I've been posting here at BTP for about 4 months now, and I think I'll finally start a journal, just because I feel like a slacker.

Background:

I'm a 30-year old pharmacist, married, with a baby on the way, and I've been playing poker for about a year now. I started off playing play chips on Stars, and once I ran my 1000 chips up to over 1 million, I decided it was time for me to make my first real money deposit, to see if I could actually play this game for real.

I lost my first two $50 stakes in PokerStars as a rookie around the new year. I then re-bought in for $100, and ran that stake up playing 0.50/1, 1/2, 2/4, and 3/6 to $2500 by July. I then withdrew $2200 to buy my wife a diamond bracelet as a wedding gift. In the last 2 months, I've ran that remaining $300 to $1800 playing 2/4 and 3/6. I also played at Ultimate Bet, mostly $25NL, and $50NL, taking a $200 stake there and turning it into $550 before a PokerStars reload tempted me to cash out.

To summarize, playing about 15-20 hours a week or so (being a pharmacist can be very time-consuming--long hours and infrequent days off), I've made over $4000 in profit on poker in the nine months I've been playing online for real money. In addition, I don't really keep a seperate off-line poker bankroll, but I've won about $600 in tournaments at the Taj (NL), and probably close to $1000 in cash games between Tropicana, the Taj, and the home games I play when I get the chance. I usually play 4/8 and 6/12 live and mix in some NL in the home games.

I consider myself mainly a limit holdem specialist, but I also include No-Limit holdem, Omaha, Omaha 8-or-better, and Razz in my game repetoire. I will try and maintain this journal and my blog (address in the sig line), as well as posting in the regular forums.
I can be found playing on Empire Poker (rarely), Ultimate Bet (a little more often--when there's bonus to clear), and mostly on PokerStars.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see input on my posts--hopefully we can teach each other a great deal about this game!

I have a bunch of bonus money on UB but every time I deposit and try and clear it I want to stab my eyes with rusty nails when I see how slow it clears, how do you do it?

The same way. It is so damn frustrating, and somebody just signed up under me so now I have MORE to clear. I haven't yet seen the "new clearing structure," but it looks to be (from what other say) a pain in the ass.

I cleared it 2-4 tabling $50NL for a month and a half. The bonus profit wasn't a ton, but my table profit made up for the paltry (relatively) bonus money. I've heard it is even more difficult to clear now, but I've got some money sitting in Neteller, so I'll be on there playing some NL to clear what's left (as long as I can stand it)...

My mother is a pharmacist and she works about 60 hours a week. She's actually the director of pharmacy for a group of clinics out here in Oregon. She doesn't like her job, but it pays well. She's hiring pharmacists right now, so if you want to pack up and travel to across country there will be a job waiting Are Pharmacists in high demand in your area?

I just did that new stat in PokerAce HUD, aggression frequency, and came up with this:

Flop: Raise+Bet= 48.59%, Raise+Bet+Call+Fold= 83.31% (58.3%)
Turn: Raise+Bet= 47.09%, Raise+Bet+Call+Fold= 81.89% (57.5%)
River: Raise+Bet= 53.50%, Raise+Bet+Call+Fold= 83.44% (64.1%)

I seem to be almost over-aggressive!!!!

Try it out and have some fun with it!!

Played some $25 NL, PLO, and $25PLO8 for modest profit this AM. The bankroll is certainly looking better after yesterday's performance. I've kicked the tables for >$1800 since returning from my honeymoon in early/mid August, playing maybe 10-15 hours per week. I really feel that my limit game is becoming more refined, and once I get above my next goal of $3k I'm going to move up to 5/10 as my primary LHE game.

So I decided to read your blog... and this part jumped out at me as a poor example of effective check-raising:

2) To drive players out: You have a solid hand, but a vulnerable hand, and you want others to get the hell out of your way. I picked up K8s in MP, and limped. The flop came 7-K-K in a 5-way pot. I checked, the button bet, and I raised. Two of the 5 players folded. I wanted someone who paired their 7 still in, but anyone with any other overpair out.

With K-K-7 in a multi-way pot and you having a K, why would you check-raise the flop and face everyone with 2 bets cold? What hands are you worried about calling? Random pocket-pairs? They only have a 4% chance of beating you! Not to mention you could still make a boat here. There's nothing scary about this flop whatsoever. If the flop were something like 88T, then the check-raise makes more sense, although I'd prefer not to make everyone face 2-bets here still. Sure they might outdraw you with a straight, but in the long run you profit more by people calling with their gutshots (you will never make J9 or 79 fold here, so I exclused OESDs).

Otherwise, I agree with your examples. Perhaps you could clarify why you feel so adament about protecting your "vulnerable" hand there? There's no gutshot possibility and you'll never get a flush draw to fold... I don't see what you're worried about.

I'm more concerned with the prospect that someone may be limping with KT or KJ. If I meet resistance from a solid player on the turn, I also shouldn't be afraid to lay it down. I'm playing trips with a lousy kicker. I probably should've used K3s on the button as a better example.

I threw out the check raise in an effort to drive out the case king if it's out there. In hindsight, it was a poor example.

(duplicate deleted)

By making everyone face 2-bets cold, you're pretty much guaranteeing the only hands that will call are 7x, Kx, and 77 (intending to raise the turn). You're missing out on a lot of potential profit.

In that same book, Sklansky mentions the right conditions for slow-playing: small-ish pot, uncoordinated board, and you have a monster hand. Your hand only will be outdrawn by random pocket pairs (2% chance on next card), and runner-runners (2-3% for two cards). Even then, you can still make a boat [8, 7, or pairing the turn card] or quads (~28% chance for two cards).

With K3 I also would advocate playing it slowly on this flop. The chance someone has the case king in their hand is very low, and you can still win it by hitting your kicker, or split it by sharing a full house.

So yeah... bad example.

A better example would be something like... you're in the BB with . There's three limpers and the button raises. Everyone calls making it 5-way on the flop. The flop comes . Leading out with a bet here will give everyone 11:1 or greater odds, which does not protect your hand against gutshots or someone with a pair of 8s or 9s. Since the button raised, check with the intent of raising him. He'll make it 11:1 and you'll raise making people have to call with 7.5:1 odds.

Excellent point. A vulnerable hand that you want people out. Solid.

Horrendous day today, the worst in a while. I busted out of the $30+3 tourney in 101 out of 135. Between this and the cash game, the beats were horrible. In the tourney, I went to showdown 6 times, losing 5, and having my opponent hit 3-or-less-outers 3 of those times. Some highlights from both:

AK vs. K6--raised pre flop, got a K on the flop, he bet, i raised, he called...ah, you know the rest.

Another loss? QQ vd. JJ--he hit a J on the river.

ATs vs. A2o--2 on the turn.

One of those days when variance hits you in the ass. Overall, I played some PLO this morning, winning a bit, also some $50NL, where I gave it all back. LHE? Had my first losing day in a while, not too big, but -$61 is still -$61, when taken with the tourney buy-in, I lost $94 today. I'm done to clear my head out from all these atrocious beats. I work this weekend, so likely I won't be playing until Monday. I'll be lurking here, but I'm shelving the game just to clear out. Enjoy folks.

I'll probably put a tourney recap on my blog sometime later today.