Nov coming to an end - where has this year gone?

It seems like the year has flew by. I remember in highschool thinking each week was way too long, now it seems like these months go by like crazy...Anyways on to the poker....my buddy Duderino AB opened up his training site - theSNGAcademy.com.....Im a lead 6 man instructor on there with a couple other 9 man/HU instructors......we're commited to hearing what the member wants and making videos around that, so Im thinking this site can become a premier sng teaching site in the near future....outside of that I also made a switch over to FTP instead of Cake for a couple reasons. #1 - the software on Cake has been having some MAJOR issues...games not popping up, freezing, etc...its been out of control so I pulled my money last week...#2 - obviously my downswing - sure my table selection wasnt the greatest but it was ridiculous how I ran on that site, considering the sngs are very soft, and Ive been a winner in AP sngs at double the stakes over 20,000 games....hopefully FTP goes a little better, but only time shall tell...Im also very excited about Cereus which launched last night - the MTT schedule looks great, and I'll be taking advantage of that..Like ive said before, MTT's really help your hourly rate...throwing 1 sng out for 1 mtt can add 20-30/hr so theres really no arguing with that. Ill be sticking to AP MTT's maybe FTP MTT's when I get more of a roll on there...Im not too sure where I am profit wise on the month, I want to say roughly 8k or so, putting me at 128k on the year - in 09 ill definitely keep track better of my profit and hourly rate....anyways everyone have a happy thanksgiving and ill be back in december with another post

Interesting past couple of days

So the past two days I went on 5k downswing on AP...ran like shit in sngs, bubbled a bunch of 200s....today I ended up making 5400 (outside rb/bonuses/etc)...I went on a mtt tear - 2nd in 20r, 2nd in 8k, 10th in 30r....First off with the 20r - we got heads up and I ended up folding 2nd pair to a reshove on a flush draw board after assuming the player was pretty tight/passive, as he had been 4 handed...after talking with some mtters I realized it prob was a call, but what can you do.....in the 30r I had a MASSIVE stack when we were 15 handed or so.....Was sitting on about 220k at 1500/3000 with 2nd around 110k and ended up busting 10th...I was raising prob 90% of pots, and got in an all in or two against 20-30k stacks....I lost the all ins, then continued to bleed....The biggest pot was a flip where I was sitting about 150k deep at 1500/3000, another player who had been playing very aggressive and whom I thought understood how wide I was opening had about 90-95k.....Anyways, I opened to 7500 and reraised to 22,222....Before he even repopped I planned on shoving regardless of anything.....I shoved with AQ, he had JJ, I bricked out.....After this I shoved 11 bbs with 810s into his bb and he won with an ace.....Pretty sick how deep I was to bubble final table, but I thought I played the tourny well and played the bigstack like it should be....Anyways I ran hot as hell today so I cant complain - hopefully I can get into the 100k tomorrow night and get a decent cash in that one, or just ship the 150k on sat :).....I missed playing the mtts so im glad im back in em - the sng's have been getting very boring so I need something else to motivate me to put in the hours....hopefully a big score is right around the corner

November off to a bad start

So Ive decided to mix in a 200 for every set on AP....Ive been finding them to be very profitable, and some 200s are easier than 100s that contain more regulars....it also seems that the fish are tighter and playing more scared money, so this could turn out to be very worthwhile....on cake I took a dive and started coming back......its utterly ridiculous Im the biggest loser in the 50s, but I can still use variance as an excuse.....If I hit say 5,000 games and am still in the hole then it should get very interesting.....Ive also been working alot more with SNGPT, trying to close up leaks in my game and improve in certain spots....Hopefully this week will go well and I can make a couple grand. gl me

ending to a long but good month

So theres 1 day left in the month so I dont have an exact profit amount as Im not gaurenteed 9k in this race or to breakeven tomorrow but ill post amounts as they are as of now.....overall I didnt run that good in sngs - I made money but I think I ran below expectation. Im so glad this is coming to an end though - I put in a 60 hour week, 50 hour week, and this week prob around 70. I also generated about 23k in rake which is about 7k more than I ever did before...Im also glad the 25/50 cash games are over - Im not sure how I ran in them - I think of might of slightly profited but considering I was playing a nitty game while 12-13 tabling, I doubt I made much at all....The good thing about the cash was I got a taste of 6 max action and how things play out - suprisingly the 25 50 players are better than I expected - maybe I just didnt run all that hot but I thought the play there was better than in the sngs I play.....its funny how easy you can double up in a sng or get value bets on the river called vs the cash games...it seemed tough really getting paid on some bigger hands against better regulars....I also found myself incorporating minraising into my game - it really is a good tool to bluff with against a decent player who can fold....Anyways heres the details of profit

Profit from SNG's on AP - 7500
Profit from SNG's on Cake - 800
Rakeback - 7k
AP Race Cards race - 8 or 9k (hopefully I can hold onto 3rd)
Rakebreak Rake race - 1500
Points for Cash - 1k
Points for 5 ps3s - 1500

Total est - 28,300

So for November im considering staking a sng player in the 10s-50s on AP.....Im also considering going back to 200s and taking my shot....I played a couple 200s this month and theyre still really soft if you table select, so Im thinking I should table select them in November and play the easy ones...Ill prob do the same for 300s and maybe take a shot at a 500 here and there.....Im so worn out from this race Ill definitely take the weekend off, but im hoping on monday I can start another 40 hour week and continue with that through the month....This promotion also helped me get near this 150k goal on the year so im hoping i can pull out 25k over hte next two months

been taking big swings + a little rant on tipping

first ill get to the poker - the swings have been all over the place - past couple days went +1300, -2500, +1800, +3500, -700,etc.....not too many breakeven days.....Ive moved up to 8th on the race - im putting on the heat putting up 5k fame points a day, smoking the guys right ahead of me....Im thinking 5th place for 7k should be easy to obtain.....Im also using some ap credits to purchase a bunch of ps3s from the ap store - im going to resell them on ebay since ap caps the amount of credits u can trade infor cash monthly....should be a 20k+ month easy

so I was reading something on 2p2 in regards to tipping....I think tipping is ridiculously overrated and overdone in this country....When I think of tipping, its the idea that you give a tip when service goes above and beyond expectations...If Im at a restaurant for example and the waiter/waitress does an amazing job, then I should be tipping...the sad part about this country is these employers pay employees shit and thus the employees are forced to rely on customers tips.......the funniest example was when I was in aruba - we all went out to eat at a nice steak restaurant - anyways the bill came to 480 or something like that - included in the bill was a 15% service charge....First of all this service charge is a joke - its just a way to sneak in 15% ontop of bill and theres not much you can do about it....then we leave no tip on top of that and the waitress comes over complaining about it......you seriously want us to leave you 30% of the bill ontop of paying the bill?? its not even like there service was any good - they didnt really speak english andwere alittle slow with the orders...they shouldnt of been tipped anything, not even that 15% service charge....bottom line is a tip should be given when service goes beyond expectations...if the service is just alright, then no tip should be given......tipping in general is way out of control and employers should really stop forcing the customer to pay employee salaries

October going smoothly

So thus far on AP im roughly +4-5k on the month and +800 or so on Cake excluding all bonuses....Ive played roughly 1100 sngs on Ap so far this month, along with 400 or so on Cake. The AP racecard race has been going decent - I think Ill be in 9th for tomorrows update, making my way up the ladder...some of the guys ahead of me are slowing down, so Im thinking that 7th place for 5k will be achievable. Im thinking I can make 10k from AP/Cake, 5-6k in RB, 1k for credits, 5k for AP race, 1200 for Rakebreak race, making me around 22k or so on the month. We'll see how things go.

back from aruba and grinding for a big ap promotion

Aruba was amazing....I got in on monday and met with some ap players and a couple people who work for the company. I spent alot of time with a guy named AD who seemed to be a higher up at AP - we talked a little about what needs to be changed on the site and a possible deal they might work out with me....they might be adding a higher vip level to award the long term grinders, that would hopefully give SNE on stars a run for their money. The tournament itself was a let down - day 1 I ended with 23k. Day 2 I planned on opening up my game and going deep. I chipped up to about 80k at 500/1k when my downfall began. first I lost a 30k pot pre with AQ vs 79. AQ proved to be my downfall again when I was rivered by a flush and had to fold top pair on the river to lose 12k more. Finally I flopped the nut straight, c/r'ed all in the turn to a turned straight/flush draw and she hit. gg me.

So now that Im back AP is running one of their biggest promotions yet - a 100k race giving 15k to first and coming down, with 7th getting 5k, 10 getting 2k. Sadly missing 3 days of the month put me in bad shape to get top 3 in this, so Im shooting for 7th(5k). Games have been running strong, and between AP and Cake I got in about 850 sngs this week, making about 3500-4k(outside bonuses). Amazingly Im up roughly 1k on Cake this month, still putting me in the red on sharkscope but a possible sign that this ridiculous run is turning. I also put in a solid 60 hour week, which comes to about 14-15 games per hour. My goal is to continue with atleast 50 hour weeks the rest of this month and hopefully break my previous rake record of 16k, and play atleast 2500 games. If I can run like I should Im hoping to do atleast 20-25k with all the bonuses. GL me.

going to the aruba classic!

Sooo today im running my normal routine(ap and cake), when i get a call from ap....they ask me what im doing this weekend, and eventually offer the 8500 package to me.....while im thrilled to be going, its also been very stressful trying to get a flight/hotel out there for a decent price.......the last thing I want during a big downswing is to be spending more money on unnecessary shit....the 3k doesnt go that far, as that is barely covering my hotel/flight, and thats only 4 nights! people who go the whole trip booking this late would be there 6-7 nights, and id spend prob 4k....throw in another 500+ for food, drinks, jetskiing,etc, and ur almost 2k over what they give ya.....oh well, this is a great experience that i cannot pass up, so hopefully it goes well...im also selling %'s of me if anyone wants a piece - 1% is 55.00 and u can ship to z06fanatic on ap or diaf fish on cake. i cashed last year for 8k, but this year ill be playing to win rather than cash....i played very nitty last year as the cash was 25% of my bankroll, but this year im not too concerned about 8k...

outside the trip, theyre finally shipping out my 5k tiffanys gift card....I plan on reselling it, so if anyone reading this wants a deal for say 4200-4400, email me or respond on the blog.....poker has been going terrible as of late - think im around breakeven or so for the month, easily being my worst month to date. Cake is still doing terrible, but im confident in my game and know im playing very well....downswings can be brutal mentally, but I think in the longrun theyre very profitable....this downswing has forced me to play better, and do more work with ICM....i seem to focus more now on hands and can make better decisions 12 tabling....oh well, maybe in aruba ill run like jamie gold and take the rest of this year off :)

still running like shit

im still running at a negative roi this month which is also entertaining.....ive been happy with my game though so i dont mind it all that much....on cake i had a glimmer of hope when i went on a 1600 upswing yesterday, but now that has fallen to a 800 upswing. Im still down a ridiculous number of buy ins but hey I guess we can call this late august/september run my second big downswing on the year.....the only positive that has come out of my past month has been being more comfortable 10 tabling - i feel i can 10 table now playing near 100% - i feel 10 tabling isnt really stressful....12 i still find somewhat stressful and taxing on my ability to play them 100%, but hopefully over time that will get easier as welll. I also jumped back in ap rebuys - my ROI in rebuys is in the mid 100s (small sample), so I think its necssary for me to play the 20r/30r as much as possible. With the 30r for example, a 100% ROI would make 120 per 30r played, and if the average tourny lasts 3 hours, thats 40 an hour off that single table......thats so ridiculous how i could do that tournament and 8 or 9 sngs that i have to get back in it.

Getting railed in September

Ive been bending over since the start of this month - Im probably down a couple grand easy on AP and my Cake roll is nearly depleted. Today I went to Sharkscope myself on cake - I was roughly -5600 or so without bonuses....thats fucking sick right there, considering my avg stake is around 55, bringing my swing to 100 buy ins......Im a little concerned about that as I dont think I should be dropping 100 buy ins where I would have an ROI of near 10%, but who knows.....Ive dealt with being a loser over 2k games before, so thats nothing new, but this is sickening.....anyways Im gonna keep grinding it out and hopefully things will turn around....I expected this kind of railing to happen on AP cause of my sick run in July, but this Cake run is really getting to me.

August comes to an end, new change of pace

So August has finally ended - including the 5k diamond Im up roughly 8k on the month :(....I havent gotten the official word about winning it, but after speaking to vip on the 31st, Im pretty damn sure its mine. I was hoping to crack 100k for the year in August but that will have to wait.....Another goal I set, to make 50k this summer happened, which was great....Last year I think I made 30k so Im slowly moving up the ranks.....So for hte month of September I decided to focus more on Cake - the games there are easier, even though im running like complete shit over there.....Also the games on AP (esp 100s) have gotten stacked lately with more regulars, so really my plan is to 6 table on cake and 4-5 table with game selection on AP.......We'll see how it all works out, but I plan on playing a ton of games this month and get cake where it should be....Im owed prob 5k in equity on there :(

Total yearly profit (93,000 est)

Still negative on the month outside all the bonuses

So I think im around -3k on AP for the month and -500 or so on Cake. It really is disturbing that im still running like shit on cake and still in the red after about 1500 games. Ive been through those swings before but this is just brutal. My only saving graces are all the bonuses and this 5k diamond. I figure 4k in rakeback, 2500 in rake races, 1k in credits for cash, 5k diamond, would put me at 11.5k....So really my goal for the rest of hte week is to break even on the month cause profiting outside these bonuses seems far fetched :(

Why do people help others for free?

So I was reading a post on p5's asking questions about sngs and a well known user that knows sng's very well posts a detailed response, with links to ICM programs,etc. Now I know we all want to help people, and its really in our nature, but do we not play poker for profit? I really think alot of these "helpers" are naive about the poker economy and the game itself. The bottom line (especially with SNG's since they have the flattest learning curve) is games are getting harder, and people offering free information are just burning their own money. I also see this alot with MTT'ers, especially the more sucessful ones who think their profits won't be hurt. That's pretty ridiculous to think people cant learn to beat high buy in MTTs - I don't think you need a natural born talent to beat MTT's of that nature, just alot of studying and dedication. I also see alot of people responding to posts to stroke their ego - show the new player how much they know and how good they are. Thats great but really put your wallet before your ego. I have to admit I use to tell people how bad they played, etc - it was immaturity and now I definitely stem away from any negativity about someone's game. So in conclusion I would like everyone to think twice next time they post useful information either in an IM, forum, etc. Sure we love to help people, its in our nature, but if your playing poker for profit your hurting yourself in the longrun.

Back from Vegas, rough start to the month

Vegas turned out to be amazing after a 3 hour plane delay getting there....the hotel was huge - you had the casino and club area, a food court, pool/lounge area and a ton of shops......we also visited caesars, the venetian and some others that were also pretty sick......if you ever go to vegas just walk around and check out all the hotels/sites, its really amazing.....the clubs were sick as well - Pure in caesars was really cool - we got a pussycat doll show while we were there....ghost bar at the palms was great as well going up to the 54th floor and overlooking vegas....I didnt really play much poker down there -I wanted to relax and not do any type of work while on vacation......as far as AP, I missed the 2k diamond last month which really annoys me, but Im also in great shape for this 5k diamond that ends this month. I got a guy "crudebar25" putting up some points, but I think I had him by 25k last month so I should be fine. On AP I think im maybe +1k on the month so far, and about +1500 on Cake(yes im actually up this month on cake outside bonuses). Sad thing is Im still down overall on Sharkscope :(...So my plan for this month is to win the ap rake race, generate maybe 3-4k in rakeback, win this 5k diamond, and hopefully make atleast a couple grand.....we'll see how things go

Biggest month yet playing poker

So I decided to take today off since this week has really been a struggle in terms of getting hours in. I shattered alot of personal records this month - ended up getting in around 2k+ games, averaging 50-55 hours a week, winning 3 tlbs, and clearing over 20k on the month....Funny thing is none of this really came from Cake - Im literally up roughly 2k on the month on cake, with only 500 of that coming from actual profit - Im still a loser on sharkscope with rakeback and rake races putting me in the green. Pretty sad, but atleast running like shit there translated into a good month on AP....heres the breakdown on profit although its not too accurate as my record keeping is non-existent :)

+5k in rakeback
+2500 in rake races
+1k in credits for cash
+500 on cake
+1200 AP MTTs (bluffmag shows me down but i recieved roughly 3 weeks of free entries)
+11k AP SNG's
+2k diamond (hopefully they follow up on their promotions)

+23,200 (if my math is correct)

Year to date (estimated) - 87,000

My goal with the new monitor now is to do no less than 40 hours a week, and roughly 15k/mo....Maybe on Cake I can be a winning player for once and start making money on there, but for now its just AP :(

A couple quick bonuses, and a trip to vegas

So instead of trying to win TLB this week, i just chopped it with twolip for 500 bucks....I agreed on him sending me 500, and he could win all the free buy ins and the red chat...it worked out well cause I didnt want to have to play all those buy ins during the week, and next weekend I wont be able to play the 150/75k anyways...I also picked up a quick 400 reload bonus on AP, and cashed the 150k for 1k yesterday. This Saturday, the 2nd, Ill be going to Vegas with my gf, my buddy southcjay7 and one of his girls......definitely looking foward to it as this will be my first time there.....i dont plan on playing much poker, although if I do, I plan on playing cash games, since I dont want to be sitting in a tournament with ridiculous rake for hours on end.....

This week Im gonna try to fit 50 hours in - I might make a TLB run if no one is really pushing for it...Hopefully I can make a couple grand more and get to 25k on the month

An interesting week thus far

So I took the majority of Saturday off to play golf, then spent all of Sunday chillen with my gf....Its nice to a break from work, and when your playing 40-50 hours a week, 7 days will burn you out quick.....Monday was pretty uneventful, losing a couple hundred over a 12 hour span....Tuesday began the rollercoaster....I started the afternoon out playing the 20r and a ton of sngs between Cake/AP. Quickly I was getting murdered on AP, putting me roughly -2k on the day.....I ended up going deep in the 20rebuy, shipping it for roughly 2200, leaving me breakeven at my first break around 5 PM. Nothing better than winning a MTT only to find your at where you started the day. During my nightshift, I made a couple hundred on Cake, and ended up going 3rd in the 8k for 1200. Once again I checked the account and I was still at where I started the day :(......I did make an error in the 8k that I really wish I could of folded...we were 3 handed and I had battled the CL a number of times postflop, and assumed he would loosen up(this guy was playing ridiculously tight).....Anyways I picked up A10clubs in the sb, made a standard raise prob 25 bbs deep, he reshoved prob 40 bbs deep, and I called. Against any decent aggressive player this is a pretty easy snap call, but against a total nit I think I should of folded. For me really to be calling with A10 there, he'd have to be shoving KQ,QJ,A6+, and to be honest this guy was THAT tight......looking back on it I guarentee he'd never reshove KJ,A6 there(would prob just call to see a flop), but who knows.

Im also on pace for 16-17k in generated rake, making me roughly 5k in rakeback. Im currently #1 on the AP rakerace which will net me a 2k bonus, #7 on cake for 400 bucks, and destroying these diamond promotions AP is offering.......Im finally profiting on Cake (although only by rakeback this month), putting me +3k on the month. Hopefully in August I can start running half way decent and get positive on sharkscope. Im sick of the fish bowl :(

time to cut out the fat

So recently I came to the conclusion that playing the normal AP MTT's while playing SNG's isn't really that profitable for me, and for that reason Im cutting back on them....The main reason is concentration - I can 12 table Cake/AP sngs all day, but once I throw in some MTT's its going to slow me down/become more stressful....If im playing a MTT and its cutting me out of 2 games, thats 3 an hour im losing, and in the end Im not really making much more on a MTT 8-10 tabling than 12 tabling all sngs....Ill still do the goldmine tournys like the 30rebuy/maybe 100ss, but ill mainly just play the free entries I get from winning tlb.....Also Im trying to win both the AP/Cake rake races so I need all the games I can play...im currently 2nd on AP and 10th on cake.....cake i prob cant win but ill try to get top 5 so i can make 2k between both races.

Running like God in AP SNG's

Since saturday I think ive made 7-8k off ap sngs - running like god.......cake im still getting hammered, dropping about 1k the past 2 days.....one day Id like to profit on there....

I also qualified into the 100k 2nite through a 25 dollar qualfier....hopefully i can get a big score and get to take some days off

Finally got a new monitor - getting hammered on cake

so last week I decided to pick up a monitor - I ended up getting a 19 inch LG for 200 from best buy....with that i grabbed a mouse and went to work...the new monitor makes such a difference -now i can 10-12 table with cake games in the mix and not have to worry about constantly timing out...overall I think its a great investment and going to make me alot of money down the road....


as far as poker, ive getting raped on cake and doing pretty good on ap. I think im down 1600-1800 the past week or two playing 78s on cake, running terribly.....ap has been going well, basically cancelling out this cake downswing and making me some money, although ive been missing the big mtt cashes lately.....im excited about july since my rakeback site will now be offering 2k to first in the ap rake race, and 1200 to 1st in the cake rake race, so im hoping to make some bank off of that and some TLB wins...gl me

back from vacation, made some money

Had a great vacation in St Martin this past week.....at first I was skeptical - driving by the villages and the town, everything was really run down and our hotel was about 30 minutes away from the action....The hotel turned out to be amazing, and we ended up having a great time....Nothing like relaxing on the beach in the carribean or tearing it up on a jetski in a beautiful location.....

On Wednesday I got back to the action.....Wed/Thurs was uneventful, breaking even, but today turned out to be a +4k day after a 20r victory and running well in sngs on both cake/ap....its crazy how quick mtts can turn - in the 20r i was down to 1200 chips at 150/300 early on after 2 pair ran into a set on the turn......somehow i chipped up from there and had a huge 3 way all in suckout with qq to put me in great position....feels good to get a decent mtt hit since its been a while.....

just woke up and making a post

so last month turned out to be somewhat profitable - not sure exactly how much I made but roughly around 12k give or take 1k....June has started off in the red with a -2k swing the past couple days, but Im about to clear a 3k arp bonus on ap and recieve 700 from the rake race, so that should help things out....cake is still in the red but hopefully this month I can start turning a profit.....Im gonna try to knock out 40-45 hours this week since Ill be on vacation 12th-17th

solid week thus far outside pokerdb being ghey

Sooo its been a solid week in both sngs and mtts....Sunday night i shipped the 100ss for 2700, and then today shipped 4500ss for 1800 and a 3rd in 30r for 1800 or so....SNG's have been so so, not too sure where Im at profit wise with them.....Ive also decided to quit keeping track of this 50k goal as I dont have an exact number....hopefully tomorrow and friday I can clear this 3k arp bonus as I need 15k more arps to do so.....

I mentioned pokerdb because they failed to record my 100ss win on Sunday..after contacting them i was told they cannot manually enter in a tournament result, thus fucking up my chance at tracking results on the year....not the biggest issue ive faced but nevertheless annoying.

rollercoaster week so far

Poker is absoutely crazy in terms of the ups and downs....some days you finish loving poker, some days you are ridiculously stressed out wishing you didnt play.....monday and tuesday I had rough days - lost roughly 2500 of that 4700 I had made over the weekend, but then last night went on a quick heater and made 2k in about 3 hours....Im glad I dont play 200s right now cause dealing with those swings would kill me mentally, so hopefully I can make another 40-50k and not care about dropping 10k in horrible swings....

On a side note, Im pretty annoyed at pokerdb on bluffmagazine.com....The 100ss win I got never updated to their stats, and they told me it could take a couple weeks....I dont see why they cant manually enter it in now but I guess thats how it goes....today I plan on getting in 5-6 hours of play since Ill be out tonight and Friday Ill prob be busy all day......Im also about 35k arps away from 200k so Im looking foward to that 3k bonus.

had a good weekend

finally got a couple hours in on sat-sun after a sort of breakeven week....played 2 hours of sngs on sat , made about 700, got home sunday for about 4 hours of play and made roughly 4k with a 100ss 9k win.....felt good to win a tourny as the last one was the 30rebuy i dont even know how long ago

Treating poker like a business

This past week after lackluster performance, I decided to take a look at highly sucessful players in order to possibly learn something from them other than their actual poker skills. Just like any business in a specific industry, paying attention to your competitors moves is extremely important, and in poker, copying these moves can lead to making a higher hourly wage. I've never been big on change, and it costed me dearly. Wasting hours on end in the 40s last year hurt my profits, and being hesistant about jumping in 100+ mtts hurt my profitability, but at the same time maybe its good I'm more cautious then your average player. Anyways I've made two moves

1.Cake Poker - I talked about this earlier but never followed up on it. During the daytime, AP is slow and I can't 8-9 table, 6-tabling seems to be the average from noon-5pm. Cake is gonna allow me to keep the hourly wage I make at night during the day

2.UB - UB has some good MTT's, and I really need to get on there. The best part is I can xfer from there to AP so getting money on/off is a breeze. Either way this seems like a good business move

So there it is. The real goal is to get more games in, which leads to higher profits, lower variance, and an overall better strategic plan. I have found 8 tabling to be a breeze, so 9-10 tabling shouldn't be too bad....we shall find out soon enough


50K Sept Goal

+2500(roughly)

Summer is here - sort of

I always considered May 1st - Sept 1st to be summer......I guess the real reason is I finish school usually the first week of May, and start around the first week of September, but this year September 1st I won't be starting anything :)....In the past the summer has been very productive in terms of moving up in poker - I started profiting in poker 2 years ago in July, building my roll up to 1k and having a huge August....last year I made the full time to jump to 100s in August and ended up having the biggest month(at that time) and picking up a seat to the Aruba Classic....So to up the ante, I decided to set a goal of 50k over the next 4 months.....its very achievable if I put the time in (only 1 vacation is scheduled so far for the summer), and hopefully itll push me to get better....Ill keep an update at the bottom of my blog entries and hopefully the goal is reached.

I also got the lease signed to this beach house - we move in on the 15th of the month and Im really looking foward to this....will be nice to play poker all day then drink/pong/etc at night...the place is somewhat small but being under a block from the beach is amazing

September 1st 50k goal
+643.00

end to a good month

still running well in sngs.....im roughly +2k so far this week...had some mtt cashes as well - 7th in 100ss the other night for 500 i believe then a 1k cash today in 4500ss.....nothing too exciting.......it feels great to have the biggest downswing ive ever had in sngs and climb out of it sucessfully - makes it easier the next time one of those roll around.....

in other news I got my last final tomorrow night....its great to be finishing up college - somewhat of a scary feeling though that financial security is gone, and its really all on me at this point....at the same time im excited to never see a textbook again or listen to 50 year olds recite passages in a textbook that have no relation to making money in the real world....there were definitely some classes that were valuable to me, but alot were just a waste of time.....im also 99% about moving into this beachhouse in a couple weeks, so its a very exciting time....hopefully things go well

Long week - 40 hrs in 4 days

So last week I set a goal of getting in 40 hours a week, similar to a "real" job but more importantly to get in high volume so I could start making money again. I ended up breaking even all the way till today, and finished +1500 through sngs....in the past week I dont think I had one MTT cash :(....April is starting to look like a good month - after reviewing past posts Im around +11k in sngs/mtts, +2k in RB, +1k or so in ARPs, and most likely +1k from this rake race, putting me around +15k so far this month......Id like to hit 20k one of these months but Id need to hit a mtt in the next 6 days to give that a shot.....lets go ap gods :)

Im also thinking about moving to Cake Poker so I can consistently get in 8-9 tables at a time when AP is slow.....Cake SNG's are a real joke, much like AP.....they're a little slow but AP is too, so combining the sites might be worthwhile....The downsides are withdrawing - check seems to be the only viable option as of now, and they dont even offer a courier method.....rather not wait 20 days for my money...

Tomorrow I will be taking off the whole day to play golf, check out this new house I might rent, and see my girlfriend...Its been a long week of grinding so I really need a solid couple days to relax and actually enjoy living

Some friday night poker and a weekend of rest

So I got home around 7 to get a night in of poker.....decided to do that donkfest 10k since I planned on sitting there from 8pm-2am.....I havent done a 50 dollar freezout in a while, since the prizepools never really interest me, but this ended up paying around 3k to first so I figure id give it a roll....Ended up losing AA to KK when I was 2nd in chips with like 16 to go - was sort of shocked at the time but thats poker....essentially if I won that I would of had prob double the stack of 2nd place and I would imagine I could ship that a high % of the time considering how little chips are in play....I gotta say though that tournament is REALLY soft.....I know AP tournaments in general are much softer than other sites, but theres very little blind defending in the 10k, and around the bubble the majority are trying to cash and playing ridiculously tight.....Theres also just a ton of donkey shoves so I would definitely recommend this tournament if you want some easy money :) Ended up busting the 30r,100ss and being about breakeven in sngs...

This weekend im just gonna chill and relax....the weather is real nice today so I wanna take advantage of it...Also I find myself hating poker when I play a little 6-7 days a week, so Id rather just play a long week rather than stretch it out....usually when I play the weekend I find myself dreading to play on Monday

Return to normalcy (or just running good)

So I started the week on Monday after being gone over the weekend...Mon I dropped about 1500 in sngs/mtts, but then went on a heater making that 1500 back and another 2k on top....then tonight i shipped the 30rebuy for 4500 bringing the weekly total to around +6500....feels good to win the 30r outright, as ive only chopped it before or fallen in 2nd....Ive also made a conscious effort this week to keep track with the amount of hours Ive been playing...my goal is to play 40 hours this week, and its tough fitting this in with a school schedule,gym, and a social life.....I believe im around 30 hours on the week, so hopefully I can fit in another 10 between thurs and friday....

Outside of poker playing, my sleep schedule is all fucked up......becasue alot of these tournaments run till 3 in the morning, I find myself sitting here at 4:10 AM wide awake, failing to fall asleep after some attempts.....Just to make it worse I have class at 9:30 AM, and I definitely can't miss it....good times

good day - ran hot in sngs - the end of the bad run?

ended up around +2k over a couple hours...went 3rd in 20rebuy and ran hot in sngs.....could this be the end of my run?? i hope so, but who knows.....currently at about +3500 this week, so Id like to continue the trend and possibly end around +5k...

outside of poker, it looks like the house i was gonna rent fell apart, so i was a little dissapointed with that. regardless we will keep looking and eventually throw some sick parties

poker, taxes, and golf

things been going ok in sngs lately....past 2 days im up about 1500 even with dumping prob 600 in mtt buy ins, so glad to see Im really +2k or so in sngs......I havent had a real cash in a mtt lately, but found it funny cashing the 20r today for 78 bucks....so i lose 2 dollars for cashing???

Im also in the process of completing my taxes for 07 - its alot of fun giving money away to the government but I guess I don't have too much of a choice...luckily I made under 100k last year so I wasn't hit too hard...

Finally the temps are starting to hit the 60s, and its time for me to hit the links....I logged about 8 hours today so I could take alot of tomorrow off and play - hopefully I do decent and break 100 for once....

Come join my RB site, make money and make me money :)

I dunno if all the rakeback sites have done this but rakebreak.com has now made it so you can cash your rakeback out at any time which is great....Along with that they also have prize payouts to those earning the most rake during the month which is definitely pretty nice...So if you wanna make some extra bank sign up at rakebreak.com and use referral code "z06fanatic" (end shameless plug)

A couple MTTs and a quick rundown of my expectation

So I slept over my gf's last night, got back home around 130 pm today and signed up for the 25k,10k, and 4500ss....10k first hand I repop with KK guy calls, flop comes 3 diamonds, I got the Kd. I basically get it all in on the flop with the shallow 1500 stacks, he calls with flopped flush obv(36dd), gg me...4500ss, I end up busting with tptk into set....25k im still goin - wish me luck!

So I was driving to my girls thinking about my expectation and how ridiculous this has been...so I decided to run some numbers to get an "idea" of what my expectation is. Now that I dropped 200s for now, Im going to just calculate 65s/100s, as well as mtts. Lets say I average 1000 games a month, and say my ROI in 100s is 6%, with a 10% ROI in 65s(no idea where my true ROI is, but I'd think that my ROI is higher than this).....Lets say 600 100s and 400 65s....as for mtts lets say I do 50 a month, avg buy in 100, with a longterm ROI of 60%(rather keep my estimates conservative)...sooooo

600 100s = 65,400 a month in buy ins, 3924 in profit(6%), 1620 in RB = 5544.00/mo
400 65s = 28,400 a month in buy ins, 2840 in profits(10%), 720 in RB = 3560/mo
50 mtts = 5,000 in buy ins, 3000 in profits(60%), 3000/mo

That equals 12,104.00 profit per month + ARPs which usually equals to around 80-90,000 a month or roughly 1300, so 13,400 lets say.

I think thats a conservative estimate of my profitability, and at the same time 150k for the year would make me really happy. So lets say I take the last 4 months and compare them to my expectation. Dec I was +6k over expectation, Jan +1k, Feb -10k behind expectation, March -7500 behind, thus going into April Im technically 10k behind expectation.....all in all this 150k mark is still not that far away, but it would be nice to run at "expectation" for once.


-ps - if anyone has any info that could help me narrow down true ROI's in these games Id appreciate it.

been slackin on blogging

thats mainly due to not making the monies :(....after my last blog post, the follow day i chopped the 20r again and ended last week around 3k-3500.....ive been really raping these small mtts on ap and way ahead of my ROI goal for 08 of 50% or more...Hopefully I can keep the ROI atleast something respectable (50-60%) on the year...

SNG's have still been a struggle as I took a -3k swing this week in em.......On a positive note my rakeback site is offering payouts for those who earn top rake for the month, so Im hoping to win that leaderboard

easter and a decent day to follow

Had a good easter with my family and my girlfriend.....ate a TON of food which wasn't the greatest idea for my diet, but hey im only human.....today I got up early enough for the 20rebuy - ended up taking 2nd after running a8 into 99 and losing to a runner runner flush earlier, but I did get very lucky early in the FT where my JJ > QQ......Also made something like 6-700 in sngs, bringing the total to +2k......tonight Ill try to play the 30r/100ss and obv a ton of sngs, and hopefully I can continue profiting in SNGs....Over the weekend I also took the time to buy some training videos featuring beanmo, a highly sucessful SNG grinder on FTP, that has a TON of money in the 55-200 buy ins....Overall his calls/shoves/etc were on point with my rationale but what I realized was he played somewhat tighter than I did in terms of shoving....he wouldn't push 100% in some spots, especially against bbs that were deepstacked or he was abusing previously....I almost think some of his folds there were wrong because ICM says otherwise, but hes the one making alot more than me so Im willing to follow:)

Also haven't been keeping up with profits for the year, mainly because I dropped a ridiculous amount of money in sngs.....Overall though I think im around 20k on the year which is pretty bad - hopefully I can get something big going soon

small mtt ship

won the 4500ss - had like 40 people in it so its really not a true MTT but nevertheless got 1800 for the win...sngs are still no fun - yest i had a +1k run in em - thought i was out of the cold streak but then i dumped that money back today.....been playing less 200s just till things get better again - the difference in buy ins is really annoying cause everything depends on how i run in 200s....i could kill 65s/100s, but if i run like shit in 200s i make no money...even shipping an mtt isnt a big deal if i drop 5-10 200s.....obv in the longrun it doenst matter but stringing together some consistent days would help my confidence and get me back on track.....

outside of poker me,southcjay7 and my buddy are still on the hunt for a house starting this summer.....we found a nice spot in milford beach area, but theyre too jewish to pay the 7-800/mo it would cost......hopefully we find something soon that isnt a shithole.

won the 9k sngs still not fun

luckily won the 9k tonight.....seemed to breeze through it without any issues - the guy i got HU with was pretty bad imo....sngs still been sluggish - im happy with my game in those so im not too worried about things. hopefully things turn soon enough.

Poker is definitely not an easy job

So the streak continued - while im not dropping money anymore im just staying between +500 and -1k lately....its been rough - alot of thoughts run through your head if your even +ev in these games and if you'll ever profit again.....personally i still feel im a winner in 200s - ive proven to be a decent winner in 100s, so I figure at the very least im a slight winner in the 2s....in my opinion alot of the 200 players still have a TON of leaks - alot of the "regulars" dont know ICM, call too lightly, and overshove in alot of spots......I think alot of the 200 players outside a couple regulars that I know are cash game players who dont really know the push/fold game, and tend to overcall pre and try to outplay opponents postflop when stack sizes are just too shallow to do this....in general outside the money, stack sizes are short and theres really not alot of spots to double barrel opponents when your 12-15 bbs deep.....of course theres times when the 200s are real tough with some great opponents, but overall i gotta be profitable.....time will tell

Back to work

sat night went to my girls party and had a good time - alot of good food, went out to the bars afterwards with friends, and relaxed on sunday at her house.......it's definitely nice to forget about poker and enjoy what really matters in life....as for poker im back to work today - lost a couple hundred more today but overall was satisfied with my play. Tonight im going to hit the gym then come home and play the 30r,100ss and prob 30-40 sngs.....Im also going to try some sattys into the 100k this wed - I think these sattys are such ridiculous value, and if I could go deep in the 100k once it would be a decent score.....im also 13k arps away from hitting 200,000 and getting my 3k bonus, so hopefully I hit that before I need to deposit again :)

Feb comes to an end - thank god

So Feb comes to an end and I think im +3-4k on the month....easily my worst month since switching out of 40s......overall I was satisfied with my play - think I made 6k in mtt's - did around 120% ROI....I def had a -ROI in SNG's this month, but that can be expected when you drop something like 70-75 BI's.....I guess this was coming for some time, luckily I got a strong roll with little to no bills so this 11k drop didn't really phase me...Sadly this only puts me at 18,100 in 2008, but as poker players know upswings/downswings can be huge.....playing wise I still feel like im playing well in SNG's. Ive definitely had a couple spots where I really questioned a couple calls, but overall I think Im still being very objective with my decisions rather than allowing this run to get the best of me....I decided if my roll drops another 25k then I'd drop out of 200s, but I really don't see that happening...

Outside of poker Im going out tonight to get drunk and chill with my buddy.....going to hit up the bars....tomorrow night ill be going out with my girl and her friends since its her 21st - should be a good time......

sngs still suck - got a mtt ship

So I dropped some more money and in total puts my SNG downswing around 9-9500ish.....Its getting pretty crazy but after looking at some sharkscope grapths(timeforsumactshun) whos got a similar ROI as mine prob is in 200s, I noticed he hit a 100 buy downswing that cost him 40k, so in reality I guess my swing is warranted after playing 15,000 sngs with nothing higher than a 50-60 swing...

On a side note, shipped the 9k tonight for like 3k....helped a little bit....congrats to carsonnchad who went 3rd in 100k and a 30r ship.....hes been making some sick bank and is a nice kid so congrats to him.....also jond who is just a sicko shipping everything in sight....im watching him HU in the 100k - gl to him.....

so fuck this month - i better make like 30k in march

the bleeding continues

so since saturday, im around -7k or so in sngs.....this includes 3 300s that i bricked, and a ton of 200s.....am i playing well? ive played 15,000 or so sngs so i know when im not playing good, and i feel im pretty objective with my game which is definitely good....in the end we can chalk things up to variance as 40-50 buy in drops are common occurance playing 1000 games a month......i think once i recover this money im going to figure out how much more 200s are making me per month, cause the extra stress is not fun, and this month has been a rollercoaster. I still feel like I can crush any SNG on AP, but the 100s/65s have zero stress so I might reconsider sticking to them......such a stressful month - PLEASE END!!!!

finished off week 3 of feb - started week 4 in the red

so ended up +3200 or so on the week then proceeded to dump 2500 of it back last night....i was a definitely a loser last night in the 200s, and i jumped in a weak 300 and bricked that as well......today i got the free 150k entry so hopefully i can hit something decent in that....outside of poker im booking a trip to st martin with my gf, and my buddy and his girl, to watch my sister get married as well as enjoy a sick vacation....another goal i have is to get down to 200-210 by this vacation....i use to be in great shape - prob 210ish in this pic

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=10215466&albumID=0&imageID=820822

but put on 20 pounds after long nights of drinking, eating, etc....anyways this time im gonna get back to where i was for good and not be an idiot. Im at 229.5 currently so got a little ways to go.

Running good in mtts, up and down in sngs

So Tuesday I played about 10 hours - got 2nd in the 20r for 1500, chopped 9k nightly for 2250, and lost about 800 in sngs....yesterday i had a test so i didnt get a chance to play till the night - ended up playing ap/ub 30r, ap/ub 100ss, cashing in none of them - made a couple hundred in sngs.....today i got 4 hours in before i go chill with my girl - 4th in 4500 ss, and +1500 in sngs....

things going decent this week - hopefully i can close out this month around 15k

4500 ss hand - dont see how he makes this call but nevertheless gh

Table: 6 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 8 - HOLDEM101A ($21168 in chips)
Seat 9 - OLKUNTRYBOY ($28827 in chips)
Seat 2 - Z06FANATIC ($34489 in chips)
Seat 3 - ROYALJACK ($21604 in chips)
Seat 6 - MADRAZR ($31412 in chips)
Z06FANATIC - Ante $100
ROYALJACK - Ante $100
MADRAZR - Ante $100
HOLDEM101A - Ante $100
OLKUNTRYBOY - Ante $100
HOLDEM101A - Posts small blind $800
OLKUNTRYBOY - Posts big blind $1600
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Z06FANATIC [10d 10c]
Z06FANATIC - Raises $4000 to $4000
ROYALJACK - Folds
MADRAZR - Folds
HOLDEM101A - Folds
OLKUNTRYBOY - Calls $2400
*** FLOP *** [7h Ks Ah]
OLKUNTRYBOY - Checks
Z06FANATIC - Bets $6400
OLKUNTRYBOY - Calls $6400
*** TURN *** [7h Ks Ah] [Kh]
OLKUNTRYBOY - Bets $3200
Z06FANATIC - Calls $3200
*** RIVER *** [7h Ks Ah Kh] [4h]
OLKUNTRYBOY - Checks
Z06FANATIC - All-In $20789
OLKUNTRYBOY - All-In $15127
Z06FANATIC - returned ($5662) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Z06FANATIC - Shows [10d 10c] (Two Pair, kings and tens)
OLKUNTRYBOY - Shows [8c Ad] (Two Pair, aces and kings)
OLKUNTRYBOY Collects $58754 from main pot

Where Im at for 08

Alright - its 2008 - ive learned alot in 07 and plan on putting it to use......one thing is playing higher buy ins and not being scared about bigger swings - my plan is to make as much as possible so playing 40 dollar sngs was a big downfall in 07 although i did improve alot in 40s.......another thing I learned was to play more mtts - actually if I could play a full mtt schedule I would probably clear more money but I like the security of sngs and overall im a better sng player than mtt player.....for those of you who dont know me i play mainly the 100/200 dollar sngs on ap, as well as 100+ mtts on ap and now ub.......my goal this year is to play atleast 5-600 mtts, 12,000 sngs and make atleast 150k......i would say 200k but i figured 150 is def doable.....currently im around 24-25k on the year - did 14,100 in January and currently around 10-11k for this month........hopefully i can make 08 much bigger than 07