after returning from my winter season of work i quickly found myself on the virtual felt. i was playing everyday at 100nl playing mostly 2 tables ocasionally 4 tables. even though i was playing everyday whenever i could. i didnt really take the game to serious, i mean i wanted to win but i didnt put the neccesary work and deication that needed to be done to be a winning player. it didnt take long before my results would show either. i think it took 3 or 4 months but i was leaking at the table like crazy. i did study a little bit and read some books but i never really went into my own play and tried to find the major leaks that i had.
it was about halfway through the year when i decided that i had lost enough at 100nl and i needed to move down in stakes. just starting out like most all players i had no bankroll managment, but after playing a bit i had a routine for my bankroll that i thaught at the time was a decent bankroll stratagey. for me i gave myself 20 buyins at a level and if i lost 10 buyins i would move down in stakes and if i won 10 buy ins then i would move up in stakes. so im sure already you guys are like yeah that might of been one of your major leaks (which it was). back to the story though, my bankroll was down to 1000$ and i started playing at 50nl, i never had a problem moving down in stakes although i would have rather of played at the higher stakes of course. eventually i lost at 50nl as well and moved down to 25nl. although i was a relatively new player to the game i was able to move up a couple times from 25nl and 50nl most likely due to running good. just like before though i had to move down.
i was now into the summer season of my work year and i was playing everynight for a couple hours after work but at this time i was at 10nl, almost about to drop to 5nl. i told myself that after my summer season i would deposit 2000$ again and do it again. at that time i kind of gave myself a yearly bankroll of 2000$ and had planned to deposit 2000 every year after the summer season was over. so the winter was now here an i didnt have much winter work going on (i work construction so somtimes it gets slow) but this allowed me to put plenty of time into poker, and i did.
with a refreshed bankroll i was back at the 100nl tables right where i left off... losing. this time it was a lot slower and it took me about 5-6 months before i actually had to move down to 50nl, although it was slower this time around i found myself repeating the same rountine as the year before and slowly moving down in stakes. i was learning along the way and im gald i kinda did play at the bigger stakes as some points because it gave me a feel of how the games are when you play bigger. the summer season rolled around again and i had to cut back on my volume of poker due to my summer job but i still played everyday. i believe i was at 25nl at this point and pretty much for most of the summer, but right around the end of summer and fall either my play caught up to me or i hit a downswing and had to move down to 10nl. it was getting close to the end of the summer season and i was back to where i was the year before and was pretty dissapointed.
at this time i started to think about poker more and get more involved it the right ways of doing things and started to go a little more in depth into my own play. i was also starting to frequent 2+2 and reading poker blogs. i decided to start this blog as well one reason to try and help me with my own play. a lot of the blogs i was reading were of regulars of course but they were mostly mass tabling from 16-24 tables. and obviously making money at it. my bankroll at this time was 300$ and after reading these blogs an idea came into my head that i wanted to start 24 tabling.
there were a few thaughts in my head at the time. i new about holdem manager but never baught it. i wasnt against it i just felt like id be cheating myself out of playing "pure" poker, also i hadnt spent any of my fpp's an had about 90,000. i dont really remember what i was saving them for, i think one of the cash bonuses but i had a new plan for them. i was going to play the sunday million 5,400 fpp's 10-man satalites and they reward the last 4 players. these satalites are actually really good way to earn a seat or tourney dollars if you can beat them. so i started playing them, and quickly found that i had a knack for them i won 50% of the ones i entered, the first one i played i won and was sitting with a sunday million ticket or the tourney dollars. i have always wanted to play the sunday million so i told myself that i would play this once and any other satalites i won i would just use the tourney dollars. the tourney went ok and i was able to cash just after the bubble winning an extra like 75$ from the original buy in. then i spent about half my fpp's on the satalites and after redeeming the tourney dollars i was sitting with a bankrolly of 1200 and instantly jumped into 50nl and pretty much instantly had to move down lol. i was back at 25nl for a while before i had to move down there as well now sitting at 10nl with i think 100$ in my account i used the rest of my fpp's and was able to get myself back to 1200 i believe. this time i took it easy and stayed at 10nl. i still had the idea that after the summer season was over that i would 24 table 10nl, i also decided that i was going to give myself 100 buyins at every level up to 10nl so i was going to give myself a bankroll of 1750, i was able to win about 5 buyins at 10nl before the end of my summer season so i was sitting at 1250$. i also decided that once i started to 24 table that i was going to get holdem manager as well as table ninja to make 24 tabling easier. i purchased holdem manager about a month before my summer season was done and instantly was able to spot leaks as well as other usefull information about my own play, at this point is when i started to take things more serious.
through the whole summer season i had been thinking of the upcoming winter. i new it was most likely going to be another slow winter and living in alaska in the winter is a bit of a drag, specially for a young guy like me. i do like winter activities but i was getting a bit bored and decided for a change. the change was VEGAS BABY!!. now i wasnt going to go to vegas to become some poker pro or chase a dream of becoming a high roller or anything like that. this winter for me was more about a life experience more than anything else, but lets face it i was going to put my fare share of time in at the tables as well... ( to be continued)
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
my "poker story"
so its been a little bit since my last post but like i said i was going to do a vegas recap, and i decided to also add in my poker story and then end it with my vegas trip recap since thats the end of my poker experience untill the future. so this will porobablly be a 2 part story and myabe a long story so your forwarned but ill try and bring out the interesting facts, so with out no further wait i present to you
askillz2 poker story: dreaming of real life...
my first memory of poker was a pretty bland memory i believe it was late in my junior year and i was home at night time flipping through the channels on t.v. looking for somthing to watch and for some god awfull reason i stopped on espn while one of the old episodes of wsop was playing i think it was actually the 2003 main event but i cant really remember that well. but i do remember all the "all ins" it showed in the 20 minutes that i was watching it. at the time it was kind of interesting but i had no idea what they were doing and what the actuall hands were so nothing really sparked the interest. i believe it was a couple months later that i was in the same situation and i was flipping through the channels trying to rid my self of bordem and i ran across wsop again. this time there was a little more explanation in the episode and it became a little more intersting to me. over the next few months i would watch more an more poker and learned the basic hand rankings and it all started to intrigue me, then BAM! a pokerstars commercial came on one of the commercial breaks and i seen them a few times and then a marble in my head started to roll around and i got the idea of actually learning how to play poker and downloaded the software, and so started the epic roller coaster that was to become askillz2. when i started i downloaded the play money version of pokerstars and still remember the feeling i had which was "holly crap im doing somthing illegal". and thats pretty much how i felt i really had no idea wether playing poker online was legal or not even if it was for play money, mainly because i was under 21 at the time so yeah i was very uninformed of the actuall legality of poker. didnt matter though an i quickly started playing play money tournaments, the very first tournament i played i was nervous through the whole thing and by whole thing i mean the first 10 minutes untill i busted out with somthing like 2nd pair. from that point i played the play money tournaments every once in a while maybe everyother day or somthing just like one tourney a night or somthing, and then it turned into every night i was playing a play money tourney, and then i went to a whole nother extreme and started playing 2 tourneys a night. that was a big step, not really but yeah i started to progress into my intrest in learning poker. at this time i believe i just turned 20 and still had very little experience with poker but was doing ok in the play money tournaments and was actually up 150k in play chips so i thaught i was doing well lol. from there i got a couple books and started getting interested in learning the basics of poker, and at the time i had a pretty basic style of tight fit or fold poker style, but poker started to become fun to me and i like winning even though it was all for play money i started to get very involved in the game. i didnt really start thinking deep about the game untill later in my experience but ill get to that. and then my 21st birthday was coming quickly and the thaught of vegas quickly ran through my head and before i could really decide on the specifics i knew i was going there for my 21st. about 2 weeks before my 21st i decided to actually start depositing real money online and try and win more. i didnt really have a plan on what i was trying to achieve but i just wanted to win, so i deposited 500$ and started playing tournaments. i think i started playing 10$ tourneys and maybe the ocassional 15$ tourney and i wasnt making a dime. i think i actually ran through that 500$ within the first 2 weeks right before i heaed off to vegas. when i got to vegas i had some tourneys alreay lined out and i think i took 3000$ with me. the deepstack exstravaganza was going on at the venetian and those are the tourneys that i mostly played in which were a 330$ buyin. the first tourney i played i busted out about halfway through, but the second tourney i played i actually got rather deep and busted out in 16th from a field of 360 and won 900$ which was pretty cool. i think i only entered 4 or 5 more tourneys the rest of the trip but not cashing in any of them, i had a couple other things i was going to do in my week i was in vegas but i quickly found myself more interested in playing poker and thats what the trip turned into. vegas was also the first time i played cashed games. i believe i busted out of a tournament and walked over to the mirage to check out there poker room and decied to take a seat in a 1/2 nl game, no suprise i lost i only played at the cash game tables 3 times but nothing really came out of it. so it came time to leave vegas back for home, i left the trip down in money like 1500 or somthing but to me it was more of a birthday trip and fun time than actually there to make a lot of money but i was still trying to win. when i got back home i quickly deposited another 500$ onto pokerstars and started where i left off...losing i didnt really see any huge success from the tournaments i was playing and was strating to get dissapointed, i mean i had a couple scores here or there but nothing really huge i think my biggest win was 900 online but that didnt counter balance my loses. i decided to try a new plan of attack and started playing the double or nothings, at first i was doing ok in them i think i was playing the 5 dollar ones, but then just like the tourneys i eventually lost there as well, at that point i was down 1500$ i decided ill deposit 500$ and if i lose then ill quit playing, but realistically if i would have lost i probablly would have still played and deposited in the future. so i deposited another 500 and was playing double or nothing when one day i saw a guy with supernova vip, i was like wooahhh im only silver star i asked him how he got to be super nova and he said playing cash games, i asked if he thaught that was a better way to make money and he sayed yeah he thaught so. so the next day i started playing at the cash game tables. i remebered in vegas they had the 1/2nl games and they didnt seem to horribly difficult so surley i could beat .50/1$ online right, which wasnt the case and people online know how hard 100nl is for a beginning player specially one with no cashgame experience. so with no suprise i quickly lost 300$ then like magic i hit a heater to save my career and in 2 weeks i won 1900 and from all my deposits i was now sitting 200$ up. i ened up having to stop playing for a few months while i was away for work with no internet connection but i had a couple poker books with me to keep me company... (to be continued)
askillz2 poker story: dreaming of real life...
my first memory of poker was a pretty bland memory i believe it was late in my junior year and i was home at night time flipping through the channels on t.v. looking for somthing to watch and for some god awfull reason i stopped on espn while one of the old episodes of wsop was playing i think it was actually the 2003 main event but i cant really remember that well. but i do remember all the "all ins" it showed in the 20 minutes that i was watching it. at the time it was kind of interesting but i had no idea what they were doing and what the actuall hands were so nothing really sparked the interest. i believe it was a couple months later that i was in the same situation and i was flipping through the channels trying to rid my self of bordem and i ran across wsop again. this time there was a little more explanation in the episode and it became a little more intersting to me. over the next few months i would watch more an more poker and learned the basic hand rankings and it all started to intrigue me, then BAM! a pokerstars commercial came on one of the commercial breaks and i seen them a few times and then a marble in my head started to roll around and i got the idea of actually learning how to play poker and downloaded the software, and so started the epic roller coaster that was to become askillz2. when i started i downloaded the play money version of pokerstars and still remember the feeling i had which was "holly crap im doing somthing illegal". and thats pretty much how i felt i really had no idea wether playing poker online was legal or not even if it was for play money, mainly because i was under 21 at the time so yeah i was very uninformed of the actuall legality of poker. didnt matter though an i quickly started playing play money tournaments, the very first tournament i played i was nervous through the whole thing and by whole thing i mean the first 10 minutes untill i busted out with somthing like 2nd pair. from that point i played the play money tournaments every once in a while maybe everyother day or somthing just like one tourney a night or somthing, and then it turned into every night i was playing a play money tourney, and then i went to a whole nother extreme and started playing 2 tourneys a night. that was a big step, not really but yeah i started to progress into my intrest in learning poker. at this time i believe i just turned 20 and still had very little experience with poker but was doing ok in the play money tournaments and was actually up 150k in play chips so i thaught i was doing well lol. from there i got a couple books and started getting interested in learning the basics of poker, and at the time i had a pretty basic style of tight fit or fold poker style, but poker started to become fun to me and i like winning even though it was all for play money i started to get very involved in the game. i didnt really start thinking deep about the game untill later in my experience but ill get to that. and then my 21st birthday was coming quickly and the thaught of vegas quickly ran through my head and before i could really decide on the specifics i knew i was going there for my 21st. about 2 weeks before my 21st i decided to actually start depositing real money online and try and win more. i didnt really have a plan on what i was trying to achieve but i just wanted to win, so i deposited 500$ and started playing tournaments. i think i started playing 10$ tourneys and maybe the ocassional 15$ tourney and i wasnt making a dime. i think i actually ran through that 500$ within the first 2 weeks right before i heaed off to vegas. when i got to vegas i had some tourneys alreay lined out and i think i took 3000$ with me. the deepstack exstravaganza was going on at the venetian and those are the tourneys that i mostly played in which were a 330$ buyin. the first tourney i played i busted out about halfway through, but the second tourney i played i actually got rather deep and busted out in 16th from a field of 360 and won 900$ which was pretty cool. i think i only entered 4 or 5 more tourneys the rest of the trip but not cashing in any of them, i had a couple other things i was going to do in my week i was in vegas but i quickly found myself more interested in playing poker and thats what the trip turned into. vegas was also the first time i played cashed games. i believe i busted out of a tournament and walked over to the mirage to check out there poker room and decied to take a seat in a 1/2 nl game, no suprise i lost i only played at the cash game tables 3 times but nothing really came out of it. so it came time to leave vegas back for home, i left the trip down in money like 1500 or somthing but to me it was more of a birthday trip and fun time than actually there to make a lot of money but i was still trying to win. when i got back home i quickly deposited another 500$ onto pokerstars and started where i left off...losing i didnt really see any huge success from the tournaments i was playing and was strating to get dissapointed, i mean i had a couple scores here or there but nothing really huge i think my biggest win was 900 online but that didnt counter balance my loses. i decided to try a new plan of attack and started playing the double or nothings, at first i was doing ok in them i think i was playing the 5 dollar ones, but then just like the tourneys i eventually lost there as well, at that point i was down 1500$ i decided ill deposit 500$ and if i lose then ill quit playing, but realistically if i would have lost i probablly would have still played and deposited in the future. so i deposited another 500 and was playing double or nothing when one day i saw a guy with supernova vip, i was like wooahhh im only silver star i asked him how he got to be super nova and he said playing cash games, i asked if he thaught that was a better way to make money and he sayed yeah he thaught so. so the next day i started playing at the cash game tables. i remebered in vegas they had the 1/2nl games and they didnt seem to horribly difficult so surley i could beat .50/1$ online right, which wasnt the case and people online know how hard 100nl is for a beginning player specially one with no cashgame experience. so with no suprise i quickly lost 300$ then like magic i hit a heater to save my career and in 2 weeks i won 1900 and from all my deposits i was now sitting 200$ up. i ened up having to stop playing for a few months while i was away for work with no internet connection but i had a couple poker books with me to keep me company... (to be continued)
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
thats a wrap
so a little bad news, well i wouldnt call it bad news but kinda a dissapointment is that im leaving vegas on friday. partly because of poker this week and also because of my mental state. so to recap on the poker i did play which was only one day, in the first hour i played AK pretty aggressivley and shoved the turn when a board showed j 6 2 with two dimonds turn was a blank 5 and he called relatively quickly and river was another jack and he showed j 4 of spades, so thinking most players at 2/5 can laydown a pair with horrible kicker to a turn shove is an understatment but guess i was wrong. then 30 minutes later i get into a 3 way pot and turn a straight on a paired board with a verry loose and splashy player and get it all in and i end up running into the top of his range and he has a boat. saaweeet. so in an hour and a half i lost 1000$ and that is the fastest and most ive ever lost, so guess i can leave here with another accomplishment.
after that day wich was monday i decided ive been on a bit of a downswing for the past week besides one really good day, im just going to cut my losses and get out of here before i lose more. in all retrospect i really dont need to leave untill the end of the month but there are a couple of decisions that pushed me towards leaving on friday. i know some of you are probablly like your crazy why would you want to leve vegas 2 weeks earlier than you have to. i think the main reason is so that i can get everything setup in alaska so i can start my summer work and not be rushed to find an apartment and everything. also ive decided to drive back up, my original intentions were to keep my stuff in washington fly up and get a cheap ride for the summer and then fly back down to washington after the summer season but its cheaper to just drive up so why waste the money, although im really not looking forward to the drive cause ive drove it twice already and allthough it is pretty its very long and boring but yeah. also im going to be talking to some top guys in washington about my job so if they wanted me to work there for a couple weeks before going up to ak then it give me an oportunity to do so. so those are the main reasons as to why im leaving a little early but also my mind frame is just set to leave and once somthings in my head i dont really change the plan and losing that last 1000$ just pushed me even more to leave on friday. to recap my winnings though between live poker and online poker i am leaving here up 11,000$ which actually is way above my expectations and i can consider this trip an all around success seeing how i just wanted to at least break even this winter while making my game fundamentally sound. i will go more into all the details about the trip and my progress in my vegas recap which will probablly be my next post. if you add up all my monthly winnings on the right of the page though there a little off on the calculations and i should have 1350$ more in profit there somwhere so ill just say this month i made 1350 which might actually be true since i didnt keep track of my 2/5 winnings really. as for now ive been cleaning up and packing my apartment up and getting ready for the road so not to much else besides that. whenever there is a time for me to play poker though im giving myself a 12,750 dollar bankroll. between my winnings from live poker and my already existing bankroll online thats what it comes out to. i never intended to use the money i put up for my live bankroll to be used for poker so i took that out of the equation and just added my net winnings from live and my online roll so whenever its time to grind in the future thats what i will be starting with. so i think this post is long enough. next post will be my vegas recap and ill talk about my expeirience and things about my trip and poker so keep tuned for that
after that day wich was monday i decided ive been on a bit of a downswing for the past week besides one really good day, im just going to cut my losses and get out of here before i lose more. in all retrospect i really dont need to leave untill the end of the month but there are a couple of decisions that pushed me towards leaving on friday. i know some of you are probablly like your crazy why would you want to leve vegas 2 weeks earlier than you have to. i think the main reason is so that i can get everything setup in alaska so i can start my summer work and not be rushed to find an apartment and everything. also ive decided to drive back up, my original intentions were to keep my stuff in washington fly up and get a cheap ride for the summer and then fly back down to washington after the summer season but its cheaper to just drive up so why waste the money, although im really not looking forward to the drive cause ive drove it twice already and allthough it is pretty its very long and boring but yeah. also im going to be talking to some top guys in washington about my job so if they wanted me to work there for a couple weeks before going up to ak then it give me an oportunity to do so. so those are the main reasons as to why im leaving a little early but also my mind frame is just set to leave and once somthings in my head i dont really change the plan and losing that last 1000$ just pushed me even more to leave on friday. to recap my winnings though between live poker and online poker i am leaving here up 11,000$ which actually is way above my expectations and i can consider this trip an all around success seeing how i just wanted to at least break even this winter while making my game fundamentally sound. i will go more into all the details about the trip and my progress in my vegas recap which will probablly be my next post. if you add up all my monthly winnings on the right of the page though there a little off on the calculations and i should have 1350$ more in profit there somwhere so ill just say this month i made 1350 which might actually be true since i didnt keep track of my 2/5 winnings really. as for now ive been cleaning up and packing my apartment up and getting ready for the road so not to much else besides that. whenever there is a time for me to play poker though im giving myself a 12,750 dollar bankroll. between my winnings from live poker and my already existing bankroll online thats what it comes out to. i never intended to use the money i put up for my live bankroll to be used for poker so i took that out of the equation and just added my net winnings from live and my online roll so whenever its time to grind in the future thats what i will be starting with. so i think this post is long enough. next post will be my vegas recap and ill talk about my expeirience and things about my trip and poker so keep tuned for that
Sunday, May 8, 2011
the end is nigh
well this is unfortunately my last week here in vegas and possibly my last week of any kind of poker for a while. ill be on my way back up to AK on the 15th and i think my last day of actually playing poker might be on friday, which is when ill turn off my electricity and my internet so ill probablly do one more post before that to do one final review. when i get up to alaska ill make sure to do a vegas recap and talk about a lot of stuff relating to my expeirience in vegas and poker and my thuahgts about it. also since i wont be playing any more poker since alaska has no poker what so ever, this blog is kinda run its course. im not going to stop blogging cause it turns out i actually like to do it, but as far as it being a poker blog i wont have to much poker to talk about. instead my posts are gonna be more about me approaching girls and my life happenings and things of that sorts, so if you guys are still interested about some things i do ill make sure to have some interesting things to talk about, at least you might get a laugh from them. but yeah once i get back up to alaska ill have about a month before i start working again so ill have plenty of time to do other things which is why ill be chasing a lot of skirts, also i used to skateboard a lot so i think i might get back into it a little just for recreation.
now to talk about whats happening now in my life, poker has been hit or miss this week. i did get my self back on track since my last post but it turns out im going through a little bit of a varriance problem. but i am ending the week up a little over 1200$ so it isnt so bad, but i have been running kinda crappy the last few days including yeasterday running into boat over boat ughh. but yeah hopefully i can make a little somthin of next week and end this trip on a high note,
on a side note pokerstars was letting the u.s. players cash in their fpp's and i was able to get 300$ for mine so thats a plus. also i have a old friend that lives here from highschool we hung out once when i first got here but i told him i was leaving and he wanted to hang out again so we did we went to this bar and grill place and got some food and played pool and had a couple drinks and stuff and then his brother showed up and told us about this bar in dowtown vegas where its like an arcade/bar which sounds pretty cool, so we left and went there. we got there and it actually was pretty cool they had like 20-25 old style arcade games ranging from tekken to galaga and there was actually decent looking females in there as well although my interest wasnt really into females as much as it was playing games. seems like im kinda giving up on club girls, not so much the girls but trying to carry a conversation in a loud club kinda sucks. but the place even had a live dj and dance floor and everything it was actually a pretty poppin spot and i really like the concept, only problem was it was on fremont street, if anyone know vegas and downtown vegas they know its a little sketchy and the place had a little sketch to it. wasnt too bad but i think i saw a couple tweekers there to give you an idea of what i ment. but we had fun and i wish there were more places like that anyway so thats pretty much the excitment for the week ill post again in about 5 days or so, so till then stay wrapped up
now to talk about whats happening now in my life, poker has been hit or miss this week. i did get my self back on track since my last post but it turns out im going through a little bit of a varriance problem. but i am ending the week up a little over 1200$ so it isnt so bad, but i have been running kinda crappy the last few days including yeasterday running into boat over boat ughh. but yeah hopefully i can make a little somthin of next week and end this trip on a high note,
on a side note pokerstars was letting the u.s. players cash in their fpp's and i was able to get 300$ for mine so thats a plus. also i have a old friend that lives here from highschool we hung out once when i first got here but i told him i was leaving and he wanted to hang out again so we did we went to this bar and grill place and got some food and played pool and had a couple drinks and stuff and then his brother showed up and told us about this bar in dowtown vegas where its like an arcade/bar which sounds pretty cool, so we left and went there. we got there and it actually was pretty cool they had like 20-25 old style arcade games ranging from tekken to galaga and there was actually decent looking females in there as well although my interest wasnt really into females as much as it was playing games. seems like im kinda giving up on club girls, not so much the girls but trying to carry a conversation in a loud club kinda sucks. but the place even had a live dj and dance floor and everything it was actually a pretty poppin spot and i really like the concept, only problem was it was on fremont street, if anyone know vegas and downtown vegas they know its a little sketchy and the place had a little sketch to it. wasnt too bad but i think i saw a couple tweekers there to give you an idea of what i ment. but we had fun and i wish there were more places like that anyway so thats pretty much the excitment for the week ill post again in about 5 days or so, so till then stay wrapped up
Saturday, April 30, 2011
april review
so the end of this month turned out to be a total disaster but ill get to that in a bit. turns out this month has been a huge roller coaster of highs and lows. guess ill start with the life portion of it, the begining of the month was decent went clubbing once and the went to the opening of rehab at the hard rock (beach club). and the rest of the month hasnt been to exciting and not much has happend. as for poker im on a wild ride with loops and sharp curves. well to start it off online poker was going ok for what i did play and then boom death switch to online poker and now its illegal and no u.s. players can play so that was like an ultimate bad beat. and live poker for most of the month was going good seemed like i was running really hot and things were going really well, so well i was able to step up to the 2/5 games with 20 buyins for that level (ontop of my 1/2 bankroll). and things started off decent, won decent on the first day, pulled a horrible bluff the next day for my stack, then the next three days were awesome and wona totall of 4 buyins. and then there are these last 3 days of the month. ohhhhh if only there was a rewind button... where do i begin so on the 28th was just a bad luck day, i was card dead for most of the time i played and when i picked up a hand and flopped top 2 the guy had bottom set on a drawy board so i can chalk that up as varriance, then theres the 29th.
this day had to do with ego issues and ill get more into that in a bit. but to start the day off i was down like 30-40bb's nothing to crazy just how the hands went i guess then this guy 3 bets me from the button i call trying to set mine and wiff the flop of A 2 6, the flop has 2 dimonds and i think i can rep a lot on the turn so i flat his flop bet, turns a K of dimonds and i lead out for just over half pot, he calls and the rivers a blank and i shove and he tanks for a minute or so and calls with AQ no dimond, so i was repping a set or flush or possible AK but i guess it looked fishy or somthing idk it is kinda in the air between a smart bluf that just got called or suicide who knows. then theres today. started off the day decently and within a few orbits pretty much doubled up. then was card dead for an hour or so, mean while theres 2 lags at the table one to my left and there just thorwing money around. i finally get into a pot with the guy to my left theres 2 limpers and i raise to 30$ with AQ in the sb, lag to my left 3bets to 120$ gets folded to me and i thaught for a bit hes been super active and bluffing a lot but ive never seen him three bet. anyway i 4 bet and he shoves and now i have to call and he has AK and holds up, he only had 500 at that point so it left me with 200$ left. then like 3 hands later theres 1 limper and i raise withAQ again splashly like im steamed and everyone folds to the limper who calls. flop comes 7 high and we both check turn is a Q and he checks and i bet like 50$ splashy like again. he calls and the river is a 7 and he shoves, i call and he shows 5 7 to put salt in the wound, guy to my left also says he had a 7 for the case 7...sweet. so thats how the end of my month went.
moving up to 2/5 has affected my play dramatically these last 3 days and ive had a lot of mental wars going on in my head, basically meta gaming with my self. my first thaught is that these players are on an upper level and now i need to be on the next level above taht to win. wich isnt the case cause that mostly involves me trying to out bluff them in wrong spots like on the 29th. that has happend to me before as well when ive moved up stakes online i felt i needed to be super aggressive at the next level when i really didnt and it quickly ruined me. ive read that when your moving up you usually dont need to change your game that much, and i feel like ive been pressure myself beyond my comfort to make plays i dont normally make to try and be a winning player at the higher level, which i just need to play my normal game and im glad ive caught myself before its way too late. another thing that has been driving me crazy is the players at 2/5 i think the aria has got worse since the internet has shut down, and what i mean by that is that most of the people from the interwebs are starting to play there and also venetian a little too. ive met a couple of them and that was cool and everything but the problem is that they are either 100nl online players or above, which makes the games pretty difficult which i knew was going to happen, and it also made me think that usually theres only 3-5 2/5nl games going and say if all the players were winning players where is the money to be won, your basically trading coolers and maybe getting lucky here and there but in the long run are you really going to win that much against regulars, which you wont. the money to be won is from the bad players wich aria doesnt seem to have that much of. it just made me think if the only games that are offered are games with winning players why do you sit in them unless you know you are gonna be the winner right. its just a lot of thaughts going through my head, and ive decided to take tomorrow off and just recollect everything and get myself back into the zone to where i was playing profitable and not some agro kid putting his money in bad. i still do believe over the long run ill be a winning player at 2/5 specially if i had more time and more of a sample but for the next two weeks i need to really just play smart and not get myself into those bad situations. thankfully i am still up in profit for the month and it was going to turn into a super stellar month if i didnt go and fuck it all up but heres the results wich are still my best to date
online:+50$
live: +2950$
my live roll now sits at 12,500. and my online roll im getting off online since theres no more interweb poke for me :(
this day had to do with ego issues and ill get more into that in a bit. but to start the day off i was down like 30-40bb's nothing to crazy just how the hands went i guess then this guy 3 bets me from the button i call trying to set mine and wiff the flop of A 2 6, the flop has 2 dimonds and i think i can rep a lot on the turn so i flat his flop bet, turns a K of dimonds and i lead out for just over half pot, he calls and the rivers a blank and i shove and he tanks for a minute or so and calls with AQ no dimond, so i was repping a set or flush or possible AK but i guess it looked fishy or somthing idk it is kinda in the air between a smart bluf that just got called or suicide who knows. then theres today. started off the day decently and within a few orbits pretty much doubled up. then was card dead for an hour or so, mean while theres 2 lags at the table one to my left and there just thorwing money around. i finally get into a pot with the guy to my left theres 2 limpers and i raise to 30$ with AQ in the sb, lag to my left 3bets to 120$ gets folded to me and i thaught for a bit hes been super active and bluffing a lot but ive never seen him three bet. anyway i 4 bet and he shoves and now i have to call and he has AK and holds up, he only had 500 at that point so it left me with 200$ left. then like 3 hands later theres 1 limper and i raise withAQ again splashly like im steamed and everyone folds to the limper who calls. flop comes 7 high and we both check turn is a Q and he checks and i bet like 50$ splashy like again. he calls and the river is a 7 and he shoves, i call and he shows 5 7 to put salt in the wound, guy to my left also says he had a 7 for the case 7...sweet. so thats how the end of my month went.
moving up to 2/5 has affected my play dramatically these last 3 days and ive had a lot of mental wars going on in my head, basically meta gaming with my self. my first thaught is that these players are on an upper level and now i need to be on the next level above taht to win. wich isnt the case cause that mostly involves me trying to out bluff them in wrong spots like on the 29th. that has happend to me before as well when ive moved up stakes online i felt i needed to be super aggressive at the next level when i really didnt and it quickly ruined me. ive read that when your moving up you usually dont need to change your game that much, and i feel like ive been pressure myself beyond my comfort to make plays i dont normally make to try and be a winning player at the higher level, which i just need to play my normal game and im glad ive caught myself before its way too late. another thing that has been driving me crazy is the players at 2/5 i think the aria has got worse since the internet has shut down, and what i mean by that is that most of the people from the interwebs are starting to play there and also venetian a little too. ive met a couple of them and that was cool and everything but the problem is that they are either 100nl online players or above, which makes the games pretty difficult which i knew was going to happen, and it also made me think that usually theres only 3-5 2/5nl games going and say if all the players were winning players where is the money to be won, your basically trading coolers and maybe getting lucky here and there but in the long run are you really going to win that much against regulars, which you wont. the money to be won is from the bad players wich aria doesnt seem to have that much of. it just made me think if the only games that are offered are games with winning players why do you sit in them unless you know you are gonna be the winner right. its just a lot of thaughts going through my head, and ive decided to take tomorrow off and just recollect everything and get myself back into the zone to where i was playing profitable and not some agro kid putting his money in bad. i still do believe over the long run ill be a winning player at 2/5 specially if i had more time and more of a sample but for the next two weeks i need to really just play smart and not get myself into those bad situations. thankfully i am still up in profit for the month and it was going to turn into a super stellar month if i didnt go and fuck it all up but heres the results wich are still my best to date
online:+50$
live: +2950$
my live roll now sits at 12,500. and my online roll im getting off online since theres no more interweb poke for me :(
Thursday, April 28, 2011
2/5 thus far
so yesterday was a very intersting day but ill talk abou that in a little bit. so far since my last post 2/5 has been going very smoothly. they always say its verry good to run good when you move up and it seems like im doing just that. the first day after my last post i won 750$, then next day i won 850$ i was up to 1000$ but just lost some minor pots at the end of my session. and then there was yesterday. to start off the day there was only 3 2/5 games going at the aria when i got there which wasnt that big of a deal it usually gets busy there around 9pm so i ended up sitting at a table with "ice man" hes been interviewed at the world series and some of you may know who im talking about big gangster looking dude.
anyway theres probablly a reason he plays 2/5 and 5/10, becasue playing with him i could tell he wasnt very good. but anyway to start the day off right second hand i get i pick up 45 of spades and there 4 limpers in front of me so i limp and a couple more people limp. flop comes 2 3 8 with two dimonds and one spade. it gets checked to me and i bet like 15$ into a 30$ pot and 2 people call. the turn is a 7 of spades... yahtzee. gets checked to me and i bet 65$ guy to my left raises to 165$ which would leave me with like 250$ in my stack i sit there for like 30 seconds to act like im thinking and push the rest in. he thinks for a while and calls. river is a jack and i show the straight and he muck, he said he had a set wich makes sense. but yeah that was a very decent way to start the day with a 500$ double up. from there i fell a little bit maybe to only being 300 up and then hit some cards i dont remember the hand but at one point i was up 800$ then it kinda seemed like i was just in a little downswing and couldnt really win any pots and fell to only being 250 up. i eventually won a couple hands and got it back to being 500$ up and then BAM!
jamie gold sits down 2 to my left he was there with some guy and they were ordering food he didnt really seem like he was playing that serious, but ive also read in a couple places that hes pretty much busto which could be another reason he was at a 2/5 table who knows. anyway he dropped like 500 in a couple hours after finishing his food and him and his friend left, after that i really couldnt get anything going again and lost 200$ to the table drunk who rivered a full house vs my straight wich wasnt that big of a deal, only 40 bb's i left about an hour later only leaving 200$ up. i felt kinda bad yesterday cause i was up 800$ and i was only leaving up 200 wich sucked but i was still leaving with decent profit so it was a good night, but full of swings and strange encounters and turned out to be a verry interesting day. to kinda extend on my experience with 2/5 it seems it more of a player game than anything else. like at 1/2 your mostly playing a profitable style and you can see decent returns usually. but at 2/5 your more so playing the table and the players and counter acting there style to be able to win money. sometimes the games seem like 10nl and sometimes they seem like 25nl really just depends on the players. but in the end i feel i can be a decent winner at 2/5 and i have 2 weeks left to try and do so. well next time i post will be my monthly review and you can expect it to be my best month unless i get doom swithced, wich will probablly happen now that ive blogged about my winnings so stay tuned
anyway theres probablly a reason he plays 2/5 and 5/10, becasue playing with him i could tell he wasnt very good. but anyway to start the day off right second hand i get i pick up 45 of spades and there 4 limpers in front of me so i limp and a couple more people limp. flop comes 2 3 8 with two dimonds and one spade. it gets checked to me and i bet like 15$ into a 30$ pot and 2 people call. the turn is a 7 of spades... yahtzee. gets checked to me and i bet 65$ guy to my left raises to 165$ which would leave me with like 250$ in my stack i sit there for like 30 seconds to act like im thinking and push the rest in. he thinks for a while and calls. river is a jack and i show the straight and he muck, he said he had a set wich makes sense. but yeah that was a very decent way to start the day with a 500$ double up. from there i fell a little bit maybe to only being 300 up and then hit some cards i dont remember the hand but at one point i was up 800$ then it kinda seemed like i was just in a little downswing and couldnt really win any pots and fell to only being 250 up. i eventually won a couple hands and got it back to being 500$ up and then BAM!
jamie gold sits down 2 to my left he was there with some guy and they were ordering food he didnt really seem like he was playing that serious, but ive also read in a couple places that hes pretty much busto which could be another reason he was at a 2/5 table who knows. anyway he dropped like 500 in a couple hours after finishing his food and him and his friend left, after that i really couldnt get anything going again and lost 200$ to the table drunk who rivered a full house vs my straight wich wasnt that big of a deal, only 40 bb's i left about an hour later only leaving 200$ up. i felt kinda bad yesterday cause i was up 800$ and i was only leaving up 200 wich sucked but i was still leaving with decent profit so it was a good night, but full of swings and strange encounters and turned out to be a verry interesting day. to kinda extend on my experience with 2/5 it seems it more of a player game than anything else. like at 1/2 your mostly playing a profitable style and you can see decent returns usually. but at 2/5 your more so playing the table and the players and counter acting there style to be able to win money. sometimes the games seem like 10nl and sometimes they seem like 25nl really just depends on the players. but in the end i feel i can be a decent winner at 2/5 and i have 2 weeks left to try and do so. well next time i post will be my monthly review and you can expect it to be my best month unless i get doom swithced, wich will probablly happen now that ive blogged about my winnings so stay tuned
Sunday, April 24, 2011
sunday recap
so this week had a little bit of excitment. i started off playing 1/3 for the first few days and was running pretty hot, i think there were 3 instances where i was behind in big pots and ended up winning so thats always a plus. then i took a couple days off for myself and was really conidering playing thw wsop circuit event on the 23rd but decided not to. ill have plenty of more chances to play a decent tourney like that in the future but that had the "wsop" logo, so it woulda been cool but wasnt at the top of my priority. i decided instead to try out 2/5 the first session i played was at the aria and went pretty decent coming out 340 up but today i went to the venetian to play and things werent really going so hot lost 200 in the begining just from normal situations then won it back in a decent pot and then i played this horrific hand.
utg limped i was utg +1 and had QQ and raised to 25, guy to my left 3bets to 75$ everyone folds to me and i flat call. the flop comes A 3 6, i chck and he checks. for some god afull reason i instantly put him on kings wich isnt that horibble of a thaught, its what i did next that makes the hand a disaster. the turn is a J i lead out for 100 into a 150$ pot. first mistake was turning my hand with showdown value into a bluff, the only hand i would possibly get to fold would be kk. if he slowplayed AK or AA i was already beat and now if he had JJ he had a set, the second mistake was i really only had to bet 80 or 85 wich would have done the same thing as 100 in that spot. so he flats. the river is a like a 4 or somthing and i bet 200 into a 350$ pot i dont mind that bet if the guy actually had kk but i was quick to find out he didnt when he said raise and i quickly folded. right after that he said he had JJ for a set on the turn. so after playing that hand about as bad as i could possibly play it i left shortly after. i wasnt on tilt or anything i just felt upset at myself mostly for turning a strong hand with showdown value into a bluff wich i hardly do unless im prety sure im beat and i can get them to fold. but in that hand i was jsut being a spewtard mashing the bet button.
altough ive only played 2/5 for a couple days i was able to notice the differences between 1/2, and 2/5 the main thing is that its a little bit more aggressive and it seems most of the players understand abc poker for the most part. depending on the table theres only about 3 bad players to take advantage of compared to 1/2 where the whole table might be bad players. players at 2/5 are generally tighter although the first 2/5 game i played in was a little on the loose side, i guess it just depends on the players but in general the players are a little better. also i started to notice myself thinking on the next "level" while playing 2/5 and it usually goes along the lines of what does he think i have, or what have i been representing. all in all though i feel like i can beat 2/5. when i was playing 1/2 i was beating it for 8-10bb/100 hands but at 2/5 i think i can hold a winrate of like 4-5bb/100 hands depending on the game selection. thats another thing usually 1/2 games have about twice as many tables going than 2/5 so you have more to choose from but thats not that much of negative. all in all though if you can beat 25nl online than i belive you can beat 2/5
so tomorrow im calling my union to see where my names at on the list and if its coming up pretty soon than this might be my last week here, but if i still got a ways to go than i will probablly stay here till the middle of may maybe. which would be nice and fun to be able to play 2/5 for a few weeks. im already happy that i was able to win enough to play 2/5 so hopefully i can hold my own with the time i have left here and dont lose all my profits so next time i post will probablly be the monthly recap and possibly my winter in vegas recap so stay tuned for that
utg limped i was utg +1 and had QQ and raised to 25, guy to my left 3bets to 75$ everyone folds to me and i flat call. the flop comes A 3 6, i chck and he checks. for some god afull reason i instantly put him on kings wich isnt that horibble of a thaught, its what i did next that makes the hand a disaster. the turn is a J i lead out for 100 into a 150$ pot. first mistake was turning my hand with showdown value into a bluff, the only hand i would possibly get to fold would be kk. if he slowplayed AK or AA i was already beat and now if he had JJ he had a set, the second mistake was i really only had to bet 80 or 85 wich would have done the same thing as 100 in that spot. so he flats. the river is a like a 4 or somthing and i bet 200 into a 350$ pot i dont mind that bet if the guy actually had kk but i was quick to find out he didnt when he said raise and i quickly folded. right after that he said he had JJ for a set on the turn. so after playing that hand about as bad as i could possibly play it i left shortly after. i wasnt on tilt or anything i just felt upset at myself mostly for turning a strong hand with showdown value into a bluff wich i hardly do unless im prety sure im beat and i can get them to fold. but in that hand i was jsut being a spewtard mashing the bet button.
altough ive only played 2/5 for a couple days i was able to notice the differences between 1/2, and 2/5 the main thing is that its a little bit more aggressive and it seems most of the players understand abc poker for the most part. depending on the table theres only about 3 bad players to take advantage of compared to 1/2 where the whole table might be bad players. players at 2/5 are generally tighter although the first 2/5 game i played in was a little on the loose side, i guess it just depends on the players but in general the players are a little better. also i started to notice myself thinking on the next "level" while playing 2/5 and it usually goes along the lines of what does he think i have, or what have i been representing. all in all though i feel like i can beat 2/5. when i was playing 1/2 i was beating it for 8-10bb/100 hands but at 2/5 i think i can hold a winrate of like 4-5bb/100 hands depending on the game selection. thats another thing usually 1/2 games have about twice as many tables going than 2/5 so you have more to choose from but thats not that much of negative. all in all though if you can beat 25nl online than i belive you can beat 2/5
so tomorrow im calling my union to see where my names at on the list and if its coming up pretty soon than this might be my last week here, but if i still got a ways to go than i will probablly stay here till the middle of may maybe. which would be nice and fun to be able to play 2/5 for a few weeks. im already happy that i was able to win enough to play 2/5 so hopefully i can hold my own with the time i have left here and dont lose all my profits so next time i post will probablly be the monthly recap and possibly my winter in vegas recap so stay tuned for that
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