The Stretch

It's really not that big of a deal, I suppose.



150 games. No more than a blip. A flash in the pan, so to speak. And I didn't even lose that much money. 150 games, -$443. I've lost more than that before. Much more, actually. I've had individual days where I've dropped just under a grand, so I'm not too broken up about this recent run.

But still. I'm nowhere near angry or upset -- I'd call this mood "annoyed."

Not enough to scream or yell, but I've definitely been rolling my eyes quite a few times. Kings versus Aces again? Perfect. I lost another race? Standard. I missed a huge combo draw? Not surprised. Shoved blind on blind into a monster? Awesome.

Despite the small sample, things are good. I'm still on pace for 2,000 games and I'm at about 15% ROI for the month. On top of that, coaching is going swimmingly -- several clients lined up for instruction, eager to learn. And some of the most important things I teach is avoiding results oriented thinking. You have no control over the cards, only on your actions. Focus more on making the right decisions and less on how much money is in your account. In time, the former will take care of the latter.

The Rincon

Just got back from Harrah's Rincon Casino, located in "San Diego." I used quotations for a reason -- It's not really in San Diego. Oh, they say it is. They lie. It took my friend Brian and I about an hour and a half to get there. North San Diego? Please. Admittedly it would have taken less time if we hadn't have lost our way and ended up at Valley View Casino, but Google Maps still estimates the trip would take over an hour.

We finally got to Harrah's at about 1:30 and met up with a fellow 67-suited forum member, SilentRebel. He wanted to play Pai Gow, but was drunk and courteous enough to be persuaded into some $1/$2 NL. Perfect. I bought in with $200 and went to work.

First hand I picked up was AKs in early position. I raised to $9, and was called by an older Mexican man known as "Bobblehead." I don't know why he was called that, as his head didn't sway or bounce around, but I'll refer to him as such. The flop came KQ4, I bet $11 and he folded.

A few hands later, I looked down at QQ. I made it $9 again, and my friend Brian called on the button. To be honest, I didn't know what to think. While we didn't have an explicit agreement to softplay each other, he had to know that I was driving him home -- and I wouldn't be a happy camper if I got stacked. Everyone else folded, and the flop was KT8. Not great, but not horrible either. I c-bet $14, he called, and I went into shut down mode. He checked both streets behind me, and turned over Jacks. No good sir.

I proceeded to be dealt a variety of AQ/AJ type hands and used my low-limit cash game strategy.

1. Raise preflop, isolate limpers, c-bet flops
2. ???
3. Profit



It worked well, and I chipped up to about $260. In particular I targeted Bobblehead. Each time he limped, I isolated him. For the first few pots, he'd smile at me as he called, happily announce "check dark," I'd bet, and he'd fold. But as I continued to pick on him, I noticed a change in his demeanor. His eye contact lessened. His smile faded. He merely rapped the table instead of verbally announcing his dark check. He was getting frustrated.

Three players including Bobblehead limped in, and I found T7s on the button. Without hesitation, I raised to $12 and three players called. The flop came T83 with two diamonds. Not great, but I did catch top pair. It's actually the exact type of a flop that could get me in trouble. Two players checked to Bobblehead, and he placed an $11 bet on the table. I wasn't necessarily confident in my hand, but I figured that the small bet into a large pot meant weakness. And in addition, I wanted to protect my hand from the other two players in the pot. So I made it $26. The idea was that if I got check-raised by one of the other two guys, I could safely fold my hand. But they both folded. And when it got back to Bobblehead, he moved in pretty quickly. I hemmed and hawwed for a few seconds.

Me: How much more is it to me?
Dealer: $54

Math-wise, I was getting about 3-1. Still, 3-1 with top pair isn't that great, especially when it's a weak top pair. The board did happen to be draw heavy, so I thought Bobblehead could have a variety of straight/flush draws. But all of a sudden, I realized that his range was probably wider than I had earlier anticipated because of an overlooked factor -- I was the opponent. He had lost pot after pot against me, and likely was tired of folding medium strength hands to my aggression. I even said it out loud before I called.

Because of the image I've created, I actually think my hand is good here a decent amount of the time.

Bobblehead didn't flip up his cards when the dealer put out the turn (5 of diamonds) and river (Ace of hearts) but with the draw getting there along with random Ax hands, I thought I was beat. But to my surprise, he turned over 87o and my pair of tens with a seven kicker took down a $200+ pot.

Bobblehead and I battled once more, a few orbits later. Since my last encounter with him, I had dwindled a bit but still had roughly $300 in front of me.

He limped in again and I popped to $12 with JTo. Once again, he and two others made the call. Excellent flop for me, JT4 rainbow. Bobblehead was first to act and bet $28. He only had $40 or so left behind, which was pittance compared to the $400 stacks left to act. I really wanted some of the stacks to my left, but couldn't fathom how to go about doing it. Flatting the $28 on this board seems too dangerous, but raising might allow my opponents to much AJ/KJ type hands. Oh well, I didn't want to let anyone in cheap with some sort of open ended straight draw, so I raised to $85 total. An older man on my left hesitated before announcing his fold of King-Jack and Bobblehead put the rest of his money in. I showed my top two, and he mucked. Afterward, the older man tried to tell me how I should have played the hand. I simply smiled and counted the money.

Brian and I left shortly after SilentRebel did, and I ended the short excursion +$180. Easy game.

The Mother

I found out today that my mom reads my blog. Not surprising, I suppose, considering she makes quite an effort to stay involved in my life and such. However, I don't think I ever told her I had a blog, let alone the name of it -- but she found it, somehow. She also happened to stumble across my PokerVT Bio and told me that I am "much more handsome than the picture suggests." Thanks Mom!


If I looked like that, even I wouldn't touch myself. Just kidding, I still would.

My mom has always been a bit skeptical of my poker related interests. When I first started playing with friends, she didn't seem to mind much. But when I suggested I deposit money online to "see how good I truly am," she wasn't on board.

She feared my addictive personality would lead to a gambling problem. Or I would lose the money. Or I would win, but the poker site would keep the money. Or steal my identity. We can laugh about it now, but at the time, I don't blame her. There were (and still are) several myths surrounding online poker. Eventually I was able to convince her to let me give it a shot. I would deposit $100 and if I lost it, I wouldn't try again. One shot. One opportunity. Spaghetti spaghetti spaghetti.

A few years and thousands of dollars of profit later, my mom was a bit more accepting of the "whole poker thing." Still, she wasn't exactly thrilled when I suggested the idea of playing for a living. She was somewhat less hesitant when I explained I had a six month nest egg in case things went poorly and that poker was only a stop gap between undergrad and law school.

When I became disenchanted with law, the idea of playing poker for a living resurfaced. I hadn't officially quit school at that point, and called my mother up to talk to her about the situation. While she tried to be supportive, I could tell which direction she wanted me to lean. She had always thought I would be a lawyer. Truth be told, I did too. But after I told her my heart wasn't with the law, she understood. Although she was confident that I could do amazing things with a law degree, she didn't want to see her only son miserably drag himself to work day by unfulfilled day. I'm not even sure she's accepted the fact that I might do this forever (I haven't either), but if it makes me happy, she'll be in my corner.

The Trifecta

I used to have an awesome set up.

Although it looked a bit awkward, I had my desk in my living room -- right next to a beautiful 50-inch flat screen television set. So while I was playing SNGs, I could watch a ballgame or catch up on episodes of my favorite shows. Sometimes I'd even eat a sandwich as well. I felt like George Costanza on that episode of Seinfeld where he combines television, food, and sex into "the trifecta." Awesome show, highly reccomended.



But since then, I've moved into a new place. And my desk is downstairs, in the bedroom. The television remains upstairs, and I've yet to purchase a smaller version to put in my room. Because of this, I've often had to make the decision to work or play. Do I grind SNGs or watch television?

Recently, I've stumbled across an awesome idea. Plug the desktop mouse into my laptop and do both. For the last few days, I've been playing upstairs, in front of the television, on my laptop. Part of the reason I didn't want to play on my laptop in the first place was that I feared I'd miss out on volume. While the screen on my laptop is quite large, it can't handle more than 15 games at a time -- only 12 tile. But even though I'm only able to play half of the tables I'm used to, I'm putting in games at a decent clip thanks to playing continuously instead of in sets. 132 games today, and it doesn't even feel like I played for that long. Somewhere around 4-5 hours. In addition, my ROI is awesome. I've been averaging a hair under 20% for the entire month (1,000+ games).

The Bottom Line

Six whole days without an update? Unacceptable IMO.

Until Thursday, I had stuck with the game plan. 100+ SNGs per day during the week. But last night, I decided to hang out with friends and enjoy late night happy hour instead of putting in the time. Several cheap drinks later, I returned home in a mindset not conducive to optimal SNG play.

Today wasn't been much better. I've put in two sessions, but I'm still 40 games short of my daily goal. And it's already 3 AM.


3:16 to be exact

I don't think I'll be getting in another set today. I've got to be up by noon to coach and in addition, I know that I won't be getting much sleep this weekend. A few friends are coming down and my liver isn't too happy about it.

From purely a results standpoint, today was MUCH better than yesterday. After posting positive returns each day this month, I suffered my first set back on Thursday, losing about a buy-in. Not too bad for a losing day, mind you, but I'd certainly prefer to win. In contrast, today's totals are absolutely ridiculous.

62 games, 61% ROI, +$601

Unreal.

I'm trying to pinpoint any particular thing I'm doing differently this month, but to be honest, there isn't much to say except that I'm running better. My hands are holding up, I'm winning crucial pots, and I'm not constantly shipping blind versus blind into monsters. One new wrinkle this month is that I planned on playing mostly $16s. Funny thing is that I've struggled at the $16s the last few months and have actually been doing better at the higher levels. I'm not sure why. More regs, perhaps? Or I'm playing them on autopilot and not focusing enough? Meh. I don't know. It's probably just variance. But as you can see, short term runs (both good and bad) can have that effect on people -- even professionals second guess themselves from time to time.

The New Look

Instead of playing a session yesterday, I allocated some time to re-designing my blog. The changes are rather subtle, as I merely upgraded the template/color scheme and added a few extra gadgets to the page.

For instance, there are two links on the right -- one for my PokerVT Biography and the other to a webpage containing a few coaching referrals. Also, I've made it much easier to follow my blog but putting a "subscribe to" link below the about me section. And finally, if there's a certain post or comment I made in a past blog that you'd like to re-read, you can now do that by entering the particular term in the search box on the right.

The Birthday Present

I am exhausted. It's nearly 4 AM on Friday morning, and I'm one "publish post" button from heading off to bed.

I was tired two hours ago, but knew that I had enough energy to put in a final session and did so. The results? Eh. Only cashed in 8/31 but somehow dropped a mere $37. Not bad. As for the rest of the day, I continued to crush at a blistering 21% ROI. I'd have finished with a higher ROI and more money in my account had I quit 43 games ago, but my reading ability has yet to reach clairvoyance.

The best news of today was an email from Poker I received this morning. After investigating my case, PokerStars has generously decided to reimburse me for a significant portion of the tournaments I lost due to a connection/server error. While it may be true that the games are a bit tougher at PokerStars, the quality, first-class customer service will keep me at their site for a long time. Here's my favorite line from the email.

As your original buy-in was awarded in the prize pool and was not taken back from the winner, you may consider this a gift from your friends at PokerStars.

A gift from my friends at PokerStars? And here I thought you forgot my birthday was on the 26th. Thanks PokerStars!

The Video Game

It's 2 AM and I'm thirsty for more SNGs.

Unfortunately, there's a server restart tonight so instead I'm sitting on my couch watching a friend play Grand Theft Auto IV. For the last half hour, he's been murdering countless members of the Liberty City Police Department with an endless supply of rocket launchers. During the first few minutes, I watched intently, my eyes scanning the television screen, desperately trying to soak up everything I could. Police cars enter the alley, mindlessly, one after another. As each comes into view, a rocket is fired and explodes upon impact. The car goes up in flames, debris is scattered in all directions, and cops desperately duck for cover. Intense.



But time passed. And now as I look up from my laptop, the charred, flaming corpse of a Liberty City Officer rests in the alley. I don't even blink.

De-sen-si-tize

1. To lessen the sensitiveness of
2. To make indifferent, unaware, or the like, in feeling

Losing sucks. It hurts. But it happens. Many players attempt to chase their losses. Very few succeed while most move to higher and higher stakes, only to blow more and more money.

After I lost nearly $1,000 due to a server error, I didn't want to play anymore. Not only was I running bad in the previous 500 games, but the thought of suffering through another technical problem clouded my mind. So I took a few days off, got my mind right, and told myself to resume play whenever I felt ready. And as time passed, I felt more and more comfortable with the idea of loading up some games. More importantly, I started to feel the itch -- I wanted to play. Most people hate their jobs. I'm lucky to love what I do for a living. It's made the transition back to the felt much easier.

So far this month, the poker gods have been rather nice to me. Or at least they haven't been cruel. While I've had a few frustrating sets, I've also played two incredible ones where I've made 15+ buy-ins. I even had one today where I topped 20 buy-ins. Amazing! I wish I could play more now, as I've only put in 90 games today -- still, it brings me to 306 for the week, 6 ahead of my goal. However, I do need to "make up" two days (Oct 2 and Oct 5) sometime this month to get to 2,000 games in 20 weekdays.

Now that I'm bored with GTA IV and aren't able to play SNGs, perhaps I'll head to bed and try to get up early tomorrow? Eh, I'll be lucky to wake up before 11.