So today was my second winning day since October.

Got 3rd in the Stars 100r for 6K, 2nd in the FT 6max 30K Gtd for $5K, and made a couple of other random final tables before fizzling out in 8th/9th.

I really needed it as my confidence has been shot lately and I've been sweating cards a bit too hard - my heart couldn't take it anymore.

I have started running alright at PLO too, plus I think my game is improving a lot as well.

There are a lot of parallels with tournaments really - in both it seems initially like there's a lot of splashing around and gambooling to be done, but in reality once you're comfortable with the fact that there is going to be a lot of variance that you are powerless towards, once you knuckle down and start respecting each game, you realise that the very small mathematical edges (through things like making optimal bet sizes) are what drive your profit.

Well, that plus very few people are exceptionally good at either, because both games turn you a little bit insane.

I think that far more than in NLHE, at least traditionally, you need to be good at math to excel at both PLO and MTT...

In NLHE feel is very important as stacks are deep and no-one ever has anything... it's ok to make small mistakes if you outplay your opponents into making big ones (obviously this is becoming less and less true, but is still comparatively true).

PLO and MTTs are all about small mistakes, capitalising on small mistakes over and over.

I always seem to do well at tournaments on "off days"... days where the prize pools are smaller but most of the regulars are not around.

I think it has always been a constant for me in poker - it's not like I can't hold my own against other regulars or anything, but...

I am definitely exceptionally good at raping fish and have always been... and I think I tend to play a style which optimises value from bad players at the expense of sometimes donating to thinking players if I am unaware that they are thinking.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying poker at the moment, and looking forward to next year.

SEABEAST

Hello all, its been a while since i wrote a blog, not that many people read it, but the reason for this blog is for me to relieve myself and perhaps remember who i am if i were to ever make it to the nosebleeds. this semester went pretty well, i have not gotten my grades yet, but i managed to get an A+ in Macroeconomics, first A+ ever. i am finding accounting much easier than what i was doing earlier(pharmacy) thank god i changed it, i am actually becoming interested in school again, ask for poker i have not played much lately, i did deposit about 200$ and busted it, i immediatley took it to 1-2 with 2 shots of 100$, lol bad br management i know. but i just deposited 200$ today, lets see where that takes me. i will also look to play on Full tilt poker, as their software is real good and i can analyze my play much easier and look at my stats and maybe plug my leaks. My goal during this break, does it seem realistic? maybe not, have i done it before, Yes, so hopefully i can run good and make some money, i am really looking to do some fun stuff this summer and rise to the top as far as poker is concerned.

CHRONICFEVER

I'm officially wrapping this year up, zero play until probably the second week of January. So since I can't sleep for thinking of what next year has in store, I'm going to write down some of my goals for 09. No pretty 08 graph since I have dbs on different computers all over the place, although looking back at last years poker goals:

Play 250,000+ hands of NLHE 6max or full ring
Make 200k+ vpps
Beat my 07 tournament leaderboard score of 7325.85
Cash in an mtt for 5 figures ($)
Make $100,000+ total profit
Start coaching (I have decided to put the mentor thing on hold because I have too much stuff to do with poker, uni and marathon, but there is a chance I will do it in after I finish uni).

I achieved all of these and then some (lol at tlb thing). I'm setting some pretty lofty targets for 09:

Play 1mill+ hands of NLHE 6max of hu
Achieve SNE status on stars
Don't play above 5/10 for the first 3 months of the year
Don't play PLO for the first 3 months of the year
Don't play an mtt for the first 3 months of the year
Make money money make money money.

Other goals:

Grind schedule that includes getting up before midday every day, an afternoon session of around 2hrs and a night session of 4-6hrs. (will be more specific with this when I decide on it)
Do more running and go to the gym at least twice a week.
Lose 2st by June (currently at 13 1/2)
Cut down on drinking (most people who know me irl will lol when they read this but I am DEADLY srs mkay)
Find a place to live in July/August, must fall under the very specific category of 'balla' and be in a kickass location. Prob be a medium-large city; currently Leeds at the top of the order although I'm open to ideas to live basically anywhere in the world. If anyone is doing a similar thing and you are a cool guy like me let me know; I already have one poker buddy penciled in, thinking 3-5 would be ideal.

Soooo I think that is all for now, if I think of anything else I'l edit it in between now and the new year. I have some degree work to do for mid january which I'm making some progress with atm albeit slow. The plan is to not play a single hand of poker until I get it done. If anyone sees me playing on stars (I have search activated) between now and the time I mention in my blog I have finished the work I will xfer $1000 to the first person to ship a hh to the comments.

There is one exception to this. I am now making vids for leggo and if I have to get some done in this time frame then the shippage will be waived to allow for me to complete my duties as a leggo pro.

Since I won't be playing I will prob not update till the new year.

I hope you all enjoy my first video and have a great christmas and new year!

Seasons greetings,
Rob.

Patonius2000

I was on fire last night. I won about 6 buy-ins in a relatively small number hands. It was really one of those situations where I was flopping sets way more often than I should and getting paid. Another thing I noticed was a strange number of bad players at the table. What was going on? I'm not sure if it was just the time of day I was playing or what, but there were some noticeably bad players at several tables. Since I don't play as much as I should I will have to focus more on things like game selection.

And if anyone cares (I know you don't, but humor me) I've had a few good days of writing. I finally feel like the story is coming alive and I'm liking what is coming out. I haven't felt like this in several years. Don't wanna lose it.

TheOneWizard

Frustrating Downswing in the middle of the month. Thinking of dropping down to 1/2 til I ride this one out. Graph looks like grimstarrs on the back half.

garbageman18

I'm rolled for 400NL right now, pretty crazy 6 months ago exactly I was being a giant tilt monkey and not even rolled for 50NL. Bankroll is at 14k now and I am continuing to crush on Cake. I'll be sticking with 200NL for now though, don't really feel like getting owned that badly.

I wish I could get the converter for it to work to show a graph, maybe I am just not filtering hands right/combining aliases in HEM, I think I need a coach for that.

I'm glad poker is going well right now because life pretty much sucks. My request at work for christmas off was denied, which I could understand since I've only been here 6 months. But then my supervisor doesn't give me my normal 3-day weekend(I work 3 8's and 1 16) so it's not really even worth it to go to my hometown for a few days before christmas to spend some time with the family. Not to mention he has not replied to one email or phone call from me since I never see him.

On top of that I have had zero luck cashing out since the beginning of November, Stars never sent me the check I requested on October 31st, and every bank transfer I've tried through FT has failed. I guess I will stop being lazy and fax Cake/FT my info or get a new bank account so can get PAID lol. I am living fine off work though just have some debt I wanna settle altogether with poker money, It is nice having my bankroll continue to swell though.

So yup, sorry for the novel it's been a bit though. Hope everyone is well.

JNuey

I have been messin around with poker a little bit. I one tabled 200nl and eight tabled 25nl cascaded. I have messed around with my open raise sizes a little bit and tried some other stuff. Mostly just to take pressure off and relax.

My red line is going down this month instead of up, which is good news. My positive red line was created out of bad bluffs and value towning myself to often.

I hope to play 20K hands this month, but will settle for 17Kish

Probability

Felt like taking my first NL600 shot and it went pretty well. Made around $650 in half an hour of 4-tabling. NL600 didn't seem much different then NL400; some tags, some lags, a donkey every now and then and a spewtard here and there.

My favorite hand was the following:

Party Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 3 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

BTN: $661
Hero (SB): $603
BB: $664

Pre-Flop: 8 9 dealt to Hero (SB)
BTN folds, Hero raises to $18, BB calls $12

Flop: ($36) Q T 4 (2 Players)
Hero bets $24, BB calls $24

Turn: ($84) 9 (2 Players)
Hero bets $54, BB calls $54

River: ($192) Q (2 Players)
Hero checks, BB bets $132, Hero raises to $507 and is All-In, BB folds

Results: $456 Pot
Hero showed 8 9 and WON $830 (+$602 NET)


The reason why I really like this hand is cause I don't often turn made hands into bluffs and I should probably do it more.
I cbet this flop since it's dry and I have a gutshot. I expect him to float me a lot and therefor I fire a second barrel.
The Q hitting is awesome for me to turn my hand into a bluff cause I would c/r all in with backdoor spades, KJ, boat, .. Hoping that he would valuebet me thinly with a strong T or even trip Qs and none of these hands can really stand a shove here.

At least .. that's my line of thought here, if someone thinks it's a bad line, then feel free to tell me

nogatsira

yeah

before you say it.

i should be studying.

i know that. but i'll touch on that topic briefly.

the last hand curse. oh look, closing down 12 tables. one more table to go. oh. aces. raise! call call. oh noes. JT8 flop. the money gets in. im not so happy. but its some fish who wants to go all in. so i really want the board to come down 22. that would be sexy. but it comes down 67. i guess i lose. sigh. why couldnt i have just gone to bed 3 mins before that.

just put in a decent session. there was some heartbreak in the middle where i randomly spazzed off two buyins, for no reason. let me take a moment to berate myself.

it was not a good spot to spaz off two buyins. it was terrible. why did you do that. why oh why did you do that.

so my run bad at nl600 continues, i was mixing like 20% 3/6 and 80% 2/4 this session. i dont have any problems with any of my nl600 hands. there were only like 3 or 4 large pots and i played them pretty optimally. i guess i ran hot vs some fish when i got in AQs vs his AKo and got there. but i also set a pretty elaborate trap with AK on KxxK board. shipped the money in on the Q river wondering oh christs, i bet if he raises me the extra 24 dollars, he has KQ. so yeah he takes me to town and demands the extra 24 dollars and shows me KQ. in hindsight i should have fixed my betsizing. but whatever, cooler.

as for nl400, it was just the usual. sit there, bunch of tables open. clicking buttons. twiddle twiddle. i felt the fish ran super hot today against me and some of the new regs (or old ones under new SNs) were trying to play back at me. it doesnt bother me too much. they 3 bet me. i fold sometimes. sometimes i call. other times i stick in a four bet. sure there was about a 10 minute span where me and another reg who i think is pretty decent just went to war. he came out on top. but, in all honesty, i kinda spazzed for no reason. so really, while he was destined to get the better of me, the losses could have been limited.

the other day i did win my first 20/80 all in preflop. some dude on the button opened and i elected to 3 bet with 66. the guy instant 4 bet me and i clicked on his stats to check his 4 bet %. over 5000 hands or something it was 22% so i felt 66 was an easy ship here. sure the guy had aces. but i made a straight. a straight >> one pair. good times.

im well on pace this month for my best month ever. and im not going to be too hard on myself in regards to my studies. i've put in a lot of time and effort to it this month and feel pretty damned confident going into my last final exams. economics tomorrow i have totally locked up. business law friday morning i feel like a 3:1 favourite. then we have accounting, the big nasty to finish it all off on friday afternoon.

earlier this month, i'd say i was not ready and feared the impending doom of the accounting exam. but i've put a sick amount of work into it and now feel like i'll do well on it and things in life will go on.

somnius got signed to leggopoker. thats pretty sick. he has much to share with you guys and definitely plays a rather curious style of poker. the best part of it of course, is being super low variance if played properly. i am definitely jealous and it makes me want to play more poker actually.

there is a good chance i might just chain myself to my computer the moment finals are done and grind out a sick month. i think im at 20k hands this month already. for the record. i havent had a 20k hand month this year yet. or well, i'd have to check, i might have had one, but definitely not two.

i have to admit, its a lot easier to grind hands on dual 30" monitors than dual 20" monitors.

and for the viewers curious as to what happened with the girl that night. i kicked her into the corner of my bed and went to sleep. no i did not siihp. she was unconscious and im fairly sure that is rape. which is bad. she was a quiet sleeper who did not snore, and did not kick me either. for that i am grateful. i now call her drunk smurf, and she owes me big time for babysitting her drunk ass.

pikkupossu

With still two weeks left, I've decided to wrap up most of my real poker playing for 2008.

Just after New Year's last year I had just gotten back from Florida and I made this post on 2+2.

Today I won $4,229 in 48 hands and 9 minutes and 24 seconds, which allowed me to hit a milestone and prompted me to make this post.

It's very difficult to say how much I actually made this year because I lost quite a bit staking, quite a bit at live cash, quite a bit taking pieces of people, quite a bit at live tournaments-- but I won a decent amount at 200-400 as well. I elected not to include anything higher than 50-100 in my results because I usually only had 25-50% of myself. I thought it was pretty unfair to get an accurate depiction of downswings and run good/run bad. I also did not include PLO because that was a nightmare. So, without further ado, and with plans to only play midstakes over break (if at all), here are my results at 50-100 and lower for 2008:



I guess I ran about $80k below EV.

This is the breakdown of stakes and other stuff:



Finally, here is my work ethic and hourly:



Needless to say, I pretty much matched my goals with regards to poker. I'm still somewhat disappointed in the amount of discipline that I sometimes don't exhibit, but I'm pretty happy with my shorthanded NLHE game. I think the other things I lost money in were mostly due to short term variance.

If you haven't stopped reading to post your comment yet, I'll elaborate on what the short term future has in store for me. I'm going to spend the next few weeks before the PCA trying to relax as much as possible. I want to distance myself from poker as much as possible, and if I do touch poker, I'd rather it be non-playing things like Leggo related stuff, strategy forum stuff, and Memoirs related stuff. Getting caught up on everything life related, including random chores and Christmas Shopping, is also on my to-do list after I finish my last final tomorrow at 8 AM. I might even try to meditate and do some yoga-- keep my head in the right place where it is.

I'm very content with things, and I don't mean that in a negative way. Without sounding too cliche, sometimes life can get you down. I generally feel like the million things to try to kick you when you're down are easier to see the things in life to pick you up. Keeping your awareness at a high level and being on the lookout in general will allow you to see be more optimistic. Look for the good in life.

Every once in a while I watch this speech, which adds up to probably a half dozen times every winter. Tonight, I watched it twice. If you haven't seen the Jimmy V speech, I encourage you to watch it-- although perhaps I could devote an entire different blog to the Jimmy V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Either way, I'm really stoked Christmas and the PCA in the next few weeks. I'll definitely pump out a few blogs to give you guys the heads up since I know you're concerned about me as always.

Until then, be good.

aejones