At school I have such a hard time getting on a card playing schedule. It feels like once I'm 1/4 of the way into a semester I end up playing in sporadic bursts. There's always an exam this week, a group project due the week after that, and then another exam right around the corner. It doesn't help that I'm a dual philosophy/neuroscience major and taking all of the pre-med reqs.

But getting back to the opening statement of this entry; I've fallen into one of those low periods of school work (and I was sick all weekend so didn't end up going out) so I've had time to play recently. Unfortunately when I come off busy school times I have a hard time logging a ton of hands, so I only got like 3k hands in over 3 days. Unfortunately lately it seems like whenever I get time to play I just run insufferably bad, and it is really exacerbated by the fact that I can't be a high volume player right now. Here's the all-in luck graph:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v3...=wkndgraph.jpg

Not really much to say. I'm pretty happy with how I played and the graph reflects that I played pretty well. The hand I ended on was probably my only really misplayed hand all weekend and I don't know how terrible it was (the only thing nudging me in the direction of terrible is that I'm expecting him to fold w/ 1/2 his stack in the pot). Villain here was calling a ton of hand ip, floating flops, and always firing pot or close to it if you checked to him on the turn. Sounds like he's applying a ton of pressure (which he is) but given his stats are like 45/13/5.6 I couldn't give him credit for being competent. Here's the hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $2,095.60
BB: $691.20
Hero (UTG): $489
CO: $261
BTN: $444.20

Pre-Flop: A 8 dealt to Hero (UTG)
Hero raises to $14, CO calls $14, 3 folds

Flop: ($34) 6 5 9 (2 Players)
Hero bets $20, CO calls $20

Turn: ($74) 6 (2 Players)
Hero checks, CO bets $74, Hero raises to $296, CO calls $153 and is All-In

River: ($528) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $528 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed A 8 (a pair of Sixes) and LOST (-$261 NET)
CO showed 5 5 (a full house, Fives full of Sixes) and WON $525 (+$264 NET)

So bummer he ends up showing me a FH, but I really think given the board texture, the reads on my player, and my outs this shove was ok.

Today was probably the most frustrating day of cards I've ever played. I decided to take a 5-buyin stab at 600 and I regret to say I'm back at 400. I think I played pretty well, I just ran into the top of everyones ranges (esp in spots where they can be wide, e.g. vs blind defenders and CO stealers). The past week has been one of the most frustrating of my poker career. Its the first time in a long while that I've been able to put in some solid hours, and it seems like they are such a waste when the cards fall wrong seemingly every time.

Oh well... these are important growing pains for a poker player. Just wish they didn't hurt so bad. Funny thing, earlier today my roommate dropped to someone that I play cards for a living and the first thing this one girl says is "Wow I wish I had a job that wasn't hard..." (she waits tables). I know people get this from time to time and I know I've gotten the same line more than once. One thing I find that helps pull me out of the huge bummer that is a down-swing is that I take pride in the fact that I can take it on the chin so hard and allow it to impact my normal social life so little that people think what I (we) do is so easy. I don't really know where I'm going with this. I guess I'm just rambling to take my mind off of it all. Back to it tomorrow.... as always.

Well today I got off to a quick good start up like $600 in the first 10 mins of my sesh, and magically I managed to end up stuck 2k. This hand really set me on tilt and I probably should have stopped immediately after this but I'm too stupid to do that:

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

SB: $754.35
BB: $957.10
Hero (BTN): $770.70

Pre-Flop: 2 2 dealt to Hero (BTN)
Hero raises to $21, SB folds, BB calls $15

Flop: ($45) 2 3 T (2 Players)
BB bets $45, Hero raises to $132, BB calls $87

Turn: ($309) A (2 Players)
BB bets $309, Hero raises to $617.70 and is All-In, BB calls $308.70

River: ($1,544.40) 6 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,544.40 Pot ($1 Rake)
BB showed A T (a flush, Ace high) and WON $1,543.40 (+$772.70 NET)
Hero showed 2 2 (three of a kind, Twos) and LOST (-$770.70 NET)

Between that hand and the one I'm about to post I didn't make too many retarded plays (just dropped a couple 25bb stacks while 3 handed to SS's that can magically will top pair every time they call my PFR.... must be using Rob's fingers+chant method), but it ends up not mattering because my table got heads up for one hand that I really just played like a total idiot with a prayer. Please comment on this, call me stupid, an idiot, a chump, etc. because I'm putting this out here as a constant (and physical) reminder to myself that bad play because your pissed to being with will only end up with you wanting to stomp kittens in the end. So without further adieu:

Full Tilt Poker, $3/$6 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $1,455.65
Hero (BB): $969.15

Pre-Flop: 7 A dealt to Hero (BB)
SB raises to $18, Hero calls $12

Flop: ($36) 9 Q T (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets $36, Hero raises to $144, SB calls $108

Turn: ($324) 9 (2 Players)
Hero checks, SB bets $324, Hero raises to $807.15 and is All-In, SB calls $483.15

River: ($1,938.30) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,938.30 Pot ($0.50 Rake)
SB showed 9 Q (a full house, Nines full of Queens) and WON $1,937.80 (+$968.65 NET)
Hero showed 7 A (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-$969.15 NET)

Maaaaaaaaaaaaan I'm a chump....

Well I'm in the teeth of exam time here at school (don't know if I mentioned it but I go to the University of Michigan, GO BLUE!) so play time has been thin. However, this weekend I went home for the holiday and was able to get some quiet time in-between family time and put in a ton of hands. The hands were spread between 2/4 and 3/6, and I feel like I played the best I have in a long time. Unfortunately the cards just weren't in it for me and it ended up being a marginal win on the weekend. I really hate it when I run bad when I can't book a ton of hands because it feels like the loss is locked in, booked, gift-wrapped, and all of that. Generally this leads to me tilting when I get stuck a few buy-ins, but I really showed some maturity in my game this weekend and played my A-game for the most part.

For some reason photobucket is acting up so I can't post pics of my stats or my all-in luck graph, and I'm sure soooooooo many of you want to see them (totally facetious). I ended up like +$2kish overall, but stuck like $2.5k in AI equity over the weekend, so I can't really complain a ton except for the fact that I existed in a state of perpetual mild frustration. I didn't really have any super interesting hands where I felt really stumped, so not much for discussion. I'll leave with (in terms of bb's) my worst beat ever though:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $916.50
BB: $474.30
UTG: $400
Hero (MP): $939.20
CO: $422.10
BTN: $584.80

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero raises to $14, 2 folds, SB raises to $46, BB folds, Hero raises to $142, SB calls $96

Flop: ($288) 6 T K (2 Players)
SB bets $288, Hero raises to $797.20 and is All-In, SB calls $486.50 and is All-In

Turn: ($1,837) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($1,837) Q (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $1,837 Pot ($3 Rake)
SB showed K A (three of a kind, Kings) and WON $1,834 (+$917.50 NET)
Hero showed A A (two pair, Aces and Kings) and LOST (-$916.50 NET)

...and isn't it just convenient that I have one here already? I started with the whole poker thing in the summer of my senior year of high school after seeing some friends have moderate success on the donkament scene. One friend of mine was banking around 35k at that point that year and this blew my mind (35k being a ton of money to your average 18 year old). I started on $10 playing micro-stakes SNGs and am proud to say that I have never redeposited since. Currently I'm playing 400 and 600nl, and sometimes dabbling in 1Knl. 2008 has seen some subtle changes in my game that has seemed to spur a lot of success since the start of the year and I hope to continue that trend throughout the year with the goal in mind to be playing 1Knl as my regular game come summer, and at least be splashing around at 2Knl by late this year.