Poker? What's that?

After the most stressful week of my life in over 2 years, final exams are finally completed. This semester was disappointing academically. I came away with a measly 2.75, which could have easily been higher with an extra couple hours a week dedicated to school work outside of class. My cumulative GPA is now something like a 2.97. The only reason I have any motivation to get good grades is pride. Hopefully pride will be enough incentive to put the effort in next semester to pull back to a 3.0+.

In more positive news, I took the plunge and purchased a Breitling watch. I did a lot of research on it and found a good deal on the exact model I wanted most. A $4K watch generally has no astonishing features that a $250 watch lacks, but I really love the look and reputation of Breitling. I understand that it will do very little to attract women (unfortunately!), but for me it symbolizes a sense of accomplishment. In case you are curious, I got the Avenger Skyland:



Being busy with academics up until recently, I have not had much time to play. However, in the couple of attempts to sit in tables and boot a session, the heads-up action on Full Tilt seems quite dead lately. This is disturbing and I hope things change quick. I have noticed (both first hand and from friends' comments) that you can be sitting at 4 total empty tables at mid-stakes and not have a single person attempt to sit in for over an hour. Alarming, to say the least.

November results, crazy week

In spite of this being my best month to date, it did not go as smoothly as you'd assume. I lost $7K in a single HU match, then went on a mini-downswing the second half of the month. (Yes I realize that it is minuscule enough to not even bother mentioning.) Regardless, I am very proud of how the results turned out. I should be able to crank out this many hands playing HU on most months.

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My past few days have been dramatic. One of my tires randomly blew out on I-95 at 1:30 AM on Friday. My dad came out to the highway (right next to the exit of a rough neighborhood) and helped put a donut on my car since I had no experience doing so. Consequently, I had to get new tires the following day. I found out the hard way that the parts for nicer cars have RIDICULOUSLY inflated prices. Then on Sunday I got in a car accident. The weather was 35 degrees and pouring rain. I was going just 55 MPH in a 65 MPH zone on a major highway. The left lane came to an immediate halt, and my car had too much momentum for me to stop in time. I rear-ended the Ford Focus in front of me, and it caused a domino effect that created a 4 car accident.

The old Notorious B.I.G. adage holds a lot of weight: "More money, more problems". To be specific... the more material possessions you own, the more complex and stressful everyday life becomes. it ties down your feeling of independence, freedom, and forces you to place highly priority on material objects than they deserve. Also, everything loses its luster. Millionaires don't enthusiastically jump out of bed every morning just because they have a Porsche and a 6,000 square foot home. A happy life is fulfilled through being content with what you have, and happiness is derived from making the most of your interpersonal relationships with friends and family. I often desire nice things, and want to be a homeowner soon, but also need to exert self-control on buying unnecessary things.

The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole and less even in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes

I am extremely occupied with academics for the next week-and-change, so I doubt I will be blogging or playing much poker in the near future. In the meantime, I sincerely hope everyone who reads my blog runs well at both poker and life. :)

-Stephen

Life is full of 180s

Poker has been rough the last 4 days. Things have definitely cooled down. In my opinion, the recent struggle has largely been my fault. I have become complacent AND impatient with poker. After being on a heater, I have begun going into every match thinking I can play sloppily and still come out a big winner. I have begun making very unjustifiable call-downs, FPS plays, and other -EV plays. The full realization of this came to me today, and I decided to voluntarily freeze my Full Tilt account for 2 days. I could definitely use the breather.

Abruptly stressing over academics hasn't helped the situation either. Back in August, I made a blog entry that set a goal of getting a 4.0 GPA this semester. Well, I completely aborted that plan by September. My attendance rate is slightly improved this semester (still well below the student average), but I spend almost zero time doing work outside of class. Courses have become more difficult in senior year, and it's showing. Today, reality hit me: I am way behind in most of my classes. This has caused me to stress quite a lot now that I realize final exams are right around the corner. I'm trying to combat this by setting a To-Do List for each class, and prioritizing what I need to do in order to salvage my GPA for the semester.

At least Thanksgiving break is coming up. It's a well-timed break since I could use some relaxation, and a change of scenery.

Stephen grind? lolololol

Something strange has happened, and I don't like it. If anyone here can help me cure this solution, I would greatly appreciate it. The problem: I've actually had motivation to grind! I'm on pace to play over 25K hands this month. This may not sound like much to a lot of you guys... but for a HU player who is in school full time, it isn't easy. Anyway, I've actually been grinding while having good results, which is even more surprising. Usually if I'm grinding it's because I'm trying to get unstuck. This seems to hold true with many other players.

Many of those who read this blog don't actually have a Facebook (what is WRONG with you people?!)... but to those that do, I have an interesting question. I have been contemplating deleting some people who have friended me on facebook over the 4 years I've had it. There is something very unnatural about how Facebook permanentely glues you to every random acquaintence, girl you went on a date with, etc. The natural process in life is for people to slowly fall out of your life. Problem is, it's considered rude (and even malicious, to some) to unfriend someone without ample reasoning. Anyone have thoughts on this?

I am going on vacation with John/PuddlePirate and Ryan/WOWURBAD next month. I haven't traveled nearly as much as I would like to, so this should be a good start. I made a $100 cross-bet with John on getting all our passport stuff mailed out for rush order by today (Friday). The bet seemed to be very beneficial since it stopped us from procrastinating. We have not decided where we want to go yet, but I think we are leaning towards somewhere in the Caribbean or South America for a week. We want to go somewhere warm with young people and things to do. Suggestions are more than welcome, as none of us seem to be terribly knowledge on locations. There seem to be dozens of choices just within the Caribbean.

The sickness continues

This week has been an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. I had the worst single session on Monday, losing $7K at 5/10 NL to a guy who is a mediocre reg at best. I ended up bouncing back from that two days later and having my first ever $10K day, followed by a $4.5K win the next day. You would think Im playing larger than just 2/4 - 5/10 based on the swings I've been having lately. Overall, I'm still on a ridiculous heater that I don't expect to last. My winrate over the last few months is not representative of what someone can win over the long run. That being said, I feel like I'm extremely well-adept to the games I play. One trick pony perhaps, but who cares? If some day it gets to the point that I need to become proficient at other forms of poker, I am confident I will be able to make the switch. In the mean time, I love the form of poker I specialize in. It would be difficult to make the argument that any of the time I dedicate to poker should be spent becoming a more "well-rounded" player.

Last night, my roommate Evan and I threw a house party. At University of Pittsburgh, most people live in the section of the city that the campus is located (Oakland). I moved to the section next to it so I didn't have to live in the ghetto anymore, but getting friends to visit my current place can be difficult. We managed to get 20-25 people here and the party went really well. I've come to appreciate my college years more as time goes on, and these really have been the best years of my life. I remember during adolesence that many people would seemingly exaggerate about how great college is. Well, it's been everything it was cracked up to be for me. Now I'm just afraid that life gets much more boring after graduation.

October results

Okay so if you can't tell, I ran like god in October. My work ethic was awful, yet I got rewarded. I used to tease my friend IHaveAStrong9 for having months like this, and now it would be hypocritical. In spite of the fact that this was my best month to date, it is still pretty sad how few hands I logged in. I spend too much time talking on AIM, railing high stakes games, browsing mindless forum discussion, and doing other unproductive activities. A big leak I have is mentally set a rough monetary goal for each month. Once I hit that plateau, I become unmotivated to grind.

Probably the biggest highlight of the month was one of my final matches. On October 31st, I played Huck Seed at about 11 AM eastern time. He spewed like a completely monkey and essentially handed me $3K. Once I reflected on the session, I realized it was very early on the west coast and he was likely drunk from the night before. Regardless, it still feels good to beat up on a red pro who has been on TV many times, and is even touted by his peers for supposedly being a very good heads-up player.

On a lighter note... this was the first year that I fully experienced Halloween since childhood. Halloween is incredibly fun while in college, but I didn't take advantage of it until now. I went to a couple haunted houses, rented horror movies, and spent a good bit of time brainstorming my costume (I was a rapper). My close friends had a big Halloween party on Friday. It was going really well until the Pittsburgh police broke up the party. I would say 90%+ of the people there were of legal drinking age. No one was arrested fortunately, but it was still incredibly frustrating to have a good party ruined.

Best day ever in cash games

I kicked ass and took names yesterday, winning $7.5K over 1.5K hands. This is the most I've ever won in a single day (in cash games) to date. Just like any time period where you run really hot, I both outplayed people and got lucky. I was lucky to land fish at all stakes. Most of them had more than a measly 40 big blinds to lose. Heaters definitely make you feel on top of the world, even if you logically understand you're experiencing the good side of variance. Here are a couple of the most interesting hands from yesterday:

Hand 1: I looove hero calling.
This is the opponent I won the most from yesterday. He was solid for the most part but made a few spewy plays postflop that made him quite +EV to play. Timing tells played a big part here, but my gut also told me he wouldn't over-bet shove a king here.

Hand 2: Where do I find these people?
I had a couple hands yesterday where my opponents literally just gave me 100BB+ on a silver platter. Not that this would be a fold against most people anyway, but this is the biggest snap call ever given how maniacal he was playing.

Hand 3: Awkward spot with OESD in 3 bet pot.
I asked a couple friends about this hand already. My opponent had been pretty snug, but at the same time I had little/no grasp on how he played postflop, especially in 3 bet pots. It was hard to imagine that he would raise the flop with Qx, especially given the fact that I had been pushing him around during the match. In spots like this, I expect my opponent to just call down with a TP-type hand. Given he has little money left after his raise, it seems apparent I have little fold equity. Regardless, I thought a shove seemed right (and still like it) given my equity versus his range.

Hand 4: Suckouts are inevitable on your biggest day ever.
This looks pretty gross for multiple reasons. My double barrel versus this opponent is questionable since I'm going to get little credit given how draw-heavy the board is. I also apparently suck at poker math, because I'm not getting the 4.1-to-1 needed to call when he shoves the turn. I can imagine he was throwing stuff.

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Last night I also went to a Belgian restaurant with a couple friends. They had a large beer selection with many hard-to-find imports, and great food all around. Their specialty is an appetizer with a pound of mussels in a white wine sauce, served with a side of pomme frites (french fries) that you dip in mayonnaise. Probably the best appetizer I've ever had. A female friend of mine has agreed to do a tour of different restaurants throughout Pittsburgh this year. In recent years, I've greatly expanded what foods I'm willing to try, so it will be interesting to experience the exotic dining hidden throughout the city.

Should be doing one of 17 other things

For the first time in my life, I feel like my plate is completely full. I have enough activities and obligations that I need to actually develop good time management to get everything accomplished. That being said, I'm doing a shitty job at time management thus far. I've played an embarrassingly amount of hands so far this month, and I'm not getting consistent piano practice in. Anyone have advice on how to manage my time better?

By the way... I don't know about you guys, but I still love to rail the high stakes games. I doubt these 500/1K NL games are going to run for a long time, so I try to stay updated on what has been happening in the games lately. The supposed NL fish (David Benyamine, Ziigmund, Gus Hansen) have been running really well in the games, which adds a huge twist. Patrik being the biggest loser is probably even more shocking. We've all had pre-conceived opinions about who the best NL hold em players in the world before these games ran, and these beliefs are being questioned for essentially the first time in a long time. Nosebleed NL has not run regularly since summer 2007.

Relaxing back home

I have been back home in the Philadelphia area since Friday. University of Pittsburgh gave students a short fall break (1 day off, to be exact) for the first time. Usually I only drive back home during academic breaks, so it was nice to get to see my family before Thanksgiving. My mom (whose house is my primary residence while home from school) lives in a fairly rural setting. Being here reminds me of how much I love nature, and would like to be a homeowner with a large yard. Home also reminds me of how much I want to have a dog (or two). My mom has a golden retriever and a chocolate lab, while my dad has a yellow lab. Big dogs are awesome, and I believe having pets is a great compliment for being a professional poker player.

Lately, I have an increasing appreciation for poker as a profession. Many of us young poker players are quick to complain about any possible negative aspect. We take for granted that this is one of the only things that you can easily make 6 digits as a young person with little/no assets, as well as the copious amount of freedom poker provides. Yes, the amount of human interaction is limited. It forces poker players to either be happy with ample time to themselves (which does not apply to me), or work harder to maintain an active social life. Fortunately, college has helped me have an easily-accessible social network. This does makes me scared about how life will change after graduation next year.

I met with my new accountant for the first time today. We had a long consultation where I outlined what being a poker professional is like. He advised what I should be doing to prepare for the upcoming tax season. He also commented at the end of the consultation that I was one of the most unique clients that he has met in a while. I strongly, strongly advise any US poker professional to talk extensively with an accountant about how to file. We are in an incredibly unique situation, and with that comes extra responsibility to file as accurately and thriftily as possible.

Weekend happenings

On Friday night, I participated in a drinking competition. I am honestly not much of a drinker... I do it socially about once a week, and rarely get hammered. However, I decided to be captain and form a team when a friend informed me of the event. Teams comprised of 8 people. Each had to drink the following: 12 bottles of beer, a fifth of vodka, and one box of wine. Somehow, a team completed the competition in merely 16 minutes. I suspected that whoever was responsible for the boxed wine would suffer the most. My friend Ben (who, of course, chugged the boxed wine) ended up blacking out, and we had to carry him home. Needless to say - it was a fun experience, but competitive drinking is extremely illogical from a health perspective.



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I have taken 3 piano lessons so far, and enjoy it a lot. My teacher has a background in classical music and is focusing on me building strong fundamentals. If I don't mind going through music-reading and finger-strengthening exercises, then it will be awesome once I begin learning actual songs. It is disappointing that I have a very poor singing voice, though. I'm considering getting a vocal teacher sometime in the next few months so I can at least improve from an awful singer to a mediocre singer, and combine that with my newly-learned piano skills. I definitely get a satisfying feeling from getting back into music for the first time since I was 14 years old. It is a great way to challenge myself, use my creativity, and express myself. If you're like me and feel that life needs to feel more fulfilling, I strongly recommend doing something musical.

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I'm very objective about the poker economy, and constantly analyze the bigger picture. As I've said before, it is undeniable that poker is a negative sum game. Rake, taxes, and cashouts (especially by professionals to cover their expenses) mean that the poker economy is constantly shrinking. The only way to balance this depletion is for new blood to be constantly depositing money into the economy. This simply is not occurring at a large enough rate to offset the factors mentioned. As a result, the poker economy is drying up. It is not strongly related to the state of the US economy. It is also NOT strongly related to the legislation passed about online gaming in 2006. Online poker does not even resemble what it did two years ago, and conditions are unlikely to improve. That being said, I will continue to play poker for as long as I can comfortably make 6 figures doing so. I'm already starting to consider my other options for what to do after poker, because I don't realistically envision this being my main source of income 5 years from now.

September Results

September ended well and was NOT my worst month after all, but it was the most challenging. I went through my biggest downswing ever ($13.5K, or roughly 17 buy-ins). On a positive note, I did not let the downswing affect my overall outlook on life. I have a tendency to get depressed during downswings, allowing it to affect my entire life. 2008 has been a mostly joyful year with few bumps in the road. I had a conversation with a friend about this, and we agree that good HU players at mid-stakes NL rarely go through big downswings. Rather, they do endure breakeven stretches. Thus, it is a testament to my mental toughness that I stayed strong during this downswing, in spite of it being my first big downswing in a long time.





My confidence in my poker game is higher now than it was 30 days ago (surprisingly). Now my work ethic is what needs improvement. Playing 15-18K hands a month is not sufficient. Granted, I do lead a more balanced life now. I have other hobbies, difficult classes, and make a stronger effort to socialize on weekends. However, I should still be able to log about 100 hours a month (which comes to 25-30K hands of heads up). Do you guys do anything specific to push yourself to play poker during times when you aren't busy, but don't have a strong drive to play?

I'm going to make more of an effort to discuss my private life from now on. I find that the most interesting poker blogs are ones in which the blogger updates about their personal life. Writing is very therapeutic for me, and my blog would likely be more interesting if I include aspects of my personal life. I'm a very extroverted person by nature, and enjoy expressing things to others. Besides... I'd like to think that my life is somewhat interesting enough. ;)

Goals for October:
-Play 20 to 30K hands
-Ease back into playing 5/10 NL heads up
-Play live a couple times
-Begin playing tennis regularly
-Continue practicing piano for 5+ hours a week

Not as emo lately

Poker has been going better lately. I was stuck $7K for the month around the time of the last entry, and decided to finally take it easy for a few days. I began playing again recently, and as of right now I'm only stuck $1K. This month is most frustrating because I'm killing 2/4, but getting murdered at 3/6 and 5/10. I remember Dodgyken blogged about the same problem months ago, but couldn't relate to him at the time. It sucks. I can't even imagine what it's like to be OMGClayAiken and kill 25/50 (which is a very difficult game), but then run bad at 200/400.

I have been watching the presidential election pretty closely for the past year. I consider myself a Libertarian because I generally advocate having smaller government and more individual responsibility, but don't affiliate with any political party. While my views differ quite drastically from both of the two main candidates, I generally have sympathized more with Barack Obama. I feel like he is much more of an intellectual, and more charismatic than John McCain. However, lately Obama has really begun to turn me off. He has the most liberal voting record in the Senate, and always seems to believe government intervention is the best policy with any issue. Lately I've gotten the impression he is basically a soft socialist, which really scares the shit out of me. On the other hand, I'm not exactly an advocate of McCain's foreign policy. I'll probably be voting for a 3rd party candidate in November.

Tomorrow I begin piano lessons. My life needs more balance, and doing something musical definitely seems like a step in the right direction. I played alto saxophone for about 4 years during adolescence, and would say that overall I love music, but haven't played anything since. I decided not to take up guitar because it seems so cliche. If the lessons go well, I'll probably purchase a keyboard in order to practice at my apartment. One more activity that is definitely missing in my life is organized sports. About two months ago I talked about playing tennis regularly, but have been lazy about doing so since returning to Pittsburgh. I should set a goal to be able to play intramural tennis (or something similar) by next year so I start getting out and playing much more often.

Big hill to climb now

Three days ago I had another large loss in a HU match, this time -$5K at 5/10. I realized that I was in the worst downswing of my poker career. I was also off to the worst start ever for a month. I decided after this that it was time to take a break from 5/10 for now. I'm now on a mission to grind my results for the month back to even before I play anymore 5/10. I'm still an overall winner at these stakes and feel like my play has been fine. However, the losses at those stakes affect my psyche a little too much still.

I do believe that my game has gone astray the past month or two. I have made -EV calldowns and suicide bluff attempts. It's as if I have become the most impatient poker player in the world. Now that I've finally begun to realize this problem, I am working hard to correct it. I'm beginning to discuss hands with friends again, and occasionally watch instructional videos. It's not as if I have forgotten how to play poker, it is just that my game needs to be detailed or something.

I hope poker is going well for everyone. It seems as if many of my poker friends are losing an interest in poker (or at least losing an interest in blogging about it). I guess this is not surprising because poker resembles a hobby more than a job, and passion for hobbies often fades.

I made someone very happy

I lost $5800 to one guy yesterday at 3/6 NL heads up. I was actually stuck 12 buy-ins at the peak of the match. This seems unfathomable because I have never been stuck more than 5 buy-ins versus one opponent. Most fish do not give the opportunity to lose more than a few buy-ins. They are notorious for playing short matches, especially when they are up.

He (who will go unnamed in case I can ever get my money back) was clearly a fish that had exploitable tendencies. I misplayed a couple hands early in the match that doubled him up a few times. It is common to lose some money to even the worst players early in the match. Styles of opponents can be miscalculated early on. Unfortunately, as he got a larger stack and more confidence, he started becoming LAG. He was still taking a lot of poor lines and I had a good read on him, but his aggressive style created a very high-variance environment. I lost a lot of coolers, and had some of the sickest deep spots. Regardless of these incredibly frustrating elements, I felt that I was at least playing well enough to still have an edge.

The match overall lasted 5 hours and 750 hands, my longest single match to this date. By halfway through, I decided that it would be best if I had a poker friend sweating me. This would keep me more level-headed, and reassure me that I am making good decisions. My friends Ryan and John watched and discussed the match with me for about an hour each. This was a great experience, and is something I should do more often. Being able to talk out hands really helped me solidify my read, and make excellent decisions. It's also more difficult to tilt when you have the peer pressure of not wanting to make tilty plays in front of friends.

The ironic thing is, I am actually more confident about my poker game right now than I was 24 hours ago. I also have more of an enthusiasm to play poker, which I was really afraid I had lost over the past month or two. I really want to prove I am as good of a player as I think I am now.

School's back in session

I can't show a screenshot for my August results since the stats are on two computers still, but I finished +$8K over 13K hands. Considering the long break-even stretch I endured for the majority of the month, I cannot complain about these results. The stretch hurt my interest in poker and made me not play during days I had ample free time. This is my worst month since February, but the key is to simply get back on the horse. It is very beneficial that poker players measure success in months, because it allows one to mentally reset at the beginning of each month.

Classes started up last week. Strangely enough, I'm somewhat excited about academics for this semester. It has hit me that college is a big stage of my life that is about to end. I should make the most of what is left. I also want to prove I can get a respectable GPA if I apply myself. Since an adolescent, I've essentially done the minimum in school to get by.

We live in a society where we make the most of what we feel we're best at. Specialization. There are many, many areas of life in which I do not excel. I should be utilizing my strengths to the maximum. But have I? My 3.0 GPA in college certainly does not reflect that. It might be too late to completely reshape my academic accomplishments. However, it is not too late to turn around my work ethic in life.

I recently opened a Netflix subscription. I love movies, but realized recently that there are many highly-acclaimed films that I have never seen. I started out with renting Vanilla Sky, The Departed, and The Prestige. All three of them are excellent films that are intellectually challenging, and now I'm craving more. If you have any movies you'd like to recommend based on my taste in these three, let me know.

Absent-mindedness

I had an incredibly interesting day this past Thursday. Quick back story: I own an Infiniti G35 that has a built-in GPS navigation system. However, I own an external Garmin GPS that was used in my previous car. The Garmin was being stored in the center console of my Infiniti. I got my car detailed on Thursday. When it was returned to me a few hours later, the Garmin was missing. I instantly started freaking out. I quickly checked around my apartment and could not find it, so I called the owner of the Detail Shop. I told him about the situation and asked for a refund and said I would file a police report if I did not get one. He said he checked the shop and even his employee’s own car, and found nothing. The last time I had seen the GPS was in my car a few days earlier, but my memory about the GPS since then was fuzzy. I still felt confident my GPS was stolen.

Later that day, I went to a nearby track to run laps with 2 of my close friends. About 15 minutes after leaving the track, I realized that my cell phone was missing. Luckily, a guy walking his dog at the track found it and answered it. We got it from him shortly thereafter. This development made me severely question my judgment about the GPS. If I am this absent-minded, should I really be throwing around theft accusations? I have not called back the Detail Shop owner since then. I am completely baffled as to what the best decision is in this situation.

I’m in a breakeven stretch over the past 2-3 weeks. I haven’t struggled like this since February. I had started taking for granted the fact that I was always cranking out low variance results (in spite of only averaging about 20K hands a month). This stretch has been a harsh wake-up. I tend to get a little depressed when poker is going badly. The way I’ve tried combating depression this time around is to make an extra effort to do other things in life I enjoy. Going out, playing video games, watching movies I’ve been meaning to see for a while.

Time management

I have a huge problem with time management. I've create lists of the tasks I need to accomplish in the near future, but struggle to completely them in an efficient and timely manner. Hours of each day are wasted doing things that bring little benefit to my life. I need to start pushing out these wasteful periods of my day. The first step I've made is blocking myself from being able to access Facebook indefinitely. I should also halt myself from using AIM, as I feel that I waste way too much time making small talk on it.

I have come to the realization that so much of your time during the day is spent with simple maintenance. Hygiene, eating, cleaning your house, buying groceries, making basic income. These activities are simply done in order to maintain a basic condition and rhythm. They don't enhance your life from what it was in the recent past. Most of the things we do in life are not with intentions of progress, but just maintenance. The struggle becomes trying to maximize time spent making progression in life. I tell myself I care so much about self-improvement within various areas of my life. However, this requires hard work that allows little time to relax.

I have been running bad at 5/10 in particular the past week or so, and it is extremely frustrating. I have decided to buy out of both bets I made for poker results this month (one with WOW UR BAD, and one with Jethro). I have not been this frustrated about poker in over 6 months, even though I am still up a couple thousand on the month. There is nothing worse for an online cash player to run well at their lower stakes (2/4 and 3/6 for me), but run badly at their higher games.

Yes, I'm still alive

-I'm going to stop apologizing for my lack of blog updates. I was starting to feel guilty for it, but I now realize that blogging will only be enjoyable for me if I don't look at it as a chore or duty. I really enjoy expressing myself, but I don't wanna force myself to make half-assed entries with little substance. I used to criticize my friends who became lazy with blogging, but I realize it is not my place to do so.

-I'm sure a lot of you have been reading Raptor's blog lately. For those who don't, he is a top internet player who has kind of transformed himself lately. He has started a sudden focus on dieting, exercising a lot, trying new activities such as yoga. While I don't strongly associate myself with him, the changes he is trying to go through resemble my own. The past year or so, I've become very interested in self-improvement. I constantly try to find out what I don't like about myself, and figure out how I can change it. I also try to make a consistent effort to try new things, everything from learning the basics of Buddhism to keeping an open mind about new sports. Right now, it has been about trying to life a "healthy" lifestyle where I'm pursuing goals that reflect what I believe everyone needs to maximize happiness. Exercising, eating well, getting consistent sleep, etc. I believe that there is a good life equilibrium that we are still trying to figure out, but I'm trying my best to move closer to it.

-I defended my FTOPS HU title on Sunday. There were 1300+ entrants, a large increase from the 512 from last year. Full Tilt decided to allow byes this time, which is really lame. I ended up having to play a first round match, while the majority of entrants received a bye. I ended up winning my first 3 matches, but going down in the 4th round. I had a lot of fun and believe that the format is perfect for me. It is the one tournament that I get really excited about. I probably put more effort into the FTOPS HU event than any other single day of poker. In related news, my custom gold football jersey came in the mail for my FTOPS win. It is an authentic-style jersey. I plan on getting it custom framed and hanging it up in my apartment, as its a really cool way of displaying one of my big poker accomplishments.

-My trash talking in chat boxes needs to come to a halt. I am very courteous to fish, but against competent players I am often a dick. I don't know why I do it, must be some kind of insecurity issue. I had a friend of mine call me classless the other day, and it was a bit of a wake-up call. I've also come to the realization that my trash talking is probably -EV. It does occasionally put people on tilt, but the more common result is that it makes me focus more on the chat than the actual match. It also makes me steam a lot. If you catch me talking shit from now on during the middle of an actual match and show me proof, I will transfer you $10.

-My results in poker have continued to be very solid. I ran really well at 5/10 heads-up to start, but have come a little bit back down to earth. I definitely feel comfortable making 5/10 one of my regular games now. It has been necessary to do this. There has been a large influx of regs at mid-stakes HU lately, making it more difficult to get soft games. Attached are my results for July... better to post them later than never. In the mean time, I have quite a lot of hands I need to grind for the rest of August to qualify for our August $$$ bet. GOGOGOGOGO

Live pokers, and getting back on the horse

Yet again, sorry for the lack of updates.

Last weekend, I made a trip to the Atlantic City area to scope out the beach and play some poker at Borgata. My live winning streak is finally over, as I lost $1350 over 9 hours of play. In spite of being stuck, I was enjoying myself during the sessions. I'm very happy to know that I can supplement my online play with live poker, and actually enjoy doing it. Many online players seem to be miserable about live poker. Anyway, here is one hand where I totally owned someone:

First orbit at the table, I limp AJs UTG. (I have no idea what is standard here, if anything.) The guy behind me also limps, and the player after him raises to $50. It folded back around me, and I decided to call. The limper behind me also called. The flop comes J73 rainbow. Check, check, the PFR bets out $80 into a $150 pot. I decide that he likely has a small pair here and see no point in raising, so I call. The other limper folds. The turn comes a 5. I check, the PFR bets $80 again. This seems like obvious weakness to me. I'm trying to figure out how to extract the most value, and I decide to flat and donk the river. I call, and the pot is now $470. I donk $250 on the river just to milk him a little. To my extreme surprise, he pretty quickly raises it to $650. I have no idea what to think here... rivered two pair/set is the only thing that makes sense at all. I take about 3-4 minutes just sitting there, completely borderline on what to do. Suddenly, the guy offers to show one card. I say sure, and he flips up the top card, a 7. Three seconds later, I announce call, flip my hand up, and he mucks. I don't normally make live reads like this, but I felt very confident that him showing a 7 was a sign of weakness. Who said that online donks can't make live reads?

As for online, I've finally started grinding again. I took about a week off, which is probably my longest hiatus from poker in about 2 years. I think that being around poker players 24/7 in Vegas burned me out a little bit, but I've found my groove again. I've played 4K hands in the past 2 days. I'm running pretty badly at 3/6 NL, but hot at my occasional 5/10 shots, so I cant complain.

I have a bet set up already with my friend WOW UR BAD for next month. We're making a bet on who can make the most money at 2/4+ NL next month. The qualifier is you have to play at least 30K hands in order to win the bet. We believe that this bet is +EV for both of us, since we're both generally lazy about putting hands in. He probably has a slight edge since his results at MSNL HU are ungodly, but I plan to put up a good fight.

Reflection

I'm now back home. I've been doing a lot of reflecting on the past month that I spent living in Las Vegas.

Going into Vegas, I was concerned about "making the most" of the trip. I made lists of activities I wanted to accomplish. In hindsight, I am glad I did this. Seeing progress in my life is important to me. Right now, I believe there are so many things in this world I've yet to experience. Setting black-and-white goals helps me to clearly see progress. I didn't end up doing every single activity I brainstormed, but I did most of it, and I feel satisfied. The trip has made me very enthusiastic about experiencing new places. Most of my housemates had a lot more traveling experience than me, and I now want to change that about myself. I see myself going to make different locations over the next few years.

During my second week in Vegas, I wished that my housemates had more of an enthusiasm to go out and "experience" Vegas, rather than relax around the house. By the final few days, however, Jethro and cntgetmedown were likely wishing the same of me. I had grown homesick during the tail end of the trip. Vegas is so fast, and it's hard for many people to take in large doses.

On my flight home, I realized that I missed my housemates already. Corny, I know. It was great to have a group of friends in which we all have a common interest, and helped us to bond easily. I feel that we executed the entire plan of the house well. I really hope I get to see these guys again, even if not in the same setting next time.

Now that I'm back home, I'm going to finally play through Metal Gear Solid 4. I love the MGS series because it challenges me intellectually. This aspect obviously does not exist in many video games. Woven into the plot of each game are important philosophical topics. The ongoing evolution of our species; the purpose (if any) of our lives; the best government system and how one can truly measure what that is. The creator of the series is a complete genius. Each time the next installment in the series is released, I become enthralled in a video game for the first time in years.

Leaving Vegas in style

Sorry for the lack of updates, been super lazy about anything that involves effort out here. I've done a lot of various stuff the past few days that deserves mention:

On Monday, a group of 9 of us (my house, AceCR9, PrincessDonk, and Brystmar) went to Tao restaurant in the Venetian. It's an upscale Asian restaurant that turns into a nightclub at later hours. We ordered everything family style and I got to try a lot of new asian dishes that were really enjoyable. The most memorable dish was the Kobe steak, which was extremely tender but $16 per ounce, which is ridiculous. filet mignon is almost as enjoyable to eat, and about 1/5th the price. We racked up a $1200 bill that everyone wimped out of doing CC roulette over.



After dinner, the house went and saw another Cirque du Soleil show, called O. It was at the Bellagio and this was mostly a water show. It involved a lot of the same acrobatics as Mystere. Overall the two Cirque shows I've seen were very similar in quality, but I would recommend Mystere to anyone who has yet to see a Cirque show. It was a very balanced show with good variety. I'm really amazed at how much the entire Cirque franchise has taken over Vegas. There are advertisements everywhere, and seeing a show has become a must-do for anyone visiting vegas nowadays.

Tuesday, we went to a gun range with Bazclef and IAmSnow. We got to shoot four different machine guns - Uzi and Swedish-K are the only names I remember. It was my first time ever even holding a gun, let alone shooting fully automatic weapons. It was extremely fun to just unload an entire clip in about 3 seconds. Once we finished trying out the four machine guns, we had a "challenge" of sorts. Each person in our group got to fire 2 shots with a Desert Eagle, which has to be the most powerful handgun in the world. It has a ton of kickback and I was pretty nervous about firing it. Dodgyken ended up firing the most accurate shots, and won a token redneck hat as the prize.
(Side note: Bazclef does an awesome job blogging about his Vegas trip, so I recommend checking out his blog for activities and details I've likely left out.)



I've been to Spearmint Rhino twice recently. It is arguably the most famous strip club in the world. The girls are gorgeous, but they are the biggest hustlers ever. When you enter the club, you are the fish. Without going into too many details, I've gotten private dances from two girls. The first was okay-looking, but was a great dancer and had a fun attitude. The second girl was extremely beautiful, but had a horrible attitude. The latter just spent the entire time bitching for tips while she was supposed to be dancing. The former was much more worth the money. Strip clubs really aren't that amazing of an experience once you're used to it, so I doubt I'll be hooked on strip club visits ever.

I'll write a recap of my trip and after-thoughts when I get home. I have very mixed feelings about the fact that I leave in a day.

Recap from California

I'm blogging from California, about an hour southeast of the Bay area. I'm in the middle of a 3 day excursion to visit my mom's side of the family. I haven't blogged in a week, so let's back-track:

Jeff (Jethro87) arrived into Vegas last Friday. We decided to go check out the Wynn, which I would put in the top tier of overall casino quality with others such as Bellagio and Venetian. It's a plus that the main poker rooms in Vegas are in the nicest casinos, and makes commuting to live poker more enjoyable. Jeff and I sat at the same 5/10 NL table. The first observed hand involved a creepy middle-aged guy with bulging eyeballs. He was using semi-abusive table talk during a big hand with someone. I found out later he was Alan Boston, a sports bettor who was on Poker After Dark recently. He came off as a miserable old man, something stereotypical of a classless and jaded live player.

Anyway, my most interesting hand of the session came in the first orbit: a guy in MP opens to $40, the cutoff calls, and I call from the big blind with KQs. The flop comes KTT rainbow. I check, the PFR checks, and the cutoff bets ~$80. I make an extremely obvious call, and the PFR folds. The turn comes a 4 of hearts, giving me a backdoor flush draw. I check again and the CO bets ~$220 without too much hesitation. At this point I think he may very well have a ten, since he didn't seem scared that I might have a ten, and competent live players generally don't slowplay. I think I would have made a pretty nitty fold here if I didn't have the FD, but it's another pretty obvious call with it. The river comes a 6 of hearts, completing my flush. I checked since I expect him to bet-call any ten, and this give him some shot to bet air. Also, a river lead by me basically announces my hand and never gets raised. He bet ~$350 and I made a very easy shove less than double that, and he called quickly. I flipped up my flush, and he showed a ten and mucked. I've had a lot of fortunate spots like this in my live sessions thus far, and I definitely believed I've been running hot overall. I booked a $1300 win and Jeff booked a $800 win, which must have seemed like a solid start to his stay.

Cntgetmedown arrived on Saturday. Jethro, him and I quickly hit it off. The three of us have been talking regularly online since June 2007, and our personalities mesh really well. It's funny because I was confident it would be this way. Simply talking to someone online can still be a great indicator of how you will get along in person. This is not to mean that I don't get along with any of my current (or past) housemates. I definitely wouldn't take back living with any of the guys I have, and I'm very thankful that the entire Vegas house has lived up to all my expectations.

I went and got my first lay-down massage on Sunday. I was recommended by my Uncle to get a deep tissue massage. Some of it was painful, particularly the upper back massage in the beginning. I felt great afterwards though, and definitely plan to get massages monthly from now on. Sitting with a computer about 30-40 hours a week isn't exactly ideal for the human frame, so massaging out tension seems to be a great supplement.

I finished June at +$10K online (I'll post a screenshot in the next entry) and +$5.5K live. Considering I had my largest downswing ever, I'm satisfied with this result. I am only disappointed in the fact that I played 16K hands, which is way less than my goal of 25-30K. I seem to always have a different excuse every month for why I didn't play as many hands as I originally shot for.

Bottle service = baller

Thursday was my friend Kyle's 22nd birthday, so a group of us went out to Tao to celebrate. Tao is one of the trendier nightclubs in Vegas, located in the Venetian. We decided to call ahead and get bottle service. This is more expensive than paying a cover charge and buying individual drinks, but it allows you to skip the line and get your own table. We were told the stipulation was that we had to get at least one bottle for every two guys. We ended up getting Grey Goose and Jack Daniels (it was four of us) which totaled about $700 before tip. I had red bull and vodka, my favorite mixed drink.

We told one of the butler-type assistants to go find us women. He came through and brought a few girls to our table. By this point I was very drunk so I don't remember details well, but I spoke with a girl who had moved to Vegas from Canada. We ended up dancing for a bit and then parted ways. By this point, I was feeling sick. I eventually threw up in the bathroom. Apparently clubs like this will often kick people out if they get sick, but they let me off with a basic warning. I ended up leaving shortly there-after and grabbing a cab home.

When I woke up at 9:30 AM the next morning, I was still hammered. I have never been drunk from the previous night like this before. I still don't feel quite right, as if I'm going through a multiple-day hangover. I'm usually a very responsible drinker and I definitely drink less than the average 21 year old, but sometimes when I have mixed drinks it is difficult to track how much alcohol I've consumed. If I had paced myself a little more, I could have gone to Spearmint Rhino with the guys afterwards. Oh well... guess I saved money?

Jethro and cntgetmedown arrive this weekend, which I'm pretty excited about. I've been talking to them a lot over the past year, and the three of us were the brains behind the vegas house.

Here are some pictures of us playing a home game, as well as my adventure skydiving:

Yes, Im playing poker in vegas

It is now Day 11 of 27 in Las Vegas. The guys in the house haven't been doing a whole lot lately, aside from playing poker. I have played about 20 hours of live poker so far, and I'm up about $4500. I managed to find better tables this past weekend. As tough as it can be, the reality is that just playing pretty ABC tight-aggressive is what takes down the money in these games. I'm trying to make occassional double barrels and such, but really trying not to get out-of-line. I honestly don't mind live poker nearly as much as many other online players do. Full ring is the only thing that bothers me. Regardless, I'll continue to compliment my online play with live while I'm here, and definitely try to get 50+ total hours in. It seems that $100/hr is a realistic winrate in the 5/10 NL games here.

I introduced Dodgyken to Chipotle Mexican Grill (one of my favorite places) out here, and now it seems like our house has been addicted. Eating burritos multiple times, on top of eating out at restaurants, has hampered my attempt to eat healthy while in Vegas. We bought a bunch of groceries on the first day here that have mostly not been consumed. I need to stop being lazy about cooking, and stop craving unhealthy food.

My results online have been pretty mediocre since I got here. I find that I enjoy playing in the quiet setting back home more, where it is much easier to focus. In theory it is very cool to have a bunch of guys grinding online poker together, but in practice it is just stressful. This is not meant to be a knock on my housemates, I assume I would feel the same with any other poker players.

Being here has made me realize even more how important table selection is. I watch the guys around me who are great players, but consistently put themselves in matches where they have little (or often no) edge. I don't care how good you are at poker, it's all relative to who you're playing. And to pass up on a ridiculous amount of expected money just by having poor table selection amazes me. A couple months ago, I pretty much measured how good a poker player is by what their A-game is. Now, I honestly weigh that with table selection and tilt control just as much when rating a player.

And finally, I've made a list of the things I want to accomplish before I leave Vegas:

-see Comedy Stop at the Tropicana
-see a Cirque show: Mystere or O
-visit "old" Las Vegas
-go to 2 or 3 nightclubs
-go to Spearmint Rhino
-get a full body massage
-learn how to play craps and baccarat
-Try out some all-you-can-eat buffets
-Ride rollercoaster at NY/NY
-Go on the three rides at the Stratosphere

JUSTICE MUAHAHAHAHA

I checked out the Bellagio for the first time on Tuesday. Dodgyken, famousanus and I all ended up playing at the same 5/10 NL table. Like my first live session in Vegas, the table ended up being very disappointing. It seemed like most of the other players at the table were live grinders. As for interesting hands: one hand there were 3 limpers, I isolated on the button with AKs to $60, and when it folded back around to the orignal limper, he reraised to $160. I over-bet shoved for $900 and ran into aces. I was pretty down on myself, but the poker gods must have felt bad, because I got even in a relatively ugly fashion. I flopped the nut flush versus famousanus's second nuts. Pretty gross, though it was humorous to tell the rest of the table that he is a good friend of mine (as he is storming out of the poker room). I ended -$31 on the session, and not feeling too excited about live poker. My first two sessions did not have soft tables at all.

I went skydiving yesterday with Andrew, Jared, and Brystmar. It was one of the top things on my to-do list for Vegas, and was an awesome experience. There is about a 5 second period after they open the door of the plane where you are completely hanging out of the plane, but the tandem instructor attached to you hasn't left the plane. I wasn't scared at all, but it was a huge adrenaline rush. Now that I've got my first thrill activity out of the way, I'm contemplating the idea of bungee jumping while I'm out here. Might as well make the most of my trip, amirite? I don't have pictures yet, but I ordered a picture CD that should be in the mail eventually.

We had our first big group dinner at The Palm Restaurant in Caesar's. Everyone in the house went, plus three friends from another house. It was a great meal, but a large part of the time was spent sweatin the credit card roulette bill that was to ensue. I was probably most worried about it (read below), while Dodgyken was so confident. He has been bragging the entire week about how lucky he is. After everyone ordered steaks, sides and desserts, the bill (after tip) was $930. My card got picked first, and I legitimately screamed in joy. I think people were rooting for me to lose because I am such a pessimist about CC roulette. Anyway, it got down to 4 cards, and people were discussing the idea of a chop/deal. This infuriated Dodgyken, and he said he would PUT HIS CARD BACK IN IF PEOPLE AGREED TO NOT CHOP. Now keep in mind, this is the mathematical equivalent of him lighting $200 on fire. The people agreed, and of course, Dodgyken ended up losing the bill. It was the most hilarious conclusion to a great dinner.

I'm running pretty bad at credit card roulette so far. I've lost 3 out of 5 bills. I’m fortunate to have dodged the big bill yesterday, but hoping not to run hundreds under expectation when the trip is said-and-done.

VEGAS

Hey guys. I'm pretty beat right now, but I promised myself that I would blog before I went to bed tonight, so hopefully this entry doesn't come out too garbled.

I arrived in Vegas yesterday afternoon. Flight went smoothly, and then got my rental car in a timely fashion. I met Dodgyken and Andr3w for the first time (in person, obviously) when we checked into the house. They are both about what I expected since I have been speaking to them regularly for a while. We get along very well and I'm looking forward to living with them for the entire next 4 weeks. As far as the house goes, it is everything I was hoping and expecting. It's large and works perfectly for accomodating a group of young guys looking to have a fun time. Anyway, my friend Mike (a friend from college who is staying at the house for one week) flew into Vegas a few hours later, and the four of us drove down to the Rio to check out the poker scene.

I was in amazement of seeing the big-name poker players last night. The four of us just railed various WSOP events, smiling as we got to watch people we have idolized for years. Guys like Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, Tom Dwan, and others simply have a larger-than-life presence. We were content not even playing poker last night, and just railing these guys. The $5K PLO w/ rebuys event had brought out many great players and condensed them into a few tables.

Today, I headed back to the Rio and played my first live session. I played a short session of 5/10 NL. There were five tables of 5/10 NL running when I got there in the late afternoon, and I must have been seated at the worst table. I quickly found out most of the guys at my table played online poker. I would have left the table but I got lazy because there was a waiting list for 5/10. I got very few cards preflop and just ended up playing pretty snug. I 3-bet light a couple times after I realized I had a pretty tight image at the table, but otherwise I came into zero interesting spots and basically broke even at +$330. My next live session I will probably be going to the Bellagio, as I heard the action for these stakes is pretty good there lately.

I am still on the fence about playing the $2500 six handed event tomorrow. I feel like I played a little hesitant in the cash game today, and that makes me wonder if I will not apply the right amount of aggression tomorrow. I know once I get comfortable with the overall live setting in Vegas that I will be fine, but there is still some kind of mild intimidation factor for me. If I feel this way, I probably should just skip on the event tomorrow. It's honestly 50/50 right now for me, and I believe for Dodgyken as well. I'll just wake up tomorrow morning and see how I feel about it.

Worst day ever

My blog has lately always been about how well I'm running, so some of you will be delighted by the change. Yesterday was by far my worst day ever, losing $5700 at 2/4 and 3/6 heads-up. It is not even quite fathomable right now since my worst day previous was roughly -$3K. I'm not going to bicker about how bad I ran, but I will say this... with equity adjusted I ran about even. How sick is that for one day at these stakes?

I lost $4100 of the $5700 to one TAGfish regular who 3 bets and C/Rs flops liberally, but he has no idea how to do anything else. In 800 hands, I did not win a single pot larger than $512 off him, and he won TEN POTS LARGER THAN THAT. The one thing I'm not proud of is that I should have quit earlier than I did since i had zero momentum. Regardless... of the ten pots I lost, only two of them did I play badly (and two of them he got his money in behind). Here are the biggest HHs with no explanations, you guys can come to conclusions on your own:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2746677
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2746681
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2746689
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2746691
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2746695


This debacle is probably going to stop me from playing the WSOP $2500 six handed event on Monday. While I'm kinda in shock, my spirit hasn't been broken yet. I'll just take it easy until I get to Vegas. This will be my last entry before I arrive in Vegas on two days. I'm extremely antsy about going, and I will probably blog more often for those four weeks. I have a lot of stuff I want to accomplish there.

On a lighter note, I've been working on the theoretical part of my game lately. I've spent most of the year just using my skill set to beat up on donks, but now I want to improve my A-game. I recorded a video of a match against a very aggro opponent a few days ago. It was great practice in practicing hand reading. I've also set up a list of heads-up videos to watch (I've watched almost no instructional videos the past few months). I get the most out of a video when I try to imagine how I would have normally played a situation in the video, and if it differs from the video creator, then I'll figure out why and learn from it. When I'm really studious I take notes to really hammer home the concepts I've picked up. Under normal circumstances I am too lazy to do this, but this week I have really wanted to take my best game to the next level. I might as well take advantage of this renewed enthusiasm while it lasts.

Moving forward in poker

I had my first ever $5K day grinding online cash yesterday, over 2K hands of heads-up. It isn't miles ahead of some of my other best days, but still feels very cool to reach that plateau for the first time.

I also played a $300+22 six handed tourney yesterday with Andr3w. There were 310 entrants, and I was chip leader with 80 people left. However, I made a few spewy plays and didn't switch into a slower gear when I should have, and wound up not cashing. Andrew also hit a tough wall and was the bubble boy. Those results aren't the most uplifting for two people looking to hit the tourney scene, but I am still ready to play some satellites for the WSOP main event. The first one is a $650 super satellite on Pokerstars today, which has a very slow structure that I will be focusing on this evening.

****************************************************


My stepdad has been closely following my poker progress since I got home from school. Last night, he asked me "so what is the next step?". It shocked me, because I had no idea how to answer the question. Until he asked that question, I was content with the idea of simply grinding my current stakes. Consistently making 6 digits with (relatively) low stress is an awesome opportunity, so I didn't think twice about veering from that path. However, with that question posed, I realized that I need to keep making new goals in poker.

I will never have the gamble (nor skill set) that the top players in poker do. They have amazing instincts in all facets of poker, but more importantly, they have the gamble to risk large portions of their bankroll when the time is right. I love poker for this competitive aspect, and I tell myself I wanna be the best, yet I am so conservative about moving up the ladder. Partially, my hesitancy is due to the fact that I am realistic about the online poker economy, and observe that 5/10+ NL games online are largely drying up. So many people have developed great NL hold em fundamentals, and its a constant fight to sit with fish. However, I should not allow this observation to completely halt me from rising up the poker hierarchy.

So, here are some basic goals to help steer me forward in these upcoming months:

-Regularly sit at 5/10 NL heads up (in addition to 2/4 and 3/6)
-Look into other sites that provide heads-up games at 3/6 NL and above. This is the more logical decision to move up and make better money at my best game (heads-up cash) than just battling regulars on Full Tilt.
-Become competent in other games, particularly Pot limit omaha. I need to be more well-rounded so that when I inevitably get burned out from NL hold em, I have other options of games I am competent enough at to make a living.
-Continue to build a live roll, and loosen up my risk tolerance so I can allow myself to play soft big games live. I think the main test for myself is to build up the courage to sit in a 10/20 NL (or higher) live game at some point while I am in Vegas.

Vegas is approaching!

-I have decided to play the three big online WSOP satellite tournies: $650 and $370 on Pokerstars, and $530 on Full Tilt. I expect these fields to be pretty soft, and the structures (especially the two Pokerstars events) are very good. I am fine with risking $1550 to get into the main event, especially when my ROI if I focus on each tournament has to be at least 100%. Should be a fun experience. I'll start giving updates after I play the $650 one this Sunday.

-Nerdy gamer alert: I am really excited about the upcoming release of Metal Gear Solid 4 on Playstation 3. I've been a huge fan of the series for almost a decade now. From seeing the previews of this game, this may end up being the best Action-Adventure game ever. The gameplay seems awesome, with a Middle Eastern war setting that reminds me of Black Hawk Down. I have become a much more casual gamer since I took up poker, but this is the first game I have really been anticipating in years. The only problem for me is that the game is released on June 12th, two days before I leave for Vegas. I have to either go on a complete binge and play the game for two straight days, or have to wait out an entire month before I touch it.

-Does anyone have random tidbits on what one should bring for a long trip to Las Vegas? I have a feeling I am going to forget something important. I'm going to call up Avis early next week and get a price quote for renting a car as a 21 year old. I also need to wire money to the Rio. It is finally starting to hit me that Vegas is very soon, and I'm getting quite antsy.

May Results

May went down as my best month to-date, even excluding the big tournament score. I am really happy that I backed up the MTT win with a great month in cash games. I feel like a lot of people, both poker players and non-poker people, have given me undeserved respect for getting lucky in one tournament. For me, this helps validate the new-found respect I've gotten. It also shows me that I am still hungry to play, regardless of whether I am winning or losing lately.





Goals for June:
-30K hands online
-Play 50+ hours of live cash games in Vegas
-Play $2500 6 handed WSOP event; possibly $5000 6 handed event; use $1-2K in satellite buy-ins to try to qualify for main event
-Attempt to interact with the female race
-Begin learning PLO
-Keep working out while in Vegas

I also booked my first big live win last week. There is a small stakes home game near me that I've attended periodically for the past two years. There is one other player there who makes good money grinding online, he is a young LHE player who plays everything from 15/30 to 50/100 limit. I decided to challenge him to a 5/10 NL heads-up match, knowing he probably wouldn't decline, even though he never plays heads-up NL. We each brought $3K with us to the match. He played very aggressive, but was too loose on all streets and I was able to take advantage. A few coolers and 2 hours later, the match was already over and I won all the money. It feels great to book a nice win live. It also helps a lot to have a decent-sized live roll to bring to Vegas now.

Philly poker players rule

Yesterday, I met 4 successful online poker players, all from the Philadelphia area. They are Fees, UMD Tennis, Annabella Maria (he's a guy), and odub. They play everything from 2/4 to 25/50 NL. They were all friends with each other before this, but I guess I'm "in" now too. We went to Sullivan's Steakhouse, a nice restaurant in the mid-upper price range that definitely qualifies as a nice place, but doesn't have a stuck-up atmosphere. We ran up a $300 bill and then played credit card roulette for the first time in my life. I suggested it because I always read about the sweats other people get from playing CCR with big bills. We had the waitress take our 5 cards and slowly pull them out of her apron one at a time. Mine was 2nd-to-last, which gave me as genuine of a sweat as I had hoped for. Apparently, I had a look of terror on my face when only 2 cards were left.

After dinner, we headed to Fee's house and grinded a bit. I took what is overall my most obnoxious beat in my history of playing poker. Everyone has personalities that mesh will, and I had an awesome time overall last night. I have a feeling I won't get along this well with every single poker player I hang out with in Vegas, but times like last night still get me extremely pumped about the Vegas trip.

I wanna say specifically that what odub does is awesome. He is 29 years old, and makes great money working at a law firm. He is also married, yet he successfully beats up 2/4 to 10/20 NL heads-up while juggling those other priorities. He also plays more hands than anyone else in the group. Talk about inspiration. Sick props, odub.

State of the poker economy

2004 to 2006 was the best time for poker. A large percent of the US population was watching poker on TV, starting their own home games, and depositing money in online poker. However, it wasn't until 2006 and 2007 that people started fully comprehending the money that can be made playing seriously online. People started to take advantage of the information on the internet more efficiently. This was all happening as the poker fad (yes, poker was a fad from 2004-06, and anyone who doesn't believe that is completely delusional) had already begun to cool off. Obviously something has got to give, and it's giving. There are too many good poker players now, and the shrinking poker economy is certainly not big enough to sustain them all.

It is depressing to see that nosebleed NL games (100/200 NL and higher) are basically completely dead. 25/50 NL games run in small quantity. Nowadays, an awesome 25/50 NL game is where one mediocre player is sitting. The recent change we've seen is that 10/20 NL games are even thinning out. There is often only one or two 10/20 NL games running on Full Tilt, even during peak hours! Yes, the NL heads-up games at my stakes are very good... but the implications of what is happening at higher stakes is frightening. With the speed at which online poker happens, Darwinism is in hyper-drive. It is almost guaranteed that the poker economy (unlike the full US economy) is not in a temporary recession, and is not going to make a rebound. It is, inevitably, only going to get worse.

I know this all sounds pessimistic, and I admit it is probably a negative spin on the poker economy. However that doesn't mean it's wrong.

One thing I'm going to do while in Vegas is try to actually grind live poker. I don't mean it is going to take up all my time, but just that I'll try to have a week or more where I play many long sessions. I want to see how I fare mentally. If I want to play poker professionally for a long time, live poker is a more guaranteed thing than online poker is. I'm not saying I'll ever be strictly a live poker grinder. However, the possibility of moving closer to a major live poker area (likely Atlantic City) so live poker can compliment my online play could be a very real possibility.

Honesty in poker

-I'm having a really difficult time watching instructional poker videos the past few months. Massive ADD sets-in within the first 5 minutes of starting any video. Anyone else experiencing this? I have a feeling that this isn't unique to me, and that certainly doesn't bode well for Cardrunners, etc. I seriously doubt these businesses will thrive for too long.

-As most of you know, being honest with yourself is incredibly important in poker. I am making more money in poker than I ever have before, and my confidence is at an all-time high. However, I realize that I am largely becoming a one-trick pony. I'm just good at what I do. I stick to heads-up cash games, and consistently use good table selection. I see some of my poker friends go through sick swings and really struggle, and I honestly believe some of them have better A-games than I do. So who is the "better" player, a friend who has a better A-game than I do, or someone like me who game selects well, and sticks to what he's good at? I don't know the answer to the question.

Another thing that is keeping my ego in check is new friends. I've begun talking to "WOW UR BAD", one of the best MSNL HU regs on Full Tilt. He has a 10+ PTBB/100 winrate at these stakes over 200K hands, which is absolutely sick. I have a winrate of 7.5 over 100K hands, which I thought was solid, but seems completely dwarfed now. Realizing people like him are out there is very good motivation for me. It helps me understand that I can be better than I am, and subsequently try harder. Complacency is an ugly thing, and often creeps up on you, so doing whatever it takes to keep it in-check is important.

-Today, my mom (a real estate agent) took me to see 4 homes, all in an area of the Philadelphia suburbs I'd like to live someday. I've thought a lot lately about the idea of buying my first home next year. I really want to be a home owner, and would take great pride in owning and maintaining a beautiful home. Ideally, I'll own a really nice 4 bedroom home, and rent out 2 rooms to poker friends. The idea of living by myself is really undesirable for me, and living with successful poker players who also become good friends would be an awesome way to live out my early 20's.

Making enemies

-For the first time, I have an arch-nemesis in poker. He's not what you would expect. His name is Doug, although I call him "Phil" for mildly resembling Phil Galfond. We played a couple of NL live cash games recently, and he played very tough versus me. Although they were small stakes, stacks were often deep, and Doug and myself played a lot of big pots. Then, the other night while I was grinding online, a very aggro player sat at 2/4 against me. I was pretty frustrated by his style, and adjusted poorly. He won $400 off me, but it should have been $1000 if it wasn't for a suckout I had. Immediately when the match ended, I got an IM and it was revealed that the player was indeed Doug. I've never felt so owned as I did at that exact moment. Doug, the gauntlet has been thrown: I will play any time you want. As long as we play anything 1/2 or larger, I will cater to the date and time you want to play. You seem to think you have my number, but I want you to back it up by playing me for more than 130 hands.

-I got my first speeding ticket last night. In all honesty, I can be a reckless driver, so I was expecting to get a ticket eventually. However, getting a $118 ticket for going 65 mph on a 55 mph empty highway is a joke. I really would like to know what kind of algorithm cops use to determine ticket amounts.

T = 30 + [MPH*5] + [20,000/(age^2] + [1,000,000/PCV] - FD

Key: T= Ticket amount in dollars, MPH= Miles per hour over the speed limit; PCV = Perceived car value; FD = female driver desirability


-I've been itching to make a trip to the Jersey shore, so I can chill at the beach and play some 5/10 NL live. Unfortunately, the weather has been poor every weekend since I arrived home from school. I'm supposed to drive down with my friend Chris (cdw1323), and he can only go on weekends. Hopefully one of the next two weekends clears up.

-I'm playing the FTOPS main event tomorrow ($500 buy-in, $1.5 million guaranteed), partly because its a very deep structure, and partly because I feel obliged to at least play the main event since I won an earlier FTOPS event. Then next Saturday, I have a Tournament of Champions freeroll. About 65-70 people battling for a WSOP seat. It's only $150 in expectation... but the brag of winning the TOC, and the excitement that comes with locking up a WSOP seat are enough reasons to give a solid effort.

FTOPS HU Champion

I found out less than a week ago that Full Tilt was running a $500 HU tournament on Mother's Day. I really wanted to play (I RARELY get this urge for any tourney), but assumed I couldn't because of Mother's Day plans. We ended up going to breakfast, so I was able to get back and register for the 2 PM tournament. I played 4 quick $100 HU SNGs beforehand to prepare myself.

I was frustrated when I found out my 1st round opponent was a very good MTT player: RandALLIN. He ended up being good, but as the tournament progressed, I realized that having a match against MTT players wasn't a bad thing. I faced four "big-name" MTT pros, but the other three were not good at HU. They tried 3 betting way too much and keeping the entire match preflop, even though we often had 75BB stacks or more. They also clearly didn't know how to play postflop... I guess that's not shocking, though.



I had a ton of fun. My stepdad sat next to me for every match. I analyzed the hands and the flow of each match out loud, and it greatly helped assure I stayed on my A-game. One match I was making quick decisions and not thinking methodicially in the beginning, and my stepdad told me I was losing focus. It was great to have him as a reality check, and I quickly reset back to my better game.

I understand that I am very, very fortunate to win the event. I won 4 major coinflips over the course of the tournament, and put a few coolers on people. I didn't suck out in any large pot, though, and take some pride in that. With 512 entrants, even with the good structure, I win this event MAYBE 1 in 200 times. That being said, I don't feel I was a dog in any match I played. There were lots of high stakes cash game players in the field, but I didn't draw any of them.

I don't have any exciting plans for the money. I'm going to wire a big chunk of money off Full Tilt and begin investing. I'm going to become a partner in my stepdad's real estate investment company, which has been making great returns, even in a shitty market. As for poker, I am just going to continue to play 2/4 to 5/10 NL. It is really important I continue to grind, and treat this score as strictly a bonus. I remember when SamH (the 25/50 NL grinder) won a WCOOP event and immediately just went back to grinding cash games, and I respected him a lot for having that great work ethic.

Ballers play 5/10 NL, amirite?

Finally something poker related - I played two sessions of 5/10 NL heads-up last night. My friend TheSouthAfrican (a MSNL HU specialist) was playing two soft opponents but about to end his session, so he let me sit. Luckily, both players stayed when I sat. One had a $600 stack that I busted almost immediately.

The other stack was sitting with about $1500 to start. I'll take you through my match with him because it was really interesting. Going into the match, TheSouthAfrican told me that this opponent was relatively aggressive, but had a huge leak of checking-calling down almost any pair for 2 or even 3 streets. I was obviously drooling at this prospect. And off we go:

Hand 1: I listen very well, apparently.

My river bet here looks pretty stupid given the read that was handed to me on a silver plate before the mach. Every draw in the world whiffed the turn and river. I don't hate my turn bet since he could have floated the flop with tons of draws that missed and would just fold the turn, plus I have a ton of equity versus a pair
of 8s type hand. This was like the 5th hand in the match, but in retrospect I would never bluff this river versus this guy.

Hand 2: Cooler that I could have gotten away from, sigh.

Everything here looks standard except me calling his shove. In real time I just took it as "I have a flush, oh well I call" without even thinking too much. That is a leak of mine that I need to fix - rushing through some decisions in big pots. If I thought it out I would have realized that the opponent I'm playing is not maniacal to shove for value with anything less with a flush. I also think he bluffs less than 10% of the time here. Thus, I basically can't beat anything when he shoves the river. I will say that I didn't have a read yet on whether he C/Rs flush draws on the flops, so that can somewhat justify a call. Oh well. After this hand, he has all the momentum and I'm stuck a lot. It was at this point that I did develop a general read that he isn't bluffing when he pots the river.

Hand 3: This entire situation just sucks.

I had built up a tiny comeback at this point, so we were semi-deep. He had turned up the heat with 3 betting a lot. He was also very aggressive postflop in 3 bet pots. It was really hard to combat because I was playing somewhat passively, and definitely playing a careful style. I was affected by the fact that it was deep at 5/10 NL. Still, I think I played this hand is okay. Raising the flop or turn is just really bad with stack sizes, I think. 100BB deep I wouldn't mind raising the flop and getting it in. As played, I feel fine about my river fold. It seems pretty obvious that I have an ace.

Hand 4: My first big pot, but wow this is depressing.

Obviously a dream situation, but I blew it on the river. At the time, I just wanted to extract whatever I could. I threw a tiny bet out, thinking maybe there was some chance if he had spades that he would raise the river. I should have realized that even an aggro player like him wouldn't bluff raise this river. I should also have realized that I could certainly extract more from ANY ace, and possibly a king. The pot was $1340 on the river. I definitely believe the best bet size in this situation is in the neighborhood of $800. Depressing for sure, but at least I have some momentum now.

Hand 5: Wow, maybe I've been giving him too much credit.

He has been 3 betting me A TON and I haven't adjusted well. By this point it has chopped me down a lot. I decided to see a flop with 54o, though it is very speculative, even $1900 deep. I decided that the river was a call because I wouldn't get called by less too often, and I expected to see aces up a decent amount of the time here. When he showed 88, I suddenly felt really embarrassed. I felt like that was the confirmation that he has been trying to run me over, and I've had to rely on monster hands to beat him.

Hand 6: Chasing hands = winnar!

I actually won a $2400 pot like five hands before this, where I flopped trips on a TT3 flop, C/Red the flop and got 3 streets of value versus QQ. On this hand, I expected to get floated by any weak draw, but also expected him to bet 60-80% of his entire range on the flop. I honestly don't like ANY line on the flop, but just betting it is probably better. I called because I thought I had decent equity versus his range. On the turn, he hadn't bet too large so I thought I had good implied odds. On the river, I went for a C/R AI because it would guarantee any queen goes broke, and I wanted to allow him to bluff. He timed his ENTIRE TIME BANK (80 seconds) down, claimed he had a Q and folded. Considering he was getting about 4-to-1 on the river shove, I highly doubt he folded a queen even IF he correctly suspected I had AQ.

I busted his last $500 a few hands later when we got TT vs AK in preflop and I won the flip. Overall, I had a stressful session, but managed to net $1900 from the two opponents. Thank you, TheSouthAfrican!

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In other news, I made two bets with my friend Pete (famousanus) about the Flyers/Penguins series. One bet is Flyers winning the series at 2-1 odds: my $200 versus Pete's $400. The other bet states the Penguins must win the series in 4 or 5 games for Pete to win $200; a Penguins win in 6 is a push; and a Penguins win in 7 games OR Flyers winning the series ships me $200. After the Flyers' pathetic showing in Game 1 last night, I was willing to buy out of the bet for $100. Pete declined.

Random updates

-Something great happened the other night. I went and played a .25/.50 NL live game with friends and a couple others. I had a blast. It was a fresh reminder that I love poker. I was so focused and trying really hard to outplay people, and building reads on people was enjoyable. Nights like that are a good affirmation that I play poker because I enjoy it, not just because of the money to be made.

-My Uncle asked what the "Whitewash" name was all about. I've never explained it on here before, so I will now. Whitewash is a song by Buckethead, an amazing guitarist. It's a relaxing song that I used to listen to while grnding. When I looked the word up on Dictionary.com I found these cool definitions:

2. anything, as deceptive words or actions, used to cover up or gloss over faults, errors, or wrongdoings, or absolve a wrongdoer from blame.
3. Sports Informal. a defeat in which the loser fails to score.

I thought the combination of those 3 reasons made it a cool nickname. It was my name on PartyPoker and is still my name on the 2+2 forums.

-Lately I haven't been using PAHUD because there is an error with refreshing. (I think it's a problem with Vista... if anyone knows how to fix this, please let me know.) This has actually done me some good because it forces me to pay better attention, and build stronger reads as a result. This negative side effect of PAHUD is even more detrimental at 6 max, so I imagine lots of mediocre regs have a huge problem of autopiloting due to PAHUD.

-Poker is going well so far. I've only logged 7K hands at the time of writing this (summer laziness is kicking in, noooooo). I vowed to play 30K hands this month. Considering I have done pretty much nothing aside from working out, poker, and occassionally seeing friends, I definitely need to get a better work ethic. I figured if I keep posting my hand progress on here, it'll make me feel more guilty. Regardless, poker is going well so far this month.

-Off topic: Don't talk to ex-girlfriends. Nothing good comes from it. When the relationship is over, it is over. Do as I say, not as I do.

Ship the whip!

On Wednesday, I bought a 2006 Infiniti G35 coupe.





I basically spent the past 4+ months wanting a G35. For a while I was looking at sedans, but I'm very glad that I went with a coupe. The sedans are a little more practical, but the coupe is much sexier looking. The car has 290 horsepower, which is a big upgrade from the 180 I had with my Chevy Impala before. The car accelerates fast as hell and the pipes sound awesome. The interior is beige leather and the car has almost every single accessory available (built-in navigation, moonroof, Bose sound system, 19" wheels, etc). The car helps me feel more accomplished, and visually shows my family that I must be doing something right.

In other news, I went to the Flyers-Canadiens NHL playoff game yesterday. I got luxury box seats with two friends from high school. The tickets were expensive, but it was definitely worth it. I have a renewed enthusiasm about watching hockey again, which is a very good sign. I want to have a balanced life, where many different things make me happy.

Here are my cash game results for April:



I've observed some of my poker friends having a really rough time the past 2 months or so. This has put into perspective for me that winning does not come automatically, and I always need to be doing everything possible to stay on top. Avoiding tilt, being very attentive of all opponents, and many other factors are easy to preach about but difficult to consistently follow. If I want to keep having good results, I need to remind myself this. I want to prove to myself that I can play poker professionally for the next few years.