to wonder if I would ever win again, this was a bit of a weight off my shoulders.  The games were incredible all night, and it's a Sunday.  This leads me to believe that maybe this trip wasn't a massive fuck up of a decision from a profitability standpoint.  If I can find a game like tonight for 30-35 additional hours while in Florida I could feasibily pay for this entire trip. 

I played solid tonight, I felt like I was close to A game for about 4 hours.  I'm looking forward to grinding more in South Florida and relaxing as well.

Will update soon!

-bag

In South Florida (3/25/2012)

Currently in South Florida at the moment. 

Decided to check out the games out here.  The change of pace is also very nice.  The last two days I've spent a good amount of time laying out in the sun each day.

My poker progress has reached a point of irrelevance since the beginning of this month.  I've struggled to get anything going the past week and a half.  It feels like a month since I've had a good session.  My net profit for the month is below 2k at this point.

My schedule is a little fucked up but I need to stay focused out here.  It's a 90% straight forward value game, keep it that way.  If it's not that way switch tables.  And don't make mistakes.  

Will update soon, it's tough playing on the road.  I hope this trip doesn't turn into a terrible financial decision.

-bag

March Updates (3/13/2012)

I've managed to quietly start off the month of March above average. 

I've played 60 hours up just over +3k.  I haven't had any real break-out sessions, but I have been close several times.  However, I'm playing well and just not making the mistakes right now.  I've lost 3 out of 8 sessions this month, but for VERY small amounts (-$110, 3 hours; -$50, 4 hours; -$165, 8 hours).  The 5 out of 8 wins have all been substantial (+$650, 4 hours; +$605, 18 hours [lol], +$1060, 9 hours; +$335, 8.5 hours; +$795, 5.5 hours).

I'd rather be logging steady grindy wins then having two ridiculous positive session paired with crazy swingy losses, it's less stressful. 

This current week I'm really not going to aim for a ton of hours.  Maybe 25ish?  I have friends visiting Wednesday-Thursday so those days are pretty much gone from the work schedule.  Also Tuesday is worthless, I normally take that day off.  My only definite plans this week are to log 8 hours on Friday and 8 hours on Saturday.  I feel like a slacker when I do under 30 hours in a week, but having one week with low volume won't kill me.

I'm also planning to go to Florida the weekend of the 23rd.  I should be there at least a week to close out this month.  Going with poker friends.  Definitely a business trip, I will be playing a lot.  But I'm also going to attempt to enjoy myself.  It's too cold around here, I need a fucking mental break from AC area.

Might update soon! 

-bag

Marathon Session (3/3/2012)

I just finished up the longest session I have ever played in my life.

The session started Friday 8:00 p.m.

The session ended Saturday 2:30 p.m

I officially called it about 18 hours.

I'm really not a marathoner.  My 2nd longest life-time live session was probably just under 11 hours.  I just have struggling staying focused and playing my best game after 8 hours.   And no matter how good the action is, it's usually still not worth it.  I'm generally an advocate of really trying to protect your schedule, it's very important to me.

Tonight was some sort of rare exception.  I happened to run into FISH-ZILLA who kept busting and reloading 1k.  He was probably the worst player I have encountered during well EVER.  I don't ever remember a player this bad.  Not only was he that bad, he was super deep and RELOADING 1K. 

I eventually reasoned that it was my duty to stay.  I would never find another game like this.  

Here are some brief notes on the mega-fish I encountered.

- Limp call A7o.  Flop Q 7 9, calls a 150 re-raise flop 3-way.

- flatting 20 opens with 27o

- flatted a huge 3-bet pre from a nit with KTo

-calling flop 3x re-raises with bottom pair no kicker.

- called a $200 river re-raise with bottom pair against the biggest nit on the table.

- The guy is too my immediate right, he continues to hold his cards up in the air.  Despite numerous pleas from the players around him to keep his cards down.

- BOARD  555 68 Just called a $300 river bet with a straight,  He beats nothing and is dumping $300 in on the river.

- Against unimaginative Asian nit of the universe BOARD 77 K 22, He pays off a $700 AI turn shove with a deuce.  Asian obviously has a 7.

I just can't make this guy up.  I didn't think anything like this could exist in the year 2012 AC area.

My personal night however was pretty disappointing from a result standpoint.  I finished up about $600 in 18 hours.  But with the notes above you can see why that's a disappointment.  I just seem to have my biggest card and situation dead stretches at the worst possible time in history.  I'm talking folding 92o for 5 hours straight.  I'm talking not a pocket pair in 3 hours.  No premiums, nothing.  Despite running like this I played mistake free fundamental poker for 18 hours straight so that is saying something.  After being a live pro for a while you will gladly take any profit over a buy-in even if it took over 15 hours.  Sometimes this is all the game will give you.

I stuck to my plan, I didn't leave until he did.  The guy eventually left around 2 p.m Saturday (down at least 6k).  He seemed very carefree and was probably had a good amount of money to spend.  A 1k reload seemed like taking a sip of water to him.  I watched nits get paid off thousands of dollars around me the entire night/morning.  All the while I sat there powerless.

This is horrible, but I didn't feel that bad for him.  Probably because I sat there an extra 9 hours mainly because of him and won a fractional amount from him.  He also didn't seem to be angered or saddened by the losses.  If I was up like 2k on him I might begin to feel a little bad.  Then again he is going to lose it anyways.

Here I am at 4p.m now, yet to sleep.  I obviously can't go to sleep now.  That would lead to me waking up around 2a.m and being like uh WTF now?  So I'm going to do whatever I can to tough it out and just go sleepless until evening.  I plan to go to bed around 10-11 p.m, sleep until 1 p.m (or until my body wakes naturally) and that should reset my schedule (hopefully).  I almost immediately went to another casino to play hours but I didn't have it in me.  The smallest amount of natural light hurts my eyes.  I need a shower, I need a shave.  I needed to chill at my house at least an hour and relax.

I might try to pump myself up for another 3 hours tonight but that just sounds like a horrific idea now that I'm typing it out.  I know better.  $600 in 18 hours isn't great considering the circumstances, but it's fine.  The last thing I need to do is play my C game and ship back everything I've won.  I still am up just over 1k in March, it's good to start with profit.  But i'll see how I feel.  I'm a little worried staying at home because I can't fall asleep.  I have to stay up to reset my schedule.  Maybe I can just set a bunch of alarms like a crazy person to make sure I don't doze off at home.

Anyways some lessons from the marathon:

Lesson one:  We learned how meaningless 20 hours of live poker really is.  Seriously it's just such a joke.  Take my night for example.  For 14 hours I sat with the worst player I have ever encountered and he was deep.  Ok I averaged $32 an hour during that stretch.

Lesson two:  You don't have to be skilled to a big winner in live poker.  You just have to be rock solid mistake free until your time comes.

Lesson three:  Your time may never come.  If you're expecting anything going into a live poker session you're setting yourself up for disappointment.  All you can do is play mistake free.

Lesson four:  Extending your session an extra hour or two too chase action is almost never worth the schedule ruin.  If you must do it don't actually expect anything.  It's a chase with no glory.

Lesson five:  There are stupid hot girls walking around the casinos on Saturday 8:00 a.m +.  GET THEM ALL WTF!

I can't say that session was particularly fun, I mean it was ok I guess.  It became more of a challenge of personal endurance, testing my limits, which was somewhat fun.  I also sat in amazement watching the whale spew thousands for much of the session, that was entertaining.  

I will probably never play a session that long again, but hell it was an experience.

-bag