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