Today went a lot better. I didn't wanna play after 2 hours, but I just hit 3 hours right now, at 11:15pm. I played a few hands with Tickner at nl100 (of which I ran KK into AA 3 ****ing times, **** that site), and played the rest of my sessions at nl200. Had my best day in 2008 [I believe], and am very happy with my play.






-----

Month stats:
Days completed: 2/2
Hands: 3315
Profits: $1922.05 (+$150 in PLO)

Today started my 3hr/day prop bet. Started off running well, up $1300 after 2 hours, but dropped back to +$100 after 3 hours when a couple of hands didn't go my way. Grinded another 500 hands on FTP 100nl to get back to +$300ish on the day. Also won about $150 playing PLO, so that works.

Month stats:
Days completed: 1/1
Hands: 2003
Profits: $308.66 (doesn't include PLO)

My roll's split atm due to clearing a bonus on a ****ty site (not sharing), so I've been playing nl100 lately. It's so much easier to table select and it's just an easier game in general. I don't really know what to think of it, but I like it so far. I'm down a couple buyins just due to being over-aggressive and thinking the weak-tight nits would stack off light. Ah well, nits are nits.

The main reason I wanted to post this is because this month and last month I've only managed to put in like 15k hands apiece, so I made a propbet with a really good grinder friend of mine. In an effort to mimic CTS' gym prop-bet, we have to grind 3 hours each day (we're allowed 5 "off" days), and every day after those 5 days if we don't get 3 table hours in, we pay the other person $50. Should be a lot of fun and should motivate me a lot.

Nothing really else to update, I've had a migraine for the last 3 days, so that's been fun.

G'luck at the tables.

So I've been lazy with hands since my last update. Only 3700 hands since the 14th - I'm horrible. I've spent a lot of time watching videos and spending time in real life. I've gone out to eat with Alyssa a few times this week and bought Rainbow Six Vegas 2 yesterday. Things don't look promising towards getting more hands in this month due to this game plus my addiction to Call of Duty 4.

Ah well, I'm up like ~$1400 so far this month, but I still just haven't been running well at all. I had a few guys sweating me in a couple sessions where I just couldn't flop a pair and I'd lose every big pot - it's pretty damn frustrating but my game has improved I'm pretty sure because I'm putting ~500 hands a day in and am profiting despite not having the best of luck.

I had a good day today, 4-tabled nl100 for just over an hour and won just under $200, so I can't complain. I've been tossing around ideas with coaching micro-stakes, mostly because I think that teaching someone else will help me in getting back to my roots as an ABC TAG player, and will get me to stop spewing in spots where I could just fold instead. I'll keep everyone updated on that, it's still in the planning stages and I'm not sure what mind-blowing stats or achievements I have that qualify me for coaching the stakes other than just being able to make a living playing nl50 back when things weren't so good in my life.

I don't really have any other things going on in my life, just really complacent at the moment, and happy with everything. Good luck on and off the tables, stay positive and own.

I plugged a leak yesterday! Had a sweat session with a friend that grinds from nl400-nl1000, and he noticed that my frequencies were not optimal and let me know like where I should be toning down my frequencies and where I'm bluffing in bad spots or bluffing too often in a spot. So with my leak plugged, I decided to play a couple of sessions and it turns out my VP$IP increased a lot and my aggression is back to normal levels.

I ended up losing half a buyin due to what I believe were coolers (AK v AA against a 27/19 and QQ v TT in a 3bet pot on a JT9 board, each for ~140bb), but I felt really really good about my play and that hasn't happened lately. I'm looking forward to the next session, I think I'm done for tonight because those two hands happened at the same time and threw me off my game.

I'm off to play COD4 for the rest of the night, holla!

I played a session earlier today and I have no idea how I won. I either ran into the top of everyone's range or people were bluffing the hell out of me. Lost half a stack with KQ on a 432 board trying to re-bluff a habitual flop raiser, but I think that was pretty dumb. Also, I think this hand is pretty interesting, even though it looks spewy/bad.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

SB: $201
BB: $218.25
UTG: $105.05
Hero (BTN): $293.75

Pre-Flop: J J dealt to Hero (BTN)
UTG calls $2, Hero raises to $9, SB raises to $31, 2 folds, Hero calls $22

Flop: ($66) T K T (2 Players)
SB bets $42, Hero calls $42

Turn: ($150) 7 (2 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks

River: ($150) A (2 Players)
SB bets $128 and is All-In, Hero calls $128

Results: $406 Pot ($2 Rake)
SB showed A 3 (a flush, Ace high) and WON $404 (+$203 NET)
Hero mucked J J (two pair, Jacks and Tens) and LOST (-$201 NET)

Villain was a 27/22 that had been 3-betting me pretty lightly the whole session, I've never seen him before today (even with extensive datamining). On the flop I think he bets 100% of his range due to it not hitting me very well, and I think he shoves the turn with like AQx, but possibly not. On the river, I'm not sure if he can value-shove a lot of his Axs hands (that aren't diamonds) because there's not much that I will pay off with, so I figured his hand range was approximately {AA-KK, AK, ATs, A9dd-A2dd, bluff} and decided that it was worth a call due to hand combos. Go ahead and comment if my thinking is off or if I'm just overthinking.

I won a stack with aces aipf against QTo so that was nice, and also won a stack KK v JJ, so I guess I was on the right side of coolers (lol), and I ended up winning a buyin, so I can't complain too much, even though I think I was off my A game.

---

I'm pretty happy with my play on the whole this month, even though I've been more passive and have not been putting many hands in overall. I'm still not forcing sessions and I think it's having a good outcome on me mentally as I was very depressed the last few months because I knew I had to put sessions in, or whatever.

---

Also, I wouldn't call him a student of mine, but a guy that I have been helping out recently is making the jump from nl25 to nl50, hopefully it sticks this time. I've sweated him with Skype/TeamViewer for around 3 hours and I think he's ready to crush - so good luck to him, hopefully this one is the final 25 -> 50 jump he has to make.

---

That's about all I can think of, so good luck at the tables, I'm gonna go watch TV and play some COD4 for the rest of the night.

So I decided to play a session last night. I dropped 3 buyins to the same guy in 15 minutes to some pretty bad coolers. He's 23/19 with 7% 3-bet and 14% 4-bet.. So I would say AK v AA aipf is a cooler. 2 minutes after that he c/rai with 88 on a 8QKA board against my JT and rivered a boat. Then he isolated the same fish and I 3-bet with AQo, he 4-bet and I decided to shove because he can't get premiums THAT often, but he had KK. Why not.

I closed tables right after that, played another session later that night and lost a couple more buyins.

So today I played 300ish hands (girlfriend came home and made me make her dinner - blah), and lost a dollar or something like that.

So I decide I'm gonna chase losses in the $750k guaranteed tournament, and this happened the 3rd hand:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 2,990
BTN: 2,970
SB: 3,010
BB: 3,030
UTG: 3,000
UTG+1: 3,000
UTG+2: 3,000
MP1: 3,000
Hero (MP2): 3,000

Pre-Flop: (30) T K dealt to Hero (MP2)
3 folds, MP1 calls 20, Hero raises to 80, 2 folds, SB calls 70, BB folds, MP1 calls 60

Flop: (260) 5 J 4 (3 Players)
SB checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets 220, SB raises to 700, MP1 folds, Hero raises to 2,920 and is All-In, SB calls 2,220

Turn: (6,100) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (6,100) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 6,100 Pot
SB showed J J (a full house, Jacks full of Tens) and WON 6,100 (+3,100 NET)
Hero showed T K (a flush, King high) and LOST (-3,000 NET)

I love coolers, but it sucks to be on the losing side for almost all of 2008.

I'll be grinding pretty much all night after watching Aaron's new video, hopefully it goes better - it can't go much worse.

Okay, so I can't really do anything outside due to the foot of snow we got last night (thanks Ohio, keep up the ****ty weather plz), so I suppose it's time for another blog post. I've been thinking a LOT about poker lately, trying to sway away from being a tagfish rakeback grinder, because I've done that for way too long and I'm sick of it. So here we go.

1. I'm really not good at poker. - I used to think I was really good, because I could grind out a profit every month. But after thinking about hands critically as opposed to reverting to my standard line, I realized that I'm nowhere close to my max potential as a poker player. This will change soon I hope.

2. Tagfish never adjust. - In thinking about how I used to react to 3-bets by decent regulars, I'd 4-bet maybe once in a session, but typically I'd just curse and fold and eventually change tables. Now that I'm trying to break out and actually learn how to play poker, I'm aiming to find these fishy regs and exploit the hell out of them, because they just don't adjust enough.

3. Poker is a really fun game! - It used to be a grind to just open up 8-16 tables and play my cards, but now that I'm actually playing poker, it's pretty fun! I haven't been in the mood to play lately due to being sick, but it's just a bunch of fun to get in different spots.

Anyways, that's what I've been thinking about lately, and it's making poker kinda fun again.

I played a small session yesterday, only like 400 hands because I decided to surprise my girlfriend with an Italian dinner for when she got home from work. She was pretty surprised, so cheers to me.

I started off the session (2nd hand at the table) with this against a 63/15:

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: $281.30
BTN: $200
Hero (SB): $200
BB: $489.55
UTG: $206.80

Pre-Flop: Q Q dealt to Hero (SB)
3 folds, Hero raises to $8, BB calls $6

Flop: ($16) T 3 Q (2 Players)
Hero bets $14, BB raises to $481.55 and is All-In, Hero calls $178 and is All-In

Turn: ($400) K (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: ($400) T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $400 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed Q Q (a full house, Queens full of Tens) and LOST (-$200 NET)
BB showed K K (a full house, Kings full of Tens) and WON $397 (+$197 NET)

Ended up like $400, and I was pretty happy with the way I played.

Here's everything for March so far:



Not many hands, but it's because I'm not forcing sessions anymore and playing less tables (see my goals in my prior post). I love life, I love poker, and I love my girlfriend.

Life is ****ing good.

Wheee, yet another blog that I'll fail miserably at updating. I've had many poker blogs in the past, mostly started when I was running well so I could brag, then they'd stop as soon as I ran bad. I currently play nl200 at FTP under the screen name ilovemypuppy. Many people know my sn, so I don't mind sharing it. I play really bad, I run well sometimes and it keeps me breakeven.

I made like $11k or something and just crushed 1/2 in November, but since then I've only made like $1k, mostly due to losing 5k at nl400. I mostly can beat nl200 when I'm not tilting, and so I've made a few goals for this month that will help my game I think, they are:

- Never play more than 6 tables.
- Never play a forced session, only play when I feel like it.
- Only play nl200, no nl400 shots.

I feel that these goals will help me get back on track and get winning again, so far in March I'm up around $2k or something like that.

Good luck at the tables, I'll be updating this - at least until I run bad.