Back in Action

Been a while since I last posted........Around January I went back to playing fulltime online - Merge had added alot of tournaments and the combination of them, Cake Poker, and Bodog allowed me to get around the same amount of buy ins.....cash out options are still an issue but reasonable these days - Cake gets checks out within a week, Bodog takes a month, and Merge takes 2-4 weeks.....the good thing is I have a guy who will trade Cake for Merge at 5% vig so I can do that when I want to get money off quicker...As far as results, things have gone well this year - Im around 55-60k in profits after two big months....its nice to get back to making money after an awful 2011 where I couldn't win a hand....the variance in poker is truly remarkable and if you think you've experienced it all you probably haven't....after black friday I played live for about 6 months...I was a winner but a small one due to variance and it probably took 2-3 months to fully adjust and figure out how to play deepstacked cash against tighter players....online MTTs and live cash are so different that your going to make big mistakes transitioning.....you can fold bottom 2 pair/bottom sets/etc in live situations where online its an easy all in....outside of poker I recently got involved in a big real estate development deal.....I bought a foreclosure at an auction with my father(I put up the money, he put up the brains :)......its a 2 family house on 2 acres that we plan on knocking down and putting 10-12 brand new houses in......its a very lucrative deal and Im lucky to have his knowledge/expertise to help me out.....I'm also in the process of buying a home - I found a house close to me that Im in love with that we're currently working out the details.....its crazy to think how far I've come with poker - I remember playing 1 dollar rebuys after work with my dad and 6 dollar sit n gos....never would I imagine I would be buying a home with income from poker....anyways that's all I have for today - here's my names on the new sites if your interested in following my progress! oojoe24oo on Lock z06fanatic1 on cake

what Ive been up to since black friday

black friday was a real shock for everyone in the poker community - at first I was more shocked then anything and it really took a couple days before I started my normal weekly grind to realize it was over. Since then I've been playing live 5/10 NL for a living. Its been a struggle thus far, but I've gotten alot better over the past 2 months learning to play 200 bb deep. While financially I haven't done as well as I wanted, I've enjoyed the change of scenery - I played online for about 6 years for a living, and as you might guess, it can get very boring and monotonous. This is especially the case with 2011, as I've been running real bad. The 5/10 live grind is nice to do something different and test my skills out in a new ballgame that isn't just 30 bb stacks and very little postflop play. I've also come to appreciate money alot more and the fact that no road is going to be an easy one to travel, and overcoming the bumps along the way will make you a better person and capable of handling much more. I will continue the 5/10 grind but do hope online comes back soon.

blog is movin

I recently become part of team Pokersavvy - making some training videos for the site and will be blogging from there.

http://www.pokersavvy.com/blogs/z06fanatic/

finally a win

After a long month I finally got a win under my belt - ended up on the last day of sept winning the 75 super stack on tilt for 7k and taking 3rd in teh 40k tilt for another 4500.......felt good to finally get a win after weeks of getting shat on....with 1 win on the month you'd think my month was pretty bad considering how much I buy in for, but the 3rd in the 1/4 mil stars along with a huge month for my horse made it a pretty successful September. Im currently in the process of finding a training site to produce videos for - Ive been talking to a couple and will be joining a site soon enough. Most likely the blog will be moved there and Ill let everyone know where that turns out to be. I enjoy making training videos and helping others so it should be pretty rewarding, and its nice to have a side income thats variance free. Thats all for now - im starving and need to get some food in my body before I kill myself.

Biggest downswing ever!

since my stars 1/4 3rd place its been severely downhill......im been getting completely assraped, going on a -16k downswing......luckily my stake destroyed this month to basically cancel out the downswing so that helps but its been brutal.....I havent mined it too much though as I figured something like this was coming my way especially after crushing August...hopefully I can stop the beating soon enough - I recently played a 1k 6 max event at the Borgata the other week and ended up jamming the turn with an open ender into aces and not getting there......maybe the whole hand was spewish but I'll recap for those who care

75/150 13K effective - Ive been opening alot of pots, Ive been 3 bet a couple times and folded to all.......villan in question has 3 bet once before with a very large sizing and then showed Aces - at the same time though he is greeted by a couple other players and I hear him talking about 100rs online so I assume he has a clue what hes doing. on to the hand......I open in CO with A9 to 400 at 75/150, button folds, Villan in SB raises to 1k - it folds back to me and decide to make it 2250 to go......with a little thinking he makes the call...flop comes J87 - he checks, I cbet, he thinks for a little and calls....the turn comes a 5 - at this point I have a little over a PSB left and he checks to me so I jam - he calls, and obv has aces....now the flop/turn plays are very standard its just should I 4 bet this spot or wait for more history - his sizing looked pretty standard for a 3b bluff range to be possible - maybe I should of waited for more information though.......had he made it say 1400 I wouldnt even of thought about going the 4b route......it would of been wierd if I didnt have the open ender on the turn - not sure if Id give up at that point or what

Anyways I hate playing live and feel my live game is way behind my online game - I feel less comfortable live and it takes more time to come up with a conclusion then it does online. its something Id like to work on but my online hourly rate is way higher so Im going to stick with that. Tomorrow starts the final week of September to come out on top - Im still up over 30k for the month with the staking so its still a great month, but Id like to show some profit playing this week. gl me

3rd in 1/4 Mil Stars

Last week was a bit interesting - I had just came off the UBOC chop and was feeling great about a massive August - nearly broke my single month profit that I did in February......Wednesday was the 1st of the month and I was motivated to crush September - I started off with taking 3rd in the 50r(I believe) for about 8k......then I won the 30r cake for a massive 1600 dollars to continue to crushing - its always funny how Ill play a cake 30r or AP 50 fo where first is 1400 then ill be playing the stars 320 where first is 50k - slightly different payouts....anyways things were going good that day and I was finishing up my session with the 1/4 Mil stars, 80 sniper, and the 75k on tilt.......there were about 200 left in the Stars 1/4 mil and I had roughly 12-15 bb - I thought about how cashing would be cool considering my big day, but regardless if I did or didnt I had a good day.....anyways I had doubled up a couple times in standard spots and made it to the money......from there I just contiuned to chip up - the structure is so slow and has alot of sattiers who prob play 40-50 buy ins and satty into this, so deep with 50 or so left the play is pretty tight overall.....I was able to chip up alot without people fighting back - I had a couple lucky spots along the way as well - I remember someone opened I 3 bet 46s he called......the flop came like A49, he checked I bet he called...the turn came he checked, I decided to fire another bullet for alot of my stack and he folded.

The big turning point came where I got in AK vs KK for 60 bbs.....it was unavoidable imo and obv the KK guy was calling me a fish - short stack with 20 bbs opened and he 3 bet a standard size - I hadnt been at the table long enough to know how he had been playing but regardless Im never folding - granted his 3b is straight for value, but he should be 3b pretty wide there, 66+,AJ+ generally speaking.....anyways we got it in, I binked an ace on the turn, and boom I was CL with 12 to go.....at the final table things went well - won a flip, lost a flip, chipped up slightly and had gotten 3 handed - we talked a chop where I was offered 35k but I declined - 35k was 2nd place money and the shorty was short and I felt I had 2nd locked up alot and wanted my shot at winning a monster rahter than chopping.....long story short I bricked a fl draw and a flip and 3rd place 26k I received.

Since then Ive had very little motivation to play......Ive hit some great scores, made alot of money this year, and am not too motivated to keep grinding....furthermore Ive been golfing a ton and been enjoying that. Im sure my poker interest will reappear eventually, but its tough to be motivated currently....next week I head to AC for a 1k 6 max and a bunch of golfing most likely...it should be a fun time and is coming at a great time for a little break....hopefully I go deep in the 1k and come back rejuvenated......Ive been down 7k since my 3rd place hit so Im not thinking the 1k is gonna go too good :(

UBOC Chop/30r win

Wed/Thurs of this past week marked some interesting events.....first off on Wednesday I shipped the 20r AP - yeh yeh, its not that much of a cash but shipping it completed the shippage of every AP daily I play during the day......so that includes the 50 FO at 3 est, 30r, 501r1a,50r,20r,20k,30k,30r, and the turbo 75.......not a huge deal but thought it would be cool to one day ship every tournament that I play in my daily schedule......Thurs was a pretty sick day - I started off things with winning the 30r FTP for 6600 - this was the first time I won it so glad to get that monkey off my back....ran like a god short handed - HU I hit everything, ran good, and just destroyed him HU - felt too easy........then the UBOC 320 came up - I never really cared to play these bigger events as the fields are larger and I havent had any success.....also it was getting late and I had very little motivation but decided to reg the 320 UBOC and the 66 deepstack on AP along with the 162 FTP at 8est and call it a night......the UBOC overall was very soft for a 320 - when we got to the final 100 or so players, everyone was pretty passive - little to no 3 betting, the 3 bets I made worked, and postflop play was passive..........when we got ITM at 45 players, I lost a flip, but then had QQ beat KK and continued chipping up.....then I got a double with two tables to go, AA over TT I believe.....I came into the final table with like 25 bbs so I didnt have a ton of hope and had to play pretty tight as I was carddead and 25 bbs isn't much room to manevuer.....I tossed in a nice 3 bet that worked and picked up KK and doubled up with it......6 handed I had the CL or near the CL and began raising a bunch of pots - the players seemed very passive and it definitely seems the money was affecting them.....eventually they started opening up and then I lost A9 to KQ and was short 5 handed......from there I got lucky as 5th and 4th busted bringing us 3 handed.....I had 10 bbs at this point but then doubled up and we decided to talk chopping #s.......3rd was 15,500 and 2nd was 22k - chip counts gave me 17 something but told them I needed another 1k - I ended up getting 18,866 and we played it out for 3k and the UBOC watch.....I busted 3rd the 2nd hand in and that was the end of it. Overall was real happy with how the day turned out and the UBOC wasnt expected whatsoever......its great too cause it gives me the confidence to go deep in the bigger majors and hopefully get a win under my belt.....looking forward to the WCOOP and hopefully a deep run