dropped 5bi @ 200 NL today in 2.5k hands, pretty much the most money i have ever lost in a 4 hour span. Its unbelieveable how bad I ran, got stacked 8 times all in pf with QQ+/AK. I didn't even run that much below all in ev, just the fact that my KK kept running into AA and my AK kept getting it in vs. KK...

Here's the hand that made me quit for the day:

Poker Stars $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

CO: $783.90
BTN: $209.85
Hero (SB): $206.30
BB: $200.00
UTG: $241.40
MP: $242.70

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is SB with 9 9
2 folds, CO calls $2, BTN raises to $10, Hero calls $9, BB raises to $30, 2 folds, Hero raises to $206.30 all in, BB calls $170 all in

Flop: ($412.00) 4 J K (2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($412.00) Q (2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($412.00) 8 (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $412.00
Hero shows 9 9 (a pair of Nines)
BB shows A A (a pair of Aces)
BB wins $409.00
(Rake: $3.00)

over 200 hands villian was 3betting 16% and 20% from the blinds in a super super super obvious squeeze spot i run into the very top of his range.

Just so frustrating, and i feel pretty bad too because a friend has 50% of my action at 200NL for this week and next week, and I know i can be beating these stakes. Taking a break, going to the bars.

P.S. I hope I do well in the leggo video contest, i watched the video i made for the first time, and I thought it was super good, but im probably biased.

Due to school, and me drinking every night (mainly me drinking every night), i only put in about 6k hands in the past week or so, but i'm up almost $1.5k so its all good. Had a +$550 session of 100NL for an hour today, and a pretty good session at 200NL. I'm at somewhere around 30k hands this month, hopefully i can get some work ethic starting tomorrow. Withdrew some money to pay for my snowboarding trip this winter and plane tickets this spring, so i guess that gives me more incentive to grind out some money, plus i'm like 900 VPPs away from clearing my stars bonus. So far i'm beating 200NL for like 5bb/100 over a pretty small sample though, although i don't even mind playing 100 right now cause the games are just so easy to beat. Hopefully i can put in enough hands over break to meet my goal of 50k hands this month, and after a pretty brutal downswing to begin the month, i'm back to +$3k ish.

I also deferred all my med school apps to next year, since i don't plan on actually starting in the fall. I think i'm going to need a better excuse than "played poker" to explain why I took a year off, so i might try finding a part time job working at some research position. My friend Ming who is also a poker player, is taking a year off and working at Pfizer doing research there, and i have interned there over the summer for 3 years, so i'm thinking i might try getting a part time job there starting this summer. I think its going to be a relief not having to fly around the country doing interviews this spring, considering i have already been accepted into 2 schools that i don't mind going to at all. I don't know how many people who read this are applying to med schools or planning on applying, but if you have any questions, shoot me a pm.

I started coaching some people, and its going pretty well so far. I have 3 guys that are playing mostly 50NL taking shots at 100 right now that have either gone on sick heaters since i started coaching them or i'm just that good of a coach. I think its more of the latter . Here is one:



i started doing sessions with him at around 10k hands. Anyways, if anyone is interested in coaching, shoot me a PM.

I set some goals for myself, that are pretty lofty, but i think very doable. By this time next year, i really want to be playing 5/10 and 10/20. I think its going to be tough, but i don't think i ever got anywhere by aiming low.

played a couple sessions of 200NL and decided to make it my regular game. I'm pretty confident in beating it.

Anyways, here was my 4 week run @ 100NL, i think i started playing it October 14th.

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/watc...ml?showVideo=1

trailer looks pretty sick, and i loved the graphic novel so i can't wait for this to come out.

The girl that plays Silk Spectre is the same girl from Entourage that E has a 3some with.... Sally Jupiter is going to be played by Amanda from Entourage.

Ill be:

In St. Louis Nov 26-30th for thanksgiving break. Pretty excited to see some old friends, and to hit up the casinos (1. No 500 dolla capped lost + 2. Slightly better at poker now + 3. ??? = Profit?).

Winter break ill be back in St. Louis the 17th, headed to Breckenridge, Colorado the 18th-26th. A bunch of my friends and I got a condo there, so we are going to snowboard all day and party all night. Its going to be amazing.

Pics:




Back to Stl the 27th, when my friend Emily is visiting from Vancouver, and she is staying until the 2nd. Gonna figure out some New Years plans, but i assume they will be pretty epic.

Jan. 7th, i'm headed to Thailand for 3 months, and getting a house with a bunch of SSNLers. Super excited, more details on this later. Just shipped the flight for $1.4k ouch... at least it gives me motivation to grind.

As for poker: I started this month super duper bad, around a 1.5k downswing in about a week... climbed back out of it. +$1200ish overall in 23000 hand so far. Got a 650 dollar bonus on stars as well today, so i'm pretty motivated to put in hands to clear that.

oh and **** the US government.

25k break even stretches are kind of disheartening. Someone teach me how to play JJ pf.

Got home from a long night of drinking, sat down at a 25NL deep table with the remainder of the money i had on ft. Woke up a hour ago, and don't remember this hand but just noticed the hand history on hem.

Full Tilt Poker $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BTN: $50.00
Hero (SB): $100.25
BB: $79.75
UTG: $39.40
MP: $61.50
CO: $85.15

Pre Flop: ($0.35) Hero is SB with 3 3
2 folds, CO raises to $0.70, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.60, 1 fold

Flop: ($1.65) T J 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($1.65) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets $1.65, CO calls $1.65

River: ($4.95) J (2 players)
Hero bets $97.90 all in, CO requests TIME, CO calls $82.80 all in

Final Pot: $170.55
Hero shows 3 3 (four of a kind, Threes)
CO mucks T 8
Hero wins $167.55
(Rake: $3.00)

Brag: shipped a 680bb pot while black out drunk.
Beat: still does not have enough money on ftp to play ftops
Variance: roommate is a bartender, shipped a nights worth of drinking for 3 people for 10 bucks, shipped him a 25 dollar tip, we both profit?

played about 6 hours in the past 24 hours - 3.2k hands +$1.1k. In the black for the month even though im still about 10bi below all in EV. Pretty nice.

I made a video for the leggo contest, that i thought was pretty good, but there were things that i probably could have done better, so i decided i wanted to remake it. I think i have a pretty good poker mind and a decent understanding of the game even though i'm only playing SSNL games, and I really think that my video is going to be really good. I hope the Leggo pros like it because it would be amazing to win this contest.

book a little less than a bi win today, ran 600 dollars below all in ev. I won't post cooler hands to bore you guys, but even though i can't win i still find poker more and more fun the better understanding i get...

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

BB: $25.35
UTG: $52.15
MP: $14.35
CO: $51.35
BTN: $103.05
Hero (SB): $159.25

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with J A
3 folds, BTN raises to $3, Hero calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($7.00) T A 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $4, Hero raises to $14, BTN raises to $35, Hero calls $21

Turn: ($77.00) 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

River: ($77.00) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Final Pot: $77.00
BTN mucks 5 4
Hero shows J A (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
Hero wins $74.00
(Rake: $3.00)

I thought this was a kind of a cool hand against an aggro reg with a bit of history. I've had position on him and pounded on him a bunch, mixing up stuff from floating, 3betting, raising cbets etc. I'm out of position here and he knows i can be 3betting light so i elect to call. Flop comes A high and super dry, so he is going to be cbetting this with all his range. I think the standard here is to c/c, but i elected to c/r here to induce because, 1. i know that he can't have much here and 2. he probably knows that i can rep very very little with this line. I think its kind of interesting how spewy decent players can get when they get played back at a lot.

down 1.2k in the past 7 days (11K hands) haven't booked a winning session in a while. running 600 dollars below all in ev and 75% of the rest is standard coolers (AK vs. KK, KK vs. AA ai pf). I think i'm playing really well to, and am starting to understand the game a lot better. Regs just seem bad and play their hands face up (as indicated in the hands im posting). Honestly i think im good enough to be beating 200NL pretty easy so it kind of sucks that i'm running so bad.

Hands:

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: $110.95
Hero (CO): $203.20
BTN: $50.90
SB: $101.85
BB: $126.35

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with A K
UTG raises to $4, Hero raises to $14, 3 folds, UTG calls $10

Flop: ($29.50) 2 T J (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($29.50) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $20, UTG raises to $96.95 all in, Hero calls $76.95

River: ($223.40) 4 (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $223.40
UTG shows A Q (high card Ace)
Hero shows A K (high card Ace - King kicker)
Hero wins $221.40
(Rake: $2.00)

I don't know if this is super standard for HSNL regs, but i thought it was pretty cool. Villian is pretty tight playing 18/12 over 110 hands. Its not a big enough sample to have me not 3bet AK here, but i can only assume that his utg opening range is going to be pretty tight, although i think AK is still ahead of it and i have position. When he flats, i think he has something like TT+ AQ+ here, although it could be a bit wider, given the fact that my table image is pretty bad, i still think an utg+1 3bet here gets decent respect.

Flop comes out drawy with a bunch of middling cards, and it gets checked to me. I don't see any value in betting cause i only really fold out worse cards and don't want to get c/r here. The lower part of his pp range now probably has a set and at best i fold out AQ which i am already crushing.

Turn comes, and he checks again. I can safely take strong made pair type hands/straights/etc out of his range here because he would lead this flop 100% of the time here. I think has to lead AJ/KJ here as well. Given this, it looks like he is just giving up so i bet 2/3rds pot hoping to take it down. He shoves over. At this point its pretty clear to me that he has a hand without much sd value but has some equity like a flush draw or a queen that knows i'm betting here with my entire range. At this point, i think his range is pretty much AQ cause AK w/ fd rarely gets here (he probably 4bets pre or leads turn with so much equity). Anyways, i ship and hold.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

SB: $151.00
Hero (BB): $100.00
UTG: $116.15
MP: $48.90
CO: $100.00
BTN: $118.55

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A J
1 fold, MP calls $1, 1 fold, BTN raises to $5, 1 fold, Hero calls $4, 1 fold

Flop: ($11.50) K 9 K (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($11.50) 7 (2 players)
Hero bets $8, BTN calls $8

River: ($27.50) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $26, BTN folds

Final Pot: $27.50
Hero wins $26.20
(Rake: $1.30)

here is one vs. 21/15 reg who cbets about 70% of the time. This might be pretty standard as well, but i see it a bunch. When he checks behind on the flop, he def has a hand with some SD value but never a king and never air. A king bets that 100% of the time to protect on a 2tone board with some straight draw potential, and that is the perfect board to cbet with air because i almost never hit it. Given this, i lead the turn with the intention of potting any river because its extremely hard for him to continue without a king here, additionally my line looks so much like a king. I assume his plan for the hand was to call turn fold river with his 9x hand or something like JJ/TT.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 No Limit Hold'em - 4 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

Hero (SB): $179.00
BB: $98.50
CO: $106.60
BTN: $159.90

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with Q K
1 fold, BTN raises to $3, Hero calls $2.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($7.00) 7 Q 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $5, Hero calls $5

Turn: ($17.00) A (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $10, Hero calls $10

River: ($37.00) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $28, Hero calls $28

Final Pot: $93.00
Hero shows Q K (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
BTN shows 8 T (a pair of Sevens)
Hero wins $91.00
(Rake: $2.00)

villan is playing 24/20 with af of 18 so he is super aggressive. his btn opening range is pretty wide, but i don't really see any value in 3betting because a. i would have to fold to a 4bet and i think he is capable of 4betting light here, and b. i think he is defending with a lot of his range ip cause im super aggro as well. Flop comes good for me and i c/c it. Hes betting that flop with his entire range, and i don't see any value in raising. There is a FD, but im not looking to stack of here. Turn comes an ace and i c/c again. I think he is betting this turn with his entire range again, cause its a great barrel card for him and can't really hit me unless im floating oop w/ Ax or have AQ here. River bricks and he bets 2/3rds pot, and i snap it. This might be pretty standard, but my rational was that if he has a qx hand or even an ace, i think he is checking back a lot of the time cause i can easily have a strong made hand here, and he doesn't really get value for much worse. I think AK/AQ bets here but thats about it... Same is true with all pocket pairs.... So at this point, i think he polarizes his range to 7x, QQ, AA, AK, AQ or a hand with no sd value here like a missed draw or just air that he was barreling. His made hand range is extremely unlikely due to card removal there aren't many of those cards in his range. Additionally, his river bet sizing is slightly bigger than i expected, so it seems like he was specifically trying to fold out weak 1 pair hands. If he was looking for value from these hands he would have probably bet half pot or ghey bet so i would be getting good odds to look him up. All this made for a pretty easy call, even though i had what was probably the top of my range at that point, id be calling this river bet with any pp as well.


Anyways, i thought those hands were kind of cool. im going to play some more today, hopefully i can not drop my entire roll this month and have to get a stake.