Well, as predicted, my plan to book a nice solid 6 or 7 hour day failed dismally, and I wound up with an astonishingly unimpressive total of 2 hours and 25 minuets. In my defence, it was not entirely my fault. My computer has been having some serious issues along the lines of rebooting itself seemingly at random. As you can imagine, this gets rather annoying. So, I had to spend a while cleaning up my hard drive, deleting useless shit...and for the first time since I got the computer (about 2 years ago), I DEFRAGMENTED IT! Naturally, all of this was constantly interrupted by the computer restarting itself, so it took quite a while.

I also had to spend some time trying to import hands into PT, but due to the aforementioned rebooting issues, I'm still about 20 days behind.

ANYWAY, when I finally did get around to playing some poker, things started off pretty damned awful. Out of the first 160 hands I was dealt, I had won a whopping 2. You would think this means I was card-dead and not playing many hands...well, that's half true. I was card-dead, but that didn't stop me from playing a bunch of ill-advised hands and playing them too hard. My draws kept missing, my steals and stabs kept failing, and when I did finally flop something, I couldn't get away from it when it was clear I was beaten. Bleh!

So, after an hour of this nonsense, I was stuck a healthy $175-spot, and I decided a break was in order. Actually, I would've just kept plugging away and bleeding off money, but I was outta cigs, so I went for a walk and cleared my head a bit. When I got back, things seemed to turn around immediately with a sudden flurry of AA's, KK's, flushes, straights, bottom-pairs, you name it. The cards improved, as did my focus, and I managed to get back my losses plus about $160 on top of it! Groovy, eh?

Now, and I really mean this, tomorrow WILL BE THE DAY that I get back to playing a good number of hours. No, seriously, I will! I'm talkin 7 hours MINIMUM! I'M PLUCKING, SERIOUS!

Current limit : 3-6 LHE
Current Bankroll : $1811 <---hey, look, I finally have 300 BB's!

-TW

Your computer may be restarting because it is overheating. Check to see if your fans are working including on the video card and processor if you have them there too. Congrats on the win and hope you can put in the time tomorrow.

Well, following Bri's advice, I utilized my incredibly mad computer skillz and checked the fans. In other words, I pressed my ear against the CPU and verified that it was making some sort of noise. I then banged my head really god-damned hard on my desk on the way back up, so I'll send ya the medical bill, Bri. Ya fucking hack.

Back to important matters! I managed to pound out a solid 3 hours and 18 minutes today. Yes, that was sarcasm in case anyone's sarcometer happens to have any non-working fans at the moment. The culprit today was a large jug of cheap red wine that I bought on a whim on my way back from getting cigarettes. Red, red wine...goes to my head...makes me forget that I...I think Neil Diamond actually wrote and performed that song originally, but I could be wrong.

Right, poker. The slim hours I did play continue to be good ones. I felt super-good about my play today (other than a couple notable exceptions...that will not actually be noted). I feel like recently I've been doing a pretty nice job opening up my play a bit without just becoming a glorified maniac (steal-raises from UTG, 3-bets with 65s) or a calling station ("eh, king-high's gotta be good!" or "well, my 77 MIGHT be beaten on the board of Q-Q-J-J-T, but what if he has...ummmmmm...A9! Gotta be A9...shit.")...as I have in the past. Sadly, I still seem a bit obsessed with parenthesis...es. ..Parentheses...parentheti...pa...yeah. Those things.

Current limit : 3-6 LHE
Current Bankroll : $2045

-TW

my master plan to make you bang your head has worked. Victory!

Well that was just an incredible day. Here's a quick recap.

My early session, I played great for about two hours, but only wound up winning about 80 bucks. Playing three tables, and at one of them, I just kept on losing big pots. Flopped a set of tens and lost to a straight from a guy who called 3 cold with J9s preflop. Ran AK into AT, and then into AQ. AA lost to K9. Lotta big pots.

My second session, I was hovering around 50 up, and somehow I managed to lose about $200 in my last 10 or 15 minutes. Un-fucking-believable. I get KK, capped preflop against two opponents, one of whom is a complete maniac. Flop is 3 spades, I have the Ks. Me and mr. maniac cap the flop and the turn, another spade comes on the river, I just call his bet and get shown As7c. Meanwhile, AK ran into AQ which rivered a gutshot in a nice big pot. Then I flopped trip 4's with 54o out of the BB, and lost another big pot when 66 hung around to make a runner runner flush. Flopped a set of queens on a K-Q-T board, turn is a J, river is a 9. Brilliant.

Seriously, that was with out a doubt the most fucked up, irritating stretch of ridiculously stupid beats I've ever taken. I wound up down about 60 bucks for the day, when I should be up about 300 or 400 if I just had SOME of those huge pots that I kept on getting sucked out on.

Fucking hell.

Current limit : who the fuck knows
Current Bankroll : $1220

-TW

Ahem.

I've been trying to cut back on utterly unhelpful outbursts like the one above. Yesterday was the first day in quite awhile that the beats really got to me THAT much. As in to the point that I was throwing things and seem to have punched a hole in the wall. I suppose that definitely qualifies as a moment of weakness.

On the bright side, today went a lot better. I only played a bit over 2 hours, but I netted about 300 bucks. The tables seemed quite a bit wilder than they have been in a while, so it took me some time to adjust, but wound up making for some nice pots. The reason for my limited hours was that I took a trip over to some computer-system sort of place to try and figure out how I can fix this damned computer without incurring ridiculous expenses. The helpful gentleman told me to remove the sideboard from the computer and put it in a better ventilated area, which seems to have helped. The CPU was previously set right in a corner, which kinda defeats the purpose of the fans I suppose. Leaving all the inner-workings of my CPU exposed seems like a bad idea to me, but the guy had a really large beard, so I feel his advice can be relied upon.

I also had to pick up and install a new video card, which was a debacle and a half.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my game lately, as far as strengths and weaknesses, and things I could do to improve it. Over my next few entries, I'm going to look at one positive aspect of my game, and one negative.

NEGATIVE : Mean ol' Mr. Tilt. It's odd, because some days I can take beat after beat, but still have a genuine smile on my face...other days, one rather humdrum beat for a small pot is enough to set me off. And what I realize is that I'm almost never tilting about the beats, but about my play. If I get my aces cracked, but I played them well, I'll be a bit irked, but not tilted. When I tilt, there's usually a deeper or darker reason that I won't admit at the time. I'm usually actually tilting about the fact that I played A9o UTG, or lost two more bets than I should've, or couldn't lay down my TPTK when I knew it was beaten. In other words, my major tilts are usually the result of some rather questionable play to begin with. And that's usually the result of impatience, i.e. Mr. Tilt's annoying brat of a bastard-child.

Some would say impatience is the same thing as tilt, but if you say that, then you've clearly never seen me tilt. By impatience, I mean smaller things, like playing AJo or KQo UTG at an aggressive table, or making a steal-raise with a sub-par hand against blinds that won't fold. I've found a way to deal with this, but it's kinda corny. I treat every single decision as collossal one. Sure, folding 84o in EP is a no-brainer to everyone (except Piers maybe)...but I tell myself "you played that hand correctly." I know, it's corny. But by treating every decision as an opportunity to make the right play, it's easier for me stay patient and focused. Which isn't to say I don't occasionally raise 75s from the cut-off anyway.

POSITIVE : Shamelessness. Figured I'd start with a kinda wierd one, but I can honestly say that my inate shamelessness occasionally makes me a better player. Say I've flopped one of those beautiful draws, straight-flush and two overs...and as per usual, I've made it to the river and have nothing more than jack-high to show for it. My lone remaining opponent bets into me yet again, and including his bet, there's now 12 BB's in the pot. If I think there's a better than 1 in 6 chance he'll fold to a raise, then you better believe I'll hit that biatch. Let's face it, it's pretty damned embarassing when you're called, and you have to show the whole table you raised a guy's AA with your jack-high. But whether or not I look like an idiot really has no effect on my play (anyone at the HORSE tournies could tell you that, heh heh).

Other than the previously mentioned HORSE tournies, I really don't bluff very often. When I do, it's because I feel I have a really good read on the situation. And I very seldom bluff-raise, so when I do, I have a damned good reason. But no matter how selective you are about bluffs, there's bound to be times your called. If your the type that's more concerned with looking good than making money, then by all means, check-fold each and every one of those missed draws. But if you're looking to win as much as possible, then be prepared to discover the joys of shamelessness.

Disclaimer: Don't get me wrong, you could never bluff and still have a perfectly good winrate. But if you're not gonna bluff, at least have a better reason than "I'll look dumb if he calls."

Current limit : 3-6 LHE
Current Bankroll : $1526

-TW

Another goodly sort of day down at the TW-Ranch. Made $314 in 4 hours, which I'm certainly not about to complain about! Obviously, I got some good cards, but there were a few occasions where I was humbled a bit by the realization of just how bad a player I can be when I don't put my mind to it. Basically, just some stupid calls/bets/bluffs that I knew were idiotic, but for some reason I made them anyway.

I'm really hoping that I can get in at least 20 hours over the rest of the week, and ideally pick up about 5 or 6 hundred. If so, I can cash out 500 and still have a solid 300+ BBs in the role. I'm getting a little sick of playing on a short bankroll, and yes I know it's dangerous...but I still feel it's pretty much necessary for the time being.

Though I doubt anyone's particularly interested, I'll continue with the ol' positive/negative thing in the hopes that some self-analysis will help me improve.

NEGATIVE: Work ethic. Or more accurately, the fact that I don't have one. I've said before that back when I was working at the ol' filling station for 50+ hours per week, I still often managed to play 20 or 30 hours of poker. Granted, this didn't leave me with much of a social life, but what can ya do. And now, I have all the time in the world and yet I've only booked 10 hours in the past 3 days. That's pretty damned disgraceful.

Once I sit down and start playing, I really have no problems. My sessions generally aren't very long, usually about 2-3 hours, but I find that that's the best way to stay focused and avoid playing sloppy. The real problem is getting started. It doesn't help that my friends don't seem to realize that playing poker is a job for me, not just a hobby...but still, the blame is clearly on myself. There's really no easy cure other than the straight and simple fact of the matter, that I NEED to start treating this as a profession, and not just something to do when nothing else is going on.

POSITIVE: Aggressiveness. I'm constantly looking for opportunities to win small pots; granted, I occasionally get carried away and cross the line into recklessness...but when I'm able to be a bit more selective, this really helps me battle through a cold run of cards and bolster my winrate somewhat by winning the occasional pot no one else wants. I steal a lot of blinds, isolate players in position, and take some shorthanded flops with marginal hands, which increase in value because even if I miss, I can often pick up the pot with a flop-bet under the right conditions.

I've said before that these small pots probably don't have a very dramatic effect on a player's overall winrate, but there's the added bonus that playing a few extra hands helps to offset my naturally impatient personality. I really just can't win at a decent rate by only playing the best hands, because after waiting so long to get them, I tend to overplay them or start tilting if they get cracked.

No matter how you play, loose games will always be more profitable than tight ones, but I still feel that I'm playing with a pretty decent edge over opponents that fold too often. And even at loose tables, opportunities do occasionally arise to throw in a few moves, albeit not often. Like I said, I get carried away at times, and I sometimes have a problem adjusting to the type of players I'm against; but when I'm calm and focused, I have no doubt that those small pots add up to a decent boost in my winrate.

Current limit : 3-6 LHE
Current Bankroll : $1840

-TW

I think I'll also post a hand from yesterday that still has me scratching my head. It's embarassing because I played it pretty poorly, and I have to give my opponent credit for picking off my bluff...I guess. The funny thing is he thought for a while on the river before deciding to make...

THE WORLD-CLASS CALL-DOWN:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: TW is CO with , .
3 folds, MP1 calls, 2 folds, TW calls, Button calls, SB completes, BB checks.

***Loose call, but what can I say? I like J9sooooted.

Flop: (5 SB) , , (5 players)
SB checks, BB checks, MP1 checks, TW bets, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, MP1 calls.

***Here, I take a stab, telling myself, "TW, if you get called or raised, you're DONE."

Turn: (3.50 BB) (2 players)
MP1 checks, TW bets, MP1 calls.

***Here, I tell myself, "Ahhhhh, what the hell." Flawless logic, wouldn't you say?

River: (5.50 BB) (2 players)
MP1 checks, TW bets, MP1 calls.

***Having thoroughly dug myself in a hole, I figure I'll fire one more bullet. Ah well, he called...

Final Pot: 7.50 BB

Results in white below:
MP1 has 8h 6d (one pair, queens).
TW has 9s Js (one pair, queens).
Outcome: TW wins 7.50 BB.

Clearly, my bets get a ton of respect.

-TW

wow. it just gets to a point that they can't be that dumb and just want to see what crap you are playing.

Wow there really arent that many hands that he can beat calling with 86. Maybe its the mac and cheese logo that made him call with 8 high.

It's that mac and cheese avatar. Bad karma, my old chum.

I don't have the energy to insert my usual plethora of homosexual jibes, so you'll just have to concoct some yourself, you collosal shirt-lifter.

Monk
xxxxx

"...and so it came to pass that Adam and Eve were cast into the mortal world in punishment for their disobedience. And though they were forever banned from the eternal paradise in which they had been allowed to dwell, though they would never again witness the true and perfect beauty of creation as the Lord had intended, they were nevertheless placed in a world only slightly less beautiful, only slightly less perfect. But the resemblance to Eden did not offer comfort to either, but instead served to sharpen the pain of their seperation from their Father. Thus it is written that upon being banished, Adam looked into the sky, toward the heavens from which he had been cast away, and in his helpless rage, he cried out, 'For fuck sake, dude, it was just a bloody apple!!!'"

Well, my day got started later than intended, and as always, there's an almost-good-enough excuse. See, I really should've done my laundry yesterday, or perhaps two days ago, but I didn't. As a result, I woke up to find myself completely out of clean clothes. And I simply do not hold with playing poker without first underdoing my ritualistic cleansing, i.e. The Watering of the Person, and The Donning of the Clean Clothes. So it wound up being like 7 o'clock before I had gotten all that sorted out. So anyway, that's why I managed to get in a grand total of 3.5 hours today.

Then, rather than getting down to the ol' grind, I played a couple SnG's with the merry monkster, and managed to rake in some impressive finishes - sadly, none of them were quite impressive enough to win anything.

After that, I finally got around to hitting up the 3-6 tables, and damn it, it's nice to finally have a really good day! I played more patient and disciplined than I have in a good long time, caught some good cards, and wound up netting a goodly profit of about $400! Badda-fucking-BING! I'll close with a really nice suckout I put on some poor sod near the end of the session.

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (8 handed)

Preflop: TW is such A whore is CO with , .
3 folds, MP2 calls, TW is such A whore raises, 3 folds, MP2 calls.

Flop: (5.33 SB) , , (2 players)
MP2 checks, TW is such A whore bets, MP2 calls.

Turn: (3.66 BB) (2 players)
MP2 checks, TW is such A whore bets, MP2 raises, TW is such A whore 3-bets, MP2 caps, TW is such A whore calls.

River: (11.66 BB) (2 players)
MP2 bets, TW is such A whore raises, MP2 3-bets, TW is such A whore caps, MP2 calls.

Final Pot: 19.66 BB

Results in white below:
MP2 has Tc Jh (straight, queen high).
TW is such A whore has 8s 8d (four of a kind, eights).
Outcome: TW is such A whore wins 19.66 BB.

Current limit : 3-6 LHE
Current Bankroll : $1960

-TW