Well, so this is awkward.1 f-ing entry since last July? 1 god damned entry. That is
deplorable.So what is new????
To be honest, not that much on the poker front.Haven’t been able to play as much as I would like
but there was a stretch in there where I was playing at least 5hrs per week,
which is a lot for me.At the end of
last year, I ended up making money again and carried a 2 BB/hr winrate which I
guess I can’t complain about but…there is so much I need to improve.
There really isn’t any reason
for these leaks, or intricacies that I haven’t been able to figure out; I’d
really say that I just need to play MOAR to iron these things out.I am sure that after many hours I will be
able to push the winrate up higher.
Life Update – Bullet Points for sheer laziness
-
-Got Married
-
-Took some trips (Mexico, Belize, Denver, Vegas)
--Sold House
--Currently looking for new one in better
neighborhood
--Playing Softball w/ Nik and AC, Tommy is
cameraman
--Still work at same job :yawn:
This will be just a short update as I will work to post lots
during the upcoming months as I plan on playing lots before during and after Vegas
with the 67 crew.
I think that this whole 'blog' thing is now basically a quarterly ordeal.
Work Update:
As I sit here in the beautiful Homewood Suites in Omaha, my final day of a 30 day stint for the Missouri River Flood Fight is looming. There is much to be said about "decency of good men". A major and damaging flood has hit the Missouri River Basin from South Dakota down through Iowa. The event experienced had a 1 in 500 chance of happening in any given year. Finishing the inspections, recommendations, and fast-track designs the area of Council Bluffs, IA and Omaha I have witnessed that people, for the most part are stubborn idiots. You tell someone to leave, they say thats nice and tell you to GTFO. But all that aside, I have enjoyed my time in this area of the country and the career experience. A big thanks goes out to the following: beer, decent food, and meeting another forum member. Hi Stacker :waveyguy:
Aside on the Midwest: I had never been to the midwest I have discovered a few nuggets of wisdom.
1. What's with all the Mountain Dew consumption. That shit is poison. 2. Freeways are knows as interstates. 3. People think California is some far off land full of surfers, dopers, millionaires, and that there are only 2 cities. LA and SF. 4. When a midwesterner asked another midwesterner where they are from, they respond that they are from 'X' county. This concept baffles me. 5. Dentistry is meerly a suggestion. 6. Most people are nice, courteous, and helpful. 7. Learn to drive, seriously. Traffic in the midwest is like a 2am drive in California. 8. Where are the Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, and Korean restaurants.
On the positive note, the population density is not so bad at all. In all, I ended up mingling with some locals in Council Bluffs at the Horseshoe Poker Room for some limit holdem action. I was a foreigner to them, most people were very curios as to why/how I had made it out here and why? It was almost a land of xenophobes.
Life Update:
The wedding is fast approaching, hooray for marrying up. I learned from the best big ups to: P2, Shifty, Shabba, and Luske. There will be a "Very 67 Wedding" Thread as 3 members from the forum are in my wedding party: Nik Santi,superdonk, and poker superstar acbarone. Should be fun. The batchelor party agenda has been confirmed. Tailgate, Giants v. Dodgers at AT&T, Brewery Tour, and dinner. Teh pokers may or may not be involved. Sounds like a kick ass time. All parties welcome.
Oh and no more tests for me. The State of California obv screwed up and gave me an engineering license. gg tests.
The house is for sure coming together, backyard is done and the painting is getting there. We also have a line on a contractor that the wifey knows. Hooray for remodeling.
Upcoming trips planned: Cabo for Honeymoon in November, Vegas with 67 in January (hopefully work doesn't bend me over on this one), Belize in March, and then back to Vegas in June. #verylucky
Vegas/Poker Update:
More than half the year has been gone and I think that I am somewhere in the vicinity of where I want to be profit wise for someone who plays as little and infrequent as I do. My monetary goal I set at the beginning of the year is definitely achievable. I am excited about that for sure, but waaaay more excited and motivated about the trend and style that play is going. The biggest month of the year for me was March by far. Since about that time, I started looking at the game in a whole different light thanks to the guys of 67. I am looking at you Nik, AC, Shifty, Deuce, Shabba, and Tommy. I don't want to go into detail as to what I have changed and how much differently I play in certain spots as compared to a skant year ago. Lets just say that I love the 'fuck-you' turn raise, and it is hard to make hands, so make other people have the tough decision. Basically I have upped the aggresion...in non-forum games.
Vegas was awesome as usual. No detail more needed. You know the drill. Drinking, poker, railing craps, snipers, robberies, overall a wholesome good time. No names and specific activities needing to be mentioned.
Thats it for now. I leave 2 days from now and return to Sacramento, the mecca of limit holdem and levee problems.
This is gonna be a half and half blog. Half results up to this point, half a little monologue about the June 67 Vegas Trip.
Part One: Pokers
So, tbh after shitting the bed last October for the PE exam, I have put in shit hours live. Out side of the January Vegas trip, I think I played 2 times. The President's Day weekend when the Sac Town Crew met up w/ Barone, Luske, and Oak, and a couple other times outside of that.
Short story is that I have had a couple decent size sessions where I booked a win, and one where I got smoked, and ran like shit.
Oh well, that is life I am up almost 6 racks at 4/8.
And the other side of this thing is that I have been play more than usual online. Mostly LHE on Stars and FTP (standard), and some micro-NL on AP. So I really don't make a habit of keeping a lot online so i cashed out a bit which just hit my account, sweet.
From the other games category, I am really gonna hit the books hard and study up on Omaha 8/b. Its pretty much a good transition game from LHE. I feel that I have progressed to a point where I can say I have a pretty solid understanding of limit concepts and I can make the transition fairly well.
Enough of this poker shit....
Part 2: Monologue
Your legs have warmed up the most comfortable, familiar point... You are sitting with bunch people from an internet poker forum You aren't drunk (unless you are shifty, and that's an under-statement)... "Waitress, 3 kamakaze's, 7 Newcastles, 2 Colorado Bulldogs, a cawfee w/ milk, skim milk, side of bacon well done, chicken parmesan w/ scampi." "So what's in the mix????" "Limit, Crazy Pineapple, O8, NL????? Nah" "Tree bets" "You are the worst." "2 pair, 8 high?" "Mbn!" "Aye Yahhhhhhh" Raise, 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16 Video Pokers Booths at Sapphire
Can you feel it??
Your bag is packed, it waits by the door. You make sure to check in to your southwest flight not 1 second late, you get the taunting txts from the first arrivers in vegas, you figure a cocktail will ease you tension. well lets be honest, maybe 2 or 3. The countdown continues. You get to work the next day. At this point time has seized, and your skin is crawling with anticipation and angst. Lunch time, hits, fuck finally you think only 4 more hours. Meetings, co-workers, and any resemblance of a productive thought have long since left your mind. You have officially transitioned into Vegas Mode.
Deuce's flight is delayed, shifty is shipping w/ 2 overs and a frush draw, rambler & turtle are being new yorkish, abbahs and his close friend shabba have checked in to a baller suite, santi and superdonk have touched down, reb is driving up w/o an ipod, eric has been 86'd from the wynn for no reason, dd and his accent are donutting their way across the country, ac is looking for love whilst in the cab from McCarran to flamingo w/ a random, oak has toted his Black's Law dictionary from nocal, fender has now landed and gone to bed... (sorry slinger, you haven't made a trip yet, you don't qualify)
But where are you???
That's right, its that time again. Vegas. Yup, it will be epic. I wish I could explain more, but I can't. You have to go.
At first, it was kinda about the moneys, then it was about the needles, then it was the food, and lastly and what it has evolved to, the most important thing, its about the experience and awesomeness that will ensue.
This is the big trip of the year, during the series. Here is bullet list of what will go down.
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Lots of pokers, profuse amounts of tittays, exorbitant portions of bacon, french toast, and luxe, and of course all the guys from 67.
Ended up the final tally for 2010 up a decent sum (roughlt $4k) and played quite a bit at the end of the year which attributed to 25% of the profit. I felt that my play has improved quite a bit just over this year alone.
I played about 4hrs of 6/12 on Saturday and ended up swinging from +180 to -180 loser on the night. It was extremely slow, started off well had 3 winners in the first hour but then just didn't pick up a had for the next 3 literally.
I did try to iso some weaker players using my fucking nit image due to card deadedness and that completely backfired horribly.
Basically, it might have came off as spew but w/e. If I can't iso 3! from the button against a early position open from a loose player and not get there WTF right. I felt that this was the correct play at the time. Short story was I 3! from the button a against loose/weak ish player to knock out the blinds w/ KQ of clubs, well, that didn' t happen one of the blinds (kelly-douchey oaf) capped it, and I whiffed the flop of 456 all diamonds and called one and whiffed the turn as well.
I did kinda get a little spewey w/ 99 in a 3 way pot in position on a board of A84 rainbow. Snap raising one of the other 2 who donked out. I continued on the turn both called :-(. and the river is an Ace where I got to show it down of course one of them has the Ace. I guess that I pretty much have to check behind the turn after the other person calls 2 cold out of position, that almost always means weak or mid strength ace.
So I learned a bit more and just gotta not make those -EV plays like betting the turn w/ the 99.
So its Christmas time and the poker games seems to be steadily gaining momentum towards the end of the year. Capitol is now running a couple of promotions with their new players card system which gives $1/hr comps which should be pretty good for food over the upcoming sessions. They are giving away a 2011 Ford Mustang, 3 Poker Cruise Packages, and a bunch of cash. The drawing is 2/19/2011. You qualify for a ticket when you have a full house or better. Personally, I would just like to see them go back an add $1k to the BBJ everyday instead of saving up for this promotion. But w/e I hope I/Nik/SD win some portion of this.
I did sneak in a small blargh session last night for like 4ish hours. Nothing really to report. I only played no joke 6 hands preflop. QQ 2x, AK 2x, A9s, and TT. Thats it. I did have a pretty awesome 4/8 table it started out with lots of limps pre followed with lots of maniac-type flop and turn play.
As the night went on there, the flop play was transferred to pre-flop and it was just crazy. There were roughly 4 straight maniacs, which is 2 too many imo. I usually like 2 maniacs because they usually clash with each other, but with 4, that is kinda nuts.
Well, all in all I ended up dusting off a rack due to 1 pot where I got rivered in a kill for a $200 pot, aye yahhhh. I might make an appearance tonight when Nik and SD are playing till tomorrow morning, fucking degens, lolz.
TP: -$96 TSP: 4hrs BB/hr: -3BB/hr.
Merry Christmas, and it is Christmas and not Happy Holidays.
So after taking the dog to the vet and finding out he had a case of "buffet stomach" from eating shit-tons of food because his food bag was open, I made it down to Capitol to play some limited hold'em. I had txt'd both Nik and SD earlier in the day and put the word out. Tommy said he would def be down to play, Nik was 50/50.
I walked into the cardroom and who'd a thunk it, they were both there. Tommy at 4/8 and Nik at 6/12. Nik looked meh, and he said he was stuck a bit and grinding it out. Tommy said the same at his table. A new table opened shortly and I took my seat with a bunch of LPPs and some reg's which I have put in some hours with in the past. need less to say I was very comfortable with my table lots of limping and check calling flops. All in all the table make up was OK, not great, not terrible. I played there, as I was fully intending to play 6/12 for a good while.
I think I chopped 1 pot and won another and after about an hour I was roughly even minus my omelet. I was 2nd on the 6/12 and was hoping to be called soon. Observing Nik's table it was pretty prime. A couple spazzes, an off shift dealer, a white laggy guy who would make some odd plays, Nik, older women who like to pay people off with all sorts of hands and then Davin Anderson. Davin is a pretty decent guy, for those of you who don't remember, he is the dude who was on the intro of the WSOP ME coverage who says, "This is greatest tournament in the worrrrrrrld!!!!"
Davin finished 25th in the 2004 WSOP Main Event and had been playing professionally in AC for quite sometime before coming to the west coast. Neat guy, kinda crazy, opened J8os in EP vs a straddle. But none the less he is definitely a solid player.
I take the 5 seat, to the left of Davin, Nik and this older guy Wayne who plays really good, or really bad. I haven't seen an in between with him. I loved my position at the table. It was a slow day and I either had premium hands or shit hands. Early on, I held with KK in a capped 5 way pot.
After that I had AA firmly planted in my anus by the laggy white guy who CR'd the turn on a paired board or KQ7K. From the looks of things, Nik was not holding at all and he finally was starting to turn it around and won some really nice pots finally hitting some draws and holding against the minefields.
At this point I am up about 70ish and get dealt AK of diamonds UTG and open, Suzanne the quite attractive off shift dealer calls 2 cold, and it is folded to Davin on the button who 3-balls, blinds fold I cap, and both Suzanne and Davin call.
I have played with Suzanne, and she plays any decent hand for a raise so and pocket pair, and hands like ATs, JT+ and any two face cards are definitely in her range. Davin, definitely had noticed that I wasn't playing too many hands at all so for him to 3-bet I am pretty sure he is not having trash in his range. I put him on 88+ and AJ+ which is less likely because I hold an ace.
So the flop comes J7x w/ 2 diamonds. I lead the flop and both call. I am particularly worried about Suzanne, but Davin I am concerned with. with the flop being containing the flush draw I would expect him to raise with an overpair or a set here. Him just calling makes me think that I am going to get popped on the turn if a diamond doesn't come off.
The turn is the T of diamonds making me the nuts, I bet again and am only called by Davin. the river brings an offsuit Q which does make some straight and I was hoping this maybe hit him and he would raise. That was asking too much, he just calls and says this is probably a bad beat. He did flash Aces to Nik and then mucked. I didn't expect that at all. I really figured he would raise an overpair and sandwich in the 3rd player.
After that there was really not much to report from the 6/12 game. Nik ended up leaving to go to work about 30 minutes later. I shipped him his secret santa gift of Red Dead Demption - Undead Nightmare and a 12-pack of...
Tommy text me and asked me to come sit with him a 4/8 for a bit so I did. The 6/12 game was getting a little slow because 2 people were eating and a few people were just kind of milling about not really playing any hands. I said fuck it, and racked up my $130+ profit and took the seat immediately on Tommy's left.
Tommy looked to still be hovering about a rack down at this point and just couldn't hit a hand. Well that was about to change. After me losing with JJ against 2 opponents on a Q-high board which I got to show down for free on the river which was nice, Tommy, a few others and I got involved in a 4 way capped preflop pot where I flopped top two w/ AK and then got turned by Tommy when he hit is set of jacks, oh well. Nice hand, if you were wondering he was getting 21:1 there, basically warranting a call with a gum wrapper and a uno card.
After that hand, I had blasted through close to all of my profit at 6/12. I was about to leave when I mistakenly raised TT UTG in a kill pot and got called by 4 people which was nice. I bet all the way and was good so that brought me back to even for the 4/8 session.
Tommy has been on a bit of a downswing lately and has needed to run better. He finally did just that and had some hands hold and eventually posted a winner for the session. I racked up an orbit later after getting 67suited snapped off by a turned 2 pair when I flopped top pair and a flush draw oh well, that's life.
Totals for the day were:
TSP: 6hrs 4/8: -$55 6/12: +135 TP: +80.
See you all next week, I only work 3 days, wooooot!!!
Short aside, its called a Christmas Party, not a Holiday Party don't ask me if I am going to a Holiday Party, I will tell you to fuck off.
