Thursday Night Live Uncut (10/29/2010)

Live on a 1-2 table here.  HEY EVERYONE HERE IS HOW THE FUCKING 70 YEAR OLD+ PLAYS AA:

50 year old dude limps from UTG+2 preflop.  MP raises to $7 and there are two callers. 

I stare down at pocket QQ and 3 bet to $21.  The original limper calls and the others bail out.

FLOP:  8h 5h 3d

I raise about 3/4 of the pot to $40.  The fossil calls $40.

TURN.  10s

I put him all in for $107. 

He automatically calls and I know I'm fucked.  The way he called the $100 you would think the mother fucker was holding two jokers.  Did he just catch a set of fucking tens for real?

He of course turns over AA, you mother fucking son of a bitch.

So AA.  LIMP CALL. CALL. CALL FUCKING MORON there goes a +$350 night.  At this point I'm imagining a scenario where I'm jumping this dude as soon as he shows up for his early bird special at Dennys, all the while dressed up as a giant black ace.  That sounds racist ok RED ACE.  Anyways, cheers to what our taxes go towards to pay for this idots social security money.  Have fun dying in a year you impotent bastard.  I'm back to break even for the second half of my 12:40 a.m+ session.  At least I won +$220 early.  I'm being a dick and not actually this mad, but I really am.  Fuck you for real.  Ok I take the part back about you dying in a year.  But seriously shouldn't you be doing something else?  Go lay on beach somewhere.  Visit your fucking grand kids or something you son of a bitch.  GO TO DENNY'S NOW IT'S 4:00 A.M.  Whatever.  It's a shame I had no history on the guy so I couldn't put him on playing AA so stupidly.  But rest assured that's the last pot he ever drags off of me while getting in with the best of it.  It takes some moronic bull-shit for me to pay someone off like that holding a pair of queens on a 1-2 table, but this guy found a way.  CHEERS!

5 minutes later the tool-box who's been sitting at a 1-2 table for 3 horus hovering around $20 goes all in for $16 preflop.  Everyone folds and he shows AA.

Next hand he's all in again for $22.  I call from MP with JJ.  Fucker turns over AA, he just got dealt rockets twice in a row.  SAY WHAT DAWG?  I don't improve and if this was online I'm about to implode at this point.  I actually did just implode in my head, I am mind-fucked in disbelief. But not enough hands are dealt per minute for it to have any impact on my hourly win-rate.  Yes I have an hourly WIN-RATE on 1-2 live, but you wouldn't know it from reading this post I know.

ANYWAYS I'M THE FUCKING AA MAGNET.  What the fuck is going on here???  Play JJ+ and auto run into AA on a live 1-2 table lmao.  Now offically down $6 on this 12:40 a.m session.

Trying to stay cool, there is nothing I can do on the two hands where opponents were dealt AA.  Stay disciplined, the laws of probability have not been your friend this evening.  For that matter, the laws of probability should be arrested and jailed for raping me.

It's now 3:45 a.m

I will call it quits in about an hour after I run my JJ+ into AA on a live fucking 1-2 table 6 more times.  I should log this at about 5:40 a.m.  That would be 5 hours for the 2nd session, but I can chase if there is some reasonable action.  My schedule is comparable to that of a vampire, I've trained myself to chase action until 7:00 a.m if it is profitable to do so.

ACTUALLY, I'm worse than a vampire.  At least vampires go to bed at sunrise, but I don't.  I have no limits, no structure.  A vampire wouldn't even fucking date me for that matter, I stay up to damn late.  The vampire would be all like:

"I have to UH go to bed, the uh sun is going to rise soon...."

and "Jesus chrsit you run into AA a lot.  Are you seriously losing a 1-2 live session?  And you're a pro poker player?  This relationship is OVER!  You here me you BAG LIFE MOTHER FUCKER?????? OVER!!!"

Meanwhile, the dude in seat 6 just ordered a red wine at 4:10 a.m.  The waitress said she couldn't get him a glass of red until 5:00 a.m because of some sort of change-over.  You should see the look on his face.  You would think that someone just murdered his first born child in front of him or something.

WHAT KIND OF GOD DAMN DEGENERATE NEEDS WINE THIS DESPERATELY AT 4:00 A.M???

But who am I to judge I can't even get a fucking vampire to date me, our schedules don't match.  What the fuck is wrong with me?

Meanwhile, the guy who was just dealt AA for the 2nd hand in a row to obliterate my JJ just showed down AA for the 4th time in the span of an hour.  He's now up to $200+.  I'm not exaggerating I swear to you.  This dude actually got dealt rockets for the 4th time in under an hour on a live 1-2 table.  As crazy as that is, it's also pretty unusual that he hasn't been cracked one time.  Sickest thing I've seen in a while.  I'd own a fucking castle by now if I got dealt cards like that.  I'm about to shake down his girlfriend and empty her purse.  I bet you 50 ace-cards would fall out of that fucking purse.

It soon approaches 5:40 a.m and I finally leave the table.

8:00 p.m- 12:00 a.m :  +$230 in 4 hours

12:40 a.m- 5:40 a.m:  +$23 in 5 hours (fuck you) 

Whatever, I'll take it.  I feel like I just got my head beat in with a baseball bat during that 12:40 a.m- 5:40 a.m session, but I actually didn't lose any money.  Hell I won some money.  And I still stayed disciplined and played mistake free.  Sometimes half the battle is NOT LOSING.  Sometimes the laws of probability will mess with your profits.  Ok I mean there will be MANY TIMES where the laws of probability royally fuck with any chance you had of profiting during your session.  But you can't change that, all you can do is keep disciplined and make the correct decision during every single hand.  But hell I had fun tonight and even met some interesting people.  The last 5 hour stretch was tough, but I'll take it over corporate slavery any day.

It's now 6:45 a.m as I'm typing this at my place and both my roommates are awake and going to work.  LOL @ my awesome train-wreck life.  I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, I'm loving it.  I wouldn't even trade it for a vampire who is rebellious enough to date me.  Remember that would have to be one REALLY rebellious vampire if they were actually willing to stay up past sunrise.  She could accidently step outside and light on fire or something.  Yeah she should probably just date someone else.........

-bag

Excellent Week So Far (10/28/2010)

During the past year or so I haven't had many exciting results online to post about.  However this week has been one hell of a bright-spot.  I feel things are coming together, I'm very confident, and I think my game has improved a lot. 

Online this week:

Hours:  27

Hands:  12,999 (not rounding to the unlucky 13k)

Net Profit:  $750.00

SN Bonus Cleared:  +$1500.00

Total:  +$2,250

These are some solid results for me.  I'm only buying in $50 online, so I won 15 buy-ins in 27 hours during the week so far.  Still a nice profit despite running KK into AA 50 times.  The big question mark for me was going to be: what do I do Monday-Wednesday?  Do I play live?  Or am I better off online?  Based on the results this week I think I'm much better off playing online Monday-Wednesday.  I'm going to stick to that gameplan during the upcoming months.  I want to keep improving and hopefully get myself in a position next year where I can make a huge push to rack up some nice money online.

The results above are not realistic with the bonus.  The bonus took me a while to clear, I just happened to clear it off during this week.  However, going forward I want to strive to at least average +$500 per week online Monday-Wednesday each week.  I think it's a very attainable goal.  That's 8 buy-ins per 25 hours or so.  Even averaging +$250 online per week would be managable.  I'd just be hanging around until another huge bonus clears.

Tonight and Weekend

I'm going to check out the live poker scene in AC tonight (as soon as I'm done this post).  It should be interesting because I'm really not sure what the traffic is like on a Thursday night.  If it's dead I will return to the online grind, no worries. 

Tommorow I'm going out with my new roommates which should be very fun.  I was reluctant to go out because Friday live has been my most profitable live poker night on average during the last two months.  The action is just always crazy, much better than Saturday night for that matter.  I'm still trying to figure out if this is just a fluke, or coincidence on a small sample size.  I'm guessing the action really can't be THAT much different on average between Friday and Saturday night.  Perhaps I've just been lucky on Fridays and unlucky on Saturdays.  But since I've done my thing online this week I can go out one night without pressure and have fun.  I've been looking forward to going out with my new roommates anyways.  I also haven't had a drink in just over a month, which is a very long time for me.  Besides I've already made a lot of money and accomplished a lot this month, so I'll consider Friday my month end celebration.

I should just make sure I don't get so messed that I'm hungover all of Saturday and can't play well that night.  Also trying to not meet a girl because she could ruin my life, no good will come out of that.  NO RUSSIANS.  So that's about it.  Off to the tables, if they suck I'll be back in my room REEEEEEEEEL SOON.

-bag

Offically Grinding Full-Time (10/27/2010)

So the move is now finalized and everything is going good.  I really think I’m in an ideal situation.  I’ve been working hard to get myself in this position for the past year or so.  My new city is great.  Nice gym and grocery store within a mile.  Also live casinos five minutes away.  I woke up around 1-2 p.m every day this week and it feels incredible natural.  I wake up when I want, I work when I want, and I play when I want.  I’m my own man again.

The first half of this week I’ve been playing a lot online.  I played 17 hours Monday-Tuesday and was up just over $400.  Also tonight I will clear the first Supernova $1500 bonus.  Going forward the next month I’m probably going to stick to playing online from Monday-Wednesday.  Then Thursday-Sunday I will go live as much as possible.  I think this will be a good change of pace and will keep me improving at the same time.  I realize how important it is to keep getting better online.

When I was walking around a casino at 5a.m on Monday morning I realized you see some of the same regulars just glued to certain tables, even if they aren’t profitable.  I don’t ever want 30+ years old and having to rely on that.  Hell, I don’t want to be 26 years old having to rely on that.  Why rot on an unprofitable table when you could be hand selecting 8+ tables at once online?  The answer is these guys know nothing else, and they really aren’t capable of anything else.   

Online Ramblings

I feel like I’m playing good poker right now.  Without the burden of a 9-5 miserable job I think my head is much clearer.  I have time to focus completely on sessions and I feel it’s making a huge difference.  I’ve won 4 out of the last 5 three hour+ sessions and could add another table based on the guidelines I set for myself.  However, I don’t want to do that at this time.  I’ll stick to 8 tables max for the time being.  One of the things I have to work on is typing shit in the chat box when things aren’t going my way.  So I’ve opened a word document that I will type any negative thoughts in during tonight’s sessions.  I’ve decided that if I type one stupid thing in the chat box I will punish myself my disabling my chat indefinitely.  Keep it on the word sheet, no one fucking cares.

Well I’m going to cut this post short right now.  Hoping to get in another 8 hours online tonight.  If I get really frustrated and things aren’t going well I could always go live, which is a great option to have.



Nice Weekend and Updates (10/20/2010)

Sometimes when I have a lot on my mind I don’t post as much.  This is interesting because you would think this would cause me to post more, but not always the case.  It’s sort of like a traffic jam in my head.  There is so much going on at once that I don’t even know which part to write about.

So I’ll just start with this weekend: 

+$945 in 19 hours.

I can’t complain about the hourly rate here.  The sick thing is it could have been a lot more.  +$800 of my profit came in the span of 5 hours.  That’s how a lot of my weekend sessions have been going.  I’ll be playing well, but end up getting clubbed by a huge suck-out every 5 hours or so, which sets me back, but I’m usually still up something.  As I scrape by and do everything I can to put myself in the best positions, a huge session eventually materializes and I finally go on a run.   I’ll start by discussing the best and worst hand from a profit and loss standpoint:

Best Hand.

Time:  Around 3:00 a.m Friday (well technically Saturday morning).

Location:  Live AC

I’m dealt 66 on the button.  The UTG player opens $8.  He is a nit weak-tight regular perhaps in his early 50s.  I’ve played with him before, but have not been involved with a decent pot with him tonight.  He is actually one of the better players at the table even know he is horrible (the table is just that bad).  I’m immediately putting him on JJ+ or AK here.  Three people call including myself.  Nit and myself are both big-stacks right now so it’s a perfect set-mine opportunity for me.  Not that I would ever hit a set, but I do realize the opportunity is quite attractive.  Not like 25 year old Russian who works up stairs attractive, but attractive nonetheless.  The pot size is about $35 at the conclusion of the pre-flop action.

Flop:

2d 3s 6d

The villain is first to act makes a standard weak-tight raise to $10 representing a “huge hand”.  I re-raise about $40 with top set making it $50 total.

The guy then RE-RAISES me $50 more to $100 total.

HOLY SHIT.  This has just turned into a massive pot.  As automatic is it might seem to a reader here, this is not an automatic shove based on the limits and my stack size.  I thought about this at least a few minutes.  I wasn’t trying to Hollywood him (I have better things to do), I wanted to put him on a hand as accurately as possible.  I’m scared of 45 here, but based on the villain history there is absolutely no way in hell that he has a 45.  He doesn’t have the ability to raise 45 here UTG pre-flop it’s not in his range.  Then that thought creeps into my head like a rat scurrying across the back of a dark alley:  WHAT IF HE HAS 45?  What if it’s some sort of range balancing play.  However, that thought is quick and ridiculous so I soon dispel it.  Did I bring up the concepts of range and balancing in the same sentence with this guy?  As in maybe:

A)  He consiously realized that the combinations of hands you choose to play can be summarized as a range.

B)  He somehow out of nowhere grasped the understanding that his range is very tight and he should work to expand this range.

C)  He also miraculously figured out in the same moment that expanding pre-flop opens with the likes of low suited-connectors on occasion would not only be wise, but ideal for trickery.

D)  That the letters A-C mentioned by baglife above are important.  Therefore, he jumped into action, and opened pre-flop with 45 THIS HAND, after showing no past evidence of even thinking about making such a play. 

HOLD ON HOLD THE HELL ON.  Let’s be serious here.  Giving him credit for being capable of A-D above?  I might as well try to teach calculus to an infant while im at it, sure it could happen right?  While I’m at it, I should also go ahead and just date the Russian girl with a kid who works upstairs, that could work out also right?  And since we are on the subject, I’ll just assume I can also logically explain to my parents that success in poker has a direct correlation to skill, rather than luck.

There just isn’t anyway he has 45.  This guy literally only plays TT+, AJ+.  This is not in his range.  No way in hell he goes from open raising TT+ AK UTG to mixing in “range balancing” play with a hand like 45s.  So what does he have?  I don’t even think 22 or 33 is possible because he raised UTG pre-flop which again means huge starting hand strength for this guy.  Worst case scenario for me I think maybe he could have AdKd.  Even then I would be shocked because I think he would call this hand based on his playing ability.  However, his re-raise could very well mean “un-sure” here.  Yeah it’s a big raise for him, but why not push me all in with AKs and try to fold me out?  The answer: because he doesn’t have a lower set, he doesn’t have a draw of any kind, and he damn sure doesn’t have a straight.

While I was analyzing the situation I said something that in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have:

“I don’t think you have 45, there is no way”

After thinking a few minutes I pushed my entire $250 remaining stack all in.  The action was now on him, he needed to call $200 to play on.  The pot already about $435.  If he calls the pot will become $635+.

He begins his very long thought process.  He is talking a lot out loud.  At one point in his illogical rambling he says something that is rather accurate.  He says: “You’re telling me you have the set.  You said you don’t think I have 4-5”.

I don’t say a word, but I think to myself:  “GOOD JOB yes it’s a fucking set.  What the fuck else could I possibly be pushing my entire stack here with after calling you pre-flop from the button?  Good you figured it out now fold.  I am THRILLED to take a fold here.  There is no way I want you catching your ridiculous 2-out hand on me.  FOLD GO AHEAD.  I’m more than happy with a fold”.

Eventually he literally stands up and screams:  “I CALL”

I’m thinking to myself:  “Oh holy fucking shit”

I smoothly turn over 66, as he slams down his hilarious doomed POCKET ACES with great force.  Expected, but I’m still nervous.  There is a shit-load of money in this pot.  I don’t want him to catch a two-outer on me.  I’ve seen it happen before.  If one person in the universe is going to lose this situation it’s going to be me.

Turn TREY (3h).  Great card, now I only have to dodge the wretched river.  Even if he would have had a flush draw he would have been drawing dead by now I think to myself.  RIVER:

BLANK

I don’t even remember what the actual river card was, I just know it wasn’t an ace.  And that was that.  +$650 pot.  I’m not sure on the exact pot size because I’m remembering all of this from a week ago, but it was a huge pot.  It could have been over $750.  I can’t for the life of me understand why he made that final call.  How in the world did he convince himself that he could have been ahead here?  I just don’t get it.  Then again when you play 5% of your hands I guess you have to make a move sometime, even if you are completely screwed.

Anyways that was the good hand.  And that story took a while to write so I don’t feel like posting the bad hand.  Basically the bad hand was a huge pot with AK, where I held top pair ace, king kicker after intense action pre.  He turned the five to complete his miracle set.  This was a -$350 pot.  However, I regrouped and came back strong Saturday to recover all of my losses and even a profit.  I also learned two valuable lessons from that particular hand:

1)  Don’t ever get greedy.  My slightly less than half the pot size bet on the flop was too low, just under half the pot.  Maybe if I bet 3/4s to pot-size on the flop he would have folded.  Then again maybe he would not have (He did already call $40 pre-flop with 55 and my decent flop bet).  The point remains:  take down the decent pot and don’t get greedy.  I was disappointed with the way I played this hand.  Really looking back it was the only thing I’ve done in the last two months live where I can say “I made a mistake there”.  Seems like a small mistake, but to me it was huge, that bet should have been a minimum 3/4s of the pot.  Take it the fuck down.  My intentions were somewhat justified, I put him on shit, so I made a bet that would string him along and get him completely pot commited.  Still somewhat greedy.

2)  I CAN NEVER EVER EVER EVER SIT THERE WITH A SHORT-STACK, NOT EVEN FOR 6 HANDS.  After I lost the pot with AK I had $50 left on the table.  I was really quite rattled and angry, especially since the moron stood up and screamed when he turned over his hand revealing he hit one of his two stupid outs.  Therefore, I decided to leave the $50 on the table without stacking up to $150 and see 6 hands for free until the blinds hit me.  Then I was breaking for dinner since it was the 5 hour mark anyways.  HUGE MISTAKE.  One of the hands I was dealt 66, I had to fold pre-flop because I had no odds to mine.  I would have flopped a set.  Then another hand I had to fold out 99.  I WOULD HAVE FLOPPED A TOP SET WITH THE 99, and there was big action.  WHAT JUST HAPPENED?  I would have made everything back that I just lost plus profit in literally 7 hands.  There is no reason for me to ever be short-stacked on these tables.  I don’t ever go on tilt and play my hands incorrectly, that’s not me.  I just get angry for a hand or two, but it doesn’t affect my ability to play.

Well at least I learned something from the big lost pot. 

Progress.

I’ve now cleared over $3,300 playing 1-2 during the last 80 hours ($41.25 per hour).  It’s a small sample size, but a good start.  Really I think it could have gone even better, I guess it always could.  I’m looking forward to logging around 300 hours of live play during the next few months and seeing what the results look like.  I’m a lurker in the online poker community and I understand that most online pros would bet their bankrolls that my type of results are not obtainable.  That may be, but I think $30 per hour on 1-2 is attainable for me personally even starting out.  Sure if you just walked into a casino and sat on any table it would not be. 

I’d rather not get into a win-rate debate, it's usually completely pointless to assign generic win-rates to specific limits, there are just so many factors that people don't think about.  I’ll just keep destroying the games I play and keep doing my thing.  I’ll let my results speak the truth.  I don’t put results up anywhere (with the exception of this blog).  I’d rather no one knows who I am or that I’m even playing poker full time, but that’s just me.  I like to be extremely low-key about what I’m doing.  So it’s not like I have anything to prove to anyone but myself.

I will say table selection has been a huge part of my win-rate during the last 80 hours of live play.  I know exactly when a table is not worth it I often leave in 30 minutes or an hour (or even less).  Here are the three skills (in no particular order of importance) that I think will continue to be the most important as I progress from 1-2 to 2-5:

1)  Table Selection

2)  Fundamentals

3)  Discipline

That’s about all I have for now.  This weekend my volume might be limited because I have to move a ton of stuff to the new place, set up a network, etc, etc, blah, blah, lame.  Oh three days of corporate left including today.  Actually almost 2.5 days now.  I will miss nothing about this place.  Even if I went broke playing poker and end up having live in a box outside I would still miss NOTHING about this place.  I’m joking about the going broke part of course.  My risk of ruin is fractional and I have back-up plans.

-bag

Weekend Updates (10/13/2010)

I’ve been meaning to put a quick post up here the last few days, but I’ve been so damn busy.  Also, my schedule is always super messed up since I’ve been grinding live all weekend and back to corporate during the week.  So Saturday night I go to bed at about 6:00 a.m.  Sunday I fall asleep around 2:00, then I have to wake Monday at 7:00 a.m.  I can’t wait for this sort of schedule to be over.  Only 7 days of corporate left, then I’m pretty much playing full-time. 

The past weekend was a hell of a grind.  I put in 27 hours for a +$650 profit.  I really felt things went terribly on the tables.  I just put in enough volume and took enough moderate sized pots down to balance things out.  I took two massive suck-outs which I can think of off the top of my head.  I’ll discuss the stupider one just to give an idea of how bad these tables are.  Let’s just say I got hammered by a 50 year old women lmao:

Location:  Atlantic City.

Time:  Around 4p.m Sunday.

Stakes:  1-2 NL live.

Villian:  Older lady.  Probably in her 50s or 60s.

Mood:  Mind-blown.

I am in the small blind and look down at pocket eights (8h8s).  This is a relatively loose table with some decent action.  I was just thinking about how I literally haven’t flopped a set in the last 20 hours of live play.  WTF is going on?  I in no way expect to flop a set here, but nice hand regardless. 

So a player opens a standard $10 from EP.  One other player calls.  Also The passive semi-loose old lady CALLS from the cut-off.  I call from the SB knowing the hand only has set-mine value at this point, and the BB also calls.  I have about $150 left behind me.  So we have a 5 way pot.  Flop comes:

3d, 5d, 8c

Holy SHIT.  I’m first to act and CHECK, because I know one or more of these tools are raising.  Sure enough the initial raiser leads out $20.  The old lady then unexpectedly raises to $60.  This was shocking, WTF does she have?  This is not the type of player who would shove all in on a draw.  I’m putting her on a set of 3’s or a set of 5’s.  I can’t see what else she would be making such a move with, but I have a feeling whatever she shows will be incredibly stupid.  With the action on me I take some time and then calmly announce that I’m all in.  The original raiser folds and the old lady calls covers me and calls about $90 more.

“Do you have a draw?” 

She shakes her head and I can tell she does not have a draw and is therefore in HUGE trouble.  Finally looks like I’m going to flop a set and win a decent pot without much effort.  This never happens!

TURN:  Jd

RIVER:  As

BOARD: (3d, 5d, 8c, Jd, As)

The bitch turns over AA for the fucking miracle set on the river.  Un-fucking believable she just called pre-flop in a multi-way pot from the cut-off with rockets.  I soon calm down in another hand or two.  I remind myself that idiots like this are paying for my living so whatever.  Keep the stupid plays coming, there was nothing I could do there obviously.

There was another really bad beat I took when a big stack called my big 3-bet pre with 46s and flopped trip 4’s against my AA.  No I could not catch a two out on the river.  That was another $300 pot that should have been mine.

So yeah that’s about it.  I felt things went really bad, but I still found a way to grind an acceptable hourly rate.  I have a somewhat funny story where I hit on a Russian girl who was working at the casino I played at.  It took me three weeks to actually to build up the courage to hit on this girl bone-dry sober (I haven't been drinking).  Around 1:50 a.m on Friday I took a break from my table and I introduced myself.  I timed it right when I knew they were closing in 5 minutes.  I don't remember the exact conversation, but I basically just said "hey can I talk to you a second".  And she was like yeah.  So I said I'd be right outside.  When she came out it was something like I noticed her, have been playing at the casino a lot, and just wanted to introduce myself.

I was very proud of myself.  Turns out she was 25 and has a kid FML.  Just kidding she's SO MY TYPE. 

WE ARE THE SAME AGE, WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON AM-I-RIGHT? 

Anyways, at least she was flattered and nice.  Maybe next week I can get her number.  Can never have enough drop dead gorgeous 25-year olds with kids saved in your phone....

So I'll probably be back in AC this upcoming weekend.  It feels good to make double my pay for a few weeks.  It will make me that much more comfortable leaving the day job.  I've been somewhat obessesed with establishing a nice hourly rate and feeling out the scene.  Will try to update soon.  I haven't been posting so much because I haven't brought a computer and equipment up to my new place yet.  There will be much to post about during the next few months..

-bag