If you accidentally clicked this link, welcome to my journal. I'm starting this thing so that I can track my poker progress, as well as have a forum to ***** and complain about **** like bad beats.

The History of my "Game"

I've been playing for a little over a year now, but I still play most of the smaller games. I started out playing .25/.50 limit on Pokerroom with $40 bucks, by the time I was up to $60, I found out about SNG's, and built my bankroll to $250 playing nothing but $5, but instead of moving up to $10, I continued playing those and started playing $25 NL, between these 2 games (and one multi that I managed to take 6/400, I suck at multi's though), I built up to around $550, which I thought was solid for the levels I was playing at. Then xmas rolls around and me and my fiance are both broke as a joke, so I end up taking out $300 to buy the presents for the year. After that, work got hectic and my playing time decreased significantly, and I kind of hovered around even. Oh yeah, I also played solely on Poker Room, but someone told me about Stars so I move $100 over there and started playing the SNG's there, built up to about $200 in each site, playing rings on PRoom and SNG's on Stars. So then, I decide to take $100 from to play $25NL at Party, I clear my $30 bonus but between overplaying a few and a couple of suck outs, I end up with on $60 left, add to that a lost buyin and 1/2 from Stars, and my stack's not looking so hot, but not too bad.

The Plan

Ok, so I add up my bankroll b/w all the sites and I have about $360 all together which I think is decent since I still play the low levels. So here is my plan now, I took my $60 out of Party, and I'm going to play mostly SNG's on stars mixed with a little NL on PRoom until the next Party bonus comes up, then I'm dumping it all into Party so that I can get a real bonus this time.

My Goals

Move up to $10 SNG's - Yeah, I've heard, there's not much difference b/w $5 and $10 skill wise, but I still want to have a solid bankroll before attempting the jump since I tend to be kind of streaky, and I don't want to start playing a higher level and hit a bad streak, so I think I would like to have a $500 bankroll before moving up.

Win consistently at $25NL - The first time I attempted NL I did pretty well and $200 over a couple of months, but when I play now, I've been having a hard time keeping up. Lately I haven't been making much off of my great hands like flopped trips, and am losing too much with hands like TPTK and overpairs, add in a couple of bad beats and I'm on a losing streak. I've been reading off of this site for a while now and have learned an amazing amount of information, so I hope to put this to good use and start winning again.

I think that's more than enough to keep me busy for a while, now for the challenging part, finding time. I usually work 40-50 hour weeks, am in the process of planning a wedding (well, really she's planning, I just have to come up with the $$), and we're also looking to buy a house. So, lately time is a valuable commodity and if I can find an hour to play a day I'm doing well, but on the other hand, I really need to start making some extra cash so that should give me enough motivation to find the time.

Well, thanks if you actually took the time to read all this ****, hopefully it will get more interesting, but I can't make any promises

Man, what a long weekend, actually, what a long week, I've worked almost 65 hours this week! Anyways, I went to Greensboro NC for the weekend to help install a server that's worth more than most peoples houses, talk about pressure, we had a few things go wrong but were able to solve every single one of them, so I was pretty happy about that because it was a pretty high profile project. Also, what really rocked, is that we had a Jaguar for a rental car, so we spent all of our free time flying around Greensboro in a sweet ride. I actually only had about 4 hours of free time this weekend and spent all of it driving, I wanted to play some poker at the hotel but they charge for a data connection so I said screw it. I ate at a couple of pretty good restaurants and also saw one of the best guitar players I've ever seen in person jamming at a coffee shop, he played faster than I've ever seen anyone play before. It looks like I have another long week coming up but I think I may be able to get Friday and maybe Thursday off since I worked through the weekend.

Anways, before I left I was able to play a couple of SNG's, which were my first in over a month, so I was really worried that I wasn't going to be up to snuff because I've been playing NL ring games lately. My first one went very well though, I played very solid and didn't really make any large mistakes, I took second place but I think it should've been first, I was ahead of the guy the whole time but he caught a break on a pot for his stack that I had him out kicked but some high cards came and the pot split, after that, I got him all in when I had top pair against his flush draw and he connected which killed my stack and I couldn't come back afterwards since the blinds were so high by then, but still, 2nd place for my first tourny in a month, I was pretty pleased. I played another one shortly after which I think I also played well but didn't place. There was a guy at the table just catching cards left and right, he doubled up on the 2nd hand when he called an all-in from pocket aces with pocket 8's and caught an 8. I made a good lay down against him when I folded AK with a king on the flop to his trip 3's but I lost about half my stack reraising him to figure out his hand. A couple of hands later I raised PF a good amount on the button with KQs, he called from SB along with the BB, board came Q93 rainbow and he pushed all-in, I pretty much had to call at this point since I only had 400 in chips left and he shows Q9os, I was pissed but still feel that I played the tournament pretty well, I think that was about the only mistake I made but I don't think I had much of a choice by then, I was happy about the laydown to trips though. Anways, 2 tournies and I'm up about $4, woo hoo! I'm hoping to get in some more tonight after work.

Well, I just finished a SNG, and I'm very pleased with the way I played. I think spending a little time away from SNG's and playing ring games has really improved my play. I had a guy directly to my right that I would have classified as a maniac before, but instead, I realized that he would try to steal blinds a lot pre-flop but would not pursue the hand if he was played back at, so of course, I started playing back at him at select moments, I think my table image helped me a lot because I had played abc the whole time at the table until it got down to 4 where I started opening up against him and one of the squeaky tight players. Anyways, I managed to get heads up against him despite the fact that I wasn't catching very many hands and finally got him all in pre-flop with pocket 9's against his A7os to take him out.

So far, I've managed to play 3 SNG's since starting this journal and have have these stats:
$5+.50 SNG
Total: 3
net: $19.50
ROI: 118.18
ITM: 66.67%
1rst: 1
2nd: 1
3rd: 0

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, it's only 3 tournies, but I feel like I'm playing pretty well, I also loaded my tourny histories into PT while I was at it, I didn't have all of them but I did keep track in May, so I guess I'll post those here too just for good measure:

$5+.50 SNG
Total: 11
ROI: 175.21
ITM: 81.82
Net: $106.00

1rst: 5
2nd: 4
3rd: 0

Well, it's been a while since I've last updated my journal, this has been due to my unintentional break from the felt while we try to find a house, but lately I've been able to squeeze in a few tournies. Unfortunately, while I feel like I've been playing well, my stats and BR aren't showing it, so far, here are my July Stats:

Tournies: 7
ITM: 14.29%
ROI: -64.29
1rst: 0
2nd: 1
3rd: 0

In all fairness though, I have been getting my fair share of bad luck. My first tourny I played after a few drinks, now I haven't drank a lick in over 2 months, so I was a little buzzed, but it actually helped! I loosened up and was playing some lights out poker, I wasn't really getting any good cards for a while, but I was sniffing out some weak attempts to steal pots and coming back over to take them down, I did this twice and I think I normally would've folded, so I was cruising along and then dealt pocket aces, go all in pre-flop against the only player who has me covered and he flips over KJs, so I'm pretty happy until he gets....quad jacks!!!!! But it's cool, aces are supposed to get beat sometimes and if I had won I would've been in a good spot to win the tourny. So I play again, down to 5 and small stack goes in for the remainder of his stack, I have about 5X his stack in the SB with JJ so I push all in to keep BB from calling who has about 100 chips more than me, but of course, BB thinks for a while and calls with K8s, small stack has A3 but a king comes and wipes us both out, but I still think it was the right play. Next tourny is pocket 10's beat by 89s! The next 3 are my fault, I got in with hands that were not favorites, and then, finally, win the 7th tourny, although it should've been first, since I played that one on this computer I can actually post the significant hands:

How I built my stack:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1350)
MP1 (t1430)
MP2 (t1980)
MP3 (t1470)
CO (t1470)
Hero (t1360)
SB (t2290)
BB (t650)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
UTG calls t20, UTG+1 calls t20, 1 fold, MP2 calls t20, MP3 calls t20, 1 fold, Hero raises to t150, 2 folds, UTG calls t130, UTG+1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds.

Flop: (t390) , , (2 players)
UTG bets t200, Hero raises to t800, UTG calls t600.

Turn: (t1990) (2 players)
UTG bets t550 (All-In), Hero calls t410 (All-In).

River: (t2950) (2 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: t2950

Results in white below:
UTG has 6s 4s (two pair, fives and fours).
Hero has As Ac (two pair, aces and fives).
Outcome: Hero wins t2810. UTG wins t140.

---------------------------------------------------

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (8 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG (t1310)
UTG+1 (t1390)
MP1 (t2760)
MP2 (t1295)
CO (t1100)
Hero (t2905)
SB (t2250)
BB (t490)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
UTG calls t30, UTG+1 calls t30, 1 fold, MP2 calls t30, CO calls t30, Hero raises to t90, 2 folds, UTG calls t60, UTG+1 calls t60, MP2 calls t60, CO calls t60.

Flop: (t495) , , (5 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, CO checks, Hero bets t400, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP2 calls t400, CO folds.

Turn: (t1295) (2 players)
MP2 checks, Hero bets t900, MP2 calls t805 (All-In).

River: (t3000) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t3000

Results in white below:
MP2 has 3s 3h (two pair, aces and threes).
Hero has Qd Ah (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: Hero wins t3000.

--------------------------------------------

And how I lost it:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (2 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t3425)
Hero (t10075)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
Hero calls t100, BB raises to t400, Hero raises to t700, BB calls t200.

Flop: (t1300) , , (2 players)
BB bets t2825 (All-In), Hero calls t2825.

Turn: (t6950) (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t6950) (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t6950

Results in white below:
BB has Qc 9s (straight, king high).
Hero has Jd Jh (three of a kind, jacks).
Outcome: BB wins t6950.

---------------------------------------------

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (2 handed)

saw flop|saw showdown

BB (t4550)
Hero (t8950)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
Hero calls t100, BB raises to t1000, Hero raises to t3100, BB raises to t4550, Hero calls t1550.

Flop: (t9200) , , (2 players)

Turn: (t9200) (2 players)

River: (t9200) (2 players)

Final Pot: t9200

Results in white below:
BB has Ts Kd (one pair, tens).
Hero has As Qd (high card, ace).
Outcome: BB wins t9200.

I was really patient heads up b/c the blinds were still small compared to my stack and villain pushed in about every 3 hands, but he just kept drawing out!! He also beat pocket aces with crap to avoid going out earlier in the tourny too, this guy just had all the luck, but all in all, I think I played well, I really just played straight forward poker, nothing fancy, and there were just enough idiots to pay me off. So I'm going to keep trucking and hopefully turn this into a winning streak.

My string of losing SNG's continue, as of right now, my stats for July are:

Trnys: 19
Net: -$50.50
ROI%: -48.33
ITM: 26.32

1: 0
2: 2
3: 3
4: 2

Ugh, not pretty. Needless to say that this has been pretty discouraging because I have never had a losing streak this bad, even though it could be wiped out with just a few first place finishes. The good news is though that I am still looking good for the entire time that I have been tracking because, to balance out this horrible losing streak, was a sick win streak that I had in May, where I had played 11 tournies and had 5 first place finishes and 4 second place finishes, so for my total stats since May, which is when I started tracking with PT, is:

Trnys: 36
Net: 58.50
ROI%: 29.55
ITM: 44.44

1: 6
2: 7
3: 3
4: 11

I think that it's important to keep looking at the big picture instead of focusing on the negative, and the big picture is looking positive but it is still not that stats that I want, but close.

So, I'm on this losing streak, and it's pretty easy to go back and look at the major hands in each tourny that caused me to lose each one and say "See, it's just bad luck, I had that guy all-in and I was a 2 to 1 favorite but he got lucky", (I know because I actually went and did this), but I'm obviously still losing, so what am I doing wrong? I decided to go buy some books since I've never actually read a book on tourny strategy, I just sort of concocted my own that has worked well for me over the last year, but in order to take my game to the next level, I really need to start reading and analysing my game, so I bought both of Dan Harrington's books (very good by the way). I've read the first one and it has really opened my eyes to tourny play. A lot of it I already knew, but it really taught me a lot about the intricacies of betting and analysing opponents, it already has me thinking in a completely different way when I play. I think my number one problem has been pot commitment, for example, I'm medium stacked and the blinds are a good size, I have a solid hand so I raise 3X the BB, get 1 caller, I don't flop anything but to make a pot sized continuation bet commits me, so I push all-in and get called by a good hand and am knocked out, this has been common for me lately. There are 3 things I need to do about this:

1: Play more aggresively and steal blinds and pots when the blinds are higher (I've been working on this lately with pretty good success) so that I'm not one of the short stacks when I'm down to 5 people.
2: Don't commit myself to pots when I don't have to, leave enough breathing room to fold.
3: Read my opponents better and make moves specific to their style.

Sounds easy doesn't it? Well, I guess we'll see how it goes, I have a few more days left to fix this streak before the month ends.

I watched the Full Tilt Poker tourny on TV the other night, I really wish that they would do a lot more television poker in that same format, it was by far the best Poker tournament that I have ever watched. The things that made it great were:

1: It was live, so you don't know the results before hand, like the WSOP and WPT
2: It was unedited (obviously, since it was live), so you saw EVERY single hand, this really gives a lot more insight into the game and is very interesting to see all of the small pots that were played.
3: It was commentated by Pro's, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, and Chris Fergusen, very nice to here other pro's talk about a hand instead of the normal announcers.

I understand why tournies are usually edited for TV (which makes them not live, of course) but I really liked the way this was done and wish there were more shows like this. So if there are any television producers reading this, please have more tournies like the one I described above.

Scar... I think I know the #1 reason they aren't live...

I remember a tourney about 6 months ago... I think it was on Travel or something... Anyways, it was a pretty big tourney, and they showed the final 4... EVERY hand... I remember in the final, it came down to Phil Ivey and some nobody... They traded blows back and forth... Switchin big stacks... Then, right at the climactic finish was coming up... The show ended...

I was like WWWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTTTTTTTFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I couldn't BELIEVE they didn't skip to the end, or tell who won, or nothin... They just said... Oh well, thanks for watchin... blah blah fuckity blah... What a fuckin scam...

Anyways, although me and you and 100 other people would LOVE to watch every hand of a big tourney... TV Poker is a BIG ratings getter now, and they don't wanna do anything to fuck it up...

An example... I LOVE baseball, and root on the Marlins, even though it seems they lose every freakin game lately... Anyways, for whatever reason, I generally CAN'T STAND watching AL baseball... that extra hour or so is just SOOOOOOOOO fucking terminal, I usually fall asleep or change the channel somewhere halfway through the 3rd inning or so... Same deal for poker... People LOVE to see the big hands, and most people probably thinjk that's what 90% of poker is... Going allin w/ crap, and playing A-high to the river (hell, play any Party Poker game and you'll know that's true )...

Anyways, sorry for hijacking your journal here with my blabbering...

WOW, SOMEONE ACTUALLY READS MY JOURNAL!!!!!!!!!

That's BS about the travel channel tourny, how can they just end it like that! They should treat it like any other televised sport and run over the next show.

I understand, television is all about ratings, and how to cram as much action into a short amount of time so that people don't switch the channel when their ADD kicks in. I know a lot of people who swear they are good players because they watch every WPT and WSOP that comes on, they're just...unlucky, yeah, that's it. And true, there were times during the full-tilt tourny that I got a little bored, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it, I guess just because it was educational to see the tourny this way, but, I'm sure that Poker will continue to televised the same way, but maybe Full-tilt and fox sports network will continue to have this one.

Thanks for reading and posting my journal MVP

LOL, I'm at work too!!!

At work, also.

And at work, I have to read BTP through an anonymous proxy server because of the stupid firewall!! Awesome!!