poker goals and thoughts for the winter and 250k garunteed tourney results

the title of the post sums up what i want to talk about. also the hustler casino is running a short tournament series so i found an event that i liked and took a shot at it so I'll recap that event as well. for now I'll start with my goals and thoughts on poker for the winter.

well its been about a week now since i started grinding here in L.A. and im having some mixed feelings about it. at the beginning of the summer i had the thought of moving to florida for the winter and grinding 5/10 there. about half way through the summer I think i came across a thread about california poker and my views changed. i read more threads on LA poker and how profitable it was and i got even more excited to move so i changed my destination to LA instead of florida.

when i got here and started grinding the 5/10 tables weren't how everyone had described them and there wasnt 6-10 of them running there was 2. i found out that a month before i got there they moved the games over to the  "high" limit area of the casino where the 10/20 plays and since then the action for the 5/10 has started to drizzle away. although its lame that the games aren't as juicy as i read about and in fact are pretty solid i still have a little faith. the lapc will be running in about a month and it lasts for 2 months which should bring some action to the 5/10 games. im not so concerned about having to play against tougher opponents its just id rather play against worse opponents :) plus my win rate is going to suffer. i checked out a few other casinos in the past couple of days but the highest game that was being spread was 5/5 with a 1000 buyin which was actually a decent game (although i lost 1400 :/ ) its pretty much a 2/5 nl game just with a 5 sb. if the 5/10 game dies out this winter than i will have to play that game but again my winrate will suffer.

i gave myself pretty reasonable goals this winter based on the information that i found. from everything that i read it sounded like making 60-80$ an hour was totally reasonable at the 5/10 games and the top players were even making close to 100/hr. at the 2/5 in washington last year i was averaging 32/hr so this year i gave myself a goal to atleast make 40-50/hr and try to make 35k. i found that goal totally reasonable and if anything it was even easily achievable. well now that the games are getting so bad it might even be difficult to make those goals. only time will really tell so we'll find out in the end. i'm still going to put loads of effort into my game and really try to improve, win, and be consistent with my game this winter. so yes i am still going to shoot for the 35k but if i dont get there but i feel like i played really well at the end of my stay and things just didnt work out then i will settle for that. im still going to try my damdist to make that 35k though.

like i mentioned the lapc event is going to start in about a month. i do actually plan on playing in a few events. they've got a few deepstacked events with pretty good structures that i am going to shoot for. a 340$ event, a 550$ event and a 1100$ event. i know ill play the first 2 but if im running bad or im on a dowswing or somthing ill probably skip the 1100$ event and since we're on the topic of tourneys i should talk about the tourney i played at the hustler casino.

so i found out that the hustler casino was running a short 3 week series and a few of the tourneys actually had decent structures. an event was coming up the next day so i decided to go play. it was a 210$ event with a 16k starting stack. blinds start at 50/100 and the first two levels were an hour long. every level after that was 30minutes. so it was an ok structure. 1st place was garunteed 40k which was sweet. it had like 8 day 1 events and then like the 9th day the field from each day comes back to play the last bit of the tourney. they payed 12% of the field from each day and 6% of the field from each day would go onto the final day. the day i played it got 265 players. so 32 got payed and the last 16 players moved onto the final day.

in the early rounds i picked up KK and was able to get all my money in on the river and almost doubled up so i was sitting with like 30k and was able to pick my spots for a good few hours after that. i made a couple 3 bet squeezes from people that i felt were opening a little wide in late position  and was able to take the pots down preflop holding things like 96 suited and 78 off suit. when the antes kicked in i already had views on how i was going to play the table. i started to attack the spots i wanted to and everytime i did i got resistance so it wasnt really working out for me. by this time almost the whole table were different players from the start of the tourney so i adjusted to how the table dynamics were and tightened up a bit. i was about 15bbs when a guy from mp opened and there was a call. and it came to me on the button. he had opened wide a couple times before in that spot and showed down one being 89 suited. i had enough chips that i felt like if i shoved than he would fold and i would pick up the pot. i had 10 4 of diamonds and shoved. he took a long time before saying. "well lets gamble then" ....FUCK.. he flips over 9 10 of hearts. the board brings a 4 and the turn is a blank and the river is another 4 and i double up.  THE CROWD GOES WILD AS THE DONK DOUBLES UP WOOOOOOO!@!!!

haha. so after that i still didnt have a huge stack just sat around 35bb i tried taking stabs at a couple pots and never got anything going i did get a couple premium pairs but didnt get past the flop with them. our table broke and i was sitting with like 12-15bbs again i was at a point that i couldnt really make any big moves and watched my stack dwindle down to about 7bbs with huge stacks all around me. i picked up AA and shoved pre and got called. by K6 of diamonds flop was 4 9 Q one diamond. turn was a 2 of diamonds. river was a 5 of diamonds and i was out. i did cash for 350$ for a profit of 140$ wooooo!! although my aces got cracked and i was actually about 10 players away from making it to day 2 i feel really good about my play and im actually really pleased with how it went especially since i havnt played a tourney in about a year. so ill be looking foreward to the LApc events for sure.

as of now ive had a couple bad days at the casino mostly from just playing bad which i absoloutely hate doing. im still up for the month but hopefully i can make these last 2 days count and get some winning scores. so untill next time cosmonauts. stay tuned :)

settling in L.A.

I know its been a little while since my last post but we finally got an apartment this last week and we just got internet set up 2 days ago so that was the reason behind the waiting. I have a lot of posts i really want to do but i'm  thinking i might be a little lazy and just do a few in the next week about all the things i want to talk about. so for this post i'll just sum up how things have been going so far and what my plans are from here and my thoughts on things.

me and my friend got here either the night of the 8th or the 9th and started looking for apartments. there are a ton of apartments all throughout L.A. but the main problem is that the vast majority of them only do a 1 year lease and we are only here for 6 months. i kinda already knew this and figured i would have to do some persuasion with the land lord to find an apartment. about 5 days after arriving we had a couple apartments that were possibly able to do a 6 month lease and a couple days later we had an apartment. the apartment is in the exact area i wanted to live and in a really popular part of the town so the location is awesome. the apartment itself has some ups and downs to it but im not complaining.... yet

the inside of the apartment is pretty nice it was recently remodeled so it has a lot of new aplliances and stuff but weve been having troubles with the electricity which the landlord seems to be a little slow on resolving the problem but nothing that is discomforting. there are some appliances that dont work which isnt a big deal to me cause i dont use them but still its kind of lame to have a place with broken appliances. so it's kind of a give and take i suppose. its a nice apartment in general in a really popular part of town really close to a lot of things but it has a couple downsides to it. all in all i'll be fine living here for the next 5 months.

LA living so far has been pretty fun. since i have my friend here its even more enjoyable being able to enjoy some things with someone else so that is a big plus. we live about 30 minutes from santa monica and venice beach.

the traffic is crazy at certain parts of the day. theres usually always a little bit of traffic no matter what time of day but nothing to crazy but if you're out in rush hour you're in for a wait. it might have been a fluke but it took me 2 hours to get home the night before thanksgiving when i was stuck in traffic (probably from thanksgiving traffic) but there seems to be a lot of entertainment and plenty of things to do so there should always be room to have fun.

the girls here are like nothing i can compare to. when we first arrived we were stunned by how many good looking girls there are. dont get me wrong there are not so good looking ones as well but coming from alaska and the ratio of good looking girls there compared to here is no where close. ive been doing a bit of day game and ive probably approached about 25 girls or so but nothing too solid yet. a couple days ago i approached a girl that is an actress in low budget films and she didnt want to give her phone number so we swapped emails.....weird... but i emailed her and she emailed me back. shes gone for a month so maybe something will happen when she gets back. besides that i have tons of plans for daygame this winter and i would really like to get a fling or relationship or something for the winter or 3-4 months but im fine with whatever kind of garbage the sewers will wash my way as well... maybe ;)

poker has been a little interesting since i started playing. im up 3.5k right now in the last 4 sessions which is good but there might be some darkness in the future. the commerce casino has two areas that they spread their poker games. the normal area and then the "high stakes" area or the hotel side as they call it. well the 5/10 game use to be in the normal area where all the rest of the games were. and when it was there it would usually get a lot of action because players from lower limits or players from the half stack 5/10 games would come over and from what everyone says there would almost always at a minimum be 4-5 tables of 5/10 going. well they transfered the 5/10 over the to "high stakes" side and now for some reason every one who was playing 5/10 is starting to transfer over to 10/20. i think the reason for this is that the minimum buy in for 5/10 is 500 and the min buyin for 10/20 is 600 so the bad players probably think that well i can just buy in for 100 more and ill win more or however bad players think. anyways it has been killing the 5/10 game yesterday there wasnt a 5/10 game and today there was 2 tables and they killed off by 9pm but there was 5 tables of 10/20 ???? yeah figure that one out for me. so im going to try the bicycle casino out in a couple of days and see what there 5/10 is like. the only hope that the 5/10 at the commerce that i have is that the LAPC is going to happen in about a month so hopefully that will bring some action to the 5/10, or the other hope is that i know some regs have been complaining about the 5/10 dying out so maybe they will switch it back to the normal area.

now all that complaining isnt horrible it just means that it's going to be harder to make a big profit. my goal for this winter is 35k but if the games stay how they are then it is going to be tough. i really dont mind only having 1 or 2 tables to choose from, i did that all last winter playing 2/5 in seattle.  the only issue i have with it is that 9 out of 10 players that do play the 5/10 now seem to be pretty solid which again makes it really tough it might be more profitable to play the 5/5 buyin of 500$ than the 5/10 but i really want to play 5/10 this winter. well thats all for me about complaining about poker. i am playing a tournament tomorrow at the hustler casino so that will be cool to check out and it will be my first live tourney in almost a year so that will be fun. its actually a decent tourney for like 200$ with a decent blind structure and i think 1st place is garunteed 15k or something like that so we'll see waht happens. i want to play a few tournaments this winter and the LAPC schedule came out this last week and i plan on playing a few events in it so im feeling good and think i will do well. fingers crossed.

so i think my next post will be about my goals for this winter and any views or thoughts im thinking about so far i do like LA but ill be able to decide more after the winter is over. untill next time cosmonauts. stay tuned :)

from L.A. with love.

i have been in LA for about a week now and things have been a bit of a rollercoaster.

trying to find an apartment has turned out to be a little difficult. its not that there aren't any vacancies it's because 95% of the apartments only do a year lease. we have found a couple that are considering doing a 6 month lease after i told them they can raise the rent a couple hundred bucks if we can have a 6 month lease but with the veterans day weeknd we pretty much had to wait untill tomorrow to call back on them.

in the mean time we drove around quite a bit of L.A. and looked at some different neighborhoods. pretty much figured that most of west LA is a decent area and the more central you get and to the east is when it starts to get ghetto. it also has been a little challenging trying to find a place that is close to entertainment, the beach, the commerce casino, and good daygame spots. i did some research before i got here on where i wanted to live and so far its proving to be the right spot. i would like to live in the santa monica area but since im wont be able to stay longer than 6 months and dont feel like paying 3k a month for rent then theres not really a chance i will. on the bright side if i do ever live in LA for a year or longer. i will try to live in the santa monica area.

since arriving we've went to the beach, checked out various shopping areas and malls, checked out the bike and commerce casino, as well as indulged in some restruants  that are pretty west coast exclusive. (in N out burger). i did manage to do a few approaches since getting here jsut for the fun of it. i ended up approaching a girl that i would put money on that she was a pornstar or at least a stripper. super fit body and huge fake tits. no results though, actually kinda feel a little rusty. my main focus is just trying to get an apartment and set up right now and then i will start to do the really fun stuff.

so far its been enjoyable and fun but a little exhausting and kind of overwhelming. whenever i have moved to a new place like this in the past it has always been a little overwhelming trying to get settled in but once i do then everything smooths out. right now we have been bouncing between motels but last night we stayed in my truck just to cut down on costs a little bit which was damn near painful. pretty funny looking back on it but yeah it wasnt so enjoyable.

the girls here are way hotter than ive ever seen (besides vegas) and there is an abundence of them. when me and my friend first got here we were like "look at her" "no look at her" "wait no look at her" haha. dont get me wrong the girls here aren't all super hot and every where you look but this is the first time ive been around so many hot girls so day game should go really well this winter.

 i wanted to take a picture with my arms spread wide and started to do so, before my friend took the picture a random girl came over and leaned against me so i wrapped my arm around her for the pose. for some reason i didnt talk to her after that.... if that wasnt a big hint that a girl wanted you to talk to her than i dont know what

for now we are just hanging out today and tomorrow we will call back on some apartments and hopefully be moving into one by the end of the week so i can start achieving my goals. thats all for now though so untill next time cosmonauts stay tuned :)

pit stop, fun in seattle

i just had way too much fun in seattle so far not to make this post about it, but i was planning on doing my next post on a recap of how my season went. so last couple days of work were shitty but we got it done and i spent a couple more days in alaska getting what i needed to be done dealt with.

 i flew into seattle at 11am and got a taxi to where my truck and cargo trailer with all my things were being stored at.... so far so good. the taxi ride was interesting. i had an african driver (not racist) that actually gave some good conversation. we got into a conversation about how people really don't go after they want and tend to just follow what has already been done or stay wherever they feel comftorable. it's just fun talking to people that think like you. hope that guy goes after what he wants, he seemed like a good guy....so far so good.

 once arriving at the storage lot i got all my bags and went to my truck. unlocked my truck and tried to start it and nothing.....not so good. i did expect it though. i was just hoping the cab driver would be able to give me a jump start but he had an electric car so no go. i went to the main office and they had a battery charger so i put that on the battery and it started up pretty fast. once i got everything set i drove my truck a few hours because it had been sitting for the last 6 months. after that i got a motel room and withdrew some money at the bank and headed to the casino.

i was hoping to see some familliar faces that i became friends with but there wasn't too many. just getting back to the tables felt sooo good and felt right at home. the first day went slow and over 6 hours i only won a 100$ the next day i was up 850$ at one point and was debating leaving. usually i leave when im up if it gets slow for an hour or so afterwards. well there was some scheduling i was trying to do that i will talk about in a minute so i ended up staying a little longer. lost a few haundred and then this hand happend.

2 limpers in ep, hijack who is a lag fish raises to 20$, button who i figured for an abc player calls 20$. im in the bb with AQ of dimonds. im sure im way ahead of the hijacks range and figure the same for the button since he didnt raise either. so i 3bet to 75$

limpers fold. hijcak fold, and button calls. pot:180$
flop: K 5 6 with one diamond.
i bet 100$ and button calls

when he calls the flop i put him on a range of KQ suited and jj-88. i could possibly see him calling with big suited connectors like JT suited or 89 suited pre flop but since he called the flop i threw those out of his range. im not totally sure if someone like him would have 55, 66, 56, or 78 in there hand. i think he views me as a young kid trying to take the money preflop and following up with a cbet so i could really see him calling the flop with the mid pairs. "JUST ONE TIME" right

pot: 380$
turn is a 4 of diamonds
so i pick up a diamond draw and bet 200$ and button ships for a total of 500$
im getting like 3.5 to 1 to call so i do and miss the river. he shows 78 off suit for a straight and scoops the pot. nice hand sir.

my big concern was how i played the turn. picking up so much equity on the turn is it better to just check seeing how jj-88 most likely will check back and if i bet then the only thing that calls is something that beats me???? im not 100% sure what the right line is in that spot. in a small pot im fine with betting the turn. even if i get raised i can call with big implied odds. but at the time the pot was really big so im kinda leaning toward a check on the turn what do you guys think? also put the hand on 2+2

anyway i was down 400 after that and decided to pick up. i wasnt going to play anymore after that because i had different plans so im ending my stay in seattle down 300$ no biggie. i later came back to the casino to meet up with a poker friend and we got sushi and talked a bit so that was fun.

the next day i had planed for doing some daygame with my wingman that i met here last year. we ended up going to downtown seattle for a couple hours to start the day off since it wasnt raining yet. it was fun being with a wing and we were both a little rusty so after a few approaches i was back in the groove. it did start to get a little rainy so we headed to the big mall about 20 miles away where we did most of our daygame last year in the winter. i dont know if it was just because i was excited to be out doing day game, or if it was because i was with him or what but i was doing approaches i never done before. i talked to a mother daughter, basically hitting on the daughter with the mothers permission haha. i stopped 3 girls walking to talk to them which ive never done. and i approached girls in shops that were working which my wing taught me how to do it, so heres the results.

i was able to do 18 approaches in like 10 hours over 2 days. i got 2 number, and an instant date. where you take a girl for coffee or whatever right then and there and talk more.

and heres the juicy details. so the girl that i took on the instant date was a very cute romanian girl with olive skin and dark hair and vibrant red lipstick. i felt like i ran really good game on her and we talked for a total of about 20 minutes.

i got her number and began texting her a few hours later. we texted back and forth for the next day and we set up a date for the day after that after she got off work. from what i could tell she was way down and she was putting in a lot of investment so i was certain she liked me and was all for it. i got everything set up for our date and planned everything out so it would go really smoothley. i even moved into a better hotel that was like 1/4 mile away from where our date was. well about 15 minutes before she got off work and when we were supposed to meet up she started to get cold feet. i still felt like i ran good game on her and never had to "convince" her to see me. she ultimately flaked on the date but she did come over to the hotel..... BUM BUM BUMMMMM  she came up to my room and this is where i really fucked up. we started talking about just random shit and i could tell she was a little nervous. this is the most crucial part that counts the most and i am supposed to make her feel comftorable. maybe start talking about her family or what her goals and dreams are and really just try to get her to really feel comftorable with me. instead i didnt do that and talked about meaningless shit. i did lean in and kiss her which shortly afterwards she got even more nervous and suggested she had to go. which leads back to the importance of making her feel comftorable. we both stood up and walked to the door. where we began kissing again and again she persisted that she shoud leave....it wasnt going to happen.  i walked her down to the lobby and we kissed again and she left. shortly after she sent me a text saying only "im a virgin"  which i HIGHLY! doubt but if she is i respect it. it all came down to me not making her feel comftorable so lesson learned. she is a really attractive and sweet girl and we do have a really good spark together. i told her we'll keep in contact and when i come back through seattle after my winter in LA that i would come see her so we'll see.

NEXT

so thats where i sit now. alone in this pricey hotel room typing my story lol but it was all really fun and my stay here was awesome with lots of fun times so definitely worth it and in about 6 hours ill be on the road driving to LA. again i dont know when the next time i will update but ill keep it posted. so untill next time cosmonauts stay tuned :)