2009 wrap

theres still a couple days left in the month so i figure id wrap up December. I ended up profiting 21,029 with a 76% ROI over 240 MTTs. I peaked at about 18k when I had those two 5k wins, and then dropped down to 12k on the month, until the other day when I shipped the 20k 6 max for 6300 and the 501r1a on AP for 3k. Overall a pretty good month running above expectation. So heres my results on the year since August in MTTs (includes no rakeback, credits for cash, staking)

August
+12,600 31% ROI
September
+545.00 1.62% ROI - YESSSS
October
+14,359 53.09% ROI
November
+25,434 79.22% ROI
December
+21,029 76% ROI

Also included was 2000 in credits for cash, roughly 2000-2400 in rakeback, and about +4k in staking.

As for how I did site to site, I was over 100% ROI on AP for the year - PokerDB shows me up like 60k but theyre missing a 30k win in Aug for 8k and prob some other ones here and there, so Im sure AP profits are around 75k roughly in MTTs. Cake on sharkscope showed me up 14k last time I looked, FTP Im up about 26k in MTTs, and Stars Im probably slightly up, only about 1k-2k at best. In terms of rakeback made on the year during my 6 month SNG run, I beleive I paid around 83k last time I looked, so that would give me 24k or so in rakeback on the year. In SNG profit I was definitely a loser on the year - not sure exactly how much - I know SS showed me -12k but I think it was less then that. Prob a slight loser at -8k over a gazillion SNGs. That was fine though with the massive amounts of bonus money I made off of 2 race cards (I beleive it was like 25k), a TON of reloads, and credits for cash.

Im very happy how the year turned out and Im excited to get '10 rollin....I wanna crush MTTs a little harder next year and hopefully improve in that department. According to what I wrote in my blog and the spreadsheets I have since August I should be around +190k on the year.....200k next year one time? Lets hope so.

Triple crown one time?

Since ive been back from aruba ive been tearing up mtts - obviously running above expectation. I think Im up somewhere in the neighborhood of 60k in that 2 month span.....anyways tonight i ran good again and shipped the 501r1a on tilt for 5k, and the 30r nightly on ap for 5500. Both are somewhat weak field tournaments, with AP being the weaker of the two. The AP ft had no one good at it - piscato was there - hes somewhat solid i guess, but everyone was very tight and trying to move up payouts. I chipped up here and there, got HU, turned 2 pair and got him to ship it in. The tilt one was funny - at one point I was down to 8 bbs for about an hour of the tournament - I was lucky to double up twice and then from there I won 2 flips and a couple 60/40s.....The FT was also somewhat weak - Very little 3 betting going on and generally passive play. The players were defintiely better than AP but nothing amazing. I got 3 handed and eventually took her down....Fri nights have been good to me lately - i guess staying in like a loser pays off in the end....with these two wins tonight I got 2/3 of the triple crown completed - I dont really care to win this - I wont go out of my way by playing every cake/stars tournament with a 10k prize pool for a week straight, but it would be nice if I could achieve this.

One thing thats annoyed me about MTTs is sleeping sucks. I usually go to bed at 3 am - it takes me time to fall asleep and when I finally do I never really get 8 hours....once I wake up at all in the morning i wanna get up and cant fall back to sleep. i remember when i worked a normal job years ago id always sleep real good - i guess not being on a set schedule can do that. oh well i guess its part of the job description right?

Nov - biggest month of the year

November turned out to be my biggest month of the year, with my biggest single cash as well. I had 25,400 in profit during the month, with a 79.22% ROI over roughly 275 MTTs. I made a couple hundred in rakeback and about 1200 in staking, so about a 26.5k month. Overall I was very happy how the month went - I ran way above my expectation which is always nice. Ive been working on some new ideas with my game - been floating alot more in spots I normally use to just give up and have had some good results. BvB or Bv button type of spots usually involve very marginal hands, so really it comes down to outplaying your opponent and setting up certain lines as well.....My handreading has also improved - I think Ive been doing well with combining bet sizing and different lines to put my opponents on more accurate ranges. Overall things continue to head in the right direction - Im glad I made the transition to MTTs but wish I did it earlier - so many months/years were spent on SNGs grinding out basically bonuses which never helped me improve in terms of poker. Its so easy to get complacent in your abilities and never improve, and when your dealing with rake races theres no need to. Now I cant fully knock SNGs - they were key to getting me going in poker - but in terms of getting better theyre a brick wall. The bottom line is you get better at things in life by challenging yourself and facing tougher obstacles - the same applies to poker. The deeper the stacks and the better the players the tougher it is and the more you learn.

Outside of poker I bought a new laptop the other day - my old one was from 2003 and was getting pretty beat up these days. I ended up going with a Gateway I saw that got high reviews on Cnet, and thus far its been working great. Its amazing how much nicer it is over my old laptop and the ease of use/speed is amazing. Its sad I waited this long to buy the damn thing lol. Its so nice to have 10 games going, 4 different poker sites open, aim, a couple websites, and have zero slowdown! Anyways in December I plan on getting in atleast 300 MTTs -I might also be making a trip out to AC for a WSOPC event or two, although Ill probably endu p playing more cash then anything. Live MTTs sound fun but I don't think I want to sit there for hours. We shall see.

won a 75 buy in on tilt

shipped the 24k gtd on tilt for 8k on tues, along with a 2k chop of the ap afternoon 30r, and had my stakee go 3rd in the ap 20k for another 1k in profit that day. I think my 3 day week so far went -1k monday, +8k tues, -1400 today.......the 24k was a real weak tournament when we got down to the final two tables - I don't know if people were trying to move up in the money or what, but they were very tight and made it easy for me to chip up.......at the final table everyone was super nitty - people folding down to 4 bbs trying to move up payouts it was hilarious....thats the good thing about hitting bigger scores atleast mentally for me - of course everyone says they go for the win and dont think about the money, but if your dealing with a 1st place prize thats larger then uve ever hit itll definitely effect you. With this case it was 8k so it had zero effect on my play. I never look at payouts when Im deep in a tournament or at a final table - I hate knowing how much Im going to get outside of first and really any payout outside of first is a failure. I ended up winning some showdowns and got HU with like 70% of hte chips in play - we got it in pretty quickly preflop with me holding ATs vs his AKo but I flopped the flush and it was all over. Ill try to get the HH from the tournament - had a interesting hand with 12 to go that I wanted to post up.

thats it for now - im definitely gonna continue the grind for the month even with the great profit.....Im also going to try to watch some more PXF videos - ive been lazy about it but I gotta put in some more time learning the game. Alot of people when they run good think its because they played great but the reality is its alot easier to play good poker when you have easy decisions and your winning flips nonstop. Thats the problem with success - you dont learn anything from it, if anything success is bad for improving your game. You get lazy, over confident, and lose touch with reality. Some people might even move up to higher stakes when cards are running their way being blinded by luck. I know where my game stands and thats why you dont see me in 1ks, 100rs,etc where you have to play against real good players. I do well vs idiot fish but against good thinking players its alot tougher. So count me out of those MTTs for a while :)

Chopped 60k Tilt

Chopped it for 17.7k....We got HU where I had a little more chips then him, so according to ICM I got 17,701 he got 17,300.....I probably could of squeezed another 1k out of him but I had 7 other MTTs going at the time and was new to the chopping software so I just wanted to end it quick and get some extra guarneteed money. 2ND was 13k first 23k, so not in the mood to play HU for 10k. Its great finally hitting a big score and it'll help my play next time I make a FT with a 20k first place payout...Ive had so many missed opportunities even to hit 10k+ payouts so finally breaking that feels real good. I dont think I had any monster suckouts outside of beating AA with JJ at like 150/300 level for a big double. After that I ran good in terms of winning 4-5 flips, and was able to make some hands and have em hold. Either way obv have to run real good to win a 600 man tourny....Hopefully theres more nice scores like this to come

Oct wrap

October has come to an end and I had a great run towards the end....I ended up making 14,359.00 over roughly 250 tournaments - 27k in buy ins, 41,408 in cashes, resulting in a 53% ROI....the big help was a +8-9k day on the 28th - I won the 501r1a on AP, took 9th in the 60k on tilt, and then 4th in the 80k on AP for 6500...overall I was happy with how the month went - only one win but a ton of deep finishes....I think im finally out of my dry streak that lasted from sept to mid-late October. For Nov my plan is to get in 400 MTTs - I think I should be doing 100 mtts a week and any less is just me being lazy - 100 mtts is about 40 hours of work so its not like im pushing myself to do something I can't obtain. Hopefully all goes well

Im also looking around at new/used cars.....I have an 02 Corvette Z06 which is alot of fun in the warmer months, but when it rains and snows the car is useless. I've been looking around at other things but can't seem to find something that really gets me interested. Im trying to sell the z06 and only spend another 10-15k on a car so my options are somewhat limited - I still want a sports car feel with some luxury and AWD, but the prices are too high for what I want....The Audi S5 really interests me but getting a used one with low miles is gonna cost mid 40s...I can easily afford that but I just cant justify selling my car and then spending another 25k on a car. I like the Infiniti G35 Coupes as well but those only come in RWD. Same goes for used M3s and alot of other sports cars....I guess if I want to get sports car/luxury/ and AWD in one car im gonna have to shell out....Maybe I can ship a monster this month and just buy it outright :)

A couple deep runs

Its been slow this month in MTTs - i missed the first 10 days or so of the month so I had a late start....Anyways I had gone a nice stretch breaking even in MTTs - yes the variance sucks but I also feel my game needed some work....I think the biggest issue was not 3 betting enough - 3 betting is so key these days in poker, if you dont do it enough your missing out on alot of ev....Now im not just talking about 3 betting your premiums or 3 betting when your short, im talking about 3 betting with your weaker hands that still carry some value, and then just 3 bet bluffing to people who are opening too wide...its tough to do this without commiting yourself when your under 30 bb, but with stacks over 40 bbs its so key these days to be a good winner....Its so effective as well in the 109s and the mid stake tournaments where people will never 4 bet light....Im going to work on making this more of a staple of my arsenal then it was in the past, and I think it'll be very beneficial.

I had some deep runs last night - 7th in the 40k stars, and 9th in the FTP 75k.....the stars I got nothing going and when CO opened I shoved KQ with 20bbs - he had AQ and held. The 75k I just lost AK to QQ for like 500k chips....tonight I went 2nd in the 30k KO which was dissapointing as I had the villan 10 to 1 in chips HU. I got him all in pre twice and he held. Then I had top pair when he had two pair, and the final blow was when I had top pair with a queen kicker to his overpair and couldnt hit. It sucked but oh well - I ran pretty good to get HU. On a sidenote I heard a great podcast on 2P2 featuring sheets - it was in regards to live tournament poker, staking, etc...definitely a good listen and great for someone who is considering going pro. Alot of kids my age and even younger are trying to make it pro and its really not that great of a road as people think it is. def a good listen.

anyways im off. ttyl guys

Aruba wrapup

Aruba was a great time and also the perfect time for a vacation. 90 degree weather along with a 5k poker tournament is paradise for me, and I really needed a break from the online grind as I wasn't doing too well the past couple weeks. I started Day 1b of the tournament - 15k starting stack 25/50 starting, 90 min levels - the structure is fantastic....So my starting table had Jeff Madsen on my right, although he lost to a nasty 2 outer about 10-15 hands in - good thing he did cause he played every single hand up until busting......I had one hand with him where he had raised in later position and I called with AJo...The flop came 89T giving me an open ender so I check/call his flop bet. The turn comes a Queen - I check again and call his turn bet. The river pairs the board with a T - at this point I figured hes going to fire the river a high % of the time considering how aggressive he is - at the same time I can't really c/r the river here incase he shoves then I'm in a really tough spot. I decide to c/c on the river and he mucked. A little later on our table broke and I got moved to Liv's table. At this point I have maybe 17-18k when I pick up QQ in the BB I believe. It folds around to Wiscomurray in the CO I believe who bumps it up to 700 at 150/300 - Liv is on the button with 8k I believe and 3 bets to 2100 - I decide to raise to 5100 at this point basically putting Liv all in - wisco folds she gets the rest in and has TT - I hold and pick up a nice pot putting me around 25k. Soon the table breaks and I get moved to a table of unknowns. Not too many big hands played out there - one hand that was interesting was when I was in the BB with QTo. It folded to the CO+1 who just limped I believe at 150/300 - he had about 12-14k in total. the SB completed and I checked the BB. The flop came T85 with two diamonds - sb checked, I bet 60% pot, and the CO+1 raised from 600 to 1800 - sb folded and I called. Turn came an offsuit Ace - I checked he fired 3k - Not too much made sense at this point - Any pair would be opening preflop, any ace as well - what did he limp 85o?? I wasn't planning on going anywhere with this hand so I called. River came a blank deuce. I checked and I saw him getting ready to put all the chips in but he checked behind and I was good. Had he shoved the river logically I wanted to call, but being a pussy I might of folded :(.....his line just didn't make much sense. Day 1 ends with 28k.

Day 2 was pretty rough - about 1 level in we have to redraw for tables - great I draw table 1 - the problem with this is this table will never be broke - the higher tables like 20-30 eventually break up, so if you draw a tough table 1 your pretty fucked. Well obviously thats what happened. Heres the lineup - seat 1 - laggy euro guy - seat 2 - titantom32 - seat 3 - Matt Brady - won the event last year - seat 4 - Roothlus - seat 5 myself - seat 6 james mordue a pretty good live player - seat 7 Tmay420 - seat 8 basebaldy, seat 9 a young internet player.....so ya this was godawful and the problem was I couldn't open that light vs this table.....I played pretty nitty the whole table - I was able to make some hands here and there, although after roothlus got knocked out a new kid moved to his seat, and I ended up calling his sb shove to my BB with a6 for 12 bbs when he had 77 and I didnt get there. I ended up getting down to 20 bb but doubled after holding JJ to Tmays AK. I didn't get much going though after that, and ended the day around 38k after bluffing 10k off with KQ on a 23555 board.

Day 3 we had I believe 80 or so players left and I started the day with 20 bbs roughly. Nothing was going my way - I wasn't picking up hands and when I did I couldn't connect on any flops whatsoever....Eventually I got down to 12 bbs 10 away from the money or so. It folded around to the SB who put me all in - I looked down at A2o and made the call - he turned over K7s - I flopped the ace but he backdoored the flush and sent me to the rail.....boooo.....

I gotta say now I understand why people say how internet and live poker are so different. Its almost like a whole different game your playing - Understanding stack sizes and pot sizes is so important, and the mentality is so different. You're now face to face with people and if you make a shitty bluff it might be shown, where as online you don't have that physical factor....I remember one pot we had 6 limpers - I had 77 and it took me a minute to figure out the right raise pre - online its so much easier and I'm more comfortable...I also think I play better overall online - I think I see more spots where as live I was more cautious. I guess over time that will change but this year I definitely understand how live is a big change. Anyways Im off to play online today - I played most of the majors yest but bricked em all, but felt great how I played - hopefully I get some wins this month. Till next time

Month has ended, some random thoughts

September has finally came to a close and I'm up roughly 500 bucks playing, 1700 in staking, 1k credits for cash, and about 4-500 in rakeback, putting me roughly +3700......Im fine with that really, as I have no need for cash and felt like I played decent....I was was at one point -6k playing on the month, so to get positive I guess I shouldn't complain much?? I had an amazing 1.5% ROI in the month over 320 mtts. I rule. So some random thoughts poker related

-why do people play strong 100rs,200rs,1ks, etc? As time progresses more and more people are learning mtts - the losers are becoming breakeven, the breakeven are small winners, small winners have become big winners, etc....theres so many names popping up that no one knew of a year or two ago that are now crushing big...yeh variance helps, but these guys also play pretty good. I was on P5s the other day and looking at HH's at 6 max 100r tables with like 4-5 winners - wheres the edge? Another example is the 1k on AP - usually gets about 120 entrants - Id say atleast 40-50 players are winners - so lets assume 50 people are winners, that means at a 9 man table your looking at about 3-4 winners a table - wheres the longterm edge? Of course you can still have an edge with these types of tables even if the winners are just small winners, but who wants to deal with 1ks and small edges? There will be one day when 100r's are unbeatable or near breakeven unless the US regulates poker. One day.

-why do people show bluffs?? I understand if you want to tilt someone, otherwise its the dumbest thing ever. Example - I was deep in the 20k on AP 2nite when I got 3 bet and folded - he showed K3. Amazing buddy - I had been opening a ton so of course you'll be able to 3 bet me with garbage.....What does this accomplish? Well I'm not tilting from it, I could care less.....the problem for him was I had a large stack so I could easily come after him more and make him make tougher decisions for his tourny life. Yeh this is great if your a great player vs a bad player, but him being OOP and having a 1/3 of my stack seems like -ev for him to show that bluff.

-If you care about the money in a MTT you're losing alot of profit - its funny how money is such a big influence in MTTs and how alot of people play. This was definitely me not too long ago, tightening up in bigger MTTs late...the problem is to win that 25k you need to have every chip in play, so don't think about trying to survive, but how can you accumulate. The amount of luck late in mtts is insane, so play to win. I think subconciously the payouts can affect people and they dont realize it. Just go for the win

-raise/folding - alot of spots it seems people will raise/call way too light with stuff like weak aces, K10s, etc against players who are simply not reshoving that wide - I think we got it driled into our heads that raise/folding to stack that are under 20 bbs is just bad but if theyre not reshoving that wide its perfectly fine. Id be curious to run some math on what range a villan needs to reshove to make raise/folding unprofitable. Alot of times people aren't reshoving light as we would suspect because the general consensus is the original raiser isn't folding. I tend to raise/fold alot on AP since the majority of AP players aren't reshoving anywhere near what they do on stars or tilt. Its just crazy how wide some people call

-bluff lines - when setting up a bluff its good to represent a hand unless your bluffing against a total idiot whos just paying attention to making a hand....sometimes I find myself running a bluff line that makes no sense - why do I do this? laziness I guess....I had a hand come up tonight where I had ATs in UTG+2 to a 7 man table. I raise 2.5x with like 40 bbs. SB calls who seems not that great with like 25 bbs behind. Normally with his stack I'd be hesistent to get testy with him postflop, since usually when people are calling with stacks near that 20 bb threshold theyre not folding often, but I didn't think he was all that great. Anyways flop comes J83 two hearts - he checks, I check back. no clue why I don't fire. turn comes Qs, he checks so I decide to fire 60% pot he calls. River comes a 2, he checks, I fire again, he calls with KQ and I lose. First off him calling with KQ there pre with that stack was bad but I figured he was calling somewhat light. I was just mad I didn't even think about what I was repping - maybe it was late at night and I wanted to sleep who knows....thinking is +ev - i should do that someitme :)

thats all for now. alot of rambling i know but just some ideas that i wanted to get in print. anyways im off to sleep to dream about winning aruba for like 800k and stopping poker for the year. we can dream right?

Slow month - need a vacation

September has been a shitty month thus far - I was down on the month playing up until Monday when I went on a +9500 2 day swing....I took 4th in the 40K Stars for 5k, then the next day took 3rd in the 30k KO on FTP for a little over 4k...I've also had some cashes here and there under 2k to keep me moving....At this point on the month Im +3k with a dismal 11.49% ROI (didn't count my 5500 aruba seat in this figure)....oh well thats MTT poker - I've been feeling alot better about my late game....Ive been getting deep in alot and just getting unlucky - hopefully before the month ends I can get my profits to atleast 10k, but even if I don't I don't mind where Im at.......I've gotten in roughly 230-240 MTTs during the month, so Im definitely on pace to match last month of around 320-340...at this point Im just trying to do no more than 8 tabling, and maybe as I get more comfortable with MTTs/get better, I'll start 10-12 tabling, but for now I'd rather play less volume and keep a higher ROI....Aruba is right around the corner - I leave a week from this Sunday and I'm very excited...this month has been killer on me and I really need a relaxing vacation and a shot at big money with nothing to lose. It really is a great time down there and I wouldn't go anywhere else for vacation. I'll be gone for 6 days, so when I get back I'm going to start grinding real hard so I can keep my volume up for the month. I'm dieing to hit a big score and plan on working real hard to get it. Stay tuned.

won aruba package

september has started and so has a downswing....ive been bricking everything even though ive been happy with my game....ive improved alot in august - reviewed alot on PXF and talked to better players about HHs I had questions on....obviously I have a ton to learn but im feeling good about my playing now - my goals are really to crush AP/Cake and be a decent winner on FTP/Stars - its funny how different Stars and FTP are from AP/Cake - a big winner on AP could be breakeven on those sites, or even a decent AP winner could be a longterm loser....it really is a different ballgame and if your able to beat FTP/Stars at a decent ROI then beating AP is a joke..

so I ended up shipping the 20,000 credit entry Aruba package, where 40 entered and they gave one package away...I played pretty standard the whole way - there was one player who continually would open so eventually I got around to 3 betting him light but found he would not fold to 3 bets so after those spots decided to nit against him...4 handed he was CLin - I basically tried to play some pot control against him postflop and try to see cheap showdowns with my marginal hands....eventually though he never slowed down, so I picked up KK and had him stack me up to the CL.....I took him out and came into HU with 80k to 40k at 500/1k......eventually i got him down to 20k and got A8 in against KQ and held....see u in aruba

August coming to an end - weight loss/get in shape goal for September

So August is coming to an end and I figured Id post up the stats along with my weight loss plan for the month....the week started off good with a +3k day on Monday, but I leaked back that profit throughout the week, which included bricking the 1k on tilt and the 1k on ap....always fun! here was my bustout hand in the 1k

Stage #1853895732 Tourney ID 4570889 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 300 - 2009-08-26 23:59:58.006 (ET) [ 2009-08-26 23:59:58 ]
Table: 17 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 6 - Z06FANATIC (6,809 in chips)
Seat 7 - BREAST MILK (4,205 in chips)
Seat 9 - LOCKDOWNTEX (11,435 in chips)
Seat 1 - THEBUBBLE1 (12,397 in chips)
Seat 2 - KRS528 (10,508 in chips)
Seat 3 - ALBARI (9,694 in chips)
Seat 4 - BOANERGES7 (12,735 in chips)
Seat 5 - POTROAST00 (8,896 in chips)
THEBUBBLE1 - Ante 25
KRS528 - Ante 25
ALBARI - Ante 25
BOANERGES7 - Ante 25
POTROAST00 - Ante 25
Z06FANATIC - Ante 25
BREAST MILK - Ante 25
LOCKDOWNTEX - Ante 25
BREAST MILK - Posts small blind 150
LOCKDOWNTEX - Posts big blind 300
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Z06FANATIC [6c 6s]
THEBUBBLE1 - Folds
KRS528 - Folds (Preselection)
ALBARI - Folds (Preselection)
BOANERGES7 - Folds
POTROAST00 - Folds (Preselection)
Z06FANATIC - Raises 700 to 700
BREAST MILK - Folds
LOCKDOWNTEX - Raises 2,150 to 2,450
Z06FANATIC - All-In(Raise) 6,084 to 6,784
LOCKDOWNTEX - Calls 4,334
*** FLOP *** [3d 4c 8d]
*** TURN *** [3d 4c 8d] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [3d 4c 8d 3h] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Z06FANATIC - Shows [6c 6s] (Two Pair, sixes and threes)
LOCKDOWNTEX - Shows [4s 4d] (Full house, fours full of threes)
LOCKDOWNTEX Collects 13,918 from main pot

I'll be playing about 20-25 mtts on Monday to end the month as well as a 25 seat qualifier to Aruba on Sunday. Ill update my monthly stats if I make anything significant. With that said here's where i stand for August

+13,738.02 MTT profit - 36.21% ROI
+1988.29 in staking
+1000 credits for cash
+554 in rakeback

+16,950.31

As far as the weight loss deal - I got aruba coming up early october and want to get in better shape so I decided to do a 1 month workout/diet plan. I've also been feeling really lazy lately and want to start feeling more active - even when I go to the gym these days I get lazy and leave alot earlier than I should. So my plan is to start on Monday and go one month - I want to hit the gym 4-5 days a week, trying to do 3 miles of running and a short weight training session as well - shouldn't take more than 45 minutes for everything. Eating Im going to keep a low calorie diet with 1 day a week being a maintenence day, and 1 day every 2 weeks being a day where I can eat above maintenence....Im not looking to lose any crazy amount of weight - Im sure 10 pounds is my best bet if that. Regardless though any weight loss would be great, and if it makes me feel more alive Ill definitely enjoy that. Hopefully I can crush that goal and also crush the tables.

First 10k day

Finally had a nice day in MTTs...last thurs I profited like 10.5k after winning the 30k sniper on ap for 7500, taking 2nd in a stars 20r for 3800, and a couple cashes here and there....it felt nice finally to show some decent profit for the month, as I was hovering around breakeven/+3k......Ive been looking at some HH's from top players along with talking to people about tournament poker and watching alot of PXF vids, so I'm definitely improving here and there.....I've also really stepped up the aggression on AP - the site is super soft and the players are very passive compared to Stars/FTP...Actually theres alot of adjustments to make playing AP vs the main sites - I open alot lighter, play more aggressively post flop, and call shoves alot lighter. Its funny how I can play a tournament like the 30k sniper and never get 3 bet outside of big hands, then play a 20 rebuy on Stars and have guys 3 betting me so light....Its definitely a big change, and alot of times I find myself having to fold hands that I would normally snap so quick on Stars....I've also started staking my stakee again - I talk with him alot about poker and he plays very well - hes already staked on stars/tilt, so I took him up on AP. My only problem is I worry he won't put in the volume, but if he does he should have no problem crushing...tomorrow I got the 1k to play on AP that I qualified earlier this week and the 80k sniper.....my only goal with these tournaments is to play semi well and not make dumb mistakes - I make a terrible play in the 6 max AP 20k today that I was pissed about, so hopefully Im not lighting money on fire tomorrow...heres the stats for the month thus far

+13,427
52% ROI
234 MTTs played

Not the August start I was looking for

August has started a little slow - now I cant really complain as I'm still up for the month +2915 with a 24% ROI, I just expected a little better....Ive had one win on the month thus far, and a ton of getting to the final table and not getting top 3.....I don't think people realize how much MTTers spend in buy ins each week - I didn't even realize it till I started doing this full time....This month I've already spent 12,100 in buy ins, and even with 15,000 in cashes Im only up a couple grand. Crazy to think about. The one thing that I have felt good about lately is my late game play - I use to mentally think about the payouts and how much more I'd make moving up a certain place - after making alot of FT's with dissapointment, I guess I dont get my hopes up anymore when Im deep with two tables left....My goal is to win and I could careless about cashing for 2k, consideirng that just covers a day of buy ins....Hopefully my winning attitude translates over to actually winning some more tournaments :(

I also bought a new external monitor - its a 25" by Hanspree - some no name, but it was 250 bucks and does wonders for how many tables I can do. Now I can 10 table with basically no overlap, where before 8 tables was my max. If I can fit 4-5 more MTTs in per day that would be great and definitely worth the investment....My goal with the new monitor is to get in 25 MTTs a day, and try to do 100 a week. At 100 mtts a week, 400 a month, I should be able to invest 40,000 in MTT buy ins, and even at a 50% ROI thats 20,000 a month. I'm pretty sure thats possible to do, considering sites like AP/Cake where I do 7 MTTs of the 25 a day are prob 80% ROI sites, I just don't know what I can expect on Stars/FTP longterm. Either way I'm going to continue the MTTs for a while and see how things work out. Wish me luck.

July wrapup

July has came to an end, and because OPR/PokerDB are pretty inaccurate I don't have an exact figure on profit. PokerDB missed a ton of FTP this month - even AP looks low, and since Cake isn' t tracked it makes things even harder....I could rummage through account balances but Im too lazy so I'll try to give a ballpark figure. I did well once again this month on AP, lost on Stars, slightly up on FTP, and maybe even on Cake? I think Im looking at +7k roughly, so we'll go with that number for now. For August I'll be able to give exact amounts as a fellow poker player made a great spreadsheet where I just enter in the buy in and the result and the excel sheet calculates the rest....

Last week I had a brief 3 day trip to the Borgata in AC- we ended up playing about 10-12 hours of poker over the 3 days - all 2/5 NL. I didn't feel like getting tied down to MTTs while I was out there, and the 2/5 NL game is soft so I figured I'd give it a shot. I ended up maybe +450 on the trip - Im easily a winner in the game but shear boredom made me make some -ev plays...Another issue is figuring out chip stacks - I had one hand where an aggressive player opened in MP1 to 20 or 25 pre, 1 guy calls, I call out of BB with Q10s. Flop comes 244 with 2 spades. First guy checks , I check, original raiser bets something like 60 into a 80 dollar pot....I take a look over at his stack and decide to make it 175 to go with the intention of calling his shove.....It looked like he started the hand with 300 or so, so really the only course of action here is to c/r commit myself and hopefully get him to lay down on the flop here.....at this point he goes all in and I ask the dealer how much more it is to me......Dealer says something like 245 more to you - d'oh. Apparently he had like 450 to start the hand, and I had that covered, so here I am stacking off a FD for nearly 100 bbs effective, oops.....Anyways he turns over KK, I dont get there and now Im realoading another 500....its funny how when the money is infront of you how much things change - online I could careless about 500 but taking it out of your wallet and placing it on the felt is a little different feeling...

It was a fun though and a nice change of pace...It is wierd getting use to the chips though - alot of times I was making a bet and taking forever to count out as alot of times your dealing with the 5 dollar chips and they love to stick together....It definitely felt akward....another thing is how dirty the poker room is - those chips have been all over the place and I dont think they ever clean them or replace them for long periods of time....playing live poker and eating food immediately after with your hands is -ev and I wish I washed my hands more when I was down there...

more to come half way through the month - now back to losing this ftp 50r1r1a

Southcjay hits big, Im shooting blanks

I've been having a good time with MTTs this month even though I'm not up all that much (roughly 7-8k at best)....They really have renewed my interest in poker and I actually look forward to starting them when I wake up. There's not a better feeling then winning a tournament, especially a larger one with a bigger field. Of course when you win the tournament you have to realize the ridiculous amount of luck that went your way, but knowing you were #1 of that field for that day is a good feeling. So yesterday my buddy jay won the FTP 50k and came 2nd in a 50r1r1a on Stars for a nice +20-21k day. Thats always nice to see when I had a -1100 day :(....He was due though he had been running like shit in MTTs the past month. Even though I had a -1100 day, I felt great about my game and had no spots where I regretted how it went down. I made one final table yesterday, the afternoon 30r on FTP, but busted 9th after losing 2 flips with 10 people left. I came into the final table with like 7 bbs and was basically out 5 minutes later. I also was deep in the 40k gtd on Tilt but had AK cracked by AQ and some other nonsense go down. Oh well, thats tournament poker. I've been watching a ton of videos lately on PXF from the likes of JohnnyBax, Sheets, Rizen and a couple more. I gotta say, if you don't subscribe to a training site your missing out on a ton of positive EV....Even if your a big winner in whatever game you do, its always good to watch other sucessful players and how they approach things. I think alot of people don't join training sites simply based on ego - to think spending 20/mo is not worth what is available on the sites is ridiculous.

Next week Ill be spending 3 days in AC with Southcjay at the Borgata. AC in my opinion is a pretty big dump outside the Borgata - the other hotels are garbage and the area is very ghetto. Our plan is to play a couple of the daily tournaments over there (they got a 340 on Friday), and probably some cash games. I haven't had much success live even though the players are terrible, so I'll be looking to tear up the 2/5 NL game and maybe higher if things are going well. My postflop has definitely improved over the past month or two so Im sure I could easily beat the 2/5 NL game longterm, and probably a slight winner at the 5/10 NL. Its funny because online I'd prob barely a slight winner at 1/2 NL and probably a loser at 2/4, yet in person the stakes are alot easier. After that my birthday is coming around and I'll prob relax with my gf for that one. Can't beleive Im going to be 24 and still playing online poker. What a waste I am.

running bad turns into running good

MTTs are an interesting animal. The luck involved in a single MTT is ridiculous, especially those with weaker structures. One may be a long term winner but over 500 MTTs be a loser and quit them for good. The opposite can also happen, where a long term loser can crush the game over a couple hundred even 1-2,000 MTTs.....With that said, this past week was brutal. I got killed in really everything I played - I ended up the week only -2k or so, but the process of losing that 2k was excruciating. MTTs are really a kick in the gut compared to SNGs and cash. With SNGs and cash, you can always reload, while in MTTs a bad beat or two at a major final table can be so tough to bear mentally and financially. Luckily I think I take bad runs pretty well - I understand variance real well and how expectation can deviate in both directions dramatically, especially in bigger tournaments. I came into today with an open mind - I was looking forward to playing a long session of 20-22 MTTs, so I sat down at 3 PM EST and began my schedule. Throughout the day I took the worst beats imaginable - I lost pair to under pair 3-4 times, ran into AA a ton, and just got raped every way possible. I registed all the way up to the AP 30r, and with 5 to go on the day and zero cashes, I was thinking it would be a wash.

In the end I had the 20k,30k, and 15k 30r left all on AP as my final three. First came the 20k where a shorty shoved, a big stack flatted, and I reshoved AQ with like 18 bbs. Me and the shorty had AQ, big stack 10s, gg me. Then came the 30r - I had about 35 bbs when I 3 bet a UTG raiser with AKo. He flatted and the flop came all rags - I wasn't too happy 3 betting pre looking back on things, but I ended up throwing out another bet to see where I was - he min raised me and I had to fold. Eventually I got it all in and busted. The 30k was my final hope - the funniest part of the tournament was I had gotten KK/AA with about 10 bbs and gotten no action. I thought to myself there's no way Im doing anything in this tourny if I cant atleast get action with the big hands and being so short. At this point luck came my way - 44 cracked 99 for a double. Some donk slowplayed KQ and let me get there with a weak hand to pick up another 15k, and slowly I was gaining some chips. I doubled later on with A6 vs A3 in a blind battle, and later on got some value out of AA(finally). I came into the FT in 2nd, and worked my way to 3 handed. This hand was pretty big

Stage #1772396594 Tourney ID 4446726 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 6,000 - 2009-07-14 02:48:05 (ET)
Table: 22 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 5 - JWC64 (334,050 in chips)
Seat 6 - ETHANSKY1234 (298,942 in chips)
Seat 8 - Z06FANATIC (210,008 in chips)
JWC64 - Ante 600
ETHANSKY1234 - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Posts small blind 3,000
JWC64 - Posts big blind 6,000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Z06FANATIC [10d 10c]
ETHANSKY1234 - Raises 18,000 to 18,000
Z06FANATIC - Raises 54,200 to 57,200
JWC64 - Calls 51,200
ETHANSKY1234 - Folds
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5d 4h]
Z06FANATIC - Bets 134,200
JWC64 - All-In(Raise) 276,250 to 276,250
Z06FANATIC - All-In 18,008
JWC64 - returned (124,042) : not called
*** TURN *** [Jh 5d 4h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 5d 4h 9d] [6d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JWC64 - Shows [Ad Qs] (ace high)
Z06FANATIC - Shows [10d 10c] (One pair, tens)
Z06FANATIC Collects 438,616 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(438,616)
Board [Jh 5d 4h 9d 6d]
Seat 5: JWC64 (big blind) HI:lost with ace high [Ad Qs - P:Ad,P:Qs,B:Jh,B:9d,B:6d]
Seat 6: ETHANSKY1234 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: Z06FANATIC (small blind) won Total (438,616) All-In HI438,616) with One pair, tens [10d 10c - P:10d,P:10c,B:Jh,B:9d,B:6d]


We got HU and just chopped it. yes im a pussy when it comes to these situations, but the guy played semi well and whats really my long term edge here? Even so, this was a short term situation and we both had equal stacks, 80 bbs deep, and I figured what the hell let me chop it. I got 6600 for the ordeal, and turned my day from in the gutter to a very good day. Its funny how quick things can change in MTTs, and how a little bit of luck can turn things in a whole new direction. Anywyas back to the grind tomorrow - my only real goal lately is to win the 75k on tilt, so lets hope that happens tomorrow.

MTT schedule

I don't know if anyone really reads this blog to begin with, but what the hell I'll continue posting when I'm bored. Since im sitting here at 2 am not wanting to go to sleep, I figured I'd throw up my MTT schedule. I've been running this schedule about 3 days a week, and then running a half a day on one of my off days. My goal is to get in 80 MTTs a week - originally I wanted to do 100/week but figured thats not gonna happen unless I kill my social life and start 12 tabling. Here's my current lineup

All EST times

3 PM - Stars 55 80k
AP 30r 8K
Cake 30r 20k
FTP 162 50K
330 - FTP 50+5 20k
4 PM - FTP 75 22.5K
430 - FTP 30r 19.5 GTD
5 PM FTP 120 KO 30K
5:15 Stars 50 1r1a
530 - Stars 30r 2r1a
7 PM - Stars 100 40k gtd
FTP 75 40k
AP 50r(debating tossing this in)
730 - Cake 109 20K gtd
8 PM - FTP 162 75K
AP 120 20K
830 - FTP 30r
9PM - Cake 30r
AP 30K Sniper
10PM - AP 30r

So right there is 20 MTTs - I might try to work more in from time to time, but after 8pm I got 8-9 rollin so thats definitely not when i wanna add more. I end up spending around 2100-2300 in buy ins on these full days, and I figure with atleast a 50% overall ROI I should see some good profits. So far its been fun but ive also ran above expectation....I raped AP last month, and finally hit a FTP top 3 when I went 2nd in the 30r the other day for 4700. Im hoping I can hit one of the bigger ones soon enough - Ill continue to try to satty into the FTP 1k/AP 1k, as the qualifiers (especially on AP) are super easy. Stars hasn't offered a ton to my schedule and so far ive skipped out on the Nightly Hundred Grand hearing that its not the most +ev MTT. My main focus is playing the rebuys, and all the AP/Cake tournaments. There's some terrible players on these two sites, and Ive done real well in my AP career, although Cake has yet to show me any profit.

I have yet to be tempted back to SNGs - mainly because im so sick of playing them, but my overall profits without race cards wasn't too hot. It also didn't help last year I never took advantage of reload bonuses, so that definitely hurt me alot. With race cards Im sure the hourlys are very comparable, but in a sense 1 hour of MTT play isn't as brutal to me as 1 hour of SNG play. Grnding a 4 hour clip of SNG's use to brutal, and during the races I'd go 4 hours break, and go another 4 hours. Even 2 hours got boring to me, but with MTTs the feeling Id get after 4 hours of SNGs usually comes 10-12 hours in. Also obviously theres more excitement when your deep, especially in a bigger buyin tournament where first place is over 10k. Its hard to get too excited about a 3-4k cash considering a full day of buy ins is 2k, but cracking a 15k score is always real exciting. Another silly thing is checking out PLB points on pocketfives - yes the leaderboards are pretty worthless considering you could be ranked in the top 100 and still in the red, but it keeps me interested and sort of something to look forward to. I'd like to get up there in the ranks one day even though the whole thing is silly, so we'll see how long that takes. Anyways I guess ill wrap this up so i can go to bed and get ready to ship some mtts tomorrow. Later folks

June wrap

MTTs have been going great thus far - Ive ran like a god on AP this month, so so on FTP, decent on Stars, and slightly up on Cake. Ive also been watching alot of PXF vids to work on my game, and it seems to be going well - I feel alot more comfortable in 30-40 bb spots where before I was a little out of place. Im glad to be breaking from SNGs for a while as they were very boring and really weren't doing too much for my game. I'll still keep them around but for now Im just running MTTs until AP offers some ridiculous free money to come back. Heres the stats for the first half of 2009


Second half of June 09 -

+17,378.92 in MTTs
-750 in live losses
-550 from not making 1k in the rakebreak race that I factored into race cards

+16,078.92
2009 stats

Total profit 102,327.28
Hours played 879

Hourly rate = 116.41

On a SNG Hiatus

So race cards came to an end on the 16th and I've been playing solely MTTs since..Its been a nice change and I think I'm going to try this out atleast for July. My hourly this year has been satisfying but without race cards I'm sure its more near 90/hr....90/hr is still great but my goal is to make more money and the way for me to do that is MTTs....Ive done decent in them in the past (think Im +40k or so overall), so its not like im jumping into this without an idea. Also my bankroll is way overrolled for 100-200 avg stake, so I should be fine in terms of that. I think MTTs are the way to go in terms of long term goals - I dont really improve my poker game playing SNGs so really Im just grinding out and never improving...MTTs will allow me to work on my game and become better, and eventually move to higher stakes where I can make 200/hr+....so as of now Im playing up to 200 FO's and 50r's......Im playing Cake/FTP/AP, but mainly FTP - they have a ton of MTTs with amazing structures - Cake has the worst structure of them all but the fields are super soft so I will definitely stick around on that site. Overall I believe Im +6k or so since I started this experiment, but Ill figure out the correct numbers once June ends. In July my goal is to play atleast 300 mtts, and hopefully with say a 50% ROI that would be around 15k....I might try to do more than 300, but I figured 300 would be a decent goal I could set on a 40 hour work week. July should be very interesting and Im excited to give this a go. Ill update the end of the month so I can get exact figures.

Done with race cards finally

So its Friday and the race cards promo runs till midnight on Monday but I'm taking the weekend off and definitely wont have anyone pass me unless they go nuts this weekend. I had a nice run in the 25k sniper last night, taking 3rd for 3k......I picked up a huge stack with like 50 left - think I had 64k at 400/800....It seems though everytime I get a monster stack early I never seem to get far - maybe the positive variance catching up? Anyways I played pretty aggro and got all the way down to like 25k.....from there blinds had gone up so I tightened up and built back up....at the final table things were up and down....I lost QQ to 44 4 handed which was definitely a blow to my stack...after that I won QQ to AK but then made a move with an open ended srt draw 3 handed with an overcard and ran into the nuts. oh well...


Anyways here's the breakdown to the best of my ability - it really is a bitch trying to figure the exact profit and where it all came from. here we go

+11,000 Race Cards Bonus
+6500 in MTT profit
+9400 in rakeback
+3k credits for cash
+3300 rakebreak rake races
+4000 500k credits for gift cards
+6900 in reloads
-1600 in staking
+3430 in playing 6 mans/9 mans/ 100 HU UT's (where the real skill is)

+45,930

So there's the stats. I fell pretty far down the race towards the end as guys were pushing alot harder than I expected. I could of gotten higher but whatever - Im not going to kill myself for it...Ended up playing not as many hours as I expected - 313 total hours.....comes out to about 140.7/hr which easily was my highest hourly rate over any race.....For the rest of the month I'll prob take it easy and definitely lay off SNG's and play more mtts....I put some money on FTP to play MTTs there and plan on playing more of em from now on....heres some yearly stats

2009 stats

Total profit 86,248.36
Hours played 799.5

Hourly rate = 107.8


EDIT - had to play 7 more hours on Sunday to hold my position - ran like god in 100 HU UT's, so I had a nice profit. figures are updated.

Won 30r - still grinding sngs

So the 30r was interesting today...it was the 10k gtd on saturdays - during rebuy period I had busted my stack and was going to call it a day, but since I had the auto rebuy checked I already got 1500 in chips back so figured id rebuy again and get back on track......funny how many times I was close to giving up good things happened....anyways I had chipped up to roughly 10-11k when I flopped a set of 6s in a 3 handed pot on a board of J65 rainbow - went check check guy fired out, I called, other guy calls and turn brought a 5......I believe at this point I checked 2nd guy fired out 3rd called, I just flatted again...river came a J which obviously killed everything....at this point I was pretty screwed in the hand - I checked, 2nd guy fired around pot for like 10k, 3rd guy goes all in, I fold - 2nd guy shows a bluff, other guy showing AJ.....funny thing is if I push the flop or turn I m probably going busto.....not really a tough fold on the river there just a shitty situation....after that I ended up cracking KK with A4 after shoving like 17 bbs from button....Later on I believe I won 2 coinflips with about 5 left....3 or 4 handed I pick up QQ to RSaleh's 7s which brought me to about 180k going into HU, while the other guy had 400k.....HU was quite interesting - he was making large raises/reraises pre and postflop.....I remember a couple hands at 1200/2400 I raise to 5400 preflop, he pops it straight to 200k - interesting to say the least...anyways I ended up picking up 7s raising pre - he repopped it to something ridiculous like 60 bbs more so I got it in - he had 57o off and I held....he definitely handed me the 1st so ill take some free handouts....

sngs went so so - broke even but I was fine with that.....my goal was to just play my game and let the money go where it may......Im looking forward to the end of the race so I can relax a little and plan some vacation time....

biggest day in online poker thus far

so first of all if you play mtts dont read this, as the number will be laughable, but ended up making 6900 from playing/bonus money today.........Ive had bigger weeks then this but a single day previous record was like 5500, so I was happy........roughly 4500 of it came from SNGs, with the rest coming from a 3rd or 4th place in 20k ( I forget).....the only issue I had was my donking out of the 20k......seems like when Im shorthanded I tend to overshove bvb type situations, which leads to my busting when its not necessary...I had something like 50-60 bbs in the BB vs an sb who opened to 6 bbs - I had 88 and reraised to like 70k commiting me.....the problem with this whole situation is I basically turned my hand into a bluff - 22-77 prob fold out, alot of weaker aces fold - the worst part was this guy was semi tight and hadnt shown anything crazy he would have to give alot of credit to my reraise.....anyways he shoved, i called, he had aces.....I think the best line would be to flat here - granted the flop was 10-8-2 so I might be going broke anyways, but the ridiculous reshove was terrible by me....wish I would think twice before getting 60 bbs in preflop....outside of that hand though I thought I played well - made a couple 3 bet bluffs here and there, some value bet bluffs, etc......Im definitely making a point to not make retard shoves anymore in MTTs - I tend to not think enough when I have alot of SNGs going as well, so these plays are definitely costing me some money.....

as for the rake race, things are going well.....I believe im in 8th right now and have been turning up the heat this month.....50 hours a week for the rest of this race is my goal, so hopefully I can move up to 5th or 6th and pocket around 16k.....gl me

Running like God

For the past month or so I've been on a godlike run mainly in SNGs.....it wasn't so much the start of race cards but the past 2 weeks I've really been tearing it up....Last month I made around 20k with about 7k in bonuses, so 13k in actual play, and this month I gotta be up another 6k or so in playing/reloads....I guess this was due after my year of running bad in SNGs thus far - I think this run is equivelant or better than my run in July when I also ran like god...Ill get exact figures once the race ends as I dont feel like calculating total profits right now....As for race cards Im behind pace in terms of where I thought I would be.....I figured by now I'd be top 6 or top 7 at the very least, but Im stuck in 9th. My goal for the rest of the cards is to do 50+ hour weeks and get atleast top 5 (16k).........Id still be happy with my +40k off this whole race, but considering how good ive ran Im sure it will be more than that. On the staking front, my stakee has been doing real well - he took 2nd in the 20k gtd last week for 3200, and a couple cashes here and there......I played the 535 FTOPs shootout tonight but busted after losing two races....I don't know why SNG players think these shootouts are extremely +ev to them - granted the first table is pretty much like a SNG and theres not too much postflop play, but the 2nd table is pretty deepstacked and theres alot of good postflop players in these things...I remember the last FTOPs shootout I did was a 6 max - I won my first table and came to my 2nd table with 40-50 bbs and a ton of aggressive players....So really a high stakes sucessful MTT player would be much more +ev than any SNG player IMO in these things....Granted you could nit it up but I chose to 4 bet AQ for 35 bbs into AK :(.... oh well....

Anyways Im off to play video games.....I dont know if Ill post till the end of race cards as Im going to wait till then update the exact money figures....stay tuned

people trying to scam under my name

so I know theres a couple people trying to scam under my name....First theres z06fanatic on AIM - thats not even my AIM name...watch out for that and any others - I'd give out the second name but that would reveal my AIM name and don't need scammers trying to make things any worse. I never need money from anyone so just tell them to fuck off if they message you. that is all!

Rake Race IV has started

Things have been going well as of late. Ive had a nice upswing in MTTs/SNGs which has led to a solid start to this rake race/a good month playing wise. I decided to cut my stats through the 15th of this month so I could track stats for the whole rake race. Anyways I ended up playing in those 15 days about 37 hours with 5385.36 in actual profit from playing. Since then I've gone on a 7k upswing so Im sure this month Im around +14k overall....So the rake race started on the 15th and Im barely breaking top 10. So far Ive gotten in a little under 50 hours, somewhat slacking the first week.....I dont really have a goal profit wise during this whole race, but I was hoping for around 40k...Im also playing mtts during this race as well as playing afternoons to somewhat offset the tougher games later at night.....I stopped MTTs in past races which probably cost me a couple thousand a month. Ive also started staking someone in MTTs as of late - hes a very good player whos taught me alot lately, so I figured this was definitely +ev.....so far hes already shipped the 20r for about 2k, so Im thinking this is a good idea. As far as the stocks, I ended up +550 or so then pulling out last sunday...this turned out to be good as monday was a big drop....the bottom line is the market had a huge upswing over hte past couple weeks and i assume is going to come down....I think though I might take the money and run cause really Im probably -ev with the little I know about it. I made a nice return and think I might just wait till I know a little bit more about what the fuck im doing. Oh well thats it for now - expect an update next month

+50k roughly on the year thus far

back to poker, stocks doin well thus far

So I finally got back to poker on sunday night....I ended up making around 1800 or so on Sun, then taking 2nd in the 20k last night for 3200, putting me around +5k on the month, excluding rb....The stocks have been pretty good as well - citigroup has nearly doubled and ge has gone up a decent amount - sirius has been holding steady so hopefully it starts heading in the right direction. so far im up 4-500 off the stocks, but I dont plan on making that much off them to begin with considering I only invested 2k.....anyways going golfing in a little bit before race cards starts 2nite - it should get interesting....I also started staking someone in MTT's recently so we'll see how that pans out - hes a real good player but with the variance in MTTs who knows what the results can be....def a +ev investment and hopefully it will work out well..that is all for now - stay classy san diego

Stock investing/small rant

So since I have a couple days off from poker I have more time to write out some ideas in these blogs and post a little more often...first off I decided to invest in the stock market....I've never invested in the market, I don't know shit about the market, but I'm still willing to take a small gamble for a couple thousand. Basically in my opinion, its a great time to invest in companies if you feel they can make it through this down economy. Alot of big companies that are going nowhere have seen their stock prices plummet but I'm sure they will come back up when the economy turns around...when that may be I do not know but I think we are starting to see the worst its going to get...Once again I dont know shit so dont listen to me :)...Heres my picks if your interested

1.Sirius (Siri) - So this stock took a plummet when it was announced they were filing bankruptcy....The reality is they had to dump a ton of money into infrastructure to create this company, and that also came with alot of debt....The fact of the matter is its a very profitable commodity - theyre the second largest subscriber company in the world, and with Howard Stern on their airwaves I don't think theyre going anywhere....I think the company might of been better not joining with XM, but I still think its a profitable investment...I wanted to get in when it was around 11 cents/share, but now its up to 34 cents/share...

2.Citi Group (C) - So the main reason I got interested in this was the fact that Citigroup isnt going anywhere - theyre a monster company that needs to stick around and the government wont let them fail.....there stock was around 55/share a couple years ago and bottomed around 1.11...it currently trades in the lower 2's, and I cant see this company ever going down...Sure the government owns about 30% of them now so at the very least I'll breakeven on this one....they have a new CEO and I think things will turn around...

3.GE - I dont know much about GE at all except its been very profitable over the past 20 years and has a good financial record...my parents like this stock alot and it is pretty low, so why not?

All in all these investments could be -ev but Im willing to take a chance.....Don't flame me for my picks or reasoning - I've never traded before and have no knowledge of the market, but I guess the gambler in me is coming out :)

So a quick rant - I really hate people who have to let everyone know how they went from a 10 dollar bankroll to making whatever they have in poker. First off poker is a business investment - who cares that you made money in poker, plenty of people do....Its not a great acheivement and doesn't take a genius to figure it out....You don't see people who own small businesses bragging how they made a small investment and have made 50,000 off of it....it happens all the time and is nothing new. In general too many people brag about poker earnings and have big egos about their game....unless your dominating your field of expertise, I don't see the need for it and really makes him or her look like a moron..

/rant

the end of the race cards madness

So finally the month has come to an end - thank god I wanted to blow my brains out....I ended up losing 7402.00 playing this month, which seems definitely below expectation but not terribly....the first week and the last my table selection was a little weak, the first week definitely playing a ton of -ev games, but the 2nd/3rd weeks I barely played 100s and was picking pretty carefully. Anyways heres all the bonuses I got out of this madness

13,500 for the race (me and maverick chopped)
4260 in reloads
6900 in rakeback
1100 rakebreak race
1000 credits for cash
2000 additional credits(rough estimate)

+21,358

Ended up playing 175 hours or so, so made roughly 122/hr.....in total on the year I'm around 35-36k, putting me around 86/hr or so......I expect my hourly to definitely be around 100 when I get mtts back in the schedule, so stay tuned..anyways I plan on taking a small break for a couple days to enjoy life for once and then Ill be back to the grind.....maybe next month I can be a winner in 50s on AP :)

blog is back!

So SNGAcademy ended up shutting down for personal issues....I thought about asking snggrinders if they were interested, but since ss just started tracking and my results show me as a total fish I think ill wait lol.....think im down roughly 7kish in sng play on the month mainly due to bad runs and tough games....the first week I definitely played alot of losing games, not table selecting and putting up 30k status points, so I guess that was expected. The rest of the month I smartened up and table selected probably 90% of the time, which resulted in playing alot of 65s/50s...So heres how the month is looking in terms of profit

-7k playing
+ 13k race cards
+7kish in rakeback
+1k in credits for cash
+3k in reloads(maybe more not sure)
+2k in extra credits for cash

total = +19k

So the month is shaping up to look really good and my hourly will definitely be over 100/hr, so thats always good news. Im looking forward to April though as I want to work hard and get back to MTTs....Ill definitely be relaxing more though in April as I plan on golfing more and playing more live poker....the grind online has really gotten bad this month and Im glad this whole thing is over in 3 days....If I make 19k this month I be up around 32k on the year, after having a losing month last month. gl me .