I hate poker, today was just a reminder that it hates me too. Donkbert talked me into a trip to Oceans 11.

I have 65s in the SB. I complete 6 way. Flop is 4h2hQd. I check MP bets $6, 4 callers to me, I peel one off. Turn 3d. I check $15 bet, 3 callers to me. I push. The buy in is only $100 so I can pretty much double up even if everyone folds. Donkey to my right calls. River 4 and he tables .

I limp flop is 2. 5 to the flop I bet $10. Sb calls is my only caller. Turn is , he checks again. I bet $15, he thinks for a second. I tell him he should just fold his flush draw. He gives me a weird look and pushs. I have $70 or so left, I call. I really thought he was weak the way he played the hand and that I had induced a bluff. He of course has j7o and the river doesnt help.

Straddled pot. 4 limpers plus the blinds. I raise to $24 with . SB pushs for $56 total. I call. Flop is , turn river He tables AJo with no heart.

Final hand I limp 44 on the CO. Flop is J84. UTG moron bets $12 one caller, good player in MP makes it $32, player in front of me calls. I push for $180 total. SB insta calls. Kid thinks for a second. Player in between folds out of turn. Kid thinks for a little longer says "one of you has to have a set." and folds J8 face up. I turn over my hands SB looks sick, turn is an 8. The douchebag nearly pisses down his lead as he turns over 84o.

That is how you burn $350 quick in a $100 buy in game.

Poker really doesnt like me these days. I cant seem to win with the best hand, the worst hand or coin flips. I have been playign 2/2 NL the last couple of sessions after my little hiatus. It seems to be much less mentally stressful. Even after a couple of rough sessions I haven't dewelled on it like I do when I play higher levels. The goal is to keep my stress level down, school accounts for to much stress as it is, my hobbies shouldn't add more.

So some hand from yesterday.

Action game, I look down at 99 otb in a straddle pot. Awful black guy raises to $14 he only has $50 or so to start the hand. 2 callers to me, he has been raising non stop and has been showing down junk most of the time. I make it $60, figuring I probably have the best hand. He calls all in, everyone else folds. He ends up having KK. The flop was 445 so it didnt really matter I was going to double him up either way since his range was so wide.

Straddle pot, I raise to $16 with A9o. Kid who straddled is some moron asain kid. He pushs, I actually tell him he has crap. I really expected to be domiating him which is a weird though for A9 but he looked so weak when he pushed. Turns out I'm right but he is even worse than I though he has QTo. He rivers a ten of course.

Again a straddle pot, differnent bad player, this time a kid from UCSD. I raise to $16, one caller kid pushs for $50. He also has been really wreckless. I call he has QQ, I cant suck out.

Final pot of the night, I really love the way I played this hand but it didnt really turn out well. My straddle kid UTG min's to $8, decent tight player calls direclty behind him. It gets back to me I make it $28. Kid calls, tight player starts the hand with $250 now reraises to $68. Back to me, I think for a little while and decide he cant have AA or KK. More likely he has JJ- 99. I am pretty sure the kid has a pair but he cant have me dominated either or he would have reraised my raise. I push, kid thinks forever and calls for $78. Tight player think about it says I have to have AA or KK and folds TT face up. The kid has QQ which is fine since I'm flipping a coin for 2:1 flop of course was QT8 and I dont hit my gut shot.

One nice hand. I limp 77 flop is JJ7. I check call a $12 bet 4 ways. Turn I check black guy bets $12 again (his tell of having nothing). Decent asain guy raises all in for $24 other shorty calls all in for his last $15. I push, black guy folds. I turn my hand over river is a 2 both all in muck. I assume the asain guy had a J, the other guy could have had anything, wish the asain guy had had a real stack instead of $50 to start the hand.

Another "good" hand. I limp Briahceks hand . Flop the nuts T 8 . Black guy bets $12 one caller. I look behind me and the guy behind me is jacking off his chips, which usually means raise. I smooth call and the guy takes forever and folds. Turn is either the best or worst card in the deck for me. 6. Checks to me I bet $20, both players call. At this point I'm praying the black guy has a 9, he is not good enough to slow down and we both have 2.5 stacks. River A, they both check I bet $40 and they both fold.

This game really kills me sometimes, these games should be so easy, the players are awful. The tight guy that folded TT was the only half decent player in the game and he wasnt really all that good just tight. I played at the same table with Donkbert and Mitchese other than that there was no one that could possibly be anywhere close to a winning player and yet I still am not winning. Mitcheze is running really well, while I'm happy for him it kinda kills me too. He brags about how well he is playing but at the same time he a better rush this week than I have had since this time last year. We played 2 session together in the last 2 weeks and he has 6 straights in that time. I think its been 15 sessions for me to flop 6 straights. Wish I could actually run good for once.

Other random ramblings: This was a really entertaining table.

The black guy I talked about in a couple of those hands was something else. He was a total douchbag, he cursed the dealers when he lost, but man was he good for the table. Betting nothing 75% of the time. Everytime someone called him with the best hand he got all pissed off. "How could you call me with that?" He even tried to give me poker advice which was really funny. He was trying to explain to me why I should CR the river with J9 on a T927T board. So I didnt have to show my hand, and I can always fold if he reraises me.

The drunk guy: He was so shit faced he could barely walk, he dropped $600 or so at a $100 buy in game. He called every river bet if he got that far pretty much no matter what. He only bet with a hand. I actually value bet 76 on a KQ56Q board on the end and "got paid". Donkbert bet $40 on the river dood calls donkert shows trip tens, dood is ao drunk he push 2 $20 stack to donkbert and then shoves a thrid one over that knockes over all the chips. Donkbert happily collects $20ish free dollars.

The Flush chaser: White trash looking guy showing way way to much chest hair. He calls any bet with 2 suited cards. One of those

hey rhound, have u downloaded phil's poker ev software. It has many nice features and let you know whether you are having too many suckouts or not. I think you should check itat www.pokerevsoftware.com.

The only problem i see with it is that it doesnt consider the hands that you "should" be dealt and you are not. Other than that it is a great tool to help you identify how you aremissing some EV in your game and also compare your EV vs. your actual win rate.

Went and played a some 2/2 at Oceans 11. This time Jessica came along and watched. I really thought she would get bored but she actually had a good time and wants to do it again at some point.

Actually not a great table for the first time in a while.

First hand. I am the SB with . Straddled pot UTG+1 makes it $8, one player in the middle calls. He looked weak when he put the chips in, I raise to $28, blinds fold. Dude pushs all in for $69. I call. He has KQo no queen I win.

Hand 2: I have 76s. I limp, it limps around. The CO thinks that it is $4 to go so he throws in $4. The dealer tells him its only $2, he then tries to raise bigger. He is not allowed to raise past $4 I call the min raise as does most of the table. Flop is Q77. I check he bets $10, Sb calls, I smooth call. Turn is a 6, I check again he bets $15, SB folds, I raise to $40 and he folds. I really think I should have led the turn, I could have gotten more money out of him, I think he had the turn.

I get KK, raise to $14, get one caller a semi decent player in the 6th seat. Flop is 732 he leads $10, I make it $40. He thinks for a couple of min and asks it he calls if we can check it down. At this point I am pretty sure he has a pair or some kind of weak draw. I figure if I say no he folds, so I figure why not get the extra $30 in way ahead. He has TT, no tens turn or river.

That was pretty much it, I raised JJ flop came K54. Guy to my left grabs chips as soon as the flop comes out. I check fold, he shows KJ. Pretty cheap suck out.

Total of $148 in 2.5 hrs.

Played a longer session than I have in quite a while today. Had the day off school(which actually kinda sucks cause I miss my TA session and I need help with my current program). This will probably be my last session til after finals. I am having a really good quarter to this point and I dont want to fuck that up. It would be kinda funny to get A's in both of my hard CS class's and get a B in my "easy" earth science class.

Either way session started out really well. First big hand I play I limp flop is Q . I lead $10 get called by one player, BB raises to $40. Old lady utg calls, I call too. Turn , BB pushs for $23, lady calls, she has $25 left. I push, she calls, river brick both muck.

I am the BB with flop is SB bets $8, I call, so do 3 others. on the turn, I lead $15, lady calls. Button push for $53. She is a dealer and plays like a dealer. I push in, lady folds and shows . river is a brick, dealer turns over QTo.

My one set for the day. KK I raise to $15, good player to my right calls. Flop is KT3r. I lead $15, he push for $7 more. I call, he has TT, I think this is just the 3rd time I have won set over set playing live. This guy is a good player it kinda sucks that he only had $22 after the flop but I'll take it.

Another good hand vs good player. I raise to $14 in MP with , he calls in postion. Flop is A . I check he checks behind. turn is a . I bet $25 trying to look like a stea lhe calls. River A, I check, I wasnt really sure what he had but it felt like a draw and neither turn or river could have helped him. Normally I just like to bet my hands but I didnt think this guy could call anything. He bets $35, I push for $50 total and he mucks. Really odd bet on the end to leave himself $15 and then not call but he must have completely missed.

Another hand vs the lady. I raise to $16 from the button in a straddle pot with . Flop is kJ2. I lead $20 she calls. Turn is small brick, I put her in for he last $30 she calls, board pairs on the end and she mucks.

Only one big losing hand of the session. I limp KQ, Flop is K87, I bet $15, lady calls, so does bad middle eastern guy after her. Turn 2s, I lead $30, she calls all in for $25. other guy folds, river is a 4, and she turns over 56. I beat up on her pretty bad, she was bound to suck out on me one time.

I didnt have much luck with pairs after being up to $500 at one point, I raise, JJ and get an AQ flop. Then raise TT one rotation later and get the every great AKQ9x board. I ran really cold at the end. I was up to $540 at my highest point and I cashed out $390, so the last 2 hrs I bled off $150 and I dont think I won a hand.

Overall +$290 in 7 hrs, not bad for a $100 buy in game.

I actually really like playing smaller limits, the players are awful and the stress is so much less. Playing 5/5 puts a ton of stress on my mind, I take a couple bad beats and lose a grand it really makes it hard to concentrate on other stuff that is much more important in my life right now. I am probably the most over rolled player at the 2/2 games. I dont have any plans to go pro, at this point money isnt a big issue, I have enough from poker/ jackpot + summer work that I dont have to make another cent to pay bills or anything else with school, I have enough to get me to next year when I graduate and get a full time job. Poker started out for me a leisure activity, at some point it became more like work, I liked the money but wasnt really happy playing and it made my stress level go through the roof. I think for me I am better off staying at the lower limits and try to enjoy poker again. I think its really cool that my girlfriend is talking about taking up poker, I might drop to the 1/1 game to play with her. I can still make some money playing 2/2, not the 10k months like I had last summer playing 5/5 and bigger but enough to buy some toys and keep me in play money.

On a personal note, I got 2 good offers for summer internships. One is at proFlowers.com, they are a fast growing internet business that manages a site that handles orders for flowers and other perishable goods (fresh meats, seafood, chocolates etc...). I would be writing testing animations for them. The other offer is with a small chemistry firm in SD, they maintain a piece of software that tracks molecule structures in compounds. Both jobs seem like it would be really good experience, I am leaning towards proflowers ATM their is room for advancement their, they are already asking me about staying on longer than just the summer and potentially working their full time after graduation. As of right now it looks like I am going to be making $20-$24 an hour over the summer with zero variance . I start the bargaining process tomorrow, getting up to $24 an hour would be awsome, that equates to 50k a year.

Meh I hate poker and poker hates me. I might really just need to try to hit and run from now on. I again turned a 4+ buy in session in to a 1< buy in winner.

Hand 1: I am in the BB with . Doofis old man min raises. 5 callers I call, flop is 6 Old man bets $30, moron in seat 5 shoves. I reshove, old man calls. Seat 5 shows . Turn J, river J. I turn over my hand and old man mucks.

Hand 2: I am the button with . Decent old man in 2 raise to $12 in a straddle pot, 4 callers in front of me. I made a remark about how his raises get a ton of respect and call. Flop is . Checks all the way to me on the button, I decide against betting not wanting to get CR by an ace. Turn seat 6 pushs for $42, I call. He has 69o and is drawing dead.

Hand 3: I limp 55 flop is . I lead $6 MP decent player calls. Turn , I check so does MP. River is another T. I bet $20 he calls and says three tens and mucks when I turn my hand over.

Hand 4: I again limp 55, flop us . Same guy from above hand leads $5 into a $3 port. I decide to just call after checking from the SB, I kind of put him on a weakish ace and didnt want to blow him off a hand he was close to drawing dead. Turn I check and he leads $12. Grrrr that heart didnt slow him down. I smooth calls river is another small brick he bets $20 all I can do is call. He turn over . I still dont think I played the hand bad, the guy was such a rock that A9 was the only hand he could have called a raise with on the flop, turn card pretty much sucks sweaty monkey balls.

Now we get to the part of the program I like to call me getting fucked.

I raise AQ, decent player who limped calls. Flop is A52r he checks and I decide to get sneaky and check behind. Turn is a J, he checks. I bet $20 he look confused and just calls. River is another 5 he checks, I bet $25, he push for $200 more. I fold, he says he had 45 and didnt believe that I had an ace. Grrr

Now my straddle, I look down at . It gets raised by a moron on the button to $ 12, SB same guy from the above hand calls so does and BB. Flop is . Sb leads $40, I push, pfr calls, so does SB. SB has [Qd[ , button has A . I dont hit my running str8 flush.

Less than a rotation later. Mp makes it $10, same guy from the above 2 hands calls. I look down at . I make it $30. One cold calls, 2nd player cold calls, SB calls too, so does the other limper. Fuck me. Flop is KT7. SB leads $36, he has $80 left. I push. He insta calls with 77. I really dont know what else I could do. There is already $150 in the pot after the flop and this guy has $115 or so, if I call I'm forced to call all in on the turn.

Won $80 fucking dollars after being up almost $400 at one point. Meh, very meh.