quick brag: went to this place called cheeburger cheeburger today, and actually finished their 1 pound burger (it was 20z actually so over a pound). There for i got my picture taken and posted on their wall of fame.
On to the good stuff...
Anyways, this break has been absolutely fantastic, i have been having a blast. Hanging out with old friends every night, going out to bars/eating out cause we are all now of age and aren't broke, etc. etc. I took a 9 day trip to Breckenrige, Colorado to snowboard, and it was incredible. I don't think i have ever had more fun on a vacation. New years was really fun to, went to a club with some friends i worked with this summer (one visiting all the way from Vancouver), ordered a ton of bottles and got pretty hammered. Other memorable nights include ending up at Penthouse (a "high end" strip club... sadly i ended up here multiple times over break), eating at almost every single sushi establishment in St. Louis, etc... It seems like this winter break is the cross roads in a ton of peoples lives: people are graduating, getting real jobs, moving on to graduate schools etc. etc. Its has just been a great time talking and catching up with friends, seeing what they are up to and what they have planned for their future. Took a pretty long break from poker, so i've only logged 10k hands this month, so thats pretty refreshing after putting in a couple 40k hand months during the school year, because i was beginning to burn out...
I am really happy that i discovered poker, not only because of the money involved but the fact that i really enjoy the game. Before, I was pretty bored and unhappy with my life, I didn't really have that many good friends in college (and getting pretty sick at the friends that i did have), and I didn't really have any hobbies or activities that kept me entertained. I really want to thank everyone that has helped me progress from a huge donk playing 25NL... Ming who got me into poker in the first place, Craig who I sent a ton of hand histories to, Matt for coaching me when i was struggling to move up to 100NL a couple months ago, Doug for having confidence in my game and staking me even though i ran like ****, and everyone else on my AIM buddy list who i talk to about the game... its just really nice to have you all around. Reading 2+2 for hours a day at work (don't tell anyone i was doing this!), watching every single leggo video produced, reading and posting on every single hand history on SSNL forums for about 3 months straight (no idea how i racked up 3.5k posts on 2+2 in about 6 months). I can remember the day i made a 200 dollar deposit on FTP, and starting playing 10NL games with 10% rake thinking these games were impossible to beat not too long ago, and how much I have progressed since then is mind blowing to me.
On the 6th, ill be headed to Thailand for 4 months or so, living with other 2+2 SSNL/MSNL players. I am super super excited about this. I love to travel, and experience new cultures, but in addition i will be living with 4 other very good poker players and that will no doubt be +EV for my game. I have been talking to them a ton online and they seem like really nice guys and have really good poker minds. I feel really refreshed from my break from poker and am prepared to begin 2009 with new found motivation. Today i watched Greg's 1000NL video, and it was pretty amazing, the thought process on a ton of hands was totally different than how i would have approached them, not only on the level of thinking but the depth of thinking. I guess thats what separates me being a marginal winner at 2/4 from people like Greg, Aaron, Rob, Chewy, Straate, etc from making mind blowing amounts of money at high stakes, but it also gives me a goal/inspiration for improvement.
So some 2009 goals:
1. 1 million hands of NLHE - I guess this amounts to about 85k hands a month, and seeing as i have never played over 50k a month, it might be a challenge. But i think its very doable.
2. $250k profit. Pretty meh goal, don't really want to gauge my success in terms of money but, hey everyone is results oriented right? anyways, if i play an even number of hands between 1/2 and 2/4 given my current winrates at those stakes, it will have well surpassed that goal (so i guess its more dependent on getting hands in).
3. Get more involved with Leggo (help out more, post more in forums, blog more, etc.). I am a member of all the major training sites, and i honestly believe Leggo is the best by far for NLHE (and its not even close)... Unlike a site like DC that produces an some good FWF/Krantz videos along with a good video from BalugaWhale or MDM13 once in a while, every single one of the videos from Leggo i have gotten a ton out of. I can go on ranting about this forever, but i think its pretty clear that leggo is pretty sick and its a great community to be a part of.
4. Get through a ton of the reading/video material i want to get though. I made a huge list, but on the top of it is BobboFito's book i bought and haven't really read at all, maybe Slowhabit/CTS's book as well, along with a ton of well posts and bookmarked strat posts on 2+2. A ton of videos as well... I've just been putting them off and they have been adding up.
5. Keep up my routine of reviewing hand histories and posting a ton on hand histories. I think this is probably the easiest way to improve your game, reading hand histories and not only detailing your thought process on the "correct" line to take, but reading other peoples thoughts.
6. Exercise more, get into shape, have fun, meet new people, be happy. Also travel some more, and probably hit up Vegas at least once this summer.
7. Be beating 10/20 by the end of the year. Yeah... lets see how that goes.
Anyways, i hope everyone here has had a good new years and 2008, and best of luck to everyone in 2009
- Colorado was pretty sick, probably the best vacation i've had in a while. tons of pics on facebook, and i have some more videos that ill upload later.
- Me and some old friends decided to make a CAL dota team, so playing a bit more dota has been fun and relaxing.. (and we are doing well: http://caleague.com/?page=teams&teamid=190789)
- Haven't played poker in about 3 weeks, feel a little rusty. I'm going to start back up at 1/2 until i get my groove back then play some more 2/4. Still have a ton of videos i want to watch, and need to get through bobbo's book as well.
I'm like napping, and get a call from ming (another poker player who plays 100nl and 200nl on ftp), and we plan on going out for dinner. I don't have any clothing to wear, cause i have like 3 loads of laundry being done, i'm in like gym shorts and a hoodie and its like 30 degrees outside. Anyways, we go to this pho place (which happens to be one of my favorite foods ever), with his friend phil (another 2+2er) and an interesting prop bet discussion occurs about me eating 2 "jumbo" sized pho bowls in 25 minutes; ming offers $1000 that i can't, so i think thats easy monies for me in the future.
We meet up with craig (craigthedeac) at this place called barristers which is the place we would always go to after being downtown for cardinals games over the summer. Have 2-3 beers, meet up with some other people, etc, etc. Lisa, who i've sort of been fighting with all day, calls so i go outside and talk to her for a bit, and attempt to work some stuff out. After like 15 minutes, or so, everyone is walks out cause we are headed somewhere else, so i tell her i have to go and catch up with them. After 10 mins in the car, i realize i didn't go back inside to pay my tab or get my credit card back... ****.
We end up at this local brewery called shlafleys, which is pretty cool, drink some more beer and just sit around at talk for a bit. More of ming's friends show up and we end up deciding to go to 15 which is a pretty nice club. When we get there, Ming decides to drive through the cones that gate off the vip/valet parking area, pulls around and parks his car there. The valet runs out and is like "wtf, you can't do that" and Ming says something like "i know X person and Y person" and then its all good. So me and craig are at this fairly nice club, i have a zip up hoodie, and gym shorts, and craig has a hoodie and jeans, so we sort of feel like total *******s when everyone else there looks fairly decent. The club was pretty cool, although there were some weird people there including a group of middle aged women dancing, and the a guy just chillin outside with a pimp suit and a ridiculous hat. Anyways, its like 1am most of the people that we were with there start end up getting a table and ordering bottles (apparently they got a discount on bottles too, so a bottle of goose was only $150, not $170, lol), and we come up with the great idea of hitting up a strip clubs in east st. louis (probably one of the most dangerous cities in the united states).
Ming, Craig and I drive down there, and end up going to Penthouse, which is probably the nicest strip club there, go in and pay our cover, get some singles, etc. etc. There are girls at the door trying to sell us beer and we decline, she puts her arm around ming and attempts to induce a purchase, also claiming "the beer is colder here than it is at the bar". Ming make some comment like, "i think they are the same levels of coldness" and when we are walking away, she yells something to the effect of "****ing ******* ****s" (shucks, i forgot leggo had a censor, use your imagination). We go and sit down, and suddenly, in the center stage, one of the most horrific things i have ever witnessed, ever (especially at a strip club) occurred:
The announcer dude calls like 20 girls out, and then asks like 20 dudes to come out on to the stage for a large "orgy". He tells all the guys to give his respective girl a hug and then ship her 20 bucks... We all look at each other and think.. this has got to be a trap. Anyways, the "orgy" ends up consisting of the girls bending the guys over and ****ing them doggy style while the guys attempt to make fake orgasm. This goes on for a good 20 minutes... we are just sitting there horrified watching and listening to 20 dudes getting taking turns to get ****ed in the ass. It finally ends, and the girls come back... a girl gets up on our stage and ming decides to tell her that i'm getting married tomorrow, so i get a dance that includes getting hit in the face a couple of times by her nipple rings and ending with me getting pelvic thrusted in the face, with the image of 20 dudes getting ****ed still fresh in my mind... I guess there are some pretty good looking girls there, for being a (fairly) high end strip club, although i think i had more enjoyment watching some of the coked out girls crawl around naked scooping up 14 dollars of crumpled up singles. We stay for a while longer, and leave at like 3:30 am or so... drive back and and get stuck in the massive road construction.
I get home, play a couple of tables of 2/4 while watching Next! on MTV, make +$900, then pass out.
now i'm writing this long ass TR because i don't really want to go drive out to the first bar we went to to go pick up my credit card.
I really want to get through Bobbo's book this week, but ever since school ended, i have had no motivation to read anything
and i still can't decide: lady gaga, hot or trannylicious?
- my brother is now just as tall as me... and he is 14... wtf happened.
- found out my parents are going on a cruise, 26-30th.... house party???
- met with the father of the CEO of Sigma (a chemical supply company with its headquarters in stl), he offered me a job with really decent pay and i'm tempted to take it and tell med school to suck my ding dong (hopefully that bypasses the leggo profanity filter).
Poker update: +2k this month so far mostly at 1/2 and 2/4, still around 6.5k below all in ev. At least i'm not losing monies. Anyways, i am mainly grinding 1/2 now so i don't have to deal with as much variance (dropping 5k in a week kinda sucks). Won't post anymore depressing graphs.
Now to the fun stuff: end of school TR
Finished my last final Tuesday, done with school for good (at least undergrad for the time being)
After my final got out at 5:30ish pm, i drive home, almost spin off the road twice due to snow, and start drinking beer and decided to play a session of poker. 2 hours and -1k of epic run bad later, i get pissed and drink more. I find out that my hold'em manager won't import hands that get to the flop at all, and that tilts me even more cause i can't even look at hand histories. I start yelling a bunch, find a bottle of vodka in our freezer and start taking shots. At this point, i've probably had about 2-3 beers and about 3 shots of vodka. Oh and i find out i'm banned from 2+2 for apparently harassing someone, i don't even know what for. Its probably true though, the best way to control tilt is to berate others.
I get a call from a friend, and he try's to convince me to go to this Christmas sweater party where a bunch of annoying people were apparently wearing Christmas sweaters and drinking egg nog with a pinch of alcohol. I say something to the effect of "**** that, i'm going to the bars" and he quickly agrees. We go to the bar that my roommate works at, and i'm already falling asleep cause i had been up since 7:30 am that day, so i get 2 or 3 vodka/redbulls. I realize i'm hungry so I order the best steak on the menu (14oz ribeye) cause i'm baller like that... He comes back and tells me that he weighed out my steak and was too lazy to trim it so it ended up being an extra 10oz. Needless to say, 24oz of 2 inch think medium-rare meat was amazing, i went through 2 bottles of A1 sauce and it took me 45 minutes to eat. At this point, it was like 9:30pm already, and everyone else is just drinking at the bar sort of looking at me funny cause i am trying to down half a cow while keeping up with my friends who are doing shots, etc.
My friend Kevin, who is hammered by this time, decides to invent a drink, and names it after himself. Anyways this drink consists of Absolute Pear Vodka, Cranberry Juice, Sprite, and a packet of sugar. It surprisingly came out fairly well, so he decides to buy a shot of this drink for every girl at the bar. All the girls love it and asks who made the drink and I took credit because Kevin had left to go puke in the bathrooms. Next we do a round of soco, which is absolutely terrible after you just finished a 24oz steak + a side of pasta.... time goes on, an hour or so more at the bar and we decide to leave at around 12:30 to head to this sweater party.
I pull out of the bar, and almost skid off the road, and then suddenly i see cop lights flashing behind me. At this point, I am flipping out because, even though i was sober enough to drive (imo), there was an off chance that i had excessive alcohol in my system. Cop walks up, my windows are frozen shut, so i open my car door. He explains that I went straight in a right turn only lane, and i explain to him that its dark and the road is covered in snow so i can't see **** out of my windshield. He asks me have i been drinking and i play it cool, saying something like "yeah, 1 or 2 drinks a couple hours ago", and he notes that he can smell the alcohol in my car. He takes my drivers license, and insurance card (which was expired cause i forgot to replace it with my new card). At this point i'm freaking out. I quickly search for a pack of gum in my car and chug an entire bottle of water i had laying around while the cop was running my info. He comes back and says "ill let you kids off with a warning" and leaves. In retrospect, i was pretty much sober and could drive fine, and would have crushed a sobriety test, but i was still really freaked out.
I drive back to my house, and i'm still breathing heavily and in shock, I end up taking more shots to try to calm myself down, but only manage to start throwing up the steak i ate earlier. I can't recall everything, but there was dancing and celebration that we escaped the cops, for a while. I ended up dancing around in a circle, while puking every time i passed my sink, for about 4-5 rotations. We find some weed, and end up smoking a bunch and watched Chronicals of Narnia: Prince Caspian... which was really good baked. Everyone eventually passes out, and sit around drinking irish creme while watching LuckyChewy's new 2knl video before passing out.
took a couple days off from poker, played a session tonight +900ish in about 1k hands @ 2/4 with a couple of 1/2 tables. I usually start with some 1/2 tables cause there aren't that many good 2/4 games that i can get in quickly. Got pretty leveled on this hand:
River: ($228.00) K (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $100, BB raises to $295 all in, Hero calls $195
Final Pot: $818.00
BB shows 3 3 (three of a kind, Threes)
Hero mucks A A
BB wins $815.00
(Rake: $3.00)
The villain was a pretty decent reg, the river line confused the hell out of me. I figured my hand looked like AQ or JJ something to that nature, and all those hands would probably be checking back the river, while i would probably be bluffing missed draws, so when he shoves over me, i totally thought that it was a rebluff. Meh, i don't know if i should be raising at some point, or if his line was any good cause i guess the monies was going in anyways. GG though.
I was going to go out tonight, but i think my car is busto. It might be the cold, but i tried turning it on a couple of times and it won't start. Its not the battery cause my lights work, and the check engine light came on recently, so i'm not sure what to do.
I think i found a coach, although we haven't discussed anything specific yet, BalugaWhale has offered to coach me. I am actually pretty excited although it will be fairly expensive, I have heard pretty good things about him.
Anyways, ive only played about 6.5k hands this month, don't think ill make it to 30k unless i start grinding a ton the next 2 weeks, cause i don't really see myself playing much between Dec 15-Jan1
edit:
oh and brag: im featured on the new "hand readers" episode from deuces cracked made by terp and orange. Go check it out..
A
(3 players)
(three of a kind, Threes)