Wow. Daredevil was my favorite comic book growing up. His father was a boxer and there was a quote in one of the Daredevil graphic novels that read:

"The character of a man is not in how he gets knocked to the mat, it's in how he gets up."

Well I'm gonna have to show some character in the near future, because God all fucking mighty, I have been knocked to the mat. I entered the Super Thursday on Party tonight and fired up 3 $10/$20 (6 max) tables. I lasted about an hour and a half in the tourney and by that time my Partypoker account was nearly empty anyway, so I left the cash games. I flopped 3 sets in the first hour of the tourney, but only got action on one. I folded every other hand except a few suited connectors and gappers that whiffed. Then I got QJs in the BB and called a standard raise from a medium stack. The flop was Q46 and I check pushed and he called with KK. I was all in next hand with KTs against AQ and outflopped him but he nailed an A on the river. No biggie, as long as I clean up in the cash games I'll be alright, right?

I lost with the following:
KJ vs. K9 on a J923 board. That's a 2 outter folks.
KK vs. TT in a 3 way capped pot on a 678 flop. Thats a 6 outter, although quite a bit more money went in pre flop when he only had 2 outs.
T5 vs. KT on a TT45 board. Awesome. That's a 2 outter.
AK vs. K8 on a K92 flop. That's a 3 outter.


Superb. Lost a quick $1439. And of course the tournament cost me another $162.

I'll be dangling from the living room ceiling fan if anyone needs me.

Xaston, I just read ur whole journal very NICE!! Very interesting. It is good to see things thru the perspective of a young pro. I do have a wuestion though?? I know you love "The Theory Of Poker". I have read it a few times. No I play NLHE and am curious. Is there any specific parts to that book that you think are outstanding. I mean the whole book is great. Is there any section that i should just read,read,read,absorb? I will read the damn thing 100X if it will help. I really respect ur opinion, so any hep here would be great. I do have crib notes I made on the book, but i want tio do a complete overhaul. Any help here would be amazing!! Thanks!

Heads Up on The End, Effective Odds, Reverse Implied Odds, Game Theory and Optimum Bluffing Frequency.


Really, the river is so often misplayed by beginners but that Heads Up on The End chapter really is good stuff. Effective odds and reverse implied odds are very important, and often overshadowed by pot odds and implied odds. Game Theory and Optimum Bluffing Frequency is the chapter that made me realize how much more I really had to learn. The concept of a theoretically unbeatable strategy with the worst hand was more or less mind boggling to me.

Hopefully not as mind boggling as the PLO tourny this afternoon. Hope to see you there phenom.

haha I'm registered baby! Yesterday Mrs. Xaston wanted to hang out and I've been in a poker funk so I missed it. As long as Felonious_Monk doesn't show up, I'm a lock to win this thing

The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.

The Good:
I've taken some time off for reasons previously stated in the journal. Yesterday I went out to dinner and watched game #1 of the World Series with Mrs. Xaston. It was great. I played a tiny bit of poker today. I won $208 on Pacific Poker playing $10/$20. I also managed to beat Piers in 3 heads up matches today. First one was NLHE and I made a 1 card straight with a ten and he made a one card straight with I believe and 6 and that was that. He wanted a rematch and I accepted. I had him down and made a few real nice bluffs and calls. Then came the last hand, which was quite interesting. I had 23s, and limped on the button and he made a large raise with AKo. The flop was Q28 and he check called my bet. The turn was a 7 of my suit giving me a flush draw with my twos, and he check raised all in. I thought for a good chunk of time but decided I almost certainly had 14 outs and was getting too good of a price, so I called. Imagine my delight when I found out I had the best hand! I again did fairly well with my NFL bets.

The Bad:
I lost a $92 pot on the turn on Pacific Poker by disconnecting. I am about 90% sure my kings with a jack kicker were best, and very likely even had the moron with $14 left drawing dead. I have decided that this will be my first and last session back on this site. The games are super soft but if I lost a $1000 pot in $30/$60 due to a disconnect my monitor would probably get thrown across the room. I got knocked out 2nd in the PLO BTP tournament today. I consider PLO one of my best games too. Unfortunately I pretty much always play too aggressively and bluffy in forum tournaments and this was no different. However I played a few big pots with Nathan_Hicks and none of them really went my way so it could have certainly ended up differently.

The Ugly:
My bobe (pronounced Bub-Eee, it's yiddish for grandmother) has taken a turn for the worst in the hospital and she probably will not make it through the night. Without sounding cold and heartless, I'm not terribly sad about this. She was a fairly grumpy woman that most members of the family considered a chore to visit. My grandmother on my mom's side is a fucking sweetheart though and I would be torn up if it were her. I will probably get more emotional when I actually do get the news though, and at the funeral. R.I.P.

Made another $279 on Pacific Poker.

I've been watching a lot of $100/$200 and $150/$300 beause I'm a young foolish kid with big hopes and dreams. I see what is in my estimation, much much much too much calling of steal raises from the SB. I would say I see so much of it in fact, that it is almost a glaring leak. Am I over-estimating how much of a 3 bet or fold spot that is? I'm seeing it in a LOT of the players. It is a bit unsettling cause it tricks me into thinking I could beat this game and makes me angry that I don't have the bankroll to do so. I guess I'll just have to start playing 40 hours a week and build the bankroll for it and find out first hand

Xas
Although you and I have different styles, I have watched the "BIG" games from time to time and have thought exactly the same thing...They are so unrelentingly aggressive, my friend and I watch in disbelief...I wonder if others have comments on this...
B

I lost $590 in a medium length session of $30/$60. I think I played pretty well except for one TT hand where I really spewed heavily. I cashed out of Pacific Poker after my short stay with $1285 more than I deposited, so thats good. I'm itching for some heads up action so my next deposits may be on Interpoker and UltimateBet, I have some bonuses still left to clear at both of these sites too. Maybe I could put $1200 at each and stick maybe $4000 on Partypoker so I can play my "consistent" $10/$20 (6 max) tables while still having money on the sites where I can work on my heads up limit and clear some bonus.

Came back to my Partypoker roots tonight and played about 2 and a half hours at 3 $10/$20 (6 max) tables and one $15/$30 (6 max). I made a solid $1060.40, but was up as much as $600 more but played a bit sloppy at the end , although to be fair I missed some nice draws at the end too. I limped with QTs and flopped the nut straight and some moron with AA went absolutely bonkers with one pair and called me a moron after. It was hilarious. We capped the turn and on the river he led into me again, and again I raised him, but he deemed his UI AA not worthy of a river 3 bet on the JK965 board after the turn was capped, and just called my raise. I'm sick of MecosKing posting all these hands where he mizes some idiot off a pot with junk and getting the reputation of being the biggest retard of the LHE players on this site. I firmly believe that I am a bigger retard than him, and so I have saved some hand histories from today's session to argue my case.

Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 6 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
3 folds, Button calls, 1 fold, Hero checks.

Flop: (2.50 SB) , , (2 players)
Hero bets, Button raises, Hero calls.

Turn: (3.25 BB) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero raises, Button calls.

River: (7.25 BB) (2 players)
Hero bets, Button folds.

Final Pot: 8.25 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has Kh 6d (one pair, threes).
Outcome: Hero wins 8.25 BB.

Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 5 handed)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with , .
Hero raises, 1 fold, Button calls, 2 folds.

Flop: (5.50 SB) , , (2 players)
Hero bets, Button calls.

Turn: (3.75 BB) (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

River: (3.75 BB) (2 players)
Hero bets, Button folds.

Final Pot: 4.75 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has 5c 6c (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins 4.75 BB.

Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 4 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
UTG raises, 1 fold, Hero calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) , , (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG calls.

Turn: (4.25 BB) (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls.

River: (10.25 BB) (3 players)
Hero bets, UTG folds.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has 2s Ts (one pair, nines).
Button doesn't show.
Outcome: Hero wins 11.25 BB.

Aw come on bro you are betting the best hands there how can you claim the retard award for something like that Here are some real winners for you to drool over for the retard category award

Texas Hold'em $2-$4 (real money), hand #1,396,167,264
Table Feldkirch, 24 Oct 2005 1:48 PM ET

Seat 1: DCB1975
Seat 2: GTLV
Seat 3: Iceman_J
Seat 4: shanomite
Seat 5: _skill_
Seat 6: AC88
Seat 7: DagnyTag [ 7S,2D ]
Seat 8: RandyG67
Seat 9: HankYarbo
Seat 10: doug11376
ANTES/BLINDS
AC88 posts blind ($1), DagnyTag posts blind ($2).

PRE-FLOP
RandyG67 folds, HankYarbo folds, doug11376 folds, DCB1975 folds, GTLV folds, Iceman_J folds, shanomite folds, _skill_ bets $4, AC88 folds, DagnyTag calls $2.

FLOP [board cards JS,3C,9C ]
DagnyTag checks, _skill_ bets $2, DagnyTag bets $4, _skill_ calls $2.

TURN [board cards JS,3C,9C,3H ]
DagnyTag bets $4, _skill_ calls $4.

RIVER [board cards JS,3C,9C,3H,4H ]
DagnyTag bets $4, _skill_ folds.

SHOWDOWN
DagnyTag wins $27.

Party Poker 10/20 Hold'em (6 max, 4 handed)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
UTG raises, 2 folds, Hero calls.

Flop: (4.50 SB) , , (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG calls.

Turn: (6.25 BB) (2 players)
Hero bets, UTG folds.

Final Pot: 7.25 BB

Results in white below:
No showdown. Hero wins 7.25 BB.

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (6 max, 2 handed)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , . Hero posts a blind of $5.
BB raises, Hero (poster) calls.

Flop: (4 SB) , , (2 players)
BB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (3 BB) (2 players)
BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.

River: (7 BB) (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets, BB folds.

Final Pot: 8 BB

Results in white below:
Hero has 2s 3d (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Hero wins 8 BB.

And how about this beauty

20/40 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) - Sat Oct 15 08:40:58 EDT 2005
Table Table 69588 (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 8
Seat 1: DHCARR ( $866)
Seat 2: DAETONG ( $2113)
Seat 3: puravidaway ( $1354.50)
Seat 4: Trufant ( $1290)
Seat 6: TiltyGuy ( $1740)
Seat 7: Kundi ( $1111)
Seat 9: CH168 ( $863)
Seat 10: kazofa ( $1355)
puravidaway posts small blind (10)
Trufant posts big blind (20)
** Dealing down cards **
TiltyGuy calls (20)
Kundi folds.
CH168 folds.
kazofa folds.
DHCARR calls (20)
DAETONG folds.
puravidaway calls (10)
Trufant checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 8c, Kd, 5c ]
puravidaway checks.
Trufant bets (20)
TiltyGuy raises (40) to 40
DHCARR calls (40)
puravidaway folds.
Trufant calls (20)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jd ]
Trufant checks.
TiltyGuy bets (40)
DHCARR calls (40)
Trufant calls (40)
** Dealing River ** : [ Jc ]
Trufant checks.
TiltyGuy bets (40)
DHCARR raises (80) to 80
Trufant folds.
TiltyGuy calls (40)
** Summary **
Main Pot: $477 | Rake: $3
Board: [ 8c Kd 5c Jd Jc ]
DHCARR balance $1163, bet $180, collected $477, net +$297 [ Ac 7c ] [ a flush, ace high -- Ac,Jc,8c,7c,5c ]
DAETONG balance $2113, didn't bet (folded)
puravidaway balance $1334.50, lost $20 (folded)
Trufant balance $1190, lost $100 (folded)
tigerrlee balance $497, sits out
TiltyGuy balance $1560, lost $180 [ 6s 3c ] [ a pair of jacks -- Kd,Jd,Jc,8c,6s ]
Kundi balance $1111, didn't bet (folded)
CH168 balance $863, didn't bet (folded)
kazofa balance $1355, didn't bet (folded)


Oh shit that's a MK hand, perhaps he does have a lead on us in this category

I played a LOT today. Lost $417 through some brutal brutal stuff. I need sleep.

In the words of Roy Cooke, "Life is good."

I played an hour of $15/$30 (6 max) and $10/$20 heads up on UB.

$15/$30: $852 + $4 bonus
Heads Up: $391 + $7 bonus


In other news:

Mrs. Xaston has come around. She said the following the other day after we watched game 1 of the world series and had dinner together. "So Jaime Eli Kaplan (thats me), I would like to inform you that I am in love with you."

Bobe's funeral is tommorow.

I am a bigger baseball fan and know more about it, than football, but I hemmorhage money betting it and have been doing well betting Football so far. Go figure.

Did I mention that the girl I really like is expressing all sorts of interest now? Well if you couldn't tell before this post you can now: I am the youngest most immature poster on this site .

Played another hour and a half, $10/$20 2-7 triple draw and $10/$20 (6 max) hold em. I gotta get back to quad tabling. I got stuck big real early and battled back to a modest $147 win.