January Results

I know that there's another 24 hours or so in the month, but I had a really rough day yesterday, so I'm just declaring myself done for January. This may be the last time I post my results here (any accountant would advise against doing so), so make sure you appreciate them this time:





This is the best month I've ever had, but I am not very satisfied. I under-preformed at 6 handed, and I had plenty of times in general where I wasn't playing my A-game. I had a rough end to the month. The mixture of variance and life tilt (I need to deal with relationship issues better than I do) almost made a recipe for disaster.

One thing I need to drastically work on is not letting my pride get in the way. During HU matches, I find myself getting stuck versus competent players and not wanting to quit. I need to set some kind of stop-loss, especially when I'm playing someone I feel I have a small edge against anyway.

I'm going to set a general goal of playing at least 10K hands HU, and 15K hands at six max each month this semester. It's reasonable, and a good way to balance out what I'm doing so I don't get complacent when I play.

Shitty time right now

I'm still up 5 digits on the month, but Im currently on a 9 buy-in downswing. A lot of it has to do with abruptly breaking up with Allison. I'm definitely playing shitty right now.

Time to take a few days off. If you see me playing, please punch me.

Gotta keep my foot on the pedal, now

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I was grinding pretty hard up until the past 3 days or so, I've finally slowed down a little bit. I need to get back to grinding since I feel like I'm playing well.

I've played 22K hands so far this month, and it's shaping up to be far-and-away my best month ever. I'm killing 2/4 NL heads up some more, it's now at the point that I'm running 10 PTBB/100 over a large sample. I'm actually almost breakeven at 6 max, which is really disappointing because I feel like I'm massively under-preforming in the Absolute games.

Also, I'm really excited to say that we have booked my Vegas house, from June 14th to July 11th. You can find more information on our whole setup on this page. We are actually looking for people interested in living in the house the first 2 weeks we're there. If you think you'd be a good fit and are interested, feel free to shoot me an IM, my screen name is ShadyBreakfast.

Swingiest day ever

The past several months, Ive had a pretty low variance playing style. I see some of my friends with 10K one month then break even another month, while I've kinda cruised along the entire time. This month, I've had really good results so far but with lots of swings along the way. Yesterday. I went from a $2500 deficit (my biggest for one day ever) to a $1100 profit by the time I went to bed at 3:30 AM.




I took some sick coolers on Absolute and won most of my money back playing HU on Full Tilt. In a sick turn of events, I found an opponent who just went apeshit when I started getting up on him. I'm pretty sure that he was not implementing a stop-loss in this match. I was in for a grand total of $280:

Grinding like crazy, and it's paying off

It's strange to say, but I have had a fire ignited under my ass. I'm hell bent on killing poker right now. By the conclusion of tomorrow, I will have played 9K hands in the first four days of 2008. For someone who is often lazy and never plays more than 4 tables, this is an enormous amount of hands.

I've set myself pretty lofty goals for this year, and I want to accomplish them. I do think I can attribute my renewed enthusiasm for poker to a couple different things:
-I want to be the best. I want to be the best poker player in Pittsburgh. I want to be the best poker player in my Vegas house this summer. I want to be the best poker player on the site I'm now focusing on.
-The new year brings a psychologically feeling of a "clean slate". I can look at any previous results in poker as being in the rear view mirror now.
-I desire to live a lifestyle now that means I need to be making good money. I'm going to likely spend 5K on my Vegas trip, I want a new car, I want nice furniture in my new apartment this fall, and I want to be able to save for a prosperous life in the years to come.

I go back to school on Saturday, but I will continue to work hard at poker even when I return and begin classes again. This feels good.

An optimistic look at 2008

2007 is in the books. I would say that in poker and life, it went well very well.

I have now been playing online poker for 2.5 years. I did not start playing NL cash games until September 2006, and did not start seeing significant winnings until June/July 2007. I had a big head when it came to poker before then, but the reality was that I was just a small winner at small stakes until recently.

I feel like I can accomplish a lot in poker. I have a lot of serious competition in this day-and-age in online poker, and there is a lot of information out there for people to become really good players. I have to compete with these people by having a good work ethic, and always looking for ways to get better. I feel like a lot of the good NL players online built out of the 2+2 and Cardrunners mindset (which is a great base to have) are still too close-minded. They only know the fundamentals these communities taught them, but don't think for themselves.

I would like to make 6 figures in 2008 while balancing my life with academics and my social life. I will spend a month in Vegas for not only pure leisure, but to also make connections and expand my mind in the poker world.