If anything will keep me disciplined and honest about my game, I figure this will. My plan is to post any thoughts I have lingering from each session I play. This something I see as another step towards my ultimate goal: Playing poker for a living.

I don't have any illusions as to a glamorous lifestyle, or even really making a ton of money. I don't want to be on tv. If I can make enough to support my wife and future children and live comfortably, I will be very happy. I don't hate my job, I just hate having to get up early every morning, always have. I am 25 and I live just outside of Boston. I play No Limit Hold Em almost exclusively. Right now I am on Poker Stars because I've been too lazy to put money into anywhere else. I play the $22 SnG's and the $50 FR. I JUST installed Poker Tracker this weekend and I paid for the full version so if anyone has any tips on how to get started, I'd be happy to have them. I much prefer playing live to playing online and if I ever do decide to "go pro" I'm probably going to move to south central MA and make Foxwoods my office. I used to play Magic: The Gathering competitively and kind of out grew it. In Dec. of 2005 I sold most of my cards for a good chunk of change. I took $1,000 of it and put it into a bankroll for live play. So far I've only managed to put in 55 hours at the tables and I've profited $749. I keep a record of my live play winnings on pokerledger.com, user name is Bosox1 if anyone cares. I usually play for an hour or so online a few times a week and play at Foxwoods or friends tournaments as much as I can. I also have a weekly home game but thats mostly for fun and since I'm not REALLY trying to make money I don't count it as part of my live play bankroll. I do track the results and I am the overall leader with a $42 profit over the last six months ROCK! Out of my friends only one other person takes this seriously. He and I try to help each other improve so he'll probably get mentioned a bunch. (his name is Syd)

So thats me. I'll try to post some interesting hands as they come up. To start with it will mostly just be my thoughts and ramblings.

On the pokertracker front, the stats themselves wont be very useful for a while as you build up a decent sample size, however I do recommend getting yourself a HUD to go with it. I like to see VPIP, PFR and aggression factor for the players at the table.

I use , its free. Aparently PAHud is better.

I downloaded PAHud but I haven't installed it yet. I played for about 45 minutes tonight. I lost about $82. I made one stupid call with 88 on a board of 4TT, I raised a bet and he pushed, REALLY stupid call. As soon as I clicked it I knew it was stupid, he obvously had either an overpair with a slight chance of 3 tens. Overall I think I played better than the loss would say. I got aces cracked both times I saw a flop with them. And I was SO pissed I didn't get money out of a set. EP1 raised to $2.50 with THREE callers before me. So I call on the SB with 55. So we see a raised pot FIVE to the flop. It comes 5,8 ACE with 2 diamonds. I figure one of these guys HAS to have an Ace and I don't really want to let someone with 67 of diamonds see a free turn. So with like $14 in the pot I bet $11 and everyone FOLDS. One guy said he had KK. Also, this hand sucked:

Table 'Asterope II' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: Bosox_02368 ($50.20 in chips)
Seat 2: johnl44 ($28.90 in chips)
Seat 3: lakedistrikt ($13.55 in chips)
Seat 4: doenis0815 ($74.25 in chips)
Seat 5: arvydas ($62 in chips)
Seat 6: D3AD M0N3Y ($11.20 in chips)
Seat 7: fumille ($59 in chips)
Seat 8: plours12 ($50 in chips)
Seat 9: Nacho Love ($55.60 in chips)
fumille: posts small blind $0.25
plours12: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bosox_02368 [Qd Qc]
Nacho Love: folds
Bosox_02368: raises $2.50 to $3
johnl44: folds
lakedistrikt: folds
doenis0815: folds
arvydas: folds
D3AD M0N3Y: calls $3
fumille: folds
plours12: calls $2.50
*** FLOP *** [2h 6c 4d]
fumille: checks
plours12: checks
Bosox_02368: bets $7.50
D3AD M0N3Y: raises $0.70 to $8.20 and is all-in
fumille: folds
plours12: folds
Bosox_02368: calls $0.70
*** TURN *** [2h 6c 4d]
*** RIVER *** [2h 6c 4d 6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Bosox_02368: shows [Qd Qc] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
D3AD M0N3Y: shows [9d 9c] (a full house, Nines full of Sixes)

So if I don't get sucked out on twice I'm even, and if I don't fuck up and call $25 for no reason I'm up a little. Oh well. Can't win em all. I think one big leak in my game is still calling of a ton when I should fold. 80% of the time when there is a large bet or a min raise at the end it means they have at least a set. I wind up losing with overpairs and 2 pair a lot. I have to remember that I don't make enough money when I pick off their bluffs to offset what I lose when they're not bluffing. I'm doing it less but doing it at all is pretty dumb.

Played on Stars $50NL last night. I bought into a $22 SnG and was 4 tableing at the same time. I did well becoming chipleader with 7 to go when I busted some guy who checked a flop of KQ6 when he had AK and I had JT, the turn was an awesome A and he bet, I raise, he raised, I pushed and he called. Unfortunately I went out about 9 hands later (well, not true, I had 15 in chips left, and qudrupled up with that too, but could not complete the comeback). There was some donk who cold called a 3 bet preflop with K6, caught a 6 on the flop, called a half pot bet from a guy with an over pair, caught another 6 on the turn and busted him. He was also raising like crazy. Anyway, I called a raise of his when I held AK, caught a K on the flop and bet, he raised, I pushed and he called with AA. Oh well.

After busting out I opened it up to 6 tables FR. I played quite well I think. I was able to fold anytime there was a suspiciously large bet on the river when I had only 1 pair. I also played against a very good player. One of the best I've seen at the $50NL since I've been taking it very seriously over the past few months. When I sat down he had about $120 and he had that up to $170 before I left. He really put pressure on people and he had a great feel for how strong everyone else was. I think he was a little over-aggressive with his bets at times but he could definitely get away from a hand. Knowing this, I think I played the following hand well but any comments are welcome: I had just lost a couple bucks a few hands before and bought back up to $50.

POKERSTARS GAME #8473643151: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.25/$0.50) - 2007/02/16 - 18:34:24 (ET)
Table 'Iclea II' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: battletoad2 ($48.75 in chips)
Seat 2: SquarePanda ($50.45 in chips)
Seat 3: choosyak ($36.15 in chips)
Seat 4: Bosox_02368 ($50 in chips)
Seat 5: MiLRocky ($24.25 in chips)
Seat 6: Meez3_9_ ($48.25 in chips)
Seat 7: VinceC ($57.50 in chips)
Seat 8: noiha ($167.10 in chips)
Seat 9: Le Marocain ($20.45 in chips)
battletoad2: posts small blind $0.25
SquarePanda: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bosox_02368 [6h 5h]
choosyak: folds
Bosox_02368: calls $0.50
MiLRocky: calls $0.50
Meez3_9_: folds
VinceC: folds
noiha: raises $1.50 to $2
Le Marocain: folds
battletoad2: folds
SquarePanda: folds
Bosox_02368: calls $1.50
MiLRocky: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [7d 4h 9h]
Bosox_02368: checks
MiLRocky: checks
noiha: bets $4
Bosox_02368: calls $4
MiLRocky: folds
*** TURN *** [7d 4h 9h]
Bosox_02368: checks
noiha: bets $6
Bosox_02368: raises $13 to $19
noiha: calls $13
*** RIVER *** [7d 4h 9h Kc]
Bosox_02368: bets $25 and is all-in
noiha: folds
Bosox_02368 collected $50.15 from pot
Bosox_02368: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $52.75 | Rake $2.60
Board [7d 4h 9h Kc 2c]

My thinking:
He raised to $2 from late position, he could do this with a lot of hands. With AA or KK I think it would raise more given the 2 limpers. So I think AQ, QQ-99, maybe something like JTs. He CB the flop just like he would with any of those hands so it doesn't really tell me anything. I figure I should call with 15 outs and maybe even get the guy behind me to come along. The $6 bet into the $14.75 pot on the turn seemed odd, he usually bets at least half the pot and if he had something very good I think he would have bet more to push me off of a draw. He also hesitated a little longer before betting, doesn't necessarily mean anything but the bet just seemed week to me. He also used up most of his time bank before calling my raise. I felt he did not like that K (QQ, JJ is what I put him on at this point) and I had determined that if I made my draw or if an Ace or a 2 fell I was going to count to 3 and push the river. Even though I had only half the pot left in my stack, I figured he'd fold most of the time there. If he happened to have 99 then he played it well. I just didn't think there was much he could really call my bet with unless he was sure I was on a draw.

Also, I messed around with PAHUD for a while and with much thanks to Northview I was able to get it working. Took a while be he walked me through it, nice guy Also, I used that time to play at the $.01/$.02 game and not look at my hole cards. Kinda fun but it was a bitch to have a sticky note in the middle of my screen whenever I went to another window. I don't think thats really a good way to learn to read people because those players are VERY easy to read. So many times there are 6 peole insta checking the river and if you're in late position a 2 cent bet will win it. Althought I could get used to a winrate of 450 Big blinds per hour I think I'll try it at the $.05.$.10 game next. Anyway I'm off for the weekend, taking a little trip with the wife and swinging by Foxwoods on Monday. I'll probably have something to report Mon. night.

Well Foxwoods sucked balls. I guess it could have been worse, I could have lost money. But being that I was at Foxwoods for 6 and a half hours, I was hoping to have something more to show for it than $4 profit. Yes, not even enough to bring a Lincoln back from CT, 4 bills, and I don't mean hundreds. It was not the best endning to a nice weekend with my wife.

The day startd out annoyingly as we drove about 15 minutes past the exit and had to turn around. I'm not going to say who was driving but lets just say it was the one of the two of us who is a morning person... Once we got there and in the building it was 11:00ish. We went down to the poker room and HOLY SHIT! There are 3,000 people here. Nearly every table was in use and the staff was scrambling to keep up. Knowing that I'd have to wait a while I put my name onto the $1/$2 and the $2/$5 No Limit lists. I asked where I was and the lady told me I was number 81 on the 2/5 and number 253 on the 1/2. Are you Fucking kidding me? I hung around and talked to a few people and watched some of the $5/$10 no limit game. Those guys didn't seem hard to read at all. I wish I had the bank to sit in that game. Anyway, my wife and I grabbed a hot dog for lunch and strolled around. I went back down to the poker room at 1:00 for an update. I heard they had spread about 7 more 1/2 tables and I was up to 49th, I had also moved up to 14th on the 2/5. The 2/5 list didn't move and at 1:52 I got called for the 1/2. As I was playing they spread a new 2/5 table and called my name at 3:05. I prefer 1/2 right now because of the bankroll so I stayed put. But damn, if I had only been on the 2/5 list I would have been waiting nearly 4 hours. INSANE!!

My table wasn't particularly difficult but it was fairly aggressive and therefore difficult to see cheap flops. I simply never got any momentum going. I bought in for the max $300. I didn't see many hands and was happy that I was able to grind out enough to stay ahead of the rake and tips. $35 in rake and another $10 in tips is a lot to overcome. I had AQ once, KK once and 9's and 10's once each. For the rest of the time I had trash, only 2 SC's, I think I had 5's once. The AQ I raised and got called, and the caller bet out on a K high flop so I folded. The 10's I raised from the BB after there were 5 others in and go no callers. The KK hand I had in the SB and there were 5 limpers plus the BB, so with $13 in the pot I put in $20 more, not really wanting to see a lot of callers as I was in first position. I guess I sold it too much as everyone folded. Since this seemed to be a trend and one person refered to me as "the tightest player at the table", I opened up and stole the blinds a few times with trash, and I took down 2 pots with CB's on failed steals. When I had the 9's I limped from MP and the flop was Q97 with 2 diamonds. This is not a spot to slowplay, an 8, 10, J, K, or diamond is not welcome on the turn. However, the player on the button liked to try to steal after everyone checked to him. I decided that I would check and if he didn't bet I would pretend I only had 1 9 in my hand and throw it away if a draw card hit. Luckily he bet $10 into the $14 pot and there was a caller! Now I'm sure one if not both are on draws and I want to take this down now. I raised it to $65, putting 55 more into a $34 pot. Both players folded and I was happy. I also sniffed out a bluff when I called a $25 bet on the river with 2nd pair against a busted flush draw. I did make one obvious mistake though. It didn't cost me too much but in retrospect I should have won the pot. UTG is a girl who is somewhat timid, she made it $7 which is a small preflop raise for this table. Two people call and I have Q9 of clubs. I'm sure that at least the blinds are coming along so I call and there are 5 to the flop for $35 (SB folded). Flop was Q53 all spades. Checks around. Turn is the 9 of spades. She bets $5, folds to me and I decide to call. Since I was sure she had a flush I figured my implied odds were pretty good if I hit one of my 4 outs. I was thinking she'd call about $75 on the river meaning I was getting 115:5 on my call so I called. The river was another small spade. Again she bets $5. Now there is $50 in there and I have to call $5 to see her cards. I know that I'm at least going to call just to see if it meant AA with the A or spades or air or what. But then I thought about it and she didn't seem REAL strong with the $5, I'm sure she would have bet more with a higher flush. The $5 smelled of a small flush, the play was consistant with a small pair or maybe something silly like 78 off suit but with one of them a spade. I think if I had pushed in (we both had over $200 left) she would have folded and I thought about raising for a bit. In the end I decided that my read wasn't strong enough to risk another $150 or more so I justed called. She had 66 with the spade. Damn. I probably played that badly by not raising in there somewhere. Oh well. I'm probably going down again in April, hopefully this time I'll fair a little better. I will also be holding my next $25 tournament in April at my house if anyone lives near Boston and wants to play. Till then it's back to Pokerstars.

What the fuck. This is starting to piss me off. I'm playing a lot of "speculative" hands like Ax suited, 67os etc. Not when their is a raise but a lot of limping. Everytime I flop something great, I NEVER get paid off, or if I do it's like the guys' last $15. It doesn't matter if I bet the flop or check, bet the turn or check, bet large on the river or small. And my VP$P is like 31. You'd think I'd get this shit paid off every now and again. I also keep losing when people play really bad. How come no one chases the gut shot when I have a flush? Why is it that they only catch their draw on my set when I DON'T fill up and never when I do? Shit like this:

Table 'Alcor IV' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: i got the 6 ($26 in chips)
Seat 2: Alvasdad ($42.30 in chips)
Seat 3: Kapocalypse ($63.15 in chips)
Seat 4: Parrain666 ($50 in chips)
Seat 5: Bosox_02368 ($52.85 in chips)
Seat 6: clicks888 ($46.25 in chips)
Seat 7: McFiddish ($50 in chips)
Seat 8: jackk frost ($48.75 in chips)
Seat 9: brickmeister ($135.75 in chips)
Kapocalypse: posts small blind $0.25
Parrain666: posts big blind $0.50
brickmeister: posts small & big blinds $0.75
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bosox_02368 [9s 9c]
Bosox_02368: calls $0.50
clicks888: calls $0.50
McFiddish: folds
jackk frost: calls $0.50
brickmeister: checks
i got the 6: folds
Alvasdad: calls $0.50
Kapocalypse: calls $0.25
Parrain666: checks
*** FLOP *** [2h 9h As]
Kapocalypse: checks
Parrain666: checks
Bosox_02368: bets $3
clicks888: calls $3
jackk frost: folds
brickmeister: folds
Alvasdad: folds
Kapocalypse: folds
Parrain666: folds
*** TURN *** [2h 9h As]
Bosox_02368: bets $6.50
clicks888: calls $6.50
*** RIVER *** [2h 9h As Kc]
Bosox_02368: bets $17.50
clicks888: raises $18.75 to $36.25 and is all-in
Bosox_02368: calls $18.75
*** SHOW DOWN ***
clicks888: shows [Qd Jh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)

WTF? Can someone please tell me where I screwed up on that hand? I guess I could have bet like $8 on the turn instead of $6.50 but is he really gonna fold for the extra $1.50? I didn't put him on Aces or Kings and if he called me down with 10's with 2 overs, well whatever. But a gut shot WITH a flush draw there? If the 10 of hearts fell he's not sure of a win. The stupidest thing is that I've done a lot better (like 6x the profit and 10x the BB/hour) at the $100 game then the $50 game. Maybe because of the lack of donk plays like this? I know it's just variance but it still eats at you. You sit there for a couple hours and work up a nice profit only to lose a big chunk on a retard play like that. When he raised me on the river I thought "he didn't REALLY play QJ like that did he? I mean he couldn't possibly... OH MY FUUCKING CHRIST HE DID?!?!?!?". A bunch of that shit happened to me today, I'm lucky to have only lost like $20. Other people rivering draws when I have a set or top two and me missing or ony hitting when they have nothing. I don't pay them off every time but you can't just assume they have a flush whenever a 3rd to a suit falls on the river.

Overall I think I played ok, I didn't call anyone with two pair when they pushed in huge on the river, I had a couple good reads and was able to re-raise a couple flops and turn to take them down with nothing. I won't play again until Friday. I'll prolly play the $100 game and see how it goes. People are generally looser on Fridays so if I'm gonna get hands paid of I want to do it at the highest level possible.

Bad luck losing to that gunshot there mate, as you suggested yourself I would be inclined to bet bigger on the turn with the flush draw out there, cant see myself getting away on the river either.

I recommend using a hand converter to make your posts a little more readable, this one works well:

I think it s time for us to move from Stars. I really think there are good tables there but the shark/fish ratio should be the highest I have seen in any site. I have Pahud and even on 40/15tables there are sometimes 3sharks and 2 ad players, not necesarilly fishes. Awful.

There are much better games everywhere. I am breaking even for the past 5K hands there and I honestly think I am playing very good poker. I have been 3-4tabling.